There is an interesting idea/theory how the main problem of our economy could be solved - by abolishing interest rates....as they are said to be the root of all evil...and every financial system sooner or later collapses merely by the existence of interest rates as such.

Unfortunately I can not find any articles in English about this subject.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22abolish+interest+rates%22&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

If you Google in German, there is plenty of articles from newspapers and magazines about this topic:

http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=zinsen+abschaffen&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=

But nothing in English.....has anyone found any pages in English covering the subject "why interest are bad" ?

Here is a quick translation from an article I found here:

http://www.pm-magazin.de/de/heftartikel/artikel_id2549.htm

An interview with the professor Bernd Senf, from the university in Berlin (Bernd Mustard ).

Why would anyone lend money to anyone else if not for them?
_________________

There are some recordings from the lecture....about 3 hours in total....only in German unfortunately.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0_Sjn6QKZo&feature=related

Well without someone lending me money at no interest they won't do me much good.
_________________

You would still need to pay money for borrowing money, but rather a sort of service charge and no interests. I still have to read the book...so I can't explain it yet. But it seems to make sense....

My thoughts are:

Money can not grow infinitely....but through interest rates, the amount of money is growing all the time. And sooner or later there is so much money so that it becomes "worthless"....so every now and then, money becomes worthless and everything starts again from scratch, with a new currency....and people tend to forget over 3 or 4 generations so they always end up repeating the mistakes of the past. Of course, the financial system is improved every time, but it is not perfect and the fundamental errors from the past keep on repeating. 1930s, now.... maybe in 2100 again etc....the main problem is probably because people try to become rich - but you can only become rich at the expenses of others...it does not work that everyone becomes rich. Everyone with high morals will never become a billionaire. All the people on the Forbes list ripped other people of in some way or other...e.g. selling products for a lot more then they should have sold them for and paying their employees less then they could have afforded to pay.

All true Toby. Where do you draw the line between looking after yourself and ripping people off?

i reccomend watching these 2 docu-films called zeitgeist and zeitgeist addendum.

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/


watch them in that order too, they are quite long but well made and it covers most questions most of us are asking about whats going on on this crazy planet at the moment, in particular it covers, the monentary system and the fractional reserve, the wars in iraq etc etc.
It starts slow but builds up and its definatley worth a watch! these film are going viral on the net and have been for a while now.

watch them please if you can and lets have a disscusion.

I think the fundamental difference here is between interest rates for borrowing privately and the national interest rates.

I have always said that when the government handed over control of interest rates to the Bank of England, it was like giving a criminal a loaded gun. The bank is in the business of making money and would therefore have a vested interest in keeping rates high.

creating a national rate affects the economy as a whole and prevents competition which means the banking institutions are effectively a cartel which I believe is illegal in the UK.

However, cartels have been around for a long time, just look at telecoms, gas, electricity and fuel to name but a few. All of these have minor price changes to make it appear to be competitive while the industry dictates the base prices from which they all work. Wasn't it a large supermarket that was taken to court for selling their bread too cheaply? What cartel dictates the price there? Our country is controlled by them in all avenues.