John Waters, writing in the Irish Times, has been discussing the power of the banking sector. Pertinent for a country bought to its knees by bankers who created the country's greatest property speculation bubble on the back of their money creation powers, destroying pensions and public services when the banks failed: ‘When you extend to bankers the power to create money ex nihilo, you can hardly be surprised if they start to believe themselves superhuman’ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0727/1224320884392.html
In an article prompted by the demise of Ireland’s most famous businessman, Sean Quinn, Waters goes on to state: 'The “sin” here is not that of any one person or company – it is the collective failure of our society to educate itself about the nature of the financial, economic and banking systems we have depended upon for our material needs. The money system we have acquiesced in having foisted upon us operates on a kind of alchemy, which allows private banking interests to generate what we rather ludicrously refer to as “our” money. Those who interpret the meaning of these events speak as though there was a fixed pool of money which belongs to the Irish people, inferring that what has happened is that certain people have “stolen” from “us”. This is nonsense.
“Our” money system is owned and controlled by the banks. This is the way our leaders have decided things should be, and there has been no appreciable dissent. Privately-owned banks, operating all but indifferently to the public good, create and destroy money more or less at will. Consequently, all but a tiny percentage of our money system exists in a digital limbo inaccessible by the people. For every euro of money created, a corresponding debt is brought into being, and this is multiplied over time by the process of levying interest. Thus, our economy consists overwhelmingly of debt, at once spelling our salvation and our doom'
