Where does money come from? 

1:32 , this is the best explanation of money that you are ever likely to get.

I read this book twice. it gave me good foundations for understanding how credit works nowadays. today, credit is money.

I just ordered a copy. Merry Christmas!

Does the book explore alternative money systems in much depth? Mutual credit systems, other P2P innovations in money?

you are correct !!

Same here, since 1980. Ever wonder where that idea comes from?

As Josh and Tony have pointed out (without touching on the big political elephant that exists in this situation) it seems very obvious that the big issue is that credit has run wild in many countries but the proposals for governments to set up boards of bankers or treasury officials to oversee credit expansion it is very unlikely that this will improve anything. The problem is they will all be controlled by governments and centralist politicians who will want to retain the power over the currency and interest rates to suit their political purposes. To date the largest debtors (in history) have been centralist governments assisted in acquiring that debt by their reserve banks. Presently you don't have a system today where credit is highly deregulated. It is regulated the way politicians want to regulate it and that is to make it comply with their grab for more centralised power. The history of failures of regulation are numerous. The common thread is those with the most power fail to act in anyone's favour as a priority other than their own since large power systems (central governments) play the game to suit themselves first and others after since nobody regulates them. The system today is that central banks together with exponentially more powerful central governments have more control over the introduction of newly created currency units (monetary expansion) and interest rates than they ever did. Look at what has happened in the EU with their control over the EU currency and their control over interest and the friction that this has created. Previously that friction was more confined to individual countries with their own controls over their individual currencies with the political pressure of their individual failures so obvious rather than the pressure from central authorities spilling over into calls of undue hard ship and favouritism from politicians and the public. Essentially one big fire has been created rather than spot fires which were more easily managed. Same situation in the USA where the central banks and central government has extended their control over the money supply since the de coupling of the currency from the restraining effect of the gold standard. Same situation in most other western countries and others where central banks have de coupled from any real restraint and link to other currencies and or gold which had been a restraint has been largely eradicated.

This is so complicated especially for someone who's ignorant about all of this, like me.

how about using tally sticks

watch " money as debt " on youtube. ' one man's debt is another man's asset '

Modern monetary theory has been explaining this for decades

2:17 "money essentially is a relationship of credit and debt." This is neither true nor does explain the nature of money. Money can be put into circulation without any credit or debt involved and without any kind of (double-entry) bookkeeping. Let's say by printing it. You can then simply spend it for some public services or even give it away as a gift. Bookkeeping is just a tool, a convenient method of keeping track. So, what is actually money? With money in our possession, we can claim all goods and services available on the market. And that is exactly what money is. A CLAIM, i.e. a special kind of claim universally accepted in a particular country/society as a means of exchange and payment.

So if you think economics is a science, then Karl Marx (which was a classical economist just like Marshall and Ricardo) was also a scientist. And so was Keynes, who knew nothing about economics and copied everything from Mussolini's economists and elaborated his own theories based on something that was already applied in Italy from 1923.

someone should invent a internet site where the whole world can somehow vote on things. the world is too big for anyone to organize i think.

These guys are nerdish sneaks. They talk only about horizontal payments systems (credit money). About 97% of money in circulation is credit money. The other 3% is "vertical" Base Money, issued by governments in the past having run fiscal deficits, and apart from a percentage tax liability, this base money has no other debt attached (the State cannot truly be in debt to itself, since it is the currency issuer, by It's Central Bank and/or via the lending banks who are legal agents of the State). So if "THE PEOPLE" seize back control of their government form the neoliberals and oligarchs who do not understand money systems, they will have democratic power to finance any work that can be done up to real resource limits and inflation, but that encompasses being able to employ all willing labour that is currently unemployed.

I just ate lunch

You waisted your currency, they are wrong on many levels. Check out Ludwig.Von Mises institute for a correct explanation of economics and money.

Bank. Buys a T bond for 100$ lends out 900 $ and pray it gets paid back.😎

Not as good & clear an explanation as that of Positive Money.

its a social science. which makes it a bunch of BS.

Soon i chane all bank profit system all profit taken from people will stay with people not bank