Growth imperatives from private money creation
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2025-08-26
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
Pursuing continued economic growth risks passing climate- and ecological tipping points and threatens the livelihoods of most of the global population. Degrowth seeks to scale down ecologically destructive and socially less necessary production, in a way that reduces inequality and improves human wellbeing. But growth imperatives contained in the socio-economic system cause a destabilization of society when economic growth is absent, creating the necessity to pursue growth. The monetary system in which money primarily is created privately as interest-bearing debt might compose such a growth imperative. This research conducts a critical review on the monetary growth imperatives literature and opens up the debate towards the problems imposed by private debts. The analysis challenges the dominant conclusion that the monetary system does not contain a growth imperative. The findings suggest that within a growth regime, private money creation as debt expands the scope and strength of the broader growth imperative of accumulation, and net saving. Moreover, it increases and political growth imperatives due to the necessity of redistribution. These findings inform the transformations of the current monetary system to reduce growth imperatives and the envisioning of new post-growth monetary systems.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen