The Grip of Death: A Study of Modern Money, Debt Slavery and Destructive Economics Paperback – 27 May 1998

This has got to be just about the most interesting book I have ever read, and I feel everyone should read it, as it is absolutely pertinent to everyone on the planet.I have always been fairly politically aware, (a product of my upbringing), and as such, I have a pretty good idea of what is going on in the world, and a fairly intuitive idea about what is good and what is bad, and how the wheels of industry and commerce are kept turning. Of late, though, I have felt politics is a waste of time, and it has got to the point where I don't even bother to vote any more. I feel terrible that people in the past have fought long and hard, and even lost their lives, in an effort to gain better working conditions and more rights for the working class, and, of course, the right to vote, and here's me, can't be bothered to use that right. I have started to feel that the Government no longer runs the country, as it is controlled by big business, so all my vote decides is whether we want clown 'A' or clown 'B' to appear on the television to take the flak thrown at them by the media, under the guise of being in control. It seems our so-called "rights" can be taken away from us at the drop of a hat, which has been shown to be true by this latest pandemic, and reading this book has vindicated the way I feel, and nothing else seems to matter. Until we wrest monetary control away from the banks, there seems no point in striving to better ourselves, or the plight of Third World countries, (which we are heading towards being, here in the UK), because it "ain't gonna happen" while we live in a debt economy. The book explains clearly how money just "appears" out of a hat......but it's not real money, it is a debt, owed to the banks, of course. We used to joke that there are five people in the world that own everything. It seems it's less than that. Read this book and wake up.......we are all of us slaves.

`'The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. Bankers own the earth; take it away from them, but leave them with the power to create credit, and with the stroke of a pen they will create enough money to buy it back again...If you want to be slaves of bankers, and pay the costs of your own slavery, then let the banks create money.''Lord Josiah Stamp, former director of the Bank Of England, (quoted on p.35). `The Grip of Death' is a highly readable and radical work that touches on many subjects in its attempt to explain the far-reaching malaise of the global financial system.Rowbotham starts in Chapters 1 and 2 with an explanation of the debt-based financial system. For those, like myself, who erroneously imagined that the creation and supply of money is the domain of governments, these pages are quite simply revelatory. The author goes on to explain in Chapter 3 how debt-based finance distorts economies, driving `decadent growth' in such a way as to make the economy ever less responsive to the needs of real people and small businesses. This analysis is expanded in Chapter 4 `The Myth of the Consumer Society', which illustrates how economic servitude, and environmental degradation are the inevitable results of an `inherently unsupportive and unstable financial system'.Further chapters discuss the latter's contribution to transportation and centralisation, `export warfare' between nations, the national debt, food and farming, Third World debt, the role of multinational companies and so on. The author also discusses the history of debt-financing and assesses the contribution of early monetary reformers such as Abraham Lincoln in the USA and C.H. Douglas in Britain.Throughout, the tone is one of engagement with the real world - this is no dry academic text. The author is passionately involved in his arguments, as indicated by the occasional appearance of exclamation marks and use of language such as `disgusting' and `despicable' to describe some of the unfortunate outcomes of what he considers to be a fraudulent, debt-based system.Those readers with specialist knowledge of economics and global finance may well take issue with certain technical matters, but the finer points of political and economic analysis should not distract from this very important work's central proposition: the fundamental iniquity of the private creation of credit. Why should private institutions such as banks be permitted to create money out of thin air, in so doing profiting at the expense of, if not actually beggaring individuals, industries, entire economies, indeed the whole global economy?The arguments presented transcend traditional conceptions of right and left wing politics, of monetarist and Keynesian economic approaches. To focus exclusively on such issues ultimately distracts, Rowbotham says, from the underlying problem: debt-based finance. And of course, the financial powers prefer to keep the public in the dark about where money comes from. For example, current Chair of the Financial Services Authority, Adair Turner, has written in defence of `non-transparent money creation' (Financial Times, 4 November 2002 - quoted in James Robertson & John Bunzl's Monetary Reform - Making it Happen ).As evidence of the continuing success of such diversionary concerns, I submit the fact that the basic issue of `who issues the money' is so little discussed (if at all) by mainstream media and politicians in the modern day and age. Even in these horrendous recessionary times, where the term `credit crunch' has become common currency, even those public figures often presented as reliable sources of public information on such matters, such as the BBC's Business Editor Robert Peston, and Liberal Democrat politician Vince Cable have never, to my knowledge, raised the issue of private issue of credit. Meanwhile, economic events and trends in the 10 years or so since this book was first published in 1998 - the ballooning of mortgage debt around the world, the near collapse of the economic system and `credit crunch' - have made the perspective outlined in `The Grip of Death' more relevant than ever.Having read 'The Grip of Death' I now realise that on these matters of fundamental importance I had been shockingly uninformed. This truly eye-opening book really is full of `eureka' moments', and I thoroughly commend it to anyone concerned with the pivotal role of money in shaping economy and society.November 2010: Please see the Positive Money website for a contemporary campaign addressing these issues.