Saying that "money is the root of all our problems" is just as stupid as saying "No woman no cry". Money is the root of everything, sort of. So obviously it is the root of a lot of problems.

That said, with last year's financial crisis, and the many questions it sparked, I noticed one thing: Nobody I know was able to explain me how it works. Money, finance... all that stuff. Either because they were as clueless as me, either because I didn't understand their explanation. I'm actually pretty sure they were clueless too and were just trying to sound cool with four-letter words like "edge fund" and "dead loan".

I'm not into economics, but I'm sufficiently knowledgeable in related topics like mathematics or system-administration. How the fuck is it that I can't dig what the problem is?!

It seems like "money", or "finance" is equivalent to the mechanical concept of a "black box" (or "reverse engineering" if you like long words). You got a black box, that you can't figure out how to open. There are a couple of buttons and levers on the outer casing, it gives out a couple of LED signal or noises from times to times, and there's definitely a sort of machinery running inside. If you press this or that button, it gives this or that response. Not necessarily always the same.

It's actually not clear what actions trigger what reaction, but it's definitely doing something.

You leave the black box with one geek for a week and he will play with it every night and eventually come up with a theory on how the thing is built. You leave it to another geek and he will come up with his own theory.

If the internal machinery is complex enough in relation to the possibility of experiment, it will never be resolved. It's mathematical truth (that real name is: "you can't figure out a set of n variables with less than n independent equations").

That's how the financial system sounds to me.

So every time you find a source claiming they have found out how it works, keep in mind that it is just one theory.

That said, here is one attempt to explain money that is quite interesting. It's in the form of a horribly US-centric 79 min video made by some mother-gaia bleeding hearts that is nonetheless covering interesting bits. I post it here because I know that if you're reading this, you probably have more time to waste. If you're in a hurry, here's the breakdown:

• How money is made (minute 0 to 24, nothing new there. If you're familiar with the concept, skip it).
• That money is systemically kept scarce (24 to 36).
• That its direct consequence is that there are less jobs than capable people (36 to 49).

Then it jumps to solutions, which apparently is

• "community currency" (of which there are thousands, but the movie presents only one of them, giving the false impression that community currency = River Hours). That's until min 60
• And finally ditches the previous solution for the better one: Mutual credit, from min 60 until the end.

 Unlike the rest of the article, the video is CC-by-nc-nd

Now, here's what I don't like with those solutions:

Community currencies is nothing new. They were designed in a different time and are not adapted to a globalized economy. They work in, well, localized economies. That used to be the lion's share of value exchange, but that are now a tiny bit, getting tinier. In addition to that, it leads to currency proliferation, which everyone living in the Eurozone knows is a pain in the ass.

I do think that a LOT of the global economy should be localized, for example when I hear that the carrots we eat in Reunion Island are grown in Australia. But for mechanical or electronic goods. Or for software goods and some types of services like transportation. All that is incompatible with community cash.

Or prove me wrong.

Mutual credit on another hand, is extremely adapted to this globalized and instant-communication era. But the film-maker obviously didn't do his homework. Mutual credit is presented as the solution from the future when there is a functional solution out there for mutual credit. It's called RIPPLE and it's as easy as opening an email account. Why the fuck are they not covering it?

But, as I said in the beginning, I don't understand crap about all this financial mumbo-jumbo.