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Here is my 2004 basic, naive theory of economics. / Martin R. Carbone
1) Everything revolves around basic assets.
2) The basic assets are (a) human labor, (b) human ingenuity, (c) land and (d) everything that grows on land and (e) exists under land.
3) Assets exist at all times in all places -- they make debt and the creation of money possible.
4) Money does not grow on trees. It is, perhaps, the greatest invention of humans.
5) Money is basically created by debt backed by assets -- that is simply the way the system works.
6) Debt is the engine for all economies. Without debt, there is no money and commerce is very difficult.
7) A basic problem with our system is that we keep track of (a) national spending (b) income and (c) debts -- but we do not keep close track of (d) our national assets. This means we never really know if our debts or expenditures are excessive. We need a transparent, conventional double-entry system of bookkeeeping, that keeps track of assets and liabilities as well as income and expense.