Dinero es deuda (del inglés Money as debt, aunque una traducción más adecuada sería dinero como deuda) es un documental producido por Paul Grignon, en que describe el proceso de creación de dinero y su historia.
El documental presenta la mecánica de creación de dinero por parte de los bancos y explica mediante una historia de animación cómo se pasó del uso exclusivo de monedas al uso de billetes, y posteriormente a las cuentas digitales, la supresión del patrón oro, el sistema de reserva fraccionada, y las consecuencias, como una inevitable inflación.
La historia de los Goldsmith
El documental, para explicar la historia de los bancos, hace referencia a una ficticia familia de orfebres. Éstos comienzan a acuñar monedas de oro y darlas a sus vecinos para que las usen. Al tener éxito decide comenzar a repartir billetes, más cómodos. Entonces comienza a dar créditos en billetes. Sus conciudadanos, que creen que está prestando su oro, deciden retirar el que quede.
Sin embargo, el oro sigue en el depósito, ya que había "inventado" el dinero. Entonces deciden que debe compartir su riqueza con los depositarios, ya que las nuevas leyes obligan a que al menos el 10% del dinero sea real (oro), por lo que las cuentas permiten la creación de nuevo dinero. Así, explica la devaluación causada por el aumento de oro disponible llegado de América.
Sistema Monetario actual
Con la derogación del patrón oro, el único límite para la creación de dinero "mediante la promesa de pagarlo" es el dinero preexistente. Por tanto, dado que el dinero se crea de cero con una deuda igual, el pago de todas las deudas supondría la desaparición de éste. Sin embargo, los intereses hacen que la deuda total sea mayor que el préstamo, por lo que es imposible, con el sistema monetario actual, que la totalidad de las deudas sean pagadas. Este hecho es también explicado en el documental Zeitgeist: Addendum.
fuente: wikipedia
Money as Debt is a short animated documentary film by Canadian artist and filmmaker Paul Grignon about the monetary systems practiced through modern banking. The film presents Grignon's view of the process of money creation by banks and its historical background, and warns of his belief in its subsequent unsustainability.
The film was conceived by Grignon in 2002 as an introduction to a 5-hour video commission for United Financial Consumers. He prefaced his video lecture with a re-telling of The Goldsmith’s Tale in animation form titled Money as Debt. The Goldsmith's Tale is noted in the film as being "a brief and broadly allegorical history of banking" and should not be viewed as a complete or entirely accurate account of the history of banking. Expanded in 2006, it was Grignon's first full animation project.
Much of the film presents the filmmaker's understanding of modern money creation in a fractional-reserve banking system. Other forms of money creation, such as quantitative easing, receive less attention. In the film's version, new money enters the economy through the indebtedness of borrowers, thus not only obligating the public to the money-issuing private banks but also creating an endless and self-escalating debt that is to eventually outgrow all other forms of wealth generation. The film claims that this ever-increasing gravitation of money to banks is capable of impoverishing any nation. The film finishes by identifying some alternatives to modern banking, such as the nationalization of banks and payment of dividends to the public, establishing local exchange trading systems, or government printing of money.
An article in Anthropology Today called the film "a hit in activist circles", but also a "fable" that "demonizes the banks, and interest in particular" and whose "message is in many ways misleading".
Atlantic Free Press wrote "Money as Debt is not entertainment—far from it. The film offers amazingly elementary facts about the creation of money in the United States, narrated by a soothing voice, which could make for a bland presentation, yet the film's message is anything but vapid. In fact, if it doesn't leave your blood boiling, it behooves you to check your vital signs".
Cdurable offered "Ce long métrage d'animation, dynamique et divertissant, de l'artiste et vidéographe Paul Grignon, explique les effets magiques mais pervers du systeme actuel d'argent-dette dans des termes compréhensibles pour tous." ("This animated feature, dynamic and entertaining, by artist and videographer Paul Grignon, explains the magical but twisted effects of the current system of debt-money in terms understandable to all.")
Thomas Publications' Fog City Journal wrote that the animated documentary was "a painless but hard-hitting educational tool", and OpEdNews reported that Dennis Kucinich recommended the film as "an introduction to our monetary system," one that was "useful, though by no means definitive".
The film has its detractors. According to 20 Minuten, while reporting "La vidéo cartonne sur Internet" ("The video is a hit on the Internet"), they write "ce film ne génère pas que des avis positifs. Ses détracteurs le font savoir: Tout n'est pas faux, mais il ya des erreurs." ("This film does not generate only positive responses. Its detractors say: 'It is not completely false, but there are mistakes.'")
On his personal website, Paul Grignon said there were two main criticisms of the documentary, provided counter arguments, but conceded that his presentation of fractional-reserve banking may have been "misleading" and "in the revised edition will be replaced with less contentious information". The film has also been criticized by other heterodox economic and libertarian thinkers, such as G. Edward Griffin's Freedom Force International. Specifically, Griffin criticizes Grignon's proposal for "interest-free banking" and fiat, albeit government-created as opposed to central bank-created, currency.
