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Keystroke Capitalism: How Banks Create Money for the Few
How the creation of money makes the world go round
Contemporary capitalism produces more and more money, debt, and inequality. These three trends have a common cause: the privilege of private banks to create money by means of accounting—with the stroke of a key. Why was this privilege unaddressed politically for so long—and who benefited from that negligence? At the heart of the answer lies the realization that the power to create money has been hidden by the way we commonly think and talk about capitalism. Keystroke Capitalism traces the omission of money creation from theories of capitalism and maps its consequences. By expanding the maneuvering space for the banks to use their privilege, the capitalist countries have financed a transformation of the economy known as financialisation. It is not simply ‘the markets’ but money itself that transfers economic benefits from the masses to a minority.
Contemporary capitalism produces more and more money, debt, and inequality. These three trends have a common cause: the privilege of private banks to create money by means of accounting—with the stroke of a key. Why was this privilege unaddressed politically for so long—and who benefited from that negligence? At the heart of the answer lies the realization that the power to create money has been hidden by the way we commonly think and talk about capitalism. Keystroke Capitalism traces the omission of money creation from theories of capitalism and maps its consequences. By expanding the maneuvering space for the banks to use their privilege, the capitalist countries have financed a transformation of the economy known as financialisation. It is not simply ‘the markets’ but money itself that transfers economic benefits from the masses to a minority.
144 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 6, 2023
Banks create money out of nothing for any applicant they deem credit-worthy, at the touch of a keystroke. The result is concentration of wealth at the top, inflated asset prices, and financial bubbles that burst every several years. Sahr makes a strong case for the democratization of money creation, moving the economic privilege of money creation from private banks to Congress and/or a 4th monetary branch of government.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 4, 2023
A very accessible book that can serve as a great introduction into some important theories and ideas of money and credit, particularly if you come from a left-wing bent. Goes into a lot of key ideas in a good balance of depth and accessibility. The only real issue I have is in how some of the ideas are explained as being limited to "keystrokes" or digital financial systems whereas even "penstrokes" had many of, if not all of, the same stories and factors the author is talking about.
December 12, 2024
great book 👍
September 25, 2021
Gut fand ich im ersten Moment die Unterscheidung zwischen "ökonomisch" und "kapitalistisch" (in dem Sinne, dass "kapitalistisch" nicht unbedingt "ökonomisch" impliziert). Bei genauerem Nachdenken fällt auf, dass das eigentlich keine bahnbrechende Unterscheidung ist.
Unklar blieben mir die genauen Gründe und Ereignisse, die zum "Keystroke-Kapitalismus" führten. Ist es nun die freizüge Geldschöpfung der Banken? Wenn ja, wann genau und warum ist das eigentlich so entstanden? Das Essay liest sich da irgendwie wie ein bisschen wie ein Lamento, das aus dem Blick verloren hat, den Leser stichhaltig zu informieren.
Seine These, dass Profite ohne Arbeitskraft entsteht, blieb mir unklar. Wie dann, wie regulieren sich die Profite? Was ist mit der klassischen Profitgenerierung/Produktion des Mehrwerts?
Unterbeleuchtet bleibt auch die Entwicklung seit der Finanzkrise, obwohl sich seitdem die Gesetzmäßigkeiten und Mechanismen anscheinend gravierend geändert haben. (vgl. z.B. Zentralbankkapitalismus: Transformationen des globalen Finanzsystems in Krisenzeiten).
Was sind dahinterstehende kapitalistische Mechanismen? Keystroke-Kapitalismus wirkt wie eine Anomalie.
Sehr liberale Betrachtungsweise.
Warum hat Basel keinen Einfluss?
Unklar blieben mir die genauen Gründe und Ereignisse, die zum "Keystroke-Kapitalismus" führten. Ist es nun die freizüge Geldschöpfung der Banken? Wenn ja, wann genau und warum ist das eigentlich so entstanden? Das Essay liest sich da irgendwie wie ein bisschen wie ein Lamento, das aus dem Blick verloren hat, den Leser stichhaltig zu informieren.
Seine These, dass Profite ohne Arbeitskraft entsteht, blieb mir unklar. Wie dann, wie regulieren sich die Profite? Was ist mit der klassischen Profitgenerierung/Produktion des Mehrwerts?
Unterbeleuchtet bleibt auch die Entwicklung seit der Finanzkrise, obwohl sich seitdem die Gesetzmäßigkeiten und Mechanismen anscheinend gravierend geändert haben. (vgl. z.B. Zentralbankkapitalismus: Transformationen des globalen Finanzsystems in Krisenzeiten).
Was sind dahinterstehende kapitalistische Mechanismen? Keystroke-Kapitalismus wirkt wie eine Anomalie.
Sehr liberale Betrachtungsweise.
Warum hat Basel keinen Einfluss?
June 16, 2023
A bit too surface-level for a higher rating, but even so this book should scare the absolutely stinky brown sauce out of anyone unaware of how the wealthy not only keep getting wealthier, but how they basically built and perfected the machinery for their endless money generator, that being Financial Capitalism. The book focuses more on Europe/EU fiscal skullduggery, but there is ample data about the money sharks in the USofA too. There wasn't much here that was new/news to me, as I have read quite a lot about the global financial sector and their debt manipulation schemes masquerading as asset creation for quite a while. Sadly, there is little to be done, since the ones creating this "wealth" are also the ones writing the laws governing its operations and regulatory outlines. When global debts exceed global GDP by 3x, it is not hard to realize there is something rather untoward going on in the global financial sector. The fix has been in for centuries, only now we have technology to speed things up and erase the trail of deceit. Ah, Capitalism! Ain't it just grand? Seems our options are real revolution - and probably lots of death - or a slow grinding away of the lives of billions - and lots of death - for the advantage of the very very few. At least the revolution means some of the deaths will be from the Very Very Few group... Ha!
May 25, 2023
2.75/5
This serves as a very good brief introductory survey of the political economy of money creation in financialised capitalism, and gestures at the end of the text towards possibilities for addressing the inequalities inherent in private money creation. However, by arguing that sovereign money reforms reinforce existing inequality and implying that bank democrarisation is an answer without addressing the manifold difficulties of MMT politics, I feel that Sahr is leaving too much on the table.
Contains a lot of interesting ideas, however, ones that I've seen argued better elsewhere.
This serves as a very good brief introductory survey of the political economy of money creation in financialised capitalism, and gestures at the end of the text towards possibilities for addressing the inequalities inherent in private money creation. However, by arguing that sovereign money reforms reinforce existing inequality and implying that bank democrarisation is an answer without addressing the manifold difficulties of MMT politics, I feel that Sahr is leaving too much on the table.
Contains a lot of interesting ideas, however, ones that I've seen argued better elsewhere.
August 14, 2022
Ein wichitges Thema, das aber dem volkswirtschaftlich wenig Vorgebildeten schnell zu abstrakt ist, um vollständig zu durchsteigen. Aaron Sahr wagt sich daran, das Phänomen zu erklären, dass Banken Geld schöpfen, indem sie Kredite vergeben. Wie funktioniert das? Und was sind die Konsequenzen daraus.
Der Stoff ist also anspruchsvoll; aber das Buch ist kurz und nimmt den Leser behutsam mit auf die Reise.
Der Stoff ist also anspruchsvoll; aber das Buch ist kurz und nimmt den Leser behutsam mit auf die Reise.
November 2, 2025
This book is short, but I wouldn't say its an easy read. Its dense but if you can get through it, there's alot of incredible insight about how our economic system works, how money is created by banks, and what the implications of that are for the rest of us.
April 5, 2022
Sahr the lib...
April 11, 2023
More nuanced than the title would imply for most
July 4, 2024
Good book, but it just felt like it went over Ann Pettifors previous work and did not really add to it. So really interesting but maybe not new.
July 30, 2024
Someone give this and a collection of MMT books to the UK govt please
March 15, 2025
A very important book for the discussion about capitalism and its downsides.
November 30, 2025
The book is very rigorous in it’s argumentation and laying all of it’s propositions out plainly and clearly. I was a little thrown off when he started analogising through Westeros and Walter White.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews