You have to surmise that the device of debt/credit arose in service of the Maximum Power Principle. By putting system resource claim tickets (dollars) directly into the hands of entrepreneurs and consumers, willing and able to spur system growth through the establishment of new cells and distribution systems, it became possible to rapidly increase metabolic activity and a rapid replication of existing and novel dissipative structures. Upon completion and with a sufficient revenue the debt can be retired over a specified period of time with interest and all involved RNA can be paid a wage with a net profit left over. To accomplish this feat the cell/business operation must bring something to the overall metabolism of the organism/society – tools, raw resources, cell components and so on. The financial industry is likely to create a loan or issue bonds and thereby create the claim tickets de novo that are used to fund the new investment. Excess money held by people is deposited with the institutions and interest is paid, although a lesser percentage than interest demanded on monies lent. The deposits almost function as a limit or governor on lending as total institutional lending is often tied to capitalization levels. There don’t seem to be many limits today on how much can be lent into the economy. The debt/credit money that the bank creates is paid into the metabolism of the economy for the materials and labor for the new cell and the cell subsequently makes principal payments (with interest) to retire the loan. The new cell is expected to provide something desirable to the organism and thereby create a cash flow sufficient to repay the loan or bond issue with interest. Money creation exists at lending institutions in every small town and county and enables lending fine-tuned to local potentials. Even though much growth is simply clonal or carbon-copy in nature based upon precedents of financial success, the complexity generated is only limited by the maintainable flow of resources and human fickleness, capriciousness and need for the basic requirements of life, stimulation and diversion.

Savings and Loan advertisement. Make your deposits and borrow. The future is unlimited.

Millions of human RNA will take-out mortgage loans and spend thirty years repaying them in order to work and live in the malignant “system”.

Growth can also be accomplished through retained earnings as with cells that fission, but this is a slower process than when obtaining a loan and immediately assembling the materials for growth while conditions are propitious. Waiting for retained earnings may miss opportunities as competitors compete to take advantage of an opportunity.

Dividing HeLa cancer cells only divide when retained earnings are sufficient.

So that everything may be consumed in the most efficacious and rapid manner possible debt is readily available, especially for those that maintain high financial credit or social credit scores. A credit card may allow you to buy a new washing machine and in so doing the entire technological organism is stimulated to use at least as many resources, energy and labor hours as went into producing the machine. Traditionally if the metabolism slows and there is a great dearth of dopamine in the land then more debt will be issued or interest rates dropped to encourage going into debt, buying things, building more cells and expanding into fresh resources and territory. Even President George Bush encouraged people to “go shopping for their families” in the wake of the 9/11 attack.

Eventually as resources and energy wane, the financial industry gets caught in a bind needing to stimulate growth through debt issuance even as returns on investment are declining. The temporary answer is to lower interest rates to reflect the return on investments available in the environment. Eventually the deployment of capital and “growth” is a money loser as there aren’t enough resources to go around and the only way to “make money” is to use debt at zero percent interest to retire older debt that was at a higher interest rate. Corporations are fond of buying back stock with cheap debt thereby boosting their earnings per share. Nowadays growth in one segment of the economy is not likely to add to the total metabolic activity or GDP without depriving some other cell/business of the affordable resources needed to survive. New growth for some means an even greater number of bankruptcies for others in a zero-sum situation. More and more growth might be stimulated as in China over the past few decades, but in a petri dish with finite resources the positive-sum growth game (more jobs in China and US) soon turns to a zero-sum game (more jobs in China but less in US) and then into a negative-sum game (both China and US in contraction). At this point in the consumption of the natural world a win-win situation (positive sum result) where everyone is growing is no longer possible. A zero-sum situation existed for many years as Asia gained jobs primarily at the expense of the West. Now a negative-sum will take over as all participants contract at different rates depending upon their strengths and weaknesses.

Central banks and governments will work within the existing paradigm of growth and attempt to revive growth by making credit more available and affordable. Unfortunately this is no longer effective in creating net growth as resource and energy gradients become depleted. Instead it is likely to create inflation and a mountain of debt that can no longer be repaid by the decreasing flows of energy and resources. Eventually strategies like building more roads and letting in more immigrants only adds to the deficit, even though it is naively seen as what is needed to foster growth. Loan defaults and bankruptcies for those deemed “too big to fail” are often forestalled with bailouts but making bad debt good only adds to the inflationary, low/no-growth malaise and inflationary spiral which proceeds towards an inflationary spiral, reluctance to participate in wealth creation and finally a failure of the currency. A new currency may be implemented, but this does not in any way restore the gradients upon which the existing stock of cells, RNA and infrastructure, let alone growth fully depend.

Bank Run – You’re money is safe, but if you try to get it – we’ll shoot you.

The military has often relied upon bond issues for funding war campaigns. Today trillions of dollars are unaccounted for in the United States defense budget. It seems they have an open line of credit. But what would the Maximum Power Principle predict? Elimination of all barriers to energy and resource use, even if there is no war and enemies must be invented.

Buying war bonds shifts consumption potential to the war department. The domestic RNA won’t be buying washing machines but rather machine guns. Hopefully there will be sufficient fossil fuels to repay the bonds later if the war is won.