Submitted by Luke Eastwood,

Since central banks became a 'thing' back in the early 20th century, we have seen a massive decline in the national finances of most countries around the world. Of course, predating this was the formation of the Bank of England and its role in the financing of the British empire, but of more significance to our current situation is the rise of America, the formation of the Federal Reserve, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and the World Bank Group (post Bretton Woods Conference) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

One could argue that all of these institutions exist not for the benefit of the world or humanity but to deprive nation states of their income and ownership of their resources, transferring both into the hands of private corporations and their shareholders. So today we are at a point in time where most countries are hideously in debt, many with debts far exceeding the dangerous 100% level of debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio. While Japan has far exceeded this for decades (currently 260%+) and not totally collapsed, it has proven to be a massive drag on any country, with huge amounts of money being wasted on interest payments alone.