As the global economy continues to slow down, the world is being asked to focus on issues of so-called “sovereign debt,” “austerity,” “fiscal responsibility,” “belt tightening” and other such euphemisms for the grim reality that the public is now being asked to pony up the dough for the trillions that have been handed over to the banisters in the past few years. What the constant focus on these issues effectively hides, however, is that underlying the economic woes that are the symptom of the disease is the disease itself: the monetary system.