I guess I'm grumpy cos I'm not in Paris either....

Maybe it's just as well because while I agree with most of what Jerome says, he is ignoring the elephant in the room and I have no doubt after a few drinks I would have felt constrained to point out that it is difficult for anyone working for a bank to recognise that their profession is central to the problem.

The point is that the Economic Growth you refer to so eloquently is mandated by the "deficit basis" of our money supply.

In other words it is the operation of compound interest on Money created by private banks as Debt which mandates the exponential growth of our money supply, and hence of our economies.

All else is commentary.  

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson