In fact, this book is not so much about when we will run out of oil, as it is about whether or not we will able to supply the world with energy at the rate that it is likely to demand.

Deposits are a public/private partnership which create generally usable money out of risky banking activities.

The model we are taught as children is, like most models, useful but inaccurate. “You take this $20 bill to a bank and deposit it. They will keep it safe for you, and then give you $20 back in the future, plus a little extra for having the use of it in the meanwhile. We call that interest.”

Let’s start dissecting this transaction. You don’t deposit a $20 bill. You purchase a $20 deposit, coincidentally using a piece of paper with the same number on it. The deposit is a liability (a debt) of the bank to you. The bill which you gave the bank in return for the deposit is now theirs, the same as if you had bought a cup of coffee from Starbucks. On their balance sheet, it is now an asset.

...for all this utopia to come along humans must be all successfully conditioned to think and feel the same way (good luck with that), and all of them must sign up to this plan without any personal ambitions for power and wealth (an even greater luck with that)