… “The Money Syndrome”
The book favours a constructively critical look at economic phenomena and their interrelations with a variety of fields. The main feature of THE MONEY SYNDROME is, that it gives solid and comprehensive evidence of the dysfunctional effects of the existing monetary system which leaves no doubts about causes and effects. Thus it allows the reader to evaluate economic phenomena more precisely and is an inspiration for new viable solutions in vitally necessary areas.
… the author Helmut Creutz (1923-2017)
Born in 1923, in Aachen, Germany. From 1949 a Company Manager, since 1972 a freelance Architect and Author, and since 1982 an Economic Analyst. Engaged in anti-war-, environmentalist-, Third World-movements and a founding member of the Green party in Aachen and NRW (a few more details about the author in German).
Books:
- Gehen oder kaputtgehen – ein Betriebstagebuch, Frankfurt/M. 1973, Fischer Verlag (To Go or to Go to Pot – An Employee’s Diary)
- Haken krümmt man beizeiten – Schultagebuch eines Vaters, 1977, Bertelsmann Verlag, (Hooks Ought to be Bent in Time – School Diary of a Father) presented as ‘Book of the Month’ in German television – 1983 Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (dtv) [newly revised edition]
- Bauen, Wohnen, Mieten – Welche Rolle spielt das Geld, Hann.-Münden 1987, Gauke Verlag, (Constructing, Dwelling, Renting – What Role does Money Play?)
- Das Geldsyndrom – Wege zu einer krisenfreien Wirtschaft, München 1993, Langen-Müller/Herbig Verlag [1st edition hardcover] – München 2001, Econ Verlag, [6th (5th paperback) edition] (The Money Syndrome. Towards a Market Economy Free from Crises)
- Dieter Suhr, Werner Onken, Helmut Creutz (co-author), Wachstum bis zur Krise, Berlin 1986, Basis-Verlag (Growth Until the Turning Point)
- Die 29 Irrtümer rund ums Geld, München 2004, Signum Wirtschaftsverlag (29 Errors Regarding Money)
Since 1980 Helmut Creutz has held more than 600 public lectures, and published many articles in magazines and newspapers. In 1990 he accepted a teaching position at the University of Kassel and over the years he has been suggested for the Alternative Nobel Prize a number of times.
… Robert Mittelstaedt (1943-2018)
I was born in 1943 in Germany, just two years before the end of WW II. I had been a witness of the German recovery from the very beginning in 1948. My focus was not on the economy, but on cultural aspects like the holocaust of the “Third Reich” and to find an understanding of how this could happen and must never happen again. My efforts concentrated on sociological and psychological investigations.
A great inspiration had been the work of Marshall McLuhan to me, over which I stumbled during my stay in Canada in 1966/67. McLuhan’s slogan “The medium is the message” still seems an important clue to me for a deeper understanding which I had been trying to unfold in the field of arts (as a theatre actor) and in adult education. However, truly artistic work became more difficult by the time, getting more and more absorbed by the need to make a living.
At that point, around 1995, I discovered the money topic and, not being conditioned in economic thinking, I quickly understood the message of the existing medium money, the cultural distortions it triggers and which most economists are totally unaware of. In my view, THE MONEY SYNDROME by Helmut Creutz is one of the best contemporary books on the topic.