371) Brett Scott: Money consciousness and the war on cash

"If you're looking at the broad trajectory of corporate capitalism, it's towards institutional intermediation in everything... This 'unbanked' concept is always presented as if somehow it obviously represents a step up in the world. But [really], you're getting captured within an institutional framework or a type of conglomeration of institutions."

In this Green Dreamer episode, we welcome Brett Scott, a journalist, campaigner, monetary anthropologist and former financial broker. He is the author of Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets (2022), and The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance (2013). He publishes the Altered States of Monetary Consciousness newsletter and tweets as @suitpossum.

Some of the topics we explore in this conversation include how the banking sector functions to extract and centralize financial wealth, the questionable presumptions behind "financial inclusion," how the cash system might ironically serve as a constraint to corporate capitalism, and more.

(The musical offering featured in this episode is The Witness by Rowan Rain. The episode-inspired artwork is by Carolina Altavilla.)

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