Abstract: If an ongoing growth is considered impossible or undesirable, the growth dependence of man-made structures such as social security systems have to be carefully revised. In the post-growth debate, the monetary system based on credit money combined with positive interest rates is often criticized and accused of causing a growth imperative. The contribution refutes this oversimplified interrelation, but provides an insight into the critical points of a non-growing monetary economy and should help to identify policy options how these destabilising effects could be overcome in order to achieve an economically sustainable degrowth. It additionally challenges existing proposals for enabling a degrowing monetary economy by implementing debt- or interest-free money.

This media entry was a contribution to the special session "Macroeconomics of Degrowth I" at the 4th International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in 2014.