It was the Autumn of 2008. The financial system was in jeopardy. It was a scary time. The world as we know it could have ended if the financial system had imploded. I had just discovered how to prevent financial crises by having negative interest rates and a maximum interest rate of zero. At the time, it seemed an epic find that could change the world forever. Interest charges on money and debts, or usury, are the underlying cause of financial crises. However, banning interest would require negative interest rates, which had been impossible to achieve. In the early 20th century, Silvio Gesell proposed charging a holding fee on currency, allowing interest rates to become negative when the supply and demand in the markets for money and capital would justify it.

During the 1930s, when the world was in the most dramatic economic crisis in recent history, several leading economists, including John Maynard Keynes and Irving Fisher, recognised the potential of a holding fee on currency to prevent economic crises. Still, they didn’t think of using it to create an interest-free financial system. Interest-free lending never took off because you don’t lend money interest-free if you can receive interest elsewhere. Lending interest-free must be attractive for lenders. But I figured out how it can work. If the currency’s value rises, borrowing at negative interest rates can be appealing. More evidence emerged a few years later when interest rates in Europe fell below zero for several consecutive years.

That was still years in the future at the time. A holding fee on currency and abolishing interest rates above zero could stabilise the financial system and end economic crises. That would limit lending to the safest borrowers, as there is no reward for taking risks in the form of interest. As lending creates money, it promotes inflation. And so, this money could be inflation-free or even lead to lower prices or deflation.

In the Austrian town of Wörgl, money with a holding fee had been a spectacular success until the central bank banned it. The money continued to circulate because the holders spent it to avoid paying the holding fee, so people didn’t need to borrow to keep the money circulating and keep the economy afloat. A similar kind of money had existed in ancient Egypt for over 1,000 years. Grain stored in granaries had been money there. This money came with a fee to cover the storage costs. The Biblical story about Joseph in Egypt claims that he introduced these granaries.

I named the fin Natural Money after The Natural Economic Order, Gesell’s book in which he presented the idea of the holding fee. Initially, I attempted to recruit a few people to work on the theory and promote it. Nothing came out of it. Most economists think negative interest rates are impossible. I realised that might be wrong, and even if I were right, who would believe me? It seemed pointless to go on, so I planned to give up.

My wife and I were not the only ones having this, it soon turned out. People have shared stories on the Internet about being haunted by time prompts such as 11:11. This peculiarity is often referred to as the 11-phenomenon or the 11:11-phenomenon. Eleven is the first double number, a noteworthy coincidence of digits, and 11:11 is like the same happening a second time, thus two related, strange coincidences, hence doubly strange. World War I ended on 11 November 1918. Franz Ferdinand’s car’s licence plate number refers to this particular date. But what does that signify? Could there be a connection? Or was there nothing to it, and was it just my imagination?

Our minds trick us in different ways, such as selective remembrance. Remarkable things we remember best. Maybe you have experienced a few strange incidents. They stick with your memory, but you may not remember thousands of mundane events that also transpired because there was nothing special about them. Often, I see a number, and within a second or so, I see the same number again somewhere else, usually on licence plates. But when I look for recurring numbers, I rarely see them. Perhaps repeating numbers triggers my brain. Recording them then becomes a conscious process, so for each remarkable combination, countless others remain unnoticed.

My waking up at night and seeing these time prompts was something different. There were no exceptions. I didn’t see other time prompts. And my wife had the same at the same time. That was not my mind playing a trick on me. Something made me wake up and look at the clock at these times. Is it mind control? Is there a plan, and is Natural Money part of it? And is there a connection with the licence plate number of Franz Ferdinand’s car? Only large-scale mind control can make the assassination succeed, trigger a war, and end that war on that date, 11 November 1918. And so, mind control, it is. And your mind is also under control. But don’t worry. A tin foil hat won’t help you. Nothing will.

Usury, thus charging interest on money and debts, is an ancient question and a biblical issue. Things were about to get a lot stranger. The only sensible explanation I could eventually think of is that this world is not real, but a virtual reality created by an advanced humanoid civilisation for entertainment, and that we are actors in a play. And everything goes according to a plan, so Natural Money could be part of that plan. That, of course, I still do not know, but it is better to be safe than sorry. And so, I worked out a monetary theory for a usury-free financial system with negative interest rates.

Latest revision: 5 October 2025

Featured image: 11:11 time prompt.

Other images: Tin foil hat. Morton Devonshire (2007). Wikipedia. Public Domain.