The Common Good in Money Creation

Zera Yacob believed reason and ethics demand that power serve the common good, not particular interests. Applied to central banking, this challenges the modern delegated authority to create money. When central banks expand money supply to benefit government finances or bail out failing banks, they exercise enormous power affecting everyone's economic position. This power must serve the common good—but what does that mean? For Yacob, the common good requires stable value preserving savings, fair access to credit for productive enterprise, and monetary policy transparent enough for democratic oversight. Instead, money creation often serves creditor interests through austerity or financial-sector stability through inflation. The common-good principle demands central banks justify their authority by demonstrating how monetary decisions benefit society broadly, not just creditors or political leaders. This might require reforming central bank governance to include workers, savers, small business owners, and poor communities—those bearing monetary policy's costs but excluded from its decisions.