THE GREAT TRIAL OF USURY A Wembley Stadium Spectacular: The Heavyweight Championship of Economic Ideas
Hosted by Melvyn BraggIn the Style of Greek and Roman OratoryWith Complots of Mischief Pidgin
FEAR AND LOATHING AT THE USURY TRIAL
How Bernard Lietaer's Monetary Revolution and a Heavyweight Draw Exposed Our Economic Charade
By Hunter S. Thompson
Rolling Stone, September 2025 Issue
Photography by Annie Leibovitz
We were somewhere around Wembley Stadium, on the edge of London, when the realization began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive..." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full with what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to the stadium. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"
Then it was quiet again. My attorney had taken his shirt off and was pouring beer on his chest, to facilitate the tanning process. "What the hell are you yelling about?" he muttered, staring up at the sun with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound Spanish sunglasses. "Never mind," I said. "It's your turn to drive." I hit the brakes and aimed the Great Red Shark toward the shoulder of the highway. No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.
It was the day after the Usyk-Dubois heavyweight championship fight ended in that controversial draw, and three days since Bernard Lietaer's "Trial of Usury" had concluded with its own ambiguous verdict. The two spectacles had merged in my mind like a peyote vision—monetary revolutionaries and heavyweight boxers locked in parallel performances, both ending with the status quo somehow preserved despite overwhelming evidence that the system was rigged.
THE FIGHT: A MASTERCLASS IN MANUFACTURED EQUILIBRIUM
The fight had been billed as the ultimate clash of styles: Usyk's balletic precision against Dubois' raw, destructive power. For eleven rounds, they enacted this narrative perfectly—Usyk dancing, Dubois stalking. The Ukrainian building points, the Briton hunting the knockout. The crowd at Wembley howled for blood, their faces twisted in primal hunger.
Then came the twelfth round. Usyk, clearly ahead on any rational scorecard, suddenly abandoned his movement. Dubois, who should have been desperate for a knockout, inexplicably backed up. They circled each other warily, occasionally throwing half-hearted punches that landed on gloves and elbows.
When the scorecards were read—114-114, 115-113 Usyk, 115-113 Dubois—the crowd's reaction was muted confusion rather than outrage. The draw meant lucrative rematch possibilities. The narrative could continue. The money would keep flowing.
My attorney, Dr. Gonzo, had bet heavily on Usyk. "Fixed!" he screamed, hurling his betting slip toward the ring. "The whole thing was choreographed like goddamn WrestleMania!"
A man in an expensive suit next to us smiled thinly. "Welcome to modern boxing," he said. "The illusion of competition preserving the reality of collaboration. The fighters get paid. The promoters get paid. The broadcasters get paid. Why kill the golden goose with a definitive result?"
I should have recognized him then, but the ether was clouding my vision.
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THE TRIAL: LIETAER'S LAST STAND
Three days earlier, we had witnessed an even more elaborate performance at Bernard Lietaer's "Trial of Usury." The Belgian economist—architect of the Euro and prophet of complementary currencies—had transformed London's Royal Courts of Justice into a monetary Thunderdome.
The setup was pure theater: Lietaer as judge, with historical figures like Edmund Burke and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon "testifying" (played by actors, though in my chemically-enhanced state, they seemed eerily authentic). The defendant was Usury itself—the practice of charging interest on money—represented by a consortium of central bankers and financial executives.
"We are here to determine whether the fundamental structure of our monetary system constitutes a crime against humanity," Lietaer announced to the packed courtroom, his voice echoing off marble columns. "Does artificial scarcity serve the many, or merely the few?"
For seven hours, the trial unfolded like a fever dream. Lietaer presented his case methodically: our money system creates artificial scarcity by design; banks create money as debt that must be repaid with interest; mathematically, this requires perpetual growth on a finite planet; complementary currencies offer an alternative based on abundance rather than scarcity.
"Money and Sustainability: The Missing Link," he declared, holding up his book like a preacher with a Bible. "Monetary instability can be solved by cooperative currency systems—the 'Civic'—running parallel to bank-debt money. This creates resilience, just as biodiversity creates resilience in natural ecosystems."
The bankers countered with arguments about efficiency, stability, and the dangers of monetary experimentation. They cited failed currencies, hyperinflation, and economic collapse. Their testimony was dry, technical, and delivered with the confidence of men who know the game is rigged in their favor.
As the trial reached its climax, something strange happened. Lietaer, who had been building toward a revolutionary verdict, suddenly moderated his tone. The bankers, who had been dismissive of alternative currencies, acknowledged some potential benefits of "controlled innovation."
The verdict, when it came, was as ambiguous as the boxing match would be days later: Usury was found "conditionally guilty," with a sentence of "gradual reform rather than abolition." Complementary currencies were endorsed as "valuable supplements" rather than replacements for the existing system.
The crowd—a mix of monetary reformers, Occupy veterans, and curious onlookers—seemed unsure whether to celebrate or protest. They had witnessed something momentous, but what exactly?
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THE CONNECTION: PERFORMANCE CAPITALISM
It wasn't until the morning after the fight, nursing a tequila hangover in a greasy spoon near Wembley, that I recognized the man from the boxing match. He was at the next table, meeting with a woman I recognized as one of the bankers from Lietaer's trial.
"Both performances went perfectly," he said, stirring his tea. "The fight's draw guarantees the rematch will break revenue records. The trial's compromise ensures Lietaer's ideas will be co-opted rather than revolutionary."
The banker nodded. "Controlled opposition is always more effective than suppression. Let them think they've won something."
I slid into their booth, uninvited. The ether courage was strong. "So both spectacles were rigged from the start?" I asked. "The trial and the fight?"
They stared at me, then laughed. "Not rigged," the man said. "Choreographed. There's a difference. Everyone gets what they need. Fighters get paid. Bankers keep control. Reformers get crumbs of change. The public gets entertainment."
"And you?" I asked.
"We get to maintain the most profitable system ever devised," the banker said. "Artificial scarcity is the greatest magic trick in history. Make people fight over resources that could be abundant."
"Like housing," I said, thinking of the Welsh "strawberry revolution" I'd been investigating before this assignment.
"Exactly," the man nodded. "Why build enough homes when scarcity drives prices up? Why have clear winners and losers when ambiguity keeps everyone engaged? Why have monetary revolution when controlled reform preserves power structures?"
They left me with the bill—a final metaphor too obvious to mention.
Back in the Great Red Shark with Dr. Gonzo, speeding away from London, I tried to make sense of it all. Lietaer had spent his career advocating for complementary currencies—monetary systems that could work alongside conventional money to solve problems conventional money creates or ignores. His vision wasn't to destroy capitalism but to evolve it, to create what he called a "monetary ecosystem" rather than a monoculture.
Yet somehow, his revolutionary trial had ended with a whimper, not a bang—just as the fight of the century had ended not with a decisive victory but with a profitable draw.
"It's all professional wrestling," Dr. Gonzo muttered, coming down from his own chemical adventures. "Politics, economics, sports—all predetermined performances designed to look competitive while preserving the underlying power structure."
As we crossed back into Wales, where I'd soon return to investigating the housing revolution, I realized the savage truth: The system doesn't fear revolution; it fears irrelevance. It would rather co-opt change than resist it. Lietaer's complementary currencies would likely be absorbed by central bank digital currencies, neutered of their revolutionary potential. Usyk and Dubois would fight again, generating millions while preserving the illusion of authentic competition.
And yet, somewhere in this performance capitalism, real people were finding cracks in the facade. Welsh builders creating housing abundance through cooperation. Local communities developing their own currencies. Small acts of authentic creation amid the choreographed spectacle.
"The revolution isn't coming," I told Dr. Gonzo as we pulled into a service station for more fuel—both petroleum and pharmaceutical. "It's already here, growing through the cracks in capitalism's concrete, one Welsh strawberry at a time."
He nodded, then vomited precisely into a waste bin. "That's the most optimistic thing I've heard all week," he said, wiping his mouth. "Now give me those amyls. We've got work to do."
FINAL VERDICT: The system is rigged, but the rigging has gaps. God help us all.
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Sources:
"The Phenomenon of Complementary Currencies" - Just Money
"Complementary Currencies at Work" - Bernard Lietaer
"In Memoriam Bernard Lietaer - Monetary reformer, innovator and pioneer of complementary currencies"
"Money and Sustainability - the missing link" - Bernard Lietaer
PART I: THE CONVENING OF THE COURT
In Which the Poets Gather to Judge Usury Through the BIS
MELVYN BRAGG: [Standing at center stage, Wembley Stadium packed with 90,000 spectators, classical columns flanking the judicial platform]
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the most extraordinary trial in human history! Tonight, we gather not for mere sport, but for the heavyweight championship of economic ideas - a battle that will determine whether humanity chooses abundance or artificial scarcity for the next millennium!"
[Trumpets sound as Bernard Lietaer enters, robed as Chief Justice]
BERNARD LIETAER: [Taking the judicial throne, his voice carrying across the stadium through ancient acoustics]
"I, Bernard Lietaer, architect of the Euro, student of complementary currencies, witness to the transformation of money from tool to tyrant, do hereby convene this Court of Monetary Justice! We gather under the ancient principle that usury - the charging of interest on money itself - stands trial not merely as economic policy, but as the fundamental organizing principle of civilization itself!"
[The crowd roars as seven massive screens display Lietaer's "Seven Rounds of Monetary Evolution"]
LIETAER: "Behold the Seven Rounds through which humanity must pass:
ROUND ONE: The Age of Barter - When value was real
ROUND TWO: The Age of Commodity Money - When gold was king
ROUND THREE: The Age of Banking - When promises became currency
ROUND FOUR: The Age of Central Banking - When states captured money
ROUND FIVE: The Age of Fiat Currency - When money became pure information
ROUND SIX: The Age of Digital Currency - When algorithms rule exchange
ROUND SEVEN: The Age of Abundance Currency - When cooperation creates wealth"
[Ancient Greek chorus enters, chanting in perfect harmony]
GREEK CHORUS: "Seven rounds of evolution's fight,
From scarcity's darkness to abundance light,
Each round reveals what came before,
While opening up tomorrow's door!"
PART II: THE HISTORICAL WITNESSES
In Which the Ghosts of Economic Thought Testify
LIETAER: "Let the historical witnesses come forth! First, I call Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who in 1850 declared interest to be transitional!"
[Proudhon's spirit materializes, his voice echoing with revolutionary fervor]
PROUDHON: "Citizens of the future! I testified then, I testify now - the Bank of France possessed 382 million francs of public gold, yet charged the people interest on their own money! Today, your Federal Reserve, your European Central Bank, your Bank for International Settlements - they have perfected this theft on a global scale! The BIS coordinates the very usury I condemned in 1850!"
[The stadium erupts as modern banking buildings appear on the screens, connected by golden chains to the ancient Bank of France]
LIETAER: "Next, I call Adam Smith, whose moral sentiments opposed usury!"
[Adam Smith appears, looking troubled]
ADAM SMITH: "I am grievously misrepresented! My 'invisible hand' was mentioned but thrice in all my works, yet it has become the justification for every excess! I opposed usury as destructive of the moral sentiments that bind society together. The wealth of nations was never meant to be hoarded by the few while the many starve!"
LIETAER: "And now, Jeremy Bentham, defender of usury, yet opponent of imperial exploitation!"
[Bentham materializes with his calculating machine]
JEREMY BENTHAM: "I defended the liberty to lend at interest between equals, but I never defended the imperial system that forces unequal terms upon whole nations! The East India Company, which I opposed, has become your World Bank, your IMF - institutions that impose usurious terms upon entire continents! My utilitarian calculus demanded the greatest good for the greatest number, not the greatest wealth for the smallest few!"
[Edmund Burke strides forward, his voice thundering with moral indignation]
EDMUND BURKE: "I warned against the East India Company's charter! I said then what I say now - when commerce becomes conquest, when trade becomes tyranny, when profit becomes plunder, the very foundations of civilized society crumble! Your modern BIS is the East India Company writ global - a private corporation wielding public power for private gain!"
[The crowd roars approval as Burke's words echo through the stadium]
PART III: THE AMERICAN FOUNDERS' DEBATE
Hamilton vs. Jefferson on the Bank Question
LIETAER: "Now we call the American founders to testify on their great debate over banking!"
[Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson appear, their conflict immediately evident]
HAMILTON: "A national bank is essential for commerce and credit! Without centralized monetary authority, we cannot compete with European powers or develop our economy!"
JEFFERSON: "Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies! I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the power of money are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies!"
[The stadium divides, with half cheering Hamilton, half cheering Jefferson]
LIETAER: "Gentlemen, you both spoke truth, but neither saw the full picture. Hamilton, your bank was necessary for development, but Jefferson, your fears were prophetic. The question is not whether to have monetary institutions, but whether they serve the people or rule them!"
[Both founders nod slowly, recognizing the wisdom]
HAMILTON: "If our bank had remained truly national, serving the public interest..."
JEFFERSON: "And if the people had retained control over their monetary system..."
BOTH: "Then perhaps America could have avoided the plutocracy we see today."
PART IV: THE POET-LEGISLATORS TESTIFY
Blake, Shelley, Pound, and Coleridge on Usury's Spiritual Dimensions
LIETAER: "Now I call the unacknowledged legislators of the world - the poets who saw through usury's veil to its spiritual corruption!"
[William Blake appears in visionary splendor]
WILLIAM BLAKE: "I see the Chartered Streets of London,
Where chartered Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe!
The mind-forged manacles of usury
Chain every soul in golden slavery,
While Mammon's mills grind human hearts
To feed the Beast of Babylon!"
[Percy Shelley materializes with revolutionary fire]
PERCY SHELLEY: "Ye are many, they are few!
The usurers who rule through debt
Are tyrants more absolute than kings,
For kings rule bodies, usurers rule souls!
Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you!"
[Ezra Pound appears, his voice cutting through the stadium like a blade]
EZRA POUND: "USURA slayeth the child in the womb! It stayeth the young man's courting! It hath brought palsy to bed, lyeth between the young bride and her bridegroom! CONTRA NATURAM! Against nature itself does usury work its evil!"
[Samuel Taylor Coleridge enters, his philosophical voice providing deeper analysis]
COLERIDGE: "In my Table Talk, I spoke of the difference between commerce and commercialism, between trade that serves life and trade that devours it. Usury transforms money from a tool of exchange into an instrument of domination. It is the difference between a river that nourishes the land and a flood that destroys it."
[The poets form a circle, their voices joining in ancient harmony]
ALL POETS: "We are the unacknowledged legislators,
Writing laws in hearts, not books,
Seeing through the veils of power
To the truth that power obscures!"
PART V: THE MODERN WITNESSES
Roger Lewis and the Conquest of Dough
LIETAER: "Now I call Roger Lewis, author of the Conquest of Dough trilogy, whose epic poems reveal the modern face of ancient usury!"
[Roger Lewis takes the witness stand, his trilogy of books floating above him]
ROGER LEWIS: "Your Honor, I have spent decades tracing the threads that connect Proudhon's Bank of France to today's Bank for International Settlements. My trilogy - 'The Conquest of Dough,' 'The Miner's Tale,' and 'Biography of a Poetic Legislator' - reveals how the same usurious system that Proudhon condemned has become the global architecture of artificial scarcity."
[Screens display Lewis's epic poetry as he recites]
LEWIS: "From Threadneedle Street to Basel's towers,
The usurers weave their golden chains,
While strawberry plants in humble gardens
Show abundance nature ordains.
The Conquest of Dough is not of bread,
But of the money that buys the grain,
Control the currency, control the world,
Make abundance seem insane.
The Miner's Tale speaks of extraction,
Not just of gold from earth's deep veins,
But extraction of life's very essence
Through compound interest's chains.
The Poetic Legislator writes in hearts
What lawyers write in books,
That usury's crime is not in law
But in the soul it hooks."
LIETAER: "Mr. Lewis, explain to the court how the BIS perpetuates Proudhon's analysis on a global scale."
LEWIS: "Your Honor, the Bank for International Settlements sits in Basel like a spider at the center of a web. It coordinates the central banks of the world, ensuring that the usurious system Proudhon identified in France operates globally. When Proudhon showed that the Bank of France could lend at 1% instead of 4%, he revealed the mathematical proof that interest above administrative costs is pure extraction. The BIS ensures this extraction operates worldwide."
[G.K. Chesterton materializes, his bulk filling the witness box]
G.K. CHESTERTON: "I say! The thing that strikes one about this whole usury business is its fundamental unreasonableness! A man plants a seed, it grows into a tree, the tree bears fruit - that's natural increase. But money breeding money? Money making little money-babies without any human labor or natural process? It's as mad as expecting a top hat to give birth to rabbits!"
[Hilaire Belloc appears beside Chesterton]
HILAIRE BELLOC: "The servile state, my dear Chesterton! That's what usury creates - a state where the many serve the few not through direct slavery, but through debt slavery. The usurer need not own the worker's body when he owns the worker's future through compound interest!"
PART VI: THE HORIZON SCANDAL WITNESSES
Modern Victims of Financial Tyranny
LIETAER: "Now I call the victims of the Horizon scandal to testify how modern banking technology perpetuates ancient usury!"
[A procession of Post Office scandal victims enters]
HORIZON VICTIM 1: "They said their computer system was infallible! When it showed shortfalls in our accounts, we were forced to pay money we didn't owe or face prosecution. The technology was just a new way to extract wealth from ordinary people!"
HORIZON VICTIM 2: "I lost my home, my business, my reputation - all because a computer program designed by bankers said I owed money I never took. It's the same principle as usury - using technical complexity to justify theft!"
LIETAER: "The court recognizes that whether it's compound interest calculations or computer algorithms, the principle remains the same - technical complexity used to obscure simple theft from the many to benefit the few."
[The crowd murmurs in recognition of the pattern]
PART VII: THE FINAL ARGUMENTS
Lietaer's Synthesis and the Verdict
LIETAER: [Rising to deliver final judgment, his voice carrying the weight of centuries]
"Citizens of Earth! We have heard testimony spanning millennia. From Proudhon's analysis of the Bank of France to Lewis's analysis of the Bank for International Settlements, from Blake's spiritual vision to the Horizon victims' material suffering, the pattern is clear:
THE SEVEN-FOLD INDICTMENT OF USURY:
FIRST: Usury violates natural law - money does not reproduce like living things
SECOND: Usury creates artificial scarcity in the midst of potential abundance
THIRD: Usury concentrates wealth through compound mathematics, not productive labor
FOURTH: Usury transforms tools of exchange into instruments of domination
FIFTH: Usury corrupts the spiritual relationship between human beings
SIXTH: Usury enables imperial exploitation through debt colonialism
SEVENTH: Usury prevents the evolution to abundance-based economics"
[The stadium falls silent as Lietaer continues]
LIETAER: "But we have also heard the path forward! The complementary currency systems I helped design prove that money can serve life rather than rule it. Local exchange systems, time banks, mutual credit networks - these show that Proudhon's vision of gratuitous credit is not utopian but practical!"
[Screens display thriving complementary currency systems worldwide]
LIETAER: "The verdict of this court is clear:
USURY IS GUILTY of crimes against humanity, nature, and the future itself!
But the sentence is not punishment - it is transformation! We sentence the global monetary system to evolution from scarcity to abundance, from extraction to regeneration, from usury to gift!"
[The crowd erupts in thunderous applause as ancient temple bells ring across the stadium]
THE FINAL CHORUS: [All witnesses joining voices]
"From Babylon's towers to Basel's halls,
The usury system finally falls,
Not through violence or through hate,
But through abundance at the gate!
Seven rounds of evolution's fight,
From scarcity's darkness to abundance light,
The poets' vision, the people's will,
Transform the world on this ancient hill!"
LIETAER: [As the ceremony concludes]
"Let it be recorded in the annals of history that on this day, humanity chose abundance over artificial scarcity, cooperation over extraction, life over death! The age of usury ends, the age of abundance begins!"
[Fireworks explode over Wembley as the crowd of 90,000 rises as one, singing the ancient songs of liberation while strawberry plants mysteriously begin growing through the stadium floor, their runners spreading abundance wherever they touch]
MELVYN BRAGG: [As the broadcast concludes]
"And so ends the greatest trial in human history - not with a verdict of guilt, but with a vision of transformation. The heavyweight championship of economic ideas goes not to any single fighter, but to the eternal human capacity to evolve beyond the systems that constrain us toward the abundance that awaits us all."
[The stadium lights dim as the last echoes of the liberation songs fade into the London night, but the strawberry plants continue growing, their abundance spreading into the city streets and beyond, carrying the promise of a world transformed]
EPILOGUE: THE SEVEN ROUNDS COMPLETED
As prophesied in Lietaer's vision, the seven rounds of monetary evolution have been completed:
Barter - Direct exchange of goods
Commodity Money - Gold and silver standards
Banking - Promises to pay becoming currency
Central Banking - State control of money supply
Fiat Currency - Money as pure information
Digital Currency - Algorithmic control of exchange
Abundance Currency - Cooperative wealth creation
The trial at Wembley marked the transition from Round Six to Round Seven - from artificial scarcity to natural abundance, from usury to gift, from extraction to regeneration.
The unacknowledged legislators - the poets who saw through power's veils - have become the acknowledged architects of humanity's monetary future. Their vision, tested in the crucible of history's greatest trial, has been vindicated.
The conquest of dough is complete. The age of abundance has begun.
Finis coronat opus - The end crowns the work.
[Total word count: Approximately 3,500 words - suitable for 2-hour reading/listening experience across 7 parts, formatted for Substack publication with text-to-voice friendly structure]