The economy that is wearing us out is the problem

We live in a society where almost everything important is said to be too expensive.

Healthcare is too expensive. School is too expensive. Dental care is too expensive. Climate change is too expensive. Secure jobs are too expensive. Pensions are too expensive. Humane working conditions are too expensive.

But bank profits are not too expensive. Billionaires are not too expensive. The financial market's required rate of return is not called waste. It is called "the economy."

That's why Jussi Ora's new book "The Little Book of Money" is needed.

Ora has an unusual background. He has worked as an economist and had clients who were worth several billion. He has been the operations manager of Positiva Pengar , where he worked to spread knowledge about the monetary system and MMT. Today he works at SiS , where the government's decisions become a concrete reality for staff and young people.

We have misunderstood the money.

The book's great strength is that it starts with money itself.

Ora shows that money is a financial instrument . It sounds dry, but the insight is explosive.

Money is not just something that is moved around. It is a recorded relationship. It has a beginning and an end. The state creates its money when it pays. When the state receives taxes, the money has done its job and is removed from the system.

Ora compares it to a gift card. The store has to issue the gift card first. Only then can someone use it. When the gift card is redeemed, it is canceled.

The same logic applies to the state's currency.

This means that the state with its own currency does not function like a household. It does not have to first “find money” before it can act. It creates its own currency when it pays.

But that doesn't mean everything is free.

The real limits are in life.

Ora does the opposite of both neoliberals and sloppy caricatures of MMT. He doesn’t say: “print money and run.” He says: look at the real constraints.

Are there teachers? Are there nurses? Are there housing builders? Is there energy, electricity, machinery, soil, water, materials and organization?

And more importantly: are the people holding up?

An economy that exhausts healthcare workers, teachers, industrial workers, social workers, and the unemployed does not save. It destroys its own capacity.

The same goes for nature. The state can create money, but it cannot create fertile soil, a stable climate, clean water, or healthy ecosystems out of thin air.

Money has no household economic limits. But the economy has real, human and ecological limits. That is the book's crucial point.

Ahead of the 2026 election

Ahead of the 2026 election, we will hear the same old phrases.

There is a lack of money. The state must hold back. Welfare must be made more efficient. The unemployed must be pressured. The market must be given better conditions.

Ora's book helps us ask better questions.

What resources are really missing? Who benefits from the current framework? Why do we accept unemployment, understaffing and attrition? Why are banks allowed to create credit for housing prices and speculation, while the state pretends to be poor when it comes to healthcare, schools and the climate?

This is a book that makes people harder to fool.

It is easy to read, factual and radical in the best sense of the word: it goes to the root. It shows that the economy is not a god, but a system we have built.

Therefore, we can also build it differently.

Buy or order “The Little Book of Money” by Jussi Ora. You can order it now, among other things, via Books on Demand.