If you think of money as water, then our financial system is like an irrigation system, watering the economy. And just as irrigation helps crops grow, money allows the economy to flourish. As long as the money keeps flowing, society will thrive—or at least that’s the idea. In reality, large swaths of society remain parched, while a small group of people is swimming in money. Today, a handful of billionaires controls more wealth than half the world’s population combined.

Who creates and allocates our money? Where all does it go? And why doesn’t the financial system work for everyone? These questions are at the heart of The Waterworks of Money, the latest work by cartographer Carlijn Kingma, in collaboration with financial economists Thomas Bollen and Martijn van der Linden. They lead you through a watery world where money is in motion, its hidden forces made manifest.

Although money plays a key role in our lives, the workings of our monetary system are a mystery to most of us. Anyone who does not speak the complex financial language of economists and bankers is excluded from the public debate on how our monetary system should work. Power over our money is in the hands of a small group of financial literates.

In an attempt to change this, Carlijn Kingma, Thomas Bollen and Martijn van der Linden have made the world of money accessible through metaphors and architectural drawings. They have depicted the workings of our current monetary system and outlined various possibilities for reform, based on two years of research.

Growing inequality, the slow progress with making our economy sustainable, and recurrent financial crises cannot be seen in isolation from the way our monetary system works. If we want to properly tackle these problems, we will have to address the flaws of our current money system. The future of our money is a public matter which is too important to be left to unelected bankers.

If you think of money as water, then our financial system is like an irrigation system, watering the economy. And just as irrigation helps crops grow, money allows the economy to flourish. As long as the money keeps flowing, society will thrive—or at least that’s the idea. In reality, large swaths of society remain parched, while a small group of people is swimming in money. Today, a handful of billionaires controls more wealth than half the world’s population combined.

Who creates and allocates our money? Where all does it go? And why doesn’t the financial system work for everyone? These questions are at the heart of The Waterworks of Money, the latest work by cartographer Carlijn Kingma, in collaboration with financial economists Thomas Bollen and Martijn van der Linden. They lead you through a watery world where money is in motion, its hidden forces made manifest.

Although money plays a key role in our lives, the workings of our monetary system are a mystery to most of us. Anyone who does not speak the complex financial language of economists and bankers is excluded from the public debate on how our monetary system should work. Power over our money is in the hands of a small group of financial literates.

In an attempt to change this, Carlijn Kingma, Thomas Bollen and Martijn van der Linden have made the world of money accessible through metaphors and architectural drawings. They have depicted the workings of our current monetary system and outlined various possibilities for reform, based on two years of research.

Growing inequality, the slow progress with making our economy sustainable, and recurrent financial crises cannot be seen in isolation from the way our monetary system works. If we want to properly tackle these problems, we will have to address the flaws of our current money system. The future of our money is a public matter which is too important to be left to unelected bankers.