[JumpCrisscross]

TL; DR An astrophysicist aims to describe an autarkic monetary system and mixed economy but winds up mostly complaining about fractional-reserve banking and inequality in the most generic terms. Nothing here is stupid nor useful. (There is a little nonsense, e.g. "monetary policy on Mars is somewhat easier because the carrying capacity is exactly constrained by the physical infrastructure," because as we all know tiny islands' monetary systems are always the most robust. But for the most part nothing is ridiculously wrong.)

Replace Mars with North Korea and Earth with the rest of the world and his paper reads coherently, though Pyongyang isn't quite as harsh as the author, e.g. "tourists cannot bring Mars currency back to Earth."

[basementcat]

Direct link to arxiv paper.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.10380

The Weinersmiths' survey "A City on Mars" is a more comprehensive treatment on the subject.

https://www.acityonmars.com/