The Future of Money: Creating new wealth, work and a wiser world.
By Bernard Lietaer, 2001. ISBN 0-7126-9991-0, Random House. Review by Gareth Doutch:
BRIEF: $this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')i]In times of change, those who are ready to learn will inherit the world, while those who believe they know will be marvellously prepared to deal with a world that no longer exists. Eric Hoffer.
PeakOil is You
Book: "The Future of Money" by Bernard Lietaer
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Book: "The Future of Money" by Bernard Lietaer
by GD » Tue 12 Apr 2005, 20:30:53
This is a book that contains ideas not only important for the future, but also useful in the present. In fact, this is not “a book of good ideas”. It is a book of practical significance for the future of our civilisation. This is not a peak oil book, but, as the author shows, regardless of the effects of energy resource depletion, the “official future of more of the same” is not going to happen anyway.
The author discusses the key problems defining the age 2000-2020, likely causes of a major breakdown in financial systems, their underlying causes and remedies. It is the author’s belief that it is possible to create a golden age of sustainable abundance within our lifetimes.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')or the first time in 60 years, the possibility of a global recession beyond the control of the monetary authorities cannot be dismissed. As Paul Krugman put it, “Problems we thought we knew how to cure have once again become intractable, like temporarily suppressed bacteria that eventually evolve a resistance to antibiotics… There is, in short, a definite whiff of 1930’s in the air.”
DETAIL:$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]A Bechtel Corporation board meeting in 2020.
The following text is an extract from the minutes of the annual board meeting of Bechtel Corporation, the largest construction and civil engineering company in the world.
“The board considered the two main projects on today’s agenda:
1) A 300-year nature restoration project of the southern Himalayan watershed.
2) A 500-year reforestation project of the sub-Sahara desert.
The board decided unanimously to implement the 500-year sub-Sahara project, given that the Internal Rate of Return on this project is clearly superior. The chairman added that the contribution of this project to overall global climate stability has been an additional incentive for his own vote for this project.”
How could such a future be possible? In clear and simple terms the author shows how, citing several examples at work both past and present. Indeed, the key words for this book are not just sustainability or sustainable development, but SUSTAINABLE ABUNDANCE.
The first part entitled “What Is Money?” begins with a brief history of money and how money works, the mystery behind money (and the need to perpetuate the confidence game in any system of finance), the origins of money’s power, national currencies, fiat money, bank debt, interest (and its effects of fostering competition, needing endless growth and concentrating wealth).
The author looks at the unique convergence of problems facing mankind in the years 2000-2020:
1) Monetary Instability, 2) Ageing population, 3) Information Revolution and 4) Global Climate Change and loss of biodiversity.
And explains why each of these present major challenges and presents the key questions to be answered.
In light of the coming problems to be facing mankind in the near future, the author presents five scenarios for the future, examining for each: a timetable for transition, how it is possible, the root cause and the driving forces which can influence which future is likely to happen.
1)The official future of “more of the same” and why it is not going to happen.
2)The corporate millennium where power has shifted towards the corporate world, making the nation state irrelevant.
3)Careful communities- a return to the small scale homogenous communities, each having their own local currencies, self-serving out of necessity.
4)Hell on Earth- the world that would result if enough people believed that the solution to any breakdown was to buy more bullets for their guns.
5)Sustainable Abundance - which introduces the second part of the book and how it is achievable.
(The author notes that these are not the only possible outcomes, outcomes will play out differently in separate parts of the world, and that the most probable outcome is likely to be a mixture of several scenarios).
Part 2 of the book – “Choosing Your Future of Money” explores several examples (both past and present) of complementary currencies, and how they are applied all over the world in easing / resolving issues such as [poor] public health, delocalisation, unemployment, outsourcing and temping.
An overview is presented on the growth of today’s systems and the political / economic background from which they arise, and why the unique convergence of several major issues (without including peak oil) means traditional solutions (from either the right or left) will not work this time.
Complementary currencies are not a replacement for national currency, and the author discusses the advantages of a dual-currency approach for 1) participating businesses, 2) non-profit organisations, 3) member participants, 4) unemployed and economically disadvantaged and 5) the rest of the community.
Some practical issues are covered, including starting and running your own complementary currency (most difficult part is having it accepted and used in the community). Another issue is the level of support from government / banks / businesses received (passive tolerance / tax exemption / provision of funding).
Since 1971, money (namely the petro-dollar) has ceased to be linked to an international standard of value. The author argues this is akin to operating without a standard length or weight, causing substantial unnecessary risk. Thus, the author proposes making money sustainable by the creation of global reference currency, linked to the value of a basket of commodities.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Historical precedent for business creating multinational framework (1367 – 1500):
At a time of strong fragmentation in Northern Europe, merchants in different independent cities (Bremen, Cologne, Hamburg, Bruges, the Baltic cities, etc.) got together to create their own legal trading framework (the Hansa), complete with its own standard currencies and even its own international courts of justice to settle disputes. All of this was outside of the official political/governmental system. That system lasted for well over a century, six times longer than the current floating exchange experiment.
This global reference currency will help make national currencies sustainable by:
1) Creating an international standard of value.
2) Counteracting the prevalent business cycle, reducing economic instability and unpredictability by reducing the risks of major global recession.
3) Eliminates the conflict between financial priorities and long-term (e.g. ecological) priorities (due to demurrage), thereby reducing the need for regulations to obtain long-term sustainability.
The author states that:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '') a global corporate currency is recommended at the same time as the introduction of local complementary currencies with social aims. The issue here is one of balance, and such a balance will not be achieved by excluding some of the most active components of our society.
The final chapter defines sustainable abundance, and discusses the role money will play in achieving it, in short, a multi-levelled system could emerge that might look something like this:
1) Global reference currency.
2) Multinational currencies.
3) National currencies
4) Local complementary currencies.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')umanity and Planet Earth are at a cross-roads.
The next 20 years will either see an irretrievable loss of biodiversity and a deterioration of the quality of life for vast numbers of people, or we will have moved up the next evolutionary step.
…
The ongoing parallel mutations alluded to in the [changing of values] and the [shift in money paradigm] offer today a historically unprecedented opportunity to consciously create Sustainable Abundance. Seizing this opportunity may be our most decisive challenge.
[Edit: "linked to the value of a basket of currencies." should have read: "linked to the value of a basket of commodities." That makes more sense, d'oh!
Last edited by GD on Wed 13 Apr 2005, 10:49:22, edited 1 time in total.
