My Archives: March 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
XXII FÓRUM DA LIBERDADE
Strange as it may appear to some, but I must believe my server's logfiles, this site, since many years, is much visited from Brazil. This may have to do with Brazilians so often being much more daring than some of the German locals here I am cursed to deal with... ;-) This snotty remark of mine put aside, I extend a big thank you to my friends over there, in particular Margaret Tse, for drawing my attention to the upcoming Brazilian Liberty Forum – 22nd Edition – The Culture of Liberty. 22nd Edition? Yes, when Liberty has been sold out, you have to put a new edition on the market... :-) Have a look at the outstandingly well done Liberty Forum website. That's the English language version. Versão em Português. The portal Terra [at this writing not accessible from here!] will broadcast live all the panels and debates during the two-day Liberty Forum at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, on April 6 and 7, 2009. Pontifical Catholic? Since when is that pontiff for (full) liberty??? Oh well, maybe only in Africa... ;-) At this writing, the Programme on the Liberty Forum website is still only a skeleton, waiting for the flesh, the names of the speakers of the various panels, to be added. I have a Tentative Program though, which you can download in PDF here. Among the many names I recognize the one of Franklin Cudjoe from Ghana [don't miss the article with the many pictures!], who had also attended the ISIL conference at Gummersbach near Cologne in 2005. CU in Porto Alegre! [see the beautiful pictures; some more on the corresponding English page]
Porto Alegre will also ring a bell with people very knowledgeable in the monetary field ("ORECOPA", Organização Econômica Pôrto-Alegrense, cautelas de compra... — but that is half a century ago, before the "Remington Reform", as you can see from the spelling).Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 11:55 AM GMT+1 [Link]
Saturday, March 21, 2009
The Civilization of Wrong Money and the End of Our Future or the Future of Our End...
"Very few economists today seem to be able to read a balance sheet and even fewer understand the aggregate effects of meddling with accounting principles and interest rates. Unfortunately, this also holds for most people in official positions, those with the power to really influence the course of events. To handle the system-wide crisis of banks and major companies they propose many nearly desperate things, like consolidating balance sheets in various ways - mergers, acquisitions, takeovers and nationalization - and cutting interest rates down towards zero."
The above heading, though playing on the preceding one by Tom Greco, is my sole responsibility, quickly cooked as it was by me in this CB's notewok: It is not meant as a critique in the form of a parody of Tom's book or of the essay by Richard C. B. Johnsson I took the above quote from. It only expresses my own opinion and my clear aim, as I hope, to make you read both works and reflect on what presently seems to be the most pressing problem of this world. With the work of both of these authors and of the ones they refer to, you will gain knowledge that will place you miles ahead of those funny clowns of either sex steeped in their smiling egos (example Merkel, example Obama, not to forget Sarkozy) who cheerfully push us into the grave while, as a pulled forward funeral meal, feasting their summit parties...
Please read
The Global Financial Crisis 101
Here is some information about the site it was published on 3 days ago, containing some further valuable references:ABOUT SAFEHAVEN
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 11:52 AM GMT+1 [Link]
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
The End of Money and the Future of Civilization
The above striking heading is the title of a forthcoming book (from Chelsea Green Publishers) by Thomas H. Greco, Jr., about whom, should you not know him yet or well enough, you can find a wealth of information on the following web pages, starting with the more "official" and ending with the more private. Please do visit them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_H._Greco
http://www.Reinventingmoney.com
http://beyondmoney.net
http://tomazgreco.wordpress.com
http://picasaweb.google.com/tomazhgThis next book of him is expected to be in print around the middle of April. Here below is a description and detailed table of contents.
The End of Money and the Future of Civilization considers the money problem within the broad historical and political context that has made the control of money and banking the primary mechanism for concentrating power and wealth and the nullification of democratic governance.
It provides the necessary understanding for entrepreneurs, activists, and civic leaders to implement approaches toward monetary liberation, approaches that empower communities to restore their environments and democratic institutions, and begin to build economies that are sustainable, equitable, and insulated from the financial crises that plague the dominant systems of money, banking and finance.
It provides specific design proposals and exchange-system architectures for local, regional, national, and global financial systems, and offers strategies for their implementation prescribing actions that grassroots organizations, businesses, and governments will need to take to achieve success.
Those among the individualist readers of my websites and my blogs who will stumble above over words like communities, democratic governance, democratic institutions, governments, should simply replace them with panarchies, governance, non-governance etc., as they like. One thing is sure: that panarchy and panarchism will need what monetary freedom has to offer!
John Zube wrote me referring to the author of this book: "On some points I am still in disagreement with him - but full monetary & clearing freedom would embrace all types of it." and "Experimental freedom is what all of us need, in this sphere and, generally, in the political, economic and social spheres, rather than more opinion exchanges and arguments."
I for one consider the following table of contents already worth a thousand books. And I hope the book will replace those hundreds of thousands of wrong ones in the field... Please forgive my advance enthusiasm. I have occasionally been called on the carpet for indulging in such enthusiasm by the dryer type. I won't repent! :-)
Now then:
The End of Money and the Future of Civilization
Contents
List of Tables and Illustrations1 My Purpose and My Journey
My Personal Journey • Seeds of Disillusionment • Awakening • In the Wake of Inflation • E.C. Riegel • Why Yet Another Book?
2 Mega-Crisis and Metamorphosis–Can Civilization Be Saved?
Prospects and Prognostication • Exponential Growth • Limits to Growth • Paradigm Shift •Metamorphosis • The Egg, the Caterpillar, and the Butterfly • Get With the Program
3 The Contest for Rulership–Two Opposing Philosophies
Elitist or Egalitarian? • The Contest in American History: Monarchy or Republic? • Power by Other Means
4 Central Banking and the Rise of the Money Power
Central Banking, an Unholy Alliance • The Bank of England • Central Banking in the United States • The First Bank of the United States • Andrew Jackson and the “Bank War” • The Free Banking Era • The Federal Reserve • Central Banking Spreads around the World
5 The New World Order
The Power Behind the Central Banks • A Merging of Interests • Wars, Internal and External • Money Power, the Key Element in the New World Order • Erosion of National Sovereignty
6 Usury and the Engine of Destruction
Monetary Stringency, Past and Present • Increasing Instability • The Magic of Compound Interest • What’s Wrong with the Global System of Money and Banking? • How Debt-Money is Dysfunctional • Three Aspects of Money Dysfunction • Moral Arguments, Laws, and Practical Solutions • Keys to Transcendence • Exchange and Finance–Two Distinct Credit Functions
7 The Nature and Cause of Inflation
What Is Inflation? • Who Has the Power to Inflate? • Improper Basis of Issue by Banks Is Inflationary • Government Deficits and Inflation • The German Hyperinflation–A Classic Case • How the Inflation Was Ended • Constraints Upon Debasement of the Money • Responding to Inflation
8 The Separation of Money and State
The Separation of Church and State–A Comparison • The Disestablishment of Monetary “Religion” • Two Meanings of “Dollar” • Delinking from the Dollar as a Payment Medium • Delinking from the Dollar as a Measure of Value • Stable Value Reckoning • Toward Freedom of Exchange
9 The Evolution of Money–From Commodity Money to Credit Money
What We Don’t Know Is Hurting Us • Kinds of Economic Interaction • “The Ladder of Economic Civilization” • The First Evolutionary Step–Barter to Commodity Money • Commodity Money • Symbolic Money • The Second Evolutionary Step–From Commodity Money to Credit Money • Two Distinct Kinds of Money–Fractional Reserve Banking • Redeemability Abandoned • Checks and Checkable Deposits Displace the Use of Banknotes • Gold Versus Credit Money–A Comparison • How Credit Money Malfunctions
10 The Third Evolutionary Stage–The Emergence of Credit Clearing
Banks and the Credit Clearing Process • A Confusion of Language • Particle or Wave? Thing or Relationship? • Clearing Through Banks Versus Mutual Credit Clearing • Direct Credit Clearing Makes Conventional Money and Banking Obsolete
11 Solving the Money Problem
The Basis of Monetary Dysfunction • Reform or Transcendence? • Emerging Exchange Alternatives • Separating the Functions of Money • Back to Commodity Money? • The Unit of Account Versus the Unit of Currency • The Measurement of Value • Proper Relationship Between Commodities (Gold/Silver) and Credit • Confusion Caused by Legal Tender Laws
12 Credit Clearing, the “UnMoney”
What Is Credit Clearing? • A Simple Example of Clearing among Banks • Settlement of Accounts • Mutual Credit Clearing Systems as Clearing Houses • Direct Credit Clearing–A Simple Illustration Using Four Accounts and Ten Transactions • Balance Limits and Settlement • Providing Surety of Contract • An Insurance Fund
13 The State of the Alternative Exchange Movement
Two Currents of Alternative Exchange • The Tucson Experience • Why Exchange Alternatives Fail to Thrive • Failure of Reciprocity • Inadequate Scale and Scope of Operation
14 How Complementary Currencies Succeed or Fail
Architecture of the Currency Itself • Principle 1: Who Is Qualified to Issue Currency? • Principle 2: On What Basis Should Currency Be Issued? • Principle 3: How Much Currency May Be Issued By Each Issuer? • Implementation Strategies • The Situational Context • WIR • Social Money in Argentina
15 Commercial Trade Exchanges–Their Present Limitations and Potential Future
Limiting Factors • Limited Scale and Scope • The Value Proposition • Operations and Agreements • Proposed Remedies • The Real Deal–Credit Clearing Services • Tapping the Vast Potential Market • What About Taxes? • An Eventual Cashless Trading Network
16 A Regional Economic Development Plan Based on Credit Clearing
Approaches to Community Economic Development • Stage I: Mapping the Territory and Import Substitution • Stage II: Mutual Credit Clearing Provides an Alternative Means of Payment • Sage III: The Credit of “Trusted Issuers” Provides an Alternative Currency for Regional Circulation • Stage IV: Support Structures for Localization–Saving, Investment, Finance, and Education • Stage V and Beyond: Transition to an Objective Measure of Value and Accounting Unit
17 The Next Big Thing in Business: A Complete Web-Based Trading Platform
The Convenience of Cards • Improving the Exchange Process–Challenge and Opportunity • Significant Trends and “Disruptive Technologies” • Strengths and Vulnerabilities of Political Money and Conventional Banking • From Disruptive to Sustaining–Moving Upmarket • The Emergence of a Complete Web-Based Trading Platform • Essential Components of the Web-Based Trading Platform • Completing the Web-Based Trading Platform
18 Organizational Forms and Structures for Local Self-Determination and Complementary Exchange
Toward Economic Independence • The “Banjar” and the Balinese Governance Structure • The Mondragon Cooperatives • Ways of Organizing Credit Clearing Exchanges • Corporations • Limited Liability Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships • Mutual Companies • Scale of Organization
19 The Role of Governments in Establishing Economic and Financial Stability
What National Governments Should Do • Objectives • Rationale • Legislative Proposals in Brief • The Role of State, Provincial, and Local Governments • An Early Example of a Local Currency
20 Exchange, Finance, and the Store of Value
The Store of Value • Saving and Investment • Liberating Saving and Investment • Debt Claims Versus Equity Claims • A Shared Equity Mortgage • Savings and Investment within Complementary Exchange Systems
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: A Model Membership Agreement for a Credit Clearing Service
Appendix B: An Objective Composite Standard Measure of Value
Notes
References
Index
About the AuthorPosted by Christian Butterbach @ 10:02 PM GMT+1 [Link]