[~ E ~] The language of the EDITORIAL varies, depending on the occasion.
[~ F ~] La langue de l'EDITORIAL varie selon les circonstances.
[~ D ~] Die Sprache des EDITORIALS wechselt, je nach den Umständen.
CB's notewok
news ~ comments ~ editorials

Die Systemkrise als Chance

Für wen??? Für "fake libertarians" (wie Jiang Rui Xin in einer Mail vermutet), die Free Banking angreifen wollen? Oder für die so zahlreichen "Freiheitsfreunde", die man überall trifft, die gar nicht so frei gesinnt sind oder denken, also rechte Konservative? Sozusagen das Gegenstück der linken "ATTAC" nun von rechts??? "Liberale", "Libertäre", wie weit geht bei Euch eigentlich die Freiheit? Mir scheint, daß nur Panarchisten wirklich Freiheit wollen...

Zwei Einladungen, die ich dieser Tage, wie so oft, NICHT bekommen habe, aber dann indirekt doch, wie meist, sind die zwei folgenden:

http://www.hayek.de/images/pdf/9.hh-hayek-gespraeche.pdf

http://www.ifaam-institut.de/[...]/Hamburger-Anlegerseminar-2011.pdf

Die zweite betrifft
Das Hamburger Mark Banco Anlegerseminar 2011:
“Die Systemkrise als Chance”
wodurch ich zum Titel dieses Blogposts inspiriert wurde...

Das hochkarätige Seminar, wie man so schön sagt, obschon es hier kaum um Diamanten geht, eher um Edelmetalle, und darunter ein bevorzugtes, wendet sich nicht an Minderbemittelte, weder im Geiste noch im Portemonnaie.

Unter den zahlreichen spannenden Beiträgen möchte ich hier nur einen herausgreifen, den des von mir persönlich bekannten und aus vielen Gründen geschätzten Kristof Berking: "Es liegt an der Geldordnung! – Eine Kritik aller gängigen Reformvorschläge von der 'Freiwirtschaftsschule' bis zum 'Free Banking'".

Aua, das sitzt. Kristof Berking, Initiator der Hamburger Hayek-Gespräche, wird mit einer Kritik des Free Banking seinen Mentor Hayek wohl gar in seinem Grabe verwundern, ist der verstorbene Nobelpreisträger im (zugegebenermaßen nicht immer sehr informierten!) öffentlichen Bewußtsein der Vertreter des Free Banking. Nun, ich bin nicht Prophet, und kann nicht voraussagen was Kristof seinem Publikum zu dieser Frage zum Besten geben wird, ich kenne auch nicht den allerneuesten Stand seiner Entwicklung, aber mir und vor allem seinem Publikum dräut Schreckliches, wenn ich von seiner mir gegenüber mehrfach geäußerten Ablehnung des Panarchismus ausgehe, bei dem schließlich Geldfreiheit und Free Banking (Bankfreiheit) Hauptelemente sind. Um dem zuvorzukommen, hier gleich vorbeugend einen Text von John Zube, den er mir heute geschickt hat, nachdem ich ihn auf diese Veranstaltung aufmerksam gemacht hatte:

FB Hamburg Mark Banco

"Die Mark Banco war eine 100% silbergedeckte Waehrung, die die "Hamburger Bank" in der Zeit ihres Bestehens von 1619 bis 1875 emittierte, nicht als gepraegte Muenzen, sondern als mit Silber gedecktes Giralgeld. Mit dieser ueber lange Zeit stabilsten Waehrung in Europa haben Hamburg und seine Kaufmannschaft Krisen stets besser ueberstanden, als andere Regionen, in denen das Geld inflationiert wurde. Ehrlichkeit waehrt am laengsten." - Hamburger Mark Banco Anlegerseminar May 2011, info@ifaam-institut.de - www.ifaam-institut.de - From the file pointed out by C.B.

Somewhere in the writings of Ulrich von Beckerath he pointed out that during the Napoleonic Wars the silver stock of that bank was confiscated and that, nevertheless, it managed to carry out its extensive business just as before, but without the pretence or reality of any silver cover and redemptionism, just going on, honestly reckoning with its clearly defined silver weight unit as its value standard for all its transactions.
This is the most important lesson which this historical bank has to teach us and yet it is not frankly pointed out to this coming up conference, in its introductory material, from which I took the above quote.

With such redemptionists notions, uttered as if they were the only sound and honest ones, full monetary and financial freedom or free banking and free exchange is still being attacked, even by many libertarians.

Anyone still living in Hamburg, with easy access to its libraries, should not have it too difficult to find out the important facts from local references:

For how many years was this bank forcefully deprived of its supposedly necessary cover and redemption fund and whether, if at all, its business was stopped or significantly diminished by this confiscation of its silver stock or whether it was able to carry on, largely, as before, without that supposedly necessary backing, just by continuing to use the weight unit of Silver that it had adopted as its stable and honest value standard for all its clearing and loan transactions.

In Hamburg it might be still possible to easily find out the volume of transactions it mediated before this confiscation, during the years while it was deprived of this silver stock and afterwards, when it had restored it, still thinking that it would be necessary for stable value reckoning, ignoring its own experience during these years.
Probably notions of the supposed necessity of trust, to be achieved through such a reserve, induced the restoration of this silver stock.
Seeing the total volume of its annual turnovers, the silver stock was, probably, not all that large and thus could be easily restored, without pondering whether it was really necessary.

Necessary was not only the adoption of a sound value standard, like silver was then, still, but of a sound lending and repayment policy, to honest and productive firms or to honest and efficient merchants.

Necessary was free clearing, to turn over goods and services, including labor.
To the extent that physical means of payment were still preferred, clearing certificates, IOUs and banknotes in monetary denominations, all with a clearing foundation, would have sufficed. To a large extent also merely credit and debt-accounting would have sufficed, using a stable value standard, like the agreed-upon silver weight unit.

Although its value standard was not coined out by that bank, under free coinage it could have been coined out by that bank or other minters, for those willing to pay the costs.
The coins could have been privately minted, with numbers and mints expressed on them and with sufficient publicity assuring honesty in this business.
After some wear or wilful clipping of these coins, they would have to be withdrawn and minted into full weight silver coins again.
The abstract silver weight unit as a value standard could have been kept easier and at no such extra costs.
The abstract but measurable silver weight unit, constantly measured in all free silver markets, could have served as a sound and honest value standard for many more transactions than a physical silver coin or bullion stock could have mediated, making thus the production and exchange of other goods and services, including labor, independent of the stock of silver, apart from the then prevailing payment habits, which required, usually, coins for wage payments, especially since bank notes in small denominations were usually outlawed.

The same considerations apply, naturally to reckoning in gold weight units and to gold coins.
Freedom to use rare metal weight units as optional, honest and rather stable value units is, indeed, very important.

Using rare metal stocks as covers for clearing accounts or clearing certificates, or as reserve funds and redemption funds for any exchange media is neither cheap nor necessary.

Rare metal weight value reckoning, without possessing corresponding amounts of rare metals, is also possible and economical.

However, the means of payment involved, although not rare metal coins, but in form of clearing certificates, banknotes, book accounts or digital account credits, or any kind of tokens, must be covered and redeemable in or exchangeable for wanted consumer goods and consumer services, including labor, whose prices are also expressed in rare metal weight units.
Moreover, all these means of payment must be saved and made available for loans for certain periods. Such loans must also be repayable in such means of payment.

This sound and honest alternative clearly distinguishes between means of payment and value standards and is more economical than the rare metal cover, reserve and redemption system for issuers of exchange media in much cheaper materials than rare metals.

It can cope with any increase in the volume of goods and services produced and exchanged, without the rare metal production being increased to the same extent.

We should honestly explore this alternative and make use of it in future.

In free competition between rare metal redemptionist note-issuing banks and those, which retain their rare metal weight unit as their value standard, but without redeeming their notes in rare metals, the latter would win through their lower costs.

All that would be needed, to uphold this kind of rare metal accounting or rare metal clearing value standard would be free markets in rare metals.
They exist anyhow, when and wherever they are not outlawed.

By all means, do explore all historical experiences with rare metal value accounting and clearing instead of rare metal value redemptionism and arrive finally at the same conclusion.

While sound rate metal value standards are very important, and should always be among our options, one can use them without stockpiling cover, reserve and redemption funds and redeeming notes, clearing certificates etc. upon demand in these covers.

Whatever metallic conversion of means of payment is then still wanted by some, could be achieved on the rare metal markets.

John Zube, 10.4.11
jzube@acenet.com.au

Christian Butterbach, 10 April 2011, 20:08 GMT+1 [Link]

Remembering Vince Today

Picture by courtesy of Vince's close Canadian friend Sieg Pedde

Vince Miller with 'Simpson' during December, 2003, visit at the Pedde home.

Dear Vince,

You would have become 72 today: Happy Birthday up there! That would not only have been better for you (and me!), but, I think, for the libertarian movement as a whole. Not to lower the merits of so many others, but you were that very special link between the factions. And thanks again for having been that one person in my life who helped me more than anyone else ever did.

Dear Reader,

Maybe you want to reread my 2008 obituary here. Also published at The Libertarian Enterprise here. If you use the search engine at the bottom of this page, entering Vince, you will find a couple more instances where Vince is mentioned in this blog.

Chris (72)

Christian Butterbach, 11 December 2010, 22:26 GMT+1 [Link]

Christian Butterbach, 06 December 2010, 13:46 GMT+1 [Link]

IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!

"The time has come to start thinking in terms of choice in government."

It is in 1860 that Paul Émile de Puydt coined the word panarchie (panarchy) and convincingly suggested and wrote about this peace and freedom creating idea. This year 2010, ending this month (still time to place some nicely wrapped constituent of panarchy under our Christmas tree!), is thus the

150th anniversary

of de Puydt's (or De Puydt's if you prefer his accepted abbreviation as botanist) great modern trait of genius! Even though strong elements of panarchy and non-territorialism (personal law instead of territorially monopolist one) have existed in theory and above all in practice in human history well before that. Albeit you might not hear about it very often in the evening news... or in class rooms for that matter. But things seem to be a-Changin' :-) recently.

Great minds are falling for it, in whole or in part, ever more frequently. Greatly helped in this by the great art of governments and associated power elites everywhere to create gorgeous catastrophes.

Prof. Rozeff is one of those top panarchists helping to promote the idea and us to ever better understand it. He is also one of those still too rare ones that have put the one or other practical detail that is not yet fully solved on his scientific research agenda.

Commemorating this important anniversary, he made us the present these days of his following article:

Do You Really Want To Be a Republican or a Democrat?

You will find it on my Panarchy.net site here.

Christian Butterbach, 01 December 2010, 18:35 GMT+1 [Link]

New or Repeated Individualist Warning

Reflections about the Collective

Christian Butterbach, 27 November 2010, 03:11 GMT+1 [Link]

LONG PAUSE
during which I had worked on several maybe not unimportant new posts, but did either not finish them or at least not upload them (though I uploaded some other ones to some of my other blogs)...

Christian Butterbach, 27 November 2010, 00:27 GMT+1 [Link]

John Zube 76 today (European time)!

One year added to the round figure of last year... As usual for John down under, he is not the one receiving much as a gift from us on that day, but he is the one who is, like always, sending one! I am glad to be able to present you with the following gem:

Earth Warming through CO2?

Two snippets from a review of Plimer's book that might have escaped your attention.

MIND:"The mind is like a parachute. It only works, when it is open." – Dr. Ian Plimer, "Heaven and Earth. Global Warming: The Missing Science", 2009, quoted in THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, April 18-19, 2009, News Review, p. 9, smh.com.au by Miranda Devine, devinemiranda AT hotmail DOT com – OPEN MIND, PREJUDICES

GLOBAL WARMING? "From the geologist's perspective, he says, our climate has always changed in cycles, affected by such variables as the orbit of the planet and our distance from the sun, which itself produces variable amounts of radiation. One of the lessons of 500 million years of history, he says, is that there is no relationship between carbon dioxide and temperature." - Dr. Ian Plimer, "Heaven and Earth. Global Warming: The Missing Science", 2009, reviewed in THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, April 18-19, 2009, News Review, p. 9, smh.com.au by Miranda Devine, devinemiranda AT hotmail DOT com

We should demand that the believers in Earth-Warming - through human activities - form a new church and finance the costs of their rituals themselves.

The right of peaceful individuals to secede and likewise that of dissenting and peaceful minorities - and to reorganize in communities of volunteers, of a governmental or societal type, under personal laws and their own kinds of voluntary contribution or taxation schemes, under full exterritorial autonomy, would at least exempt these tolerant separatists from the planned and to be territorially enforced unwarranted new burdens, institutions and regulations.

This secessionist and exterritorial autonomy freedom and right, a quite basic individual human right, would help us to cope with many other real problems as well. It would not only confine the burdens resulting from imagined problems to those, who imagine them.

Alas, even then, such dogmatic beliefs would tend to continue for a long time, at least among some people, contrary to most scientific findings, just like many to most religions do.

This review by M. D. covers ca. 1/3rd of a TSMH large page.

The heading, not the illustration, expresses its main message: "Planet doomsayers need a cold shower."

As for myself, I consider it a waste of time and energy to fight all the problems which our lawmakers produce for us, on a large, territorial scale and in uncounted numbers - one by one.

I do also doubt that there is sufficient reason, knowledge and ability among them, to which one can appeal. Or among the public, largely victims of the official mis-education system.

The power addicts are also in a position to finance the practice of their errors, myths and spleens with the help of our taxes.

We have no veto-right regarding these supposed "representatives" or simply the right to say: Count me out!

All imagined problems should be tackled together, systematically, e.g. by an Ideas Archive and an Encyclopedia of the Best Refutations of all Errors, Myths & Prejudices that Are Obstacles to Progress.

It should come to the stage when people would feel ashamed and ridiculous if they had uttered once more one of the popular errors and myths while it would then be easy to point out to them that they had failed to consult the encyclopedia of the best refutations regarding their false or flawed views.

PIOT, John Zube

PANARCHISM IN OUR TIME or: To each the government or non-governmental society of his or her choice

www.panarchism.info

http://www.dataprospecting.com/cgi-bin/ls.cgi?dir=zube - SLOGANS FOR LIBERTY, Ca. 38 Mbs,
including ca. 520 Kbs of JOKES extracted from these files.

http://www.butterbach.net/lmp/cd2/ - This CD contains many other files as well.

Christian Butterbach, 10 June 2009, 01:39 GMT+1 [Link]

This is a sentence I like!

"Of course, there is a great deal to protest about today. But before the honourable tradition of direct action can be rehabilitated, we need some clarity about the nature of the current global crisis. That requires reflection and debate, rather than the rituals of ignorance that go under the name of ‘protest’."

This sentence is by Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent in Canterbury. It is from an article in spiked. Very topical to me when I consider how my friend Uwe Timm, editor of Espero, has been attacked the last few days by an example of such ignorance, Gerold Flock.

Christian Butterbach, 06 April 2009, 08:50 GMT+1 [Link]

C C

HOCUS-POCUS

2 2

The CO2 hocus-pocus is everywhere! People's brains since long lack enough oxygen to think correctly — with all that political carbon dioxide politicians are exhaling, polluting our lives... We want clean air. We want to breathe. Leave us alone. Leave us our freedom. Simply disappear. Hop it!

Friday night we had "Earth Hour" here in Hamburg, too. Like in many cities. This stupidity started in Sidney in 2007. To use energy sparingly is okay and commendable, but the best way to economize would be to get rid of the totalitarian governments everywhere throwing energy out the window with their wars, to name just one of their crimes... Let's really rough it!

Wherever liberals rule (and I do not mean this word in the original European sense, but in the usurped American one, so I do not mean classical liberals or libertarians here!) the air becomes suffocating. We happen not to have a liberal government here in Hamburg right now, fortunately, but the ideology is largely the same, even much more so on the national level. Being a bit more business friendly than the competition and even only in a certain way, does not mean being libertarian. It is rather conservatism of the worst sort. In one word: statism. Of the right. Not liberty! Right and left are converging ever more here and everywhere these days. When and where will that end?!

Two places where people seem to lack brain oxygen most, must be Southern California and South-Eastern Australia. With all those bush fires!

So leftist politics may be no coincidence there...

The fires produce CO2 which the disappeared trees, shrubs and other green plants cannot eat anymore. That's twice over. And that's okay with the politicians, who always like to be on the safe side, the one where taxes arrive, not where they leave... And taxes, that's what is the purpose and result of all this propaganda for the believers in Gore. From the suckers to the bloodsuckers. It's our gore!

But a final more conciliatory note: from California we get some good software and many other goodies, from Australia some good libertarian dissenters [← don't miss] and many other goodies.

Christian Butterbach, 29 March 2009, 23:31 GMT+1 [Link]

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).

Christian Butterbach, 23 March 2009, 11:53 GMT+1 [Link]

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

Christian Butterbach, 21 March 2009, 11:37 GMT+1 [Link]

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/tomazhg

This 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 Illustrations

1 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 Author

Christian Butterbach, 18 March 2009, 21:38 GMT+1 [Link]

Dringend!

Übers Wochenende weiteren Druck auf die deutsche Regierung ausüben! Wenn Deutschland am Montag in Brüssel gegen die zwangsweise Aufhebung der Anbauverbote für Mon810 in Österreich und Ungarn stimmt, haben wir Konsumenten gewonnen! Mehr Infos hier: http://www.bantam-mais.de/ Hier der Brief, den Sie an die deutsche Regierung schicken sollten, gleich aus welchem Land Sie schreiben!

Christian Butterbach, 27 February 2009, 15:41 GMT+1 [Link]

Homage to Fifi and Haptics

Today it is exactly 25 years, a quarter of a century, that Fifi, a female cat, who was my great mutual love, passed away under very tragic circumstances I will not relate today. This was 19 and a half months before I met tomcat Raffi who became my mate for just over 22 years. I often wrote about him on this site, as I did about other cats and animals. Today I simply want, to commemorate Fifi, put online 50 pictures taken from a slide show that was sent to me to console me and which I each have commented a little (see the ALT tag of each pic). They are about cats, dogs, and other animals, and a few humans, maybe a lot about haptic communication. Enjoy!

landing on the moon, sort of

goldfish don't operate on the same turf

when young, you are more flexible

be on good terms with the barman

this sofa is as good as any, and the sofa doesn't mind

Swiss cottage

am I not a jolly good fellow?

restaurant tables with inbuilt Japanese toilets

shampoos don't do what they promise

I need to be consoled

intelligent magic parking...

the snowball that thought it was the moon

self's the man, no barber needed anymore

Sunday outing of the family, the road is for everyone, cops are not for liberty

a donkey is better than a Volkswagen
washday

washday

logistics

close encounter of the third kind

kisses can be wet

dog with a sense of humor

Arctic peeping tom

crossbreeding made them white

a mother can keep a confidence

don't look at me this way, it wasn't me

three is a good number

the more the merrier -- the food bills...

gimme that peanut, please

evening of reading

shark bus feeding

Dad forgot again to bring me my calcium chocolate from the pharmacist

the squirrel at the wedding

close your eyes, I am taking my bath

I'm Maggie's dog, you can't possibly bite me!

stop grinning, wait till I get my revenge

collective lewdness

they could have made it larger

a taxpayer's last minute escape from the excisedog

high society

I may not be as big as Sir Winston, but I will defend the pound this winter

I'm on good terms with Brigitte Bardot

better than a flying carpet

Island in the Sun, Version 3

I was trained in Hong Kong, Kyoto and Taipei

Rainbow Warrior has sailed past...

common outlook or an accrescence or accretion of burqas

they lie about cats and mice

sweet happiness

snobs can never get enough

turn off the doorbell, I am tired

the future bliss of panarchy

Christian Butterbach, 01 February 2009, 19:48 GMT+1 [Link]

Vince, We All Miss Vince Miller with 'Simpson' during December, 2003, visit at the Pedde home. You So Much
Picture by courtesy of Vince's close Canadian friend Sieg Pedde

Dear Vince,

For All of us you are still alive and became 70 today: Happy Birthday! I won't keep you long as you are busy preparing that traditional December trip to your home country and your great good friends there and you still have to get used to that heavenly version of Google Maps and your new ways of travelling. And many thanks for having been that one person in my life who helped me more than anyone else ever did.

Chris (70)

Christian Butterbach, 11 December 2008, 16:01 GMT+1 [Link]

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