Rethinking Money

by Bernard Lietaer

  9. See letter from the Board of the Reichsbank (I 10513) to the Minister of Finance dated August 8, 1931 (Bundesbank Archiv R 31.01/15345, 145). See also Thomas Koudela: Entwicklungsprojekt Ökonomie—Marktwirtschaft jenseits des Kapitalismus (Kühbach-Unterbernbach, Germany: EWK-Verlag, 2004), 66–69.

  10. Margrit Kennedy, Interest and Inflation Free Money (Okemos, MI: Seva International, 1995), writes: “During the Weimar Republic (1924–1933), the central bank’s president, Hjalmar Schacht, had the desire to create an ‘honest’ currency in Germany, which—in his understanding—meant a return to the gold standard. Since he could not buy enough gold on the world market adequate to the amount of money in circulation, he began to reduce the latter. The shorter supply of money resulted in rising interest rates, thereby reducing the incentives and possibilities for investment, forcing firms into bankruptcy, and increasing unemployment, which led to the growth of radicalism and finally helped Hitler to gain more and more power.”

  11. See John Weitz, Hitler’s Banker: Hjalmar Horace Greely Schacht (London: Warner Books, 1999): In March 1930, Schacht stepped down from the position of Reichsbank chairman but returned to his job after Hitler’s rise to power three years later.

  12. Ibid., 131.

  13. Official German unemployment statistics: “Arbeitarktdaten.”

  14. Max Schwarz, MdR—Biographisches Handbuch der Reichstage (Hannover, Germany: Verlag für Literatur und Zeitgeschehen, 1965), 810–816.

  15. Fisher, Stamp Scrip.

  16. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no official explanation was given for this decision.

  17. H. W. Brands, Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (New York: Doubleday, 2008), quoted in The Economist, November 1, 2008, 83.

  18. Kim Severson, “Number of U.S. Hate Groups Is Rising, Report Says,” New York Times, March 7, 2012.

  19. Sergio Lub, interview with Jacqui Dunne, July 7, 2012.

  20. Heloisa Primavera, interview with Jacqui Dunne, December 2, 2011, and July 9, 2012.

  21. Lub, interview.

  22. Edgar Kampers, interview with Jacqui Dunne, November 24, 2011.

  Chapter 11

  1. John Stephen Lansing, lecture at http://longnow.org/seminars/02006/feb/13/perfect-order-a-thousand-years-in-bali.

  2. “Agent modeling is a class of computational models for simulating the actions and interactions of autonomous agents (both individual or collective entities such as organizations or groups) with a view to assessing their effects on the system as a whole.” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php.

  3. Bernard Lietaer, “A World in Balance,” Reflections: The Journal of the Society for Organizational Learning at MIT (SOL), Summer 2003; and Bernard Lietaer and Stephen DeMeulenaere, “Sustaining Cultural Vitality in a Globalizing World: The Balinese Example,” International Journal for Social Economics, September 2003.

  4. Kepeng is etymologically related to the word for “chip” or “fragment.” This is likely a reference to the traditional square hole in the middle of each uang kepeng coin. See S. Hassan and J. Echols, Kamus Indonesia-Inggris (Jakarta, Indonesia: PT Gramedia, 2004).

  5. Ida Bagus Sidemen, Nilai Historis Uang Kepeng (Historical Value of Uang Kepeng) (Denpasar, Indonesia: Larasan-Sejarah, 2002). The oldest uang kepeng found in Bali were minted by the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618–909 AD). Other types of trading coins and brass gongs have been discovered in Bali, some of which originate from the Dong Son culture of Vietnam in the 4th century AD.

  6. Stephen DeMeulenaere, interview with Jacqui Dunne, January 2, 2012.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Hildred Geertz and Clifford Geertz, Kinship in Bali (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978).

  9. DeMeulenaere, interview, December 2, 2011.

  10. See www.holacracy.com.

  11. Margrit Kennedy, interview with Jacqui Dunne, June 1, 2012.

  12. See www.regiogeld.de.

  13. Dee Hock, One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2005).

  14. John Boik, interview with Jacqui Dunne, May 30, 2012.

  15. John Boik, “Creating Sustainable Societies: The Rebirth of Democracy and Local Economies,” 2012. www.creatingsustainablesocieties.com.

  16. Henk Van Arkel, interview with Jacqui Dunne, December 14, 2011.

  17. Michael Linton, interview with Jacqui Dunne, December 9, 2011.

  18. Geert Jonker, “Efficient and Equitable Exchange in Air Traffic Management Plan Repair Using Spender-Signed Currency,” University of Utrecht, the Netherlands (SIKS Dissertation Series #2008-25).

  19. Geert Jonker, interview with Jacqui Dunne, January 18, 2012.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum—Divus Vespasianus. Translation in English at www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/suetonius-vespasian.html.

  22. Dio Cassius (c. 40–110 AD), Historia, Book 66, Chapter 14. Translation in English at www.brainfly.net/html/dio_cass.htm.

  23. Vespasian’s name still is attached to public urinals in several languages: French (vespasiennes), Italian (vespasiani), and Romanian (vespasiene).

  24. See www.constitutionaltender.com.

  25. Stephen Dinan, “Utah Legislature Goes for Gold, Silver as Currency Options Seen as a Hedge against Dollar Slide,” Washington Times, March 10, 2011.

  Chapter 12

  1. These cameo stories are presented as possibilities, as futures that could become available if we prove capable of rethinking our money. They are not intended as predictions for our future but rather as stories that capture a particular aspect of how different currencies could shape behavior patterns, thereby giving birth to another society.

  Chapter 13

  1. Georg Simmel, Philosophy of Money, 2nd English ed. (London: Routledge, 1990).

  2. Story embellished from personal communications with Hans Peter Duerr, PhD in physics, former director of the Werner Heisenberg Institute of the Max Planck Institute in Munich, and author of Für eine zivile Gesellschaft (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 2000).

  3. Donella Meadows’s Web site: www.donellameadows.org.

  4. Alex Edmans, “Blockholder Trading, Market Efficiency, and Managerial Myopia,” Journal of Finance 64, no. 6 (2009).

  5. World Bank, “Public Attitude toward Climate Change: Findings from a Multi-Country Poll,” World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWDR2010/Resources/Background-report.pdf.

  6. Eric C. Anderson, quoted by Jeff Kluger, “Can James Cameron—or Anyone—Really Mine Asteroids?” Time magazine, April 25, 2012. www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2112996,00.html#ixzz1yGzBgjr2.

  7. Lee Chyen Yee and Clare Jim, “Foxconn to Rely More on Robots; Could Use 1 Million in 3 years,” Reuters News Agency, August 1, 2011. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/01/us-foxconn-robots-idUSTRE77016B20110801.

  8. Editorial on manufacturing, “The Third Industrial Revolution,” The Economist, April 21, 2012.

  9. Frank Baylin, PhD, interview with Jacqui Dunne, March 10, 2012.

  10. “1550s, in phrase jobbe of worke ‘piece of work’ (contrasted with continuous labor), of uncertain origin, perhaps a variant of gobbe ‘mass, lump’ (c. 1400; see gob) via sense of ‘a cart-load.’ Sense of ‘work done for pay’ first recorded 1650s.” See www.etymonline.com.

  11. For policy makers and academics, see Bernard Lietaer, Christian Arnsperger, Sally Goerner, and Stefan Brunnhuber, Money and Sustainability: The Missing Link (Axminster, England: Triarchy Press, 2012). For a practical how-to manual for using cooperative currencies at a city scale, see Gwendolyn Hallsmith and Bernard Lietaer, Creating Wealth: Growing Local Economies with Local Currencies (Gabriola Island, BC: New Society, 2011). See also Margrit Kennedy, Bernard Lietaer, and John Rogers, People Money: The Promise of Regional Currencies (Axminster, England: Triarchy Press, 2012), for practical advice from and for implementers of regional systems.

/>   12. See www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=10159.

  13. See oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html.

  14. Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (New York: Riverhead Books, 2005).

  15. Kimberly Kassner, interview with Jacqui Dunne, April 20, 2012.

  16. Dr. Monica Sharma, interview with Jacqui Dunne, March 17, 2012.

  17. Jean Houston, interview with Jacqui Dunne, December 18, 2011.

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