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Scoop.it!
The mission of this site is to demystify money and liberate the process of exchange by making available important documents and resources from the past and present which can contribute to the advancement of economic democracy, self-determination, and global harmony. 
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Scoop.it!
The story of the destruction of the German mark during the hyper-inflation of Weimar Germany from 1919 to its horrific peak in November 1923 is usually dismissed as a bizarre anomaly in the economic history of the twentieth century. But no episode better illustrates the dire consequences of unsound money or makes a more devastating, real-life case against fiat-currency: where there is no restraint, monetary death will follow.
Scoop.it!
Recently, there’s been a bit of publicity around Bitcoin, a digital alternative currency that has begun to blossom in popularity. I plan to dedicate future posts to explaining Bitcoin and alternative currencies: what they are and how they work. But before I can do that, I think that it is necessary to talk about money and currency more broadly as a concept, setting forth a few truths about money upon which all alternative currencies are based.So what is money? Simply, it is a medium of exchange, a tool that has been agreed upon by two or more people as an accepted means for holding and transferring value. As with many things in life, it has value exclusively because of our collective agreement that it is valuable. Thinking about it differently, we could say that the value of a US dollar is not physical or material, but rather social.
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From
aeon
The idea that money rests on belief makes some people uncomfortable. There’s a popular assumption that money emerged, in some dimly imagined past, out of barter — that it was just a more precise means to make direct exchanges. Mainstream economists still trot out this explanation, although anthropologists such as David Graeber have shown that there is little evidence for it. It’s a reassuring myth, one that obscures the deep difference between barter and monetary exchange.
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The United States has been marred in slow economic growth and a weak recovery for years now. Unemployment remains high. This is despite extraordinary efforts by the Federal Reserve to stimulate the economy. This drawn out period of low inflation and high unemployment has gotten more and more people talking about a "new normal" of mediocre growth.
Scoop.it!
Just imagine where America would be today if the gold standard had not been abandoned. There would be huge widespread poverty and the US government would be bankrupt. Just by printing dollars as needed the economy on paper looks as if the financial health of the dollar is headed for a disaster. In reality extra cash has created a much bigger infrastructure and made America much more richer and financially hugely sound.
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The panel will discuss what role alternative currencies – large and small scale − might be able to serve in the global economy.
Scoop.it!
SCUT shows that money can be inherently stable while in the current paradigm, arbitrary instability is introduced that then leads to justify imposing attenuating measures, it is the quintessential action -> probem -> solution. The problem then becomes one of scope, by making unstable money all pervasive, attenuation then must also be all pervasive thus leading to all pervasive control or simply dictatorship.
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Is not a new attempt of creating new currencies, but a serious research for creating a new “Worth Appraisal and Exchange System”, not in monetary terms but in “Real Worth” terms. Whereas for worth we intend real riches based on the creation of new real products, opposed to financial worth, which is based on the creation of new money from nothing. The creation of new real wealth is a non-zero-based game, where every participant gain and is satisfied of his profit, while the creation of financial wealth is a zero-based game, that is a game where for every winner there is one or more losers and the total amount of the game never improves.
Scoop.it!
The local currency might be appropriate for buying locally produced baked goods, but what about the flour, what about the wheat, what about the milling equipment to produce the flour? It may be appropriate for haircuts, but what about scissors and the steel that makes the scissors? Money isn't just a substitute for barter. Money is like a system of social organization. It's a way of organizing production on a large scale. And I don't see how creating little community currencies can solve that problem. It can maybe mitigate things in a crisis, when there is a shortage of money, but as a principle of large-scale organization, it's just not up to the task.
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Curated by jean lievens
Economist, specialized in political economy and peer-to-peer dynamics; core member of the P2P Foundation
Other Topics
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Not TINA (There Is No Alternative) but TAPAS: THERE ARE PLENTY OF ALTERNATIVES
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