Written by John Lounsbury
Bernard Lietaer is one of the most creative and original thinkers about money in the world today. Most economists define money by what it does: medium of exchange, store of value and/or a means of payment. Lietaer defines money by what it is: a generally accepted agreement for any given community (local, regional, or global).
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We have previously had a Document of the Week featuring Lietaer in a lecture format: Our Monetary System Is Structurally Unstable. This week he is presented in a one-on-one interview format with Lars Schall. The previous lecture and today’s interview are complementary with limited overlap of content. I strongly recommend watching both videos at a close proximity in time. TWICE – alternating the two each time.
Lietaer strongly believes we need multiple monetary systems in existence simultaneously. However, most of the currencies presently used in the world do not satisfy his vision of true multiplicity: they are all conceptually identical in structure – monocultures with money issued from the top. He associates these money systems with patriarchial organization. Lietaer thinks we also need money from matriarchial organizations, where money is issued from the bottom.
Lietaer advocates an upgrade of our monetary paradigm as a systemic solution to our global financial crisis. He says the monopoly of a single currency in favor of the banking system must be eradicated. Diversity must substitute the present monoculture.
He maintains that both systems running in parallel would significantly reduce the financial instability which has plagued the world over recent centuries.
Summary note: Lietaer is suggesting we should have the diversity of two types of money:
- One type of money defined as debt (current monopoly system controlled from the top);
- A second type of money defined by users in terms of goods and services (money issued only when a good or service is delivered).
The money in the world should exist everywhere in both forms as complementary forms of money. This would create a monetary ecosystem which would effect automatic stabilization of finance, trade and exchange.
The first 1:20 of the video is a short but thorough bio for Bernard Lietaer.
Source: YouTube
This is the latest in a series of posts addressing MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) and related issues about money. The previous articles:
- MMT Sounds Great In Theory . . . But (Lance Roberts and Michael Lebowitz)
A Brief Critique Of ‘MMT Sounds Great In Theory … But’ (Dirk Ehnts)
Conflation Of Monetary Operations With Public Policy Options Is Confusing The Public MMT Debate (Sig Silber)
MMT: The Descriptive And The Prescriptive (Clint Ballinger)
Modern Monetary Madness (John Mauldin)
The Economist: Misrepresenting MMT (Dirk Ehnts)
How To Use Public Policy To Guide Accumulation Toward Virtuous Ends (Carmine Gorga and Michael Emmett Brady)
Comments Regarding ‘Modern Monetary Madness’ (Sig Silber)
Modern Monetary Theory Is On The March (William K. Black)
Response To Doug Henwood’s Trolling In Jacobin (L. Randall Wray)
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