During the past two years – since publishing New Currency – I have been immersed in a singular question. In fact, it is probably the most frequently asked question that I have received from readers as well. It could generally be expressed as: “I understand how demurrage could eliminate our compulsion for exponential growth and shift our focus towards a more co-creative and integrated society… But how on Earth can it ever happen?”
The implicit assumption is that the economy is out of our hands, that the powers that be would never agree to such a change due to their investments in the current system, the intense lobbying pressure, the potential backlash and negative impact on their careers or simply due to their inability to agree on pretty much anything.
My standard answer to this problem has always been that the crisis itself is forcing economists and politicians alike to reevaluate everything. Even Alan Greenspan had admitted that his entire intellectual edifice had crumbled. As the economy continues to endure hardship and recurring crises, I would argue that eventually the pain and challenge would force politicians and economists to confront the problems they’ve long relegated to the sidelines because they had no answers and had discounted their importance. Read more »
The following article originally appeared in the Spring/Summer 2009 edition of Kosmos Journal.
Beyond Bailouts: How a Circulation Charge Can Help Save and Transform Global Finance
By Jordan Bruce MacLeod
An Earth Shaking Wake-up Call
The global financial crisis has created tremendous uncertainty about the future prospects of human society. Very few people saw it coming and even fewer, if any, can say with much degree of certainty what will happen next. National governments are currently injecting trillions of dollars into their financial systems and the broader economy simply to cushion the fall of equity prices, home values and employment rates. Several countries have already sought emergency support from the IMF and World Bank and several more may require extensive assistance down the road. Yet these international institutions were neither designed nor equipped to deal with crises of this magnitude.
Adding to our woes are the persistence of monumental global challenges such as terrorism, environmental degradation and climate change, which all must be confronted head on in the very near future. Given their worsening trajectory, one may now look back and realize that these problems were never going to be resolved from within the parameters of a financial system so conducive to myopic decision-making and growth for growth’s sake. Considering the awesome complexity of global challenges and the urgency with which scientists proclaim that humanity must change course immediately, then perhaps we will come to view this financial crisis as an Earth-shaking wake-up call and timely opportunity to align global systems and institutions with global challenges and complexities for the first time. Read more »
Circulation Charge, Economic Transformation, Onement | admin | 
May 25, 2011 2:03 pm | 
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