Today’s financial system is seen by the most as having a fixed size. Bernard A. Litaer challenges this perspective by showing that there were different economic systems in history and that our present system has arisen from a tacit and problematic collective acceptance. He sees the future in the development of complementary currencies. He explains which money is necessary ...more
Community Reviews
Fascinating! It is especially prescient given that it was published in 1999 (!) yet seems perfectly suited to explaining the ills of the Great Recession and the subsequent bull-ish market that we are in today.
I especially found the discussion of Hureai Kippu ("Caring relationship tickets") in Japan and the Elder Plan (in the US) to be fascinating—perhaps this is the way for us to resolve both the issues of an aging public and an underemployed youth without bankrupting the country. Especially i ...more
I am not an economist, but Lietaer has some fascinating things to say about money. He links currency systems to their effects in societies. This is a must-read (if you can find a copy) for anyone interested in how capitalism shapes the way we live our lives.
Check out the author's page on Wikipedia for more information: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_...] ...more
I have had this book on my shelf for a few years, and plan to keep it on my shelf because of the author's radical pronouncements about The Future of Money. It is a useful lightning rod for discussions about economics and the function of money in our lives and in society. It helped me better appreciate some recent inheritances from my father-in-law's bill and coin collection: ration stamps from WW2, and dollar bills from the City of Detroit and Union School District, dated 1933 ! I reiterate that ...more
Whilst full of interesting details, especially the parts that deal with complementary and alternative currencies which are a sort of global travel diary from the writer, the overall theory is extremely naive. It tries to convince or persuade people that the future of money is not the present, as if changing people's minds was sufficient to change the system. I have had to skip many sections where this priestly prose was most present, because I was already convinced that the present system does n ...more
This book is a bit dated now, but tellingly accurate about the global financial crisis that followed its publication. The message is not new- lets emerge from the era of interest-bearing national debt-based fiat currencies that no longer serve humanity's interests- but some of the proposed approaches are refreshing. Like creating a global trading currency fixed to a basket of commodities. I found the case for establishing complementary currencies persuasive but I would also agree with the warnin ...more
This book contains a clear assessment of the monetary situation in the early 2000s, along with possible scenarios explored by Bernard Lietaer. Most of the examples are of course dated and could be updated but the core discourse remains relevant today: we need to carefully look at what type of values we want to infuse in the society and work from there to create money systems that enable this vision to take shape.
I recommend 'The Future of Money' to anyone interested in understanding how money wo ...more
I'm not sure exactly when I read this book; it was before I had heard of GoodReads. I had to get a UK edition because it hadn't been published here yet. It's a GREAT book, and I intend to reread it in the near future. One thing I remember is that I was disappointed that Mr. Lietaer did not, at that time, have much of a Web presence. He's building a beauty now, though, at www.lietaer.com. I recommend it highly. ...more
“The global monetary crises of the 1990s (Mexico, Russia, Asia and Brazil) proved that our money system is now sick, and that this affects everything. After all, money plays the role of modern society’s central information system equivalent to the nervous system in our own bodies. In order to prevent a global monetary meltdown, a unique vision of sustainable abundance, and the mechanisms for achieving this, is proposed.” — 2 likes