As the crisis lingers on that started 2008, a crisis the world economy didn’t really recover from – a crisis that now explodes into a European Debt-Crisis and so endlessly on…
As the Occupy movement picked up and made a movement famous that started with the “Arab Spring” and came via the Spanish “Indignados” to all of us, well an important part of Western society with a few other highlights across the globe…
As for the second time in recent history (the 60s of the last century being the first time) a global socio-political, cultural movement lays bare the inner paradoxes of the world-capitalist system…
As the “dogs of war” again howl, and violently try to oppress the movement and by the atrocious stupidity of the oppressing forces actually kindle the fire — an oppression that turns the activists into being heroic when all they do is demonstrate their intents peacefully…
As all of this is going on, I keep wondering how even the brightest use their intelligence to find ways out of a crisis that is actually an inherent embodiment of the system of commerce and finances. It’s like trying to fix the digestion system when the bones are crumbling. Come on you brilliant gals and guys, it’s about time we stop buying the crap bankers and other financial experts and their media-priesthood feed us all the time. That it’s all because of “easy money”, state-debts, etc. That if, as a state, we’d only spend as much as we make then everything would be all right. Nonsense. The crash & burn is built into the system from the very beginning.
Among the earliest researched economic crises is the 1340 default of England, due to setbacks in its war with France (the Hundred Years’ War) that brought down large portions of the Venetian and Florentine money-dynasties. But there were things going on like that already in Ancient Rome and presumably Egypt. And, to cut things short, the problem is not money, the problem arises from the way it is used and the greatest illusions connected with financial assets from it’s very emergence among the human species. The way we frame this illusions nowadays is, “Let your money work for you.”
We all know that money is just matter with a number — it’s not alive, it doesn’t do work, people do by creating things and processes and services, and the planet does, by growing plants and animals.
Upholding the illusion, by expecting positive “interest” when handing over money to someone, the disease spreads. “It’s much more complicated,” you say? Well sure, the systems that allow what has been condemned by most religions for obvious reasons: money-lending for an interest, these systems are flawed and must be corrected. If we want the patient world-economy to recover, we must fight the disease and not the symptoms.
So I propose the following, and hope it may go viral, “All countries of the world default at once!”
And from ‘now’ on only allow negative interest for private persons and corporations and zero interest to the national treasury. That allows us to keep private property sacrosanct for as long as people still need that to feel safe. Negative interest will make everybody invest in real matter, like houses etc. that will sustain value over longer periods of time. It will cause a tremendous growth of real stuff and services and redefine wealth in an amazing way. But that’s just my personal guess from what happened before in history when all the major cathedrals in Europe were built…
The negative-interest scrip concept was originally developed by Argentinian businessman and economist Silvio Gesell. The basic premise is that money as a medium of exchange is considered a public service good, and therefore a small user fee is levied on it. Instead of receiving interest for retaining such a currency, the bearer in fact pays interest for its use. Interestingly enough, Gesell’s concept of “negative-interest money” was supported by John Maynard Keynes in his General Theory. However, banking interests have rather consistently strenuously opposed it, even though banks could keep a key role in a New Currency economic system. (more here)