This is a book about our money system, why we need to change it, and a better alternative. It has been an intriguing challenge to understand money and then figure out a way to make it easy for others to understand. The i…

Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases: It’s completely impossible. It’s possible, but it’s not worth doing; I said it was a good idea all a…

I love a good murder mystery. So, as I read the paper and watch the news, I wonder, what is poisoning and crippling our nation? Will the culprits be caught and held accountable? Can we be healthy and prosperous? I read …

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning. —Attributed to Henry Ford, Sr. (1863–1947)…

I approach political issues with fervor. I love to gather information from all sides, and enjoy finding the underlying issues and agreements. I love the process of piecing together a coherent understanding of issues. I d…

Our money system is like a playing field; it determines what rules are needed and how the game is played. For example, you cannot play football on a tennis court. Or if you run at a nearby school, you will likely run on …

The middle class is shrinking and poverty is growing. Jobs are going overseas. The top one percent is getting richer while everyone else gets poorer. Our infrastructure is falling apart. Taxes and government debt are hi…

The difference between linear and exponential growth must be absolutely clear to understand our money system and its impact on our lives. Any growth by a percentage is exponential. When we talk about a 3 percent annual g…

A money system designed for exponential growth cannot be sustained and produces predictable undesirable outcomes. Understanding the unbending mathematical reality of a pyramid scheme helps explain why this is true. A pyr…

I’ve read about 100 books on money, including many tomes by the acknowledged experts of economics. Throughout my studies I noticed the authors overlook or minimize a vital aspect of economics one that could transform the…

An old Sufi story tells of a long ago king who heard stories about an enormous and strange animal in a faraway land. He was curious to know more about it and sent his wisest men to learn what they could and return to inf…

Life is full of the unexpected. And as the saying goes, Shit Happens. Extreme weather, bugs, blights, and disease happen. Even too much of a good thing can create devastating and unpredicted hard times. In the natural w…

We cannot have a productive national dialogue if we think we are talking about money when we’re really talking about governance or economic policy. The beginning of a useful dialogue is to ask, What are we talking about? …

To avoid confusion, it is helpful to clear away what money is not. Sharing, gifts and barter are not money systems – they are resource exchange systems. Sharing and gifts Giving one’s surplus to those in need is one way…

An abstract, social innovation Money is a profound and extraordinary social innovation. Like language, it is abstract and social, with physical aspects (currency in the case of money, and spoken or written in the case of…

Money is a tool Money is a social technology that makes it easy to exchange goods, services, property and value. Money circulates, facilitating millions of exchanges every second of every day. A single unit of money can …

A map is not the same as reality. Anytime we describe something, we are converting what may be a very dynamic and complex process into words and diagrams on paper. And, the description will matter. It will tell us where …

So, what makes money, money? What characteristics must an object have before communities use it to buy and sell with each other? Community-wide agreement A community must agree to use the token as an intermediary when t…

Here are the key questions to ask of any money system. It is helpful to clarify the answers before a group moves on to discuss the pros, cons, and specifics. Who Decides? What community will use this money? Who will de…

Clear thinking We have discussed the importance of being clear when we talk about types of government, money systems or economic systems. However, because authenticity and trustworthiness require some form of power and a…

The Federal Reserve Act hands the privilege of creating our money supply over to the private banking sector. About 99 percent of the money we use today is created by private bankers or their central bank. Our government …

There are three aspects to the how of money creation: the tangible, the intangible, and how money is entered into an economy. This is true whether or not the actual money token itself is tangible. Hands on Every type of…

Just as money is created, it can be destroyed. How money is destroyed is generally a mirror image of how it is created, though it doesn’t have to be. If prices are rising in a fixed value money system or rising more tha…

There is a certain proportionate quantity of money requisite to carry on the trade of a country freely and currently; more than which would be of no advantage in trade, and less, if much less, exceedingly detrimental to…

Before we discuss the money systems prevailing over most of the past millennium, let’s make the distinction between a money system and a financial system. Nearly all money systems today are entangled with banking and fin…

Basic banking is a business like any other; a basic bank has its own capital on hand to start up the banking business, and it charges its customers a fee to cover the cost of services. The bank sets its fees, and like an…

Putting money to work In addition to storage and transfer services, a basic bank may offer an opportunity to its customers to put their excess funds to work. If customers know they will not need money for a period of tim…

Our current money system is a choice. It’s not set in stone. We can choose a different money system that supports a prosperous, low-tax, high leisure, caring and creative society. To choose wisely we must understand the …

Observe well these rules: It is a very common mistake to say that money is a commodity…Bullion is valued by its weight…money is valued by its stamp. – John Locke, An Essay on Money & Bullion, 17181 Commodity money is…

We have discussed tangible commodity money, now let’s consider money that represents a commodity or real asset with an IOU (keep in mind we are using the traditional but misleading frame for defining money systems by the…