Iceland Stuns Banks: Plans To Take Back The Power To Create Money. Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog, Who knew that the revolution would start with those radical Icelanders?
It does, though. One Frosti Sigurjonsson, a lawmaker from the ruling Progress Party, issued a report today that suggests taking the power to create money away from commercial banks, and hand it to the central bank and, ultimately, Parliament. Can’t see commercial banks in the western world be too happy with this. They must be contemplating wiping the island nation off the map. Everyone, with the possible exception of Paul Krugman, understands why this is a very sound idea. Iceland Looks At Ending Boom And Bust With Radical Money Plan Iceland’s government is considering a revolutionary monetary proposal – removing the power of commercial banks to create money and handing it to the central bank. Iceland Monetary Reform Your rating: None Average: 4.9 (32 votes) Humanity Seen » For the Love of Money.
This nuanced film explores the depth of our profound relationship with money.
I believe it deserves more than a solitary viewing. Bitcoin. Decentralized cryptocurrency Bitcoin (₿) is a cryptocurrency, a form of electronic cash.
It is a decentralized digital currency without a central bank or single administrator that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries.[8] Bitcoin has been criticized for its use in illegal transactions, its high electricity consumption, price volatility, thefts from exchanges, and the possibility that bitcoin is an economic bubble.[14] Bitcoin has also been used as an investment, although several regulatory agencies have issued investor alerts about bitcoin.[15] History Creation. Own your own Bitcoin Exchange. Charles Eisenstein on the Next Step for Digital Currency. With these learnings from the Bitcoin experiment, I would like to propose a new model for digital currency.
The question is how make the issuance of and access to money egalitarian on the one hand, yet also regulate the money supply in an organic, decentralized way. A new article by Charles Eistenstein: “Today’s national and supranational currencies have become a blight on this planet. US authorities launch their first attack on bitcoin. By Adam L. Penenberg On May 15, 2013 Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security served the Dwolla mobile payment service with a court order requiring it to immediately cease all account activities with the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange. Today it appears that Mt. Gox, based in Japan, has been cut off from Internet. In the warrant ( Ars Technica has posted it) Mt. It was only a matter of time before the US government took action against bitcoin, the completely digital, crypto-based currency that offers its users far greater anonymity in transactions.
If history is any guide, the government will act aggressively against Karpeles. Bitcoin Is Pointless as a Currency, But It Could Change the World Anyway. Sovereign governments everywhere are petrified.
An ingenious new invention that allows people to make payments across borders without leaving a trace in the official monetary system is spreading like wildfire. Its workings are so clever that few understand them. It’s backed by some of the leading entrepreneurs of the day. Economic Localization. Transition's strategic response to the issues of Peak Oil, Climate Change and Economic Contraction is to accelerate the localization of our economy in essential goods and services.
The focus is on food, wellness, water, energy and culture. Our goal is to build community resilience on the road to longer term stability. Transition Town Peterborough has become a champion as outlined in the Sustainable Peterborough Plan document and as a result has produced an economic localization strategic framework document to expand and enhance the economic portion of the Sustinability Plan for Peterborough. The effort is concentrated on establishing a framework in which new and existing projects will benefit from an overall plan. Money As Debt - Full Length Documentary. What is Modern Monetary Theory, or “MMT”?
By Dale Pierce.
Cross posted from New Economic Perspectives Modern Monetary Theory is a way of doing economics that incorporates a clear understanding of the way our present-day monetary system actually works – it emphasizes the frequently misunderstood dynamics of our so-called “fiat-money” economy. Most people are unnerved by the thought that money isn’t “backed” by anything anymore – backed by gold, for example. They’re afraid that this makes money a less reliable store of value. And, of course, it is perfectly true that a poorly managed monetary system, or one which is experiencing something like an oil-price shock, can also experience inflation.
The great virtue of modern, fiat money is that it can be managed flexibly enough to prevent *both* deflation and also any truly damaging level of inflation – that is, a situation where prices are rising faster than wages, or where both are rising so fast they distort a country’s internal or external markets. Money is 100% fungible. The Cashless Utopia Mirage. The Anonymity Fantasy - The Huffington Post. My latest on brave new digital money is here.
(Some persnickety BBC editor needed to change "cash-killing tear" into "cash-killing mission," but whatevs. It's mainly in tact.) Headed my way, no doubt, are a slew of critical letters, posts and tweets about lost privacy in the digital age, and how electronic transactions promise to erode the last vestiges of privacy. I am, as usual, Big Brother's little bro. Satan's trusty sidekick. A smart thinker on matters privacy is @MarcHochstein at American Banker.