The End of Money and the Liberation of Exchange

1. The End of Money and the Liberation of Exchange A path toward social harmony and universal prosperity Thomas H. Greco, Jr.

2. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. What I Will Cover • Fundamentals of Exchange. • The Necessary functions of money • Stages of evolution of money. • The abuses of money • Enabled by centralized control of credit. • Decentralized credit clearing • An honest and efficient system of exchange • Escaping dollar dominance • A multi-stage plan.

3. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Exchange RequiresThree Fundamental Elements • A marketplace • Where buyers and sellers come together • A measure of value • For expressing prices • A means of payment • For concluding a transaction

4. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Basic Kinds of Economic Interaction • Gifts-- Transfer of value without any particular expectation of anything in return. • Involuntary Transfers – e.g., theft, robbery, extortion, taxes. • Reciprocal Exchange – equal exchange of value between two parties by voluntary agreement.

5. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Money Plays Its Role Within the Realm of Reciprocal Exchange The sole function of money is to serve as a medium of exchange (means of payment). The other traditional roles of money: • Measure of value, and • Savings medium, Must be achieved by other means.

6. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. The Evolution of Money • Commodity money • Tobacco, hides, gold, silver, etc. • Symbolic money • Redeemable paper, warehouse receipts • Credit money - current state • Bank credit, central bank notes, private credit and notes • Direct Credit Clearing - Beyond political money

7. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Why Reinvent Money? • Throughout the world, money has become an instrument of political power. • Money and banking are manipulated by and for limited private interests. • Political money is exploitative, dysfunctional, and undemocratic.

8. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. How is Political Money Dysfunctional and Exploitative? Money created as bank “loans:” • Is kept artificially scarce. • Is expensive, because interest is charged. • Is misallocated at its source, serving to concentrate power and wealth. • Forces artificial growth.

9. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. “Legal Tender” Serves to Centralize Power • Legal tender laws are an abuse of monetary authority. • Provides governments and banks with a way to avoid the discipline of the market. • Improper and excessive issuance of money would normally be punished by discounting or refusal of the currency. • The obliteration of the value standard by legal tender enables abuse to continue. • “Inflation” is the result. • Example: the definition of the U.S. dollar

10. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Credit Makes the World Go Round Modern money is Credit and Credit is the Life Blood of Business Two distinct credit functions: • Exchange • Short-term credit (turnover credit or working capital) – Money • Finance • Long-term investment and savings (value storage) in the form of debt or equity – Not Money

11. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Credo = Belief > Credit • All credit derives from belief in a promise. • Credit is based on trust and contractual obligation. • Who or what do you trust? • Who deserves credit? • Whose promise will you accept as payment?

12. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Sources of Credit • Banks • Loans • Customers • Prepayments / gift cards & certificates • Suppliers and Employees • Vouchers, complementary currencies • Direct credit clearing

13. The Credit Commons The Organization and Allocation of Credit is a Fundamental Feature of Civilized Society How should it be done?

14. Banks The Credit Commons “Loans” “Loans” “Loans” Central Government The Credit Commons can now be accessed only through banks!

15. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Privatization of the Credit Commons Access to credit is controlled by the banking system in collaboration with central governments. • Banks decide who gets access and on what terms. • Banks collect interest on all loans. • Favored clients get credit on easy terms. • National governments have extraordinary access. By their arrangement with the banking system, governments can “borrow” as much as they wish and never repay.

16. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Two Parasitic Elements of the Conventional Money System • Interest Collected by the banking cartel • Inflation Caused by government deficit spending

17. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Direct Access to Credit is Possibleand Desirable • It is our collective credit that supports the monetary system. • We have the power to use our credit as we wish. • People are free to decide who they will trust and to allocate their credit directly to one another. • Whom or what will you trust? • Are you trustworthy?

18. Conventional Payment ProcessUsing Bank Credit Money Bank $ $ Interest $ Alpha Company Bravo Company $ $ Charlie Company Delta Company $ Bank credit borrowed into circulation and used to clear debts amongst companies. Interest must be paid on credit borrowed from a bank.

19. The Clearing Process Without Bank Credit Alpha’s i.o.u. Alpha Company Bravo Company Alpha’s i.o.u. Alpha’s i.o.u. Delta Company Charlie Company Alpha’s i.o.u. A common measure of value is used for pricing but no need to borrow currency. Mutual credit is used to clear debts among companies. No interest paid.

20. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Direct Credit Clearing • If money allows us to transcend the limitations of barter, credit clearing allows us to transcend the limitations of money. • An association of traders can agree to offset purchases against sales amongst one another. • In effect, goods and services are used to pay for other goods and services. • Another way to describe it is: Accounts Receivable (A/R) are used to offset Accounts Payable (A/P) • The same process can be applied by countries within an international trading union.

21. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. How Does Credit Clearing Work? • When you sell something, your account balance is credited (increased); • When you buy something, your account balance is debited (decreased).

22. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. How Does Credit Clearing Work? (2) • Ultimately, goods and services pay for other goods and services. • Money is just an intermediary device that is supposed to facilitate the process, • But money can be dispensed with. • Remaining balances may be settled at periodic intervals, or may be carried over indefinitely.

23. Mutual Credit Issuance and Circulation Member - Issuers Mutual credit clearing association Member - Non-Issuers Issuing members begin the process by buying from other members.

24. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. An Example • Suppose $1 million worth of clearing credits are created and spent into circulation by the associated businesses. • That means that their collective cash expenditures have been reduced by $1 million. • That $1 million remains within the association instead of flowing out to pay for imports.

25. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. An Example - continued • If the turnover is 10 times a year, that means $10 million in additional local sales. • If the rate of profit on sales is 20%, that will result in additional yearly profits of $2 million.

26. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. An Example - conclusion • Further, the issuance of clearing credits allows some interest-bearing debt to be retired. • If the interest rate on debt is 10%, the businesses will together save cash interest costs of $100,000 each year. • Every dollar’s worth of clearing credit issued means: • one less dollar that needs to be borrowed, • one less dollar that needs to be spent, • one less dollar that needs to be repaid with interest.

27. A Successful Example • Established in 1934, the WIR Bank has continued to thrive. • The WIR Bank clearing system now serves more than 60,000 small and medium sized business members. • Credits cleared: $1.35 billion (2004)

28. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. A Likely Scenario • Stage one: Independent Trading Blocs (already underway) Many Islamic countries, under the leadership of Malaysia, form an Islamic trading bloc. Other trading blocs are emerging in Latin America and elsewhere. • Stage two: Payment offset (already underway) These nations begin trading with one another under bilateral and multilateral agreements that utilize credit clearing intermediaries that offset payments for imports against receipts for exports and settle accounts at periodic intervals using some mutually agreed currency (dollars or euros). • Stage three: Use of Gold Dinar (being considered) Member nations adopt the gold dinar as the common value standard and the settlement currency.

29. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. A Likely Scenario - continued • Stage four: Clearing union Member nations form a clearing union in which sales to members offset purchases from members. They abandon gold as the payment medium and utilize the gold dinar only as a measure of value and pricing unit. • Stage five: Settlement suspended Member nations begin to realize that the period between settlements can be increased without adverse consequences, so they gradually lengthen the period more and more, but as balance of payment difficulties become evident, limits are set on clearing account balances to prevent payment deficits from becoming chronic for any nation. • Stage six: Mutual finance Associated countries create mutual assistance programs that provide development finance on a shared risk basis, using temporary equity-investment to help countries with adverse balance of payments problems to become more productive.

30. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. A Likely Scenario - concluded • Stage seven: Adoption of a composite commodity standard Realizing that because the gold market is easily manipulated by the central banks and governments of the developed countries, the Islamic trading bloc countries abandon the gold dinar as the value standard and adopt a common pricing unit based on a “market basket” that is composed of a handful of freely traded basic commodities. • Stage eight Non-Islamic countries, seeing the benefits of this system, seek to join the Islamic trading union, or form clearing unions of their own, all of which are ultimately networked together, creating a global association for fair trade and mutual assistance.

31. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Conclusions • Political money is credit money that is used to concentrate power and wealth. • Private initiative and enlightened government action can evolve credit money into credit clearing to serve the common good. • With credit clearing as the means of exchange, gold can be the pricing unit. • True Islamic prosperity can be achieved through the organization of direct credit clearing associations. • Dollar hegemony can be transcended by organizing trading blocs that use credit clearing instead of international currencies for payment.

32. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Suggested Sources • Explore the website: http://www.ReinventingMoney.com • Monitor the blog:http://beyondmoney.wordpress.com • Read, Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender, and Money and Debt: A Solution to the Global Crisis by Thomas H. Greco, Jr.

33. Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr.