This study reveals how our monetary system reinforces scarcity, and how communities are already using new paradigms to foster sustainable prosperity. In the United States and across Europe, our economies are stuck in an agonizing cycle of repeated financial meltdowns. Yet solutions already exist, not only our recurring fiscal crises but our ongoing social and ecological debacles as well. These changes came about not through increased conventional taxation, enlightened self-interest, or government programs, but by people simply rethinking the concept of money. In Rethinking Money, Bernard Lietaer and Jacqui Dunne explore the origins of our current monetary system—built on bank debt and scarcity—revealing how its limitations give rise to so many serious problems. The authors then present stories of ordinary people and communities using new money, working in cooperation with national currencies, to strengthen local economies, create work, beautify cities, provide education, and more. These real-world examples are just the tip of the iceberg—over four thousand cooperative currencies are already in existence. The book provides remedies for challenges faced by governments, businesses, nonprofits, local communities, and even banks. It demystifies a complex and critically important topic and offers meaningful solutions that will do far more than restore prosperity—it will provide the framework for an era of sustainable abundance.

Based on detailed research and consultation with experts, including the Bank of England, this book reviews theoretical and historical debates on the nature of money and banking and explains the role of the central bank, the Government and the European Union. Following a sell out first edition and reprint, this second edition includes new sections on Libor and quantitative easing in the UK and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

Together with John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, Joseph Schumpeter is regarded as one of the three greatest economists of the 20th century. And yet, his actual economic writing has remained something of an enigma. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, his best-known work, was also an unscientific throw-off in his view. His major economic works - The Theory of Economic Development and Business Cycles - have been misunderstood and underappreciated. What has not been realized is that key elements of the Schumpeterian system have hitherto gone missing. Clues to that system were contained in his magisterial History of Economic Analysis, but the full-orbed outworking was contained in his unpublished German manuscript on money and banking. Now published in English translation, the Treatise on Money provides the key to understanding Schumpeter's system. It shows that Schumpeter's famous emphasis on 'creative destruction' is a more complex phenomenon than is popularly understood. In particular, it provides an understanding of the workings of money, banking, and the money and capital markets, that are supremely relevant in the light of current monetary and fiscal policy crises. This present volume is therefore an indispensable contribution to revealing the true Schumpeter to the English-speaking world.

As the title suggests, this book explains why the current monetary system is broken, and explains exactly how it can be fixed. The product of three years research and development, these proposals offer one of the few hopes of escaping from our current dysfunctional monetary system.