Beyond Money

In this issue

• Chapter 9—The Evolution of Money
• Recorded Interview on TNT Radio
• Bank of Dave, the movie
• Tim Berners-Lee’s Internet lament
• 2024 A pivotal year

Chapter 9—The Evolution of Money

The latest chapter in my new 2024 edition of The End of Money and the Future of Civilization, has now been published. Here is an excerpt:
The entirety of money, banking, and finance is comprised of claims and obligations. — Thomas H. Greco, Jr.

It was in a dusty old bookshop close to the British Museum in London that I discovered a slim volume that was to complete for me the picture of how money has evolved over time. I had been traveling in Europe and the United Kingdom in the summer of 2001 with my then partner, Donna, attending conferences, meeting with friends and cohorts, and enjoying the sights, sounds, and cultures of the Old World. It was actually Donna who discovered the book in the basement stacks and brought it to me, saying, “What about this one?” The book was The Meaning of Money by Hartley Withers. Although I had already been engaged in intensive research into the subjects of money and banking for more than twenty years and had written three books of my own on the subject, I had not previously heard of Withers, but it was evident that he must have been, in his day, a recognized authority on the subject, and that his book must have served for a long time as a leading text; I surmised that from the fact that the volume I held in my hands was the seventh edition, published in 1947, of a work first published in 1909, and that Withers had been the editor of The Economist magazine from 1916 to 1921. Reading Withers crystallized my understanding of the double transformation that money had undergone during the previous three hundred years, an understanding that afforded a clearer comprehension of the nature and significance of the changes that have taken place, an understanding that prepares the ground from which to launch the next great improvement in the exchange process.

For now, you can read or listen to the entire chapter at Future Brightly: Chapter 9—The Evolution of Money—From Commodity Money to Credit Money and Beyond-Text
Chapter 9—The Evolution of Money—From Commodity Money to Credit Money and Beyond-Audio narration
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Recorded Interview on TNT Radio

My interview on the Pelle Neroth Taylor show on May 30, 2024 was recorded and is now available. My portion of the show can be heard here, and a transcript can be seen here. This was a wide-ranging conversation about the problems with the present political system of money and exchange, and the decentralized exchange mechanisms that have been developing in parallel with it, including both commercial and grassroots currencies and credit clearing exchanges.
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Bank of Dave

I recently viewed the movie Bank of Dave. It was both entertaining and thought provoking and based on a true story. Here is a description from Imdb: Based on the true-life experiences of Dave Fishwick; ‘Bank of Dave’ tells the story of how a working class Burnley man and self-made millionaire fought to set up a community bank. While the movie is highly fictionalized to add entertainment value, the important elements are factual. Seeking to satisfy my curiosity about that, I found this news report from the Manchester Evening News: How much of Netflix’s Bank of Dave is based on a true story?___________________________
Tim Berners-Lee’s Internet lament

Tim Berners-Lee is widely credited with being the inventor of the world wide web. In his article, Original Hope, he laments the fact that what he hoped would develop into an infrastructure that would “allow for collaboration, foster compassion, and generate creativity,” has come to be “dominated by the self-interest of several corporations that have eroded the web’s values and led to breakdown and harm.” He has issued a call for action that will “reform the current system and create a new one that genuinely serves the best interests of humanity… [and] encourage collaboration, to create market conditions in which a diversity of options thrive to fuel creativity and shift away from polarising content to an environment shaped by a diversity of voices and perspectives that nurture empathy and understanding.” He concludes by citing a few emerging innovations that are beginning to do just that. You can read about it on Medium.
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2024 A pivotal year.

This year, 2024, is shaping up to be both frightening and climactic. Several of the geopolitical developments of the past year have been causing serious upheavals in the economic and political relationships among nations, and simmering conflicts have boiled over and are threatening to erupt into another catastrophic world war. These issues and concerns were discussed in the podcast, 2023 Geopolitical Marathon, which featured the views and opinions of respected experts including, Pepe Escobar, Jeffrey Sachs, Jackson Hinkle, Alastair Crooke and Alexander Dugin. If you want to better understand the facts of these matters and what may happen next, please give it your attention.
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While I remain optimistic about our prospects, I’m also convinced that we cannot afford to be complacent. We need to inform ourselves and listen to all points of view while remembering that we are all one human family responsible for our own future and our common home we call Earth. We sink or swim together.

Thomas