IIMT Blog -

Announcement of the Tierra Solution and a solid statement of support

Fri, 11 May 2012 08:07:49 -0700

Announcement of a new book that is most relevant to the upcoming Rio Earth Summit next month. It presents one of the very few proposals for an integrated global governance system where the three pillars of sustainable development are woven together by basing the international monetary system on a carbon standard, thus combating the climate crisis and advancing low carbon and climate-resilient development. The book proposes to have monetary justice in its regular and transformational sense become the guiding principle of such integrated institutional framework for sustainable communities development. For more information, see www.timun.net and for action before the Earth Summit see http://www.change.org/petitions/g20-and-rio-summitteers-make-monetary-justice-the-basis-of-your-negotiations

The Tierra Solution: Resolving Climate Change Through Monetary Transformation

Cosimo Books, May 2012

Economics & Environment, ISBN: 978-1-61640-688-2

Paperback, pp.374, $19.99 / £14.99 / €16.49 / A$27.49

drummond.marina@yahoo.com, coordinator of The economics of sustainable development dialogue space in the www.riodialogues.org responded to my post in then Forum topic Monetary justice as guiding principle for integrated global governance “I wholly agree: the transformational potential of money is huge. It is specifically these initiatives which ally the financial with the environmental that I believe have the greatest possibility of changing the global paradigm.

What are your thoughts on changing GDP to another KPI? Would this be linked to carbon p/person; other indicators inclusive of natural capital?"

the monetary dimenison of the sustainable communities development model

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 04:17:12 -0700

LOCAL, NATIONAL AND GLOBAL MONEY IN SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES DEVELOPMENT

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Note that rather than using the terminology of sustainable development the terminology of sustainable communities development (SCD) is used here. The latter terminology is preferred to make the point that the SCD model points to the need of development of sustainable communities both in the global North and South while sustainable development (SD) model is mostly geared to SD in the global South as if the global North does not need development and as if the global North and South are not interconnected.

One of the four main elements of sustainable communities according to the Institute of Sustainable Communities in Montpelier, Vermont, USA is economic security. The others being ecological integrity, empowerment and responsibility, and social wellbeing.

Two of the five subcategories in this economic security category are listed as “a diverse and financially viable economic base” and “reinvestment of resources in local economy”. Both these conditions for a sustainable community, be it a city in the North or a village in the South, can be applied to a diverse monetary base, where local, national and global money intertwine.

In Local Money. How to Make it Happen in Your Community Peter North, a geographer and member of the Transition movement, presents in very understandable prose the various expressions of local money: Local Exchange Trade Schemes (LETS), Time Banking, Ithaca Hours, Creditos, Deli Dollars, Berksharess, Totness Pounds, Credit Unions, Community Banks, Local Bonds. One can add to these monetary modalities the contributions of the microcredit movement, particularly those that are not made by commercial institutions that entered the field after Yunus’ original drive.

Local money, particularly the money modality that is owned and managed locally, is able to empower local people to start small businesses which would produce for the local economy. Such economic activity keeps both the monetary and economic resources within the community, strengthening it. A beautiful example is the Self Help Groups in South Africa as described in http://www.sinamandla.org.za) and viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMGekiJLVdk. The example also shows how the presence of a locally owned monetary base contributes to the strengthening of many other good characteristics of a sustainable community.

While most local money modalities are complimentary to the national currency, it is also possible to have national currencies be owned by the public when the state establishes its own bank by pooling its financial resources in such bank rather than depositing them in privately-owned banking systems. This was done, particularly in the 1930s by the Social Credit parties in Canada and New Zealand and by the state of North Dakota in the USA, and which is now being considered in 14 states in the USA according to www.publicbankinginstitute.org.

Unfortunately, global money and its international monetary system are in its infancy. There is no Global Central Bank that could administer a system that not only regulates capital flows, but also be the sole creator of new money and credit. In order for that to happen nations, business and civil society have to come to the realization that without monetary unification the present monetary, financial, economic and commercial systems can not function properly in this highly interconnected world that continues to globalize.

Such awareness could grow if, at the same time, governments, business and civil society would be willing to take serious steps to deal with the climate crisis. In that case they could consider taking a specific tonnage of CO2e per person as a standard for a 21st century international monetary system.

If such carbon-based international monetary system were to come in place where not scarcity and austerity were the norm, but plenitude and monetary freedom, many of the other local and national monetary modalities would change dramatically and the world would be place where humans would change social systems in order to adjust to immutable physical systems.

It is in the interconnected world of ours that local, national monetary modalities are to be considered in a global monetary modality that opens up the wellspring of creativity for the wellbeing of people, species and planet. It is this global modality that has been presented in detail in The Tierra Solution: Resolving the Climate Crisis through Monetary Transformation which will be published in early May.

Europe's suicide in a global perspective

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:19:44 -0700

EUROPE’S ECONOMIC SUICIDE IN A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Monday, April 16, 2012

In his April 16 New York Times column entitled “Europe’s economic suicide” with its summary statement of “Trying for a second Great Depression” Paul Krugman points to two solutions after arguing that the present economic and social condition in Europe cannot go on. One of them is exiting from the euro, the other, if “European leaders really wanted to save the euro” is quantitative easing like the USA did and is doing. There is a third solution: it would keep the euro and its monetary union intact and places its resolution in truly global perspective.

Quantative easing (QE) would beneficial to all nations if they all agreed to do this at the same time and within a clear set of principles. It is problem if one powerful nation or group of nations engages in QE by themselves and when there are no rules. Thus, QE by the U.S. Fed makes American and other investors get cheap money which they will invest in commodity markets or in derivatives of those markets. The end result is monetary, financial and economic instability of the capital flow importing country, further destabilizing the global monetary, financial, economic and commercial systems.

What kind of rules or global architecture could promote healthy QE?

Given that the international monetary system, like glue, binds together the monetary, financial, economic and commercial systems and can be considered to be the linchpin of those systems, the answer is to be found in this global monetary system. By establishing a Global Central Bank nations that would monitor, regulate and engage in QE, nations would have an ample source of financing, particularly if the new financial system would be based upon money or credit and not on debt and if the privately-owned banking systems would operate on 100% reserves, i.e. do not engage in money creation.

If nations would become serious about the threat of a global warming catastrophe, they could base this new international monetary system on a carbon standard. In that way nations that are seriously decarbonizing their societies would strengthen their economies and their associated currencies.

Details of why this alternative is to be taken and how it could come to pass are described in Verhagen’s The Tierra Solution: Resolving the Climate Crisis through Monetary Transformation which will be on the market at the end of this month. The publication will coincide with the medium budget plans EU nations have to submit at that time and thus its solution could become part of the discourse of alternatives to the euro crisis which is causing such social havoc with its impossible austerity budgets.

No Turning the Corner, unless....

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:36:03 -0700

NO TURNING THE CORNER, UNLESS………..

Monday, April 16, 2012

“Out of the sighs of one generation are kneaded the hopes of the next.”Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian novelist, poet, and playwright (1839 – 1908)

There is a dense fog of economic and ecological gloom hanging over the globe. This is not a fog shown on a satellite picture, but a human-made fog. It is a fog of dysfunctional monetary, financial, economic and commercial systems that keep the world constrained from reaching decent quality of life for its 7 billion human beings and its trillions of other living beings. This economic fog will even get denser because of the ever increasing ecological fog of global warming, measuring in parts of million of CO2e in the atmosphere, and its ever increasing social consequences of social disruption. Can this fog be lifted or at least its density reduced?

IMF’s Christine Lagarde noted in her address to the Associated Press on April 12 that given the economic situation in Europe and in the USA “markets remain volatile and that turning the corner is never easy.” One thing is clear to her: “... integration poses great risks, but it also promises great rewards. Heightened global cooperation is the key. History has shown us that when nations face common challenges in a spirit of solidarity, everybody wins. When nations pull apart in acrimony, going their own way and seeking their own advantage, everybody loses.” How can nations cooperate in lifting the fog of economic and ecological gloom (and doom in no proper action is taken) and turn the corner for functional monetary, financial, economic and commercial systems to emerge?

First of all, such emergence is made possible by achieving an ever better understanding of the dynamic interplay between these global systems and the systems of inequality. Thus, Galbraith in his new book “Inequality and Instability” argues that finance is the driveshaft that links inequality to economic instability. Like its closely related reality of the equity they both very much determine how well these global systems will work.

Second of all, these functional systems will emerge when the crucial role of the international monetary system as glue of these systems is recognized. While monetary historian Barry Eichengreen emphasizes the glue metaphor, other metaphors such as lubricant and linchpin are equally useful in emphasizing the basic role of the international monetary system. Reforming and especially transforming the global monetary system means reforming or transforming the other systems. A proposal for a transformed international monetary system will be presented below.

Thirdly, a guiding principle for a global governance framework is needed that would be able to make the social, economic and ecological dimensions of sustaining futures a reality. This pursuit is one of the main challenges of the upcoming Rio June 2012 Earth Summit.

Fourthly, in order to facilitate the above three requirements nations and their private sectors and civil societies are to work far harder in discussing and developing a new set of integrated social and ecological values, the kind of common value base that is part of the Earth Charter which was launched in 2000 after five years of intensive, worldwide consultation of thousands of groups.

Based upon a similar framework as the Earth Charter’s the Verhagen publication of The Tierra Solution: Resolving the Climate Crisis through Monetary Transformation proposes a pathway that would satisfy those other three requirements and could turn the corner once and for all if being pursued and implemented. It is based upon the carbon monetary standard of a specific tonnage of CO2e per person. Its unit of account of the Tierra would be indicate the quantity of the fixed exchange rates which would make them convertible until the time nations decide to adopt the Tierra as a global currency. Nations that decarbonize the most will have the strongest economies and, consequently, the strongest currencies. Nations would settle their financial and ecological (climate) debts and credits via a modified balance of payments mechanism where a sizable amount of financial credits of nations in the global North can be bilaterally settled with the ecological credits of nations in the global South. Most importantly, this carbon-based monetary architecture is governed by the Tierra Global Central Bank which, unlike the IMF, would be an integral part of the United Nations and which, unlike the Fund, would be a real bank. It would the sole creator of money because the present privately-owned banking systems would be based upon 100% reserve requirements, i.e. they would not create money, but function as utilities.

Gone are the days when the financial systems were based upon debt rather than money or credit. Gone are the days when austerity was needed to balance budgets and reduce debts. Days have come when financing will be ample for the billions of valuable programs that are needed for equitable and sustainable futures for all.

No turning the corner in this present fog of economic, ecological and social gloom and doom is possible, unless….nations start to cooperate in devising new monetary, financial, economic and commercial systems based upon a transformed international monetary system to combat the climate crisis and advance low carbon and climate-resilient development in the global North and South.

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” Henry David Thoreau, 19th century American transcendentalist.

Greg Smith's Op-ed piece on GoldmanSachs, Robert Reich's and my comments

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:03:09 -0700

Blog: Smith’s Op-ed piece on Goldman Sachs, Robert Reich’s and my comments

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/320-80/10467-focus-goldman-loses-22b-after-scathing-op-ed shows how Goldman Sachs lost 3.4% of its stock, i.e. $2.2 billion after Smith’s Op-ed in the New York Times. Robert Reich rightly shows how Smith’s critique is way too narrow. I think the national and global financial community have to be subjected to a discussion of an alternative financial and monetary system.

Why Greg Smith's Critique Is Way Too Narrow

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

17 March 2012

reg Smith, a Goldman Sachs vice president, resigned his post Wednesday with a stinging public rebuke of the firm on the oped page of the New York Times - accusing it of no longer putting its clients before its own pecuniary goals.

But if Mr. Smith believes his experience at Goldman is something new, he doesn't know history. In 1928, Goldman Sachs and Company created the Goldman Sachs Trading Corporation, which promptly went on a speculative binge, luring innocent investors along the way. In the Great Crash of 1929, Goldman's investors lost their shirts but Goldman kept its hefty fees.

If Mr. Smith believes such disregard of investors is unique to Goldman, he doesn't know the rest of Wall Street. In the late 1920s, National City Bank, which eventually would become Citigroup, repackaged bad Latin American debt as new securities which it then sold to investors no less gullible than Goldman Sachs's. After the Great Crash of 1929, National City's top executives helped themselves to the bank's remaining assets as interest-free loans while their investors and depositors were left with pieces of paper worth a tiny fraction of what they paid for them.

The problem isn't excessive greed. If you took the greed out of Wall Street all you'd have left is pavement. The problem is endemic abuse of power and trust. When bubbles are forming, all but the most sophisticated investors can be easily duped into thinking they'll get rich by putting their money into the hands of brand-named investment bankers.

Moreover, finance has become so complex that investors don't even know when they're being taken for a ride, and so can't possibly hold a brand-name bank responsible for their losses - or for gains that are a fraction of what they might otherwise have been.

That's why we have regulations. After millions of investors lost everything in 1929, the federal government stepped into the breach with the Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934 and the Banking Act of 1933, sponsored by Senator Carter Glass and Congressman Henry Steagall.

But starting in the 1970s and 1980s, Wall Street made sure these and the regulations issued under them were steadily watered down - which contributed to the junk-bond and insider trading scandals of the 1980s, the dot-com scams of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Wall-Street enablers of Enron and other corporate looters, and the wild excesses that led to the crash of 2008.

Wall Street's shenanigans have convinced a large portion of America that the economic game is rigged. Yet capitalism depends on trust. Without trust, people avoid even sensible economic risks. And when they think the game is rigged, they're easy prey for political demagogues with fast tongues and dumb ideas.

The Street has only itself to blame. It should have welcomed new financial regulation as a means of restoring public trust. Instead, it lobbied intensely against the new Dodd-Frank Act and refused to resurrect Glass-Steagall.

The cost of such cynicism has leached deep into America, finding expression in Tea Partiers and Occupiers and millions of others who think the Street has sold us out.

Robert Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written thirteen books, including "The Work of Nations," "Locked in the Cabinet," "Supercapitalism" and his latest book, "AFTERSHOCK: The Next Economy and America's Future." His 'Marketplace' commentaries can be found on publicradio.com and iTunes.

Comment on March 19:

Like always, professor Reich is right on target by pointing to history and the deregulation battle of Glass/Steagall. However, I think we have to take Smith’s oped and Reich’s statement a step further by seriously discussing the what, why and how of a credit-based financial system where only the public sector creates money as indicated in the Lincoln 1865 Senate document and advocated by quite a few organizations today. In final instance, the International Institute for Monetary Transformation thinks we have to evolve a carbon-based international monetary system as proposed in The Tierra Solution: Resolving the Climate Crisis Through Monetary Transformation to be published in April 2012.

Global governance and the 10th Principle

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 06:20:54 -0700

Global governance and the 10th principle

March 17, 2012

The dialogues of March 17-18 at Pace University organized by the www.GlobalTransition2012.org-- the first one of which in October 2011 I participated in--are important venues with its “shared aim of developing alternative solutions to redress inequalities and global environmental change.” However, too little attention is paying paid to the “big picture” of the institutional framework within which green economy and other sustainable development programs have to be located. Though many CSOs and UN bodies talk about the need of integrating the three pillars of sustainable development, far too little work is done. It is up to civil society to push nations of “developing alternative solutions”. It is not only due to inertia and to political inability and unwillingness of especially powerful nation-states that alternative solutions are not found. It is also the small bore vision of many civil society organizations that have not produced the vision and grand pursuit needed for these carbon-constrained times.

“The goal of the Global Transition 2012 Initiative is to achieve an outcome from the UNCSD Earth Summit 2012 that catalyses a global transition to an economy that maximizes wellbeing, operates within environmental limits, and is capable of coping and adapting to global environmental change in an equitable manner.” Clearly stated is this goal, but the Challenge Papers may not reach that goal because there is not an overarching view of global governance. A valuable contribution in that regard is being made by the www.GreenEconomyCoalition.org with its elaboration of 9 principles and its “improving governance” diagram, appended below.

I would submit that a tenth principle has to be added to its 9 principles of a green economy. Using the format of the 9 principles this tenth monetary principle would read: “10. A green economy without an equitable, sustainable, and, therefore, stable global monetary system will not be effective—The monetary principle.

—a monetary standard other than the pure or flexible gold standard is to be developed so that volatile exchange rates, currency manipulation and speculation and financial imbalances can be reduced; adopting the SDR as the major reserve currency is an intermediate step on the road to the removal of the expensive global reserve system when currencies have become convertible or a world currency has been adopted.” (The full argument for the tenth principle can be found in www.timun.net/blog )

The only substantive contribution in the monetary/financial area for Dialogue #3 is Simon Zadek’s proposal for a “public fiduciary” which resembles the “global public authority” proposal of October 2011 by the Pontifical Commission of Justice and Peace. Though he, as member of the Canadian Center for International Governance Innovation, sees the need for a governance structure, no specific proposals were made. My forthcoming book The Tierra Solution: Resolving the Climate Crisis Through Monetary Transformation to be published next month by Cosimo Books in New York presents a pathway, not a blueprint, to such global governance structure by using a carbon-based international monetary system to combat the climate crisis and advance low carbon and climate-resilient development.

The global green economy: The 10th principle

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 06:09:42 -0700

THE GLOBAL GREEN ECONOMY: The 10th principle

A Contribution to the online discussion of 9 draft principles

Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., sustainability sociologist

International Institute for Monetary Transformation

Www.timun.net ; gaia1@rcn.com

New York, March 9, 2012

Introduction

The Coalition for a Green Economy, formed by a wide range of stakeholders during the recent the UNEP Governing Council meeting, has proposed “nine draft principles of a green economy” that are being discussed on line. The tenth principle is the principle that places these 9 principles in the larger context of a transformed, i.e. carbon-based international monetary system which as glue binds together monetary, financial, economic and commercial systems.

Description of the 9 draft principles

In the Coalition’s online survey the 9 principles were listed and comments were invited to be placed in each of the 9 comment boxes. Here the 9 principles and their descriptions are reproduced and my comments, mostly questions, were made in bold type.
1. A green economy delivers sustainable development – “It is a vehicle to deliver sustainable development – not a replacement - It addresses all three pillars (environmental, social and economic) and develops policy mixes that seek the best results across all of them - It integrates the cultural and ethical dimension across the three pillars.” How do those three pillars relate to present global monetary, financial, commercial systems?

2. A green economy delivers equity - The Justice Principle – “It delivers equity between and within countries and between generations - It respects human rights and cultural diversity - It promotes gender equality - It respects indigenous people’s rights to lands, territories and resources.” What about financial and monetary justice?

3. A green economy creates genuine prosperity and wellbeing for all - The Dignity Principle. “It eradicates poverty - It transforms traditional jobs and actively develops new, decent green jobs - It helps build capacity and skills - It delivers the Human Development Indicators - It provides universal access to basic health, education, sanitation, and other essential services - It respects the rights of workers and trade unions and delivers a just transition - It support the right to development - It supports sustainable, diverse economies and local livelihoods.” What about local financial and banking systems? What about public banks as suggested by the US Public Banking Institute?

4. A green economy improves the natural world - The Planetary Boundaries, Earth Integrity and Precautionary Principle. “It recognizes ecological boundaries and seeks to operate within them - It delivers environmental justice - It respects the precautionary principle - It assesses of the potential impact of new and untested technologies before they are released - It demonstrates the benefit for the environment through indicators - It ensures an optimum and wise use of natural resources - It safeguards biodiversity loss and prevents pollution - It promotes the restoration of balance in ecological and social relations.”What about incorporating ecological balances of climate debts and credits into a new balance of payments system?”

5. A green economy is inclusive and participatory in decision making - The Inclusion Principle. “It is based on transparency and the visibility of all stakeholders - It supports governance at all levels from global to local - It empowers citizens and promotes full and effective participation at all levels - It fosters cultural values and is sensitive to ethical considerations - It builds societal awareness, developing education and skills - It is inclusive and participatory, giving opportunities to youth, women, poor and low skilled workers, indigenous peoples and local communities.” What will be the global governance system be like to make this Inclusion Principle be possible?

6. A green economy is accountable. - The Governance Principle. “It governs markets in consultation with all stakeholders - It promotes the development of standards to measure progress - It promotes international cooperation and defines International liability - It promotes democracy - It commits to international human rights standards and environmental agreements.” What are the financial, banking and monetary institutions like that are built on this Governance Principle?

7. A green economy builds economic, social and environmental resilience - The Resilience Principle.” It supports the development of social and environmental protection systems - It promotes systems approaches, recognizing the interdependence and integrated nature of these three systems, underpinned by culture and ethical values - It creates resilience by supporting many green economy models relevant to different cultural, social and environmental contexts - It considers indigenous local knowledge and promotes diverse knowledge systems - It builds local skills and capacities. Should such resilient and diverse economic models that are relevant to local communities not be part of a global resilient structure in finance, banking and monetary systems?

8. A green economy delivers sustainable consumption and production - The Efficiency Principle. “It ensures prices reflect true costs incorporating social and environmental externalities - It implements the polluter pays principle - It supports life-cycle management - It strives for zero emission and zero waste - It prioritizes renewable energy and renewable resources - It seeks absolute decoupling production and consumption from negative social and environmental impact - It delivers sustainable lifestyles - It promotes social, economic and environmental innovation - It promotes resource efficiency - It gives access to intellectual property rights.” Is such socially and ecologically responsible global economic system compatible with the present neoliberal economic, financial and monetary philosophy? Should we not instead pursue a credit-rather than a debt-based financial system, a banking system that is not engaged in money creation but operates on 100% reserves and global international monetary system that is based upon a standard that pushes nations to deal with the climate crisis by decarbonizing their societies?

9. A green economy invests for the future - The Intergenerational Principle. “It ensures the finance sector supports the delivery of diverse sustainable green economies - It promotes long-term decision making above the short term - It regulates the finance sector, constrains speculation and supports the real economy.” Is it not necessary in order to evolve such financial sector the global financial system is to be restructured as credit-based system where governments spend money into circulation as proposed in the 1865 Lincoln Monetary Declaration, by the New Economic Foundation and most recently by adherents of the Modern Monetary Theory in Michael Hudson’s report of the Rimini meeting at www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29605 ?

Description of the tenth principle

The following statement of the 10th principle in the format of the other 9 principles was submitted via https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LB9Q3GW on March 6 to Emily Benson of http://www.greeneconomycoalition.org. It followed the survey’s suggestion that “10. Now that you have read through the nine draft principles of a green economy, is there anything else you would like to add or share to inform this discussion?”

“10. A green economy without an equitable, sustainable, and, therefore, stable global monetary system will not be effective—The monetary principle.

—the Declaration of the Bonn DPI/NGO Conference of September 2011 has asked governments to “rethink the international monetary system to be based upon a carbon standard” (line 265).

—a green economy framework that does not give essential attention to the challenge of disruptive climate change will be ineffective; a carbon-based international monetary system would push nations to decarbonize their societies in order to combat climate change because the strength of their economies and their currencies would depend on it.”

Rationale for the 10th principle

The above questions in bold have connected the 10th principle with the thinking that went into this important effort of finding an integrated value-based planning framework. The main reason for including the monetary principle together with its credit-based financial system and 100% reserve banking as a 10th principle is that such inclusion provides an integration of the three pillars of sustainable development and of the other 9 principles above.

The complete rationale for inclusion of the 10th Principle is presented in my forthcoming book The Tierra Solution: Resolving the Climate Crisis through Monetary Transformation, to be published by Cosimo Books in the middle of April.

Response to the ECOSOC 2012 annual meeting with IFIs etc

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 05:37:51 -0700

COHERENCE, COORDINATION AND COOPERATION FOR FfD:

A transformative monetary proposal

Presented at

Special High-level meeting of ECOSOC with BWIs, WTO and UNCTAD

12-13 March 2012, UN Headquarters

Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., sustainability sociologist

International Institute for Monetary Transformation

Www.timun.net ; gaia1@rcn.com

INTRODUCTION

No lasting and profound progress can be made in this triple C approach to FfD unless all stakeholders are aware of and are able to agree on the underlying assumptions in the global monetary, financial, economic and commercial systems that are part of FfD.

ANSWERS TO THE TWO TOPICS UNDER DISCUSSION

“Promoting sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth, job creation, productive investment and trade”

The NGO Coalition for Green Economy is holding on line discussions about 9 Global Green Economy principles in preparation for the Rio 2012 Earth Summit. These principles are eminently applicable to the first of the two topics of this high-level ECOSOC consultation. Those principles are:

1. A green economy delivers sustainable development; 2. A green economy delivers equity - The Justice Principle; 3. A green economy creates genuine prosperity and wellbeing for all - The Dignity Principle; 4. A green economy improves the natural world - The Planetary Boundaries, Earth Integrity and Precautionary Principle. 5. A green economy is inclusive and participatory in decision making - The Inclusion Principle. 6. A green economy is accountable. - The Governance Principle. 7. A green economy builds economic, social and environmental resilience - The Resilience Principle. 8. A green economy delivers sustainable consumption and production - The Efficiency Principle.9. A green economy invests for the future - The Intergenerational Principle.

A 10th principle has been presented by the International Institute for Monetary Transformation that would integrate these principles under the concept of monetary justice in its regular and transformed sense of the terms. It can be formulated, following the format of the above 9 principles as:

“10. A global green economy without an equitable, sustainable, and, therefore, stable global monetary system will not be effective—The monetary justice principle.

A monetary standard other than the pure or flexible gold standard is to be developed so that volatile exchange rates, currency manipulation and speculation and financial imbalances can be reduced. Adopting the SDR as the major reserve currency is an intermediate step on the road to the removal of the expensive global reserve system when currencies have become convertible or a world currency has been adopted as part of a standard-based international monetary system such as proposed in Verhagen 2012 The Tierra Solution: Resolving the Climate Crisis Through Monetary Transformation. (The book, published by Cosimo Books, will be on the market in the middle of next month.)

It proposes a carbon-based system, called the Tierra Fee & Dividend (TFD) system with the Tierra as its unit of account, and Fee & Dividend, not cap-and-trade, as its carbon reduction method. Beside the carbon standard of a specific tonnage of CO2e per person, this carbon-based international monetary system would also have a balance of payments mechanism that balances both the financial and ecological (climate) credits and debts in one integrated payment system. The system would be governed by a Global Central Bank with administrative, regulatory and exclusively held money creation functions, so that its member states are bound together in a properly structured monetary union that would maintain balanced fiscal policies.

The Declaration of the Bonn DPI/NGO Conference of September 2011 attended by over 2000 NGO representatives has asked governments to “rethink the international monetary system to be based upon a carbon standard” (line 265) and Maurice Strong believes such system is “innovative” and could possibly function as an alternative to the Kyoto Protocol.

The main reason for including the monetary principle together with its credit-based financial system and 100% reserve banking as a 10th principle is that such inclusion provides an integration of the three pillars of sustainable development, the three C’s of FfD and the 9 principles above.

“Financing of sustainable development”

No lasting and profound sustainable development is possible unless it explicitly connects with the challenge of climate change because climate changes disrupt now and will disrupt even more in the future any attempt for sustainable development. Thus, a financing system for sustainable development without a green economy framework that does not give essential attention to the challenge of disruptive climate changes will be ineffective. Consequently, adopting a carbon-based international monetary system would provide not only ample financing for development, but also for climate adaptation and mitigation measures. Such system would push nations to decarbonize their societies in order to combat climate change because the strength of their economies and their currencies would depend on it.

The first step in the support of the development and implementation of this Tierra global governance system is for nations to decide at the June Rio Earth Summit to have the UN General Assembly pass a Resolution to establish the UN Commission of Experts on Monetary Transformation, Climate Change and Sustainable Development which would explore the pros and cons of carbon-based systems, such as the TFD. Their recommendations would be part of a Monetary Agenda for Climate and Development Action which would include a blueprint for financing of development and climate.

REDD+ and the Tierra System

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 08:43:44 -0800

REDD+ AND THE TIERRA SYSTEM

Friday, March 09, 2012

How is the Tierra system related to the Reduction of Emissions of Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) and REDD+ which includes the need of consideration of the social and environmental aspects of REDD policies and programs? REDD’s Social and Environmental Standards (SES) are being developed as discussed in www.redd-standards.org.

REDD is an important area in combating disruptive climate change, because it accounts for some 30% of the GHGs in the atmosphere by emitting methane, nitrous oxide and CO2e, particularly on account of deforestation for agriculture and livestock. Five major strategies for reducing and sequestering terrestrial greenhouse gas emissions are presented in the WorldWatch Institute Report #179 of 2009. They are: enriching soil carbon; farming with perennials; climate friendly livestock production; protecting natural habitat and restoring degraded watersheds and rangelands. Though the international policy and science communities have been slow to embrace terrestrial climate action, the Report estimates that “Even at a relatively low price for mitigating carbon emissions, improved land management could offset a quarter of global emissions from fossil fuel use in a year.” Quoting Smith of IPCC the figure of p.25t shows the Greenhouse Gas Sequestration Potential of 1.6 Giga tons of CO2e for cropland management, 1.5Gt for grazing land management, 1.3 Gt for restoring, .7 Gt for restoring degraded lands, .2 Gt each for rice management and livestock and some .05 Gt for manure management. Then the figure indicates how much of those potentials can be reached if $0-20, $20-50 or $50-100 per tone CO2e were to be spent.

There are at least three ways that the Tierra Fee & Dividend system relates to this REDD reality.

First of all, because of its credit-based financial system the Global Central Bank would have ample resources to invest in greenhouse gas sequestration from farming and land use, so that those potentials could be reached. Unlike the carbon storage and sequestration of carbon in the burning of fossil fuels which is already produced, terrestrial sequestration would keep the GHGs inside the crop and grazing land, so that the pursuit of these potentials would seem to have priority in sequestration.

Secondly, the Tierra Fee & Dividend system excludes cap-and-trade with its offsetting practices both with the UN CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) and bilateral agreements, thus reducing much of the gaming on carbon and other untoward practices.

Thirdly, though the emphasis in my forthcoming book The Tierra Solution: Resolving the Climate Crisis Through Monetary Transformation has been on carbon emissions of fossil fuels in the determination of the CO2e standard—perhaps a Northern bias—inclusion of terrestrial GHGs is an obvious extension, given that the standard deals with the CO2 equivalency of methane and nitrous oxides. Thus, the approximation formula for the standard has to include more measures of terrestrial GHGs.

Grand Pursuit Anyone?

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:17:42 -0800

GRAND PURSUIT ANYONE?

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

In her recent book “Grand Pursuit. The Story of Economic Genius” Columbia university business and journalism professor Sylvia Nasar presents an important story of about half a dozen men (and one woman). They asked the hard questions of their times and presented their answers or rather their vision that bound those answers together. It is such grand pursuit that is needed today where the monetary, financial, economic and commercial systems are not working.

How can the global privately-owned banking systems get working for the public good?

Presently, the European banks are flooded with cheap credit with little oversight how they going to use these cheap funds. Is it used to quickly buy unstable sovereign credit of the PIGS governments and making a quick buck while taking a great risk down the line when their economies are not strong enough to generate jobs and increase productivity? Or are they to invest in their home economies rather than the casino world of global finance?

Presently, the USA the Volcker Rule is being hotly debated and lobbied on by banks and their corporate legal helpers. They do not want to give up their betting with their proprietary funds and emphasize that they are not to be prevented from market making. Though it is difficult for the five regulatory agencies to stipulate the demarcation line, the overall tone seems to favor the banking industry, thus endangering the US economy. At the same time, the political stalemate also seems to favor the financial industry.

One thing that is becoming clear is that global cooperation has become a necessity. Both Europe and the USA need one another and so do the BRICS countries. The upcoming Rio 2012 Earth Summit should hammer out a global governance system of monetary, financial, economic and commercial norms and institutions that is characterized by this high level of needed global cooperation.

What is not clear how that global governance structure is to be guided, so that it is able to devise the grand pursuit of the 21st century as Engels and Marx, John Stuart Mill and Alfred Marshall did in the 19th century and Irving Fisher and John Maynard Keynes did in the 20th century. That global governance structure is to be embedded into a vision that is able to integrate the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.

The International Institute for Monetary Transformation is proposing a solution that is “innovative” according to Maurice Strong and that is “visionary and highly practical” according Hazel Henderson of www.ethicalmarkets.com It is not a reform proposal like the most recent monetary reform proposal by the Palais Royal Initiative. It proposes transforming the international monetary system by basing it on a carbon standard, i.e. a specific amount of tonnage of CO2e per person. By adopting such carbon-based international monetary system present day government, business and civil society leaders would combat this century’s greatest challenge, i.e. climate change which is wreaking great havoc on people, species and planet. Simultaneously, this carbon-based international monetary system would place humanity on the road to low carbon and climate-resilient development.

The guiding principle of this carbon-based international monetary system is monetary justice which is further explained in an international petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/g20-and-rio-summitteers-make-monetary-justice-the-basis-of-your-negotiations that the reader is asked to consider signing. For more detailed information, consult my forthcoming book “The Tierra Solution: Monetary Transformation, Climate Change and Sustainable Development.”

Soiund money for the 21st century

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:22:01 -0800

SOUND MONEY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

Frans C. Verhagen

Submitted to the New York Times’ OPED editors

Saturday, February 04, 2012

Sound or hard money has been mentioned many times in the present Republican campaign, particularly by Ron Paul and less so by candidate Gingrich. The latter wants to establish a Gold Commission, following the example of Reagan in the 1980s. Charles Kadlec, a contributing blogger for Forbes Magazine, wrote an overview article on the gold standard on 1/23/2012, well before the Florida primary, in which he supported Gingrich’s position. He argued that Gingrich has a leg over Romney and Santorum because a gold standard policy “enjoys a clear plurality of support among Republicans, Democrats, blacks, whites, hispanics and individuals across all income categories.” He pointed to evidence of this plurality by referring to a poll in October 2011. “When the Rasmussen polling firm last October asked 1000 likely voters if they were “favorable or unfavorable about returning to the gold standard,” 44% were favorable versus 28% unfavorable. However, when the respondents were asked: Would you “favor or oppose returning to a Gold Standard if you knew it would reduce the power of bankers and political leaders to steer the economy?” those in favor increased to 57% versus only 19% opposed. Floyd Norris in his “High& Low Finance” column of February 3 believes that history is repeating itself in these presidential debates where candidates propose gold commissions but do not follow up on their recommendations. He points to a survey by the University of Chicago in January of 40 economists who, with very few exceptions, have dim views of the feasibility of a gold standard. Should this survey not have included a question about a non-debt financial system as proposed by many outstanding economists such as Yale’s Irving Fisher in the 1930 as their response to the Great Depression?

While this superficial monetary debate is taking place in the Republican presidential campaigns in the US, globally the international monetary system is characterized by a wild west that is alternatively known as monetary statecraft, about which Cornell University economist Jonathan Kirshner has written. Both the US and China are engaged in global monetary policies that are short-sighted and prevent financial and economic renewal and transformation.

The U.S. government still clings to the U.S. dollar as the world’s major reserve and transaction currency heaping up deficits in the process and forcing other countries to hold its currency in an expensive global reserve system of some $100 billion annually for non-reserve countries, particularly in the developing world. Notwithstanding the recommendation of the 2009 UN Stiglitz Commission to transition to a Special Drawing Rights or similar regime, it continues to keep the international monetary system out of balance on account of balance of payments debts.

At the same time, this global reserve system and many other factors, such as a high savings rate and renminbi manipulation, makes China, with its $3.18 trillion foreign exchange holdings, the other major power in keeping the international monetary system out of balance. New York Times journalists Bradsher and Alderman’s February 3 article entitled “China Talks of Helping European Debt Rescue” makes clear that China wants to take very little risk in that rescue and demands trade and other preferences, preventing a global economy from growing. China still seems to be refusing to change its euro holdings of strong European countries such as Germany and The Netherlands into investing in euro bonds of weaker European countries. This state of Wild West monetary affairs shows how, at least in monetary terms, China is gaining an upper hand over the US. Such a system is unjust, unstable, and unsustainable. It is unjust because it mostly operates for the benefit of hard currency countries while the rest of the world and the global economy itself suffer. Because the international monetary system is unjust, it is unsustainable, and, therefore unstable.

After having the renminbi become more convertible and part of the SDR basket of hard currencies, it would be in China’s interest to overhaul the international monetary system by transitioning from the SDR, not to a gold standard, but to a carbon standard that is based on a specific tonnage of CO2e per person. Such a system would combat the heating of the planet and decarbonize societies in both the global North and South If such a system were instituted, no global reserve system would be needed anymore. An updated Bretton Woods system along with a Keynes’ International Clearing Union could be developed and a Global Central Bank created. A carbon-based international monetary system could function as the basis of a global governance system, because it integrates the social, economic and environmental challenges of sustainable development, one of the main challenges of the Rio June 2012 Earth Summit. Maurice Strong of Earth Summit fame considers such a system “innovative.” It is also noteworthy that the 2000 delegates at the DPI/NGO Conference in Bonn in early September of last year advised governments in their Declaration to “Rethink the international monetary system to be based on a carbon standard.”

Making monetary justice the guiding principle of global governance, and as such, the basis for the G20 and Earth Summit negotiations would consist of three major challenges dealing with needed transformational changes in the privately-owned banking systems, in the debt-based financial system and in the dysfunctional international monetary system, called criminal by Nobel Prize economist Robert Mundell. First, banks are to become utilities without the privilege of creating money. Second, the financial system is to be based on money or credit which only the government can create and circulate into the economy. The Chicago Plan of the 1930s, proposed by many outstanding economists to deal with the Great Depression, is an example of such a system. The most challenging transformational change of all—the international monetary system-- is to be based upon a carbon standard and governed by a Global Central Bank with its proper administering, monitoring, regulating and money creating functions. This novel concept is presented by the International Institute for Monetary Transformation (www.timun.net) in its forthcoming book entitled THE TIERRA SOLUTION: Monetary Transformation, Climate Change and Sustainable Development. (Cosimo Books, April 2012). Adopting such a carbon-based international monetary system would constitute a global monetary governance system that could be the basis of a comprehensive global governance framework beyond Rio 2012. Those in agreement with this monetary approach could sign on to the international petition on http://www.change.org/petitions/g20-and-rio-summitteers-make-monetary-justice-the-basis-of-your-negotiations.

The above tri-partite system is a possible answer to the question what sound money means in the 21st century. It is in agreement with the monetary principles adopted by the Lincoln Administration in 1865: “Money is the creature of law, and the creation of the original issue of money should be maintained as the exclusive monopoly of national government. Money possesses no value to the state other than that given to it by circulation…… No duty is more imperative for the government than the duty it owes the people to furnish them with a sound and uniform currency, and of regulating the circulation of the medium of exchange so that labour will be protected from a vicious currency and commerce will be facilitated by cheap and safe exchanges.”

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Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., a sustainability sociologist, is the founding president of the International Institute for Monetary Transformation and author of the forthcoming book The Tierra Solution: Monetary Transformation, Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Comments on Regulation YY to the Federal Reserve Board

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:14:33 -0800

The following comment was submitted to the Federal Reserve Board in response to requests for comments on its Regulation YY.

Regulation YY - Enhanced Prudential Standards and Early Remediation Requirement for Covered Companies [R-1438] is a first step for a banking system that is to be transformed as part of a global financial and monetary overhaul.

The International Institute for Monetary Transformation agrees with the editorial in the New York Times of February 3, 2012 which argues that the regulators are to demand higher reserve requirements. The Institute agrees with a substantial and increasing number of economists who believe that the banking system is to be based upon a 100% reserves requirement.

However, the US banking, financing and monetary systems cannot be considered in isolation. More than ever in human history these global systems are intimately integrated. Thus, the International Institute for Monetary Transformation agrees with a significant number of economists who believe that the international financial system is not to be based on debt and be conducted through the services of privately-owned banking systems, but on credit or money that is created by the public sector. What is also needed is an international monetary system that is based upon a standard, not a pure or flexible gold standard, but a carbon standard expressed in a specific amount of tonnage of CO2e per person. This position is still held by only a small, but growing number of monetary, financial and economic observers who believe that no lasting financial and economic change is possible without basing the international monetary system on a standard which, in the face of this century’s greatest challenge of avoiding a climate catastrophe, could be based upon the decarbonization level of a society. The more a society uses renewable energy, the stronger its economy and its currency.

For this to happen monetary justice is to be taking as a guiding principle in economic and climate negotiations as expressed in the international petition on http://www.change.org/petitions/g20-and-rio-summitteers-make-monetary-justice-the-basis-of-your-negotiations For more information see www.timun.net, the NGO Treaty on Global Monetary Transformation which is in preparation for the Rio 2012 Earth Summit and for in-depth information on this proposed carbon-based international monetary system consult the Institute’s forthcoming book The Tierra Solution: Monetary Transformation, Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

UN Draft and Report for Rio 2012 and monetary transformation

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:19:06 -0800

THE UN’S ZERO DRAFT, THE RPRP REPORT AND THE MONETARY CHALLENGE

Monday, January 30, 2012

During this month of January 2012 the UN Headquarters have been abuzz with both the Zero Draft produced by the two co-chairman of the Bureau for the Commission on Sustainable Development and the Resilience of People, Resilience of the Planet (RPRP) by the High-level Sustainable Development Group (GSP) established on August 9, 2010 by SG Ban Ki-moon. Both of these two products, a draft and a report, are inputs into the Rio 2012 Earth Summit process.

How do they stack up in respect to a carbon-based monetary transformation as proposed by the International Institute for Monetary Transformation?

The Zero Draft is a minimalist document based upon a compilation document that had a very wide range of views, practices and proposals. It was a great disappointment to many that this draft had not more substance.

The RPRP report which was launched today in Addis Ababa, is a serious attempt to analyze the present world situation, it points to 8 drivers of change and proposes recommendations, one of which is the important one dealing with a Global Sustainable Development Council. It would replace the nearly two decades old Commission for Sustainable Development which received failing marks. Recommendations 52 and 53 read: “263. Governments should consider creating a global sustainable development council to improve the integration of the three dimensions of sustainable development, address emerging issues and review sustainability progress, with meetings held on a regular basis throughout the year. This body could be a

subsidiary organ of the General Assembly and would replace the Commission on Sustainable Development. It would need to have a broad geographical and political membership and to fully engage relevant international institutions —including United Nations agencies and the international financial institutions —and non-State actors from civil society, the private sector and science. 264. Such a council would develop a peer review mechanism that would

encourage States, in a constructive spirit, to explain their policies, to share

experiences and lessons learned, and to fulfill their commitments.”

Though the global economy was mentioned many times, both in terms of past and future developments, and its connection with the financial system highlighted several times, the terms monetary and monetary system, let alone monetary transformation, was not mentioned. The monetary connection with the financial system could have been identified, both analytically and programmatically.

An important event in terms of a carbon-based international monetary system was a meeting on January 26 at the New Economics Institute in Manhattan where some forty representatives of NGOs held their first international consultation on the production of NGO sustainability treaties for Rio 2012 Earth Summit. These treaties would be similar to those over three dozen sustainability treaties produced during Rio 1992. About a half a dozen participants expressed interest in being part of the treaty cycle on monetary transformation. I volunteered to send the first draft of this treaty to them for their feedback and expand the treaty cycle after their comments. This draft will be uploaded to the www.timun.net in the next couple of days.

Comment to Financial Times Opinion piece

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:56:25 -0800

Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, a former member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank and currently Visiting Scholar at Harvard’s Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs, wrote an Opinion piece in the Financial Times, entitled “How to equip the IMF for the crises of our time” http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/eb455494-483d-11e1-b1b4-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1kgeG2rDO I posted the following comment. Lorenzo Bini Smaghi has made several good points to make the IMF more effective in the short run. His conclusion that “deep thinking and strong leadership are urgently required” is a correct one.

However, before one can effectively equip the IMF for our times it is necessary to understand the present global monetary dimension of the financial crisis. The international monetary system which as glue binds together the monetary, financial, economic and commercial systems is dysfunctional in several ways, because it is not based on equity, sustainability and therefore cannot be a stable system. First, as recommended by the 2009 UN Stiglitz Commission, the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency has to be replaced by a multi-currency reserve or SDR facility to start with. Secondly, the international monetary system needs a standard. Though there are several observers, particularly in the Republican fold in the USA, who advocate a return to a pure or flexible standard, this writer has been proposing a carbon standard, not only to give an equitable and sustainable basis for its stability, but also to combat this century’s greatest challenges of climate change and sustainable development. A carbon-based international monetary system would emphasize the level of decarbonization of a society greatly determines the strength of its economy and its currency. Such system would have a balance of payments mechanism that would balance both financial and ecological credits and make imaginative exchanges possible between these two types of debts because of the financial creditors in the North are ecological debtors to the South. This carbon-based international monetary system would be administered by a Global Central Bank the idea of which has been proposed for over one hundred fifty years. Note that this Bank of Central Banks would govern over a financial system that would be based upon credit, not on debt and over a banking system that would be based upon 100% reserves and thus does not engage in money creation anymore.

I think the proposed carbon-based international monetary system presents the “deep thinking” that is needed to simultaneously deal with both the unstable and dysfunction monetary system, with the ever increasing amount of GHGs and with the poor accomplishments in global developments that enrich the few, impoverish the many and imperil the planet.

2012 and the Tierra Solution

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:09:09 -0800

2012 AND THE TIERRA SOLUTION

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

The year 2012 will be an important year for the Tierra Solution. In April The Tierra Solution: Monetary Transformation, Climate Change and Sustainable Development will be on the market. At that time a well developed publicity strategy and a well-developed organizing strategy with national Tierra Solution Working Groups will be launched after earlier scattered attempts in both areas. In June the Rio 2012 Earth Summit is to take place where the issues of green economies, global governance are two main themes to which The Tierra Solution can make a genuine contribution. This contribution has been made by having the proposed carbon-based international monetary system become one of the ten “thinkpieces” of the Stakeholder Forum, several inputs in the UN Headquarters process and its inclusion in UNCSD Compilation document. A book launch at the UN in April or May may further infuse the feasibility of the Tierra Monetary Compact into the Rio process.

Notwithstanding these efforts The Tierra Solution (TSN) will not find great acceptance in 2012, mainly on account of its transformational nature. The TSN requires people to think outside the famous box because it does not reform but goes beyond the present form of financial and climate institutions by its trans-formational approach. Furthermore, its acceptance depends on many external circumstances, particularly in the economic, financial and monetary fields. The worse the global economic, financial and monetary systems perform and the more salient become the impacts of an increased global warming, the faster people, pundits and policy makers will consider the TSN becoming a realistic alternative as already Maurice Strong and Bill McKibben think it is.

According to UN economists 2012 will be a make-or-break year in terms of proceeding with slow economic recovery or falling back into recession. Their WESP 2012 observes: “The developed economies are on the brink of a downward spiral enacted by four weaknesses that mutually reinforce each other: sovereign debt distress, fragile banking sectors, weak aggregate demand (associated with high unemployment and fiscal austerity measures) and policy paralysis caused by political gridlock and institutional deficiencies. All of these weaknesses are already present, but a further worsening of one of them could set off a vicious circle leading to severe financial turmoil and an economic downturn.” (http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/policy/risks-for-another-global-downturn-have-heightened.html)

To these four weaknesses has to be added the weakness of a dysfunctional international monetary system that being the linchpin of those global systems makes them all more volatile and unstable. Removing its expensive and unnecessary global reserve system by the introduction of a monetary standard such as the carbon standard would go a long way to increase equity, sustainability and, therefore, stability in all these global systems. Notwithstanding the recommendation of the 2009 UN Stiglitz Commission to move away from a one country or even on region based international reserve currency, very little progress has been made. Notable, however, is the beginning of an uprooting process by the replacement of the U.S. dollar as the international transaction currency. China and Japan, China and Brazil and other pairs of countries have started trading with each other without using the U.S. dollar. The U.S. dollar as a reserve currency is, unfortunately, still strongly ensconced, particularly also due to the fact of the weak euro, the second largest international reserve currency. Image what the world would look like if the U.S. government were to decide to move away from having the U.S. dollar used as a reserve and transaction currency in favor of a carbon standard and of a Global Central Bank that would unify the divergent approaches of the US Fed and the ECB in dealing with the economic malaise and crisis in most countries!