Bernard Lietaer - The Future of Money - Full Book

goods and services they represent within the communities that accept them. These currencies can afford to be available in sufficiency, as opposed to requiring artificial scarcity.

Interest The last obvious characteristic common to all official national currencies is interest. Here again, we believe that interest on money is somehow intrinsic to the process, forgetting that for most of history that was definitely not the case. In fact, all three 'religions of the Book' (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) emphatically outlawed usury, defined as any interest on money. Only religious leaders still remind anyone of this rule today. It is sometimes forgotten that the Catholic church, for instance, remained i in battle against the 'sin of usury' until the 19th century.

The effect of interest The full implications of applying interest on the loans creating money are the least understood of the four characteristics. Nevertheless, the effects of interest on society are pervasive and powerful. They therefore warrant more detailed examination. The way interest is built into the money system has three consequences. These are: 1. Interest indirectly encourages systematic competition among the participants in the system.

2. 2 Interest continually fuels the need for endless economic growth, even when actual standards of living remain stagnant.

3. Interest concentrates wealth by taxing the vast majority in favor of a small minority. Each of these issues will be addressed in turn.

Encouraging competition