Bernard Lietaer - The Future of Money - Full Book

with him, perhaps because this was also his last one. 'This isn't my problem any mom,' was his opening remark. He had signed the final papers earlier in the day. At midnight, Secuncor was to take over the police franchise for the United Kingdom.

This was the final piece of the puzzle. Executive Solutions had already won the armed forces contract, in return for control of Cornwall's offshore oil fields. Social Services is run by Sonysoft, since Sony took over the Microsoft empire after Bill Gates's tragic death.

Consolidated Banks was in charge of the economy. NewsCorp had the Education Department franchise. Even the Houses of Parliament, no longer needed now those elected representatives had ceased to have meaningful functions, belonged to Virgin. Tomorrow the estate agents were coming to look at Number 10 Downing St, and he would slip into retirement as easily as power had slipped into the hands of corporations.

He showed me a book of old press cuttings. The first was a report of his maiden speech in the Commons in 1992. He was attacking the loss of British sovereignty to the European Union. He smiled at his own naivet6.'1 had talked about immigration, demanding greater controls. Talk about barking up the wrong tree. Getting into the country, any country, is easy now - just buy an airline ticket. But entering a corporate enclave, like Islington, Belgravia or Lower Manhattan, requires an electronic appointment and "positive identification".

His face turned grim. 'Really efficient, this "positive ID technology, As with most important things in history, its general acceptance was a convergence between conscious choice, accident, and necessity. The conscious choice was the initial justification to test smart cards for administrative masons - they would include name, Social Security number, driving licence, and emergency insurance and medical information. The accident was the 'credit card blitz", when a group of