While the Euro, Dollar and the Chinese currency are fighting for dominance, a third player may be rising to power. This time no bank is involved.
Since money is no longer printed on a gold or silver standard, it only works because of trust. But while the Euro, Dollar and the Chinese currency are fighting for dominance, a third player may be rising to power. This time no bank is involved.
Revolutions and financial crises can be compared to the famous moral debacle, ‘which came first, the chicken or the egg?’. Even though we can never be certain which came first, one thing that is certain is that both are caused by some other type of crisis, whether it be war, religion, food scarcity, a lack of resources, of bad leadership. These crises have been addressed in different ways, but most of the financial crises have been solved by one thing: by founding new banks and bank systems.
This week the Austrian Nationalbank celebrates its 200 years of existence. It was founded because of the financial crises of the napoleonic wars. And it was a new financial system because it was in the hands of private persons as a stock corporation. It is next to the Swedish Riksbank and the Bank of England one of the oldest national banks. And during the next revolution in 1848, the bank started to publish their balance sheet, which is practiced till today.
The next crises, in 1866, the Austrian national bank changed into a bank similar to today’s European Central bank. Hungary basically became a separate state. Also, the fiscal politics were ruled in Budapest. But the currency was the same as in Austria. So the Austrian currency had the same problems and advantages as the Euro has today.
The bank before the Austrian National bank was the Vienna Stadtbank which was founded in 1709 because of the financial crises of the Spanish Succession war. Their novum was that the bank was not in the hands of the Emperor but in the hand of the city, which created more security and in turn more people gave their money to them.
In 2016 we are in the middle of another crisis. We are living in a new industrial revolution, and this crisis could have completely destroyed the financial sector if the national bankshadn’t started their money printing machines. Anyhow, this could be the last financial crisis as we know it.
Since money is no longer printed on a gold or silver standard, it only works because of trust. But while the Euro Dollar and the Chinese currency are fighting for dominance, a third player may be rising to power. This time no bank is involved. Some kind of Bitcoin currency could calm the world’s financial crises, and it may start a movement of regional currencies combining with it as they would in a dualistic system. Regional currencies are important for helping the economy. They could have an expiry date so that the money would not be locked away. Saving money would just be possible via the main currency.
It sounds futuristic that machines will do our work.
This would create a dualistic money system, which no one except philosophers are currently debating on. Today, governments do discuss taxes on machines and tax releases on human labor force. In Switzerland there was a referendum about free income for everyone- 22% voted for a yes.
We are living in an interesting time and we do not understand how to live without jobs. It sounds futuristic that machines will do our work.
But for certain, the future it will be like this. This crisis is an opportunity. The above mentioned points could not find majorities if you handle them point by point. But if you take them for a whole thing you might realize that we have to start thinking about a principled discussion.
Think about a dualistic currency (regional and worldwide), that offers: a free income, under the condition that you learn, do social work, environmental work, or some other thing that is for the good of your people, machine and program taxes, in the context that the industrial revolution that will kill every second job in the next 50 years, etc.
These points have more in common than you may think on first sight. Think about it.