03/24/2009
Monetary Expert Tom Greco
Pens New Book
For more than 27 years Tom
Greco has been working at the leading edge of economic and financial
restructuring. Greco authored the book,
Money: Understanding and
Creating Alternatives To Legal Tender (Chelsea Green Publishing
Co. 2001).
He�s traveled throughout
the world lecturing and working with various communities to set up
local currencies. Greco addressed the 2006 International Reciprocal
Trade Association�s (IRTA) Annual Convention. His message: The
commercial barter industry has a unique opportunity to be a major
savior of the coming currency crisis � if the industry were to unite
and develop a common currency for its use.
Tom
Greco�s new 320-page book,
The End Of Money And The
Future Of Civilization, is coming soon. Here�s a look at Greco�s
latest effort.
Contents
List of Tables and
Illustrations
1) My Purpose and My
Journey
My Personal Journey � Seeds
of Disillusionment � Awakening � In the Wake of Inflation � E.C.
Riegel � Why Yet Another Book?
2) Mega-Crisis and
Metamorphosis�Can Civilization Be Saved?
Prospects and
Prognostication � Exponential Growth � Limits to Growth � Paradigm
Shift � Metamorphosis � The Egg, the Caterpillar, and the Butterfly
� Get With the Program
3) The Contest for
Rulership�Two Opposing Philosophies
Elitist or Egalitarian? �
The Contest in American History: Monarchy or Republic? � Power by
Other Means
4) Central Banking and the
Rise of the Money Power
Central Banking, an Unholy
Alliance � The Bank of England � Central Banking in the United
States � The First Bank of the United States � Andrew Jackson and
the �Bank War� � The Free Banking Era � The Federal Reserve �
Central Banking Spreads around the World
5) The New World Order
The Power Behind the
Central Banks � A Merging of Interests � Wars, Internal and External
� Money Power, the Key Element in the New World Order � Erosion of
National Sovereignty
6) Usury and the Engine of
Destruction
Monetary Stringency, Past
and Present � Increasing Instability � The Magic of Compound
Interest � What�s Wrong with the Global System of Money and Banking?
� How Debt-Money is Dysfunctional � Three Aspects of Money
Dysfunction � Moral Arguments, Laws, and Practical Solutions � Keys
to Transcendence � Exchange and Finance�Two Distinct Credit
Functions
7) The Nature and Cause of
Inflation
What Is Inflation? � Who
Has the Power to Inflate? � Improper Basis of Issue by Banks Is
Inflationary � Government Deficits and Inflation � The German
Hyperinflation�A Classic Case � How the Inflation Was Ended �
Constraints Upon Debasement of the Money � Responding to Inflation
8) The Separation of Money
and State
The Separation of Church
and State�A Comparison � The Disestablishment of Monetary �Religion�
� Two Meanings of �Dollar� � Delinking from the Dollar as a Payment
Medium � Delinking from the Dollar as a Measure of Value � Stable
Value Reckoning � Toward Freedom of Exchange
9) The Evolution of
Money�From Commodity Money to Credit Money
What We Don�t Know Is
Hurting Us � Kinds of Economic Interaction � �The Ladder of Economic
Civilization� � The First Evolutionary Step�Barter to Commodity
Money � Commodity Money � Symbolic Money � The Second Evolutionary
Step�From Commodity Money to Credit Money � Two Distinct Kinds of
Money�Fractional Reserve Banking � Redeemability Abandoned � Checks
and Checkable Deposits Displace the Use of Banknotes � Gold Versus
Credit Money�A Comparison � How Credit Money Malfunctions
10) The Third Evolutionary
Stage�The Emergence of Credit Clearing
Banks and the Credit
Clearing Process � A Confusion of Language � Particle or Wave? Thing
or Relationship? � Clearing Through Banks Versus Mutual Credit
Clearing � Direct Credit Clearing Makes Conventional Money and
Banking Obsolete
11) Solving the Money
Problem
The Basis of Monetary
Dysfunction � Reform or Transcendence? � Emerging Exchange
Alternatives � Separating the Functions of Money � Back to Commodity
Money? � The Unit of Account Versus the Unit of Currency � The
Measurement of Value � Proper Relationship Between Commodities
(Gold/Silver) and Credit � Confusion Caused by Legal Tender Laws
12) Credit Clearing, the
�UnMoney�
What Is Credit Clearing? �
A Simple Example of Clearing among Banks � Settlement of Accounts �
Mutual Credit Clearing Systems as Clearing Houses � Direct Credit
Clearing�A Simple Illustration Using Four Accounts and Ten
Transactions � Balance Limits and Settlement � Providing Surety of
Contract � An Insurance Fund
13) The State of the
Alternative Exchange Movement
Two Currents of Alternative
Exchange � The Tucson Experience � Why Exchange Alternatives Fail to
Thrive � Failure of Reciprocity � Inadequate Scale and Scope of
Operation
14) How Complementary
Currencies Succeed or Fail
Architecture of the
Currency Itself � Principle 1: Who Is Qualified to Issue Currency? �
Principle 2: On What Basis Should Currency Be Issued? � Principle 3:
How Much Currency May Be Issued By Each Issuer? � Implementation
Strategies � The Situational Context � WIR � Social Money in
Argentina
15) Commercial Trade
Exchanges�Their Present Limitations and Potential Future
Limiting Factors � Limited
Scale and Scope � The Value Proposition � Operations and Agreements
� Proposed Remedies � The Real Deal�Credit Clearing Services �
Tapping the Vast Potential Market � What About Taxes? � An Eventual
Cashless Trading Network
16) A Regional Economic
Development Plan Based on Credit Clearing
Approaches to Community
Economic Development � Stage I: Mapping the Territory and Import
Substitution � Stage II: Mutual Credit Clearing Provides an
Alternative Means of Payment � Sage III: The Credit of �Trusted
Issuers� Provides an Alternative Currency for Regional Circulation �
Stage IV: Support Structures for Localization�Saving, Investment,
Finance, and Education � Stage V and Beyond: Transition to an
Objective Measure of Value and Accounting Unit
17) The Next Big Thing in
Business: A Complete Web-Based Trading Platform
The Convenience of Cards �
Improving the Exchange Process�Challenge and Opportunity �
Significant Trends and �Disruptive Technologies� � Strengths and
Vulnerabilities of Political Money and Conventional Banking � From
Disruptive to Sustaining�Moving Upmarket � The Emergence of a
Complete Web-Based Trading Platform � Essential Components of the
Web-Based Trading Platform � Completing the Web-Based Trading
Platform
18) Organizational Forms
and Structures for Local Self-Determination and Complementary
Exchange
Toward Economic
Independence � The �Banjar� and the Balinese Governance Structure �
The Mondragon Cooperatives � Ways of Organizing Credit Clearing
Exchanges � Corporations � Limited Liability Companies and Limited
Liability Partnerships � Mutual Companies � Scale of Organization
19) The Role of Governments
in Establishing Economic and Financial Stability
What National Governments
Should Do � Objectives � Rationale � Legislative Proposals in Brief
� The Role of State, Provincial, and Local Governments � An Early
Example of a Local Currency
20) Exchange, Finance, and
the Store of Value
The Store of Value � Saving
and Investment � Liberating Saving and Investment � Debt Claims
Versus Equity Claims � A Shared Equity Mortgage � Savings and
Investment within Complementary Exchange Systems
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