Abstract — Fundamental laws govern all complex flow systems, including natural ecosystems, economic and financial systems. Natural ecosystems are practical exemplars of sustainability: enduring, vital,...
The WAT system, as used in Japan, allows for businesses to issue their own tickets (IOU’s) which can circulate as a complementary currency within a community. In this paper, Bernard Lietaer and Mitra...
Contrary to popular belief, governments do not create money in our current system. As a matter of fact, whenever the revenues generated by taxes are inferior to their outlays, governments have to borrow...
My main qualification for talking the way I do about money is that for the last forty years I happen to have been exposed to an unusual variety of hands-on experiences of money as a system. This was not...
Since 2006, my academic research has been focused on identifying the conditions under which complex flow networks such as natural ecosystems are stable and sustainable. The data my colleagues and I have...
In 1932, in the midst of the Great Depression, the small town of Wörgl in Austria successfully experimented with its own local currency (in the form of a stamp scrip). Based on the thinking of...
Most people tend to regard money as “a thing” because that is usually the way it appears to us (as paper, coins, checks, credit cards etc). And yet, stranded on a desert island, we would quickly...
Overview: In this talk, Bernard explains that the current banking crisis is a structural crisis which requires a systemic solution. Studies have shown that a natural ecosystem’s ability to...
In this article, Bernard Lietaer, Robert Ulanowicz and Sally Goerner discuss the shortcomings of conventional approaches to managing banking crises (i.e. nationalization of problem assets), and they...