THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

Keynes concluded with the amazing statement that 'the future
would learn more from Gesell than from Marx'. At least some
officials at the Federal Reserve seem to have their own reasons to
agree with him (see sidebar). The best recent contemporary analysis
of Gesell's thesis is provided by Dietrich Suhr, proves that our
normal positive interest rate currencies create systematic
misallocation of resources, while zero-interest- rate or sustainabilityfee-charged
currencies do not. He also provides solid answers to
some of the criticisms levelled against sustainability-fee-charged
currencies.
These people were in favour of different parts of the GRC proposal
for a variety of valid reasons - other than sustainability - such as
monetary stability, reducing the volatility of business cycles, and
reduction of international inequalities. A Global Reference Currency
such as the Terra would also cumulate these advantages, in addition
to the benefits of the sustainability fee idea with its long-term
sustainability aim.
It is also important to understand that people would not need to
handle the commodities themselves when making or receiving
payments in Terra, exactly as someone owning a futures contract in
copper does not have to handle copper itself. A Terra is simply a
warehouse receipt giving the right to receive the value of the basket
of commodities in whatever currency he or she deals in. The Terra
would therefore be capable of being transferred electronically just
like today's national currencies; it would simply be stable and
inflation-proof, something, which today's national currencies have
proved not to be.
Historical precedent
Note that the idea of a commodity-backed currency combined with
a sustainability fee is not really new. An early form of it was applied