I am trying to establish an informal discussion group on the net on
the topic described below. Please contact me if you are interested in
such a group, or maybe only in the references given.
I am very interested in the theories of what could be called the
"neo-Gesellian" school, arguing that the compounding of interest an
dividends is a prime cause for deep economic and ecological crises, and
proposing alternative interest-free "neutral money" systems, originated
by the German-Argentinian merchant and economic theorist Silvio Gesell
(1862 - 1930) and later proposed by among others professor Irving
Fisher during the great depression. Recent contributions are (Suhr
1989, Lietaer 1990, Kennedy 1991). The non-neutrality of money and
Gesell's ideas are treated in respectively chapters 17 and 23 of
(Keynes 1936).
A zero-interest economy demands a solution to the seemingly unsolvable
problem of stimulating excess cash to flow to the agent needing the
most to be liquid, without the incentive of returns to the
lender/saver/investor. The interest-free money concept is tailored to
tackle this problem. Such a money system has gone under a lot of
labels: "Schwundgeld"- which means "dwindling money", "neutral money",
(Irving Fisher's) "stamp scrip".
Keynes calls Gesell the "unduly neglected prophet" and admits that he
(Keynes, that is) "treated his his profoundly original strivings as
being no better than those of a crank". "The idea behind stamped money
(Gesell's proposal) is sound", says Keynes, but he will not support
Gesell all the way. See GT ch. 23, book VI. Suhr, however, argues IMO
convincingly that Keynes' reservations vs Gesell were inconsistent with
Keynes' own analysis of money's special characteristics.
E-mail me if you are interested or just curious!
Trond Andresen ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Department of Engineering Cybernetics
The Norwegian Institute of Technology
N-7034 Trondheim, NORWAY
phone +47 73 59 43 58
fax +47 73 59 43 99
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References
Kennedy, Margrit, 1991, Geld ohne Zinsen und Inflation,
Goldmann Verlag, Muenchen.
Keynes, John M.,1936, The General Theory of Employment,
Interest and Money, Macmillan, London
Lietaer, Bernard A., 1990, A Strategy for a convertible Currency
ICIS Forum, International Center for Integrative Studies, New York,
Vol. 20, No.3, pp 59-72.
Suhr, Dieter, 1989, The capitalistic Cost-Benefit Structure of Money -
An Analysis of Money's Structural Non-Neutrality and its Effect on the
Economy,
Studies in Contemporary Economics, Springer Verlag, Berlin
Heidelberg.
