i read one of the panelists books awhile back (actually after a reference [slashdot.org] on slashdot:), the future of money by bernard lietaer. his main point is that "money is an agreement," which under that definition simplies the commonly understood definition -- a unit of account, a store of value, a means of exchange. so the scarcity of money in a society is a scarcity of agreement (echoed in dostoevsky's dream of ridiculous man btw, "if only we all agreed, it could all be arranged at once.")
from there he talks about how to create monetary systems that foster more agreement, creating money on demand with no inflationary consequences, such as Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) and HOURS. he also talks about demurrage currencies (used after WWI in austria--the worgl experiment--with interesting speculation that if it had been allowed to succeed, WWII may never have occurred!) and commodity buffer stocks originally advocated by keynes following WWII at bretton woods as the basis for the international monetary system (gold with the US dollar as reference currency was chosen instead--the white plan--and i think it was nixon who took us off the gold standard to finance the vietnam war more easily).
anyway, his point is that fractional reserve fiat based currencies are good for some things, but not suited for others (kind of like operating systems:) and that there'd be fewer financial and economic catastrophes if 'alternative' currencies were promoted and in some cases legalized to fill gaps not serviced by 'traditional' money. in the US, for example, i think the federal reserve's monetary policy 'levers' are increasingly blunt tools to regulate business cycles and the economic environment. having myriad interoperating systems of currencies could provide for a more stable and balanced system. one of the more interesting non-fiction books i've read in the past few years!
also btw, that same poster who dropped the lietaer book on me also had an interesting post on dee hock [slashdot.org] oh and, another cool take on money is keith hart's the memory bank [thememorybank.co.uk]. sorry to see he's not on the panel.
create your own money -- community currencies! (Score:2, Interesting)
from there he talks about how to create monetary systems that foster more agreement, creating money on demand with no inflationary consequences, such as Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) and HOURS. he also talks about demurrage currencies (used after WWI in austria--the worgl experiment--with interesting speculation that if it had been allowed to succeed, WWII may never have occurred!) and commodity buffer stocks originally advocated by keynes following WWII at bretton woods as the basis for the international monetary system (gold with the US dollar as reference currency was chosen instead--the white plan--and i think it was nixon who took us off the gold standard to finance the vietnam war more easily).
anyway, his point is that fractional reserve fiat based currencies are good for some things, but not suited for others (kind of like operating systems
also btw, that same poster who dropped the lietaer book on me also had an interesting post on dee hock [slashdot.org] oh and, another cool take on money is keith hart's the memory bank [thememorybank.co.uk]. sorry to see he's not on the panel.