Bretton Woods Monetary Institute & Festival
“The aim of the Bretton Woods Conference was the creation of a dynamic world community
in which the peoples of every nation will be able to realize their potentialities in peace.”
Henry Morgenthau, Chairman 1944 Bretton Woods Conference
& United States Secretary of the Treasury.
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RESOURCES
One cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created the problem in the first place, Einstein noted.
To try to do so, the father of modern science went on to add, is “insanity.”
“Too much of what young scholars [economists] write these days is theoretical drivel,
mathematically elegant but not about anything real.”
Alan Blinder, former Vice-Chairman of the FED,
Professor of Economics, Princeton University
“The economics profession has not, to say the least, covered itself in glory these past six years. Hardly any economists predicted the 2008 crisis — and the handful who did tended to be people who also predicted crises that didn’t happen. More significant, many and arguably most economists were claiming, right up to the moment of collapse, that nothing like this could even happen… Furthermore, once crisis struck economists seemed unable to agree on a response. They’d had 75 years since the Great Depression to figure out what to do if something similar happened again, but the profession was utterly divided when the moment of truth arrived.”
Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize Laureate in economics and New York Times Columnist
.
In response to the foregoing words — the unfortunate legacy of what is spoken of as the “dismal science” of economics — The Bretton Woods Monetary Institute will be compiling resources that address our mounting monetary crisis. Initial resources are introduced below; more are to come. The resources distinguish themselves in that they represent the new thinking that Churcill, Russell, and Einstein calls for.
That thinking integrates the cutting edge of modern western science — including the systems theory of leading experts such as Jay Forrester — with that age old wisdom that is native to this land. That synthesis we describe as an enlightened common sense. One of the original exponents of such a practice on our shores was considered to be our most accomplished Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin. Others have taken it up in and for our time.
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R E S O U R C E S
I. How the Economy Works:
The following video < https://youtu.be/PHe0bXAIuk0 > explains how our economy works, not in theory but in practice — as suggested by America’s most successful investor, Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates. Bridgewater’s unprecedented success has arisen out corporate culture, whose two central pillars are: radical honesty and radical transparency. This bracing tonic is illuminated in Ray Dalio’s book Principles.
II. New Economic Order by Richard Kotlarz
Introduction and exploration of a debt-based monetary system is offered by Richard Kotlarz, trustee of The Center for American Studies at Concord. Other articles and past blog writings by Richard are at: http://.richardkotlarz.com
Article available at New Economic Order
III. Cutting Edge Innovative Solutions
- Earth Day Video on New Economic Solutions: https://bit.ly/2SfsOGU
- On Demand, Group Skill Sharing, Banking On Your Network: https://www.yingme.co
IV. A contribution by The Money Systems Transparency Alliance, MSTA
The Money Systems Transparency Alliance offers the following simple observation: Since it can be shown that economic and financial “experts” do not have a valid definition/specification of money, the uncertain and erratic operations of our modern money/monetary system are called further into question.
Former President of the Federal Reserve in Minnesota, Naryana Kocherlakota addresses this fact in his 1998 paper “Technological Role of Money.” Framed in formal mathematical proofs, Kocherlakota writes:
“My argument demonstrates the vacuity of the three standard explanations of the role of fiat money in an economy: money acts as a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a unit of account.” and “The true explanation for money’s presence is that it is a record keeping device.”
We concur with Kocherlakota and note, thereto, that money’s true role as a “record keeping device,” or measure of value, external to itself, logically precludes that money also be treated as an “commodity” possessing value in and of itself, i.e. as an asset tradable on par with other goods and services in the market.
By formally framing money’s use in terms of elementary systems theory (an approach that is sorely lacking in mainstream economics), the long-waited reform of our monetary system can be instituted without loss, penalty, or disruption of economic activity. This is due to the fact that such a solution eliminates upwards to 2/3 of all current financial risk incurred systemically, i.e. not due to individual agents’ adherence to money’s current logical misrepresentation and the resultant misfortunes that are set, thereby, in motion.
Just as vitamin C is the singular solution to the otherwise irresolvable system-wide organ failure due to scurvy, so too correcting money’s misrepresentation has a similar curative effect on all aspects of human society and organization.
Once the reality of money’s lack of formal specification and subsequent misrepresentation is recognized, a clear legal imperative arises. That imperative requires all parties to money contracts, most particularly those who author them, to formally correct money’s current misrepresentation. The result of this process is the ratification of a formal specification of money that can be practically implemented by both experts and lay people alike, without compromising in any way the ongoing operation of our economy. The framework of the problem can be found at the following links:
^ MSTA idea to forum or here
^ https://webmail.mwt.net/?_task=mail&_action=get&_mbox=INBOX&_uid=44463&_part=2.2&_frame=1&_extwin=1
V. Concordian Economics:
1) The Integration of Economic Theory, Policy, and Practice by Dr. Carmine Gorga, former Fulbright Scholar, Scholar of Europe, and President of the Somist Institute.
The basis for this new economic paradigm was set out in Dr. Gorga’s ground-breaking book, The Economic Process. For its second annotation, the Journal of Economic Literature stated in its December 2017 issue (p. 1642): “The expanded third edition presents the transformation of economic theory into Concordian economics, shifting the understanding of the economic system from a mechanical, Newtonian entity to a more dynamic, relational process.” Fifty years in the making, Concordian economics is a new/old paradigm that, in the words of Vincent Ferrini, “has the answers to universal poverty and the anxieties of the affluent.”
Further contributions by Dr. Gorga include:
- Two Proposals to Stabilize the Monetary System
- Four Economic Rights and Responsibilities: Tools to Make the Corporation – and Governments – Serve the Needs of Human Beings
- Concordian economics: An Overall View. And Some of Its Effects:
How to Win the Affections of MAGA People
To Pay for Health Care There Is Also the Amish Way, The American Way
Rebuild the Downtown Through Racial Harmony
What do you actually lose if the stock market crashes?
Cash-Back: Equity for Consumers
4. Economics of Morality
5. Economics of Sentimentality
6. Return to Economic Justice: From Entitlements to Rights
7. The Concord Resolution as Key to Enter the Realm of Concordian Monetary Policy
2) Concordian Economics: An Economics of Common Sense, An Enlightened Common Sense.
VI. Finally, in the Concord Spirit and on a more historic note (that we have yet caught up to?), Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Wealth,” from his “Conduct of Life” series, provides an All-American cornerstone for each of the foregoing resources. Telling passages from the essay follow:
The value of a dollar is social, as it is created by society… They should own who can administer; not they who hoard and conceal; not they who, the greater proprietors they are, are only the greater beggars, but they whose work carves out work for more, opens a path for all. For he is the rich man in whom the people are rich, and he is the poor man in whom the people are poor.
Money is representative, and follows the nature and fortunes of the owner. The coin is a delicate meter of civil, social, and moral changes… A dollar is not value, but representative of value, and, at last, of moral values… The value of a dollar is, to buy just things: a dollar goes on increasing in value with all the genius, and all the virtue of the world. A dollar in a university, is worth more than a dollar in a jail.
The essay ends with Emerson’s presentation of five basic measures of economy, beginning with:
- The first of these measures is that each man’s expense must proceed from his character…..
Photo Gallery from 2015 Bretton Woods Convocation (if password required, enter concordium)
