Comments on: Bretton Woods II: Will a New Financial-World Order Solve the Economic Crisis? http://www.citizeneconomists.com/blogs/2008/10/20/bretton-woods-ii-will-a-new-financial-world-order-solve-the-economic-crisis/ Citizen Economists is an online economics magazine written by citizen journalists. These ordinary citizens provide reports and commentary on the current events affecting the economics of the fields they work in. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:10:48 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Hendrik Van der Elst http://www.citizeneconomists.com/blogs/2008/10/20/bretton-woods-ii-will-a-new-financial-world-order-solve-the-economic-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-31046 Hendrik Van der Elst Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:29:06 +0000 http://citizeneconomists.com/blogs/?p=813#comment-31046 In the physical world, there is a universal principle known as the "conservation of energy". Energy makes the world go around and is nor created nor lost. The net effect is a stable physical world with predictable ( at least on a macroscopic scale ) causal relationships. Energy appears in a number of different forms ( one may call it "currencies" ), but the "exchange rate" is fixed. In an "economic" world, money should do the same : there may be several different currencies, but there should be no cheating like it is being done now. Money should be a convention : for one currency unit, one can buy or exchange so-and-so much of something physical ( e.g. gold ). At present, this is not the case : countries or political unions ( US, EU ) with budgetary problems tend to inflate their way out by printing more money thus impoverishing their citizens and rendering their currency worthless over time. In a physical environment, the absense of an energy conservation law would lead to the end of the universe as we know very quickly, in an economic world it may take several years of cheating with the true value of money but eventually the system collapses. Therefore, a Bretton-Woods based on nothing physical will only lead to massive deception of people trying to save money for bad times - when the bad times come, the "world government" will start up the printing presses and create happily further on new money rendering all savings worthless again. In the physical world, there is a universal principle known as the “conservation of energy”. Energy makes the world go around and is nor created nor lost. The net effect is a stable physical world with predictable ( at least on a macroscopic scale ) causal relationships. Energy appears in a number of different forms ( one may call it “currencies” ), but the “exchange rate” is fixed. In an “economic” world, money should do the same : there may be several different currencies, but there should be no cheating like it is being done now. Money should be a convention : for one currency unit, one can buy or exchange so-and-so much of something physical ( e.g. gold ). At present, this is not the case : countries or political unions ( US, EU ) with budgetary problems tend to inflate their way out by printing more money thus impoverishing their citizens and rendering their currency worthless over time. In a physical environment, the absense of an energy conservation law would lead to the end of the universe as we know very quickly, in an economic world it may take several years of cheating with the true value of money but eventually the system collapses. Therefore, a Bretton-Woods based on nothing physical will only lead to massive deception of people trying to save money for bad times – when the bad times come, the “world government” will start up the printing presses and create happily further on new money rendering all savings worthless again.

]]> By: RT http://www.citizeneconomists.com/blogs/2008/10/20/bretton-woods-ii-will-a-new-financial-world-order-solve-the-economic-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-11403 RT Mon, 25 May 2009 23:17:17 +0000 http://citizeneconomists.com/blogs/?p=813#comment-11403 In November 2008 I read in an article by George Monbiot (www.monbiot.com) that John Maynard Keynes is wrongly blamed for decisions made at Bretton woods. In another one of his articles, 'There is no debt", he sums it up that essay by saying: "He [J.M.Keynes] proposed an “International Clearing Union” and a new currency, the bancor, in which international transactions would be conducted. Nations would be charged by the union for both overdrawn and surplus bancor accounts, encouraging creditors to spend their excess bancors in debtor countries, thus swiftly wiping out their deficit." See full articles, i'd like to know what you think as my knowledge on the subject is very minimal: http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/11/18/clearing-up-this-mess/ and http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2000/07/20/there-is-no-debt/ In November 2008 I read in an article by George Monbiot (www.monbiot.com) that John Maynard Keynes is wrongly blamed for decisions made at Bretton woods.

In another one of his articles, ‘There is no debt”, he sums it up that essay by saying:

“He [J.M.Keynes] proposed an “International Clearing Union” and a new currency, the bancor, in which international transactions would be conducted. Nations would be charged by the union for both overdrawn and surplus bancor accounts, encouraging creditors to spend their excess bancors in debtor countries, thus swiftly wiping out their deficit.”

See full articles, i’d like to know what you think as my knowledge on the subject is very minimal:

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/11/18/clearing-up-this-mess/
and
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2000/07/20/there-is-no-debt/

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