How to Fulfil the UN Sustainability Goals

ISBN-13: 9783031377679 / Angielski / Twarda / 2023

Felix Fuders

Opis

 This book combines the field of economics —especially monetary theory— with other disciplines like ecology, physics, humanities, social sciences and development theory. This transdisciplinary approach makes the book a unique contribution for researchers, students, policy makers and professionals working in governmental or nongovernmental institutions, as well as anyone interested in society’s well-being and achieving a true social-ecological transformation. It is written in an accessible language in order to reach a broad audience.In 2015, more than 190 world leaders recognized that the world is on a “collision course” (Max-Neef) and committed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Many conferences and high-level meetings have been held since then, and one of the most frequently discussed topics is how to finance these goals. There is a widespread belief that coming up with more money for sustainable development will “do the trick”. Usually, the discussions focus on finding additional financial resources in order to achieve the goals faster. In this book it is argued that not only is more money needed, but it needs to be a different kind of money. The book demonstrates that ALL but one of the SDGs are directly linked to our monetary system, which —being completely unnatural— can be seen as the most important, but at the same time least recognized, reason for market failure. Many people think we just need to do more, faster, better. Very few say that we have done things fundamentally wrong and that the institutions and values which motivated us to do those things need to be changed. It will be concluded that only if we change our unnatural design of money to a more natural one, will we be able to reach these goals

Spis treści

FOREWORD

PREFACE

PART I MONEY AND ITS ROLE IN THE ECONOMY

1.  Introduction

References

2.  What is money?

2.1 The functions of money

2.2 Money creation: some preliminary thoughts

2.3 Money creation: the money multiplier theory

2.4 Money creation “ex nihilo” (out of nothing)?

2.5 How do the different views come about 

2.6 Discussion

2.7 Conclusion

References

3. Money is like the ‘blood’ of the economy

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Virtual wealth: why money has no intrinsic value

3.3 Money is the measure of value

3.4 The money illusion and the importance of perception

3.5 The problem is the unnatural design of our money

References

PART II MONEY AND UNSUSTAINABILITY IN STRICTO SENSU

4. The growth imperative inherent in our financial system

4.1 The unnatural storability of money as origin of interest

4.2 Demystifying the role of interest

4.3 Interest makes the money supply and debt grow exponentially

4.4 Inflation, speculation, crisis and deflation

4.5 Interest makes growth in the real economy mandatory (microeconomic view) 

References

5. The effect of interest on the money supply, demand and growth

5.1  Interest makes growth possible (macroeconomic view) 

5.2 Explanation of the relationship between interest, GDP growth and inflation

5.3 Empirical evidence and causality

5.4 Interest destroys Fullarton’s law of reflux

5.5 Central banks are trend followers, not trend setters

5.6 Our money is not neutral and is not capital

5.7 The growth imperative even applies to natural resources

5.8 Discussion

5.9 Conclusions

References

6. Economic growth in the long run is unsustainable

6.1 What is sustainability? 

6.2 We are an integral part of nature

6.3 Economic activity and the biosphere

6.4 There is no such thing as a ‘sustainable’ growth

6.5 Discussion

6.6 Conclusions

References

7. Economic growth or unemployment

7.1 The force behind Okun’s law

7.2 SDG No. 8 tries to “square the circle”

7.3 Discussion

7.4 Does population growth require economic growth? 

References

PART III.  MONEY AND INEQUALITY

8. Our current monetary system produces income inequality

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Exponentially growing deposits and debt

8.3 In perfect competition unjust inequality should not exist

8.4 Is the economic theory wrong? 

References

9. Moral-ethical aspects of interest-induced inequality

9.1 The perfect mechanism for wealth redistribution (from the poor to the rich) 

9.2 Money does not work, nor produce offspring

9.3 The borrower takes the entrepreneurial risk and pays twice

9.4 Can interest even be considered fraud? 

9.5 A reward for the sacrifice of consumption, or for improving productivity? 

9.6 The money owners should thank the borrower

9.7 Interest can be seen as a monopoly rent

9.8 Interest is comparable to extortion

9.9 Market prices are not always fair

9.10 Interest contradicts all theories of justice

9.11 Speculation

9.12 The prohibition of interest in the Holy Scripture

9.13 Did Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas lack a sound capital markets theory? 

9.14 Conclusions

References

PART IV   NATURAL MONEY AS SOLUTION

10. Gesell’s solution

10.1 Money that circulates naturally

10.2 The natural money banking system

10.3 Discussion

10.4 We can finally approach “perfect competition”

10.5 A natural land property order

10.6 Is the Natural Economic Order a Christian Economic Order? 

References

11. Gesell’s Solution to achieve the SDGs`

11.1 SDG 1 and 2 (No poverty and zero hunger) 

11.2 SDGs 3, 4 and 6 (Good health and wellbeing, quality education, clean water and sanitation) 

11.3 SDG 5 and 10 (Gender equality and Reduced inequalities) 

11.4 SDG 7 (Affordable and clean energy) 

11.5 SDG 8 (Decent work and economic growth) 

11.6 SDG 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure) 

11.7 SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) 

11.8 SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production) 

11.9 SDG 13, 14 and 15 (Climate action, life below water and life on land) 

11.10 SDG 16 (Peace and justice, strong institutions) 

11.11 SDG 17 (Partnerships for the goals) 

References

12. How to implement Gesell’s solution in today’s world

12.1 Governmentally imposed hoarding tax

12.2 Effective central bank negative interest rate policy

12.3 Some further reflections

12.4 Discussion of some myths on negative rates

References

13. Alternatives to Gesell’s solution? 

13.1 “100% Money” and “sovereign money”

13.2 Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) 

13.3 Marxism, communism and socialism

13.4 Gold standard or other “backed money”

13.5 Inflation adjusted accounting units like the Chilean UF

13.6 Time Banks & time vouchers

13.7 Social or local money

13.8 Credit cooperatives and trustee savings banks

13.9 Cryptocurrencies

13.10 Prohibition of interest / Islamic Banking

13.11 Ethical banking and microcredits

13.12 Bailouts, “Bad Banks” & Co. 

13.13 Tobin Tax and austerity

13.14 Degrowth, decarbonize and circular economy

13.15 Doughnut Economy, Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie & Buen vivir

13.16 Overview

References

14. Experiences with Gesell’s solution in the past

14.1 Introduction

14.2 Natural money experiments

14.3 Natural land order experiments

14.4 Bracteates in the Middle Age

References

PART V   OUTLOOK AND FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

15. Towards Development at Human Scale

15.1 The Human-Scale-Development approach

15.2  The necessary market structur

15.3 Development at Human Scale and GDP growth

15.4 Growth and inequality

15.5  From chrematistics back to oikonomia

References

16. Economic resilience in the face of external shocks

16.1 Natural money for a sustainable monetary system

16.2 Natural disasters and wars benefit the financial sector

16.3 A negative Outlook

16.4 A positive outlook

References

17. Addendum – Some final considerations

17.1  Deviation from nature – the cause of many diseases

17.2 A natural economy is a healthy economy

17.3 Towards an economy of neighborly love

O autorze

Felix Fuders holds a M.A. in International Business Administration and a Ph.D. in Economics and Social Science (Germany). Professor of Microeconomics, Monetary and Fiscal Policy and Ecological Economics at the Universidad Austral de Chile. He currently serves as director of the Economics Institute as well as coordinator of the Right Livelihood College, campus Valdivia. Head of the Economic Policy chapter of the Transdisciplinary Research Center of Socio Ecological Strategies for Forest Conservation. Felix Fuders is the chairman of the Natural Economic Order Foundation (INWO .e.V.), Frankfurt, member of the Association for Sustainability, Berlin, member of the Sustainable Economics Network, Berlin and member of the academic council of the Instituto de Estudios Económicos Silvio Gesell, Buenos Aires. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Applied Sciences Münster, Germany and visiting researcher at University of Bonn, Germany.