Money is wealth because it can be traded for another kind of wealth.
Money is a medium of exchange.
Money is useful to quantify wealth.
Money is a unit of account.
Money is useful to save wealth for the future.
Good money as basic income.
The money described on this page should be a new digital currency and not an existing currency.
Related: How to introduce good money.
The money manager (e.g. the government) provides the economy with money by a basic income.
The money manager (e.g. the government) distributes the same amount of money as basic income to every person of the society (including children) for free as wealth and not as debt.
The money manager (e.g. the government) controls prices.
Notably by an income levy.
No creation of new money by debt. Banks must invest only existing money.
How much money as basic income.
Population of 28 countries in 2017: 511 521 686.
Nominal GDP of 28 countries in current prices in 2017: € 15 383 066.1 million or € 15.383 trillion.
Nominal GDP of 28 countries per capita in 2017: € 30 000.
What is Nominal Gross Domestic Product (2018-03-30).
The basic income could be the equivalent of € 15 000 or more per year per capita (including children) in order to provide the economy with the appropriate amount of money.
The income levy determines how much good money is removed.
Why is this good money.
It is good digital money.
Thus it is cheap and easy to use and it enables perfect knowledge and an automatic income levy system.
It is wealth and not debt.
Related: No creation of new money by debt.
It grants the right of wealth to everyone.
Good change determines life and death of sentient beings every second.
Video: Theresa May: "There is no magic money tree" (2017-06-03).
Universal Basic Income Is Easier Than It Looks (2018-12-28).
Debt always grows faster than the money available to repay it. One problem is the interest, which is not created along with the principal, so more money is always owed back than was created in the original loan. Beyond that, some of the money created as debt is held off the consumer market by "savers" and investors who place it elsewhere, making it unavailable to companies selling their wares and the wage-earners they employ.
Coping with crisis. Yanis Varoufakis. Plenary 11 at PLSA Investment Conference 2016 (2016-03-11) time 13.
GAIM interview Yanis Varoufakis about democracy and investing (2016-08-12) time 39.
The Global Minotaur: The Crash of 2008 and the Euro-Zone Crisis in Historical Perspective (2011-11-12).
Time 587: Post war era.
Time 1295: Quote:	Let's not forget, that markets do not stimulate demand on the basis of desire or need.
They stimulate it on the basis of the ability to pay.
Yanis Varoufakis - Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future (2016-05-03).
Time 1080: 1st story: Doomed to fail.
Time 1715: 2nd story: Terrible policies lead to terrible outcomes.
Time 2044: 3rd story: Inside or outside. Deep state.
Time 2405: One global village.
Taibbi: Is LIBOR, Benchmark for Trillions of Dollars in Transactions, a Lie? (2015-08-11).
Ten Years After the Crash, We've Learned Nothing (2018-09-13).
IMO: Debt is no solution against poverty. Debt is bad.
Yanis Varoufakis: Live at Politics and Prose (2018-01-01).
Time 230: Economics is about power.
Time 377: Thankfully there is no such thing as an economics expert.
Time 710: No time and space in economic models.
Time 803: All the great theorems of economists require the absence of time, space, money and debt.
Time 875: No economist predicted the financial crash in 2008.
Time 910: It is imperative that every citizen is activated as economic theorist.
The value of money as medium of exchange is very important.
For the use of prices.
There is no benefit in a general increase of the price numbers by 50% every year.
For the understanding of prices by humans.
It required several months for persons in the EU to understand the prices in euros.
For the stability of prices for the human psychology.
It is not a good impression that prices increase by 50% every year.
For imports and exports because of the currency exchange rate.
For contracts involving imports and exports.
The prices of goods and services.
The prices of other currencies (exchange rates).
by the offer of money by buyers.
by the offer of goods and services and other money by sellers.
IMO inflation happens when the general offer of money for goods and services grows faster than the general offer of goods and services for money.
Creation of money: Good money as basic income.
Destruction of money: Income levy.
E.g. states can remove private ownership of land by force and redistribute the land.
Related: Different trade of surfaces.
States can enfore policies that remove modern poverty and thus prevent inflation of real estate prices.
Yanis Varoufakis with Ruth Wishart at the Edinburgh Book Festival, August 18, 2018 | DiEM25 (2018-09-24).
Time 1117: Space for democracy. Control and freedom.
An income levy on all received money in order to remove money that was distributed as basic income.
The income levy is applied automatically on all money accounts.
The levy depends on accounts and not on persons with control of the account.
The levy should be used to control inflation.
The levy should not be used to limit good activities of the government.
It is called a levy and not a tax because the purpose is not to collect money to pay for something.
Rich persons are not the problem.
Poor persons are the problem.
Abolition of modern poverty ASAP.
Related: Good money as basic income.
No creation of new money by debt.
Contracts where parts of realized profits are paid to investors.
The current debt money system must be replaced ASAP.
Banks must not create money.
Banks must invest only existing money.
Debt promotes bad economic relations and bad use of wealth.
Debt leads to debt crises.
Banks must be profitable by investing only money offered by investors (e.g. savers).
No cheating by creating money as debt.
Why Is the Fed Paying So Much Interest to Banks? (2019-04-01).
If you were to put $5,000 in a regular Bank of America savings account (paying 0.01%) today, in a year you would have collected only 50 cents in interest.
That's true for most of us, but banks themselves are earning 2.4% on their deposits at the Federal Reserve. These deposits, called "excess reserves," include the reserves the banks got from our deposits, and on which they are paying almost nothing; and unlike with our deposits, there is no $250,000 cap on the sums banks can stash at the Fed amassing interest. A whopping $1.5 trillion in reserves are now sitting in Fed reserve accounts. The Fed rebates its profits to the government after deducting its costs, and interest paid to banks is one of those costs. That means we, the taxpayers, are paying $36 billion annually to private banks for the privilege of parking their excess reserves at one of the most secure banks in the world—parking them, rather than lending them out.
While U.S. banks are being paid an unprecedented 2.4% for leaving their reserves at the Fed, the European Central Bank is taking the opposite tack: It is charging banks a negative interest rate of 0.4% for holding its reserves. The goal is to get banks to move the reserves off their books by making new loans.
Negative interest rates were supposed to be a temporary emergency measure, but in comments on Saturday, ECB President Mario Draghi hinted that they could be around for a long time, if not permanently. The "new normal" is evidently a chronically abnormal state of emergency in which central banks can experiment with the formerly unthinkable and get away with it.
No secrets related to commerce and trade and (money) ownership.
All transactions with money are registered by computers and accessible to all for free.
There must be no bad privacy.
There must be no intellectual property.
Perfect markets require perfect knowledge.
Good money is implemented in a useful efficient open way.
Unlike harmful secretive wasteful inefficient currencies like cash money.
Unlike harmful secretive wasteful inefficient currencies like Bitcoin.
Bitcoin can be profitable for early adopters because the amount of Bitcoins is almost limited by design.
Bitcoin is not useful for an economy because Bitcoin is a limited deflationary currency that is not under benevolent control. It is technically not possible to create arbitrary Bitcoins for good purposes.
Bitcoin is technically slow and wasteful.
reuters.com: China wants to ban bitcoin mining, traders say move not a surprise (2019-04-09).
The draft for a revised list added cryptocurrency mining, including that of bitcoin, to more than 450 activities the NDRC said should be phased out as they did not adhere to relevant laws and regulations, were unsafe, wasted resources or polluted the environment.
HN: EU charges eight banks over alleged government bond cartel (2019-02-01).
Article: EU charges eight banks over alleged government bond cartel (2019-01-31).
How to introduce good money.
There are 2 ways to introduce the good money as basic income.
As part of the price.
Money of the new currency is used as part of the price to pay for a good or service.
For the buyer: The good money is distributed as basic income.
For the seller: Adding the good money as price constraint is rather easy and cheap. The problem is not that goods and services are sold for worthless good money. The problem is that buyers might not have the good money to pay the price.
The lustysociety could create good digital money for only the cost of the digital trade system.
The government enforces the good money as legal tender so that prices must also be declared in good money units.
A good modern rich society has abolished poverty by science and technology and good management.
Related: Why is this good money.
Related: Why rights of freedom must be granted.
In an evil inefficient primitive society with wage slavery: Natural resources are the limiting factor of production. Humans do anything to work for money for survival. Including destruction of their own health and the health of their environment.
In a good efficient modern society with basic income: Human labor and science and technology (e.g. automation) and good management are the limiting factors of production.
Science and technology and good management are the basis of all health and wealth and good change.
Science and technology and good management determine the utility of resources.
A minimum wage promotes elimination of human labor that becomes too expensive.
This reduces the cost of human labor for the society.
The cost of human labor for the society and life on Earth must be minimized ASAP.
The cost being distress, pollution, time, effort and other resources.
A minimum wage promotes automation of work.
A minimum wage promotes and protects wage slavery as good and desirable.
You live if you can earn your living.
You are your job title.
Your worth and opinions are validated by your wealth and income.
Reddit: Report why a basic income is wanted by many in poverty (2019-04-04).
A minimum wage does not allow a person to do what is most profitable.
By creation of a company without losing all unemployment benefits.
By working for less in exchange for learning profitable skills.
A sufficient basic income grants freedom by abolition of wage slavery.
Individual companies determine the personal income.
Some persons are lucky to work for well paying companies.
Some persons are capable of negociating a better reward for their work. Maybe at the cost of other persons; zero-sum game.
Other persons are less lucky or less capable.
The society can affect the personal income in an egalitarian way.
A minimum wage is no protection against poverty caused by unemployment in a society with wage slavery and automation.
A minimum wage means a higher income for those who are employed.
More inequality between the poor (unemployed or poor entrepreneurs) and those with a good income.
Less relative benefit of the basic income.
A minimum wage could lead to inflation.
A minimum wage could lead to an increase of non-minimum wages.
This reduces the benefit of the minimum wage.
Reddit: Basic Income, Not Basic Jobs: Against Hijacking Utopia (2019-04-18).
Article: Basic Income, Not Basic Jobs: Against Hijacking Utopia (2018-05-16).
Then they have to worry that some neighbor is going to think "well, that guy looks pretty healthy", take a photo, and they'll end up as one of those stories with headlines like SO-CALLED DISABLED PERSON CAUGHT PLAYING SPORTS IN PARK.
Other times it's a bureaucratic issue. I had a patient who, after a few years on disability, recovered enough that he thought he could work about ten hours a week. When he tried to make it happen, he learned he would lose his disability payments – apparently if you can work at all the government doesn't believe you're really disabled – and ten hours a week wasn't enough to support himself. So he cancelled the new job and didn't work at all.
Poor people's two largest expenses are housing and transportation.
Related: The Yellow Vest protests in France regarding a carbon tax.
Not expensive fuel that enforces poverty and lack of beneficial economic activity.
Modern life in modern cities.
Reddit: Five Star 'citizenship income' will create a poverty trap, Van Parijs says, recommending UBI instead (2019-04-02).
Article: Five Star 'citizenship income' will create a poverty trap, Van Parijs says (2019-03-29).
Germany, England and France are some of the European countries where a workfare based on a minimum income system has existed for years. Many researchers have criticized this measure because it has created a "poverty trap." What is that?
It is precisely what I just illustrated: with a means-tested scheme, i.e. a scheme that restricted benefits to households below some income threshold, many poor people are stuck in poverty because their attempt to get out of it by earning some modest income is "rewarded" by a corresponding reduction of their benefits. This applies to obligation-free welfare schemes as well as to workfare schemes, i.e. schemes that impose more or less ruthlessly on all able-bodied claimants an obligation to be available for work. Workfare is precisely a way of trying to make poor people work despite the poverty trap.
A job guarantee might be used as label for different job programs.
A good currency union can be very useful to introduce and enforce good money.
It is a currency union of competiting states, each with different political and economic and technical abilities and preferences and plans for the future.
It is a currency union that enforces bad money distributed by banks as debt.
Bad trade of money and goods and services between competing organizations (states, societies).
This can lead to the destruction (specialization) of the industry of the weaker organization (state, society).
Especially if bad debt is granted.
Bad debt relations between competing organizations (states, societies).
In a way, Greece suffers from the dutch disease.
Not oil and bad politicians but debt and bad politicians were the problem.
Debt is particularly bad if the currency of the debt is not under control of the debitor.
Yanis Varoufakis: Is Capitalism Devouring Democracy? (2018-05-17).
Yanis Varoufakis cites former German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble: "Elections can not be allowed to change economic policy".
The assault on democracy in Italy (2018-05-30).
Governments should not issue debt under foreign law (2018-07-03).
The destruction of Greece – the slow-burn decline of a nation (2018-10-09).
In the case of Greece, the Troika inflicted such harsh policies that, not only has the material prosperity of the nation been trashed, but now, evidence is emerging that the underlying physical and mental health of the people has been significantly damaged. One step short of genocide. The slow-burn destruction of Greece and its people continues.
Yanis Varoufakis | The Euro Has Never Been More Problematic | Oxford Union (2018-12-23).
A stable healthy wealthy self-determined autarkic industry is necessary as protection against economic war including sanctions by competing organizations (states, societies).
Madeleine Albright says 500,000 dead Iraqi Children was "worth it" wins Medal of Freedom (2012-05-02).
The UN was willing to sacrifice half a million children in Iraq to please the USA by supporting the US war against Iraq.
Cold war against Russia including sanctions.
Who's the boss? SWIFT defies EU, caving in to US pressure to cut off Iranian banks (2018-11-07).
No volunteers: EU countries bow to US pressure over alternative payment channel for Iran (2018-11-15).
European firms 'won't dare' use new EU payment system for trade with Iran out of fear of US (2019-02-01).
Leftist Debunks John Oliver's Venezuela Episode (2018-06-07).
The Roots of Venezuela's Economic Crisis (2018-12-27).
Act of gangsterism against Venezuela: Trump, Pence, Pompeo star in the Pirates of the Caribbean (2019-01-24).
Discerning readers will already be aware that Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves and is a major producer – and the biggest seller to the American market.
An almost random figure whose name was largely unknown until this week has disdained to put himself up for election as president of the republic, instead pronouncing himself to actually be the president, and has even sworn himself in!
And the "international community" recognizes Juan Guaido. This includes US, Canada and assorted American satrapies across the world. They will likely soon be joined by the so-called democratic European Union, NATO and almost certainly the UK. It is a new form, to be sure – usually the hated Latin American presidents are dead, like Allende in Chile, or have fled or been jailed before the coup de grace is delivered.
France's Macron calls election of Venezuela's Maduro 'illegitimate' (2019-01-24).
Attempted Coup in Venezuela with Abby Martin, Greg Wilpert, Paul Jay (2019-01-25).
Iraq war architect Elliott Abrams to lead US regime change in Venezuela (2019-01-26).
Between the recognition, the Treasury announcement, and the appointment of Abrams, it seems that President Donald Trump has entirely abandoned his campaign plank of opposing regime change and nation-building interventions, embracing instead the neoconservative line championed then – and this week as well – by his rival Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida).
The Making of Juan Guaidó: How the US Regime Change Laboratory Created Venezuela's Coup Leader (2019-01-29).
Should protect and sustain its wealth in the form of independence and resources and infrastructure and a stable healthy wealthy self-determined autarkic industry.
Thus it should not rely on import and export of goods and services (including money).
Thus it should minimize trade with competiting organizations in general.
Besides, this reduces ecologial harm by transport.
Information should be shared for free.
Should cooperate and not compete if possible.
Should either sell its money or offer its money as free gift.
Should not borrow money if the currency of the debt is not its own currency.
Should not abandon its own currency to use a currency under the control of another organization.
Yanis Varoufakis - The Universal Dividend and Basic Income.
Video: Yanis Varoufakis: Basic Income is a Necessity (2016-05-07).
Video: Yanis Varoufakis - The Universal Dividend and Basic Income (2017-10-22).
Video: DiEM25 presents The Real State of the Union - Brussels Sept 2017 (2019-03-23).
Green transition program including green energy and technological sovereignty of Europe.
Economic and social stabilization program.
Including anti-poverty programs: US style food stamps, a social housing program, a job guarantee for job seekers within their communities to prevent involuntary migration within Europe.
A Universal Basic Dividend (UBD) that allows Europeans to share the returns of capital and automation.
Time 4770: Funding of the economic and social stabilization programs.
Time 4802: Funding of the Universal Basic Dividend (UBD).
Funding by the dividends from a percentage of shares from every corporate IPO or capital raising exercise and levies on intellectual property rights and on common knowledge monopolies.
This will be a small payment but it will grow as automation grows and as human labor is being displaced by the rise of the machines.
Wikipedia: Monopoly of knowledge. Did he mean that kind of monopoly? Did he mean companies like Amazon and Google and Microsoft?
Video (original): DiEM25: The Real State of the Union, Brussels (2017-09-09) time 6204.
Text: DiEM25's European New Deal (2017-02-17).
DiEM25 proposes a simple policy: That legislation be enacted requiring that a percentage of capital stock (shares) from every initial public offering (IPO) be channelled into a Commons Capital Depository, with the associated dividends funding a universal basic dividend (UBD). This UBD should, and can be, entirely independent of welfare payments, unemployment insurance, and so forth, thus ameliorating the concern that it would replace the welfare state, which embodies the concept of reciprocity between wagedworkers and the unemployed. For Europe to embrace the rise of the machines, but ensure that they contribute to shared prosperity, it must grant every citizen property rights over the monetary returns they produce, thus yielding a UBD.
Additionally, DiEM25 proposes that, in good time, the governance of financial institutions (especially those backed by taxpayers) and other corporations be democratised, with increasing participation in their boards of directors of representatives of local, regional and national communities.
We will set up a Citizen Wealth Fund that is owned collectively by the European public. This portfolio will include assets purchased by central banks, a percentage of capital stock from initial public offerings (IPOs), and revenues from intellectual property rights, among others.
Each year, the Fund will distribute a Universal Citizen Dividend that allows each and every citizen to enjoy the fruits of economic activity. The proposed Dividend is independent of social assistance payments, unemployment insurance, and other welfare programmes.
We believe that the dividend is the first step toward the creation of a universal basic income, which can provide freedom and dignity to all Europeans, regardless of employment status.
We call on all European countries to reach a multilateral agreement to guarantee decent jobs for all European residents who seek one. The Jobs Guarantee will empower local authorities to employ millions of people in useful jobs, and it will provide wages to millions of workers in areas like social care that are currently unpaid. Through this Jobs Guarantee, we can end the twin crisis of unemployment and forced migration in Europe.
I like that the state buys shares of companies for investment and ownership and for later dividends to redistribute money.
Is the Universal Dividend enough? And when?
Besides: Will Amazon Ever Pay A Dividend? (2019-03-21).
No proposal is good enough if it does not propose the abolition of wage slavery and modern poverty ASAP.
How to know what part of the profits is realized by machines?
Are there special computations to determine the Universal Dividend?
These questions matter because, according to the video Yanis Varoufakis - The Universal Dividend and Basic Income, Yanis Varoufakis might want to redistribute only the profits generated by machines and not by humans.
When should the sane morality and culture begin that a human is welcome even without paid work?
When should the sane morality and culture begin that a human works for fun or for the society and not only for selfish personal economic wealth and superiority and for social pride and superiority?
I am against intellectual property.
Related: No intellectual property (IP).
There is no initial public offering (IPO) for the current giant companies that most likely remain the dominating giant companies in the future. At least this century.
The Universal Dividend does not retrieve money from these companies.
Should the European Central Bank (ECB) create money to buy shares of existing giant companies?
Buying shares means investment in the company.
What companies are invested in?
Is there potential for corruption?
How is decided what companies are supported with how much money?
Will investments depend on buzzwords, personal relations, geo-political power concerns, marketing and isegoria?
Time 420: Isegoria in politics.
Do citizens of the EU want investment in and owning of private companies by the Universal Dividend manager?
Do citizens of the EU want investment in foreign companies instead of national companies?
Does the rest of the world tolerate investment in and owning of private companies by the Universal Dividend manager?
Does the USA tolerate US companies to be owned (partially) by the Universal Dividend manager?
Does China tolerate Chinese companies to be owned (partially) by the Universal Dividend manager?
Should a company be owned by many governments?
Winds of Change: The Case for New Digital Currency.
Winds of Change: The Case for New Digital Currency (2018-11-14).
By Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director, Singapore Fintech Festival.
A state-backed token, or perhaps an account held directly at the central bank, available to people and firms for retail payments? True, your deposits in commercial banks are already digital. But a digital currency would be a liability of the state, like cash today, not of a private firm.
Debt is bad. Good money is wealth and not a liability.
Debt and money owned by harmful organizations like e.g. the ECB of the Eurozone or certain member states of the Eurozone.
Debt and money owned by a merciless purely profit oriented bank that is in competition with other banks and thus without full market control and thus without motivation to increase the wealth and prosperity of everyone.
I agree. No initial distribution of public money as debt owned by private banks.
Without cash, too much power could fall into the hands of a small number of outsized private payment providers. Payments, after all, naturally lean toward monopolies—the more people you serve, the cheaper and more useful the service.
This is silly and false and misleading.
Cash money can be abused more easily by harmful governments and companies.
Example: Greek debt crisis: the key points of Athens bank controls (2015-06-29).
Online payment providers and users want trades but are limited by harmful governments.
How paying for a Cuban sandwich with Venmo could get your account frozen (2018-01-04).
Consider a simple example. Imagine that people purchasing beer and frozen pizza have higher mortgage defaults than citizens purchasing organic broccoli and spring water. What can you do if you have a craving for beer and pizza but do not want your credit score to drop? Today, you pull out cash. And tomorrow? Would a privately-owned payment system push you to the broccoli aisle?
No initial distribution of public money as debt owned by private banks.
Instead money should flow to producers of healthy wanted products by markets regulated by beneficial entities.
Related: Talk - Howard Lyman - Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat (2010-03-12) time 432.
Would central banks jump to the rescue and offer a fully anonymous digital currency? Certainly not. Doing so would be a bonanza for criminals.
Good money allows perfect knowledge for all for free.
Of course this "extreme stand" is not what Christine Lagarde had in mind.
Of course Christine Lagarde addressed the financial industry present at the Singapore Fintech Festival.
Let's return to the tradeoff between privacy and financial integrity. Could we find a middle ground?
There is no good middle ground.
The second risk relates to financial stability. Digital currencies could exacerbate the pressure on bank deposits we discussed earlier.
Good money should be accepted by persons because the money and the money provider serves them well.
If digital currency became too popular, it might ironically stifle innovation. Where is your role if the central bank offers a full-service solution, from digital wallet, to token, to back-end settlement services?
What if, instead, central banks entered a partnership with the private sector—banks and other financial institutions—and said: you interface with the customer, you store their wealth, you offer interest, advice, loans. But when it comes time to transact, we take over.
The role and profit of the financial industry present at the Singapore Fintech Festival should have no importance at all.
Only the benefit of money for the society should matter.