Several key dimensions of today’s world problématique have a common structural
cause: the imposition of a monopoly of one single type of medium exchange. For
instance, short-term thinking with all its consequences (e.g. environmental degradation
and climate change); poverty; and of course the instability of the financial system
itself, are all programmed through some specific features of our conventional money.
The on-going financial crisis is an opportunity to rethink our money so that it provides
the incentives needed to address the challenges of the 21st century. Concrete examples
of how money innovations will be provided: to make long-term thinking profitable,
how learning can be accelerated at all levels in society, how to motivate carbon
reductions at the consumer level, etc.