Ending The Global Casino

"Ending the Global Casino? offers the reader a shocking view behind the scenes of the ''dim" global banking world. I have read the book as if it were a detective novel. Once started, I wanted to know all about it, and read the book in the same breath. This book turned my view on money and banking completely upside down." Albert de Booy, CEO  Speakers Academy

In Ending the Global Casino Ad Broere explains that financial crises, scarcity, debts, and interest are not Nature's Way, and that the present monetary system is not the only choice we have. We can say goodbye to this global casino, and opt for a solution in which money plays a subservient role. We can choose for an economy that invests in a better future for the planet and all its living creatures. Our reward may be a high and sustainable quality of life for us and for our children. However, this will require a completely different attitude towards money and economy. The famous Dutch cartoonist Jos Collignon has illustrated the book with to-the-point and humoristic cartoons.

Read Now it's time to act, to learn why stopping the financial elite's global monetary playground is vital for our future!

Bigger Stakes

Ed Mayo on the big ‘bet’ we cannot afford to lose. Ending the Global Casino? By Ad Broere. Humane Economy Publishings, 2010. ISBN: 9789081628013

My first and only foray into gambling was an afternoon with my 12-year-old brother at the horse races in Fakenham in rural Norfolk. I bet my pennies on every other race, watching in awe, pint-sized by the rails on a final corner, as the thrill of sweat and noise, crowd and cheers washed towards me, broke and then waved on to the final line.

My pocket money all went to the bookies, but I learned something from my big brother, who ended ahead. He stood innocently around the punters in conversation close to the gate and got his tips from close to the horse’s mouth: Don’t bet on the name of the horse – find out what’s really going on.

Until this review book arrived from Resurgence, I’d assumed that I had never in fact set foot in a casino. The author, Ad Broere, set me straight. Our home streets may be named as in Manchester, Dartington or Manila, but the reality is that we all live in a global casino. We are all the gamblers. We gamble every day and yet we fail to see it.

Ending the Global Casino? is a book written with passion. It is a polemic, but a polemic with cartoons. There is a tradition of social critics, including Noam Chomsky and more recently Naomi Klein, in which the only light moments in pages of forensic analysis are passages of ironic comment that make you smile and wince at the same time. Broere is a more lovable radical, combining anecdote and insight with a touch light enough to belie the seriousness of his underlying message.

In the global casino, he shows financial-market traders who buy and sell during the day and take cocaine at night. Both give a thrill. Both allow them to act without any sense of proportion. With both, they can’t stop where they know they really should.

In the global casino, you can win without ever making a full gamble. A sleight of the hand in modern capitalism is that there is often no capital behind it. Fractional reserve banking creates money, well beyond your reserves, from thin air. Rules drawn up by the bank that financed the Nazi war machine in the 1930s and 1940s (the Bank for International Settlements) then allowed banks essentially to create reserves from thin air.

In the global casino, you keep playing because you can’t see when you lose. Following the work of Margrit Kennedy – the great citation for all recent monetary reformers – the author explains how 40% of the cost of everyday goods and services actually goes to pay off the interest that is due in a system where money creates money.

There are points of light that the author draws our attention to. There is the heroic work of the no-interest Swedish cooperative bank JAK. And the Swiss WIR is one of the complementary currencies that offers hope of reintroducing diversity in economic life – the right mix, as he sees it, of connectivity and resilience.

So what is his advice for casino dwellers and one-time horse-racing gamblers? It’s simple – "Give up your addiction” – but somewhat harder to enact.

The author wants to shake his readers out of their mindset but I suspect that more people will read the book because they expect to agree with it than because they expect to disagree. (It is one of our weaknesses as readers: we seek confirmation of the stories we already believe in. And we look for patterns and meaning in the world around us.)

There can be revolutions in economy, society, technology and politics, but only evolutions in thinking. Even changes in paradigms, as Thomas Kuhn saw it, displace thinking over generations as the old views die out. It is only great works of art and great canons of dissent that reach across both, to tempt the old and give strength to the new.

Broere argues that we do not have the time to wait. He predicts that we are in the foothills of an economic cataclysm. He sees this as sweeping away existing savings, investments, jobs and hopes, to be replaced by a single world currency, imposed in crisis and controlled by the few.

In the face of that bleak prospect, he offers cooperation and a new relationship between planet, people and capital. These are the biggest stakes of all. We may have no choice, but it is not a bet that we would want to make, let alone lose.

Ed Mayo works at Co-operatives UK, the network of cooperative enterprise. He is co-author, with Agnes Nairn, of Consumer Kids and is the former Director of the New Economics Foundation and National Consumer Council. www.uk.coop

Source: http://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article3479-ending-the-global-casino.html

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Ending the Global Casino? is available in the United States, Canada, and Europe, incl. the United Kingdom and Ireland.

At the foot of this page you are invited to get an impression of the book.

P.S. Meanwhile you may find this book or (e-book) useful. It has just come out, called "Ending the Global Casino by Ad Broere., if you haven't heard of it already. ('G.' on www.aworldtowin.net)

Visit Ad's new financial blog on www.adbroere.nl , translation tool available

My name is Ad Broere, I am an economist. For more than 30 years I have been active in successively business, banking, and consultancy/education. What strikes me most is that money is accepted as a product. Something you can trade, and let it 'work' for you. But have you ever seen a pound or an euro working? Also interest is an odd thing, especially compounded interest. If an ancestor in year zero had deposited 50 pence at a compounded interest rate of 5%, you would possess now five golden earth globes! In nature all exponential processes, such as cancer, tend to extinguishment of the biological system.
A few years ago I have started my search for answers on the question why the monetary system has produced (and will produce) repeatedly crises, scarcity, unemployment, inequality, and more. Until sofar this quest has resulted in two books; Een Menselijke Economie, 2009 (Dutch), and in 2010 Ending the Global Casino?, written in English.
In my opinion we should say goodbye to the present monetary system by me referred to as a global casino. We can opt for a solution in which money plays the subservient role it should have. However, this will require a completely different attitude towards money and economy. The questions why we should end the global casino and what our options will be if we do so, are addressed by me in Ending the Global Casino? (a question mark because it is up to you)

Order-book information for Een Menselijke Economie: www.adbroere.nl

What readers said about Een Menselijke Economie:

'Fascinating, clearly written and thrilling', 'An eye-opener. Fantastically explained!', 'An uncommonly interesting book' more......

More about who is Ad

contact info:

info@humaneconomy.eu

An interview with the Author of Ending the Global Casino? and Een Menselijke economie :

According to some economists, the extent and persistence of the financial and economic crisis to which the world is still exposed indicate that the sustainability of the global financial system has expired. They argue that it is necessary for us to act. Ad Broere, a former banker and now independent business consultant, lecturer, and author of the titles A Humane Economy (Dutch) and Ending the Global Casino?, shares this opinion.

Despite the airy approach in your books, your message is not very cheerful.

I try to clarify in an accessible way how our economy and our monetary system work. The famous cartoonists Jos Collignon and Karl Wimer gave me permission to add a number of their brilliant cartoons to the books. In regard to the message, the main conclusion is that the monetary system has become dominant over the real economy. Therefore it is an imminent danger to us all. The financial system is a world all its own, with 99% of the financial transactions being purely speculative and I am talking about the multitude of derivatives, such as collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, and interest swaps. In addition, the short-term profit goals of big investors in shares are a disturbing factor for the well-being of the real economy. In 2007, 40% of the U.S. gross domestic product was based on financial transactions. It is not just the risks that these speculative transactions cause, but also the enormous amounts of money being withheld from the real economy. Consequently, investments necessary for developing new and sustainable technology, for example, cannot be done because there is no money available.

Financial products such as derivatives have been developed by banks. Are they responsible for this development?

The bank managers are certainly responsible for the over-the-top speculative activities. It is their task to manage risks, but big bonuses were more attractive than good stewardship. However, banks serve their shareholders. Shareholder value is the main focus of virtually all big companies, including banks. During the recent economic upswing, banks have taken big risks to make big returns. Shareholders have benefited from this. When the crisis hit the financial world, all those risks were taken well beyond their limits, which became visible. "Suddenly there were the toxic assets. Governments in many countries held the opinion that the banking industry should be rescued. We all know how they did it: at the taxpayers expense. Bank profits are privatized, losses are socialized. The return to business as usual after the bailout makes me deeply worried about what will come next in the near future. Most countries treasuries are exhausted; a second bailout is impossible, even if politicians would be that stupid to want this.

What is your opinion about the measures taken to prevent future crises, such as Basel III?

They are insufficient and also unrealistic. Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the American system of central banks, called for an increase in financial buffers that banks must maintain. He stated correctly that a lack of liquidity is a major risk factor. Recently the Basel III guidelines were accepted by the G20. Banks should increase their risk-bearing capital to a at least 7% by 2019. Currently, the levels for the majority of banks are below 4% and in many cases barely reach 3%. For a large bank such as HSBC, an increase in equity of just 1% equals 26 billion U.S. dollars. Banks should be avoiding risk. However, the lower the risk, the lower the return. Most banks will have a hard time strengthening their equity. What is worse, the toxic assets have not been disposed of. Like nuclear waste, they are still waiting somewhere offshore for their owners to really clean up the mess. No, I do not think the banking industry will be able to survive the coming events in their present shape. In Ending the Global Casino? I explain that we should not be mournful about this when it happens. This present monetary system shows a number of serious flaws that cannot be solved simply by patching it up. One such flaw is the fractional reserve held by banks. The extremely low solvency makes banks very vulnerable, which was recently proven to be true.

In your opinion, is a downfall of the present monetary system unavoidable?

Unfortunately, yes. Therefore, it is important that as many people as possible are aware of this unhappy event before it happens, because the solution begins with awareness. I am certain that we are in the middle of a transition to an era in which hierarchy and hierarchical thinking come to an end. We should stop blaming each other for everything that is wrong in our lives. The starting point of a better world is ourselves. There are many initiatives all over the world highlighting how people are responding to that new era.

If you have money available, you can invest in SMEs led by integer people who contribute to a better world by developing new sustainable products and technologies to clean and preserve the environment. Forget about the short-term big profits. Really good developments need time to mature. In Sweden, the JAK Bank is active. This is an interest-free bank. No interest is charged on loans, and no interest is paid on savings deposits. If there were no interest, prices of all products could be reduced by at least 40%. Houses would be more affordable for the younger generation. At present, young people are often heavily in debt because of the sky-high mortgages they have to pay off, including interest. Depositing (part of) your savings in an interest-free bank implies a substantial contribution to our common prosperity.

If you have a company, open your mind to other ways to finance the business, such as by participating in a complementary currency organization. If the traditional currencies become scarce, complementary money can help to keep the (regional) economy going. In Ending the Global Casino? I clarify this opinion in more depth. Switzerlands complementary currency has been successful for more than 75 years.

If you hold all the shares in your company, consider what Ernest Bader did in 1951. All his and his wife's shares of the company Scott Bader were put into a trust owned by the collectivity of the employees. He named it a commonwealth—the correct name because shareholder value became all employees value.

In our role as consumers, we can opt to end our consumerism attitude. We can stop listening to the luring voice of marketers. We can stop thinking that more possessions mean more happiness. We make our own decisions and buy sustainable, biodegradable products, renewable energy, etc. Indeed, 95% of all goods we buy become waste within five years. The immense mountain of waste causes great trouble, mainly because of the wide variety of toxic substances in it. This problem is exported to the third world.

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future?

I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist. I am well aware that our future depends on the number of people who will awake from their almost hypnotic sleep. I sincerely hope that in the near future many will share the conviction that humanity can only survive if we say goodbye to selfishness, greed, and the race for ever-more possessions to stop allowing a system that stimulates those old values to rule over our lives anymore. In my opinion, it is crucial that we let love guide us in all our actions. I know that love is an often misused and misinterpreted word. Some regard those who speak about love as weak, especially those who fear its power. In my opinion, it is the unlimited creative, live-giving energy. We need it to create a better future for the world and all living creatures. Anything that comes into being inspired by love serves that goal. My deepest hope is that we are able to say ”truthfully in the near future: Yes, we can! May millions of roses bloom.