by Marc Kramis

Created on: March 23, 2009   Last Updated: March 28, 2009

I am a theorist, which means I don't know anything for certain. I only suspect what is probable. You, however, are the judge. Whatever you decide, is law. Adopting a global currency would determine the future of mankind. It would effect every person of every country in the world. Would you be willing to take that responsibility? Although our views of history differ by political and religious persuasion, certain key economic events are common to all people. They provide the references necessary to understand how choosing one currency might effect society. I will try to describe those references as generically as possible. Our global economy is not a complicated system.

To understand it, you only have to remember three things: Ten thousand years ago you could only buy one thing with money. Money is a promise. Church and state were created to enforce the promise. Our economic system began when one man and one woman conceived the idea of mutual care. Man would feed, clothe and shelter woman. Woman would bear his children. Based on their common needs, they created a promise to serve their mutual interests. When they recorded that promise, it became a contract. The earliest known record of that contract is about 10,000 years old. Human society (and our global economy) stands on a foundation of recorded promises. Prevailing economic theory interprets "promise" as an obligation to satisfy the terms of a contract. The reciprocal of obligation is entitlement. When one party is obligated, the other party is entitled. The institution of church was conceived to formulate moral codes in support of this interpretation. State evolved to enforce those codes.

As society grew, currency was created to eliminate the necessity of creating a new contract for each new transaction. It provided a blanket contract under which the laws of a land applied to all contracts that used its currency as their medium of exchange. Today every internationally traded currency is based on the assumption of entitlement. They are regulated by more than 10 major governments which derive their laws from the moral codes of at least seven different religions. The economic theory of entitlement, however, ignores the other equally valid definition of promise which is hope achieved through reciprocal trust and effort. Both interpretations lead to a common future, only one of them insures mutual benefit. In computer parlance, our current economic turmoil stems from a kernel level branch point. The branch point

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