Finance Commons

From P2P Foundation
Jump to navigation Jump to search


Description

Thomas Mehwald and Wolfgang Hoeschele:

"Finance commons are initiatives which apply the commons logic to financial actions or which aim at having finance serve the creation of commons. Money as we know it is a crucial productive asset that is not democratically governed. Central banks and private banks create the bulk of the money available today; ordinary people, the users, have virtually no influence on how money is created or the rules that govern its circulation. Finance commons aim to change that, by a community of users coming together and collectively deciding on mutually beneficial rules for the creation and/or circulation and use of money. They aim at experimenting with the intangible assets of money and trust to create local value chains and other productive commons. The more resources are organized as commons the more do the producers – the people conducting the work – have control over the production process. The commons logic and the finance commons thus represent a real pathway to a people-governed and sustainable economy."

(source: research proposal, What is Blooming, email July 2015)

Principles

To realize the vision of a global financial commons the CTF, i.e. the Committee to Transform Finance, wrote a statement that further proposes that the finance system incorporates the following commons principles:

  • Stakeholder co-governance,
  • Access for all participants,
  • Acknowledgement of the intrinsic value of ecosystems and assigning rights to the environment,
  • Decision-making at the most local level possible (subsidiarity),
  • A commitment to environmental sustainability and social justice globally.

Statement via http://www.ethicalmarkets.com/2010/09/14/financial-group-recognizes-finance-as-a-global-commons/


More Information