May 2011 Blog Posts (768)

This is Jens Riewa live from Hamburg. Today is a big day as the new world-currency “e” is started.

More on that live from Marcel Feichtinger on one of the launching events from Berlin.

Thank you Jens. Today indeed is a special day. It…

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I was kept informed about micro-credit and find that it is a good thing. Often, poor people will not get credits to realize their ideas. This is not only in countries of the third world, but also for example Germany. In Germany, awards the "GLS Bank" these micro-credits. Just because people are poor, it does not mean that they can… Continue

This is a very interesting and on the other side a very difficult issue i think. First i found a video about local currencies:







And now the questions are: How should we solve this problem? Will there be a chance to invent a global new currency which has a social component or which concentrates more on the exchange of goods than making profit? Or should… Continue

This is Benjamin Maag reporting from the UN conference in Johannesburg South Africa.



Today is steeped in history. The UN member states compounded on a new article in the UN charta. It says that every individual in a less developed country has to be granted a mirco loan to start a business. This is a big step forward. From now on poor people have the possibility to get out of poverty on their own.…



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I lend 25 Dollars to Gladyse via Kiva.



Gladyse is 44 years old and is married, with one child who is four years old. Gladyse sells various foodstuffs in her business, such as sugar, breads, biscuits, tomato sauce, bonbons, etc. Gladyse has had her business for 1 year. Her business is open from 8am until 7pm every day. This business is well-organized.



Gladyse has requested a loan from Kiva, via Vision Finance Company, in order to expand her business by purchasing more… Continue

I learned at school that during times of inflation, in the 1930s, trade with goods was more popular, and that cigarettes as a currency were accepted. Some things change.

 

Others not.

 

Here we go. Yesterday a freind of mine celebrated birthday and we went to a club after dinner. It was usually crowded, a lot of people around and after a while guy came to me asking if I can help him.

We had a chat. He was an american and he did not have enough Euros…

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Hillmar Kopper a, in my opinion, infamous manager, formerly chief executive of the Deutsche Bank AG, called liablitites of 50 million D-Mark, peanuts.

 

Peanuts...

 

Meaning that this is not a noteworthy amount of money. This incident occured in 1994. As I heard of that I just had two questions in mind: What is the value of money? If 50.000.000 D-Mark are peanuts, do we need money at all?

 

Today I know:

 

We need…

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While surfing the web about the future of money I came across pages that arranges loans between private people. I think that is a really good idea. The banks can provide companies with money; people can provide each other with money. As in the moment you get very little return when you put your money on the bank whereas the banks get very cheap money from the central banks. Also a credit is still not cheap. The banks make a lot of money.

With private loans the two parties meet in the…

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