Why our financial system is failing us and how we can improve it
There are over 160 different currencies worldwide, each holding a monopoly within its own jurisdiction. Yet apart from a handful of more stable currencies, most of them rapidly lose value over time and find little acceptance beyond their own borders. Cross-border payment bottlenecks, conversion issues and currency exchanges make the global financial system something of a modern-day barter trade. Those born in the "wrong" country face a particularly hard time saving effectively. While steadily rising energy production and technological progress through electronics have continuously raised our standard of living, the global financial system has lagged behind this development, dampening economic potential. This problem does not only affect emerging markets — it is increasingly felt in developed nations too, where debts and deficits are spiralling out of control and waves of inflation and bank collapses shake the world economy.
How did it come to this? Why is our money in the 21st century still so inadequate?
Political interventions may bring short-term and localised improvements, but only technology creates sustainable and global change. Just as gold once replaced shells, as central banks are a logical consequence of the introduction of paper banknotes, and even as the invention of the telegraph was merely an early stage on the path towards Bitcoin, the significance of technology — particularly in monetary systems — becomes impossible to ignore.
In BROKEN MONEY, Lyn Alden takes her readers on a fascinating journey through the technological evolution of money. She illuminates the origins of monetary systems, ventures a look into the future, and questions the fundamental foundations on which our present-day monetary systems rest.