Mapping Money: An Implicit to Explicit Journey
Reading Saifedean Ammous’ book, “The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking,”[1] added another layer to my global perspectives’ leadership map. Part history of money and economics, part societal-political analysis through this history lens, and part technology guide to the newly developing arena of cybercurrency—specifically Bitcoin, Ammous sheds light on “…the problems money attempts to solve,” and how Bitcoin may in fact be the next sound money utilized around the globe.[2]
“The Bitcoin Standard” is in three parts plus a thorough bibliography, helpful list of charts and figures, and a not-so-substantive index. Ammous first delves into the history of money and monetary systems. Here he also develops the terminology he will use throughout the remainder of his book. Key terms include the concept of “time preference.” Time preference is the interaction between a monetary unit’s “…ability to hold value over time,” and its influence on “…how much individuals value the present over the future.”[3] He essentially argues that the more confidence individuals have in a monetary unit holding or increasing in its value, the more they will delay gratification and invest in their future.[4] He gives a heavy critique of the Keynesian economic model and leans into the Austrian School of economic thought. In the second part of his book, he “…discusses the individual, social, and global implications of sound and unsound forms of money throughout history.”[5] And in part three he dives into explaining bitcoin and its potential to be a sound form of money (he describes it as antifragile without any reference to Taleb)[6] with its system replacing, or at the very least offering an alternative, to the global central banking system (and SWIFT system) currently enforced upon the world.
Ammous is our second Lebanese author we have read this term. He is a graduate from the American University of Beirut (and several other academic institutions), and he taught, until 2020, in the economics department of the Adnan Kassar School of Business at the Lebanese American University (a partner of the Presbyterian Church (USA)). As I read his book, I regularly wondered how his experience of Lebanon’s civil war, post-war economic solutions and resultant currency inflation, and certainly its current economic collapse has influenced the development of his economic thinking (along of course with the other wars in the region). His teaching focus while at LAU was in sustainable development.
Reading Ammous has moved my understanding of money and economics from a more implicit tacit knowing[7] to an explicit exploration and re-evaluation of our current economic systems in light of his critique and proposal regarding the possible role of bitcoin in the present and future. The connections he makes between our current (and long-term) economic assumptions in the USA (the Keynesian assumption that spending, any and all spending, will automatically fuel the economy)[8] and our government’s massive military budget gave me a different lens into an issue that is a priority my church community is addressing—the global impacts of unchecked militarism and the intersection this has with the military-industrial complex. In my current work, I also do a lot of work with financial grants as we collaborate with our global partners on work they have prioritized in their context. This means I am very familiar with the challenges our current SWIFT system poses and the heavy financial control exercised by the US Government and banking system and the toll this takes on other countries. At the same time, given the challenges the cybercurrency market has faced this past year and even this week, it is hard to know how sound Bitcoin and other similar currencies, or its mechanisms will actually be in the long run. (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/business/ftx-bankruptcy.html). So Ammous has given me much to consider even apart from bitcoin.
[1] Ammous, Saifedean. 2018. The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
[2] Ibid., xvi.
[3] Ibid., 7.
[4] Ibid., 74, 92.
[5] Ibid., xvi.
[6] Ibid., 230. Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. 2014. Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder. Random House Trade Paperback edition. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks.
[7] Polanyi, Michael (1966), and Amartya Sen. 2009. The Tacit Dimension. Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press.
[8] Ammous, 51.
About the Author
Elmarie Parker
9 responses to “Mapping Money: An Implicit to Explicit Journey”
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Elmarie, I appreciate your grasp of the book and cryptocurrency in general. You wrote about your church community addressing – “the global impacts of unchecked militarism.” Can you share what direction that is taking in your church community?
Hi Roy…thank you for your engagement with my post and for your question. A bit over a year ago our national offices established a Militarism Working Group. Several of my immediate colleagues serve on the working group, along with colleagues based around the globe and in the USA. They started with doing a lot of listening to different stakeholders and hearing their experience with militarism…both that perpetuated by the USA and that perpetuated by other global and local entities. Militarism is both an economic driver (and boon to those in the business of creating and/or selling weaponry), but also a major driver of generational poverty, forced displacement/migration, and the poisoning of the environment with its resultant multi-generational health impacts and costs (think depleted uranium used in anti-tank and other armament and burn pits, never mind the long-term damage to humans and animals caused by mines that are left behind). Out of this listening has emerged several educational webinars titled “Connecting the Dots.” What listening revealed is that culturally we in the USA tend to see events in isolation from each other and not always how they are connected to the underlying drivers. So, education right now, and equipping people for positive peace-building action, are the main foci.
To give you a taste of what has been covered: The first webinar was held a year ago (12-7-21) and included “…speakers from Korea, Colombia and the United States examining the theological foundation for Christians in relation to the concept of security and examine how that plays out in each context.”
The second was called: Connecting the Dots Webinar series: Gun Violence and Militarism. Here the focus was on exploring the tension between faith, security, and our relationships with each other on personal and international levels as it relates to guns, weapons and militarism. Suggestions for what Presbyterians can do to interrupt the myth of “security through might” and take action for true peace. The speakers for this webinar also came from different global contexts: Shailly Gupta Barnes: policy director for the Kairos Center and the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival; John Lindsay-Poland: writer, activist, researcher and analyst focused on human rights and demilitarization, especially in the Americas; and Jocabed Gallegos: Mexico coordinator for Frontera de Cristo.
The third webinar happened just this past Wednesday and was excellent at so many levels–Connecting the Dots: Militarism and Moral Injury. Here’s the description (I’m still reflecting on all I heard and learned): Military personnel are asked to serve on behalf of our country, laying their lives on the line to follow military directives. The impact of this service on personnel and their families can be great, therefore military action should never be used prematurely. By confronting militarism, the church is called to challenge an ideology that prioritizes military responses and unjustifiably endangers the lives of civilians, personnel and their families. As well, the church is called to offer genuine support for all those impacted by war and military action.
In this webinar, Connecting the Dots: Militarism and Moral Injury, we hope to hear of the impact military service has on active personnel, veterans, and their families, and how the church can offer better support to these communities. We will be hearing from veterans, academics, and psychologists, who all have experience in the field of study that has been termed “Moral Injury”, examining the impacts of military service and the effect that can occur “in response to acting or witnessing behaviors that go against an individual’s values and moral beliefs.”
I would value hearing your feedback on the approach we are taking. This is finding legs in our community, but I’m curious how it ‘lands’ in other communities.
Elmarie: This is so fascinating. The series sounds impactful on a variety of levels. I’m interested to know if they are more of a listening/learning approach or also include specific calls to action within them.
Hi Kayli. Thank you for your question. It depends a bit on the webinar, but overall, it is a combination of listening/learning and application/action. For example, in the most recent webinar, the application/action was discussing how better to talk with young people about the realities of moral injury as they discern potential service in the armed forces. It was discovered during the conversation that in our tradition, there is some surface conversation about just war theology, but not really unpacking what that means in current contexts nor how it relates to the issues and theology around moral injury.
Elmarie Parker: I didn’t know you work with financial grants within your ministry context. This book and other with an economic subject I would think be beneficial to you as you serve in that capacity. Did you know much about cryptocurrency before this read? I did not know anything about the subject and I found it to be very helpful.
Hi Troy. Thank you for your time in reading my post and for your question. I was a bit familiar with crypto-currency before reading this book, but just at a very introductory level. I found Ammous’ historical lens very helpful to better understand how this development fits into the longer arc of history and to better understand the problem it is seeking to solve. Whether it stands the test of time is another question…its been quite volatile this past year. On the other hand, our current system also has its problems. I especially appreciated his analysis of Keynesian economics and I now want to learn more about the Austrian school. There is never a shortage of topics to more deeply explore…that is for sure!
With your background in business, what did you make of his critique of Keynesian economics?
Fascinating blog. I also noticed that this is the second Lebanese we have read! That is pretty cool.
Can you shed more light to how you have witnessed the impact of the US government’s reach (or shall we say control) in Lebanon?
Hi Eric…thank you for your comment and question on my post…reach/control of the USG in Lebanon, hey? That can cover a lot of ground…were you meaning specifically in the financial/economic realm? In that regard, one aspect shows up through the banking/SWIFT system and the way that interacts with sanctions. Banks are already struggling here b/c of the economic collapse in Lebanon (and thus people are struggling to access their accounts). But US-led sanctions in the region and on particular individuals in Lebanon leave banks very, very wary about receiving any wire transfers at all–they don’t want to even come close to being perceived as violating sanctions (and US sanctions are often worded in very ‘low context’ ways so that the USG has the freedom to pursue violation charges as they wish…this adds the the wariness of banks both on the receiving and sending end of things). And even after funds have actually made it through all of those hoops, the banks on this end then have additional hurdles for people to jump over before they can access the funds…again, just to keep from even appearing to get close to violating sanctions. All of this amounts to months of delays with funds while in the meantime people are in massive need of what is provided through those funds. It’s all too cumbersome, so as a result, the blackmarket thrives…people always find a way around ‘the system.’ There are a lot of layers to this conversation and dynamic. I’m not convinced cryptocurrency will lift any of this burden or simplify it, because it is becoming more and more regulated by the same systems that govern SWIFT and other financial transactions. We shall see.
This is a much longer conversation…let me know if you’re interested in more…maybe we can set up a call.
Elmarie, you share this quote as part of Ammous’ purpose…..” the problems money attempts to solve.”
As you consider his thesis, what really are the problems of money that need solving? How important are those problems in the broader scope of life within the church? How are these problems manifested in identity in communities in Beirut?