A report from the Club of Rome - EU Chapter to Finance Watch and the World Business Academy. Foreword by Dennis Meadows, co-author of the 1972 Club of Rome report The Limits to Growth. Pioneering new research from the Club of Rome: In 1972, the first Report for the Club of Rome - The Limits to Growth - famously spelled out the unsustainable consequences of an economic system that demands infinite growth in a finite world. Just as The Limits to Growth exposed the catastrophic flaws in our economic system, this new Report from the Club of Rome exposes the systemic flaws in our money system and the wrong thinking that underpins it. It describes the ongoing currency and banking crises we must expect if we continue with the current monopoly system - and the vicious impact of these crises on our communities, our society as a whole and our environment. It finishes by setting out clear, practical proposals for creating a money 'ecosystem' with complementary currencies to support and stabilize the current money system.

Based on the four mega-trends of monetary instability, global greying (an ageing global population), the information revolution, and climate change and species extinction, Bernard Lietaer looks at different scenarios of what the world might be like in 2020.

1. The Corporate Millennium: governments are disbanded, central banks close down and the world is run with Big Brother control by huge corporations with their own currencies.

2. Caring Communities: people retreat into small, self-sustaining communities, like tribes.

3. Hell on Earth: in which the breakdown of life as we know it is followed by a highly individualistic free-for-all, resulting in an ever more obscene gulf between rich and poor.

4. Sustainable Abundance: envisages a world where we take better care of the environment, re-engage the poor and the unemployed in mainstream society and give back time and fulfilment to the over-worked, while providing the elderly with a high level of personal care. A society of sustainable abundance is achievable - but only if we are willing to re-invent our money system and create new currencies.

Our money system IS the 'Missing Link'. We tend to assume that we must have a single, monopolistic currency, funded through bank debt, enforced by a central bank. But we don't need any such thing In fact, the present system is outdated, brittle and unfit for purpose (witness the eurozone crisis). Like any other monoculture, it's profitable at first but ultimately a recipe for economic and environmental disaster. The alternative is a monetary 'ecosystem', with complementary currencies alongside the conventional one. This is more flexible, resilient, fair and sustainable. Societies worked like this in the past. So can we. In 1972, the famous first Report for the Club of Rome - The Limits to Growth - showed how an economic system that demands infinite growth in a finite world is fundamentally unsustainable. This new Report explains our present monopolistic money system and the flawed thinking that underpins it. It spells out the catastrophic problems - environmental, socio-economic and financial - that we will continue to experience unless we make radical changes. Finally, it sets out nine practical proposals, which can be implemented now, to run alongside the current money system. This book is essential reading for policy makers, business leaders and economists, anyone concerned about sustainability, those working in the field of monetary systems and anyone with an informed interested in the future of the planet.

Real Change is Truly Possible, Right Now... We can end the threats to our environment, and aid dramatically in its restoration. We can help provide meaningful work for all, with opportunities that enhance and replenish the world around us. We can effectively address fundamental urban and rural concerns and the many diverse and often divergent needs of developing and developed nations alike. We can create a better world where life and all living systems flourish. This is not an idealistic dream, but is rather a pragmatic attainment, achievable within our very own lifetime. So write Bernard Lietaer and Stephen Belgin, authors of the much anticipated book New Money for a New World. Mr. Lietaer is a principal architect of the euro and author of the acclaimed international best seller The Future of Money, which has been translated into sixteen languages. Mr. Belgin is the founder and president of Qiterra Press and author of the upcoming City of Light Chronicles. New Money for a New World examines a previously unexamined culprit for the many issues we face today-the monopoly of our centuries old monetary system. This book also provides many ways and means that are now readily available to stop the current juggernaut towards global self destruction. Many of the solutions offered within this book are more than theory. Communities from around the world have successfully addressed a myriad of issues without the need to raise taxes, redistribute wealth, or depend upon enlightened self interest from corporate entities. Rather the improvements were realized simply and effectively by rethinking money. With such a shift everything is possible.