Preface	13
	What This Book Is All About: Finance—Future—Balance and the Rest	15
	The TAO of Finance Team	15
	A Report to the World Academy of Arts and Science	16
	Contents	17
	About the Author	20
	List of Figures	21
	List of Graphs	22
	List of Boxes	24
	List of Tables	25
	Introduction	26
	Chapter 1: A New Narrative for the Anthropocene Era: On Boundaries, Interconnectedness and the Global Commons	29
	1.1 A Bold Statement to Begin With	29
	1.2 A New Mindset	29
	1.3 Living in the Anthropocene: Interconnectedness Within Boundaries	30
	1.3.1 Major Characteristics of the Anthropocene	30
	1.3.2 A Five-Second Time Frame	32
	1.3.3 Living with Uncertainty	32
	1.3.4 Numerous Tipping Points12	32
	1.3.5 The Fork in the Road	36
	1.4 The Anatomy of Western Narratives: Conflicting Stories—The Good and the Ugly	36
	1.5 The Elephant and the Blind Experts	43
	1.6 TAO (?): A First Glimpse	44
	1.7 Global Common Goods and the Sustainable Development Goals	48
	Chapter 2: Beyond the Mantra of Traditional Finance: Significance and Limits of the Conventional Approach	58
	2.1 The Relevance of Finance	58
	2.2 Money and Finance as a Social Construct	59
	2.3 Conventional Financial Tools in the Era of the Anthropocene	62
	2.4 The Six-Pack	66
	2.4.1 Monetizing the Carbon Bubble	67
	2.4.2 Regulation—Harmonization—Transparency	70
	2.4.3 The Beauty of Taxation, Fees and Subsidies	71
	2.4.4 The Impact of Impact Funding	72
	2.4.5 From Derivatives to Hybrid Ex-swaps	75
	2.4.6 Hybrid Private-Public Partnerships (hy-PPP)	77
	2.5 Filling the Gap: Parallel Currencies	79
	2.6 Conclusion	82
	Chapter 3: Western Thinking at Its Best: Systems Theory and Psychology	94
	3.1 On Dancing with the System: Dealing with Uncertainty	94
	3.2 Efficiency, Resilience and Robustness	95
	3.3 The Anti-Fragile Zone	96
	3.4 Financial Instability Explained	99
	3.5 Two Ways of Thinking: Dual Processing	102
	3.5.1 Linear Versus Parallel Thinking and the Divided Brain	103
	3.5.1.1 The Left Brain and System 2	104
	3.5.1.2 The Right Brain and System 1	105
	3.5.2 Our Financial System Is Not a Neutral Veil	108
	3.6 The Art of Change or Why We Have to Do Things Differently	112
	Chapter 4: Unleashing the Sleeping Giant: Discovering New Ground and Starting the Dance of the TAO	124
	4.1 The Tragedy of the Global Commons	125
	4.2 Financing the Global Commons	127
	4.3 The Private Purse Is Not the Public Purse	130
	4.4 Waking the Sleeping Giant: The Return on Investment in the Commons	131
	4.5 The Very Nature of the Global Commons: Overcoming Their Tragedy	134
	4.6 Multiple Lock-in Effects	135
	4.7 Purchasing Power Overrides Price Allocation	137
	4.8 Conclusion: The Money, the Mechanism and the Measures	139
	Chapter 5: The Tao of Finance: A Social Invention That Can Change the World	147
	5.1 Not Like a Fish in Water	147
	5.2 The Next Step in the Evolution of Money	149
	5.3 Towards a Monetary Ecosystem: Central Bank Digital Currencies, Community Currencies and Cryptocurrencies	151
	5.3.1 The First Type of Bottom-Up Approach: Community Currencies (CoC)	152
	5.3.2 The Second Type of Bottom-Up Approach: Cryptocurrencies	153
	5.4 The New Game in Town: The New Role of the Regulators	155
	5.5 Patterns of Change: The Right Figures and the Right Channels	159
	5.6 The Bigger Picture: Riding a Bike with Two Wheels or a Mechanism That Can Change the World	167
	5.7 The Immediate Impact Towards a Better World	171
	5.8 The Wealth Effects: Some Math, Distributive Ledger Technology and the Multi-stakeholder Approach	175
	5.9 Conclusion: The Missing Link	178
	Chapter 6: New Symmetries: The Future Has a History or a Path with a Heart	189
	6.1 The Impact and Challenges of a Parallel Monetary System	190
	6.2 A Complex Basket: Illicit Financial Transactions and the Shadow Economy	190
	6.3 Informal-Sector Activities: From System D to System C	191
	6.4 Not a Ponzi Scheme—Liabilities and Collaterals	194
	6.5 Why Is This Mechanism Not Inflationary? The CPI (Consumer Price Index) Under a Parallel Monetary Regime	195
	6.6 The Difference Between a War and a Peace Economy	200
	6.7 A History of Tomorrow: Ending Poverty and Hunger	203
	6.8 Conclusion: Financing the Future Is Not Like Financing the Past	207
	References	217
	Index	239