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Marcus Petz and Andrius Kulikauskas investigate:

How Does Thomas Greco Figure Things Out?

An epistemological portrait of Thomas Greco

Examples

Observe natural phenomena

For alternative exchange media, as for any other innovative product, if one wishes to make inroads into markets where there are entrenched products or patterns of behavior, one must employ means that are capable of making an impression upon the public mind and shifting people’s purchasing decisions or lifestyle choices. Having a superior product is not enough. People must be made aware that the superior product or service exists, they must be persuaded that the advantages of adopting it outweigh the risks and disadvantages, and the product must be made easily available at a price they can afford. There are insights to be gained from the study of natural and social phenomena. In the natural realm, the growth of animal and insect populations and the spread of infectious diseases reveal certain laws that also seem to apply to the market and the spread of ideas. Fashions and fads are phenomena of massive and sudden behavioral change. How do they get started? What gives them their impetus? How and why do they die out? (EMFC-2024, Ch 14, pg 7)

Discuss with / interview experts

• The best information I’ve been able to find comes from Professor Studer who

had once served on the WIR advisory board and had written a book about it titled, WIR in unserer Volkswirtschaft (translated, WIR and the Swiss National Economy). In 2005, I paid a visit to Basel with my colleague Sergio Lub, during which time we spent several hours with Studer discussing his experience with WIR and the contents of his book. Figure 13.3 is a photo of me in discussions with Professor Studer. (EMFC-2024, Ch 13, pg 11)

Go on field trips

• In 2005, I paid a visit to Basel with my colleague Sergio Lub, during which time we spent several hours with Studer discussing his experience with WIR and the contents of his book. Figure 13.3 is a photo of me in discussions with Professor Studer.

(EMFC-2024, Ch 13, pg 11)

Translate (get translated) foreign languages into English

• The best information I’ve been able to find comes from Professor Studer who had once served on the WIR advisory board and had written a book about it titled, WIR in unserer Volkswirtschaft (translated, WIR and the Swiss National Economy). ...

Upon returning to the United States, I showed the book to my friend and colleague Philip Beard, a Professor of German at Sonoma State University who was very interested and agreed to translate the book from German into English. His excellent translation of the Studer book is available and is a “must read” for any serious student of money, banking, complementary currencies, credit, and exchange alternatives. It can be ordered in paperback or downloaded as an e-book from Lulu.com.

Upon reading the English translation, my German colleague, Theo Megalli, and I prepared a precis and fairly thorough critique of the Studer book in which we discuss the evident flaws in the WIR Bank credit procedures and our prescribed remedies. That document is freely available for download at beyondmoney.net. (EMFC-2024, Ch 13, pg 11)

Observe social dynamics

• The same applies to innovation in exchange systems. In order to optimize exchange system designs

and develop effective implementation strategies, it is necessary to study the history of money and to understand the theory of money; to observe social dynamics, markets, and networks; to examine the systems that already exist; and to design our experiments to be unambiguous in their answers. What has and has not worked in the past? Who has proposed promising solutions that have not yet been adequately tested or demonstrated? How, where, and under what circumstances can those proposed solutions be adapted to today’s conditions? What are the factors that favor such innovations, and what are the political factions and market elements that are likely to oppose them? (EMFC-2024, Ch 12, pg 3-4)

Discover a book outside of the mainstream, be open to its ideas, and get concerned

• My concerns around these matters were first aroused in 1982 when I read a book by John Hamaker called The Survival of Civilization. In it, the author described three things that were (and still are) growing exponentially - the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, human population, and debt. (EMFC-2009, 14)
• I happened to find a book in the Rush-Rhees library that piqued my curiosity. It must have been its provocative title that caught my interest. The book was The Power Elite by C.Wright Mills, published in 1956. (EMFC-2009, 3)
• One day, as I sat at a desk in the PJEC office where I was a sometime volunteer, a colleague handed me a book that had just arrived in the mail, In the Wake of Inflation Can the Church Remain Silent? Skimming through it, I saw that the book was neither well-written nor adequately referenced, but despite the amateurish style of the work, it still managed to pique my interest. There were some shocking assertions about our money and banking system of which I was dubious but not sufficiently knowledgeable to dismiss out of hand. (EMFC-2009, 4)

Chasing down and accumulating confirmatory evidence

• This was an insightful observation of what Philip Zimbardo's work would later prove, that perfectly normal and otherwise good people often do evil things as a result of the situations and systems in which they happen to be embedded. (EMFC-2009, 3)
• Those sources provided quite a different picture from what is commonly believed about money and banking, but that was only the beginning. As in any investigation, one source leads to another, and a great body of evidence is gradually built up. (EMFC-2009, 5)

Look for credible sources

• I decided to take a closer look. There were a few cited quotes that seemed as if they might be from credible sources, one of which was a pamphlet called Money Facts - 169 Questions and Anwers on Money that had been commissioned by the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Domestic Finance, Committee on Banking and Currency, and produced by the Government Printing Office. That was enough to convince me that the matter deserved further investigation. (EMFC-2009, 4)

Study key sources

• Starting with Money Facts, I discovered that it was a supplement to a larger report of the same congressional committee called A Primer on Money, which I duly acquired, read, and digested. (EMFC-2009, 5)

Overview a wealth of disparate material

• Fortunately, there is a great wealth of pertinent material that remains to be discovered if on is willing to dig deeply enough. It is the results of that searching and sifting that I present in this volume. (EMFC-2009, 5)
• Years after Riegel's death, MacCallum acquired Riegel's literary estate. He went meticulously through all of it - cataloging and transcribing, publishing and republishing - and made it available to others who might appreciate Riegel's special insights and be able to build upon the conceptual foundation that he had so elegantly laid. (EMFC-2009, 7)

Reach out to thinkers, converse with them and empathize with them

• I got in touch with the author, Edward Veith, who lived in one of the Rochester suburbs, and we eventually became good friends. Ed was quite elderly by that time and not well educated. He had been long retired, having worked many years as an elevator installer and repairman. Ed was a very religious Christian who paid perhaps a bit too much attention to television evangelists, but he had a good heart and the "money problem" had long troubled him. He could not reconcile the practice of usury that is inherent in our system of money and banking, nor the persistent official debasement of our national currency, with Bible scriptures and his religious beliefs. And while I didn't share in all the particulars of his religious convictions, it was through my conversations with Ed that I, too, became concerned about the same issues and about the credit monopoly in private hands that is our system of money and banking. As a result, I embarked upon this work that has been my main focus for alomst thirty years. (EMFC-2009, 4)

Seeing both sides and challenging myths

• At that time, the very idea of an elite class in our supposed "classless" American society was considered by most to be an absurdity. The predominant view was that America was a pluralistic society in which competing interests kept each other in check. That notion was supported by works like John Kenneth Galbraith's American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power. Mills challenged that myth, sketching a different picture and presenting evidence that there was a "power elite... composed of men whose positions enable them to transcend the ordinary environoments of ordinary men and women; they are in positions to make decisions having major consequences." (EMFC-2009, 3)

Distinguish superficial change and fundamental change

• While there has been some talk about the "cashless society," what is being talked about does not constitute an end to money, but rather the enhancement of "political money" by the application of ever more effective instruments of social, economic, and political control. When I speak about the end of money, I am referring to the growing recognition that money has become nothing more than an information system, and to the emergent mechanisms for managing exchange information outside of the conventional banking system and without the use of political monies. (EMFC-2009, 1)
• Some current political figures in America and elsewhere have outlined planned economic policies and political programs that sound appealing because they promise some needed "fixes". Many of these are aimed at propping up the "system" or reversing the looting and lopsided favoritism for wealthy and powerful elites that have characterized government policies of the past several decades. But even if politicians are sincere, they seem always to promise more than they can deliver - and what they promise is not a sufficient response to our multidimensional crisis. (EMFC-2009, 15)

Making his assumptions explicit and reflecting on them

• I grew up in the 1940s and 1950s. That was a time of great confidence and optimism in America. Fascism had been obliterated, or so we thought. Through American generosity, Europe was being rebuilt - a magnanimous gesture toward our former enemies in the form of "the Marshall Plan." And despite the "cold war" and the "communist menace," it seemed as if progress was inevitable, that life could only get better for everyone. The United States was the greatest, richest, most productive, and most benevolent country in the world. Like the movies we saw, the world was mostly black and white, there were "good guys" and "bad guys," and on the world stage we Americans were (of course) the good guys. (EMFC-2009, 2)

Appreciate the circumstances of academic debate

• I discovered that, in this field (as in any other) an orthodox view had emerged that pushed aside dissenting views and limited the academic debate. (EMFC-2009, 5)

Consider the consequences of a system if there is no change.

• The point is that, even though the timing may be impossible to pinpoint, we can often see where we're headed and where we will eventually arrive if something does not change. (EMFC-2009, 11)
• So where is civilization headed? Is it a happy prospect? (EMFC-2009, 12)
• If the money problem is not solved, we can expect that the future will bring ever greater misery - continued wars for dominance over resources, accelerating despoilation of the natural environment, continued erosion of democratic institutions, the imposition of a global neofeudal society, and the beginning of a new dark age. (EMFC-2009, 12)
• There are a number of trends that common reason argues cannot continue, yet they seem to have a momentum that appears unstoppable: human population growth, increasing economic inequity among peoples and countries, erosion of democratic principles of governance, social alienation, climate change, despoliation of the environment, and the increasing inability of institutions to achieve their intended purpose. (EMFC-2009, 15)
• That our global civilization cannot continue on its current path seems evident. (EMFC-2009, 16)

Recognizing a crisis as the lack of foresight and control

• We can hardly imagine the eventual outcomes of such monumental developments as genetic engineering, cloning, nanotechnology, computers, satellite communications, the Internet, a globalized economy, electronic money, global warming, and any number of predicted geophysical changes. These stresses signal an intensifying global crisis of unprecedented proportions. (EMFC-2009, 15)
• What comes next is, of course, much harder to predict. (EMFC-2009, 16)

Responding to crisis with far-reaching vision manifesting our values. Identify the goals.

• This is a time when far-reaching vision is urgently needed. (EMFC-2009, 15)
• The problem is more fundamental than that, and processes are required that can accomplish at least these goals.
  • Put an end to unnecessary growth and wasteful production of weapons and junk.
  • Enable a transition to a sustainable, steady state economy.
  • Restore a large measure of local control over local affairs, and nurture the emergence of human-scale institutions.
  • Enable the nonviolent resolution of inevitable conflicts and harmonize the interests of all. (EMFC-2009, 15)
• However, I am at heart an optimist, and as such believe that the caterpillar's metamorphosis into the butterfly might offer us an apt analogy for our changing civilization. I believe that the "caterpillar" stage of human evolution is now coming to an end. The disintegrating caterpillar body cannot be sustained or reconstructed, it can only proceed with the metamorphic process, which means a complete disintegration as it becomes a resource "soup" that feeds the emergent butterfly. We are on the verge of a complete redesign and rebuilding of all our political, economic, social and cultural structures - the things that are hard-wired through our laws, institutions, and social norms. (EMFC-2009, 16)
• We're being nourished by the accumulated resources of a dying civilization while we find ways to build the new. It is a process in which we rethink, reorganize, and restructure - first reducing our dependence upon the dominant structures, next reorganizing ourselves into mutually supportive clusters or affinity groups, then creating structures appropriate to serving the needs of both our affiliate groups and the common good. (EMFC-2009, 19)

Think through a metaphor

• The physiological processes that we observe in nature may have sociopolitical counterparts. Metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly may be more than a metaphor; it might actually describe what is happening in the world. (EMFC-2009, 16)
• Elisabet Sahtouris: If we see ourselves as imaginal discs or cells working to build the butterfly of a better world, we will understand that we are launching a new 'genome' of beliefs, values and practices to replace that of the current unsustainable system. (EMFC-2009, 18)

Understand the effects of a system and the causes that can change it

• MacCallum was acutely aware of the importance of Riegel's wrok to civilization's future, peace, personal freedom, and general prosperity. Riegel wrote about all of those things because, as he showed so clearly, they are dependent upon the liberation of the exchange process from the dominance of political and banking interests, and he showed how private initiative and voluntary action could achieve it. (EMFC-2009, 7-8)
• We now have not only the understanding but also the information and telecommunication technologies needed for the creation of the kinds of decentralized credit and finance networks that Riegel suggested many decades ago. (EMFC-2009, 8)

Look for ways to arrive at an alternative scenario

• Like Edward Veith, I hope that the insights and ideas presented in my book will stimulate others to action and guide them in the right direction. (EMFC-2009, 5)
• If not, what can be done to change direction and the likely outcome? (EMFC-2009, 12)
• In this chapter I will begin to explain why I believe that the transition to a steady state economy, and indeed, the very survival of civilization hinge upon the fundamental restructuring of money, banking, and finance. (EMFC-2009, 12)
• The late Willis Harman repeatedly asked the questions "What in the world is it that is trying to happen?" and "What can, or should, we do to assist it?" and devoted the last part of his life to trying to answer them. (EMFC-2009, 15)

Suppose our behavior and interaction contributes to a positive destinty and design systems accordingly

The structures we need to create must be consistent with the values we espouse and the outcomes we wish to produce. These both determine and are determined by who we are, how we behave, and how we interact. If we are fortunate, we will succeed in emerging as the new creature that I think humanity was always destined to become. (EMFC-2009, 16)

Distill and share acuteness of insight

• But one source deserves special mention for the acuteness of his insight. I have often acknowledged that my quest to understand money has been aided more by the work of E.C.Riegel than by any other source. (EMFC-2009, 7)

Reinvent and further improve

• Much of what Riegel envisioned, and tried to implement in the 1930s and 1940s, has been reinvented in more recent times in the form of mutual credit clearing circles, like local exchange trading systems (LETS), that have sprung up from the grassroots and been proliferating around the world - along with extra-bank credit clearing services offered to businesses by commercial "barter" exchanges. These pioneering efforts have provided the foundation for the more perfected and complete systems that are now on the horizon. (EMFC-2009, 8)

Look over historical records

• Very few people realize that the nature of money has changed profoundly over the past three centuries, or that it has become a political instrument used to centralize power, concentrate wealth, and subvert popular government. (EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg1)
• My intention in writing this book is to provide the historical background and conceptual foundation necessary for understanding our current predicament, and to suggest in some detail courses of action that can lead us out of it.(EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg7)

Take evidence from experimental science reports

• This was an insightful observation of what Philip Zimbardo’s work in the Stanford Prison Experiment would later prove, that perfectly normal and otherwise good people often do evil things as a result of the situations and systems in which they happen to be embedded.5 (EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg3)

self-directed program of personal re-education / Awakening

• It was during the 1973– 74 academic year at Syracuse that I had what might be called an epiphany. I

was awakened from my middle-class stupor and was able to see more clearly the way things actually are. From that point onward, I embarked upon a self-directed program of personal reeducation that covered a wide range of subjects.... Along with my new insights and a desire to broaden the scope of my knowledge, I developed a newfound concern for social justice, economic equity, personal freedom, self-expression, ecology, and peace. (EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg4)

find kindred spirits / allied organisations - and interact with them

• I found kindred spirits in various movements and organizations, including the Rochester Peace and Justice Education Center, which we referred to it as pee jeck. (EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg4)
• One day, as I sat at a desk in the PJEC office where I was a sometime volunteer, a colleague handed me a book that had just arrived in the mail which bore the intriguing title, In the Wake of Inflation Can the Church Remain Silent? (EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg4) (Note he is interacting by volunteering)
• It has become my personal mission to unravel the mysteries of money, to share as widely as possible what I have learned, and to collaborate with others in creating new structures that can enable us to transcend what has become today a “mega-crisis.” (EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg5)(Note he is interacting by collaborating)

Create new structures / frameworks

• It has become my personal mission to unravel the mysteries of money, to share as widely as possible what I have learned, and to collaborate with others in creating new structures that can enable us to transcend what has become today a “mega-crisis.” (EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg5)
• In 1989–90, I wrote and published my first book, Money and Debt: A Solution to the Global Crisis, which described in concise terms the basic dysfunctions and problems inherent in our present political money and banking regime, and presented a framework of principles and ideas upon which solutions to the money problem might be built.(EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg7-8)

Write and publish books

• In 1989–90, I wrote and published my first book, Money and Debt: A Solution to the Global Crisis, which described in concise terms the basic dysfunctions and problems inherent in our present political money and banking regime, and presented a framework of principles and ideas upon which solutions to the money problem might be built.(EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg7-8)
• In 1994, I wrote and published my second book to build upon that framework, to flesh out the ideas, and to suggest some new possibilities.(EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg8)(Note ideas are deepened in the process of writing - as he says I wrote ... to flesh out the ideas RATHER than to present fleshed out ideas)

Take the perspective of others

• From the start, I had intended to write a complementary currency handbook to provide more and better guidance to those who are undertaking to organize exchange alternatives. I had also planned that the book would deal with the “money problem” in a broader context so that the reader who is new to the subject might grasp both the urgency and proper approach to its solution (EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg8)
• During my academic career I learned a very important lesson about teaching and learning. As a new faculty member in the College of Business at RIT, I was asked to teach a required course in statistics, a course that was to become my specialty. ... It took me a few years to realize that my students lacked the conceptual foundation they needed to understand the methods and meaning of statistical inference. This was not their fault; it was merely a gap in their experience. It was also my use of the “wrong” methods of instruction. I had assumed that the traditional lecture-recitation method would be adequate and that I could begin at the higher level of abstraction common to college-level courses. But I came to realize that my students needed to have direct experience with the physical processes involved in taking samples and summarizing their data, and that they needed to see how their results compared with other samples from the same population that were taken by other students. I abandoned the lecture method and shifted my approach to using simulations, case studies, and group projects—all of which produced far better results. I(EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg9)

Contextualise within broader narratives

• This book casts the inquiry within the broader context of civilizational evolution, showing both the forces that have shaped the present global regime of money and power and the urgency of transcending it. (EMFC-2025, Ch1 pg9)

Experiential learning over time / take a climate view rather than a weather view

• But in any particular system, despite the inevitability of short-term fluctuations, it may still be possible to discern a general tendency or long-term trend. But even trends sometimes reverse themselves. As spring approaches, temperatures stop falling and begin to rise. We can have confidence in such expectations because we have a solid theory to explain them and a considerable amount of experience that affirms it. (EMFC-2025, Ch2 pg2)

Read fiction books / hear stories

• There is a fable often used to drive home the concept. In one version, an Oriental king is presented by a courtier with a gift of a chessboard and a set of finely carved chess pieces. The king, being pleased and wishing to reciprocate, asks what the courtier would like in return.(EMFC-2025, Ch2 pg3)

Sources

• EMFC Thomas H. Greco, Jr. The end of money and the future of civilization. 2025. (Current edition)
• EMFC-2009 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. The end of money and the future of civilization. 2009. (First edition)
• https://beyondmoney.net Beyond Money: Devoted to the liberation of money and credit, and the restoration of the commons
  • About Thomas H. Greco, Jr.