Logo degrowth

Blog

"The dollar is approaching its collapse, which will force a reconfiguration of our systems of money, finance and banking"

14.02.2014

Interview with Ole Bjerg Ole Bjerg is associate professor at the Copenhagen Business School. He writes for the ephemera Journal and is one of the organizers of the conference "Organizing for the post-growth economy". He gave us a short interview for the Stream towards Degrowth.  

Imagine we're living in the future, say in the year 2030, in a time of well-being. Humanity
enjoys a good life beyond economic growth. Let's look back at the last few decades.
1. In what respect did society depend on growth? Society depends on the growth of living organisms, plants and animals. However, this kind of growth is taking place within a natural cycle of life and death so that nothing grows infinitely. 2.What obstacles impeded a turning away from economic growth? The major obstacle was the creation of money by banks as interest bearing debt. As soon as this obstacle was overcome through a monetary reform the need for perpetual economic growth became obsolete. 3. How did your actions contribute to a society beyond growth? Through my writing and teaching I played an active role in raising the awareness of the detrimental effects of the past monetary system and the benefits of the implementation of a new system based on full reserve banking. 4. From your point of view, what does well-being imply in a society that consciously chose low production and consumption levels? Freedom in the sense of being in control and in contact with the means of one’s own subsistence. 5. Which signs for a world beyond growth did you already notice in 2013? That the dollar is approaching its collapse, which will force a reconfiguration of our systems of money, finance and banking.

Share on the corporate technosphere


Our republication policy

Support us

Blog

Transformative economics on both sides of the Atlantic – the new economy movement and degrowth movement

6137588470 4dc105139f o

By: Nathan Barlow

Two loose movements have emerged on either side of the Atlantic with the aim of transforming the economy. In the U.S.  –the new economy movement and in Europe - the degrowth movement . Both originated as critiques of the current political-economic system, and gained momentum after the financial crisis, since flourishing into nascent social movements composed of practitioners, academics, and act...

Blog

Multiple perspectives on the March 15th, Global Climate Strike in Vienna

A

By: Nathan Barlow, Colleen Schneider, Nikolai Weber, and Frederik Amann

On March 15th 2019 a global climate strike organized by Fridays for Future took place in over 100 countries around the world, mobilizing over 1 million students to the streets. We asked 3 people from Vienna involved in different streams of the Austrian climate justice movement to share their perspectives on the event. 1) Organization and planning of the Strike by Colleen Schneider In Janu...

Blog

The rising of a common vision - reality or utopia?

Thomas victor 6 photomas

By Christiane Kliemann When listening to all the keynotes, panels and sessions, or simply joining the lively discussions between conference participants, there is the notion of an overall agreement that a broader new vision for society and the economy is most urgently needed.  However, the elephant in the room is that such vision is almost impossible to shape, if it is to represent the diversi...