What is Money? by Joseph Beuys

Author:Joseph Beuys
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clairview Books Ltd
Published: 2012-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

PS. I have been following the debate surrounding your ideas on economics and find that, through dire intellectual approaches, your opponents are unable to warm the ground of will, are therefore prevented from feeling properly; and that this ultimately and inevitably produces thoughts that have not passed through the fire – which is something so necessary for thinking about money and the economic system in particular.

From a letter from Joseph Beuys to Wilhelm Schmundt, August 1976

BEUYS: First a better car! All these shite cars fouling nature! (applause and laughter)

WILLERT: In any event, the balance is not affected. Goods are delivered against money but we must let go of the old notion of goods. We shouldn’t call goods only something that has wheels or is edible; the concept of goods itself has become much larger.

BINSWANGER: I would like to propose that we open the debate here.

MEMBER OF AUDIENCE: Mr Bethmann has written a book about the history of interest and compound interest. I would have liked – others perhaps as well – to hear more details about the effects of this interest and compound interest on money. Because it seems to be a very big problem for the world economy.

BEUYS: There you go, Bethmann: ‘The Interest Catastrophe’.

BETHMANN: We will shortly feel its effects. There has never been a proliferation of money at this level – a proliferation of bad money as we have seen in the past five or six years. And this essentially relates to the fact that we have never before in history had so long a period of such high interest rates, especially in the leading currencies. This is not an accident in the system but a fatal development we will all have to pay for. As I have said before, with these past years’ explosion of money, 20 to 30 per cent of all money stocks, which I define so widely, all the debts, the debts owed by Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, 20 to 30 per cent of all these debts have gone down the drain – because of high interest rates. The interest catastrophe is on its way.

BEUYS: That’s certain! But to get back to ...

BETHMANN: But these are the things we should discuss, not opinions, like the demonization of money. There is no point arguing endlessly about what money really is. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s not about whether you know exactly what money is, or whether I know what money is ... no, that is not what it is about, really not...

BEUYS: But I say that is exactly what it is about!

BETHMANN: It is not about whether you know how your radio works, it is not about whether you know why the forests die. It is about whether the specialists know ... (protests from the audience) ... and those in positions of responsibility. And they don’t even know!

BEUYS: Exactly!

BETHMANN: Today we know about the death of the forests, the specialists know more about the causes of this than they do about money, about the death of money; yet today we face the death of money.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.