Joseph Huber (sociologist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joseph Huber, 2011

Joseph Huber (born November 4, 1948 in Mannheim ) is a German economist and social scientist . He developed the monetary concept of a sovereign money system .

Life and works

Huber studied sociology in Heidelberg and Bochum as well as economics and political science at the Free University of Berlin . After his habilitation in 1981, he worked as a journalist and political advisor for domestic and foreign addresses before he was given the chair for economic and environmental sociology at the Martin Luther University in Halle in 1992 .

Joseph Huber has emerged with various works, including contributions to the concept of the dual economy (formal and informal area of ​​economy and work) and the approach of ecological modernization through technical and social innovations.

In 2001 Huber gave a lecture on “ Seigniorage Reform and Plain Money” and developed the “ sovereign money” concept further. Huber criticizes the minimum reserve system , since commercial banks there can generate a multiple of credits compared to their reserves through multiple money creation . The central bank would have largely lost control of the money supply and thus the money shelf , since M1 would represent 85% of the money supply. In addition, the profit from the creation of money ( profit from coins ) minus the costs for administration and transaction costs would remain with the banks, instead of, as in his concept, with the public sector , which today would only have the central bank profit. This is a consequence of the development of cashless payment transactions and forms of ICT payment. When attempting to channel the growth of the money supply, the central banks would at least turn to interest rate policy to compensate, although according to Huber the money supply had slipped away from them .

Sovereign money reform

With a full monetary reform (as described in "money creation in the public sector.") Current accounts would be relabelled in cash accounts and the creation of book money would be prohibited commercial banks by law. The commercial banks should no longer keep these money accounts on their balance sheets, but would merely manage them, equivalent to today's securities accounts . The repayment of current book money loans would no longer lead to a reduction in the balance sheet of the commercial banks and thus destroy book money, but would be redeclared as sovereign money and passed on to the public sector via the central bank in the form of a one-time substitution seigniorage . This means that the book money currently in circulation would be redeclared as plain money over a certain period of time (the remaining terms of the old book money loans) and flow back to the state. According to estimates by Joseph Huber, for example, the national debt could be repaid by around 40–50%. If this unique seigniorage were actually used to pay off the national debt, large parts of the money would flow back to the commercial banks, since these are the main creditors of the state.

In a sovereign money system, new money would be created by the central bank granting unlimited, interest-free loans exclusively to the government. The government alone would decide how to use these loans. In emergency situations and under exceptional circumstances (for example major environmental disasters), the central bank should also be able to grant fixed-term and interest-bearing loans to the executive and commercial banks . The central bank would orientate itself with the new money supply to the expected economic growth. In the event of a recession it would also be possible to reduce the money supply again relative to economic growth in order to ensure price level stability . The seigniorage, which in the current minimum reserve system largely flows to the commercial banks, would now benefit the public sector.

The commercial banks would still be responsible for supplying households and businesses with loans. However, the commercial banks would no longer be able to do this by creating book money, but would have to collect investment capital from other economic participants in order to be able to lend it.

In order to ensure that the central bank fulfills its task of controlling the money supply seriously and responsibly, it would be elevated to the rank of an independent fourth state authority. This is what the term “monetative” wants to illustrate.

Fonts

  • Who should change all that. The alternatives of the alternative movement. Rotbuch, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-88022-229-0 .
  • The lost innocence of ecology. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-10-034103-1 .
  • The two faces of work. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-10-034104-X .
  • Rule and Longing. Cultural Dynamics of the West. Beltz, Weinheim 1989, ISBN 3-407-85093-X .
  • Sovereign money. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-428-09526-X .
  • with James Robertson : Creating New Money. A monetary reform for the information age. New Economics Foundation , London 2002, ISBN 1-899407-29-4 . (on-line)
  • General environmental sociology. 2nd Edition. VS, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-17872-1 .
  • New Technologies and Environmental Innovation. Elgar, Cheltenham 2004, ISBN 1-84376-799-6 .
  • GG scenario. 159 articles for a new social contract. Edition Büchergilde, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-936428-51-4 .
  • with James Robertson: Money creation in public hands. Way to a fair monetary order in the information age. Gauke, Kiel 2008, ISBN 978-3-87998-454-1 . (Revised German edition of Creating New Money. A monetary reform for the information age )
  • More and more education. Future investment or progressive illusion? Metropolis, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89518-731-5 .
  • Monetary modernization. On the future of the monetary order: sovereign money and monetatives. 5th edition. Metropolis, Marburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-7316-1198-1 .
  • Sovereign Money. Beyond Reserve Banking. Palgrave Macmillan, London 2017, ISBN 978-3-319-42173-5 .
  • Monetary sovereignty. The monetary system in upheaval. Metropolis, Marburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-7316-1333-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Joseph Huber: Reform of the creation of money - restoration of the state money shelf through sovereign money. (PDF, 191 kB) In: Zeitschrift für Sozialökonomie . September 2004, archived from the original on January 5, 2012 ; accessed on March 21, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Uchatius: We could also do otherwise. In: The time . September 5, 2009, accessed March 21, 2014 .
  3. ^ Joseph Huber, James Robertson: Money creation in public hands. Way to a fair monetary order in the information age. Gauke, Kiel 2008, ISBN 978-3-87998-454-1 (revised German edition of Creating New Money. A monetary reform for the information age )
personal data
SURNAME Huber, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim