‘Krisis’ = Decision Time. Associate! July 2012

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In every crisis there is an opportunity hidden. So too it proves with the Global Financial Crisis, as people begin to challenge the logic of the monetary status quo which they had previously taken for granted. Just as an illness can strike a person down, it can also give pause for reflection, engender compassion and draw out creative new thoughts.

The Greek/Euro crisis is the focus of this month’s issue. The claimed intractability of the crisis is belied by various contributors who shed a creative light on the potential for new developments that hitherto have been given little real thought.

Michael Tsigotsides asks whether the crisis should itself be seen as a kind of catalyst that will foster a new economic dynamic, one that is based not on the atomism of individualism but on the holistic image of the world’s economy as one integrated organism.

The Sign of Our Time takes an example of creativity from the streets of Greece, where, as often happens when ‘money runs out’, local currencies are emerging. This happened in Argentina in 2000. Whether in Greece post crisis such schemes will last as a significant force (in Argentina they did not), and whether this is ‘the beginning of the future’, as Christos Papaioannou of the Volos group wonders, remains to be seen.

The feature on The Optional Euro considers the wider theme of currency as a user-determined phenomenon. In his article, Christopher Houghton Budd argues that any economic actor, whether individual, corporate or governmental, and whether inside or outside the Eurozone, could simply opt to treat the euro as an alternative currency. As with all currencies, the question is simply whether anyone would accept it.

This month’s AEX Pages are given over to fascinating account of how individuals can capitalise themselves and become self-governing in their economic life.

Accounting Corner closes the issue with a tongue in cheek title for a seminal consideration that goes to the heart of today’s financial problems.