Sacred Economics         1              CHARLES EISENSTEIN
                       Sacred Economics
               Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition
                          By Charles Eisenstein
    Sacred Economics         2              CHARLES EISENSTEIN
                            To my parents
             and all others who have given me so much with no thought of return
     Sacred Economics                3                 CHARLES EISENSTEIN
     Table of Contents
     Table of Contents
       Sacred Economics..........................................................................................................................1
       Introduction......................................................................................................................................5
     Part I: The Economics of Separation.....................................................................................................10
       Chapter 1: The Gift World.............................................................................................................10
       Chapter 2: The Illusion of Scarcity................................................................................................18
       Chapter 3: Money and the Mind....................................................................................................25
       Chapter 4: The Trouble with Property...........................................................................................34
       Chapter 5: The Corpse of the Commons......................................................................................44
         Cultural and Spiritual Capital................................................................................................44
         The Strip-Mining of Community............................................................................................47
         The Creation of Needs.........................................................................................................48
         The Money Power................................................................................................................52
       Chapter 6: The Economics of Usury.............................................................................................55
         An Economic Parable...........................................................................................................56
         The Growth Imperative.........................................................................................................58
         The Concentration of Wealth................................................................................................60
         Wealth Redistribution and Class War...................................................................................64
         Inflation.................................................................................................................................67
         More for You Is Less for Me.................................................................................................68
       Chapter 7: The Crisis of Civilization .............................................................................................71
       Chapter 8: The Turning of the Age................................................................................................78
          Money: Story and Magic
          Humanity’s Coming-of-Age Ordeal
     Part II: The Economics of Reunion........................................................................................................88
       Chapter 9: The Story of Value.......................................................................................................88
       Chapter 10: The Law of Return.....................................................................................................95
       Chapter 11: Currencies of the Commons...................................................................................101
       Chapter 12: Negative-Interest Economics..................................................................................108
         History and Background.....................................................................................................109
         Modern Application and Theory..........................................................................................113
         The Debt Crisis: Opportunity for Transition
         Thinking for the Future........................................................................................................119
         More for Me Is More for You...............................................................................................123
       Chapter 13: Steady-State and Degrowth Economics.................................................................130
         Sustainability Reconsidered...............................................................................................130
         Transition to Steady-State: Bump or Crash? .....................................................................131
         Shrinking Money, Growing Wealth.....................................................................................136
         Disintermediation and the P2P Revolution.........................................................................138
       Chapter 14: The Social Dividend................................................................................................140
         The Paradox of Leisure......................................................................................................140
         The Obsolescence of “Jobs”..............................................................................................142
    Sacred Economics         4              CHARLES EISENSTEIN
       The Will to Work.................................................................................................................145
       Who Shall Remove the Garbage?......................................................................................147
      Chapter 15: Local and Complementary Currency......................................................................150
       The Catch-22 of Local Currency........................................................................................152
       Experiments in Local Money..............................................................................................156
       Reclaiming the Credit Commons........................................................................................159
      Chapter 16: Transition to Gift Economy......................................................................................163
      Chapter 17: Summary and Roadmap.........................................................................................168
       1. Negative-Interest Currency............................................................................................168
       2. Elimination of Economic Rents, and Compensation for Depletion of the Commons.....169
       3. Internalization of Social and Environmental Costs.........................................................170
       4. Economic and Monetary Localization............................................................................171
       5. The Social Dividend........................................................................................................172
       6. Economic Degrowth ......................................................................................................172
       7. Gift Culture and P2P Economics....................................................................................173
    Part III: Living the New Economy........................................................................................................174
      Chapter 18: Relearning Gift Culture...........................................................................................175
      Chapter 19: Nonaccumulation....................................................................................................182
      Chapter 20: Right Livelihood and Sacred Investing...................................................................188
       The Dharma of Wealth.......................................................................................................188
       Robbing Peter to Pay Paul.................................................................................................190
       Old Accumulations to New Purposes.................................................................................194
       Right Livelihood..................................................................................................................196
      Chapter 21: Working in the Gift...................................................................................................198
       Trusting Gratitude...............................................................................................................198
       Business in the Gift.............................................................................................................200
       The Sacred Professions.....................................................................................................203
      Chapter 22: Community and the Unquantifiable.........................................................................206
      Chapter 23: A New Materialism...................................................................................................210
      Conclusion: The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Tell Us Is Possible......................................214
      Appendix: Quantum Money and the Reserve Question.............................................................218
      Bibliography................................................................................................................................224