Saturday 11 January 2014

The legacy of Margrit Kennedy

Reform of money and land are two essential ingredients required to transition from the current scarcity based economy to a world where humans may enjoy the bounties of nature and technology, unleashed to fulfil their real creative and imaginative potential. (source: Critical Thinking).

Here is an excellent video interview of the late Margrit Kenney, where she clearly explains the relationship between money and land.  The video was produced by Fred Harrison of Share The Rents, who has been campaigning against the appropriation of land values for private gain for over 40 years. Fred filmed this video of Magrit on 13 February 2012, during her participation in the first public event organised by the Sustainable Money Working Group - Co-operative and Green Money – Opportunities and Barriers, which was a Round Table discussion, hosted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW), and chaired by Ed Mayo, the Secretary General of Co-operatives UK.





Margrit Kennedy has left us a generous legacy of profound insights into the nature and consequences of interest on money. In her book "Interest and Inflation Free Money", she identified the potential dangers of land speculation arising directly from money reform and in this video she expands on the relationship between money and land.

A gathering to honour and celebrate the life and work of Margrit Kennedy

- John Rogers reports, 13 January 2014:

I just returned from a wonderful gathering to honour and celebrate Margrit's life and work at the community of Lebensgarten she co-founded in northern Germany many years ago: www.lebensgarten.de

Around 100 people gathered from all parts of Germany, including from her own community, to sing, dance, tell stories and remember together in an Open Space process designed to focus on the things she cared about: monetary reform, local currencies, permaculture, architecture, womens' rights etc.

It was truly a celebration by some of the many people she has touched in her life and a wonderful send-off. One of her friends used the image of our lives being fired liked arrows up into the air and how some arrows like Margrit's fly very high.

At the end of the gathering we all danced the conga out of the hall where we had gathered, led by her 79 year old husband Declan Kennedy and her daughter Antja.

A truly fitting tribute to a remarkable life.
As Stephanie Rearick said, we "hope and trust that the legion of people inspired by Margrit Kennedy will do everything possible to bring her beautiful vision of the world to fruition. May she shine on in 2014 and beyond".

Stephanie has shared her personal experience of the generous and caring quality that Margrit manifested in her life. Stephanie is the co-founder of Time for the World, a project of the Dane County Time Bank USA, which "seeks to create tools and bring people together in order to empower us to create communities and economies that value everyone".

Tributes to Margrit Kennedy are being "pinned" on the top left area of People Money on Facebook.
You can also send condolences by email to: goodbye@margritkennedy.de


Useful links:
About Magrit Kennedy:
Other sites paying hommage to the legacy of Margrit Kennedy:

Evolution or Revolution? Democratising Money








This is the title of a seminar panel discussion-debate hosted by Professor Michael Mainelli, Chairman of the Z/Yen Group, and co-sponsored by Cooperatives UK, New Economics Foundation and Community Currencies in Action (CCIA)

The seminar takes place on Thursday, January 16, 2014,  between 8:30-10:00 am
at 90 Basinghall Street, London EC2V 5AY.  
Free admission is assured by booking on the site of Long Finance.

The aim of the seminar is to consider details, support and processes for adapting mobile phone technology to create an alternative form of money so as to:
  1. Sustain funding for SMEs in the event of another financial crisis
  2. Stimulate the economy on a sustainable basis without inflation or cost to the government or taxpayers
  3. Establish a sustainable stable unit of value not subject to debasement or volatility created by governments, central bankers, speculators, terms of trade or alien market forces
  4. Allow local services of nature to define the value of money, prices and costs to make market forces dependent on sustainable environmental values
  5. Sustain low cost finance for business by introducing a usage (demurrage) cost for money hoarders
  6. Remove the incentive for holding wealth in the form of money rather than sustainable productive activities
  7. Reduce misallocation of resources, wealth inequality and so taxes and welfare by removing the ability of money to earn interest
  8. Reduce the percentage of GDP absorbed in financial services rather than providing universal sustainable prosperity
  9. Mitigate or remove market forces that favour burning carbon rather than use sustainable energy
  10. Issue and manage money through cooperative or mutually controlled financial institutions to enrich a sustainable democracy
One of the speakers is Dr Shann Turnbull of the Sustainable Money Working Group (SMWG), whose paper "Can Democratic Money with Environmental Values Reduce Market Failure? " is posted on the site of Long Finance.

For more information, see:

Condolences and goodbye to Margrit Kennedy

 A message from Shann Turnbull PhD; Co-founding member of the Sustainable Money Working Group:

On behalf of all members and friends of our Sustainable Money Working Group I would like to offer condolences to all the family, friends and colleagues of Margrit Kennedy.

Margrit was a ground breaker. She laid the foundations for transforming finance by educating both experts and the public alike.
She was an excellent communicator.
Margrit presented the profound implications of money earning interest in a most direct and compelling way.

Margrit had a generous nature - in sharing ideas, and encouraging colleagues and helping them in practical ways.

In these ways she created many followers to build on her knowledge and inspiration to create the building blocks for transforming finance.
Margrit transformed what we thought about money earning interest and its effect on inflation. Her contributions were both theoretical and practical.

History will remember Margrit as a pioneer of a reform movement that is now gaining traction globally
It was privilege to know Margrit and share her enthusiasms.
She even visited Australia to share her ideas.

It was an honour to be with Margrit at the Lebensgarten Eco-village “Make Money Move" Symposium in 2003 and at the inaugural meeting of the Association of Regional Currencies in the Traunstein Rathaus in 2006.

Margrit became a co-founding member of the Sustainable Money Working Group. She supported us by speaking at our first public meeting hosted in London by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales on 13th February 2012. In July 2013 she kindly joined many other friends and colleagues in Split Croatia to speak at the First Social Transformation Conference that considered Energy Currency as a fundamental measure of price cost and value. 

We all owe Margrit a great (non-financial and interest free) debt of gratitude!

I have added some "happy snaps" of Margrit:

Margrit at  a working dinner after the first public meeting of the Sustainable Money Working Group at the ICAEW on February 13, 2012. We were preparing an agenda to meet with Willem Buiter, The Chief Economist of CitiBank the following morning at 9 am.  Left to right: Ludwig Schuster, Pat Conaty, Margrit and Shann Turnbull

First Social Transformation Conference that considered Energy Currency as a fundamental measure of price cost and value. Split Croatia July 11th, 2012
Left to right: Shann Turnbull, Trond Anderson, Marusa Freire and Margrit Kennedy. Click on URL’s to obtain high definition source.


Christian Arnsperger, Mormir Djurovic, Margrit Kennedy, Ivo Staus, Michael Hudson
http://teslaconference.com/images/fullscreen/IMG_7835.jpg
Margrit Kennedy, Shann Turnbull, Split, Croatia, July 12, 2012
http://teslaconference.com/photo.html#prettyPhoto[gallery2]/47/