Brett Scott

We are often told that the move towards a cashless society is 'natural progress', but there is seldom reference to the powerful groups that are vigorously pushing for it. What happens when physical money is replaced completely by digital transactions? In the great battle for global monopolization, different 'watchers' are trying to capture and hoard data. Google has search patterns revealing your desires, fetishes and intellectual interests. Facebook has a treasure trove of its users' special moments and projections of vanity. Yet, if we really want to see what a person is motivated to act upon in society, we should examine their payments data. In our large-scale modern economies, a significant amount of a person's life is spent buying things, and this data provides a clear idea of their priorities, habits and beliefs. However, the great information firewall is being completely offline, leaving data black holes. In Cloudmoney, Brett Scott uncovers a long-established lobbying infrastructure set up by an alliance of partners, including financial institutions, governments and international agencies, to wage a covert cold war against cash. Who benefits from a cashless society and who is left behind? And will the departure of cash also signal the departure of true privacy?

Cloudmoney

Efectivo, Tarjetas, Criptomonedas y la Lucha Por Nuestras Carteras / Cloudmoney. Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for Our Wallets

Popular anger against bankers and financial speculators has never been greater, yet the practical workings of the system remain opaque to many people. The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance aims to bridge the gap between protest slogans and practical proposals for reform. As a stockbroker turned campaigner, Brett Scott has a unique understanding of life inside and outside the system. The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance is a practical handbook for campaigners, academics and students who wish to deepen their understanding of the inner workings of the financial sector. It shows how financial knowledge can be used to build effective social and environmental campaigns. Scott covers topics frequently overlooked, such as the cultural aspects of the financial sector, and considers major issues such as agricultural speculation, carbon markets and tar sands financing. The book shows how activists can use the internal dynamics of the sector to reform it and showcases the growing alternative finance movement.

Hacking the Future of Money

The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance

Heretic's Guide to Global Finance

A monetary anthropologist shows how physical cash stands in the way of a dangerous "cashless" digital money empire, one that will allow Big Tech and Big Finance to merge into one, with dire consequences for our civil liberties, psyches and planet. Since the 2007 Global Financial Crisis, banking giants have retreated from the public spotlight, giving center stage to Big Tech corporations that reach into our lives via our digital devices. Big Finance firms, however, have taken advantage of this to reinvent their own image via fintech innovations that paste a new digital face over their old practices. Now, behind our friendly-looking smartphone apps, a dangerous system of financial control and surveillance is emerging, forged from a symbiotic fusion of Big Finance and Tech. In this timely and eye-opening book, Brett Scott shows how this fusion requires "cloudmoney"--digital money underpinned by the banking sector--to replace physical cash. Scott clearly explains the technical, political, and cultural differences between our different forms of money, and shows how the cash system has been under attack for decades, as banking and tech companies promote a "cashless society" under the banner of "progress" (a process accelerated in the wake of Covid-19). Scott reveals the deep class politics beneath this, lays out the coming battles between techno-utopians and those who do not want to exist in the Cloud, and critically analyzes the claims made by cryptocurrency promoters, who believe blockchain technology offers an escape. Cloudmoney paints a stark portrait of a future that is closer than we think, and offers a defense of slowness--and the physical--in a world caught in an accelerating vortex of the digital.

Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets

The reach of Corporations into our lives via cards and apps has never been greater; many of us rarely use cash these days. But what we’re told is a natural and inevitable move is actually the work of powerful interests. And the great battle of our time is the battle for ownership of the digital footprints that make up our lives. In Cloudmoney, Brett Scott tells an urgent and revelatory story about how the fusion of Big Finance and Big Tech requires “cloudmoney”—digital money underpinned by the banking sector—to replace physical cash. He dives beneath the surface of the global financial system to uncover a long-established lobbying infrastructure: an alliance of partners waging a covert war on cash. He explains the technical, political, and cultural differences between our various forms of money and shows how the cash system has been under attack for decades, as banking and tech companies promote a cashless society under the banner of progress. Cloudmoney takes us to the front lines of a war for our wallets that is also about our freedom, from marketing strategies against cash to the weaponization of COVID-19 to push fintech platforms, and from there to the rise of the cryptocurrency rebels and fringe groups pushing back. It asks the most pressing questions: Who benefits from a cashless society and who gets left behind? Is the end of cash the end of true privacy? And is our cloudmoney future closer than we think it is?

Wat gebeurt er als alles van waarde traceerbaar is? Brett Scott duikt in de verschillende vormen van geld en laat zien wat de strijd om cash, credit en crypto betekent voor de samenleving. Big Tech en Big Finance hebben groot belang bij de digitalisering van geld, onthult journalist Brett Scott in ‘Cloudmoney’. Er woedt een ‘war on cash’. In dit spraakmakende boek legt hij haarfijn bloot wat de verschillende vormen van geld van elkaar onderscheidt – op technisch, politiek en cultureel vlak – en wat de gevolgen van deze war on cash zijn voor de samenleving. Want wie onze digitale voetafdruk beheert, beheert ons leven; en wie ons de toegang tot ons geld kan ontzeggen, kan ons onze vrijheid ontnemen. Wie halen de meeste winst uit een cashloze samenleving en wie raken erdoor op achterstand? Betekent het einde van cash ook het einde van privacy? En hoe ver zijn we nou echt verwijderd van een toekomst in de cloud?

De strijd om cash, credit en crypto

Warum die totale Digitalisierung des Geldes gefährlich ist Nicht erst seit der Corona-Krise bezahlen immer mehr Menschen bargeldlos mit Karte oder App. Corona hat die Entwicklung deutlich beschleunigt. Nutznießer sind vor allem die großen IT-Unternehmen wie Amazon und Google und die Großen der Finanzindustrie, die unter dem Banner des Fortschritts schon seit Längerem die bargeldlose Gesellschaft propagieren. Der englische Finanzexperte und Aktivist Brett Scott zeigt, dass und wie Big Tech und Big Finance immer enger zusammenrücken und mithilfe der allgegenwärtigen digitalen Geräte ihre Macht über uns gefährlich ausbauen, zum Nachteil unserer Freiheit und Unabhängigkeit. Eine augenöffnende Analyse und ein Weckruf, die als unausweichlichen Fortschritt dargestellte Welt des digitalen Gelds, das Scott »Cloudmoney« nennt, nicht widerspruchslos hinzunehmen. Mit einem Vorwort des Autors zur deutschen Ausgabe.

Cash, Karte oder Krypto: Warum die Abschaffung des Bargelds unsere Freiheit gefährdet

'A brilliant, fascinating and utterly accessible book... If you want to understand what money is - and what it is in danger of becoming - start right here' KATE RAWORTH, author of Doughnut Economics Many of us rarely use cash these days. And the reach of corporations into our lives via cards and apps has never been greater. But what we're told is natural and inevitable is actually the work of powerful interests: the great battle of our time is for ownership of the digital footprints that make up our lives. Who benefits from a cashless society and who gets left behind? Is the end of cash the end of true privacy? And is a cashless future closer than we think? Cloudmoney tells a revelatory story about the fusion of big finance and tech, which requires physical cash to be replaced by digital money or 'cloudmoney'. Diving beneath the surface of the global financial system, Brett Scott uncovers a long-established lobbying infrastructure waging a covert war on cash, as banking and tech companies promote a cashless society under the banner of progress. From marketing strategies against cash, to the weaponization of Covid-19 to advance fintech platforms, and the cryptocurrency rebels and fringe groups pushing back, Cloudmoney takes us to the frontlines of a war for our wallets that is also about our freedom. 'A wonderfully revolutionary text' - YANIS VAROUFAKIS

Brett Scott

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