The idea that you don't expect, from whom you don't expect. Brian Brooks, America's top banking regulator, wants to close the wealth gap between developing and developed countries with a plan he calls "country coin."
The name doesn't say much and has no impact ("country coin", "national currency": there isn't anything more generic). The substance seems good though. The crux of the plan is to promote education and economic growth around the world.
Because higher literacy rates correlate with a higher “gross domestic product,” Brooks says, incentivizing people to stay in school can increase productivity, individual well-being and social prosperity.
National currency for continuous learning
These are principles that we find in the academic literature, but their implementation lags behind in practice. Brooks wants to make them happen with a means that will make many turn up their noses. How to promote culture? With a national currency. A cryptocurrency, to be precise.
Under the plan, world governments would reward people with the so-called “national currency for continuous learning”.
A student would earn coins by completing offline and online courses, and passing tests. The coins would essentially represent claims on a “trust fund” established by the state. The country coin would entitle recipients to future payments representing a share of the rising tax revenue generated by rising GDP.
Country coin at a glance
Translation: As people get more education nations, students earning coins and investors get richer together. The national currency for lifelong learning would ensure benefits for everyone, not just people who get good salaries in the job market after finishing their studies.
This is a way to increase equity and increase growth without raising taxes and without pitting the rich against the poor
Brian brooks
Nobel idea?
Brooks knows how to deal with currencies. He checks them, to be precise. IS Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), head of an independent office within the United States Department of the Treasury which and supervises all national banks and savings institutions.
Perhaps this is why, when explaining his idea at the Singapore Fintech Festival last week, he was “differently humble” by declaring “this should be the next Nobel Prize. It's a great idea. ”
I put this statement aside for a second, which arouses rare dislike in me, and pass it off as "extremely enthusiastic". Brooks compared the proposal's potential impact to that of Muhammad Yunus on microloan financing. Indeed, THAT IDEA earned Yunus a Nobel Prize in 1996 (albeit for Peace and not for Economics).
Where could one begin?
Brooks thinks areas like Afghanistan, Southeast Asia and Latin America would be great testing grounds for the country coin.
A national currency for continuous learning can have a big impact right there: What is needed, of course, is for regulators to “recognize this as a nimble policy approach to making everyone a little richer together, which is what that the developing world should want,” says Brooks.
National Currency for Learning: Cryptocurrency for Development
Bryan Hubbard, Brooks' deputy, anticipated the release of a report detailing the proposed national currency.
“With this project, the country coin becomes an almost equity stake in the country because it represents a forecast of the growth of future cash flows,” says the document which, in fact, links education to global well-being in a practical way.
In practice, this means that a Colombian student could take virtual courses using a mobile phone and receive, as compensation, some of Colombia's “national continuous learning currency” from the finance ministry. If the coin is worth, say, €10 at the time of issue, earning 100 country coins would immediately produce 1.000 euros of profit. Assuming Colombia's GDP and tax base increase over time, the value of this country coin could also increase alongside the country's growth.
The country invests in culture. You invest in culture. The country invests in you. You invest in the country.
Universal basic education
In the eyes of an ignorant person like me this might sound like some sort of financial utopia, and there is no doubt that at this moment, December 2020, it is.
In fact, however, it is closely linked to an important concept, which could soon be introduced in Europe (especially if you contribute to the collection of signatures): a universal minimum income.
With a variation: Instead of doling out a certain amount of money to people simply for being taxpaying citizens, the National Continuous Learning Currency would reward people for studying and learning. Because studying and learning directly improves national outcomes in terms of health, livelihoods, social stability and GDP.
It depends on what you study! Or not?
The chosen discipline does not matter: whether it is artificial intelligence or postmodern literary theory makes little difference. “GDP growth is influenced by philosophy professors no less than by software engineers,” Brooks says. “The beauty of this approach is that labor markets may still treat you differently, but they all share in the creation of national wealth. We are all in this together. “
Some countries, however, are already experimenting with forms of universal basic income. The tests took place in Brazil, Kenya, Switzerland and Finland, as well as in the United States (Alaska and California).
In the United States, the idea gained more popularity after the former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang he adopted it as part of his campaign. In Italy, ideas related to minimum income have often been proposed by the 5 Star Movement.
The true provocative power of Brooks' idea, however, is one. That of using the "diabolical" mechanisms of finance as a positive force.
