A proposal excerpted from Kevin Cox:

“The idea that money tokens have a time value is deeply embedded in economic thinking and analysis. It has arisen because most money tokens are created with interest immediately payable. It is an idea that should be abandoned. When new money tokens are created the tokens should be interest free. Money tokens become interest bearing after they are exchanged for assets of value.

In our current economic systems money tokens are deemed to have a value over time because they are created with an interest value attached. As a result central banks are forced to encourage inflation of the currency to compensate for putting an interest value on money tokens before the tokens are used.

The time value of money has arisen because money represents assets and assets have a value over time because they can generate income over time. It is the confusion between the properties of what money represents and money tokens themselves that has created the problem. Money does not have a value over time until it represents an asset. Hence interest on money reflects the world of commerce only if the money represents a real asset. What this means is that money, when it has been saved, can have interest attached. Money when it represents a given asset can have interest attached if the asset is used to generate income or if the asset increases in value over time. Until that time money should not have an interest attached.

For our accounting systems to better reflect economic reality we need to change our accounting practices to remove the time value of money on newly created money tokens. We can do this within the existing framework of commerce and we can do it incrementally with minor changes to current accounting and taxation practises.

New money tokens are created when an asset is monetized. The asset may be a physical asset such as a house or the asset may be the ability of an entity to repay. This happens when a government creates money tokens or a bank issues a loan. When money tokens are introduced into the system this way then there is no systematic problem with putting interest onto the money tokens because the tokens represent an asset that can repay the loan and pay the interest.

However new money tokens are also introduced into the system when interest is paid on unpaid interest or when new tokens are introduced into the system when a loan is backed by another loan. In these cases there are no productive assets to the pay the interest. This debt (new money tokens) created from interest on interest or loans on loans is the root of the current debt problem. Interest on interest can be eliminated by a simple change to the way we account for the repayment of debt. Governments can reduce the need for loans on loans by ensuring there are enough money tokens in the system to support economic activity.

When a debt is repaid the current accounting approach is to pay any interest owing first and if there are any funds remaining to repay the capital. The accounting can be changed to pay capital first then pay interest when all the capital is repaid. Interest that has not yet been repaid does not represent a productive asset so it does not attract interest.

However investors will not invest or save money without interest on interest because of endemic inflation. Inflation reduces the value of money and because of inflation money tokens need to have a time value. Another way to eliminate this time value of money is to increase all loans and all unpaid interest with inflation.

It is difficult to change the existing money system to incorporate these new accounting practises. However, it is possible to change the system incrementally with individual loans and to use special purpose money for these loans. This special purpose money shall be called Coupons. The money can be used to build or purchase an asset that will produce a profit that can be used to both repay the investor and to pay interest on the Coupons. To keep Coupons within the existing laws Coupons can only be redeemed by paying for output from the asset that the Coupons back. For example, Coupons could be designated in litres of water, kwhs of energy, months of occupation. Alternatively we could designate Coupons in regular money but increase the number of Coupons not yet repaid by the previous period’s inflation rate. The two methods can be combined so that the number of Coupons is increased if the output value of the asset does not increase with inflation.

This approach makes a significant difference to the cost of purchasing an asset or of funding a new asset.

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Removing the time value on money tokens will change investor behaviour. Investors become patient investors and will look for long term investments that give an inflation adjusted return. This will change behaviour because current loans repayments favour a rapid return of Capital and short term investments.

Borrowers who have long term assets whose value increases with inflation either through increased prices or decreased costs will look to finance their assets with Coupons because they can borrow more for the same value periodic repayments.

Public Infrastructure funded through Loans and repaid with taxes or monopoly user charges will replace their loan commitments with Coupons.

Banks will start to change their loans to Money Coupons where interest is not paid on interest to better match the investments they make in productive assets.

It is expected that the approach will rapidly move through the financial system and the effect will be to remove the cost of inflation and to reduce the cost of long term capital. In effect the productivity of Capital is increased. If enough funds are invested with Coupons it is highly likely that general inflation will be eliminated.”