[Terrapreta] imagine this

[David Hirst .com]

I find Lewis's explanation of the difference between trading real things and
trading the intangibles created by a system most compelling and helpful. It
is trading in pure "rights" and not in things with their embedded rights.

Trading in pure rights can add great value, making possible significant
enhancement in well being across a wider society than those trading in the
rights. It can make the production of useful things and services very much
more efficient and so more widely available. Trading in rights may even help
save the planet!

But it also has great dangers, some of which are the information
disadvantages Lewis mentions. It may be this is the underlying cause of the
dangers. We see this danger in derivatives markets, and securitized
sub-prime loans etc. where the buyer has to trust the validity of what is
being sold. 

When those selling can benefit from weakening the validity of what is being
sold, and are seen to get profits from so doing, then traders are bound to
pile in, and it is trust that gets damaged and eroded. In effect, wealth is
extracted from the common good of trusted systems, and we only get to
realise it when the weakening has become visible to all.

Trust is itself a huge facilitator of efficient trade. When it is lost (or
reduced), all transactions become much more difficult and expensive, as
everybody involved has to devote effort to protecting themselves. So we all
lose out.

It seems to me therefore that for sensible trading that encourages adoption
of biochar and building of tera preta (a common good) needs very careful
protection of the common good being built. After all, if somebody can buy
the tera preta land, and profit from depleting the carbon in it, then the
"investment" made by society and the individuals in the tera preta is lost
to "private" (and most likely corporate) gain.

I fear the sort of protections and standards needed will not just "happen"
and evolve. They, like tera preta, need careful and intelligent nurturing.

I do hope this can "happen", and will be thinking of ways to try and
encourage it.

Regards

David

 

David Hirst

direct:     +44 (0) 1723 570113    

mobile:   +44 (0) 7831 405443   

email:      <mailto:.david at davidhirst.com> david at davidhirst.com  

From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of lou gold
Sent: 04 March 2008 07:58
To: MMBTUPR at aol.com
Cc: Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] imagine this

 

Yes, good. I imagine that standards will evolve organically as you say
because the community of participants have a stake in fair practices. They
will pressure for public standards or create an association early on. The
process is a co-evolution of many ingredients. As in most public or private
level exchanges it will work most of the time and also have phases of fraud
and delusion. 

On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 7:06 PM, <MMBTUPR at aol.com> wrote:

          from          Lewis L. Smith

The problem with credits is that they are intangibles, values created by a
system, not a tangible object manufactured from materials or a repair job
which produces a tangible change in the behavior of a tangible object.

So many of the participants in the markets for credits will be at an
information disadvantage.  Those of you who have had to buy a used car at
some time in your life will know all about that !  

This is why I believe some kind of standard will be necessary from the
beginning and may not just evolve spontaneously. Those who have the
information advantage at the beginning will want to keep it, unless the
public sector, a trade association or such like intervene.

Cordially. ###


**************
It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms, and advice on AOL Money & Finance.
(http://money.aol.com/tax?NCID=aolprf00030000000001) 




-- 
http://lougold.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/sets/ 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /attachments/20080304/289ba96c/attachment.html