The Monetary System

Acknowledgements

We must first pay tribute to our ancestors – the ones who invented money. We don’t know who they were, but they left us with a way to organize society. We especially have to revere those of German origin who, in horrible circumstances, invented relativity and linked sociology and money: Von Mises, Hayek and their successors Allais and Mundell, to name just a few. Without them – without the appropriate basis – this work would not exist.

Also, of course, our families have to be thanked. They fiercely and fully supported us when we were reading, thinking and writing, despite perhaps being a little neglected.

Many of our friends helped us by reading, unaided, numerous drafts which were difficult to understand. We mention Gilles Godefroy, who believed that a book on this subject was possible and useful and brought us through the advanced mathematics; George Ugeux, who is our reference in terms of ethics and market functioning but also did us the favour of reading and commenting on some of our drafts; Antoine Treuille, who has been patient in reading and commenting on our papers since we started this work in 2010; René Pierre Azria, the banker and great philanthropist; Donald Lamson, the law specialist in sovereign debts and US monetary regulation; Antoine Maffei, expert in international regulatory matters; Patrice Durand, who is knowledgeable about so many aspects of the entrepreneurial economy and now exposed to the security issues of modern means of payments. ...