Bernard Lietaer was a renowned Belgian civil engineer, economist, author, and professor who made significant contributions to the field of monetary systems. He was born on February 7, 1942, in Lauwe, Belgium, and studied engineering at the Catholic University of Leuven, where he later held an assistant professorship of international finance.
Lietaer's academic pursuits were marked by his fascination with monetary systems, and he went on to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1969 to 1971. His post-graduate thesis, published in 1971, described the concept of "floating exchanges," which became a crucial component of modern financial systems.
In the 1980s, Lietaer co-founded a currency-management firm, GaiaCorp, and managed the offshore currency fund "Gaia Hedge II," which became the world's top-performing managed currency fund during the 1987-1991 period. His work in this field earned him recognition as the world's top currency trader in 1992, according to Business Week.
Lietaer's contributions to the field of monetary systems extended beyond his work in the private sector. He was a visiting scholar at Naropa University in the United States from 2003 to 2006, where he created the Marpa Center for Business and Economics. He also served as President of Belgium's Electronic Payment System and implemented the convergence mechanism (ECU) to the single European-currency system during his tenure at the Central Bank in Belgium.
In his later years, Lietaer focused on promoting the idea of community-based currencies, which he believed could help address specific needs and facilitate certain exchanges. He was a strong advocate for the use of diversified, internationally valid currencies to promote sustainable development and address global challenges such as climate change.
Lietaer's work was widely recognized, and he was a co-author of the book "Money & Sustainability: the missing link," which was published by The Club of Rome in 2012. In this book, he predicted that the period from 2007 to 2020 would be marked by financial turmoil and gradual monetary breakdown.
Throughout his life, Lietaer was driven by a passion for understanding and improving the world's monetary systems. His work continues to inspire and inform scholars, policymakers, and entrepreneurs around the world.
