I think the biggest problems are 19th century problems that have been resurrected after already being solved (more or less) once before (at least in the First World(TM)).
I see the Credit Crash as a 21st Century problem due to its rapid - IT expedited - time horizon, and global extent. However, the underlying problem - unsustainable debt bearing compound interest - dates back thousands of years, and the concept of "Jubilee" was historically used to address it.
The problems caused by debt-inspired growth have never been "solved", because the cause has never been addressed. We have always, one way or another, "reset" the system. We have never solved the underlying problem.
What is entirely new IMHO is that due to direct Internet connections we are seeing the end of the middleman. This is - as migeru puts it - a "Telluric", once in a thousand years, shift.
I see the possibility of a once and for all Jubilee whereby dated debt issued by centralised middlemen/credit institutions will be replaced by undated credit issued by a networked clearing union of actual producers of value, within a framework of trust.
I believe that the Peer to Peer finance already out there will spread virally because those who do not use it will be at a disadvantage to those who do.
Classic emergence. "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
Isn't that really just another name for loan sharking, though?
There's no loan involved in my proposal.
Investors buy (say) units (eg billionths) in a pool of index-linked rental revenues. The pool could run to thousands, if not millions, of properties.
Investors are not entitled to any repayment of their investment, but they are entitled to an index-linked return provided properties are occupied. Since the rents are affordable it is by definition more likely that the returns will be paid.
The market price of this new asset class will be a matter of supply and demand. It is a close relative of a Real Estate Investment Trust, and Islamically sound, unlike conventional debt, a fact which broadens the pool of potential investors.
By way of an indicator, Wessex Water -a UK regulated water supplier - raised a 50 year loan last year at 1.49% index-linked.
I believe there are huge amounts of money out there looking for just this type of secure index-linked return, and the fact that UK base rate (on non-index-linked money) is now 1% would make it even more attractive for risk averse investors "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
