[ahepp]

I read up until about this point in the book, but frankly I stopped because I lost confidence that KSR had any idea what he was talking about when it came to central banks, and more broadly finance in general.

Maybe someone here can help me understand, what exactly is the point of "carbon quantitative easing" over a straightforward carbon exchange? Maybe the government buying and selling carbon allowances (out of thin air) on the exchange makes this "quantitative easing", but I would avoid implying it's monetary policy when it seems like it's clearly fiscal policy.

Even more confusing to me was how KSR's "carbon coin" plays into all this. It seems like dollars would work fine. Euros if you want. Introducing some new world currency just seems like it's throwing a huge wrench into an already controversial issue.

I think market-driven solutions to climate change are an exciting possibility, but I just didn't understand what he was going for here.

[ahelwer]

It's an actual published paper you can read, not something KSR made up.

[ahepp]

I'm aware it's a "real" paper. I did try reading it, but I stopped since it didn't seem to answer any of my questions. I'm not an academic, and certainly not an academic in the field of economics or monetary policy, so maybe I'm just too stupid to understand it.

That said, I think my question is pretty basic and easy to anticipate, so I was disappointed I couldn't find it addressed in (relatively) simple terms.

As far as it being a "published" paper, my recollection is that it looked like the paper was self-published. I could be wrong about the self-publishing thing, but as far as I'm aware it's not published by any kind of reputable academic journal.