[2] He studied engineering at the Catholic University of Leuven, in Belgium, where, later in life, he held an assistant professorship of international finance.

[4] The Nixon Shock of that same year eradicated the Bretton Woods system by decoupling the US dollar from the gold standard and inaugurated an era of "universal floating exchanges".

[6] While at the Central Bank in Belgium,[year needed] he implemented the convergence mechanism (ECU) to the single European-currency system.

[9] In a 2007 interview, Lietaer claimed that diversified, internationally valid currencies can help "address specific needs and enable certain exchanges – whether to fight global warming, promote employment or facilitate education and health care.

"[10] In 2012, he was co-author, along with Christian Arnsperger, Sally Goerner, and Stefan Brunnhuber, of Money & Sustainability: the missing link,[11] a publication of The Club of Rome, in which he predicted that "the period 2007–2020 [would be] one of financial turmoil and gradual monetary breakdown.