Local currencies cash in on recession -- latimes.com PITTSBORO, N.C. — The stimulus for this mill town turned artist's colony arrived in the form of green bills bearing sketches of herons, turtles and trees. A few dozen local businesses banded together this spring to distribute the Plenty -- a local currency intended to replace the dollar. Now 15,000 Plenties are in circulation here, used everywhere from the organic food co-op to the feed store to, starting this month, the Piggly Wiggly supermarket. Last popularized during the Great Depression, scrip, or locally created stand-ins for U.S. currency, is making a comeback. "The Plenty is not going to get siphoned off to Wall Street, or Washington, or make a stop in Bentonville on its way to China," said B.J. Over the last two decades, a few communities have created their own cash in an effort to preserve local ties or businesses. The idea caught on fast, and other taverns agreed to help back the currency. "It's like a wink or a secret handshake," Belanger said. Thus Mesa Bucks were born.
FRANCE Communities print their own currency to keep cash flowing By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money. Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses. The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency. Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts. Ed Collom, a University of Southern Maine sociologist who has studied local currencies, says they encourage people to buy locally. "We wanted to make new options available," says Jackie Smith of South Bend, Ind., who is working to launch a local currency. "We print the real thing," she says. The IRS gets its share.
GENERALITES Local Currencies Grow During Economic Recession The gentle mountain slopes of New England isolate the Berkshires, creating a peaceful remoteness in this southern Massachusetts region. As a result, independent thinkers have thrived here. Herman Melville penned Moby Dick; Norman Rockwell etched paintings of American life; W. Today, the Berkshires is giving rise to a new wave of free thinking. Since the currency's launch two years ago, five local banks have printed more than 2 million paper notes. The Berkshires is not alone. Witt is now fielding calls from around the world, she said, especially from the United States and United Kingdom. "In the last four years, there has been a renewed interest in local economy, local production," said Witt, executive director of the E. Complementary forms of currency are nothing new, and they frequently appear when mainstream financial systems are in distress. The currencies take on various forms. In Switzerland, the WIR (the German word for "we") functions as a mutual credit system. von Raivo Pommer
Local Currency for the Berkshire Region Local Currencies Grow During Economic Recession Photo courtesy Jason Houston Five local banks have printed more than 2 million Berkshare notes since 2006. The 10 Berkshare note features Robyn Van En, a local pioneer of community supported agriculture.The gentle mountain slopes of New England isolate the Berkshires, creating a peaceful remoteness in this southern Massachusetts region. As a result, independent thinkers have thrived here. Herman Melville penned Moby Dick; Norman Rockwell etched paintings of American life; W. E. Today, the Berkshires is giving rise to a new wave of free thinking. Since the currency's launch two years ago, five local banks have printed more than 2 million paper notes. The Berkshires is not alone. Witt is now fielding calls from around the world, she said, especially from the United States and United Kingdom. "In the last four years, there has been a renewed interest in local economy, local production," said Witt, executive director of the E. The currencies take on various forms.
ETRANGER Introducing Mendo Time Bank « Ukiah Blog Live [Local community advocate Julia (Dakin) Frech is heading up a local effort to organize a Time Bank. Mendo Time Bank website is here. The link to join Mendo Time Bank is here. How Time Banks work is here. Excerpted from No More Throw-Away People by Edgar Cahn “Time Dollars” in a “Time Bank” are a local currency, issued locally, and honored locally. There is no doubt that money rewards self-interest, greed, ruthlessness and material acquisition. Time Dollars simply count the hours people put in. Counting counts. A user-friendly information and accounting system serves two functions. Most of us do not know what our neighbors can do. Merely the issuing of Time Dollar bank statements operates as a kind of reward. Time Dollars in a Nutshell 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
KissKissBankBank — Let's fund creativity together! The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand | Locabucks: Are local currencies a way to escape the liquidity trap ? Local currencies in the 1920's and 1930's The most frequently cited examples of local currency were issued in the Bavarian town of Schwanenkirchen and the Austrian community of Wörgl, described in this article on "Laboratory readings: Wörgl's Stamp Scrip – The Threat of a Good Example?": On July 5th 1932, in the middle of the Great Depression, the Austrian town of Wörgl made economic history by introducing a remarkable complimentary currency. The Wörgl experiment was watched by John Maynard Keynes and Irving Fisher, who saw a fast-depreciating currency as a possible answer to the 1930s "liquidity trap" and documented the subsequent use of "scrip" in the United States (Fisher is also infamous for predicting, a few days before the Stock Market Crash of 1929, "Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."). The Schwanenkirchen effort had a similar outcome - in November 1931, the German Government passed an emergency law ending the circulation of the "Wara". Conclusion
CAPITAL Category:OpenCapital Chris Cook is a critic of a commons approach based on Trusts, preferring partnership frameworks that can be scaled globally. URL = Introductory article by Chris Cook: If Not Global Capitalism - then What? See also: What is Open about Open CapitalThe article Open vs. Closed Corporate Partnerships conveys how it differs from the classic corporation. His approach is generally called Open Capital. Dmitry Kleiner: "Capital will not fund the development of social platforms unless those platforms are able to control user data and interaction, thus we have centralized platforms like Facebook and... The following 26 pages are in this category, out of 26 total.
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