George Monbiot — A maverick currency scheme from the 1930s could save the Greek economy

George Monbiot looks at Martin Wolf, Ann Pettifor, the Bristol pound, and Bernard Lietaer, and Silvio Gesell for solutions that would help Greece.

The Guardian
A maverick currency scheme from the 1930s could save the Greek economy
George Monbiot

Julia Pergolini — Not Your Grandma’s Wooden Nickel [complementary currencies]

The American idiom “Don’t take any wooden nickels!” predates the 1930s, but that era’s bank crises did lead to the actual use of wooden currency. When local banks failed or were inaccessible in the Pacific Northwest, some merchants and towns issued wooden money as a stopgap. The wooden nickels circulated as IOUs until the banks became accessible.

The principles behind the wooden nickel are still at work in today’s alternative currency movement. Bernard Lietaer and Jacqui Dunne, authors of Rethinking Money: How New Currencies Turn Scarcity into Prosperity, argue that the more than 4,000 alternative and complementary currencies in circulation worldwide have the power to help communities solve their monetary woes. The currencies—minted as a complement to (rather than a replacement for) money backed by national governments and usually administered by an independent local agency—not only provide local liquidity in the event of a cash shortage, but can also boost local economies.

In These Times
Not Your Grandma’s Wooden Nickel
Julia Pergolini

Bristol pound makes debut as local currency

The Euro is in trouble, the world's financial system is in turmoil. Is this the perfect time for cities to go it alone, and print their own money 

A group of independent traders in Bristol are launching their own currency, with the backing of the council and a credit union.The "Bristol Pound" will be printed in notes, and also traded electronically.

There are other local currencies in the UK, but this is the first which can be used to pay local business taxes.

Ciaran Mundy, the director of the Bristol Pound, explained the concept behind the currency.

"Big companies just hoover up money from a local area," he told me.

"Money goes into their financial system and typically out into London and into the offshore sector."

But by definition, Bristol pounds must stay in the city. Spend a tenner in a Bristol bakery, and they must use it to pay their suppliers or staff. In turn, those companies will have to use the money within the local economy. [emphasis added]

Read it at BBC News

'Bristol Pound' currency to boost independent traders
By Dave Harvey