hartsellml — Book of the Day: Rethinking Money by Bernard Lietaer and Jacqui Dunne

“The crux of the argument of the book is that local currencies have far greater velocity or turnover than national currencies.”

P2P Foundation 

Book of the Day: Rethinking Money
hartsellml

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

New Book — Jacqui Dunne and Bernard Lietaer : Rethinking Money, How new currencies turn scarcity into prosperity

Rethinking Money points out that there is a way, in fact a thousand ways, to stop our current juggernaut towards global self-destruction. There is a system of solutions already in place in localities throughout the world where terrible problems have existed. The changes came about, not through the redistribution of wealth, increased conventional taxation, bond measures or enlightened self-interest from corporate entities, but rather, by people simply rethinking the concept of money. With that restructuring, everything changed.

Currency Solutions for a Wider World
Rethinking Money, How new currencies turn scarcity into prosperity by Jacqui Dunne and Bernard Lietaer