New Money for a New World
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. See also: Ulanowicz, “A hypothesis on the development of natural communities,” Journal of Theoretical Biology. 85 (1980), p. 223-245.
210 See: Robert Ulanowicz, Sally J. Goerner, Bernard Lietaer, and Rocio Gomez, “Quantifying Sustainability: Resilience, efficiency and the return of information theory,” Ecological Complexity, 6(1), (27 March 2009), p. 36. “Since sustainable development requires a balance of efficiency and resilience, Ulanowicz (1980) used configurations of flow pathways and magnitudes in natural ecosystems to develop a measure of network efficiency called the Systemic Efficiency (SE or E), which gauges overall system performance as well as its ability to pull more and more energy into its sway, while reducing extraneous diversity/connectivity.” The original paper is also available for download on:
211 See: Robert Ulanowicz, Sally J. Goerner, Bernard Lietaer, and Rocio Gomez, “Quantifying Sustainability: Resilience, efficiency and the return of information theory,” Ecological Complexity, 6(1), (27 March 2009), p. 36. “Since sustainable development requires a balance of efficiency and resilience, Ulanowicz (1980) used configurations of flow pathways and magnitudes in natural ecosystems to develop a measure of network efficiency called the Systemic Efficiency (SE or E), which gauges overall system performance as well as its ability to pull more and more energy into its sway, while reducing extraneous diversity/connectivity.” The original paper is also available for download on:
212 E. Goldsmith, J. Mander, The Case Against the Global Economy and, For a Turn, Towards the Local (Sierra Club Books, 1997) Cited in S. Goerner, B. Lietaer, R. Ulanowicz, “Quantifying economic sustainability: Implications for free enterprise, theory, policy and practice,” Ecological Economics, 69 (1), p. 78.
213 Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices (Brave New Films, 2005).
214 “Civic Economics,” Austin Unchained (Austin, October 2003).
215 “The Economic Impact of Locally Owned Business vs Chains: A Case Study in Mid-coast Maine,” New Rules Project, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) (Minneapolis, September 2003).
216 Joseph Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies. (London: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
217 Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and its Discontents (London, New York: Penguin Books, 2002).
218 Robert Pollin, Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity. (London, New York: Verso, 2003).
219 John Ralston Saul, “The Collapse of Globalism and the Rebirth of Nationalism,” Harper's Magazine (March 2004), p. 33.
220 Caprio and Klingelbiel, “Bank Insolvencies: Cross Country Experience,” Policy Research Working Papers, no.1620 (Washington, DC: World Bank, Policy and Research Department, 1996).
221 For data on the growing disparity between rich and poor nations and individuals see: Culpeper, Roy, 2005. Approaches to globalization and inequality within the international system. In Overarching Concerns Programme Paper, no. 6 (Oct. 2005), United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD).
222 Accompanied by “jobless growth,” meaning an increase in GDP growth that is accompanied by a decrease in living-wage jobs. By 1995, for example, almost a third of the world’s 2.8-billion person workforce was either jobless or working for such low wages that they faced a life with little chance for advancement. For rates of jobless growth see: Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1995).
223 For details see: N. Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. (New York: Holt and Company, 2008).
224 Hazel Henderson, Paradigms in Progress: Life Beyond Economics (Indianapolis, IN: Knowledge Systems, 1991); Creating Alternative Futures: the End of Economics (West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press 1966); and Ethical Markets: Growing a Green Economy (White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2006).
225 Paul Glover is the initiator of programs such as Ithaca HOURS, the Ithaca Health Alliance, and Citizen Planners. He is author of Hometown Money: How to Enrich Your Community with Local Currency (2005), and Recipe for Successful Local Currency (2009)
226 Thomas Greco, New Money for Healthy Communities (1994) ; Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender (Chelsee Green, 2001); The End of Money and the Future of Civilisation (White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009).
227 Edgar S. Cahn, No More Throw Away People. (Washington, DC: Essential Books, 2004).
228 Sergio Lub, creator of Friendly Favors. See:
229 Susan Witt, was co-founder and Executive Director of the E. F. Schumacher Society, the predecessor of the New Economics Institute, which launched the Berkshares currency and other initiatives.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN - LETS and Time Dollars
230 It is particularly difficult to obtain up-to-date estimates of the number of complementary currency systems operational worldwide. Such projects are by nature local, and often people engaged in one type of complementary currency system ignore what other types are operational, even in their own country. Furthermore, it may even be harder to track when, for whatever reason, a system stops operating. LETS systems are operating under its various names (Tauschring or Talent in Germany, Green Dollars in Canada, SEL in France); the Timebanks in the UK; the Regios in Germany; the Fureai Kippu in Japan, etc. The numbers for Japan, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands are the most recent and the best quality. The corresponding sources are: For Japan, see Rui Izumi, “The Development and Future Challenges of the Community-Based Currencies in Japan,” Keizaigaku Ronshu (2006). For France, see:
231 Michael Linton, interview
232 James Taris, The LETSaholic Twist (Camberwell, Australia, 2005).
233 All quotes from personal correspondence with Edgar Cahn, (8 July 2007).
234 From Time Dollar website:
235 R. J. Sampson, S. W. Raudenb
ush; and F. Earls. “Neighborhoods and violent crime: A multilevel study of collective efficacy,” Science 277 (15 Aug 1997), p. 918.
236 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: “Service Credit Banking Project Site Summaries” (University of Maryland Centre of Aging, 1990). This study shows the burn-out rate dropping from 40 percent to 3 percent thanks to the use of a Time Banking complementary currency
237 Time Dollars and Time Banking are gaining support from government officials. At a White House Conference on Aging, Massachusetts and Wisconsin recommended using Time Dollars to work with the elderly. The British Secretary of Health has singled out Time Banking as an effective mechanism to support informal healthcare.
238 Time Banks USA, “Time Bank Models: Youth at Risk,”
239 Time Banks USA, “Time Bank Models: Youth at Risk,”
240 Time Banks USA, “Time Bank Models: Youth at Risk,”
241 Time Banks USA, “IRS Ruling,” (23 February 2006).
242 Linton Interview.
243 Double coincidence of wants was coined by economist William Stanley Jevons. See: W.S. Jevons, Money and the Mechanism of Exchange, (London: Macmillan, 1875), Chapter 1, paragraphs 5-6.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN - Social-Purpose Currencies
244 Toshiharu Kato, The New Model of Community Currency from Japan to the World: The Development of Eco-point Succeeding Eco-money, (Aichi, Japan: World Exposition, February 2006).
245 Rui Izumi, “The Development and Future Challenges of the Community-Based Currencies in Japan,” Keizaigaku Ronshu (2006).
246 It is generally assumed that the first modern complementary currency system post-World War II is the LETS system started in Canada in 1982. In fact, the Japanese initiatives predate this by over a decade.
247 Mitsui Ichien, Report of Research on Desirable Models of Non-profit Welfare Activities for the Elderly (in Japanese), (Kansai: University of Kansai: Research Institute of Ageless Society, 1991).
248 Yasuyuki (Miguel) Hirota, personal email message to Bernard Lietaer, (summer 2002).
249 Rui Izumi, Associate Professor at the School of Economics, Senshu University in Tokyo personal correspondence (July 2006): Major factors that have contributed to the growth of local currencies: “First, and perhaps surprisingly, was a program on national television in the late 1990’s called Michael Ende's Last Message. This broadcast profiled complementary systems from the 1930s in Europe up (to) today’s WIR, LETS, and other popular systems. It touched a collective nerve. At that time, Japan was in deflationary depression after The East-Asian Financial Crisis happened in 1997 and a bubble economic collapse in 1991, and these caused many Japanese people to wonder about speculation and money. Second, Toshiharu Kato, a bureaucrat at Department of Trade and Industry, created the term ‘Eco-money.’ Many people felt an affinity with the term rather than the phrase community or complementary currency, and many books with the title containing the term ‘Eco-money’ were published.”
250 For the developed countries belonging to the OECD, the number of people older than 65 has been growing from one out of 11 in 1965 to one out of seven now. Over the next two decades, it could be as high as one out of four. The same is expected to happen in the developing countries, one or two decades later. Peter G. Petersen, “Gray Dawn: The Global Aging Crisis,” Foreign Affairs (January-February 1999).
251 Rui Izumi, personal correspondence
252 As quoted in Makoto Maruyama, “Local Currencies in New Zealand and Australia,” in Junji Koizumi, ed., Dynamics of Cultures and Systems in the Pacific Rim (Osaka: 2003), p. 183.
253 Dr. Gilson Schwartz’s “Creative Currencies” project has a long history that dates back to 2003 when the “City of Knowledge” research group, funded by the Presidency of Brazil´s Civil House Agency of Information Technology (ITI), developed mobile and complementary currency pilot-projects in the beach resort of Pipa, in a Xavante village in Mato Grosso and in the midst of the jungle in Pará (Abaetetuba). Research into mobile technologies, innovative digital business models (such as crowdfunding) and cultural trends in the internet society over the years led to the implementation of a second generation roadmap, leading to funding by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Culture and the Brazilian Development Bank (Portuguese: Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social, abbreviated: BNDES) with the formal support of the central bank of Brazil.
254 Bernard Lietaer “The Saber: An Education Currency for Brazil,” The International Journal for Community Currency Research (27 February 2006).
255 See:
256 F. Taddei, “Training creative and collaborative Knowledge Builders: a major challenge for 21st century education” (Paris: OECD, 2009). Downloaded (15 June 2009) from:
257 Bernard Lietaer, “Proposal for a Brazilian Education Complementary Currency,” International Journal for Community Currency Research, Vol. 10, pp. 18-23.
258 Thom Hartmann, Beyond ADD (Nevada City, California, Underwood Books, 1996).
259 See: H. Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Tufts University Press, 1993). See also: Thomas Armstrong, Seven kinds of Smarts: Identifying and Developing your Multiple Intelligences (Plume Books, 1999)
260 Jeffrey Freed and Laurie Parsons Cantillo, Right-Brained Children in a Let-Brained World, Unlocking the Potential Of Your ADD Child (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997).
261 See:
262 As reported to Stephen Belgin in a conversation with Jeffrey Freed and Laurie Parsons Cantillo (20 March 2011).
263 See:
264 Marusa Vasconcelos Freire, “Social Economy and Central Banks: Legal and Regulatory Issues On Social Currencies (Social Money) As A Public Policy Instrument Consistent With Monetary Policy,” International Journal Of Community Currency Research Vol 13 (2009) p. 76-94
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - Commercial-Purpose Currencies
265 Webflyer Press Room edited by Randy Peterson.
266 Bureau of Labor Statistics press release (11 March 2011).
267 Jeannine Aversa, “Poll Finds Debt-Dogged Americans Stressed Out,” (30 May 2010).
268 AP-GfK Poll, “Politics and Economy Topline” (9 March 2010).
269 James Stodder, “Complementary Credit Networks and Macro-Economic Stability: Switzerland’s Wirtschaftsring,” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 72 (October 2009), p.79–95; and , “Reciprocal Exchange Networks: Implications for Macroeconomic Stability,” paper presented at the International Electronic and Electrical Engineering (IEEE) Engineering Management Society (EMS) (Albuquerque, NM, August 2000), p. 3.
270 Tobias Studer, “Le Système WIR dans l’optique d’un chercheur Américan” WirPlus (October 2000).
271 The system was ultimately credited with saving many of the businesses involved.
272 WIR annual report 2006. See more details at:
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - The Terra, A Trade Reference Currency
273 For those interested in acquiring a deeper understanding, please consult the White Paper available for download on web site.
274 Such portfolio rebalancing can also be achieved through use of the futures markets in the relevant commodities, including the possibility to take delivery of the commodity itself at maturity.
275 S
hared by Paul Volcker with Bernard Lietaer personally.
276 The overall discount rate to be applied to a project involves three components: the interest rate on the currency, the risk of the project, and the cost of equity capital. The demurrage fee is similar to a negative interest rate. Therefore, particularly for low risk projects, the overall discount rate could be negative, making future cash flows more valuable than those in the immediate future.