Six months after we published People Money, Triarchy Press asked me to write a shorter general introduction to the topic of local currencies.  Six drafts later, the final result was “Local Money – What Difference Does It Make?”  63 pages long, A5 size, so you can read it in an hour or so.

Here is a summary of the pamphlet in case you can’t afford to buy it or have even less time to read it.

INTRODUCTION
Bristol Pound launched in September 2012. What’s the point of having a local currency?

Local money is not a new idea – it has been in use for most of history.

The purpose of the pamphlet is to explain how local currencies work and how local money benefits you, your business and your region. You will discover the practical difference between local and national currency.  Finally, I will give you some tips for action.

CHAPTER 1        Local Money in Action
A simple invented story about how local money works.

We see a local business owner get a dual loan in national and local currency from her Community Bank. The local currency loan is interest-free. She part pays an employee in Local Pounds who uses it to pay part of her rent. The landlord pays maintenance people with it and also makes local currency donations to the local amateur football club. The club also earns Local Pounds by hiring out its facilities and equipment. Local businesses can pay part of their rates to the local authority, which uses local currency to pay for maintenance work. Local citizens can pay for local authority services like bus rides in Local Pounds.
The Community Bank also issues Time Credits for community volunteer work. These credits are used to support community projects and can be exchanged at Food Banks etc.

All of the elements in this story are happening for real in a local currency system somewhere in the world.

CHAPTER 2       National Money – what it can and cannot do
National money allows us to meet the complex needs of a modern nation. We can use it build roads, hospitals and schools, to start and run businesses, to trade with each other, to pay or earn wages, to pay taxes, and to clear debts. This versatility is its greatest strength.

But there is a problem. Most modern money (usually estimated at 97%) is created by privately owned banks as loans. Banks do not create money for the public good, they do it to make a profit by charging interest. We all pay the price for our need for money to stay alive, buy essentials, travel, do business. And the banks make a profit on our need.

Interest-bearing loans create personal and business debts and can create debt slavery. The whole nation is also a kind of debt slave. The National Debt began in 1694 with the formation of the Bank of England and grew after every major war. There are no signs of it ever being ‘paid off’ although politicians like to make lot of noise about that.

The need for banks to earn interest and the rest of us to pay it to get access to money is one of the main drivers for growth in the economy. Malignant growth often leads to destruction of the environment in the search for profit.

The whole economic system has been skewed in favour of gambling in the global money markets in the last decades. This is the source of constant crashes and recessions.

National money cannot:
– promise us a stable unit of exchange
– protect us from abuses of power
– guarantee a sufficient medium of exchange when we need it
– prevent inequalities
– ensure a level playing field between the regions.

CHAPTER 3       Can we reform money?
There are various proposals for reforming money.

The Positive Money Campaign in the UK and the American Monetary Institute in the USA both campaign to take away the power of privately owned banks to create money and give back to government its ‘seignorage’ over the issue of the medium of exchange. Governments should be empowered by law to create debt-free, interest-free money. This may be a partial solution to running national services like education and health but it can never be a solution for lack of money at the local level. Local communities would still be dependent on a government committee for how much money was allocated to their region.

Virtual currencies like Bitcoin have made great waves by promising to bypass both banks and governments and provide an international medium of exchange. Supporters claim it is a radical ‘game changer’ that will transfrom finance. Critics say it is wide open to manipulation and speculation and really does not solve the problems created by scarce, privately-issued national money.

Local money also has arguments both for and against it. The Telegraph and Guardian newspapers both covered the launch of the Bristol Pound in September 2012. I analysed the reader comments at the end of both articles, both for and against the idea, and listed them in the pamphlet. Later I give some answers to those who are against the idea.

CHAPTER 4         Local Money – what it can and cannot do
We can create enough local money to handle the trades we wish to do. Local money supports values other than profit: local diversity, mutual help, treating people as assets, valuing all types of work, creating strong social networks, protecting the environment.

Local currencies deliberately create two kinds of boundaries: geographical and ethical.
Geographical boundaries ensure that money cannot leak out of the region. It remains to circulate and do more economic good for the region. Ethical boundaries aim to tip the local economic balance in favour of local businesses by excluding or discouraging participation by multi-national chains in the local currency.

Local currencies effectively monetise underused capacity in businesses like restaurants with empty seats or retailers with unsold stock. The local currency enables businesses to get economic benefit from their spare capacity instead of giving or throwing it away.

Local currencies cannot:
– pay legal debts
– pay national taxes
– earn interest
– be traded on international currency markets.

National currencies are really the new kid on the block. They first emerged in the 19th century with the first waves of globalisation. Various forms of local currency have been around for thousands of years. There has been a revival of interest in this ancient form of exchange in recent decades.

Local currencies can be issued by various groups:
– privately owned business (eg business barter networks)
– collectively owned body (eg cooperative, community interest company etc.)
– local partnership of citizens, businesses, voluntary organisations and local government.

Local currencies can be issued in two main ways:
– managing body guarantees or backs the currency (with national currency, guarantee of future purchasing power, rewards, energy, precious metals)
– managing body provides a mutual credit accounting system that records all exchanges.

This is followed by short profiles of: Brixton Pound, London; Blaengarw Time Centre, Wales; WIR Bank, Switzerland; Banco Palmas, Brazil; Equal Dollars, USA.

CHAPTER 5       Talking to the naysayers
In this chapter I provide short answers to the following points made against the idea of local currencies on the Guardian and Telegraph websites (see above):
– They are just a gimmick or middle-class fad
– They are useless to local businesses with supply chains outside the area
– Local shops should concentrate on giving better service if they want to survive
– If you want money to be spent in your area, you should produce something
– They are useless to people on low incomes
– People can just use national currency to support local businesses, why bother?
– They are an attack on free trade
– They could create unfair competition, local monopolies and corruption
– You cannot pay national taxes or settle legal debts with them so they are of limited appeal
– They could not have developed the Apple computer or sent a man to the moon.

CHAPTER 6       What can I do?
Why isn’t there a local currency in every town and region if they are so good?
In reality it takes a lot of work to create a viable local currency, you have to get a lot of things right. There is no one-size-fits-all model of local currency. Each one is created around its unique local operating conditions.

The best way you can support a local currency is to use it if one already exists. You can also be a critical friend. Go to meetings and ask questions about the goals and design of the currency and how it could be improved.

You can also ‘learn the lingo’ of local economics. When I started a local currency system twenty years ago I knew nothing about money or economics, I was just fascinated by the idea of ‘creating our own money’ and started to experiment. It is worth educating yourself about the basics and then getting stuck in to practice.

Other generations faced big challenges: the Industrial Revolution; abolishing slavery; defeating fascism; establishing civil rights for all. The generations now alive must solve the ‘money problem’. We must reclaim money from the speculators and restore it to its role as a medium for trade that serves us all.

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We got a very nice endorsement from Ben Brangwyn of the Transition Network who wrote:
“Must-read pamphlet. I found it clear, concise, assertive, inspiring and timely. Miraculously, John Rogers has distilled everything you need to know on this subject into this very easily digested little tome. Seriously impressive. I recommend it to Transition Initiatives.”

More reviews here.

I interviewed forty local currency leaders from around the world for the People Money book and asked them all the same question: did you map your local economy before you launched a local currency? None of them had done this in any detail and maybe did it half-heartedly after launch. It is as though we are launching new currencies into a vacuum and hoping they will fly just because we designed them with good intentions: ethical, interest-free, focussed on worthy goals etc. But many of them don’t fly or crash soon after launch because they are not supported by a firm updraft of local resources.

These reflections led me to publish a new pamphlet called The Map – How To Out Your Local Economy. Following is a summary of its contents.

I believe that Austerity is an unfounded, unnecessary and dangerous idea. It has no economic or moral basis. You don’t have to believe me on that. Listen to Ivy League professor Mark Blyth tell the story in this five minute video. There is lots more from him on You Tube.

Researchers at the New Economics Foundation have also deconstructed the ‘well-framed story’ behind Austerity.  Another word for it is economic or political propaganda. We need a new story and The Map is my attempt to create a different story.

But Austerity is not going away any time soon so we have to deal with the reality it has created: record numbers of people reliant on food banks for instance.

On the other side of Austerity is Sustain-Ability, our ability to sustain an abundant life for all. We need to pool our collective resources and do more with what we have.

Too much of our existing local economy remains invisible, unknown and not working at capacity. It needs ‘outing’. The ‘sharing’ or ‘collaborative’ economy shows us one way to do this. New websites pop up every week offering a platform for you to buy, sell, barter, gift, share, hire, rent, lend or swap.

Most of these sites are limited to exchanges between consumers and businesses and do not focus on single regions. The Map described here unlocks the whole regional economy with all its players: individuals, businesses, voluntary groups and local government.

Imagine an online map of your region that shows households, businesses, voluntary organisations and government agencies. It shows what they need and what they want to share.

Imagine Google Search plus Google Maps meets Facebook, with eBay mashed up with Kickstarter and Loyalty Points, available online and on the move, all focussed on your home region. It is a social and economic network that can scale down to a single postcode and up to regional level.

Although it doesn’t yet exist as described here, it is called The Map.

Imagine you’re looking for a babysitter. You log on to the Map App on your smartphone that connects you to The Map. It quickly shows you where the babysitters are in your area.

Imagine your small business is looking for part-time help. The Map App helps you find reliable workers when you need them.

Imagine you are an amateur football club looking for coaches. You can find volunteers via the Map App.

_________________________________________

The rest of the pamphlet goes on to describe a possible strategy for making The Map happen in your own region. It describes how to get all of the four main economic players – individuals, businesses, voluntary groups and local government agencies – to share their unmet needs and underused assets.

It then discusses the introduction of a regional currency as a secondary and optional strategy to unlock the deeper power inherent in The Map. That currency could be sterling-backed like Bristol Pound, a mutual credit system or a new kind of regional crypto-currency using the blockchain technology that drives Bitcoin and its many imitators, but based on transparency rather than anonymity.

So far with the theory. This is just my view about a more sensible strategy for making local currencies really realise their potential to help millions of people rather than the tiny few they currently serve. Bringing the best of the Web 2.0 tools together under one roof focussed on a single regional economy could unlock all kinds of currently hidden or wasted potential.

The only real test is practice.

And others are already experimenting with similar ideas, like tgl in Merseyside, HomeTownPlus in Manchester, and HullCoin in Hull.

In the next months I will be experimenting here in the region of Main-Kinzig Kreis in Germany where I live to see how we can grow The Map from the ground up whilst attracting some top-down resources to make it happen.

The first step of my learning curve is to investigate what mapping software already exists that we could potentially adapt to create The Map in this region. These are the ones I have looked at so far:
Step Map
Open Street Map
Green Map

I hope to report back from time to time about this experiment as the story unfolds.

Please share your thoughts on this strategy and tell us about any similar initiatives you are involved in to ‘out’ your local economy.

Meantime, I have continued to beaver away at the theme that has ‘occupied’ me for over 20 years: local currencies and how to make them sustain-able.

I got my first hands-on experience of running a local currency in Wales, UK, where I coordinated a local exchange system from 1993 to 2003. I remained a member for another five years. During the 15 years I was involved, our membership never grew beyond 150, of whom maybe 20 people were active users. A few remained members for the whole time I was there, others came and went. This is completely typical for small-scale, volunteer-run systems around the world and it is almost amazing that people still bother to make the effort to run such marginal systems. When we began our system, we had to write cheques by hand and send them in the post to an administrator (me at the beginning), who then laboriously typed our transactions into a DOS-based (pre-Windows, white text on black screen) computer program. Gradually, we graduated through Excel and Access programs and now many systems completely automate their administration through the inspiring CES global network of exchange systems.

After running a local exchange system for ten years, I went on to co-found the Wales Institute for Community Currencies at the University of Newport, where we supported residents of the former coalmining districts of South Wales to develop community time banks that rewarded local people for work in their communities. From this experience, I learned that a responsible local organisation, like the Blaengarw Time Centre, could issue credits for community work that were carefully backed by rewards, a different model from the ‘mutual credit’ mechanism I was used to before.

In 2007, I left the Institute and stepped back from practice for a few years to reflect on my own experiences and those of many others worldwide. People kept saying that there were thousands of local currencies out there but I wondered where they all were. It seemed to me that the majority of experiments with community currencies had ‘failed’ (not sustained themselves) and I wanted to know why. How could we ensure that more systems became sustainable? How could we scale them up to have greater impact? I tried to summarise my ideas about how to improve practice by writing a community currency design manual, which went through four drafts but was never quite ready for publication. I shared these ideas in a series of webinars in 2010 followed by a workshop at Findhorn College in Scotland.

When Margrit Kennedy asked me to produce and co-write the first English edition of her 2004 German book on regional currencies, which became “People Money – the Promise of Regional Currencies” published in 2012, I jumped at the chance. I wanted the new book to give a realistic overview of current practice and so I interviewed 40 local currency leaders and organisers from around the world. From these I chose sixteen of the most active systems about which to write in-depth profiles. I also included a maturer version of my proposed ORDER design process for regional currencies.

One of the coolest experiences I had with the People Money book was when a wood carver in the Lake District, UK, offered me two spoons in payment for the book. A good barter! The book has gathered some nice reviews.

Six months after People Money was published, my editor at Triarchy Press asked if I would write a much shorter ‘pamphlet’ explaining to newcomers as simply as possible why anyone should bother with local currencies. After much blood, sweat and tears and five drafts later “Local Money – What Difference Does It Make?” appeared in summer 2013. I processed a lot of my anger at the injustice of the present financial system in the first draft and had to get past that before I could write something useful to people. Here are some reviews.

These two books were my attempt to summarise best practice of local currencies and make some recommendations about how to improve practice. But one thought kept haunting me. What if we had all got it wrong? What if the local currency was not the most important thing? What do we really know about the local economy? Who are the main players in that economy? How do they use currency? I developed a simulation game called “People Money Game” to give people a hands-on experience of how exchange functions. People have played this game in several countries in English, German and French. It has given me valuable insights into how local currencies bring together underused resources with unmet needs.

These experiences led me to publish my latest pamphlet in September 2014 “The Map – How To Out Your Local Economy”, which is the subject of my next post.

The adventure trek I began in September 2011 with my first interviews with local currency organisers turned into a Himalayan expedition of interviews with 40 regional currency practitioners from Argentina to New Zealand on six continents. Now the summit is in sight.

The finished product – a completely updated and expanded first English edition of Margrit Kennedy’s and Bernard Lietaer’s 2004 German book “Regionalwährungen” – will be published by Triarchy Press in England in June.

“People Money – the Promise of Regional Currencies” is in two parts.

Part One: The Case for Regional Currencies starts by proposing a new definition of globalisation that honours local diversity, presents regional currencies as  a powerful tool for localisation policies, investigates the money ‘blind spot’ we all have that only sees one kind of money – national currencies – , presents Banco Palmas in Brazil and WIR Bank in Switzerland as leading examples of effective regional money systems and finally discusses the key characteristics of regional money systems.

Part Two: Regional Currencies in Practice profiles the diverse global movement of local currency systems, from business to business exchange systems to LETS, Time Bank and Transition Town currencies. It explores the many habits of effective local currency organisers, presents a design methodology – the ORDER process – for new systems, followed by portraits of 15 leading systems including Brixton Pound, BerkShares, Chiemgauer, Ithaca HOURS, Talente Tauschkreis Vorarlberg in Austria, Dane County Time Bank, Blaengarw Time Centre, Equal Dollars etc., continuing with portraits of agencies that research, develop and support local currencies such as IRTA, STRO, QOIN, Community Forge and the German Regional Money Association. The book ends with ‘Future Positive’, a summary of lessons learned, recommendations for action and brief portraits of the Bristol Pound – launch due 2012 – and the Nanto – launch due 2013 –  both being supported by local authorities.

So, climb to the summit of the new economics with us by ordering your copy, telling all your friends and planting a flag for sane money in an insane age.

Following is a list of common habits shared by effective organisers. All organisers do not practice all of these habits and many of the habits may be shared around a team.

They articulate values

Advertisers never sell us products these days, they sell us our values wrapped up in goods and services: ‘Just do it’; ‘The power to be your best’; ‘Because I’m worth it’.

Local currency organisers know that people are motivated by values. Edgar Cahn, inventor of Time Banking, formed four core values that continue to inspire the global movement: we treat people as assets; we value all contributions to community as real work; we practice both give and take or reciprocity; we grow our social networks.

The regional currency movement in Germany inspires its members with messages about loyalty to their region, buying locally and creating a ‘money with legs’ that circulates faster and brings more benefits.

They commit themselves to change

Some organisers have remained continuously involved in their local system for 20 years; they are willing to go through all the ups and downs because they are committed to social and economic change.

They focus on goals

A local currency is never an end in itself, it is a means to grow the local economy or weave community networks.

Effective organisers meet local people where they are with their everyday needs and concerns and support them to identify their personal and collective goals; they create a currency system to help them realise them. They review the goals in the light of experience and redesign the system if necessary.

They share the work

Many people have burned themselves out by trying to run a local currency system alone. It doesn’t work. Even fulltime networkers like Paul Glover of Ithaca HOURS gather others around them to share the load. In the Talente Tauschkreis Vorarlberg in Austria, continously operational since 1996, a volunteer 25 person service team shares the tasks of running the system.

They sell benefits

Even when they are not run as businesses, local currencies need to be run like businesses. No business sells features or philosophy, they sell values and benefits.

They channel abundance

The primary purpose of a local currency is to connect underused assets to unmnet needs, that is assets and needs that the money economy ignores.

Local organisers take three steps to identify the assets and get them moving:

1.     Analyse where the assets are:

a.     personal skills – professional skills, hobbies and general help or favours

b.     community assets – underused halls, vehicles, photocopiers etc.

c.      business assets – underused inventory, ‘low’ times, services;

2.     Advertise the assets:

people fill out questionnaires describing the goods and services they can offer and agree to the information being advertised in printed and online directories;

3.    Broker the assets:

many systems offer an extra brokering service to connect assets and needs because it helps people to overcome their initial fears, get to know people and get trading.

They make maps

Expressing values, goals, benefits and assets are all kinds of map making. These activities help people to orientate both internally – Why are we doing this? What’s the purpose?- and externally – Where are we going? How do we get there?.

Physical maps can be very valuable: the most clicked page on the website of the German Regiogeld Association is the map of Germany. It shows all of the active systems and also those in development. It is helpful to academics and journalists researching the subject but even more importantly it motivates people thinking about starting a system to want to be ‘on the map’ of local currencies.

Tools like Google Earth are now making it possible to view real time data about local systems around the world and it will soon be possible to include data about assets and needs and begin to connect them much more powerfully.

They network

Networks are the blood vessels of social and professional life. Networking is the ability to tap into existing networks, create new ones and keep them alive.

They integrate into existing structures

It is tough running a local currency as a standalone operation. It takes people, time and money. If there are existing structures in the community it makes sense to integrate a local currency into them. This brings many benefits both to the host organisation and to the currency itself:

–        governance and management of the currency are integrated into the host structure, saving costs

–        the host has a new mechanism for generating involvement in social and economic activities and rewarding volunteers

–        they can do joint marketing.

The only danger might be association of the currency with one particular organisation rather than as a generic mechanism for the whole community but this depends on local circumstances and scale.

They keep a balance

There are many balances to be kept in running a local currency:

• Personal balance between life and work: many currency organisers are deeply committed to what they do and need to look after themselves too.
• Balance between maintaining the community and maintaining the mechanism: you have to develop cooperative structures and processes to maintain the community and develop good monitoring systems to maintain the mechanism.
• Ideally a local currency serves all sectors of the community: it is good to ensure that individuals, businesses, voluntary organisations and government agencies can all meet on the common playing field of the currency.

They flow with emergence

Nobody has all the answers on day one. New possibilities emerge with new members, new ideas, new funding sources, new technology.

They innovate carefully

Innovation for its own sake is just fashion, it soon passes. Careful innovation means evaluating the costs and benefits of any proposed change and selling it to the potential users. The unceasing pace of technological change means that organisers have to keep themselves informed about new possibilities and judge which innovations might help them to improve service, reduce administration and make life easier for everyone.

Established systems have learned how to learn from their mistakes and to practice patience and persistence for the long haul. They manage the growth of the system by choosing next steps carefully, making sure they have the capacity to handle enquiries and new membership applications and service existing members.

They challenge people to grow

Participation in a local currency teaches you to take responsibility for your transactions with others on every level: socially, emotionally and technically.

Organisers help participants to grow by encouraging them both to give and receive and making opportunities for them to do so. They also encourage people to do as much of their own administration as possible and not become dependent on central organisers.

They simplify what can be simplified

Einstein counselled us to ‘keep things as simple as possible and no simpler.’ Organisers aim to simplify the design of the system, administration and management, user interfaces, explanations and messages about the currency.

They work with limits

Organisers work within the limits of geography, participation levels and the currency mechanism they have designed or inherited. They keep currency moving as much as possible within these limits.

They model best practice

Organisers show people how to use the currency by trading in it! They model the values the currency embodies by engaging in reciprocity and local exchange.

They implement common standards

Some ‘brands’ of local currency are more advanced with common standards through decades of trial and error. Time Banks are expected to subscribe to the common set of values advocated by Edgar Cahn and Time Banks USA; regional money systems in Germany are expected to sign up to the quality criteria set out by the national Regiogeld Association; business exchange networks can also voluntarily subscribe to the common standards laid out by the International Reciprocal Trade Association.

They use appropriate technology

Every locality, every region and its circumstances is different. Some places have distinct geographical features or strong historical traditions that inspire people to create circulating notes with great designs that build local loyalty and are collectable by tourists. Others embrace the latest electronic technology of swipe cards and mobile payment systems. Some use both. The point is to analyse local conditions carefully and use the most appropriate technology for the groups of users.

They manage internal relationships

Many systems fall apart through internal conflicts over values, personalities or organisational style. Organisers manage internal relationships through transparent decision making and communications.

TEXT COPYRIGHT John Rogers, Germany

The ‘Masters of the Universe’ in Wall St. have been challenged on their own doorstep this week http://occupywallst.org/

The Wall St. protest and its supporters around the world have identified a dysfunctional money system as the cause of many of their grievances. They have become a new civil rights movement for financial justice.

The history of all successful social movements is a history of effective organising: anti-slavery, womens’ rights, universal voting rights, civil rights, environmental and peace campaigners have all had to learn the hard way how to mobilise and organise in a disciplined way to achieve their goals. We can’t create the world we want unless we learn how to organise.

There are active monetary reform movements whose agenda is to persuade governments to issue their own interest-free currencies without debt and independently of commercial banks:

American Monetary Institute: http://www.monetary.org/

Positive Money Campaign: http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/

Even if any of these proposals succeed, there will still be a need for local currencies owned and run by local citizens, businesses or government to provide all the liquidity we need for local exchange and to strengthen the links between people and environment.

So while others are on the barricades, I have been talking to people who hold one of the Keys to the Universe: local currency organisers.

And what great stories they have to tell!

Henk van Arkel from Holland ran his first environmental campaign in 1965 at the age of 14.

            An old man explained to him how a financial system based on compound interest and constant growth was the cause of many social and environmental problems. He showed him historical examples of attempts to organise alternatives in France:

http://www.barataria.org/i/5/i.5.4.htm

and in Austria: http://www.reinventingmoney.com/documents/worgl.html

Many years later this seed blossomed into his life’s work with Strohalm – now called the Social Trade Organisation – and the world’s leading research and development agency for local currencies: http://www.socialtrade.org/

Henk realised that you have to ‘beat capitalist monopoly money within the market’ and this led him to an intensive study of money and alternative forms of currency.

Stro has developed several different models of local currency and constantly innovates through its work with local organisations and governments, particularly in South and Central America.

It has also developed and patented a key technology platform for running local currencies, its Cyclos software: http://project.cyclos.org/

    Another pioneer of new exchange systems is Richard Logie, founder of the Business Exchange in Aberdeen, Scotland: http://www.tbex.com/

He grew up in poverty in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands. If you did favours for others in the community, you got things in exchange. He learned to do all kinds of odd jobs in the community and learned how to barter his skills at school. “We didn’t have any money but we were rich, we always had stuff.”

These early experiences again sowed seeds for his life’s work developing business to business exchanges. After many challenges in an unregulated industry, he has survived to build one of the UK’s most successful business exchanges.

His key learnings include the need for standards and the best technology available to support the work, which has led him also to patent software to support local exchange systems of every type: http://www.getsglobal.com/

    One night as he was thinking about what to do next in his life, Peter Krause-Keusemann from Germany had a dream.  He woke and went back to sleep several times, each time writing down the details of  a new currency to bring people and nature together.

Peter says he knew nothing about local currencies but this dream became the basis of a new local currency system called Coinstatt in the industrial Ruhr area involving hundreds of local businesses: http://www.coinstatt.org/

Since launching the currency in 2007 he has learned many important lessons about organising, in particular the challenges of weaning people off an ego-based economic system, getting people to state their needs clearly and how to market and administrate effectively.

     Will Ruddick is a physics graduate who went to Kenya as a US Peace Corps volunteer and then partnered with the Green World Campaign. He too was searching for ways to link currency mechanisms to environmental improvements. In 2010, he designed and launched the ECO-Pesa currency, which has supported the people of an informal settlement area to collect waste and plant trees: http://www.ecoethics-kenya.org/projects/eco-pesa.html

The next stage of the project is to set up a co-operative to manage a large forest area and incorporate the currency into its design.

All of these stories will appear in full in the new English edition of the book on regional currencies by Margrit Kennedy, Bernard Lietaer and John Rogers to be published by Triarchy Press in 2012.

TEXT COPYRIGHT John Rogers, Germany

All over the world people have had the same idea: let’s make money, our own.

They understand that national currencies are often scarce and dysfunctional and do not allow us to carry out all the exchanges we would like to.

Local currencies help to grow community, support local business and protect the environment.

At the heart of the diversity of community currencies is the same powerful mechanism: connecting underused assets with unmet needs.

In 2012, UK publisher Triarchy Press http://www.triarchypress.com/ is bringing out the first English language edition of the 2004 book ‘Regional Currencies’ by Margrit Kennedy and Bernard Lietaer (so far published in German, French and Spanish). We are taking the opportunity of the English edition to completely update the material and include interviews with currency organisers and activists around the world.

So far I have interviewed Paul Glover, founder of Ithaca HOURS in New York; Richard Logie, founder of the Business Exchange in Scotland; Will Ruddick, development worker in Kenya; Hasan from the Central Bank of Ecuador.

Each one has a fascinating story to tell about their motivation for working on local currencies and the realities and challenges of implementation.

Future interviewees include Edgar Cahn, Susan Witt, Christian Gelleri and many other local organisers around the world.

Subscribe to this blog to catch the story as it unfolds…

John Rogers, Germany