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18 The Virtue of Giving Trumps the Skype IM ‘digitalcurrency’
Vice of Greed http://twitter.com/dgcmagazine
by Tom J. Kennedy
Community Currency Magazine is now
23 Berkshares Turns 3 published online 6 times a year. Subscriptions
http://www.berkshares.com/ and industry advertisements are free.
Lisa Tse Ltd Prints Their Own Money • How strong is the demand for a local currency
Private currency, industry money, personal bucks… program?
take your pick new moola is catching on. • How would a local currency program be
different than gift certificate programs to local
businesses (such as the former Ann Arbor Gold
In uncertain times, creative strategy program run by the Ann Arbor Area Chamber
in business has never been more of Commerce) and how are those differences
valuable. articulated?
• If a local currency program were created in
Reflecting the economic challenges on every firm’s Ann Arbor, would it involve coordination with
mind, Lisa Tse Ltd has printed its own currency, Design a local bank? If so, how would that bank be
Dollars, to distribute to friends and clients during these selected?
tough times. • Can a local currency program be managed by an
existing organization (e.g. Think Local First) or
is a separate agency needed?
• What kind of longevity are other local currency
programs experiencing?
These signature black one hundred design dollar bills First Bank Of Antimatter Issues Anti-Money :-)
can be shared and represent the commercial value design The First Bank of Antimatter will open on November 12
affords, where creative thinking plays an integral part in San Francisco. This institution, with its own unique
in any successful business strategy. Lisa Tse Design financial instruments, is the brainchild of conceptual
Dollars have been produced in a limited circulation. artist Jonathon Keats. It will be backed by private Swiss
http://www.lisatse.com/ funding.
http://www.good.is/post/the-good-100-jonathon-keats/
Will the Brixton Pound work? “No-one knows, but if we wait for permission we will certainly
never find out.”--Rob Hopkins
Brixton is an eclectic South London neighborhood TTB
in the Borough of Lambeth. There is a lot of history Meet Transition Town Brixton (TTB), a community-
in the local neighborhood. Brixton’s Electric Avenue led organization with a focus on energy issues and
was the first street in Britain to have electric lighting. climate change. TTB’s quest is to engage the entire
The earliest markets in Brixton which were stalls on community in the transition planning process and
Atlantic Lane have been around since the 1870’s. achieve a smooth change to a low energy future where
Even during the 1920’s the world famous artist local resilience takes center stage.
Vincent Van Gogh lived in the area.
On September 17th at Lambeth Town Hall, TTB
and the Brixton community launched a new local
‘Throughout it’s existence, currency called the Brixton Pound with speeches from
Brixton has been the heart Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Network,
David Boyle from the New Economics Foundation
of one of the world’s and chief executive of Lambeth Council, Derrick
Anderson. The Brixton Pound is a complementary
largest and most diverse currency that works alongside (not replacing) pounds
sterling. For detailed info please see their web site
urban environments.’ http://brixtonpound.org/ or blog at
http://brixtonpound.wordpress.com/
In recent years, because of its multiethnic Also find “Brixton Pound” on Facebook and their
neighborhoods that house a large African-Caribbean address on Twitter is http://twitter.com/brixtonpound
population, the area has even been referred to as http://www.flickr.com/photos/brixtonpound
Britain’s Harlem. This is a vibrant atmosphere and
a close-knit community which is just the place to At the launch, around 70 local stores, pubs and cafes,
launch a community currency. alongside 700 residents, had already signed up for the
http://twitter.com/openmoney
http://p2pfoundation.net/Open_Money
http://www.openmoney.org/
mugged in Manhattan. The mugger Other cartoon characters followed. When you
searched through his wallet and start shelling out mortgages willy nilly to anyone,
whether they can afford it or not, because they are
said, hey what are these?. He considered risk free to the bankers – that’s what
brandished a pile of Ithaca notes. happens. That’s the opposite of the kind of money
we need, and the opposite of the imaginative self-
help money we are launching today.
My friend explained that they were
a way to keep local economies Worse than that. It is a kind of lie. A kind of theft.
There used to be 144 breweries in New York a
moving, and the mugger was hundred years ago. Now there are six. There used
fascinated. Wow, he said. You’re to be ten thousand local papers in this country
then. Now there are about a few hundred. We are
right about the world: money experiencing a money system that is driving out
doesn’t work for people like us, this diversity because it is monocultural. It makes
does it. everywhere the same. One kind of measuring
stick. One kind of business. Monoculture money
16 § Community Currency Magazine September-October 2009 Issue
systems drive out other cultures, other species,
other languages, other opinions, other forms of If it doesn’t, it dies.
wealth. We can see this everywhere.
The great harbours and rivers that have bustled for It doesn’t matter really how much money there is
a thousand years. Empty. The farming communities in total.
and fields of the world covered with weeds. Even
the great corporations – whatever else we may But economics hasn’t reached William Harvey yet.
think of them – shedding all the real work until It still adds up the bottom line, and if doesn’t work,
they are just shells that just do financial services. they get the scalpel out and bleed the patient. So
There’s a great silence descending on the world. money is life, and we can make our own. That’s
It’s a kind of death. The very opposite of life why I say those Brixton pound notes are alive. It is
creating, and that’s why I am so excited about the a small liberation to use one. A bit like the moment
Brixton pound. Gandhi made salt for the first time. a symbolic
moment of revolt, using the stuff of life. So every
There’s a kind of thrill about it, it seems to me. time we use one of these notes, it seems to me –
You hold those notes and you say, Can you do and we are going to have to use them if this is
this? Can we just print it then? It seems too simple. going to work – it is a moment of liberation.
Aren’t there laws against it? The answer is you
have to make sure you’re not claiming it is a bank To run our own lives. To set us free just a little
of England pound, a promise to pay the bearer on bit from dependence on the government or Tesco.
demand pound. In fact, the organiser of the Liberty Or are they the same thing these days? To make
Dollar in the States, who mints sterling silver coins Brixton a place, knitted together, with its own
he calls dollars, has just been arrested. Ten years, money and its own life, not just a tube station with
the Isle of Wight County Council were prosecuted housing attached. I don’t pretend it’s going to be
for minting their own coins. But they would have easy. I don’t pretend there are no great issues to
been fine if they hadn’t called them euros. face, and decisions to make. I don’t pretend we
So no, it IS legal to print your own. You can use can possibly get there in one leap. There are going
what you like as money after all, if someone will to be disappointments and frustrations along the
accept it. We still have that freedom at least. But way.
there’s still a moment of breathlessness when you
hold these things in your hand. As if you were But every time we invest in this money and take it
somehow touching the stuff of life. And in a way out of our pockets, to exchange it for something –
you are. Because money is like blood. It circulates looking the shopkeeper in the eye as we do so – we
around us, and when it disappears somewhere – are shaping our futures. We are clawing back just a
because of some squall on Wall Street – our lives little control over that great global money system
seize up a little. that swirls above us like the gods. It may be a bit
of paper now. But it is a small lever with which we
And let’s stay with the idea of lifeblood for a can move the world. Good luck to it.
moment. Before William Harvey announced his
theory about how blood works in 1616, most This article is reprinted from Rob Hopkins
people thought it was made in the liver and the Transition Culture blog. Please visit for more
heart and swallowed up by the other organs. info:
Harvey showed that it was the circulation of the http://transitionculture.org/2009/09/18/david-
blood that really mattered. If nothing circulates, boyles-speech-at-the-launch-of-the-brixton-
the patient dies. It’s the same with economics, and pound/
local economies. If the money goes round, or any
medium of exchange, the place lives.
Community Currency Magazine September-October 2009 Issue § 17
The Virtue of Giving by many significant supporting statements from all of
the Holy Books.
Trumps the Vice of Greed For example, the Bible has many verses that absolutely
by Tom J. Kennedy
forbid the charging/exacting of “usury” on money.
In summary, meticulous research reveals that any
House prices are falling and too many homeowners are
percentage of “interest” on money above zero percent
discovering that the value of their home is less than
is correclty defined as “usury.” Likewise, the Koran
the amount owing on the mortgage. Unemployment
has similar verses regarding the forbidding the curse
numbers are going up and estimates are that the rates
of “usury”.
for 2009 will spike well beyond 8%.
Additional support for the correct definition of “interest”
Personal and business bankruptcies are surging with
is offered by any of those few pioneering Socreds who
approximately 88,000 bankruptcies in Canada in 2008
are still alive in this 21st Century. One elder Socred
and many more expected in 2009. Too many fellow-
is rumoured to have made these two wise statements
Canadians are experiencing serious financial troubles
about “interest” otherwise known to him as “usury” -
because of the downturn in the manufacturing and
(a) “Interest” or “usury” is theft.” and (b) “Remember
financial sectors of our economy. Why?
this, money cannot have babies.”
As we ponder the “why” answer, it is worthy of note that
My observation is that debtors are enslaved financially
the number one cause of these critical and depressing
because they are paying “usury” to their creditors - who
financial troubles facing individuals, families and
are knowingly or unknowingly motivated by the vice of
small to medium-sized businesses is the growth of
greed. To live without paying usury is noteworthy, BUT
credit card debt due to the malfunction of usury. All
usuryfree living cannot be fully experienced until all
debtors/borrowers are servants to creditors/lenders and
of us are freed from usury - that means that we neither
are therefore victims of the modern tyranny of usury-
“pay no usury” nor do we “receive any usury from our
banking practices.
so-called savings.”
Usurers commonly reduce oppressed borrowers
Usuryfree creatives is another phrase that requires a
(individuals, businesses, governments) to beggars.
definition. Usuryfree creatives are often considered
And for lack of knowledge, and because they too, are
to be a sub-group in the larger, well known group
saddled with usury-bearing debts our fellow-citizens -
known as “cultural creatives.” Any search engine will
the police, lawyers, judges and court staff - enforce the
provide sources for a detailed explanation of “cultural
usury contracts and unknowingly become servants to
creatives.”
their masters - the same greedy usurers.
Usuryfree creatives who are fully aware of the truth
Is the vice of greed a factor in what is currently
about modern money creation seek to experience the
happening in our orthodox financial system of usury-
reality of usuryfree living and commonly enage in
based, debt money? Is the virtue of giving a factor in
barter/trade using one or more of the growing number
the growth and expansion of the usuryfree community
of usuryfree community currencies. Usuryfree creatives
currency movement? And is usuryfree living not only a
have learned that they can create and spend their own
possibility but a real probability in this 21st Century?
community currency which is free of “interest” or
Let’s explore some facts as we seek answers to these
“usury”.
timely questions.
Usuryfree creatives commonly use these usuryfree
To understand the difference between “living with
community currencies as a complement with
usury” and “usuryfree living” one must first be re-
diminishing amounts of usury-based debt money which
educated on a couple of key definitions. Let’s start with
exists as computer blips on credit cards or debit cards or
the word - “interest”. “Interest” ought to be correctly
in cheques or paper notes of federal cash. Does anyone
defined as “usury” and this definition can be confirmed
else sense an
http://www.curomuto.com
http://trustcurrency.blogspot.com/
During the past week, several
hundred people met in Sonoma This gave me confidence that my work with Bay Area
with ambitious aspirations Community Exchange is not just a pie in the sky and
that it may be one of the most important, if not the
of radical economic change. most important, keys to shifting the economic power
The most popular topic of the structure. Financing mechanisms for alternative
conference was currencies: economic projects and worker cooperatives were also
prominent in the discussions.
community currencies, business
to business mutual credit Being immersed in currency research for the 7 months
systems, and the state of or so, most of the ideas were not new to me. Also, over
a much longer time, I’d already come to understand
California issuing currency as its most of the ideas about the economy in general that
own bank (like North Dakota). the keynote speakers were advocating so it’s hard for
me to give a good representation to the general reader
What struck me was the incredible amount of -what purpose should it serve?
attention to cooperative planning. What if there was
a similar organization in the Bay Area organizing the -what are our common values, goals, and
regional economy? needs?
How would you experiment of 1934 (here http:// currency is money that stays
www.rumormillnews.com/cgi- loyal to a community wishing to
like it if you had bin/archive.cgi?read=103723). take back control of its financial
to continually vitality and destiny.
After a delicious meal and lively
circulate part of conversation, the evening’s topic Chris Lindstrom added: We
your blood thru was Changing our story about believe in our present US central
money: From ‘too big to fail’ to currency system like we believe
a tube to another ‘small is beautiful.’ Hollis says, in the Law of Gravity. But how
person for the rest “The shift in thinking about our money circulates is not a Law of
money is likely to be a momentous Nature!
of your life? as the shift from a flat Earth to a
round Earth.” We have to become more conscious
If money is the blood stream of of money, what it means, what the
Los Angeles, every dollar we Our mainstream money system is consequences of our spending are.
spend at Wal-Mart or Amazon. a cultural blind spot. Whenever A “sustainable economy” means
com circulates out of our local public polls are taken on the “meeting the needs of the present,
body, never to be seen again. question, “Tell me what money without compromising the needs
is and how it works,” few know, of future generations.”
Local currencies, hundreds of even people working in finance
efforts over 30 years, is again a get tongue-tied trying to explain Local currencies thrive where
big topic. Greg Wendt, is a long where money comes from. Cultural Creative’s wish to
time local community builder, meet each other and build local
acting for the Board of the Green Currency activists therefore have community. “Thrivability” and
Business Networking (http:// the job of helping people learn a resilience mostly take this form
www.greenbusinessnetworking. new $ story. Slogans like “small today: “I prefer to spend all
com/aboutus) convened a dinner is beautiful” are not a story, not my dollars at green-conscious
salon at Rawvolution, on Main sufficient. businesses. Can you give me a
Street in Santa Monica, Sept. 16th. way to do that?“ Greg Wendt
The first 40 people were lucky to Lots of face to face conversations- hopes to create a local currency
get in. Over 50 requests to attend -with examples—need to happen within green businesses in the
were received. showing why “spending money Los Angeles region making it
that goes around is better than very easy to support your local
Greg introduced Chris Lindstrom spending money that goes away.” Cultural Creative businesses.
of BerkShares (www.berkshares. This is the message your local biz
org) who started a local currency people need to learn: Money that Local currencies are legal. People
and also has software to facilitate comes back to you beats money pay taxes on Ithaca Dollars.
local currency efforts. that goes out and never comes Universities and larger orgs are
back to you. Conventional bizs starting to accept “complementary
Hollis Doherty also spoke on the have a similar concept. They call currencies.”
famous Austrian “free money” it a “loyalty program.” Local
It’s not who has a good idea. It’s If you want help with cclite join the google group:
who can make it happen. If you http://groups.google.co.uk/group/cclite?hl=en
think you can help make it happen,
contact greg@gregwendt.com To discuss alternative money, here’s one place:
http://openmoney.ning.com/
Bruce Dickson * 310.397.1597
Medical Intuitive, Self-healing Source:
Facilitator. Consultations by http://www.hughbarnard.org/content/alternative-currency-software
phone or in person.
http://www.twitter.com/DGCMAGAZINE
Community Currency Magazine September-October 2009 Issue § 33
income, profit, rates of production, forecast growth, is contributing to the things most valuable to you, by
etc. It cannot value things that are truly important those who are closest to you, who share your values
to human beings such as love, community, and the most, and who are most familiar with your personal
relationships. Human beings working at banks might situation. Money is a fantastic way that we have
do the best they can, but ultimately the relationships invented to organize cooperation among ourselves,
between bank employees and bank clients are rarely and using it, we have been remarkably successful at
very deep because they are formed solely for financial exploiting natural resources to produce an abundance
reasons. And bank employees can only exercise of material goods for our enjoyment. But as important
discretion within the tightly controlled framework of the as it is, there is more to life than the enjoyment of
bank’s corporate regulations. material goods. Technology makes it possible to
adapt our economic systems to better reflect what we
We have a system where nearly all economic activity actually want out of life. Shire Hours is one of the many
depends on the presence of sufficient money to new systems that have become possible because of
enable it. 95% of that money is created by banks for the internet.
people or purposes that they deem valuable. Yet what
banks value is at best a shadow of what we truly value So, by all means, continue using regular money. But
as human beings. Is it any wonder that our economic give Shire Hours and other new systems a try where
lives are so out of balance? That what we feel we must you can and see if new possibilities don’t open up for
do for money so rarely seems to be in harmony with you. https://www.shirehours.com/ Shire Hours is a
what we truly want to do? That the more successful part of the Ripple project to develop a peer-to-peer
we become economically, the more the fabric of our network protocol for making decentralized Ripple
communities seems to break down? payments between users on different computers. To
learn more, please visit the Ripple project homepage.
With Shire Hours, the point is to keep track of who
Kilowatt Cards
Scrip backed by electricity
http://www.kilowattcards.com
Eddie Allen is the International Currency Director for the American Open Currency Standard.
http://sites.google.com/site/bartercoins/
This book is entitled “Local Money - how to make it happen in your community”. An inspiring
yet practical new Transition Book, Local Money helps you understand what money is and what
makes good and bad money, and reviews how people around the world and in the past have
experimented with new forms of money that they create themselves.
The book draws on the track record of experimentation with local money to show those in the
Transition movement and beyond what has been tried, what works, and what to avoid. Different
models of alternative currencies are reviewed, from the Local Exchange Trading System (LETS)
and TimeBanks, which work within communities, to paper currencies such as Berkshares,
German regional currencies and Ithaca ‘hours’, which circulate between local businesses as an
alternative to their losing trade to the national chain retailers. Currencies like Ithaca ‘hours’ can
also easily be used to enable people to exchange services locally at agreed hourly rates.
How can local banks and bonds help us move our cities, communities and homes on to a more
sustainable footing? The book suggests how groups can create future forms of local money that
can deepen local resilience and support the development of more local production of the things
we need, such as food and power.
http://transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/TransitionBooks#Money
Radical Solutions Inspiring Hope. Reporting on the outrageous, pioneering and inspiring activities of outstanding
individuals and organizations who are creating a new world--regardless of their spiritual tradition or political
agenda.
http://www.hopedance.org/cms
HopeDance at Transition CA: http://transitioncalifornia.ning.com/group/hopedance
Follow us at twitter: http://twitter.com/hopedance
2975 Vineyard Dr. • Templeton, CA 93465 • 805.369-0203
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42 § Community Currency Magazine September-October 2009 Issue
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.
Community Currency Magazine September-October 2009 Issue § 43