Mutual Credit as Money

Community Exchange Systems pop up in economically distressed times. When people feel they are short of money, what todo? make it yourselves! here's a system that allows anyone to create a mutual credit (point keeping) system:

Community Exchange System

With the impending implosion of the usury-based, global money system, now is the time to seek a new way of 'doing' money, one not based on debt and controlled by a global monetary elite who seem happy about destroying our planet in the pursuit of profit.

Conventional money is created as debt by private financial institutions for their own profit-making purposes, not as a public service. This is the root cause of the economic, social and environmental problems that beset us. The amount of debt determines the quantity of money, which has nothing to do with the amount of money we need to live decent lives.

CES 'money' is created by its users so it can never be in short supply. So long as you can offer something of value you can have from the community goods and services of like value.

Join the growing community who have discovered a new way of 'doing' money, a healthy money that will create a healthy society.

This is part of the complimentary currency movement that's at the opposite end of the centralized/decentralized money making spectrum (SDRs are on the opposite side).

Community Currency Magazine

CC Magazine is the most readable, comprehensive, and professional magazine i've seen documenting the current wave of community currency development. their online blog MainStreetCash.org is worth a full browse if you're an information seeker on the subject, including case studies and white papers.

The International Journal of Community Currency Research is where you want to go for your more academic research. it's another excellent resource.

Rounding out my personal list of top sites is the Community Currency Resource Center.

Please comment on other sources to share this wealth.

Social Justice currency being considered in San Francisco

I just met with Heather Young, a San Francisco activist, who is organizing a local currency project. She’s quite a wonderful woman, and is interested in making money have less (what she considers) negative externalities associated with the current dollar economy. She doesn’t say it that way. Who, but an economist, would throw around terms like this?

She wants a currency that promotes social connections, and isn’t controlled by selfish private or large government bureaucratic interests (both of which she believes to have conflicting interests with nurturing community based society). To achieve this, while being sensitive to all the participants values in the forming group, she believes a local cash economy, directed by a civic non-profit, will serve this purpose. Locally produced non-profit money exchanged between the hands of neighbors will promote social connections, and will keep control closer to the people who create the currency.

http://bayareacommunityexchange.ning.com/ , her organization, is this fairly radical and incredibly well intentioned group. I’ll be attending their next currency planning meeting, where they’ll be discussing various cc examples, their underlying values (hopefully coming to consensus on this), and determine next steps. Like many SF radicals, they are coalition builders and are quite interested in networking with other projects. Currency projects included.
Quite an opposite extreme from SDRs!