Product Description
Until recently, the growth of alternative cash had been the province of big business: phone cards, stamps, air miles and Tesco's clubcard points all have purchasing power, yet are not cash as we know it. Now, locally created money systems like "time dollars", "Womanshare" and "Ithaca hours" are being invented by communities for communities. The author tells the story of this revolution. He travels to the USA to visit the people behind local money systems, relates their vision of the future and describes how to set up your own currency.
From the Author
In search of alternative cashA revolution is going on in the world of money. The international financial system is increasingly unreliable for ordinary people like us who depend on it, so people are finding ways of creating new kinds of money to underpin our lives - from time dollars or LETS to hours, the printed currency in upstate New York. These 'new alchemists' are in the forefront of a protestant revolution in money. Just like the protestants who did without priests as intermediaries, so they are discovering ways of creating money without banks. Funny Money is a journey through America to find these new alchemists who are showing us a way forward - and a personal investigation into the peculiar virtual nature of money at the end of the 20th century.
See all Product Description