We’re “keeping money flowing locally so we’re more prosperous as a community,” says James Frazier, co-founder of the Local Investment Opportunities Network (LION) in Port Townsend, Washington. LION is a clearinghouse between business owners like Matthew Day and potential investors like Kees Kolff. A business owner presents an investment opportunity to LION members. It’s all based on one-to-one personal relationships, so support can be more than monetary, says Kees — such as interest paid in locally-produced cheese and cider! Episode 201. [http://www.L2020.org/LION]
Watch video | Audio | iTunes | Transcript | Review: Get Paid Interest in Cheese and Cider: The Surprising Benefits of Local Lending
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Rafael, thanks for the great summary and resources. I’ll take a look at the Positive Money video. We were made aware of a lot about money through the film “The Money Masters.” Ellen Brown’s “Money as Debt” is also spot on.
Do you know of any communities successfully and broadly using alternative currencies? I recall a historical situation of an Austrian (I believe) town creating their own currency sometime between WWI and WWII. It worked fabulously. Everyone was benefitting — and they were shut down within months by the government (of course at the behest of the central bankers, who wanted no competition).
Very good ideas exposed for the future of local politics, economics and the development of community.
One aspect we have to observe is the fact not all money is the same, and depending on what kind of money we use in our economy, regardless of we taking constructive decisions on how to invest it, we will be able to succeed in establishing a harmonious, balanced and sustainable way of life, or not, as we are witnessing in today’s crisis.
Since the birth of the country we use what is called Debt-Based currency, which is intrinsically different from Asset-Based money as that created by Lincoln called GREENBACKS during the war of secession.
Debt-based money comes into existence using the Fractional Reserve Banking System which in fact is a license for Private For-Profit banks to produce the money supply for the country, and in the case of the US, the world (since the US dollar IS the global trading currency since the Bretton Woods accord)
Debt-based currency and Asset-based currency work VERY different from each other and it is in this difference the cause of today’s global debt crisis. In fact if the world produced Asset-based currency instead of Debt-based currency we would not have this debt crisis at all.
It is very important when we talk about choosing the right approach for our local economies, to think about this issue of what currency to use, because if we don’t resolve this Debt-based currency conundrum, NO other problem will be resolved completely ever.
A local currency can go a long way in resolving this problem. It can be used in parallel to the official US dollar.
Please check the following links to become more familiar with this important issue and how to resolve it.
A Simple Solution to the Debt Crisis – Positive Money 3 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrKV6bfqOck&feature=player_embedded
THE ESSENCE OF THE BANKING SECTOR 2 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2B_SxGmSJP0
Debunking Money – 1 Myth and Machiavelli 9 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iBSBVew-3Y
MONEY AS DEBT 47 min
http://vimeo.com/3843038
WHAT WERE THESE PEOPLE WARNING US ABOUT?
“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
Henry Ford
“The issuing power (of money) should be taken from the banks restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs”
“The government should create… all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the government and the buying power of the consumers… Money will cease to be the Master and will then become servant of humanity”
Abraham Lincoln
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies…
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency,
the banks and corporations that will grow around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered”
Thomas Jefferson
“If you wish to remain slaves of the bankers and pay for the costs of
your own slavery, let them continue to create money and control the nation’s credit”
Sir Josiah Stamp
1880-1941 Former Director Bank of England
Port Townsend sounds like another town that won’t notice when Wall Street collapses. Although getting interest was mentioned, the thought of being paid in cheese and blueberries is also very appealing. Even though my investments have recovered somewhat from the 2008 debacle, I have watched the US dollar plummet from 125 Japanese Yen to now only 76 Yen. It sure would have been nice to have been paid in cheese and blueberries instead!
Fabulous…for all of the reasons mentioned. What a desirable community in which to live – though this has long been evident per other Peak Moment conversations. Sending the link to my parents who also live in Jefferson County.