|
|
An old financial trend is witnessing a resurgence in the the US… local currency. The basic idea is you go into a bank and trade national US dollars for a local scrip that can be exchanged for goods and services locally. The goal is to keep money within a given region or community. It’s not illegal as long as the bills don’t pretend to be or resemble US currency. From Wikipedia… “Scrip is any substitute for currency which is not legal tender and is often a form of credit. Scrips were created as company payment of employees and also as a means of payment in times where regular money is unavailable, such as remote coal towns or occupied countries in war time. Other forms of scrip include subway tokens, arcade tokens and tickets, and “points” on some websites.” During the Great Depression, businesses, local governments and individuals launched currencies known as scrips. Michael Shuman, author of The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition, estimates that 75 different local currencies have been created recently. He says that local money is a direct response to the national economic crisis.
One of the most successful local currencies is the BerkShare, launched 2½ years ago in the rural Berkshire region of Massachusetts. Consumers can purchase $100 worth of BerkShares for us$95. They can then spend BerkShares at local stores for their full value. Stores or individuals can convert their BerkShares back to U.S. dollars at a rate of 100 BerkShares for us$95. This means that they save five dollars out of every hundred if they spend BerkShares locally rather than exchanging them for U.S. dollars. Over $2 million worth of BerkShares have been issued since the currency’s launch. Approximately 350 regional businesses participate in the scheme, and an additional 200 businesses accept BerkShares on occasion. Advocates of local currencies argue that they can help stimulate growth in the local economy. Rather than spending the money on things hundreds of miles away, local currencies give consumers a monetary incentive to buy local, keeping money in the local community. The writer of this article may have betrayed their true feelings about local currency by their use of the word “scheme” at the end of the second quoted paragraph but I, for one, don’t feel skeptical at all. If anything, we should be printing more local money. It’s a pretty fascinating synthesis of too many current events to name.
Many more images in this Flickr set, and a few more after the jump. Continue reading Printing On Money Not only is this a pictureless post (boooorrring), but it also has the sad misfortune of following a story about “my printies.” Some posts just can’t catch a break. “The Boom Is Over. Long Live Art!” is an interesting article by Holland Cotter over at the NY Times. It’s kind of a surprising testament to the relevance of contemporary art (maybe only in the minds of NY Times readers) that it happened to be number eight in yesterday’s Most Popular. The article brings up any number of interesting points about the art world ’s past, present, and future. Speculation regarding the ramifications of the economic downturn on the recently flourishing art market isat the forefront of the story. Cotter suggests potential that are coming or should come to the market as well the structure of art school as it currently exists. There are too many worthwhile thoughts to quote them all but here’s a notion that strikes close to home. …if the example of past crises holds true, artists can also take over the factory, make the art industry their own. Collectively and individually they can customize the machinery, alter the modes of distribution, adjust the rate of production to allow for organic growth, for shifts in purpose and direction. But before you get too excited about taking over the factory, Cotter throws this idea your way… Will the art industry continue to cling to art’s traditional analog status, to insist that the material, buyable object is the only truly legitimate form of art, which is what the painting revival of the last few years has really been about? Will contemporary art continue to be, as it is now, a fancyish Fortunoff’s, a party supply shop for the Love Boat crew? Or will artists — and teachers, and critics — jump ship, swim for land that is still hard to locate on existing maps and make it their home and workplace? Look out, Captain Stubing, your frivolous days are numbered! As the title suggests, the article looks on the bright side of the economic downturn and makes a case for the ways that the art world can be better with less money in the equation. It’s not exactly a new idea (that art would be better without money involved) but the story is overflowing with issues deserving of further consideration. Go read it. This is a sobering story. In international economic news, the Los Angeles Times reports the following in regards to Zimbabwe’s central bank chief… Gideon Gono prints money, lots and lots of money that’s worth next to nothing. Depending on whom you talk to, the architect of Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation is a megalomaniac, a workaholic, a thief — or the country’s savior. … Rejecting what he calls “traditional” economics (like the principle that printing money endlessly causes runaway inflation), he contends that printing money is actually a form of “sanctions busting.”
|
|
|||
|
Powered by WordPress & the Atahualpa Theme by BytesForAll. Discuss on our WP Forum |
|||||
Like
The Zimbabwean is a fledgling newspaper produced by exiled Zimbabwean journalists. The activist paper’s 
