Examples and initiatives

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Nothing is more convincing than a practical example. We have selected particularly impressive examples of research, advocacy and practice to illustrate the various reform proposals. Our collection does not claim to be complete. For profiles of 16 of the world’s leading community currency systems, read the text of “People Money – the Promise of Regional Currencies”, Chapter 7. If you think an initiative or project should be listed here, please contact us.

In June 2014 the European Central Bank dropped its base interest rate below 0% for the first time. It charges “negative interest” on overnight deposits of commercial banks and is not the first or only bank to do this. With this policy central banks hope to stimulate commercial banks to make loans into the real […]

‘Full Money’ (Vollgeld in German) is similar to the 100% Money proposal, in that the direct link between money and credit is broken and the power to create new money is invested solely in the central bank. Assuming “the monetary system is unmistakably part of the common legal order” and not just “the operation […]

Model of a sustainable money system beyond the growth imperative? The Swedish JAK Bank has been offering interest-free savings, loans and banking services since 1965, with the aim of enabling an interest-free economy. More than 38,000 members of the cooperative bank save with interest-free savings accounts and can thus borrow money from the general fund […]

In 1935 during the worldwide Great Depression, economist Irving Fisher published a proposal for 100% Money, meaning one hundred per cent backing of bank deposits with central bank money (Fisher, 1935: for the history of Fisher’s proposal and his political strategy see Allen, 1993). This is also known as the Chicago Plan, because it was […]

Movements to reform money at the national level generally have a hard time. Their proponents must lobby for years or decades to gain influence over politicians and their advisors and they must present factually based and politically convincing concepts. If political reforms are realized, they often have far-reaching consequences because laws remain in force for […]

The idea of constructing a monetary system without (positive) interest rates can be traced to the German-Argentine businessman Silvio Gesell and the French economist Maurice Allais. Gesell observed the booms and busts of the economy in which he was doing business and developed the idea that fluctuating currency circulation leads to oscillating economic activity. When […]

The NuSpaarpas loyalty system for sustainable behaviour was a project that took place in the Netherlands between 2000 and 2002, in which people could collect ‘bonus points’ for activities benefiting the environment: sorting waste, shopping with 100 local shops or by buying environmentally-friendly or Fair Trade products. The project was a partnership between the Rotterdam […]

Euro, Dollar, Pound and Yen are under fire from some critics: these currencies have lost their connection with the real economy and take no account of the scarcity of real resources or the distinctive features of particular regions. The necessity of growth and the maximization of profit are pre-programmed by the system of credit creation. […]

LETS Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) may be regarded as a professionalization and further development of neighborly help. On the one hand, they allow participants to meet each other’s needs without using money. On the other hand, alongside the material benefits, idealistic and social elements also play a large role. The aim of exchange rings, […]

Exchange rings give participants the opportunity to offer and exchange their goods and services with each other without using national currencies as a medium of exchange. Exchanges within the network are accounted for with units of time, points, ‘talents’ or even using whatever internal unit the members have agreed upon, which could also be national […]