Evolving Society Other Resources

Beyond Debt Money

• "Positive Money." Link - UK group advocates for monetary reform, including spending money into existence and ending bankers' right to create money. Watch video. Explore site further if you want more. 4 min.
• Tribe.net. (2007, April 8). "An Experiment in Worgl." Tribe.net. Link 2pp., 2min.
• Aponte, Inez. (2014). "From Dismal Science to Language of Beauty: Towards a New Story of Economics."Link - Inez Aponte critiques contemporary economics narrative and offers alternative by contrasting oikonomia with khrematistika. - 10pp., 15 min.
• Tett, Gillian. (2011, September 9). "Debt: It's Back to the Future." FT Magazine. Link - Gillian reviews Debt: The First 5000 Years, a book by anarchist anthropologist David Graeber in which he traces the history of debt, and offers the view that his reports of a "safety valve" to prevent dire consequences of debt may be worthy of attention in our era. 3pp., 3min.
• "Debt: The First 5000 Years." Wikipedia. Link - This article is mainly a synopsis of a book by anarchist anthropologist David Graeber, in which he argues that money is social relation, rather than artifact, and advocates a renewal of relations he calls "everyday communism." Graeber says, "The sociology of everyday communism is a potentially enormous field, but one which, owing to our peculiar ideological blinkers, we have been unable to write about because we have been largely unable to see it." '3pp., 5min.
• Popper, Nathaniel. "Can Bitcoin Conquer Argentina?." (29 April 2015) NYTimes. - Popper reports on Argentine use of Bitcoin to circumvent banking and currency regulations and institutions in Argentina, and uses the Argentine example to describe growth to date and potential growth of Bitcoin with reference to larger context of traditional banks and investors in the US and other countries. Link 22pp., 20 min.

Alternative Money and Banking

• Wikipedia. "Local Currency." Link - basic ideas about local currency theory and global practice. 5 min
• Wikipedia. "List of Community Currencies in the United States." Link - This list is an indicator of both the diversity and number of experimental local currencies, as well as their fragility and impermanence (note the number that are "inactive"). I consider potentially important the experiences that people gain through such ventures, regardless of whether they endure. 5 min
• Ellis, Blake. (2012, January 27). "Local Currencies: 'In the U.S. We Don't Trust'." CNN. Link - States are rushing to explore issuance of alternative currencies. 5 min
• Gatch, Loren. (2008). "Local Money in the US During the Great Depression." Link - Paper by Loren Gatch of Department of Political Science at the University of Central Oklahoma: In this 16-page monograph Gatch details the types of scrip issued during the Depression, the entities that issued it, the interests served by it, and its successes and failures as money. 10-20 min, depending on how much you read
• "Bay Bucks - The New Economy 2.0." Link - Participants in Bay Bucks promote localism in the SF Bay Area with complementary currency and related initiatives. I consider the books and videos in the "resources" list useful for gaining basic understanding of money and finance, current and potential alternatives. 5 min - ?
• RT. (2014, January 30). "Strategic Failure: Iceland Allowed 2008 Bank Collapses to Support Households." Link - Iceland lets banks collapse and writes off up to $33,000 of every household's mortgage. 5 min
• Editorial Board. (22 May 2015). NYTimes. "Opinion: Banks as Felons or Criminality Lite." NYTimes editorial board criticizes the modest penalties assessed banks and bankers after their guilty plea to currency market manipulation. Link 3pp., 3min.
• Lietaer, Bernard. (2010, March 27). "The Wörgl Experiment: Austria (1932-1933)." Link 2pp., 3min. - How a small German town issued its own currency during the Great Depression and flourished as others floundered. If you prefer a longer version, read this: Mind Contagion."An Experiment in Wörgl." Link 4pp., 5min.
• Wikipedia. (2014). "Rotating Savings and Credit Associations." Link - Called the "poor man's bank," these groups provide capital to people otherwise unable to borrow, and promote entrepreneurial activity. (For a more detailed analysis of ROSCA's in the US, see Henever, Christy Chung. (2006). "Alternative Financial Vehicles: Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs)." Skim to grasp the basic concept. Link10 min