In this final apology (in the classical sense) for complementary currencies, I will briefly survey the plethora of other currency experiments, and consider their success.
The movement's trophy case is 1930s Worgl, where fiat currency with demurrage brought prosperity until the government banned it and returned the country to a despair which fed into Nazism. While this certainly has value, it's a shame that we should have to reach back 80 years to tell it. It implies that CCs real purpose is to counter a desperate scarcity of national money, and reminds us that vested interests will oppose such projects once their monopoly feels threatened.
There is a lot of talk these days about the new C3 design which Bernard Lietaer is backingt. The design has yet to be explained to me, however it seems to be working in early experiments in South America, is supported by some governments, and certainly deserves the benefit of the doubt for now.
Conversely a recent project in the South of France, called SOL did not work at all. It was fully funded by the EU, and despite offering a triad of currencies, gained no traction. Since all the literature is in Frnech, I haven't studied it. But to me it seemed confusing, naively conceived, and top-down. I wish the project all the best if it should be revived.
In addition to these there are a vast range of designs and ideas which have never been tried. Trying a currency design requires a the whole community to denominate their work and their wealth in experimental units, so it's not surprising that experiments are conservative.
I lament that Ripple hasn't yet got off the ground, and that metacurrency requires a large software investment before it can be tried, and that Robin Upton's altrustic currencies are so far from public consciousness.
Another design, hardly tried, is for local power production facilities to issue money redeemable via energy bills. This would encourage local green energy production! Then there is Bernard Lietaer's 'Terra', a stable trade reference currency based on a basket of goods. But investment banks would need to change their ways if commodity prices were inherently stable.
Metals could be considered an alternative currency, particularly for store-of-wealth purposes. Historically these are by far the most resilient, though no invulnerable to manipulation.
There are very few experiments going on in commodity money (apart from metals, which are doing well as their value rises). While commodity money is backed by stuff, and is thus dependable, there is always a cost to storage and most users do not relish the idea of redeeming their money for industrial quantities of raw commodities. I would like to see more work in this area, however.
One design which is seeing some success, but I don't have metrics, is the Ithaca Hours model. Non-redeemable notes are spent into the community in exchange for community services rendered. These seem best at reinforcing a sense of community which is already there, and they help with liquidity.
When attempting to rate the success of a currency project we should keep in mind the tilt of the playing field. Almost all these projects are vying for a niche against national currencies, which are granted monopoly status by governments, issued for profit by banks, and backed by the full force of the law. Winning designs will therefore be ones that mediate the dwindling types of exchanges which national currencies don't cover, for whatever reason. In the event of national fiat currencies disappearing down the debt-hole, or losing value exponentially, the playing field would look very different.
I hope in these three posts I've made my point that CCs haven't failed because they are a bad idea. New designs are difficult to test and outside of South America no government is really supportive of designs which may disrupt the the banking sector. CCs are a clearly very good idea and we know they can work, especially as the dominant economic system's flaws become sores. We should redouble our efforts to provide ourselves with useful and just media of exchange and store of value tools.
Now can I have a TED Scholarship?
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