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Creative Responses to Disaster: The Example of counterfeit scrip. By the summer of 2002, the RGT had Argentina shrunk to 70,000 members; but it still remains a In 1995, Argentina went bankrupt. The governmen remarkable testament to what can be done at a ad adopted all the policies mandated by the _ grassroots level when neighbours get together to trade nternational Monetary Fund, including "privatisation" —_ with their own locally grown currency. (the sale of public assets to private corporations) and pegging the Argentine peso to the US dollar. The resul Alternative Paper Currencies in the United States was an overvalued peso, massive economic contraction More than 30 local paper currencies are now available and collapse of the financial system. People rushed to in North America. One that has been particularly heir banks to withdraw their life savings, only to be told — successful is the "Ithaca HOUR", originated by Paul hat their banks had permanently closed. Glover in Ithaca, New York. The HOUR is paper scrip Lawns soon turned into vegetable gardens, and loca that reads on the back: systems sprang up for bartering goods. One This is money. This note entitles the bearer to receive one hour environmental group held a massive yard sale, where of labour or its negotiated value in goods and services. Please people brought what they had to sell and received accept it, then spend it. Ithaca HOURS stimulate local ickets representing money in exchange. The tickets business by recycling our wealth locally, and they help fund were then used to barter the purchase of other goods. new job creation. Ithaca HOURS are backed by real capital: This system of paper receipts our skills, our muscles, our tools, or goods and_ services forests, fields and rivers. developed into the Global . Exchange Network (Red Global de Provinces short of the One Ithaca HOUR is Trueque or RGT), which went on national currency resorted considered to be the equivalent o become the largest national of 10 dollars, the average hourly community currency network in to ISSUING their own. wage in the area. More highly he world. The model spread H H skilled services are negotiated hroughout Central and South They paid their employees in multiples of HOURS. A America, growing to seven with paper receipts called directory is published every million members and a "Debt-Cancelling Bonds"... couple of months that lists the circulation valued at millions of goods and services people in US dollars per year. the community are willing to Other financial innovations trade for HOURS, and there is were devised in Argentina at the local provincia an HOUR bank. People can use HOURS to pay rent, government level. Provinces short of the nationa shop at the farmers’ market or buy furniture. The local currency resorted to issuing their own. They paid their ospital accepts them for medical care. Several million employees with paper receipts called "Debt-Cancelling thaca HOURS’ worth of transactions have occurred Bonds" that were in currency units equivalent to the — since 1991. A Hometown Money Starter Kit is available Argentine peso. These could be called "negotiable or US$25 or 24 HOURS from Ithaca MONEY, Box 6578, bonds" (bonds that are legally transferrable and thaca, New York 14851, USA. negotiable as currency), except that they did not pay Another successful credit program was originated by interest. They were closer to the "non-interest-bearing Edgar Cahn, a professor of law at the University of the bonds" proposed by Jacob Coxey in the 1890s for District of Columbia, to help deal with inadequate funding state and local projects. The bonds cancelled government social programs. Like Glover, Cahn set out the provinces’ debts to their employees and could be © create a new kind of money that was independent of spent in the community. The Argentine provinces had both government and banks, one that could be created actually "monetised" their debts, turning their bonds or by people themselves. The unit of exchange in his 1OUs into legal tender.' system, called a "Time Dollar", parallels the Ithaca Studies showed that in provinces in which the HOUR in being valued in man-hours. In a landmark national money supply was supplemented with loca ruling, the Internal Revenue Service held that Cahn's currencies, prices not only did not rise but actually service plan was not "barter" in the commercial sense declined compared to other Argentine provinces. Loca and was therefore tax-exempt. The ruling helped the exchange systems allowed goods and services to be program to spread quickly around the country. Cahn traded that would not otherwise have been on the _ notes that social as well as economic benefits have market, causing supply and demand to increase _ resulted from this sort of program: together. The system had some flaws, including the lack {T]he very process of earning credits knits groups together... of adequate controls against counterfeiting, which They begin having pot-luck lunches; and they begin forming allowed large amounts of inventory to be stolen with neighbourhood crime watch things, and they begin looking counterfeit scrip. By the summer of 2002, the RGT had shrunk to 70,000 members; but it still remains a remarkable testament to what can be done at a grassroots level when neighbours get together to trade with their own locally grown currency. Alternative Paper Currencies in the United States More than 30 local paper currencies are now available in North America. One that has been particularly successful is the "Ithaca HOUR", originated by Paul Glover in Ithaca, New York. The HOUR is paper scrip that reads on the back: This is money. This note entitles the bearer to receive one hour of labour or its negotiated value in goods and services. Please accept it, then spend it. Ithaca HOURS stimulate local business by recycling our wealth locally, and they help fund new job creation. Ithaca HOURS are backed by real capital: our skills, our muscles, our tools, ] forests, fields and rivers. national currency resorted to issuing their own. They paid their employees with paper receipts called "Debt-Cancelling Bonds"... 26 ¢ NEXUS Provinces short of the www.nexusmagazine.com AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 2009