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inclined to be prudent in their borrowing and to pay their Taxes must still be paid in the national currency, and so debts promptly. Eliminating interest from the money must bills for telephone service, energy, gasoline and system would eliminate the incentive for private lenders anything else that isn't made by someone in the local to lend and would encourage speculation. If credit were currency group. That means community members must made available without time limits or interest charges, still belong to the national money system. As Stephen people might simply borrow all the free money they could —Zarlenga observes in The Lost Science of Money: get, then compete to purchase bonds, stocks and other {S]uch local currencies do not stop the continued income-producing assets with it, generating speculative mismanagement of the money system at the national asset bubbles. Imposing a significant cost on borrowing level—they can't stop the continued dispensation of monetary deters this sort of rampant speculation. injustice from above through the privately owned and In Moslem communities, interest is avoided because controlled Federal Reserve money system. Ending that usury is forbidden in the Koran. To avoid infringing injustice should be our monetary priority {emphasis religious law, Islamic lawyers have gone to great lengths added].* to design contracts that avoid interest charges. The most common alternative is a The national money problem can contract in which the banker buys be solved only by reforming the the property and sells it to the national currency. And that brings client at a higher price, to be paid | In Moslem communities, — ff us back to the "money question” of in instalments over time. The . . ‘ the 1890s: greenbacks or gold? — 0% effect, however, is the same as interest Is avoided charging interest: more money is because usury Is About the Author: owed back if the sum is paid over : . Ellen Hodgson Brown, JD, time than if it had been paid forbidden in the Koran. developed her research skills as an attorney practising civil litigation n large western metropolises, in Los Angeles. Her interest in the where mobility is high and developing world and its problems religion is not a pervasive factor, interest is considereda Was sparked while living abroad for I] years in Kenya, reasonable charge acknowledging the time value of Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. She returned to money. The objection of Greco and others to charging Practising law when she joined the legal team of a interest turns on the "impossible contract” problem— popular Tijuana healer with an innovative cancer therapy finding principal and interest to pay back loans in a who was targeted by the chemotherapy industry in the monetary scheme in which only the principal is put into Mee T1008) wich eaten thes tn her Book Forbidden the money supply—but that problem can be resolved in ' PP - : health treatments to the same corrupting influences tha other ways. A proposal for retaining the benefits of the have captured the money system. Her book The Web of interest system while avoiding the "impossible contract" eft. The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We problem is explored in chapter 42 of my book. A Can Break Free (Third Millennium Press, Baton Rouge, proposal for interest-free lending that might work is also 997; expanded and updated third edition, 2008: ISB immediately. described in that chapter. 978-0-9795608-2-8) was reviewed in NEXUS, vol. 14, no. 6. A more serious limitation of private "supplemental" She is the author or co-author of 10 other books and currencies is that they fail to deal with the mammoth numerous articles. debt spider that is sucking the lifeblood from the Ellen Brown can be contacted via email a national economy. "Supplemental" currencies all — ellenhbrown@gmail.com and via the following website assume a national currency that is being supplemented. _http:/Avww.webofdebt.com. Taxes must still be paid in the national currency, and so must bills for telephone service, energy, gasoline and anything else that isn't made by someone in the local currency group. That means community members must still belong to the national money system. As Stephen Zarlenga observes in The Lost Science of Money: {S]uch local currencies do not stop the continued mismanagement of the money system at the national level—they can't stop the continued dispensation of monetary injustice from above through the privately owned and controlled Federal Reserve money system. Ending that injustice should be our monetary priority |emphasis added].* because usury is forbidden in the Koran. Endnotes Change: An Interview with Bernard Lietaer", Nexus 1. DeMeulenaere, Stephen, "A Pictorial History of (Colorado's Holistic Journal), July/August 2003, available Community Currency Systems”, 2000, available at at http://tinyurl.com/nopkuf http://tinyurl.com/mj609p 5. Johnston, David and Bernard Lietaer, "ECO2 Carbon 2. Greco, Jr, Thomas, New Money for Healthy Communities, Credit Card Project" (Draft Proposal), 31 January 2007 Tucson, Arizona, 1994, pp. 17-21, quoting "A Public 6. Taris, James, "Travel Without Money’, Service Economy: An Interview with Edgar S. Cahn", http://www.TravelWithoutMoney.com Multinational Monitor, April 1989, available at 7. Greco, Jr, Thomas, Money and Debt: A Solution to the http://tinyurl.com/nopkuf Global Debt Crisis, Tucson, Arizona, 1990, p. 42 3. ibid. 8. Zarlenga, Stephen, The Lost Science of Money, American 4. Dykema, Ravi, "Complementary Currencies for Social onetary Institute, Valatie, New York, 2002, p. 660 NEXUS ¢ 29 In Moslem communities, interest is avoided AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 2009 www.nexusmagazine.com