THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

Warminster has its ‘link’ Tomes its ‘acorn’ and Manchester its
‘bobbin’.
They are the currencies of some of the 200 a so local exchanges
trading schemes (LETS) that have sprung up in Britain, most of them
in the past 18 months, as self-help initiatives to revive economic
activity in communities ravaged by recession. 'I think may've become
so popular because cash is short. That's the common story
everywhere.' says Siobhan Harpur, who works at the National
Museum for Labour History in Manchester, and who helped set up a
scheme in that city of 3 million people ...
'At least 40 per cent of the economy of a my like Manchester should
be in complementary currency by the year 2000.' Harpur says. No
one should have to work in sterling terms more than 20 hours a week
at the most'
The local council is encouraging the scheme by extending a Pound
10,000 loan to be repaid in bobbins, which the council will use to buy
child-minding and other services...
Ed Mayo, director of the New Economics Foundaton, an 'alternative
economics' think tank, says complementary currency schemes could
be particularly useful in greasing the wheels of commerce between
cash strapped small businesses. They have tight credit lines and
could well benefit from local schemes to trade between
themselves,’says Mayo, who is founding a LETS in Greenwich, southeast
London. (...)
It would be wrong to dismiss complementary currencies as the
passing fad of misty eyed do-gooders. ‘ Some people get involved
because they’re interesting in recreating a community,’ Mayo says.
‘But for others it’s not a hobby, it’s a livelihood. It gives them access