Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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sent a researcher to check the whole thing out. Paul Glover swung into action and
drafted a fearsome statement, outlining the riots and bombings which could happen if
the Federal Reserve didn’t stop money drifting from rural communities to Wall Street. It
was put on the Internet.’ 31
And h
ere is what Robert Frick said about Ithaca HOURs in the Durrell Journal of Money and
Banking in the spring of 1996:
The HOUR system seems stable and well managed … and is an interesting mix of social
conscience and capitalism. Merchants who have used HOURS to attract customers, raise the
profits of their businesses and bolster their bottom lines speak first about the moneymaking
benefits of the currency. And if those large zero­interest loans build commerce, if those community
organisations supported by HOURS increase the standard of living for the town, and if those in
the system felt a tangible effect from those projects, the crystal ball might explode from the
influence of HOURS. 32
Even though the volume and pace of trading and acceptability of Ithaca HOURs depends
largely on the enthusiasm and work of keen proponents, the government now pays
Glover’s salary and it looks like Ithaca is going to be an important model for he
regeneration of small communities. These communities will also be able to benefit from
the numerous lessons learnt in Ithaca,
particularly about obligations for reciprocity. As Tom Greco wrote in 2001:
From its inception in 1991 until the present the issuance of Ithaca HOURS has been slowly
evolving. What was originally an unbacked currency has become a partially backed currency. In
the beginning, Ithaca Money, the predecessor of HOUR Town newspaper, would give four
HOURS to anyone who bought advertising in the newspaper. There was an understanding that
advertisers would accept HOURS as at least partial payment for whatever they were selling, but
the agreement was informal and implied, and there was no requirement that the HOURS be
repaid. Later on that amount was reduced from four HOURS to two HOURS. Still later, the
administration began to make HOUR loans, in which case there is an agreement to repay. 33
Toronto Dollars
In December 1998, the mayor of Toronto launched the Toronto dollar, a system still in use
today. The money is printed by the official mint and backed by the national currency, for
which it can be redeemed (at a lower price to act as a disincentive – 10 per cent is
immediately given to a charity, so there is only 90 per cent left). Each Toronto dollar is
worth the same as the Canadian dollar, but the built­in disincentive means that for each
Canadian dollar converted, 10¢ goes to charity. The beautifully designed bills, which