The power of local currencies 
 Communities everywhere are challenged by issues such as health, elder and child care, housing, education, food security and the environment. On the surface, these problems appear to be rooted in economic crisis-forexample budget cuts have triggered reduced public services, soaring food prices have created food security concerns, and the subprime mortgage disaster has spawned record increases in foreclosures and homelessness. 
 However if communities could match their unmet needs with their underutilized resources, many would find that while their economies may bestruggling when measured in traditional terms, they possess enough genuine wealth to allow all their inhabitants to enjoy a vastly improved quality of life. Creating Wealth demonstrates how a healthy society can beattained through developing new systems of exchange. Using creative initiatives such as time banks, systems of barter and exchange and local currencies, cities and towns can empower themselves and build vibrant, healthy, sustainable local economies. 
 In addition to presenting many compelling case studies of successful alternative currencies in action, Creating Wealth also explores the different types of capital that communities have to draw on, including natural, built, social, human, institutional, cultural, technological, and financial. This book will appeal to community activists, city planners and other public officials, and anyone interested in developing strong local economies. 
 Gwendolyn Hallsmith is the founder and director of Global Community Initiatives and the author of The Key to Sustainable Cities . 
 Bernard Lietaer is the world's leading authority on complementary currencies and the author of The Future of Money .

Creating Wealth: Growing Local Economies with Local Currencies

Business & Money

Lietaer, Bernard

Hallsmith, Gwendolyn

Economics

New Society Publishers

Real Change is Truly Possible, Right Now... We can end the threats to our environment, and aid dramatically in its restoration. We can help provide meaningful work for all, with opportunities that enhance and replenish the world around us. We can effectively address fundamental urban and rural concerns and the many diverse and often divergent needs of developing and developed nations alike. We can create a better world where life and all living systems flourish. This is not an idealistic dream, but is rather a pragmatic attainment, achievable within our very own lifetime. So write Bernard Lietaer and Stephen Belgin, authors of the much anticipated book New Money for a New World. Mr. Lietaer is a principal architect of the euro and author of the acclaimed international best seller The Future of Money, which has been translated into sixteen languages. Mr. Belgin is the founder and president of Qiterra Press and author of the upcoming City of Light Chronicles. New Money for a New World examines a previously unexamined culprit for the many issues we face today-the monopoly of our centuries old monetary system. This book also provides many ways and means that are now readily available to stop the current juggernaut towards global self destruction. Many of the solutions offered within this book are more than theory. Communities from around the world have successfully addressed a myriad of issues without the need to raise taxes, redistribute wealth, or depend upon enlightened self interest from corporate entities. Rather the improvements were realized simply and effectively by rethinking money. With such a shift everything is possible.

New Money for a New World

Belgin, Stephen

Qiterra Press

As the United States struggles and the economies of Europe stagger, we fail to see a way out of this agonizing cycle of repeated financial meltdowns. In fact, there are thousands of ways to solve not only our recurring fiscal crises but our ongoing social and ecological debacles as well. Solutions are already in place where terrible problems once existed. The changes came about not through increased conventional taxation, enlightened self-interest, or government programs but by people simply rethinking the concept of money. With this restructuring, everything changes. In this visionary book, Bernard Lietaer and Jacqui Dunne explore the origins of our current monetary system—built on bank debt and scarcity—revealing the surprising and sometimes shocking ways its unconscious limitations give rise to so many serious problems. But there is hope. The authors present stories of ordinary people and their communities using new money, working in cooperation with national currencies, to strengthen local economies, create work, beautify cities, and provide education—and so much more is possible. These real-world examples are just the tip of the iceberg—over 4,000 cooperative currencies are already in existence. The book provides remedies for challenges faced by governments, businesses, nonprofits, local communities, and even banks. It demystifies a complex and critically important topic and will strike a deep chord with readers eager to find innovative, meaningful solutions that will do far more than restore prosperity—it will provide the framework for an era of sustainable abundance.

Rethinking Money: How New Currencies Turn Scarcity into Prosperity

Dunne, Jacqui

Berrett-Koehler Publishers

A report from the Club of Rome - EU Chapter to Finance Watch and the World Business Academy. Foreword by Dennis Meadows, co-author of the 1972 Club of Rome report The Limits to Growth. Pioneering new research from the Club of Rome: In 1972, the first Report for the Club of Rome - The Limits to Growth - famously spelled out the unsustainable consequences of an economic system that demands infinite growth in a finite world. Just as The Limits to Growth exposed the catastrophic flaws in our economic system, this new Report from the Club of Rome exposes the systemic flaws in our money system and the wrong thinking that underpins it. It describes the ongoing currency and banking crises we must expect if we continue with the current monopoly system - and the vicious impact of these crises on our communities, our society as a whole and our environment. It finishes by setting out clear, practical proposals for creating a money 'ecosystem' with complementary currencies to support and stabilize the current money system.

Money and Sustainability: The Missing Link

Arnsperger, Christian

Goerner, Sally

Brunnhuber, Stefan

Triarchy Press Ltd

Three authors with decades of experience have teamed up to provide an up-to-date, state-of-the art field guide to the emerging movement of regional currencies. People Money describes a global movement of people creating their own currencies to support regional business and strengthen their communities. These currencies operate legally alongside Bank Money and Government Money, giving people new choices in an age of transition from outworn financial structures to an era of sustainable abundance. Part One explains the characteristics and purpose of the various models of commercial- and community-oriented currencies, the administration and governance of the currencies, how to cooperate with other financial institutions, clearing systems and the issue of taxation. Part Two focuses on the 'how to' of developing a regional currency, outlining the key principles and design processes, and the benefits that have accrued as a result of their implementation. Finally, the book profiles and interviews some of the leading organisers of regional currencies around the world, explaining their driving passion and the nuances of each of the models - how the currency started, how it developed, the difficulties encountered on the journey, and how these were overcome. The currencies profiles include: Brixton Pound in London; The Business Exchange in Scotland; Blaengarw Time Centre in South Wales; Community Exchange System in South Africa; Chiemgauer in Germany; BerkShares, Equal Dollars, Ithaca HOURS and Dane County Time Bank in the USA; and many others.

People Money: The Promise of Regional Currencies

ROGERS, JOHN

Kennedy, Margrit

Our money system IS the 'Missing Link'. We tend to assume that we must have a single, monopolistic currency, funded through bank debt, enforced by a central bank. But we don't need any such thing! In fact, the present system is outdated, brittle and unfit for purpose (witness the eurozone crisis). Like any other monoculture, it's profitable at first but ultimately a recipe for economic and environmental disaster. The alternative is a monetary 'ecosystem', with complementary currencies alongside the conventional one. This is more flexible, resilient, fair and sustainable. Societies worked like this in the past. So can we. In 1972, the famous first Report for the Club of Rome - The Limits to Growth - showed how an economic system that demands infinite growth in a finite world is fundamentally unsustainable. This new Report explains our present monopolistic money system and the flawed thinking that underpins it. It spells out the catastrophic problems - environmental, socio-economic and financial - that we will continue to experience unless we make radical changes. Finally, it sets out nine practical proposals, which can be implemented now, to run alongside the current money system. This book is essential reading for policy makers, business leaders and economists, anyone concerned about sustainability, those working in the field of monetary systems and anyone with an informed interested in the future of the planet.

Money and Sustainability: The Missing Link (black and white edition)

Sally, Goerner

Towards a sustainable world: 3 Paradigm shifts

Science & Math

Sherburne, Cary

Preuss, Helga

Hudon, Marek

de Spiegeleer, Kristof

Legat, Dieter

Biological Sciences

Delta Institute - Dieter Legat E.U.

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