Alternative Currencies

Clearly these are fiat currencies, and nice they are voluntary, but no explanation of how they  re spent into the economy.  What asset is backing them?

The local currency, though, is intended not as collectible but to encourage trade at the community businesses where they are accepted, rather than chain stores, where money taken in tends to flow out of town and into the coffers of multinational corporations. 

And this

One success story has been the BerkShare, a currency used in the region of Great Barrington, Mass. First issued in 2006, BerkShare notes were supported by research and development funding secured by the Schumacher Center for a New Economics. The notes, of which nearly $1 million worth were printed and roughly $138,000 worth are in circulation, highlight historical figures, like W. E. B. Du Bois and Norman Rockwell, and showcase the work of local artists.

Issued by whom, against what.  Recall that currency are only tallies, marking who has assets backed by the note.

Dubbed a “great economic experiment” by The New York Times, BerkShares are a local currency for the Berkshire region of Massachusetts. Federal currency is exchanged for BerkShares at six branch offices of three local banks and spent at more than 400 locally owned participating businesses. The circulation of BerkShares encourages money to remain within the region, building a greater affinity between the local business community and its citizens. 

Oh.  So just like a dollar, but less useful.  Scrip, like at a county fair, which compels you to waste your money.  And easy to counterfeit and then trade into dollars?

When will industry begin to remit to each other for hard assets in an alternative form of tally, like the WIR?  We need to achieve a strict separation of industry and state, and end this Hamiltonian madness of the capitalist economic system, and move to what is proven to be just, peaceful and prosperous.  We need to return to free markets.

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