There’s a good discussion by Mike Sandler on the Huffington Post of the controversy over the trillion dollar coin; it’s encouraging that the debate over money creation is becoming so mainstream in the US. “Be on the lookout for debt-free, interest-free money, coming soon to a country-needlessly-plunged-into-recession-by-austerity near you.” Some useful comments also. Read the post.…
Published by Green Books, The Future of Money by James Robertson restates much of his thinking around monetary reform and brings it bang up to date in the context of the Euro crisis. It focuses a great deal on the arguments for governments reclaiming their right to issue money from the banks, and the enormous potential benefits to society of so doing. Highly recommended. 
This new study by David Korowicz explores the implications of a major financial crisis for the supply-chains that feed us, keep production running and maintain our critical infrastructure. He uses a scenario involving the collapse of the Eurozone to show that increasing socio-economic complexity could rapidly spread irretrievable supply-chain failure across the world. 
I attended the recent Transition Networks one day conversation in London on ‘Peak Money and Economic Resilience’. Prompted by the event, I have contributed some thoughts on the fundamental objectives of a local exchange currency – increasing both the proportion of trade that is locally-based, and overall liquidity – and on how these might best be achieved. 
The Currency Group is a primarily online Community of Practice for local currency advocates (and would-be advocates) to share experience and information around the development and implementation of local currencies – initially via a Facebook Group and a group email list. 
Major earthquakes are proving to be a catalyst for the Lyttelton community, near Christchurch in New Zealand, to create a sustainable future. Margaret Jeffries writes in Fleeing Vesuvius that “Rather than waiting on the sidelines for a Government agency to hand out solutions, Lyttelton is seeking out what its own localised answers might be.” 
Feasta’s particular approach to sustainability economics is to focus attention on the inadequacies of underlying systems. The development of local economies suffers from two particular adverse systemic effects – the in-built transfer of wealth from those that need money to those that already have money via the servicing of debt; and the transfer of wealth from the locality to the centre as globalisation progressively centralises economies. Local currency developers need to develop strategies that mitigate these two effects or they will remain limited in size and influence. 
If you’ve visited this website before you will probably have noticed our funding appeals. It’s likely that you skimmed over these – perfectly understandably as there are so many organisations asking for money these days. However, if you’re reading this it’s probably because you’re interested in and value the work we do. If so you will be interested to know how it is that we are able do what we do. Read more 
Feasta’s Emer O’Siochru will be speaking on the first day of this conference from July 24-28 at the School of Economic Science, 11 Mandeville Place, London W1U 3AJ. It will explore a wide range of topics relating to Land Value Tax and global economic justice. More information here. 
Environmental activists and anyone with an interest in environmental law are cordially invited to a weekend seminar organised by FEASTA and WinACC (Winchester Action on Climate Change). The seminar will consider fresh approaches to tackling climate change and how they might be put into action. It will appeal to those who like to hear alternative perspectives, challenge conventional thinking, and explore ideas through discussion with others. Saturday June 29th – Sunday June 30th 2013. 
Richard Douthwaite, co-founder of Feasta and much-loved colleague and friend, died on November 14th 2011 after a long illness. We will miss his unique and far-ranging intellect, the clarity of his thought and writing, his warmth and his laughter. Tributes to him have come in from around the world and you can read them here. 
Feasta’s Autumn conference examined measures that this country could adopt to secure its economic future which would not leave it reliant on external factors largely outside of its control. Scenarios explored included the potential collapse of the eurozone. The conference featured prominent international and Irish economists and was aimed at economists, politicians, policy-makers, business people, social partners, and other key decision-makers.
Recent Comments