Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Printing the Bristol Pound

The news is that the city of Bristol, England, has launched its own currency to keep trade local.
BBC UK on the Bristol Pound

According to the following, one complaint is that big companies "hoover up" (that is, vacuum up) money from  local areas.
Hoover Up

On the Other Side, we agree completely.  That is what has happened to Greece and Spain.

However, we believe that the effort is somewhat misdirected.  What is to keep the local one-percenters from "hoovering" up Bristol Pounds from the local poor?  Also, the limited scope of this program means limited results, and pegging the Bristol Pound to the Pound Sterling means that their local economy is still tied to national Sterling policies.  In other words, of all the possible benefits of printing a currency, they are only trying to achieve one.

We wish them well, but we hope that others who think about multiple currencies will start to think in broader  terms.


TheOtherSideOfCapitalism (tosoc.org)

Copyright © 2012 TheOtherSideOfCapitalism

2 comments:

  1. I really like this idea. Think about it this way: In twenty years, when we run out of oil, economies are going to be so much more local and we will need new currency. Fiat money will hyper inflate because of our financial crisis and we will need alternatives. The mainstream media is talking about greater federalization and a global supply chain, but the planet just can't support it and our capitalist system can't keep providing and liquidating the debt to finance it.

    I'm very interested to see where this goes. Who knows? Maybe soon there will be state currencies.

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  2. Sorry about the delay in responding. Should Blogger send an email when there is a comment to approve?

    Anyway, thanks for your comment. At tosoc.org, of course, we would like to see as many currencies as are needed. How many is that? We will not know that until we try.

    "Socialism for the socialists and capitalism for the capitalists."

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