Trade Currency Opportunities Grow Due To Economic Crisis
By Richard C. Cook
Our recent economic crisis has exposed the cracks in our financial
system. The result is the deepest recession in a generation. We are
now faced with the largest debt-oriented economy in history, with
federal budgets of over $1.4 trillion a year.
We have completely forgotten the time in our history when money was
viewed as a medium of exchange for producers of goods and services.
Prior to 1913, the creation and use of money was much less
centralized and mainly served the marketplace.
The true purpose and meaning of money was rediscovered during the
Great Depression when many businesses and local jurisdictions
produced their own money in the form of scrip. Scrip is actually a
more stable form of currency than bank-created fiat money where
people are forced to accept the fiat money as legal tender. Also
stable is the use of self-generated “trading units” by trade
exchanges acting as producer currency coops. This is how the
commercial “bartering” networks work.
Today a similar movement to the scrip of the 1930s has begun through
the creation and use of legal alternative currencies. Today, though,
we have computerized databases to facilitate trading. This movement
may be our best immediate hope of achieving a semblance of real
economic democracy and restoring local/regional economic
sustainability.
Richard C. Cook is the author of
We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform. A retired
federal analyst, his career included service with the U.S. Civil
Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Carter
White House and NASA, followed by twenty-one years with the U.S.
Treasury Department.
For more information on Mr. Cook see his web site at
www.richardccook.com.