Milwaukee neighborhoods could print own money

Milwaukee neighborhoods could print own money

www.chicagotribune.com

Residents from the Milwaukee neighborhoods of Riverwest and East Side are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss printing their own money. The idea is that the local cash could be used at neighborhood stores and businesses, thus encouraging local spending. The result, supporters hope, would be a bustling local economy, even as the rest of the nation deals with a recession.

"You have all these people who have local currency, and they're going to spend it at local stores," said Sura Faraj,...

(visit the link for the full news article)


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Massachusetts town adopts their own local currency

It's not a new concept—experts estimate there are at least 2,000 local currencies all over the world—but it is a practice that tends to burgeon during economic downturns. During the Great Depression, scores of communities relied on their own currencies.

And it's completely legal.

As long as communities don't create coins, or print bills that resemble federal dollars, organizations are free to produce their own greenbacks—and they'd don't even have to be green.

Anyone think this will have a positive effect on local economies? And what if most local areas did this? What then? The taxes that would pull out of the system is an issue the feds wouldn't be happy about, for sure.

www.chicagotribune.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Well it works up here in Canada for the Canadian Tire company.

They have their own currency. Well, a form of one...
But that's not a local currency, but a currency that's kept in circulation with that certain chain of companies.


If you look back through history, there have been many occurrences of local currencies. The early settlers used to use playing cards if you could believe it. Why? Because the availability of British currency was too volatile to rely on.

(Which says allot about the steady production of playing cards in those days)


I think it's a worthwhile venture. When the dollar is high, you can trade the dollar. When the community currency is high, you can use that instead.

So long as the regulation of the currency is performed by an unbiased committee, rather than a few select individuals, everything should work pretty smoothly.

yeah i dont know about this, i live in milwaukee and have a pretty clear idea of how our elected "officials" run shop, and i dont know if this would fly with the majority of them. and the two areas listed- Riverwest: dont wanna offend but its pretty much the BAD area of town and the Eastside: all UWM college kids, unless there is an underlying group of people running the show (that i certainly dont know about) i have my doubts, but if it could get rolling somehow and not get shut down by the State of Milwaukee i could see it working. maybe

YEA that rocks!! I hope we do the same here!!!! OOOO my mind is realing with possibilities and benifits.




[edit on 5-12-2008 by mrsdudara]

I call my face on the $20 bill if it comes here...

Not a one liner... A one liner is: I was alking my dog on a ledge- Most people are afraid of heights, not me; I'm afraid of widths...

But doesn't this raise the same questions we have about the fed reserve, to a degree? I mean, who is given the authority to print local money? Local government, or private hands?

Maybe this should be done on a state level, for every state, and then we can abolish the fed reserve!

The last president to order the Treasury Department to print money without the involvement of the Federal Reserve was Kennedy. The president before him was Lincoln. What do they both have in common? Both were shot in the head in public.

The government AIN'T gonna let them do it. This story is worth following to see what excuse the government uses to stop them.

Originally posted by Mean Red Spider
The government AIN'T gonna let them do it. This story is worth following to see what excuse the government uses to stop them.

People are already doing it, as is referenced in the OP. It is legal apparently unless the money appears too much like fed reserve notes. This was a big problem with the Liberty Dollar, for example.

"Estimated 2000 local currencies worldwide."

oh how simple it would be to counterfeit local business bills. Its been done around here at a local shopping center. they were like gift certificates that looked like monopoly money. Until counterfeiting became a problem. All that free stuff for so many people thanks to the awesome power of copying machines. As far as i know nobody was ever caught and the only reason they found out was there were more being turned in then printed. I think it took awhile to figure that out too.

Originally posted by mrRviewer
oh how simple it would be to counterfeit local business bills.

Well that's assuming local business bills would be simple!

I don't see any reason why similar measures couldn't be taken on local bills as they are on federal bills to prevent counterfeiting, with a possible exception of sheer cost.

Way cool. I love it.
I'm all for a "Lone Star Dollar" in the future.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


This is excellent, again it comes back to local community and local economy.

This is a very good idea. But I don't think the PTB will allow it to continue.

It might be perfectly legal, but so is a food co-op right?
Nothing stops the PTB from sending in a SWAT team to destroy/confiscate the currency and their ability to produce it, and under anti-terror law they answer to no one when they do it.

Under such law something may very well be completely legal, until they decide otherwise.

Originally posted by detachedindividual
... and under anti-terror law they answer to no one when they do it.

Under such law something may very well be completely legal, until they decide otherwise.

And would you please explain how the printing of local business money has anything to do with terrorism, such that they can classify it under "anti-terror" laws? No comprendo.

Originally posted by Mean Red Spider
The last president to order the Treasury Department to print money without the involvement of the Federal Reserve was Kennedy. The president before him was Lincoln. What do they both have in common? Both were shot in the head in public.

The government AIN'T gonna let them do it. This story is worth following to see what excuse the government uses to stop them.

Hmmm... That seems to be a pattern. Let's see if anyone in Detroit looses their head over this...

Originally posted by TrueAmerican

Originally posted by detachedindividual
... and under anti-terror law they answer to no one when they do it.

Under such law something may very well be completely legal, until they decide otherwise.

And would you please explain how the printing of local business money has anything to do with terrorism, such that they can classify it under "anti-terror" laws? No comprendo.

One example, is that it threatens to weaken the existing economy, which could easily be deemed a "terrorist act".

Originally posted by detachedindividual
One example, is that it threatens to weaken the existing economy, which could easily be deemed a "terrorist act".

lol, well if that can be deemed a terrorist act just because it weakens the economy, then we can call the federal reserve board terrorists for printing unbacked money.

Ok, I can live with that.

There's a town quite near where I live called Totnes (south Devon for the rest of the world) that's had their own Totnes pounds for some time now - I've no idea how it's going for them, not been over that way in ages.

Linkey poos

And oh yhea those ones look rather easy to fake - I'd say a top spec colour photocopier and the right paper would do the trick... But you don't want to mess with the Devonshire locals, they can be creative as to where to put the pitch fork.

I think this is a stupid idea.

What's the point?
Would the US dollar still be usable, if it was.. what would be the point of having to get your money exchanged for the town's money.
Would the town's dollar be usable in other places.
Major inconvenience if you ask me.

Originally posted by WishForWings
I think this is a stupid idea.

What's the point?
Would the US dollar still be usable, if it was.. what would be the point of having to get your money exchanged for the town's money.
Would the town's dollar be usable in other places.
Major inconvenience if you ask me.

What's the point? There are many!

1) the ability to issue money completely backed by precious metals, for example, that would be a safer investment than the 1/7 backed, inflationary as hell federal reserve notes.

2) over time, as more communities did this, we could turn the system around to a greater proportion of backed money- which would slow inflation and help the US to retain its fading world reserve currency status.

3) tax relief, to a degree, but of course look for that to end as the government will likely step in and take their piece of the pie.

So you tell me:

Why should Americans continue to support through outrageous tax rates wars based on lies, political corruption, greedy politicians, and the perpetual placement of these thugs in positions that continually BREAK us? Huh?