General Resources

Websites:

PluggingTheLeaks.org – Resources developed by the UK-based New Economics Foundation exploring the dynamics of a local economy and how currencies influence the flow of value through and out of communities.

The New Economics Institute – A list of local currencies active within the US and around the world, developed by the New Economics Institute – founders of the BerkShare.

Lietaer.com – Homepage of Bernard Lietaer, one of the world’s foremost experts on community currencies and monetary systems.

Alternative Currency Systems – Exhaustive list of resources with links

Complementary Community Currency Systems and Local Exchange Networks

 

How-to websites and software:

1. Berkshares Toolkit – http://www.berkshares.org/toolkit/index.htm
2. Open Source Alternative Banking Software – http://project.cyclos.org/index.php
3. Community Exchange System – http://www.community-exchange.org/
4. Life Currency Cooperative Exchange – http://www.fourthcornerexchange.com/
5. Community Forge – Open Source Alternative Banking Software – http://www.communityforge.net/
6. Value for People – Consulting Service – http://www.valueforpeople.co.uk/
7. Drupal – Digital Accounting – http://drupal.org/project/mutual_credit

Publications and Guides:

• Hometown Money: How to Enrich Your Community with Local Currency, Paul Glover (2013)
  
• Time Bank Governance: Cooperative Lessons for Complementary Currencies, Andrew McCloud (2012)
• The Ecology of Money, Richard Douthwaite (1999)
• Cultivating a Polyculture of Exchange: An open inquiry into how communities creatively meet diverse need, Chris Tittle (2012)
• Complementary Currency Innovation: Self-guarantee in peer-to-peer currencies  (Regarding Japan’s WAT system)

Media Coverage:

1. Alternative Currencies Grow in Popularity Time Magazine
2. A Day in the Life of a BerkShare by Bill McKibben
3. Customized Currency Seen as Alternative to Cash NPR News
4. http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/money-print-your-own
5. http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/03/pf/states_currencies/index.htm
6. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/16/greece-on-breadline-cashless-currency?newsfeed=true
7. http://www.utne.com/2004-06-01/LocalCurrenciesArentSmallChange.aspx
8. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/01/19/cymru-currency-could-boost-local-economies-91466-22722423/

Examining Money and Money Systems

1. Ascent of Money (PBS series)
2. The Latest American Export: Inflation (Wall Street Journal article about U.S. exporting inflation through monetary policy)
3. The Neutral Money Network (NeuMoNe): A critical analysis of traditional money and the financial innovation of “Neutral Money”
4. Liberty Dollar Trial and Coin Value (An excellent summary of why the Liberty Dollar was targeted by Federal authorities)
5. Dollar Hegemony, Liberating Sovereign Credit for Domestic Development (Two essays by Henry CK Liu)
6. Money page for site devoted to the Constitution (Originalist leaning)
7. Von Mises Institute (Austrian School of Economics)
8. Lew Rockwell (Libertarian site)
9. Reinventing Money

Organizations for the New Economy and Local Currencies

1. New Economics Institute
2. International Journal of Community Currency Research
3. Living Economies
4. Collaborative Finance
5. http://www.socialtrade.org/
6. http://secure-exchange-protocols.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
7. http://ccmag.net/dp
8. http://www.newciv.org/ncn/moneyteam.html
9. http://www.pecunix.com/ (Digital Gold)
10. http://prosperityuk.com/
11. http://www.reinventingmoney.com/
12. http://sonomajacks.org/jacks.htm
13. http://www.lietaer.com/

Books

1. Democratic Money: The Case for a Decentralized Monetary System. Preview available at http://neweconomicsinstitute.org/sites/default/files/DemMoneypart1.pdf, by Bryn Meyer, 2001.
2. The Natural Economic Order by Silvio Gesell, 1906
   1. PDF: http://www.geokey.de/literatur/doc/neo.pdf
   2. HTML: http://www.silvio-gesell.de/en/neo/index.htm; http://wikilivres.info/wiki/The_Natural_Economic_Order
3. Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/local_currencies/Book.pdf; see also http://www.amazon.com/Small-Is-Beautiful-Economics-Mattered/dp/0060916303
4. Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age, by Michael Shuman (Routledge, 1998/2000) – http://www.amazon.com/Going-Local-Creating-Self-Reliant-Communities/dp/0684830124
5. The Future of Money: Creating New Wealth, Work and a Wiser World, by B.A. Lietaer – http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0712683992/transactionnetA/
6. The Theory of Money and Credit, by Ludvig Von Mises – http://mises.org/document/194 (pdf, epub, and html)
7. The Denationalization of Money, by F.A. Hayek – http://mises.org/document/3970 (pdf & epub)
8. What has Government Done to Our Money?, by Murray N. Rothbard – http://mises.org/document/617/What-Has-Government-Done-to-Our-Money (pdf, epub, & html)
9. Creating Wealth: Growing Local Economies with Local Currencies, by Gwendolyn Hallsmith – http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Wealth-Growing-Economies-Currencies/dp/0865716676
10. The History and Principles of Banking (1866) – http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=4sUuAQAAIAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=laws+preventing+currency+competition&ots=XqDB4KECwU&sig=5_Y5rKa46Vj4sh9i3HSRpZlqaZg#v=onepage&q&f=false
11. Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender, by Thomas Greco – http://reinventingmoney.com/documents/MoneyEbook.pdf (excerpt)
12. The Ecology of Money, by Richaed Douthwaite – http://www.amazon.com/The-Ecology-Money-Schumacher-Briefings/dp/1870098811/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334100521&sr=1-1
13. Peer-to-Peer Money: Free Currency over the Internet – http://www.media-art-online.org/pdf/hsi2003-i-wat.pdf

Scholarly Articles

1. Gresham’s Law versus Currency Competition – http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=ciberwp
2. Currency Competition Versus Governmental Money Monopolies – http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj5n3/cj5n3-15.pdf
3. Hayek, Currency Competition and European Monetary Union – http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/upldbook19pdf.pdf