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Copper Catcher
Administrator
USA
2092 Posts |
 Posted - 10/11/2009 : 14:15:20
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Most people don't know it, but one of the main reasons Switzerland's economy remained stable for so long is that the Swiss maintained an alternative currency system.
Specifically, during the depths of the Depression, when the banks were not lending, 16 Swiss business people got together and formed the Swiss Economic Circle or Wirtschaftsring-Genossenschaft ("WIR" for short). The circle was an alternative system of credit, so that the businessmen and their clients, suppliers, and others in the chain of distribution could keep on doing business with one another.
WIR still operates as a not-for-profit bank in Switzerland. One-quarter of all Swiss businesses now participate in the circle, accounting for approximately $2 billion per year. See this.
While WIR has changed over the years, the initial interest rate for members of the circle to borrow credit was between 1 and 1.5 percent.
As Belgian economist Bernard Lietaer writes in an article entitled "A new form of currency could help us in economic crisis":
The secret of the nation’s legendary economic stability was that strange little unofficial currency.
Whenever there was a recession, the volume of business in this currency grew significantly, thereby reducing the negative impact on sales and employment. Whenever there was a boom, business in national currency expanded, while activity in the alternative currency dropped again. The spontaneous counter-cyclical behavior of this little system helped the central bank of the country stabilize the economy...
I propose businesses create such systems at whatever scale makes sense. This approach will prevent or reduce the strangulation of the real economy by the credit contraction. It will avoid duplicating the worst of the 1930s: massive bankruptcies, intolerably high unemployment and untold suffering. Such a system, scaled to make a real difference, can be set up in a fraction of the time it took in the 1930s.
Time is of the essence, if we want to avoid the social and economic ravages unleashed by the unraveling of today’s complex business supply chains. As the rot spreads from the banking system to non-financial businesses, a lot of the damage will be done quickly. We shouldn’t wait to act until suppliers or clients are in trouble. Why wait to grab a candle until it’s too dark to find one? Why should we be any less entrepreneurial than the Swiss in 1934?
Can the Swiss idea of a credit circle help Americans and others weather the financial crisis by allowing us to create our own systems of credit?
Source:
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Dalsuh
Penny Hoarding Member
USA
757 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2009 : 01:51:02
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| I thought it was illegal to have a currency competing with the dollar? |
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Nickelless
Administrator
USA
5580 Posts |
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Dalsuh
Penny Hoarding Member
USA
757 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2009 : 18:30:13
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quote:
Originally posted by Nickelless
I can't imagine that the Fed, with Bernanke and Co.'s tentacles all over the world banking system, would allow something like this to take root in this country, because as the U.S. economy and banking system go, for good or bad, so goes the rest of the world. Remember what happened when JFK tried to neuter the Fed:
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Right on Nickelless. Executive Order 11110: You must be logged in to see this link.
June 4, 1963.................JFK issues Executive Order 11110
November 22, 1963............JFK is assasinated
July 23, 1965................LBJ issues the Coinage Act of 1965
If your a government agent or related please disregard this post, I'm just kidding. Thanks. |
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Bluegill
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1964 Posts |
Posted - 10/13/2009 : 18:05:46
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We need to clear the air here.
First off, the Kennedy Executive Order #11110 of ‘63. That order did not instruct the Treasury to issue “Silver Certificates”. It only authorized it if the need arose. It never happened. The last issuance of S.C’s was ’57. The order was rescinded by Reagan’s E.O. # 12608 in ‘87.
Some “United States Notes” notes were printed in ’63. But that was in response to a 1868 act of Congress that instructed the Treasury to maintain the outstanding amount of U.S. Notes at a fixed level. It was to replace damaged or worn notes with new ones. The few that were printed were never intended for circulation. That printing was never ordered by Kennedy, there was no reason for him to even had known about it.
JFK was not the hero he was made out to be. He was a life long Socialist and an Internationalist. He attended the Fabian London School of Economics. He was an advocate of socialism on a global scale. His family are part of the PTB.
He explains his desire for world socialism in his Oct. ’63 speech to the World Monetary Parley.
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The speech at Columbia University 10 days before his assassination never happened. It happened at another time to another audience, but not at CU. 10 days before his assassination he was in a meeting at the White House with the ambassador from Portugal.
The quote “The high office of President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the Americans’ freedom, and before I leave office I must inform the citizen of his plight” is highly cryptic and could mean anything.
The idea that JFK was trying to expose the Fed is silly at best, given his and his families history. I have a hard time believing he had a change of heart and had reversed his lifelong commitment to world socialism.
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AGgressive Metal
Administrator
USA
1937 Posts |
Posted - 10/14/2009 : 21:58:41
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quote:
Originally posted by Dalsuh
I thought it was illegal to have a currency competing with the dollar?
Thats the impression they like to give. The dollar is the only thing that is legal tender, but you can use other stuff if you want. Take frequent flyer miles for instance - that is an alternative currency. But its not legal tender because you can't pay the government with them and no one HAS to accept them. |
And he that hath lyberte ought to kepe hit wel / For nothyng is better than lyberte / For lyberte shold not be wel sold for alle the gold and syluer of all the world.
-Caxton's edition of Aesop's Fables, 1484 |
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Swiss Model of Alternative Currency
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