Milwaukee neighborhoods could print own money

Chicago Tribune ^

[Scythian]

They may be talking funny money, but it's not funny business.

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, a community organizer who is helping spearhead the plan. "They can't spend it at the Wal-Mart or the Home Depot, but they can spend it at their local hardware store or their local grocery store."

Incentives could be used to entice consumers into using the new money. For example, perhaps they could trade $100 U.S. for $110 local, essentially netting them a 10 percent discount at participating stores.

[Scythian]

.

[jagusafr]

Uh - I think the U.S. Treasury might have a little problem with this...

Colonel, USAFR

[Scythian]

The Article says ...

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.

[Betty Jane]

No they wouldn’t. It would be scrip, or the sames as gift certificates.

[steveyp]

Don’t care to click over, but it sounds like scrip to me.

[econjack]

Sura Faraj?? Probably an Irish immigrant. Why not just send out 10% discount coupons? This idea will stop dead in its tracks when counterfeit bills start filtering into their receipts.

[VRWCmember]

They might have a little bit of a Constitutional problem here, not that any liberal considers that to be a roadblock:

US Constitution, Article I, Section. 10.
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

[gwilhelm56]

My town has been doing that for years, called “HOURS”...

were Popular 10 years ago...now it’s just a staple among the honey/granola crowd.

[tennmountainman]

Why not? After all Minnisoda is printing Fresh Ballots for Al Franken

[Ron Jeremy]

Retarded. The whole point, per the article, is to increase local spending because people can only spend them locally. Well, who the hell will voluntarily exchange a dollar that an be spent anywhere with a dollar that can only be spent locally? You’d have to intice people to do that by devaluing the local currency, which then means although more “local dollars” get spent, they are worth less than a US dollar, and thus there is no point.

[oldleft]

They're not a state. They're a collection of imbeciles.

[mewzilla]

They’ve tried this in the City of Evil, aka Ithaca, NY, with Ithaca Hours. I think the program’s at least a decade old. Guess what, greenbacks and plastic are still in use. Go figger.

[mick]

Correct. This is how people always react in troubled times. Look at our own history as the value AND CONTROL of the money supply becomes more defective to simple trade people then create their own mediums of exchange. It is a good defensive act but at some point they need to be converted to FRN’s to buy more goods from outside the script community.

[org.whodat]

. 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.

Not much different than credit default swaps Hokey Pokey.

[Loud Mime]

The STATE is not doing that, it’s a city, township, whatever. This could be a modified form of bartering. I believe the main complaint of the treasury (IRS) will be the taxes involved. Maybe they’ll damage the system through counterfeit bills.

This is interesting; I will enjoy watching the political play here.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Well, who the hell will voluntarily exchange a dollar that an be spent anywhere with a dollar that can only be spent locally?

Disney Dollars

[adlucem]

Legally, it’s no different than bartering. Someday, me and my patriot friends may decide that our currency of choice is venison. We may even dry it out and make little deer jerky dollar bills out of it.

[mewzilla]

...at neighborhood stores and businesses, thus encouraging local spending. The result, supporters hope, would be a bustling local economy...

Hasn't worked for Ithaca.

[In veno, veritas]

It's already being done in many areas. Probably the most famous I know is in the Berkshires, MA. (See Berkshare: http://www.berkshares.org/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BerkShare) Basically, econjack has it right. They really aren't money; they're coupons. The stores that take ‘em lose the 10% when they turn them into US$ (they must be reported in US$ for taxes).