Open Space Meeting Report: Local Currency

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  • The fractional reserve banking system is problematic and not resilient
    • witness recent Northern Rock and similar episodes
    • will become increasingly so as oil depletion bites
  • Local currencies, not based on fractional reserves
    • are resilient
    • encourage local trade
    • keep money circulating within the local community
  • Local currencies can take many forms including
    • LETS schemes
    • time banks
    • exchange/gift economy
    • all help to build relationships
  • GDP is not a good measure of economic success
    • leaves out environmental factors, war, crime etc
    • fails to recognise happiness and contentment as factors which affect the well-being of citizens
    • convention that GDP must grow year-on-year is resource-intensive and unsustainable
  • GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator) should be devised as a true measure of economic, personal and social well-being.

Our Mission

Transition Cambridge aims to help Cambridge make the transition to ways of life that are more resilient in the face of rising energy prices and a changing climate.

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