Alternative Currency Systems

Local and Interest-Free Currencies, Social Credit,
Social Lending and Microcredit etc.

 
Virtually all civilizations, except the Incas, developed some form of money. Today our currencies and banking systems increasingly extend beyond national boundaries. However, co-existing with that movement there has been a revival of interest in alternative financial systems.
 
This page of links to resources on microcredit systems, local and interest-free currencies is one of a number of pages on Money - Past, Present and Future maintained by Roy Davies. For business-to-business mutual credit organisations see the web page on barter.
See also
 
Money in history        Money in fiction Financial scandals
 

Microcredit and Credit Unions

Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest
Nearly three billion poor people lack access to the basic financial services essential for them to manage their precarious lives. CGAP is a consortium of 33 public and private development agencies working together to expand access to financial services for the poor in developing countries.
 
Principles of Microfinance
A very detailed information and news resource about microfinance.
 
The Microfinance Gateway
A source of information about not only microcredit but also other services such as loans, savings, insurance, and money transfer for low-income clients.
 
The seizure of Grameen Bank
A copy of an article by Richard Branson about the threat from Bangladeshi politicians to Grameen Bank. It was originally published under the title "Britain must defend this poverty-busting bank" in the Times, August 24 2012.
 
The Nobel Peace Prize 2006
Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the prize for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.
 
Muhammad Yunus 1994 World Food Prize Laureate
A biography of the founder and managing director of the Grameen Bank.
 
Grameen-Banking for the Poor
Information about the Grameen Bank and other Grameen organisations. The Grameen Bank has even pioneered the use of mobile phones in transforming the economic prospects of the poor.
 
Banker to the Poor : Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty
by Muhammad Yunus and Alan Jolis. The autobiography of the founder of Grameen Bank and an account of the history of the bank and of the microcredit movement.
 
Expanding Dr. Yunus’ Sphere of Influence
A blog covering developments in the world of microcredit.
 
Microfinance: ethics are essential
Microfinance is a valuable and powerful tool in the fight against poverty. But if not undertaken carefully and with a strong ethical commitment, it can become as exploitative as the loan sharks it is designed to replace. Miles Litvinoff, 20 July 2012.
 
You Can Hear Me Now: How Microloans and Cell Phones are Connecting the World's Poor to the Global Economy
Nicholas P. Sullivan has written a book about how the use of mobile phones in conjunction with microloans can help the world's poor to prosper.
 
KIVA
Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. It is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.
 
MyC4
MyC4 was founded in Denmark in May 2006 to create and support new enterprise and commercial innovation in Africa. MyC4 is not only a financial platform. As a hybrid between Grameen Bank, Wikipedia, MySpace and eBay, MyC4 offers an opportunity to invest money and knowledge in Africa’s future by providing a forum for exchange of advice and knowledge with the purpose of growing and supporting entrepreneurism in Africa.
 
MicroPlace
MicroPlace’s mission is to help alleviate global poverty by enabling everyday people to make investments in the world’s working poor by connecting investors with microfinance institutions looking for funds.
 
Opportunity International UK
Opportunity International UK offers poor entrepreneurs in developing countries training, support, and "micro" business loans, as well as other financial services such as savings and life insurance.
 
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Financial Services for the Poor Initiative
This initiative has the goal of making formal financial services, such as loans, insurance, wire transfers, and savings accounts, far more available so families in developing countries can survive economic setbacks, build savings, and improve the health and education of their children.
 
International Year of Microcredit
2005 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Microcredit.
 
The Virtual Library on Microcredit
An excellent source of information on the subject of credit for low-income households. It is international in its coverage.
 
OIKOS - A Bank Promoting Solidarity
A bank set up by a small ecumenical group in Denmark to provide assistance to the Third World in cooperation with several church-related development organisations.
 
World Council of Credit Unions
WOCCU is the world's leading advocate, platform for knowledge exchange and development agency for credit unions.

Social Lending

Assetz Capital
a peer-to-peer lending community and provider of non-bank loans to SME businesses and property developers for the benefit of both lenders and borrowers.
 
Folk2Folk
Folk2Folk is based in Cornwall and covers the whole of South West England. It is a peer to peer lending company specialised in providing secured lending and borrowing for local businesses and individuals. a peer-to-peer lending community and provider of non-bank loans to SME businesses and property developers for the benefit of both lenders and borrowers.
 
Lendwithcare.org
Lendwithcare.org is an initiative from CARE International UK - part of the CARE International confederation, which is one of the world’s leading aid and development organisations. Most of the world’s poorest people still have no access to basic financial services but suporters of Lendwithcare provide loans of anything from £15 upwards to enable families to find their own route out of poverty.
 
Social lending sites try to "uncrunch" the credit crunch
Several social lending websites are joining together in an effort to unthaw the frozen credit markets and get credit flowing again to consumers and small business owners. A new initiative dubbed "Uncrunch America" brings together non-traditional lenders VirginMoney, Lending Club, and On Deck Capital. March 6, 2009.
 
Guide to Peer to Peer Lending,P2P,Social lending
In its simplest form this is the lending and borrowing between individuals without the need for a traditional financial institution like a bank, building society or credit union. In the UK Zopa is the market leader.
 
Peer-to-peer lending; good or bad idea?
A look at the idea of social lending from the viewpoints of the borrower and the lender. 26 February 2009.
 
Internet Based Social Lending
A 115 page report by Professor Michael K Hulme and Collette Wright. It examines the antecedents of Social Lending through drawing parallels with friendly societies and then outlines the emergence of online Social Lending schemes within the context of various contemporary social trends. It then focuses on a case study of Zopa.
 
Big-bank confidence dented by social banking: Spare some cash guvnor?
An article by Gemma Simpson based on the survey by the Social Futures Observatory.
 
Zopa
Zopa is a UK company, started by a small cluster of very experienced money people including several members of the original Egg plc management team. It aims to be an alternative to "the faceless institutions that have made personal finance so utterly impersonal over the years."
 

General Resources on Local and Interest-Free Currencies and other Alternative Money Systems

Money and Liberation: the Micropolitics of Alternative Currency Movements
Details of a book by Peter North, lecturer in geography at the University of Liverpool, with in-depth profiles of schemes from various countries.
 
Reinventing Money
A website which is the culmination of more than a quarter century of research, study, and experimentation by Thomas H. Greco, Jr., a leading researcher on the subject of alternative monetary systems.
 
Campaign for Interest Free Money
The Campaign for Interest-Free Money was launched on 28 January 1998, by a group of people, mostly from London, UK, with the expressed intention of being a highly non-hierarchical, non-ageist, non-party political, inter-cultural, inter-faith, ecumenical and very all-inclusive activity.
 
Local Currencies in the 21st Century
A website about a conference hosted by Bard College Annondale-on-Hudson, New York State, June 25-27, 2004.
 
Local Currencies Aren't Small Change
News from the Local Currencies in the 21st Century conference, June 2004.
 
Social Trade Organisation
The Social Trade Organization (STRO) targets local communities with its innovative solutions that increase the purchasing power through new forms of money and credit and by making existing purchasing power circulate longer within a given community or region. A directory of links to websites devoted to alternative currencies, barter, co-operatives, and related ideas is included.
 
New Money Systems and Financial Innovations
A series of articles from the Global Ideas Bank maintained by the Institute for Social Inventions.
 
Alternative Money Systems
The New Civilization Network Alternative Money System team was created to collect information on what schemes already exist, to discuss the prospects of doing away with money systems and using a resource-based system instead, and ways of financing new civilization projects, implementing experimental schemes.
 
New Money for Healthy Communities by Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
The pinnacle of power in today's world is the power to issue money. Can that power can be democratized and focused in a direction which gives social and ecological concerns top priority?
 
Complementary Community Currency Systems and Local Exchange Networks.
A good source of information on various complementary currencies.
 
Currency Solutions for a Wiser World
The website of Bernard Lietaer, the author of a number of books and other publications on alternative forms of currency..
 
The Dysfunctional Operation of Money
A paper by Gábor Sárdi and Katalin Szendro on the drawbacks of conventional currencies and a proposal for a new kind.
 
Sacred Economics
The website of Charles Eisenstein whose book Sacred Economics traces the evolution and problems of the present monetary system and suggests an alternative.
 
Free Money and other Complementary Currencies as the Ideal Unity of Autonomy
A thesis for an MA from the University of Bradford by Hironori Nagamatsu.
 
The Ecology of Money by Richard Douthwaite
This book is no. 4 in the Schumacher Briefing series. Richard Douthwaite argues that the effects of money on human society differ according to its origins and purposes.
 
Funny Money
The website of David Boyle, author of Funny Money, a book about unconventional currencies published by HarperCollins.
 
Global Resource Bank
A plan for converting toxic fiat money to vital ecocredit.
 
The Raam development currency
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation programme, has proposed a new international currency and a pilot project has started in the Netherlands.
 
The Open Money Home Page
"Open money is simply a medium of payment, a memory that something of value has been passed to another. One person's balance goes up, the other down ... there is no requirement that that money exists beforehand." The Open Money pages are part of the Transitioner, a website devoted to collective intelligence in the economy, and economy in collective intelligence.
 
Openmoney.org
The purpose of this open money project is to bring together and organize the people and resources necessary for the development and propagation of open money (i.e. LETS) everywhere.
 
Community Forge
A nonprofit organisation offering free community websites including a trading system comprising the only community currency trading software build on a social networking platform.
 
Drupal
Open source software for community money projects. It can be used as a digital back end for paper money projects, or to run an entire LETS or Timebank.
 
Community Exchange System
A global community of mutual credit exchange systems with free membership and trading across the network.
 
OPTIMAES
Open Project To Investigate Money And Economic Systems An experimental project using computer simulation to study various alternative economic systems, e.g. to see if there's any value in altruism and to compare money and barter with gift giving.
 
Debt Money, Ancient Meme
Argues that governments should use their power to create money instead of borrowing it. Also contains an extensive set of links to related sites, and to historical sources.
 
The Difference Between Money and Real Wealth : Creating Community Currencies
by Carol Brouillet, a Co-Founder of the International Media Project
 
The Potential of Local Currency by Susan Meeker-Lowry
An article from ZMagazine July/August 1995.
 
"Newmoney"
a mailing list for the discussion of unconventional monetary systems. German is the language of the majority of the messages but there are some in English too.
 
Materialien zur Zinsproblematik
Articles on monetary theory, mainly in German but there is a long one in English: The How and Why of a New Monetary System by Dr. Erhard Glötzl
This article discusses the meaning of money and why interest is an important cause of increasing economic, ecological and social problems in our society.
 
The E. F. Schumacher Society: Local Currencies
The Schumacher Society has sponsored several experiments making use of local scrip or currency.
 
Complementary Currency Systems in Asia, Africa and Latin America
This is a site on community-based networks which encourage mutual aid, cooperation and reciprocation, self-reliance, local production for local needs, socio-economic solidarity and economic justice. The full-text of a number of significant books on local currencies, e.g. Stamp Scrip by Professor Irving Fisher, originally published in 1933, is available online at the site.
 
Complementary Currency Innovation: Self-guarantee in peer-to-peer currencies
The Wat system is a peer-to-peer complementary currency system initially designed by Eiichi Moreno. It is used in Japan typically to allow for small businesses to issue IOUs (called WAT-ticket) to their suppliers. These suppliers in turn circulate them within an undefined community, until they are eventually redeemed with the issuing business.
 
Peer-to-Peer Money: Free Currency over the Internet
A proposal for an alternative monetary system on the Internet called i-WAT,an electronic version of the WAT System which uses a form of promissory note as the medium of exchanging goods and services.
 
Cymru currency could boost local economies
The Welsh economy would receive a huge boost if Wales had its own currency running in parallel with sterling, it has been claimed. Screenwriter Martin Davies has outlined his proposal to the Commission investigating the way the Welsh Assembly Government is funded by the Treasury. The currency model proposed is of the "negative interest" type developed by the Belgian businessman and economist Silvio Gesell.
 
Hans-Joachim Werner's Home Page
This site has a lot of information in German about the "Free Economy Movement" from Silvio Gesell onwards.
 
The Internet and the Future of Money
An article by Howard Rheingold who believes that the global communications network has a role to play in the development of local currencies.
 
International Journal of Community Currency Research
The IJCCR aims to fill the gap between those involved in community currencies and those who do research on them. Community currencies are broadly defined to include LETS, (Ithaca) Hours, Business Trade Exchanges (BTEs or Business Barter), time dollars and other similar currencies which seek to serve specific, often localised, communities. The full text of the articles is available in addition to abstracts.
 
CERISE : Consultancy and Research in the Social Sciences
Part of Gill Seyfang's website. She has undertaken research on local currencies, microcredit and ethical trade and now works at the University of East Anglia.

LETS (Local Employment Trading Systems)

LETSystems Home Page
LETS are a type of informal credit market based on local currencies. This homepage is a source of information on LETS in Manchester and around the world. Particularly worth noting is the document Frequently Asked Questions about LETSystems.
 
LETSLink UK
The website of the UK LETS and Complementary Currencies Development Agency.
 
Local Exchange software
A free web-based open source package for local currency systems includes the ability to: create, update and delete listings online; record exchanges online; leave feedback online; view history of exchanges and current balances; and more. It is also configurable in a number of ways so that it can be customized by each community.
 
LETS.net
An archive of legacy LETSystem materials.
 
LETS-Linkup
An international LETS Groups directory and guide to over 1,500 LETS groups from 39 countries.
 
Sidonie Seron's Thesis on LETS
A good introduction to the subject.
 
Online Database of Complementary Currencies Worldwide
This database collects statistical information on complementary currency systems and generates detailed reports on the state of these systems.
 
John "The Engineer" Turmel
The home page of the Guinness World Record holding politician whose campaigns for LETS have attracted attention in many countries, not just his native Canada. In addition to some of Turmel's own articles and details of his campaigns the site also has information about local currencies in various countries. Among the material at this site is LETS Engineering Mathematics, a theoretical analysis of money creation by the conventional banking system and by LETS.
 
LETS Connect
An online magazine for the UK LETS community.
 
Sel'idaire
Among the features of this site is a geographically arranged list of the Systèmes d'Echange Local (LETS) in France.
 
Talent
Home page of the Swiss experiment inspired by the theories of Silvio Gesell.
 
Systemfehler.de
A German website devoted to promoting the ideas of Silvio Gesell and similar thinkers.
 
LETS in Australia
A page of links.
 
Econ-lets
archives and other files of a mailing list on LETS.
 
Evaluating LETS as a means of tackling social exclusion and cohesion
A report by a team of British researchers.

Other Local Currencies

'Bristol Pound' currency to boost independent traders
A group of independent traders in Bristol are launching their own currency, with the backing of the council and a credit union. The "Bristol Pound" will be printed in notes, and also traded electronically. It will be the first local currency which can be used to pay local business taxes. BBC, 6 February 2012.
 
David Boyle’s speech at the launch of the Brixton Pound
Arguments for local currencies from an expert in the field. David Boyle has recently written a novel, The Wizard described as "a new Wizard of Oz for the age of derivatives and Goldman Sachs."
 
Town that gave itself a licence to print money
Lewes in East Sussex hopes to safeguard its traditions by issuing a local currency. The Observer, August 17 2008.
 
Money Without Government and Banks by Michael E. Marotta
Private money has a long history which actually preceded coins from kings. Call them tokens, good-fors, wooden nickels, chits, scrip, they have carried trade and commerce time and again. And they are working now. Originally published in Practical Anarchy, November 1993. Revised version published in Numismatica, 21 June 1994.
 
Regiogeld e.V.
The website of the the Regiogeld Verband (Regional Money Federation), the organisation behind the Regio complementary currency initiative. The pages are in German.
 
WIR Economic Circle Cooperative - Origins and Ideology of the Wirtschaftsring
The history of a system of exchange based on interest-free credits founded in Switzerland during the Depression of the 1930s.
 
Reciprocal Exchange Networks: Implications for Macroeconomic Stability
"Barter rings" in the US and Switzerland do billions of dollars of trade each year Faster and cheaper information on the internet is thought to mean greater macroeconomic stability. However the pre-internet experience of barter rings in the US and Switzerland suggests that, for networks independent of direct monetary exchange, expanded credit availability may be even more stabilizing. By James Stodder
 
The Complementary Currency of Christiania
The "free state" of Christiania in Copenhagen has issued the first local currency in Denmark in the form of a coin called the Løn, which is the Danish word for "wage". One Løn has the same value as 50 Danish kroner.
 
Time Banking
Time Banks grew out of the Time Dollar, a currency designed as a tool for rebuilding community - in use in the United States. One hour helping another earns one Time Dollar. With Time Dollars, the recipients of help can become the producers of help. Social networks become rebuilt, social capital regenerated. The movement has spread to 22 countries and six continents.
 
Timebanking UK
Time Banking UK is the national umbrella charity linking and supporting time banks across the country by providing inspiration, guidance and mutual help. Edgar Cahn, the man who devised the time banking system said "you have achieved more in the past five years in the UK than we managed in the USA in twenty."
 
Gellideg Foundation Group: Timebanking
The website of a typical timebank, the one based in Gellideg in Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales.
 
Edgar Cahn interview in the Guardian
The legendary founder of the time bank movement tells Annie Kelly why our communities' long-term health depends on the strengths of their social networks, family structures and economic self-sufficiency. The Guardian, 10 October 2007.
 
Ithaca Money Home Page
Ithaca, a town in New York State, has its own printed banknotes. The people behind the plan for the local currency say "while dollars make us increasingly dependent on multinational corporations and bankers, HOURS reinforce community trading and expand commerce which is more accountable to our concern for ecology and social justice."
 
The Hour Money Institute for Global Harmony
The institute, based on work by Robert Blain, is dedicated to establishing an Hour of Work as the base money unit worldwide.
 
Salt Spring Island Dollars
Salt Spring Island Issued Dollars, symbolized by $$, are the very first alternative, local currency in the world that is backed 100% by a national currency - the Canadian Dollar.
 
Fair Shares
A pilot project in the UK modelled on work of the Time Dollar Institute in the USA.
 
Depreciating community-owned currencies by David Weston
. In the early 1930s the small town of Worgl in the Austrian Tyrol, suffering like every other town in Europe and America from the Great Depression, took the unlikely step of issuing its own currency.
 
An Indictment of Unbalanced Capitalism and a Viable Solution - Worgl, Austria 1932-33
An essay on the Worgl experiment by Kumar Paturi.
 
Toronto Dollar
Community minded citizens can exchange their Canadian dollars for an equal amount of Toronto Dollars which can be spent at participating businesses. If these businesses choose to cash in their Toronto Dollars, they will donate 10% for community projects such as employment creation and care for those most in need.
 
History of Wooden Money in the U.S.
An account of how various localities, starting with Tenino in the state of Washington in 1932 following the failure of the Citizens Bank of Tenino the previous year, issued wooden money during the Great Depression.
 
Pensioner's Currency Rivals Euro
A report from the Guardian, September 5, 2000, on the activities of the retired law professor, Giacinto Auriti, who has issued his own currency, the simec.
 
Essays by Professor Giacinto Auriti
The man behind the simec explains his ideas in a series of essays, some in English and some in Italian.
 

Social Credit

Social Credit by Major Clifford Hugh Douglas
The full text of the revised version of the book published in 1933.
 
Social Credit School of Studies
. Information about the political, economic, and philosophical principles enunciated by C.H. Douglas on Social Credit.
 
Thirst for Justice: the Money Myth Exploded
A fable to expound the ideas of social credit.
 
The Alberta Social Credit Party
In addition to information about the policies of the Albertan party the website contains information about the origins and philosophy of the movement.
 

Other Alternative Currency Proposals

MONEY 2.0 new!
MONEY 2.0 is a detailed plan for an alternative currency concept specifically designed to replace the current money system.. In MONEY 2.0, anyone can issue money who is willing to exchange products or services.
 
IMF's epic plan to conjure away debt and dethrone bankers
So there is a magic wand after all. A revolutionary paper by the International Monetary Fund claims that one could eliminate the net public debt of the US at a stroke, and by implication do the same for Britain, Germany, Italy, or Japan. Telegraph, 21 October 2012.
 
Submission of Professor Mark Joób in support of Lilja Mosesdottir's Icelandic parliamentary resolution
The text of the paper by Dr. Mark Joób Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Economics, University of West Hungary, in support of the resolution by Lilja Mósesdóttir calling for a separation of the money creation and lending functions of the banking system.
 
The Financial Party of Canada
The aim of the party is to offer Canada an interest-free alternative to the current debt-based financial system.
 
The Abolitionist Party of Canada
The party stands for the abolition of interest and the replacement of the existing monetary system by one based on the use of LETS at the national and international levels as well as the local level.
 
The Perfect Currency
A website dedicated to the creation of a currency standard which will provide both a stable base for commercial transactions and a monetary system which will fully illuminate the process of human and environmental real wealth creation. The proposed system would not be a fiat currency nor would it be based on precious metals. Instead it would be based on a unit of energy, e.g. a kilowatt hour or some other energy unit.
 
People for Mathematically Perfected Economy
Mathematically Perfected Economy™ is every prospective debtor's right to issue their promise to pay, free of extrinsic manipulation, adulteration, or exploitation of that promise, or the natural opportunity to make good on it.
 
‘Green Credit’ for Green Purposes: Changing the Cash / Credit Ratio of the Money Supply to Ameliorate Climate Change
A Response to the Inquiry of the Treasury Select Committee into Climate Change and the Stern Review, submitted by Sabine K McNeill, organiser of the Forum for Stable Currencies.
 
Green Credit for Green Growth
A website with more information on the relationships between the environment and the financial system.
 
Forum for Stable Currencies
The Forum is a voluntary Initiative of Parliamentarians and Concerned Citizens across the full political spectrum and from all religious persuasions.
 
In the Spirit of the Forum for Stable Currencies
A blog covering developments relevant to the theme of the Forum.
 
Stop the Cash Crumble to Equalize the Credit Crunch
An online petition to the (UK) Treasury Select Committee urging that the role of cash or narrow money be increased relative to that of credit.
 
Creating New Money: a monetary reform for the information age
A 92 page publication by Joseph Huber and James Robertson urging that money creation should once more become something for which the state, not the banking system, takes complete responsibility.
 
Plain Money : A Proposal for Supplying the Nations with the Necessary Means in a Modern Monetary System
An older article by Professor Joseph Huber on restoring government responsiblty for the creation of money.
 
The Natural Economic Order
The full text of the English translation of Silvio Gesell's most famous work. He wanted the state to issue money that, like capital assets, depreciated. The idea was to ensure that money was kept in circulation, rather than being saved.
 
John Maynard Keynes on Silvio Gesell
In his greatest work, the General Theory of Employment, Money and Interest, Keynes devoted several paragraphs to the ideas of Gesell whom he described as a "strange, unduly neglected prophet".
 
Margrit Kennedy's Website on Money
Information, mostly in German but some pages are in English, on relevant publications and seminars etc.
 
Interest and inflation free money by Margrit Kennedy
Kennedy, like Silvio Gesell, proposed that instead of earning interest people would pay a small fee if they kept money out of circulation. More of her work is also available in German
 
HOLIS.ORG
Philosophical writings on money and other subjects (in German)
 
Prosperity: Freedom from Debt Slavery
Prosperity is a monthly Money Reform journal dedicated to spreading understanding about the nature of our debt-based money system, and campaigning for publicly-created debt-free money.
 
The New Approach to Freedom
This site includes the text of three books by E.C. Riegel and other material based on his teachings.
 
Complementary Money System
The Economic Means to Freedom -- Part V by Frederick Mann. A plan roughly based on the ideas of E.C. Riegel.
 
Jubilee 2000
A campaign to cancel the debts of the world's poorest nations inspired by the Old Testament concept of a of a jubilee year whereby each fifty years saw all debts, especially those related to land occupancy and slavery, released.
 
Global Resource Bank
What is the value of the world's ecosystem? The Global Resource Bank has the ambition of solving global environmental and monetary problems.
 
Nordiska Sparlån
An interest-free financial institution based in Sweden. The pages are all in Swedish.
 
Samlade Pengar
A collection of articles in English from the Swedish journal for monetary reform Pengar. (Samlade pengar means "collected money").
 
JAK Medlemsbank
JAK Members Bank (the name JAK is an acronym - Jord, Arbete och Kapital - Swedish for Land, Labour and Capital, the factors of production in traditional political economy) is an organisation for economic development without exploiting mankind or nature. Information about it is available in several languages. It is possible to obtain loans without any prior savings in the bank.
 
JAK (Denmark)
Information about the activities of JAK institutions in Denmark. The website also features an online magazine or newsletter with brief items on economic, social or environmental topics. All the web pages are in Danish.
 
CAJA
CAJA is a non-profit, non-political and non-religious democratic organization, promoting the introduction of interest free micro credits. It is based in Sweden.
 
Regnbuekassen
Offers cheap loans for ecological projects. The pages are all in Danish.
 
High Interest Rates and the Failure of Banking
A chapter from a book on Elegant Technology at a web site devoted to Thorstein Weblen. The author of the chapter argues that compound interest can never, ever be justified and that rates of simple interest should be slightly less than the growth in GNP plus inflation.

Articles on Usury

Against Those Who Practice Usury by Gregory of Nyssa
(c.335-c.394)
 
Defence of Usury by Jeremy Bentham 1787
 
Of Usury by Francis Bacon
The full text of Bacon's famous essay.
 
On Usury and Dishonest Profit: Vix Pervenit
Encyclical of Pope Benedict XIV promulgated on November 1, 1745.
 
From Leviticus To Political Economy
Chapter XIX of The Warfare Of Science With Theology by Andrew Dickson White (1832-1918), published 1896. "Among questions on which the supporters of right reason in political and social science have only conquered theological opposition after centuries of war, is the taking of interest on loans. In hardly any struggle has rigid adherence to the letter of our sacred books been more prolonged and injurious."
 
A Brief History of Interest
by Stephen Zarlenga.
 
A brief inquiry into the nature of the interest mechanism & 10 steps to solve it
An article by Steve Consilvio outlining arguments against compound interest.
 
Interest (Riba`)
by A Student of Darul-Uloom, Bury, U.K.
 
Riba (Usury and Interest) According to Quran and Sunnah
 
IBF NET : The Islamic Banking and Finance Network
A global network of students, researchers, bankers and finance professionals interested in the Islamic approach to finance.

Other Relevant Links

Ethex
Ethex is a non-profit company. It aims make to ethical investment easier to understand and to do by providing investors with the information and the services they need.
 
Make Poverty History
An umbrella group of organisations that have come together to campaign for debt relief for poor countries, fairer trade and increased aid.
 
Global Justice
Economic democracy and currency reform are among the goals advocated by this movement.
 
New Economics Foundation
The New Economics Foundation is the radical think tank. It is unique in bringing together the ideas, people, resources and influence to challenge business-as-usual. Its aim is to create practical and enterprising solutions to the social, environmental and economic challenges facing the local, regional, national and global economies.
 
E. F. Schumacher Society
The society, named after the author of Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered, is an educational non-profit organization founded in 1980. It aims to demonstrate that both social and environmental sustainability can be achieved by applying the values of human-scale communities and respect for the natural environment to economic issues.
 
Christian Council for Monetary Justice
The aims of the Council are to present a Christian witness on the true function of a monetary system in society, to examine the working of the existing laws and international arrangements which relate to financial institutions especially in regard to their wider economic, social and moral implications, to press for the revision of these laws and international arrangements where they are found to be working against the public interest, and to press for other monetary measures that will contribute to economic and social justice within the community and throughout the world.
 
Money and Business - Christianity Today Magazine
An archive of articles from earlier issues of the magazine.
 
INAISE
The International Association of Investors in the Social Economy is a global network of socially and environmentally oriented financial institutions. Among INAISE's concerns are sustainable development, renewable energy, nature conservation, and the promotion of co-operatives, community enterprises, employee participation, employee buy-outs, micro and small enterprise creation and development, especially among unemployed, migrants and women.
 
Triodos Bank
Triodos Bank is a social bank lending only to organisations and businesses with social and environmental objectives. It was founded in 1980 in the Netherlands and now also has offices in Belgium, the United Kingdom and Spain.
 
Merkur Bank
Merkur Bank is a Danish bank which specialises in lending for environmental, social, cultural and educational purposes.
 
Predatory Lending and Toxic Credit
Matthew Lee, a campaigning lawyer in the South Bronx of New York City, has written a unique book. Predatory Bender is a novel on the subject of predatory lending, but it has a 90 page factual afterward entitled Predatory Lending: Toxic Credit in the Inner City.
 
Center for a New American Dream
Information about resources for sustainable living and links to related sites.
 
Community Enterprise Ltd.
Although this Scottish organisation set up by Lothian Regional Council & Edinburgh City Council, is not directly involved with local currencies, it has similar objectives to the promoters of such systems, namely to foster economic and social inclusion by promoting enterprise and enterprise skills as widely as possible, reaching the parts of the economy that other agencies do not reach.
 
Hunting and Gathering in the Information Age
The full text of a book by Danny Quintana, a legal activist working for North American Indians or Native Americans, full of reflections on modern life, including the role of money.

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Last updated - 11 January 2015.
Roy Davies