THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

than tackle the big changes, which are politically better-protected (i.e.
corporate currencies).
An appeal
The biggest threat to the experimentation and successful resolution
of the issues revealed by the Time-Compacting Machine through the
creative use of work-enabling and/or community currencies is that
their continual growth will be interpreted as a dangerous and
contagious phenomenon by central banks.
The central banks have the power to crush these complementary
currencies, and/or could muster the legal backing to enforce this
power. One of my reasons for writing this book was to make the case
for central banks not to follow their first technical instincts in this
particular case. There is more at stake here than meets the technical
eye. This is a time where public service may require us to rethink
business as usual. Another reason is to request the academic
community to start evaluating the implications of multiple and,
particularly, complementary currency systems. This is somewhat
virgin territory, and we need a lot more knowledge about how dualcurrency
systems (whether they are local or corporate scrip) will
affect our economic processes. Part of the complexity is that each
currency creates a market allocation system in its own sphere of
activity, but in addition, they all interact in the same marketplace.
In contrast, multiple national currencies did not do that. Each
country had its own privileged market area where its national
currency reigned alone. The classical theories of multiple currencies
within the same country, such as Gresham's laws, suppose that one
of the currencies is 'good' and the other 'bad', but what happens
when both are 'good' within overlapping market segments? This is
one of the many fields today where 'there has been an alarming
increase in things we know nothing about'.