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18-598: The Crédito was a local currency started on 1 May 1995 in Bernal , province of Buenos Aires , Argentina , on a garage sale , which was the first of many neighbourhood barter markets ( mercados de trueque ) that emerged in Argentina during the economic crisis . The operator of this currency was the Red Global de Clubes de Trueque Multirecíproco (RGT), literally "Global Network of Multi-Reciprocal Exchange Clubs" or more simply

36-535: A later phase some of the clubs joined zones or networks and zones became the issuers of Créditos instead of individual clubs. The chaordic structure allowed the system to grow quickly but also left the system vulnerable to fraud . The Crédito was an interest-free currency and was pegged to the Argentine peso , which in turn was pegged to the U. S. dollar at the time. An estimated $ 400 million in goods and services were traded in 2000. A survey conducted by members of

54-597: A national government nor be legal tender . About 300 complementary currencies, including local currencies, are listed in the Complementary Currency Resource Center worldwide database. Some definitions: Local currencies aim at using money as a tool to achieve social or environmental objectives. According to the New Economics Foundation partner Community Currencies in Action: ... money

72-552: A well-educated middle class that had fallen into unemployment during the Argentine recession of the late 1990s. The clubs of the RGT had no central organ, no central administration and no legislation. Clubs decided for themselves to accept the Créditos of other clubs and not all clubs issued their own Créditos . Clubs that did usually issued between 30 and 50 Créditos per participant. In

90-406: Is a form of local currency encompassing a larger geographical area, while a community currency might be local or be used for exchange within an online community . A local currency acts as a complementary currency to a national currency, rather than replacing it, and aims to encourage spending within a local community, especially with locally owned businesses. Such currencies may not be backed by

108-610: Is active at a range of different levels. Its programmes include work on well-being, its own kinds of measurement and evaluation, sustainable local regeneration, its own forms of finance and business models, sustainable public services, and the economics of climate change . NEF supported the National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning with research and reporting on "how best the Third Sector could evidence its wider impact on public services and their delivery", which underpinned

126-487: Is simply a social technology and the ways in which it is designed, produced and controlled – far from being neutral or predetermined factors – all influence the effects it has upon society at large. Some of the purposes for community currencies identified by Community Currencies in Action include: The Wörgl experiment illustrates some of the common characteristics and major benefits of local currencies. Local currencies and

144-577: The Domain Name System for server discovery. New Economics Foundation The New Economics Foundation ( NEF ) is a British think-tank that promotes "social, economic and environmental justice ". NEF was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit (TOES) with the aim of working for a "new model of wealth creation, based on equality, diversity and economic stability". The foundation has 50 staff in London and

162-615: The Office of the Third Sector 's work programme on third sector commissioning from 2009. The Jubilee 2000 campaign, strategised for and run by NEF, collected 24 million signatures for its worldwide petition on development and poverty. In July 2006, the Foundation launched the Happy Planet Index , intended to challenge existing indices of a state's success, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Human Development Index (HDI). NEF

180-508: The Transition Towns movement in the UK have been criticized for failing to address the needs of the wider population, especially lower socio-economic groups. Such local currency initiatives have been more widely criticized as having limited success in stimulating spending in local economies, and as an unrealistic strategy to reduce carbon emissions. Modern local currencies can be classified into

198-460: The "Global Exchange Network" (GEN). The currency started as a Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) system but was soon replaced by a number of printed currencies and, after further experimentation with a LETS called nodine (from no dinero , "not money"), finally became the Crédito , a printed currency again. The RGT was organized as a chaordic network of barter clubs, which had a clientele from

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216-615: The availability of the peso to the population stratum using the Crédito , which had an 89% preference for Pesos over Créditos . Other complementary currencies in Argentina at that time were the Patacón , the LECOP and the Argentino . The Argentino was never implemented. Local currency In economics , a local currency is a currency that can be spent in a particular geographical locality at participating organisations. A regional currency

234-586: The digital economy, restoring local banking and challenging xenophobia and racism in the Brexit debate. It is also active in community economic regeneration. The Foundation's BizFizz programme, an entrepreneurship development programme, has created more than 900 new businesses in deprived areas. The organisation has now taken this and Local Alchemy to six other countries through its international programme. The Foundation's public events attract well-known speakers. Its clone town campaign in favour of local economic diversity

252-438: The economics department of Harvard University reports a personal exchange rate of about two Créditos for one peso during 2002-2003 by individuals who offered goods or services in both currencies. By July 2002 the unemployment rate in Argentina was in excess of 20% and approximately 7% of the population participated in the RGT. Argentina had already had a high unemployment rate of about 17% for six years previously. The system

270-402: The following distinct types: Several software packages have been written supporting the management of community currencies. In 1998, Richard Kay, a senior lecturer at Birmingham City University, wrote a "Multi-registry System" specification for routing and processing community currency transactions using an approach designed to be decentralized, with no single point of control or failure, using

288-621: The office between November 2017 and January 2024. The current chief executive is Dr Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah . The organisation has launched a range of new organisations to promote its ideas, including the Ethical Trading Initiative , AccountAbility , Time Banking UK , London Rebuilding Society , the Community Development Finance Association , and others. The organisation's current projects include work on community-based housing, worker organising in

306-781: Was awarded the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies ' Award for the Betterment of the Human Condition in 2007, in recognition of its work on the Happy Planet Index. In February 2010 the New Economics Foundation called for gradual transition to a working week of 21 hours. Ed Mayo was chief executive from 1992 until 2003. Previous chief executives include Marc Stears who served between January 2016 and November 2017, and Miatta Fahnbulleh who held

324-498: Was used all over Argentina and worked reasonably well for a time but, as things worsened in the formal economy, more and more people joined the RGT clubs, and a growing percentage of people spent their Créditos without offering sufficient skills or trade in return. The system suffered from hyperinflation and from counterfeiting. Between 2002 and 2003 the government made unemployment insurance available to 2.5 million people, compared to 0.2 million people previously, and thereby increased

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