by Thomas Greco
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Product Description
Cash. Loot. Scratch. Lucre. Bread. Coin. Scrip. Moolah. Green. We all think we know intuitively what money is, and what it can do for us. Tom Greco, director of the Community Information Resource Center, understands and explains money on an eye-popping, fundamental level. Moreover, he provides a roadmap on how to make alternatives to the "legal tender" work for individuals, communities, and local economies.
Money will set your mental gears spinning with fantastic ideas. This book explains the mysteries and realities of money in clear and accessible prose, and reveals the true workings, and alarming fragility, of our existing financial system. It also describes concrete and realistic actions that individuals, businesses, social service agencies, and governments can take to enhance productivity and purchasing power, to protect local economies from the ravages of globalization, and to strengthen the bonds of community. Money is a radical critique of our existing financial system, but also a practical and inspirational how-to manual for creating a vibrant and effective community currency system.
You'll learn:
the truth about how money is created, and what it actually represents;
why we're all in debt;
how the financial system is structured to inevitably transfer wealth from the poor to the rich; and
how to start a financial revolution in your local community.
A retired professor of business and economics, Tom Greco has spent twenty years studying community currency systems around the world, including historical models (such as during the Great Depression), and the scores of contemporary examples now operating in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. He helped establish the Tucson Traders currency in Arizona, and he has served as a consultant for many others. No pie-in-the-sky idealist, Greco offers a realistic vision of how healthy local economies can be supplemented with flourishing community currencies.
Anyone who works routinely with money needs this bookâthis means bankers, stockbrokers, merchants, community organizers, loan sharks, gamblers, investors, bank robbers, hedgefund operators, sports agents, and ordinary people.
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Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 The definitive book on alternative currency; somewhat lacking in scholarly rigor, 2007-12-12
This is the most comprehensive book I've found on the subject of alternative or complementary currencies. It outlines what is wrong with current money systems, gives some historical examples of alternative currencies, talks a little bit about different types of alternative currencies and different properties such systems may have, and then proposes ways to improve upon existing systems and implement new systems. I think it succeeds on most points, but falls somewhat short of the quality of scholarly literature at times. I think its final advocacy falls somewhat short of its purported goals...but overall, this book is still a must-read.
The exposition of what is wrong with the current money system (Part I) is very easy to read and extremely compelling. Although it is a stance that many mainstream economists would take issue with, Greco's argument about what is wrong with society is remarkably airtight. I wish, however, that he would make more of an effort to tie his work in with the relevant economic theory, and also with work that has been done in sociology on the topic of poverty, in order to address possible objections that economists would raise. The book falls somewhat short of being scholarly research on this topic as its level of rigor and citing the literature is somewhat lacking; at times the book comes across more as a political advocacy piece than anything else. These weaknesses may explain why the book was not published in a mainstream press.
The discussion of historical complementary currencies (Part II) is by no means comprehensive, as the other reviewers pointed out, but I don't think this is a shortcoming of the book. Greco discusses some systems that were successful and compares them to a few which were not, as a pedagogical tool (in Part III), in order to highlight the effects that certain properties or certain types of management (or mis-management) have on these systems. I don't think Greco intended to make this book a comprehensive historical survey of all alternative currency systems ever used--that would be a massive undertaking.
In terms of the practical and advocacy part of the book (Part IV), which discusses how to improve on existing systems, and how to implement a complementary currency system, this book is more or less on target on most points, but I don't agree with the final conclusions. I feel like Greco recognizes all the key issues, but does not quite solve them (even though he argues that he does). The chapter on complementary currencies for impersonal markets is short and I think what is advocated there (relying on backed currencies for impersonal markets) is a cop-out. I think Greco would do well to explore a bit farther "outside the box", or, if he does not feel qualified to do this, at least end the book saying that more work is necessary. Greco's current stance seems to be that the solutions to the world's problems have already been invented and just need to be implemented--this is not entirely true, as there are a number of complementary currency systems in operation similar to the ones he advocates, and they have not grown to a large enough scale to solve any of the real deep problems that Greco highlighted in the initial part of the book.
Bottom line? Read this book; there's no better book on the subject. This one is well-written, entertaining, and has a huge amount of information that cannot be found in any other single place.
5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
 muddled thnking accompanied by good intentions, 2005-09-04
Contrary to the enthusiastic reviews, I have to forewarn possible purchasers of this book. It is a mix good information and superficial, misleading, and wrong information which together are likely to result in un-necessary difficulties if not disaster for projects supporting community based currencies.
Without being tasked to rewrite this book let me cite a few examples. In the context of asset based currencies no mention is given on American Colonial script, the issuance of the Continental Congress's "Continentals," The US Civil War Greenbacks, or of the currently existing right of the US Treasury to issue silver certificates. A first lesson would be to examine successful commons centered currencies.
It doesn't really deal with the various banking and monetary scams, including the Great Depression, version 1.0, that have been inflicted upon the US economy to serve private interests. It doesn't deal with the fact that credit cards are a way of generating debt, and thereby money, particularly when debt as extended in violation of existing fractional reserve laws relative to banking operations.
Often what is described as "brief" historys or descriptions get immediately side tracked onto tangential material of little importance. The basic definition of money is all over the map, and there is little analysis developing a clear definition.
To the extent that it uses material offered by the Federal Reserve it is using material that it deliberately misleading. The Federal Reserve is essential a privately owned and controlled corporation which acts in the interest of its investors and shareholders. Through the strategic political lobbying of the Congress it has obtained the primary right to issue and control our currency in the interest of its share holders and participant banks, not in the interest of the people of the US as a nation. Through the same legislation enabled by the ignorance and duplicity of our bribed politicians it has acquired the branding rights to pretend to be an institution of the US Government. To the extent that the faith in the US Currency is based upon this association it is misinformation.
These are critical times in which we can expect to see a major collapse of the monetary and economic ideologies that have extracted so much wealth from the people of the US and from the World. While I fully support the concept and practice of community based currencies let this book not be your only source of information. Also, check into more serious analyses by sources such as the American Monetary Institute's "The Lost Science of Money." Greco's book seems to be in the lesser sense very much a "new age" sort primer without being serious about monetary history, current policies, or principles.
Given that most people are unable to evaluate financial statements, this sort of feel good, skimming, and muddled presentation could easily lay the foundation for "well intentioned" fraud. On the other side, if these community based currencies are established wrongly it could expose people to a lot of legal and tax related trouble. There is massive irrationality and political ideologies afoot already in the "management" of the US and Global economy. When erecting community currencies it will serve our interests better by developing an understanding of the related material also from more serious sources. Sure this is a cheaper book and appeals to irrational exuberance, but will it provide a solid foundation?
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
good information if you're patient, 2004-12-05
This book has lots of good information in it, but the author's enthusiasm for local currencies leads him to order the book in an ineffective way: rather than highlighting particular currency projects, he should highlight the issues with and potential solutions to our monetary system. The most useful information -- currency formation, interest basics, suggested improvements (e.g. returning to a separation of on-demand and savings/investment accounts) -- was buried in the second half of the book.
The current monetary system has several problems -- (1) distribution of wealth from poor to rich through payment of interest, (2) environmental degradation by necessitating continuous growth in order to repay interest, (3) increased risk of war since governments can print currency instead of increasing taxes, and (4) devaluation of currency through illegitimate creation of money.
These are legitimate concerns. Another concern, that the banking system can lead to shortages of money, seems refuted by the phenomenon of deflation/falling prices. If limited to a small subsection of a larger economy, local falling revenues (and rising currency value) would still present difficulties when goods must be imported from outside the locality; but use of local currency (that the outside suppliers wouldn't accept) is irrelevant to the situation.
I would also disagree with the author that the wealth distribution and the partial reserve problems are linked. The wealth distribution problem stems from needy people paying wealthy people for use of currency. There is no difference in this regard between borrowing cash directly from a person (i.e. 100% reserve) and taking out a bank loan (i.e. creation of new, illegitimate money), despite what the author seems to believe. The borrower will (or, rather, should) only do so if the intended use of the money yields a benefit greater than the agreed interest rate. Whether interest goes to both bank and depositor or to the bank only (solely to cover administrative costs), this will be the case (driving an unsustainable need for growth, liquidating the real wealth of our natural environment).
Repayment risk coverage is not much considered in this book, though later chapters do admit a need for a reserve to cover chronic debit accounts. Discussion of the effects of higher interest rates for poorer people is not to be found, instead treating all borrowers/consumers equally. Loans herein are always "monetization of assets" (e.g. mortgages), but unsecured loans are (and should be) a possibility. Should all borrowers (or all citizens, for that matter) pay equally for insurance against defaults? The author would seem to imply so; whether good or bad an idea, some justification for doing so would be helpful.
All in all, this book is a worthwhile read -- but definitely not the only book you'll need to read on currency or flaws in our economic system (e.g. subsidized pollution, tax code that favors property ownership, etc). Incidentally, if anyone knows of a good book on currency exchange (which is not covered in the above book), I would like to hear from you.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
 Knowledge can set you free, 2002-03-29
Make an estimate of the amount of time you have spent on preparing yourself to earn money, on getting it, and of taking care of it when you have it. Wouldn't it be worthwile to really understand what it is you are spending all this energy on?
Tom Greco has been doing some of that work for you, with integrity, passion and enormous dedication.
The time has come to shed some light on the mysterious workings of our money. Read why it is a losing game for most people, of why it is our master instead of our servant. More important still: what you can do to change it for yourself and for your own community.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
a valuable book, 2002-03-27
This book is a fruit of the author's "warm heart and cool head." The value of this book is to demonstrate a theory and a method for democratizing the power to issue money. We can understand the necessity for local currencies in order to decrease the concentration of power in monetary and financial system.
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