Does Local Currency help develop Social Capital?

Appreciation is the strongest force in the Universe

Volunteers are the second strongest force in the Universe.

Yifan, (image above)  searching for volunteer work on Kijiji.ca [1] (a CraigsList like site) spent his afternoon in the St Lawrence Market, in Toronto, Ontario as a volunteer manning the Toronto Dollars [2] advocacy booth ,  

While all the other merchants sold parsnips and peameal bacon, Yifan was merchandizing money.     One might as well cut right to the chase….sell money for less money.

Local currency constitutes a counter current running against the sovereign currency (and government).    In July, 2010   NPR reported on  Ithaca, New York tendering local currency [3].  There may be a trend out there against globalization....

The concept is straight forward :  If the money supply is limited (What did you say Mr. Geithner [4]?) keep your currency local – don’t let money bleed from your sphere of life out to a distant geographic area with which you have minimal connection.  Every exiting penny means money dilution in your geographic zone.

The concept is attractive, and arguably has potential benefits for those most immediately around you. 

But accountability is clearly an issue.  Who keeps track of all the money (serial numbers of every piece of script should be on the web for all to see).  Who keeps track of the costs of running the “mint”?   Boutique currencies could be a bonanza for Bernie Madoff types [5].

Does a local currency make sense?  While all Europe is moving to the Euro, and most of the world operates on the dollar, should the globe be headed towards one currency, or –at the other extreme - should we begin issuing individual currency for every human?- Bob Bucks, and Mary Money?

Should Realneo – or Cleveland - issue currency?  Could Cleveland issue currency? (the City does sell bonds)

It would seem that local currency develops social capital [6] - what is the value of that social capital ?