Bernard Lietaer - The Future of Money - Full Book

hundred such grass-roots projects are now, operational in these countries as well. In the US, 39 communities have followed Ithaca NY, in creating their own paper currency, redeemable only within the community. All of these systems will be explained in detail later.

These initiatives are often treated as marginal curiosities by mainstream media and academic circles. However, in New Zealand, Australia, Scotland and 30 different US states, regional governments have been funding the start-up of such systems because they have proved effective in solving local employment problems. The European Union is funding pilot complementary currency programmes in four deliberately very different settings and technologies: two in the countryside of Ireland and Scotland, and two in the major cities of Madrid and Amsterdam. In New Zealand, the central bank has discovered that complementary currencies actually help to control the overall inflation in the national currency. More about this will be described in Chapters 5 and 8.

We can each only imagine what we would create if 4路0% of our working hours were available for 'temple time', whatever form that might take. Using this approach, would it not be possible for the Information Revolution to evolve into an authentic Age of Knowledge? What would each of us like to learn? What improvements would you like to make in your life?

Imagine what you could create on your own or with others.

Autumn A Bechtel Corporation board meeting in 2020 The following text is an extract from the minutes of the annual board meeting of Bechtel Corporation, the largest construction and civil engineering Company in the world.