(Text of Audio) When I look at this 2007 sculpture, by Jason de Caires Taylor, located off the coast of Grenada, I see people standing in a circle holding hands, buffering themselves from the tidal currents. All the members are outward facing, they are not isolating or ignoring the world and its external vicissitudes. They don't turn their backs on the ocean, they look out, they are engaged in the world. But each individual is strengthened by a circle of reciprocity. Let me explain why I have this interpretation.

My name is Leanne Ussher. I am an Economist, an Australian and I live in a charming seaside town called Port Washington, on Long Island New York, with my husband and son. I have been teaching economics for over 17 years, most recently as Visiting Finance Professor at Bard College, upstate New York. Before doing my PhD I worked at the central bank of Australia, in their monetary policy department, and since that time I have had a fascination with " money in society", its plumbing and its purpose.

My academic research is typically tied to monetary theory, and I've written about monetary architecture and reform at the international and national level [1][2]. These monetary reforms address the inherent inequality and instability of our monetary regime and its design failures. Their implementation would require multilateral government action, and political parties upsetting the interests of their corporate donors, and so they remain only of theoretical interest.

More recently, over the past four years I have turned my attention to monetary architecture and design at the local level, in the realm of alternative currencies, complementary currencies, even crypto currencies, created by communities, from the bottom up [3], like minded individuals, who want to change social and economic relations - at least between themselves. I have studied alternative monetary systems that range in size from a classroom of ten, to a few hundred members in a village, up to a nested federated community network of thousands [4] - all using an alternative currency, in addition to their country's currency.

These local community groups that rely on each other are more willing to reframe the way they think about money and its social purpose. The creation of a local monetary commons, can institute special purpose currencies that are not scarce nor freely convertible rather they endow rights and duties on their users. They are currencies that flow internally around their community in an inclusive manner; they bind individuals together and restrict free-riding; they don't leak out just when you need them most; they embody local values and ethics; each time you spend they generate local income for your neighbor ; and they allow you the opportunity to earn income when your neighbours spend.

Such virtuous feedback loops of growth, prosperity and reciprocity are aspects of good monetary design. Alternative currencies must be designed well to work, and there is plenty to learn and write about. Interestingly, with this research I have discovered that I can be a force for actuation - and increasingly I am involved in community monetary activism - enabling me to leave my academic ivory tower.

Behind my head is a mapping of Currents, a local currency which I studied in Kingston, New York, near Bard College [5]. It is named after the local streams of water that flow and connect the towns. From my empirical data mapped here, Currents flow from spenders to earners, who then spend.. and on it flows. Each black dot is a member of the platform. The dots are organized in terms of neighborhood clusters. You can see 5 distinct neighborhoods in this graph where members are spending and earning with each other, but they are also connected with the rest of their community. These financial flows are independent of the vicissitudes of the tidal waves of US dollars that trickle in and rush out, with little purpose but to enrich those with market power. A complementary local currency does not replace the tidal flow, but if designed well it bolsters local reciprocity, strengthens a communities economic resiliency to engage the world, and protects what they consider valuable.

Research Papers Referenced

[1] Leanne Ussher, Armin Haas, Klaus Töpfer & Carlo C. Jaeger (2018) Keynes and the international monetary system: Time for a tabular standard?, The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 25:1, 1-35, https://doi.org/10.1080/09672567.2017.1365093

[2] Ussher, Leanne (2016) “International Monetary Policy with Commodity Buffer Stocks,” European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention. pp. 10-25, Vol 13(1). https://www.elgaronline.com/view/journals/ejeep/13-1/ejeep.2016.01.02.xml

[3] Barinaga, Ester, Andreu Honzawa, Juan Ocampo, Paola Raffaelli and Leanne Ussher (2021) "Commons-based monies for an inclusive and resilient future." Climate Adaptation: Accounts of Resilience, Self-Sufficiency and Systems Change. pp301-321. https://tinyurl.com/2p8unz2x

https://arkbound.com/product/climate-adaptation-accounts-of-resilience-self-sufficiency-and-systems-change/

[4] Ussher, Leanne, Laura Ebert, Georgina M. Gómez, and William O. Ruddick (2021) "Complementary Currencies for Humanitarian Aid" Journal of Risk and Financial Management 14, no. 11: 557. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14110557

[5] Ussher, Leanne, Chris Hewitt, David Cagan, and Robert Nachbar "Network Analysis of the Hudson Valley Current" (2019) 5th Biennial Research Association on Monetary Innovation and Community and Complementary Currency Systems (RAMICS) International Congress, Hida-Takayama, Japan, September 11-15, 2019. https://easychair.org/publications/preprint/SNmg