Negative Interest Currency or ‘Stamp Scrip’
The Stamp Scrip Monetary System is an elegant solution for sustainability, poverty, and for flattening the economic power hierarchy of the current state of capitalism. I have turned this idea over and over in my head since I learned of it ten years ago. The more I have thought about it this seems to be an ideal solution for the economic and environmental crunch we are in:
- The cash in your pocket effectively devalues by a regular amount – there is a cost to holding it
- Tested and worked well in 1930s and favoured by Keynes for situations such as the perfect storm we currently face
- Money circulates more rapidly improving the money supply and avoiding the liquidity trap without debt
- Mimics natural systems – there is a cost to maintaining it so purchase decisions must favour sustainability and inherent value
- Consumers and traders favour long term criteria in their purchases – durable goods and sustainable investments
- Money cannot be hoarded – money does not work for you unless you work hard with the money – the more money you have the harder you have to work in order to make that money provide you with what you want
- Trickle down has a better opportunity to work – economic activity can be more easily ‘mopped up’ in a decentralised way rather than being drawn in to monopolies
- True economic power comes from innovations and long term thinking not ‘economies of large scales’
- The downside is that it is not good for bankers or financial industries who lose central control over money flows and money storage. And they are a powerful lobby.
See this website for a brief introduction http://www.transaction.net/money/gc/gc01.html#stamp
And this article for more in depth https://www.clevelandfed.org/Research/commentary/2008/0408.pdf
Also see this Dissident Voice article from 2009 by George Monbiot that highlights the suitability of stamp scrip for our present situation http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/01/a-better-way-to-make-money/
