Federalism and cooperation for community currencies: Some ideas on the need for intercommunity clearing systems

Abstract

This paper reflects on the necessity of financially connecting community currencies (CCs) outside the standard monetary system by devising a way to clear transactions between them. Knowing that attempts of social reorganization through local currencies have been constrained by ideas and the rules of the game in the “normal” economic world, the creation of federal clearing systems between communities could help circumvent those constraints. Connecting communities multilaterally could alleviate issues linked to access to resources, liquidity and also push back debt accumulation for both independent CCs and CCs linked to national currencies.