Tag: Switzerland

Swiss currency systems: atlas, compendium and chronicle of legal aspects

IJCCR

Christophe Place*, Antonin Calderon, James Stodder and Isidor Wallimann

* Haute École de Gestion de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland. Email : cp@christopheplace.com

Switzerland has not only the oldest and biggest modern complementary currency in the world, the WIR created in 1934, among 40’000 organizations with a velocity of 1.3 in 2017, representing 0.17% of the Gross Domestic Product at current prices and 0.08% of the global money supply, but also the second cross-border complementary currency in the world and the first local currency using blockchain technology in Switzerland, the Léman, created in September 2015 in a Swiss-French conurbation, with 160’000 units in circulation among a network of 550 organizations and 4’000 users in May 2018. Moreover, with about 49 community currencies and 15 complementary currencies in January 2018 and a cryptocurrency cluster called Crypto Valley funded in January 2017, Switzerland counts among reference case studies in the virtual, community and complementary currency systems domain. Nevertheless, some questions remain: (1) How is the partition of these currencies in term of geographical region, system type and digital software? (2) What the recent Léman case study taught us in term of strategic implementation? (3) Could a Swiss Currency Confederation facilitate their legal conformity? To contribute to these research questions, a literature review, a data analysis, and a research survey will allow us not only to overview the Swiss and the Greater Geneva currency systems, but also evaluate their legal framework evolution.

Article Place et al

To cite this article: Place, Christophe; Calderon, Antonin; Stodder, James and Wallimann, Isidor (2018) ‘Swiss currency systems: atlas, compendium and chronicle of legal aspects’ International Journal of Community Currency Research 2018 Volume 22 (Summer) 85-104 <www.ijccr.net> ISSN 1325-9547. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2018.018

Classifying non-bank currency systems using web data

IJCCR

This paper develops a new classification of non-bank currency systems based on a lexical analysis from French-language web data in order to derive an endogenous typology of monetary projects, based on how these currencies are depicted on the internet. The advantage of this method is that it by-passes problematic issues currently found in the literature to uncover a clear classification of non-bank currency systems from exogenous elements. Our textual corpus consists of 320 web pages, corresponding to 1,210 text pages. We first apply a downward hierarchical clustering method to our data, which enables us to endogenously derive five different classes and make distinctions among non-bank currency system and between these and the standard monetary system. Next, we perform a similarity analysis. Our results show that all non-bank currency systems define themselves in relation to the standard monetary system, with the exception of Local Exchange Trading Systems.

Ariane Tichit*, Clément Mathonnat*, Diego Landivar**

* Clermont University, Auvergne University, CNRS, UMR 6587, CERDI, F-63009 Clermont Fd. Email: ariane.tichit@udamail.f; Clement.MATHONNAT@udamail.fr; ** ESC Clermont, 63000 Clermont-Fd. Email: diego.landivar@france-bs.com.

Keywords

non-bank money, text mining, web data, downward hierarchical clustering, similarity analysis

Article Tichit pdf

To cite this article: Tichit, A., Mathonnat, C.,  and Landivar, D. (2016) ‘Classifying non-bank currency systems using web data’ International Journal of Community Currency Research 20 (Summer) 24-40  <www.ijccr.net>  ISSN  1325-9547. http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2016.002

The “commodity – money – commodity” Mutual Credit Complementary Currency System. Marxian money to promote community trade and market economy

IJCCR

Samo Kavčič

Šercerjeva ul.26, 4240 Radovljica, Slovenia. E-mail: kavcic917@gmail.com

Abstract

The Mutual Credit Currency System, this most radical form of endogenous money, was evaluated and compared with Marx’s Commodity-Money-Commodity requirement.  A simple simulation of a small community closed loop economy was used to illustrate the functioning of two types of mutual credit currency systems. The first, dubbed MCSG, behaved according to the specifications and recommendations of the mutual credit currency system’s founding fathers, Riegel and Greco. The second, dubbed the Komoko Monetary System, or abbreviated to KMS, was a sub-type of the mutual credit currency system with some additional restrictions and one additional liberty. The main restriction introduced in the KMS was that it almost exclusively supported the exchange of only newly produced goods and services. The liberty introduced is forecast-based credit allocation. It was shown that the MCSG has an inconsistency that could potentially lead to instability. The restrictions applied within the KMS can provide a remedy for this potential flaw, while at the same time rendering the KMS compliant with Marx’s requirement. The monetary control measures applicable in KMS were discussed, which guarantee robustness and stability and make KMS a true complement to the official fractional reserve banking.

Keywords

Mutual credit system  , Commodity – money – commodity, Cash flow forecast, Currency circuit,  Monetary control,  Endogenous money

Article kavcic pdf

To cite this article: International Journal of Community Currency Research 20 (Summer) 41-53. <www.ijccr.net>  ISSN  1325-9547. http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2016.003

Cooperation and Intertrade between Community Currencies: From fundamentals to rule-making and clearing systems

IJCCR

Cooperation, interchange or intertrade of complementary currencies is not yet very common, perhaps of because the funding impulse of most complementary currencies does not cover the question of interchange and cooperation yet, or because theoretical aspects are not often stud- ied. The article describes money or currency as an instrument of cooperation, based on a socio- logical and institutional economics background. It then postulates currency as an operating system and focuses on the technical terms of trade if one would try to establish cooperation between such systems. Basic principles of interchange and intertrade, which are necessary for success, are presented, such as the ideas of trade balance, compensation funds, exchange rates and clearing, set-points and limits, references, anchoring money and tolls and taxes. Further some aspects of governance and negotiation are discussed and a nested framework of rules is adapted to currencies. As an Appendix a case study of the Zurich region is presented where a process of negotiation and building of an interchange network between several CC-groups is on-going.

Jens Martignoni

IJCCR 2015 martignoni

To cite this article: Martignoni, J., (2015) ‘Cooperation and Intertrade between Community Currencies : From fundamentals to rule-making and clearing systems, including a case study of the Zurich Area, Switzer- land’ International Journal of Community Currency Research 19 (Summer) 137-151 <www.ijccr.net> ISSN 1325-9547 http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2015.014

Solidarity economy between a focus on the local and a global view

IJCCR

According to conventional wisdom, money serves the following functions: it is a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value. However, if we broaden our perspective, we might conceive of money also as a medium of communication, as a means to either change society, or to preserve a community in the sense of “resilience” against outside threat. It is this idea, which the following article wants to further explore, against the background of the newly established regional currencies (Regionalwährungen) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. If we are not solely occupied with the financial stability of a currency, but with how a currency can contribute to the stability and cohesion of a community and of society as a whole, then we are well advised to look at accompanying structures, physical and social, which may be subsumed under the notion of “solidarity economy”.

Krister Volkmann

To cite this article: Volkmann, K, (2012) ‘Solidarity economy between a focus on the local and a global view’ International Journal of Community Currency Research 16 (D) 97-105  <www.ijccr.net> ISSN  1325-9547 http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2012.016

IJCCR 2012 Volkmann