SPECIAL PURPOSE MONEY

Political tractability raises questions about how the level of dependence of governments and citizens on the mainstream globalized (and globalizing) market economy might be reduced, as a basis for increasing the degrees of freedom for governments to intervene in markets more forcefully, and how opportunities to meet fundamental needs and create wellbeing, security and resilience might be developed through economic activities organised and optimised at other than global levels and on principles and values other than only market values. At grassroots level, there has been a global surge in initiatives to create complementary currencies and economies, often at a local scale, to use these to mobilise assets and resources that the global market economy has no need for and would be wasted, and to address these to local needs, challenges and opportunities. Such initiatives offer a mechanism, in principle, through which citizens and governments could reduce dependence on the mainstream market..