Aladdin Gain

With the banks on strike unable to lend money because nobody wants to borrow, bless, it's encouraging to see people taking the whole money-creating thing into their own hands. After all, why should governments have a monopoly on money. They haven't exactly done a brilliant job of it so far?

I blogged about the Bijlmer Euro before, and today I'd like to introduce you to the Brixton Pound (or B£). It's another example of a local community coming together to grow their own money and to stimulate their local economy.  It doesn't have to be either/or: either fiat currencies or local currencies - right now we need as much monetary diversity as we can muster in order to make local and national economies more resilient to the shocks ahead. The Brixton Pound can even be used as an electronic payment system via text. Again, a nice hybrid of smart technology and local activity, just like the Bijlmer Euro.

And the really cool thing: the B£10 note features a local lad made good - one David Bowie.