What Counts?
Signaling our values through creative currencies
pdf: https://pnca.edu/pdf/currency-publication-rd10.pdf
2020 Strategy + Foresight class @pnca
Here's the backstory, my version,
Full of inspirations+gratitude...
1/

First, we focused on time itself,
Trying to avert parallax of the present,
Baseline bonds, entrenched assumptions,
Jim Dator's "crackpot realism."
@jimdator interview @actionforesight: https://vimeo.com/42630507 
2/

For another view on time:
Rasheedah Phillips
"Dismantling the master's clock[work] universe"

@RPhillipsEsq, Afrofuturism @Stegi_occ
Q: How is Western temporality — its ideas, arrangements, artifacts — entangled with histories of imperial/coloniality?
3/

Then *money* —
@StephanieKelton's The Deficit Myth
- US government spending not funded w taxes
- Govt budget not like household
- "Their red ink is our black ink"

#MMT
4/

March 2020, week after US lockdown —
Washington Post op-ed by Michael Hudson,
"A debt jubilee is the only way to avoid a depression"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/21/debt-jubilee-is-only-way-avoid-depression/
5/

Aug 2020, masked, outside, in my backyard,
We began w/these texts, along w/others by:
@MargaretAtwood, @NoraBateson, @davidbollier, @mgorbis, @wendyinfutures, @Sohailfutures, @futuryst, Marilyn Waring
Exploring currency futures.
6/

"Currency" including —
monies, tokens, ratings, stamps, credentials, indicators, votes.
Anything that incentivizes a flow.
— @NurtureGirl
Formal symbol systems which shape, enable and measure currents.
— @artbrock
https://medium.com/metacurrency-project/currencies-are-records-of-currents-f4c6cdc809be
7/

What's wrong w/money-as-usual?
Critiques by Richard Douthwaite (1999 @Center4NewEcon), Bernard Lietaer et al. (2012 @ClubOfRome @TriarchyPress) include:
- Amplifies wealth inequalities
- Imposes economic growth imperative
- Undermines local self reliance
8/

A Q of design —
"Money can be designed in different ways, and those different ways matter. They create different kinds of markets."
— Christine Desan


A polyculture —
"Local currencies are a key tool in building local monetary resilience."
— @rohangrey
9/

We diagrammed flows —
Like the triangle described for ancient coinage systems.
David Graeber called it the “military-coinage-slavery complex.”
Graeber's Debt: First 5000 Years on BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054zdp6/episodes/player
10/

We wrote scenario vignettes —
Here's a triangular currency design for a "housing first" policy.
Plausible? Desirable?
For contemporary thinking about triangular designs, see Randall Wray on UMKC Buckaroo: https://neweconomicperspectives.org/2009/07/berkshares-buckaroos-and-bear-dollars.html
11/

We speculated on adverts from the future —
This one for Care2Coin is inspired by Japanese fureai kippu system (ふれあい切符): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fureai_kippu
12/

We mapped a currency ecosystem —
Inspired by @iftf's blockchain futures, @mbauwens' collaborative accounting, @Suitpossum's monetary rebellions,
We examined, imagined designs to stimulate activity, regulate activity, facilitate care, coordinate learning/doing.
13/

This currency ecosystem scanning, clustering informed by the work of so many —
@CCA_Now, @DemocracyEarth, @Sardexnet, @CommonsEngine, @matslats, @regen_network, @discocoop, @SacredCapital ++
Also Michèle Friend's writings on a "policy compass"
14/

We diagrammed the work of currency designers —
Like @wor: https://twitter.com/wor/status/1333037848384167936
@openmoney on an agent-centric (non-blockchain) currency,
And @TEQsUK on Tradable Energy Quotas, below.
15/

And wrapping the semester, hosted a conversation w/currency designers —
Jean Russell ( @NurtureGirl), Michael Linton ( @openmoney), and @SidSthalekar
Video: https://pnca.edu/news/grad/cds/currency-futures
16/

I've great appreciation for the salience, urgency of this work.
Deep thanks to all!
Students: Humaira Tasneem, Jono Melamed, Betsy Lance, Jake Crahan, Samantha Caruthers-Knight, SJ Bowden

What counts?
pdf: https://pnca.edu/pdf/currency-publication-rd10.pdf
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