Small is Beautiful study group

A good meeting last night at Fair Grinds; the YouTube connection wasn't strong enough to use, so we...talked instead. What an idea.
Susan Witt's essay about the practical matters of local currencies sparked an in-depth discussion of what defines formal (taxable, holding civic power?) and informal (without licenses) and underground (mostly illegal) economies in New Orleans, how our economy differs from Western Mass (home of the Berkshares) and what is the purpose of a local currency. We mostly agreed that it measures the trust level held by neighbors and can add innovation in lending money and could keep a local economy stronger than a national economy (witness scrip economies during the Depression).

Ongoing discussion about worker ownership and cooperatives needing to be a part of any local currency system, as well as sobering reminders that we have a great deal of work to do to include our entire community into the emerging economy.
ALL are invited to join in at any time to this study group as we are quite informal and just pick up the conversation as we see fit; no prior experience in serious economics needed!
All we ask is a chance for everyone to speak and debates to be friendly and without anger.
For the next meeeting in August, we should check out:
http://www.schumachersociety.org/publications/essay_land.html