Community Currency with Paul Glover

At the end of the Great Depression, there were 3100 community currencies in America. That’s approximately one for each county in America. Since that time, there have been very few community currencies that have met with success in America – despite the potential benefits to local communities. One of the few that enjoyed success for a period was Ithaca HOURS.

This week the Solari Report will publish my interview late last year with Paul Glover, the founder of Ithaca HOURS, regarding his experience and the potential for community currency and other tools to optimize local exchange and resources. I reached out to Paul after a mayor working to increase economic activity in his town asked if we could do a Solari Report on community currency.

Paul is a former professor of urban studies at Temple University, he is author of six books, including Hometown Money, Health Democracy, Deep Green Jobs, How to Take Power, and Los Angeles: A History of the Future. His book A Crime Not a Crisis details corruption in Pennsylvania’s insurance regulation.

Paul emphasizes that regions can take control of the economy to meet their urgent needs. He says, “We are the treasury, and we are the treasure.” He is founder of more than a dozen organizations and campaigns that convert average citizens into job creators, health system managers, urban planners, environmental stewards, and publishers.

Given pressures on global currency systems as well as interest in digital currencies, the time has come for us to spend more time on the Solari Report discussing the state of our currencies.