You may have heard of Starbucks' Coffee Passport. Now, there is an Indie Coffee Passport for local cafes, and it is available on Bay Bucks! Using the Passport, you can visit each of the listed coffee shops in the passport and receive a free drink from a menu chosen by the owners! We interview Marc Callado who started Coffee Passport for Oakland.

​Get your Indie Coffee Passport on Bay Bucks here (shipping included)

Q: What is the history of the local coffee scene in Oakland?
 
When I think of history, coffee, and Oakland, I think of the amazing stories of Carlo Di Ruocco (founder of Mr. Espresso) and John Vukasin (founder of Peerless Coffee). These immigrants who founded successful Oakland-based coffee businesses that are still family-owned and operated.
 
Q: What is happening now?
 
In terms of now, I like looking at it from a 3-year range in order to give us some context. Here's an article on the coffee-scene buzz generating in Oakland written in 2013. I approached these place to start Oakland's Coffee Passport. Of the three coffee shops mentioned, Blue Bottle and Highwire ignored me and wouldn't acknowledge any of my inquiries. Timeless at least made the effort to reply, stating that Indie Coffee Passport does not fit with "who they are."  This article mentions an article written on how SF has become effete and elitist, a vibe I sadly felt visiting many of the Oakland-based coffee shops that have opened.
 
In terms of now-now, I'm seeing a lot of well-funded coffee shops opening with their modern industrial or minimalist style - either as an expansion from another city hopping on the Oakland hype or jump started by wealthy investors claiming their Oakland real estate. On the other hand there's also very good news such as Red Bay's profit-sharing model or Jose who founded Akat Cafe Kalli an immigrant living the dream and using his tiny space to show case his rich cultural roots.
 
Q: What are you doing for them?
 
I'm offering these coffee shop owners a way to show the unity in community. To participate in sparking conversations on the effects of having Starbucks dominate the market by placing a location at every hot real estate available - What makes these indie coffee shops different? I'm also asking them to support alternate currency. To support a marketing campaign in which they are not required to use any monetary asset.  
 
Q: Why is what you are doing important?
Everyone is using "local" in marketing now to capitalize on its popularity. I believe it's important to run marketing campaigns that allow businesses in the same industry to collaborate and stand up for their specific kind of business: indie and locally-owned.
 
Get your Indie Coffee Passport on Bay Bucks here (shipping included)

Or you can also get it by paying cash here
 
For an up to date list of participating coffee shops, see:
http://www.indiecoffeepassport.com/oakland/participating.html
As of Dec 2016 they include:
 
Akat Cafe Kalli
Beulah's Bean Truck
Caffe 817
Enssaro Cafe
Gaylord's Cafe
Howden Market Cafe
Kilovolt Coffee
Marana Cafe
Red Bay Coffee

It's the time of the year to start thinking about getting gifts for your clients, friends, and loved ones. What better way to do it than through Bay Bucks? You get to support the local economy and save cash at the same time! Here are some ideas. You can find a lot more by logging into Bay Bucks and browsing.

Wishing all our members a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

By Chong Kee Tan

I went to bed early on election night thinking it would be a boring night. All the pundits predicted that Hillary would win by a landslide. Even fivethirtyeight.com of 100% accuracy from last election fame gave her more than 70% chance of winning. I woke up at midnight and thought: why not do a quick check, and couldn't believe my eyes.

After going through the stages of shock and grief -- you've seen it all on social media so there is no need to enumerate them here -- I calmed myself down and thought about what I've learned and what to do next.
What is clear is that both parties have failed us.  Both are beholden to special interests and care little about the environment or the average American.  As a Princeton study pointed out, neither party represents the common people anymore. The resulting pent up anger has now been channeled by a demagogue who fanned a national wave of racism, sexism, islamophobia, and xenophobia, and rode it to power. As a gay ethnic minority and an immigrant, I feel this very personally.

I am more now convinced than ever that the true path towards equality for all is not pleading for tolerance, but economic empowerment. When the people own and support our own businesses, and have as much combined economic power as the elites, we naturally become a force to be respected and listened to. It is not about white allies creating safe spaces for people of color. Rather, it is about all of us, regardless of race, gender, creed, sexuality, etc., coming together to empower ourselves. 

The good news is that the era of waiting for someone else to solve our problems is over.  This is the age when we come together and help ourselves.  An example is the more than six thousand Bernie Supporters contesting local elections across the country.  They aim to take over the Democratic Part from the ground up.

Economic empowerment IS possible, if we do not let Wall Street control our money. Excessive increase in money supply leads to bubbles. Excessive reduction in money supply leads to recessions. The banks are the ones with the power to excessively increase the money supply though speculative and predatory lending and excessively reduce the money supply through refusal to grant small business loans. That is too much power and we should take it back. There are two approaches to addressing this problem.

One approach is to give this power to either federal or local governments and let them issue money. But this also raises the very real problem of how to ensure governments do not abuse this power for pork barrel politics.

The other approach is to create our own money. This is the money that we use to empower ourselves. We use this money to buy local, and it circulates locally to build local prosperity. Yes, it is less convenient because it is not universally accepted, just like it is less convenient to buy local when Amazon is just one click away. It boils down to a choice between convenience and self-empowerment.  Which would you choose?

This is not a self-interested plea to use Bay Bucks. If you know of other local currency or barter network, by all means, use them. We don’t care which you use as long as you use one. Use it actively, at least once a month. And tell everyone about it so they use it too.

It is time we stop hoping for someone else to solve the problems for us. So, let's start by empowering ourselves.

This is the full test of the interview Chong Kee did with Nick Miller of East Bay Express for their issue on local economy and locally owned businesses.

​

Explain what you do and how long you’ve been doing it.
 
I founded and run a community currency for the Bay Area called Bay Bucks. I've been doing that since 2012.
 
Describe one of the most critical challenges facing the East Bay economy. How does your organization or business help?
 
The most critical challenges are often the ones we are not aware of yet. One that I care deeply about is how our economy runs on a debt based currency that allows big Wall Street banks to extract wealth from local communities through charging interests on money they create out of thin air. To build a truly sustainable local economy, we must build it on interest-free local community currency that will never leak out to Wall Street. Bay Bucks is building such a currency for the Bay Area.
 
What does your organization do specifically to help out locals?
 
We help local businesses barter their excess inventories for things they need. We also act as a community funding resource as BayBucks members can get up to $10K interest-free credit line to meet their urgent needs.
 
If you were mayor, what one thing would you do to improve the local economy?
 
I would create an Oakland Bucks which residents can use to pay local taxes and which the city can use to pay its suppliers. The city of Wörgl in Austria did that in 1932 and within a year, had a thriving local economy while the rest of Austria and Europe were still mire in the great depression. I had pitched this idea to various city officials. I hope one day someone will understand how much a city can empower itself by doing this.
 
What is the biggest obstacle to achieving your organization’s goals?
 
It is the inability of many people to realize that our money has value only because we each are willing to accept it. The moment we choose to also accept a local currency that does not exploit us, is the moment we are creating a local economy that empowers the people.
 
What keeps you passionate about your work?
My three wonderful teammates: Mike Lomuto, Aaron Fernando, and Eron Liddie. They give me hope that we can keep growing BayBucks until it start to make significant impact.
 
Describe your organization’s biggest success.
Many local currency endeavors close down after one or two years due to insufficient planning and forethought. We are in our fourth year of operation now and continue to grow.
 
How do you anticipate your industry will change in the next decade?
We anticipate as the old economy continues to deteriorate, more will start exploring alternatives, and become more willing to embrace something different.
 
What is your biggest fear? Describe the most exciting possibility for your industry.
The most exciting possibility for us and for I think everyone, is when enough people realize that if we want the new economy to come bad enough, we will each do what is necessary to bring it about. My biggest fear is that before we reach this stage, too many are seduced by fear and anger instead and fall prey to in-fighting.
 
How can we cultivate the next generation to keep caring and spending their dollars locally?
By caring enough about it ourselves and by walking our own talk.
 
What other local businesses do you love to support?
I want to shout out to HUB Oakland, a home for mission driven local entrepreneurs.

We recently spoke to Svetlana Whitener of InLight Coaching, this month’s featured Bay Bucks member. Svetlana’s coaching brings guidance, clarity and support to individuals who want to amplify their potential in their personal and professional lives.







​Hi Svetlana!  Let’s start with something fun.  What is your favorite movie?
My favorite movie is Casablanca, 1942. It was one of the first old movies that I saw in the US.  I love the film’s portrayal of courageous choices between personal human happiness and a greater societal good.
 
What book are you reading now?
I am reading the latest Salman Rushdie, “Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights”.  I think Rushdie is one of the greatest writers of our time.
 
Where were you born?
I was born in the Ural Mountains, which is a famous fairy tale land, in Yekaterinburg, Russia.  In Russia, I was a business owner in the prêt-à-porter clothing industry.  Through personal and professional coaching, I discovered the amazing link between exterior and internal human beauty. That A-Ha! moment led me to fulfillment in my own life- [coaching others] along a passionate path to discovering [fulfillment in their life purpose]!
 
What is coaching?
Coaching is a one-on-one relationship where a coach supports people to make changes in their self and to manage change in their professional and personal lives.
 
If you are interested in enhancing your business or personal life; or in putting an end to procrastinations; or in making a change: contact Svetlana.
 
Can you tell us a little about the field of personal coaching?
Historically, coaching has been well known as a corporate perk for executives. Today the demand and visibility of coaching continues to rise as more and more individuals are looking to create more fulfilling lives, finding greater balance, or achieving a sharper competitive edge. More and more people are feeling overwhelmed and looking for greater purpose and guidance on their life journey.
 
According to a survey conducted by the International Coach Federation, 98.5% of the clients surveyed said their investment in a coach was well worth the money and 94% believed coaching was here to stay as a viable, emerging profession. Coaching is an emerging industry with many untapped markets, and trained coaches are getting results that speak for themselves.
 
What would you like to say to Bay Bucks members who may be interested in using your coaching services?
 
My main passion in life is serving you.  In our coaching relationship we will be building our relationship based on equality.
 
As equals, you will be the one taking charge of your life, while I will be a catalyst providing insight and clarity.  Together, we will create a new path leading to the achievement of your goals and the life successes you have long desired.
 
Please reach out if

• You are not satisfied with your current life or business development
• You need guidance in making courageous changes
• You are looking for your life purpose. 

 
What has been your experience using Bay Bucks to grow your coaching business?
Finding my community is not always an easy task.  Thus, I am grateful that three years ago I joined Bay Bucks and was able to enhance my business by engaging other Bay Bucks members.  I am looking forward to doubling my barter revenue this year!
 
What is the difference between therapy, coaching, and consulting?
Therapy generally deals with people who have emotional/behavioral problems. It seeks to bring the client to normal function by focusing on dysfunction. The primary focus is on healing.
 
Coaching, on the other hand, deals with functional people who want to move toward higher functioning. The primary focus is on amplifying and using one’s potential.
 
Coaching is also not consulting.  Consulting assumes that the client doesn’t have the answers and therefore needs information or training. Coaching aims to help the client access their own resources, so that they’re prepared to pursue their goals and face challenges with confidence.
 
Coaching is focused on who and how the client is right now with the aim of using this as a starting point for determining how best to get to where the client wants to be or to go.  The client is already capable and functional.
 
To better understand and appreciate what coaching can do for you, contact Svetlana and request a complimentary 30-minute coaching session.
 
Lastly, with respect to your clients' privacy, could you give some examples of how coaching has helped?
It wasn’t easy for this long-term corporate executive to leave her job and start her own non-profit.  During our first session she made a remarkable breakthrough and discovered that she knew a lot more than she thought she did about implementing her dream. Her path became crystal clear.
 
She had to learn marketing, fundraising, and outreach skills in order to make her dream come true.  Our coaching gave her the self-confidence needed to learn all this and more.  Together we worked on replacing her old, self-limiting beliefs with new powerful ones and she was able to formulate what turned out to be a successful plan.  More importantly, she had developed a new can-do mindset, which resulted in her preparation of a well-received TED talk. 
 
The best way to understand and appreciate what coaching is, is to experience it! Contact Svetlana and request a 30-minute complimentary coaching session.

By Dr Chong Kee Tan

Prof Bernard Lietaer is the co-designer of the Euro currency and an advocate for complementary currencies. He gave a TV interview recently and said some very revealing things. Here is the interview. 

The first thing he said, was that the rule governing the relationships between the central banks and individual European governments was changed, and that the change was not part of the initial Euro deal. Such a rule wasn't the case when he was at the European Central Bank (ECB). 

So what exactly was changed? I got in touch with Prof Lietaer by email and put that question to him. This is his reply:

In terms of the "change of rules", I am referring to the fact that the banking lobby took advantage of the introduction of the Euro to impede the ECB (or any other central bank in the Eurozone) to fund government. That means that governments have to finance themselves exclusively through the private financial market.

That legislation was first introduced in France in the law of January 1973, and generalized by the same person (Giscard d'Estaing, ex-Bank Rothschild France) to the Eurozone in 1999.

Before that, governments could finance themselves interest free with the central bank...


This is very significant. The currency union in Europe would have enabled periphery countries like Greece to have access to zero interest funds from the ECB. And with responsible lending, it is a powerful tool for them to fund sustainable developments. Membership in the EU comes with strict rules about total debt not exceeding 60% of GDP and budget deficit not exceeding 3% of GDP. Greece would not had been able to borrow beyond her means. But, the rule was changed and instead, Greece had to borrow from private banks. Goldman Sachs helped by hiding Greek debt through complex currency swaps and received about $300 million in fees, and continue to receive large unclosed sums in profits. As a result of this "creative accounting", Greece could initially borrow large sums from private banks at low interest rate. Corrupt politicians did just that.

Around 2008, when those borrowings grew too high, Greece could not service the debt. They had to cut spending drastically. Because Greece could not also devalue the Euro at the same time to stimulate export, the result of a drastic cut in government spending was a quick rise in unemployment rate to 25% and a fall in wages by 20%. Tourism and shipping took big hits as well, and Greek GDP slumped.

The slump in GDP means it became even harder for Greece to recover from the debt. The government kept things going by borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. By 2010, debt rose to 150% of GDP, Greek bonds were downgraded to junk status and Greece was frozen out of the private financial markets. Unable to borrow new money to pay off older debt, Greece was about to default.

The European bail out of Greece in 2010 was, in my opinion, a big mistake. If Greece had defaulted then, most of the debt were held by private banks who made bad business decisions. In a true capitalist system, they would have suffered the consequences of their folly. But instead, European governments bailed Greece out, paid the private bankers, and took on those bad debts. The debt was transferred from rich bankers to the shoulders of ordinary European citizens. Once that was done, a default became a political hot potato. Why did so many European governments acted against their self interest? The same reason why the American government took on massive federal debt to bail out failed banks. The big banks can influence government in ways no voters can.

What can be done now that the IMF has publicly admitted that Greek debt is not sustainable, and 44% of Greeks are living below the poverty line? Prof Lietaer gave another interview where he outlined the answers: it is to create a parallel currency. We thank Prof Lietaer and Faye Cox for their permission to publish the interview here.

THE FALSE GREEK DILEMMA

Faye Cox:  You say that if you had the ear of Tsipras, you would tell him there is another  avenue besides IN or OUT of the Eurozone, that there is a way to say Yes to Greece and Yes to the Eurozone, a win-win that supports economic recovery and repayment of debt.  It sounds too good to be true.  What does this other avenue look like?

Bernard Lietaer:  Well, one example of a dual currency has been in front of us since the emergence of the Euro in the late 90’s, and that is in the UK where businesses have had a choice between the Euro and Pound Sterling for keeping their books and paying their taxes.  At the end of each quarter, the Bank of England publishes the official rate of exchange between the two currencies, thus allowing UK businesses that prefer that option to be part of the Eurozone for all practical purposes.  

Why couldn’t Greece follow this successful example of the UK with its national currency operating in parallel with the Euro?  It has worked well for over two decades, with each currency serving different purposes.  Plus, the technology now exists to launch and support parallel currencies as electronic currencies, with transparent and instantaneous transactions to rebuild trust.

Faye Cox:  Two currencies operating in parallel, that sounds like adding a great deal of confusion to an already tangled situation.  How would it work?

Bernard Lietaer:  In this scenario, the Greek economy could continue to operate in Euros for shipping and tourism, its two largest economic sectors, and a ‘Neo-drachma’ could serve the economy of services and products made and used in Greece, from haircuts to food to most of what people need for their daily lives.  To buy a German car or Italian pair of shoes, Euros are used.  To buy a pound of olives or bottle of Retsina, Neo-drachma are used.  Again, the digital technology developed in the past few years opens possibilities that did not exist until now, including the objective and transparent functioning of parallel currencies in real time. 

Faye Cox:  You called the possible Greek currency a Neo-drachma.  Given the tension and mis-trust in all directions, how do you envision the launch of a new or Neo-drachma?

Bernard Lietaer:   A Neo-drachma currency could be issued by the government as a non-interest bearing electronic currency which would quickly help to solve two enormous problems facing Greece right now: the payment of pensions (at least partially in neo-drachma), and putting the 60% of youth who are unemployed to work.  Every Greek family has at least one mobile phone that can be used to make electronic payments. 

And once the first payment is made, say to pay your bill at the local grocer, that grocer immediately sees the deposit in the business account and can right away pay the employee who otherwise was soon going to be out of a job.  You can see how this introduces immediate trustworthy liquidity into the local economy for the necessities of life and defuses the increasingly dangerous conditions that may lead to violent unrest.

Faye Cox:  You described the process as the Greek government issuing the Neo-drachma.  This is a departure from the usual private bank creation of money.  How would the troika look at that innovation?

Bernard Lietaer:  First of all, the Maestricht Treaty, the treaty responsible for the creation of the European Union in 1992, technically defines the Euro as a paper money issued by central banks.  Therefore a purely electronic medium of exchange such as the Neo-drachma could be defined as a token or a receipt, something other than money, which might technically get past the ECB scrutiny.  More fundamentally, it is the IMF Research Department that released a report in 2012 called The Chicago Plan Revisited. 

This plan was proposed by leading economists during the financial collapse of the 1930’s in which the government rather than private banks would issue currency, and do this without interest.  The IMF report concluded that the advantages would be a balanced economy without booms and busts, the elimination of bank runs, a drastic reduction of public and private debt, and low inflation.  Of course the IMF is only one of the three wheels of the troika, but it is very significant that this is being seriously considered at such levels.  And since the IMF leaked a report last Friday on the need to re-structure the  Greek debt, I think we can say there is no longer a troika.  

It’s also worth noting that this solution would work for other heavily indebted countries, and could strengthen individual economies while still maintaining a competitive and unifying single European currency.

Faye Cox:  What would happen in the relation of the Neo-drachma to the Euro?  Isn’t there a real danger of serious devaluation?

Bernard Lietaer:  Yes, you’re right, there would be an initial devaluation of the Neo-drachma to the Euro, even as much as 50%.  But it would still serve to get people and the economy working in the right direction, something clearly not possible with the proposed increase of the VAT-tax from 12% to 23%, plus further pension cuts.   

Wouldn’t it be better to encourage what is still working, rather than placing more of a stranglehold on those aspects of the economy that could benefit Greece with economic recovery and the EU with debt repayment?   

Remember that in Iceland the Krona collapsed nearly 60% during the 2008 financial crisis, and that made the country more competitive and allowed the economy to rebound more easily than in the Euro zone.  And by the way, Iceland also is currently considering the implementation of the Chicago Plan with a government interest-free issuance of currency.  This will be fascinating to watch, and should be much more in the news.

Faye Cox:  You are talking about two innovations here, or maybe three: dual parallel currencies, government issuance of currency, and electronic currency.  This is a lot of innovation.

Bernard Lietaer:  If ever there was a time for innovation, this is it, and everyone knows it.  And as I’ve said, a parallel currency has been functioning successfully in the UK for decades.  The IMF has studied the Chicago Plan thoroughly and concluded it has big advantages.  So the biggest innovation might be the electronic currency, but consider the advantages that brings.  The technology now exists to launch and support the Euros and Neo-drachmas as electronic currencies in a very short amount of time.  Payments on mobile phones using electronic currencies have become the dominant mode in places like Kenya and Indonesia.  If it can be done so successfully in Kenya, don't you think it would also work in Greece? 

Electronic payments also makes instantaneous and automatic collection of VAT taxes possible, bringing immediate relief and benefit: in Euros for that stream of the economy (to the extent of mobile payments in Euros), and in Neo-drachmas for the second stream.  If I buy a computer or other imported good, that tax is paid at the time of purchase, in Euros.  If I buy a kilo of olives, that VAT is also paid instantaneously in Neo-drachmas.  Both streams would inject liquidities into the economy, alleviating the pain in Greece and expediting payments in Euros as well.

Electronic currency support systems such as Pay Services and other digital infrastructure systems can securely manage, transact, communicate, and control all online transactions with other community members, employees, clients, suppliers, banks, associates, third parties, government and business partners.  Besides solving the Greek governments’ problems swiftly, the dual electronic currency solution would give all businesses the choice of which currency works to their greater benefit, and ultimately the benefit of all concerned, including the creditors.  Yes to Greece and Yes to Europe.

How local businesses will benefit from a local currency

A presentation for the Small Business Commission

Text of Bay Bucks' presentation at San Francisco Small Business Commission on Monday April 28th, 2015, at the San Francisco City Hall, Room 400.

Good afternoon, my name is Dr Chong Kee Tan. I am a founder of Bay Bucks, a complementary currency for the San Francisco Bay Area and I am here to report on the benefits that a complementary currency can bring to small businesses.

As you know, money has seen rapid innovations in recent years. We all know about Bitcoin, and the many other crypto-currencies based on the blockchain technology. You may know about Ripple, a different kind of digital currency headquartered here in San Francisco. In fact, San Francisco has been at the forefront of monetary innovation, hosting an annual Future of Money conference since 2010.

I want to tell you about another kind of monetary innovation that is also happening here but is not yet well known, and how it can have direct beneficial impact on small businesses. It is the innovation called complementary currency. It is called complementary currency because it operates in parallel with the national currency, in a way that strengthens both.

What is a complementary currency? It is simply a means of exchange that a community has agreed to use among itself. Here is an example. In 1934 Switzerland, in the throes of the great depression where many local businesses there were folding, a group of Swiss business owners had this realization: the reason why demand for their goods and services plummeted was not because people suddenly no longer needed to eat, wear clothes or paint their houses, but because they no longer had the Swiss Franc to do so. They solved the problem of the lack of Swiss Franc by creating another currency called WIR (WIR in German means We or Us). WIR is notionally 1-1 with Swiss Franc but not convertible to Franc. Each business in the WIR network can create the WIR they need by first pledging an equivalent value of their unsold goods and services for sale in WIR. Soon, businesses that are WIR users started doing brisk trade among themselves and it quickly spread. From the initial 16 members, by 2005, WIR network has 62,000 members, collectively doing annual transactions of 6.5 billion CHF. It spawned something called the barter exchange industry that is now global. These commercial barter exchanges have a global association called the International Reciprocal Trade Association, and I sit on their executive board.

That is complementary currency working in the business-to-business arena. Complementary currency also works well in the consumer-to-consumer or Business-to-consumer arena. You may be familiar with Time Banks. Local residents join a time bank and trade work hour for hour. For example, an hour of guitar lesson for an hour of massage, or gardening help, or dog walking, and so on. Time banks have also sprout up all over the country and the world, enabling people to build self-help communities. Other well-known complementary currencies include: Berkshares in Massachusetts, Bristol Pound in the UK, and Bengla-Pesa in Kenya.

So far, the B2B arena and the C2C arena have remained distinct. Bay Bucks' innovation is in realizing that a complementary currency that works across B2B, C2C and B2C arena will be even more powerful.

There are many benefits of using an integrated complementary currency. I will now outline three to illustrate.

1. First benefit of complementary currency: It fosters business community self-help.

From the WIR example, we see that during a downturn, besides struggling alone or asking the local or national government for help, businesses now have another option: coming together and helping each other. Here is a real life example that happened in Bay Bucks: Michael is an architect in Berkeley who used to work in a large architectural firm. When he joined Bay Bucks, he just started his private practice and needed a website. He found a web developer Jay in San Francisco, and by listing and pledging his architectural services; he could create the Bay Bucks he needed to pay Jay to create a web site. For quite a while afterwards, he had a negative balance in his Bay Bucks account but he was OK because it is 0% interest and there is no minimum monthly payment. Then Paulo's café in the SF Mission district needed to renovate, and they were short on cash. So Paulo pledged his coffee beans, and created Bay Bucks to pay Michael. Now, Michael has covered the money he spent for his website, and he could created some more and used it to pay for advertisement on East Bay Express in Oakland. What about Jay? He used the Bay Bucks he made from web development to hire a bookkeeper, Victoria, in Sunnyvale to file his taxes. And Victoria used her Bay Bucks to buy an ergonomic chair from a chiropractor in Santa Rosa, and wine from a winery in Napa. It goes on in a spreading collaborative web of regional Bay Area business helping each other.


2. Second benefit of complementary currency: It can shorten economic downturn because of its counter-cyclical property.

We have seen how after the 2008 financial crisis, the reluctance of the banks to lend to small businesses had greatly slowed recovery. If the Bay Area had a complementary currency during that time, the suffering could have been shortened. The Swiss economy is so stable, not because of its banking industry or its chocolate or watches, but because of it complementary currency WIR. Various economists, including Prof Bernard Lietaer, had published papers pointing out the counter-cyclical property of WIR. During boom time, businesses focus on making profits in the national currency and transactions in complementary currency decreases. During a bust when cash is in short supply, transactions in complementary currency increase to pick up the slack. In Switzerland where their complementary currency is wide spared, the significant increase in WIR transaction during a dip helped many businesses stay afloat and reduced the dip in GDP. A quick note about Prof Bernard Lietaer's credential: He is one of the main architect of the European currency system, the co-founder and manager of a top offshore currency hedge fund, and was name by Business Week as "the world’s top currency trader" in 1992.  Prof Lietaer understands deeply the shortcomings of the current monetary system and is an ardent proponent of complementary currency as a mechanism to plug that gap. He has written many books on this subject.


3. Third benefit of complementary currency: It builds local prosperity and gives the Buy Local campaign more panache.

By definition, a local complementary currency only has value in the geographic location where it operates. For Bay Bucks, this is the bioregion of the Bay Area, comprising of agriculture to the North, technology and entertainment in the Center, and manufacturing and industry in the South. Such currencies will not end up in Wall Street. Instead, they circulate locally, facilitating local commerce and building local prosperity. Imagine what happens when the local residents can also use such a complementary currency.  When they use a local currency to shop local, the multiplier effect to the local economy will be much greater, and such buy local campaign can create a lot of excitement and color.

All these benefits and more are within reach for the Bay Area with San Francisco taking the lead. Bay Bucks was started as a grassroots TransitionSF project in 2012 and had been operating for more than 2 years based on volunteer efforts. It grew by 60% in 2014, already has more than 250 local businesses in its network. We are now filing to become a workers' own co-operative and have plans to incorporate our users as members as well into the co-op in the future. It is a great start that has demonstrated feasibility.

The next step is for it to take off. But it cannot do so on its own. It needs your help to overcome some challenges. Many people do not understand or are suspicious of it. They do not want to get involved because they are afraid.

I would propose that we continue our relationship with SF Small Business Commission so that you get to know us more, and feel comfortable listing us as a resource for local businesses, giving out our brochure to the businesses you advise, and perhaps even become partner in the future to initiate events such as buy local fair. I am also open to any suggestions from the commission on how we could work together.

In conclusion, complementary currency is a key missing piece of the puzzle for building a sustainable and just local economy. It fosters mutual collaboration between businesses, it makes small businesses more resilient, and it is ideal for promoting buy local to builds local prosperity. Like Switzerland, San Francisco Bay Area now has its own complementary currency built by its grassroots and local business community. What it needs now is for a visionary leader in the local government to be its champion and help it scale up so that it can bring the same benefits that WIR brought to Switzerland.

 

2. What is your vision for New Hope Farm? 

We want to focus on local economic development. We don't want to become Whole Foods. That is corporate concentration. We want to build a successful local business, attract interest from other localities to create similar things in their own neighborhoods. We then become a technical and training operation, like Mondragon, a co-op of co-op providing retirement benefits, healthcare and so on for its members.


3. What produce will Bay Bucks members be able to order from you?  

This week we just started planting vegetable: Collard greens, tomatoes, cucumber, squash, pumpkin and a whole range of other veggies. We will have lamb and goat later this year. We will add chickens and ducks for eggs, and beehives for honey. We will have herbs and berries starting late summer. We are also planting fruit trees and will have fruit in a few years.

 

4. You had previously thought of starting a local currency yourself. What attracted you to it?  

We thought about this some years ago because when people are locked into the standard economic system, they lose the ability to be creative and forge new relationships, and to support each other in local business operations. With the US dollars, you can shop in the global supply chain, but that takes value away from the local communities. If we have a local currency, and 25 stores are trading with it, these stores will do business with each other, with local money that can only be spent locally, and spent with face-to-face interactions. This exchange will build community and local wealth.

5. What support do you need to make New Hope Farm a success? How can Bay Bucks and our members help you? 

We need customers! We need to deliver the highest quality products with the highest quality service at affordable prices. We believe our farming is the lowest cost with the highest quality. We don't use a tractor; we use the animals, sun and water to make the soil productive. Our major costs will be labor and infrastructure. We want to delight people. Bay Bucks folks can help us now with web development and accounting.

We are putting together a CSA program and will pre-sell it very soon. We can deliver anywhere in the Bay Area. The boxes will be available in June or July.

 

Hank Herrera of New Hope Farm


Favorite movie:
Hunger Games: Mocking Jay

Reading now:
Re-reading old issues of Sun Magazine 

Near term goal:
Make the farm a success, make people so happy with our food that they can't get enough.

Dream (long term goal):
To create a space where people can be nurtured and achieve their own dreams, especially for little kids of color who don't usually have a great deal of hope.