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Germans get by without the Euro

Germans get by without the euro

Last Updated: 1:42am GMT 18/01/2007

There will soon be 65 regional currencies in operation alongside the EU’s, but the financial authorities are not worried yet, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
# Comment: UK’s standoffishness on euro looks better than ever

If you live in the Bavarian region of Chiemgau, you can exist for months at a time in a euro-free zone of hills and lakes with a population of half a million people. Restaurants, bakeries, hairdressers and a network of supermarkets will accept the local currency: the Chiemgauer.

Notes are exchanged freely like legal tender. You can even use a debit card. Petrol stations are still a problem, but biofuel outlets are signing up. Dentists are next.

The Chiemgauer is one of 16 regional currencies that have sprung into existence across Germany and Austria since the launch of the euro five years ago.

Another 49 regios are in the pipeline. They are outside the control of the political authorities, mostly run by activists, farmers, eco-enthusiasts, anti-globalists, and citizen committees.

Some are rural, others circulate like underground money in Berlin and Bremen. Hamburg has two: the Alto and the Hansemark. Italy has its version in the Valchius Valley, in the Alps.

The phenomenon, not seen since the Great Depression, has left experts scratching heads at the Bundesbank. The mighty reserve bank, which issues euro notes and coins worth €146bn for a third of the eurozone economy, is relaxed about the risk of monetary anarchy. But it is sufficiently puzzled to publish a 63-page report probing the eruption of this movement.

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Very cool. “Italy has its version in the Valchius Valley”—they’re probably talking about the Damanhurian Credito:

The Credit has the aim of developing a new form of economy based on ethical values of co- operation and solidarity.

The Damanhurian complementary monetary system has a high ideal value and has been created to give back to money its original meaning: to be a means to facilitate change based upon an agreement between the parties. For this reason it is called Credit: to remind us that money is only a tool through which one gives, in fact, ‘credit’, that is to say, trust.

Thanks to this monetary system, the Damanhurians want to give nobility to the concept of money, by not considering it an end in itself but only a functional tool for exchange between people who share ideal values.

The use of the Credit, in fact, allows all those who are part of this system to see themselves as part of the cultural, social, economic and ethical values linked to the sustainability of the planet, respect for human beings and every living creature, to the quality of work and the added value of products thought of and realised with care and love.

A wide network of local producers and consumers – formed of around a hundred businesses and over 2,000 people – have chosen to use the Credit through a system of agreements.

In this way, the Credit encourages an economic and social revitalisation of Valchiusella because it facilitates keeping capital inside the area so that it can be re-invested to the benefit of the local economy, businesses and activities. ...