10 March 2011

Other sorts of storehouses

Banks are storehouses of money. 
We need to understand the other sorts of storehouses in society like stores of time or stores of claims to products or services that local currencies would represent. 
The ossaph of Shemot 23:10 is really what passes in the ancient world as a bank. 
It's possible that Gresham's Law applies here: bank (bad) money, borrowed money, drives out local (good) money, earned money. The disintermediation of the external bank through the use of local currencies that are based on earned products and services opens the possibility of unleveraged capital structures in an economy which are not as susceptible to credit crunches. 
Another path would be a time bank where hours are exchanged rather than the exchange of claims on products and services. Those time banks are well-suited for personal services that require dedication and kind care, services which should never be monetized. LETS (local exchange trading system) is a conventional monetary system where interest rates are never charged. 
The Biblical prohibition of interest rates might be less about usury and more about defining the monetary system. The creditors in a LETS system cannot be allowed to stay in the black, they cannot be allowed to stay permanently in credit any more than the lower classes cannot be allowed to stay permanently in debit. 
When money is understood as not belonging to the people trading but rather as scrip only as a medium of exchange then the storage function and the attendant debt and credit crunch problems can be ameliorated. 

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