Money and places

David Boyle

I

Money: where it comes from, where does it go?

Money supply

• “The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled…”– John Kenneth Galbraith

Money supply

• When the USA finally abandoned the gold standard in 1971, the UK money supply stood at £31 billion. By the end of the 20th century, just three decades later, it stood at just around £700 billion. In that whole period, the government issued just £20 billion in notes and coins.

Different economies

• International

• Local

• Social

Housing money

• Proportion of money in circulation that was originally issued as mortgages:

•About 60%

Implications

• Both couples work.• Childcare crisis• Social unravelling• Living near home• Ritalin• Making a living

According to Victorian economists, peasants in 1495 had to work 15 weeks to earn the money they needed to live for a year. By 1564, it was 40 weeks. Now it is all but impossible to earn a living at all for a large minority of the planet…

II

Plugging the leaks

The Money Trail:measuring local money flows with LM3

Your economy is like a bucket

Money comes into your economy via:

Tourists

Welfare benefits

Business investors

Export earnings

And there are leaks in your bucket

Money leaks out of your economy via:

Taxes

Energy

External contractors

Making money work for your local economy is like irrigating land.

If money coming in goes right out, then the economy doesn’t benefit.

To keep money circulating in the local economy, you must create linkages that enable people to spend locally.

Now imagine we painted a pound coin blue and followed its trail…

…If 80% of money stays local

£10.00

£8.00

£6.40

£5.12

£0

£2

£4

£6

£8

£10

£12

1 2 3 4

Now imagine we painted a pound coin blue and followed its trail…

…If 20% of money stays local

£10.00

£2.00

£0.40 £0.08£0

£2

£4

£6

£8

£10

£12

1 2 3 4

So imagine we are starting with £10. If 80% stays local, we end up with £50 staying in the local economy.

Just £12.50 if 20% stays local.

LM3 = Local Multiplier 3

Adapted from the Keynesian multiplier

Applied to the local economy

We measure three rounds

LM3 enables you to measure the impact of your business on the local economy.

Money flows for a social enterprise

What to think about

How many of your staff live in the local area?

How could you address local staffing issues?

Where are your suppliers located?

How much are your suppliers spending locally?

How could you improve local sourcing decisions?

Are there supply chain gaps?

Will changes you make matter?

III

Ghost towns and clone towns

Ghost town Britain

• Loss of open space and community buildings and meeting spaces. Since 1989, London has lost the equivalent of 1,428 football pitches, or seven Hyde Parks.

• Wholesalers have closed at a rate of six per week, while new registrations of small scale food manufacturers have fallen by 12 per cent.

• As many as 800 communities in Britain have no bank left, and over a thousand have only one. In the decade to 2002, Britain lost one third of its bank network

• Up to 20 traditional pubs are now closing every month.• Specialised stores like butchers, bakers, fishmongers and

newsagents closed every week in the five years to 2002.

Jane Jacobs on New York

• “One ordinary morning last winter, Bernie Jaffe and his wife Ann supervised the small children crossing at the corner, lent an umbrella to one customer and a dollar to another; took custody of two keys; took in some packages for people in the next building who were away; lectured two youngsters who asked for cigarettes; gave street directions; took custody of a watch to give the repair man across the street when he opened later…” and so on.

Clone town Britain

• Just look around you….

What can we do?

• Section 106 agreements?

• Vetos on big stores or theme restaurants?

• Start social enterprises?

• Local currencies?

Find out more

• www.neweconomics.org

• www.david-boyle.co.uk