“What strikes me about this wonderful paper is how he creatively frames an outline of the new money commons architecture and he approaches this challenge in a multi-level way from global to national to regional. He links insightfully the fossil fuel crisis to the crash in 2008 and also highlights what the late Margrit Kennedy drew attention to, the embedded interest costs in public services and other essential goods. What is marvelous about this paper is the way he shows how the work to build resilience through co-operative innovation in community energy, food sovereignty, community land trusts (are implied) and regional currency can be brought together in a synergistic way. He argues for a provisioning system as Mary Mellor and Frances Hutchinson set out so well in Politics of Money book in 2002. But he also draws attention to the kilowatt hour forms of money and tethering ideas Shann Turnbull has been articulating.” – Pat Conaty

Before passing away, Richard Douthwaite wrote this important article, linking money to the energy supply:

* Article: Douthwaite, R., Degrowth and the supply of money in an energy-scarce world, Ecol. Econ. (2011)

From the Abstract:

“Degrowth is going to happen whether governments want it or not because, as fossil fuels run out, incomes will shrink along with the energy supply. This degrowth can either be unplanned and catastrophic or managed and relatively benign. This paper argues that three tools are essential to avoid degrowth becoming a catastrophic collapse.

These are

(i) a system to share the benefits from using increasingly-scarce fossil fuels,

(ii) new ways of financing businesses and

(iii) the introduction of debt-free regional and local currencies.”