Communal economy in the United States?: They print ‘covid dollars’ to survive the coronavirus
The authorities of the city of Tenino decided to use a 19th-century printer to make $ 10,000 in wooden rectangles, each with a nominal value of $ 25
The city of Tenino, located in the state of Washington, in the northwestern United States, made a decision that amazes locals and strangers, by assuming a kind of communal economy and printing their own dollars, in their search for mechanisms to survive the strong economic crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
For several months, the United States has been fertile territory for the new coronavirus, not only for being the epicenter of the outbreak of COVID-19 infections, but also for being the country with the highest number of deaths and for suffering one of the worst economic contractions of the planet, with more than 50 million people who have lost their jobs.
In the midst of this almost apocalyptic juncture, the highest authority of the city of Tenino, a town with little more than 1,800 residents, made the decision to get a kind of social subsidy for the locals and small businessmen who have been terribly affected by the measures. of confinement and fall in production.
The alternative that Mayor Wayne Fournier has promoted was to create its own currency that would allow the inhabitants of the city, turned into a ghost town, to maintain an economic exchange that generates financial and commercial activity.
This is how the ‘covid dollars’ emerged, a project basically based on the type of communal economy that, although it does not deviate from the hegemonic pattern of the dollar, does have an effect of hope and solidarity among the inhabitants of that city council, without having to depend on paper. green coin to combat the general crisis.
Dollars printed on wood
About this new experience, the AFP agency interviewed Mayor Fournier, who said that Tenino had become a ghost town with businesses on the verge of bankruptcy and many people in danger of poverty and misery.
Tenino was about to succumb to the pandemic “until its authorities revived an unconventional idea from the last century: to print its own coin on thin wooden plates”, explained AFP.
“There is no trade, there are no sales and the streets are dead. It does not matter if it is three in the afternoon or three in the morning (…) We were receiving many calls from companies that told us that they were not sure if they could continue”, said Fournier.
The solution to save the city was found in the city museum, where there is a wooden printer that was created in 1890.
Tenino’s authorities decided to use the 19th century printer to make $ 10,000 in wooden rectangles, each with a nominal value of $ 25.
The bill has an image of President George Washington and a Latin expression that translated means: “We have it under control”.
That money is given as a grant to residents who show they are being hurt by the pandemic. Each can receive up to $ 300 a month. That wood is only valid within the limits of Tenino.
Known as “Tenino Dollars”, “COVID Dollars” and even “Wayne Dollars”, by the mayor’s last name; tickets are accepted in almost all businesses in the city at a fixed rate equivalent to almost a dollar.
Dollar shortage in times of coronavirus
The idea of printing banknotes to avoid the negative effects of an economic crisis is not new. According to the AFP dispatch, the city used the same printer and the same solution during the devastation caused in the United States by the Great Depression of 1930.
The shortage of dollars at that time led Tenino bank managers to print money on spruce bark. “The concept went viral in the 1930s”, says Fournier and other communities, companies, and chambers of commerce emulated it.
The media’s attention sparked investor curiosity and over the years the wooden coin became a collector’s item for sale on platforms like eBay and Amazon.
The contemporary version, like its previous edition, aims to lend a hand during the economic crisis that has caused the closure of businesses in the North American country.
“It’s more of a promotion for the city itself”, said Chris Hamilton, manager of the main grocery store. “Many people who come to the city did not even know that Tenino exists and want to know what that place that prints their own currency is like”, he adds.
“They could stop for a while, buy an ice cream, or walk the streets and eat a hamburger”, he says.
Similar complementary currencies exist in many places in the US and Europe. They do not seek to replace the national currency but to support the local economy. But this type of action is not well regarded by the US authorities, because if any of these local notes (like the Tenino Dollar) generates strong confidence and becomes massive, it could be stiff competition against the hegemonic dollar.
A blow to globalization?
The AFP agency tried to get the Treasury Department’s position on the actions of the Tenino municipality, but its authorities declined to comment on the use of local currencies.
According to the report, due to the rampant economic crisis in the United States and the unemployment figures that marked 11.1% in June — one of the highest rates since the Great Depression — more and more Americans are advocating complementary currencies when considering them as a way of helping people.
“The crisis in municipal financing generates creativity. Administrators are exploring issuing their own currency instead of issuing bonds to finance their response to COVID”, said Susan Witt, director of the Schumacher Center for Economic Studies.
That center developed the BerkShares, a currency in circulation since 2006 in the Berkshires region of western Massachusetts, and is distributed by local banks. Witt is advising several American municipalities interested in similar initiatives that are not dependent on dollars.
Local currencies are seen by many as a bulwark against rampant globalization. In Switzerland, for example, the WYR system, created in 1934, is used and is considered the oldest local currency in the world that is used daily in thousands of small businesses.
“People began to realize that we became too global, too quickly and lost our own characteristics”, said Chris Hewitt, founder of the Hudson Valley Current, a currency of Upstate New York and which operates as a mutual credit system.
Enthusiasts of this type of currency aspire to generate a national movement. “If that is done organically across the country, it could save us from a serious recession”, stressed Mayor Fournier.
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