With the current systemic financial failures in the national and global economies, there seems to be renewed interest in local currencies, in part as a means of building in resilience. I am attaching a short PowerPoint presentation I developed some years ago, pointing out the potential benefits of a local currency for Wallowa County.
When Professer Obermiller of Oregon State did a study of local multipliers in 1979, the average multiplier in the county was 2.00, with some sectors, such as ranching, agriculture, and the Forest Service, significantly higher. The local multiplier is the amount of transaction each dollar creates before it leaves the county. A multiplier of 2.00 means that for every dollar earned, $2 in transactions is created.
According to Bruce Sorte's modeled study a few years ago, the local multiplier for Wallowa County is 1.37. This reflects a national trend, where people buy consumer goods from elsewhere, and the Chinese are competing with more local suppliers, and of course Wal-Mart and Costco are competing with local retailers.
By all accounts, local currencies take considerable effort to make work, but the potential benefits might be great. During the Depression, many communities besides Wallowa County created their own scrip or local currency to help facilitate exchange of goods and services where federal dollars got scarce.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| LocalCurrency.ppt | 389 KB |