The striking fall of the dollar against other world currencies (-27% against the Euro over the last 2 years) has prompted many to wonder if the long-predicted collapse of the US financial empire is at hand. Combined with the still-unfolding “sub-prime” mortgage crisis -- expected now to wipe as much $1 trillion off the world economic ledger, mostly from the accounts of the working class and poor -- the resulting global recession may ultimately run the economies of rising stars like China and the European Union off the rails.

Mainstream economists had largely been blind to the crisis until the symptoms became too obvious to ignore in the past 18 months or so. Those who study money systems -- including such notables as Bernard Leitaer, who designed the European monetary union -- have been warning about the dangers of a central-banking-induced monetary catastrophe for years.

Madison now has a second local trading system.
The Dane County Timebank was launched on Madison’s north side in October 2005, with plans to expand over time to the entire metropolitan area and possibly beyond. Like Madison Hours, it provides a way for people to connect so that they can fulfill each other’s needs and improve community self-sufficiency without having to rely upon dollars. DCT is one of several dozen such systems now operating around the country.
Economically-speaking, timedollar systems or timebanks work very much like local currencies, supplying a form of non-dollar credit to individuals, organizations and businesses so that they can track the trading they do with one another.
So does Madison Hours now have a competitor?
Hardly.
While there may be some overlap in mission, local currency and time dollar systems are designed to fulfill distinct and complementary economic roles, and this can be seen in how they operate.

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