---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Thomas Greco <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 6:49 AM Subject: Re: CC Mag: Wir article needed. To: Matthew Slater <[email protected]> Matt, I've already written quite a bit about WIR which is available on my website and blog. Have you been to http://reinventingmoney.com/documents/wir.html? You should read my *An Annotated Précis, Review, and Critique of Prof. Tobias Studer's WIR and the Swiss National Economy by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. and Theo Megalli,<http://reinventingmoney.com/documents/StuderbookCritique.pdf> *as well as the other documents there. Also, see Susan Witt's reports and other related items on my blog at http://beyondmoney.net/?s=WIR*. *Your questions*: * - What is the currency model. Is it still mutual credit? - What forces made them change? - What kind of situations would the Wir model be suitable for? - Would it work outside of Switzerland? - What is the smallest scale it would work on? - Has it ever been replicated? - Are Wir open to supporting new initiatives? - What are the limits to Wir's success in Switzerland? Why isn't it much bigger? The mutual credit clearing is still part of the service provided by WIR Bank, but it is a shrinking proportion of their overall operations. WIR is now a conventional bank taking deposits and making loans in Swiss francs. I suspect that the management has been taken over by people serving the banking cartel and that is why there has been no attempt to grow the direct credit clearing operation or to replicate it outside of Switzerland. This is conjecture, but it is supported by the fact that Sergio and I were unable to arrange a meeting with any of the management people during our 2005 visit to Basel. Susan Witt had a similar experience during her visit in 2008. There are other facts that also point to that conclusion as you will see when you read the documents I mentioned. Sergio and I were able to meet in 2005 with Prof.Tobias Studer, a former member of the WIR advisory board who had written a booklet describing the history and operations of WIR up to that point. He gave permission for our colleague Prof. Phil Beard, to translate it into English. * *I think by the time you digest those materials you'll be able to write the article yourself. I'd be willing to look at it prior to publication. There is still a need for an update on the situation within WIR. Perhaps we can find a Swiss contact who would be willing to do some research and investigative reporting.* *In any case, WIR, as it was operated up until the late 1990s, is I think, an excellent model. It could and should be replicated (with some modifications). I heard a couple years ago that Bernard Lietaer was planning to start a WIR-type exchange in Belgium, but don't know if it ever got off the ground. * *I hope you will do some digging to get additional answers.* *Regards, Tom* <http://reinventingmoney.com/documents/StuderbookCritique.pdf>* Thomas H. Greco, [email protected] Mobile phone: 520-820-0575 Website: http://www.Reinventingmoney.com Blogs: Beyond Money: http://beyondmoney.net Tom's News and Views: http://tomazgreco.wordpress.com Photo gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/tomazhg Skype/Twitter name: tomazgreco My latest book, "The End of Money and the Future of Civilization" can be ordered from Chelsea Green Publishing, Amazon.com, or your local bookshop. On 03/24/2011 8:53 AM, Matthew Slater wrote: Hello Tom Many people in the last few months have been looking at Wir and thinking since it is successful, somehow to replicate it. Most of the discussion implies to me at least that it is simply a Swiss style B2B Barter network. But I understand that while this used to be the case, Wir is nothing like that any more. So I would like to commission an original article along the lines of *Wir: Just another B2B Barter network?* Addressing such questions as: - What is the currency model. Is it still mutual credit? - What forces made them change? - What kind of situations would the Wir model be suitable for? - Would it work outside of Switzerland? - What is the smallest scale it would work on? - Has it ever been replicated? - Are Wir open to supporting new initiatives? - What are the limits to Wir's success in Switzerland? Why isn't it much bigger? Would you be interested to ruminate on these questions at an intermediate level for Community Currency advocates who think the Wir is a model worth replicating? Or do you know who else might be able to write something good? 300 - 600 words would be ideal Best Regards, Matthew On 22 March 2011 22:14, Marc Armstrong <[email protected]> wrote:
Hello Marc, A lot of people seem to be under the impression that Wir is a mutual credit system, like a B2B barter network, but I understand that it hasn't been like that at all for many years. I would like to correct this delusion in the Community Currency Magazine, and wondered if Ellen would be interested to cover that subject for us, or perhaps for one of her normal channels. Or perhaps you are knowledgeable on the subject? Matthew
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