Back in 1997 I edited a national newsletter called The Indicator. One day I reviewed a book by ecological economist, Richard Douthwaite called The Growth Illusion: How Economic Growth Enriched the Few, Impoverished the Many and Endangered the Planet.  He had also written  Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economics for Security in an Unstable World, 1996) which gives dozens of examples of currency, banking, energy and food production systems which communities can use to make themselves less dependent on an increasingly unstable world economy.

It wasn’t long before I was in contact with Richard and he agreed to come to New Zealand to promote his books. I drove him round New Zealand and recall visiting the then Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons. We had many conversations in the car and I recall him saying that if a community wanted more self sufficiency, then it needed both a community currency and a community bank.

So hold that thought. Continue reading “Thinking outside the box to solve the Three Waters debacle”