A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Bartercard: The largest barter trading exchange that acts as a third party record keeper for global business-to-business trading. It facilitates and monitors all purchases (debits) and sales (credits) undertaken by its members. Bartercard’s credit/debit system functions in the same way the MasterCard and Visa systems deliver service to cash-paying consumers. bartercard.com
Bitcoin: An experimental new digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority: managing transactions and issuing money are carried out collectively by the network. Bitcoin is also the name of the open source software which enables the use of this currency. Critiques of the Bitcoin System.
The "BRICS" Economies: Ministers of Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa (BRICS) discuss foreign affairs, finance and the economy, trade, agriculture and health meet at annual summits transcending the financial context to embrace a wide range of summit-level issues relating to global governance, such as development, peace and security, energy and climate change, and social issues.
Collaborative Finance: The term Collaborative Finance is used to describe a specific category of financial transaction which occurs directly between individuals without the intermediation of a traditional financial institution. This new way to manage informal financial transactions has been enabled by advances in social media and peer-to-peer on line platforms. Collaborative Finance is characterized by highly personalized loan transactions entailing peer-to-peer dealings with borrowers and flexibility in respect of loan purpose, interest rates, collateral requirements, maturity periods and debt rescheduling.
Community Exchange Systems (CES): A community-based exchange system that provides the means for its users to exchange their goods and services, both locally and remotely. It could also be described as a global complementary trading network that operates without money as it is commonly understood.
Foraging Economy: All individuals of a community are involved in providing for their substinence. Every foraging society exists in a communal matrix of relationships that promote its survival. To investigate these economies, an optimality model is used in which theory is discussed in terms of optimizing a payoff from a foraging decision.
Hawala (hə-wäˈlə; Arabic: حوالة meaning transfer): The modern informal transfer system allows customers to deposit cash in one country and expect a sum of similar value to reach a specified destination within 48 hours, usually 24, no matter how remote the location. Critiques of the Hawala System.
Homework: Homework production is directly integrated with the formal sector through subcontracting links (what is produced as the household level is a fragment of a final output finished and sold in the formal sector).
Household Service Economy: Includes informal activities such as domestic service, gardening, and homework and intersects with, as well as segregates by, race and class. This type of economy is a growing concern in the context of globalization.
Indigenous Economies: Discourse on Indigenous Economies engage with issues such as indigenous governance, commual economic activities, substinence living, and indigenous involvement in the dominant (inter)national economy.
Informal Sector: The informal sector includes all economic activities which are not officially regulated and which operates outside the incentive system offered by the state and its institutions. The United Nations Human Settlements, Program (UNHSP) defines informal work as "all remunerative work -both self-employment and wage -that is not recognized, regulated or protected by existing legal or regulatory frameworks as well as non-remunerative work undertaken in an income-producing enterprise within a country." Aspen Institute: FIELD. Informal Economy Literature Review.
International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA): The International Reciprocal Trade Association, IRTA, is a non-profit organization committed to promoting just and equitable standards of practice and operation within the Modern Trade and Barter and other Alternative Capital Systems Industry, by raising the awareness and value of these processes to the entire Global Community.
Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS): A LETSystem is a locally initiated, democratically organised, not-for-profit community enterprise which provides a community information service and records transactions of members exchanging goods and services by using the currency of locally created LETS Credits. It is simply a community information system attached to its own market-place. The LETSystem Design Manual.
National Association of Trade Exchange (NATE): This network connects thousands of North American NATE members (independently owned barter organizations) with one another, increasing scope and customer base for those wishing to barter goods and services from one company with another within the membership base.
New Economics Institute: A US organization that uniquely combines vision, theory, action, and communication to effect a transition to a new economy—an economy that gives priority to supporting human well-being and Earth’s natural systems. The multidisciplinary approach employs research, applied theory, public campaigns, and educational events to describe an alternative socio-economic system that is capable of addressing the enormous challenges of our times. The premise is that a fair and sustainable economy is possible and that ways must be found to realize it. It works in close partnership with New Economics Foundation from London. Formerly known as E.F. Schumacher Society.
Open Money Projects: Open money follows this same pattern by being a meta-currency system, not just a new single kind of money. It enables the creation of many new types of money. It puts currency creation directly in the hands of communities so that they can create wealth-acknowledgment systems for tracking all types of wealth--tradable, measurable, and acknowledgeable--and so that they can tailor the tracking to fit their precise needs. Communities can use open money for simple things like Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS), Time Banks, barter networks, carbon-emissions trading programs, baby-sitting co-ops, reputation tracking systems, business loyalty programs, etc. Openmoney.org
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Banking: An online system that allows individual members to complete financial transactions with one another by using an auction style process that lets members offer loans for a specific amount and at a specific rate. Buyers have the option to look for an amount and rate of interest that meets their needs.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending: In the U.S., peer‑to‑peer lending is a relatively new form of social lending that removes banks as the middlemen in a loan transaction. With a peer-to-peer loan, an individual – sometimes called the lender or the investor – provides funds to a borrower and does so through the help of an intermediary company. Many peer-to-peer companies screen borrowers and facilitate the loan process for individuals who want loan money to other individuals or their “peers.” The whole idea behind peer-to-peer lending is that individuals who have additional cash to invest are readily available to loan money to borrowers in need who might otherwise not be able to get the funds they require through traditional sources such as a bank. Peer-to-peer lending is also called P2P or person-to-person lending. How Peer to Peer Lending Works. P2P Lending News.
Reciprocal Exchange Networks (REN): Members of the REN offer their skills in the currency of "time", i.e., one hour of work = one credit. Credits earned providing services can then be spent receiving services. You can exchange services with any REN member because one hour of one person"s time is equal to another"s. Reciprocal Exchange Networks: Implications for Macroeconomic Stability.
Smartcard: A smart card is a device that includes an embedded integrated circuit that can be either a secure microcontroller or equivalent intelligence with internal memory or a memory chip alone. The card connects to a reader with direct physical contact or with a remote contactless radio frequency interface. With an embedded microcontroller, smart cards have the unique ability to store large amounts of data, carry out their own on-card functions (e.g., encryption and mutual authentication) and interact intelligently with a smart card reader. Smart card technology conforms to international standards (ISO/IEC 7816 and ISO/IEC 14443) and is available in a variety of form factors, including plastic cards, key fobs, watches, subscriber identification modules used in GSM mobile phones, and USB-based tokens. Smartcard Basics.
Subsistence Farming and Agriculture: This is a self-sufficient activity in which individuals or a community focus on harvesting enough food to sustain themselves. It is practiced both in rural and urban areas.
System D: Refers to all the economic activity that flies under the radar of govermnet, unregistered, unregulated, untaxed, but not outright criminal. It includes the informal economy or black market or even underground economy.
Time Banking: A pattern of reciprocal service exchange which uses units of time as community currency. A Time Bank, also known as a Service Exchange, is a community which practice time banking. The unit of currency, always valued at an hour’s worth of any person’s labor, is generally known as Time Dollars in the US and Time Credit in the UK. Time Banks, Community Development Journal. Managing Your Time Effectively, James Smith.
Time Dollars: The fundamental unit of exchange in a time bank, equal to one hour of a person's labor. In traditional time banks, one hour of one person's time is equal to one hour of another's. Time dollars are earned for providing services and spent receiving services. Upon earning a Time Dollar, a person does not need to spend it right away: they can save it indefinitely. However, since the value of a Time Dollar is fixed at one hour, it resists inflation and does not earn interest. In these ways it is intentionally designed to differ from the traditional fiat currency used in most countries. No More Throw Away People, Edgar S. Cahn.
Trade Dollars: An accounting unit used in exchange transactions. A member sells services or merchandise to another member, his or her account is credited or the fair market value, in dollars, of the merchandise, while the buying member’s account is debited (reduced) by a corresponding amount plus any commission charges that may be levied by the trade exchange. Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender, Thomas H. Greco.
Underground Economy: Includes all goods and services not subject or bound to any regulations; these activites are not taxed.
The Universal Currency Clearinghouse (the UC): Because trade exchanges use their own trade credit currency, the International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA) sought to promote more efficient global trade by establishing a universally accepted trade credit among member exchanges - a true universal trade credit currency. As such, the UC operates as a central accounting center for corporate barter companies and trade exchanges throughout the world. It allows member trade companies to expand their own members’ ability to sell into new markets and purchase goods and services that are not available within their own system, while eliminating the inconvenience and confusion of individual reciprocal accounting. In this way, the UC is a trade exchange for trade exchanges.
Unpaid Work: While U.S. economic welfare is based entirely on family income, a stay-at-home parent typically provides 40+ hours/week devoted to unpaid housework and child care. Disregarding unpaid work in the formal economy problematizes the structure of welfare and health insurance. The American Time Use Survey attempt to measure its market value.
Urban Foraging: Alternatively known as trash picking, gleaning, dumpster diving, scavenging, salvaging, or curb crawling, urban foraging is the act of recovering useable goods discarded by retailers, schools, homes, businesses, construction sites – really anywhere anyone is throwing away goods that shouldn’t end up in a landfill. Frequently recovered items include clothing, food, furniture, computers, appliances, books, videos, DVDs, office supplies, lumber, tools, toys, umbrellas – just about anything you can buy in a store.
WIR Bank: Switzerland WIR Bank Cooperative is a nationally active Mittlestandsbank and a partner for private and corporate clients. The Bank offers services in the areas of payments, investments, retirement planning and financing at attractive prices. According to its statutes is to promote small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is a central concern. The WIR segment is a marketing tool and acts as non-cash payments. WIR loans are among the most affordable financing options on the Swiss credit market, it is felt especially in construction and mortgage loans. Formally known as the Swiss Economic Circle (GER: Wirtschaftsring-Genossenschaft). WIR Research, New Economics Institute. WIR Operational Realities, New Economics Institute. WIR Business Circle Cooperative. WIR Bank Report, Youtube. Complementary Credit Networks and Macro-Economic Stability, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.