Variations on these schemes are already successful. Examples include: Time Dollars: http://www.timebanks.org/ http://www.timebanks.org/ Ithaca Hours: http://i

Variations on these schemes are already successful. Examples include: Time Dollars: http://www.timebanks.org/ http://www.timebanks.org/ Ithaca Hours: http://ithacahours.org/ http://ithacahours.org/ Tlaloc: http://www.vidadigna.info/index.htm http://www.vidadigna.info/index.htm The difference between negative interest and inflation is that the interest rate can be set by fiat (whereas inflation can be uncontrollable) and the value of one unit of the currency stays stable, so contracts written now are still meaningful in the future. Also, no one is forced to spend, you are simply taxed for holding a non-zero balance, just as you are with a normal loan (or normal inflation, if you are in credit). As for the examples from history: all the examples Monbiot cites are those where the normal currency has collapsed or is suffering severe deflation. So regular money was clearly not a solution in those edge cases.