Info, news & debate
Recent Posts
Review of Brett Scott’s ‘Cloud Money’
Review of Brett Scott’s ‘Cloud Money’, a ‘convoluted payments circuitry, tied together by institutions you cannot see, but who can see you’.
We’re taking on a paid intern: you, maybe?
We’re looking for a paid intern. Contact us if you think this might be you, and please do pass it on to anyone you think might be a likely candidate. We initially have up to £600 per month available for the right person, depending on how much time you can put in – and there will be opportunities for you and others to bring in more income to pay for more work for you to do.
Grace Rachmany: comparing ideas for a moneyless economy
eas around currency design and building a new economy based on community / reputation. As with all our interviewees, we think you’ll be interested in her ideas, and what she’s up to.
Co-operative social care with sociocracy and mutual credit: Emma Back of the Equal Care Co-op
There are some very interesting aspects to the Equal Care Co-op, including ‘Teams’, sociocratic decision-making and an internal payments system that could be described as a cross between mutual credit, timebanking, tokenising, and recognition of informal labour, including emotional labour and care work.
Big Solar Co-op: solar as a hedge against energy price rises
We’ve blogged before about the great work the Big Solar Co-op are doing, bringing solar into communities. Here Jon Halle explores the potential for solar to provide some protection against energy price rises for small businesses and community-based organisations.
How the state favours big business and causes inflation with ‘Quantitative Sleazing’
A new essay on the economics of the pandemic suggests that the recent inflation is a sign that that failure is accelerating towards us. It’s an important reminder for us to ask ourselves how ready we are to both cope and help others in a crumbling economy.
How to make wild garlic, nettle and cheese savoury muffins
Here’s a recipe for savoury muffins using wild garlic and nettle tops that can be foraged in many places at this time of year.
Fairbnb and housing Ukrainian refugees: Emanuele Dal Carlo
We were interviewing the President of Fairbnb as a co-operative alternative to Airbnb. However, things have taken a bit of a turn since we started talking, and now they’re using the platform to help Ukrainian refugees.
Can jobs such as wood-turning return to developed countries?
We’d like to think / hope so, as climate change, environmental damage and fossil fuel depletion make huge supply chains unviable. Most wood turning, for the European market at least, is done in China and the Far East. But how long can this continue – the transporting of almost everything we need in the West from the other side of the world? It’s too damaging to global ecology, and it involves virtual slave labour.
Mutual Credit Services – keeping communities alive after COVID: Investment, saving & location
Mutual Credit Services (MCS), whose mission is to help build local mutual credit ‘clubs’ in the UK and overseas, and to link them together to form a global moneyless trading network – the ‘Credit Commons’. Here we’re looking at savings and investments in a mutual credit world, as well as the importance of physical location.
Heating old buildings with heat pumps
It looks as though heat pumps are going to provide a lot more of our heating in the future – although there has been some controversy about how well they work in old buildings. Heat pump specialist John Cantor answers some of those concerns.
Mutual Credit Services – keeping communities alive after COVID: Community groups & individuals
This is the fifth in a series of articles looking at the development of Mutual Credit Services (MCS), whose mission is to help build local mutual credit ‘clubs’ in the UK and overseas, and to link them together to form a global moneyless trading network – the ‘Credit Commons’. Here we’re looking at community groups and individual consumers.
How not to build a movement, as demonstrated by Chris Saltmarsh
We thought you might like this extraordinary defence of Deep Adaptation by Matthew Slater. Last year, he and Extinction Rebellion co-founder Skeena Rathor, authored a chapter in Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos; last month it was reviewed by newcomer Chris Saltmarsh, the champion of Jeremy Corbyn’s Green New Deal proposals and author of ‘Burnt’.
Why are there thousands of empty flights polluting our skies?
18,000 empty planes will fly across Europe in early 2022. These flights will release 422,280 tonnes of greenhouse gases. Neither the EU nor Lufthansa seems likely to back down.
Mutual Credit Services – keeping communities alive after COVID: Local authorities & anchor institutions
This is the fourth in a series of articles looking at the development of Mutual Credit Services (MCS), whose mission is to help build local mutual credit ‘clubs’ in the UK and overseas, and to link them together to form a global moneyless trading network – the ‘Credit Commons’. Here we’re looking at local authorities and anchor institutions
How to make good apple juice
Apple juice is in some ways more difficult to make than cider, and indeed it can scarcely be regarded as a traditional product at all. Until the recognition late in the 19th century that fermentation was caused by yeast converting sugar into alcohol, the difference between juice and cider was somewhat obscure and of little practical importance in any case.
Mutual Credit Services – keeping communities alive after COVID: Trade Credit Clubs and credit clearing
Third in a series of articles looking at the development of Mutual Credit Services (MCS), whose mission is to help build local mutual credit ‘clubs’ in the UK and overseas, and to link them together to form a global moneyless trading network – the ‘Credit Commons’.
Things to think about when considering an air source heat pump
We cover ground-source heat pumps more than air-source heat pumps in our topic introduction, so here’s some additional information about air-source heat pumps from our advisor John Cantor:
Mutual Credit Services – keeping communities alive after COVID: explaining the Credit Commons Protocol
of Mutual Credit Services (MCS), whose mission is to help build local mutual credit ‘clubs’ in the UK and overseas, and to link them together in a global trading network. Here we provide a basic explanation of the Credit Commons Protocol.
Voting with my fork: plant foods I’m not buying any more
Sometimes, I wish I didn’t know the backstory to some foods, so I could happily buy them at the local shops and not think twice. But I do and here is my list of foods I won’t be buying again plus others that will require careful buying choices.