A Currency In Every Pot

Jesse Walker | July 27, 2009

With California's IOUs as its newpeg, The Wall Street Journal looks back at the alternative local currencies -- some private, some public -- that flourished during the depression of the '30s. Be sure to check out the slideshow that goes with the story; it's filled with colorful scrips like this western Michigan money:

The IOUs in California are rather different: Not only are they not as pretty but, as Kenneth Anderson notes, they "they are made out to particular individuals for particular amounts -- they physically resemble checks." There have been informal and formal efforts to set up secondary markets for the IOUs, but I wouldn't expect that paper to become anything akin to a circulating currency.

[Hat tip: Bryan Alexander.]