Milwaukee Neighborhoods Consider Printing Own Currency

This may sound totally incredulous, but residents from the Milwaukee neighborhoods of Riverwest and East Side are scheduled to meet to discuss printing their own money. The basic idea is that the local cash could be used at neighborhood stores and businesses, thus encouraging local spending. Supporters hope that the result would be a bustling local economy, even as the rest of the nation deals with a recession.

"You have all these people who have local currency, and they're going to spend it at local stores," said Sura Faraj, a community organizer who is helping spearhead the plan. "They can't spend it at the Wal-Mart or the Home Depot, but they can spend it at their local hardware store or their local grocery store."

Incentives could be used to entice consumers into using the new money. For example, perhaps they could trade $100 U.S. for $110 local, essentially netting them a 10 percent discount at participating stores To put it in some perspective, according to the Chicago Tribune, It's not a new concept—experts estimate there are at least 2,000local currencies all over the world—but it is a practice that tends to burgeon during economic downturns. During the Great Depression, scores of communities relied on their own currencies.

So, laugh if you will, but this is completely legal. As long as communities don't create coins, or print bills that resemble federal dollars, organizations are free to produce their own greenbacks. This may seem like a crazy idea, but it is completely legal and probably worth a second look.