Author: Christopher Houghton Budd
Pages: 16
Originally published 1997

Local exchange trading systems (LETS) are usually understood as the antithesis of conventional monetary policy. Based on the author’s experience of LETS and responding to an article by Seyfang, this paper examines the LETS idea in terms of standard definitions of money and the idea that modern money is (or can be seen as) book-keeping. Conceptual flaws are identified, which, in the writer’s opinion, undermine the ability of LETS to provide long-term effective alternatives to existing monetary practices. In particular, the use of local when community would be more exact, the problem of non 1:1 parity with national currency, and the resistance to inter-LETS trading as if global economic activity is by definition a negative development.