Three Cheers for Detroit!

Last year, Detroit joined the ranks of Ithaca, NY, Santa Fe, NM, Bloomington , IN, and more than 2,500 communities worldwide when it issued its own currency, the Detroit Cheer.

Local currencies are a strategy for encouraging community members to spend their money locally, and to think about the benefits of small, locally owned businesses over large chains without deeper roots in the community.  They are generally issued by a coalition of small business owners, and backed by US currency in a local bank or credit union. Users can head over to a participating bank, trade in their greenbacks for Cheers  or Potomacs  or BerkShares, and by doing so, make a pledge to support local growth and economic development. The appeal of local currencies is not only conceptual. Local currencies circulate much more quickly than traditional currencies, and studies have shown that money spent at locally owned businesses is reinvested in the community at a much higher rate than money spent at chain stores.

You can read more about the Detroit Cheer on the Model D website, and learn more about developing a currency in your community on the E. F. Schumacher Society website.