Spain Would Be Dead Without ECB Loans, Black Market Transactions in Spain; Bartering in Greece

Sunday, April 15, 2012
By Paul Martin

By: Mike Shedlock
Market Oracle
Apr 15, 2012

As Greece wonders whether its debt crisis will eventually spell its exit from the euro, one town, Volos, has formed an alternative local currency as noted by the BBC in Greece Bartering System Popular in Volos.

A few months ago, an alternative currency was introduced in the Greek port city of Volos. It was a grass-roots initiative that has since grown into a network of more than 800 members, in a community struggling to afford items in euros during a deepening financial crisis.

From jewellery to food, electrical parts to clothes, everything here is on sale through a local alternative currency called TEM.

It works as an exchange system. If you have goods or services to offer, you gain credit, with one euro equivalent to one TEM.

You can then use your “savings” to buy whatever else is being offered through the network, leading to some rather original exchanges of goods.

It’s all reminiscent of an ancient bartering system returning to today’s Greece.

“I can get language classes or computer lessons in return”, says Stavros Ntentos from his stall where he sells children’s underwear.

“It’s a very good idea because we need to make people realise we can all buy and sell something; we don’t only need euros.”

The Rest…HERE

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