Beat The Credit Crisis: Print Your Own Currency

The villagers of Santi Suk began creating their own cash on the sun-bleached plains of northern Thailand following Asia’s financial crisis a decade ago.

Decorating the money with children’s sketches of water buffaloes and Buddhist temples, the villagers conceived it as a do-it-yourself attempt to protect themselves from the whiplash of vast outflows of speculative money which undermined local currencies and threw Thailand – and much of Asia – into recession in 1997-98.

Over the years, there has been stiff opposition among Thailand’s authorities to the Santi Suk villagers’ experiment.

The central bank, the Bank of Thailand, declared the villagers’ currency “a threat to national security” in 2001 and brought villagers to Bangkok for a scolding.

The villagers launched their currency, which they called “bia,” the local dialect word for “seedling,” as many were struggling with debt problems and were receiving fewer and smaller remittances from relatives working in the Bangkok area because of the financial crisis.

Source: wsj.com

Posted on April 23, 2009 | Filed Under Really

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