In the centre of Europe for more than eight decades, the project that pose a potential threat to the government of the world’s usurers. It implements one Swiss Bank, headquartered in Zurich, an hour away by car from the office of another Bank – the Bank for international settlements (Basel), which is the headquarters of the Central banks of most countries of the world.
It comes to WIR-the project (full name – Wirtschaftsring-Genossenschaft). WIR is short for Wirtschaftsring, German (economic cycle), as well as the pronoun “we” in German. WIR can be seen as a symbol of economic collectivism and cooperation. WIR is a Bank in Zurich, and the name of the currency that it creates.
The project was started in 1934 on the initiative of two businessmen , Werner Zimmermann (Werner Zimmerman) and the Field of Enz (Paul Enz). There was a project not on an empty place. In 1931 in Germanyby Walther von Algorfa a project was launched to revive the economy “Netherland” (Deutsche Genossenschaft cooperative Ausgleichskasse), which used non-cash regional money. He has covered 45 districts of Germany. In 1934, when came to power, the Nazis banned the project on the basis of the law on combating abuse in the use of cashless payments.
The first participants of the project WIR were the seven largest Swiss companies, created the cooperative (WIR Economic Circle Cooperative). The launch came at a difficult time of the great depression, when the whole Western world was suffocating from lack of money. The start was rough: by the beginning of 1935 the number of project participants has already exceeded 1000 companies.
Experts say that the project idea was inspired by the work which became the famous German economist and businessman Silvio Gesell (Silvio Gesell), offers to enter into circulation at the regional level, money, free from percent. First, the money to fill the deficit normal (official) money. Secondly, because of a negative percentage, they have a higher rate of treatment that helps to quickly pull the economy out of crisis or depression.
“Free money” were tested in Germany, Austria, other European countries and outside Europe. However, in Germany came to power Adolf Hitler put an end to such experiments on the grounds that they undermine the monopoly of banks to issue money. However, in Germany the ideas of Gesell were perceived the most positively. In the literature the monetary system Gesell is sometimes called “the model of the German economy”.
The ideas of Gesell was, in particular, inspired byGottfried Feder (Gottfried Feder), who published in 1932 a small work “the Manifesto for breaking the bondage of interest of capital.” Nowadays, the most famous propagandist of “free money” Gesell is Margrit Kennedy (Margrit Kennedy), author of the book “Money without interest”.
The project WIR is a combination of barter transactions between participating in the project entrepreneurs. Accounting for barter transactions and maintaining multilateral clearing by the Bank of the same name WIR. Accounting operations and calculations are carried out with the help of a special monetary unit, also called WIR. The WIR currency exists only in the form of cash and appeals within the community (cooperative) WIR. It can be used not only as a medium of account (measure of value) and a medium of exchange but also to mutual crediting of members of the cooperative. Therefore, the project is also called the WIR mutual credit society.
This project is one of the largest in the world among the projects on the use of alternative money, besides the existing record for a long time – for over 80 years. Unlike many initiatives to introduce alternative money, met resistance from the authorities, the project WIR was legalized in the very early stages of its implementation. First was the cooperative. Then was established a clearing centre, which was soon reorganized into a commercial Bank, received from the Swiss National Bank a license to conduct Deposit and credit transactions. It was later officially recognized as the WIR currency is traded alongside the official Swiss franc. The WIR currency the Swiss franc is about 1 : 1. The WIR Bank operates in two currencies – both in their domestic money, and in Swiss francs. The WIR currency is not converted into Swiss franc and other currencies.
The WIR Bank has a good territorial network of six regional offices. Currently customers of the Bank is 62 thousand members of the cooperative. They are almost exclusively small and medium businesses of the country (about a quarter of all companies in Switzerland). Social significance of the project WIR is difficult to overestimate, because the members of the cooperative employ 2/3 of all employees in the Swiss economy.
The annual turnover in the WIR currency is close to the value equivalent to 2 billion Swiss francs. Plus, the Bank’s operations in Swiss francs, which exceed the speed WIR 2-3 times. The average value of loans issued in the currency of WIR, is about 1 billion. The scale of operations of the Bank increase when the economy and banking system of Switzerland consists of a phase of crisis.
Sometimes the domestic currency of the Bank WIR inertia is called “free money”. This is not quite correct. Indeed, in the period 1936-1948, the Bank operated with a negative percent, then for several years was zero percent. Somewhere since 1952, the Bank began to charge a small interest on deposits and loans in local currency. Although the annual interest rates are within 1%, many believe this is a significant departure from the project in the form as it was conceived in 1934 by the founding fathers. Especially today, when in Switzerland some conventional banks began to move towards zero and even negative interest rates (at least for Deposit transactions). In turn, the defenders of the WIR project argue that in fact the Bank pays no interest, and the Commission necessary to cover the costs of the Bank. WIR-currency is fully covered inventory the cooperative’s members, therefore, have alternative money support. No inflation in the circulation circuit WIR-currency can not be in principle.
On the convertibility of the monetary unit WIR argue. According to some authors, the existing ban on the convertibility contributes to the maintenance of stability of Bank WIR, prevents floating foreign exchange rate domestic currency. For others, this restriction limits the scope for the use of alternative currencies. By the way, many alternative money launched in different countries can be exchanged for an official currency, but with a certain discount. So, today is quite well-known currency is the Bristol pound, which is drawn in the English city of Bristol. He freely exchanged for ordinary British pound.
Some experts following the project WIR, see alarming developments in the activities of the Bank WIR. First, in their view, there is a tendency of increase in the share of traditional transactions (those that are executed in Swiss francs) to the Bank’s activities. Second, the world banking oligarchy, jealously watching the activities of the WIR Bank, allegedly failed to implement in the organisation’s leadership of his people. Thirdly, since 2012, certain political and business circles began to push the idea of a gold Swiss franc, which should be compared to the official Swiss franc a parallel currency. Concern was expressed that such parallel gold Swiss franc could become a rival currency WIR. In our view, this concern is far-fetched. Also today, the energy of the supporters of parallel gold franc largely exhausted.
Today, the world is on the verge of the second wave of the global financial crisis. Attempts are being made to take preventive measures to mitigate the ravages of the coming financial tsunami. One of the areas this training is the creation of alternative money systems at the local, regional and national levels. In the world today, according to some estimates, there are more than 5 thousand alternative systems of payments and settlements. They are especially numerous in Europe and the USA. In recent years, new systems appear in Brazil, South Africa, Japan, New Zealand. Despite the huge number of existing projects with alternative money, the Swiss WIR project attracts special attention.
Some call reason of its scale and survivability features of the Swiss character, the ability of citizens of this Republic to self-organization. Others believe that the main merit belongs to the Swiss authorities, which do not go blindly in the Wake of the global financial oligarchy. And, therefore, do not fight fanatically with any attempts to create alternative currencies, allegedly undermining the monopoly of the bankers. Apparently, there is a combination of both reasons.
Recently in Switzerland was conducted or planned referendums on financial and monetary issues. Now, in particular, is preparing a referendum on the question of reservation liabilities of the banks. Today banks work with partial (incomplete) coverage of the obligations. This system allows banks to make money out of thin air, but however leads to instability of the banks, spawns a banking crises.
If the Swiss proponents of full coverage of Bank liabilities will win, the country will have created a brand new banking system in which money will have full commercial support. In this case, the WIR money will cease to be exotic, and the experience of the WIR Bank will be adopted by other Deposit-credit organizations in Switzerland, who will have to live not at the expense of interest on loans, but at the expense of the Commission.
The global financial oligarchy equally hated as WIR-money and the banking system with full coverage obligations.
