In 1933,in the depths of the Depression, Irving Fisher, America's most prominent economist, wrote a pamphlet on "Stamp Scrip". This was a type of alternative currency popular in America and elsewhere at the time that was periodically taxed with a stamp so that it would be spent, not hoarded.rnBased on the theories of Silvio Gesell, a German "quasi-economist", one such currency, the waera, was used to revitalise Schwanenkirchen, a Bavarian coalmining village, in 1931. "No one who received waera wished to hold [them], the workers, store-keepers, wholesalers and manufacturers all strove to get rid of them as quickly as possible, for any person who held [them] was obliged to pay the tax. So waera kept on circulating, a large part of [them] returning to the coal mine, where [they] provided work, profits and better conditions for the entire community," Fisher wrote approvingly.
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