New York TIMES / November 29, 2009 New Buying Power, Despite the Economy By RICHARD C. PADDOCK
Paying jobs have been scarce these days for Jeff Horwitz, a building contractor from Campbell, but last weekend he went on a Christmas shopping spree. He bought cases of wine, a concrete bench, a wall-mounted fountain, gift certificates and various knickknacks at a gift fair in Santa Clara. “This is nothing,” he said as he walked out the door, arms filled with a vase, a mirror and a ceramic knickknack. “My truck is already full.” The bill? Nothing, at least not in the usual sense. His haul was the fruit of a barter economy in which he amasses “trade dollars” by swapping services with other members of the International Monetary Systems barter network. He spent 2,500 of them at the fair. Like others in the Bay Area who have seen paying jobs vanish with the recession, Mr. Horwitz has turned to barter to keep himself employed. Mr. Horwitz, 53, has been bartering his services for a decade. But since the recession hit last year, he estimates, the value of his swaps makes up 30 percent of his business. “Anything is better than nothing,” he said. “I take my profit in trade.” In a time of hedge funds and derivatives, barter might sound old-fashioned. But thanks to neighborhood swaps, Web sites like Craigslist and groups like International Monetary Systems, it is making a comeback during this economic downturn. And with the Christmas shopping season officially under way, the shadow economy, with its ersatz currency, is a growing force in the Bay Area. Steven Tadelis, a professor who specializes in economic incentives at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, said it is not unusual to find alternative trading on the rise when unemployment is high and cash and credit are tight. “Because of our lack of income and our inability to get long-term credit at reasonable rates, we can’t use the normal market,” he said. “By me offering a service that you accept, we are creating value.” He added, “You might see people switching to barter because they just can’t get money.” More at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/us/29sfbarter.html -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
