This book is part of a continuing work which began in 1982. It was in that year that I first came to realize the fundamental importance of money and exchange mechanisms in determining how the world works (and doesn't work) and how these mechanisms define the very nature of human relations on every level.

My earlier book, Money and Debt: A Solution to the Global Crisis, explained the nature of money, identified the fundamental flaws in the current monetary and financial system, and suggested an approach to resolving the problem of exploding debt. It also laid out the foundation principles for the creation of both a more rational means of value measurement and more humane and equitable structures for mediating the exchange of goods and services.

New Money for Healthy Communities complements that earlier work. While Money and Debt deals more with general principles and global prescriptions, this present work is more specific and detailed, and has as its focus the local community and empowering action at the grass-roots level. New Money for Healthy Communities is a how-to-do-it manual. It describes exchange mechanisms which have worked in the past, as well as some of the more successful contemporary local exchange efforts. It identifies the pitfalls to be avoided, and it proposes specific methods for transforming the exchange process, methods which are rational, equitable, and empowering, and which can be easily implemented at the local level by small voluntary groups.

It is the author's hope that this information will be widely disseminated, and his belief that its wide application will assist humanity's struggle toward a more harmonious and happy world.