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Several communities in the United States have begun printing their own currencies as a way to encourage consumers to use the notes to pay for goods and services at local businesses. Places such as Ithaca, N.Y., and the southern Berkshires region of Massachusetts have been offering their own notes for several years, and now a neighborhood in Milwaukee is considering offering its own, according to local news reports. Sura Faraj, a community organizer who is one of the drivers of the Milwaukee effort, tells CardLine the group is not doing any interviews until it is further along in its process. Before the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, most regions of the United States had their own currency, Susan Witt, co-founder of BerkShares Inc. and executive director of the E.F. Schumacher Society, tells CardLine. BerkShares Inc., which is based in Great Barrington, Mass., issues BerkShares as a way of promoting local economic growth, Witt says. Consumers and businesses can buy Berkshares from local banks. In Ithaca, consumers and businesses can make payments using Ithaca Hours, which have been around since 1991, according to Stephen Burke, president of the Ithaca Hours Inc. board of directors. The primary goal in both cases is to encourage shoppers to use the currency to pay at locally owned merchants instead of big box stores, something that is important in the face of a troubled economy, both Burke and Witt say. "
