BerkShares Inc.

What are berkshares

What are Berkshares?

Dubbed a “great economic experiment” by The New York Times, BerkShares are a local currency for the Berkshire region of Massachusetts. Federal currency is exchanged for BerkShares at nine branch offices of three local banks and spent at more than 400 locally owned participating businesses. The circulation of BerkShares encourages money to remain within the region, building a greater affinity between the local business community and its citizens. BerkShares serve as a tool for community economic empowerment and development toward regional self-reliance.

Connecting Point

Local Currencies: The Anti-Amazon Gift Card

Coronavirus is raising interest in city-specific currencies, which keep money on Main Street.

Frontiers of Commoning Podcast

In David Bollier's Frontiers of Commoning Podcast, Rachel Moriarty of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics and Executive Director of BerkShares, Inc. tells the hist ory of the BerkShares currency and its ongoing evolution in developing a new vision for its regional economy.

Bartering is back: When life gives you lemons, trade them for a neighbor’s hand sanitizer

Bartering is back: When life gives you lemons, trade them for a neighbor’s hand sanitizer by Rachel Lerman

Could Small Still Be Beautiful?

In the mid-1970s, an economist named E.F. Schumacher argued that our push for endless growth was doomed to fail. His book, “Small Is Beautiful,” soon became a classic, inspiring a generation of idealists. While largely forgotten since then, Schumacher’s ideas might speak to the working class’s troubles today more than ever.

By BRYCE T. BAUER for Craftsmanship Magazine