Sullo stesso argomento, in italiano,  leggi qui.

Sardex is a new way of thinking economics. It demonstrates how it is possible to combine commercial and social interests together and refuse the craziness of capitalism, which led Sardinia to a financial and human misery. We rarely talk about confidence, solidarity and networking in economics discussions. Furthermore, Sardinia is a region where starting an innovative business is not that easy: Sardinia’s enterprises produce on the island just the wealth necessary for their own territory. But the story of four young under-30-years old make us believe that a new way of thinking economics is actually possible, even during a financial crisis.

Carlo Mancosu, charged for Sardex’s relations with the press, told us his story. After graduation, he came back with three of his friends to Serramanna, a village of Sardinia, where he was born, and created Sardex.net in 2009. Two years later, 700 enterprises were part of it, and 23 people were employed to manage the 4-million-turnover of Sardex. Mancosu explained that they were “worried about the impact of assets’ liberalization and the enlargement to a competitive global market. We are also against the idea that money generates money. Money is just a useful means for trading goods”.

However, what is Sardex? Sardex is a virtual currency, complementary to euro, which permits to trade goods and services within the group of enterprises which are members of the network. Before its enrollment every enterprise declare its services and goods that are available to be traded with Sardex. Then, they get credit according to a rating based system. This credit is based on confidence, and it is properly a free liquidity injection.

It is possible to find similar currencies in other European countries such as Switzerland (Wir). The German Wara was another example of complementary currency which was used in the 30s. Regarding the Sardex, at the end of every year, when balance sheet are completed the enterprises pay in euros (conventionally one Sardex is equal to one euro) the liabilities that they were not able to cover. In this way enterprises are likely to put money in the network instead of keeping it as reserve. In fact, the system is based on the growing trend of transactions and not on the growing liquidity.

Mattia Achei (@MattiaAchei)

LUISS Guido Carli, Roma