Uploaded April 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
This is part of a series of interviews that will accompany a book I'm writing, that will be published by Chelsea Green - an employee-owned company, and part of the new economy that book is describing, built around a mutual credit core.
Today I’m talking with Will Ruddick, founder of Grassroots Economics, who have built mutual credit networks in Kenya involving 50,000 people and $3 million worth of trade per year.
Transcript of this interview, with more links: lowimpact.org/mutual-credit-in-africa-will-ruddick-grassroots-economics-foundation
Grassroots Economics: grassrootseconomics.org
Introduction to mutual credit: lowimpact.org/lowimpact-topic/mutual-credit
More on the book: lowimpact.org/book-deal-new-decentralised-economy-mutual-credit-core
Mutual Credit Services: https://mutualcredit.services/ Credit Commons: creditcommons.net
Chelsea Green: chelseagreen.com
Highlights
1. Humanitarians have started distributing cash in poor parts of the world. But what kind of cash? Why not empower people to make their own? That does make sense to people in the World Food Programme, the Red Cross etc. So things are starting to move. It’s super-exciting.
2. If the entire world gets a decentralised financial system with inter-connected mutual credits, I think that could be amazingly beautiful, and move us past this ‘Stage 1 Civilisation’ where we actually start to look at what we want to do as humans, rather than just make money.
3. It’s hard to build things in an extractive system, so if you can create a space among your neighbours, your municipality, co-ops, social enterprises, other organisations etc. that can get us away from waiting for the national government to do things for us. We can create our own abundance.
This is part of a series of interviews that will accompany a book I'm writing, that will be published by Chelsea Green - an employee-owned company, and part of the new economy that book is describing, built around a mutual credit core.
Today I’m talking with Will Ruddick, founder of Grassroots Economics, who have built mutual credit networks in Kenya involving 50,000 people and $3 million worth of trade per year.
Transcript of this interview, with more links: lowimpact.org/mutual-credit-in-africa-will-ruddick-grassroots-economics-foundation
Grassroots Economics: grassrootseconomics.org
Introduction to mutual credit: lowimpact.org/lowimpact-topic/mutual-credit
More on the book: lowimpact.org/book-deal-new-decentralised-economy-mutual-credit-core
Mutual Credit Services: https://mutualcredit.services/ Credit Commons: creditcommons.net
Chelsea Green: chelseagreen.com
Highlights
1. Humanitarians have started distributing cash in poor parts of the world. But what kind of cash? Why not empower people to make their own? That does make sense to people in the World Food Programme, the Red Cross etc. So things are starting to move. It’s super-exciting.
2. If the entire world gets a decentralised financial system with inter-connected mutual credits, I think that could be amazingly beautiful, and move us past this ‘Stage 1 Civilisation’ where we actually start to look at what we want to do as humans, rather than just make money.
3. It’s hard to build things in an extractive system, so if you can create a space among your neighbours, your municipality, co-ops, social enterprises, other organisations etc. that can get us away from waiting for the national government to do things for us. We can create our own abundance.
