Short Monetary Systems : Take a Risk, Create Money

The purpose of this editorial is to examine fiat currencies and common tenders (trade‐based money) from a risk perspective. The editorial encourages risk managers to consider the distributive benefits of a multiplicity of currencies and urges them to examine common tenders both old, such as the Swiss WIR, and novel, such as capacity exchange monies, as risk management tools.Design/methodology/approachThe editorial is based on research conducted for the City of London Corporation in 2011 into capacity, trade and credit which examined new architectures for commerce and money.FindingsThe editorial links Freiwirtschaft movement ideas with some characteristics of common tenders. Further, it considers whether some simple regulatory approaches might make such common tenders more useful.Originality/valueOf note, the author suggests that a modern alternative to government regulation might be an audited ISO accreditation standard for “good currency” or “good common tender”