Welcome to another issue of Net Interest, my newsletter on financial sector themes. Every Friday I go deep on a topic of interest in the sector and highlight a few other trending themes below. If you enjoy Net Interest, please spread the word! It really makes a difference when you recommend this newsletter to others.

The Politics of Money

Look up the city of Bristol on Wikipedia, and after a paragraph on its geography (South West England), a paragraph on its history (royal charter received in 1155) and a paragraph on its maritime status (port of departure for first European landing on mainland North America), you get to a paragraph on its economy. And at the top of that paragraph, you get this:

The city has the largest circulating community currency in the UK; the Bristol pound, which is pegged to the Pound sterling.

The Bristol pound was devised around a table in a pub in 2009 as a ‘convertible local currency’ for the city and its surrounding area. It was established to encourage people …