it is easy for economists to believe in the possibility of endless exponential growth, where a mere number represents the size of the economy.

Sacred money, then, will be a medium of giving, a means to imbue the global economy with the spirit of the gift

Local currencies only work if there is a local system of locally circulating production for which it can mediate exchange.

Negative-interest currency, for instance, won’t work if other sources of economic rent are still available to invest in. Localization depends in large part on the removal of hidden subsidies that make global trade economic. Gift economies allow the quality of life to improve even as the economy shrinks.

it cancels out obligation rather than tying giver and receiver more closely.

life—witness the phrase “the cost of living.”

Only when our sense of self expands to include others, through love, is that truism replaced by its opposite: “More for you is also more for me.”

Then I grew tired of books that offered a plausible means of reaching it but did not describe what

sustainability has been fighting a losing battle against profit.