Page - 69 - in Siting Futurity - The “Feel Good” Tactical Radicalism of Contemporary Culture in and around Vienna

69 conVerting Kebab and currency into community As correctly forecast by Crenos, in the years 2009–2014 credit conditions deteriorated 4 years in a row. Reposses- sion rates soared, credit to SME decreased 3.5% and credit to households decreased 2.2% from 2013 to 2014, while [in 2014] non-performing loans stand at 12.6% of the total. At the same time, we were reading many studies — such as those by Uf- ficio Studi CGIA Mestre — on the banking sector reducing on lending for two consecutive years, cutting as much as 100b Euro previously lent to businesses and families. (Littera, cited in Sartori n.d., 4) The failure of existing banking structures in the face of dire eco- nomic conditions led these young Sardinians in 2010 to estab- lish a system that complemented the official one. They set up an online mechanism whereby companies that passed a vetting for creditworthiness were extended a line of credit in return for agreeing to accept a certain number of credits. As Sartori ex- plains, “Sardex does not charge transaction fees and negative (or positive) balances do not incur any interest charge (or growth); however, they need to be recovered through the sale of products or services within twelve months or they will need to be repaid in Euro,” which “motivates the holders of positive balances to spend them, stimulating the local economy” (ibid., 5). The Sar- dex’s success has been substantial: “[b]y December 2014, Sardex had 2500 members, businesses and employees, that conducted 66,000 transactions since January 2012” with an annual turna- round of thirty-nine million Euros (Iosifidis et al. 2015). Sartori’s figures for the following year are somewhat higher — “as of the end of 2015, the mass of credits in circulation was four-million Euro, while the total value of products and services backing this money over a twelve-month period was eighty-million Euro” (Sartori n.d., 5) — and by no means call the Sardex’s success into question, on the contrary. For their part the Sardinians were inspired by the Swiss WIR. The WIR, which stands for “‘Wirtschaftsring,’ German for ‘eco- nomic circle’, but also means ‘we’ in German, emphasizing the community and solidarity aspects of the currency” (Sartori n.d.,