Author Archives: Thomas H. Greco, Jr.

My movie now available, and the further decline of the dollar

Posted on August 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

In early May, I gave a presentation to the Financial Planning Association, which I titled, Financial Planning in the Emerging Butterfly Economy. The slide show was posted here shortly thereafter. Now, thanks to Bill Jackson, we have that presentation in movie form, complete with my slides and narrative. You will find both of these listed in the sidebar to the right under, My Audio-visual presentations You can also view the movie by going directly to the Slide Show Album on my Vimeo site, http://vimeo.com/album/1660843.

You should also be aware that the United States has for the first time in its history, lost its triple-A debt rating. Standard & Poor’s announced on Friday that “it lowered its long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’. Standard & Poor’s also said that the outlook on the long-term rating is negative,” which suggests that further downgrades are likely. You can read the entire S&P statement here.

The recent budget cuts agreed upon by Congress are a mere drop in the deficit “bucket.” As I said many years ago, so long as the debt-money system based upon compounding interest prevails, the federal government budget cannot be balanced. As we have seen very clearly in the recent bailouts by government of banks and financial institutions, government is the borrower of last resort. If government does not play that role, the entire global financial system collapses, as it almost did in 2008.-t.h.g.

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Posted in Global Economy, My activities, The Debt Imperative

Has the chrysalis stage begun?

Posted on August 4, 2011 | 6 comments

Dave Gardner is director of the upcoming documentary GrowthBusters. Here is his recent article that appears on the website of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE).

Gardner points out that there is good reason to celebrate the “bad” economic news being reported in the media. Hopefully, his upcoming film will include something about compound interest and the debt-money system that has been driving endless growth of production and consumption. Debt growth must cease if we are to make a smooth transition.-t.h.g.

Good News: Economic Recovery Stalls!

Posted By Dave Gardner On August 3, 2011

by Dave Gardner, director of the upcoming documentary GrowthBusters

Economic news last Friday was quite positive. Annualized U.S. GDP growth was less than one percent in the first half of 2011.

However, I would hazard a guess that, oh, some 99.9 percent of the world considered this bad news. It was characterized in the New York Times [1] as a “snail’s pace.” Journalists and commentators around the world are predictably typing out words like weak, anemic, malaise, gloomy, bleak, doldrums and stagnation.

So why would I celebrate? Do I get perverse, morbid pleasure at seeing my fellow humans unemployed, upside down in their mortgages, or dining at soup kitchens? I do not. The fallout of the recession is real, it’s painful, and it’s sad. But steady or declining GDP is not bad news. Nor is the drop in consumer spending [2] reported Tuesday.

While many impacts of the recession are tragic, these are the pains of adjusting to a new reality: the end of growth. They are a necessary part of a temporary phase. We might call it the cocoon phase, as we metamorphose into something more beautiful.

Consider these headlines from the past two years. Are they good news or bad?

  • Recession Puts Babies on Hold
  • Tiny House Movement Thrives Amid Real Estate Bust
  • Home Production Falls as Economy Languishes
  • Global Coal Use Stagnates Despite Growing Chinese and Indian Markets
  • Total Municipal Waste Generation Dropped
  • Home Depot Calls a Halt to Rapid Expansion
  • European Union Carbon Pollution Drops
  • GM to Close Hummer
  • Gasoline Spike Fuels Surge in U.S. Bicycle Sales
  • Bottled Water Consumption Growth Slows
  • 30-Year Growth Spurt Ends for Average American House Size
  • Ad Spending Down
  • Airlines Ground More Than 11% of Their Jets
  • Breast Implants are Deflating Along With the Economy
  • More Than 400 Meetings in Las Vegas Recently Cancelled
  • 2nd Home Market Declined 30%

Looking at these headlines through an archaic lens, last century’s worldview that growth is the Holy Grail, these stories seemed like bad news. But through a more modern, 21st century lens that values true sustainability, they herald a world slowing down toward a responsible level of human activity.

Think about it. Smaller houses mean less deforestation, less habitat converted to subdivisions, less concrete (production of which emits significant CO2), and less living space to heat or cool (again reducing CO2 emissions). Less coal use is also good news in the greenhouse gas department — as are grounded jets, no more Hummers and a switch to bicycles. Strangely we see no signs that politicians, pundits or journalists are thinking this deeply about the subjects.

I’m not the first to recognize this recession as an opportunity. Great minds like Gus Speth and David Korten are doing their best to turn this recession into a course correction. Korten’s Why This Crisis May Be Our Best Chance to Build a New Economy [3], and Speth’s Towards a New Economy and a New Politics [4] are good examples of this. Even Jay Leno got into the act, congratulating President George W. Bush in 2008 for doing more to fight climate change than Al Gore — by slowing the economy. Of course the impacts of economic growth reach far beyond the climate. Our increasing economic activity is causing habitat destruction, species extinction and pollution [5]; and it is liquidating critical resources like fertile soil.

I’m aware of no journalist who sought out Speth, Korten, Daly, Czech, Victor or Heinberg for an alternative view on Friday’s news. A story about ice melting would include comments from both real climate scientists and climate change deniers. But for this GDP story there was no discussion in the newsrooms about getting the other side — a quote about how terrific it is that gross domestic product may be settling toward a steady state. They assume GDP growth is good news and economic contraction is bad news — for everyone. It doesn’t even occur to them to question that assumption. Blind faith in the old worldview still has a tight grip on the reporters and editors. This needs to change.

I look forward to seeing the butterfly!

–

Dave Gardner is the filmmaker behind the documentary, GrowthBusters, which premieres in late October. The nonprofit film’s final fundraising campaign on Kickstarter [6] is in its last week. For more information about the film or to organize a screening, visit www.growthbusters.org [7]. Dave can be reached at dave@growthbusters.org [8].

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Posted in Economics, Finance and Economics, Global Economy, The Debt Imperative

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The Door is Closing

Posted on August 1, 2011 | 1 comment

A recent  article by Stephen Leahy titled, Data Shows All of Earth’s Systems in Rapid Decline, sounds a dire warning. As the pace of ecosystem decline and species extinctions accelerates, the prospects of human survival on planet Earth grow ever dimmer.

What has money to do with all that? Everything!

As one of my favorite economists, Kenneth Boulding, has said, “Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.” Unfortunately, it seems that they are the ones who are running the world. Those who control the creation of money have the power to control everything else. Thus, our political leaders are in thrall to the top level financial establishment and the orthodox economists who perpetuate the myth that the debt money system is giving us the best of all possible worlds. Of course, the rest of us, though ignorance and inattention, have also been deluded and complicit in their malfeasance.

Economists, by and large, still worship the “Growth God,” arguing that all of society’s ills can be solved by further increasing material production and consumption.

That is sheer folly.

Population, atmospheric carbon dioxide, and debt are three things that have long been growing exponentially. All of these are causes of the global mega-crisis, but the most fundamental of these, and the one most subject to human amelioration is debt.

As I’ve been describing it in my recent presentations (see, e.g., my slide show, Financial Planning in the Emerging Butterfly Economy), the global debt-money system, based as it is on lending money into circulation at compound interest, is the DRIVER of the mega-crisis. This, because it has inherent in it a debt-growth imperative. As interest on debts accrues with the passage of time, more debt must be created in order to keep the supply of money in circulation sufficient for older debts to be repaid (with interest). The always deficient supply of money in circulation puts continual pressure on companies and individuals to increase their production as they attempt to earn enough money to pay what they owe. Ultimately, it is impossible for all debts to be paid. Hence, throughout the modern era, we have seen overall debt growing much faster than GDP or any other measure of real economic output.

Total Debt for All Sectors--US Economy

Total Debt for All Sectors--US Economy

Time is running out on the “Caterpillar Economy.” Like the caterpillar, the global economy must eventually reach a maximum size, cease its destructive consumption and growth, and morph into something that is sustainable and ecologically benign–the “Butterfly Economy.”

We must either give up the practice of lending at interest (usury, riba) and embrace monetary and financial systems that enable the butterfly economy to emerge, or see the world descend into chaos as nature applies her own correctives upon the Earth and its inhabitants.

Yes, it IS possible.–t.h.g.

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Posted in Prescriptions, The Debt Imperative, The Political Money System

The monumental Fed Rip-off

Posted on July 24, 2011 | 7 comments

We now have the results of the first-ever audit of the Federal Reserve. What it reveals is astounding and outrageous.

Senator Bernie calls it “socialism for the rich,” but it’s not merely “socialism for the rich,” it’s wholesale looting of our common wealth by the people who run the world. This blows sky high all arguments in favor of an “independent” central bank. Independence in this case means allowing an unelected self-serving elite to take what they want free from any effective oversight or control by the people or the people’s representatives.

The list of institutions that received the most money from the $16 trillion Federal Reserve bailout can be found on page 131 of the GAO Audit and are as follows..

Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)

An excellent article on this story, from which the above list was obtained, can be found on Countercurrents.org.–t.h.g.

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Posted in Banking, Geo-politics, The Political Money System

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Iceland, a case that deserves careful study

Posted on July 19, 2011 | 4 comments

Iceland was one of the first countries to experience the financial crisis that plagues the world. It seems to be the canary in the coal mine, and as such, it may be showing us not only what is in store for the rest of us, but also a way out of our dilemma.

In this series of 5 videos, Prof. Michael Hudson explains very clearly what happened to Iceland and shows it to be an example of the pattern that is being played out in the rest of the world.

In the time since that interview was recorded, the people of Iceland have taken action that may get to the root of the problem. Instead of bailing out the banks and rewarding those who caused the problem in the first place, Iceland has, according to one of my correspondents:
– Totally recalled its government.
– Nationalized its main banks.
– Decided not to honor the claims from the UK and Holland due to their speculative policies.
– Created a popular assembly to rewrite its constitution.

Strangely, there has been very little about that in the media.

I would very much like to see reports that detail these actions, so I invite any of my readers who find them to pass them on by making comments to this post–t.h.g.

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Posted in Geo-politics, Global Economy, The Political Money System

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Sonoma County GoLocal Leading the Way

Posted on July 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

As I’ve been saying for some time, civilization is at a major turning point. Many things need to change if we are to have the kind of world we want to live in. To make the transition gracefully, I think new structures need to be built from the bottom upward, community by community.

One of the most promising projects that is currently underway is Sonoma County GoLocal. In a recent communication, Prof. Philip Beard has provided this update.

Dear Friends,

As most of you know, I’ve been involved for the past several years in the Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative, our regional localization initiative. The Coop’s development has been rapid and impressive. (If you like, check out our website: http://sonomacounty.golocal.coop/.) But like everybody else, we need money. I’ve applied to the Ashoka Foundation in Washington DC for one of the five $50k grants they are awarding under the rubric Powering Economic Opportunity: Create A World That Works.

I’m writing to ask your assistance with this application, if you’ve got a few spare moments. Ashoka suggests that applicants’ chances will improve if supporters go to the project website, read the application, and post their comments. If you’re interested, here’s the link that will get you to my page: http://www.changemakers.com/node/103467. My project summary will show on that page; to read the various segments of the proposal, you’ll need to hit the “read more” buttons.

Apparently you need to “log in” with Ashoka to leave comments, as you’ll find out if you hit the “discuss” and even just the “like” button. I apologize for this inconvenience, and will be doubly grateful if you decide to brave it out.

The judges start vetting the proposals on July 20, so if you want to post a comment it’ll have to be before then.

Many thanks,

Philip Beard

I’m urging everyone to get behind this project in whatever way you can. I have great confidence that Sonoma County GoLocal has the potential to become the kind of optimal model needed to inspire other communities and lead them onto the right path toward achieving economic democracy.–t.h.g.

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Posted in Emerging paradigm, Prescriptions

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Usury and the Money Problem, a Message to Faith Communities

Posted on July 6, 2011 | 5 comments

The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) is an international interfaith movement that has been working for peace, justice and nonviolence for almost a century. As a result of meeting Ray Foss during my tour of Oregon and Washington about a year ago, I reconnected with FOR. Ray has lately been instrumental in raising the issues of “usury” and “the money problem” amongst various faith-based communities. I think it is largely through his efforts that a recent issue of Fellowship, the magazine of FOR, had a major focus on Rethinking Money.

Starting with a fine editorial by Mark C. Johnson, FOR executive director, that section of the magazine contains articles by both Ray and myself. My article Money, Usury, and the Economics of Peace, can be read online.

The arguments against the practice of usury/interest go way beyond scriptural prohibitions. It is now obvious to anyone who cares to see, that there are solid economic and social arguments that should be sufficient to persuade any rational person that our present system of money and finance, based as it is on compound interest (usury), is not only unjust, but also destructive to the natural environment, the social fabric, and the common good.

World debt has been growing much faster than any measure of economic output, even GDP (gross domestic product), which includes not only the production of goods, but also the production of “bads.” The financial crises we are seeing in various countries and economic sectors are evidence that the debt burdens have grown far beyond what can be borne by either the private sector or by governments.

The growth of debt must stop. A new economic and financial order must soon emerge, if not consciously and deliberately, then it will happen on its own through the descent into chaos. If political and financial leaders cannot accept the end of the old order of things, then the people themselves must take the lead to develop new arrangements that build a peaceful, more equitable society, from the bottom up. How that might be done s the subject of the latter (prescriptive) chapters of my book, The End of Money and the future of Civilization.

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Posted in Emerging paradigm, Prescriptions, The Debt Imperative, The Political Money System

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Recognizing Interdependence

Posted on July 5, 2011 | 1 comment

Money is supposed to be our servant, but it has become our master. A major step in liberating ourselves is the recognition that “we are all in this together,” that the entire web of life is based on intricate patterns of co-dependence and symbiosis.

Tom Atlee of the Co-Intelligence Institute, in his Independence Day musings, provides a useful history of the “interdependence movement,” and it various proponents. Here is an excerpt:

For countries as well as individuals, independence is a dramatic move from dependence into a more self-defined, self-created life.

The next developmental step takes us into greater INTERdependence – bringing ourselves into increasingly mutual, peer, give-and-take relationships with others.

Nature has been developing interdependence as an art form for billions of years.  Animals like us depend on plants for oxygen; plants depend on us for carbon dioxide.  Flowers feed bees with nectar; bees pollinate flowers.  Rabbits feed foxes; foxes keep rabbits from destroying their own habitat and starving.

We humans have our own ways of being interdependent.  With each passing year, global economics, technology, media and mobility have woven us all together.  On the other side of the coin, climate change, ocean exploitation, terrorism and wind-borne toxins and radiation have taught us — or should be teaching us — how relative our boundaries are and how solidly real our shared destiny.

As the fundamental fact of interdependence becomes increasingly obvious, we are slowly learning how to use it consciously to further our collective well-being. We are developing new forms of mutuality, community, synergy, sustainability and co-intelligence which empower us to make our shared fate a good one.

Declarations of Interdependence and Interdependence Days can help us remember just how important and valuable interdependence is.

You can read the rest of Tom’s message here.

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Posted in Emerging paradigm, Geo-politics

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My Summer 2011 Newsletter

Posted on July 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

The long silence

It’s been a long time since I sent out my previous newsletter in mid-February. That doesn’t mean I’ve been inactive—quite the contrary, I’ve just been too busy to document all the things I’ve been doing or to compile the list of important links and resources I want you to know about. This edition is intended to remedy that.

I returned to the U.S. from Asia in mid-February for a four month stint, but am now back in Thailand for an indefinite period. While in America, much of my time and energy was taken up with preparing and delivering some new presentations, providing media interviews, and trying in vain to keep up with email and other correspondence. The first few weeks in Tucson were devoted to resting up, reconnecting with friends and colleagues, and taking care of some personal business details.

By the middle of April, I had completed a new presentation which elaborates the themes that I began expounding more than a year ago about societal metamorphosis and the “Butterfly economy,” and added more material about “new finance” to my perennial topic of alternative exchange.

The North American tour

Long-time friend and associate, Les Squires, made it possible for me to venture up to Colorado for a few days in April to conduct a series of presentations, discussions, and consultations. Highlights of that trip included my presentation titled, Money and Finance in the Emerging Butterfly Economy, which I delivered to the Highland City Club in Boulder, and another presentation on The Butterfly Economy at the Louisville Public Library. These were co-sponsored by various Transitions groups and individuals and will eventually be made available on my website http://beyondmoney.net.

I had a rewarding but exhausting trip back east in May, with family visits sandwiched in between presentations in Florida and Toronto. The first of these was a workshop that I was asked to provide for members of the Financial Planning Association at their annual retreat. I titled it, Financial Planning in the Emerging Butterfly Economy: Realities, Trends and Discontinuities. You can view the power point slide show at https://beyondmoney.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/greco-fpa-powerpointrevpost.pps. I have a recording of my narrative which I would like to combine with the slide show but I’ll need some help to do that. If anyone has the skills and the time to work with me on that, I’d greatly appreciate it.

The hardest part was the last 4 days in Toronto where I gave a lecture at the MINT film festival on the first day, two TV interviews on the second, and workshops on the third and fourth days, with a lot of consultations in between. That trip was hosted by Glen Alan who, as the new director, has put renewed vigor into the Toronto Dollar currency project. Glen, who happens to be a musician and operates a professional recording studio, is well-connected, very effective, and a fountain of energy.

All of the Toronto proceedings were professionally recorded and are in the process of being edited. Glen and Ron Elmy are putting together a DVD that will be available from The MINT Film Festival website in less than a month. Watch for it on http://mintff.org. You can download a short video teaser now at http://www.ronelmy.com/files/thg.zip.

Already posted are my interview with Frank Touby (at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvCruoYcN4Q), and my interview with Hugh Reilly (at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7nOYCRHjOY&feature=player_detailpage).

My particular vision, interests and expertise are, I think, fairly well expressed in these interviews.

I’m hopeful that my Toronto visit and the follow-up activities will have a far reaching positive impact.

Funding the Common Good

CREW

Sometime toward the end of last year I mentioned an exciting new project called, CREW, the purpose of which is to provide a perpetual pool of capital to finance both for-profit and non-profit enterprises that help to create resilient, sustainable communities. It is one instance of an emerging phenomenon called crowd sourcing or crowd funding. CREW is not intended to provide any direct personal gain. Money we put in is not a loan, nor is it an ownership share, but a gift that is intended to be a permanent investment in the common good.

I have great expectations for this initiative, and as a member of the CREW Founder’s Circle, I invite you to join my CREW. We will together decide how the funds in our joint stewardship account will be invested. Just go to http://www.CREWfund.org/tomg, watch the short video, and click on the orange Join Now button.

Recent Posts to my Website

For those of you who do not regularly follow my posts, I’d like to highlight a few especially important ones. You can be notified of new posts by following me (tomazgreco) on Twitter.

  • The war against the middle class. It is ever more apparent that there is a deliberate policy to impoverish and disempower the middle class. As far back as 2006, billionaire Warren Buffet was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” More recently, Senator Bernie Sanders, in a speech to his Senate colleagues, plainly described the war that is being waged against the middle class by the super-wealthy elite and their minions in Congress. Find it at this post, https://beyondmoney.net/2011/03/28/what-happened-to-class-war-in-america/, and search “Sanders” on my site for additional material on the subject. This is not simply an American war, but one that is being waged globally, as we see from the austerity that is being imposed on Ireland, Greece, and other “developed” coutries.

One aspect of that war is the ongoing shifting of the tax burden from corporations and wealthy individuals onto the backs of the poor and middle-class. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains that part of it in a 2 minute video. See it at, https://beyondmoney.net/2011/06/20/the-truth-about-the-economy/.

Miscellany

  • I’ve written a new article, Reclaiming the Credit Commons, the Key to a Peaceful and Happy Society, that will be included in an anthology tentatively titled, Self-Sustaining Abundance: The Commons, Beyond Market and State. The book project is being supported by The Heinrich Boell Foundation of Germany, and is being co-edited by Silke Helfrich and David Bollier. It will be published early next year in English, German and Spanish.
  • One of my published articles will be included in the upcoming anthology What Comes After Money? which will be published later this year by Evolver Editions (http://www.evolvereditions.com) in partnership with North Atlantic Books, and will be distributed by Random House.
  • The Chinese translation of my book, The End of Money and the Future of Civilization, is now in print.

I’m reassessing how I want to spend my time and energy from here on out. I’d like to be a little less busy, and direct the bulk of my attention to aspects of my work that are most creative, enjoyable, and effective. I’ll be cutting back on correspondence and lecturing, and emphasizing consultations and collaborations with groups and individuals working on projects that show promise of making major breakthroughs toward interest-free cashless trading, equitable finance, and economic democracy.

May we all find the courage to do what needs to be done, in a joyful spirit and with love in our hearts,

Thomas

Mobile phone (Thailand): +66 84 373 5645
Skype/Twitter name: tomazgreco

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More from Bernie Sanders

Posted on June 28, 2011 | 1 comment

Here’s a clip from MSNBC. Senator Bernie  Sanders discussing Shared Sacrifice.

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Posted in Finance and Economics, Politics

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