No, I don’t expect petitions to change the behavior of the power elite, and I don’t usually waste my time with them, but it is important for us to know how numerous we are. So stand up and be counted, and be a co-signer of this one. It’s eloquent in its statement of the facts, and though it does not get quite to the root of the problem, it crisply outlines the necessary course of government in addressing the budget deficits.–t.h.g.
I’ve tried to explain in my books and lectures that the world is now at a critical point. Many things have been growing exponentially and are now pushing up against the physical limits. I argue that the driver of economic growth has been the debt money system in which money is created on the basis of interest-bearing debt, which is an exponential function. Debt must be continually expended in order to put enough money into the economy to service the previously created debt. But the amount of money is never enough for all debts to be repaid, so a day of reckoning must eventually arrive. We are now very close to that day.
Someone who has done a great job of explaining these things in video format is Chris Martenson. I highly recommend that everyone watch his Crash Course. In the video below, he explains exponential growth and highlights many of the factors that are approaching their limits.
I’ve had the honor to be included in the list of people interviewed for a new documentary film, Money and Life, which has been in preparation for more than two years. Scheduled for release early next year, it is being billed as “A story about money that will change your life.” Judging from the official description and recently released trailer below, it looks like it just might live up to that billing.—t.h.g.
MONEY & LIFE is an essay style documentary that investigates the many faces of money. This cinematic odyssey takes us on a journey, exploring the origins of money to connecting the systemic dots on the current global financial crisis and how we got here. But most importantly looking at what is emerging in the so-called New Economy.
In addition to exploring perspectives on money and the workings of the money system we ask the viewer to engage and examine their own assumptions and beliefs about money, attempting to unearth and make visible the implicit and explicit agreements we have made around money and how it has come to govern our lives in ways that create suffering and dissatisfaction. The central thesis is understanding that different monetary designs produce different results in human society and in the natural world. If that is really so, then what is possible?
We interview an all-star cast of deeply engaged global citizens.
You can view the trailer here:
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=24227019&autoplay=true
Posted in Developing Alternatives, Emerging paradigm, The Political Money System
Tagged film, money and life
Well, part of it anyway. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains the part about the recent shift of the tax burden, the bankrupting of the government, and the war against the middle-class.
AUDIT THE FED.
We need more transparency in how the money and banking system is managed, and an independent audit of the Federal Reserve is a start. There is widespread agreement on that point as pointed out in this Huffington Post article. But what will it take to make it happen?
Posted in Inflation, Politics, The Political Money System
Tagged Federal Reserve, Huffington Post, Ron Paul
Joseph Jaworski is the author of Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership. In a message today from the publisher announcing the second edition of the book, I noted the reference to Jaworski’s “Four Principles to Access the Source of Innovation.” Although I’ve not yet read the book, I did take a look at the blog entry that describes the principles.
This is an excerpt of what it says:
At the heart of what Joseph Jaworski discovered during this fifteen-year journey as a way to understand and access the Source of wisdom and creativity – the place from which profound innovation flows – are these four principles:
1. There is an open and emergent quality to the universe; a group of simple components can suddenly re-emerge at a higher level of self-organization as a new entity with new properties.
2. The universe is a domain of undivided wholeness; both the material world and consciousness are parts of the same undivided whole.
3. There is a creative Source of infinite potential enfolded in the manifest universe; connection to this Source leads to the emergence of new realities.
4. Humans can learn to draw from the infinite potential of the Source by choosing to follow a disciplined path toward self-realization and love, the most powerful energy in the universe. The words of philosopher Pierre Telihard de Chardin speak well to this principle. “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”
Perhaps you own experience, like mine, will attest to the truth inherent in those principles.
I was particularly struck by the first principle and the statement that, a group of simple components can suddenly re-emerge at a higher level of self-organization as a new entity with new properties. This is highly relevant to the transition process that is currently underway in the world, especially the reinvention of money. In Chapter 17 of my book, The End of Money.., I describe the four basic elements required for A Complete Web-Based Trading Platform. These elements are:
1. A marketplace
2. A social network
3. A means of payment
4. A measure of value or pricing unit
These components are indeed “re-emerging” (based on our changing collective consciousness) “at a higher level of self-organization.” We are seeing more widespread recognition that:
We now have many web-based marketplaces and social networks, numerous private currencies and payment systems that use direct credit clearing, and increasing recognition that there is an urgent need for a measure of value that is independent of any fiat currency or central bank.
As I pointed out in my chapter, there are a number of “disruptive technologies” that are emerging to completely change the nature of money and banking. These are:
“It is not any of these individually but all of them in combination that will, I believe, result in structures that will provide superior performance in mediating the exchange process. Worsening economic and financial conditions, such as those experienced in 2007 and 2008, will create enhanced market opportunities for this sort of nonpolitical trading platform, and will assure their eventual implementation and wide acceptance.”
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Posted in Banking, Emerging paradigm, Exchange Design
Tagged emergence, exchange, money, synchronicity
As the financial and economic ground continues to shift beneath our feet, it becomes ever more imperative that we reduce our dependence upon the institutions and structures that we have come to depend upon and take for granted. The financial tsunami of 2008 and the continuing aftershocks should be a wakeup call. The sock markets may be up (for now), but that should not be taken as comforting evidence that everything is “getting back to normal.” As billionaire financier George Soros said in his recent book, “This crisis …has brought the entire [financial] system to the brink of a breakdown, and it is being contained only with the greatest difficulty. This will have far reaching consequences. It is not business as usual but the end of an era.” (The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Crash of 2008 and What it Means. p. 81).
The total outstanding credit for all sectors in the U.S. economy was 160% GDP in 1929, 260% in 1932. By comparison, we entered the 2008 crash at 365%, and Soros believes this will rise to about 500% of GDP within the next few years.
What seems to be in prospects for the foreseeable future for the vast majority of people in the developed world, especially the United States, is diminished purchasing power. This the result of simultaneous trends of underemployment or unemployment, rising prices of basic necessities due to currency debasement (inflation), and systematic attacks on the middle-class by the political establishment.
How do we cope with all of that? It is, of course, as the proverb says, both a challenge and an opportunity. I have suggested before that society is on the verge of metamorphic change that offers the promise of a more peaceful and harmonious world in which basic needs are met and everyone has the opportunity to realize their fullest potential. But it will take the right kind of action to make that vision a reality. It will require that we take sharing and cooperation to new levels, and that we create new structures that can serve the common good. An essential part of that is building community.
On that score, I take inspiration from Richard Flyer and the Conscious Community Network. Richard recently posted a list of 37 ways to build community. No Act is Too Small! You can click on that link to learn more, but I have extracted the 37 ways here for your convenience. I’m sure Richard won’t mind.—t.h.g.
1. A smile and a wave will go a long way.
2. Each morning, ask where you can make a difference.
3. Find the good in others instead of their faults – start in your home and on your street.
4. Become aware of hidden needs on your street – isolated seniors;
youth needing mentors, single parents; etc.
5. Start a community garden.
6. Practice forgiveness.
7. Surprise a new neighbor by making a favorite dinner – and include the recipe.
8. Slow down and enjoy the present moment.
9. Don’t gossip.
10. Start a monthly tea group.
11. Play cards with friends and neighbors.
11. Start a babysitting cooperative.
12. Form a group of neighbors to walk their dogs together.
13. Seek to understand.
14. Start a carpool.
15. Have family dinners and read to your children.
16. If you grow tomatoes, plant extra for a lonely elder who lives nearby – better yet, ask him/her to teach you and others to can the extras.
17. Turn off the TV, Play Station, PSP, and talk with family, friends, and neighbors.
18. Bless your food with gratitude.
19. Know that love is not a feeling but a courageous choice.
20. Ask neighbors for help and reciprocate.
21. Talk to your children or parents about how their day went.
22. Say hello to strangers.
23. Create a neighborhood newsletter.
24. Organize a neighborhood clean-up.
25. Be a model and demonstrate the virtues you want to see in the world.
26. Be a peacemaker.
27. Talk to the mail carrier.
28. Shoot some ‘hoops with neighbor children.
29. Support local merchants.
30. Speak kindly and listen carefully
31. Hire young people for odd jobs.
32. Form a tool cooperative with neighbors and share ladders, rakes, snow blowers, etc.
33. Grow your own food.
34. Be real. Be humble. Be respectful.
35. Offer to watch your neighbor’s home or apartment while they are away
36. Be of service to all.
37. Go to http://www.consciouscommunity-reno.org/ to share your stories.
Adapted from http://bettertogether.org.
A state owned bank can provide state economies with many advantages–if it is properly run. Here’s an article from Mother Jones about the Bank of North Dakota, the only state owned bank in the United States. It makes a pretty good case.–t.h.g.
Posted in Banking, Finance and Economics
There has been very little recognition of the Debt/Growth Imperative that is built into our global system of money, banking, and finance. As I have been preaching for many years, the creation of money as interest-bearing debt requires that indebtedness, in either the private sector or the public sector, must be continually increased at an accelerating rate in order for the system to continue to function. When the private sector is fully “loaned up,” government must step in as “the borrower of last resort.” That was clearly manifested in the latest bubble-bust cycle with the massive bank bailouts and the assumption by governments of enormous amounts of their “toxic debt.”
The aggregate debt burden is destined to ultimately become unbearable, and no amount of government or central bank intervention can save this flawed system (such is the nature of exponential growth). The fiscal crisis that is now confronting national governments around the world signals the imminent collapse. How that will play out is difficult to assess, but it behoove us to use our available resources to enhance the resilience of our communities and build new systems that can be relied on to provide the things we need in order to thrive and build a world that works for all.
One prominent commentator who “gets it” is Chris Martenson. His recent observations (below) are worth considering.—t.h.g.
The Breakdown Draws Near
Tuesday, April 19, 2011, 12:22 pm, by Chris Martenson
Things are certainly speeding up, and it is my conclusion that we are not more than a year away from the next major financial and economic disruption.
Alas, predictions are tricky, especially about the future (credit: Yogi Berra), but here’s why I am convinced that the next big break is drawing near.
In order for the financial system to operate, it needs continual debt expansion and servicing. Both are important. If either is missing, then catastrophe can strike at any time. And by ‘catastrophe’ I mean big institutions and countries transiting from a state of insolvency into outright bankruptcy. [emphasis added]
In a recent article, I noted that the IMF had added up the financing needs of the advanced economies and come to the startling conclusion that the combination of maturing and new debt issuances came to more than a quarter of their combined economies over the next year. A quarter!
I also noted that this was just the sovereign debt, and that state, personal, and corporate debt were additive to the overall amount of financing needed this next year. Adding another dab of color to the picture, the IMF has now added bank refinancing to the tableau, and it’s an unhealthy shade of red: Banks face $3.6 trillion “wall” of maturing debt: IMF
Read the rest of Martenson’s post here.
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Posted in Global Economy, The Debt Imperative, The Political Money System
Tagged debt money., Martenson, unraveling
America has two national budgets, one official, one unofficial. The official budget is public record and hotly debated: Money comes in as taxes and goes out as jet fighters, DEA agents, wheat subsidies and Medicare, plus pensions and bennies for that great untamed socialist menace called a unionized public-sector workforce that Republicans are always complaining about. According to popular legend, we’re broke and in so much debt that 40 years from now our granddaughters will still be hooking on weekends to pay the medical bills of this year’s retirees from the IRS, the SEC and the Department of Energy.
Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?
Most Americans know about that budget. What they don’t know is that there is another budget of roughly equal heft, traditionally maintained in complete secrecy. After the financial crash of 2008, it grew to monstrous dimensions, as the government attempted to unfreeze the credit markets by handing out trillions to banks and hedge funds. And thanks to a whole galaxy of obscure, acronym-laden bailout programs, it eventually rivaled the “official” budget in size — a huge roaring river of cash flowing out of the Federal Reserve to destinations neither chosen by the president nor reviewed by Congress, but instead handed out by fiat by unelected Fed officials using a seemingly nonsensical and apparently unknowable methodology.
This article appears in the April 28, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue will be available on newsstands and in the online archive April 15.
Read the rest of it here.
The first edition of my book, The End of Money and the Future of Civilization, was published by Chelsea Green Publishing in 2009. While it remains
as relevant today as it was when first published the printed book has been out of print for several years. But, having had the rights reverted to me by my publisher, I am making the entire book available for free in PDF format. You can read it or download it HERE. If you would like a hard copy of the first edition used copies can still be found on Amazon.com, Abe books, Thrift books and elsewhere.
Better still, you can avail yourself of the new revised and expanded 2024 edition which I have been working on for almost two years and is almost complete. Eighteen chapters have already been posted and can be freely read or download HERE.
My previous books, as published, may be freely accessed in digital format by clicking the title below.
Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender (2001)
New Money For Healthy Communities (1994)
Money and Debt: a Solution to the Global Crisis (1980)
Collectors may find used and some new print copies of my books as published, on amazon.com and elsewhere online. Start by clicking on the title below:
Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender (2001)
Beyond Money
Beyond Money 