This section of my website is more than a travelogue and story of my life; it is also an account of my professional life as a monetary historian and theoretician, community economist, and developer of honest, equitable, and effective means of exchange which are a prerequisite if we are ever to have a peaceful world in which everyone is free to achieve their potential and purpose. I hope my readers will find these reports interesting as well as informative and edifying.
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Click here for a list of my Most recent newsletters going back to 2020
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These are some early newsletters exactly as they were written and distributed.
1988-09 September News and Notes
This PDF file contains a newsletter written while I was still living in Rochester and sent to a small list of my close associates. It includes some details about my visit to Massachusetts to meet with important activists including Bob Swann and Susan Witt of the E. F. Schumacher Society, now called The Schumacher Center for a New Economics, and various of their associates; Terry Mollner, and Joanna Campe. One of my most important research associates, Theo Megalli, happened to be visiting the US from Germany at the time so he was able to join me in some of these meetings and to spend some days working with me in Rochester.
It also tells about my thoughts and feeling about the death of my mother not long afterward.
1988-11 November News of another trip to Massachusetts
This PDF file reports on my further meetings and involvement with The Schumacher Society, including plans for the joint publication with the School of Living (of which I was then President) of Ralph Borsodi’s book about the “Constant Currency” experiment in which Bob Swann participated during the 1970s. That book was eventually published in 1989 with the title, Inflation and The Coming Keynesian Catastrophe: The Story of the Exeter Experiments With Constants by Ralph Borsodi with an introduction by Bob Swann.
1989-03 March Report on the Cato Institute Conference on Money
In February 1989 I attended the Cato Institute Conference on money in Washington, DC, which as I recall was on the theme, Competition in Currency. This was a very important event which made it clear to me that there were a number of mainstream economists who were thinking along the same lines a I was but were probably less willing to actively denounce the flaws inherent in the dominant system and actively promote the alternatives needed to transcend it. In this PDF file of the report I wrote at the time, I gave brief summaries of the more impressive presentations that I heard. Articles by some of these speakers on their conference themes were later published in the Fall 1989 issue of the Cato Journal. While there I also had the opportunity to meet Anna Schwartz, economist and well know collaborator of Milton Friedman who at that time was the “rock star’ among economists. She and I were both invited by a young professor to attend a colloquium at Stonehill College in Massachusetts where he was on the faculty. I don’t recall the precise dates of that event, nor have I found any documentation of it in my archives, but I do remember giving Anna Schwartz a copy of my first book, Money and Debt: A Solution to the Global Crisis, in its original photocopy form which she read with interest. That book was later self-published and professionally printed.
1990-03 March News from Arizona
This is a PDF file of a newsletter I sent to various contacts just three months after I moved from Rochester, New York to Tucson, Arizona in December of 1989. It reveals my excitement and optimism over the people I met and the ambitious projects that I had planned to pursue in cooperation with my new associates. Now 35 years later it’s still a good map of the changes and improvements that I’ve been working to inform, and that many others around the world have taken up.
1990-12 December Holiday Greetings
In this edition I gave a brief report of my first year living in Arizona. Highlights included reports of meeting like-minded people, progress on various projects, printing and publication of the second edition of my book, Money and Debt: A Solution to the Global Crisis, participation in both The Other Economic Summit and Fourth World Assembly in Texas, a journey to Rochester, a major health problem, financial difficulties, and further plans.
1997-06 June CIRC Update
This newsletter file was reconstructed from a scanned document and reports on my presentations, conferences, and projects during 1996 and the first half of 1997, including my inolvement with the World Business Academy, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, The Schumacher Society, and The Other Economic Summit.
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The following are memoirs, in PDF format, of my learnings, ideas, and experiences based on newsletters that I wrote and distributed at the time. Some of these are slightly editied versions of the original newsletters, some contain annotated updates, while others are mostly new stories based on my memories and timelines taken from my various notes, photo, and email archives.
2005–05 Europe Tour, Belgium, Switzerland, France, and Spain
Union of International Associations, RES Barter, WIR Bank, Provence, Calanques, Mondragon cooperatives.
2005-09 China, Wuhan and Shanghai
Teaching in Wuhan, meetings in Shanghai.
2006–02 to 04 Winter and Spring Report from India
Auroville Conference, Presentations in Mumbai
2006–06 Vermont Complementary Currencies Conference
2006-10 October News
Amazing giant Sequoias, Mesa Refuge, fellow writers.
2007–05 Travel Diary–Tucson to California
The Life of Pi, bipolar disorder, Families Advocating for Compassionate Treatment.
2007–06–Report from California
BALLE Conferences, my presentation on the Secret of Money.
2007–06–Report from China
Presentations to the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences and the China Association of Social Work, meeting with Beijing Community Research Center, Conference and presentation in Hang Zhou from June 16-18, Shangai meetings, and onward to India.
2007–07–01 to 11 Early July Report from India
China prespects, the myth of America, lingering illness, Auroville projects, now I have typhoid, oppressive heat, plans.
2007–07–20–Report from India
Recovery from typhoid, progress on projects here, credit clearing-pure and simple.
2007–08–08 Early August Report–India, Malaysia, Singapore
Recovery, Back to Auroville, Malaysia and The International Conference on Gold Dinar Economy, New posts.
2007-09 September Report From Malaysia
Thoughts on Conversations with God, recording presentations, exploring Malaysia again and a visit to the US Embassy.
2007-11 November Reports from Asia and England
Spoiled by tourism, Bali, Penang, Langkawi, Thailand, What’s next, Activities in London.
2007–12–21 Year-end Report
Resting and celebrating with friends in the SF Bay area and Tucson.
2008–02 Mid-winter Report
Thoreau’s wisdom, Portland presentation, filming The Money Fix, a bit of humor.
2008–03 Springing Forth from Arizona to California
St. Patrick’s Day on the road, Ivan Illich and the medical system, Spencer MacCallum, Mata Ortiz, E. C. Riegel.
2008–08 August/September–Musings on Malaysia
Exploring the Malay Peninsula, living free and living well, Penang and the Hungry Ghost festival, Conscious Community, State religion.
2008–11 Report from Koh Phangan
Island living, monsoon rains, Obama and Irrational exuberance, nonviolent communication, social welfare, and more.
2008-12 A Christmas Note from Thailand
Christmas giving, friends in Chiang Mai, gustatory delights, life and purpose.
2009-01 New Year’s Report
Chiang Mai, Getting Around, New Year’s Celebration, to the mountains, Back and Forth.
2009-02 Notes from Laos
Mekong river trip, Vientiane, US Embassy, COPE and the scourge of UXOs.
2009-04 Report from New Zealand
I was invited to New Zealand to give a series of interviews and presentations, including the keynote at the national Community Currencies Conference during a whirlwind tour.
2009-05 Australia tour and back from Down Under
Australia, The End of Money and the Future of Civilization appears in print, Reentry.
2009-08 News from Tucson
R3, Agenda for Q3&Q4, Posted interviews and Published articles.
2009-10 Report on September Tour
Ant wars, RHD, PA Festival, Asheville, IRTA Convention, Upcoming, The way to peace.
2009-11 and 12 Combined Newsletters
Whirlwind tours: west coast, BC, local currencies everywhere; Michigan conference. Presentations, intrviews, priorities. Back to Thailand.
2010–02 February Report
Thoughts about Thailand, Activities, The meaning of the Wizard of Oz, Hazards of cell phone radiation, Good reads, Blatant Bank Abuses, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai.
2010–03 Thoughts from Thailand and Malaysia
Obama and the Politics of Change, Watching old American movies in Hua Hin, Back to Malaysia and visit to Melaka, work progress, book prizes? back to America.
2010–04 Back in the USA
Daniel Ellsberg, Precious, and Coops.
2010–08 Summer Newsletter
O.L.D., The Great Unraveling, Community re-empowerment, Northwest tour, BALLE conference and Eastern Tour, Local ethanol production for fuel, Invitation to Germany, Reclaiming the Credit Commons.
2010–12 December Newsletter
A working vacation? The International Commons Conference in Berlin, Vienna, $7 gasoline is here, Preparing for the Long Emergency, Quantitative easing, Far East dust-up.
2011–01 New Year’s Newsletter
Chiang Mai, Thai Entrepreneurs, Bali—The myth and the Reality, 2011 Likely to Bring Serious Challenges to the Middle-class, Investing in the Common Good, Plans, Chiang Mai.
2011–07 Summer Newsletter
US return, North American tour, Funding the Common Good, War against the middle class, Community, Libya, Cashless exchange, Inflation, Reassessing.
2011–10 Fall Newsletter
Update from Thailand, Occupy Wall Street, What Comes After Money, Thailand floods.
2011–12 Holiday Newsletter
Michigan conference, Jubilee, More about Occupy, Killing Pablo, Thrive, Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward All!
2012–02 Winter Newsletter
David Cobb, Catherine Austin Fitts, Camilo Ramada, Occupy how? The U.S. is already at war with Iran, Investing in yourself and your communities, Building our social capital, My 2012 U.S. tour.
Beyond Money 