Currency
I spent the day last Monday at the United Nations by invitation of the Bhutanese government (along with about 600 other guests). The event was called “High Level Meeting on Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm.” I thought, “It must not be very high-level if I am invited.” Nonetheless, there I was among 600 activists, economists, NGO workers, bankers, et al from around the world, listening to speeches by prime ministers and Nobel laureates. Except for the monks, I was the only man not wearing a necktie. But that wasn't what disturbed me about the meeting.
Let me give you a bit of background. In 1972, the King...
Activism, Finance, Currency, Food, Governance, Transportation, Farming, Elections, Environment, Education
It appears we were just one more meeting (and 2 pizzas, one growler and a nice Beaujolais...) away from finalizing our new COOP mission statement. Our Board members think this statement very nicely distills what we are trying to do here. If you agree that our goals are laudable and viable, please join our merry band and help us 'shrug off' the burdens of Empire.
Vermont Commons News Cooperative Mission Statement:
The Vermont Commons: Voices of Independence COOP provides an organizational news model that is transparent and equitable, one that balances crowdsourcing of...
Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme - but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being.
The Bank of North Dakota holds the state general fund as deposits, meaning the bank and lend money into existence using the general fund as the reserves. This allows the state to self-finance public capital projects without borrowing money at high interest from Wall St bond markets. This also means North Dakota's community banks have the state bank backing them up and guaranteeing their loans, which results in low-cost accesssible credit to North Dakota's small business and agriculture economy. This is win-win-win, for everyone, including the community banks, and is a central reason that North Dakota has the strongest economy in the US.
Vermont Commons and the Vermont Monetary Policy Group have been working on the issues of...
Gwen Hallsmith is Director of Planning/Development for the City of Montpelier and has earned international acclaim for her work on monetary issues. She's leading a citizen-businessperson committee that I am part of (along with people like Ben Cohen of Ben/Jerrys and Jeffrey Hollander of 7th Generation) that is working with VT Legislators on creating state-level monetary policy which will insulate VT from Wall St corruption. This movement includes exploring a State-owned bank like the highly successful Bank of North Dakota and also includes the conception of an alternative VT currency that could be...
Activism, OWS, Finance, Currency, Commerce, Business, Economics, Governance, Transportation, Politics
Inspired by our friends at Occupy Wall Street and Dr. Cornel West, Move To Amend is planning bold action to mark the second anniversary of the infamous Citizens United v. FEC decision!
Occupy the Courts will be a one day occupation of Federal courthouses across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Friday January 20, 2012.
Move to Amend volunteers across the USA will lead the charge on the judiciary which created and continues...
I just had one of those weird disconnect experiences, like HUH?? I read two entirely opposite accounts of the same time period and they can’t both be right. First I read Michael Moore’s recent book “Here Comes Trouble”, which isn’t great, but has some interesting anecdotes worth reading. The one that caught my attention was the time Moore attended “Expo Maquila ‘86', a US Commerce Department conference in Acapulco, Mexico to help US companies move jobs to Mexico and save on labor costs. He went to write an article for Nader’s Multinational Monitor. Nader’s chief of staff John Richard told...
Our society is fraught with a contradiction: on the one hand, we have vast needs that go unmet; on the other hand, we have vast amounts of labor, wasted resources, and productive capacity that could in principle meet those needs. Money is supposed to bring them together, but it is failing to do so. We can see a local complementary currency as a way to bridge the gap.
Unfortunately, with the notable exception of time banks, the practical results of local currency initiatives in the United States have been disappointing. A common pattern is that the currency is launched with much enthusiasm and continues to circulate as long as the...
Currency, Commerce, Economics, History, Foreign Policy, Transportation, Military, Politics
Ellen Brown begins a recent essay explaining the genesis of a bill to create bank credit in Minnesota for the funding of infrastructure: "In August 2007, the nation was stunned by the collapse of a major Minneapolis bridge, killing thirteen. The bridge had been rated structurally deficient by the U.S. government as far back as 1990, and it was only one of more than 70,000 bridges across the country with that rating. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimated that it would take nearly $190 billion to fix the country's failing bridges over the next two decades." See:...
Lifeboat Vermont gets an important spotlight. With the US Constitution formally nullified by NDAA, and $29 Trillion in FED bank-bailouts revealed, how much worse does it have to get before VT takes back our God-given inalienable right to self-government?
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