Music

Love, Money, & Wealth
How to Get Rich while Saving the Planet

We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden.

--- Joni Mitchell, "Woodstock" lyrics
Performance at Big Sur

This website began as a way of sharing my music for the "Song of Songs"... an erotic love song that has been quoted and sung in Jewish and Christian wedding ceremonies for some 2000 years. One of the Song's central themes is that love is more pecious than gold; implying, of course, that love is more precious than ANY form of material wealth.

The young lovers in the Song are fond of games, and on several occassions we find them pretending to be Solomon and Sheba. In the course of this play, the young man compares his wealth... true, mutual love... with the wealth of King Solomon. And his conclusion, in the final analysis, is that his own good fortune far surpasses the King's.

Most people would agree that real wealth consists of love, friendship, good health; happy, healthy children; a peaceful, prosperous community; the beauty of unspoiled nature; and the freedom to grow and fulfill our potential as human beings.

Unfortunately, today... in the 21st century... most of us live in an economic system that subverts these values by undermining the economic security and social harmony of families and communities. It does this by creating an artificial scarcity of the medium of exchange (money) forcing people into ruthless competition with each other. This system channels credit away from productive enterprise, promoting instead: economic injustice, war, and the reckless destruction of our life support system... the earth.

Here again, this ancient poem conveys a message that is relevant to our present circumstances; for it tells not one... but two... love stories: the story of two lovers, and the story of their love for the Earth. Their poetic language of love is pervaded with natural metaphors; and, throughout the Song, as they praise each other's charms, they are also... at the same time... praising the beauty of nature. Indeed, they are magically transformed, by the power of the imagination, into poetic embodiments of the land and its life. The young woman especially, as if by some ancient magic, seems to merge and become one with the Earth itself.

Awake, north wind! 0 south wind, come,
breathe upon my garden,
let its spices stream out.
Let my lover come into his garden
and taste its delicious fruit.

Song of Solomon 4:16

If we, as a species, are determined to survive, we must somehow revive this ancient sense of unity with the unfolding life of the Earth.

" Man as an organism is to the world outside like a whirlpool is to a river: man and world are a single natural process, but we are behaving as if we were invaders and plunderers in foreign territory. For when the individual is defined and felt as the separate personality or ego, he remains unaware that his actual body is a dancing pattern of energy that simply does not happen by itself. It happens only in concert with myriads of other patterns... called animals, plants, insects, bacteria, minerals, liquids, and gases. The definition of a person and the normal feeling of 'I' do not effectively include these relationships. You say, 'I came into this world.' You didn't; you came out of it, as a branch from a tree."

---Alan Watts,
Does It Matter © 1968, 1969, 1970, p.23

Although, no doubt, the core of the problem lies on some deep psychological level conjoined with physical evolution, there are certain social institutions that promote and maintain this sense of alienation. If we hope to grow beyond this limitation, we will have to solve both the inner and the outer dimensions simultaneously.

Greed and competition are not a result of immutable human temperament... Greed and fear of scarcity are in fact being continuously created and amplified as a direct result of the kind of money we are using... We can produce more than enough food to feed everybody, and there is definitely enough work for everybody in the world, but there is clearly not enough money to pay for it all. The scarcity is in our national currencies. In fact, the job of central banks is to create and maintain that currency scarcity. The direct consequence is that we have to fight with each other in order to survive.

--- Bernard Lietaer

The international banking system is a 300 year old Ponzi scheme that has reached its mathematical limits, and is now shaking apart. Fortunately, even as the old economy crumbles, people across the country and around the world are building a new one to take its place. Based on new forms of money, democratic finance and business, the new economy is about increasing the quality of life, improving health, and restoring the environment.

This rebirth can be easy, or it can be painful, depending on how rapidly people wake up to the con game known as the Federal Reserve Banking System, and its corollary: the rigged campaign finance system (see Opensecrets.org Cost of midterm elections, 2010).

In a nutshell, the con is this: Instead of issuing the medium of exchange (money) as a public utility, for the simple purpose of facilitating the exchange of REAL wealth... namely our own goods and services... our phony "representative" government borrows money... in your name and mine... from the banking cartel, incurring a debt, on our behalf, which is now in excess of 12 trillion dollars. In the words of congressman, Wright Patman:

“I have never yet had anyone who could, through the use of logic and reason, justify the Federal Government borrowing the use of its own money... I believe the time will come when people will demand that this be changed. I believe the time will come in this country when they will actually blame you and me and everyone else connected with the Congress for sitting idly by and permitting such an idiotic system to continue.”

Congressman Wright Patman

The national debt increases according to a physically and mathematically unsustainable rate of compound interest, and is repayed through taxation, which adds to the price of goods and services at every stage of production. All of this is siphoned off as tribute to the con-artists who are running this quasi-legal counterfeiting operation (commonly known as the Federal Reserve). The Fed, and its co-conspirators in the conventional banking system, create money out of nothing by typing numbers into a computer, and charge us interest for the use of our own credit.

All national currencies come into existence in this way... through bank loans and the purchase of debt on the open market. Whenever a borrower borrows money from a bank, the loan officer creates money out of nothing, simply by making an accounting entry. The bank is essentially monetizing YOUR collateral, YOUR credit (your mortgage, your car, your future productivity) and charging you interest for the use of counterfeit (fractional reserve) digital symbols representing your own, or other people's assets... not the bank's.

(For authoritative references see Money as Debt, and watch the video, Money as Debt)

"Each and every time a bank makes a loan (or purchases securities), new bank credit is created — new deposits — brand new money."

Graham F. Towers, Director, Bank of Canada

“The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented.

Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough money to buy it back again...

Take this great power away from them and all great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for then this would be a better and happier world to live in. But if you want to continue to be slaves of the banks and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let bankers continue to create money and control credit.”

Sir Josiah Stamp Director, Bank of England 1928-1941
(reputed to be the 2nd richest man in Britain at the time)

We all have the power to create debt-free money through local exchange trading systems (LETS), and community exchange systems (CES). As explained on the Capetown Community Exchange System website:

" Conventional money is created as debt by private financial institutions for their own profitmaking purposes, not as a public service. This is the root cause of the economic, social and environmental problems that beset us. The amount of debt determines the quantity of money [therefore the rate of inflation and the purchasing power of money], which has nothing to do with the amount of money we need to live decent lives.

CES money is 'created' by its users so it can never be in short supply . So long as you can offer something of value you can have from the community goods and services of like value."

community-exchange.org

These constructive exchange systems are being implemented on many different levels of commerce. One of the simplest forms is the community timebank. In a timebank, an hour's worth of babysitting can, for example, be exchanged for an hour-long piano lesson from some other member of the community. On a broader, more commercial level, business to business exchanges involving thousands of "trade dollars" are becoming more and more mainstream as the economy continues to melt down. Here is an example of a trade using Bartercard:

" A restaurant wishes to 'barter' for $10,000 worth of printing using meals and drinks. No printer would ever want $10,000 in meals from the one restaurant, however by selecting a Bartercard printer, the restaurateur pays the printer with T$10,000 Trade Dollars. The printer’s account is 'credited' and the restaurateur’s account 'debited', so the restaurant now owes T$10,000 in meals to the Bartercard network, NOT the printer. This is repaid as various Bartercard members come to the restaurant (new business) over the following months. Hence, the restaurant has paid for its printing requirements with meals, using an interest-free "line of credit" and at a cost of approximately 30 - 40 cents in the dollar, in replacement good cost.

The printer can now use the Trade Dollars earned to buy office furniture, advertising, car repairs, stationery, courier services, colour separations, accounting and legal services ~ even a family holiday. These are all commodities for which the printer would normally pay cash. By using their Bartercard Trade Dollars, the printer conserves his cash and benefits from the extra business."

As mentioned, the U.S. national debt is now topping 12 trillion dollars. This debt was entirely avoidable. Our government has always had the power to create the medium of exchange and spend it into circulation by making improvements to the commons, without incurring any debt whatever. Numerous experiments along these lines were done in early America; one of the most successful being the system established in Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania.

Under the present system, however, interest payments on the national debt are made through taxes levied at every stage in the production of goods and services. They are built into the price of everything we buy, making everything far more expensive than it needs to be, allowing always for ubiquitous tributes to the counterfeiters who run the operation. The only reason why this system is accepted as legal by its many naïve victims is that the con artists have used their superabundance of counterfeit money ~ via susidies, grants, and loans ~ to purchase lawmakers, educators, and the media. Even the vaunted "alternative" media rarely focuses on this problem and its ultimate solution: mutual credit community exchange systems like LETS and CES.

By way of example, consider for a moment that stalwart flagship of "progressive" media, The Nation magazine. Recently this ostensibly "liberal rag" published a cover story on "How to Get Our Democracy Back." They managed to do this without touching ~ in any way, shape, or form ~ on the power and promise of mutual credit community exchange systems. Search their site ~ the nation.com ~ for "local exchange trading systems" (LETS), and you will come up embarassingly empty handed. Is it any wonder, then, that even intelligent, well-meaning progressives do not take these systems seriously. And yet (mark my words), without economic democracy, political democracy is nothing but a pipe dream.

In light of this evidence (easily verifiable by way of a simple search on line), one might well begin to take seriously the charges that a few thinking-outside-the-box "conspiracy theorists" have leveled against "left gatekeepers." (Equally true, of course, of "right gatekeepers.")

Left, right, or middle: the quasi-legal license to counterfeit purchasing power is an awesome prerogative:

In the words of Senator Dick Durbin:

"... the banks.. hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created.. are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place"

~ Senator Dick Durbin

And as investigative reporter, Greg Palast, pointed out: as a result of the moneyed elite's elaborate con games, Americans now have "the best democracy that money can buy."

It is very revealing to use Google's advanced search function to search your pimary sources of current news with keywords such as: "local exchange trading system," "community exchange system," "barter exchange," or "supplemental currency." After searching some of my own sources: (commondreams.org, alternet.org, democracynow.org, and globalresearch.ca), the results did not bode well. In spite of their slick antiestablishmentarianism, these outfits have had little to say about the ultimate solution: debt-free mediums of exchange ~ which cut at the root of the establishment's wellspring of power. This, I think, is a good measure of how compromised our news sources are by the global corporatocracy, and its underwriters: the international banking cartel. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "the left gatekeepers." The con is far more subtle and pervasive than most people imagine. Most people think they are brainy enough to spot it, but they are not. Most people have read next to nothing about the art and science of propaganda, and have never even heard of Edward Bernays, the originator of "modern public relations"... one of the most influential men of the 20th century.

The banking cartel has the power to channel credit wherever it wants. The credit monopolists decide which applicants get loans and which do not ~ so, for example, funding for green jobs and alternative energy development is inevitably measured out in crumbs (thereby maintaining the illusion of benevolent, good-governance) while on the other hand, any amount of money is available for war, bank bailouts, welfare for corporate polluters, and the construction of a quasi-American empire.

I say "quasi" because this coercive empire really doesn't benefit average Americans at all. Quite the opposite. All that TALK about exporting democratic capitalism to other countries, at the point of a gun, is transparent nonsense... sheer propaganda. America's endless foreign wars have only succeded in destroying democracy here at home. Permit me to recommend Major General Smedley Butler's pamphlet, War is a Racket, as a cure for the delusion that it is UNPATRIOTIC to protest against endless foreign entanglements. The way to stop the madness is to cut off the war machine's funding. You may think that's easier said than done ~ especially if you've been hynotized by the idea that money is a THING that some people... by birth or luck... have more of than others. But the truth is that each of us has the power to create money ~ not backed by gold, silver, or oil ~ but by our own skill and creative genius.

Broadly speaking: Without economic democracy, political democracy is impossible. One of the most powerful things we can still do to create peace is take back the credit commons, opt out of the counterfeit money system.

In 1750, Benjamin Franklin described the salutary effect of a monetary system designed to promote the common good.

There was abundance in the Colonies, and peace was reigning on every border. It was difficult, and even impossible, to find a happier and more prosperous nation on all the surface of the globe. Comfort was prevailing in every home. The people, in general, kept the highest moral standards, and education was widely spread.

--- Benjamin Franklin

When Franklin went to London in 1764, he was astonished to find widespread unemployment and poverty among the British working classes.

When he asked why, he was told the country had too many workers. The rich were already overburdened with taxes and could not pay more to relieve the poverty of the working classes. Franklin was then asked how the American colonies managed to collect enough money to support their poor houses. He reportedly replied:

We have no poor houses in the Colonies; and if we had some, there would be nobody to put in them, since there is, in the Colonies, not a single unemployed person, neither beggars nor tramps.

His English listeners had trouble believing this, since when their poor houses and jails had become too cluttered, the English had actually shipped their poor to the Colonies. The directors of the Bank of England asked what was responsible for the booming economy of the young colonies. Franklin replied:

That is simple. In the colonies we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Scrip. We issue it to pay the government's approved expenses and charities. We make sure it is issued in proper proportions to make the goods pass easily from the producers to the consumers... In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one. You see, legitimate government can both spend and lend money into circulation, while banks can only lend significant amounts of their promissory bank notes, for they can neither give away nor spend but a tiny fraction of the money the people need. Thus, when you bankers here in England place money in circulation, there is always a debt principal to be returned and usury to be paid. The result is that you have always too little credit in circulation to give the workers full employment. You do not have too many workers, you have too little money in circulation, and that which circulates, all bears the endless burden of unpayable debt and usury.

--- Ellen Brown
quoting Charles Binderup
The Web of Debt, © 2008, p.40

The potential for shared abundance is even greater now than it was in Franklin's time.

We are blessed with technology that would be indescribable to our forefathers. We have the wherewithal, the know-it-all to feed everybody, clothe everybody, and give every human on Earth a chance ... we now have the option for all humanity to make it successfully on this planet in this lifetime. Whether it is to be Utopia or Oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment.

--- Buckminister Fuller

The race between Utopia and Oblivion reflects two different visions of reality. One sees a world capable of providing for all. The other sees a world that is too small for its inhabitants, requiring the annihilation of large segments of the population if the rest are to survive. The prevailing scarcity mentality focuses on shortages of oil, water and food. But the real shortage, as Benjamin Franklin explained to his English listeners in the eighteenth century, is in the medium of exchange. If sufficient money could be made available to develop alternative sources of energy, alternative means of extracting water from the environment, and more efficient ways of growing food, there could be abundance for all. The notion that the government could simply print the money it needs is considered unrealistically utopian and inflationary; yet banks create money all the time. The chief reason the U.S. government can't do it is that a private banking cartel already has a monpoly on the practice.

--- Ellen H. Brown
The Web of Debt, © 2008, p.336

This last quote is from Ellen Hodgson Brown, author of an extremely important book, The Web of Debt. Her website is www.webofdebt.com.

We all have the power to create our own money, and free ourselves from the present usurous banking system. According to Wikipedia's article on local currencies:

"There has been a tremendous surge in the use of local currencies over the past two decades. Today there are over 2,500 different local currency systems operating in countries throughout the world.

Since 2002 there has been an upsurge in local currency experiments particularly payment voucher-based systems that are exchangeable with the national currency. Such currencies aim to raise the resilience of local economies by encouraging re-localisation of buying and food production. The drive for this change has arisen from a range of community-based initiatives and social movements. The Transition Towns movement originating in the UK has utilised local currencies for re-localisation in the face of energy descent from peak oil and climate change. Other drives include movements against Clone town[9][10] and Big-box trends.

Previously, one of the most prominent systems was LETS, Local Exchange Trading System, a trading network supported by its own internal currency. Originally started in Vancouver, Canada, there are presently more than 30 LETS systems operating in Canada and over 400 in the United Kingdom. Australia, France, New Zealand, and Switzerland have similar systems. Time dollars, Ithaca Hours, and PEN exchange are among the most successful systems in the USA."

Wikipedia | Local Currencies

Economist Thomas Greco refers to these new money systems as "mutual credit clearing systems." One of the most successful of these is the "Community Exchange System" based in Cape Town, South Africa. (http://www.ces.org.za) Here is an example of a trade using trading slips instead of dollars... or any other national currency.

Greco was one of the speakers at the Economics of Peace Conference, along with such luminaries as David Korten, Vandana Shiva, and Ellen Hodgson Brown. You can watch these lectures at:

http://www.vimeo.com/channels/theeconomicsofpeace/page:1

The following videos illustrate the true nature of money, and the mathematical unsustainability of the current system.

Money as Debt: website | video online

The Essence of Money: website | video

In the words of Paul Gringon, the creator of these videos.

"Bailouts, stimulus packages, debt piled upon debt... Where will it all end? How did we get into a situation where there has never been more material wealth and productivity, and yet everyone is in debt to bankers? And now, all of a sudden, the bankers have no money and we the taxpayers, have to rescue them by going even further into debt! [Money as Debt] explores the baffling, fraudulent and destructive arithmetic of the money system that holds us hostage to a forever growing debt, and how we might evolve beyond it, into a new era."

Yes!

The Summer 2009 issue of YES!, The New Economy, takes a look at some of the people and organizations who are creating the new Earth-friendly, people-centered economy.

:: TOOLS & RESOURCES

:: A NEW ECONOMY LIBRARY

:: TOOLS & RESOURCES

Sustainable Economics:

Forget Wall Street. The new economy is all about creating real, sustainable wealth. These organizations can help you jump-start the new economy by promoting change in your workplace, at home, or in Washington.

ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) organizes low- and middle-income families in the United States, Canada, and Latin America to work for economic and social justice in their communities. Read about its campaigns on home foreclosures, predatory lending, unfair tax fees, affordable housing, and a living wage, and learn how to organize in your community. www.acorn.org
The American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) raises awareness of the benefits of buying from independent businesses and helps bring businesses together to engage in collaboration, advocacy, exchanges, and transactions. www.amiba.net
Bainbridge Graduate Institute offers pioneering MBA and certificate programs in sustainable business and entrepreneurship using a combination of distance teaching and monthly on-site intensives. www.bgiedu.org
BALLE (The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) supports and encourages independent businesses all over North America that contribute to socially, environmentally, and culturally respectful economies. Judy Wicks, author of the articles “My Best Investments Are Down the Street” (Summer 2009) and “In Business for Life,” (Winter 2007), is a co-founder. Michael Shuman, author of “Put Your Money Where Your Life Is,” (Summer 2009) leads the Balle project, the Small-Mart Initiative. www.livingeconomies.org
The Center for Economic and Policy Research is a think tank that promotes democratic debate about important economic and social policy issues that affect people's lives. Its website offers up-to-date information on political news and economic policy. www.cepr.net
Common Security Clubs are local groups of about 15 to 25 individuals who assemble to learn about larger economic issues and brainstorm about how they can solve their own local and individual economic problems through this mutual support system. Find a club in your area at www.commonsecurityclub.org
Community Wealth provides information, strategies, policies, models, and innovations for building community economies. www.community-wealth.org
Ecotrust supports sustainable economic development in the Pacific Northwest. The organization has developed an economic model that integrates social, financial, and natural capital into a “Conservation Economy.” www.conservationeconomy.net
Grassroots Economic Organizing produces a bimonthly newsletter that provides information on efforts to build and finance worker-owned, democratically run, community based, ecologically sustainable enterprises. www.geo.coop
Green America: Economic Action For a Just Planet provides resources for businesses or individuals who want to move toward more just and sustainable economies through purchasing and investment. The organization publishes The National Green Pages, a directory of sustainable businesses. www.coopamerica.org
Green for All is a national organization, founded by YES! contributing editor Van Jones, working toward an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Its campaigns have helped create green jobs in communities across the country. The Green For All Academy trains young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to acquire the intellectual, social, and financial capital they need to succeed in the green economy. Check out Green for All’s resources to get involved in your community. www.greenforall.org
InBusiness Magazine publishes success stories about local independent and sustainable businesses. www.inbusiness.org
The Institute for Local Self Reliance is a non-profit research organization that promotes sustainable communities by investigating ways to improve economic and environmental conditions. The “New Rules Project” highlights local communities that have rewritten rules, policies, and public subsidies to encourage locally controlled sustainable economies. www.ilsr.org
The Institute for Policy Studies is a think-tank and advocacy organization that provides research and education on a broad range of issues, including labor rights, fair trade, sustainable economies, and globalization. www.ips-dc.org
The National Cooperative Business Association is the nation's leading cooperative advocacy group, comprising co-ops from all over the world. It offers programs on public policy, lobbying, business development, and education for cooperative businesses. The group also provides job listings for co-ops and great networking tools. Their flagship publication is the Cooperative Business Journal. www.ncba.coop
The National Priorities Project shows how our tax dollars are being spent, and what would become possible if the same amounts of money were reallocated to human and community development. Stats available by state and sector. www.nationalpriorities.org
On the Commons (formerly Tomales Bay Institute) is a leading think tank that promotes public awareness of the resources and institutions our society holds in common—such as the environment, water, knowledge, government, schools, and communities—through blogs, essays, book reviews, and profiles of activists. www.onthecommons.org
Public Citizen protects public health and safety by holding government accountable to consumer interests. The organization focuses on environmental standards, health, and fair trade. Check out the action items and the vast list of consumer resources. www.citizen.org
Redefining Progress is a leading public policy think tank focused on building a sustainable economy. www.rprogress.org
The E.F. Schumacher Society, named for the author of Small Is Beautiful, uses its resource library, lectures, programs, and projects to promote regionally based economic systems, local currency experiments, human-scale societies, and community land trusts. www.smallisbeautiful.org
Slow Money takes its inspiration from the pioneering work of Woody Tasch. A network of leaders in sustainable agriculture and social investing, the group aims to help create a new economy based on conservation, preservation, and sustainability, instead of extraction and consumption. www.slowmoneyalliance.org
Small-Mart led by Michael Shuman, is a collection of resources, a blog, and a campaign that together promote opportunities for local businesses and community self-reliance. Small-Mart is a project of BALLE. www.smallmart.org
The Social Investment Forum is a nonprofit association of groups and individuals working to promote socially and environmentally reponsible investing. www.socialinvest.org
Sustainable Connections is a group based in Bellingham, Washington that supports the “Go Local” movement and asks businesses to show their appreciation by adopting more sustainable practices. www.sconnect.org
United for a Fair Economy heightens awareness of economic inequality and its ability to divide communities and undermine democracy. Its website includes tools for leading workshops, starting campaigns, and taking action. www.faireconomy.org
U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives is a network of organizations dedicated to the advancement of democracy and partnership in the workplace, and the growth and development of worker cooperatives. www.usworker.coop

Finance & Banks:

As larger financial institutions continue to fail in the aftermath of the mess they created, these organizations pass YES!'s stress test.

Common Good Finance seeks to create small, local, democratic, banks that invest in the common good. Get involved at www.commongoodbank.com
Credit Union National Association is a national network of credit unions, each governed locally by its members. Use the network to find a credit union in your local area. www.cuna.org
Grameen Bank helps reduce poverty and empower the people of the global South through microcredit loans. www.grameen-info.org
Hope Community Credit Union is a community development financial institution (CDFI) that helps low-income individuals build and rebuild through microcredit loans. www.hopecu.org
The Institute for Community Economics (ICE) provides technical assistance and financing to community land trusts and those working to produce and preserve affordable housing, land, and other resources in communities where they are most needed. ICE's revolving loan fund accepts contributions from socially concerned individuals and makes low-cost loans available to nonprofit housing groups. www.iceclt.org
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition works to keep credit and banking services available in neighborhoods, particularly low-income communities.
www.ncrc.org
The Reinvestment Fund, launched in Philadelphia and described by Judy Wicks in her article, “My Best Investments Are Down the Street” (Summer 2009), now serves communities all over the Mid-Atlantic. A socially responsible alternative to the stock market, The Reinvestment Fund brings modest financial returns to investors and huge social returns to communities by supporting schools, housing, social services, clean energy, and small businesses. Find out how to invest your money in what really matters. www.trfund.com
Self-Help is a community development lender that has provided over $5.57 billion in financing to over 62,288 home buyers, small businesses, and nonprofits. Self-Help reaches people who are underserved by conventional lenders—particularly minorities, women, rural residents, and low-wealth families—through the support of socially responsible citizens and institutions across the U.S. www.selfhelp.org

Alternative Currencies:

Forget the Fed—these alternative currencies help local economies instead.

BerkShares are a local currency for the Berkshire region. A tool for community empowerment, more than 350 businesses have signed up to accept the currency. www.berkshares.org
Humboldt Exchange Community Currency Humboldt Exchange Community Currency is the local currency project of Humboldt County, California. Individual participants agree to accept payment for their goods and services half in dollars and half in a local currency made just for Humboldt. www.humboldtexchange.org
Ithaca Hours are a local currency in Ithaca, New York. One Ithaca Hour is comparable to a $10.00 bill, which is the average hourly wage in Tompkins County. The currency can be used to buy plumbing, carpentry, electrical work, roofing, nursing, chiropractic, child care, car and bike repair, food, eyeglasses, firewood, gifts, and thousands of other goods and services. www.ithacahours.com
Madison Hours is a Wisconsin Cooperative. Members pay an annual fee and receive the ability to list offers and requests of goods and services that they want or have. They receive three Madison Hours upon joining the coop and one Hour at each annual renewal. www.madisonhours.org

Corporate Responsibility:

Corporate wrongs are hard to fight. Hold corporations accountable with help from these organizations.

Big Box Tool Kit works to counter mega-retailers and rebuild local business by supplying information about big box stores, how to stop them, and how to get the neighbors involved, too. www.bigboxtoolkit.com
Corporate Crime Reporter is an excellent source of information about corporations' legal infractions. It also produces a weekly newsletter, which you can subscribe to on the site. www.corporatecrimereporter.com
The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights has strived to block corporate exploitation of American citizens for over twenty years. They recognize that corporations are daunting, both politically and financially, and seek to close the power gap between these entities and the average citizen. www.consumerwatchdog.org
Global Exchange provides educational tools and resources aimed at promoting corporate responsibility, improved international relations, and human rights. The website includes a good listing of companies and organizations that support fair trade practices. www.globalexchange.org
Responsible Shopper offers research on companies that are subjects of consumer/shareholder campaigns, with ideas for taking action. www.responsibleshopper.org

:: A NEW ECONOMY LIBRARY

Reflections, ideas, and visions for a new economy can be found in these books and films—including some recent releases and some old classics.

:: BOOKS

Agenda for a New Economy, by David Korten, argues that our hope lies not with Wall Street, but with Main Street, which creates wealth from real resources to meet real needs. (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2009).

BUY THROUGH YES!: 20% off the cover price with the YES! discount..

Bringing the Food Economy Home, by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Todd Merrifield, and Steven Gorelick, argues that localizing our food economies is a “solution-multiplier” that will reduce the negative impacts of globalization. (Zed Books, 2002)

Capitalism 3.0, by Peter Barnes, urges readers to “upgrade” capitalism and preserve humanity's shared heritage by reclaiming the Commons – nature, community, and culture. (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006)

Cooperation Works! by E. G. Nadeau and David Thomson, discusses specific, cooperative approaches to business, development, and the equal treatment of society's forgotten members, using success stories from the U.S. (Lone Oak Press, 1996)

Democracy at Risk: Rescuing Main Street from Wall Street, by Jeff Gates, discusses how to recreate our democracy by reshaping our economy and fighting economic inequality. (Perseus Books, 2001)

Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life by Frances Moore Lappé, encourages a departure from “thin democracy,” vested in private interest, to “living democracy” in the interest of all. (Jossey-Bass, 2005)

Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth, by Lester R. Brown, challenges us to consider the economy as part of the environment. (W.W. Norton & Company, 2001)

Economics as if the Earth Really Mattered: A Catalyst Guide to Socially Conscious Investing, by Susan Meeker-Lowry, provides case studies, contacts, resource lists, and an extensive bibliography to help those concerned with finding ways to use their money to create a more just and sustainable economy. (New Society Publishers, 1988)

From Mondragón to America: Experiments in Community Development, by Greg MacLeod, explores the success of the community-owned town of Mondragon, Spain, as well as how to replicate its business and social experiment in other communities. (University College of Cape Breton Press, 1997)

The Future of Money, by Bernard Lietaer, a former currency speculator who helped design Europe's currency, describes how we can create a sustainable money system. (See YES! interview) (Random House Group Ltd (UK), 2001)

Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age, by Michael H. Shuman, provides a thorough overview of many approaches to creating a local living economy. (Routledge, 2000)

Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, describes how business leaders are adopting a new models that account for the value and scarcity of natural ecosystems and life systems. (Little, Brown & Company, 1999)

The Nature of Economies, by Jane Jacobs, follows the conversation of five contemporary New Yorkers as they discuss whether economic life obeys the same rules as those that govern nature. (The Modern Library, 2000)

Parecon: Life After Capitalism, by Michael Albert, outlines a new economic model, “participatory economics,” a framework that is more democratic than capitalism or socialism. (Verso Books, 2003)

The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism, by David C. Korten, documents the accelerating problems of unrestrained corporate power and creates a vision of a new living economy. (Berrett-Koehler Publishers with Kumarian Press Inc., 1999)

Putting Democracy to Work: A Practical Guide for Starting and Managing Worker-Owned Businesses, by Frank T. Adams and Gary B. Hansen, is a how-to guide for managing a worker cooperative. (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1993)

Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies for Security in an Unstable World, by Richard Douthwaite, proposes that communities should build independent local economies to avoid mainstream economic collapse, and also supplies ideas for action. (The Lilliput Press LTD, 1996)

Slow Money by Woody Tasch, brings money back down to Earth, explaining how business and local, sustainable, food production are intimately connected. (Chelsea Green, 2008)

The Small-Mart Revolution by Michael Shuman provides practical tips for consumers, investors, and policy-makers to help small, local businesses succeed over multinational corporations. (Barrett-Koehler, 2006)

The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and the Next Episode of Capitalism, by Shoshana Zuboff and James Maxmin, offers a diagnosis of the disintegration of the relationship between individuals and companies and explores the cause of the crisis. (Viking Penguin, 2002)

Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, by E.F. Schumacher. This classic on human-scale, life-sustaining economics was re-issued in 1999, with an introduction by Paul Hawken. (Hartley & Marks, 1999)

What Comes Next: Proposals for a Different Society, by Thad Williamson, assesses proposed alternatives to the current political and economic system. (The National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives, 1998)

:: FILMS

Argentina's Occupied Factories is a documentary film based on the Argentine workers' movement to occupy failed or failing factories and transform them into worker cooperatives. Michael Albert interviews workers as he tours occupied factories. 55 minutes, DVD. Z Communications, 2006. www.zmag.org

Independent America is a documentary featuring small business owners struggling against corporate incursion. www.independentamerica.net

What's the Economy For, Anyway? is John de Graaf's latest film about embracing the real wealth of living in healthy communities and taking back time for ourselves, our families, and the things that matter most. De Graaf is the national coordinator for Take Back Your Time Day. Keep an eye out for the film's upcoming release, and read some of the theories behind it at
www.timeday.org

Of Poetry and Politics

"The Song of Songs is a poem about the sexual awakening of a young woman and her lover. In a series of subtly articulated scenes, the two meet in an idealized landscape of fertility and abundance... a kind of Eden ...where they discover the pleasures of love. The passage from innocence to experience is a subject of the Eden story, too, but there the loss of innocence is fraught with consequences. The Song looks at the same border-crossing and sees only the joy of discovery."

--- Ariel and Chana Bloch
The Song of Songs: A New Translation

Although deeply romantic and highly erotic, the "Song of Songs" also has a sociopolitical dimension. Due to its roots in an ancient matriarchal tradition, there is no trace... in the relationship between the two lovers ...of the gender based inequality that pervades the rest of the Bible. Writing in a time when marriages were arranged by the male head of the household, the author of the Song argued poetically that love... not the desire for wealth, power, and prestige ...should be the foundation of marriage and the renewal of life. Men and women, should be free to choose their own partners according to the laws of the heart. The Song's central theme is that genuine friendship and true love are worth more than all the wealth of Solomon. The young man compares his lot with the king's and concludes that he is the more fortunate of the two. This is wisdom, to be sure, but even in the ordinary sense, he isn't really poor at all. Both he and his lover are blessed with youthful energy, and their love flourishes amid nature's abundance, in "a kind of Eden."

Of course, all lovers feel boundless generosity for the ones they love, and all parents want their families to be well-provided for; but the Song's sociopolitical dimension and its roots in matriarchal society place these impulses in a larger context.

[In his book, The Mystery of Money, Bernard Lietaer] traces the development of two competing monetary schemes, one based on shared abundance, the other based on scarcity, greed and debt. The former characterized the matriarchal societies of antiquity. The latter characterized the warlike patriarchal societies that forcibly displaced them.

As I write, much of the world is headed for a major economic depression. According to Dr. Michael Hudson, the Paulson/Geithner multi-trillion dollar bank bailouts will only succeed in creating a financial elite of "kleptocrats," while impoverishing the rest of us.

What’s happened here, by Mr. Paulson of Goldman Sachs, is almost a mirror image of what the other Goldman Sachs’ Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin did in Russia: he’s creating and endowing a class of kleptocrats by giving them liquid treasury securities in exchange for basically worthless junk.

In Russia’s case they gave State ownership of raw materials and fuels... oil, [and] other assets ...to individuals who then diversified their portfolios by selling as much as they could to the West and taking their money out and putting them into dollars and sterling and euros. What’s happening here is that the Wall Street beneficiaries are going to take the money and run, and put it in safe economies such as Russia, China and any other non-US economy they can find: the result will be a huge capital outflow, a capital flight that will put downward pressure on the dollar.

Psychologists and sociologists debate the role that money problems play in undermining marital relationships, but most people would probably agree that financial distress contributes greatly to the overall level of stress, unhappiness, and irratability. In the coming economic meltdown, marriages are likely to be sorely tested. The "American dream" of liberty, peace, and shared abundance has been steadily fading. Over the course of several decades, in the absence of campaign finance reform, Republican and Democratic administrations alike have undermined the material security of middle and lower class families. To be sure, there have been major differences between the two parties' social agendas... abortion, gay marriage, etc. ...and these differences have been skillfully exploited to divide and conquer the "lower" classes; but the two parties' economic agendas have long been identical: the transfer of wealth upwards.

This is not likely to change under the new administration. When Mr. Obama talks about change, he is holding out the possibility of increasing social justice; however, genuine monetary reform is clearly out of the question. Make no mistake: the banksters, kleptocrats, and warmongers are still in charge. Yet the coming cataclysm is entirely avoidable. If enough people were to awaken from their cultural trance, confront the root of the problem, and educate their friends and neighbors, economic sanity could spread at the speed of light in the present 21st century global village. There are some simple but powerful remedies for our present economic crisis, but they are not likely to be implemented unless people recognize the central problem, at the root of all others. The best laid plans for social justice and environmental repair are likely to remain seriously underfunded as long as we fail to address the artificial scarcity created by our fraudulent, sociopathic monetary system, which is little more than a form of organized crime.

--- Bernard Lietaer

In 1750, Benjamin Franklin described the salutary effect of a monetary system designed to promote the common good.

--- Benjamin Franklin

When Franklin went to London in 1764, he was astonished to find widespread unemployment and poverty among the British working classes.

We have no poor houses in the Colonies; and if we had some, there would be nobody to put in them, since there is, in the Colonies, not a single unemployed person, neither beggars nor tramps.

The potential for shared abundance is even greater now than it was in Franklin's time.

--- Buckminister Fuller

This last quote is from Ellen Hodgson Brown, author of the profoundly important book, The Web of Debt. Her website is www.webofdebt.com.

Wake up, America !

Unless a great many people wake up real fast, and understand the nature of the fraud that has been practiced on us by the financial elite and their corporate media, another Great Depression is almost inevitable. As you navigate these troubled times, beware of the corporate everything-is-under-control, let-us-handle-it, just-sit-back-and-watch illusion factory.

Buying Brand Obama

Barack Obama is a brand. And the Obama brand is designed to make us feel good about our government while corporate overlords loot the Treasury, our elected officials continue to have their palms greased by armies of corporate lobbyists, our corporate media diverts us with gossip and trivia and our imperial wars expand in the Middle East. Brand Obama is about being happy consumers. We are entertained. We feel hopeful. We like our president. We believe he is like us. But like all branded products spun out from the manipulative world of corporate advertising, we are being duped into doing and supporting a lot of things that are not in our interest.

--- Chris Hedges
truthdig.com

America's Nightmare: The Obama Dystopia

After 8 years of the Bush-Cheney nightmare during which we saw the wanton destruction of Afghanistan and Iraq, the cynical negation of centuries of Law designed to protect the most basic human rights and a foreign policy worthy of Genghis Khan, there came along the "Great Black Hope" in the persona of Barack Obama. The collective world consciousness turned uncritically to what was presented as a new era for peace, change and trust in Government.

Never before had one witnessed such an accomplished use of manipulation, propaganda, imagery and public relations wizardry to sell the public a man who was to take the baton from Bush and run with it in the race to destroy the economy, the rights of the people and help birth a nation totally controlled by those who have always lurked in the shadows of power. "Change" was promised and was delivered in the form of a deepening of the already Dystopic nightmare.
[*] [*] [*]

Promises were broken with no apology, the same creative legalese that infested the Bush administration, in the form of John Yoo and Alberto Gonzalez, was again used to deny justice to the inmates of Guantanamo, It was used to justify more torture, more destruction of the Constitution and more illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens.

The President that extended the hand of peace to the Muslim world has murdered hundreds of Pakistani men, women and children. The President who promised accountability in Government has filled his staff with lobbyists, banksters and warmongers. His Attorney General refuses to prosecute some of the worst war crimes committed in modern history and continues to give legal cover to criminals who tortured with impunity.

The country has been further bankrupted by the continuing theft of taxpayer money as the Wall St. campaign donors receive their quid pro quo. Obama has stood by idly as Bernancke states that the private Federal Reserve is not answerable to either Congress or the American public. The U.S. taxpayer is now on the hook for $14.3 Trillion and rising. Foreclosures and unemployment are rising with no meaningful efforts by the administration to alleviate the symptoms, never mind the cause. The new image of America is one of tent cities, lengthening soup kitchen lines, sherrifs evicting countless thousands of young and old from their homes, once prosperous towns descending in to an eerie stillness and an increasingly disillusioned populace.

The "War on terrorism" has mutated into a control grid for an increasingly aware population. The foundation for this had already been put in place by Bush with the Patriot Act, Patriot Act 2, Military commissions act and numerous executive orders that strangled what was left of Posse Comitatus and the Constitution.

Homeland Security now defines "Terrorists" as those who believe in the Constitution, the first, second and fourth amendments. Returning veterans are being targeted for a denial of their second amendment rights. A "Terrorist Watchlist" of more than a million and rapidly growing, is being used as the basis for denying citizens the rights to travel and to work.

Obama is now mulling over the idea of indefinite detention without trial for U.S. citizens. This, from a teacher of the Constitution ! Bills are in congress to criminalize free speech on the Internet via the Cyberbullying Act which will make hurting somebody's feelings a felony. Just like the Patriot Act this will morph into a criminalization of political free speech and any criticism of the Government.

"Cyberterrorism" is being used as a pretext to bring government regulation to the the last stronghold of unbiased information. Washington has realized that it's getting harder to get away with their Fascist agenda and are moving to control the field. The populace have become more aware of just what kind of "Change" Obama intended to deliver.

There has been a growing resistance on a state level with several invoking their 9th and 10th Amendment rights in a valiant attempt to stop the Federal Vampire from draining the last drops of blood, the last vestiges of Freedom and Hope.

This is the Dystopic Nightmare that America finds itself in today and each day brings new assaults on Freedom and Sanity. The framework for total control of the citizenry, the economy and the media is being built upon in a relentless aggrandization of Govermental power. Obama sits atop his new Empire still smiling that sickeningly disingenuous smile surrounded by his seasoned courtiers who have worked for decades to bring America in to this new era of the New World Order.

--- Andrew Hughes
globalresearch.ca

And the banks... hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created ...are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.

--- Senator Dick Durban,
on "The Ed Show"

Obama’s new bank giveaway

Backed by Mr. Summers [current Director of The National Economic Council], Boris Yeltsin’s Harvard Boys transferred trillions of dollars of Russian mineral wealth and public enterprises into the hands of kleptocrats. That was an asset transfer, pure and simple. In 1997, to be sure, the IMF gave Russia a loan that immediately disappeared into the kleptocrats’ bank accounts, to be paid out of subsequent oil-export proceeds. But assets were the name of the game. Today’s U.S. giveaway has a new twist. It is analogous to the “watered stocks” and bonds that railroad magnates and Wall Street emperors of finance gave themselves and their political mouthpieces, simply adding the interest coupons and dividends onto the prices charged the public as if they were real “costs.” Today’s version – “watered Treasury bonds” – are being created on the public sector’s balance sheet. “Taxpayers” must bear the interest charges on $2 to $4 trillion of new Treasury bonds printed and swapped for “trash,” that is, bad loans. Paying interest on these new bonds will leave less for the infrastructure investment that Mr. Obama rightly says we need.

Michael Hudson
globalresearch.ca

Revealing quotes from, Fessing Up Has Lost Its Shock Value, by David Sirota:

We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we’d like to do our best to preserve that system.

--- Timothy Geithner, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury

When it comes to the federal rescue plan,

the government has all the downside and we have all the upside... meaning lowlife grave dancers like me will make a fortune.

--- J. Christopher Flowers,
one of the finance industry’s richest speculators

Is There Truth in Obama's Advertising?

The point of the advertising is to delude people with the imagery and tales of a football player [or a] sexy actress, who drives to the moon in a car or something like that. But, that's certainly not to inform people. In fact, it's to keep people uninformed.

The goal of advertising is to create uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices. Those of you who suffered through an economics course know that markets are supposed to be based on informed consumers making rational choices. But industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year to undermine markets and get uninformed consumers making irrational choices.

And when they turn to selling a candidate they do the same thing. They want uninformed consumers, you know, uninformed voters to make irrational choices based on the success of illusion, slander, and effective body language or whatever else is supposed to be significant. So you undermine democracy pretty much the same way you undermine markets. Well, that's the nature of an election when it's run by the business world, and you'd expect it to be like that. There should be no surprise there.

--- Noam Chomsky
openmediaboston.org

Read more about the Song of Solomon,
listen to music, tour the art gallery...

The Hidden Meaning of the Song of Solomon
The Song of Solomon as Erotic Poetry
Deep Ecology and the Song of Songs
Christian Mysticism / Bridal Mysticism
Was Jesus Married?
Illustrations for the Song of Solomon
A New Traslation of the Song of Solomon
Music for the Song of Solomon
Christian Wedding Music
The Star of David and the Flower of Life
Squaring the Circle: Sacred Geometry and
the Marriage of Heaven and Earth

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