12-11-2011, 07:33 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-11-2011, 08:40 AM by Peter Lemkin.)
If you follow this LINK, it will download you a pdf file to a new report by David Korten and many others entitled: How To Liberate America From Wall Street Rule - A Report from the New Economy Working Group. It is very interesting, as all Korten is involved with is. He is a radical economist who I simply love...clear and intelligent thinker and analyst. He was one of the few who predicted what has happened with the financial sector. Now he and many, many others have written this 40 page outline for how to get rid of that system and what to replace it with!.....OWS has adopted him and a few others as their economic thinktank. I must say, OWS, a leaderless movement has really mostly made the right moves. Teaming up with the likes of Korten is but one of them. Download and read!.....N.B. with a little looking around, many of Korten's books are available as ebooks online for free or almost for free.
"Financial systems are important servants of the economy, but poor masters."
Martin Wolf, Financial Times chief economics comm entator, April 20, 2010
"Of all the many ways of organizing banking, the worst is the one we have today."
Mervyn King, Governor, Bank of England, October 25, 2010
"I don't think this is just a financial panic; I believe that it represents the failure of a whole
model of banking, of an overgrown financial sector that did more harm than good."
Paul Krugman, "The Market Mystique," New York Times, March 26, 2009
Phantom wealth is anything that has exchange value, but no intrinsic value. Money
that exists only as a number on a computer hard drive is the prime example. It manifests
in financial assets that appear or disappear as if by magic as a result of accounting entries,
debt pyramids, and the inflation of asset bubbles unrelated to the creation of anything
of real value or utility. The high-tech-stock and housing bubbles created phantom
wealth in massive amounts.
Wall Street is highly proficient at creating phantom wealth. Indeed, it takes pride in its ability
to inflate financial assets without bearing the burden of producing anything of real value.
Real wealth has intrinsic value, as contrasted to mere exchange value. Life, not money,
is the measure of real-wealth value. Examples include land, labor, knowledge, and physical
infrastructure. The most valuable forms of real wealth are beyond price and are unavailable
for market purchase. These include healthy, happy children, loving families, caring communities,
and a beautiful, healthy, natural environment.
"Financial systems are important servants of the economy, but poor masters."
Martin Wolf, Financial Times chief economics comm entator, April 20, 2010
"Of all the many ways of organizing banking, the worst is the one we have today."
Mervyn King, Governor, Bank of England, October 25, 2010
"I don't think this is just a financial panic; I believe that it represents the failure of a whole
model of banking, of an overgrown financial sector that did more harm than good."
Paul Krugman, "The Market Mystique," New York Times, March 26, 2009
Phantom wealth is anything that has exchange value, but no intrinsic value. Money
that exists only as a number on a computer hard drive is the prime example. It manifests
in financial assets that appear or disappear as if by magic as a result of accounting entries,
debt pyramids, and the inflation of asset bubbles unrelated to the creation of anything
of real value or utility. The high-tech-stock and housing bubbles created phantom
wealth in massive amounts.
Wall Street is highly proficient at creating phantom wealth. Indeed, it takes pride in its ability
to inflate financial assets without bearing the burden of producing anything of real value.
Real wealth has intrinsic value, as contrasted to mere exchange value. Life, not money,
is the measure of real-wealth value. Examples include land, labor, knowledge, and physical
infrastructure. The most valuable forms of real wealth are beyond price and are unavailable
for market purchase. These include healthy, happy children, loving families, caring communities,
and a beautiful, healthy, natural environment.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass