Gaia: The Integral Pod - Chapel Perspicacious - Do you know how money works?

Re: Do you know how money works?

http://riversong.gaia.com — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:50:43 GMT

Here is a video concerning money/ economy, featuring Gunter Pauli who makes my heart flutter...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piH8lIZDwLQ

Re: Do you know how money works?

http://Mascha.gaia.com — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 22:11:49 GMT

Cross-pollinating in progress ... Please also see today's posts to Multiplex thread: 911 Was An Inside Job and say something, here, there and everywhere.

Smell the feces hitting the air circulation device, as some might say.

M

Re: Do you know how money works?

http://telesterion.gaia.com — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 05:53:55 GMT

That MONEY AS DEBT video is quite good and very watchable.

An excellent basic introduction to the topic, everyone should take the time to view it.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279&q=money+as+debt&total=1033&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Re: Do you know how money works?

http://telesterion.gaia.com — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 22:37:41 GMT

Well, it's not as if there's nothing at all that makes sense to do. There's definitely something that nearly any person can realistically do as a kind of insurance.

Keep a nice little pantry with a bit of food stored, food that you will eat anyway no matter what.

Make sure you have some hand tools and other kinds of hard goods that will be both handy and valuable if there's an economic problem. Experiment with hobbies that might have value if the economy stalls.

Buy a small amount of silver coins. You can always give them as gifts, if you never need them. And keep a secret envelope with cash in it somewhere. If worse comes to worse, and you don't have any extra money after the bills are paid, at least start a change jar.

If there ever is a run on the banks, at least you'll have some cash at hand, to buy fuel.

Pretty much anybody can do those kinds of things. It does mean having to manage a certain amount of "stuff", so if you are living the modern nomadic lifestyle, moving from apartment to apartment, or from job to job, you might want to keep the "stuff" (food, tools, and the like) to a bare minimum.

This is all pretty basic stuff, common sense, really.

Re: Do you know how money works?

http://Mascha.gaia.com — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 22:09:48 GMT

Hmm, not very reassuring, but thanks, Bill :0

So much for buying land, hoarding gold, silver, or even saving your hard-earned money, people. If you are living in the USA, you need to at least read the underlined sections, please.

Comment from Grant D. Walker on his own blog:

Bush Executive Order: Criminalizing the Antiwar Movement
by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, July 20, 2007

The Executive Order entitled “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq” provides the President with the authority to confiscate the assets of whoever opposes the US led war.

A presidential Executive Order issued on July 17th, repeals with the stroke of a pen the right to dissent and to oppose the Pentagon's military agenda in Iraq.

The Executive Order entitled “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq” provides the President with the authority to confiscate the assets of “certain persons” who oppose the US led war in Iraq:

“I have issued an Executive Order blocking property of persons determined to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people.”

In substance, under this executive order, opposing the war becomes an illegal act.

The Executive Order criminalizes the antiwar movement. It is intended to “blocking property” of US citizens and organizations actively involved in the peace movement. It allows the Department of Defense to interfere in financial affairs and instruct the Treasury to “block the property” and/or confiscate/ freeze the assets of “Certain Persons” involved in antiwar activities. It targets those “Certain Persons” in America, including civil society organizatioins, who oppose the Bush Administration's “peace and stability” program in Iraq, characterized, in plain English, by an illegal occupation and the continued killing of innocent civilians.

The Executive Order also targets those “Certain Persons” who are “undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction”, or who, again in plain English, are opposed to the confiscation and privatization of Iraq's oil resources, on behalf of the Anglo-American oil giants.

The order is also intended for anybody who opposes Bush's program of “political reform in Iraq”, in other words, who questions the legitimacy of an Iraqi “government” installed by the occupation forces.

Moreover, those persons or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), who provide bona fide humanitarian aid to Iraqi civilians, and who are not approved by the US Military or its lackeys in the US sponsored Iraqi puppet government are also liable to have their financial assets confiscated.

The executive order violates the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the US Constitution. It repeals one of the fundamental tenets of US democracy, which is the right to free expression and dissent. The order has not been the object of discussion in the US Congress. So far, it has not been addressed by the US antiwar movement, in terms of a formal statement.

Apart from a bland Associated Press wire report, which presents the executive order as “an authority to use financial sanctions”, there has been no media coverage or commentary of a presidential decision which strikes at the heart of the US Constitution...

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Anyone still think they won't be affected too severely by what these guys in Washington/London/Israel etc. are cooking up for the rest of us all?
Help me out here, please. At least we can talk while the Titanic goes down, huh??

M

Re: Do you know how money works?

http://telesterion.gaia.com — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 20:51:03 GMT

buy land and gold. Do you all think that is ridiculously naive?

Well, if you got enough money to buy land outright, or under favorable terms, it's hard to say there's a downside to it. It's just not that common. And the wrong land could end up being a burden. Land that you enjoy living on - well, that's hard to beat. As long as an economic crash and taxes don't let the government take it away from you.

Gold is a funny topic, as are the other metals. It's hard to say that buying a little gold has a downside, but it's equally hard to say that owning a lot of gold is a good idea, especially if it makes up the majority of your savings.

And, say there is a crash - gold could be less useful than silver. Gold can pay your taxes, but might not be convienient for buying food and fuel.

And if there is no crash, gold will languish, while all your freinds with mutual friends will be partying.

There's no easy answer. Altho land, with some trees and some garden space and some water, will be desireable no matter what happens.

Re: Do you know how money works?

http://telesterion.gaia.com — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 20:35:05 GMT

Also, would you elaborate a bit on "protecting oneself from the looming economic debt crisis"?

Interestingly, I don't experience integralism as all that friendly to such topics.

I figure everybody knows that a risk exists - it's just a question of probabilities, and nobody agrees on the probabilities.

My father was a depression child, and so affected by it that he bought a farm, where I grew up. So, psychologically, I've been primed since youth to expect a crash. This makes my sense of the probabilities suspect.

If we are all lucky, any economic crisis will just be looming possibilities, and we'll be dead before the debt comes due.

Re: Do you know how money works?

http://plums.gaia.com — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 18:28:29 GMT

How to protect "oneself from the looming economic debt crisis”?

As someone who has little understanding of how economies and financial institutions work, and little inclination to find out (echoing Mascha on the overwhelming bit) my instinct would be, if in possession of sufficient capital, to buy land and gold. Do you all think that is ridiculously naive? That, and do my best to live in and contribute to the development of a healthy community and a functional local economy that could, if necessary, provide for its own needs for the most part.

Dangerously ignorant?
Lauren

Re: Do you know how money works?

http://Mascha.gaia.com — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 08:03:30 GMT

There is a fascinating discussion going on at Grant Walker's blogsite about the "coming economic crisis" and the contributing factors we're witnessing these days worldwide. It is titled The American Way Of Life Is Not Negotiable

The following post by Lucid illustrates what's at stake:

................................................................................................................................................................
Lucid : Old Ricebag
8 days later
Lucid said:

Basically, I think that in order to seriously discuss transforming, reforming, or replacing the current system of government/control, we first have to have a clear understanding of the current geopolitical situation and the true nature of the global economy/power structure. The reality is that a tiny group of ultra-wealthy bankers rule the world through their private ownership of the world's central banks (most notably the US “Federal Reserve”), large commercial banks, the World Bank, and the IMF. They use these organizations as tools to create and control the global money supply, and thus they are able to control and manipulate governments, industries, economies, corporations, resources, and the global balance of geopolitical power. The global banking system is a cartel that destroys the world's wealth through usury and inflation, destroys economies, destroys natural resources, destroys human life through wars, poverty, and starvation, and is the ultimate tool of totalitarianism.

If anyone here is even remotely interested in changing the world for the better (and I'm sure that most of you are), I strongly urge you to set aside about an hour this week, and please watch this video:

Money As Debt

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This video is dynamite IMO. It calmly explains the illusory creation of money for the last 200 years and how this fictional wealth bubble is about to burst, then goes to show what kind of monetary system could successfully replace the current dysfunctional one. The video is 47 minutes long and animated, sometimes hilariously. Definitely an eye-opener.

Cheers,

M

Re: Do you know how money works?

http://Mascha.gaia.com — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 22:35:09 GMT

Bill,

I've chickened out on watching the video so far. It's too overwhelming to think about these things. I'm afraid I am relying on you and others here to give us the straight dope. When Aaron Russo's "America: From Freedom To Fascism" (for example) first came out, I sent the video everywhere and talked with others internationally. But most of the people I know are just too busy or too "enlightened" to do much more than shrug and say, "Well, what can I do? Duality has always been thus, and we ain't gonna change blah blah."

Also, would you elaborate a bit on "protecting oneself from the looming economic debt crisis"? I have a vague sense of doom but no clear handle on it yet.

Thank you,

Mascha

Re: Do you know how money works?

http://telesterion.gaia.com — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 21:29:36 GMT

The practical advice turned out to be, apparently, ideas for passing legislation to end fractional reserve banking, and to remove the power of money creation from private "central" banks, and to give it to the government.

Not quite the ideas for protecting oneself from the looming economic debt crisis that I was looking for.

It's really a fascinating video, I didn't notice any mistakes in their history, altho there are some speculations. For instance, they seem to be implying that the assasination of Lincoln may have been arranged by the international banking families to destroy the greenbacks experiment.

I skipped over some parts, but I'm going to take the time to re-watch the whole thing. You can listen to it to, and get most of the important details.

Re: Do you know how money works?

http://telesterion.gaia.com — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:37:49 GMT

Interesting. But so long, and burdering on turgid, that it's hard to say how useful it is.

The story of money and power is so overwhelming that it has to be taken in carefully, like taking an especially toxic drug.

3 and a half hours - I'm still trying to get to the "practical advice" promised in the intro.

Do you know how money works?

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:38:32 GMT

hello everyone,

just want to share this documentary i recently blogged about.

”THE MONEY MASTERS is a 3 1/2 hour non-fiction, historical documentary that traces the origins of the political power structure that rules our nation and the world today. The modern political power structure has its roots in the hidden manipulation and accumulation of gold and other forms of money. The development of fractional reserve banking practices in the 17th century brought to a cunning sophistication the secret techniques initially used by goldsmiths fraudulently to accumulate wealth. With the formation of the privately-owned Bank of England in 1694, the yoke of economic slavery to a privately-owned “central” bank was first forced upon the backs of an entire nation, not removed but only made heavier with the passing of the three centuries to our day. Nation after nation, including America, has fallen prey to this cabal of international central bankers.”

you can watch the entire video here. i'd like to hear your opinion on this, especially the people who have extensive understanding of economics. it could be a starting point for discussing an integral view of money :)

enjoy!

~C