There are many approaches to the three main crises threatening civilization today, namely, climate change, peak oil and economic crisis. The problem is that most of them won't work. Weak and cowardly Most responses to these huge problems are too little, too late. For example, even though stimulus (spend more) and austerity (make big cuts) take opposite approaches to fixing … [Read more...]
A new financial system, for the people
Over the past four years we’ve been let down by our banks. A better system would be a democratic finance model, thinks British anthropologist Bruce Davis. After developing peer-lending platform Zopa, Bruce teamed up with renewable energy expert Karl Harder to launch Abundance Generation in the U.K. earlier in 2012. The idea was to go one step further than just lending, and … [Read more...]
Kick Wall Street to the curb, get $15 trillion
It was only a matter of time after we started eating local food and Buying Local from main street stores that we'd start hearing about local money. It started with local currencies in such places as inflation-wracked Argentina and the wealthy Berkshires of western Massachusetts. These experiments in modern complementary currency spawned dozens of scrips around the world from … [Read more...]
Seriously?! They gave this chick her own boob-themed show
The mainstream media has been slow to give the Occupy Wall Street protesters their due. And while the New York Times has been criticized roundly for missing the point, columnists Paul Krugman, Nicholas Kristof and even business writer Andrew Ross Sorkin have accurately portrayed the occupation as a serious movement against financial inequity and government corruption. Yet, … [Read more...]
Five things that #OccupyWallStreet has done right
#OccupyWallStreet protests are now well into their second week, and they are increasingly capturing the public spotlight. This is because, whatever limitations their occupation has, the protesters have done many things right. I will admit that I was skeptical about the #OccupyWallStreet effort when it was getting started. My main concerns were the limited number of … [Read more...]