February 17, 2006
Stories about the economy typically focus on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), jobs, stock prices, interest rates, retail sales, consumer confidence, housing starts, taxes, and assorted other indicators. We hear things like “GDP grew at a 3 percent rate in the fourth quarter, indicating a recovering, healthy economy, but with room for further improvement.” Or, “The Fed raised short-term interest rates again to head off inflation.” But do these reports, and the indicators they cite, really tell us how the economy is doing? What is the economy, anyway? And what is this economy for?
September 9, 2006
The U.S. monetary system has been a scandal for a long time; whether it can continue much longer without intolerable social, political, and ecological consequences is an open question. Yet most Americans don’t have a clue about it. “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system,” Henry Ford said, “for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
September 9, 2006
When the French and Russian revolutions overthrew the established orders in their countries (in 1786 and 1917, respectively), they changed just about everything, but not their monetary systems.
— Bernard A. Lietaer, Of Human Wealth
May 9, 2010
We must bring money back down to earth.
It might have sounded far-fetched even a year ago. But today, surrounded by the politics of a trillion-dollar bailout, it has a different ring. It has the ring of common sense in a world that is coming to realize that there is such a thing as intermediation that is too complex and money that is too fast.
There is such a thing as money that is too fast.
May 9, 2011
In the last several decades many independence movements around the world have been successful and the number of sovereign nations has vastly increased. Have these movements really achieved what they wanted? Or is the goal of political independence a kind of escape valve for aspirations that seek something deeper, something more substantial, than the symbols and trappings of the sovereign state?
January 16, 2014
Like many other thinking citizens these days, I am fond of demonizing Wall Street. After all, Wall Street deserves demonizing, given the extraordinary corruption, excess and […]
January 26, 2014
Three hours plus previews. Whew! The Wolf of Wall Street was exhausting, exhilarating, impressive and appalling. I didn’t leave my seat, couldn’t miss any of the […]
January 27, 2014
Q. So, why a public bank for Vermont? What’s wrong with our local commercial banks? A. There is nothing wrong with our local commercial banks, except, […]
February 17, 2014
In 1969, Vermont took a vanguard role in the emerging environmental movement. The law known as Act 250 was a landmark attempt to preserve the state’s […]
March 10, 2014
“If a Vermont Public Bank is organic, grass-fed, and pesticide-free, then I say we should all support it!” Charlie Hosford, former longtime Waitsfield Select Board member […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.