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Economic Turmoil

Turning Toward What You Want

December 1, 2011 by john dennison
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Transparency is probably a good thing, since it allows light to shine into dark places to bring needed change. But it sure makes living in these times a challenge.

For that light reveals aspects of our systems, institutions, practices, beliefs, attitudes, and human interactions that don't serve us very well.

Storm Clouds Are Gathering

November 28, 2011 by john dennison
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Our world is rushing headlong toward a precipice.

Not only is the American economy struggling to recover from the shock of the recent banking crisis. That was simply the tip of a great iceberg that we've done little to address, where runaway debt and the pursuit of profit at all costs have revealed the cracks within a system that doesn't serve many very well.

How Do You See YOUR Future?

September 21, 2010 by john dennison
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Things are tough out there, and many are losing hope they'll ever get back to the kind of jobs and lifestyle they once had.

Their struggles to survive are triggering fears for their families' welfare, and making them wonder if things will ever get better.

Most of us took for granted that those who wanted could find gainful work at a wage that could support them -- and that a better life was within reach of all who were willing to go for it.

Now most of what used to be the middle class aren't so sure.

Lessons from the Japanese: Time to Stop Borrowing Money and Start Printing It

December 8, 2009 by ellen brown
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“We are completely dependent on the commercial Banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the Banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is.

What Is the Foundation Of Your Economic Beliefs?

August 25, 2009 by admin
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What is the moral foundation of your economic beliefs? Do economic beliefs even require a moral foundation?

Do you find it natural to accept the varied religious beliefs of others even if they contradict your own? On the other hand, are you often at odds with people who espouse different economic beliefs and policies? Why, especially if the former forms the foundation for the latter?

Would you ever use the ballot box to force others to practice your religion or make them pay to build you a church? Why do you find it easy to do this with your economic beliefs, compelling others to foot the bill for the public policies you promote?

China's Miracle Economy: Have the Chinese Become the World's Greatest Capitalists?

August 19, 2009 by ellen brown
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"I don't care if it's a white cat or a black cat. It's a good cat so long as it catches mice." -- Deng Xiaoping, who opened China to foreign investment after 1978

Goodbye, General Motors. It's About Time You Changed.

June 2, 2009 by admin
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I can't say we hardly knew ya, because you've been a fixture in our lives for so long. But you've grown old and feeble, unable (or perhaps unwilling) to compete in a changing world.

Sure, we know it's been hard trying to do so having to pay such high wages and benefits. Then again, things aren't exactly cheap in Japan or Germany, and their automakers don't seem to have any trouble kicking your butt.

The Ethic of Profit -- Is Our Health Care System Like the Subprime Mess?

June 1, 2009 by john dennison
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Doctors used to live by an ethic of, "First, do no harm." And most still do.

But in recent decades a large core of health care providers -- from doctors to hospitals to insurance companies -- took over the industry. And they transformed that motto first to, "Do no harm to the bottom line," and then, "Build those profits as fast as you can as long as your patient isn't hurt in the process."

A Job and No Mortgage for All in a Spanish Town

May 28, 2009 by admin
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Nice piece in today's NYTimes about communists in Spain weathering the financial crisis.

By VICTORIA BURNETT
Published: May 25, 2009

MARINALEDA, Spain—The people of this small Andalusian town have never been shy about their political convictions. Since they occupied the estate of a local aristocrat in the 1980s, they and their fiery mayor, Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, have been synonymous in Spain with a dogged struggle for the rural poor.

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