Category: 03 Economy

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Tom Atlee: Derivatives as Fatal Cancer Discussion and Links

03 Economy, Commerce, Corruption, Government
Tom Atlee

http://tom-atlee.posterous.com/derivatives-challenge-citizenship-and-economi
Short URL: http://post.ly/83Ojt

Dear friends,

I'm interested in derivatives as a symbol of an economic system that's NOT based on productivity that satisfies real human needs.  Derivatives are contracts that shift risk from players who are risk averse (and want insurance against loss) to players who have an appetite for risk (and want a big gambling win).*  While originally intended to serve much like an insurance policy, they have turned into a tool for high-stakes gambling that puts everyone else at risk.

The speculative market in financial derivatives is – depending on whose estimate you read – THREE to TWENTY (or more) times bigger than the whole global economy – way bigger than the GDP of the entire world.  Derivatives are a very big part of what is called “the casino economy”.  Financial speculation is basically gambling that the value of something – commodities, stocks, currency, whatever – will go up or down.  The casino economy is not about producing or financing real goods or services.*  It is about making lots of money for the successful gamblers.

The rest of us could let them go ahead and gamble except for two things.  First, many of them use the money they get to buy more influence and power, making a mockery of “the free market” and “democratic self-governance”.  Secondly, the wrong sequence of bad guesses, responses and glitches in this highly computerized money-making game could wipe out the global economy that the rest of us depend on.  We are still stumbling from the last global financial crash in 2008 – in which derivatives played a major role.  But far bigger crashes are possible.

Continue reading “Tom Atlee: Derivatives as Fatal Cancer Discussion and Links”

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Josh Kilbourn: Injection Wells: The Poison Beneath Us

03 Economy, 12 Water, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government
Josh Kilbourn

Injection Wells: The Poison Beneath Us

Abrahm Lustgarten

ProPublica, 21 June 2012

Over the past several decades, U.S. industries have injected more than 30 trillion gallons of toxic liquid deep into the earth, using broad expanses of the nation's geology as an invisible dumping ground.

No company would be allowed to pour such dangerous chemicals into the rivers or onto the soil. But until recently, scientists and environmental officials have assumed that deep layers of rock beneath the earth would safely entomb the waste for millennia.

Click on Image to Enlarge

There are growing signs they were mistaken.

Records from disparate corners of the United States show that wells drilled to bury this waste deep beneath the ground have repeatedly leaked, sending dangerous chemicals and waste gurgling to the surface or, on occasion, seeping into shallow aquifers that store a significant portion of the nation's drinking water.

In 2010, contaminants from such a well bubbled up in a west Los Angeles dog park. Within the past three years, similar fountains of oil and gas drilling waste have appeared in Oklahoma and Louisiana. In South Florida, 20 of the nation's most stringently regulated disposal wells failed in the early 1990s, releasing partly treated sewage into aquifers that may one day be needed to supply Miami's drinking water.

There are more than 680,000 underground waste and injection wells nationwide, more than 150,000 of which shoot industrial fluids thousands of feet below the surface. Scientists and federal regulators acknowledge they do not know how many of the sites are leaking.

Federal officials and many geologists insist that the risks posed by all this dumping are minimal. Accidents are uncommon, they say, and groundwater reserves — from which most Americans get their drinking water — remain safe and far exceed any plausible threat posed by injecting toxic chemicals into the ground.

But in interviews, several key experts acknowledged that the idea that injection is safe rests on science that has not kept pace with reality, and on oversight that doesn't always work.

Read full article.

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Marcus Aurelius: 8,000 Wealthy US Citizens Leaving US and Renouncing US Citizenship

03 Economy, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government
Marcus Aurelius

Wealthy Americans Jumping Obama’s Ship

NewsMax, Sunday, 24 Jun 2012 12:46 PM

Wealthy Americans aren’t just leaving tax-heavy states like New York and California, they’re leaving the country.

U.S. citizens are defecting at record levels in order to escape high taxes, the New York Post reported. About 8,000 U.S. citizens are projected to renounce their citizenship in 2012, or about 154 a week — versus 3,805 in 2011, or about 73 per week, according to immigration officials, the Post reported.

They want to avoid tax bills resulting from the proposed 55-percent hike on the wealthy and the anticipated expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts at the end of the year, the Post reported.

“High-net-worth individuals are making decisions that having a US passport just isn’t worth the cost anymore,” Jim Duggan, a lawyer at Duggan Bertsch, which specializes in protecting assets of the wealthy, told the Post.

“They’re able to do what they do from any place in the world, and they’re choosing to do it from places with much lower tax rates,” he said. “Some are philosophically disgusted at the course our country is taking in all kinds of ways. They’re making a strong protest of, ‘Enough is enough.’ But largely it’s an economic decision.”

But to leave means finding a new country and obtaining citizenship and there are many that are eager to welcome wealthy Americans, such as Australia, Norway, Singapore, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, and Antigua, according to the Post.

These countries tend to offer a fast track to citizenship and protections from the Justice Department and IRS.

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Michel Bauwens: The Sharing Economy – Conversation with Links

03 Economy, 04 Education, 06 Family, 11 Society, Knowledge
Michel Bauwens

El Correo de las Indias English edition

The “Sharing Economy,” the “economy of the commons,” deserves and needs a point of reference equivalent to the large institutions of European social theory.

Via GAIA: Global Alliance for Immediate Alteration

Production, not consumption; Economics of the Commons, not Sharing Economics

For a “Somewhere School of Sharing Economics”

See Also:

P2P revolution in 10 minutes

How to start P2P projects and business models

What replaces the University in the P2P mode of production?

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Event: 30 June London Gathering of the Commons

03 Economy, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics

School of Commoning

Invitation to the gathering of the commons, 30th June, 1-5 pm

Something new is moving, coming alive in London and it’s powerful. Similar to any big change in nature, it started in a way noticeable only to relatively few but have no doubt, it will grow fast and wide.

Whether you attended one in 12-day/12-seminar series on The Emergence of a Commons-based Economy or join us at the next gathering, you will not only learn about how you can reclaim the commons in your life and work, but also, contribute to the tide that will raise the boat of all commoners.

You are warmly invited to bring your dreams, questions, enthusiasm to co-creating a Commons-based society, one commons at a time.

Continue reading “Event: 30 June London Gathering of the Commons”

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Penguin: DEAR AMERICA You Should Be Mad As Hell About This [CHARTS]

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Commerce, Corruption, Government
Who, Me?

DEAR AMERICA: You Should Be Mad As Hell About This [CHARTS]

In November, Americans will have a chance to speak their minds.

And there's one thing everyone should agree on:

America just isn't working right now.

It's not just Americans who aren't working. It's America itself, a country whose economy once worked for almost everyone, not just the rich.

In the old America, if you worked hard, you had a good chance of moving up.

In the old America, the fruits of people's labors accrued to the whole country, not just the top.

In the old America, there was a strong middle class, and their immense collective purchasing power drove the economy for decades.

Click on Image to Enlarge

No longer.

Over the past couple of decades, the disparity between “the 1%” and everyone else has hit a level not seen since the 1920s. And there is a widespread and growing sense that life here is not fair or right.

If America cannot figure out a way to fix these problems, the country will likely become increasingly polarized and de-stabilized. And if that happens, the recent “Occupy” protests will likely be only the beginning.

The problem in a nutshell is this:

In the never-ending tug-of-war between “labor” and “capital,” there has rarely—if ever—been a time when “capital” was so clearly winning.

And that's not just unfair.

It's un-American.

In fact, income inequality has gotten so extreme here that the US now ranks 93rd in the world in “income equality.” China's ahead of us. So is India. So is Iran.

Phi Beta Iota:  The actual unemployment rate in the USA is 22.4%.  Anyone that does not know this is part of the problem.  Anyone that knows this and conceals it from the public is part of the corruption that has created the problem.

See Also:

Shadow Statistic Website

Josh Kilbourn: US Disability & Food Stamp Welfare Skyrocketing

Mini-Me: Economists Scoff at Obama, Romney Job-Creation Myths

Paul Craig Roberts: December Net Jobs a 12,000 LOSS – Actual Unemployment 2.6 Times Official Rate or 22.4%

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Josh Kilbourn: US Labor Market Is In A Full-Blown Depression

03 Economy, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government
Josh Kilbourn

US Labor Market Is In A Full-Blown Depression

Tyler Durden

ZeroHedge, 6 June 2012

Now that stocks are back to reflecting nothing more than expectations of how many times the Chairsatan dilutes the existing monetary base in a carbon copy replica of not only 2011 but also 2010… and 2009 (because contrary to what purists may believe, the only way to inflate away unsustainable debt in a growth-free economy is by destroying the currency), and manic pattern chasers have crawled out of their holes proclaiming the death of the bear market after a two day bounce, what is happening in the actual economy, no longer reflected by the market, has once again been pulled back to the backburner.

Fastest Growing Job in USA

Which is sad, because while ever fewer people reap the benefits of artificial, centrally-planned S&P rallies, the rest of the population suffers, and what is worse: hope for a quiet, middle-class life is now an endangered species. Nowhere is this more evident than in the following list from David Rosenberg which summarizes how, quietly, the US labor force slipped back into a full-blown depression.

From David Rosenberg:

One Sick Labor Market

There were so many disturbing elements to the May jobs data that we're not sure we can do justice to the litany of disappointments (with some help from our friends at the Investor's Business Daily):

  • The share of long-term unemployment is at its highest level since the Great Depression (42%).
  • Fully 54% of college degree graduates under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed.
  • 45 million Americans are on food stamps — one in seven residents.
  • 47% of Americans are on some form of government assistance.
  • The employment-to-population ratio for 25-54 year olds is now 75.7%, lower than it was when the recession supposedly ended in June 2009.
  • The number of people not in the labour force has swelled eight million since the recession ended; absent that effect, the unemployment rate would be 12% right now (about the same as President Obama's election chances would be).
  • The number of people confident enough to leave their jobs fell 11% in May
    for the second month in a row to 891k, the lowest since November 2010.
  • The ranks of the unemployed who have been looking fruitlessly for work for at least 27 weeks jumped 310k in May, the sharpest increase since May 2011.
  • The unemployment rate for males aged 16-19 is 27% and for males between 20 and 24 it is 13%. Draw your own conclusions from a social (in)stability standpoint.
  • One in seven Americans are either unemployed or underemployed.
  • Only one in six of the youth are working full-time and three-in-five are living with their folks or another relative (as per the NYT).
  • A mere 16% of the 2009-2011 graduating class has found full-time work, while 22% are working part-time. Even those hired from 2006-08, just 23% are working full-time.
  • According to a poll cited in the NYT, just 14% of high-school grads today believe they will have a more successful financial future than their parents Line of the day, as depressing as it is, comes from an 18-year old: “Thank God I had a buddy at Burger King who could help me out”. Fast-food has emerged as the fast-growing industry in a country once led by technology. Even tech now is fuelled more by companies that produce nifty consumer gadgets and feed our narcissistic needs than those who focus on improving the nation's capital stock which is the ultimate trailblazer for productivity growth and durable gains in our standard-of-living.