Classical Economics lunacy

http://www.positivemoney.org/2012/12/new-documentary-economic-science-and-the-debt-crisis/

This video has mainly Swedish dialogue and (retro-added) English subtitles, occasionally the reverse, and yet more occasionally dilogue in a third language with in vision Swedish subtitles superimposed with retro-added English subtitles. This can make it hard work if you don't know Swedish, and occasionally the English subtitles are obsured by the video content.

A main point I took away from this is that classical economic models do not include the banks and debt, and this is why economists mainly failed to see the latest financial crisis coming. You can take delight in watching various Nobel prize winning economists splutter and stammer when this point is put to them - unsurprising as (and the film points this out via other commentators) they have built careers and reputations over many years using the flawed model. One at least cogent retort is that banks and debt can be ignored becuse "for every loan there is a lender" (I think I quote correctly) , but this conveniently ignores the fact that debt carries interest, so debts are always greater than loans.

The film concludes that reducing the size of the financial sector in an economy - resetting it  - is the way forward, but this srikes me as either doing less of the wrong thing, or doing the wrong thing righhter, or just again in the hope that this time it will be OK.

The film stops short of really showing up the contradictions / fallacies in our GDP growth paradigm. It features a Spanish family who narrowly avoid eviction for mortgae arrears, and a vast unoccupiable housing development started before the bubble burst. The references to the 'value' of homes were in the common usage of the price they could be sold for, ignoring the fact of an underlying value of the home as an amenity. [Nature /  physics teaches us that there is entropy. So, untouched, a buiding will eventually crumble: its innate value is falling from the moment the builders leave the site - it is depreciating in real terms. Yet we are so indoctrinated by market orthodoxy that we tend to equate price and value.]

Zeitgeist links

Francesc0 of the UK Zeitgeist movement occasionally sends a bunch of links in an e-mail to supporters. Here's his latest. Tipping point ahead is particularly powerful

Zeitgeist Moving Forward
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w

Positive money - How money is created by banks
http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/videos/
Does it matter? In a society where money seems to command our lives, I would say it does indeed.

Positive Money: One Good Cut
http://www.onegoodcut.org/?autoplay=1

Tipping Point Ahead: Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip
http://wakeupfreakout.org/film/tipping.html
Available in 22 languages.

Interesting repository of articles about the advances of science and technology
http://www.zeitnews.org/



In Debt We Trust
http://www.creditaction.org.uk/helpful-resources/debt-statistics.html
All is fine in the UK. Let's keep on watching TV and consume. The future is bright.


Tame the vampire squid: Take back our banks
http://www.giantvampiresquid.org/

Corporate EUtopia - how new economic governance measures challenge democracy
http://www.corporateeurope.org/lobbycracy/content/2011/01/corporate-eutopia

Animal Feed Lobby Targets EU's Zero Tolerance Policy on GM
http://www.corporateeurope.org/agribusiness/content/2011/01/eus-zero-tolerance-gm-under-fire

Deadly Medicine: FDA Fails to Regulate Rapidly Growing Industry of Overseas Drug Testing
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/17/deadly_medicine_fda_fails_to_regulate

Rachel Botsman: The case for collaborative consumption
http://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_botsman_the_case_for_collaborative_consumption.html

Move Your Money campaign in the USA
http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/
We don't have to keep our money in the coffers of the big banks. In the USA, the Move Your Money campaign, launched by the influential online news source the Huffington Post, has inspired Americans to move all or some of their money into accounts with alternative institutions.
In the UK, the banking sector isn't nearly as diverse as in the States, but there are still good alternatives. Check out Triodos, the Co-operative, the Ecology Building Society, the credit unions, National Savings through the Post Office, and the exciting new territory of person-to-person lending at Zopa.