Date archives "January 2011"

Thomas Greco: The debt crisis is global and needs a structural solution through credit commons

Excerpted from Reality Sandwich. Thomas Greco: “If the world has become so prosperous and productive, why all this debt, and why does it continue to grow ever more rapidly? It is not a matter of policy, i.e., how we operate a flawed system. The problem is structural and systemic. The system is designed to create… Continue reading

Tunisian Minister, Sami Zaoui, on the internet-enabled “bloodless revolution”

The internet and social media were crucial for the success of the Tunisian revolution: Here are additional details provided by Tunisian Internet Agency (French initials: ATI) director Kamel Saadaoui, in Wired: “Saadaoui described the governmental oversight of the internet as an encrypted interface built and maintained by the ATI. Only the government can manipulate it…. Continue reading

Book of the Week: 100 cases of Changeability

Book: “We can change the weather – 100 cases of changeability” Wynants, M. (ed.). Crosstalks, 2010 This fourth ‘Crosstalks’ book (VUB, Belgium) edited by our friend Marleen Wynants describes 100 tangible local initiatives from all over the world that fit into a constructive and holistic movement for social and ecological change. Drawing from a pool… Continue reading

The great currency debate: public fiat money vs. gold-backed money

We often cite and excerpt Ellen Brown, who is, along with Bernard Lietaer and Thomas Greco, amongst our 3 preferred monetary transformation excerpts. To help situate Ellen Brown’s positioning in the larger currency debates, here’s a good explanation of one of the key debating points by Eric Blair. Eric Blair: “There seems to be another… Continue reading

Money is a relation, not a commodity: from private borrowing to public credit

We have emerged from the financial crisis with new clarity: Money today is simply credit. When the credit is advanced by a bank, when the bank is owned by the community, and when the profits return to the community, the result can be a functional, efficient, and sustainable system of finance. Must read explanation excerpted… Continue reading

Starfish – A User Owned Distributed Network

Raffael Kéménczy (http://kemenczy.at/) is proposing a roadmap towards a distributed net that will populate what has been called by someone else the “last square mile”, with our own wireless links. The network so established between our computers and phones will first of all function to interconnect us locally, stimulating local activity, exchange and interaction. It… Continue reading

David Harvey’s critique of Eleanor Ostrom’s Commons approach

An excerpt from David Harvey (from the Radical History Review Issue 109 Winter 2011) 1. Problem of scale “Ostrom shows that individuals can and often do devise ingenious and eminently sensible ways to manage common property resources (CPR) for individual and collective benefit. These case studies “shatter the convictions of many policy analysts that the… Continue reading