Holiday reflections
I’ve just spent some time up in the Abel Tasman National Park, one of my favourite places in New Zealand. It’s a stunning coastline Park with a lovely walking track and numerous bays and beaches to swim or kayak in. It also has a stunning eco-lodge for weary walkers to rest up in and relax.
As I walked, sam and lay on the beach I reflected on the past year and wondered where we were heading. Looking at the end of 2007 didn’t fill me with optimism: G7 financial system in a state of collapse, the biggest asset bubble since 1929, oil at record highs and conflicts continue in the middle east and africa.
And opening up 2008 with huge falls in global stock markets….why can’t they fall another 10-20%. No reason at all. Will the latest stimulus plan work? Who knows? There’s been so many I’ve lost count as well as interest.
A good film to watch now would be Paul Gringnon’s Money as Debt. You can also find it on Google video. I highly recommend it especially for the scene where the bankers try to re-inflate the economy for the umpteenth time.
There simply isn’t an answer to this.
It just has to play out.
Hi Raf,
The region around the Malborough Sounds is very beautiful isn’t it? I attended a course at Outward Bound in Anikawa late last year and loved the place. I hope to go back sometime, if I can make enough money that is.
Regarding your apparent pessimism. Although the future may appear bleak, be heartened by the fact that the popularity of alternative economy grows as the conventional economy contracts and that during times of economic stress people begin questioning the legitamacy of the current system as they did during the Great Depression e.g. Major Douglas, Silvio Gessel, Irving Fischer etc and more recently in Latin America (Bolivia, Venezuela, Argentina etc).
Its a perfect plan to develop and deploy alternative financial and economic systems and to offer a more sustainable and participatory business paradigm. That is the fundamental principle behind the “Open Banking” project that I have been talking about.
Perhaps you’d be interested and inspired by this presentation by Michel Bauwens, the founder of the founder of P2P alternatives, I know I was.
http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=4549818267592301968&hl=en-AU
He, along with Silvio Gesell, Henry George, David Korten, Major Douglas, Iain Boal, Joseph Proudhon, and Amory Lovins, are my inspiration in developing my economic principles and are the cause of my optimism for the future.
I’d very much would like to discuss the project further with you if you are so willing. I don’t have any relevant qualifications or experience in the area, nor any relevant expertise, except for an imagination and an open mind, so I’d appreciate any input that you, as someone who does so, could provide.
Its interesting to note that major banks are recommending that investors buy the $NZD. It doesn’t bode well for our exchange rate does it.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601083&sid=aeDm7mMKtlPI&refer=currency
Bob Jones could be right that we should consign the Reserve Bank to the scrap heap as there more of a hindrance than a help in the modern deregulated finance market.