IntegralJournal

Mostly Right

This article is a must read for those who want to know just what is going on in this insane world.  While one can doubt the premeditation of the elites, the history and the future that Richard Moore portrays is probably darn close to what has been and what will be. 

Beyond Community Banks As We Know Them

I just posted the following as a response to this post at SeekingAlpha:

This emphasis on community banks is unfortunate. I know from professional experience that investors tend to make shifts at precisely the wrong time. Many community banks have lousy assets in their portfolios. Their model is similar to the big boys and most aspire to be big boys. They will not be exempt from the over confidence that has afflicted the global banks.

The trick to deploying capital over the next few decades will be to recognize that lifestyles will be completely different from what they have been in the last few decades. Those who get out of the office and away from their specialties already know it and recognize that life can be so much more gratifying -- even if it means living in a hut....

The reference to the hut comes from my last post.  In it I link to a story about a Swiss person who is giving all of his wealth to a microlending foundation.  I'd like to see individuals who recognize that there is more to life than making money to also realize that debt/usury/lending is one of the sources of our discontent.  Rather than going off to live in a hut, I would encourage him to get involved with a complete overhaul of our institutions.

UPDATE:  Thinking about investing in a community bank? Watch this Elizabeth Warren video before you do so.  

Will We See More Of This?

Millionaire Gives Away Fortune...

As someone who thinks that usury is simply not necessary for a happier and healthier society, I must say that I would encourage him to re-think the micro-lending concept.

How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America - The Atlantic (March 2010)

While I don't believe that more government spending is the answer, I think that this article captures much of the angst that pervades today's society:

How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America - The Atlantic (March 2010)

 The way out has to be radical and it must take into consideration much more than joblessness alone.  It must recognize that we will not be returning to a paradigm from the past.

Why Big Ag Won't Feed the World

Why Big Ag Won't Feed the World.

According to the author, as populations explode, chemicals and GMOs aren't the answer....

The Orchid Gene

Fascinating Article

An explanation of why that homeless person raving in the park often -- if you listen closely -- sounds far more sane than most of the bosses you have had. We have to create a place for the creative. Contemporary workplaces do not provide it -- because the intelligent know bullshit when they see it -- and contemporary academia does not provide it because it places you in a tiny box.

Related quote from Brain-Wise: Studies In Neurophilosophy: 

Not surprisingly, I have also found that history of philosophy invaluable in putting current philosophical orthodoxy at arm's length.  This is not because I subscribe to the goofy theory according to which the historical giants knew more because they knew less....Rather, it is because some of the greats were just a whole lot broader in their interests and a whole lot more curious about nature in general than are many of today's mainstream philosophers. [p.ix]

The same can be said for mainstream, period.

What is the significance of this?

http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/who-is-paying-taxes/

Not good.

Thinking In Systems, etc.

Epigraph from Thinking in Systems -- A Primer:

If a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory.  If a revolution destroys a government, but the systemic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves.... There's so much talk about the system.  And so little understanding.

           --Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Thinking in Systems is the primer that the subtitle promises.  This book should be required reading for both libertarians and liberals.  Both are guilty of not incorporating limits to growth in their respective philosophies.

From Understanding Knowledge as a Commons:

We hope the readers of this book take away a strong sense that there are indeed analytical commonalities underlying many problems of deep concern today.  How do we build effective forms of collective action and self-organizing, self-governing initiatives? [p.21]

A brief and easy to understand explanation of why the term "banksters" is warranted:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/12/former-barclays-chief-points-out-bonuses-were-paid-fruadulently.html

"...the typical American lifestyle teems with risk factors for mental illness"

http://www.livescience.com/health/090729-what-makes-us-crazy.html