Our society has been hurtling towards this economic crisis for a very long time. Everyone, at some level, has known about this eventuality. And yet, when it finally came crashing down around us, we still reacted with shock, dismay and fear. Slowly, as people are beginning to come out of the fog and confusion, many are realizing the unique and important opportunity before us to make some fundamentally critical shifts in the way we are….with everything, and with everyone. But, are we there? Are we ready to let it all go for something completely new? Or are we still too fearful — finding ourselves holding on tighter, making palliative remedies for the pain? How, as I asked my friends, is everything we’re doing still, in all, simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?

This article came to us the other day. We invite your perspectives and a willingness to engage in open and thoughtful dialogue…mostly to the question of how ready are we for something completely new?

California Doesn’t Need to Borrow Billions from Washington — It Can Create Its Own Money
By Ellen Brown, AlterNet
Posted on May 27, 2009, Printed on May 27, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/140261/

“I understand that these cuts are very painful and they affect real lives. This is the harsh reality and the reality that we face. Sacramento is not Washington — we cannot print our own money. We can only spend what we have.”
- Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger quoted in Time, May 22, 2009

Christmas comes early, Governor. You can print your own money. Fiscally solvent North Dakota is doing it…and so can California. Now!

In a May 22 article in Time titled “Billions in the Red: Fiscal Reckoning in CA,” Juliet Williams reports that since California voters have now vetoed higher taxes and further state government borrowing, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has indicated that he intends to close the budget gap almost entirely through drastic spending cuts. The cutbacks could include laying off thousands of state workers and teachers, ending the state’s main welfare program for the poor, eliminating health coverage for about 1.5 million poor children, halting cash grants for about 77,000 college students, slashing money for state parks, and releasing thousands of prisoners before their sentences are finished. Schwarzenegger bemoaned the fact that the state could not print its own money but said it could only spend what it had.

But the state can create its own money. After all, banks do this every day. Certified, card-carrying bankers are allowed to do something nobody else can do: they can create “credit” with accounting entries on their books. As the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas explains on its website:

Banks actually create money when they lend it. Here’s how it works: Most of a bank’s loans are made to its own customers and are deposited in their checking accounts. Because the loan becomes a new deposit, just like a paycheck does, the bank…holds a small percentage of that new amount in reserve and again lends the remainder to someone else, repeating the money-creation process many times.

President Obama has also acknowledged that banks create money, through what he calls the “multiplier effect.” In a speech at Georgetown University on April 14, he said:

[A]lthough there are a lot of Americans who understandably think that government money would be better spent going directly to families and businesses instead of banks — “where’s our bailout?” they ask — the truth is that a dollar of capital in a bank can actually result in eight or ten dollars of loans to families and businesses, a multiplier effect that can ultimately lead to a faster pace of economic growth.

Money in a government-owned bank could give us the best of both worlds. We could have all the credit-generating advantages of private banks, without the baggage cluttering up the books of the Wall Street giants, including bad derivatives bets, unmarketable collateralized debt obligations, mark to market accounting issues, oversized CEO salaries and bonuses, and shareholders expecting a sizeable cut of the profits. A state could deposit its vast revenues in its own state-owned bank and proceed to fan them into eight to 10 times their face value in loans. Not only would it have its own credit machine, but it would control the loan terms. The state could lend at ?% interest to itself and to municipal governments, rolling the loans over as needed until the revenues had been generated to pay them off. According to Professor Margrit Kennedy in her 1995 book Interest and Inflation-free Money, interest composes, on average, fully half the cost of every public project. Cutting costs by 50% could make currently-unsustainable projects such as low-cost housing, alternative energy development, and infrastructure construction not only sustainable but actually profitable for the government.

If all this seems too radical and unprecedented to venture into, consider that one state has had its own bank for 90 years; and it has not only escaped the credit crunch but is doing remarkably well…

The Innovative Bank of North Dakota

Only three of 50 states are now solvent, meaning they have the revenues to meet their state budgets; and one of them is North Dakota. It is an unlikely candidate for the distinction. It is a sparsely populated state of fewer than 700,000 people, largely located in isolated farming communities afflicted with cold weather. Yet since 2000, the state’s GNP has grown 56%, personal income has grown 43%, and wages have grown 34%. The state not only has no funding issues, but this year it actually has a budget surplus of $1.2 billion, the largest it has ever had.

North Dakota boasts the only state-owned bank in the nation. The Bank of North Dakota (BND) was established by the state legislature in 1919 specifically to free farmers and small businessmen from the clutches of out-of-state bankers and railroad men. The bank’s stated mission is to deliver sound financial services that promote agriculture, commerce and industry in North Dakota. By law, the state must deposit all its funds in the bank, which pays a competitive interest rate to the state treasurer. The state rather than the FDIC guarantees the bank’s deposits, which are plowed back into the state in the form of loans. The bank’s return on equity is about 25%, and it pays a hefty dividend to the state, which is expected to exceed $60 million this year. In the last decade, the BND has turned back a third of a trillion dollars to the state’s general fund, offsetting taxes. The former president of the BND is now the state’s governor.

The BND avoids rivalry with private banks by partnering with them. Most lending is originated by a local bank. The BND then comes in to participate in the loan, share risk, and buy down the interest rate. The BND provides a secondary market for real estate loans, which it buys from local banks. Its residential loan portfolio is now $500 billion to $600 billion. Guarantees are also provided for entrepreneurial startups, and the BND has ample money to lend to students (over 184,000 outstanding loans). It purchases municipal bonds from public institutions, and it backs loans made to new farmers at 1% interest. The BND also has a well-funded disaster loan program, which helps explain how Fargo, when struck by a disastrous flood recently, managed to avoid the devastation suffered by New Orleans in similar circumstances.

North Dakota has also managed to avoid the credit freeze, through the simple expedient of creating its own credit. It has led the nation in establishing state economic sovereignty. In California and other states, workers and factories are sitting idle because the private credit system has failed. An injection of new money from a system of publicly-owned banks on the model of the Bank of North Dakota could thaw the credit freeze and bring spring to the markets once again.

Ellen Brown developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. In Web of Debt, her latest book, she turns those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and “the money trust.”
© 2009 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/140261/

He says it best:

“What’s needed in American life is a redefinition of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ Given the nation’s great wealth, the ancient threats of scarcity and deprivation have been eliminated. Yet people remain yoked to economic demands despite wanting something more from life — freedom to explore the mysteries and bring forth all that is within them. Collectively, Americans need to take a deep breath and reconsider what it means to be rich.” (The Good Times As We Knew It Aren’t Coming Back, So Now What by William Greider, The Nation. Posted in AlterNet on May 8, 2009.)

And here’s more of what he proposes that I am compelled to share here, because I really could not say it any better.

“Here is the grand vision I suggest Americans can pursue: the right of all citizens to larger lives. Not to get richer than the next guy or necessarily to accumulate more and more stuff but the right to live life more fully and engage more expansively the elemental possibilities of human existence. That is the essence of what so many now seem to yearn for in their lives. People — even successful and affluent people — are frustrated because the intangible dimensions of life have been held back or displaced in large and small ways, pushed aside by the economic system’s relentless demands to maximize yields of profit and wealth. Our common moral verities have been trashed in the name of greater returns. The softer aspects of mortal experience are diminished because life itself is not tabulated in the economic system’s accounting…”

“…What families, even those who are prosperous, typically lose in the exchange are the small grace notes of everyday life, like the ritual of having a daily dinner with everyone present. The more substantial thing we sacrifice is time to experience the joys and mysteries of nurturing the children, the small pleasures of idle curiosity, of learning to craft things by one’s own hand, and the satisfactions of friendships and social cooperation.

These are made to seem trivial alongside wealth accumulation, but many people know they have given up something more important and mourn the loss. Some decide they will make up for it later in life, after they are financially stable. Still others dream of dropping out of the system…”

As true, desired and meaning-filled lifestyles are starting to be reclaimed and reinvented by ‘the people’, is the government and society going to start to recognize the true gift of this and reinvent systems to support this shifting? I think there are smaller communities (I am blessed to be in one) who are working out among themselves a different way to be. Bless them. Bless us. Bless the system that needs to grow up and grow true to LIFE. Bless those still fighting to hold on to the old way that’s dying. We need them to let go to forge with us into the new…

This article was excerpted from William Greider’s new book, Come Home, America. Copyright © 2009 by William Greider. Permission granted by Rodale Inc.

At the close of a very moving and inspiring phone conversation with a friend who wanted help in clarifying and articulating his life work in the world, Philip said to me: “Do you know the Buddhist concept of Dhana?” (No, I said.) “To me, it is a concept that lives in the process of teaching the ideas of Buddhism in which the teacher does not charge. After a teaching, though, the student often feels the experience of deep gratitude and an inclination to generosity. There is not a charge sought, but a response is given in gratitude. I feel this gratitude. A Dhana is warranted here.”

A few days later, a generous check came in the mail. Money given in the true spirit of gratitude and generosity. And the field is nourished and uplifted. As am I.

I checked out the meanings of Dhana.

Dhana: The literal translation is wealth. It is also the name for the second house because the second house rules wealth. There are also a number of yogas called dhana yogas or combinations that indicate wealth.

Dhana: Pali Buddhist Buddhism Dictionary on Dhana
dhana (dhana): Treasure(s). The seven qualities of conviction, virtue (see sila), conscience & concern, learning, generosity, and wisdom.

It’s a beautiful, sunny, warm Spring day. My friend Philip and I, playing in the fields of Grace.

I Want Your Story! Talk to Me!
How are you dealing with the Recession? Were you laid off? Was your spouse or partner? How are coping? What are the changes have you made? Hamburger Helper every night? Letting the perm grow out? Or do you see your favorite businesses closing? Your neighborhood sprouting foreclosure signs? What have you lost? What have you gained? No matter who you are or where you are on this journey, I’d like to hear from you. ~ from Recession Daily

I love the internet and how they connect you to girl(and boy)friends past who otherwise would probably have simply disappeared from your life, leaving you wondering…

Just recently, I got reconnected to Rhonda Mitchell who upon first meeting — on the phone — I felt an immediate joyful kindredship with. She struck me as wise, centered, feisty and spunky, and creative as all get. Then, life happened and we got out of touch before we could even explore more what that creative juice in our conversations was all about.

Now she’s back and she’s talking. Actually, while I was gone, she’s been talking! And as these things happen, I had to go through my own money stuff (check out my earlier blogs — Search & Rescue Missions, The Divide to Cross, From the gutter…, etc.) and come out seeking/inviting a more real, yet larger and co-creative perspective and dialogue on the economic crisis…before Linked-In brought us together again. Phew!

So, do check out her blog at Recession Daily. Her invitation (see above) shouts out to all to tell their story of how the recession is affecting us is warm, inviting and asks us to ’sit up’, take stock, think/talk it through and live the story forward with truth, spunk, inquiry, creativity. It’s inspiring and quite fun, too.

Lately, it seems that all we are talking, reading and hearing about on
the news is the economy and, more specifically, when it will
“recover.” We are in the midst of amazing times, and the politician
and pundits are working on all sorts of plans to “stimulate” the
economy for a full recovery.

Well, I am not at all certain the economy will recover. I am actually
not that convinced it is even sick. And I am rather certain that no
amount of stimulation will change what is happening.

Words like “recovery” and “stimulus” are tossed around as if
they have a real meaning. Recovery, at least in the dictionary, is
defined as “a return to a normal state of health, mind or strength.” I
don’t know about you, but I really hope what we have had in the past
is NOT normal. It is not normal, in my opinion, for 10 percent of the
people to control 90 percent of the world’s resources. It isn’t
healthy to spend more than we make and use credit cards to cover the
difference. It isn’t strong to let people run Ponzi schemes for years
and years and then claim no one noticed. And it certainly is not sane
to use up the planet’s resources for today and leave nothing for
tomorrow. We all know this. We just are not all that crazy about what
it takes to change it.

What we are embarking on now is not an economic recovery. It is an
economic rebirth. We are on a course for the dawning of a new age. And
no amount of stimulus is going to change that.

In the meantime, we are all in for a lot of changes. Yes, some of the
things that are happening are not pleasant. I feel very sorry for
everyone who is losing jobs and retirement nest eggs (myself
included). But, as a person who has followed metaphysical teachings
for a very long time, I am also excited and encouraged to see the
world changing.

My guides have told me that there are three guideposts that will help
us find sanity in these times of change. They are authenticity,
simplicity and community.

As we struggle with the decisions that need to be made, they suggest
that we use these three things to aid us. It is important, they say,
to determine who we are. We need to become our authentic selves. For
many years we have let the media and the marketers tell us what we
want and need. In this new era, it is up to us to decide for
ourselves. Like children, we need to grow and determine our own likes
and dislikes and what we really need and what we have merely been told
we want. What makes us authentic will be different for each person.

The simplicity, my guides suggest, is not only to live in a frugal
manner, but to live in a simple fashion. Choose the “easy button.” Our
lives are amazingly complex. In this new era, there are many ways to
simplify our schedules, our obligations and our spending patterns. We
will be challenged to find them.

Lastly, we are ushering in a whole new era of community. We may find
that our McMansions are better suited for extended than single
families. We will be drawn to communities where we can walk to our
jobs, or better yet, work from our homes. We will hone in on our
inherent desire to be in community with those of like minds.

When the dust clears, (and it will) the new era will be one of peace
and a true prosperity that comes from having joy and peace of mind in
our investment portfolios. As the Light Collective advises, we will
invest in joy.

Kathryn is the author of five books, Your Life In the Palm Of Your Hand (1994), The Millennium Effect (1996), The Intuitive Advantage (2000), The Angel in the Big Pink Hat (2005), and Palm Visions (2007). Her books have also been published in German and Dutch. She is also a monthly columnist for Edge Life Magazine where she shares monthly intuitive insights with a circulation of approximately 45,000 readers.

Kathryn appears regularly on television and radio. She has been featured on the Arts & Entertainment network’s “The Unexplained”, and on Court TV’s “Psychic Detectives.” She is a regular monthly guest on the the Eleanor Mondale and Susie Jones radio show on WCCO am in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kathryn calls herself a professional wanderer. She has traveled to over 90 countries and has been featured on radio and television in Jamaica, Brazil, Australia, Holland and Germany. Find out more at www.harwig.com.

How does one get out of the gutter of sorrow, hurt, anxiety, pity-me, judgment - of self and others?

Some people stay there a lonnngggg time and make it their habitat, or their habit. I tend to bounce back pretty quickly. Friends worry that I stay too happy sometimes. (Not sure what that’s about.) And when I have the lows, other friends who know the territory well, watch me and scoff, saying, “you don’t even do depression well.” I guess I’ll take this lack of skill any day!

This particular recent bout of gutter-living, though, came upon me little by little, like a slow burn, simmering underneath my usual bright and joyful demeanor (maybe this is why they worry), catching me off-guard…until a comment or a joke or a news item will send me into a tizzy. This went on for days! (I can hear more scoffing.) Today, however, I woke up and whatever low-grade low I had feels cleared up. I’ve come out of the gutter. Phew!

My partner who tends to hang out there more asks me, “How do you do that? You always come out happy and at peace with things. It’s amazing.”

So, having just come out of this round in the gutter, I thought I’d think about it and write it. So, here’s a new list to add to our famous Offerings lists.

Top 10 ways to get out of the gutter:

1. Conversations. Talk it out. Reveal the most honest truths about what’s going on and talk, talk, talk…and then listen, listen, listen, and consider, consider, consider.

2. Spend time with friends who will not (a) judge you; (b) try to get you out of it before you’re ready; (c) devolve your thoughts into gossip; (d) get in a more depressed state than you; (e) show you how beautiful life is; (f) avoid telling you their own hopefully-more-joyful stories (you do want them to be truthful with you, not protect you).

3. Spend time alone, preferably out in nature or with the nature of children or dogs.

4. Have a crying fit. Give yourself a good, long cry from deep within. The deepest that you can touch. Wail if you have to. (Remember Diane Keaton’s character in “Something’s Gotta Give”? Loved that!)

5. Nibble on one really good bittersweet chocolate bar or ice cream.

6. Stay Healthy. AVOID doing #’s 1-5 more than what’s healthy. You’ll know when you’ve crossed the line. Pay attention and when you’re about to or you have crossed it, stop. Just. Stop.

7. Know that there is a way out of it, in time, and you’re that way out.

8. Be gentle with and forgive yourself. Don’t feel you have to be better, or get over it, or not be so negative. For example, release yourself from having to come up with 10 items just because it says “Top 10”. Who really cares?

9. ???

10. ???

Until the next time,
Teresa

I heard this morning on NPR about the AIG executive who wrote a letter to his CEO (and posted it on the NY Times) saying that he was quitting, and angry because he deserved the bonus that was suppose to come to him for having worked SO HARD. And this dawns on me as clear as clear can be: He & I are not only in vastly different economic classes, we’re in totally different worlds! Worlds! Planets apart!

So, how in this world — mine? his? your? their? worlds — could we ever come together? How do we - the haves/have nots/in-betweens — begin to envision & create a shared new world that works for all?

And, where to start?! In our own circles, among friends, in our churches, clubs, the organizations & businesses we lead in or are a part of?

I’ve been chewing on this long and hard. A dear friend talked about the total-surprise gift that her parents gave her the other day. A new Toyota Corola. Apparently, they had been tracking the condition of her car - a 12 year old Saturn - and noticed that its systems were getting shot, and that every time something went wrong, my friend had to fork out another $800 or so to get it fixed and that in the not-too-distant future, the car would be almost totally useless.

I was very moved by this story. It made me think of the question many of us have been wondering about of late, i.e., what is our role and responsibility as true members of our community today? I know quite well the one part of our responsibility is to be open and honest about what is going on and ask for help when it is needed. I do think we have been cultivating this skill, especially of late….and striving to do this with grace.

At the same time, what my friend’s parents taught me is that one muscle that must be exercised in communities is the tracking and offering muscle. Go on search and rescue missions within your community. Track what is going on among community members. Observe and really see, ask and really listen for what is going on — financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually — and then, reach down into what you have and make an offer. For no matter how much you may be needing help and support yourself, there is always something you can give that someone else needs.

My partner is so great at this. I only hope to follow his lead with as much heart as he does. Though he and I are low on financial resources and have nothing to offer, there are still all kinds of gifts we can and do offer — the time to help someone pack up their home; the skill at helping another build, fix or strengthen their website/blog/Facebook/Linked-in/Twitter; the network to connect or refer friends looking for work with friends looking for someone to do some work; thinking partnership for strategizing their business, getting out of debt, planning their lives; babysit when parents have to attend to things; time to lend that famous “listening ear” or “shoulder to cry on”.  Another dear friend Bonnie Kelley’s email signature says “I will stay awake with you.” I so love that!

And for those who do have some money, why wait till members come to you because they have nothing left and nowhere to go. Why wait to be “the last resort”? Oh, yeah…it’s that trust thing, and that co-dependency thing, and that what-about-me thing. As the same wise Bonnie says, “Oi! Enough already with that thing.”

One more thing. A friend, Bill Daul of NextNow, sent along this video clip by Keith Loutit. Amazing footage of the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service during one of its exercises. It is a service that began in 1973, and has carried out more than 21,000 missions ranging from urgent patient transfers to dangerous search and rescue missions.

“Bathtub IV” — http://vimeo.com/3156959

Watching it sealed my above resolution (proclamation!) that the time is now and it is us who must create this search & rescue service for our communities. So I say, stay awake! Go out there, find out what’s really going on and make an offer.

The Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service depends entirely on the generous support of sponsors and the community to stay flying. Donations can be made here:
lifesaver.org.au/funding_challenge/donate.html

I was having dinner at my friends’ house last night. One of our friends was in town and we were visiting with her. Justin turned to our visitor friend and in his inimitable way, asked: “Elizabeth, so how are you doing…financially?” This led to a very wonderful, honest, and, yes, intimate sharing of our situations, what we feared about them, what our plans were, what could be done to help, who was showing up to help, and what is the role of friends or members of a community at this time.

Not so long ago, this question would never have been spoken. Money is a very private matter….for many, even more private than sex.  Now it is spoken in many more conversations, and the answers coming back are often not pretty and therefore, not easy to hear. The bubble around money - and all the forms and stories around it - has finally burst and I honestly feel a little bit of a relief. It feels as if we are doing a huge exhale together. A much needed exhale as we let go of trying to hold the secret of our situations, embarrassed or ashamed to admit ‘we are in trouble’, ‘our house is undergoing foreclosure’, ‘all my contracts have dried up’, ‘my bank refused to give us cash on our credit’, ‘we bit off more than we could chew’, ‘I may have to go bankrupt’. There is something about telling it like it is — without blame or shame or guilt – and listening from that same place that brings the gift of connectedness, compassion, and even a shared sense of collaboration in thinking through the ‘best thing to do’ and ‘how we can all help’.

And yet, we are still very much in the nascent stages of this conversation about money. A lot gets unraveled by this conversation starter….and that’s really scary and why many people don’t know how to have the conversation. My partner has been very open about his financial state when he is asked the “how are you?” question - even with his clients – and not in a needy or begging way at all, just pretty matter-of-fact and honest. This has been met with different reactions, mostly telling us of how young and clumsy and inadequate we still are about this topic. Most of the time, people do not know what to do with the information. They either switch the topic and pretend it was never raised, make a joke, or just plainly not say anything at all. The topic of money — especially in one’s personal life — has been a daunting, scary, embarrassing one to have in the open. When one speaks of having or making a lot, it has been seen as arrogant and boastful; or the person fears they will be asked for a donation or a loan. When one speaks of not having it, it has been looked down upon as a sign of not being self-sufficient, or careless; or the person fears they will be shied away from. And when one has “enough”…well, why talk about it at all?! None of the scenarios would invite the conversation on money, which, let’s face it, is one of the core threads that brings us together and breaks us apart….in damaging and enlivening ways.

But the times, they are a-changing. Our economic times have brought money front and center. It is the not-to-be-ignored-any-longer topic as its reach is vast and complete in all corners of our lives and across the world. The sooner we get adept at having the money conversation as much, as deep and as open as we need to, the sooner we can learn how to be a human community again…together.

Talk with me…

Teresa

My 19-year-old son and I got in a conversation yesterday about whether money buys happiness.  He said it didn’t, which I’m betting most people would agree with.  I suggested that he might feel differently if he was supporting a family and had just been laid off (as is the case for two of my friends).  He was immovable on the subject, insisting that happiness is about something else, more basic, less tangible - the way you feel about yourself, the way you interact with the world.  I couldn’t help feeling proud of him.  He is one of the least materialistic people I know, but I also wondered if I’ve done him a disservice.

My son has just started working in his first real job.  Until now, we’ve paid for everything, and while he’s in school (he’s currently a sophomore in college), we’ve actually encouraged him to focus on his films. (He wants to be a filmmaker.)  The upside - he is passionate about his art.  He prioritizes it and has become very good at not just the creative side of film making, but in story boarding, casting, directing, editing. Without a job, he’s had time to focus his energy.  The downside, I realized yesterday, is that he doesn’t really have a concept of money and the degree to which it impacts those very things by which he defines happiness: they way we feel about ourselves and the way we interact with the world.

I do not think that money buys happiness, but I do think the absence of money can cause unhappiness.  I once read a post by Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Project in which she said, “When money or health is a problem, you think about it all the time; when it’s not a problem, you don’t think much about it. Both money and health contribute to happiness mostly in the negative; the lack of them brings much more unhappiness than possessing them brings happiness. One of the greatest luxuries that money and health provide is the freedom from having to think about them.”

Yesterday, I did not try to convince my son that I was right.  I let it be.  I thought maybe it was okay that, at nineteen, he didn’t understand yet.  Or maybe, after all, he’s right, and the years and this economy have made me too cynical.

What do you think?  Can money buy you happiness?