December 2011 - P2P-Foundation - lists.ourproject.org

Fw: Urgent: Tell the Brazilian president to save the Amazon
by robert searle 07 Dec '11

07 Dec '11

----- Forwarded Message ----- From: "Jamie Woolley, Greenpeace" <mail(a)mail.greenpeace.org.uk> To: dharao4(a)yahoo.co.uk Sent: Wednesday, 7 December 2011, 12:36 Subject: Urgent: Tell the Brazilian president to save the Amazon If you are unable to see the message below, click here to view. Email the Brazilian president and tell her to save the Amazon Hello friends, This is urgent: the Amazon rainforest is in immediate danger but you can help save it if you act today. Soon, the Brazilian president will decide whether to approve changes to the laws that safeguard the Amazon. But instead of beefing up protection, these changes will make it much easier to destroy the rainforest. The Brazilian parliament has already voted these amendments through, and the final decision rests with President Dilma. She has the power to block these changes and save the Amazon. Email President Dilma now, asking her to use her veto and save the Amazon If they become law, these changes will have a devastating effect on the rainforest. Not only will it provide an amnesty for those who have illegally deforested their land in the past, but it will open up vast new areas for deforestation. And even though they're still being debated, these forest law changes may already be having an effect. After falling for several years, deforestation rates in the Amazon are on the up - evidence suggests this is because landowners expect the amendments to be approved and are illegally clearing their land, expecting a full pardon when the law changes. President Dilma has the power to stop these crazy amendments before they get onto the statute books. And if she approves them, Dilma will be breaking her own promises. In her previous government role before being elected president, she committed Brazil to an ambitious target to reduce deforestation by 80 per cent in 2020, and make Brazil a leader in tackling climate change. Write to President Dilma now - tell her stand by her promises and block these changes to Brazil's forest laws. Thanks again for your support! Jamie Woolley Forward this email to a friend >> Share on: Facebook Twitter More Greenpeace goodness on the web We're also on Facebook, twitter, YouTube and Flickr - come be our friend! You can also find other Greenpeace supporters in your area and help with our campaigns in our Get Active section. Why have I received this email? Either because you have signed up for the Greenpeace e-bulletin or a friend has forwarded this onto you. How do I unsubscribe? To no longer receive these messages, please click here. How do I donate? To help us keep fighting climate change, defending our oceans and protecting ancient forests, you can make a regular donation by direct debit or a single payment by credit card. Thank you! Where do I send feedback? For feedback on the e-bulletin or the website, please email webteam.uk(a)greenpeace.org. If you have any questions about membership, email info.uk(a)greenpeace.org, quoting your supporter reference number 4800. Greenpeace Ltd, Canonbury Villas, London N1 2PN (registered in London no 1314381, VAT registration no 625951426)

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Fwd: why the Euro is still strong despite 'on the brink' (supposedly)
by Michel Bauwens 07 Dec '11

07 Dec '11

mmt analysis of euro crisis worth reading ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson(a)gmail.com> Date: Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 5:21 PM Subject: Fwd: why the Euro is still strong despite 'on the brink' (supposedly) To: econowmix(a)googlegroups.com Article : http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/05/there-will-be-blood-2/ excerpts ( article copied below ) : *"in this case the ECB support comes only with reduced spending via its imposition of fiscal austerity."* *"banks cannot lend out reserves, so increasing reserves in the banking system is NOT inflationary per se, as the Weimar hyperinflation hyperventilators continue to warn us."* * * *"So the grand irony of the day remains this: while there is nothing the ECB can do to cause monetary inflation, even if it wanted to, the ECB, fearing inflation, holds back on the bond buying that would eliminate the national govt. solvency risk but not halt the deflationary monetary forces currently in place."* * * *//* * * *Dante Personal Note :* * * *I do not necessarily back what is said in this article.* *( an article which puts pressure and disapproves of Germany's current approach, and raises fears of "Blood on the streets" )* * * *While I may not necessarily agree with the author on the policies,* *Nevertheless, it raises questions again.* * * *What exactly do they want to create ? Deflation ? * *Why not let them ( banks and nations ) go into bankruptcy ( and leave the Eurozone ) ?... ( as happened to in Iceland recently ? Or to Argentina a decade ago )* * * *... Do they do all this merely to protect the assets of the "1%" ?* *... and to strengthen artificial scarcity ?* *... through austerity ?* * * *Sustain Shock Therapy to modify policies and sell off public assets ?* *Who's interests do they ( the central bankers and heads of state ) defend ? * * * *Or why not, as explaned below ( if as mentionned in the article, secondary markets are not inflationary ??? + reserves not lended out by banks ), enable the ECB to buy bonds directly ?* *Why create even further government supported debt ? ( albeit european )* *... to centralize power at a european level ? To enable plutocrats to grapple on national democratic sovereignty ?* ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dirk B Date: Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 10:12 AM Subject: [gang8] why the Euro is still strong despite 'on the brink' (supposedly) To: gang8(a)yahoogroups.com ** Here is a good piece by Marshall Auerback on why the Euro is still strong despite 'on the brink' (supposedly). It (again) puts the argument about QE that reserves are not money, aparently also made in the BIS, and of course by Geoffrey and me in See http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1687750 Dirk December 05, 2011 3The Costs of the ECB’s Poker Game There Will Be Blood by MARSHALL AUERBACK Another week to go before the euro blows up, or so we’re told again for the thousandth time. More likely is that the ECB does barely enough to keep the show on the road, fiscal austerity continues and riots intensify on the streets of Madrid, Athens, Rome and Paris. Like the film, “there will be blood” before there is any likely change toward a sensible growth-oriented policy in the euro zone. Given the travails of the euro zone, why has the euro remained relatively robust? Surely, a currency that is supposedly within weeks of vanishing should be trading closer to parity with the dollar? Yet one continues to be struck by the divergence of opinion and actual market action. For all the talk about the euro possibly vaporizing by Christmas, it is striking that it remains stubbornly stable at around $1.34 to the dollar, substantially above the low of $1.20, which was reached in May 2010 (when predictions of parity with the dollar were rampant). By the same token, we have a paradox on the other side as well: every time it appears as if a solution to the problems posed by the euro look to be close to resolution, the euro strengthens. Perhaps this isn’t so odd, except that the solution that virtually everybody agrees will work – namely, a sustained bond-buying operation taken up by the European Central Bank (ECB) – is said to represent a form of “quantitative easing” and aren’t we always told that “QE” represents “printing money”, which should cause a currency to go down? Isn’t that what all of the opponents of the Fed’s program last year were asserting? Of course, in the case of the European Monetary Union, ECB President Mario Draghi insists that such bond buying will not take place in the absence of proper “sequencing”, by which he means agreed fiscal austerity first, bond buying afterward. The effect of the former will negate any potential impact of the latter, since the “inflation channel” (to the extent that inflation occurs at all) can only come through fiscal policy. And certainly, in the teeth of a severe recession, such cuts as those proposed by the client state governments of Italy and Greece (along with a renewed assault by President Sarkozy on the French welfare state) will almost certainly exacerbate the profoundly deflationary pressures now operating in the eurozone. Ultimately, this will surely have the result of creating substantially more social instability and bloodshed, but it might have little impact on the euro itself. So what is actually happening to the euro? Let’s take a step back from the panic talk. The most recent data from the COMEX suggests that speculators are heavily short on the euro and yet the currency has fallen less than 10 per cent from its recent highs. The question one might legitimately pose is: at what point does the current fiscal austerity produce higher deficits, which in theory should produce a weaker euro (as the euros become “easier to get”)? I have been wrestling with this issue, and keep getting back to a strong currency, even with increased fiscal deficits. Why? For one, the ECB’s bond purchases in the secondary market are operationally sustainable and non-inflationary. When the ECB undertakes its bond buying operation, the ECB debt purchases merely shift net financial assets held by the ‘economy’ from national government liabilities to ECB liabilities in the form of clearing balances at the ECB. At the same time, so-called PIIGS government liabilities shift from ‘the economy’ to the ECB. Note: this process does not alter any ‘flows’ or ‘net stocks of euros in the real economy. As long as the ECB imposes austerity terms and conditions, the bond buying will not be inflationary. Inflation from this channel comes from spending. However, in this case the ECB support comes only with reduced spending via its imposition of fiscal austerity. Draghi has now made this explicit and it is almost certainly the German quid pro quo for tacitly supporting a proposed expansion of the Secondary Market Program (SMP). And reduced spending means reduced aggregate demand, which therefore means reduced inflation and a stronger currency. We also know from an authority no less than the Bank of International Settlements (ironically, the same initials as “blood in streets”) that banks cannot lend out reserves, so increasing reserves in the banking system is NOT inflationary per se, as the Weimar hyperinflation hyperventilators continue to warn us. Now consider the trade channel: despite today’s rapidly weakening economy (Europe is almost certainly in recession today), we are not seeing much deterioration in the euro zone’s current account deficit. The Eurozone, in fact, seems to be a pretty self-contained, and somewhat mercantilist economy, which displays far less proclivity to import when the economy slides. So even though imports go down, so too do trade deficits, due to falling demand. Exports don’t fall and may in fact go up in this kind of environment. So that’s euro friendly. As far as what happens if the ECB were to expand significantly its bond buying program in the secondary market, the notion that the euro would fall is akin to the reasoning that the dollar would collapse if it engaged in QE2. And if what is called quantitative easing was inflationary, Japan would be hyperinflating by now, with the US not far behind. There is NO sign that the ECB’s buying of euro denominated government bonds has resulted in any kind of monetary inflation, as nothing but deflationary pressures continue to mount in that ongoing debt implosion. The reason there is no inflation from the ECB bond buying is because all it does is shift investor holdings from national govt. debt to ECB balances, which changes nothing in the real economy. But the question which persistently arises when one advocates a larger institutional role for the ECB is whether the ECB’s balance sheet would be impaired, and the MMT contention has long been NO, because if the ECB bought the bonds then, by definition, the “profligates” do not default. In fact, as the monopoly provider of the euro, the ECB could easily set the rate at which it buys the bonds (say, 4% for Italy) and eventually it would replenish its capital via the profits it would receive from buying the distressed debt (not that the ECB requires capital in an operational sense; as usual with the euro zone, this is a political issue). At some point, Professor Paul de Grauwe is right : convinced that the ECB was serious about resolving the solvency issue, the markets would begin to buy the bonds again and effectively do the ECB’s heavy lifting for them. The bonds would not be trading at these distressed levels if not for the solvency issue, which the ECB can easily address if it chooses to do so. But this is a question of political will, not operational “sustainability”. So the grand irony of the day remains this: while there is nothing the ECB can do to cause monetary inflation, even if it wanted to, the ECB, fearing inflation, holds back on the bond buying that would eliminate the national govt. solvency risk but not halt the deflationary monetary forces currently in place. Okay, so who takes the losses? Well, presuming the bonds don’t mature at par, no question that a private bank which sells a bond at today’s distressed levels might well take a loss and if the losses are big enough, then banks in this position might well need a recapitalization program.. And in this scenario Germany too could take a hit, as does every other national government as they use national fiscal resources to recapitalize. And the hit will get bigger the longer the Germans continue to push this crisis to the brink. But that is a separate issue from the question of whether the bond buying program per se will pose a threat to the ECB’s balance sheet. It will not: a big income transfer from the private bond holders who sell to the ECB, which can build up its capital base via the profits it makes on purchasing these distressed bonds. So again, the notion of an ECB being capital constrained is insane. By contrast, the status quo is a loser for everybody, including Germany. A broader ECB role as lender of last resort of the kind the Germans are still publicly resisting, along with their unhelpful talk of haircuts and greater private sector losses, actually do MUCH MORE to wreck Germany’s credit position than the policy measures which virtually everybody else in Europe is recommending. Why would any private bondholder with a modicum of fiduciary responsibility buy a European bond, knowing that the rules of the game have changed and that the private buyer could find himself/herself with losses being unilaterally imposed? The good news is that there finally appears to be some recognition of the dangers of this approach. Per the Wall Street Journal “Ms. Merkel signalled on Friday that she is having second thoughts about the wisdom of emphasizing bondholder losses: ‘We have a draft for the ESM, which must be changed in the light of developments’ in financial markets since the Greek-restructuring decision in July, she said after meeting Austria’s chancellor in Berlin. Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter, speaking at a conference in Hamburg on Friday, was more direct. ‘Trust in government treasuries was so thoroughly destroyed by involving private sector investors in the debt relief that you have to wonder why anyone still buys government bonds at all,’ Ms. Fekter said.” There are other issues which are making Germany’s position increasingly untenable, notably on the political front, in particular the mounting strains between France and Germany. Wolf Richter notes that virtually every leading candidate in the French Presidential campaign envisages a much more aggressive role for the ECB going forward. If Chancellor Merkel thinks she’s going to have a tough time now, wait until she is potentially dealing with Francois Hollande, the French Socialist Presidential candidate, who is now ahead in all of the polls, and who advocates with a five-point plan which is anathema to Germany’s governing coalition: Expand to the greatest extent possible the European bailout fund (EFSF) Issue Eurobonds and spread national liabilities across all Eurozone countries Get the ECB to play an “active role,” i.e. buy Eurozone sovereign debt. Institute a financial transaction tax Launch growth initiatives instead of austerity measures. As Richter notes, issues 1, 2, 3, and 5 are all non-starters amongst Berlin’s policy making elites. Even more extreme are the views of Socialist candidate, Arnaud Montebourg, who has openly spoken of “the annexation of the French right by the Prussian right.” On the right, things are not much better. French President Nicolas Sarkozy risks being outflanked by National Front leader, Marine Le Pen, (her father is Jean Marie Le Pen) who is adopting an explicitly anti-euro candidacy , which is gaining traction as France’s new austerity measures continue to bite into economic growth. In his futile attempts to maintain France’s AAA credit rating via increased fiscal austerity, Sarko risks being hoist by his own petard, as the likely impact of such measures will be to take French unemployment back into double digits. Paying obeisance to the shrine of Moody’s, Fitch and S&P via fiscal austerity is the economic equivalent of seeking to negotiate a peace treaty with Al Qaeda. True, Germany might well decide that enough is enough, that the ECB’s actions represent “printing money” and may therefore initiate a process of leaving the euro zone. But let us be clear about the consequences: Were it to adopt this approach, Germany would likely suffer from a huge trade shock, particularly as its aversion to “fiscal profligacy” would doom it to much higher levels of unemployment (unless the government all of a sudden experienced a Damascene conversion to Keynesianism – about as likely as a Klansman attending a Presidential rally for Barack Obama) or reverting to its former policy of dollar buying. It might also affect the living standards of the average German as well because Germany’s large manufacturers originally bought into the currency union because they felt it would prevent the likes of chronic currency devaluers, such as the Italians, to use this expedient to achieve a higher share of world trade at Germany’s expense. Were they confronted with the loss of market share, German multinationals might simply move manufacturing facilities to the new, low cost regions of Europe to preserve market share and cost advantage or, at the very least, use the threat of moving to extort cuts in wages and benefits to German workers as a quid pro quo for remaining at home. Perhaps there would be blood in the streets of Berlin at that point as well. In fact, it is doubly ironic that Germany chastises its neighbors for their “profligacy” but relies on their “living beyond their means” to produce a trade surplus that allows its government to run smaller budget deficits. Germany is, in fact, structurally reliant on dis-saving abroad to grow at all. Current account deficits in other parts of the euro zone are required for German growth. It is the height of hypocrisy for Germans to berate the southern states for over-spending when that spending is the only thing that has allowed Germany’s economy to grow. It is also mindless for Germans to be advocating harsh austerity for the south states and hacking into their spending potential and not to think that it won’t reverberate back onto Germany. Now, of course, German Chancellor Angela Merkel may not consciously know all of these things. In fact, she termed accusations of Germany seeking to dominate Europe “bizarre”. But it is clear to any objective observer that the political quid pro quo for greater ECB involvement in dealing with Europe’s national solvency crisis is German control over the overall fiscal conduct of countries like Greece, Italy, etc. Mario Draghi is Italian, but the ECB head is playing a German game of chicken: he is embracing exactly the strategy that Angela Merkel’s political director, Klaus Schuler, laid out several weeks ago: holding out for fiscal union commitments from the weaker “Club Med” countries, in return for turning the ECB into a lender of last resort. So whilst many Germans might think they want a smaller, more cohesive euro zone without the troublesome profligates, the policy elites in fact recognize that a “United States of Germany” under the guise of a United States of Europe, actually suits their aspirations to dominate Europe politically and economically. Which is why the outlines of a deal along the lines of increased ECB involved as a quid pro quo for greater German control of fiscal policy across the euro zone, is emerging. It’s the equivalent of the golden rule: “He who has the gold, rules.” It is high stakes poker, and one which will ultimately lead to far more bloodshed. The reality is that there is no plan B. Just keep raising taxes and cutting spending even as those actions work to cause deficits to go higher rather than lower. So while the solvency and funding issue is likely to be resolved, the relief rally in the markets won’t last long as the funding will continue to be conditional to ongoing austerity and negative growth. And the austerity looks likely to not only continue but also to intensify, even as the euro zone has already slipped into recession. So there appears to be no chance that the ECB would fund and at the same time mandate the higher deficits needed for a recovery, In which case the only thing that will end the austerity is blood on the streets in sufficient quantity to trigger chaos and a change in governance. And by the way, the notion suggested by some that this horrible dynamic could be arrested by the Fed acting as a kind of global central banker of last resort is asinine. As Bill Mitchell noted recently: As of today, the 1 Euro = 1.3294 U.S. dollars. So just purchasing the PIIGS debt to fund their 2010 deficits would have required the US Federal Reserve sell around 347,024 million USD which is about 5.8 per cent of the US GDP over the last four quarters. That is a huge injection of US dollars into the world foreign exchange markets. The volume of spending that would be required are even larger than the estimates provided here. That is, because to really solve the Euro crisis the deficits in (probably) all the EMU nations have to rise substantially. What do you think would happen to the US dollar currency value? The answer is that it would drop very significantly. The word collapse might be more appropriate than drop…At this point in the crisis, there is nothing to be gained by a massive US dollar depreciation and the inflationary impulses such a large depreciation would probably impart. Blaming the Fed for a failure to backstop the eurozone’s bonds is akin to blaming a bystander for not standing in front of a bullet when he witnesses somebody taking out a gun, and shooting another person. The triggerman bears ultimate responsibility. By the same token, the euro crisis is a crisis which has its roots in the eurozone’s flawed financial architecture (no less an authority than Jacques Delors has recently admitted this) and can only be solved by the Europeans, specifically, the ECB, which is the only institution in the EMU that can spend without recourse to prior funding, due to the flawed design of the monetary system that was forced upon the member states at the inception of the union. But Mario Draghi accepts the German political quid pro quo: in order to act, he will insist on greater fiscal austerity as a necessary condition, which will perversely have impact of deflating these economies into the ground further and engender HIGHER public deficits. Obviously this is one reason the Germans felt so comfortable in naming an Italian to the ECB. Trojan horses apparently don’t just come in Greek forms these days. A Europe, where countries such as Italy and Greece become client states of Germany provides a much more effective outcome for Germany than, say, trying to do the same thing via another destructive World War. MARSHALL AUERBACK is a portfolio strategist with Madison Street Partners, LLC, a Denver based investment management group, and a Fellow with the Economists for Peace and Security. He can be reached at MAuer1959(a)aol.com __._,_.___ Reply to sender<[email protected]?subject=Re%3A%20why%20the%20Euro%20is%20still%20strong%20despite%20%27on%20the%20brink%27%20%28supposedly%29>| Reply to group<[email protected]?subject=Re%3A%20why%20the%20Euro%20is%20still%20strong%20despite%20%27on%20the%20brink%27%20%28supposedly%29>| Reply via web post<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gang8/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJxZGN2bjllBF9TAzk3MzU5N…>| Start a New Topic<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gang8/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJlMGhiN2pvBF9TAzk3MzU5N…> Messages in this topic<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gang8/message/16335;_ylc=X3oDMTM2NTh0cG4wBF9T…>( 1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gang8;_ylc=X3oDMTJlMDBqMWNpBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BG…> The gang8 list is devoted to Creditary Economics. To unsubscribe, email: gang8-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Tesla, and the Hindu Connection...
by robert searle 07 Dec '11

07 Dec '11

The following maybe of interest... http://www.facebook.com/collectivelyconscious#!/photo.php?fbid=283647128344…

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Fwd: Collaborative Planning
by Michel Bauwens 07 Dec '11

07 Dec '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: José Carlos Mota <jcmota(a)ua.pt> Date: 2011/12/7 Subject: Collaborative Planning To: ** ** I am pleased to share a new ‘Collaborative Planning’ discussing group using Facebook (FB) social network platform ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/collaborativeplanning/).**** This FB group is a small contribute to join ‘collaborative planning’ professionals & researchers and to share and discuss relevant experiences. **** Hopefully it will be a useful place to think about collective actions in these hard economic times…**** Best regards**** José Carlos **** ** ** Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences University of Aveiro 3810-197 AVEIRO | PORTUGAL email: jcmota(a)ua.pt | josecarlosmota(a)gmail.com http://www.facebook.com/josecarlosmota http://jcmworks.blogs.sapo.pt/ https://www.facebook.com/DCSPT http://ipcidades.web.ua.pt/wordpress/ http://planeamentoregionaleurbano.blogs.sapo.pt/ http://www.ua.pt/govcopp/ http://www.ua.pt/csjp/ http://noeconomicrecoverywithoutcities.blogs.sapo.pt/ phone + 351.234370230 fax +351.234372500 skype jcmota2010**** ** ** ** ** -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Our Planet Is Dying...
by robert searle 07 Dec '11

07 Dec '11

Maybe of interest. http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_planet_is_dying/?cl=1431650433&v=11424

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WEA Newsletter Issue, No 1.
by robert searle 07 Dec '11

07 Dec '11

________________________________ Dear WEA member, The first issue of the World Economics Association Newsletter is now available as a pdf file for downloadhere: http://www.worldeconomicsassociation.org/Newsletter/Issue1.pdf Its 12 pages include messages and articles from: C. P. Chandrasekhar, Ha-Joon Chang, Ping Chen, James Galbraith, Richard Koo, Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid, Dani Rodrik, Stuart Birks, Edward Fullbrook, John Weeks, Alan Freeman, Grazia Ietto-Gillies, Yanli Huo, Pasuk Phongpaichit and Roberto Frenkel. In future, all published issues of the Newsletter will be archived for general access at: http://www.worldeconomicsassociation.org/Newsletter/index.html Aside from the administrative material in this issue, we hope that it gives an indication of the sort of content that is sought. In particular, given the Association's strongly pluralist and open focus, we are keen to see short contributions of about 500 words highlighting points of theory or policy from a range of perspectives, or giving a country focus. Short articles in this issue are indicative of the material that will be welcome. Contributions or queries should be sent by email to me at k.s.birks(a)massey.ac.nz . The deadline for next issue of the Newsletter is the end of January 2012. Thanks you for your interest in the World Economics Association. We look forward to your active participation in the Association's activities. Kind regards, Stuart Birks Newsletter editorWorld Economics Association - WEA Newsletter - issue no. 1

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video - leveraging by using financial markets - food bubble, how wall street starved millions -
by Dante-Gabryell Monson 07 Dec '11

07 Dec '11

- video excerpts from a democracy now interview - speculating on food / wheat , creating an artificial "demand shock" - multiplying artificially by tenfold the price of wheat : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ozQDHVuTiRA#t=238s replication <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_replication> and leveraging <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leverage_(finance)> : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ozQDHVuTiRA#t=391s financial engineering tricks ? - example as I understand it ? : using the ( artificially bloating ? ) markets ( such as food markets ) to attract cash from investors, then leverage twenty fold, then invest excess in treasuries, then leverage the secure treasuries again, then dispose the credit for their traders to speculate... ( and artificially increase prices of core necessities ? ... attract more cash to use from investor clients... and leverage again ? )

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Fwd: [Centre] Michel and Volker at Winchester
by Michel Bauwens 06 Dec '11

06 Dec '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Cubitt S.R. <S.R.Cubitt(a)soton.ac.uk> Date: Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 11:35 PM Subject: [Centre] Michel and Volker at Winchester To: Group working in the Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy <p2p-centre(a)lists.ourproject.org> > >Sorry for the late announcement but getting the event to occur has been a >matter of constant small adjustments. Volker will be here on the night of the 8th (Michel arrives later the same night from a previous engagement). For operational reasons here at the School, the talk has to be at 12.00 midday on the 9th. I propose that those of the consortium who can be here come to lunch after the talk, then spend the afternoon in discussion of future plans for peer-to-peer research collaboration. We can then go for dinner with those who are able to stay Here is the announcement for the talk Looking forward to welcoming you here Sean THE WINCHESTER CENTRE FOR GLOBAL FUTURES IN ART DESIGN & MEDIA Invitation for all to attend the next talk in our new Global Futures Speakers' Series, Friday, 9 December 2011, 12:00 13:00 in Lecture Theatre A at WSA: Title: "P2P Economics = Shared Innovation Commons + Mutualist Phyles?" Speaker: Michel Bauwens (founder of the Foundation of Peer-to-Peer Alternatives) Patterns that prefigure a horizontalized future: If the current political economy's DNA is based on combining false material infinity with artificially maintained scarcity, can we imagine a future political economy where this polarity is reversed? Given an increasing amount of evidence collected by the P2P Foundation and other research collectives, we believe that humanity is already actively preparing such a transformation. We'll review the evidence for a major social phase transition. What will be the place of the state, the market and civil society in such a scenario? "Michel Bauwens is the founder of the Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives and works in collaboration with a global group of researchers in the exploration of peer production, governance, and property. He has co-produced the 3-hour TV documentary Technocalyps with Frank Theys, and co-edited the two-volume book on anthropology of digital society with Salvino Salvaggio. Michel is currently Primavera Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam and external expert at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (2008, 2012). Michel currently lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand, has taught at Payap University and Dhurakij Pandit University's International College. He is a founding member of the Commons Strategies Group.In his first business career, Michel worked for USIA, British Petroleum, riverland Publications, Belgacom, and created two internet start-ups." - from: http://p2pfoundation.net/Michel_Bauwens/Full_Bio _______________________________________________ Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy Wiki space: http://p2pfoundation.net/projects/doku.php/centre:start -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Building a New American Theater of the Commons
by Neal Gorenflo 06 Dec '11

06 Dec '11

Dear commoners, This week we published a feature story by two leaders in the American regional theater movement who have formed the American Voices New Play Institute. The Institute is re-conceiving theater as a commons rather than thinking of theater in market terms. This is a turn away from the recent past and revives values from the founding of the movement in the 60s with a focus on decentralizing cultural expression and strengthening civic dialog through art, among other goals. More on what's brewing here: *Building a New American Theater of the Commons * * http://shareable.net/blog/the-theater-at-a-crossroads-seeking-a-sustainable… *<http://shareable.net/blog/the-theater-at-a-crossroads-seeking-a-sustainable…> Invite you to read, comment, and also share with your colleagues in theater and the arts, Thank you, Neal -- Neal Gorenflo | Publisher, Shareable <http://shareable.net/> | @ShareableDesign <http://twitter.com/#!/ShareableDesign> | 415.867.0429

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thanks for spreading the word amongst parisian friends
by Michel Bauwens 06 Dec '11

06 Dec '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dominique Cardon <dominique.cardon(a)gmail.com> Date: 2011/12/6 Subject: [w2s] le retour - année 2012 To: w2s(a)lists.lacantine.org Cc: sylvain parasie <sylvain.parasie(a)gmail.com>, michelsub2004(a)gmail.com Bonjour w2s, Le séminiaire w2s va reprendre ses activités pour l'année 2012, toujours le mercredi matin à La Cantine, toujours dans le même esprit, mais cette année avec trois coordinateurs, Jean-Samuel, Dominique et... Sylvain Parisie de l'Université de Marne la vallée Le programme et le blog du séminaire sont à venir très rapidement Mais avant de redémarrer le 11 janvier, nous faisons une séance exceptionnelle le 16 décembre (14h-17h, La Cantine) pour profiter de la présence de Michel Bauwens à Paris pour parler d'économie du P2P. Michel fera sa conférence en français. Il anime la P2P Fondation : http://p2pfoundation.net/The_Foundation_for_P2P_Alternatives Venez nombreux et n'hésitez pas à diffuser. Ca va être très intéressant ;-) La page Peer Production sur Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Peer-production/110705605616289 Dominique, Jean-Samuel et Sylvain >From Collaborative Prosumer Capitalism to a Commons-based P2P EconomyThe internet is creating a great horizontalization of human social, and economic practices, which is profoundly influencing current business practice and creating a collaborative economy. However, not all aspects and characteristics of the new collaborative practices may be compatible with the current economic models, and they have 'trancendent' aspects which may point to a further and more profound phase transition to a radically different type of economy and civilisation. In this lecture, we wil examine the relation between collaborative value creation and the market, and the seeds of the future that peer production carries within itself. http://lacantine.org/events/seminaires-w2s-from-collaborative-prosumer-capi… -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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