September 2012 - P2P-Foundation - lists.ourproject.org

Fw: Weekly Peak Prosperity (formerly ChrisMartenson.com) Newsletter - September 14, 2012 Edition
by robert searle 17 Sep '12

17 Sep '12

----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Peak Prosperity Weekly <info(a)peakprosperity.com> To: Searle88 <dharao4(a)yahoo.co.uk> Sent: Saturday, 15 September 2012, 8:12 Subject: Weekly Peak Prosperity (formerly ChrisMartenson.com) Newsletter - September 14, 2012 Edition ________________________________ Weekly Peak Prosperity (formerly ChrisMartenson.com) Newsletter September 14, 2012 Edition ChrisMartenson.com is now Peak Prosperity! Below is the content published on PeakProsperity.com within the last seven days. Included are our public blog posts, Featured Voice interviews, our Insider headlines, the Daily Digest, our What Should I Do? articles, the Deal of the Week, and any recently-scheduled upcoming events. Full access to our Insider content is only available to enrolled members. If you are not yet an enrolled member on PeakProsperity.com, click here to join today. ________________________________ Blog Happy 50th, Chris! by Adam Taggart Friday, September 14, 2012, 7:07 pm On Saturday, Chris turns 50. The Fed would have to announce QE4-ever as Chris prepares to celebrate his half-century milestone.... While his family toasts (and roasts) him this weekend, there's no reason we shouldn't do the same. read more » Podcast Matthew Stein: How Prepared Are You? by Adam Taggart Friday, September 7, 2012, 10:55 pm During the height of the 'Goldilocks economy' of the mid-1990s, Mat Stein wrote When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency, a master compendium of do-it-yourself preparation skills. Fast-forward to today's Great Recession, drought-stricken, $100+ oil, post-Katrina, post-Fukushima world -- many are realizing the prudence of taking basic precautionary steps to reduce their vulnerability to whatever the future may bring. Whether you're concerned about the fallout from a breakdown of today's weakened global economy, or simply want to be better able to deal with the aftermath of a natural disaster if you live in an earthquake/hurricane/flood/wildfire/tornado-prone part of the world -- the personal resiliency measures Mat recommends make sense for almost everyone to consider. read more » Insider Off the Cuff: The Plot Thickens by Adam Taggart Thursday, September 13, 2012, 1:11 am In this week's Off the Cuff with Mish & Chris podcast, Mish and Chris tackle * The German Constitutional Court decision * What importance does it have? Any? * America is back in recession * More hard-to-refute data * Whither the Fed? * Why markets will be disappointed by Bernanke Surprising to those who don't read this site, a number of notable announcements are happening this week besides Apple's unveiling of the iPhone 5... Today, the German Constitutional Court made its ruling on the legality of Mario Drahgi's plans to flood European banks with liquidity. The court has the power to block the ECB's profligacy; but it seems that once again, politics trumps justice. Draghi will be allowed to proceed with some tissue-thin restraints. Meanwhile, new data show North America's economies are slowing down. Indeed, more and more analysts are coming to the conclusion that the US has slipped back into recession (even though to many it feels as if America had never left it). Jabbering of 'recovery' and slight declines in the official employment rate – which is a complete farce, as those unable to find work after a time are removed from the lists of those counted as 'unemployed' – are fooling no one at this point. Which leads all eyes to the Fed. What will it do (or better asked, what can it do) to combat this dismal data? read more » Nowhere to Go by Chris Martenson Wednesday, September 12, 2012, 12:09 pm All eyes are on the Fed meeting and the almost fully expected (99% chance, already priced in) round of quantitative easing (QE) that will be announced upon the conclusion of the September 12-13 Federal Open Marked Committee (FOMC) meeting. Or not. read more » Daily Digest Daily Digest 9/14 - Wealthy Get Mortgage Help, Where The Bailouts Stand by Daily Digest Friday, September 14, 2012, 11:15 am * Recession 2013 Looks More Likely After Weak Jobs Report * Special Report: Well-to-do get mortgage help from Uncle Sam * Vandwelling: How to Live in a Van, Down by the River or Otherwise * Where The Bailouts Stand, In 1 Graphic * Gold and Silver Miners Breakout As Open Ended QE3 Announced * Germany Has Extracted Stealth Victory Over ECB * Libya: Doomed From Day One * U.S. fishery disaster adds to drought woes * In San Francisco, a secret project bears fruit read more » Daily Digest 9/13 - German Firms Question Eurozone's Value, The High-Tech Fight Against Fake Food by Daily Digest Thursday, September 13, 2012, 10:49 am * Huge turnout for Catalan independence rally * Following FEMA's Zombie Preparedness Plan Could Land You On Terrorist List * Tax Cheat Banker Wins $104m For Exposing Scam * German firms question eurozone's value * Why The U.S. Dollar’s Reign As World Reserve Currency Is Ending * Federal Judge Strikes Down ‘Indefinite Detention’ Provision in NDAA+ * Pipe wall in California refinery fire thin as a penny, investigators say * Oilsands to exceed Alberta's new pollution limits, say documents * DNA barcoding: The hi-tech fight against fake food * ‘Astonishing’ Ice Melt May Lead to More Extreme Winters read more » Daily Digest 9/12 - Greece Suffering 'Merciless Lashing', Local Food Pantries Almost Empty by Les Pierce Wednesday, September 12, 2012, 10:58 am * Greece suffering "merciless lashing" * EU, IMF give Portugal more time to meet deficit goals * Illegal Dumping a Growing Problem in Stockton * US House Speaker Boehner says not confident about fiscal cliff * Spanish, Italian Banks Rush to Sell Debt * Local Food Pantries Almost Empty * Tuition fees rising faster than incomes and inflation, report warns * Health Premium Growth Slows to 4.5% in U.S., Kaiser Says * Senator Bernie Sanders: We Need Public Funding of Elections * Paper Gold & Gold Passbook Scams * Complex Systems Theorists Predict We're About One Year From Global Food Riots read more » Daily Digest 9/11: What's the Real Unemployment Rate? by Daily Digest Tuesday, September 11, 2012, 9:13 am * What Is The Real Unemployment Rate? * Why globally coordinated QE and higher gold prices are unavoidable * The Secret Panic Of European Banks * As Low Rates Depress Savers, Governments Reap Benefits * Shell opens new oil frontier in Arctic with Chukchi Sea drilling * Saudi Arabia May Become Oil Importer by 2030, Citigroup Says * Greeks Searching For Cheaper Heating Solutions * OPEC has Probably Deceived Us About the Size of its Oil Reserves read more » Daily Digest 9/10 - How Banking Culture Has Transformed, Caribbean Coral Reefs In Danger by Daily Digest Monday, September 10, 2012, 11:33 am * China’s imports shrink in sign downturn worsening * How banking culture transformed over the decades * Construction and Real Estate Hinder China’s Growth * How Population, Energy Supply, and the Economy Depend on Each Other * Using Yeast to Create Biofuel * Breakthrough Energy Movement Conference 2012 Holland * Dawson Creek and Shell elude water shortage crisis * Caribbean coral reefs face collapse read more » Daily Digest 9/9 - Crony Capitalist System Is Rigged, How Many Jobs Are Needed To Keep Up With Population Growth? by Daily Digest Sunday, September 9, 2012, 11:31 am * Woody Brock: Capitalism is Great, but Our Corrupted, Bastardized, Crony Capitalist System Stinks; It's Rigged * How Many Jobs Are Needed to Keep Up with Population Growth? * Eight Elementary Errors now on Steve Keen’s Debtwatch * Debt Collectors Cashing In on Student Loan Roundup * How the Clean Air Act Has Saved $22 Trillion in Health-Care Costs * Louisiana: Oil Linked to BP * Argument Over the Value of Solar Focuses on Spain * Potential for a Mining Boom Splits Factions in Afghanistan read more » Daily Digest 9/8 - Subprime Auto Nation, The Global Debt Clock by Daily Digest Saturday, September 8, 2012, 12:36 pm * Subprime Auto Nation * A year later, Occupy did little – and inequality only gets worse * The Global Debt Clock * Gold Price Forecast * With no rebound in sight, there’s never been a slump like this * Jim Rogers: When and Why You Should Buy Crude Oil * Mixing oil and water with Lindsay Hall and Stephen Leeb read more » ________________________________ What Should I Do? A Look into the Future of Preparedness and Resiliency Provisions by Denis Korn Friday, September 14, 2012, 6:10 pm As a small business owner, I find it is very important to understand the costs and trends that will affect my business and my bottom line. With the ever-increasing turbulence in the world causing new stresses (weather, energy, economic) and more people becoming informed of our predicaments, I routinely reach out to my suppliers to get their feedback on their production status and future outlook. Here is my perspective on current trends relating to food products for shelf-stable food reserves and resiliency provisions in general. In the 37 years that I have been in the natural foods, outdoor recreation, and emergency preparedness industries as a retailer and manufacturer, I have experienced a number of fluctuations and factors that have influenced the availability and pricing of foods and supplies for preparedness. A number of current factors and converging events are affecting the preparedness marketplace today and potentially in the near future. In addition to my own present-day observations and experience as a retailer of food reserves and preparedness products, I have very recently surveyed a number of suppliers, processors and manufacturers for their assessment of current conditions in the marketplace and wish to share the results with you here. read more » Daily Prep Feeding Chickens by Jason Wiskerchen Friday, September 14, 2012, 7:33 pm A summary of what to feed your growing flock. http://www.urbanfarmonline.com/urban-livestock/chickens/feeding-chickens.as… read more » Solar Oven Makes Clean Drinking Water from Salt Water by Jason Wiskerchen Thursday, September 13, 2012, 11:49 am An innovative design for creating fresh water in coastal regions. Low tech and highly functional. http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/solar-oven-makes-clean-drinking-… read more » 16 Clever Uses for Binder Clips by Jason Wiskerchen Wednesday, September 12, 2012, 3:15 pm Big and small - the office binder clip can a great resource to have in your preps. www.treehugger.com/cleaning-organizing/16-clever-uses-binder-clips.html read more » Chicken Anatomy 101 by Jason Wiskerchen Wednesday, September 12, 2012, 11:46 am Learn to identify and name all the major parts of a chicken to better understand common aliments and how to properly discuss them. http://www.urbanfarmonline.com/urban-livestock/chickens/chicken-anatomy.aspx read more » A Rocket Stove Made from a Five-Gallon Metal Bucket by Jason Wiskerchen Monday, September 10, 2012, 11:27 am Great tutorial on how to build a rocket stove for outdoor and emergency cooking with a metal bucket and clay/vermiculite core. http://www.rootsimple.com/2012/03/rocket-stove-made-from-five-gallon.html read more » ________________________________ Copyright 2012, Whitney Peak Ventures, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ________________________________ To subscribe to the Peak Prosperity Weekly newsletter, please register on the website: http://www.peakprosperity.com/user/register?utm_source=newsletter_2012-09-1… To change your email address, log in to PeakProsperity.com and click here: http://www.peakprosperity.com/user/7823/edit This email was sent to dharao4(a)yahoo.co.uk Unsubscribe from this newsletter

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Fw: Re: Re: [gang8] Must money be debt? - "The Chicago Plan Revisited"
by robert searle 17 Sep '12

17 Sep '12

----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Gunnar Tómasson <gunnar.tomasson(a)verizon.net> To: gang8(a)yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, 16 September 2012, 23:57 Subject: Re: Re: Re: [gang8] Must money be debt? - "The Chicago Plan Revisited" Dirk. As I recall it, the objective of the Volcker experiment was to keep the growth rate of some monetary aggregate within pre-determined bounds. There was no targeting of interest rates. Also, at the time the experiment was seen as an empirical test of Friedmanite monetary policy prescriptions. I see no a priori grounds for supposing that the impact of a given rate of growth of some monetary aggregate on the economy and market interest rates should vary with the institutional framework within which monetary growth is injected into the economy. GunnarSep 16, 2012 03:34:42 PM, gang8(a)yahoogroups.com wrote: >1. The 'Volcker Shock' was a bid to stop inflation by raising interest rates WITHIN the existing system of private money issuing. That makes it incomparable to the Chicago Plan. Also, the monetarist eperiment targeted money, not credit, and so never really controlled credit growth. In sum, the Volcker experiment cannot be used to discredit or recommend the Chiacago Plan, I would think. They are too different. > >2. Yes, deciding on which rate of monetary growth is the right rate will be a political decision, but that goes for all monetary decisions, including the interest rate setting and bond buying as we see now. This will always be the case and is a separate issue from the choice of government/private money issuance. > >The principal problems I see with the Chicago Plan is that it is hard for bureacrats to know the 'right' money growth rate (the same issue Hayek and Oskar Lange argued about). Also, the public will invent its own money if it needs, so true control is illusionary. But the system may be a great deal better than what we have now, where bonus seeking bankers and loan officers decide most that matters. > >Dirk > On 15-09-12, Gunnar Tómasson wrote: > >>Dirk, and all, >> >>I read the paper a few days ago. >> >>The concept of a steady growth of money (however defined, Mx or My) as guiding principle for monetary policy was put into practice by Paul Volker at the US Fed in October 1979. As a result, interest rates rose to levels rarely, if ever, seen before in the U.S. By the end of 1983 the experiment had been quietly ended. >> >>In principle, also, a steady money/credit growth rate must entail deflationary/inflationary pressures depending on whether the GDP growth rate is above/below the concurrent rate of money/credit growth. >> >>In a country such as Iceland, where effective monetary policy has never been applied, there is the additional problem that decisions on the level of the money growth rate and the channels through which such growth is put into circulation will inevitably reflect political as much as purely economic considerations. >> >>These were the main problems that occurred to me on reading the paper by the IMF staffers. >> >>Gunnar >> >>Sep 15, 2012 10:40:57 AM, gang8(a)yahoogroups.com wrote: >> >>>Gunnar, and all, >>> >>>You should read the thoughtful paper "The Chicago Plan Revisited" by Jaromir Benes and Michael Kumhof. It is an IMF working paper ( WP/12/202) and can be found at >>> www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2012/wp12202.pdf >>> >>>The paper is a model analysis of the proposal to let the government issue debt-free money, as proposed by several scholars (among them Fischer) in the 1930s. Richard and others made a similar proposal recently (100% reserve money). >>> >>>The model can be ignored for the moment, the first 10 or 15 pages are a very careful discussion of the issues and the technicalities of money issuing without debt growth. >>> >>>I am still reading this and reserving judgment until I am done. Given the level of the discussion and of institutional realism, and given the fact that it comes form the IMF, this paper merits our attention and discussion. >>> >>>Either the IMF is coming round to creditary principles, or Benes and Kumhof (who already did, apparently) will soon leave. >>> >>>Dirk >>> >>> >>> >>>On 15-09-12, Gunnar Tómasson wrote: >>> >>>>Stephen A. Zarlenga, author of The Lost Science of Money and founder of the American Monetary Institute, sought an answer to this question "by examining the results evident in historical examples” in the first 23 chapters of his book. On the basis of that examination, Zarlenga challenges the view of A. Mitchell Innes that "money must be debt". >>>> >>>>Must money be debt? >>>> >>>>In the context of modern entrepreneurial market economies, money derives from and encapsulates a creditary relationship between entrepreneurs and owners/suppliers of factor inputs. This relationship arises at Alpha and concludes at Omega of the production process, with intrinsically worthless IOUs/money received as Factor Income at Alpha being redeemed in Final Output at Omega. >>>> >>>>In other words, money is a token of debt by entrepreneurs to suppliers of factor inputs - of credit extended in the form of factor inputs for later redemption in final output. >>> > __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (4) Recent Activity: * New Links 1 Visit Your Group The gang8 list is devoted to Creditary Economics. To unsubscribe, email: gang8-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use . __,_._,___

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Fw: Re: [gang8] Must money be debt? - "The Chicago Plan Revisited"
by robert searle 17 Sep '12

17 Sep '12

----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Gunnar Tómasson <gunnar.tomasson(a)verizon.net> To: gang8(a)yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, 15 September 2012, 15:57 Subject: Re: Re: [gang8] Must money be debt? - "The Chicago Plan Revisited" Dirk, and all, I read the paper a few days ago. The concept of a steady growth of money (however defined, Mx or My) as guiding principle for monetary policy was put into practice by Paul Volker at the US Fed in October 1979. As a result, interest rates rose to levels rarely, if ever, seen before in the U.S. By the end of 1983 the experiment had been quietly ended. In principle, also, a steady money/credit growth rate must entail deflationary/inflationary pressures depending on whether the GDP growth rate is above/below the concurrent rate of money/credit growth. In a country such as Iceland, where effective monetary policy has never been applied, there is the additional problem that decisions on the level of the money growth rate and the channels through which such growth is put into circulation will inevitably reflect political as much as purely economic considerations. These were the main problems that occurred to me on reading the paper by the IMF staffers. Gunnar Sep 15, 2012 10:40:57 AM, gang8(a)yahoogroups.com wrote: >Gunnar, and all, > >You should read the thoughtful paper "The Chicago Plan Revisited" by Jaromir Benes and Michael Kumhof. It is an IMF working paper ( WP/12/202) and can be found at > www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2012/wp12202.pdf > >The paper is a model analysis of the proposal to let the government issue debt-free money, as proposed by several scholars (among them Fischer) in the 1930s. Richard and others made a similar proposal recently (100% reserve money). > >The model can be ignored for the moment, the first 10 or 15 pages are a very careful discussion of the issues and the technicalities of money issuing without debt growth. > >I am still reading this and reserving judgment until I am done. Given the level of the discussion and of institutional realism, and given the fact that it comes form the IMF, this paper merits our attention and discussion. > >Either the IMF is coming round to creditary principles, or Benes and Kumhof (who already did, apparently) will soon leave. > >Dirk > > > >On 15-09-12, Gunnar Tómasson wrote: > >>Stephen A. Zarlenga, author of The Lost Science of Money and founder of the American Monetary Institute, sought an answer to this question "by examining the results evident in historical examples” in the first 23 chapters of his book. On the basis of that examination, Zarlenga challenges the view of A. Mitchell Innes that "money must be debt". >> >>Must money be debt? >> >>In the context of modern entrepreneurial market economies, money derives from and encapsulates a creditary relationship between entrepreneurs and owners/suppliers of factor inputs. This relationship arises at Alpha and concludes at Omega of the production process, with intrinsically worthless IOUs/money received as Factor Income at Alpha being redeemed in Final Output at Omega. >> >>In other words, money is a token of debt by entrepreneurs to suppliers of factor inputs - of credit extended in the form of factor inputs for later redemption in final output. > __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (2) Recent Activity: * New Links 1 Visit Your Group The gang8 list is devoted to Creditary Economics. To unsubscribe, email: gang8-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use . __,_._,___

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The Political Economy of 3D Printing @ Re-Public
by Vasilis Kostakis 17 Sep '12

17 Sep '12

A Re-public Journal issue that tries to tentatively approach the topic of 3D printing can be found online: http://www.re-public.gr/en/ Please circulate...

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Fwd: Contributing to ? : Tribler - P2P Bartercast reputation system + Bandwidth-as-a-currency ( presentation at Stanford )
by Dante-Gabryell Monson 16 Sep '12

16 Sep '12

FYI ... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson(a)gmail.com> Date: Sun, Sep 16, 2012 at 4:52 PM Subject: Re: <Coalition> Contributing to ? : Tribler - P2P Bartercast reputation system + Bandwidth-as-a-currency ( presentation at Stanford ) To: coalition(a)googlegroups.com, global-survival(a)googlegroups.com, econowmix(a)googlegroups.com, opencc(a)googlegroups.com Thanks Dan-Eric for the feedback. They are also apparently hiring people for academic research tribler.org/jobs I also suggest this pdf related to the video presentation : "*Cyber collectivism:* *Transforming Media and Money"* * http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.tribler.org… * I see potential parallels and synergies with the catalyst map development ( cc : Tim Rayner ) http://www.rhok.org/problems/catalyst-map especially when combined with another project, Netention : presentation : http://automenta.com/netention ( also see open source code , and combination with its GSS mapping ) as to ultimately have a distributed system at every layer ** of such a system for emergent collective intelligence. *** Further Notes :* * * *including ultimately, at its base / physical infrastructure, the potential for additional solutions, such as a currently existing mobile wireless mesh application using android powered smartphones ? * * * *https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.servalproject&hl=en*<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.servalproject&hl=en> * * *( and more on this forum<http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/forum/topics/could-peernet-be-separate-from?c…> regarding links to its open source development )* * * *But also at other layers : semantic web protocols, IEML as meaning creating grammars , enabling emergent forms of graphs through a combination of human computation and AI, enabling access to distributed databases providing large contexts from which queries can be operated, while using distributed communication protocol layers such as the 4th generation Torrent approach of the Tribler client, the QMedia microblogging solution, and other pieces of such larger puzzle...* * * *facilitating the emergence of alternative resource allocation systems on top of such infrastructures and protocols,* *which can use the metadata generated as currency for emergent forms of self-governance and 4th order cybernetics ?* On Sun, Sep 16, 2012 at 3:37 PM, Dan-Eric Archer <daneric.archer(a)gmail.com>wrote: > Thanks for the share, interesting stuff. > > He's mentioning our bank, JAK, at around 8 min! > > //D-E > > > > 2012/9/16 Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson(a)gmail.com> > >> *I recommend watching this presentation given by Johan Pauwelse* ( Delf >> University of Technology - http://pds.twi.tudelft.nl/~pouwelse/ ; >> http://www.linkedin.com/in/peer2peer ) >> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQiLaKdzD0E&feature=g-all-esi >> * >> * >> *- Hi Johan ! I hope we can connect our networks and find paths for >> collaboration. This email is sent to a broad audience of people I have been >> in touch with, in cc and in bcc, who are active** in a combination of >> environments including ngo's , academic research, open source software >> projects, ... with **often trans-disciplinary approaches, including >> Artificial Intelligence, study of P2P distributed approaches, Complementary >> Currencies and Alternative Resource Allocation Information Systems, ...* >> *I am using the introduction to your work to get us inter-connected. >> Feel free to redirect to any more appropriate conversation space ( >> mailinglist ? I tried *http://forum.tribler.org*/*<http://forum.tribler.org/> >> * , yet even using TOR I do not manage to access the forum. )* >> >> *The video presentation given in May 2012 converges and implements ideas >> some of us discussed or are working on,* >> *and believe it can open up further collaboration amongst us based on >> our current work.* >> >> // >> >> I am very glad to realize there is ( advanced ? ) research on the topic ( >> with EU funding ), and potential for collaboration ? >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribler >> >> http://dl.tribler.org/ >> >> http://tribler.org >> >> I see a lot of potential synergies and potential combinations of >> technologies and protocols, >> at various levels. >> >> Including in the way meaning is built and shared in distributed databases >> , >> including a potential to use Semantic Web Vocabularies, IEML grammar and >> algebra - http://www.ieml.org/spip.php?rubrique51&lang=en - , >> ... to define broader contexts and facilitate choice regarding >> transactions, their conditions and interdependencies , hence also enabling >> the design and creation, through its usage, of various kinds of metadata , >> which can be re-used as currency ? >> >> Some of these approaches being considered or integrated into the >> development of Netention / GSS : >> http://www.automenta.com/netention >> ( as for Dante's personal vision for potential using such approach : >> http://sharewiki.org/en/Transaction_Graphs ) >> >> but also parallels with other projects some of us are involved in, >> such as the current developments related to a european funded partnership >> around Cyclos ( cc: Leander / New Economics Foundation bcc: Edgar ) >> >> http://project.cyclos.org >> >> and other projects such as http://communityforge.org - mutual credit >> used within communities ( cc: Tim, Matthew ) ; http://metacurrency.org/ ( >> cc: Arthur and Eric ) , ... >> >> /// >> >> From here on, I hope to be able to collaborate on various layers enabling >> such distributed system. >> Cordially, from Brussels, >> Dante >> http://hitchwiki.org/en/Dante >> >> >> /// >> >> more related to the video presentation : >> >> >> http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:CwpMER4HgWkJ:www.tribl… >> >> *note : he makes a parallel with what I identify as the Swedish JAK bank >> ? : >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAK_Members_Bank* >> >> >> http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/Abstracts/120530.html >> * >> * >> *About the talk:* >> >> We aim for a more virtuous society by transforming media and money. Our >> ideology-driven methodology is replacing speculation, volatility and greed >> with cooperation, stability and rewarding of goodness. Our first goal is >> creating a smartphone-based infrastructure which is capable of withstanding >> all known government attacks on media freedom and privacy. Second, based on >> this self-organizing infrastructure we are designing our bank-of-bits, >> aiming to alter the essence of capitalism (rich get richer) by abolishing >> compound interest rates and facilitation safe zero-cost money transfers >> plus lending. >> >> During this talk the first prototype will be unveiled of our >> attack-resilient QMedia app for microblogging. QMedia goal for future >> versions is news dissemination from a single smartphone to an audience of >> millions in the form of microblogging, enriched with pictures and streaming >> video which is guarded against all known forms of government censorship >> such as cyberspace sabotage, digital eavesdropping, infiltration, fraud, >> Internet kill switches and especially lawyer-based attacks. We hope new >> Open Source developers will join our Internet-deployed project and help >> realize our QMedia goal for the end of 2012: building next-generation >> anonymity technology, founded on social networking, traffic hiding and a >> global reputation system. >> >> For over a decade Delft University of Technology has been measuring and >> building P2P systems, aided by millions of Euros in research funding from >> the European Union and Dutch government. We are continuously improving our >> own attack-resilient sharing software called Tribler. With one million >> downloads, Tribler provides us with vital behavioral feedback of novel >> algorithms. Tribler is not dependent and completely decoupled from >> unreliable servers such as DNS servers, web servers, swarm trackers and >> access portals. Using fully self-organising P2P technology we aim to create >> an overlay which is unbreakable: the only way to take it down is to take >> the Internet down. >> >> We dream of transforming media and money with five innovations we have >> developed within Tribler: >> >> 1. The Libswift P2P engine, >> 2. Dispersy elastic database, >> 3. Bartercast reputation system, >> 4. bandwidth-as-a-currency resource based cybercurrency, and >> 5. the Skynet V0.1 self-organizing and self-learning Artificial >> Intelligence engine (joined work University of Szeged) with a very limited >> form of self-awareness. >> >> Stanford EE Computer Systems Colloquium >> 4:15PM, Wednesday, May 30, 2012 >> Skilling Auditorium, Stanford Campus http://ee380.stanford.edu >> >> Tribler: 4th generation peer-to-peer technology >> >> Johan Pouwelse >> Delft University of Technology >> >> -- >> -----------Coalition of the Willing----------- >> The Coalition occupies several spaces for communication and action. Keep >> the discussion on this list civil & assume good faith. Strive for brevity. >> >> For the what-why-where of Coalition work, look to http://cotw.cc. That >> wiki functions as a routing-portal and a locus for some of the work. All >> group efforts should maintain an updated statement of current focus, >> channels and spaces of work and anything necessary to support orientation & >> keeping up-to-speed. >> >> "BetterMeans" is where we coordinate our work: making proposals, >> endorsing & signing up for work, and tracking tasks. >> https://secure.bettermeans.com/projects/163 >> Share the film: http://cotw.me/film >> ----------------- >> You are subscribed to coalition(a)googlegroups.com >> To unsubscribe email coalition+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com >> For more options http://groups.google.com/group/coalition?hl=en >> > > -- > -----------Coalition of the Willing----------- > The Coalition occupies several spaces for communication and action. Keep > the discussion on this list civil & assume good faith. Strive for brevity. > > For the what-why-where of Coalition work, look to http://cotw.cc. That > wiki functions as a routing-portal and a locus for some of the work. All > group efforts should maintain an updated statement of current focus, > channels and spaces of work and anything necessary to support orientation & > keeping up-to-speed. > > "BetterMeans" is where we coordinate our work: making proposals, endorsing > & signing up for work, and tracking tasks. > https://secure.bettermeans.com/projects/163 > Share the film: http://cotw.me/film > ----------------- > You are subscribed to coalition(a)googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe email coalition+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com > For more options http://groups.google.com/group/coalition?hl=en >

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Utilihab in Second Round
by Eric Hunting 12 Sep '12

12 Sep '12

May be a chance to get this to reality, if it can get enough votes. http://idejakten.se/vote/utilihab/ Eric Hunting erichunting(a)gmail.com

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Fw: [gang8] Yves Smith on Hudson Bezemer paper
by robert searle 11 Sep '12

11 Sep '12

----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Michael Hudson <michael.hudson(a)earthlink.net> To: dirk bezemer <d.j.bezemer(a)rug.nl>; GANG8 <gang8(a)yahoogroups.com> Cc: Steve Keen <S.Keen(a)uws.edu.au> Sent: Tuesday, 11 September 2012, 13:29 Subject: [gang8] Yves Smith on Hudson Bezemer paper This is from Yves Smith’s popular site, Naked Capitalism. Michael TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012 Getting Economics to Acknowledge Rentier Finance The economics discipline has for the most part managed to ignore the 800 pound gorilla in the room: that of the role that the financial services industry has come to play. Astonishingly, even though the reengineering of the world economy along the lines preferred by mainstream economists resulted in a prosperity-wrecking global financial crisis and a soft coup by financiers, the discipline carries on methodologically as if nothing much had happened. And one of its huge blind spots is its refusal to acknowledge the role of banking and finance in modern commerce. Interest rates are simply an input into the preferred form of macro models, DSGE (dynamic stochastic equilibrium models). Economies are assumed to be self correcting, and to automagically “correct” to full employment. All shocks to the system are exogenous. In other words, boom-bust credit cycles are simply omitted because they are ideologically inconvenient and instability is too hard to model. Various heterodox economists (as well as some empirically oriented economists that come out of the mainstream, most notably Andrew Haldane of theBank of England and Claudio Borio and Piti Disyatat of the Bank of International Settlements) are making a concerted effort to represent the role of the finance in modern economies. Anew paper by Michael Hudson (University of Missouri at Kansas City) and Dirk Bezemer (University of Groningen, Netherlands) makes an important contribution by looking at financial services from a Classical economics perspective. Classical economists took a decidedly dim view of what they saw as unproductive rent-seeking, with “rent” seen as the dead hand of the feudal aristocracy weighing on current production: Rentiers are those who benefit from control over assets that the economy needs to function, and who, therefore, grow disproportionately rich as the economy develops. These proceeds are rents – revenues from ownership “without working, risking, or economizing”, as John Stuart Mill (1848) wrote of the landlords of his day, explaining that “they grow richer, as it were in their sleep”. Classical economics from Adam Smith onwards analysed rents, its effects, and policies towards rents, but the very concept is lost on today’s economics. Just as landlords were the archetypal rentiers of their agricultural societies, so investors, financiers and bankers are in the largest rentier sector of today’s financialized economies: finance controls the economy’s engine of growth, which is credit in all its forms. Economies obviously need banking services, insurance services, and real estate development and so, of course, not all of finance is “without working, risking, or economizing”. The problem today remains what it was in the 13th century: how to isolate what is socially necessary for ‘retail’ banking – processing payments by checks and credit cards, deciding how to relend savings and new credit under normal (non-speculative) conditions – from extortionate charges such as 29% interest on credit cards, penalty fees and other charges in excess of what is socially necessary cost-value. Hudson and Bezemer argue that the failure to distinguish between productive activity versus rent seeking distorts and overstates the accounting for national output: Creating a more realistic model of today’s financialized economies to trace this phenomenon requires a breakdown of the national income and product accounts (NIPA) to see the economy as a set of distinct sectors interacting with each other. These accounts juxtapose the private and public sectors as far as current spending, saving and taxation is concerned. But the implication is that government budget deficits inflate the private-sector economy as a whole. However, a budget deficit that takes the form of transfer payments to banks, as in the case of the post-September 2008 bank bailout, the Federal Reserve’s $2 trillion in cash-for-trash financial swaps and the $700 billion QE2 credit creation by the Federal Reserve to lend to banks at 0.25% interest in 2011, has a different effect from deficits that reflect social spending programs, Social Security and Medicare, public infrastructure investment or the purchase of other goods and services. The effect of transfer payments to the financial sector – as well as the $5.3 trillion increase in US Treasury debt from taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac onto the public balance sheet – is to support asset prices (above all those of the banking system), not inflate commodity prices and wages. Similarly, the 2009 ‘quantitative easing’ policy in Britain confused loans used in the real economy (which were stagnating or falling throughout the experiment) with boosting bank balances with the Bank of England which quadrupled over 2009 (Graph 3). Bezemer and Gardiner (2010) show that neither bank loans nor spending nor GDP increased noticeably during or after the exercise, but there was a curious stock market rally during 2009. The authors describe how much the financial sector has grown relative to the productive economy. Financial sector total financial assets (as in the asset side of bank balance sheets and off balance sheet vehicles) was one times US GDP in the early 1950s and is roughly 4.5 times GDP now. Financial sector earnings were 10% of total corporate profits in the 1950s and 1950s and rose to 40% in the early 2000s. Yet despite the sorry record, in terms of falling growth rates, stagnant average worker wages, and increasingly frequent and severe financial crises, orthodox economists look favorably upon financial “deepening,” meaning the proliferation of financial products and services (aka “innovation”). To put it more simply, the rentiers have the firm backing of mainstream economists, despite the evidenced of its destructiveness: Just as debt deflation diverts income to pay interest and other financial charges – often at the cost of paying so much corporate cash flow that assets must be sold off to pay creditors – so the phenomenon leads to stripping the natural environment. The so-called ‘debt-resource-hypothesis’ suggests that high indebtedness leads to increased natural resource exploitation as well as more unsustainable patterns of resource use (Neumayer 2012, pp. 127-141)… Demographically, the effect of debt deflation is emigration and other negative effects. For example, after Latvian property prices soared as Swedish bank branches fueled the real estate bubble, living standards plunged. Families had to take on a lifetime of debt in order to gain the housing that was bequeathed to the country debt-free when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991. When Latvia’s government imposed neoliberal austerity policies in 2009-10, wage levels plunged by 30 percent in the public sector, and private-sector wages followed the decline (Sommers et al 2010). Emigration and capital flight accelerated: the Economist (2010) reported that an estimated 30,000 Latvians were leaving every year, on a 2.2m population. In debt-strapped Iceland, the census reported in 2011 that 8% of the population had emigrated (mainly to Norway). The irony of Hudson’s and Bezemer’s need to look back to the early days of economics is that a view that was widely shared then was the importance of usury ceilings. Why? If bankers were free to seek out the highest yielding loans, they would. And the people who would pay the most would not be businessmen but rich gamblers. So the fact that unconstrained banking would wind up promoting speculation rather than investment was seen as obvious centuries ago, yet supposedly more sophisticated modern economists seem to prefer to truck with Dr. Pangloss and tell us that the system they’ve helped create is both inevitable and virtuous, when neither is true. Topics: Free markets and their discontents, Science and the scientific method, Social values, The destruction of the middle class, The dismalscience Email This Post Posted by Yves Smithat 4:45 am 2 Comments » Links to this post 2 COMMENTS: scott says: September 11, 2012 at 7:20 am That’s where the productivity gains of the PC and internet revolutions went, and why real wages are smaller than in the early 1970′s. The productivity gains were siphoned off to support the nonproductive FIRE economy and the 30 million people it employs. Reply Dan Kervick says: September 11, 2012 at 8:13 am Perhaps the issue with the economics profession is that a large proportion of them have made their reputations as experts on the workings of the finance industry. They don’t understand labor, or industrial production, or business culture, or trade, or households, or pricing behavior, or infrastructure, or public finance. All they know is money and securities in their many manifestations, and the closed circle of Wall Street. If the financial sector were to shrink in size, the expertise of these professionals would shrink in importance. The rate of growth of their bank accounts might shrink as well, since a lot of them are paid by the financial industry for their services. Reply Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/09/getting-economics-to-acknowledge-ren… __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: * New Links 1 Visit Your Group The gang8 list is devoted to Creditary Economics. To unsubscribe, email: gang8-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use . __,_._,___

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PDF - Academic Paper : Network of Global Corporate Control
by Dante-Gabryell Monson 10 Sep '12

10 Sep '12

found via various sources , sharing almost simultaneously : http://arxiv.org/pdf/1107.5728v2.pdf

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Fw: [gang8] interbank settlement etc.
by robert searle 08 Sep '12

08 Sep '12

----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Gunnar Tómasson <gunnar.tomasson(a)verizon.net> To: gang8(a)yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, 6 September 2012, 13:07 Subject: Re: [gang8] interbank settlement etc. Thanks for sharing these links, Richard. I will be interested to see whether the international banking system may have moved towards what I have been toying with since the 1980s, namely the idea of automatic overdraft facilities within a computerized international banking network for banking units that follow certain (still-to-be-specified) macro-prudential guidelines for their loan operations. I have in mind an updated version of Keynes's bancor concept/international financial framework. Of course, it is not a practical concept as of now - but once the post-Bretton Woods international monetary non-system runs out of operational steam, Keynes's thinking may serve as a guide to a sustainable system. Gunnar Sep 6, 2012 04:27:20 AM, gang8(a)yahoogroups.com wrote: >Dear All, > >Robert Fischer wants to draw our attention to three articles about the web of interbank connections, and implications, namely > > >1. Stefano Battiston et al. in Nature (Aug 2012): > > >DebtRank: Too Central to Fail? Financial Networks, the FED and Systemic Risk > > > Abstract >Systemic risk, here meant as the risk of default of a large portion of the financial system, depends on the network of financial exposures among institutions. However, there is no widely accepted methodology to determine the systemically important nodes in a network. To fill this gap, we introduce, DebtRank, a novel measure of systemic impact inspired by feedback-centrality. As an application, we analyse a new and unique dataset on the USD 1.2 trillion FED emergency loans program to global financial institutions during 2008–2010. We find that a group of 22 institutions, which received most of the funds, form a strongly connected graph where each of the nodes becomes systemically important at the peak of the crisis. Moreover, a systemic default could have been triggered even by small dispersed shocks. The results suggest that the debate on too-big-to-fail institutions should include the even more serious issue of too-central-to-fail. > >Source: http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/120802/srep00541/full/srep00541.html > > > >2. Working paper Nr 321 of the Bank of England: >On which he comments: “an interesting thought, IMHO related with the work of Stefano Battiston et al.; i.e. the netting matrix for bank systems (see page 11). On page 17 there is an important math formula regarding netting ratio between interbank and centrally settled banking networks: >A-network: That means correspondent banking, i.e. Transactions in system between “n” international banks without Central Bank, (I call that decentral netting or clearing) > > >B-network: Transaction of “n” Banks with a clearing center (I call that central netting or clearing) >Theoretically the netting ratio of an A-Network of “n” Banks is sqrt(n-1) times larger then in a B-network. In other words: In case of a global systemic crisis, the “n” banks interconnected in the A-network would need theoretically sqrt(n-1) times more central bank money for the the settlement of their open net debit-credit-positions then in a B-Network. Nota bene: Actually the unsettled debit-credit positions of “our” worldwide A-network mount to 21 Trillion (10^12) $. (See BIS, quarterly review) > > > >3. Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder and Stefano Battiston >The network of global corporate control > > >Abstract >The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market competition and financial stability. So far, only small national samples were studied and there was no appropriate methodology to assess control globally. We present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control held by each global player. We find that transnational corporations form a giant bow-tie structure and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions. >This core can be seen as an economic “super-entity” that raises new important issues both for researchers and policy makers. > >The paper is available at: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1107.5728v2.pdfor http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0025995 > > >Thanks Robert for passing these on with your comments. >Warm regards, >Richard __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (2) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group The gang8 list is devoted to Creditary Economics. To unsubscribe, email: gang8-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use . __,_._,___

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Fw: World Economics Association - WER, vol. 1, no.1
by robert searle 08 Sep '12

08 Sep '12

----- Forwarded Message ----- From: World Economics Association <contact(a)worldeconomicsassociation.org> To: dharao4 <dharao4(a)yahoo.co.uk> Sent: Friday, 7 September 2012, 13:52 Subject: World Economics Association - WER, vol. 1, no.1 ________________________________ Volume 1, No 1, 2012 Download the issue in full Table of Contents Articles Incorporating the Rentier Sectors into a Financial Model Abstract Download PDF Michael Hudson, Dirk Bezemer Microfinance and the Illusion of Development: From Hubris to Nemesis in Thirty Years Abstract Download PDF Milford Bateman, Ha-Joon Chang External Fragility or Deindustrialization: What is the Main Threat to Latin American Countries in the 2010s? Abstract Download PDF Roberto Frenkel, Martín Rapetti Pension Liabilities: Fear Tactics and Serious Policy Abstract Download PDF David Rosnick, Dean Baker Brain Physiology, Egoistic and Empathic Motivation, and Brain Plasticity: Toward a More Human Economics Abstract Download PDF John F Tomer Revisiting Arab Socialism Abstract Download PDF Ali Kadri Grass Roots War on Poverty Abstract Download PDF Alice H Amsden World Economic Review ISSN: 2049-3517 Published by the World Economics Association • Email to a friend •World Economics Association - WER, vol. 1, no.1 ________________________________ Click here to safely unsubscribe from "World Economics Association." Click here to view mailing archives, here to change your preferences, or here to subscribe • Privacy ________________________________ ________________________________ Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498

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