August 2014 - P2P-Foundation - lists.ourproject.org

Fwd: Request a Resource page + helpful sustainability resources
by Michel Bauwens 19 Aug '14

19 Aug '14

let's share it with our listmembers and see if anyone is motivated, I'm not to hot on it <g>, Michel ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: james burke <lifesized(a)gmail.com> Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 8:02 PM Subject: Fwd: Request a Resource page + helpful sustainability resources To: Stacco Troncoso <staccotroncoso(a)p2pfoundation.net> Cc: Michel Bauwens <michel(a)p2pfoundation.net> Something for you guys? (see below). I have not responded. J ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Rebecca Muller <r.muller(a)educatorlabs.org> Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 2:56 PM Subject: Request a Resource page + helpful sustainability resources To: Webmaster <lifesized(a)gmail.com> Hi! I’m writing to introduce EducatorLabs.org, a new volunteer-based startup that conducts free research for educators. We put retired teachers and librarians (like me) back into meaningful engagement with other educators. Would you be open to sharing our Request a Resource page with your education visitors (http://educatorlabs.org/request-a-resource/)? Maybe on this page: http://p2pfoundation.net/Open_Educational_Resources? And by the way… thank you for the resources there… we added some to our collection, including those on sustainability. I’m passing along some resources below that are in the same environmentally-conscious vein as some of your other resources. Please add these if you think they’d be a good fit for educators: Simple Ways to Protect Our Earth: Kids’ Edition http://www.pbs.org/parents/special/earthday.html Energy Conservation for Kids http://www.homeadvisor.com/article.show.Home-Energy-Conservation-for-Kids.1… Energy Savers Guide: Tips on Saving Money and Energy at Home http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/energy-savers-guide-tips-saving-mone… Kids Guide to Home Energy Saving http://www.mortgagecalculator.org/helpful-advice/energy-saving-for-kids.php Protecting & Restoring Forests http://www.americanforests.org/ A Guide to Becoming A Tree Hugger http://www.treeremoval.com/a-guide-to-becoming-a-tree-hugger/ Reduce Your Carbon Footprint https://www.carbonfund.org/ Guide to Composting at Home http://www.improvenet.com/a/guide-to-composting-at-home Electricity & Its Impacts http://www.epri.com/Our-Work/Pages/Electricity-and-Its-Impacts.aspx Going Green: Eco-Friendly Property Upgrades https://www.kanetix.ca/eco-friendly-property-upgrades Green Schools Leadership Center http://edu.earthday.org/teach/curricula Let me know if you decide to post them - I will share the good news with the rest of the team! Thank you for your time! Rebecca Rebecca Muller r.muller(a)educatorlabs.org EducatorLabs.org :: Cultivating. Connecting. Curating. EducatorLabs | 2054 Kildaire Farm Rd. #204 | Cary, NC | 27518 P.S. Please let me know in an email response if your inbox is overloaded! If that’s the case, I will make a note not to contact you in the future. -- *Lifesized* James Burke *contact* Phone:+31 (0)6 5244 6445 Site: www.lifesized.net Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifesized Linkedin: nl.linkedin.com/in/lifesized - -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

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hacker tribe book ?
by Michel Bauwens 19 Aug '14

19 Aug '14

dear Vasilis, could you find out more about this, eventually to create a wiki entry ? see http://snuproject.wordpress.com/2014/08/17/hackers-tribes-saving-the-world-… -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

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open farm project crowdfunding
by Michel Bauwens 19 Aug '14

19 Aug '14

dear Kevin, thanks for also announcing this one on our blog, it has an embed code https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/roryaronson/openfarm-learn-to-grow-any… -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

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(no subject)
by Michel Bauwens 19 Aug '14

19 Aug '14

looks like an amazing plan and project: http://www.openstate.cc/camp/ Dear Kevin, thanks for announcing this in our blog , Michel -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

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Fwd: saw your tweet, here is a update on bitcoin
by Michel Bauwens 18 Aug '14

18 Aug '14

fyi ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Michel Bauwens <michel(a)p2pfoundation.net> Date: Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 12:04 AM Subject: saw your tweet, here is a update on bitcoin To: Hilary Wainwright <wainwright.hilary(a)gmail.com> Moving beyond Bitcoin Bitcoin is a complex phenomenom, and it is a landmark development, even a technological singularity, for good or ill. At the P2P Foundation, we also have complicated feelings about it. The Positive Aspects of Bitcoin Let us first summarize why Bitcoin is indeed such a singularity. 1. *Bitcoin is the first globally scaleable, social-sovereign, post-Westphalian currency* This is not trivial. Before the Treaty of Westphalia, local currencies where the norm, many with negative interest rates, and they bolstered local independence, but the scaling effects of the printing press, which led to a Europe-wide religious civil war, made necessary a re-organization of the political space around the emerging nation-states. These nation-states outlawed local currencies, destroyed local autonomy, and also relied on sovereign currency to establish their power. While local currencies have a periodic resurgence in times of crisis, none of the complementary currencies scaled. Local currencies can therefore never be the expression of global commons power, i.e. the power of global virtual communities. Bitcoin has no intrinsic value, it is a hyper-fiat currency, i.e. it only exists because of the trust and political will of the international libertarian hacker segments of the population, in the particular algorithm. 1. *Bitcoin is a weapon of last resort for activist communities* The mainstream monetary and payment system is at the service of a particular world order, and can be mobilized against opposition to it, as became very clear around the Wikileaks affair, where banks, VISA and Paypal collaborated with various authorities to block the fundraising for Wikileaks. In such times, access to alternatives like Bitcoin is vital for activist groups, it becomes their lifeline to funding outside of the control of the central authorities. 1. *The potential of the Bitcoin ledger as a tool for human self-organization* Apart from being a currency, the underlying universal ledger technology of Bitcoin has potential to usher in a new era of more easy self-organisation, by enabling the possibility of smart contracts and software-driven 'distributed autonomous organisation, as expressed by initiatives like Ethereum, Common Accord, and the crypto-equity experiment of Swarm. Though these developments and possibilities are not without danger, and though most of the current enthusiasm is utopian and mostly based on hopes and just a few budding experiments, this technology is potentially a game changer by bringing down the transaction cost for self-organization. The Negative Aspects of Bitcoin Notwithstanding the above, Bitcoin's development comes with a potentially very high and anti-social price tag. 1. *Bitcoin is not a true peer to peer currency but leads to more extreme inequality* It is sometimes asserted that Bitcoin is a peer to peer currency because any computer with mining software can create the currency, but not everyone has access to the same number of computers and not everyone has computers, hence, the design of Bitcoin, which favours early entrants and those with investing power, is an engine of inequality. Bitcoin's Gini coefficient, a metric of inequality, is a whopping 0.87709 and according to Bitcoinica, 1% of the players own 50% of the coins.1 <#147b16dc948e447d_sdfootnote1sym> That inequality is not diminishing, but rising: according to Bitcoin Trader, for a given period, “the top 100 have gone from holding 1,776,434 coins to holding 2,254,634 Bitcoins, a whopping 27% increase!”2 <#147b16dc948e447d_sdfootnote2sym> The mining capacity is also already concentrated. 1. *Bitcoin can't lead on its own to a disintermediated society* We live in an epoch of techno-utopianism with a strong drive for techno-cracy. The former means that many believe that technology alone determines certain outcomes, while the latter believes it is a good thing that flawed human processes are replaced by 'clean' technological processes. Both attitudes are very dangerous. First, distributed technologies do not necessarily lead to distributed outcomes. We have seen this historically with the effect of the invention of printing, which led to a democratisation of knowledge and literacy, but also in time replaced the local autonomy of free medieval cities with much stronger and controlling nation-states, i.e. more political centralization, not less. Networks which have no counter-measures to maintain equality inevitably lead in time to a new concentration of resources. Hence, in Amazon and iTunes, the so-called long tail of culture consumption predicted by Chris Anderson is no longer operative, and in p2p social lending, 80% of loans are provided by big bangs and institutions, the very forces the technology was supposed to disintermediate. Again and again, we see that the potential disintermediation of power, which may affect established powers, creates new intermediaries, such as the platform monopolies. Technologies are indeed, used by social forces, who inflect technologies for their own needs. The inequality of bitcoin ownership will inevitably further affect the structures that make bitcoin operational, leading to new kinds of monopolies. Technologies are always infused with human values, no programming or infrastructure is truly neutral in that respect. 1. *Bitcoin funds a dangerous ideology* The big danger to the social movements of the industrial era were fascism and stalinism, both forms in which the power of the state became extreme. But what fascism is to the state, propertarian libertarians are to the markets: they aim for the realization of a total market, where every aspect of human life is commodified. The design of Bitcoin is anarcho-capitalist, i.e. it is designed to favour the freedom of property owners, and the more you own, the freeer you are. Because such propertarians do not want to see the existing inequalities in society, decreeing them to be the result of free choice, they inevitably ally themselves with oligarchic forces and support their political programs of the dismantling of social solidarity mechanism, and any regulation which limits the freedom of powerful corporate forces. The valuation of Bitcoin means an important transfer of social wealth to this political tendency, which allied with venture capital and the oligarchies that invest in Bitcoin, alters the balance of power away from emancipatory and progressive political forces. Early libertarian investors in Bitcoin, can sell their bitcoins at a premium to new entrants, thereby capturing substantial speculative value. So while the claim that Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme is obviously false, it does institute a rent from new entrants to existing owners. In this sense, Bitcoin, far from being a tool of distribued equality, which is already a false empirical claim at present, is an ideal tool for the development of hyper-capitalist economic models. In this sense, Bitcoin is an ideal tool for netarchical capitalism, the hierarchies that enable, but also control the networks, and capture value from it. In Conclusion Despite all the drawbacks mentioned, Bitcoin remains a landmark and pivotal development, showing that globally scaleable currencies are technically feasible. It sets the stage for potential commons-based p2p-driven currency systems and the Bitcoin ledger can become a tool for self-organizing communities. 1 <#147b16dc948e447d_sdfootnote1anc>http://ow.ly/trKoy 2 <#147b16dc948e447d_sdfootnote2anc> http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2011/10/is-it-time-to-occupy-bitcoin-street… -- *Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..* P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/ -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

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Fwd: [Networkedlabour] Fwd: [historicalmaterialism] Out now: 'Organisation of the Organisationless: Collective Action After Networks', Rodrigo Nunes (PML Books/Mute)
by Michel Bauwens 18 Aug '14

18 Aug '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: peter waterman <peterwaterman1936(a)gmail.com> Date: Mon, Aug 18, 2014 at 6:16 PM Subject: [Networkedlabour] Fwd: [historicalmaterialism] Out now: 'Organisation of the Organisationless: Collective Action After Networks', Rodrigo Nunes (PML Books/Mute) To: networkedlabour(a)lists.contrast.org ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Historical Materialism News news(a)historicalmaterialism.org [historicalmaterialism] <historicalmaterialism-noreply(a)yahoogroups.com> Date: Mon, Aug 18, 2014 at 10:20 AM Subject: [historicalmaterialism] Out now: 'Organisation of the Organisationless: Collective Action After Networks', Rodrigo Nunes (PML Books/Mute) To: historicalmaterialism(a)yahoogroups.com Organisation of the Organisationless: Collective Action After Networks By Rodrigo Nunes Part of the PML Books series. A collaboration between Mute and the Post-Media Lab* Series editors: Clemens Apprich, Josephine Berry Slater, Anthony Iles & Oliver Lerone Schultz. Rejecting the dichotomy of centralism and horizontalism that has deeply marked millennial politics, Rodrigo Nunes’ close analysis of network systems demonstrates how organising within contemporary social and political movements exists somewhere between – or beyond – the two. Rather than the party or chaos, the one or the multitude, he discovers a ‘bestiary’ of hybrid organisational forms and practices that render such disjunctives false. The resulting picture shows how social and technical networks can and do facilitate strategic action and fluid distributions of power at the same time. It is by developing the strategic potentials that are already immanent to networks, he argues, that contemporary solutions to the question of organisation can be developed. http://www.metamute.org/editorial/books/organisation-organisationless-colle… Rodrigo Nunes is a lecturer in modern and contemporary philosophy at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Brazil. He coordinates the research group Materialismos, which investigates the resurgence of metaphysical speculation in contemporary philosophy and its interfaces with other fields such as politics, science and anthropology. He has been involved in several political initiatives over the years, such as the first editions of the World Social Forum and the Justice for Cleaners campaign in London. He is a member of the editorial collective of Turbulence ( http://turbulence.org.uk) Rodrigo Nunes is a co-editor of What Would it Mean to Win?, Turbulence Collective (Eds.), PM Press, 2010 Reviews of 'What Would it Mean to Win?' ‘Powerful vision of the possible and the seldom-seen present.’ —Rebecca Solnit, author, Hope in the Dark and A Paradise Built in Hell ‘This kind of innovative thinking, which emerges from the context of the movements, opens new paths for rebellion and the creation of real social alternatives.’ —Michael Hardt, co-author, Commonwealth, Multitude and Empire (2014. ISBN 978-1-906496-75-3; ebook ISBN 978-1-906496-82-1) Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/out-now-organisation-… __._,_.___ ------------------------------ Posted by: Historical Materialism News <news(a)historicalmaterialism.org> ------------------------------ Reply via web post <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/historicalmaterialism/conversations/mes…> • Reply to sender <[email protected]?subject=Re%3A%20Out%20now%3A%20%27Organisation%20of%20the%20Organisationless%3A%20Collective%20Action%09After%20Networks%27%2C%20Rodrigo%20Nunes%20%28PML%20Books%2FMute%29> • Reply to group <[email protected]?subject=Re%3A%20Out%20now%3A%20%27Organisation%20of%20the%20Organisationless%3A%20Collective%20Action%09After%20Networks%27%2C%20Rodrigo%20Nunes%20%28PML%20Books%2FMute%29> • Start a New Topic <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/historicalmaterialism/conversations/new…> • Messages in this topic <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/historicalmaterialism/conversations/top…> (1) Visit Your Group <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/historicalmaterialism/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJ…> [image: Yahoo! Groups] <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJlMmdqZzgzBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkA…> • Privacy <https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html> • Unsubscribe <historicalmaterialism-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe> • Terms of Use <https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/> . __,_._,___ -- 1. *EBook, November 2012: Recovering Internationalism <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/recovering_internationalism/>. [A compilation of papers from the new millenium. Now free in two download formats] <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/> <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/>* 2. *EBook (co-editor), February 2013: World Social Forum: Critical Explorations http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/ <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/> * 3. *Interface Journal Special (co-editor), November 2012: For the Global Emancipation of Labour <http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/>* 4. *Blog: http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman. <http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman.> * 5. *Interface Journal Special (Co-Editor) Social Movement Internationalisms. See Call for Papers <http://www.interfacejournal.net/>, (Deadline: May 1, 2014). * 6. *Needed: a Global Labour Charter Movement (2005-Now!) <http://interfacejournal.nuim.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Interf…>* 7. *Under, Against, Beyond: Labour and Social Movements Confront a Globalised, Informatised Capitalism <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/under-against-beyond/>(2011) Almost 1,000 pages of Working Papers, free, from the 1980's-90's.* 8. *Google Scholar Citation Index:* *http://scholar.google.com.pe/citations?user=e0e6Qa4AAAAJ <http://scholar.google.com.pe/citations?user=e0e6Qa4AAAAJ> * - _______________________________________________ NetworkedLabour mailing list NetworkedLabour(a)lists.contrast.org http://lists.contrast.org/mailman/listinfo/networkedlabour -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

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Fwd: ZNet Commentary: Pete Dolack: When Water is a Commodity Instead of a Human Right
by Michel Bauwens 17 Aug '14

17 Aug '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: ZCommunications <no-reply(a)zcomm.org> Date: Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 7:57 PM Subject: ZNet Commentary: Pete Dolack: When Water is a Commodity Instead of a Human Right To: michelsub2004(a)gmail.com Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…>. Pete Dolack: When Water is a Commodity Instead of a Human RightZ Communications Daily Commentary The shutoff of water to thousands of Detroit residents, the proposed privatization of the water system and the diversion of the system’s revenue to banks are possible because the most basic human requirement, water, is becoming nothing more than a commodity. The potential sale of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is one more development of the idea that water, as with any commodity, exists to produce private profit rather than to be a public necessity. And if corporate plunder is to be the guiding principal, then those seen as most easy to push around will be expected to shoulder the burden. Thus, 17,000 Detroit residents have had their water shut off — regardless of ability to pay — while large corporate users have faced no such turnoff. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department began its shutoff policy in March with a goal of shutting off the water to 3,000 accounts per week. Residents can be shut off for owing as little as $150. That is only two months of an average bill. Detroit water rates have more than doubled <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> during the past decade, according to *Left Labor Reporter*, and in June another 8.7 percent raise was implemented. Yet only in July, months after residential water shutoffs began, did the water department announce it would send warning notices to delinquent businesses. There is no report, however, that any business has had its water turned off. About half of the city’s overdue water payments are owed by commercial and industrial customers. Forty offenders, according to the department, have past-due accounts ranging <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> from around $35,000 to more than $430,000. One golf course operator is said to owe hundreds of thousands of dollars <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> . The same week that the residential water shutoffs began, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr put the water department up for sale <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…>. The department takes in about $1 billion in revenue per year, *The Wall Street Journal* reports, and collects more revenue than it spends. The system would potentially be a valuable asset for one of the multi-national corporations that have taken over privatized water systems around the world, mostly to the regret of the local governments and ratepayers. *Reversing the privatization of water* If Emergency Manager Orr succeeds in selling off Detroit’s water system, he will be bucking a trend. Dozens of cities in France and Germany have reversed earlier privatizations and are taking back their water systems <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> after finding that higher prices and reduced services had been the norm post-privatization. French private water prices are on average 31 percent higher than in public <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> water services. Five Pennsylvania towns that privatized their water saw their rates more than triple <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> on average. That rate differential shouldn’t come as a surprise — a government doesn’t need to generate a profit like a corporation. A water company, like any other capitalist enterprise, is expected to generate large profits for its investors and giant payouts to its executives, and thus must extract more money out of its property. If the water system is privatized, Detroit’s city budget will receive a one-time boost, but forgo future revenues and lose control of a public good built with public money. Nor is there any guarantee that it would be sold at market value. A utility undervalued would produce quicker profits for any water company that got its hands on it, and every incentive is for it to be bought at as low a price as possible. Banks, however, have already extracted huge profits <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> from Detroit’s infrastructure. The water department is believed to have paid banks penalties of $537 million <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> to escape its disastrous interest-rate default swaps. Instead of simply selling plain-vanilla bonds — paying bond holders a set amount on a set schedule — Detroit (like many municipal governments) became entangled in various complicated financial derivatives layered on top of its bonds. Investment banks sold local governments interest-rate swaps as a form of insurance as a hedge against rising interest rates. But if interest rates went down — which they did — then the governments would be on the hook for large sums of money. (That rates would fall was predictable; central banks cut interest rates as a matter of routine during recessions.) Thanks to financial engineering falsely sold as “insurance,” the *Financial Times* reports it will cost Detroit $2.7 billion to pay back $1.4 billion <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> in borrowing — this total includes $502 million in interest payments and $770 million as the cost of the derivatives. The $537 million the Detroit water department handed to banks to escape continued extra payments to cover the swaps is more than four times the entire past-due water bill, residential and commercial, at the start of the water shutoffs in March. *Not so quick to challenge the banks* Yet there appears to be no effort to recoup any of that penalty money or to investigate if there was any illegality in the deals. Curt Guyette, writing for a Detroit alternative publication, *Metro Times* <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…>, said: *“Given the fact that former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is now is serving a decades-long sentence in federal prison for running the city as if it were a criminal enterprise when these deals went down, [was then in office] it doesn’t seem unreasonable to at least suspect that something shady might have been going on.* *Nonetheless, Orr and the legal team from [corporate law firm] Jones Day — where Orr was a former partner, and which has as clients both Bank of America and a division of UBS — have, as the complaint [filed in federal court by community activists] points out, ‘failed to investigate the misconduct or take measures to recoup any portion of the $537 million in suspect termination fees paid to the banks.’ ”* Both Bank of America and UBS profited enormously from the interest-rate swaps. Emergency Manager Orr does not seem terribly bothered by democratic processes, however. He is going ahead with a separate plan to privatize Detroit’s parking department <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> despite the fact that the City Council voted, 6-2, against it. The *Detroit Free Press* reports that the parking system generates $23 million in revenue with only $11 million in expenses. This would be another revenue stream leaving public hands, and the same needs of a private owner to generate profits would be expected to lead to the same results that privatizations of water systems and other public services have led. The people of Detroit are fighting back, through demonstrations, lawsuits, appeals to the United Nations and in physically blocking crews assigned to turn off the water. Water is also being turned back on without asking <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> for permission from authorities. Activists demand the immediate resumption of water service for everyone and to make water affordable. Detroit Debt Moratorium, for example, is calling for water bills to be capped at two percent <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> of household income. These efforts have borne some fruit as Emergency Manager Orr issued an order handing Mayor Mike Duggan managerial control over the water department <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> in late July. The department subsequently declared a moratorium on water shutoffs until August 25. A commodity is privately owned for the purpose of profit, regardless of human need; that the commodity is something as necessary as water does not alter that a commodity goes to those who can pay the most. The market determines who gets what, or if you get it at all — and the market is simply the aggregate interests of the most powerful industrialists and financiers. The agony of Detroit is the logical conclusion of reducing social and economic decisions to market forces. Detroit just happens to be the locality that got there first. ZCommunications, 18 Millfield St., Woods Hole, MA, USA, 02543 Unsubscribe <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> | Manage Subscription <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> If you'd like to unsubscribe and stop receiving these emails click here <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/unsubscribe?upn=V-2FUUiW5KvBPNV-2FItFYsbuIFOqr58Na…> . -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

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Joseph Pulitzer - There is not a crime...
by willi uebelherr 15 Aug '14

15 Aug '14

Joseph Pulitzer, 1920 There is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy. Get these things out in the open, describe them, attack them, ridicule them in the press, and sooner or later public opinion will sweep them away. Publicity may not be the only thing that is needed, but it is the one thing without which all other agencies will fail. Dear friends, this is my comment to NetMundial, to NetMundial Initiative, to Internet Governance. many greetings, willi Popayan, Colombia

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Fwd: Random in The New York Times
by Michel Bauwens 15 Aug '14

15 Aug '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jarno Mikael Koponen <jarno(a)futureful.com> Date: Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 9:28 PM Subject: Random in The New York Times To: Michel Bauwens <michel(a)p2pfoundation.net> Hi Michel, I hope you're well! Keeping you updated: Random was just featured by The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/video/technology/personaltech/100000003052612/app-sm… Feel free to share, thanks! Jarno M. https://twitter.com/ilparone "Random is an anonymous portal for finding the unexpected. Rational meeting irrational, one thing leading to another. Powered by machine learning that adapts to your interests." -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

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Fwd: White House Launches ‘US Digital Service’
by Michel Bauwens 15 Aug '14

15 Aug '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Seth Johnson <seth.p.johnson(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 12:32 AM Subject: White House Launches ‘US Digital Service’ Cc: Jay Sulzberger <jays(a)panix.com> White House launches ‘U.S. Digital Service,’ with HealthCare.gov fixer at the helm: > http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/08/11/white-house-la… -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

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