Do our Currencies, Courts and Contracts serve our values effectively? Does Federal Reserve Interest Based Money serve as a medium of exchange between consenting informed participants in a democratic society? How might we recognize and augment our various value holdings, exchanges and referrals under an Earth Charter? How would we measure and acknowledge the value created and sustained? What is the value created among non-exclusive Civil Societies, Social and Ethical Capital Investments, Democratic Open Source and Standards Forums and their perpetual gifts to present and future inhabitants of Earth?
Earth Charter Initiative and Youth Initiative
The Earth Charter Initiative is the collective name for the global network of people, organizations, and institutions that participate in promoting the Earth Charter and in translating its principles into practice. The Initiative is a broad-based, voluntary effort bringing together leading international institutions, national government agencies, university associations, civil society organizations (NGOs), cities, faith groups, and many well known leaders in sustainable development, as well as many thousands of citizens. The Earth Charter Youth Initiative (ECYI) is a network of youth NGOs and young activists who share a common interest in sustainable development and the Earth Charter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Charter
BACKGROUND - Richest Two Percent Own Half World Wealth
Tuesday 5 December 2006
"The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of global household wealth according to a path-breaking study released today by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER)... The most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken also reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. In contrast, the bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth."
http://www.wider.unu.edu
Does everyone have what they need?
Affordable housing
Affordable housing is a dwelling where the total housing costs are affordable to those living in that housing unit. In the United States and Canada, a commonly accepted guideline for housing affordability is a housing cost that does not exceed 30% of a household's gross income... The federal government in the U.S. provides subsidies to make housing more affordable. Financial assistance is provided for homeowners through the mortgage interest tax deduction and for lower income households through housing subsidy programs... [and] secondary market mechanisms such as inclusionary zoning, and land banking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordable_housing
Community Land Trust (CLT)
A community land trust is a property trust which aims to benefit the surrounding community by ensuring the long-term availability of affordable housing... ten key features are to be found in most of them: Nonprofit, Tax-exempt Corporation, Dual Ownership, Leased Land, Perpetual Affordability, Perpetual Responsibility, Community Base, Resident Control, Tripartite Governance, Expansionist Acquisition and Flexible Development.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_land_trust
Housing Co-operatives
A housing co-operative is a legal entity, usually a corporation, that owns real estate, one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an Occupancy Agreement, which is similar to a lease. The Occupancy agreement specifies the co-op's rules... With limited equity, the co-op has rules regarding pricing of shares when sold. The idea behind limited equity is to maintain affordable housing. A sub-set of the limited equity model is the no-equity model, which looks very much like renting, with a very low purchase price (comparable to a rental security deposit) and a monthly fee in lieu of rent. When selling, all that is re-couped is that very low purchase price.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_co-operative
What are Fair Business Practices, Wages and Taxation?
Foremost is an Honesty Policy towards - informed consent - social (and environmental) bench marks - serving accountable responsibility - the mulch that empowers conscientious consumer, executive and employer activism - recycling the dead wood from fallen branches of the massive tree trunk of centralized subsidy, funding, regulation and planning. However, if a Free Market Economy is to serve an inclusive and participatory Living Democracy, all people everywhere (Humanity) must hold enough information and market resources for their own personal and organizational determination to participate.
The Living wage
The term "living wage" is used by advocates to refer to the minimum hourly wage necessary for a person to achieve some specific standard of living. In the context of developed countries such as the United Kingdom or Switzerland, this standard generally means that a person working forty hours a week, with no additional income, should be able to afford a specified quality or quantity of housing, food, utilities, transport, health care, and recreation. This concept differs from the minimum wage in that the latter is set by law and may fail to meet the requirements of a living wage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_wage
The Refundable tax credit
The United States federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable tax credit that reduces or eliminates the taxes that low-income working people pay (such as payroll taxes) and also frequently operates as a wage subsidy for low-income workers... Due to its structure, the EITC is very effective at targeting assistance only to low-income families... This means that the EITC is a much more efficient means to help the poor than raising the minimum wage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earned_income_tax_credit
Negative income tax (NIT)
"When we earn above the tax-free threshold (TFT), we must pay a portion of our income to the government in tax. The NIT [proposal] simply extends this principle so that people who earn less than the TFT receive [tax] funds." quoted
A negative income tax (NIT) would replace the current progressive income tax system [and other low income assistance payments] used throughout most of the Western world... Negative income taxes can implement or supplement a guaranteed minimum income system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_income_tax
Microcredit
According to the Microcredit Summit Campaign:
"1.2 billion people are living on less than a dollar a day. Women are often responsible for the upbringing of the world's children and the poverty of the women generally results in the physical and social underdevelopment of their children. Experience shows that women are a good credit risk, and that women invest their income toward the well being of their families. At the same time, women themselves benefit from the higher social status they achieve within the home when they are able to provide income."
http://www.microcreditsummit.org/aboutmicrocreditsummit.htm
"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006, divided into two equal parts, to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights... Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life. Across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development."
Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs and to others living in poverty who are not bankable. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimum qualifications to gain access to traditional credit. Microcredit is a part of microfinance, which is the provision of financial services to the very poor; apart from loans, it includes savings, microinsurance and other financial innovations... it has successfully enabled extremely impoverished people (mostly women) to engage in self-employment projects that allow them to generate an income and, in many cases, begin to build wealth and exit poverty... The United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Microcredit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcredit
How local or democratic is currency?
In most cases, each country has monopoly control over the supply and production of its own currency.
In economics, a local currency is a currency not backed by a national government, and intended to trade only in a small area. Advocates such as Jane Jacobs argue that this enables an economically depressed region to pull itself up, by giving the people living there a medium of exchange that they can use to exchange services and locally-produced goods (In a broader sense, this is the original purpose of all money.) Opponents of this concept argue that local currency creates a barrier which can interfere with economies of scale and comparative advantage, and that in some cases they can serve as a means of tax evasion.
Local currencies can also come into being when there is economic turmoil involving the national currency. An example of this is the Argentine economic crisis of 2002 in which IOUs issued by local governments quickly took on some of the characteristics of local currencies.
A currency zone is a country or region in which a specific currency is the dominant medium of exchange. To facilitate trade between currency zones, there are exchange rates i.e. prices at which currencies (and the goods and services of individual currency zones) can be exchanged against each other. Currencies can be classified as either floating currencies or fixed currencies based on their exchange rate regime.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency
Monetary Reform would include the Global Exchange Markets
While 2% of Humanity own more than 50% of global household wealth, 90% of Humanity own just 15% and the poorest 50% of Humanity own just 1%, lacking basic living resources. Where is (Monopolized Federal Reserve Interest Based) Money and where is it exchanged?
The Forex market is a cash inter-bank or inter-dealer market, which was established in 1971 when floating exchange rates began to appear. The foreign exchange market is huge in comparison to other markets. For example, the average daily trading volume of US Treasury Bonds is $300 billion and the US stock market has an average daily volume of less than $10 billion. Ten years ago the Wall Street Journal estimated the daily trading volume in the Forex market to be in excess of $1 trillion.
According to the BIS study Triennial Central Bank Survey 2004, average daily turnover in traditional foreign exchange markets was estimated at $1,880 billion. TowerGroup, a financial services research consultancy, said it expected total global average daily volumes on the FX market to exceed $3,000 bn in 2007. Daily averages in April for different years, in billions of US dollars, are presented on the chart below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_exchange_market
http://www.bis.org/triennial.htm
Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity
The Bond, Stock and Commodity Exchange Markets
The bond market, also known as the debt, credit, or fixed income market, is a financial market where participants buy and sell debt securities usually in the form of bonds... The size of the international bond market is an estimated $45 trillion and the size of outstanding U.S. bond market debt is $25.2 trillion. [1]. The size of the'stock market' is estimated as about half [of the bond market]. The world derivatives market has been estimated at about $300 Trillion.[1] The major U.S. Banks alone are said to account for about $100 Trillion.
The majority of trading volume in the bond market takes place between broker-dealers and large institutions in a decentralized, over-the-counter (OTC) market. However, a small number of bonds, mainly corporate, are listed on exchanges... References to the "bond market" usually refer to the government bond market because of its size, liquidity, lack of credit risk and therefore, sensitivity to interest rates. Because of the inverse relationship between bond valuation and interest rates, the bond market is often used to indicate changes in interest rates or the shape of the yield curve.
Bond market volatility... For market participants who own a bond, collect the coupon and hold it to maturity, market volatility is irrelevant; principal and interest are received according to a pre-determined schedule... But participants who buy and sell bonds before maturity are exposed to many risks, most importantly changes in interest rates. When interest rates increase (decrease), the value of existing bonds falls (rises), since new issues pay a higher (lower) yield. This is the fundamental concept of bond market volatility: changes in bond prices are inverse to changes in interest rates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_market
The stock market, individual investors, and financial risk... Riskier long-term saving requires that an individual possess the ability to manage the associated increased risks. Stock prices fluctuate widely, in marked contrast to the stability of (government insured) bank deposits or bonds. This is something that could affect not only the individual investor or household, but also the economy on a large scale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market
A commodities exchange is where various commodities and derivatives products are traded. Most commodity markets across the world trade in agricultural products and other raw materials (like wheat, barley, sugar, maize, cotton, cocoa, coffee, milk products, pork bellies, oil, metals, etc.) and contracts based on them. These contracts can include spots, forwards, futures and options on futures. Other sophisticated products may include interest rates, environmental instruments, swaps, or ocean freight contracts.
Commodities exchanges, usually trade futures contracts on commodities. Such as trading contracts to receive something, say corn, in a certain month. A farmer raising corn can sell a future contract on his corn, which will not be harvested for several months, and guarantee the price he will be paid when he delivers; a breakfast cereal producer buys the contract now and guarantees the price will not go up when it is delivered. This protects the farmer from price drops and the buyer from price rises... Speculators also buy and sell the futures contracts to make a profit and provide liquidity to the system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodities_exchange
International Reserve Currency
The United States dollar is the most important reserve currency in the world today. At the mid-point of 2006, 65.4% of the identified official foreign exchange reserves in the world were held in United States dollars, 25.4% in euros, 4.2% in pound sterling, and 3.3% in Japanese yen, according to the IMF. For this reason, the US dollar is said to have "reserve currency status", making it possible for the United States to run significant trade deficits (financed by seigniorage) with limited economic impact (see currency crisis) as long as the major holders of reserve currencies do not issue public statements suggesting otherwise.
A reserve currency (or anchor currency) is a currency which is held in significant quantities by many governments and institutions as part of their foreign exchange reserves. It also tends to be the international pricing currency for products traded on a global market, such as oil, gold, etc. More recently, however, nations especially in Asia, have been stockpiling reserves in an effort to strengthen export competitiveness by weakening their own currencies, and also to contain quick and large inflows of capital, and buffer against financial crisis such as the Asian financial crisis.
This permits the issuing country to purchase the commodities at a marginally cheaper rate than other nations, which must exchange their currency with each purchase and pay a transaction cost. (For major currencies, this transaction cost is negligible with respect to the price of the commodity.) It also permits the government issuing the currency to borrow money at a better rate, as there will always be a larger market for that currency than others.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_currency
5 Year Euro to U.S. Dollar Exchange Rate - Yahoo!7 Finance
http://au.finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=EUR&to=USD&amt=1&t=5y
30 Year Gold Price History
http://goldprice.org/30-year-gold-price-history.html
Oil Price History
Long-Term Oil Prices, 1861-2006 (top line adjusted for inflation).
Top petroleum-consuming countries (2006)
1. United States - 20,030,000 bbl/day
2. China - 6,391,000 bbl/day
3. Japan - 5,578,000 bbl/day
4. Russia - 2,800,000 bbl/day
5. Germany - 2,677,000 bbl/day
6. India - 2,320,000 bbl/day
7. Canada - 2,300,000 bbl/day
8. South Korea - 2,061,000 bbl/day
9. France - 2,060,000 bbl/day
10. Italy - 1,874,000 bbl/day
11. Saudi Arabia - 1,775,000 bbl/day
12. Mexico - 1,752,000 bbl/day
13. United Kingdom - 1,722,000 bbl/day
14. Brazil - 1,610,000 bbl/day
Source: CIA World Factbook
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum
Hedge Funds with $1.2 trillion in assets
In 2006, there were more than 8,000 hedge funds with $1.2 trillion in assets, more than double the figure five years ago, according to Hedge Fund Research in Chicago.
Amaranth Advisors LLC was an American multistrategy hedge fund managing US$9 billion in assets. In September 2006, it became infamous for losing roughly US$6 billion in a single week on natural gas futures. The collapse was the largest hedge fund failure since the demise of Long Term Capital Management in 1998... The losses are likely not as threatening to the financial system as were the losses of Long-Term Capital Management, but it has led to increased pressure on the SEC to regulate hedge funds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranth_Advisors
Gambling on Derivatives - Hedging Risk or Courting Disaster?
What are Derivatives? - Derivatives are financial instruments that have no intrinsic value, but derive their value from something else. They hedge the risk of owning things that are subject to unexpected price fluctuations, e.g. foreign currencies, bushels of wheat, stocks and government bonds. There are two main types: futures, or contracts for future delivery at a specified price, and options that give one party the opportunity to buy from or sell to the other side at a prearranged price.
Derivatives Traders and Gamblers
"The job of a derivatives trader is like that of a bookie once removed, taking bets on people making bets." Linda Davies
Keynes may have been exaggerating when he wrote about investors who practise the fourth, fifth and higher degrees of speculation. However, futures and options are highly geared, or leveraged, transactions and therefore traders/investors are able to assume large positions - with similar sized risks - with very little up-front outlay.
By their very nature they encourage those higher degrees of speculation so that derivatives traders behave, as Linda Davies wrote, like a bookie once removed. The potential rewards are such that a technique designed to reduce risk is all too often treated as a gambler's tool.
http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/scandals/derivatives.html
U.S. Dollar vs. the Euro: Another Reason for the Invasion of Iraq
http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2004/19.html
Project Censored Media democracy in action
Petrodollar warfare is a hypothesis that many international manoeuvres in recent decades are taken to support the current dollar hegemony over other currencies. Supporters of this hypothesis believe that the U.S. dollar international value is determined by the fact that many key commodities (like energy in the form of oil and gas) are denominated in dollars. Supporters believe that if the denomination changes to another currency, for example the Euro, many countries would sell dollars and cause the banks to shift their reserves because they would no longer need dollars to buy oil and gas. This would weaken the dollar compared with the Euro in accordance with the law of supply and demand. The term oil currency wars is also used for the concept.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrodollar
Petrodollar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
How might a social democratic Humanity reform its self?
Social democracy is a political ideology that emerged in the late 19th century out of socialism. Unlike socialism, which aims to replace the capitalist system entirely, social democracy aims to reform capitalism in order to remove its perceived injustices.
In general, contemporary social democrats support:
* Regulatory systems over private enterprise in the interests of workers, consumers and small enterprise.
* A mixed economy over a free market or a planned economy.
* Advocacy of fair trade over free trade.
* An extensive system of social security (though usually not to the extent advocated by democratic socialists or other socialist groups), notably to counteract the effects of poverty and to insure the citizens against loss of income following illness or unemployment. (see welfare state)
* Government-owned or subsidised programs of education, healthcare, child care, etc. for all citizens.
* Moderate to high levels of taxation to fund government expenditure and a progressive taxation system.
* A system of industrial regulation (statutory or union-established minimum wages, working conditions, protection against arbitrary dismissal).
* Environmental protection laws (although not always to the extent advocated by Greens).
* Immigration and multiculturalism.
* A secular and progressive social policy, although this varies markedly in degree. Most social democrats support gay marriage, abortion rights and a liberal drug policy, while others are either non-committed or openly opposed strongly to these policies, although feigned opposition may be employed for political expediency.
* A foreign policy supporting the promotion of democracy, the protection of human rights and, where possible, effective multilateralism.
* Dissimilar to many liberals, social democrats advocate social rights, rather than just human rights.
Since the 1980s, a number of social democratic parties have adopted policies which support a relatively lightly regulated economy and emphasise equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcome as the benchmark for social justice... It has, moreover, become difficult for political parties in the developed world to win elections on a distinctively left-wing platform now that electorates are increasingly "middle-class", aspirational and consumeristic... Many social democratic parties have shifted emphasis from their traditional goals of social justice to human rights and environmental issues. In this, they are facing increasing challenge from Greens, who view ecology as fundamental to peace, and require reform of money supply and safe trade measures to ensure ecological integrity... Many modern social democrats have broadened their objectives to include aspects of feminism, racial equality and multiculturalism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy
In summary: Humanity is experiencing much needed micro and macro evoltionary reforms.
In my learning, much needed progress is occuring through the continued development and associative inter-networking of grass roots conscientious and participatory: local currencies, mutual fund and building societies, referral and reporting agencies, consumer activism groups, cooperatives and social enterprises, not for profit community organizations, ethical-environmental and community based investments, open source knowledge networks and creative art and performance commons. I believe these together with each persons inner developments and authentic intimate relationships with other people and nature are forming a background culture for Humanity in its greater diversity. I believe multi layered learning organizations developed as augmented social networks are the profound disrupter that will accelerate Human learning to live with diversity of character and scale in harmony on this living planet Earth. As Mork from Ork would say, "NaNu NaNu", hello, shalom, peace.
Yehoshanah
2007 01 04
[updated on 15th January, 2007]
