December 22, 2008
This article presents a proposal for transforming the international monetary system into the Terra International Monetary Union (TIMU). The TIMU system would be an essential part of a comprehensive approach to dealing with the global economic recession and the climate crisis, given that an international monetary system is the glue of the economic and financial system. While reform proposals, such as Keynes’ “bancor”, Stiglitz’s “global greenback” and others address themselves to providing the monetary glue of a new global non-national monetary standard between nations, the TIMU proposal adds to this huge challenge the inclusion of the ecological dimension, i.e. of carbon debts and credits, into their balance of payments (BOP) by adding an extra line for a carbon account. Using clauses of the proposed FEASTA's Treaty of Noordwijk Aan Zee, TIMU’s integrated accounting unit, the Terra, would include both the economic and carbon debts and credits between nations. By integrating both accounts TIMU’s Central Bank would become the global facility that administers the balance of payments between financial creditor nations in the global North who are ecological debtors to the nations in the global South, and the financial debtor nations in the global South who are ecological creditors to the nations in the global North. As a result sustainability, stability and equity can be achieved in the monetary field, possibly within a decade. The article describes the historical context of international efforts for a world currency--Mill’s political economy treatise of 1844, the 1867 Paris Conference, 1930 Bank of International Settlements, 1944 Keynes Plan, IMF’s 1969 Special Drawing Rights. Then it presents the six major components of the Terra International Monetary Union, particularly its Global Central Bank’s accounting, monitoring and credit creating activities and the necessary monetary institutions of the nations that become signatories of the TIMU Treaty. This is followed by a categorized list of reasons for the TIMU approach in dealing with economic and climate crises, showing both its strengths and weaknesses. Constraints and challenges for an eventual TIMU Treaty are discussed within the context of the ever deepening economic and climate crises. Main authors consulted are: Bonpasse 2007; Cohen 2004; Douthwaite 1992; Duncan 2005; Eichengreen 2008, Greider 1987 and 2003; Minsky 2008; Mishkin 2007; Mundell, various years; Skidelsky 2003; Stiglitz 2003. A discussing paper of 10 pages is available up
on request.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Revised abstract of the TIMU proposal
Eaxctly one week ago I posted the abstract for TIMU. Today you find the revised version. One of the major reason of revising the abstract is the discovery of a very similar proposal by the Irish group, Cap and Share, a representive of which I met at last year's UN Commission for Sustainable Development. Attached below are their Money Systems description and the new abstract that is going to be sent out to a dozen publications to find out their interest in the article.
MONEY SYSTEMS can be found on www.capandshare.org which deals with the "Foundations of an Economics of Sustainability", an area that transcends the foundation of the ecological sustainability of the US Society of Ecological Economists.
"Feasta believes that a radical monetary reform is one of the keys to sustainability and has a number of members working in the area. For further information, e-mail money@feasta.org. If you would like to participate in our online discussions on this topic, please visit our money forum.d out their interest." Particularly Douthwaite's post of November 19, 2008 is most up to date statement of FEASTA's position that is also brought to Pozan''s UNFCCC negotiations.
REVISED ABSTRACT
This article presents a proposal for transforming the international monetary system, i.e. the Terra International Monetary Union or TIMU system. TIMU would be an essential part of a comprehensive approach to dealing with the global economic recession and the climate crisis, while also expediting humanity’s transition into sustainable societies, the social, political and ecological relations of which will lead to greater purchasing power and quality of life not only in the global North, but especially in the global South. While reform proposals, such as Joseph Stiglitz’s “global greenback” intend to remove the US dollar as the international monetary standard between nations, the TIMU proposal adds to this the challenge of including the ecological dimension, i.e. carbon debts and credits, into their balance of payments (BOP) by adding a carbon account with terras (Latin for Earth) as the accounting unit and standard. The article outlines the fatal flaws of the present international monetary system, particularly after the collapse of the Bretton Woods architecture in August 971. As it was no longer possible to convert US currency with gold and as the mechanism to adjust surplus and deficits in the trade balances and capital flows between countries disappeared, excessive credit creation resulted, one of the major causes of the present global recession. (Eichengreen 2008; Duncan 2005; Stiglitz 2006; Douthwaite 1992.) Building on the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) the article proposes an integrated monetary system where carbon accounting and allocation follow the cap-and-share proposals and the FEASTA Treaty of Noordwijk as presented by Douthwaite and Meyer. Rather than reforming the IMF, the article considers the constraints and challenges of a transformed international monetary system, where TIMU’s Global Central Bank engages in accounting, monitoring and credit creating activities that would lead to a sustainable, stable and equitable global economic system.
MONEY SYSTEMS can be found on www.capandshare.org which deals with the "Foundations of an Economics of Sustainability", an area that transcends the foundation of the ecological sustainability of the US Society of Ecological Economists.
"Feasta believes that a radical monetary reform is one of the keys to sustainability and has a number of members working in the area. For further information, e-mail money@feasta.org. If you would like to participate in our online discussions on this topic, please visit our money forum.d out their interest." Particularly Douthwaite's post of November 19, 2008 is most up to date statement of FEASTA's position that is also brought to Pozan''s UNFCCC negotiations.
REVISED ABSTRACT
This article presents a proposal for transforming the international monetary system, i.e. the Terra International Monetary Union or TIMU system. TIMU would be an essential part of a comprehensive approach to dealing with the global economic recession and the climate crisis, while also expediting humanity’s transition into sustainable societies, the social, political and ecological relations of which will lead to greater purchasing power and quality of life not only in the global North, but especially in the global South. While reform proposals, such as Joseph Stiglitz’s “global greenback” intend to remove the US dollar as the international monetary standard between nations, the TIMU proposal adds to this the challenge of including the ecological dimension, i.e. carbon debts and credits, into their balance of payments (BOP) by adding a carbon account with terras (Latin for Earth) as the accounting unit and standard. The article outlines the fatal flaws of the present international monetary system, particularly after the collapse of the Bretton Woods architecture in August 971. As it was no longer possible to convert US currency with gold and as the mechanism to adjust surplus and deficits in the trade balances and capital flows between countries disappeared, excessive credit creation resulted, one of the major causes of the present global recession. (Eichengreen 2008; Duncan 2005; Stiglitz 2006; Douthwaite 1992.) Building on the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) the article proposes an integrated monetary system where carbon accounting and allocation follow the cap-and-share proposals and the FEASTA Treaty of Noordwijk as presented by Douthwaite and Meyer. Rather than reforming the IMF, the article considers the constraints and challenges of a transformed international monetary system, where TIMU’s Global Central Bank engages in accounting, monitoring and credit creating activities that would lead to a sustainable, stable and equitable global economic system.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
GM and MG: The Connection
GM AND MG: THE CONNECTION
Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., sustainability sociologist
Earth and Peace Education Associates International (EPE)
Www.globapepe.org ; www.fcvnyc.blogspot.com ; gaia1@rcn.com;
718 275 3932 (voice and fax); 917 617 6217 (cell))
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
During these days that the GM is trying to survive with the assistance of government loans, its connection with the reverse of its acronym, i.e. MG is hardly considered, though it is of great importance for its survival and revival of the US and world economy.
MG, like M1, M2, and M3 are abbreviations that indicate different categorizations in the supply of money. MG stands for the global money supply (MG-money global) and is a fundamental part of the international monetary system which is an essential, though heavily underestimated part of the global economy. What then is the connection of GM with MG?
GM’s slide into near disappearance has many domestic and international causes. Among the former are the lack of strategic planning, a short-term profitability horizon, legacy costs, etc. Among the latter are the competition with better foreign cars, insufficient international collaboration in research and development, etc. and …MG.
Starting in the 1970s the US followed a debt policy that played havoc with the international monetary system by excessively increasing the global money supply which led to an oversupply of credit which led to overinvestment, overheated economies in the surplus countries and the busting of those economic bubbles. This excessive credit creation which was a main consequence of the unbalanced balance of payments (BOP) was made possible by having the US dollar function as the major international reserve currency. Though John Maynard Keynes had proposed an excellent solution for a sound balance of payments system at Bretton Woods at the waning months of World War II in 1944, US Treasury Dexter White prevailed in having the US dollar become the accounting unit and the dominant reserve currency of the new system. As long as the dollar was pegged to the gold standard, the US was unable to import far more than it exported because those payments could not be supported by the gold in Fort Dix. By closing the gold window in August 1971, President Nixon made the international monetary system and its BOP very unstable. It was already somewhat unstable before that date because of problems with the expansion of credit in an ever larger global trading system.
Part of the present recession and probably depression in the next couple of months is the international community’s degradation of the international monetary system. The US has trillions of dollars on the debit side of its current account (CA) balance, while China has almost one trillion dollars in US dollar reserves on its credit or surplus side of its CA balance, most of which are invested in US treasury bills. The global economic system would crash if either the US suddenly stopped functioning as the world’s credit creation institution by drastically reducing its imports or if China were to decide to suddenly withdraw its US T bills which action would throw its own export-oriented economy into a tailspin. Thus, the enormous gap between deficit and surplus countries keeps the global economic system unbalanced, volatile, fragile, and unsustainable. It is also being made further unsustainable, fragile, etc on account of its wealth and income distribution because, as presently structured, it enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet.
What is to be done with GM and MG? One major approach that is good for GM and a healthy, i.e. equitable global money supply is to increase aggregate purchasing power in both the global North and South by starting to increase the minimum wage, particularly in industrializing developing countries. Chapter 9 in Richard Duncan’s The Dollar Crisis: Causes, Consequences and Cures shows in detail how such innovation could be brought into existence. Another major approach would be the creation of a global central bank that would not only reduce the enormous debts and surpluses by bringing them into balance, but would also include accounting of carbon emissions in a new BOP mechanism which would transfer funds of high income, high carbon debtor countries in the North to low income and carbon creditor countries in the South. Part of such system is emerging in the IMF and its Special Drawing Rights facility, but it has to be expanded to reflect the accounting of carbon emissions during this ever deepening climate crisis. I have called such system the Terra International Monetary Union or TIMU system where Terra—Latin for Earth—becomes the new international accounting unit and major reserve currency replacing the US Dollar. TIMU can be phased in somewhat similar ways as the European Monetary Union was phased in or other similar efforts such as the Chiang Mai Initiative in Asian countries. Notwithstanding the many obstacles and constraints that the TIMU system were to encounter on the global level humanity is at a crossroads in the next decade where transformation has to take place during this period of the Great Transition and Generation Transition in order for people and planet to survive and thrive. GM and other industries in the US and abroad would be able to be assisted financially within the bounds of an ethical, efficient and balanced international monetary system, where the global money supply (MG) would be controlled by global central bank which would replace the IMF and, particularly, its weighted decision making system that is biased in favor of the countries in the North, particularly the US, and biased against countries in the global South.
Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., sustainability sociologist
Earth and Peace Education Associates International (EPE)
Www.globapepe.org ; www.fcvnyc.blogspot.com ; gaia1@rcn.com;
718 275 3932 (voice and fax); 917 617 6217 (cell))
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
During these days that the GM is trying to survive with the assistance of government loans, its connection with the reverse of its acronym, i.e. MG is hardly considered, though it is of great importance for its survival and revival of the US and world economy.
MG, like M1, M2, and M3 are abbreviations that indicate different categorizations in the supply of money. MG stands for the global money supply (MG-money global) and is a fundamental part of the international monetary system which is an essential, though heavily underestimated part of the global economy. What then is the connection of GM with MG?
GM’s slide into near disappearance has many domestic and international causes. Among the former are the lack of strategic planning, a short-term profitability horizon, legacy costs, etc. Among the latter are the competition with better foreign cars, insufficient international collaboration in research and development, etc. and …MG.
Starting in the 1970s the US followed a debt policy that played havoc with the international monetary system by excessively increasing the global money supply which led to an oversupply of credit which led to overinvestment, overheated economies in the surplus countries and the busting of those economic bubbles. This excessive credit creation which was a main consequence of the unbalanced balance of payments (BOP) was made possible by having the US dollar function as the major international reserve currency. Though John Maynard Keynes had proposed an excellent solution for a sound balance of payments system at Bretton Woods at the waning months of World War II in 1944, US Treasury Dexter White prevailed in having the US dollar become the accounting unit and the dominant reserve currency of the new system. As long as the dollar was pegged to the gold standard, the US was unable to import far more than it exported because those payments could not be supported by the gold in Fort Dix. By closing the gold window in August 1971, President Nixon made the international monetary system and its BOP very unstable. It was already somewhat unstable before that date because of problems with the expansion of credit in an ever larger global trading system.
Part of the present recession and probably depression in the next couple of months is the international community’s degradation of the international monetary system. The US has trillions of dollars on the debit side of its current account (CA) balance, while China has almost one trillion dollars in US dollar reserves on its credit or surplus side of its CA balance, most of which are invested in US treasury bills. The global economic system would crash if either the US suddenly stopped functioning as the world’s credit creation institution by drastically reducing its imports or if China were to decide to suddenly withdraw its US T bills which action would throw its own export-oriented economy into a tailspin. Thus, the enormous gap between deficit and surplus countries keeps the global economic system unbalanced, volatile, fragile, and unsustainable. It is also being made further unsustainable, fragile, etc on account of its wealth and income distribution because, as presently structured, it enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet.
What is to be done with GM and MG? One major approach that is good for GM and a healthy, i.e. equitable global money supply is to increase aggregate purchasing power in both the global North and South by starting to increase the minimum wage, particularly in industrializing developing countries. Chapter 9 in Richard Duncan’s The Dollar Crisis: Causes, Consequences and Cures shows in detail how such innovation could be brought into existence. Another major approach would be the creation of a global central bank that would not only reduce the enormous debts and surpluses by bringing them into balance, but would also include accounting of carbon emissions in a new BOP mechanism which would transfer funds of high income, high carbon debtor countries in the North to low income and carbon creditor countries in the South. Part of such system is emerging in the IMF and its Special Drawing Rights facility, but it has to be expanded to reflect the accounting of carbon emissions during this ever deepening climate crisis. I have called such system the Terra International Monetary Union or TIMU system where Terra—Latin for Earth—becomes the new international accounting unit and major reserve currency replacing the US Dollar. TIMU can be phased in somewhat similar ways as the European Monetary Union was phased in or other similar efforts such as the Chiang Mai Initiative in Asian countries. Notwithstanding the many obstacles and constraints that the TIMU system were to encounter on the global level humanity is at a crossroads in the next decade where transformation has to take place during this period of the Great Transition and Generation Transition in order for people and planet to survive and thrive. GM and other industries in the US and abroad would be able to be assisted financially within the bounds of an ethical, efficient and balanced international monetary system, where the global money supply (MG) would be controlled by global central bank which would replace the IMF and, particularly, its weighted decision making system that is biased in favor of the countries in the North, particularly the US, and biased against countries in the global South.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Summary of the TIMU proposal
While solutions to the deepening global recession and the climate crisis have a score of dimensions that are to be integrated in order to be resolved, one major dimension that is not given sufficient attention on the global level is the one of the monetary system. This system of floating currencies, fiat money, accounting units, exchange rates, reserve currencies, balance-of-payments mechanisms, --a major support to any global economic system—is in dire need not only of reform, but of transformation. Such transformed system should not only provide stability in balancing monetary matters of economic debts and credits between nations, but should also include a carbon account that reflects the ecological, particularly carbon credits and debits of member states. The resulting system would be an integrated international monetary union where the present inconvertible US Dollar is replaced by a new accounting unit which can be called the Terra-Latin for Earth-to symbolize the integrated accounting of social and ecological realities between nations. This proposed transformed international monetary system can be called the Terra International Monetary Union or TIMU because the final phase will lead to an integrated global payment union that settles the accounts of both economic and ecological, i.e. carbon credits and debts. This TIMU proposal reflects the reality of 21st century’s economic and climatological challenges by conceptualizing the economic creditor nations in the global North which are ecological debtor nations and economic debtor nations in the global South which are ecological creditor nations.
The article presents the history of monetary relations between nations, particularly as expressed in the Bretton Woods institutions of the IMF and IBRD, the August 1971 US abrogation of the gold standard and the present limitations and even fatal flaws of the international monetary system, that also underlie the food, fuel, climate crises. Guides in this section are Eichengreen, Keynes, Duncan and others. After setting the historical context for the TIMU proposal will be compared with various reform proposals one of which is the “global greenback” proposal by Joseph Stiglitz. Taking the 4 phases of the 1980s Delors Commission that lead to the establishment of the European Monetary Union as an example 5 phases will be presented for TIMU to become a conceptual reality. The scheduled April 20, 2009 international economic summit would decide to set up the UN Commission on the Integrated International Monetary System which would lead to a Cooperation Fund, which would lead to an Monetary Institute, to a partial monetary union of current economic accounting with the establishment of a global central bank and, finally, a complete monetary union that integrates accounting of both economic and ecological, i.e. carbon credits and debts between nations.
The constraints and challenges of a TIMU like transforming of the present international monetary system are daunting on multiple dimensions of the economic, political and cultural relations between nations. The article will sketch the many positive and negative factors that would help or hinder a serious discussion and adoption of this integrated international monetary system. Some of them are: the disaster of the global economic recession, the growing global awareness of the pending catastrophic effects of the climate crisis which would aggravate the present crises in food, fuel, water, shelter, health, etc... Also included in this discussion is the positive trend of the integration of social and ecological values in a common value system where the term of reference has become the community of life rather than the human community as expressed in the biocentric vision of the Earth Charter. The discussion of these constraints and challenges would lead to the conclusion that a transformed international monetary system such as presented in the TIMU proposal can become a valuable tool in the global tool box in not only dealing with the global economic recession and the climate crisis, but also in expediting humanity’ transition into a sustainability revolution where the social, political and ecological relations between nations will lead to greater purchasing power and quality of life not only in the global North, but especially in the global South. The present unsustainable global economic system that enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet will be replaced with a panoply of steady-state economies where not only economic and ecological credits and debits are accounted in an integrated international monetary system, but also where justice, both social and procedural, is the guiding principle as opposed to the present growthism principle
The article presents the history of monetary relations between nations, particularly as expressed in the Bretton Woods institutions of the IMF and IBRD, the August 1971 US abrogation of the gold standard and the present limitations and even fatal flaws of the international monetary system, that also underlie the food, fuel, climate crises. Guides in this section are Eichengreen, Keynes, Duncan and others. After setting the historical context for the TIMU proposal will be compared with various reform proposals one of which is the “global greenback” proposal by Joseph Stiglitz. Taking the 4 phases of the 1980s Delors Commission that lead to the establishment of the European Monetary Union as an example 5 phases will be presented for TIMU to become a conceptual reality. The scheduled April 20, 2009 international economic summit would decide to set up the UN Commission on the Integrated International Monetary System which would lead to a Cooperation Fund, which would lead to an Monetary Institute, to a partial monetary union of current economic accounting with the establishment of a global central bank and, finally, a complete monetary union that integrates accounting of both economic and ecological, i.e. carbon credits and debts between nations.
The constraints and challenges of a TIMU like transforming of the present international monetary system are daunting on multiple dimensions of the economic, political and cultural relations between nations. The article will sketch the many positive and negative factors that would help or hinder a serious discussion and adoption of this integrated international monetary system. Some of them are: the disaster of the global economic recession, the growing global awareness of the pending catastrophic effects of the climate crisis which would aggravate the present crises in food, fuel, water, shelter, health, etc... Also included in this discussion is the positive trend of the integration of social and ecological values in a common value system where the term of reference has become the community of life rather than the human community as expressed in the biocentric vision of the Earth Charter. The discussion of these constraints and challenges would lead to the conclusion that a transformed international monetary system such as presented in the TIMU proposal can become a valuable tool in the global tool box in not only dealing with the global economic recession and the climate crisis, but also in expediting humanity’ transition into a sustainability revolution where the social, political and ecological relations between nations will lead to greater purchasing power and quality of life not only in the global North, but especially in the global South. The present unsustainable global economic system that enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet will be replaced with a panoply of steady-state economies where not only economic and ecological credits and debits are accounted in an integrated international monetary system, but also where justice, both social and procedural, is the guiding principle as opposed to the present growthism principle
Abstract for an article on the TIMU proposal
This article presents a proposal for transforming the international monetary system, i.e. the . Terra International Monetary Union or TIMU system. TIMU would be an essential part of a comprehensive approach to dealing with the global economic recession and the climate crisis, while also expediting humanity’s transition into sustainable societies, the social, political and ecological relations of which will lead to greater purchasing power and quality of life not only in the global North, but especially in the global South. While reform proposals, such as Joseph Stiglitz’s “global greenback” intend to remove the US dollar as the international monetary standard between nations, the TIMU proposal adds to this the challenge of including the ecological dimension, i.e. carbon debts and credits, into their balance of payments (BOP) by adding a carbon account . The article outlines the three fatal flaws in the present international monetary system, which came into being after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system (August 1971). With the collapse of Bretton Woods architecture, it was no longer possible to convert US currency with gold and the mechanism which automatically adjusted surplus and deficits in the trade balances and capital flows between countries disappeared, leading to excessive credit creation with its boom and busts. While supporting the need for a Bretton Woods II, the article considers how carbon accounting and allocation can be used to create carbon accounts that can be part of the proposed transformed international monetary system. This system would replace the present US$ standard with the integrated Terra (Latin for Earth) standard which would lead to the return of fixed exchange rates as part of the proposed Global Central Bank’s accounting, monitoring and credit creating activities.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Great Depression and present recession: causes and cures
Both economic upheavals with the enormous social costs to societies the world over have an underlying cause that is often not recognized.
While in both cases the immediate causes are clear—credit expansion leading to crashes—the underlying cause of both calamities is the relinquishment of the discipline of adhering to a monetary standard. During World War 1 the belligerent nations abandoned the gold standard, so that they could buy more arms on credit once their gold reserves were used up (and transported to the US). This led to huge trade balances which produced an expansion of international liquidity. This liquidity, in turn, caused credit expansion which, in turn, led to over-investment, overcapacity, asset price inflation or bubbles and, finally, in deflation. This same pattern can be seen presently with so much more credit created by all the fancy instruments made possible by removing of regulatory control. However, all that is, in last instance, made possible by the abandonment or collapse of the Bretton Woods institutions when the Nixon Administration went of the gold standard and replaced it by the dollar standard. The enormous trade deficits are part and parcel of the unsustainability of this standard because it allows and pushes one country to become a deficit nation in order for other nations to export their goods and services.
Part of the cure for the present recession is not only to adopt the many measures that the Bush Administration and President-elect Obama are advocating is the need to go off the Dollar standard for “global greenback” that is not tied to one country but which reflects a basket of currencies of major economies. Once the Obama Administration comes in it not only should adopt Stiglitz’s global greenback, but go a step further to take the Terra as the accounting unit of an international monetary system that integrates economic and ecological, i.e. carbon credits and debits, as proposed by the TIMU Initiative on this blog and elsewhere.
While “crony capitalism”, “infectious greed” or the income widening gap can still be considered part of the causation of the Great Depression, Richard Duncan in his 2005 The Dollar Crisis conclusively shows, in my opinion, that the enormous trade imbalances balances between 1914 and 1920 are the underlying cause, a fact that is often overlooked by those analysts who do not take this longer time frame.
While in both cases the immediate causes are clear—credit expansion leading to crashes—the underlying cause of both calamities is the relinquishment of the discipline of adhering to a monetary standard. During World War 1 the belligerent nations abandoned the gold standard, so that they could buy more arms on credit once their gold reserves were used up (and transported to the US). This led to huge trade balances which produced an expansion of international liquidity. This liquidity, in turn, caused credit expansion which, in turn, led to over-investment, overcapacity, asset price inflation or bubbles and, finally, in deflation. This same pattern can be seen presently with so much more credit created by all the fancy instruments made possible by removing of regulatory control. However, all that is, in last instance, made possible by the abandonment or collapse of the Bretton Woods institutions when the Nixon Administration went of the gold standard and replaced it by the dollar standard. The enormous trade deficits are part and parcel of the unsustainability of this standard because it allows and pushes one country to become a deficit nation in order for other nations to export their goods and services.
Part of the cure for the present recession is not only to adopt the many measures that the Bush Administration and President-elect Obama are advocating is the need to go off the Dollar standard for “global greenback” that is not tied to one country but which reflects a basket of currencies of major economies. Once the Obama Administration comes in it not only should adopt Stiglitz’s global greenback, but go a step further to take the Terra as the accounting unit of an international monetary system that integrates economic and ecological, i.e. carbon credits and debits, as proposed by the TIMU Initiative on this blog and elsewhere.
While “crony capitalism”, “infectious greed” or the income widening gap can still be considered part of the causation of the Great Depression, Richard Duncan in his 2005 The Dollar Crisis conclusively shows, in my opinion, that the enormous trade imbalances balances between 1914 and 1920 are the underlying cause, a fact that is often overlooked by those analysts who do not take this longer time frame.
Monday, December 1, 2008
TIMU proposal as sent to IPRA GlobalEconGroup
Obama's international monetary challenge in the TIMU proposal
Monday, December 01, 2008
Though I have mentioned on www.change.gov and www.change.org the essentials of the Terra International Monetary Union (TIMU) proposals I have not yet sent president elect Obama a letter or a correspondence of letters as Howard Richards has imaginatively been doing. It is my intention to find the right entry points into his economic and international teams to propose this monetary system transformation proposal that would integrate in an international balance of payments system both the economic and ecological, particularly carbon emissions, accounting of nations in the global North and South. After receiving feedback from this IPRA Commission and other, including the IPRA Earth Charter Commission of which I am the convenor/coordinator, I intend to improve the article on the context, contours, constraints and challenges of TIMU and prepare spin-off products such as an OPED piece to the NY Times and other major publications. So, let your comments flow!
Though I support Obama's choices of economic and international team members--their centrist positions and technical know how will be challenged and directed by Obama's vision of a transformational change for the US--I believe that his focus on the integration of national and global economic issues is weak. It could be a question of strategy, given that you cannot do everything at the same time and that priorities have to be set. Notwithstanding this possible reason, I still tend to believe that his focus should be stronger on concerted international planning to stop and reverse the global recession which impacts more heavily on people in the global South and on people in the global North.
Part of this concerted international action is the need to transform the present international monetary system which means not only to reform the Bretton Woods Agreement, but to transform the nations’ balance of payments by including the ecological debts and credits that nations hold toward each other.
One of the major characteristics of such transformed international monetary system is the adoption of new accounting unit that would replace the dollar. It was during the waning years of World War II that the major nations at that time came together in Bretton Woods and established the IMF and the World Bank with the dollar as the accounting unit. It is less well known that Lord John Maynard Keynes had a superior plan of making “bancor” the accounting unit of new global bank (http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/11/18/clearing-up-this-mess/), given that the new monetary system should not be based upon the currency of one nation. US Treasury Secretary Dexter White prevailed on account on the polico-economic condition of the time. It has to be remembered, however, that the FDR Administration refused to participate in the 1933 International Conference in London where monetary and economic matters were planned to be resolved in a concerted way. FDR’s overemphasis on national needs with the exclusion of international efforts to address the global recession is considered to be one of the contribuants to Hitler’s rise to power and World War II. Robert Hormas and David Kennedy correctly spell out in the NY Times of Sunday November 30 the real need for concerted international action now. “It took a depression and a war to transform an older order. If we act swiftly and smartly, ours may be happier fate. We have what may well be a once-in-a-life time opportunity to build an international architecture for a new century and in the process bolster our security. If we don’t seize it, we may be doomed to repeat some pretty nasty history.”
Part of that international economic architecture for a new century is a monetary system that settles accounts between nations not only in terms of trade payments, capital flows and invisibles such as insurance and shipping payments, but also in terms of carbon payments. For the Obama Administration proposing such integrated monetary system for the April 20, 2009 Summit would signal a transformational change in US foreign policy that would bring the deepening climate crisis together with the economic challenge of a global recession.
How can such international monetary system come into being?
An example on a regional scale is presented in the three phases proposed by the Delors Commission that led to the European Monetary Union with the ecu as accounting unit and the Euro as legal tender. The first phase was the establishment of a Cooperation Fund, the second phase resulted in a monetary institute and the third phase ended in a monetary union. For TIMU proposal to come into existence nations, under the leadership of the Obama Administration, is to establish an international monetary commission which might be headed by Joseph Siglitz of Columbia who has been advocating the substitution of the American dollar by “global greenbacks.” This Commission would be charged to integrate both economic and ecological accounting into one accounting unit which I propose to be called Terra, Latin for Earth, the home of all nations where all economic and ecological activities take place. So proceeding from April 20 a Cooperation Fund could be established, followed by an Integrated Monetary Institute, followed by an Integrated International Monetary Institute, followed by Payment Union which may be called the Terra International Monetary Union indicating its integrated balance of payments.
Such international cooperation in integrating the accounting of economic and ecological payments will be greatly facilitated by new thinking on the integration of social and ecological values. For almost a decade millions of people and thousands of organizations have endorsed a people’s covenant or a Community of Life Charter which has become known as the Earth Charter. Hopefully, many governments are going to follow Costa Rica, UNESCO and other governmental actors in applying its values to their economies, climate policies, cultures, so that humanity becomes a member of the community of life rather than its master.
Though there are many and complex dimensions to the TIMU proposal, its overall philosophy is simple: construct a monetary architecture that integrates a balance of payments between nations that not only includes their economic—trade and investment—activities but also their ecological ones, particularly given the momentous challenge of humanity to reduce its climate impact to 350ppm as soon as possible. What is not being measured in the balance of payments between nations is not taken very seriously. If humanity, particularly the nations in the global North, is serious in pursuing the MDGs for the benefit of people and planet, its monetary house is to be in order. If humanity is to accomplish a human transition to the needed sustainability revolution in stead of recessions, depressions and wars, it is all important to learn its earlier lessons from the transitions into the agricultural and industrial revolutions which took place spontaneously and haphazardly.
Monday, December 01, 2008
Though I have mentioned on www.change.gov and www.change.org the essentials of the Terra International Monetary Union (TIMU) proposals I have not yet sent president elect Obama a letter or a correspondence of letters as Howard Richards has imaginatively been doing. It is my intention to find the right entry points into his economic and international teams to propose this monetary system transformation proposal that would integrate in an international balance of payments system both the economic and ecological, particularly carbon emissions, accounting of nations in the global North and South. After receiving feedback from this IPRA Commission and other, including the IPRA Earth Charter Commission of which I am the convenor/coordinator, I intend to improve the article on the context, contours, constraints and challenges of TIMU and prepare spin-off products such as an OPED piece to the NY Times and other major publications. So, let your comments flow!
Though I support Obama's choices of economic and international team members--their centrist positions and technical know how will be challenged and directed by Obama's vision of a transformational change for the US--I believe that his focus on the integration of national and global economic issues is weak. It could be a question of strategy, given that you cannot do everything at the same time and that priorities have to be set. Notwithstanding this possible reason, I still tend to believe that his focus should be stronger on concerted international planning to stop and reverse the global recession which impacts more heavily on people in the global South and on people in the global North.
Part of this concerted international action is the need to transform the present international monetary system which means not only to reform the Bretton Woods Agreement, but to transform the nations’ balance of payments by including the ecological debts and credits that nations hold toward each other.
One of the major characteristics of such transformed international monetary system is the adoption of new accounting unit that would replace the dollar. It was during the waning years of World War II that the major nations at that time came together in Bretton Woods and established the IMF and the World Bank with the dollar as the accounting unit. It is less well known that Lord John Maynard Keynes had a superior plan of making “bancor” the accounting unit of new global bank (http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/11/18/clearing-up-this-mess/), given that the new monetary system should not be based upon the currency of one nation. US Treasury Secretary Dexter White prevailed on account on the polico-economic condition of the time. It has to be remembered, however, that the FDR Administration refused to participate in the 1933 International Conference in London where monetary and economic matters were planned to be resolved in a concerted way. FDR’s overemphasis on national needs with the exclusion of international efforts to address the global recession is considered to be one of the contribuants to Hitler’s rise to power and World War II. Robert Hormas and David Kennedy correctly spell out in the NY Times of Sunday November 30 the real need for concerted international action now. “It took a depression and a war to transform an older order. If we act swiftly and smartly, ours may be happier fate. We have what may well be a once-in-a-life time opportunity to build an international architecture for a new century and in the process bolster our security. If we don’t seize it, we may be doomed to repeat some pretty nasty history.”
Part of that international economic architecture for a new century is a monetary system that settles accounts between nations not only in terms of trade payments, capital flows and invisibles such as insurance and shipping payments, but also in terms of carbon payments. For the Obama Administration proposing such integrated monetary system for the April 20, 2009 Summit would signal a transformational change in US foreign policy that would bring the deepening climate crisis together with the economic challenge of a global recession.
How can such international monetary system come into being?
An example on a regional scale is presented in the three phases proposed by the Delors Commission that led to the European Monetary Union with the ecu as accounting unit and the Euro as legal tender. The first phase was the establishment of a Cooperation Fund, the second phase resulted in a monetary institute and the third phase ended in a monetary union. For TIMU proposal to come into existence nations, under the leadership of the Obama Administration, is to establish an international monetary commission which might be headed by Joseph Siglitz of Columbia who has been advocating the substitution of the American dollar by “global greenbacks.” This Commission would be charged to integrate both economic and ecological accounting into one accounting unit which I propose to be called Terra, Latin for Earth, the home of all nations where all economic and ecological activities take place. So proceeding from April 20 a Cooperation Fund could be established, followed by an Integrated Monetary Institute, followed by an Integrated International Monetary Institute, followed by Payment Union which may be called the Terra International Monetary Union indicating its integrated balance of payments.
Such international cooperation in integrating the accounting of economic and ecological payments will be greatly facilitated by new thinking on the integration of social and ecological values. For almost a decade millions of people and thousands of organizations have endorsed a people’s covenant or a Community of Life Charter which has become known as the Earth Charter. Hopefully, many governments are going to follow Costa Rica, UNESCO and other governmental actors in applying its values to their economies, climate policies, cultures, so that humanity becomes a member of the community of life rather than its master.
Though there are many and complex dimensions to the TIMU proposal, its overall philosophy is simple: construct a monetary architecture that integrates a balance of payments between nations that not only includes their economic—trade and investment—activities but also their ecological ones, particularly given the momentous challenge of humanity to reduce its climate impact to 350ppm as soon as possible. What is not being measured in the balance of payments between nations is not taken very seriously. If humanity, particularly the nations in the global North, is serious in pursuing the MDGs for the benefit of people and planet, its monetary house is to be in order. If humanity is to accomplish a human transition to the needed sustainability revolution in stead of recessions, depressions and wars, it is all important to learn its earlier lessons from the transitions into the agricultural and industrial revolutions which took place spontaneously and haphazardly.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Recession, stimulus, inequity, remorse
Thomas Friedman concludes his column “All Fall Down” in today’s New York Times: “That’s how we got here — a near total breakdown of responsibility at every link in our financial chain, and now we either bail out the people who brought us here or risk a total systemic crash.”
The recession is upon us, not only Americans, other OECD countries residents, but also the billions of our fellow citizens in the global South. Indeed “All Fall Down” including future generations and even the planet herself on account of the ecological impacts of this recession, particularly the deepening climate crisis.
Though stimulus packages are being prepared by many governments—the term bailout is out, even stimulus is to be replaced by recovery—the growing inequity of the last 40 years which is also partly to blame of this recession and the 1930s depression is hardly being tackled in growth strategies that soft pedal the equity dimension. Remorse is also hard to find in those many different groups who contributed to the breakdown in “every link in our financial system.”
Are bailout and systemic crash the only options in the way forward as Friedman seems to suggest?
Three former UBS board members felt constrained to receive their full bonus packages given the $50 billion losses by the company and the infusion of Swiss tax payer’s dollars of a similar amount. They would forgo $27 million in compensation that was legally due to them.
Is it possible for those persons “in every link in our financial system” who made extraordinary bonuses or compensation also to bring themselves to feel remorseful and make restitution?
I for one would support fiscal policies that would revisit those very high income persons’ tax returns. Perhaps, Larry Summers’ example of bringing the present wealth gap back to the 1970s level by taxing the top 1% of families with an income of $1.7 million an amount of $800,000 and writing checks of $10,000 to the bottom 80% should be considered as an other option between bailout and system crash. While considering these fiscal measures, the Obama Administration could also device rules and regulations, particular by fiscal measures, that would prevent the emergence of more billionaires, not only in the US but also in developing nations where their numbers are growing, again showing the preponderance of growth over equity.
The recession is upon us, not only Americans, other OECD countries residents, but also the billions of our fellow citizens in the global South. Indeed “All Fall Down” including future generations and even the planet herself on account of the ecological impacts of this recession, particularly the deepening climate crisis.
Though stimulus packages are being prepared by many governments—the term bailout is out, even stimulus is to be replaced by recovery—the growing inequity of the last 40 years which is also partly to blame of this recession and the 1930s depression is hardly being tackled in growth strategies that soft pedal the equity dimension. Remorse is also hard to find in those many different groups who contributed to the breakdown in “every link in our financial system.”
Are bailout and systemic crash the only options in the way forward as Friedman seems to suggest?
Three former UBS board members felt constrained to receive their full bonus packages given the $50 billion losses by the company and the infusion of Swiss tax payer’s dollars of a similar amount. They would forgo $27 million in compensation that was legally due to them.
Is it possible for those persons “in every link in our financial system” who made extraordinary bonuses or compensation also to bring themselves to feel remorseful and make restitution?
I for one would support fiscal policies that would revisit those very high income persons’ tax returns. Perhaps, Larry Summers’ example of bringing the present wealth gap back to the 1970s level by taxing the top 1% of families with an income of $1.7 million an amount of $800,000 and writing checks of $10,000 to the bottom 80% should be considered as an other option between bailout and system crash. While considering these fiscal measures, the Obama Administration could also device rules and regulations, particular by fiscal measures, that would prevent the emergence of more billionaires, not only in the US but also in developing nations where their numbers are growing, again showing the preponderance of growth over equity.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Four phases of the Terra International Monetary Union (TInMUn) Initiative
The Delors Commission in 1989 presented three phases for the EU to arrive at a monetary union that was based upon the ecu (European Community Unit) accounting unit which become the Euro. Cf. Barry Eichengreen's history of the international monetary system. In a similar fashion I am proposing a phased approach to an international monetary union that would be based upon the Terra accounting unit indicating accounting of both economic and ecological (climatic) realities. Given that the proposal includes not only statistics of a regular international balance of payments mechanism, but also of carbon emissions accounting, the fourth phase is added.
First phase would be started on April 20 when the G20 and hopefully representatives of the global South decide to fund a Commission for a Transformed Bretton Woods to be made up of a representative sample of countries in different levels of socio-economic development. The Commission would become part of the UN ECOSOC and draw also on its resources.
The second phase within a 2-3 span would consist of the establishment of an International Monetary Institute would start developing the recommendations of the Commission and setting up rules, regulations, rewards and institutions.
The third phase would consist of the establishment of the Partial International Monetary Union which would implement the rules, regulations and rewards dealing with a balance of payments mechanism dealing with “only” economic realities.
The fourth and final phase would consist of the Integrated International Monetary Union which would add to the balance-of-payments the ecological credits and debits of the member countries. At this juncture the UN ECOSOC Council would be integrated with an Ecological Council where UNEP has been upgraded from a program to an UN institution.
While many monetary observers such as those of The Great Transition (GTI) Listserve of the Tellus organization think of a reformed Bretton Woods, the TInMUn proposal or Initiative is a transformed Bretton Woods, needed given not only the global recession of these times but also the perilous predicament of an ever deepening climate crisis.
First phase would be started on April 20 when the G20 and hopefully representatives of the global South decide to fund a Commission for a Transformed Bretton Woods to be made up of a representative sample of countries in different levels of socio-economic development. The Commission would become part of the UN ECOSOC and draw also on its resources.
The second phase within a 2-3 span would consist of the establishment of an International Monetary Institute would start developing the recommendations of the Commission and setting up rules, regulations, rewards and institutions.
The third phase would consist of the establishment of the Partial International Monetary Union which would implement the rules, regulations and rewards dealing with a balance of payments mechanism dealing with “only” economic realities.
The fourth and final phase would consist of the Integrated International Monetary Union which would add to the balance-of-payments the ecological credits and debits of the member countries. At this juncture the UN ECOSOC Council would be integrated with an Ecological Council where UNEP has been upgraded from a program to an UN institution.
While many monetary observers such as those of The Great Transition (GTI) Listserve of the Tellus organization think of a reformed Bretton Woods, the TInMUn proposal or Initiative is a transformed Bretton Woods, needed given not only the global recession of these times but also the perilous predicament of an ever deepening climate crisis.
Needed international monetary policies
During this these times of food, fuel, climate and financial crises the economic discourse rarely connects the monetary dimensions of the economic challenges ahead. Financial solutions are couched in rescue or investment terms of increasing liquidity by making loans available to banking and manufacturing in their respective countries. It seems that well-nigh all policy makers do not think in global terms for an economic system that is sinking ever deeper into a global recession.
Apart of the recent G20 meeting in Washington, D.C. and its sequel on April 20 next year countries and regions seem to deal with their economic stimuli without giving much attention to their currencies and exchange rates.
Particularly countries such as South Korea which had much foreign investment see the value of their currencies go down by some 30% against the dollar, while even countries such as Brazil with less dependence on foreign capital had their peso currency devaluate by some 18%. In the first case, investors left South Korea for 30 year US Treasuries, while they were invited by Brazil to shore up its currency. Of course, such “turmoil in currency markets threatened to reorder trade relations and complicate recovery efforts”. Cf. Washington Post, October 25, A01.
What is needed in these times of global economic downturn or recession is an urgent international approach that would reduce the wide swings in currency values and its associated exchange rates. What are needed are economic policies that include international currency stability where exchange rates would fluctuate within a predetermined band. Such policies are to take place within a transformed Bretton Woods system which would also include in its balance-of-payment system the debits and credits based upon the quantity of GHG emissions. A very tall order, but one that is necessary to transition into sustaining futures of both countries in the global North and South.
Apart of the recent G20 meeting in Washington, D.C. and its sequel on April 20 next year countries and regions seem to deal with their economic stimuli without giving much attention to their currencies and exchange rates.
Particularly countries such as South Korea which had much foreign investment see the value of their currencies go down by some 30% against the dollar, while even countries such as Brazil with less dependence on foreign capital had their peso currency devaluate by some 18%. In the first case, investors left South Korea for 30 year US Treasuries, while they were invited by Brazil to shore up its currency. Of course, such “turmoil in currency markets threatened to reorder trade relations and complicate recovery efforts”. Cf. Washington Post, October 25, A01.
What is needed in these times of global economic downturn or recession is an urgent international approach that would reduce the wide swings in currency values and its associated exchange rates. What are needed are economic policies that include international currency stability where exchange rates would fluctuate within a predetermined band. Such policies are to take place within a transformed Bretton Woods system which would also include in its balance-of-payment system the debits and credits based upon the quantity of GHG emissions. A very tall order, but one that is necessary to transition into sustaining futures of both countries in the global North and South.
The $8 trillion question.
WHAT I WOULD DO WITH $8 TRILLION.
submitted to Brian Lehrer Show on www.wnyc.org
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Given this enormous sum we have to not only look at long-term expenditures, but also globally. So, here is my breakdown in trillion dollars:
$4 trillion: Implementing and evaluating the UN MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) for the next 20 years
$2 trillion: planning of investment in infrastructure and human services in the USA during the next 10 years with roughly equal billing to infrastructure projects and to the development of sustainable communities
$1 trillion: educating humanity to transform its attitude from an anthropocentric to biocentric worldview by adopting and applying the integration of social and ecological values as presented in the benchmark version of the Earth Charter
$1 trillion: worldwide program for an Earth Charter value-based planning and implemention to make humanity transition to a full sustainability revolution after having gone through the agricultural and industrial revolutions in a haphazard and spontaneous fashion.
Live and unite in justice, peace and praise.
Yours for sustaining futures
Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., sustainability sociologist
Director, Sustainability Research and Education
Earth and Peace Education Associates International (EPE)
Chair, United Nations and Global Affairs Committee at the Community Church of New York, Unitarian Universalist, 40 East 35 Street, NY 10016
Adjunct Associate Professor Sustainable Communities at Pace University, NY
Visiting Scholar on Sustainable Communities at Pace University, Spring 2006
Executive Director, Metro New York Sustainable Communities Network
Sustainability Fellow, Green Institute in Washington, D.C.
Rego Park, NY 11374, USA
voice: 1+(718)275-3932; fax 1+(718)275-3932; cell 1+ (917) 617 6217http://www.globalepe.org, gaia1@rcn.com; www.fcvnyc@blogspot.com
“…..the verb sustaining holds open the actively normative questions that the idea of sustainability raises. We are required to probe: What truly sustains us? Why? And how do we know? Conversely, we must ask: What are we to sustain above all else? Why? And how may we do so?"
Aidan Davison, Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability, 2001: p.64
submitted to Brian Lehrer Show on www.wnyc.org
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Given this enormous sum we have to not only look at long-term expenditures, but also globally. So, here is my breakdown in trillion dollars:
$4 trillion: Implementing and evaluating the UN MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) for the next 20 years
$2 trillion: planning of investment in infrastructure and human services in the USA during the next 10 years with roughly equal billing to infrastructure projects and to the development of sustainable communities
$1 trillion: educating humanity to transform its attitude from an anthropocentric to biocentric worldview by adopting and applying the integration of social and ecological values as presented in the benchmark version of the Earth Charter
$1 trillion: worldwide program for an Earth Charter value-based planning and implemention to make humanity transition to a full sustainability revolution after having gone through the agricultural and industrial revolutions in a haphazard and spontaneous fashion.
Live and unite in justice, peace and praise.
Yours for sustaining futures
Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., sustainability sociologist
Director, Sustainability Research and Education
Earth and Peace Education Associates International (EPE)
Chair, United Nations and Global Affairs Committee at the Community Church of New York, Unitarian Universalist, 40 East 35 Street, NY 10016
Adjunct Associate Professor Sustainable Communities at Pace University, NY
Visiting Scholar on Sustainable Communities at Pace University, Spring 2006
Executive Director, Metro New York Sustainable Communities Network
Sustainability Fellow, Green Institute in Washington, D.C.
Rego Park, NY 11374, USA
voice: 1+(718)275-3932; fax 1+(718)275-3932; cell 1+ (917) 617 6217http://www.globalepe.org, gaia1@rcn.com; www.fcvnyc@blogspot.com
“…..the verb sustaining holds open the actively normative questions that the idea of sustainability raises. We are required to probe: What truly sustains us? Why? And how do we know? Conversely, we must ask: What are we to sustain above all else? Why? And how may we do so?"
Aidan Davison, Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability, 2001: p.64
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
ww.change.gov and www.change.org
http://www.change.gov/ and http://www.change.org/
By chance I entered http://www.change.org/ in my effort to go to the Obama page on http://www.change.gov/. It was a pleasant surprise.
Change.org is a well-designed and powerful website that provides an international network for social action. One of its features is the invitation for ideas for the new administration, the most voted ones of which will be presented at Inauguration Day and pursued after that with the hundreds of non-profits affiliated with the website.
I accepted the invitation and presented 4 ideas for the Obama Administration. 1. transformation of the IMF and the World Bank (listed earlier on this blog); 2. Obama becoming the Sustainable Communities Organizer in Chief; 3. Earth Charter values-based planning; 4. the ITTS Initiative of $300 billion 15 year integrated transportation program.
The more people read the ideas and vote for them, the stronger they become for presentation to the Obama Administration. Happy reading and voting!!
By chance I entered http://www.change.org/ in my effort to go to the Obama page on http://www.change.gov/. It was a pleasant surprise.
Change.org is a well-designed and powerful website that provides an international network for social action. One of its features is the invitation for ideas for the new administration, the most voted ones of which will be presented at Inauguration Day and pursued after that with the hundreds of non-profits affiliated with the website.
I accepted the invitation and presented 4 ideas for the Obama Administration. 1. transformation of the IMF and the World Bank (listed earlier on this blog); 2. Obama becoming the Sustainable Communities Organizer in Chief; 3. Earth Charter values-based planning; 4. the ITTS Initiative of $300 billion 15 year integrated transportation program.
The more people read the ideas and vote for them, the stronger they become for presentation to the Obama Administration. Happy reading and voting!!
Africa and the Monetary System
No African country or region was participating the recent Washington Financial Conference of the G20 group. However, they are the ones that are most affected by the present financial and economic downturn or recession. It is a question of procedural and social justice that would given them have a voice in these deliberations, which, unfortunately, are taking place outside the UN gambit.
It is high time that the IMF and the World Bank not only be reformed, but transformed into a Keynesian monetary system of balance between nations with a trade surplus or trade deficit. George Monbiot of the Guardian in his post of November 18 entitled “Clearing Up the Mess” not only shows how the present system came into being, but also how the Keynesian system can work now.
However, there is one major modification I would make to the Keynesian system which would be of great benefit to African countries and other countries in the South.
The new system has to include the ecological debt and credit among nations. A country’s social trade balance as is being proposed in the Keynesian “bancor” proposal is to be augmented with its ecological trade balance. The integrated of both trade balances can be expressed in “terra” the Latin word for Earth.
This Terra integrated monetary system becomes the more urgent as the climate crisis deepens and a system has to be put in place that is historically based and ethically strong. Substantial work has to be done on UNFCCC’s Article 3 dealing with the shared and differentiated responsibilities of countries and regions in the global North and South.
It is up to African regions and other Third World groupings to claim their rightful place in these ongoing economic, financial, and monetary deliberations and push for these deliberations to include the ecological balance sheet as a matter of social, economic and ecological equity. It is this integrated view of ethics which can be called sustainability ethics that humanity has to progress to and which is being reflected in the people’s covenant called the Earth Charter. It is its frame of reference of the community of life rather than a narrow anthropocentric frame that will lead humanity to new thinking and new institutions.
It is high time that the IMF and the World Bank not only be reformed, but transformed into a Keynesian monetary system of balance between nations with a trade surplus or trade deficit. George Monbiot of the Guardian in his post of November 18 entitled “Clearing Up the Mess” not only shows how the present system came into being, but also how the Keynesian system can work now.
However, there is one major modification I would make to the Keynesian system which would be of great benefit to African countries and other countries in the South.
The new system has to include the ecological debt and credit among nations. A country’s social trade balance as is being proposed in the Keynesian “bancor” proposal is to be augmented with its ecological trade balance. The integrated of both trade balances can be expressed in “terra” the Latin word for Earth.
This Terra integrated monetary system becomes the more urgent as the climate crisis deepens and a system has to be put in place that is historically based and ethically strong. Substantial work has to be done on UNFCCC’s Article 3 dealing with the shared and differentiated responsibilities of countries and regions in the global North and South.
It is up to African regions and other Third World groupings to claim their rightful place in these ongoing economic, financial, and monetary deliberations and push for these deliberations to include the ecological balance sheet as a matter of social, economic and ecological equity. It is this integrated view of ethics which can be called sustainability ethics that humanity has to progress to and which is being reflected in the people’s covenant called the Earth Charter. It is its frame of reference of the community of life rather than a narrow anthropocentric frame that will lead humanity to new thinking and new institutions.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Brdiging the wealth gap
“Spreading the wealth around” was one of president-elect Obama main thrust upon which he was elected. It was clearly shown to be the opposite of Senator McCain’s thrust of growth at all costs.
This mandate to bridge the wealth gap in the US cannot also be applied internationally, given that so many governments and particularly people all over the world are supporting Mr. Obama.
The real challenge in the US and less so abroad is to make the financial system serve the common good. Economist Robert Shiller in his book about the Suprime Solution and in his article in the New York Times of November 9 has pointed out to three main strategies.
Besides these institutional changes corporations such as Blockbuster are instituting “Say on Pay” which seems to work in the UK given that executive compensation has been rising less rapidly.
Finally, if wealthy people in the global North and South become convinced, that, in the Earth Charter words, “Being more rather having more”, there will be further acceptance for a genuinely progressive taxation system.
This mandate to bridge the wealth gap in the US cannot also be applied internationally, given that so many governments and particularly people all over the world are supporting Mr. Obama.
The real challenge in the US and less so abroad is to make the financial system serve the common good. Economist Robert Shiller in his book about the Suprime Solution and in his article in the New York Times of November 9 has pointed out to three main strategies.
Besides these institutional changes corporations such as Blockbuster are instituting “Say on Pay” which seems to work in the UK given that executive compensation has been rising less rapidly.
Finally, if wealthy people in the global North and South become convinced, that, in the Earth Charter words, “Being more rather having more”, there will be further acceptance for a genuinely progressive taxation system.
Monday, November 10, 2008
The Sustainable Communities Organizer in Chief
During the eighties Barack Obama was a community organizer in distressed communities at the South Side of Chicago when major steel plants closed down and putting thousands out of a job, creating hopelessness.
Now, the president-elect can become the sustainable communities organizer in chief reducing unemployment and creating hope.
Given his grassroots emphasis with its self-organizing capacity and the smart use of the social networking capability of the Internet, his campaign has set in place a network in all fifty states to be used in crafting his policies and implementing them, even in post-party fashion.
In www.change.gov he invited Americans to present their vision of the future and tell their American story. One of the four elements of my vision for America that I submitted one or two days after the website was launched deals with him doing community organizing on a national (even international) scale by using the sustainable communities development (SCD) paradigm which contains a method of community development that is based upon the vision and integration of social and ecological values of the Earth or Community of Life Charter.
I am working on an article that spells out the context, contours, challenges and constraints of this SCD approach which is applicable to communities in the global North and South. It is a paradigm of sustainable development whose time has come as part of the sustainability revolution which also includes less inclusive movements such as the smart growth, new urbanism and eco-village movements.
Now, the president-elect can become the sustainable communities organizer in chief reducing unemployment and creating hope.
Given his grassroots emphasis with its self-organizing capacity and the smart use of the social networking capability of the Internet, his campaign has set in place a network in all fifty states to be used in crafting his policies and implementing them, even in post-party fashion.
In www.change.gov he invited Americans to present their vision of the future and tell their American story. One of the four elements of my vision for America that I submitted one or two days after the website was launched deals with him doing community organizing on a national (even international) scale by using the sustainable communities development (SCD) paradigm which contains a method of community development that is based upon the vision and integration of social and ecological values of the Earth or Community of Life Charter.
I am working on an article that spells out the context, contours, challenges and constraints of this SCD approach which is applicable to communities in the global North and South. It is a paradigm of sustainable development whose time has come as part of the sustainability revolution which also includes less inclusive movements such as the smart growth, new urbanism and eco-village movements.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
On the Road to Real Change
Having watched the election coverage on CCN, MSNBC and FOX and listened to their many invited guests and specialists, and having read reports this morning in the NY Times I asked myself how real change takes place.
Lasting social change depends upon values change. When values and principles change, the whole social structure tends to change. New values are the building blocks of a transformed society.
Obama’s election has changed many values in different areas and pushes US society to a new level of awareness of opportunity and possibility. However, they may not yet be integrated enough to form a coherent perspective and vision that can inform and inspire.
I, for one, believe that we need a vision that defines the “common good” not only in terms of the well-being of the human community, but, especially, in terms of the community of life. We have to search for and implement a vision based upon the integration of social and ecological values. The present benchmark version of the Earth Charter is a good place to start with. We cannot solve our serious social problems in the global financial system, etc without at the same time dealing with the Earth’s most serious challenge of the climate crisis. We need strong spirituality on the road to real change. “Without vision, people perish” states Proverbs 28:19.
Lasting social change depends upon values change. When values and principles change, the whole social structure tends to change. New values are the building blocks of a transformed society.
Obama’s election has changed many values in different areas and pushes US society to a new level of awareness of opportunity and possibility. However, they may not yet be integrated enough to form a coherent perspective and vision that can inform and inspire.
I, for one, believe that we need a vision that defines the “common good” not only in terms of the well-being of the human community, but, especially, in terms of the community of life. We have to search for and implement a vision based upon the integration of social and ecological values. The present benchmark version of the Earth Charter is a good place to start with. We cannot solve our serious social problems in the global financial system, etc without at the same time dealing with the Earth’s most serious challenge of the climate crisis. We need strong spirituality on the road to real change. “Without vision, people perish” states Proverbs 28:19.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Deflation and the food crisis
Millions of people around the world, particularly in the industrial societies in the North, are being laid off and, consequently, loose income for a proper standard of life. Costs for essentials such as food, shelter, health become increasingly burdensome, particularly if unemployment insurance runs out.
Macro-economically this situation leads to a reduction in purchasing power which in turn leads to more layoffs in manufacturing and services, which in turn leads to deflation, the harbinger of a recession or even a depression.
It goes without saying that deflation will greatly increase the 854 million persons who suffer from hunger in the early years of the new century. Though food prices may come down in the near future on account of the deflation of economies in the global North and South, these hungry fellow citizens are still caught because their deepening poverty prevents access to these cheaper food staples.
It can be anticipated that more food riots will place, that more ecological damage will be done by people, particularly in the South, who try to survive.
This contextual sustainability blog has answers to address this completely unacceptable situation.
It has pointed out several times that a value-based overhaul has to take of the overall global economic system that enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet. This overhaul has also to take place to counter the economic concentration in national, regional and local communities.
This overhaul or revamping of economic systems on all these interconnected levels is to start with the abandonment of the growth illusion where the creation of a larger pie is pursued without the consideration of its impact on the distribution of the pie. It is the challenge to balance growth and equity. Basically, the struggle between the two US presidential candidates which will be decided in two days by the American people is a struggle between “creation of the pie” and the “distribution of the pie”. Today, my spouse Anita Wenden and I will be driving to Philadelphia to knock on doors for Obama’s choice of equity over growth or equitable growth..
Macro-economically this situation leads to a reduction in purchasing power which in turn leads to more layoffs in manufacturing and services, which in turn leads to deflation, the harbinger of a recession or even a depression.
It goes without saying that deflation will greatly increase the 854 million persons who suffer from hunger in the early years of the new century. Though food prices may come down in the near future on account of the deflation of economies in the global North and South, these hungry fellow citizens are still caught because their deepening poverty prevents access to these cheaper food staples.
It can be anticipated that more food riots will place, that more ecological damage will be done by people, particularly in the South, who try to survive.
This contextual sustainability blog has answers to address this completely unacceptable situation.
It has pointed out several times that a value-based overhaul has to take of the overall global economic system that enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet. This overhaul has also to take place to counter the economic concentration in national, regional and local communities.
This overhaul or revamping of economic systems on all these interconnected levels is to start with the abandonment of the growth illusion where the creation of a larger pie is pursued without the consideration of its impact on the distribution of the pie. It is the challenge to balance growth and equity. Basically, the struggle between the two US presidential candidates which will be decided in two days by the American people is a struggle between “creation of the pie” and the “distribution of the pie”. Today, my spouse Anita Wenden and I will be driving to Philadelphia to knock on doors for Obama’s choice of equity over growth or equitable growth..
Friday, October 31, 2008
A Detrroit picture in the NY Times
A Detroit picture tells us what the election is about.
In the New York Times of October 31 on the first business page the gleaming towers of the GM headquarters dominate the picture of Bill Pugliano/Getty Images. In the foreground the ugly overhead electricity poles with their top and middle lines stand out. What is less obvious at first sight is the deplorable situation of the side walks which seem to be non-existent. The housing stock in this neighborhood in Detroit near Dubois is poor, though the picture does not show us boarded-up houses. The picture’s caption tells us that “G.M. has sought help from Detroit pension funds for paying half the mortgage on its headquarters.”
This overpowering corporate influence as evidenced in this picture shows what the elections is about. It is growth versus equity, it is increasing the pie versus the sharing the pie. It is about growthism without much thought to equity. It is about economic concentration without a thought about its adverse social, economic and ecological consequences.
In the New York Times of October 31 on the first business page the gleaming towers of the GM headquarters dominate the picture of Bill Pugliano/Getty Images. In the foreground the ugly overhead electricity poles with their top and middle lines stand out. What is less obvious at first sight is the deplorable situation of the side walks which seem to be non-existent. The housing stock in this neighborhood in Detroit near Dubois is poor, though the picture does not show us boarded-up houses. The picture’s caption tells us that “G.M. has sought help from Detroit pension funds for paying half the mortgage on its headquarters.”
This overpowering corporate influence as evidenced in this picture shows what the elections is about. It is growth versus equity, it is increasing the pie versus the sharing the pie. It is about growthism without much thought to equity. It is about economic concentration without a thought about its adverse social, economic and ecological consequences.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
THE NEXT MAJOR STEP
The following OPED article was about to be submitted to the NY Times when I discovered WonderVoice "Op-Ed Submissions made easy". It has been now been submitted with a couple of clicks to over 500 publications in the USA and abroad: exactly the audience for this type of challenge of integrating both the social and ecological financing accounting systems on the ides of October 08 when the social financial system seems to be improved, particularly in Britain.
Consider this post of a length of about 1000 words one of the PILLAR POSTS of this blog!!!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
THE NEXT MAJOR STEP
While leaders in both Washington and Paris during the weekend of October 12 were busily engaged to bring some stability into the global financial system, some four dozen New York City residents were busily engaged to fuse the integrated social and ecological values of the Earth Charter into the life of the City and its climate crisis challenge.
While the financial discussions will have led to some success, particularly in Britain where the citizens became in control of their banking system, the New York City discussions resulted in The New York City Earth Charter Declaration on the Climate Crisis and its associated organization The New York City Earth Charter Alliance.
How are these two very different discussions related and how can the NYC one show what next major step is to be taking by the leaders in government, business and civil society in the interest of people and planet or the community of life?
The two discussions are related because the financial system not only deals with issues of social finance—financial relations of humans with humans—but also of ecological finance—relations of humans with Earth. We not only have financial debts between nations, but also ecological debts between nations. We not only have financial creditors, we also have ecological creditors. As a matter of fact, generally speaking, the nations in the global South are financial debtors, and ecological creditors, while nations in the global North are financial creditors and ecological debtors.
In the big scheme of things, i.e. the sustainability of the planet and her community of life upon which all human life and human communities depend, the present and ever deepening climate crisis overshadows all human financial activities and discussions. Thus, in any globally sustainable financial system an integration of both the social and ecological financial systems has to take place.
How can such integrated financial system with a common currency which might be called terra, Latin for Earth, come about? This is the next major step to be taken by humanity to assure a healthy planet, a healthy community of life, a health human community.
The greatest obstacle in taking this major step is humanity’s frame of mind where humans are still placed in the center of things. This anthropocentric worldview is to be transformed into a biocentric worldview where the community of life or life—bios—is placed in the center of things. Once such transformation takes place not only in the leaders of government, business and civil society, but in a critical number of humans, the stage is set to devise such new integrated financial systems.
The good news is that humanity is building a biocentric value system that places great stock on the integration of social and ecological values. In March of 2000 a benchmark a charter was adopted that was the outcome of 5 years intense discussions in all continents, by all social groups. This people’s covenant is called the Earth Charter. (Because many people believe that this charter is environmental charter on account of the term Earth, I prefer to call it the Community of Life Charter.) This process was set in motion by the Earth Council founded by the 1992 Earth Summit Secretary General Maurice Strong, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Dutch premier Ruud Luubers.
It is this Earth or Community of Life Charter that was taken in the NYC discussions above as our guiding principle in dealing with the climate crisis and resulted in The New York City Earth Charter Declaration on the Climate Crisis and its associated The New York City Earth Charter Alliance with its dozen Earth Charter Task Forces.
It is the integrated social and ecological values of this Earth Charter can also remove the greatest obstacle to taking the next step of an integrated financial system. This value system has the same significance for the 21st century, as had the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the 20th century, the Rights of Man and Citizen in 18th century France and the Magna Carta in 13th century Britain.
It is biocentric value system that is to inform and guide humanity’s progress towards social, economic and ecological sustainability. It is not only the “foresight that science can provide” in humanity’s sustainability revolution which William Ruckelshaus considers the third revolution after the agricultural and industrial revolutions, it is also humanity’s values development over the centuries, which are not necessarily religious values.
Humanity cannot take this “next major step” which is part of that sustainability revolution unless it gives priority to principles over methods. It is to heed the wise words of one of the greatest American thinkers in the 19th century who stated:
“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man, who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
------------------------------------------------
Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D. is a sustainability sociologist with Earth and Peace Education Associates International (EPE) who recently organized an Earth Charter summit in New York City about the climate crisis with world famous climatologist James Hansen as one of the two keynoters.
Contact information: www.globalepe.org. gaia1@rcn.com; 718 275-3932(voice and fax); 917 617 6217 (cell)
Consider this post of a length of about 1000 words one of the PILLAR POSTS of this blog!!!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
THE NEXT MAJOR STEP
While leaders in both Washington and Paris during the weekend of October 12 were busily engaged to bring some stability into the global financial system, some four dozen New York City residents were busily engaged to fuse the integrated social and ecological values of the Earth Charter into the life of the City and its climate crisis challenge.
While the financial discussions will have led to some success, particularly in Britain where the citizens became in control of their banking system, the New York City discussions resulted in The New York City Earth Charter Declaration on the Climate Crisis and its associated organization The New York City Earth Charter Alliance.
How are these two very different discussions related and how can the NYC one show what next major step is to be taking by the leaders in government, business and civil society in the interest of people and planet or the community of life?
The two discussions are related because the financial system not only deals with issues of social finance—financial relations of humans with humans—but also of ecological finance—relations of humans with Earth. We not only have financial debts between nations, but also ecological debts between nations. We not only have financial creditors, we also have ecological creditors. As a matter of fact, generally speaking, the nations in the global South are financial debtors, and ecological creditors, while nations in the global North are financial creditors and ecological debtors.
In the big scheme of things, i.e. the sustainability of the planet and her community of life upon which all human life and human communities depend, the present and ever deepening climate crisis overshadows all human financial activities and discussions. Thus, in any globally sustainable financial system an integration of both the social and ecological financial systems has to take place.
How can such integrated financial system with a common currency which might be called terra, Latin for Earth, come about? This is the next major step to be taken by humanity to assure a healthy planet, a healthy community of life, a health human community.
The greatest obstacle in taking this major step is humanity’s frame of mind where humans are still placed in the center of things. This anthropocentric worldview is to be transformed into a biocentric worldview where the community of life or life—bios—is placed in the center of things. Once such transformation takes place not only in the leaders of government, business and civil society, but in a critical number of humans, the stage is set to devise such new integrated financial systems.
The good news is that humanity is building a biocentric value system that places great stock on the integration of social and ecological values. In March of 2000 a benchmark a charter was adopted that was the outcome of 5 years intense discussions in all continents, by all social groups. This people’s covenant is called the Earth Charter. (Because many people believe that this charter is environmental charter on account of the term Earth, I prefer to call it the Community of Life Charter.) This process was set in motion by the Earth Council founded by the 1992 Earth Summit Secretary General Maurice Strong, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Dutch premier Ruud Luubers.
It is this Earth or Community of Life Charter that was taken in the NYC discussions above as our guiding principle in dealing with the climate crisis and resulted in The New York City Earth Charter Declaration on the Climate Crisis and its associated The New York City Earth Charter Alliance with its dozen Earth Charter Task Forces.
It is the integrated social and ecological values of this Earth Charter can also remove the greatest obstacle to taking the next step of an integrated financial system. This value system has the same significance for the 21st century, as had the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the 20th century, the Rights of Man and Citizen in 18th century France and the Magna Carta in 13th century Britain.
It is biocentric value system that is to inform and guide humanity’s progress towards social, economic and ecological sustainability. It is not only the “foresight that science can provide” in humanity’s sustainability revolution which William Ruckelshaus considers the third revolution after the agricultural and industrial revolutions, it is also humanity’s values development over the centuries, which are not necessarily religious values.
Humanity cannot take this “next major step” which is part of that sustainability revolution unless it gives priority to principles over methods. It is to heed the wise words of one of the greatest American thinkers in the 19th century who stated:
“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man, who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
------------------------------------------------
Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D. is a sustainability sociologist with Earth and Peace Education Associates International (EPE) who recently organized an Earth Charter summit in New York City about the climate crisis with world famous climatologist James Hansen as one of the two keynoters.
Contact information: www.globalepe.org. gaia1@rcn.com; 718 275-3932(voice and fax); 917 617 6217 (cell)
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Earth Charter Climate Crisis Community Summit of October 11
I reluctantly accepted the challenge to coordinate this Summit as part of the www.earthcharterus.org national campaign. It has taken me several weeks in April to line up two outstanding keynoters: climatologist James Hansen of NASA/GISS and sustainable communities specialist Gwendolyn Hallsmith of Montpelier, Vermont. It is taking me September and these first two weeks of October to organize the Summit, particularly its publicity.
Thus, all TV stations and newspapers in NYC were contacted, mostly by email, four universities had point persons for the Summit’s publicity, business world was contacted particularly the chambers of commerce in the five boroughs and unflinching pressure to participate was put on the Mayor’s Office of Operations which is charged with the implementation of PlaNYC2030. At the last UN Global Affairs meeting at Community Church of New York UU the tally was about 85, about one third of them are students who are attending (at least in the morning) because their professor has given them extra credit.
For the next couple of days still many things to be done, particularly the web streaming part of the Summit where my laptop had to be equipped (with difficulty) with two extra gigs of memory.
Thus, all TV stations and newspapers in NYC were contacted, mostly by email, four universities had point persons for the Summit’s publicity, business world was contacted particularly the chambers of commerce in the five boroughs and unflinching pressure to participate was put on the Mayor’s Office of Operations which is charged with the implementation of PlaNYC2030. At the last UN Global Affairs meeting at Community Church of New York UU the tally was about 85, about one third of them are students who are attending (at least in the morning) because their professor has given them extra credit.
For the next couple of days still many things to be done, particularly the web streaming part of the Summit where my laptop had to be equipped (with difficulty) with two extra gigs of memory.
Growth versus Equity
This post will point to one of the pillar articles or posts that characterizes a good blog. Now I want to set the article up.
After having worked in Ghana during the sixties in religious and economic development I believed that the global structures were stacked against Africa and the Third World in general. I did international affairs at Columbia in the seventies, focusing on the monetary, trade structures and being involved at the UN headquarters in the discussions of the New International Economic Order. These discussions have great relevance now because the international economic system continues to be a system that enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet.
The forthcoming pillar post will approach these troubling and testing times on three levels: the analytical, theoretical and strategic one. Though this article has been in the making for about a month, it was after the presidential debate of October 7 in Nashville that I want to come to some final conclusions because it will show how realistic the questions are and how realistic the answers are of the two candidates who, basically, reflect the growth versus equity quandary, dilemma or conundrum.
After having worked in Ghana during the sixties in religious and economic development I believed that the global structures were stacked against Africa and the Third World in general. I did international affairs at Columbia in the seventies, focusing on the monetary, trade structures and being involved at the UN headquarters in the discussions of the New International Economic Order. These discussions have great relevance now because the international economic system continues to be a system that enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet.
The forthcoming pillar post will approach these troubling and testing times on three levels: the analytical, theoretical and strategic one. Though this article has been in the making for about a month, it was after the presidential debate of October 7 in Nashville that I want to come to some final conclusions because it will show how realistic the questions are and how realistic the answers are of the two candidates who, basically, reflect the growth versus equity quandary, dilemma or conundrum.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Comments of the Economist's article "Virtuous in New York"
The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) tries to bridge the very rich and very poor by philanthropy. Philanthropy is beneficial, especially if it takes place within an international economic system that works for everyone.
That is presently not the case, because the international economic system enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet. Like the CGI where intentions are good, but analyses are superficial, the Economist’s article “Virtuous in New York” does not touch on the underlying economic structures that make people very rich and very poor. Notwithstanding the good intentions behind the Millennium Development Goals that are reviewed by the UN General Assembly this week, also in New York, nation-states are willing to pony up (insufficient) funding, but unwilling and unable to tackle the international economic system that, to a great extent, has led to this unacceptable social and ecological predicament of both people and planet.
Perhaps, the US financial meltdown might become an occasion to review this international economic system of which the financial and monetary systems are such important subsystems. I, for one, foresee a major new approach to solving US and international problems with the election of Mr. Obama. His vision, unlike Mr. McCain’s, is based upon equity rather than growth as his guiding principle.
While both the CGI and the UN General Assembly are taking place in this great City, another Summit is being planned on Saturday October 11 where the integration of social and ecological values is applied to the climate crisis, using the values, vision and ethics of the Earth Charter. www.earcharterus.org Participants from government, business and civil society will listen to climatologist James Hansen of NASA/GISS who will relate the climate crisis to the US presidential elections, engage in workshops dealing with Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC2030, and come up with the NYC Earth Charter Declaration on the Climate Crisis. Cf. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nycecall.
While Mr. Clinton rightly speaks of the need of sharing opportunities and sharing responsibilities, this sharing should also include the willingness to revamp an international economic system, so that it starts working not for the interests of a privileged few, but for the interest of all people and planet. Let the US financial crisis with its enormous global implications become a blessing in disguise! I agree with the end of this Economist’s article: “In short, this is the moment when we will find out if all the talk of doing good in recent years by big business and the rich is more than mere talk.”
That is presently not the case, because the international economic system enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet. Like the CGI where intentions are good, but analyses are superficial, the Economist’s article “Virtuous in New York” does not touch on the underlying economic structures that make people very rich and very poor. Notwithstanding the good intentions behind the Millennium Development Goals that are reviewed by the UN General Assembly this week, also in New York, nation-states are willing to pony up (insufficient) funding, but unwilling and unable to tackle the international economic system that, to a great extent, has led to this unacceptable social and ecological predicament of both people and planet.
Perhaps, the US financial meltdown might become an occasion to review this international economic system of which the financial and monetary systems are such important subsystems. I, for one, foresee a major new approach to solving US and international problems with the election of Mr. Obama. His vision, unlike Mr. McCain’s, is based upon equity rather than growth as his guiding principle.
While both the CGI and the UN General Assembly are taking place in this great City, another Summit is being planned on Saturday October 11 where the integration of social and ecological values is applied to the climate crisis, using the values, vision and ethics of the Earth Charter. www.earcharterus.org Participants from government, business and civil society will listen to climatologist James Hansen of NASA/GISS who will relate the climate crisis to the US presidential elections, engage in workshops dealing with Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC2030, and come up with the NYC Earth Charter Declaration on the Climate Crisis. Cf. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nycecall.
While Mr. Clinton rightly speaks of the need of sharing opportunities and sharing responsibilities, this sharing should also include the willingness to revamp an international economic system, so that it starts working not for the interests of a privileged few, but for the interest of all people and planet. Let the US financial crisis with its enormous global implications become a blessing in disguise! I agree with the end of this Economist’s article: “In short, this is the moment when we will find out if all the talk of doing good in recent years by big business and the rich is more than mere talk.”
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Where is globalism in the US financial crisis?
Title of Post: Where is globalism in the US financial crisis?
I have been making notes on the financial meltdown during the last couple of days for a post on this most important economic issue of reestablishing a healthy financial system in the US and globally. I feel that a sustainability sociologist with training in international affairs and divinity I should be able to make some contribution.
Much of what I was going to write about the US bailout and the Paulson plan that is being debated today in Congress was presented in an email message of Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders. He wrote a letter to Paulson and urged citizens to co-sign his letter. He also presented his case by a video of a couple of minutes making his most important points. Here is this most important URL http://sanders.senate.gov/petitions/?petition=Financial_Crisis_1
There is one area that I feel his, Paulson’s and probably 95% of the US population’s opinions fall short on. It is the global dimension.
While on second thoughts Paulson included US operations of foreign banks in this bailout plan, his plan does not consider the international economic system that enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet. Given that the US financial system is (still) so dominant in the global financial system or at least so interdependent with the other economies and not only of the OECD countries, the time has come for the US to take leadership in humility and boldness to start working towards a healthy, i.e. socially and ecologically sustainable financial and economic system.
I for one oppose rushing into this bailout before the November elections. I for one hope that Mr. Obama will be voted to the US president, because, in many ways, he has the skills, character and temperament to bring people together in the US and abroad.
I have been making notes on the financial meltdown during the last couple of days for a post on this most important economic issue of reestablishing a healthy financial system in the US and globally. I feel that a sustainability sociologist with training in international affairs and divinity I should be able to make some contribution.
Much of what I was going to write about the US bailout and the Paulson plan that is being debated today in Congress was presented in an email message of Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders. He wrote a letter to Paulson and urged citizens to co-sign his letter. He also presented his case by a video of a couple of minutes making his most important points. Here is this most important URL http://sanders.senate.gov/petitions/?petition=Financial_Crisis_1
There is one area that I feel his, Paulson’s and probably 95% of the US population’s opinions fall short on. It is the global dimension.
While on second thoughts Paulson included US operations of foreign banks in this bailout plan, his plan does not consider the international economic system that enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet. Given that the US financial system is (still) so dominant in the global financial system or at least so interdependent with the other economies and not only of the OECD countries, the time has come for the US to take leadership in humility and boldness to start working towards a healthy, i.e. socially and ecologically sustainable financial and economic system.
I for one oppose rushing into this bailout before the November elections. I for one hope that Mr. Obama will be voted to the US president, because, in many ways, he has the skills, character and temperament to bring people together in the US and abroad.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sustainable Aviation
Unfortunately, in the recent Obama post on the need to integrate surface transportation and aviation, I referred to the website www.suscom.com which should be WWW.SUSAVIATION.COM. It is at that website that readers are invited to sign the ISATEA petition, so that grassroots engagement and pressure can lead to a first class US transportation system.
This website is a sequel for about 15 years of voluntary engagement with the issue of sustainable aviation, particularly in the metro NY area. www.metronyaviation.org gives a record of that activity. Since a couple of years that voluntary service has also extended to the national organization www.us-caw.org My engagement with sustainable aviation also led to the teaching of a course on sustainable aviation at the former College of Aeronautics near LaGuardia airport and now www.vaughn.edu.
One of my satisfying experiences in sustainable aviation was my invitation in November 07 by the publisher of the Seattle Port Observer. It was a great pleasure adding to the North West thinking and practice in sustainability by given my presentation. Part of the satisfaction was also its excellent coverage in http://www.washblog.com/story/2007/11/4/171922/833.
Presently I am still undecided whether I should start a separate blog on sustainable aviation entitled revamping aviation or have it continue a part of this blog on contextual sustainability. For those intrigued by this concept of sustainability, please google the term and you may find several places, including my chapter 2 in the Wenden anthology which is at www.globalepe.org/documents/contsuschp22fp_000.doc .
I am signing of with my sustainable aviation signature file:
Yours for sustaining futures and a sustainable, equitable and accountable aviation industry
Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., sustainability sociologist,
Adjunct Associate Professor of Sustainable Aviation at the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology (formerly the College of Aeronautics at La Guardia Airport), www.vaughn.edu
President, Citizens Aviation Watch USA, Inc, www.us-caw.org; President, SAFE, Inc., www.metronyaviation.org
Principal, SAVIA Associates International. www.susaviation.com
Sustainability Fellow at the Green Institute, Washington, D.C., www.greeninstitute.net
Director, Sustainability Research and EducationEarth and Peace Education Associates International (EPE)97-37 63rd Road, #15E, Rego Park, NY 11374, USAvoice: 1+(718)275-3932; cell: 917-617-6217; fax 1+(718)275-3932http://www.globalepe.org, gaia1@rcn.com, http://fcvnyc.blogspot.com /
“…..the verb sustaining holds open the actively normative questions that the idea of sustainability raises. We are required to probe: What truly sustains us? Why? And how do we know? Conversely, we must ask: What are we to sustain above all else? Why? And how may we do so?"
Aidan Davison, Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability, 2001: p.64
This website is a sequel for about 15 years of voluntary engagement with the issue of sustainable aviation, particularly in the metro NY area. www.metronyaviation.org gives a record of that activity. Since a couple of years that voluntary service has also extended to the national organization www.us-caw.org My engagement with sustainable aviation also led to the teaching of a course on sustainable aviation at the former College of Aeronautics near LaGuardia airport and now www.vaughn.edu.
One of my satisfying experiences in sustainable aviation was my invitation in November 07 by the publisher of the Seattle Port Observer. It was a great pleasure adding to the North West thinking and practice in sustainability by given my presentation. Part of the satisfaction was also its excellent coverage in http://www.washblog.com/story/2007/11/4/171922/833.
Presently I am still undecided whether I should start a separate blog on sustainable aviation entitled revamping aviation or have it continue a part of this blog on contextual sustainability. For those intrigued by this concept of sustainability, please google the term and you may find several places, including my chapter 2 in the Wenden anthology which is at www.globalepe.org/documents/contsuschp22fp_000.doc .
I am signing of with my sustainable aviation signature file:
Yours for sustaining futures and a sustainable, equitable and accountable aviation industry
Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., sustainability sociologist,
Adjunct Associate Professor of Sustainable Aviation at the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology (formerly the College of Aeronautics at La Guardia Airport), www.vaughn.edu
President, Citizens Aviation Watch USA, Inc, www.us-caw.org; President, SAFE, Inc., www.metronyaviation.org
Principal, SAVIA Associates International. www.susaviation.com
Sustainability Fellow at the Green Institute, Washington, D.C., www.greeninstitute.net
Director, Sustainability Research and EducationEarth and Peace Education Associates International (EPE)97-37 63rd Road, #15E, Rego Park, NY 11374, USAvoice: 1+(718)275-3932; cell: 917-617-6217; fax 1+(718)275-3932http://www.globalepe.org, gaia1@rcn.com, http://fcvnyc.blogspot.com /
“…..the verb sustaining holds open the actively normative questions that the idea of sustainability raises. We are required to probe: What truly sustains us? Why? And how do we know? Conversely, we must ask: What are we to sustain above all else? Why? And how may we do so?"
Aidan Davison, Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability, 2001: p.64
Friday, September 19, 2008
Suggestion to Obama campaign about the IITS Initiative
New York City, September 19, 2008
Dear Senator Obama and economic advisors:
I think your tax policies are correct, both fiscally and ethically. Only those making over $250k can bear substantial tax increases which would offset no tax increases for low- and middle-income citizens, the majority of 95% of the population. They are ethically correct, because, finally, equity is used as the guiding principle rather than growth at all costs.
One important ingredient to have the US (and global) economy working again is enormous investment in infrastructure which would bolster employment and increase purchasing power. It is the latter that makes an economy hum. Presently, as is pointed out by Henry Kaufman, a Wall Street economist, in today’s New York Times, there are not many alternatives that can replace consumer spending. He “ticks off the alternatives and discounts them. Exports could carry some of the load, but the surge in the first half of the year is fading as European and Asian economies weaken. Here at home, capital spending by business on new buildings and equipment could provide a lift, but that, too, is beginning to fade as corporate profits — and demand — weaken. Just Wednesday, FedEx announced that profits had shrunk in the latest quarter as freight traffic declined. Home construction is off the table, of course, as a means of lifting the economy. That leaves government, which could inject money into the economy through aid to the states or infrastructure spending or another round of tax rebates.”
It is to this infrastructure spending that I want to alert you to the IITS Initiative which stands for an Integrated Intermodal Transportation System. It consists of $300 billion 15 year program to fully integrate air and surface transportation. It would drastically reduce short-haul air traffic of passengers and cargo and make the remaining aviation services connect with upgraded surface modes of transportation. Freight would mostly use trains and passenger travel would mostly use a modern coach system for short and medium distances. For more information, see www.suscom.com
Yours for sustaining futures and a sustainable, equitable and accountable aviation industry
Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., sustainability sociologist,
Adjunct Associate Professor of Sustainable Aviation at the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology (formerly the College of Aeronautics at La Guardia Airport), www.vaughn.edu
President, Citizens Aviation Watch USA, Inc, www.us-caw.org; President, SAFE, Inc., www.metronyaviation.org
Principal, SAVIA Associates International. www.susaviation.com
Sustainability Fellow at the Green Institute, Washington, D.C., www.greeninstitute.net
Director, Sustainability Research and EducationEarth and Peace Education Associates International (EPE)97-37 63rd Road, #15E, Rego Park, NY 11374, USAvoice: 1+(718)275-3932; cell: 917-617-6217; fax 1+(718)275-3932http://www.globalepe.org, gaia1@rcn.com
“…..the verb sustaining holds open the actively normative questions that the idea of sustainability raises. We are required to probe: What truly sustains us? Why? And how do we know? Conversely, we must ask: What are we to sustain above all else? Why? And how may we do so?"
Aidan Davison, Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability, 2001: p.64
Dear Senator Obama and economic advisors:
I think your tax policies are correct, both fiscally and ethically. Only those making over $250k can bear substantial tax increases which would offset no tax increases for low- and middle-income citizens, the majority of 95% of the population. They are ethically correct, because, finally, equity is used as the guiding principle rather than growth at all costs.
One important ingredient to have the US (and global) economy working again is enormous investment in infrastructure which would bolster employment and increase purchasing power. It is the latter that makes an economy hum. Presently, as is pointed out by Henry Kaufman, a Wall Street economist, in today’s New York Times, there are not many alternatives that can replace consumer spending. He “ticks off the alternatives and discounts them. Exports could carry some of the load, but the surge in the first half of the year is fading as European and Asian economies weaken. Here at home, capital spending by business on new buildings and equipment could provide a lift, but that, too, is beginning to fade as corporate profits — and demand — weaken. Just Wednesday, FedEx announced that profits had shrunk in the latest quarter as freight traffic declined. Home construction is off the table, of course, as a means of lifting the economy. That leaves government, which could inject money into the economy through aid to the states or infrastructure spending or another round of tax rebates.”
It is to this infrastructure spending that I want to alert you to the IITS Initiative which stands for an Integrated Intermodal Transportation System. It consists of $300 billion 15 year program to fully integrate air and surface transportation. It would drastically reduce short-haul air traffic of passengers and cargo and make the remaining aviation services connect with upgraded surface modes of transportation. Freight would mostly use trains and passenger travel would mostly use a modern coach system for short and medium distances. For more information, see www.suscom.com
Yours for sustaining futures and a sustainable, equitable and accountable aviation industry
Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., sustainability sociologist,
Adjunct Associate Professor of Sustainable Aviation at the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology (formerly the College of Aeronautics at La Guardia Airport), www.vaughn.edu
President, Citizens Aviation Watch USA, Inc, www.us-caw.org; President, SAFE, Inc., www.metronyaviation.org
Principal, SAVIA Associates International. www.susaviation.com
Sustainability Fellow at the Green Institute, Washington, D.C., www.greeninstitute.net
Director, Sustainability Research and EducationEarth and Peace Education Associates International (EPE)97-37 63rd Road, #15E, Rego Park, NY 11374, USAvoice: 1+(718)275-3932; cell: 917-617-6217; fax 1+(718)275-3932http://www.globalepe.org, gaia1@rcn.com
“…..the verb sustaining holds open the actively normative questions that the idea of sustainability raises. We are required to probe: What truly sustains us? Why? And how do we know? Conversely, we must ask: What are we to sustain above all else? Why? And how may we do so?"
Aidan Davison, Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability, 2001: p.64
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Welcome to Contextual Sustainability Express
This blog invites you to join me onto the various roads that will lead to sustaining futures for people and planet in both the global North and South.
Those sustaining futures are viewed with a perspective of sustainability called contextual sustainability (CS): ecological sustainability in the context of social justice, active non-violence, futurity and participatory decision-making. What does perspective does will become clear in its application, particularly to education, aviation, peace, sustainable communities development in the global North and South.
You are invited on this CS express which is not a CS local. A sustainability revolution is emerging, but it has to be speeded up particularly in these troubling times of a teetering international economic system which enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet. It is this urgent transition to sustainability based upon an explicit and integrated set of social and ecological values that is most needed now and in the next couple of decades.
Once, again, welcome on the CS Express where civilized language is matched with depth of insights and practical proposals.
Yours for sustaining futures in both industrialized and agrarian societies
Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., sustainability sociologist,
Chair, UN and Global Affairs Committee at Community Church of NY Unitarian Universalist
UN Ecosoc representative for the International Peace Research Association (IPRA)
Adjunct Associate Professor Sustainable Communities at Pace University, NY
Sustainability Fellow at the Green Institute in Washington, D.C.
Developer of the Sustainability and Peace Institute (SPI) Model of Rural Development in West Africa, particularly Sierra Leone and Togo
Director, Sustainability Research and Education
Earth and Peace Education Associates International (EPE)
97-37 63rd Road, #15E, Rego Park, NY 11374, USAvoice: 1+(718)275-3932; fax 1+(718)275-3932; cell 1+(917 617 6217)http://www.globalepe.org, gaia1@rcn.com
“…..the verb sustaining holds open the actively normative questions that the idea of sustainability raises. We are required to probe: What truly sustains us? Why? And how do we know? Conversely, we must ask: What are we to sustain above all else? Why? And how may we do so?"
Aidan Davison, Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability, 2001: p.64
Those sustaining futures are viewed with a perspective of sustainability called contextual sustainability (CS): ecological sustainability in the context of social justice, active non-violence, futurity and participatory decision-making. What does perspective does will become clear in its application, particularly to education, aviation, peace, sustainable communities development in the global North and South.
You are invited on this CS express which is not a CS local. A sustainability revolution is emerging, but it has to be speeded up particularly in these troubling times of a teetering international economic system which enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet. It is this urgent transition to sustainability based upon an explicit and integrated set of social and ecological values that is most needed now and in the next couple of decades.
Once, again, welcome on the CS Express where civilized language is matched with depth of insights and practical proposals.
Yours for sustaining futures in both industrialized and agrarian societies
Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., sustainability sociologist,
Chair, UN and Global Affairs Committee at Community Church of NY Unitarian Universalist
UN Ecosoc representative for the International Peace Research Association (IPRA)
Adjunct Associate Professor Sustainable Communities at Pace University, NY
Sustainability Fellow at the Green Institute in Washington, D.C.
Developer of the Sustainability and Peace Institute (SPI) Model of Rural Development in West Africa, particularly Sierra Leone and Togo
Director, Sustainability Research and Education
Earth and Peace Education Associates International (EPE)
97-37 63rd Road, #15E, Rego Park, NY 11374, USAvoice: 1+(718)275-3932; fax 1+(718)275-3932; cell 1+(917 617 6217)http://www.globalepe.org, gaia1@rcn.com
“…..the verb sustaining holds open the actively normative questions that the idea of sustainability raises. We are required to probe: What truly sustains us? Why? And how do we know? Conversely, we must ask: What are we to sustain above all else? Why? And how may we do so?"
Aidan Davison, Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability, 2001: p.64
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