A great deal of angst has emerged over the huge amount of money, initially two trillion dollars, being conjured “out of thin air” to counter the economic collapse occurring under to stay-at-home orders and business closures as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated. The Two trillion dollars quickly proved to be wildly insufficient to stimulate the economy … More Phantom Wealth, Phantom Debt, and Viral Pandemic
All basic infrastructure in Puerto Rico is down and remains nearly out. Hurricane Maria made a direct hit on the U.S. colonial territory, whose people are American citizens, mas o menos. Maria obliterated Puerto Rica’s electrical grid, destroyed homes, schools, hospitals, and most facilities and supply lines of all kinds. The third record hurricane in … More Puerto Rican Jubilee
Money is a funny phenomenon, funny-peculiar that is. Money has a lot of odd characteristics, most having something to do with social definitions and the assumptions that shape perception. It exists, for example, only because we have willed it so – it is a social construction. Money has value only because we value it – … More Funny Money: Social Illusions about Value, Reward, Cost, and Risk
Slow Food; Slow Money; Slow Life. Such concepts are anathema to the frenzied culture of the dying industrial age. But these ideas are becoming popular among a small but growing class of folks who are simply tired of ‘the rat race.’ “Slow” is closely aligned with the simplicity movement. What do they mean, why should … More Runaway Capital and the Necessity of SLOW
How is money made? Well, in conventional terms we work for it. But where does it come from? We know that the economy needs a sufficient “money supply” so we can exchange “goods and services” every day. Of course, it’s not that simple. After the “Great Recession” of 2008, the Federal Reserve injected hundreds of … More Making Money: The Ultimate Illusion of a Debt-Driven Economy
A lot of congressional politicians and media pundits of both Republican and Democratic persuasion are jabbering these days about “job creation.” The 2014 mid-term elections are fast approaching and nobody wants to be caught looking indifferent to the lack of jobs for an increasingly large numbers of Americans. Their approaches are different, of course. The … More The Great Jobs Myth and the Transformation of the Growth Economy, Part I
The reality we face in the coming decades involves three integrated crises: 1) the consolidation of the corporate state driven by the debt-based endless corporate-growth economy, which increasingly damages populations by isolating them from economic resources and destroys the environment we all need, in service to short-term profit and political power; 2) accelerating resource depletion … More What It Will Take: Living in a World We Made But Never Expected to See, Part II
I used to wonder how it is that after generations of Americans spent their entire adulthood paying mortgages just as their parents had, only a tiny fraction actually owned their modest homes outright upon retirement. The next generation, in most cases, starts the process all over again with little if any inheritance. Where is the … More Clearances, Foreclosures, and Evictions
It’s hard to accept the idea that most human activities are based on illusions. But look at the nature and kinds of illusions out there. Some illusions are necessary and good, while others are quite destructive. We tend to see the illusions of tribal cultures as “myths,” illusory fictions about the world, whereas we see … More Some Serious Social Illusions
Money and banking seem far too mysterious to far too many people. Read all about it and you may feel that much of your time was wasted, simply because at root it seems not all that complicated. Oh, the world of money and banking has been made quite complicated, but that’s because of who is … More Money: Banking on the Economy of the Absurd
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 