Chris Hedges on Capitalism’s ‘Sacrifice Zones’ | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com

Chris Hedges on Capitalism’s ‘Sacrifice Zones’ | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com

What if hydrogen and nickel make copper?

Fusion?

Mello-Roos taxes explained

Mello Roos is a voluntary property tax that helps make up for the lack of property tax revenu in California due to 1978's Proposition-13. If you buy a house today, at current home prices, you will pay high taxes on that home. If your neighbor bought her home in 1976, then she only pays taxes based upon the value of her home in that year.

Now you can use INewsSource,org's application to find out if you are paying Mello Roos taxes, and how you compare to those neighbors and corporations. ( http://maps.inewsource.org/mello-roos/ )

This series of reports from KPBS in San Diego begins to demystify the system, but fails to mention key issues about how corporations and family-trusts avoid paying their fair share of property taxes, by creating shell-corporations that own real-estate property, but avoid taxes.

California doesn't have a Budget Deficit it has a REVENUE TAX LOOPHOLE!

Since 1978, California Corporations have avoided paying property taxes by using a giant tax-loophole provided in Prop. 13. 

Many people know that Proposition 13, protects homeowners from large increases in their property taxes due to California's huge average annual increase in property values, and since property owners vote, they like this protection. What most don't realize is that this same property tax exemption is available to corporations, and corporations never die. 

This is how it works, when a developer builds a new property, like a shopping mall or an office building, they create a 'SHELL CORPORATION" that owns that property. Now here is the crucial part, in CALIFORNIA Property Taxes are ONLY REASSESSED WHEN THE PROPERTY IS SOLD. The corporate ownership can change via sale of stock, but the corporation continues to own the property forever. The property never legally changes hands, and thus it is never reassessed. 

In this way anyone can incorporate their real-property and avoid property taxes as your property values increase. Unfortunately for most of us, this plan only makes economic sense if your property is worth over about $1-million dollars. 

Now most people like Prop. 13, as they believe it saves them money, but that is a myth. The average homeowner moves every 5-7 years, so when they sell and move both they and the buyer are reassessed and they must pay taxes at the current property value. However, Corporations can change hands every day, yet their property will never be re-assessed, and corporations live forever. 

Now Property-Taxes in other states are re-assessed every year (or every few years), and they pay for basic public infrastructure: Schools, Hospitals, Libraries, Emergency Services. This may be why, in California, such public infrastructure is currently being underfunded and eviscerated. 

Property tax revenue dropped by half when Prop. 13 was first instituted, and today the estimated annual revenue loss to the State of California is approximately $40-billion/year. Strangely, this is about the same as California's current budget deficit. 

For more information about how to correct this problem and close the loophole, goto:

http://www.closetheloophole.com

PROP13 Close the Loophole

 http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-december-5-2011/california-s-direct-democracy-troubles

Daily Show: California's Direct Democracy Troubles

John Oliver heads west to report on California's direct democracy-induced financial Armageddon.

The problem with Intellectual Property

This American Life has done a series of shows about how our patent system has become the black hole of resources.  Most people don't realize just how bad things truly are, as unaccountable shell corporations try to patent everything from your DNA to general processes for communication.

Listen to the reports, and then go to your local law library, and find out more about intellectual property. You may have good ideas, but you will never be allowed to benefit from them, unless you are a Patent Lawyer.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/496/when-patents-attackpart-two

What is an Accredited Investor?

Accredited Investors

Under the Securities Act of 1933, a company that offers or sells its securities must register the securities with the SEC or find an exemption from the registration requirements. The Act provides companies with a number of exemptions. For some of the exemptions, such as rules 505 and506 of Regulation D, a company may sell its securities to what are known as "accredited investors."

The federal securities laws define the term accredited investor in Rule 501 of Regulation D as:

1. a bank, insurance company, registered investment company, business development company, or small business investment company;
2. an employee benefit plan, within the meaning of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, if a bank, insurance company, or registered investment adviser makes the investment decisions, or if the plan has total assets in excess of $5 million;
3. a charitable organization, corporation, or partnership with assets exceeding $5 million;
4. a director, executive officer, or general partner of the company selling the securities;
5. a business in which all the equity owners are accredited investors;
6. a natural person who has individual net worth, or joint net worth with the person’s spouse, that exceeds $1 million at the time of the purchase, excluding the value of the primary residence of such person;
7. a natural person with income exceeding $200,000 in each of the two most recent years or joint income with a spouse exceeding $300,000 for those years and a reasonable expectation of the same income level in the current year; or
8. a trust with assets in excess of $5 million, not formed to acquire the securities offered, whose purchases a sophisticated person makes.

For more information about the SEC’s registration requirements and common exemptions, read our brochure, Q&A: Small Business & the SEC.

http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm

Union Co-Ops

From It's Our Economy ...

“Too often we have seen Wall Street hollow out companies by draining their cash and assets and hollow out communities by shedding jobs and shuttering plants,” said United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard in 2009. “We need a new business model that invests in workers and invests in communities.”

As manufacturing in the United States continues in free fall, the USW is working to bring the Mondragon cooperative model to the Rust Belt. It aims to use employee-run businesses to create new, middle-class jobs to replace union work that has gone overseas.

A March 2012 report from the USW, Mondragon, and the Ohio Employee Ownership Center (OEOC), lays out a template for how “union co-ops” can function. “A union co-op is a unionized worker-owned cooperative in which worker-owners all own an equal share of the business and have an equal vote in overseeing the business,” the report states.

Drawing from Mondragon’s principles of shared prosperity for workers and democratic governance, It also has plans for a solar installers’ cooperative and a greenhouse that grows high-end salad greens and herbs for the Cleveland Clinic, as well as universities and restaurants.  

OEOC Director Bill McIntyre worked with the Cleveland Foundation on crafting the organizational framework for the Evergreen Cooperatives. At a March 2012 press event at United Steelworkers headquarters, he observed that employee-owners more often kept their jobs during the recent economic meltdown. “Employee-owned companies,” he said, “have more stable, loyal, and experienced work forces, which translates into real cost savings, productivity, and quality advantages.”
But union co-ops don’t address some difficult issues. For instance, they do not directly address the forces of global competition that have been undermining the U.S. manufacturing base. In particular, by adopting NAFTA-model “free trade” agreements, the United States has encouraged corporations to seek out competitive advantage in places with the lowest wages and fewest environmental regulations. At best, co-ops such as the Evergreen co-ops in Cleveland work around this problem by limiting themselves to making goods or providing services that cannot be offshored, like growing heirloom salad greens for local consumption.

“Now there’s a renewed interest in manufacturing as labor wages rise in developing countries,” he says. Moreover, he believes the recent economic crisis has also expanded public receptivity: “Even in the outer regions of the Midwest, where I spend a lot of time, people know that they’ve been victimized,” Peck says.

More...

Venture Capital - The new entrepreneurs

>Something Ventured is a documentary about silicon valley. It spans the last half of the 20th Century, from the beginning of Fairchild Semiconductor, the first computer startup, through Apple to Google. Offering vital insight in to the way venture capital works and how to sell yourself and your corporation to rase the necessary capital to capture the world's imagination. 

“Steve Jobs is a national treasure. He is so visionary, and so bright...uh, I had to fire him though.” - Arthur Rock, Visionary Venture Capitalist

“You know it wasn’t my goal to start an industry, my goal was to, um, make sure the science got translated into an endeavor that would be useful to people.” - Herbert Boyer, Founder of Genentech

“You gotta get money from strong people because weak people don’t invest in tough times. But that’s when most of the big winners are created.” - Jimmy Treybig, Founder of Tandem Computers

“I’m not interested in entrepreneurs who will do it our way. I’m not interested in entrepreneurs who think there’s a dress code. I’m interested in entrepreneurs who have a vision of doing something consequential—preferably that becomes BIG.” - Don Valentine, Founder of Sequoia Capital and early investor in Apple, Cisco and Atari

SOMETHING VENTURED tells the story of the creation of an industry that went on to become the single greatest engine of innovation and economic growth in the 20th century. It is told by the visionary risk-takers who dared to make it happen…Tom Perkins, Don Valentine, Arthur Rock, Dick Kramlich and others. The film also includes some of our finest entrepreneurs sharing how they worked with these venture capitalists to grow world-class companies like Intel, Apple, Cisco, Atari, Genentech, Tandem and others.

Beginning in the late 1950′s, this small group of high rollers fostered a one-of-a-kind business culture that encouraged extraordinary risk and made possible unprecedented rewards. They laid the groundwork for America’s start-up economy, providing not just the working capital but the guidance to allow seedling companies to reach their full potential. Our lives would be dramatically different without the contributions that these venture capitalists made to the creation of PCs, the Internet and life-saving drugs.

SOMETHING VENTURED was conceived by Paul Holland, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. Paul, a general partner with Foundation Capital, is co-executive producer of the film along with Molly Davis of Rainmaker Communications. The film was directed by Emmy-Award-winning filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine.

What Happened After Steve was Fired from Apple?

The Venture Capitalists:
Arthur Rock	Early investor in Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, Apple and Teledyne
Tom Perkins	Founder of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, early investor in companies linke Genentech and Tandem
Don Valentine	Founder of Sequoia Capital; early investor in companies like Apple, Cisco, Oracle, Electronic Arts and LSI Logic
Dick Kramlich	Founder of New Enterprise Associates, investor in companies like PowerPoint, Juniper Networks, Macromedia and Dallas Semiconductor
Reid Dennis	Founder of Institutional Venture Partners
Bill Draper	Founder of Sutter Hill Ventures; Founder of Draper Richards
Pitch Johnson	Co-founder of Draper and Johnson Investment; Founder of Asset Management Company
Bill Bowes	Founder of US Venture Partners
Bill Edwards	Founder of Bryan and Edwards
Jim Gaither	One of the early developers of the venture financing structure still in use today

The Entrepreneurs:
Gordon Moore	Founder of Intel; one of Fairchild Semiconductor’s “Traitorous Eight”
Jimmy Treybig	Founder of Tandem
Nolan Bushnell	Founder of Atari
Dr. Herbert Boyer	Co-founder of Genentech
Mike Markkula	Early CEO of Apple
Sandy Lerner	Co-founder of Cisco
John Morgridge	Early CEO of Cisco
Robert Campbell SOMETHING VENTURED is available as a consumer DVD here. It can also be purchased at Amazon.com, iTune,s and Barnes & Noble.com. Educational DVDs are available here. To host a private screening, contact Ben Crossley-Mara of Zeitgeist Films atben@zeitgeistfilms.com or 212-274-1989.	Founder of PowerPoint "Something Ventured" is on Facebook, and you can follow @venturemovie on Twitter (#somethingventured, #venturemovie). Molly Davis Co-executive Producer SOMETHING VENTURED molly@rainmakercommunications.com 925-296-610

Rolling Jubilee - Buying your debt for 5-cents

I always wondered why banks would forclose upon someone's house and sell it for a fraction of the mortgage debt, yet wouldn't refinance the home'owner' and accept that same amount from the people living in their home? If I had the authority, I'd just forgive the debt and keep people in their homes. So when I found out about the Rolling Jubilee I decided it was genius. I'm starting one for San Diego.

http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2012/11/16/rolling-jubilee/

http://rollingjubilee.org/

Strange Fruit

I always wondered why there were never any whistle-blowers from the Wall Street Crash? It seems there is one, but even he doesn't give specifics about the criminal behavior at Goldman. I think they all have made big money and are afraid of breaking their non-disclosure contracts.

Listen to the interview on CBC DAY6:

Former Goldman Sachs VP Greg Smith made a splash with a very public resignation from the financial firm in March with an op-ed in the New York Times. In it, he detailed why he believes the culture of the firm turned toxic, and accused his co-workers of callously ripping clients off. His new book Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story was releasesd this week.

End Debt Slavery; OptOutPrescreen.com

Among other things you can do to free yourself from the cycle of debt-slavery, including moving all financial accounts from banks to local credit-unions, moving all investments out of wall street brokers like Goldman Sachs into government bonds and local small businesses, and end your use of credit cards.

Now you can permanently remove yourself from all credit card prescreen mailing lists, so you will never be tempted by 0% interest bait and switch deals.

Simply go to https://www.optoutprescreen.com
Fill out the form, print and mail it in.

The consumer credit reporting industry (i.e. monopoly) will stop including your name when they sell their lists:

• Equifax 
• Experiean 
• Innovis 
• Transunion

If you choose to Opt-Out, you will no longer be included in firm offer lists provided by these four consumer credit reporting companies.  

Clinton Global Inishitive

Bill Clinton is the best man for the job of bringing bright minds together to cooperate and build solutions to some of our most critical global problems.

Legal requirement to maximize profits.

The lesson is don't incorporate as a for-profit, and don't sell stock to raise money.

But what I think should be the law — and what a couple politically-biased professors claim is the law — isn’t necessarily the law. Under eBay v. Newman, the law is as Franken said:  “it is literally malfeasance for a corporation not to do everything it legally can to maximize its profits.” Just ask Jim and Craig; no one disputes it’s their company, but they’re legally prohibited from taking steps to preserve the profit-alongside-community-service mission that’s served them well. Maximize profits, or else. 

The impact of this duty-to-maximize-profits stretches far beyond mere investments. Under Citizens United, corporations now have the First Amendment right to influence our fragile democracy however they want, since they’re “people,” just like you and me, albeit profit-maximizing zombies who care not for truth, justice, or the American way.

http://www.litigationandtrial.com/2010/09/articles/series/special-comment/ebay-v-newmark-al-franken-was-right-corporations-are-legally-required-to-maximize-profits/

SAN DIEGO SOLUTIONS

Please give us a listen, then post the link below to your facebook friends or email them: http://soundcloud.com/san-diego-speaks/sdsolutionsdemo

In this Program:

• Grant Writing Specialists - Penny Goforth
• East County Magazine - Director, Leon Thomson
• Ilan Lael Foundation - Marianne Gerdes 
• San Diego Brain Tumor Foundation - Connie Reeves Campbell

This has been a San Diego Speaks production of "San Diego Solutions". This is a demonstration project for a new one-hour, weekly talk-show about Non-Profit Businesses in San Diego and the solutions created by social-entrepreneurs to deal with local issues.

If you want to find out more about San Diego Solutions, and listen to extended interviews, go to our web site SDSpeaks.com 

There you can log-in and find ways to contribute to your local community, volunteer, become a citizen journalist, or submit a your favorite charity for an interview. 

The people of San Diego face many issues, If you would like to be part of the solution, then join the conversation online, and contact us with your thoughts about how we can improve this local show and create a better tomorrow. Together, there is nothing our community can't accomplish. 

Please, support our local Charities. Lean how to find worthy non-profit businesses in your area, and achieve results in your neighborhood. 

You can support San Diego Solutions through our web-site, simply subscribe to our email newsletter and listen to the podcast. You can listen to archived shows and extended interviews with local leaders about the challenges and opportunities we all face together. 

When you join our community, you'll find you are not alone, and that what at first may seem overwhelming is manageable when we share the work. Best of all you can express yourself, tell us your ideas, and propose your solutions to the issues you care most about. 

Thanks for listening, and welcome to "San Diego Solutions". 

From Creative Cow - Clients and Grinders

Understanding the "The Market's Three Basic Personalities"

All markets can be broken up into three layers because there are three basic kinds of people. Sure, there are infinite nuances of human personality but there are three basic personality types and here's how they work...

1. "Have you ever had one of those great clients that relies on your judgment and expertise and values your experience and always pays on time and never haggles about price? They're rare but they're there. They are that Top 15% of the market that I call the "clients" and everyone wants them. But they rarely shop projects once they find someone they trust and once they learn that they can respect you and get good service from you, nine times out of ten, they'll not even send out an RFP looking for bids. You see, these people are all about trust and relationships and once you build that trust it's something that no "low-baller" could ever come in and destroy. These people know what they are worth and they do business with you because you know what you are worth as well -- and they'll send a "low-baller" packing because it's clear to them that the low-baller knows what their self-worth is as well! These people are quick to recommend you to their friends and associates -- usually, people just like them as "birds of a feather really do flock together" -- and they will actively try to help your business grow (just as they see you offering ideas to help them grow their own business).


2. In the middle of the market is what I call the 70% middle market and as a group they are, for the most part, fair-minded, honest and they do not usually beat on you for deals -- though they do appreciate a good but fair price. They may not have the sense of loyalty that the top 15% of the market have but they do try to be fair (they know they are not perfect and they have made their peace with themselves and they treat you the same) -- and they will try to work within relationships wherever possible. Within this middle 70% group, you can fine-tune their reactions by their proximity to either the Top 15% of the market or the Low-End 15% of the market. As these middle market people get closer to the top or the bottom, they act accordingly and take on traits of excellence or traits of ugliness that you will live to regret if you choose to do business with them (if they near the crossover point where they fall into the lower 15% of the market). As you learn to spot where within this majority 70% market area they stand, you will quickly be able to spot those "clients" you wish to work with or those "grinders" that you want to send packing -- nicely of course, but packing nonetheless!


3. I am always amazed that the Low-End 15% of the market is the first part of the market that most new businesses set out to work with. Some do it consciously and others unconsciously but the end result is the same -- a lot of work for very little money, if any. This often happens because many people think that you have to undercut existing businesses to build a new business. That's simply not true. But if you believe that you do have to undercut the market and you price yourself as a "low-ball" artist, you set yourself up to attract the people that occupy the lowest 15% of the market. I call these people "Grinders" and for good reason: They will grind you and demand that you treat them like the people in the Top 15% category -- and they will expect that treatment from you as they push and push to get things below your cost. They'll promise you more jobs down the road and that just this one job needs a deal -- the others will make you some money. Yeah, right! The truth is: they'll never let you make a dime off them while you suffer through insults, mistrust, constant changes and arguments over what you agreed to or didn't -- and no matter how well you do, nine times out of ten there will almost always be something wrong with the job you did. They will never be happy. They do not recommend you to their associates and this is probably due to the fact that they know themselves quite well and think that everyone is like that creep they see in the mirror every morning. If they need to invent a reason not to pay you, they can get incredibly creative! The Net is full of stories of people trying to collect on debts made by these people.

Now that you know how these basic personality traits manifest in the business world, what can you do with this information to help you in the days ahead -- what's the "real world" application of this knowledge?

When you set out in your next negotiation or even a job interview -- it always works the same -- watch how the three market types are something that you can count on like clockwork. Adjust your presentation to interact with these people. If they are a Top 15% personality, focus on things you can do for them. Build your stock in their eyes by letting them know what you can add to their business -- now that doesn't mean sell yourself, it means sell their story and how you can empower it. Sell them on the research you have done on their company without telling them you've done so -- make their story come alive to them. After all, you are a communicator and you are there to sell them on your abilities to champion their cause, are you not?

If they are in the middle market and it's a job you want to take, then work with them so that they understand that you have a vision for their project. If you do have to give something away to get the deal, then do so by taking something else away from the project -- it doesn't have to be something huge, just something that establishes that they can't get something for nothing. (They understand this and will respect it.)

But if during the course of your negotiations it becomes clear that you have a "Grinder" on the line -- then for goodness sake, pull the hook out of their mouth and throw that smelly ole fish right back into the water! If you don't, you'll surely come to regret the decision just as sure as eggs is eggs!

Trust me: They're not good eating and they're just full of bones anyway!

Occupy Bankers

Watch Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Four on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

When even the bankers don't know how the system works, then how the system works doesn't matter. All that matters is that the system doesn't work. Never sign a contract that you do not understand. Let the buyer beware.

FRONTLINE: Money, Power, Wall Street

Watch Money, Power and Wall Street: Part One on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

How strong is your stomach? Learn how credit-deafult-swaps were created and used. Traunches = pools equity of the same risk level. Derivatives = bets, synthetic collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), Blind Short-Selling - betting against the market on credit.

The secret to good leadership is learning from our mistakes, those who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it. Those who don't understand market economies are doomed to be defrauded.

Victoria Grant, 12 yr. old Canadian

Apparently Public Schools in Canada Still Work

A concise description of the Debt Money Banking System.

Cooperative banking has arrived

Alternative to the bad corporate giants are growing in the U.S. and abroad -- and they could transform our economy

By Ellen Brown, Alternet

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

According to both the Mayan and Hindu calendars, 2012 (or something very close) marks the transition from an age of darkness, violence and greed to one of enlightenment, justice and peace. It’s hard to see that change just yet in the events relayed in the major media, but a shift does seem to be happening behind the scenes; and this is particularly true in the once-boring world of banking.
In the dark age of Kali Yuga, money rules; and it is through banks that the moneyed interests have gotten their power. Banking in an age of greed is fraught with usury, fraud and gaming the system for private ends. But there is another way to do banking; the neighborly approach of George Bailey in the classic movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Rather than feeding off the community, banking can feed the community and the local economy.
Today, the massive too-big-to-fail banks are hardly doing George Bailey-style loans at all. They are not interested in community lending. They are doing their own proprietary trading—trading for their own accounts—which generally means speculating against local interests. They engage in high-frequency program trading that creams profits off the top-of-stock market trades; speculation in commodities that drives up commodity prices; leveraged buyouts with borrowed money that can result in mass layoffs and factory closures; and investment in foreign companies that compete against our local companies.
We can’t do much to stop them. They’ve got the power, especially at the federal level. But we can quietly set up an alternative model, and that’s what is happening on various local fronts.
Most visible are the Move Your Money and Occupy Wall Street movements. According to the Web site of the Move Your Money campaign, an estimated 10 million accounts have left the largest banks since 2010. Credit unions have enjoyed a surge in business as a result. The Credit Union National Association reported that in 2012, for the first time ever, credit union assets rose above $1 trillion. Credit unions are non-profit, community-minded organizations with fewer fees and less fine print than the big risk-taking banks, and their patrons are not just customers but owners, sharing partnership in a cooperative business.
Move “Our” Money: The Public Bank Movement

The Move Your Money campaign has been wildly successful in mobilizing people and raising awareness of the issues, but it has not made much of a dent in the reserves of Wall Street banks, which already had $1.6 trillion sitting in reserve accounts as a result of the Fed’s second round of quantitative easing in 2010. What might make a louder statement would be for local governments to divest their funds from Wall Street, and some local governments are now doing this. Local governments collectively have well over a trillion dollars deposited in Wall Street banks.
A major problem with the divestment process is finding local banks large enough to take the deposits. One proposed solution is for states, counties and cities to establish their own banks, capitalized with their own rainy day funds and funded with their own revenues as a deposit base.
Today only one state actually does this: North Dakota. North Dakota is also the only state to have escaped the credit crisis of 2008, sporting a sizeable budget surplus every year since. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, the lowest default rate on credit card debt, and no state government debt at all. The Bank of North Dakota (BND) has an excellent credit rating and returns a hefty dividend to the state every year.
The BND model hasn’t yet been duplicated in other states, but a movement is afoot. Since 2010, 18 states have introduced legislation of one sort or another for a state-owned bank.
Values-based Banking: Too Sustainable to Fail

Meanwhile, there is a strong movement at the local level for sustainable, “values-based” banking—conventional banks committed to responsible lending and service to the local community. These are George Bailey-style banks, which base their decisions first and foremost on the needs of people and the environment.
One of the leaders internationally is Triodos Bank, which has local offices in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Germany. Its Web site says that it makes socially responsible investments that are selected according to strict sustainability criteria and overseen by an international panel of “stakeholder” representatives representing various community, environmental, and worker interest groups. Investments include the financing of more than 1,000 organic and sustainable food production projects, more than 300 renewable energy projects, 33 fair trade agricultural exporters in 22 different countries, 85 microfinance institutions in 43 countries, and 398 cultural and arts projects.
Two U.S. banks exemplifying the model are One PacificCoast Bank and New Resource Bank. Operating in California, Oregon and Washington, One PacificCoast is comprised of a sustainable community development bank with around $300 million in assets and a non-profit foundation (One PacificCoast Foundation). Its commercial lending business focuses on such sectors as specialty agriculture, renewable energy, green building, and low-income housing. Foundation activities include programs to “help eliminate discrimination, encourage affordable housing, alleviate economic distress, stimulate community development and increase financial literacy.”
New Resource Bank is a California based B-corporation (“Benefit”) with $171 million in assets, which focuses its lending and banking services on local green and sustainable businesses. New Resource was recognized in 2012 as one of the “Best for the World” businesses, being in the top 10 percent of all certified B-Corporations and scoring more than 50 percent higher than 2,000 other sustainable businesses in overall positive social and environmental impact.
All this might be good for the world, but isn’t investing locally in a values-based bank riskier and less profitable than putting your money on Wall Street? Not according to a study commissioned by the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV). The 2012 study compared the financial profiles between 2007 and 2010 of 17 values-based banks with 27 Globally Systemically Important Financial Institutions (GSIFIs)—basically the too-big-to-fail banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan, Barclays, Citicorp and Deutsche Bank. According to the GABV report, values-based banks delivered higher financial returns than some of the world’s largest financial institutions, with a return on assets averaging above 0.50 percent, compared to just 0.33 percent for the GSIFIs; and returns on equity averaging 7.1 percent, compared to 6.6 percent for the GSIFIs. They appeared to be stronger financially, with both higher levels of and better quality capital; and they were twice as likely to invest their assets in loans.
CDFIs
Along with the values-based banks, community investment is undertaken in the United States by Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), including community development banks, community development credit unions, community development loan funds, community development venture capital funds, and microenterprise loan funds. According to the CDFI Coalition, there are over 800 CDFIs certified by the CDFI Fund, operating in every state in the nation and the District of Columbia. In 2008 (the last year for which a report is available), CDFIs invested $5.53 billion “to create economic opportunity in the form of new jobs, affordable housing units, community facilities, and financial services for low-income citizens.”
Two of many interesting examples are the Alternatives Federal Credit Union and Boston Community Capital. Alternatives FCU, located in Ithaca, New York, is committed to community development and social change and is part of the Alternatives Group, which includes a non-profit corporation (Alternatives Community Ventures); a 40-year old trade association of community groups, cooperatives, worker-owned businesses and individuals (Alternatives Fund); and a not-for-profit organization that facilitates secondary capital investment in the credit union (Tomkins County Friends of Alternatives, Inc.). The credit union has over $70 million in assets and offers many innovative financial products, including individual development accounts—special savings accounts for low-income residents that offer matching deposits of two to one up to a certain amount—in addition to more traditional services such as loans for minority and women-owned businesses, and affordable mortgages. The credit union also offers small business development (classes, seminars, consultation, and networking programs), free tax preparation, and a student credit union.
Although its lending programs focus on lower-income borrowers, Alternatives FCU has had lower delinquency and charge-off rates than many major banks that avoid these types of customers. Boston Community Capital (BCC) is a CDFI that is not actually a bank but invests in projects that provide affordable housing and jobs in lower-income neighborhoods. BCC includes a loan fund, a venture fund, a mortgage lender, a real estate consultation organization, a solar energy fund, and a federal New Markets Tax Credit investment vehicle. Since 1985, it has invested over $700 million in local organizations and businesses. These funds have helped build or preserve more than 12,800 affordable housing units, as well as child care facilities for almost 9,000 children and healthcare facilities that reach 56,000 people. Their investments have helped renovate 850,000 square feet of commercial real estate, generate 5.9 million KW hours of solar energy capacity, and create more than 1,500 jobs.
Less Money for Banks and More for Workers: The Models of Germany and Japan
Values-based banks and CDFIs are a move in the right direction, but their market share in the U.S. remains small. To see the possibilities of a banking system with a mandate to serve the public, we need to look abroad.
Germany and Japan are export powerhouses, in second and third place globally for net exports. (The U.S. trails at 192nd.) One competitive advantage for both of these countries is that their companies have ready access to low-cost funding from cooperatively owned banks.
In Germany, about half the total assets of the banking system are in the public sector, while another substantial chunk is in cooperative savings banks. Germany’s strong public banking system includes 11 regional public banks (Landesbanken) and thousands of municipally owned savings banks (Sparkassen). After the Second World War, it was the publicly owned Landesbanks that helped family-run provincial companies get a foothold in world markets. The Landesbanks are key tools of German industrial policy, specializing in loans to the Mittelstand, the small-to-medium size businesses that drive the country’s export engine.
Because of the Landesbanks, small firms in Germany have as much access to capital as large firms. Workers in the small business sector earn the same wages as those in big corporations, have the same skills and training, and are just as productive. In January 2011, the net value of Germany’s exports over its imports was 7 percent of GDP, the highest of any nation. But it hasn’t had to outsource its labor force to get that result. The average hourly compensation (wages plus benefits) of German manufacturing workers is $48—a full 50 percent more than the $32 hourly average for their American counterparts.
In Japan, the banks are principally owned not by shareholders but by other companies in the same keiretsu or industrial group, in a circular arrangement in which the companies basically own each other. Even when there are nominal outside owners, corporations are managed so that the bulk of the wealth generated by the corporation flows either to the workers as income or to investment in the company, making the workers and the company the beneficial owners.
Since the 1980s, U.S. companies have focused on maximizing short-term profits at the expense of workers and longer-term goals. This trend stems in part from the fact that they are now funded largely by capital from shareholders who own the company and want simply to grow their returns. According to a 2005 report from the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels, equity financing is more than twice as important in the U.S. as in Europe, accounting for 116 percent of GDP compared with 62 percent in Japan and 54 percent in the eurozone countries. In both Europe and Japan, the majority of corporate funding comes not from investors but from borrowing, either from banks or from the bond market.
Funding with low-interest loans from cooperatively owned banks leaves greater control of the company in the hands of employees who either own it or have much more say in its operation. Access to low-interest loans can also slash production costs. According to German researcher Margrit Kennedy, when interest charges are added up at every level of production, 40 percent of the cost of goods, on average, comes from interest.
Globally, the burgeoning movement for local, cooperatively owned and community-oriented banks is blazing the trail toward a new, sustainable form of banking. The results may not yet qualify as the Golden Age prophesied by Hindu cosmology, but they are a major step in that direction.
Ellen Brown is an attorney, author, and president of the Public Banking Institute. Her latest book is Web of Debt.

Reich: How Unequal Can America Get ?

Robert Reich defines SNAP.

Nick Hanauer, Censored by TED

I don't believe in the middle-class, it is a fiction created to help keep you from realizing the truth. There are only two classes, the worker class, and the capital class. The "middle-class" is a political illusion, a myth that workers can become capitalists by investing in capital, like their home mortgage & stocks, and become independently wealthy, retire in luxury, and pass their wealth on to their offspring.

BREAKING: You Know That TED Talk You Weren't Supposed To See? Here It Is. Nick Hanauer, self-described "super-rich" entrepreneur, gave a pretty compelling TED Talk about how the middle class—not the super-rich—are the real job creators. But TED, which has released over 100 different political videos in the past, thought this one was too partisan and chose not to release it. We didn't notice any flaming partisanship in it. We normally love TED, and were surprised they didn't think this talk was TEDworthy. Under pressure from the Internets, TED finally relented and released the video. Watch it and decide for yourself if it's really all that controversial to say that the "super-rich are not job creators." Then share it like crazy.

Amory Lovins: A 50-year plan for energy, video on TED

Update on Reinventing Fire by Amory Lovins of the Rockey Mountain Institute

Pay special attention at time stamp 17:50

Two Sides to Adam Smith: Beyond 'Wealth of Nations'

Why do we know of the "Wealth of Nations" and not "The Theory of Moral Sentiments"?

Thomas H. Greco, and Reinventing Money

Please read "Money and Debt: a Solution to the Global Crisis" as a primer.The End of Money and the Future of Civilization
by Thomas H. Greco



I'm looking into alternative money and have come across a remarkable author who has simplified the entire subject into a cannon of concise and detailed and instructive books.

There are only three types of truncations of wealth between people:

1. Gifts - voluntary transfers
2. Taxes - involuntary transfers 
3. Exchanges - reciprocal transfers, trade

Thom H. Greco is concerned with the nature of money as a medium of exchange for trade, and claims that our Governments monopoly upon the 'Credit Commons', the unique sovereign right to create money from nothing, has been abused and sold to the Banks, and this power should be decentralized and returned to the people who can control credit locally. The question is HOW do we do that?

Greco advocates two strategies to monetize the local value added to goods and services: Voluntary Grassroots Action to form alternative money credit unions, and for-profit business-to-business credit exchanges. His plan doesn't eliminate money or even U.S. dollars, but creates alternative currency and credit that can be exchanged for dollars, goods, or services, at the same value as dollars.

All systems of exchange must assure reciprocity, and maintain the value of system credits. They require a sound system of exchange, a proper basis of credit issuance (empowerment), a rapid rate of credit reflux (liquid cash flow), competent, honest and transparent management, effective oversight and consistent participation by members, with revenue adequate to cover operation costs.

These alternative monetary systems are popping up everywhere all the time, but they tend to fail for many reasons: design deficiencies, management issues, or lack of scale and scope. With a proper basis of issue, and balanced limits on how much money/credit is issued, a clear agreement between those who issue and those who use the new money can be achieved. Management should be fully accountable and use transparent systems (online), adequate procedures and controls, never over-rely upon volunteers, and respond quickly to any threats from external forces. Finally, a critical mass of participation must be achieved from the beginning, with a broad assortment of goods and services, within the full scope of the supply chain, and good acceptance within the broader local business community.

Each cooperative money needs a business plan, an implementation strategy, a living document that details the design, management, financing, implementation, and marketing of the issue. You must have initial buy-in from all parts of the supply chain: materials, manufacturing, wholesale, retail, labor.

There are many variable strategies for issuing new money, it can be sold for dollars, and redeemed for 90% of cash value in order to establish foundation of value. The credit can devalue over time if it is not spent. The members can be restricted to redeeming blocks of $100 credits or the initial creditors could be given bonus rewards if they achieve full repayment (like real-estate gifts). The money is best spent upon real-goods and value (food, material objects, value added wealth).

It is difficult to insure a high quality of service and responsiveness to clients without paid staff and a well funded start-up, but rapid reflux of credit flow to avoid stagnation is critical for the success of the system, so those who keep and maintain the system should receive compensation (they must be smart).

To fund this new money system the credit-union could charge membership fees, transaction fees, brokers fees, even sell advertising. There are many models around the world (need links).

The success of the venture depends upon its acceptance by the 'main-stream' community and a critical mass of small businesses in both scope and scale, so that members have a spectrum of goods and services. Essentially you need an entire economy supply-chain for basic needs to make the system sustainable: commodities, manufacture, wholesale, retail, and employees from each level.

Strategically it makes sense to have a phased implementation in the bio-region. Promote substitutes for imports and increase local demand from local sources. Organize a community clearinghouse association, the cooperative credit-union. Issue the supplemental regional currency, granting productive sources large credit and record this in the system as a debit to their accounts. Develop a network of trust, where social capital is invested in quality of life. Keep an independent value standard (real-estate), so that long-term contracts for commodities can be honored (see Appendix B).

The Marketing of the new money system is critical. It must be easy for people to use (digital money exchanged by cell phone). The local businesses must be used, no supply from outside the county. It may be possible to engage the non-profit community to accept these credits as donations and supply the businesses that donate to them with tax write-offs in return, and the non-profits could pay their volunteers with credits that can be then returned to the businesses as partial payment, completing the cycle.

Critical anchor stores must also be involved. Retail grocery, like Peoples'. Wholesale hardware supply, like ACE. Local manufacturers, like ? Commodity suppliers, recyclers and farms. Plus we need labor, people willing to accept payment, 10%-40% in new money credits.

I still have many questions:

• Is this new money totally debt free? (If so, how do you pay for the logistics?)
• Are people forbidden from charging interest on loans of this new money? (If yes, they what is their motivation for lending? Or perhaps no lending is allowed?)
• Are 'fractional reserves' allowed if people begin banking and hoarding this new credit money?
• Does the currency (digital?) have a time-limit, an expiration date, or a half-life, or does it renew every time it is exchanged?
• How do you pick "the most productive members of society" to which you begin by allowing them to spend the new money into the economy and incur a debt by credit?
• Is this new currency taxable? If so, how do you pay taxes?

Many notes: add a conflict mediation agreement, use private exchange (appendix A) and follow the UCC - Uniform Commercial Code, see Kickstarter.com , cuttingedgecapital.com, the Public Banking Institute, Ithaca Hours, time-banking, corporate barter (* when business expenses = profits, no taxes), http://reinventingmoney.com/