John Fullerton is Founder and President of Capital Institute, a transdisciplinary collaborative space dedicated to exploring and effecting economic change. The Institute’s mission is to help create “a more just, resilient, and sustainable way of living on this earth through the transformation of finance.”

In our candid interview with John, he shared his own transformative journey that lead him from Wall Street, where he managed capital markets worldwide at JP Morgan, to establishing himself as a thought leader in the “new economy” space.

In this 5 minute clip, John speaks soberly yet with optimism about the immense challenge of our time: the biospheric reality that is forcing us to re-think economics as we have known it, which is as John states “essentially our religion today.”

Watch, listen, comment and share!

John Fullerton: The Biospheric Reality from Katie Teague on Vimeo.

And here is another clip with David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule and Agenda for a New Economy.

David Korten: Walking Away From the King from Katie Teague on Vimeo.

Here is the trailer for the wonderful film these clips are taken from.

Money & Life trailer from Katie Teague on Vimeo.

The producer and director of Money & Life, Katie Teague, is seeking $50,000 to complete this important documentary that demystifies and questions the broken institution of money. No small undertaking. The heart of her message is that debt creates scarcity and her film is an empowering wake up call to end the vicious cycle and liberate us and money from its capitalist constraints so we can celebrate abundance instead and co-create a system that serves people and the planet. And, as you can see, through her interviews, she is touching on the soul of the issue with intelligence and compassion.

“My hope is that we can create an economy where we can do what we love, where we can be rewarded for doing what we love,” Teague said. “It’s idealistic, but it’s only limited by saying it’s impossible. The movie shows that money is a human artifact. It doesn’t grow on trees or fall from the sky. “We created it, and over time it’s changed. We are living in a time of significant shift. Things change and the main institution that needs to change in our lifetimes is money.”

Please join me in helping Katie complete her project.

To read a great story on Katie and her film and ideas, click here.

REMEMBER, TO WATCH THE CLIPS CLICK ON THE YELLOW LINK TO NPD’S WEBSITE.

This is the time to turn around the economic game so it works for all of us rather than the 1%.

From the producers of The Economics of Happiness DVD which will be the subject of a review in February and whose trailer appears below comes a March Conference dedicated to the same theme. Bringing together some of the greatest economic visionaries of our time who collectively are redefining economics so that it serves people and the planet, the conference will be held from March 23-25 at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California.

Conference themes include Breaking Down the Old Economy, Small Scale on a Large Scale, Local Futures and Reweaving the Fabric of Hope.

Among the stellar international group of presenters are Vandana Shiva, a worldrenowned activist, physicist, feminist and the founder of Navdanya, Annie Leonard, the author and host of The Story of Stuff and director of The Story of Stuff Project, Richard Heinberg, the author of ten books, including The Party’s Over, Peak Everything, and The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality, Bill McKibben, the author of a dozen books about the environment and the economy including The End of Nature and Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, Helena Norberg-Hodge, the founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC) and its predecessor, the Ladakh Project. She is the author of Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh and producer and co-director of the film, The Economics of Happiness, Judy Wicks, the founder of White Dog Café and an international leader and speaker in the local living economies movement. Judy is co-founder of the nationwide Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), Rebecca Tarbotton, Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and former Project Coordinator at ISEC. Under her direction, RAN challenges corporate power in order to protect endangered forests, transform dirty energy expansion into a clean energy future, and combat global warming.

There will also be performances by Jennifer Berezan (edgeofwonder.com), Nina Wise (ninawise.com) and Wes “Scoop” Nisker (http://woodzie.org/scoop/)

You can download the PDF Conference brochure by clicking here

The date to obtain discounted tickets is January 15, so if this is of interest to you, please check out the brochure and make your ticket purchase before then.

Please let me know if you decide to attend and perhaps a group of us can have a lunch or dinner together. I will be there to interview a few of the conference speakers in preparing my story.

I feel like I know almost nothing about business, because the only business I’ve ever done is the co-op / sharing model.

It goes like this:

1. You already have something that people want.

It might be something you own, something you’ve learned how to do, or access to valuable resources, space, or people.

2. Find a way to share it with everyone who needs it.

Share because it’s what you do for friends, because it’s the right thing to do, because it makes the world a better place, and because it’ll make you deeply happy.

Share as your contribution in return for all the things and ideas that people have shared with you.

(If you’re having a bad day, or someone has recently wronged you, you may not feel the world has shared much with you, but here’s a reminder.)

3. If it takes some effort for you to share it, you can charge a little something for your effort, to ensure that this giving can continue.

My examples:
In 1994, the U.S. Copyright office still didn’t have their copyright forms online. You still had to mail a letter to Washington DC to ask them to mail you some blank forms, if you wanted to copyright your songs. I scanned all the forms, and put them on my website for free as printable downloads, for any musician who needed them. For the next year or two, until the government started putting the forms online, my site was the only place to get them. This was my first effort to contribute back to this great invention of the internet.

In 1995, I learned how to trademark my band name. It took many hours of work to figure out the legalese, but I did it.
I wrote out the step-by-step instructions and put them on my band’s website for free. For years it was the go-to resource for musicians who wanted to trademark their name.

In 1996, I had a little record label, so I got a UPC barcode account, so I could put unique UPC barcodes on my CDs. I had to pay $750 to the Universal Code Council to get a company account, but that meant I was allowed to create 100,000 products under my account. Musician friends asked how, so I showed them how, but also said they could use one of my product IDs. At first, I did this for free, as a favor, until friends started sending strangers my way. Because it took a little work to generate the number, create their EPS/TIFF graphic barcode, and keep track of their unique IDs forever, I charged $20. Over the next 12 years, this made me almost $2 million.

In 1997, I got a credit card merchant account to sell my own CD at live shows. It cost $1000 in set-up fees and took three months of red-tape paperwork. Then I built a little online shopping cart, which also took months of work, just to sell my own CD. Musician friends asked if they could use mine instead of having to go through all of that work, so I said OK. At first, I did this for free, as a favor, until it was taking up all of my time. Because it took me 45 minutes of work to digitize, stock, set up a new album in my system, I charged $35 per new album. Because it took 10 minutes of work to pick, pack, and ship a purchased CD, I charged $4 per CD sold. Over the next 12 years, this made me about $20 million.

In 1999, I had learned a lot about hosting websites. Linux, Apache, PHP, SQL, FTP, DNS, Qmail, SpamAssassin, etc. I had done it for myself for my band’s website, then for CD Baby, and bought my own servers. So when friends would complain about their existing web-hosting company, I’d host them on my servers instead. At first, I did this for free, as a favor, until it was filling up my server. Because each server cost me $300/month, and I had to hire a full-time person to manage this, I charged $20 per month. (In 1999, this was way cheap.)
Over the next 9 years, this made me about $5 million.

Since 2000, I’ve been sharing everything I’ve learned for free. I’m not the smartest guy, probably below average, but it costs nothing to share, and it’s the right thing to do, so I do. Over the last 11 years, this made me incredibly happy and lucky, because of all the interesting people I’ve met by doing it.

Point being:

None of these things looked like a business venture.

All of them were just sharing something I already had.

People often ask me if I have any suggestions for what kind of business they should get into.

I tell them the only thing I know how to recommend: “Start by sharing whatever you’ve got.”

© 2011 Derek Sivers

Derek Sivers
Entrepreneur, programmer, avid student of life. I make useful things, and share what I learn.

Me in 10 seconds

I’m an entrepreneur. I treat work as play.
I live by “whatever scares you, go do it”.
I’m a minimalist. The less I own, the happier I am.
I’m a learning addict.
I’m very comfortable being the leader and being on stage.
This is my favorite fable.

Official Bragging Bio

Originally a professional musician and circus clown, Derek Sivers created CD Baby in 1998. It became the largest seller of independent music online, with $100M in sales for 150,000 musicians. In 2008, Derek sold CD Baby for $22M, giving the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education.

He is a frequent speaker at the TED Conference, with over 5 million views of his talks.

In 2011, he published a book which shot to #1 on all of its Amazon categories.

Derek Sivers lives in Singapore, where he is creating his next company.

I consider this article to be one of the most important and timely that I have published on NPD. I hope you will agree. Personally, I’ll be sending this to the mayor of Ojai and all members of the City Council to spark the ideas presented below. Please consider doing the same in your community. Together, we can help transform economics into an activity that serves the people and the planet rather than the few at the expense of the many. Clearly it is time to say ENOUGH and act to change things. It’s time for all of us to occupy the earth and co-create a world that works for everyone.

–by John De Graaf and Linda Sechrist , Original Story

Changing the Rules to Benefit America’s People

Most Americans are facing their most significant economic challenges in generations. From the hardships of unemployment to the perils of mounting debt, worry about the health of a national economy that depends on consumerism and market success dominates our conversation. But have we asked what the economy is really for?

Since the Second World War, we have been assured that more economic growth is good for us. But is it? By any measure, the U.S. economy, in its pursuit of constant growth, is in dire need of critical life support. Too many people have lost jobs, homes, scholarships and retirement savings, along with peace of mind, in the face of complex uncertainties. Those individuals that have jobs are earning less in real income than in 2001, even though they spend more hours working and commuting than previous generations.

We’ve had enough of the official mantra: Work more, enjoy less, pollute more, eat toxic foods and suffer illnesses, all for the sake of increasing the gross domestic product. Why not learn ways to work less and enjoy it more; spend more time with our friends and families; consume, pollute, destroy and owe less; and live better, longer and more meaningfully? To do all this, we need fresh solutions that engage America’s people in redefining goals for the economy (what we want from it) as opposed to the economy’s goals (what it demands from us).

An Economy Based on Quality of Life
Although an economy based on a high quality of life that makes people happy may sound revolutionary, Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president, enshrined the pursuit of happiness as a human right when he drafted ourDeclaration of Independence. Jefferson emphasized that America’s government was, “to secure the greatest degree of happiness possible for the general mass of those associated under it.” Likewise, the Constitution of the United States declares that government is to promote, among other things, the general welfare of the people.

Americans are able to achieve a better life, as we’ve proved many times in the past, benefiting mightily as a result of forward steps ranging from democracy, women’s suffrage and civil rights to inventive technological leadership. Although history shows that this has been accomplished primarily by changing national policies, any new economy delivering improved well-being is first brought about largely by active citizens that choose to invest more time in building a nation that reflects increasingly enlightened values.

Everyone’s quality of life—from today’s parents to future generations of great-grandchildren—depends upon individuals collectively working to build a new economy based on the concept of genuine wealth. In his award-winning book, Economics of Happiness: Building Genuine Wealth, ecological economist Mark Anielski explains this new and practical approach grounded in what people value most, which he states is: “Love, meaningful relationships, happiness, joy, freedom, sufficiency, justice and peace”—qualities of life far more vital than blind economic growth and material possessions.

Preferred Measure of Progress
To determine whether our economy promotes the greatest good or the happiness of the American people, we need to understand what makes us happy and how economic policies enhance or thwart our pursuit of happiness; we also need a better instrument of economic measurement than the gross domestic product (GDP).

The GDP counts remedial and defensive expenditures for pollution, accidents, war, crime and sickness as positives, rather than deducting these costs. GDP also discounts the value of contributions such as natural resources and ecosystem services, improvement in quality of life, unpaid domestic work, volunteer work, good health and social connection.

Anielski, in concert with economic experts such as Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economy, Hazel Henderson, author of Ethical Markets, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, recommends that economic policies aim to boost societal welfare, rather than GDP. All agree that a new indicator of well-being, such as the U.S. Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), could be used to more accurately measure economic progress.

The Science of Happiness
A respected “science of happiness,” pioneered by University of Illinois positive psychologist Edward Diener, Ph.D., dubbed Dr. Happiness, and other researchers, has existed for more than a decade. The study of what makes people happy and life fulfilling repeatedly demonstrates that the economic route to happiness does not consist of endlessly widening the superhighway of accumulation. Rather, it resides in a host of personal values that are closer to our hearts, as illustrated by the Himalayan nation of Bhutan (population: about 700,000).

For many years, Bhutan has measured its general well-being—as the people themselves subjectively report it—using a Gross National Happiness (GNH) index. Its government bases policy decisions on how they might effect the kind of happiness associated with contentment, family, community, spirituality, education, compatibility with nature and good physical health. After years of primary research, the Bhutanese have identified nine domains for assessing happiness: psychological well-being, physical health, time use (work-life balance), community vitality and social connection, education, cultural preservation and diversity, environmental sustainability, good governance and material well-being.

In 2004, the first annual International Conference on Gross National Happiness was held in Bhutan. Hundreds of government representatives, scholars and other thought leaders from more than 40 nations gathered to explore the possibility of making GNH the true indicator of a country’s health and quality of life. As of 2011, a non-binding resolution by the United Nations General Assembly urges that countries now measure their health and happiness, as well as wealth. Sixty-six countries backed it.

Measuring Americans’ Life Satisfaction
Seattle, Washington, the first U.S. city to implement a measurement of life satisfaction, is parlaying Bhutan’s indicators—psychological well-being, physical health, work/time balance, education and capacity building, cultural vitality and access to arts and culture, environmental quality and access to nature, apt governance and material well-being—as part of its own Sustainable Seattle Happiness Initiative. Spearheaded by Sustainable Seattle Executive Director Laura Musikanski and her team with encouragement by City Council President Richard Conlin, it may become America’s first GNH city.

Initial survey results, intended to spark conversations that matter, will be discussed at future town meetings in Seattle neighborhoods and used to recommend policies for consideration by the city council. Repeating the survey every couple of years will reveal progress.

Interest in a similar Happiness Initiative is growing in cities and towns from coast to coast, such as Napa, California; Bowling Green, Kentucky; Duluth, Minnesota; Santa Fe and Roswell, New Mexico; Bellevue, Nebraska; Portland, Oregon; and Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Some 100 colleges and universities also are beginning to apply the Happiness Initiative survey.
How to Become Happier

To improve our own well-being within any economy, we need to attend to our security, social connections and the way we balance our time. Choosing to live with less stuff and lighter debt supports a better life with less income but more time, lower stress and better health. As individuals, we can:

TOOLS TO NAVIGATE THE NEW ECONOMY

New Economics Foundation:
The Great Transition
NewEconomics.org
BrowseNewEconomics.org/sites/neweconomics.org/files/Great_ Transition_0.pdf.
This independent think-and-do-tank inspires and demonstrates real economic well-being.

The Economics of Happiness:
Building Genuine Wealth
GenuineWealth.net
Author Mark Anielski maps how to measure genuine wealth and create flourishing economies grounded in people’s well-being.

Transition United States:
Transition Towns
TransitionUS.org
Participants in this vibrant, grassroots movement seek to build community resilience in the face of challenges such as high oil prices, climate change and economic crises.

Sustainable Seattle:
The Happiness Initiative
SustainableSeattle.org
Founders provide tools to comprehensively assess well-being, involve citizens and inspire people, organizations and policymakers to take action.

World Café:
Real Conversations for a Better World
TheWorldCafe.org
This application of powerful social technology helps engage people in conversations that matter, offering an effective antidote to society’s fast-paced fragmentation and lack of connection.

Living Economies Forum:
Agenda for a New Economy:
From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth
LivingEconomiesForum.org

“The old economy of greed and domination is dying. A new economy of life and partnership is struggling to be born. The outcome is ours to choose.”
~ Author David Korten

• Focus more on matters of family and community and on building trust.
• Devote less attention to maximizing incomes and more attention to acts of generosity.
• Ask our employers for more time off instead of higher pay.

In our local communities, we can find ways to design more relationship-friendly places such as farmers’ markets, where shoppers tend to engage in many more conversations than in supermarket aisles (Worldwatch Institute). In cities, we can call for public and private spaces that facilitate social connection, instead of discouraging it via urban sprawl.

Ecological economist Dave Batker, co-author of What’s the Economy for Anyway? (film clip at Tinyurl.com/3tc9dlk), believes that moving forward requires greater citizen involvement in the shaping of democracy, laws and our collective future. By ditching pundits and talking with neighbors, city by city and town by town, citizens throughout the United States are moving to do this using newly learned techniques such as those offered by Open Space Technology, World Café, Transition Towns, Sustainable Cities, The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, and the Institute of Noetic Sciences’ Worldview Literacy Project.

In St. Petersburg, Florida, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and other places, citizens are cultivating a stronger sense of community with real discussions about local issues and economic goals. They aim to arrive at a clear-eyed view of what citizens really want from the economy.

In St. Petersburg, the culmination of Sharon Joy Kleitsch’s 10-year effort to build a flourishing community through helpful workshops on timely subjects, meaningful conversations and aligning constructive partnerships is reaching a crescendo this month at Beyond Sustainability: Ecosystems, Economics, and Education, the Institute of Florida Studies’ 36th annual conference, at Hillsborough Community College (Tinyurl.com/3avntte). Kleitsch remarks, “I show up, pay attention and listen for opportunities where my connections with policy makers, educators, nonprofits and community activists can help convene people in meaningful conversations that can make a difference in building a resilient community.”

In Oklahoma City, Sustainable OKC, a volunteer organization working towards community sustainability at the crossroads of business, environment and social justice, frequently partners with the city’s Office of Sustainability, the CommonWealth Urban Farms project and the Oklahoma Food Cooperative (Sustainableokc.org). The grassroots organization advocates shopping locally and sustainably.

Jennifer Alig, Sustainable OKC president, is consistently delighted by the growing number of residents that don’t just attend events such as movie screenings of The Economics of Happiness, but also show up to plant food to feed the hungry and join Commonwealth Urban Farms work parties to feed neighborhoods using the products of thriving urban farms on vacant city lots. Alig notes, “After events, we sometimes use Open Space Technology to talk about topics that people are passionate about and willing to invest their time in.”

The kind of society that makes for health, happiness, true prosperity and sustainability is one with strong local economies and flourishing communities that includes many activities provided by local nonprofits. It’s one characterized by:

• Local small businesses and banking
• Farmers’ markets and urban gardens
• Urban designs that favor shared walks instead of isolated commutes
• Public spaces for social interaction
• Circumstances in which buyers know sellers
• Businesspeople that sponsor and volunteer for local activities
• Salary differences that are not vast
• Citizens building a better world together

We intuitively know what is required to create such a society, starting in our own community. What we need is the determination to make sure the economy serves us; rules that benefit all of the people; a commitment to widespread quality of life, social justice and sustainability; and the political will to make good change happen.

This article originally appeared in the November 2011 issue of Natural Awakenings and is published here with permission.

Linda Sechrist writes and edits for Natural Awakenings.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today wrote to colleagues to enlist support for his dramatic, new, concrete plan to get Americans working again, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and regain control of our monetary policy from private banks to promote the public interest.  “It is time to get real about creating jobs.  Not just talk about it.  But come up with real, concrete proposals which can put America back to work,” he said.  Kucinich is planning to introduce the National Emergency Employment Defense Act later this year.

Dear Colleague:

Our nation is in crisis.  The economy is still on the edge of a precipice.  The old ways aren’t working and won’t work.  We can’t continue down the road that takes us deeper into debt and despair.  There is a way out.

That is why I am introducing The National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED) Act of 2011.  It will end the debt.  It will rebuild America.  It will make the American Dream a reality for everyone; for today’s generation and for the generations to come.  It gives our youth unrivaled career opportunities.

The NEED Act assures a sustainable fiscal path.  It can reduce deficits to nothing, without tax hikes, spending cuts, or inflation.  And it will pay off the national debt as it comes due.  My legislation can end the recession, unemployment and the foreclosure crisis.

The Constitution vests the power over money with Congress.  Congress gives this power to the banks.  In the last 10 years, banks have added an average of $500 billion to the money supply per year.  This is a huge amount of power that Congress has given away.

The banks have shown that they’re incapable of using this power responsibly, or in the widest economic interest.  Instead they’ve wasted most of it by pumping it into a series of unproductive bubbles.  The loss to the nation is truly enormous, especially considering the opportunity cost of the real wealth that could be created with first use of that money.

My bill reasserts the Constitutional right and responsibility of Congress to furnish the nation with a money supply fit for purpose.  No more wild swings from economic boom to bust.  No more erosion of purchasing power.  We can at last have a stable currency. To do this is surprisingly simple.  My legislation does three things:

·   Incorporate the Fed into the Treasury and make monetary policy truly accountable to the Congress and the American people.

·   End the banks special privilege by no longer allowing them to create our money supply when they make loans, through a simple and non-disruptive accounting change.

·   Invest money into renewing our crumbling infrastructure, making it fit for the 21^st Century; creating real wealth and millions of good jobs at the same time.

These essential changes will ensure our economy is the most efficient and prosperous in the world.  It will raise demand for American-made goods at home and abroad and reduce our trade deficit.

I look forward to your support in restoring America’s economy to full health.

Sincerely,

/s/

Dennis J. Kucinich

Member of Congress

This call to action from Confessions of an Economic Hit Man author and activist, John Perkins speaks of the actions we must take to regain a sense of balance and justice.

Like Robin Hood, we live in a time of turmoil. The feudal lords once again are exploiting We the People, and chaos has ensued. It is time for change. There is no other choice. There is no more option to transform gradually over time. We MUST instigate rapid change now or go down in the chaos.

The budget debacle in Washington DC is just another symptom of the chaos that, like the chaos of cancer, has invaded our body of social/political/economic institutions. The rioting in England and all the turmoil in Europe and the Middle East are other symptoms. As are the facts that 1) elected officials in the “the world’s great democracy” (the U.S.) no longer write the laws, but instead cede that responsibility over to lobbyists who work for the corporations that finance political campaigns, 2) the “mainstream” media fails to report the real news or stand up for the rights of We the People because it is owned by those corporations; 3) we will never have a balanced budget as long as we spend trillions of dollars to defend corporate exploitation in countries across the planet while denying basic services to our own people; and 4) we will not live up to the moral and philosophical principles we claim to endorse as long as we purchase products made by sweatshop slaves, blame other cultures and religions for our problems, accept as normal the outrageous corruption exemplified by a revolving door where politicians, heads of watch-dog agencies, and corporate executives are one and the same, and incarcerate people like Bradley Manning for exposing our dark underbelly.

Let’s admit that our rulers – like the feudal lords in Robin Hood’s England – have created a terrible situation. Our system of government and our form of predatory capitalism do not work, unless you happen to be a billionaire. Unfortunately, there are far too many billionaires in the world today who hold the power. They are the modern version of Prince John – and the politicians who protect them are the Sheriffs of Nottingham.

So where is Robin Hood? Where is Maid Marion? Where are all those Merry Men and Women who defied feudal lords in those glorious days we like to relive in our fantasies?

They are right here. In front of you. Look in the mirror. You are Robin Hood. You are Maid Marion. You are a leader!

It is time to gather the Merry Men and Women – your networks and communities – and spread the word. Today we do not need real bows and arrows, we do not need swords or weapons of destruction. Modern feudal lords control us with advertisements, propaganda, and materialistic seductions. They send in their hack TV commentators and newspaper pundits, rather than sheriffs armed with cross-bows.

We must defeat them on this new field of battle. It is a field of consciousness, not blood. The bow I personally choose is the computer keyboard and the lecture podium. My arrows are words – both written and spoken.

The budget debacle is the match that the Sheriff of Nottingham touched to the thatching on our roofs. My house is burning; so I’m grabbing keyboard and words and heading for Nottingham.

Please join me. Gather your own Merry Men and Women. Write your own letters and emails. Organize consumer protests. Wave placards. Give speeches. Run for election. Take action in whatever way your deepest passions direct you. Just don’t sit still.

We MUST act! But not violently. Doing it with love, compassion, and cooperation is the way out of this chaos. Today Robin Hood looks more like Martin Luther King Jr. than Errol Flynn!

Time to stop reading Robin Hood as a fantasy and instead to live that dream. The dream of waking up, taking responsibility and actions that will create a new story. And make no mistake about it: this is a true and honest story, one of integrity, and one our grandchildren will want to tell to their grandchildren.

Please see my website – http://www.johnperkins.org – we’ve added several new shapeshifting events to the calendar.

John

John Perkins

New York Times bestselling author

www.johnperkins.org

www.dreamchange.org

Hoodwinked

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

The Secret History of the American Empire

Shapeshifting

The World Is As You Dream It

Psychonavigation

The Stress-Free Habit

Spirit of the Shuar

Follow me on Twitter – @economic_hitman

“Right now, the way a forest is worth money is by cutting it down,” Mr. Davis said. “We measure that value in board-feet of lumber or tons of pulp sold to a paper mill.” What has been missing, he says, is a countervailing economic force that measures the value of leaving a forest or other ecosystem intact.

Early on, Dr. Daily recognized that new tools were needed to quantify nature’s value. “We began by developing a software program called InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs) to map and value nature’s goods and services that are essential for humans,” she said.

The software, which is available as a free download, enables the comparison of various environmental scenarios. What is the real cost of draining a wetland or clearing a coastline of mangroves? InVEST models the trade-offs and helps decision makers better understand the implications of their choices.

To read the whole story, click here.

Ruling by Massachusetts highest court could provide boost for those fighting eviction

The state’s highest court has ruled that people fighting eviction from homes they lost to foreclosure can challenge the validity of a property seizure in housing court after the fact, a decision advocates for homeowners’ rights are calling a major victory.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s unanimous ruling, released today, involved KC Bailey, a Mattapan man whose home was taken back by the lender through foreclosure. In 2009, Bailey contested his eviction during a housing court proceeding, saying the foreclosure process itself was flawed.

In court, Bailey claimed he only learned of the 2007 foreclosure when he found an eviction notice taped to a fence surrounding his property. He refused to leave the house on the grounds he was not given proper notice of the sale.

Bank of New York, which wanted to evict Bailey, argued that the housing court didn’t have the authority to consider a challenge to a foreclosure that had already been finalized, and the judge agreed. Bailey appealed and the Supreme Judicial Court decided to take the case. As a result of its ruling, the case now goes back to housing court.

“We conclude that the housing court has jurisdiction to consider the validity of the plaintiff’s title as a defense to a summary process action after a foreclosure sale,’’ the court ruled in a decision written by Justice Fernande R.V. Duffly.

Local housing advocates said the ruling provides a boost for troubled homeowners because it means lenders must prove they have a clear title to a home before evicting its occupants.

“It’s a big win because the banks have been saying once they foreclose they can evict people and there is no right to challenge the underlying foreclosure,’’ said Nadine Cohen, a managing attorney with Greater Boston Legal Services, which submitted to the court a brief in support of Bailey.

The attorney representing Bank of New York could not immediately be reached for comment.

I had an up close and personal experience recently in which my two delightful landlords and amazing healers, Julian and Susan Lange (http://meridianholistic.com), who have become dear friends, their loving feline family, were evicted from their home at 276 Running Ridge Trail in Ojai, CA thanks to an illegal foreclosure. Also forced find a new home was a second renter, Darina, an artist and world traveler. And to add insult to injury, the new illegal owners sued me as a renter, which is ridiculous, and caused me great upset and stress, all in an effort to try and drive a wedge between us which they were unsuccessful in doing and, in fact, simply multiplied our bond.

Today, Julian and Susan are living in a one room rental and the new owners will no doubt put the house on the market and make a quarter of a million dollars or more on the deal built on the emotional and financial suffering of two extraordinary and compassionate human beings in service to their patients, clients, workshop participants and the world.

And this is hardly an exceptional situation. The same “investor criminals” who stole the Lange’s beautiful home which I had the privilege of living in for three plus years, have done exactly the same thing to many other people locally and other criminals have done the same to hundreds of thousands of individuals in what has to be the greatest criminal fraud in U.S. real estate history.

When you view the extraordinary eye opening video below on youtube.com/ForeclosureFree and the rest of the series shot by filmmakers Andrew Cameron Bailey and Connie Baxter Marlow, you will begin to understand how the banks, investors with inside information, and the courts have colluded to develop a sophisticated process for separating people from their homes and make obscene profits at the same time.

You may also want to visit chasechase.org to get the latest on what’s being done as more and more people join the battle for justice for the people. And, if you know anyone who is in the process of losing their home, please let them know about Susan’s videos and the chasechase.org site. It is critical that those most deeply affected have a support community around them that can make the journey bearable and know they are not alone.

Perhaps you will be as outraged as Julian, Susan, I and countless others have become as they have lost their homes representing their principal financial asset. And let’s be clear here. We are not talking about those who could not afford the mortgages they took out hoping to flip them in the game of musical chairs that ended so abruptly. We are talking about those individuals who were defrauded by their mortgage brokers, made their payments on time and were again defrauded by the banks and finally the courts who are not interested in hearing the truth and in 99% of cases rule in favor of investors and the banks.

It is a very sad and bitter state of affairs and is simply an extension of the greed and deception that represents this time in history on so many levels including Washington where more and more is given to the wealthiest at the expense of the rest of us. We pay when criminals rig the mortgage game and get rewarded with bonuses for doing so. The inmates are truly running the asylum.

May the new paradigm of compassion and connection replace an economy of greed. May love rule the planet rather than fear and may each of us play our parts in bringing this about. You will soon read a review of Sacred Economics and a wonderful interview with David Korten which both point the way to a new paradigm economics. It would seem the worst in us is catalyzing the best in us and building new communities of awake and aware consciousness. Stay tuned, join and act.

Finally here is Andrew and Connie’s latest video shot on the last night in Julian and Susan’s home. What is striking is that the anger and rage that one might feel and express when your personal assets are being destroyed is transcended by the grace, intelligence and articulation of the deepest truth of who we are beyond the courts and rulings that go against everything this country was founded on and a sense of fair play which has become a relic.

p.s. Here is a note from Susan received a few moments ago:

To our very dear friends and family,

We were evicted on Friday morning by the Sheriff and 3 heavies….Got it all on video – and they couldn’t look us directly in the eyes. I know they say they’re just doing their job but there are other sheriffs who won’t “just do their job” any more. I hope they got to see us as human beings – even if only briefly – and that somewhere in their hearts we might have touched a chord or planted a seed that later may start to
sprout. (If not, then perhaps our two little panicked cats left in the back yard might have got through to them.)

All last week black crows were circling our property. And the morning the sheriff came huge vultures were actually flying in circles over our driveway.

Then I went to work in LA. Exhausted … we had worked til 3 am moving stuff out before they came to take our home. What a system. We’re exhausted and we’re proud. Proud to have done our best in standing up along with many other wonderful people against injustice and fraud….

As I drove across the bridge out of Ojai I noticed two white birds flying across my path. As I got closer to them I saw that they were white egrets, symbolizing the resurrection of the Christ Consciousness. And when I arrived at my office in Santa Monica a white dove flew in front of me….

Right now we seem to be in a kind of free fall. And we have to TRUST that we will land on firm ground – much firmer than
ever before.

“They may try to steal our homes but they can’t steal our souls” is my latest quote.

Here’s to Justice,Truth and Freedom!!!

Thank you Connie for reminding us of the Trust Frequency!.
Thank you Karol for reminding us to be grateful!
Thank you to our wonderful attorneys, Roger Senders and Douglas Gillies who have gone to bat for us and hung in with us through thick and thin.

And a HUGE thank you to all of you for your constant support, hard physical labor, check ins, emails and love that have kept us going all the way through on this journey.

Our love to you,

Susan and Julian

PS We’re taking time out for a few days to re-group, re-orient and re-invent!