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Money As Debt - Paul Grignon.
Ever wonder why the banks have so much money, while countries and individuals have so much debt?
The video 'Money as Debt', uncovers the many myths and concepts regarding money's history. Everybody loves money, wants it, needs it and depends upon it. What everybody doesn't understand is the basics of money. What is money and where does it really come from? How does the wheel of fortune really work and why don't you have enough of it? These are a few of the many hard realities, Mr.Grignon exposes in simple language.
A must see video for every age and station in life. I encourage everyone from teachers to bank employees, accountants, students and everyone in between to invest in this video.
Quote from: Catherine Whelan Costen
Past President, Canadian Action Party
Maxed Out - James Scurlock
Maxed Out takes viewers on a journey deep inside the American style of debt, where things seem fine as long as the minimum monthly payment arrives on time. With coverage that spans from small American towns all the way to the White House, the film shows how the modern financial industry really works, explains the true definition of "preferred customer" and tells us why the poor are getting poorer while the rich keep getting richer. Hilarious, shocking and incisive, Maxed Out paints a picture of a national nightmare which is all too real for most of us."
The Story of STUFF - Annie Leonard.
As the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear, do consumers ever wonder what happens to their stuff from holidays past? 'The Story of Stuff', a new short film released online, takes viewers on a provocative tour of our consumer-driven culture - from resource extraction to iPod incineration - exposing the real costs of this use-it and lose-it approach to stuff.
Last year Americans spent $456.2 billion during the holiday season, and this year sales are predicted to rise 4 percent to $474.5 billion**. 'The Story of Stuff' reveals that holiday consumption is not a seasonal phenomenon, rather an American maxim that has devastating consequences for our environment, third-world nations, working class Americans, personal health and even the general state of happiness in America.
Throughout the 20-minute film, activist Annie Leonard, the film's narrator and an expert on the materials economy, examines the social, environmental and global costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. Her illustration of a culture driven by stuff allows her to isolate the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. The 'Story of Stuff' examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of consumerism - and how those notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today.
**Source: National Retail Federation (NRF)
derived from U.S. Department of Commerce data.
Books
Alternative Economics
The Quality Life Plan® - Susan Boskey. [2007].
We live in a time when more and more people need credit just to make ends meet and living on the edge has become the norm. Millions feel the squeeze of more money going out than coming in and seriously want a way off the hamster wheel. Given skyrocketing costs of living, mounting debt, dwindling disposable income, outsourcing and downsizing of jobs, all-time high foreclosures, personal bankruptcies, fewer healthcare benefits and pensions, it now takes something more than it did in times past to achieve financial well-being.
That something more is The Quality Life Plan: 7 Steps to Uncommon Financial Security; a refreshing and overdue alternative to conventional financial wisdom. It aims to restore true wealth to middle-class Americans with uncomplicated, personal finance strategies based on the whole story about money. When the root cause of financial problems is exposed, genuine solutions have the power to reduce and reverse them. Finally, there is a way out!
Money - Thomas H Greco, JR. [2001]. Understanding and creating alternatives to Legal Tender.
This is an eye-popping, fundamental look at money, both the "legal tender" and the innovative forms that have been developed to promote local economies in communities throughout the nation and the world. This book explains the mysteries and realities of currency, interest, barter, and much more in clear and accessible prose, revealing the alarming fragility of our existing financial system. More than simply a radical critique of our existing financial system, it is also a practical and inspirational how-to manual for creating a vibrant and effective community currency system.
The Grip of Death - Michael Rowbotham [1998]. A study of modern money, debt slavery and destructive economics.
This lucid and original account of where our money comes from explains why most people and businesses are so heavily in debt. It offers important insights into subjects that concern us all - mortgages, building societies and banks, food and farming, transport, poverty and wealth, and what's on the supermarket shelf.
It explains:
- why virtually all the money in the global economy has been created as debt; why only 3% of the UK money exists as 'legal tender'; and why in a world reliant upon money created as debt, we are kept permanently short of it.
- how and why mortgages are responsible for creating almost two-thirds of the total money stock in the UK, and 80% in the US.
- why consumers can't get quality products.
- why business and corporate debt is at its highest level ever.
- why debts mean that a small farm can be productively very efficient, but financially 'not viable'.
- why national debts can never be paid off - without monetary reform.
- how debt fuels the need to 'grow', thereby revolutionising national and international transport strategies, destroying the local markets and producers, increasing waste and pollution, and exacerbating resource depletion.
- how 'Third World debt' is a mechanism used by the developed nations to inject ever-increasing amounts of money into their own economies, and why debtor nations can never repay the debts.
- why politicians who rely on the banks to create money can't fund public services.
- why 'debt-money' is fundamentally undemocratic and a threat to human rights.
The Future of Money - Bernard Lietaer [2001]
Creating new wealth, work and a wiser world. A great introduction to local currencies worldwide. This book provides a road map for the monetary journey out of a decaying Industrial Age to an Information Age, where greater opportunities become available. It is also a discovery guide to the money system - the way money is created and managed in our society. (This book, published in 2001, is difficult to get hold of because it was originally scheduled to be published USA, but never was. Perhaps Bernard hit too close to the truth in his observations about the present money system we live within.)
The Soul of Money - Lynne Twist [2003]
Transforming your relationship with money and life. This compelling and funamentally liberating book shows us that examining our attitude towards money - earning it, spending it, and giving it away - can offer surprising insight into our lives, our values, and the essence of prosperity.
The Creature from Jekyll Island - G. Edward Griffin [1998]
Where does money come from? Where does it go? Who makes it? The money magicians' secrets are unveiled. We get a close look at their mirrors and smoke machines, their pulleys, cogs, and wheels that create the grand illusion called money. A dry and boring subject? Just wait! You'll be hooked in five minutes. Reads like a detective story - which it really is. But it's all true. This book is about the most blatant scam of all history. It's all here: the cause of wars, boom-bust cycles, inflation, depression, prosperity. Creature from Jekyll Island is a "must read." Your world view will definitely change. You'll never trust a politician again - or a banker.
Your Money or Your Life - Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin [1992]
Transforming your relationship with money and achieving financial independence. A classic that has transformed many people's lives.
Interest and Inflation Free Money - Margrit Kennedy [1995]
Creating an exchange medium that works for everybody and protects the earth. Interest free money! Think about that.
LETS Work - Peter Lang [1994]
Rebuilding the local economy. An introduction to LETS in the UK.
Time Dollars - Edgar Cahn & Jonathan Rowe [1992]
The new currency that enables Americans to turn their hidden resource - time - into personal security & community renewal. This is what Fourth Corner Exchange is about.
The Growth Illusion - Richard Douthwaite [1992]
How economic growth has enriched the few, impoverished the many and endangered the planet.
Short Circuit - Richard Douthwaite [1997]
Strengthening Local Economies for Security in an Unstable World. Douthwaite is an economist living in Ireland who has thoroughly researched the role of the global market in the dissolution of local communities as well as the role of local currencies in strengthening community. In this book he combines a scholarly and critical review of classical and alternative economics with a "how to" approach to setting up a local currency system. This is an excellent book for those interested in a "thought piece" on modern life as well as those who are seriously interested in exploring and creating alternative economies.
Secrets of the Temple - William Greider [1987]
How the Federal Reserve runs the country.
Corporations
When Corporations Rule the World - David Korten [1995]
A searing indictment of an unjust economic order.
The Divine Right of Capital - Marjorie Kelly [2001]
Dethroning the corporate aristocracy.
Infectious Greed - Frank Partnoy [2003]
How deceit and risk corrupted the financial markets.
Corporate Tax Evasion
Perfectly Legal - David Cay Johnston [2003]
The covert campaign to rig our tax system to benefit the super rich - and cheat everybody else.
The Cheating of America - Charles Lewis & Bill Allison [2001]
How tax avoidance and evasion by the super rich are costing the country billions - and what you can do about it.
Democracy & Globalisation
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - John Perkins [2004]
"Economic hit men," John Perkins writes, "are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder." John Perkins should know - he was an economic hit man. His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the U.S. - from Indonesia to Panama - to accept enormous loans. Saddled with huge debts, these countries came under the control of the United States government, World Bank, and other U.S. dominated aid agencies that acted like loan sharks - dictating repayment terms and bullying foreign governments into submission.
AMERICA Beyond Capitalism - Gar Alperovitz [2005]
Reclaiming our wealth, our liberty, and our Democracy
False Dawn - John Grey [1998]
"A powerful analysis of the deepening instability of global capitalism. It should be read by all who are concerned about the future of the world economy." - George Soros
Older Reference Books
The Story of Money - Norman Angell [1929]
A poeple's history of money.
The Banking Crisis of 1933 - Susan Estabrook Kennedy [1973]
On March 6, 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt, less than forty-eight hours after becoming president, ordered the suspension of all banking facilities in the United States. How the nation had reached such a desperate situation and how it responded to the banking "holiday" are examined in this book.
What Everybody Wants to Know About Money - G.D.H. Cole [1933]
A textbook on economics by an English economist, that actually explains in straight-forward language what money is, how our money system works, and why it need to be changed.
The Breakdown of Money - Christopher Hollis [1934]
Explains how the banks create money out of nothing and then lend it to us at interest. Hollis has been ignored because he wrote the embarrasing truth about the money system, who creates money and how, and who benefits.
Stabilizing the Dollar - Irving Fisher [1919]
Why America needs a Dollar that hold it's value over time. Something we have never had!
The Money Illusion - Irving Fisher [1928]
How money looses it's value as more is printed. Today this is called inflation and has become an accepted feature of the national money systems. The money in your pocket is worth less every day!
Booms and Depressions - Irving Fisher [1932]
How the money system creates the instability that economists euphemistically call "The Business Cycle" and how unecessarily destructive it is.
The Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions - Irving Fisher [1933]
How unstable money creates economic depressions.
Inflation - Irving Fisher [1933]
What it is, how it is unecessary and how to prevent it. An updated version of "The Money Illusion".
Stamp Scrip - Irving Fisher [1933]
The answer to the Great Depression that FDR turned his back on.
100% Money - Irving Fisher [1935]
How to make sure money keeps it's value.
The Science of Money - Alexander Del Mar [1896]
An old classic.
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