Guess what! I just read on the Internet that we’re in the sixth great extinction event in the planet’s history! That’s right! Many of the plants and animals that you grew up hearing about — orangutans, rhinoceroses, tigers — are now threatened with extinction! It’s so depressing that you might prefer to ignore it, and …
With Congress barely able to do simple things like finance its basic operations, it is a stretch to think that they will be able to address a major problem like global climate change. The anti-science, backward-looking members of Congress who held the American economy hostage are the same ones expressing disbelief in basic climate science …
Don’t Flee to Mars, but Maybe Send the Tea Party There Read More »
Instead of the usual fifteen minutes of fame, the trillion-dollar coin got the whole week of Jan. 5-12, 2013. Within days of its arrival, the trillion-dollar coin was disparaged and mocked as a silly solution to circumvent the debt ceiling, and done away with by officials at the Treasury Department, who announced that no trillion-dollar …
Last week the “trillion dollar platinum coin” entered the public lexicon as part of Washington’s debt ceiling debate. It sounds jaunty and paradoxical, but it is a surprisingly serious proposal. The coin presents a rare opportunity to have a public discussion about the nature of money, something very few people understand. If advocates play their cards (and coins) right, …
Beyond Debt Ceiling, Trillion Dollar Coin Offers New Economic Paradigm Read More »
Is the “end” near? If the pop-culture version of the Mayan calendar’s “apocalyptic” predictions turns out to be correct and the world ends on 12/21/12, then you will probably not be reading this blog. The fiscal “cliff” sounds dire, but luckily it is only an annoying metaphor. This latest round of end-of-the-world hysteria is part …
The election is over and the media immediately turned to the coming “fiscal cliff.” Components of the metaphorical cliff include across the board cuts to government spending occurring at the same time the Bush tax cuts expire, and the federal government’s likely need to raise the national debt ceiling in order to finance its operations. …
Monetary Reform Could Expand the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Debate Read More »
Have you heard about The Commons? You own a piece of it; we all do. The Commons is something society shares as a public trust, and includes valuable assets such as the Internet, the broadcast spectrum, public lands, the ability to create money, the atmospheric carbon sink, and more. In times of scarcity, access to …
Citizen’s Dividends: Basic Income from your Share of the Commons Read More »
The solution to this joint economic-climate crisis must provide an escalating price signal on oil, and distribute the proceeds equally to the people, not the fossil fuel corporations. Two well-known quotes from Dick Cheney are apropos to the current crisis in Congress over the debt ceiling: “Deficits don’t matter” and “Go F- yourself.” 1) “Deficits …
Tackling the Debt Ceiling With Carbon-Backed Money Read More »
Roland Emmerich is on to something. The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and if we don’t do something BIG to really start reducing greenhouse gas emissions after that, we are screwed in a big, Emmerich-movie-like way. The UN climate conference in Copenhagen starts on December 7th. The so-called “leaders” of the world are busy trying …
Copenhagen Meets 2012 With Purple Oceans and Green Skies Read More »
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