Economic Fundamentals
This web page will explore topics and issues that form the woof and warp of economics ... both in terms of how it is currently pursued in many parts of the world, as well as in terms of its potential for being a constructively inclusive force in society -- something which, to a great extent, is not the case today and has not been so for a very long time. The lenses and filters of capitalism, socialism, and communism all -- each in their own unique manner -- give expression to forces of distortion that skew understanding concerning what is needed if human beings, society, and life on Earth are to continue on in a healthy fashion. The videos, audios, and commentaries which, hopefully, are to be posted below are intended to provide people such as yourself with food for thought with respect to the foregoing sorts of topics and, possibly, help a person to critically reflect on the nature of economic fundamentals. God willing, new entries will appear on this page every two to three weeks or so.
Banking
The first video selection below is an excerpt from an animated documentary entitled Money as Debt by Canadian artist Paul Grignon of Gabriola Island off British Columbia. The video excerpt presented here constitutes less than half of the original documentary, and actually is part of a multi-disc set of DVDs concerning the nature of money that explore the problem and some possible solutions (I have purchased two of those DVDs). I urge viewers to go to Mr. Grignon's website and purchase the DVDs to support his work (and while there you can peruse some of his art work which is quite beautiful. His main web site is:
the DVDs can be purchased at:
The documentary excerpt on 'Money As Debt' which appears below draws a very compelling and understandable set of pictures outlining the actual nature of money. And, one of the principles implicit in the video is that banks don't pay interest to depositors in exchange for the right to loan out that deposited money but, rather, bankers use deposits as a means of leveraging those deposits to earn huge profits via the arbitrary laws which have been passed that enable bankers to create money out of thin air ... a practice which might be labeled as 'fraudulent' if it were done by individual citizens. At the very least, banks do not provide depositors with a fair return on the use to which the deposits are put ... which is not in the form of loans, but rather, in the form of a financial leveraging machine that is used to churn out money that is not really backed by anything of value and from which banks earn considerable profits. Those profits really belong to the depositors who were the ones who made the creation of money possible, since without such deposits, there would be no fulcrum through which money could be leveraged multiple times its original, underlying value. In effect, depositors have been snookered by the banks and kept in the dark about the precise nature of the relationship among: (a) the money that is deposited, (b) the generation of more money, and (c) the failure of the banks to provide depositors with a fair return to the depositors who are the ones (along with a variety of laws which serve the interests of bankers) which make the whole enterprise possible (Video may need some time time to buffer before it begins).
There is about a ten second run-off of blank screen at the beginning of the following video before the documentary actually starts.
Co-operatives
The second selection for consideration involves a video on co-operative workplaces such as Mondragón in the Basque region of Spain. The co-operative workplace departs from many models of how to structure and operate a workplace.
Copyright 2003-2024,
Interrogative Imperative Institute, Brewer, Maine 04412