November 2009

Goldman Sachs: Bernie Madoff on Steroids

by Dan Robles on November 30, 2009

lloyd_blankfein(Editor’s note: in all fairness, the GS initiative does represent a fundamental shift away from the Friedman doctrine of amoral capitalism.)

Money does not represent gold, solver, or oil.  Money represents human productivity – yours and mine.  Goldman Sachs is about to award the greatest ANNUAL payout for its employees – over 700,000 dollars EACH.

The words “money” and “productivity” should be interchangeable. So, what exactly did Goldman Sachs produce in order to amass such astonishing amounts of “money?”  Where is the corresponding astonishing productivity?

The line of fire is quite obvious; the productivity is really “future” productivity in the form of debt – yours and mine.

WSJ: Some of the largest shareholders in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have urged the Wall Street firm to reduce the size of its bonus pool, arguing that it should pass along more of its blockbuster earnings to investors, according to people familiar with the situation.

Uhhmmm…15% of the shares are owned by the Goldman employees – sounds like the 2nd tier of the pyramid are getting anxious.  Like a street gang, they battle for a piece of the turf.  Perhaps Goldman should do something for the 3rd tier too.

[click to continue…]

Read More

A Definition for Innovation Economics

by Dan Robles on November 26, 2009

wikipedia(Editors Note: The following is too good to leave on Wikipedia. Underlines are this editor’s emphasis – sounds like conversational currency to me):

Innovation economics is an economic doctrine that reformulates the traditional model of economic growth so that knowledge, technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation are positioned at the center of the model rather than seen as independent forces that are largely unaffected by policy.

Innovation economics is based on two fundamental tenets. One is that the central goal of economic policy should be to spur higher productivity and greater innovation. Second, markets relying on price signals alone will not always be as effective as smart public-private partnerships in spurring higher productivity and greater innovation. This is in contrast to the two other conventional economic doctrines, neoclassical economics and Keynesian economics.

Innovation economics can be summarized as follows:

[click to continue…]

Read More

Fattest Cat Bets Against Dollar (and what we can do about it)

November 25, 2009

Wonder where your money went? “John Paulson took it,” wrote Peter Cohen of BloggingStocks. Want to know what Paulson is buying this year? Gold. Betting against the dollar is his latest ploy and so far seems to be working. Ummmm…this means that the rest of us are basically screwed, again.

Read the full article →

Palinism; It’s About The Ice, Not The Puck

November 24, 2009

No matter whether you like her or not, you can’t help but feel something for her. The Cinderella launch into worldwide stage, full public disclosure of her laundry room, dumped at the altar by the grizzled groom, sent back to Alaska with a scarlet letter (take your pick) tattooed on her forehead. Alas, the epiphany: God speaks to the persecuted one; “Rise Up and serve thy mission!”

Read the full article →

Bovine Economics

November 23, 2009

Every week, we’ll collect headlines from the Google News Search that contain the word “money” and replace it with the word “Productivity” [in brackets]. If the headline still makes sense, then enjoy the article in confidence that you are being nourished. If it tells a different story, it’s Bovine Economics – suitable for mushrooms and methane

Read the full article →

YoVille Economics

November 21, 2009

I am amazed at how many of my friends say that they do not understand economics – then I visit their facebook page only to find all the trappings of advanced economic theory. Economics is the science of incentives and currency is the medium of exchange.

Read the full article →

Intellectual Property in Bloggerville

November 20, 2009

I am always amazed when I get that proverbial chest thumping quasi-barrister “cease and desist” letter, followed by remedial citation of copyright law, and always ending with some pathetic accusation of irreparable damages and criminal violation.

Read the full article →

The Great Currency Shift

November 19, 2009

I am seeing an increasing amount of articles and ideas related to an alternate financial system. The continued traditional media narrative implies that the current system is unstable and corrupted with insider deals, Ponzi schemes, bribes, and high profile acquittals of financial crime. The underlying age-old assumption is that the wealthy (merchant class) will win and the rest of us (the working class) will lose.

Read the full article →

Seeding the Clouds of Social Media

November 18, 2009

The climate change summit ended in a draw after Kyoto ended in party pooper. You can count the financial crisis, endless warfare, world hunger, slave labor, forest-to-dump consumerism among the same pile of sun dried bullshit. Does anyone still trust the “leaders”?

Read the full article →

Business Week: They Trust Me, I Trust Them

November 17, 2009

One of my favorite aggregation sites is Business Week Exchange. To me BX represents a knowledge inventory. Everyone who posts to this site is a media maven, social influencer, and trust agent. Each one represents a galaxy of relationships, experiences, and followers. All the categories are sourced by these users. All of the articles are sourced and often written by these users. All the trending data are produced by the users. By far, my highest QUALITY followers come from BX; not Twitter, not Facebook, and not Friendfeed.

Read the full article →

Can Twitter Fuel a Run on the Banks?

November 16, 2009

Suppose someone puts together a Twitter campaign for everyone the withdraw their money from a single financial institution who just handed out big bonuses? At best, those bonuses will have to be recalled to keep the doors open. At worst…

Read the full article →

The American Civil War 2

November 16, 2009

Societies since the beginning of our time would have envied us beyond words – as their villages were pillaged, as the plague spread, or as the hurricane hit shore – if they had a system that could unify and organize people as we can do today with social media. My fear, is that we will use this tool to divide instead of unify.

Read the full article →

Is Virtual Currency a Problem?

November 15, 2009

Half insightful synthesis and half tongue-in-cheek, this article suggests that virtual currency may impact the current monetary system. The conclusion is brilliant suggesting that the national debt could be paid in virtual currency.

Read the full article →

Social Isolation Funnel

November 13, 2009

Once users lose the ability to reject a brand message, we’re all right back where we started from.

Read the full article →

Is the Credit Score Obsolete?

November 12, 2009

The justification is that credit rating did not predict or help avoid the last crisis, so what good are they? The new twist: The bankers put their personal and corporate reputations on the line. If you trust the banker, you can trust their bond.

Read the full article →

Executing the News

November 11, 2009

All this plays out in a delicate dance of “crowd sourced censorship” Whatever survives this gauntlet of execution becomes THE NEWS.

Read the full article →

Making A Mess on Madison Ave

November 10, 2009

Wall Street talks about a Basket of Goods. The UN talks about a basket of Currencies. What would Madison Avenue say when Main Street coverts your baskets of goods with their basket of social currencies? Here is a simple business plan that will screw everything up.

Read the full article →

The Weakest Link; Advertising

November 9, 2009

As an Engineer, my respect for the Advertising/Marketing/PR, as an industry, is diminishing daily. I see what is gorged behind the curtain and I see what is reguritated in front to the curtain. The degree of hypocrisy defies social responsibility.

Read the full article →

When Capitalists Are Really the Socialists

November 7, 2009

When will people come to the realization that a new financial system is needed to represent the new social order? When will people realize that they have in their possession the most important tool ever devised by humanity for the benefit of humanity? When will they shut off the TV and reject the barrage of mediated reality that blinds them with propaganda at every turn?

Read the full article →

Community Currency; Ithaca Hours

November 6, 2009

Many communities are giving up waiting on large corporations or government to invest or provide jobs, and are instead building on their own strengths and resources.

Read the full article →

Community Currency Systems

November 5, 2009

We are optimistic that the current economic system will ebb in favor of a next economic paradigm that reflects social priorities as a means of meeting Wall Street Priorities. We’ll be posting several articles on the subject in the coming days.

Read the full article →

Building The Social Economy

November 4, 2009

The following summary from Hannah Del Porto does a great job in identifying the State of the Art in Building The Social Economy. Such “Thought Infrastructure” is essential to what will evolve into the next economic paradigm.

Read the full article →

Social Currency; History Matters

November 3, 2009

History often provides clarity in the present. I was searching the term “Social Currency” and I found these two posts on a forum from all the way back in 2001. The authors are quite explicit in their expectations of social currency in their present and deep into the future.

Read the full article →

A Local Currency Primer; Comfort Dollars

November 2, 2009

As more corporate and governmental institutions fail to meet the needs of society, people will need a currency that they can trade among each other. If the dollar fails, the need will be dire.
The difficulties that will ultimately limit such enterprise is the inability to capitalize and securitize a social currency.

Read the full article →