The Next Economic Paradigm

Tag: GOP

How Obama Will Save The World

Do the math – Interest on National Debt can go all the way up to infinity while Austerity measures can only go down to zero.   There is tragedy looming at both ends of the political spectrum and the Golden Goose can’t fly much longer.  Captain Obama is in a tough spot.

Someone will eventually need to gently lay the economy down in a nice soft spot with a just a few critical social programs intact. A task comparable to US Airways Pilot  Capt. Sullenberger who successfully landed his stalled airliner on the freezing Husdon without ripping off the wings, catching on fire, splitting the hull, or sinking the ship with all the passengers inside.

Here is how the endgame is shaping up:

Through some secret signal, all of the World’s money barons will come together and agree to simultaneously lop off three zeros (000) from all financial balance sheets.  This will effectively reboot the world economy.  A $50 trillion debt obligation now becomes a quaint and manageable $50 billion debt.  Unfortunately, a $500,000 dollar pension becomes worth about $500 bucks.   The game will reset with champaign toasts and business-as-usual in a race to conjure new debt into existence.  The recovery is on … for some.

Those who have exactly as much debt as they have tangible assets will enjoy a net zero impact.   Those caught at the extreme ends with too little debt or too much cash will lose spectacularly.

A stoic and sober Capt. Obama is at the controls, should we be worried?

Well, maybe. Just to give you an idea of what’s happening in the cockpit: Capt. Obama will project his glide path into the visible horizon.  If he can’t make it out to Hillary’s term, he will probably try to set it down right after he is re-elected and can still blame the GOP.  The GOP will try everything they can to wrestle it down before 2012 – split hull or not – so that they can claim the presidency.  If they win 2012 without the landing, they’ll land it soon after 2012 and blame it on Obama.  Note that none of this has anything to do with aerodynamics.

Why should this inspire anyone’s confidence?

There are a few people in the back seats working really hard to build a parachute that will hedge their fall.  None of the people near the cockpit, boardrooms, or stock exchanges have any idea what these passengers are doing – they don’t seem to care – instead, they are too busy topping off their debt to equity ratios for optimum survivability upon impact.

But, the hedge instrument is playing out in Social Media, slowly siphoning the factors of production into a new economic system. Some passengers are only inches away from jump-starting an alternate economy using a social currency backed by real productivity, not debt, in a new form of capitalism.  All they need is an instrument that is only a little better than what’s flying now.  Then, all the money in the world will convert to the hedge currency.

Now THAT’s monetization.

The guys near the cockpit will never see it coming – they’ll only see it leaving.  That’s how Obama will save the World. Let’s hope he can swim.

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They Should Pass A Social Currency Option

My new favorite rebuttal to any argument from economic ailment to political controversy is: “I’d like to see a social currency thrown into the mix”.

It is really convenient to have the same position on all issues; Health Care, Terrorism, abortion, financial meltdown, education reform, and political scandal – my response is the same. “I’d like to see a social currency thrown into the mix”.

What the heck am I talking about?

Several recent blogs articles (and here, and here, and here) have converged around the idea that social currency is something that people earn from being active in a community, network, or social organization. Social Currency in lauded upon the recipient in many forms such as Google juice, respect, engagement, trust, re-tweets, reputation, merit badges, check-ins, tokens, Whuffie, wiggly worms, etc…

Regardless of what you call it, all social currencies have a very unique characteristic that differentiates them from a financial currency. Social currencies reward high integrity and punish low integrity.

Social Currency can be earned or converted:

Organizing a community around a common goal is serving a need that government and corporations do not have to fulfill in their “Social Charter”. So it has value.

  • Helping a neighbor find a job supplants the work of the government funded unemployment office.
  • Helping an elderly neighbor with their shopping supplements the Department of Health and Human Services.
  • Adopting a child alleviates expenditures in the foster care system, abortion, and possibly the courts and prisons.
  • Helping local vendors stay afloat by organizing a community of group buying or groupons reduces the demands on bankruptcy courts and social services.

Social Currency can also be eliminated:

  • Public servants and politicians who squander the trust of their constituents through acts of corruption and impropriety
  • Corporations who decimate local priorities in favor of Wall Street priorities.
  • Breaking the law, endangering others, neglect, fraud, breech of social contract .
  • Consumption far in excess of social contribution.

Take any issue and apply social currency

The health care debate is an excellent example. First, let’s apply a social currency to all of the people voting on the bill. Next, let’s apply a social currency to everyone arguing against the bill. Next, let’s apply a social currency to everyone arguing in favor of the bill. Let that count establish the burden of proof of the argument.

Next, let’s pay for Health Care Reform in social currency, not financial currency. That means people with a surplus of social currency receive health care at a certain rate. People with a deficit of social currency receive health care at a different rate.

Finally, compensation to health care providers would also be biased by a social currency. Providers with a surplus of social currency are paid at a different rate than providers with a deficit of social currency.

What about cheaters?, who pays these subsidies? how do you count it?, It’s a job killer, corporations will go bankrupt, losers still lose, Holy cow, this messes everything up!!!!

Actually, it’s not much different than how we allocate money on a credit scoring basis. It’s not any more difficult to count than the blood-money coursing through the veins of an unvetted financial / insurance system. Most importantly, constraining a Financial Currency with a Social Currency sets up a whole new landscape of benchmarks and incentives that accelerate innovation, in effect, printing new currency.

That’s what I mean when I say; “I’d Like to see some Social Currency in the Mix”


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