January 13th, 2010 by Alex

January 7th, 2010 by Alex

I made a few minor changes to the book for 2010. The main thing I changed was the section titled “Fractional Reserve Lending” on page 64. What I put in that section originally, I put in for the sake of simplicity because I didn’t want to have to get into the subject of capital requirements (especially since those kinds of details are subject to change). However, I broke down and chopped that section up and now talk about the total capital requirement of 8% of total risk-weighted assets (loans) imposed by the the Bank for International Settlements (the central bank of central banks). Since modern banks don’t really loan out deposit money, the 8% capital requirement is the primary limit on bank money creation. The only other notable change is on page 111. I now talk about how infrastructure dollars could first be implemented by states. All states would have to do is create their own banks (like North Dakota has) and make their own interest-free credit to fund infrastructure. I also updated a few charts, but that is about it.

The book should become a bit more widely available within a few months.

January 7th, 2010 by Alex

I’m all for healthcare reform, but I certainly don’t see any reform in the current corporatist debacle trying to get through congress. It is really disgusting: forcing people to buy private insurance. That is sick. It is just another Wall Street bailout. True healthcare reform would start with monetary reform, because that is the way to stop corporatism. And as long as the government is corporatist all reform will be corporatist.

This video outlines a realistic solution for real healthcare reform.

1) Change the tax code so that employer provided health insurance is no longer tax exempt. In other words, separate health insurance from employment.
2) Scale back state regulations to create a national market for health insurance.
3) Encourage health savings accounts as an alternative to traditional insurance.

Overall, government needs to get all in or all out of healthcare. But for the government to get all in to healthcare it would have to get its financial act together, particualrly though monetary reform. I hear people say all the time things like “Canada and the UK have free healthcare,” suggesting that government healthcare is free. There is no such thing as free healthcare. Unless you never earn or spend any money in your life, you pay in those systems in one way or another. Nonetheless, I’d be happy to support government run universal healthcare relative to forced insurance any day. At least I’d probably feel like I was getting something for my tax money in such a system. But I’d personally rather make my own decisions concerning my money and healthcare in a government-free free-market system. All I know is that it is all pretty hopeless, because corporatism of some form will always win as long as the current government is involved with the system. And just on a basic level it is hopeless because regardless of the system, either healthy people are going to pay for sick people while healthcare gets ever more expensive, and or sick people are going to be out of luck unless they have money and or insurance before they get sick. Both those things occur in the current system.

January 1st, 2010 by Alex

Author of the book “The Problem with Interest” talks about debt in his 26 minute documentary “Why Are We All in Debt?”. I’d personally change a few things said in this little documentary, but it is nonetheless good and very interesting.