Only 1 hour, cartoon format easy to follow explanation of how money really works and the role of debt in money creation. A must watch
A former investment manager Chris Martenson has been touring the country for years giving this presentation available online for free or in dvd format out of a social conscience to help as many people as possible understand the grave financial crisis facing this country. (He started well before the crash and clearly foresaw it.) This two hour presentation covers all the basics for the average person to understand the things that influence our economy: How money is created, the role of debt in money creation, the historic journey of US government debt, the role of war in inflation, the cycle of boom and bust created by bubbles and the role of peak oil and environmental degradation in our current crisis. Martenson’s motto is: “Do not expect the next 20 years to look anything like the past” and he does a good job of explaining why. As his background is economics and not social activism his solutions tend to be individualistic (or non-existent) He does not look for alternative models – other sources listed here form a good compliment to his crash course.
This movie has three parts. The first part explains how money is created through the debt creation and the role of interest in the economy. The second part talks about scarcity and abundance and how scarcity consciousness keeps people working at things they hate and how are economy counts on some people going bankrupt. The third part looks for alternatives and focuses on alternative community currencies and barter exchanges. Some of us prefer this movie over Money as Debt I and Money as Debt II.
A film by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Steven Gorelick & John Page This is a wonderful movie –just out in 1/11. It really brings it all together: an indepth analysis of Globalization as an economic form of exploitation, the effect of wasting energy, the power of multinationals and then a wonderful sharing about local economies, local food production, and transition towns. She also uses as a powerful example the experience of Ladakh, a village in the Himalayas. The village was once cut off from the world high in the mountains, totally self-sufficient, with no unemployment, harmony between the two religious groups, a deep sense of community, tradition, happy people and abundant leisure time. We are shown the changes that happened after a road connected it to the rest of the world, western products and advertising came in. Now there is unemployment, religious conflict, depression and a devaluing of the culture. We see in this small microcosm what globalization has done to the world. The movie also shows how the happiness of both the rich and the poor are effected when there is economic inequity.
Annie Leonard has created a series of educational and humerous cartoon strips looking at serious issues. Her first one: the Story of Stuff explains how we are encouraged to buy in a mindless glut of consumerism and how this drives the economy and destroys the environment. The second one talks about climate change and is called: Cap and Trade. She has also created ones about bottled water, cosmetics, etc. Her newest one takes on The Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision and advocates for the Constitutional Amendment which has been proposed to remedy this.
This movie talks about the mis-measure that GNP represents, talks about the idea of measuring happiness and true measures of positive contribution to the economy. In a light way with a fun photo montage of old us film clips it shows some of the real statistics about America’s health care system, education, etc. It points out how much depression and stress our way of life has created and that we are one of only 5 countries in the world that do not guarantee workers vacation, or mother’s paid maternity leave. De Graff is one of the leaders of both “take back your time” day and the happiness project.
This recovers some of the basic concepts from Money as Debt I – how money is created and the role of debt and interest. Also makes the point that the system counts on some people going bankrupt and explains how bank crashes and bank runs can occur. Attempts to explain current financial crisis – but some of us find the graphics distracting and that it is not as clear as would be hoped for.
This simple video explains how the economy works and why we have inequality as well as the history of US economic changes in perhaps the best summary we have found.
Bill Moyer interviews William Black who explains what was done during the S&L crisis and the Prompt Corrective Action law which exists and could be used in this crisis.
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