Oct 25

Written by:
10/25/2009 7:46 PM 

This is a partial review of Ellen Brown's book of that title.I read the first half carefully then became overwhelmed by a bunch of case histories and decided the tone was turning polemical. So I skimmed the rest. At about 85 %, turning to recipes for reform, she does a good job on alternate currencies except at the end says they are not the answer, that the national mess has to be fixed. The final recipe was lengthy, and by now I had not the appetite to read it. The book does have a consistent theme, bank money is harmful. There is a paradox on the side: She ignores William Greider, the dean of US financial critics, but refers to the work of Bernard Lietaer, whom I regard as the dean summa cum laude of finance. Nobody has better creds. Plus, Lietaer actually plugs her book! In sum, I do think there is much solid information and fine critical thinking here. There is also a loose cannon of opinion rolling along. With a good edit this could be a very good book. Oh, by the way she gives no credit to Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine even though it came first.

Here's where it leaves me:

I give up trying to absorb the intricacies of money. Just hope I learn some basics.

I'm more convinced than ever that Vashon has to get a dual currency.

I cling to the unsubstantiated opinion that the single block to the success of a ledger based exchange "currency" is lack of an absolute value of the unit. This is analogous to use of gold, and better. This is where I'm at, and this is where I'm gonna stay. To hell with Wall Street, to hell with the Fed, to hell with the stock market, to hell with Congress, and to hell with political parties. No, not the Greens. Keep them, but somebody tell them to knock off trying to play in the electoral court. You'll have to do it. They won't listen to me.