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October 2009 
The Mountain, the Forest & the Trees & Out of the Crises ~
Joy Bringer
The significance of the economic crisis which is part of a much bigger global crisis on all levels, is not limited to the US, but is global in scope and too disastrous to allow to happen and deepen in severity. The call and need for ALL of us to think AND act differently has never been louder and more urgent. We really have to SEE ourselves and the world around us in radically NEW ways and resolve our challenges in new, deeper and smarter ways. We need to SEE things, events and ideas from a holistic perspective, from a higher awareness of their impact on each and all of us, AND ACT accordingly so that this set of new values, higher consciousness and respons-able behaviors can transform the prevalent current toxic way of thinking, living and being.
What is really needed is for each and every one of us to do AND bring their best, to summon his/her highest self and BE the change by example and by sharing the deepest and brightest of our ideas in finding solutions that will be aligned with the future we want to co-create for us and the generations to come.
I think, feel AND believe that we as humanity can avoid all the doom and gloom scenarios that we are bombarded with on an hourly basis, by being and acting together like we never did/have before, fusing our inner knowledge of who we are and acting from the wisdom of our interdependence all-together.
I envision that we can turn the planetary alarms from being the real concern of the few to being the daily action of the many and thus facilitate the transition through co-operation and learning rather than through disasters and pain.
"To give you an idea as to where our country is with debt, as of September 2008, the U.S. federal debt totaled approximately $9.7T, or $31,700 per person. However when the unfunded liabilities such as Social Security, Medicare, and other social programs are added in, our total debt grows to $59.1T or $516,348 per household. In 2005, the total personal debt, consisting of mortgages and consumer loans was estimated at $11.4T, with total U.S. household assets, including real estate, totaling $62.5T. (Wikipedia, United States public debt). This leaves approximately a $3T difference between our liabilities and our assets.
Why it is Americans can't forgive themselves the interest on the debt? We don't owe it to "we the people," we owe it to the Federal Reserve and to foreign governments in the form of U.S. Treasury bills, notes, and bonds. Currently the top four foreign owners of our debt include: Japan at $592.2B, China at $502B, United Kingdom at $251.4B, and oil exporters at $153.9B. Other countries include Brazil, Caribbean Banking Centers, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Russia, Norway, Germany, Taiwan, and Switzerland."
Albert for blogging about the Spiegel article on"America looses is dominant economic role" with plenty of interesting takes, facts and opinions on the international reverberations of the economic events unfolding in the US as we write all this.
doolang)
Access: Public
There are many other interesting sources and takes on the current crisis. Here are several articles & excerpts worth reading.
Crisis is as far-reaching as the fall of the Soviet Union - Which version of the US bailout plan gets accepted isn't relevant. The consequences of the crisis for the position of the US in the world are much more important, writes John Gray, published by www.nrc.nl
This one was originally posted in Boston Globe's site, reposted on TED.com's blog:
What about AUSTERITY?
By Juan Enriquez and Jorge Dominguez
WITHIN THE billions of sentences about the financial bailout there is one word notably absent, austerity. All talk is of payments, supports, subsidies, incurring more debt, stimulus packages. The thesis seems to be: If only we spend more the party can go on. True, only if the financial meltdown is a temporary mismatch and dislocation in housing and credit markets. But suppose there is something fundamentally wrong with the US economy. Then spending more will not fix it. Getting the diagnosis right means getting the treatment right. It may save us a trillion or two.
The subprime collapse is one symptom of years of little regulation, under-taxing, overspending, and massive debt. One way to understand what is happening in the United States is to look at what occurred time and again in Latin America and Asia, hotbeds of financial and banking crises. What we are living through happened time and again in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, as well as Korea and Thailand.
If there is too much debt, people lose confidence in the banks, then credit markets, currency, and government.
For more than a decade, the international financial cop, the International Monetary Fund, forecast a hurricane was heading toward US shores. As did many heads of the treasury and the Fed. It is, to paraphrase a great writer, a chronicle of an agony foretold. There are five basic drivers of these crises, all based on excess: high income concentration, too much debt, too much reliance on foreign money, not enough tax revenue, and reckless government spending. Time after time governments believe they are different. They are bombarded by warnings but ignore, postpone, spend even more, and crash.
Complicating this crisis is US economic hegemony. There were few places to park a lot of money. Despite the euro, European policies on debts and deficits are not much to brag about. So foreigners have gorged on US debt. The United States continues importing more than it exports. Middle Easterners and Asians who save and invest bought dollars for decades, but some of this money is now fleeing. The dollar has dropped sharply. Gold and oil have skyrocketed. In financial crises, huge pools of capital cross borders very quickly; a few can make a great deal of money shorting the country's currency.
The United States requires a massive restructuring to address its debt, cutting back on its borrowing, spending, and wars… A solution requires the country to begin to spend what it earns, reduce its mountainous debt, and address massive liabilities, restructure Social Security, pension deficits, military, and Medicare. No wonder politicians would rather spend more of your money now rather than address these problems. Because we have been spending 5 to 7 percent more each year than we earn, a forced restructuring, triggered by a currency collapse, would have the same effect on wages and purchasing power that the housing collapse had on housing prices. So let's learn from our Latin and Asian friends and act before it is too late.”
There is another insightful analysis from Zachary Karabell who writes for NewsweeK:
The Echoes of Crisis
he diversifies the meaning of the Wallstreet System for Mainstream and gives background for worldwide economy and society developements which is beyond the reach of the “masters of the universe” at International stock exchanges.
Thanks Albert - so many people anticipated, expected, predicted, warned and even 'caused' this continuous market meltdown. More interesting articles coming from www.mises.org too. Time to resort to some hilariousness into the whole mess setting aside the 'market sentiment/s”. And what a better way then the honest funny chats b/n Bird & Fortune
On the forthcoming Credit Crunch
Part II - COming Prophecy Coming True
Yes…basically I focus however on the complex process of transformation. As masterfully understood AND applied in Spiral Dynamics Integral. Without clear sight on worldwide life conditions and the nodes, codes and contexts of so many vmemetic transitions always dilemmata , cul de sacs and breakdowns rather breakthroughs are perceived and suffered. Or-on the other side- utopian and airy fairy movements.
Even the Global BrainShift, TED Conferences, The mythological talk about THE Shift etc etc —-all this stuff fneeds to be demythologisation.
See this Q/A statment of Steve McIntosh for the Chopra Center:
“Question: How could this collective coming together of leaders be most instrumental in bringing public awareness to the great shift that is occurring?
Answer: First, we could demythologize the idea of “the great shift”, recognizing that there is not just one shift, there are actually many shifts in consciousness going on simultaneously in the world-a shift from pre-traditional to traditional in Africa, a shift from traditional to modern in Asia, and in America, and ongoing shift from modern to postmodern, as well as the beginning of a shift from postmodern to integral. ”
And its good to see that Zachary Karabell and lots of others guide the hypnotic view at financial crisis AWAY from the Wall Street stroboscopic lights…Even away from the stock exchanges and to real economic challenges.
However–as Don Beck and others say for lots of years already…the complete dynamics of large scale systems change must be understood far, far, far more profoundly and engaged.