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David Korten's new book Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth
outlines an agenda to bring into being a new economy-locally based,
community oriented, and devoted to creating a better life for all, not
simply increasing profits.
In this special pre-publication
excerpt, Korten summarizes his version of the economic address to the
nation he wishes Barack Obama were able to deliver.
Barack
Obama was elected to the U.S. presidency on a promise of change. Before
his inauguration, indeed before his election, I drafted the following
as my dream for the economic address he might deliver to the nation
during his administration in fulfillment of the economic aspect of that
promise. It is the New Economy agenda presented in the style of
candidate Obama's political rhetoric.
I suffer no
illusion that he will deliver it. He has surrounded himself with
advisers aligned with Wall Street interests in an effort to establish
public confidence in his ability to restore order in the economy.
Because there has been no discussion of any other option, to most
people "restoring order" means restoring the status quo with the
addition of a job-stimulus package, and that is most likely what he
will try to do.
This speech presents the missing
option-the program that a U.S. president must one day be able to
announce and implement if there is to be any hope for our economic,
social, and environmental future.
Here is the address:
Fellow Citizens:
My
administration came to office with a mandate for bold action at a time
when our most powerful economic institutions had clearly failed us.
They crippled our economy; burdened governments with debilitating
debts; corrupted our political institutions; and threatened the
destruction of the natural environment on which our very lives depend.
The
failure can be traced directly to an elitist economic ideology that
says if government favors the financial interests of the rich to the
disregard of all else, everyone will benefit and the nation will
prosper. A thirty-year experiment with trickle-down economics that
favored the interests of Wall Street speculators over the hardworking
people and businesses of Main Street has proved it doesn't work.
We have no more time or resources to devote to fixing a system based on
false values and a discredited ideology. We must now come together to
create the institutions of a new economy based on a values-based
pragmatism that recognizes a simple truth: If the world is to work for
any of us, it must work for all of us.
Corrective
action begins with recognition that our economic crisis is, at its
core, a moral crisis. Our economic institutions and rules, even the
indicators by which we measure economic performance, consistently place
financial values ahead of life values.
We have
been measuring economic performance against GDP, or gross domestic
product, which essentially measures the rate at which money and
resources are flowing through the economy. Let us henceforth measure
economic performance by the indicators of what we really want: the
health and well-being of our children, families, communities, and the
natural environment.
Like a healthy ecosystem, a
healthy twenty-first-century economy must have strong local roots and
maximize the beneficial capture, storage, sharing, and use of local
energy, water, and mineral resources. That is what we must seek to
achieve, community by community, all across this nation, by unleashing
the creative energies of our people and our local governments,
businesses, and civic organizations.
Previous
administrations favored Wall Street, but the policies of this
administration henceforth will favor the people and businesses of Main
Street-people who are working to rebuild our local communities, restore
the middle class, and bring our natural environment back to health.
We will act to
render Wall Street's casino-like operations unprofitable. We will
impose a transactions tax, require responsible capital ratios, and
impose a surcharge on short-term capital gains. We will make it illegal
for people and corporations to sell or insure assets that they do not
own or in which they do not have a direct material interest.
To meet the financial needs of the new twenty-first-century Main Street economy,
we will reverse the process of mergers and acquisitions that created
the current concentration of banking power. We will restore the
previous system of federally regulated community banks that are locally
owned and managed and that fulfill the classic textbook banking
function of serving as financial intermediaries between local people
looking to secure a modest interest return on their savings and local
people who need a loan to buy a home or finance a business.
David Korten's new book: Agenda for a New Economy BUY THE BOOK: Get the YES! discount: 20% off cover price | |
And
last, but not least, we will implement an orderly process of monetary
reform. Most people believe that our government creates money. That is
a fiction. Private banks create virtually all the money
in circulation when they issue a loan at interest. The money is created
by making a simple accounting entry with a few computer keystrokes.
That is all money really is, an accounting entry.
My
administration will act immediately to begin an orderly transition from
our present system of bank-issued debt money to a system by which money
is issued by the federal government. We will use the government-issued
money to fund economic-stimulus projects
that build the physical and social infrastructure of a
twenty-first-century economy, being careful to remain consistent with
our commitment to contain inflation.
To this end
I have instructed the treasury secretary to take immediate action to
assume control of the Federal Reserve and begin a process of monetizing
the federal debt. He will have a mandate to stabilize the money supply,
contain housing and stock market bubbles, discourage speculation, and
assure the availability of credit on fair and affordable terms to
eligible Main Street borrowers.
By recommitting
ourselves to the founding ideals of this great nation, focusing on our
possibilities, and liberating ourselves from failed ideas and
institutions, together we can create a stronger, better nation. We can
secure a fulfilling life for every person and honor the premise of the
Declaration of Independence that every individual is endowed with an
unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
No
government on its own can resolve the problems facing our nation, but
together we can and will resolve them. I call on every American to join
with me in rebuilding our nation by acting to strengthen our families,
our communities, and our natural environment; to secure the future of
our children; and to restore our leadership position and reputation in
the community of nations.
Work on the YES! website marked as (cc) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. |
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
David Korten's new book Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth
outlines an agenda to bring into being a new economy-locally based,
community oriented, and devoted to creating a better life for all, not
simply increasing profits.
In this special pre-publication
excerpt, Korten summarizes his version of the economic address to the
nation he wishes Barack Obama were able to deliver.
Barack
Obama was elected to the U.S. presidency on a promise of change. Before
his inauguration, indeed before his election, I drafted the following
as my dream for the economic address he might deliver to the nation
during his administration in fulfillment of the economic aspect of that
promise. It is the New Economy agenda presented in the style of
candidate Obama's political rhetoric.
I suffer no
illusion that he will deliver it. He has surrounded himself with
advisers aligned with Wall Street interests in an effort to establish
public confidence in his ability to restore order in the economy.
Because there has been no discussion of any other option, to most
people "restoring order" means restoring the status quo with the
addition of a job-stimulus package, and that is most likely what he
will try to do.
This speech presents the missing
option-the program that a U.S. president must one day be able to
announce and implement if there is to be any hope for our economic,
social, and environmental future.
Here is the address:
Fellow Citizens:
My
administration came to office with a mandate for bold action at a time
when our most powerful economic institutions had clearly failed us.
They crippled our economy; burdened governments with debilitating
debts; corrupted our political institutions; and threatened the
destruction of the natural environment on which our very lives depend.
The
failure can be traced directly to an elitist economic ideology that
says if government favors the financial interests of the rich to the
disregard of all else, everyone will benefit and the nation will
prosper. A thirty-year experiment with trickle-down economics that
favored the interests of Wall Street speculators over the hardworking
people and businesses of Main Street has proved it doesn't work.
We have no more time or resources to devote to fixing a system based on
false values and a discredited ideology. We must now come together to
create the institutions of a new economy based on a values-based
pragmatism that recognizes a simple truth: If the world is to work for
any of us, it must work for all of us.
Corrective
action begins with recognition that our economic crisis is, at its
core, a moral crisis. Our economic institutions and rules, even the
indicators by which we measure economic performance, consistently place
financial values ahead of life values.
We have
been measuring economic performance against GDP, or gross domestic
product, which essentially measures the rate at which money and
resources are flowing through the economy. Let us henceforth measure
economic performance by the indicators of what we really want: the
health and well-being of our children, families, communities, and the
natural environment.
Like a healthy ecosystem, a
healthy twenty-first-century economy must have strong local roots and
maximize the beneficial capture, storage, sharing, and use of local
energy, water, and mineral resources. That is what we must seek to
achieve, community by community, all across this nation, by unleashing
the creative energies of our people and our local governments,
businesses, and civic organizations.
Previous
administrations favored Wall Street, but the policies of this
administration henceforth will favor the people and businesses of Main
Street-people who are working to rebuild our local communities, restore
the middle class, and bring our natural environment back to health.
We will act to
render Wall Street's casino-like operations unprofitable. We will
impose a transactions tax, require responsible capital ratios, and
impose a surcharge on short-term capital gains. We will make it illegal
for people and corporations to sell or insure assets that they do not
own or in which they do not have a direct material interest.
To meet the financial needs of the new twenty-first-century Main Street economy,
we will reverse the process of mergers and acquisitions that created
the current concentration of banking power. We will restore the
previous system of federally regulated community banks that are locally
owned and managed and that fulfill the classic textbook banking
function of serving as financial intermediaries between local people
looking to secure a modest interest return on their savings and local
people who need a loan to buy a home or finance a business.
David Korten's new book: Agenda for a New Economy BUY THE BOOK: Get the YES! discount: 20% off cover price | |
And
last, but not least, we will implement an orderly process of monetary
reform. Most people believe that our government creates money. That is
a fiction. Private banks create virtually all the money
in circulation when they issue a loan at interest. The money is created
by making a simple accounting entry with a few computer keystrokes.
That is all money really is, an accounting entry.
My
administration will act immediately to begin an orderly transition from
our present system of bank-issued debt money to a system by which money
is issued by the federal government. We will use the government-issued
money to fund economic-stimulus projects
that build the physical and social infrastructure of a
twenty-first-century economy, being careful to remain consistent with
our commitment to contain inflation.
To this end
I have instructed the treasury secretary to take immediate action to
assume control of the Federal Reserve and begin a process of monetizing
the federal debt. He will have a mandate to stabilize the money supply,
contain housing and stock market bubbles, discourage speculation, and
assure the availability of credit on fair and affordable terms to
eligible Main Street borrowers.
By recommitting
ourselves to the founding ideals of this great nation, focusing on our
possibilities, and liberating ourselves from failed ideas and
institutions, together we can create a stronger, better nation. We can
secure a fulfilling life for every person and honor the premise of the
Declaration of Independence that every individual is endowed with an
unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
No
government on its own can resolve the problems facing our nation, but
together we can and will resolve them. I call on every American to join
with me in rebuilding our nation by acting to strengthen our families,
our communities, and our natural environment; to secure the future of
our children; and to restore our leadership position and reputation in
the community of nations.
Work on the YES! website marked as (cc) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. |
David Korten's new book Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth
outlines an agenda to bring into being a new economy-locally based,
community oriented, and devoted to creating a better life for all, not
simply increasing profits.
In this special pre-publication
excerpt, Korten summarizes his version of the economic address to the
nation he wishes Barack Obama were able to deliver.
Barack
Obama was elected to the U.S. presidency on a promise of change. Before
his inauguration, indeed before his election, I drafted the following
as my dream for the economic address he might deliver to the nation
during his administration in fulfillment of the economic aspect of that
promise. It is the New Economy agenda presented in the style of
candidate Obama's political rhetoric.
I suffer no
illusion that he will deliver it. He has surrounded himself with
advisers aligned with Wall Street interests in an effort to establish
public confidence in his ability to restore order in the economy.
Because there has been no discussion of any other option, to most
people "restoring order" means restoring the status quo with the
addition of a job-stimulus package, and that is most likely what he
will try to do.
This speech presents the missing
option-the program that a U.S. president must one day be able to
announce and implement if there is to be any hope for our economic,
social, and environmental future.
Here is the address:
Fellow Citizens:
My
administration came to office with a mandate for bold action at a time
when our most powerful economic institutions had clearly failed us.
They crippled our economy; burdened governments with debilitating
debts; corrupted our political institutions; and threatened the
destruction of the natural environment on which our very lives depend.
The
failure can be traced directly to an elitist economic ideology that
says if government favors the financial interests of the rich to the
disregard of all else, everyone will benefit and the nation will
prosper. A thirty-year experiment with trickle-down economics that
favored the interests of Wall Street speculators over the hardworking
people and businesses of Main Street has proved it doesn't work.
We have no more time or resources to devote to fixing a system based on
false values and a discredited ideology. We must now come together to
create the institutions of a new economy based on a values-based
pragmatism that recognizes a simple truth: If the world is to work for
any of us, it must work for all of us.
Corrective
action begins with recognition that our economic crisis is, at its
core, a moral crisis. Our economic institutions and rules, even the
indicators by which we measure economic performance, consistently place
financial values ahead of life values.
We have
been measuring economic performance against GDP, or gross domestic
product, which essentially measures the rate at which money and
resources are flowing through the economy. Let us henceforth measure
economic performance by the indicators of what we really want: the
health and well-being of our children, families, communities, and the
natural environment.
Like a healthy ecosystem, a
healthy twenty-first-century economy must have strong local roots and
maximize the beneficial capture, storage, sharing, and use of local
energy, water, and mineral resources. That is what we must seek to
achieve, community by community, all across this nation, by unleashing
the creative energies of our people and our local governments,
businesses, and civic organizations.
Previous
administrations favored Wall Street, but the policies of this
administration henceforth will favor the people and businesses of Main
Street-people who are working to rebuild our local communities, restore
the middle class, and bring our natural environment back to health.
We will act to
render Wall Street's casino-like operations unprofitable. We will
impose a transactions tax, require responsible capital ratios, and
impose a surcharge on short-term capital gains. We will make it illegal
for people and corporations to sell or insure assets that they do not
own or in which they do not have a direct material interest.
To meet the financial needs of the new twenty-first-century Main Street economy,
we will reverse the process of mergers and acquisitions that created
the current concentration of banking power. We will restore the
previous system of federally regulated community banks that are locally
owned and managed and that fulfill the classic textbook banking
function of serving as financial intermediaries between local people
looking to secure a modest interest return on their savings and local
people who need a loan to buy a home or finance a business.
David Korten's new book: Agenda for a New Economy BUY THE BOOK: Get the YES! discount: 20% off cover price | |
And
last, but not least, we will implement an orderly process of monetary
reform. Most people believe that our government creates money. That is
a fiction. Private banks create virtually all the money
in circulation when they issue a loan at interest. The money is created
by making a simple accounting entry with a few computer keystrokes.
That is all money really is, an accounting entry.
My
administration will act immediately to begin an orderly transition from
our present system of bank-issued debt money to a system by which money
is issued by the federal government. We will use the government-issued
money to fund economic-stimulus projects
that build the physical and social infrastructure of a
twenty-first-century economy, being careful to remain consistent with
our commitment to contain inflation.
To this end
I have instructed the treasury secretary to take immediate action to
assume control of the Federal Reserve and begin a process of monetizing
the federal debt. He will have a mandate to stabilize the money supply,
contain housing and stock market bubbles, discourage speculation, and
assure the availability of credit on fair and affordable terms to
eligible Main Street borrowers.
By recommitting
ourselves to the founding ideals of this great nation, focusing on our
possibilities, and liberating ourselves from failed ideas and
institutions, together we can create a stronger, better nation. We can
secure a fulfilling life for every person and honor the premise of the
Declaration of Independence that every individual is endowed with an
unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
No
government on its own can resolve the problems facing our nation, but
together we can and will resolve them. I call on every American to join
with me in rebuilding our nation by acting to strengthen our families,
our communities, and our natural environment; to secure the future of
our children; and to restore our leadership position and reputation in
the community of nations.
Work on the YES! website marked as (cc) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. |