MATTERS IN THE AIR …. WELCOMING NEW COMERS – Reminding each other of opportunities before us.

– INTERIM REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT COMMISSION ON BANKING – http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/htcdn/Interim-Report-110411.pdf – and Robert Peston’s comment: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2011/04/banking_commission_retail_bank.html

– FINANCE INNOVATION LAB reports

– The NEW ECONOMIC MODEL, a project of nef (the New Economics Foundation), has been named a 2011 semi-finalist in the Buckminster Fuller Challenge.

– The new LETSlink Forum:  http://www.letslink.org/forum

PERTINENT PICKINGS from the week

– Debtonation: The Global Financial Crisis has posted a new item, ‘What are we struggling for? – ICA seminar’ 7th April 2011.  I appeared on a panel with Andrew Simms of nef and Milford Bateman (author of ‘Why Doesn’t Microfinance Work? – The destructive rise of Local Neoliberalism’) to discuss finance and the importance of primarily national systems. My talk was titled: “Let ideas and art be international, goods be homespun & finance primarily national”. […] You may view the latest post at: http://www.debtonation.org/2011/04/what-are-we-struggling-for-ica-seminar/

– “Japan Post’s Stalled Sale a Saving Grace” – http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/MD01Dh01.html Ellen Brown and Japan: Financing Reconstruction. The Monetary Implications of the Nuclear Catastrophe ….Ellen Brown: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24077

– Paul Hellyer -former Deputy PM of Canada – http://tinyurl.com/5wwkw3g

– What is the pithiest form of our core message? What of this draft?

WHO IS THE ENEMY?
The enemy is hubristic humanity,
living as though we could control nature.
Until we decommodify people, land and credit,
we are doomed to inappropriate exponential growth
and the entrenched habit
of exploitation of people and planet
that together widen the rich poor gap and
degrade the planet’s life support systems.