Conférence de Paul Ariès sur le thème de la décroissance

Conférence de Paul Ariès sur le thème de la décroissance  Enviado por dijon-ecolo

La biodiversidad de nuestro planeta se extingue.

uned

La biodiversidad de nuestro planeta se extingue.
Programa de televisión.
Fecha de emisión: 21-01-2011
Duración: 24' 23''
Eclipsados por otros graves problemas como el cambio climático o la crisis financiera y económica, la celebración en 2010 del Año Internacional de la Biodiversidad, a propuesta de Naciones Unidas, y la celebración de la Conferencia de las Partes del Convenio de Diversidad Biológica, celebrada en Nagoya (Japón), han pasado desapercibidas para la opinión pública.
Pero no es un problema secundario, como alertan los científicos. La biodiversidad se extingue a una velocidad hasta ahora desconocida: 1000 veces superior a lo que sería su ritmo natural. La casi totalidad de los ecosistemas de la Tierra se han transformado radicalmente por la acción del hombre, y seguirán transformándose.
Una situación que nos acerca a un punto sin regreso.
En este año 2010 se debería haber logrado una reducción significativa del ritmo de pérdida de la diversidad biológica a nivel mundial, regional o nacional, como se acordó en la Cumbre Mundial de Desarrollo Sostenible de Johannesburgo. Una meta que no se ha conseguido. Pero, en la Cumbre de Nagoya, se han visto algunos avances y se han logrado cerrar algunos importantes acuerdos para la protección de la biodiversidad.
Las respuestas no están sólo en instituciones y gobiernos, es un problema de todos, y para ello en 2010 se han realizado campañas de sensibilización a nivel mundial y nacional y se han incrementado las investigaciones que evalúan la magnitud del problema. Porque la biodiversidad es nuestra vida, como destaca el mensaje de Naciones Unidas en el Año Internacional de la Biodiversidad 2010 que acaba de concluir.
Participan:
Julia Vera Prieto, directora de Formación y Comunicación (Fundación Biodiversidad);
Francisco Ortega Coloma, profesor de Diversidad Animal y Vegetal (UNED);
Carlos Montes del Olmo, catedrático de Ecología (UAM);
Miguel Lizana Avia, profesor de Zoología (Universidad de Salamanca);
Juan Carlos del Olmo, secretario general de WWF- España;
Miguel Ángel Valladares, director de Comunicación de WWF- España.
Producción y realización: CEMAV

The Story of Stuff

storyofstuffproject

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. http://storyofstuff.org

Must Listen: Cindy Sheehan interviews Helena Norberg-Hodge

http://cindysheehanssoapbox.com/

Sunday (January 30th) - Click here to listen or download.

Cindy welcomes Helena Norberg-Hodge (Economics of Happiness), an analyst of the impact of the global economy on cultures and agriculture worldwide and a pioneer of the localization movement. The destructive impact of globalization on our children is no less destructive than its historical impact on the Ladakh, an isolated Himalayan culture described in countercurrents.org here. Over the past three decades, Ms. Norberg-Hodge has studied this process in numerous cultures around the world and discovered that we are all victims of these same psychological pressures. In virtually every industrialized country, including the US, UK, Australia, France and Japan, there is now what can only be described as an epidemic of depression. In the US, a growing proportion of young girls are so deeply insecure about their appearance they fall victim to anorexia and bulimia, or undergo expensive cosmetic surgery. Why is this happening? Too often these signs of breakdown are seen as 'normal:' we assume that depression is a universal affliction, that children are by nature insecure about their appearance, that greed, acquisitiveness, and competition are innate to the human condition. What we fail to consider are the billions of dollars spent by marketers targeting children as young as two, with a goal of instilling the belief that material possessions will ensure them the love and appreciation they crave. But the reality is that consumption leads to greater competition and envy, leaving children more isolated, insecure, and unhappy, thereby fuelling still more frantic consumption in a vicious cycle. In this way, the global consumer culture taps into the fundamental human need for love and twists it into insatiable greed.

Lucy Neal - Transition Town Tooting

Lucy Neal talks about the role of the arts at a time of systemic change in our societies and about transition towns in particular as a global experiment in re-modelling our communities for a low-carbon future. She uses Transition Town Tooting (http://transitiontowntooting.blogspot.com/) as an example of positive collective response in South West London to peak oil consumption and climate change.

David Bollier, "This Land is Our Land," Interviewed by David Pakman

MidweekPolitics

David Bollier, author, activist, and expert on the "commons" is interviewed. Bollier lends his expertise to the Media Education Foundation documentary "This Land is Our Land."
http://www.davidpakman.com

This Land is Our Land: The Fight to Reclaim the Commons

This Land is Our Land: The Fight to Reclaim the Commons
A Film by the Media Education Foundation
Featuring David Bollier

For more than three decades, transnational corporations have been busy buying up what used to be known as the commons -- everything from our forests and our oceans to our broadcast airwaves and our most important intellectual and cultural works. In This Land is Our Land, acclaimed author David Bollier, a leading figure in the global movement to reclaim the commons, bucks the rising tide of anti-government extremism and free market ideology to show how commercial interests are undermining our collective interests. Placing the commons squarely within the American tradition of community engagement and the free exchange of ideas and information, Bollier shows how a bold new international movement steeped in democratic principles is trying to reclaim our common wealth by modeling practical alternatives to the restrictive monopoly powers of corporate elites.

David Bollier
David Bollier is an author, activist, blogger and consultant who has spent the past ten years exploring the commons as a new paradigm of economics, politics and culture. He has pursued this work in collaboration with a variety of international and domestic partners. He speaks widely about the commons, and recently co-founded a new international organization, Commons Strategies, dedicated to developing and promoting commons-based public policies and initiatives. In 2010, Bollier taught a course on the topic as the Croxton Lecturer at Amherst College.

Bollier's latest book, Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own (2009), describes the rise of free software, free culture, and the commons-based movements seeking to advance open business models, open science and open educational resources. His first book on the commons, Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth (2002), is now widely used in colleges around the world. It surveys the many market enclosures of people's shared resources, from public lands and the airwaves to public spaces, plant and animal genes, and knowledge. Brand Name Bullies: The Quest to Own and Control Culture (2005) documents the vast expansion of copyright and trademark law over the past generation.

Bollier has worked with American television writer/producer Norman Lear since 1984, and is Senior Fellow at the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. He is also Co-founder and board member of Public Knowledge, a Washington policy advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the information commons. Bollier lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Who Creates Money? (Hint: Banks, as debt, via Fractional Reserve Banking)

PositiveMoneyUK

http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/whats...
 
Contrary to common belief, most money now is created by commercial, high-street banks when they make loans,
and not by the government or the Bank of England. This video explains why.

Chris Hedges: How Corporations Destroyed American Democracy

PHubb

How Corporations Destroyed American Democracy - Chris Hedges.
Filmed at Socialism 2010 in Chicago by Paul Hubbard

Helena Norberg-Hodge : The Economics of Happiness

More GRITtv

"Economics has  a lot to do with unhappiness," says Helena Norberg-Hodge, co-director of The Economics of Happiness. "We have an economic system that is systematically creating job scarcity worldwide," she notes, and it's time that we stopped obsessing about bottom lines, corporate growth, and income at the top and started to think about other ways of measuring positive effects in global society.

Helena is also the author of Ancient Futures, and she joins us in studio to talk about the need for economic literacy, new models of measuring happiness, and finding a balance between rural and urban life.

Source: http://grittv.org/2011/01/28/helena-norberg-hodge-the-economics-of-happiness/

Keiser Report: Bono money stealing inspiration (E116)

RussiaToday

This time Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, talk about accounting tweaks and super cycles. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Michael 'Woody' O'Brien about the gold standard and silver.
RT on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RTnews
RT on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RT_com

Encirclement - Neoliberalism Ensnares Democracy

5iF3R

( chapter links below in info! )

Neo-liberalism's one-size-fits-all dogmas are well known: deregulation, reducing the role of the State, privatization, limiting inflation rather than unemployment, etc. In other words, depoliticizing the economy and putting it into the hands of the financial class.

And these dogmas are gradually settling into our consciousness because they're being broadcast across a vast and pervasive network of propaganda. [...] But behind the ideological smokescreen, behind the neat concepts of natural order and the harmony of interests in a free market, beyond the panacea of the "invisible hand," what is really going on?

(Written by Richard Brouillette)

* Chapter 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zulIKE...
* Chapter 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zulIKE...
* Chapter 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zulIKE...
* Chapter 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zulIKE...
* Chapter 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zulIKE...
* Chapter 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zulIKE...
* Chapter 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zulIKE...
* Chapter 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zulIKE...
* Chapter 9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zulIKE...
* Chapter 10: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zulIKE...

More info: http://encirclement.info/synopsis.html http://encirclement.info

With: Noam Chomsky, Ignacio Ramonet, Normand Baillargeon, Susan George, Omar Aktouf, Oncle Bernard, Michel Chossudovsky, François Denord, François Brune, Martin Masse, Jean-Luc Migué, Filip Palda and Donald J. Boudreaux

A documentary by Richard Brouillette (160 minutes)
Québec (Canada), HDCam (shot in 16mm), B&W, 2008.

QUADRILHA - NÃO DÊEM CABO DO MUNDO (video oficial)

http://www.quadrilha.net

Este é o teledisco oficial do 1ºsingle do albúm A COR DA VONTADE (2003)!
Uma autêntica raridade apenas disponivel aqui, no canal oficial da banda.
Comentem, subscrevam e divulguem!
AYO!

James Howard Kunstler: Peak Oil and Our Financial Decline

videonation

In this fifth video in the series “Peak Oil and a Changing Climate” from The Nation and On The Earth Productions, author, blogger and social critic James Howard Kunstler opens up on two circumstances he sees running neck and neck “that are going to put us out of business as an advanced industrial civilization”—the “fiasco” in banking, money and finance and the unfolding “energy predicament.” He explains that the crises are really all about "capital" and that we need to look at how wealth has been accumulated and deployed for productive purposes.

Kunstler suggests that “cheap abundant energy” has facilitated ever-increasing industrialization for centuries. But now that society is in a period of self-destructive capital accumulation, he expects debt to increase as abundance in energy drops. The tremendous amount of accumulated debt, “a by-product of cheap abundant energy,” will mean that in the future governments will be less able to make investments in socially-beneficial programs.

He also criticizes the US environmental movement for shying away from the problem of energy. The movement is unable to talk about walkable neighborhoods, smaller cities, or investing in rail or water transit, an “intellectual failure of the culture to have a coherent conversation from people who ought to be leading” such a conversation.

Go here to learn more about "Peak Oil and a Changing Climate," and to see the other videos in the series.

- Kevin Gosztola

Source: http://www.thenation.com/video/157892/james-howard-kunstler-peak-oil-and-our-financial-decline

Argentina: Surviving without money

OUlearn

How the poor of Argentina are trading goods and services in a global exchange network.

Taken from the OU course 'International development: challenges for a world in transition' (U213)

http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergra...

http://www.open.ac.uk/use

DE LA MATA A LA OLLA. Comercialización campesina y comercio justo

http://www.albasud.org/video.php?id=4&section=4

En los últimos años las grandes cadenas de supermercados han llegado a controlar de forma dominante la mayoría de los espacios de venta de productos alimenticios y de primera necesidad. Su expansión ha comportado graves problemas tanto en los países del Norte como en los de Sur: empobreciendo de los pequeños productores, destrucción del comercio local, condiciones laborales precarias, reducción de las opciones de compra a unos pocas marcas de empresas transnacionales, … Frente a los impactos de este modelo, las poblaciones de muchas partes del mundo han empezado a organizarse y construir alternativas. Este documental muestra experiencias en Ecuador, Nicaragua, México y Cataluña dirigidas a un mismo esfuerzo: democratizar el sistema de producción y distribución de alimentos.

"De la mata a la olla" vídeo sobre soberanía alimentaria (Português)

http://www.economiasolidaria.org/de_la_mata_a_la_olla

Ya tenemos disponible en Internet la versión reducida del documental 'De la mata a la olla. Comercialización campesina y comercio justo' en catalàn, castellano y también subtitulada en inglés.

En los últimos años las grandes cadenas de supermercados han llegado a controlar de forma dominante la mayoría de los espacios de venta de productos alimentarios y de primera necesidad. Su expansión ha comportado graves problemas tanto en los países del Norte como en los de Sur.

Frente a los impactos de este modelo, las poblaciones de muchas partes del mundo han empezado a organizarse y construir alternativas. Este documental muestra experiencias dirigidas a un mismo esfuerzo: democratizar el sistema de producción y distribución de alimentos.

Homenaje a Cataluña II

mongetera

Homenaje a Cataluña II es un documental, una investigación, una historia de historias sobre la construcción de una economía sostenible, solidaria y descentralizada. Tejiendo redes que superan la individualización y la división jerárquica del trabajo. Miles de personas cada día en todo el mundo. Aquí y ahora.

http://www.homenatgeacatalunyaii.org/es

Amazônia : Última llamada - Episodio 2 : Aislados - la tribu de los Zoé

maitebarneto

Enseña la forma de vida de esta tribu amazónica, que incluye un sistema económico colectivista y respetuoso con el medio ambiente. Documental de la serie "Amazonia, última llamada", emitida por Canal +.

Los zo'és : Un modo de vida pacífico - Amazônia : Ultima llamada

pedrolinaresh


Los zo’és son una pequeña y aislada tribu que vive en las profundidades de la selva amazónica en el norte de Brasil. Tan sólo mantienen un contacto continuo con foráneos desde 1987, cuando misioneros de Misión Nuevas Tribus levantaron un puesto en su tierra. Ésta ha sido oficialmente reconocida por el Gobierno, que controla el acceso a ella para minimizar la transmisión potencial de enfermedades como la gripe y el sarampión.

Los zo’és viven en grandes casas rectangulares con techos de paja, abiertas por todos los laterales. En ellas, varias familias viven en comunidad, duermen en hamacas que cuelgan de las vigas y cocinan en las hogueras a cielo abierto que hay por los laterales.

Los zo’és aprecian las “nueces de Brasil”, y a menudo ubican sus comunidades junto a arboledas que dan este fruto. Además de proporcionarles una rica fuente de alimento, utilizan las cáscaras de las nueces como brazaletes y la fibra que contienen para tejer las hamacas.

Las comunidades de los zo’és están rodeadas por grandes huertos donde cultivan mandioca y otros tubérculos, pimientos, bananas y muchas otras frutas y verduras. Cultivan algodón, que después utilizan en ornamentos corporales y hamacas, para tejer los portabebés y para unir las puntas de las flechas.
Los zo’és son polígamos, y tanto los hombres como las mujeres pueden tener más de un compañero/a. Es bastante común que una mujer con varias hijas se case con diferentes hombres, algunos de los cuales podrían casarse más tarde con éstas.

Todos son iguales en la sociedad zo’és. No hay líderes, aunque las opiniones de hombres particularmente elocuentes, conocidos como yü, tienen más peso que las de otros en asuntos como el matrimonio, la apertura de viejos huertos o el establecimiento de nuevas comunidades.

Los hombres zo’és son cazadores muy hábiles. Se suele cazar individualmente, pero en determinados periodos del año (“la época del mono gordo” o del “rey zopilote”) se organizan cacerías colectivas.

Cuando las manadas de pecaríes se concentran, los hombres zo’és cazan en grupo, corriendo frenéticamente tras estos animales a los que disparan flechas, mientras las mujeres capturan a las crías asustadas, a las que llevan a sus hogares y crían como mascotas, o lo que ellos denominan raimbé. Los zo’és también pescan utilizando arpones y timbó (un veneno para los peces hecho a base de enredaderas machacadas).

Fuente : http://www.survival.es/indigenas/zoe

Amazônia. Última llamada

Amazônia. Última llamada recorre la ecología, el medio ambiente, la antropología y evolución del Pulmón del Planeta. 6.000 kilómetros cuadrados que albergan un complejo ecosistema, de los más ricos en biodiversidad y de los más amenazados.

Esta serie, de 13 episodios de 52 minutos cada uno, proporciona un reflejo de la situación actual; de los intereses económicos y comerciales que convergen en este amenazado paraíso; el modo de vida y la percepción del mundo de los indígenas que habitan la selva; el imperio de la soja y las consecuencias que ese cultivo tiene sobre las tierras que va deforestando; las maderas preciosas que se están agotando a orillas del Amazonas debido a su tráfico ilegal; la fauna brasileña; los caminos seguidos por los biopiratas para robarle naturaleza a Brasil; los parques nacionales menos tópicos y más alejados del contexto amazónico; la lucha de la selva contra la ciudad; los trabajos de diferentes organizaciones en defensa del Amazonas

Life Beyond Growth - Part 1

Growthbuster

Life Beyond Growth - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj3uZOW8CEw 

Life Beyond Growth - Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9hOyncy1-Q

Donnie Maclurcan analyzes our addiction to growth, with a perspective on possible futures that embraces post-growth alternatives.

James Robertson - It's Our Money Anyway

RenegadeEconomist

James Robertson talks frankly about democratising our money supply. Money as debt is not sustainable.

Please click on the following links to go to the description of an individual book.


Books - James Robertson - Working for a Sane Alternative

Hard copies of some of these books are still available. Click here for details.

History of Money (free download)

Monetary Reform - Making it Happen (free download)

Creating New Money: A Monetary Reform for the Information Age (free download)

The New Economics of Sustainable Development: A Briefing for Policy Makers (free download)

Transforming Economic Life: A Millennial Challenge

Beyond the Dependency Culture: People, Power and Responsibility (free download)

Sharing Our Common Heritage: Resource Taxes and Green Dividends (free download)

Future Wealth: A New Economics for the 21st Century (free download)

Future Work: Jobs, Employment and Leisure after the Industrial Age (free download and copies for sale)

The Sane Alternative (free download and copies for sale)

Power, Money and Sex: Towards a New Social Balance

Profit or People? The New Social Role of Money (copies for sale)

Reform of British Central Government (copies for sale)

(Cântico Negro de José Régio). Colectivo Silêncio da Gaveta

jmgsaraiva55

João Rios/ Tiago Pereira/ José Peixoto

La Batalla - Ay eu Coitada

jonyrep

Comemorações dos 25 anos do grupo La Batalla

The social brain - Dr Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

UCLLHL

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: The social brain

Dr Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience)

The brain has evolved to understand and interact with other people. We are increasingly learning more about the neurophysiological basis of social cognition and what is known as the social brain. In this talk I will focus on how the social brain develops during adolescence. Adolescence is a time characterised by change - hormonally, physically, psychologically and socially. Yet until recently this period of life was neglected by cognitive neuroscience. In the past decade, research has shown that the social brain develops both structurally and functionally during adolescence.

TEDxRainier - Dr. Patricia Kuhl

TEDxTalks

Dr. Pat Kuhl gets to the root of how we communicate and learn by uncovering how early exposure to language alters the brain. Her research on early language and brain development, and how young children learn, has implications across multiple areas -- critical periods in child development, bilingual education and reading readiness, developmental disabilities involving language, and research on computer understanding of speech.

At the University of Washington, Dr. Kuhl is the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair for Early Childhood Learning, Co-Director of the UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, Director of the University of Washington's National Science Foundation Science of Learning Center, and Professor of Speech and Hearing Sciences. In 1997, she presented at President and Mrs. Clinton's Conference on "Early Learning and the Brain." In 2001, she returned to present at President and Mrs. Bush's White House Summit on "Early Cognitive Development: Ready to Read, Ready to Learn." In her co-authored book, The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn, Dr. Kuhl reviews what is now known about children's minds and how they learn, as well as how babies recognize, understand and take part in the building of their own brains.

TEDxRainier is an independently produced TED event held in Seattle Washington.

CARTA: Aesthetics and the Infant Mind - Patricia Kuhl

UCtelevision

Renowned researcher Patricia Kuhl shares insights into the development of aesthetics in humans.
Series: CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny

The Day Pictures Were Born

germanicfolc

The Day Pictures Were Born Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRHzhvjMTgY

The Day Pictures Were Born Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AngFa_CYoVE

The Day Pictures Were Born Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sA5IcgV39M

The discovery of prehistoric cave paintings in the last century led to the shocking realisation that Europeans have been creating art for over 40,000 years. This programme reveals how the very first pictures ever made were created, and how images may have triggered the greatest change in human history.

The art of the Upper Paleolithic is the oldest undisputed prehistoric art, and the oldest known art in human history. Taken as evidence of behavioral modernity, art in the Upper Paleolithic originates in the Aurignacian archaeological culture. Notable reflections of the Upper Paleolithic Revolution are the emergence of cave painting, sculpture such as the Venus figurines, and the development of musical instruments such as flutes.

The oldest undisputed works of prehistoric art were found in the Schwäbische Alb, Germany. The Venus of Hohle Fels, dates to some 40,000 years ago. Further depictional art includes cave painting (such as the famous paintings at Altamira, Spain), portable art (a 35,000 year old figurine of a mammoth discovered in the Vogelherd cave. Germany), and various open air art.

BBC - O Poder da arte 6 - Van Gogh

lhdchenrique

BBC - O Poder da arte 6 - Van Gogh Parte 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZqKPlQ90F4

BBC - O Poder da arte 6 - Van Gogh Parte 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noMjebxZyG4

BBC - O Poder da arte 6 - Van Gogh Parte 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCJQRD9Scyw

BBC - O Poder da arte 6 - Van Gogh Parte 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOVAofu7tnI

BBC - O Poder da arte 6 - Van Gogh Parte 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkRQ6GHIwNE

Documentário de Arte,assistam em HD (HQ)

Boaventura de Souza Santos - Conferência Epistemologia do Sul

Programa Extra-classe 22 - Boaventura de Souza Santos - 2 parte

Sinprominas

Programa Extra-classe 22 - Boaventura de Souza Santos - Conferência Epistemologia do Sul

Oumou Sangare - Djorolen (Worry, Anxiety)

jwbos1388

Oumou Sangare - Djorolen (Worry, Anxiety)

Como a arte fez o mundo - A arte da Persuasão

lhdchenrique

Como a arte fez o mundo - A arte da  Persuasão Parte 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T25limrIP68

Como a arte fez o mundo - A arte da  Persuasão Parte 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUSYNU5Dx0s

Como a arte fez o mundo - A arte da  Persuasão Parte 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxQAXzOq8WU

Como a arte fez o mundo - A arte da  Persuasão Parte 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJlp6k4ksiA

Como a arte fez o mundo - A arte da  Persuasão Parte 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYllBpMVO88

Os artifícios visuais usados por Tony Blair e George Bush para se elegerem e manterem o poder não são criações do mundo moderno, mas de um mundo há milhares de anos atrás. Como a Arte Fez o Mundo volta no tempo até a criação de Stonehenge e ao reino de Alexandre O Grande para revelar como o imaginário se tornou uma arma indispensável no arsenal de todo líder político.
http://www.pbs.org/howartmadetheworld/episodes/persuasion/

Gerardo Pisarello - Entrevista

En esta entrevista, Gerardo Pisarello, Profesor de Derecho Constitucional de la Universidad de Barcelona, reflexiona sobra la opacidad de las instituciones europeas, la ilusión del europeísmo y el proceso de integración europea.
Más contenidos en attac.tv

WikiLeaks To Reveal Secret Bank Accounts Of Politicians & Celebrities & Corporations

http://MOXNews.com

"The FMI says: a third of all the money in the world is currently held in tax havens"

Russ Baker: Military-Industrial-Financial-Intelligence-Oil Complex

More GRITtv

This week not only commemorates Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, but also is the 50th anniversary of Dwight Eisenhower's prescient warning about the military-industrial complex, the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, the 10th anniversary of the inauguration of George W. Bush--and the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.

Russ Baker is the author of Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years, and he joins us to talk about these anniversaries, and what they mean for the America we live in now and the history we've forgotten.

My Brilliant Brain - Make Me A Genius

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6378985927858479238

At 38 years old, Susan Polgar has reached heights that few women have ever equalled in the chess world. Despite the common assumption that men’s brains are better at understanding spatial relationships, giving them an advantage in games such as chess, Susan went on to become the world’s first grandmaster. Susan’s remarkable abilities have earned her the label of ‘genius’, but her psychologist father, László Polgar, believed that genius was “not born, but made”. Noting that even Mozart received tutelage from his father at a very early age, Polgar set about teaching chess to the five-year-old Susan after she happened upon a chess set in their home. “My father believed that the potential of children was not used optimally,” says Susan.

My Brilliant Brain - Born Genius

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1955232874558919934

Marc Yu, a seven-year-old concert pianist. At two he heard "Mary Had A Little Lamb", and immediately played it back, flawlessly. A year later he was playing Beethoven from memory. Now with a repertoire of more than 40 classical pieces, the young maestro's astounding brain has intrigued experts, such as development psychologist Professor Ellen Winner and neuroscientist Gottfired Schlaug. Winner and Schlaug focus on Marc Yu's achievements, and ask whether hard work is behind his success, or was he simply born with a brilliant brain? They also look at a class of 50 children learning music, and discover a number of changes are taking place in their brains. The experts believe that, given the right nuturing, any one of the youngsters could grow up to become a musical genius.

How art made the world (episode 1/5)

Pictures of the human body fill our TV screens, magazines, billboards, almost our every waking moment. Through the ages artists have been obsessed with the human form. The range of bodies they have created is breathtaking, but yet they share one thing in common... none of these images resembles a real human being.

So why is our modern world dominated by images of the body that are unrealistic?

Neuroscientists theorize this has something to do with the workings of the human brain, and point to a neurological principle known as the peak shift. In essence our brain is hard-wired to focus upon parts of objects with pleasing associations. So if you were an artist, the tendency would be to reproduce human figures with parts that mattered the most to you.

Prehistoric artists were clearly caught up in peak shift tendencies, creating exaggerated statues like the famed Venus of Willendorf. For their part, the Egyptians perfected a more stylized, order-obsessed human figure, only to have the Greeks break out and create fantastically heroic — but totally unrealistic — images like the Riace Bronzes.

So why then are we moderns constantly inundated by unrealistic images of the body?

In reality, we humans don't really like reality - we prefer exaggerated, more human than human, images of the body. This is a shared biological instinct that appears to link us inexorably with our ancient ancestors.

http://www.pbs.org/howartmadetheworld/

Canada's Dirty Oil: Breaking Our Addiction - General audience (long version)

With astonishing and disturbing new aerial footage from the tar sands region of Alberta, the new DVD Canada’s Dirty Oil: Breaking Our Addiction makes the case that the oil sands are a dirty, dangerous and expensive threat to America’s emerging new energy economy.

The full version of the movie is available at no cost.

You can order the full movie here:
dirtyoilsands.org/​visuals/​category/​dvd/​

Chuck Berger - Environment & Community in Economic Growth

Chuck Berger - Environment & Community in Economic Growth

Environment and community in economic growth: a new economic model that includes much more than GDP - Charles Berger (Chuck) is Director of Strategic Ideas at the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), one of Australia’s leading environmental advocacy organisations. He leads ACF’s efforts to better align economic thought and policy with ecological and human reality, and to address the underlying drivers of environmental degradation such as unsustainable consumption, growth in resource use and population pressures. Prior to his current role, Chuck worked as a corporate lawyer in private practice in New York and Brussels, and then as ACF’s in-house lawyer for several years. He holds law degrees from Yale University and the University of Frankfurt, Germany.

Who's Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics

http://www.nfb.ca/film/whos_counting

In this feature-length documentary, Marilyn Waring demystifies the language of economics by defining it as a value system in which all goods and activities are related only to their monetary value. As a result, unpaid work (usually performed by women) is unrecognized while activities that may be environmentally and socially detrimental are deemed productive. Waring maps out an alternative vision based on the idea of time as the new currency.

Naomi Klein: Addicted to risk

http://www.ted.com

Days before this talk, journalist Naomi Klein was on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, looking at the catastrophic results of BP's risky pursuit of oil. Our societies have become addicted to extreme risk in finding new energy, new financial instruments and more ...
and too often, we're left to clean up a mess afterward. Klein's question: What's the backup plan?

Strange Beliefs: Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard

ayabaya

Part of a television series 'Strangers Abroad', shown on television in the 1990s. Details of the programme, including producer, director and other credits are at the end of the film.
The film centres on the work of E.E.Evans-Pritchard, particularly his work on Azande Witchcraft. For interviews with other anthropologists and further materials, please see www.alanmacfarlane.com

Margaret Mead and Samoa (1988)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4165874976901589227

Directed by Frank Heimans, 1987. Presents evidence in the controversy generated among anthropologists
by Derek Freeman's refutation of Margaret Mead's Coming of age in Samoa.

Franz Boas - The Shackles of Tradition

ayabaya

Part of a television series on 'Strangers Abroad' shown in the 1990's. This is on the distinguished anthropologist Franz Boas. All credits to director, producer etc. are at the end of the film. For interviews of other anthropologists and other anthropological materials, please see www.alanmacfarlane.com

Chris Martenson at InnoTown® 2010

The 3 E's - Chris Martenson at Innotown

Post Carbon Fellow Chris Martenson speaking at the June 2010 Innotown Conference in Norway.

Chris Martenson is the creator of The Crash Course, a 20-chapter online video course that educates viewers on our broken economic system, the crisis of population demographics, and Peak Oil. Since its launch in 2008, The Crash Course has been viewed over 1.5 million times online and has sold over 20,000 DVD copies. Prior to spending four years educating himself and developing the course and other materials to help individuals understand and take action, Chris was a Vice President at a Fortune 300 Company and spent over ten years in corporate finance and strategic consulting. He has a PhD in pathology from Duke University and an MBA from Cornell University.

SPECIAL: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in His Own Words

Today is the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King. He was born January 15th, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just thirty-nine years old. While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People’s Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic of US foreign policy and the Vietnam War. We play his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, which he delivered at New York’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, as well as his last speech, “I Have Been to the Mountain Top,” that he gave on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated.

Source:  http://www.democracynow.org/

Celtic Music for Harp Flutes Oboe Violin and Orchestra

win2369031

Celtic Music for Harp, Flutes, Oboe, Violin

and Orchestra

Natalia Antonova (harp)
Venera Porfirieva (flutes)
Eugene Sidorov (oboe)
Lilya Akhmetova (violin)

conductor Anna Gulishambarova

Kazan Tatarstan Russia

Ten OTHER Things Martin Luther King Said

http://www.illdoctrine.com

human salvation lies on the hands of the creatively maladjusted....

At this time of year we always hear the same 2 or 3 MLK clips over and over, but there was much more to the man. So here are ten of my favorite quotes from MLK that aren't heard as often.

The Arts & The Moral Economy: Stewart Wallis - New Economics Foundation

http://www.missionmodelsmoney.org.uk/

Stewart Wallis' E. F. Schumacher Lecture

I believe that quite a lot of economics as we teach it and practice it now is both intellectually bankrupt and morally bankrupt... a lot of what we base things on are old myths, half truths ... it was John Maynard Keynes, himself, the famous economist who said: "practical men who believe themselves quite exempt of any intellectual influences are usually the slaves of some defunct economist"…

Stewart Wallis speaks at 30th Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecture introduced by Susan Witt.
neweconomicsinstitute.org

BASIL Seed Interchange Library Orientation

RichmondGrows

Learn how to "borrow" seeds for free from BASIL in the Berkeley Ecology Center.
http://www.ecologycenter.org/basil/

Christina Pluhar, une âme italienne.

Nearnes

Christina Pluhar
L'Arpeggiata
Ciaconna, Rossi. 17ème.
Extrait sans introduction orale.

Véronique Gens, soprano.
Christina Pluhar, théorbe, harpe baroque.
Eero Palviainen, guitare baroque, archiluth.
Veronika Skuplik, violon baroque.
Mira Glodeanu, violon baroque.
Bruno Cocset, violoncelle.
Chitarra Battente, guitare baroque.
Marcello Vitale.
Paulina van Laarhoven lirone, viole.
Mieneke van den Velden, viole.
Christine Plubeau, viole.
Richard Myron, contrebasse.
Elisabeth Seitz, psaltérion.
Elisabeth Geiger, orgue, clavecin.
Haru Kitamika, orgue.
Michèle Claude, percussion.

Dmitry Orlov - Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation

Recorded on day two of The New Emergency Conference: Managing Risk and Building Resilience in a Resource Constrained World. Held on 10-12 June 2009, All Hallows College, Drumcondra, Dublin 9, Ireland

newemergency.org

This conference was organised by Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability.

feasta.org

Dmitry Orlov – Seizing the Mid-Collapse Moment

A recording of the public lecture by Dmitry Orlov on 9 June 2009, at the Davenport Hotel, Dublin, Ireland.

This was the opening talk to the 3 day conference The New Emergency: Managing Risk and Building Resilience in a Resource Constrained World.

This conference was organised by Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability.

Marie-Dominique Perrot : décroire pour décroitre ?

Afin de faire face à la persistance du déni des désastres écologiques et humains en cours, Marie-Dominique Perrot invite à « décroire », ce qui impliquerait la mise en œuvre d’un processus de désintoxication sur le plan des évidences et des présupposés mortifères de la Croissance et du « bon » Développement et de distinguer des croyances, les savoirs pratiques et théoriques pour éviter le piège des concepts positifs…

Écouter ICI

décroire pour décroitre ?
que faire du développement durable ?
de l’échange symbolique comme antidote à la croissance.
de l’objection de croissance

Marie-Dominique Perrot est politologue, professeur à l’Institut Universitaire d’Etudes du Développement de Genève jusqu’en 2006. Ses recherches portent principalement sur l’épistémologie des relations interculturelles, l’histoire des rapports entre l’occident et le reste du monde ainsi que sur les présupposés, les croyances et l’ethnocentrisme des sociétés modernes.

Source: http://passerellesud.org/

Orwell Rolls in his Grave (Full 3HR Documentary)

WarCrime911

3 Hour Documentary explaining a portion of the information about media censorship, consolidation and propaganda.
Please check links for more information.

Walter Lippmann (Public Opinion) - Full Book Link @ http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper2/CD...

Chapter VII. Stereotypes As Defense - http://xroads.virginia.edu/%7EHyper2/...
Chapter VIII. Blind Spots And Their Value - http://xroads.virginia.edu/%7EHyper2/...

Adorno and Horkheimer - The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception (1944)
The predictions in this essay are stunningly accurate @
http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/ir...

Edward Bernays - Propaganda (1928) only 150 pages - http://www.scribd.com/doc/4057578/Pro...

(Books)
When Corporations Rule the World - David C. Korten (One of the best reads ever)
News: The Politics of Illusion - W. Lance Bennett (One of the best media
Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky

Oil Smoke and Mirrors (Full High Quality)

WarCrime91

"I heartily recommend this documentary. It should be watched by every citizen of the U.S." - Dale Allen Pfeiffer. Author "Eating Fossil Fuels". Please visit: http://oilsmokeandmirrors.com/ and purchase a copy of the DVD or send the producers of this film a donation, to help support future productions of this caliber in the future.

"Oil Smoke & Mirrors" offers a sobering critique of our perceived recent history, of our present global circumstances, and of our shared future in light of imminent, under-reported and mis-represented energy production constraints.

Through a series of impressively candid, informed and articulate interviews, this film argues that the bizzare events surrounding the 9/11 attacks, and the equally bizzare prosecution of the so-called "war on terror", can be more credibly understood in the wider context of an imminent and critical divergence between available global oil aupply and and global oil demand.

The picture "Oil, Smoke & Mirrors" paints is one of a tragically hyper-mediated global-political culture, which, for whatever reason, demonstrably disassociates itself from the values it claims to represent.

While the ideas presented in this film can at first seem daunting, it's ultimate assertion is that these challenges can indeed be met and surpassed, if, but only if, we can find the courage to perceive them.

"Oil, Smoke & Mirrors" is an independent production. The producer has neither association with, nor membership of, any political organisation.

Keiser Report: Schizo-Psycho-Bermudaflation! (E112)

RussiaToday

This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, talk about the deepening crisis trapping America's poor and the trouble with maize prices in Mexico. In the second half of the show, Max talks to economist and author, Steve Keen, about the dangers of Minsky moments and neoclassical economists.

Collapse of Complex Societies by Dr. Joseph Tainter 2010

http://localfuture.org

The collapse of complex societies of the past can inform the present on the risks of collapse. Dr. Joseph Tainter, author of the book The Collapse of Complex societies, and featured in Leonardo Dicaprio's film The Eleventh Hour, details the factors that led to the collapse of past civilizations including the Roman Empire.

1.  
   Collapse of Complex Societies by Dr. Joseph Tainter 2010 (Part 2 of 5)
2. 
   Collapse of Complex Societies by Dr. Joseph Tainter 2010 (Part 3 of 5)
3. 
   Collapse of Complex Societies by Dr. Joseph Tainter 2010 (Part 4 of 5)
4. 
   Collapse of Complex Societies by Dr. Joseph Tainter 2010 (Part 5 of 5)

Web of Debt - Ellen Hodgson Brown

newculture

Debt, foreclosure, bankruptcy, underwater: this is the web of debt that traps millions. Attorney Ellen Hodgeson Brown, author of the book Web of Debt explains the shocking truth about our money system and how to break free.

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Web of Debt - Ellen Brown - 2 of 5

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Web of Debt - Ellen Brown - 3 of 5

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Web of Debt - Ellen Brown - 4 of 5

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Web of Debt - Ellen Brown - 5 of 5

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Richard Heinberg Lecture Peak Oil

CityEdmonton

Richard Heinberg Lecture Peak Oil Pt 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZY_n6fCgwA

Richard Heinberg Lecture Peak Oil Pt 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-G3hQdST-s

Richard Heinberg Lecture Peak Oil Pt 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ml5_ULJi8I

Richard Heinberg Lecture Peak Oil Pt 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O_G-kg_Ado

Richard Heinberg Lecture Peak Oil Pt 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-sWEXYKEMY

Richard Heinberg, the Senior Fellow-in-Residence of the Post Carbon Institute is widely regarded as one of the worlds foremost Peak Oil educators.

Heinberg was in Edmonton on Feb. 11th, 2010 as part of the City of Edmonton's 'The Way We Green' Distinguished Speaker Series. The Way We Green is Edmontons environmental strategic plan -- a blueprint for being the nation's leader in setting the highest standards of environmental preservation and sustainability.

Heinberg spoke on the subject of Peak Oil and Economic Transition, asking how much Oil did you use today? Are We Running Out? What does this mean for the things we do, the food we eat, the places we go? Heinberg challenged the audience to think the unthinkable, exposing the tenuousness of our current way of life while offering a vision for a truly sustainable future

The University of Albertas Environmental Research and Studies Centre was host to Richard Heinberg later in the evening at the Myer Horowtiz Theatre for a repeat lecture and continued on societys future relationship with energy.

Richard Heinberg: Peak Oil and the Globe's Limitations

videonation

In the second video in the series “Peak Oil and a Changing Climate” from The Nation and On The Earth productions, Richard Heinberg, senior fellow with the Post Carbon Institute, discusses how depleting oil supplies threaten the future of global economic growth. According to Heinberg, historically there has been a close correlation between increased energy consumption and economic growth. If the economy starts to recover after the financial crisis and there is an increased demand for oil but not enough supply to keep up with that demand, we may hit a ceiling on what the economy can do.

"What politician is going to be able to standup in front of the American people and tell them the truth?” Heinberg asks. “Every politician is going to want to promise more economic growth and blame the lack of growth on the other political party…. The whole political system starts to get more and more polarized and more and more radical until it just comes apart at the seams.”

For Heinberg, however, there is still hope: alternative energy sources, though difficult to implement on a large scale, do exist, and a grassroots movement is strongly advocating for new thinking about our energy consumption.

Go here to learn more about "Peak Oil and a Changing Climate," and to see the other videos in the series.

—Sara Jerving

What A Way To Go: Life at the end of Empire (must see)

donHooligan

share this, mirror this, favorite this...watch this more than once

A middle class white guy comes to grips with Peak Oil, Climate
Change, Mass Extinction, Population Overshoot and the demise of the
American Lifestyle

everyone needs to see this

the most important film Ever.

finally, a truth documentary WITH SOLUTIONS

to download or order a copy:
http://www.whatawaytogomovie.com/

Treballs de promoció i difusió de l'economia cooperativa

La sèrie documental "Pla de Rescat" es una recerca audiovisual realitzada per l'arquitecta Isabel Martínez Stolcke.

Aborda en quatre capítols independents i complementaris les experiències i reflexions entorn l’actual context econòmic amb propostes realitzades des del món de l’economia, la política, el món cooperatiu i el teixit social, posant la qualitat de vida de les persones en el centre del debat.

Sèrie Documental "Pla de Rescat":
- Altres Economies.

Properament:
- Apoderament.
- Polítiques.
- Altres habitatges.
Amb la col·laboració de l’ICA (Institut Català d’Antropologia) i l’IGOP (Institut de Governança i Polítiques Públiques), i amb el suport del Departament de Treball.

Aquest material té la finalitat d' obrir debats, explorar de manera col·lectiva, en el context de la "crisi" actual, altres models del conviure, qüestionant la nostra organització quotidiana del treball, la casa, el consum, la cura, els temps, la comunitat, la cooperació, l' apoderament i les politiques...
Isabel Martínez Stolcke

• Transcripció vídeo altres economies [PDF, 94,95 KB.]

Décroissance : Hommage à Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen

Jacques Grinevald, philosophe et historien des sciences français, de l'université de Genève et actuellement professeur à l'Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (IHEID) de Genève, ami et ancien collaborateur de Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, était de passage à Paris. Une belle opportunité pour faire un petit film avec lui, afin qu'il nous parle du père de la Décroissance !

En effet, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, roumain d'origine, est à mon sens l'un des plus grands intellectuels du siècle dernier. Mathématicien, spécialiste en statistique, économiste ayant travailler entre autres avec Schumpeter, mais aussi biologiste darwiniste convaincu, bon physicien voire philosophe, il a eu une carrière académique classique remarquable...

A partir des années soixante, il commence à remettre en question les fondements mécanistes de l'économie néo-classiques en y introduisant la seconde loi de la thermodynamique : la loi de l'entropie.

A travers ses travaux, il démontra mathématiquement, physiquement, biologiquement, économiquement et aussi philosophiquement (avec son approche sur la joie de vivre et son pacifisme) que la science économique s'est trompée et continue à se tromper... et se borgne dans son paradigme mécaniste et dans ses idéologies productivistes, travaillistes et croissancistes !

Malheureusement, son travail reste ignoré dans les facultés d'économie bien que l'actualité lui donne raison (nous atteignons les limites énergétiques et régénératrices de notre planète) !

Je vous propose donc ce film avec Jacques Grinevald, philosophe et spécialiste en épistémologie de l'université de Genève, qui nous parle pendant 55 minutes de son ami Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen.

Un grand merci à Debora pour toute son aide et son talent, sans qui ce film n'aurait jamais vu le jour !

Et aussi un grand merci à Jacques Grinevald pour sa disponibilité !

J'attends avec impatience vos remarques et critiques !

Vincent Liegey

Richard Heinberg fala sobre economia

janosbiro

Entrevista com Richard Heinberg para o documentário "What a way to go: life at the end of empire".

Vídeo original disponível em: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvLpYYxXbto

Traduzido e legendado por Janos Biro.

EARTH: The Pale Blue Dot

Michael Marantz

This piece contains readings from Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot". I have edited his words to tell this short narrative.

I took the time lapse images in Mexico and Utah.

The piano is self-composed.

Everything in this video is created by myself except for the words of Carl Sagan.

A guerra que você não vê - The War You Don't See by John Pilger legendado

josespa1

(Grã-Bretanha, 97min - Direção:John Pilger) 

Comentário oficial: "The War You Don’t See" é uma investigação poderosa e oportuna sobre o papel dos  média  na guerra, traçando a história das reportagens independentes e incorporadas da carnificina da Primeira Guerra Mundial à destruição de Hiroxima, e desde a invasão do Vietname à actual Guerra do Afeganistão e o desastre no Iraque. Como as armas e propaganda se tornam ainda mais sofisticados, a natureza da guerra está se desenvolvendo em um "campo de batalha electrónica", em que os jornalistas desempenham um papel fundamental, e os civis são as vítimas.
Inclui uma entrevista com WikiLeaks fundador e editor-chefe Julian Assange.

Fonte:  http://docverdade.blogspot.com/2011/01/war-you-dont-see-2010.html

The Listening Post - Selling the first Gulf War

AlJazeeraEnglish

More than two decades on, Listening Post looks at the 'around-the-clock' coverage that changed television news forever.

Charles Limb: How the brain works during musical improvisation

http://www.ted.com

Musician and researcher Charles Limb wondered how the brain works during musical improvisation -- so he put jazz musicians and rappers in an fMRI to find out. What he and his team found has deep implications for our understanding of creativity of all kinds.

The Financial Crisis, the Recession, and the American Political Economy

A Systemic Perspective
http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/861

Charles Ferguson shows how useful a varied background in math, political science and business can be, as he dissects the complexities and recent crisis of the U.S. financial system. In a lecture that distills many of the arguments of his recent film, Inside Job, Ferguson conveys dispassionately yet persuasively the reasons we all should feel profound anxiety not only about the nation’s financial institutions, but about our economic and political future as well.

Ferguson details the “securitization food chain,” a system of investing (and gambling) with debt that U.S. financial institutions enthusiastically adopted around 15 years ago. Encouraged by friendly government policies, a handful of investment behemoths such as JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers began transforming the banking landscape, buying up mortgages and other forms of debt worth countless billions of dollars, and packaging these securities for buyers worldwide. Allied financial institutions became adept at selling cheap mortgages to ordinary people, creating an inflated housing market. Insurance and ratings companies bought in. The speed of growth and scale of this securities chain was unprecedented, recounts Ferguson -- as was its impact on the nation’s economy, both at the market’s peak, and after its collapse.

Ferguson provides a very detailed and pointed sidebar on industry incentives that underlay the wild growth years. These included allowing investment banks to bet on the failure of their own securities; and linking rating agencies’ income to their approval of risky securities. Individuals inside big institutions made out like bandits, because they could. Senior executives in places like Bear Stearns took out over $1 billion in cash each in the years prior to the 2008 collapse. The head of Countrywide Mortgage saw the end coming, and cashed out over $100 million in stock. Asks Ferguson, “Why was such extreme behavior permitted? I have to conclude there was a complete abdication on the part of the regulatory system.”

Ferguson finds galling both government apathy in regulating and in prosecuting high-end white collar crime, but perceives the reason: a financial services industry that “as it rapidly consolidated and concentrated became the dominant source not only of corporate profits but campaign contributions and political funding in the U.S.” Evidence for unrestrained financial power lies in the fact that the government response to the crisis has been engineered by Wall Street insiders intent on shoring up firms too big to fail. Ferguson cites as well “corruption of the economics discipline,” the rising role of money in politics, and the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.

The dominance of a single industry constitutes a deep change and danger for America, believes Ferguson. The nation “has evolved a political duopoly where two political parties agree on things related to finance and money.” Without a political structure immune to such influence, Ferguson sees little likelihood of challenging the interests of the financial giants.