In the News (from NYDailyNews): “There are thousands of low-wage workers who barely scrape out a living and 1.5 million people — most of them women, children, seniors, the working poor and people with disabilities — forced to rely on soup kitchens and food pantries to put food on the table.

“Since 2003 the number of New Yorkers who have trouble affording food for themselves and their families has increased 60% to a whopping 2.9 million.

“Yet, just last year food pantries and soup kitchens across the five boroughs lost 11 million meals due to federal cuts in the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), Purvis said. This means 40% less food available to low-income New Yorkers at a time when demand keeps growing by leaps and bounds.

“Bad as the situation is now, it could get much worse very soon.

“Hard as it may be to believe, some people in Washington are intent on depriving 46 million people in the country of their lifeline to keep food on the table. More than 1.8 million people in the city would suffer.”

My Comment: The lack of integral education does not allow people to understand how they can unite and help themselves without any handouts from the state.
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In the News (from Bloomberg): “The mathematical insight that turned Google Inc. into a multibillion-dollar company has the potential to help the world avert the next financial crisis. If only banks made public the data required to do the job.

“Sixteen years ago, the founders of Google — computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin — introduced an algorithm to measure the “importance” of Web pages relative to any set of keywords.

“Known as PageRank, it works on the notion that Web pages effectively vote for other pages by linking to them. The most important ones, Page and Brin reasoned, should be those drawing links from many other pages, especially from other really important ones.

“If this definition sounds circular, it is. It also captures an authentic reality, which is why respecting it gives far superior results. …

“What could this have to do with finance? Quite a lot. The systemic risk that turned the U.S. subprime-lending crisis into a global disaster is circular, too. We can’t identify it simply by looking for the banks with the most assets or the biggest portfolios of risky loans. What matters is how many links a bank has to other institutions, how strong those links are and how risky those other banks are, not least because they too have links to other risky banks.

Something like PageRank might be just the right thing to cut through it. That’s the argument, at least, made by a team of European physicists and economists in a new study. Their algorithm, DebtRank, seeks to measure the total economic value that would be destroyed if a bank became distressed or went into default. It does so by moving outward from the bank through the web of links in the financial system to estimate all the various consequences likely to accrue from one failure. Banks connected to more banks with high DebtRank scores would, naturally, have higher DebtRank scores themselves.

“As a demonstration, the researchers calculated DebtRank on the basis of the known network of equity investments linking institutions — pretty much the best they can do with publicly available data. If Bank A owns stock in Bank B, the two are linked. This network, of course, reflects only a subset of the many links created by derivatives and other instruments, so the calculation is a little like working out the best driving route from New York to Los Angeles while ignoring two-thirds of all the roads. Nevertheless, it’s useful for demonstrating what might be possible with more complete data. …

“An algorithm alone can’t save the world, and this isn’t the final word on the best way to measure systemic risk. Yet the apparent superiority of the DebtRank approach underscores how our ability to monitor the financial system depends wholly on the availability of data. Currently, most of the information that would be needed to calculate DebtRank or any other similar measure is simply not public. …

“Imagine a world in which banks and other financial institutions were legally required to disclose absolutely all of their assets and liabilities to central banks, which would in turn make that information public on a website. Regulators — indeed, anyone — would then be able to see the whole network and assess a bank’s situation in full clarity. Anyone so inclined could calculate measures such as DebtRank and assess how much any particular bank is contributing to potential financial instability.”

My Comment: This will show only the sequence of bankruptcies, but it will not eliminate their inevitability because it will not restructure the financial credit system. Until society comes to a complete inner balance equal to the level of existence, the pressure towards correction will not stop.
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Question: Could you give an example to show what the economics of the future society should be like, what we need to come to?

Answer: This is very simple, and there is really a lot to think about here. To begin, we need to take such tangible things that gradually will help us come to more abstract communication and definitions.

We see that our economics is going through a serious crisis. It must “deflate,” become the economics of reasonable consumption. This will happen whether we want it or not. If we really wanted it, we would begin to restrict it gradually and to free ourselves of excessiveness and things we do not need.

At first, we would eliminate all advertising. There should be no advertisements, but announcements about reasonable, useful things that people need so that people would know that here are the normal things that make life easier.

Even now, every country and every society has a necessary basket of consumption that every person must have to support themselves, such as food, medicine, necessary accessories, and so forth. We also must keep a basket like this, but not a minimal one, a basket of extended consumption for a normal and reasonable existence. All other production needs to be restricted.

By gradually restricting unnecessary production, first of all, we will receive an abundance of energy, which is a very good thing. Why waste it? We will have an abundance of natural resources. Let us leave them for our children and grandchildren. In other words, we will come practically to a point where we will be able to dress, feed, and equip all of mankind on a reasonable level.

This is the economics of the future that we gradually must come to, in other words, on one hand, the deflation of excessive consumption and, on the other hand, the raising of all of mankind to the level of normal existence. Achieving this level is our initial objective. This way, we take care of our animal existence, making sure that it is equal for everyone.

Imagine the psychological revolution we must create in people, but this cannot be done without the integral upbringing of people. Before taking care of economics, it is necessary to show people the need to rise to the next level. This next level where we form a society—which we call the human level, Man, Adam—determines our voluntary descent to the level of reasonable consumption.

It is necessary to create a program of gradual transition toward this because the main thing is not the final result, but a smooth, multi-level transition. Here, we simultaneously must have integral upbringing, integral education, and gradual reduction in unnecessary production, as well as a gradual increase in serving the population with integral education and upbringing; in other words, the restructuring of all mass media to do educational work. When mankind is occupied with transforming themselves, it is like an enormous world machine.

Finally, mankind will be occupied with itself, but not to show off before their neighbor for having a billion more or humiliating someone by showing that they are stronger, but with the purpose of achieving integration.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 2/29/12

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In the News (from the Daily Mail): “Having close relationships with friends and family as a child makes people happier in later life, a new study has found.

“New research has shown how positive social relationships in childhood and adolescence are key to adult well-being, while academic achievement has little effect.

“Scientists do not know much about how aspects of childhood and adolescent development – such as academic and social-emotional function – affect adult well-being.

“They define well-being as a mixture of sense of coherence, positive coping strategies, social engagement and self-perceived strengths.

“Researchers analysed data for 804 people, followed up for 32 years, who participated in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (DMHDS) in New Zealand.

“They measured the relationship between levels of family disadvantage in childhood, social connectedness in childhood, language development in childhood, social connectedness in adolescence, academic achievement in adolescence and well-being in adulthood. …

“Results showed there is a strong pathway from child and teen social connectedness to adult well-being – showing the significance of positive social relationships over the lifespan to adulthood.

“Also, the Journal of Happiness Studies research revealed the pathway from early language development – through adolescent academic achievement – to adult happiness was weak.”

Tip: Lead by example and teach a child how to build relationships with others.
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In the News (from Finmarket.ru): “There is unanimous agreement among US bank chiefs that their biggest threat is the fallout from the eurozone financial crisis because the European governments begin to save together with European consumers.

“This is easily explained: unemployment in Europe hit record after record, as the recession continues to deepen. As a result, EU citizens have to change consumer habits – it can have a lasting impact on the economy and corporate profits. Changes in consumer habits have affected the income of European corporations.

My Comment: We are facing the bankruptcy of corporations, the disappearance of the middle class, the emergence of hundreds of millions of unemployed, food riots, etc. if mutual responsibility and mutual concern and bestowal are not achieved through unity. Integral education should teach us how to create, step-by-step, a single administration, for both the EU and the whole world.
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In the News (from Business Insider): “The global economy is in the worst shape since the dark days of 2009. Six of the 17 countries that use the euro currency are in recession. The U.S. economy is struggling again. And the economic superstars of the developing world — China, India and Brazil — are in no position to come to the rescue. They’re slowing, too.

“The lengthening shadow over the world’s economy illustrates one of the consequences of globalization: There’s nowhere to hide.

“Economies around the world have never been so tightly linked — which means that as one region weakens, others do, too. That’s why Europe’s slowdown is hurting factories in China. And why those Chinese factories are buying less iron ore from Brazil. …

“For now, few foresee another global recession. Central banks in China, Britain, Brazil, South Korea and Europe have cut interest rates in the past month to try to jolt growth. European leaders have begun to focus more on promoting growth, not just shrinking debt and cutting budgets. …

“Many fear that Greece and perhaps other countries will default on their debts and have to abandon the euro currency, which could ignite financial chaos across Europe. …

“In the latest wallop to the global economy, China said last week that its economic growth fell to a three-year low. The world’s second-largest economy grew 7.6 percent in the April-June quarter compared with the same quarter last year. That was the slowest growth since early 2009. Countries like China need fast growth to serve growing populations and millions of people leaving farms to seek work in cities.

“Brazil also has a U.S.-style problem with consumer debt: Since 2003, about 40 million Brazilians have entered the middle class and brought a strong appetite for consumption. Brazilian leaders credited those consumers with invigorating the economy in recent years and helping protect it from external shocks.

“But most of the buying has been on credit. And those bills are adding up. In a report last week, London-based Capital Economics estimated that debt payments now eat up 20 percent of household income in Brazil. …

“Similarly, the outlook has dimmed for India, the world’s fourth-biggest economy. Its growth slowed to a 5.3 percent annual rate in the first three months of 2012, the slowest rate in nine years. …

“The slowdown in the developing world could make it harder for the economies of Europe and the United States to climb out of their ruts. And the weaker the rich countries get, the harder it will be for developing economies to regain their old fast pace.

“’In today’s interconnected world, we can no longer afford to look only at what goes on within our national borders,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said earlier this month. ‘This crisis does not recognize borders. This crisis is knocking at all our doors.’”

My Comment: This is how the “Law of our natural development” teaches us; evolution teaches us through small sufferings; it teaches us that the world is round and we are interconnected in it, and that is why we need to think not only about ourselves, but about everyone like in one family. If we continue to be stubborn, suffering will increase and in spite of everything lead us towards unity, in the bad or good way, depending on our behavior.
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Opinion (Larry Lang, professor of finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong): “Larry Lang was reported by The Epoch Times as saying that China’s economy is on the ‘brink of bankruptcy’ and that ‘every province is a Greece.’ …

“According to the Chinese government website (www.gov.cn), the audit found 10.7 trillion yuan of local government debt at the end of 2010, a result of easy loans made possible by the government’s 2008-2009 stimulus injection. …

“The audit discovered that 1033 such companies have problems such as false-financing, the registered capital being unpaid-in, illegal provision of funds and the withdrawing of them by local governments and departments, involving a sum of 244.15 billion yuan,” the audit said in its findings. …

“In a controversial series of claims, Lang said that overall debt in China was as much as 36 trillion yuan (US$5.68 trillion), official inflation figures of 6.2% were as high as 16%, domestic consumption represented only 30% of economic activity and that there was ‘serious excess capacity.’ He added that despite government headline figures of 9% growth in GDP, production had actually shrunk in China.

“‘Once the economic tsunami starts, the regime will lose credibility, and China will become the poorest country in the world,’ Lang concluded in the lecture.”

My Comment: Everything is just unfolding, but since the script is already open, it makes no sense to talk about it. We are facing either a new understanding and correction of people and social relations or a world war, after which we will repeat evolution and nonetheless come to correction.
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Opinion (Lester R. Brown, president, Earth Policy Institute, Washington, World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse): “In the summer of 2010, record high temperatures scorched Moscow from late June through mid-August. … The record heat shrank Russia’s grain harvest from roughly 100 million tons to 60 million tons. This 40-percent drop and the associated grain export ban helped drive world wheat prices up 60 percent in two months, raising bread prices worldwide. …

“If the July temperature in Chicago were to average 14 degrees above the norm, as it did in Moscow, there would be chaos in world grain markets. Grain prices would quickly climb off the chart. Food prices would soar worldwide. Many grain-exporting countries, trying to hold down domestic food prices, would restrict or even ban exports, as they did in 2007–08.

“Oil-exporting countries would try to barter oil for grain. Low-income grain importers would lose out. Instead of being dominated by scenes of smoke and fire in Moscow, the TV evening news would run live footage of food riots in low-income grain-importing countries and carry reports of spreading hunger, falling governments, and failing states. With governments collapsing and with confidence in the world grain market shattered, the global economy could start to unravel.”

My Comment: Nature forces us into the corner, and it will be doing this until we realize that we have to change ourselves instead of the world.
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In the News (from USA Today): “The ranks of America’s poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net. …

“Poverty is spreading at record levels across many groups, from underemployed workers and suburban families to the poorest poor. More discouraged workers are giving up on the job market, leaving them vulnerable as unemployment aid begins to run out. …

“Demographers also say: Poverty will remain above the pre-recession level of 12.5 percent for many more years. Several predicted that peak poverty levels — 15 percent to 16 percent — will last at least until 2014, due to expiring unemployment benefits.”

My Comment: Unfortunately, in the world there is an excess of everything but the correct connection between people, and that is why we throw away more food than is needed to feed everyone. The same goes for other essentials. The reason is in human nature, and only by correcting it, will we be able to make our society human.
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Opinion (Jim Rogers, American investor and author, Chairman of Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests): “’We’re certainly going to have more crises coming out of Europe and America; the world is in trouble. The world has been spending staggering amounts of money that it doesn’t have for a few decades now, and it’s all coming home to roost,’ Rogers, CEO and chairman Rogers Holdings told CNBC. …

“’In 2002 it was bad, in 2008 it was worse and 2012 or 2013 is going to be worse still – be careful,’ he added.

“Rogers told CNBC the only solution to the crisis was to let everyone go bankrupt.

“’Get everyone in a room and decide you will go bankrupt. You will survive and we’re going to ringfence you. We’ll make sure your checks clear. Everyone’s deposits are going to be ok, the system’s going to survive.’ …

“’It [the world] would be better off if we can hold the euro together and we reorganize. People are bankrupt and when people are bankrupt you might as well face reality. Reorganize the assets, competent people (will) come in and you start over from a sound base,’ Rogers said.”

My Comment: Of course, it would shake the whole world, but the new page would be no better than the old one because the same egoists would quickly build their terrible world; they would not be able to do otherwise.

Solution: That is why, along with the announcement of worldwide bankruptcy (in the Bible, it is a mandatory condition for the existence of society to announce Yovel, a complete return of all property to its original state, every 50 years), we need also to declare the bankruptcy of people and all social relations as the cause of the bankruptcy of the economic system they created. A society based only on integral education and upbringing will be able to build a useful system of social relations, competing in not how to harm, but how to benefit each other. The reward for such efforts will be the revelation of feeling of the higher eternal flow of life.
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