TheHotSpring.net » Quipu Economic Forum

Oil Spill Ongoing in Gulf of Mexico for 7 Years

Joseph Robertson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:57:01 +0000

A broken underwater wellhead has been dumping 4,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico for seven years, and neither its owner nor state or federal governments have informed the public or seriously tried to stop it, six environmental groups claim in Federal Court.

Lead [...]

Toward a Deep Green Economy

Joseph Robertson — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:18:27 +0000

We are moving through a period of global economic transition. The new economy will favor complexity over hierarchy, and work with ecosystems and civil society, to achieve a more harmonious relationship between individuals and their environment. There are certain key points that will define this progress and build resiliency and generative capacity into the global economic system:

Obama Suspends Tar Sands Pipeline, Pending Review

Joseph Robertson — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:02:47 +0000

Amid intense and gathering pressure from the grassroots to the state government of Nebraska, to a national coalition of activist organizations, tens of thousands of demonstrators and an intensifying drumbeat from leading scientists, Nobel laureates and concerned public officials, Pres. Barack Obama this week ordered the suspension of the Keystone XL pipeline project. The pipeline would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico, for export to other nations, and would run through some of the most sensitive and important fresh water systems in the US.

We are Now 7 Billion

Joseph Robertson — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:25:56 +0000

Today, the UN officially recognizes the arrival of the 7 billionth person on the planet. Never before have so many human beings been alive simultaneously. Never before has the Earth's carrying capacity been so intensely taxed, as more people than ever before are moving into advanced stages of industrial urbanization. Even as we mark the arrival of the 7 billionth person, the average individual human being is demanding more resources than at any time before.

The Oakland Crackdown (discussion)

Joseph Robertson — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:56:46 +0000

The city of Oakland is experiencing a deep crisis of conscience, amid what appears to be the moral confusion of its administration. The mayor, who had marched with the Occupy Oakland demonstrators, has now ordered not one but two paramilitary strikes against nonviolent protesters, in which tear gas, “flash-bang” grenades, rubber bullets and powerful sonic [...]

Is Europe Closer to Full Integration? (discussion)

Joseph Robertson — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:49:47 +0000

The European Union has reached an agreement to relieve Greece of half of its sovereign debt, and to boost the Eurozone bailout fund to €1 trillion. The agreement may well be funded, in part, by non-European governments, even private investors, but it shows a new commitment to the Union as such, even amid a surge [...]

Nuclear Power & Offshore Drilling May Keep Oil Prices Artificially High

Joseph Robertson — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:50:23 +0000

With gasoline prices at record highs in 2008, 2009 and 2010, 2011 has looked like a microcosm of the longer oil-market trend: consistent increases in pricing, fuel costs hurting small business and the middle class, slowing the pace of economic growth in the US, and—maybe most strangely of all—no national policy to motivate [...]

What is the Meaning of This?

Joseph Robertson — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 22:48:32 +0000

The Occupy Wall Street movement—now being called “the American Autumn”, after the Arab Spring, or the September 17th movement, after the day it got started in lower Manhattan—is now completing four weeks on the scene. Yet we can still be astounded to hear so many incredulous “experts” unable to understand how a grassroots [...]

Blueprint for a Renewable Energy Infrastructure Bank

Joseph Robertson — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 22:41:10 +0000

We need a system of cooperative public-private infrastructure financing, a national infrastructure bank. But we also need to use that fabric of cooperative investment and output to foster specific areas of major improvement to our national economy. The model could be replicated across the world, but the US is uniquely positioned to deploy this [...]

Occupy Wall Street, with a People-centered Investment Bank

Joseph Robertson — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:59:28 +0000

A people-centered investment bank could work like a clearing house for good ideas that deserve serious investment but would be ignored by conventional high-finance institutions. It could align with cutting-edge technology innovators of the kind that are too young, marginal or maverick, to have given up their intellectual property to major conglomerates and who might just be looking for an opportunity to become the next generation of entrepreneurs, with a mind to generalized improvement of socio-economic conditions.

Illuminating the Landscape of Human-scale Policy Outcomes

Joseph Robertson — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:58:54 +0000

The World Bank hosted its annual Civil Society Policy Forum last week, and the clear, and very conscious, theme of the meetings was the connection between high-level transparency, stakeholder outreach and the building and securing of a functional and reliable civil society. In recent years, stakeholder outreach has been moving to prominence in the deliberations of global development bodies, like the UN agencies, the World Bank and IMF and the OECD.

ProjectQuipu.net: A User-made Global Economic Atlas

Joseph Robertson — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:12:45 +0000

Project Quipu is an endeavor to create a global economic forum, a user-made atlas of economic information, reporting, negotiation and planning, in order to craft a more relevant, human-scale model for economic information and application. The quipu [pronounced keep-ü] was a system of strings, knots, colors and patterns, created in each case by [...]

Saturation vs. Scalability: Old & Costly vs. Clean & Efficient

Joseph Robertson — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:02:43 +0000

The fossil fuel saturation problem, known to states like Texas as an ongoing "energy emergency", means we need to be actively searching not only for alternative fuels, but also for investment opportunities where we can build in drivers of more generalized prosperity, i.e. a restored and strengthened middle class, and accelerating returns in productive capacity.

We Need a National Renewables Start-up Incubator

Joseph Robertson — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:08:12 +0000

There is a myth permeating our nation's energy policy and energy economy, which holds that renewable sources of energy cannot meet our outsized electricity demand, let alone power our entire economy. That myth is not only entirely untrue; it depends on the flawed assertion that the only way things can be is the way that they have been. The fact is: we can more easily achieve sustained energy independence with clean energy than by any other means.

Open Comment – your priorities for the World Bank Civil Society Forum

Joseph Robertson — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 02:36:46 +0000

What priorities would you like the World Bank to focus on, to motivate fair and sustainable recovery, alleviate poverty and foster civil society and democracy?

Big Ideas to Solve the Debt Crisis

Joseph Robertson — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 13:23:21 +0000

The debt crisis is attributable to "structural" causes, meaning the way the nation's financing is structured over the next several decades, but also to political and economic causes, meaning the way we make policy and the way our marketplace for trade, credit and consumer purchases plays out. We need to implement policies that make serious, sustainable corrections on all three fronts.

We Need 100% Not-for-profit Cooperative Bond Rating Agencies

Joseph Robertson — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 23:06:06 +0000

With the objectivity and commitment to fact of S&P now seriously in question, and allegations now revived that it and other rating agencies were paid to give AAA ratings to junk securities derivatives, it is clear that we need a 100% not-for-profit (NFP) cooperative bond rating agency. The independent NFP agency could be one of several, staffed by top economists, stakeholders and public servants, and standing somewhere between the public and the private sectors.

The Road from Mokha to Sanaa

Joseph Robertson — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 19:10:35 +0000

Yemen may be where the Arab spring, this sweeping current of democratic upheaval in the Arabic-speaking world, takes a turn definitively toward violence or toward civic solutions. The regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh, a tribal dictatorship using feudal power tactics, based in the capital Sanaa, is now waging one war against extremist Islamists and another [...]

21st Century Business Needs to Learn to Deal with Uncertainty

Joseph Robertson — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:35:21 +0000

It is a virtual mantra in the universe of political analysis that "business doesn't like uncertainty", and it is true that declining consumer spending, increasing fuel costs, squeeze profits and that in some cases, businesses worry about changes to the regulations they must follow. But uncertainty is the nature of an evolving global economy, and with the accelerating pace of innovation, doing any business well is going to require dealing intelligently with uncertainty.

Solar Roadways to Power Smart Energy Economy (video)

Joseph Robertson — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:43:53 +0000

Solar Roadways is proposing a long-view paradigm-shift solution to major infrastructure, energy and climate challenges. The Solar Roadways system would might, at present, cost about three times what it costs to install an asphalt road, but would be more durable more easily replaced in modular fashion, and able to pay for itself by generating [...]