A recent article at Foreign Policy noted that the $10 trillion global black market is now the world’s fastest growing economy, and that in 2009, the OECD concluded that half the world’s workers (almost 1.8 billion people) were employed in the shadow economy. By 2020, the OECD predicts the shadow economy will employ two-thirds of the world’s workers. This new economy even has a name: ‘System D’.

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It's all a big joke to them -- the obliterating of pensions, millions of families losing homes, crushing unemployment, lives destroyed. In 2009, just a few months after the devastating crash, they sang a parody song titled "We've All Lost Dough Together". This year, the current "Grand Swipe", Wilbur L. Ross Jr., who the New York Times called "a dean of vulture investing", made this joke for the bankster crowd:

“We have members from every firm that has failed, as well as…

The American Economic Association's annual meetings are a scary sight, with thousands of economists all gathered in the same place – a veritable weapon of mass destruction. Chicago was the lucky city for 2012 this past weekend, and I had just finished participating in an interesting panel on "the economics of regime change", when I stumbled over to see what the big budget experts had to say about "the political economy of the US debt and deficits".

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Political Washington's austerity harshness causes greater harm. Shocking bipartisan indifference to human need and suffering is criminal.

In the world's richest ever country, poverty is highest among industrialized nations. Homelessness and hunger levels are unprecedented. Over 20% of US families haven't enough money to buy food and need help. 

Over half of US children need food stamps to eat. Tens of millions have no health insurance. Those with it pay double the…

http://www.stillocupied.comOn a cold rainy day in San Francisco many showed up at different locations throughout the day. This is not like the traditional head count that shows up at a march and you determine the success of the event by the number of people who show up. This Occupy event was a moving target with…

The Woman in the Moon

Winter, occupation, full moon.

I awoke one night to a bright light illuminating the tipi. My first thought was that the police had arrived for their nightly visit and body count. as I opened my eyes what I saw instead was the clear bluish orb of a full moon smiling down on my face, peeking through the smoke hole like a playful friend.

“The woman in the moon looked down from the moon

and sang her beautiful song

‘’tis time for all women on earth to…

We are in uncharted territory. This is like no time in our civilization’s history - global food shortages, climate crisis, unending war and violence, corporate domination, rampant systemic corruption, government collusion with corporations, abject poverty and homelessness, mass extinctions - it’s a long list barely begun here. It’s enough to leave one feeling hopeless in the face of such onslaughts. And yet there is hope.

The urgency of these issues has caused an unprecedented…

Just as new life begins in childbirth every day, the occupy wall street movement and  affinity groups are being born and nurtured the U.S. and the rest of the world.  The Occupy movement itself is the new kid in town. The baby of the family who initially restores hope and inspiration. The baby coos and she cries and she is awfully cute...the family mascot.

  But then something else begins to happen. We are exhausted. This new baby won't sleep through the night and we must wake with…

On December 19, The Maine Civil Liberties Union filed an Amicus Curiae brief in support of Occupy's right to overnight encampmnets in Portland Maine's Linicoln Park:

 http://www.aclumaine.org/node/1192

The brief challenges the constituionality of Portlands ordinace forbidding overnight stays in the City's parks.

What does this general strike mean to me? Not just for the collectivity, but for me personally? How do I support my wife and family? What alternatives are there for me?

These are the questions that people will be asking of themselves. For some of us in the movement we have already worked out our answers. We are doing what we want to be doing. For other people this represents a huge jump, to be doing what I really want to do in my life, instead of having to go to some boring,…

I received this forward from my eccentric uncle (who commented on this with "reads like a utopian dream which will cause a lot of miseries").  I could almost believe it, since the Chinese own all the US debt but I can not imagine such a scenario going down without a WWIII type of resistance . . . by the way, here's a google to…

In a Buddhist blog about Occupy Wall Street, Michael Stone quotes the philosopher Slavoj Žižek, who spoke to the New York Occupiers at Zuccotti Park on October 9:

They tell you we are dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are. We are not dreamers. We are awakening from a dream which is turning into a nightmare. We are not destroying anything. We are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself. We all know the…

Over the last 20 years I have heard a lot of talk, seen documentaries and Youtube videos on the topic of the Mayan Doomsday date of December 21, 2012. Although many of the theories that people have may sound possible, I believe we will all be waking up in our beds on December 22, 2012, that is if we don't die of natural causes, accidents or violent crime first.

I do believe, however, that 2012 may be the year that we may see the end of the world as we know it. Due to present…

Bottom Line? The 1% is also using Gene Sharps non violent revolution strategy to bring the 1% into formal rule in America as President and Vice President for the 1%.  Americans Elect is really the real world implementation of founder Peter Ackerman's book.  Their agenda?

Well, they hope to elect Ron Paul who believes that anything not specifically authorized by the consiution is illegal , you know things like Social Security, Medicare, the Anti-Poverty Program, Environmental Law; who…

A missive to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations calling on the end to war in Iraq and investment in ordnance and a shift of focus toward the wellbeing of humans, especially the most vulnerable.

Behind the message is a story of Death Camps where children are exploited by mafia as a 'cash cow' where profit is…

Hello,

I have been involved in foreclosures for the past five years, I fought for my house and I won my case in court. I can shed some light on this mortgage mess; Modifications do not work, the most important aspect of modification is the fact that the borrower has to give up certain rights that are very valuable. 

Protect your rights. 

The better issue is Principal Reduction and Interest rate reduction, Wells Fargo does not own the loans, the…

Occupy Christmas  This is a very thoughtful and inspiring article exploring Jesus' action on the money changers in the temple - was he an Ocuppier?  Happy Holidays everyone.

What you see in my title has one meaning. What you hear in it has another. I will address both meanings.

If you are un- or underemployed, you would like, and may often dream of, a new, more authentic and secure foundation for living.  You would like, and may often dream of, giving your best in a setting characterized by individuals giving their distinctive bests.  You are very weary of reading and hearing that people are lazy, ignorant and indifferent, concerned primarily about how…