I heard Harada Yoriyuki play some fiery energy piano at a house concert hosted by Park ChangSoo. He alternated between furious runs up and down the keboard, thunderous clusterbomb forearm chords, and cute little melodies in between. The acoustic space was pristine, which was the best part. The overall vibe at that place was pretty fancy-schmantzy...wine, decorum, &c.
On a more obviously important tip, I learned yesterday that 43% of U.S. foreign debt is controlled by China and Japan. That's pretty alarming, especially upon reading this interview with Bernard Lietaer, who "co-designed and implemented the convergence mechanism to the single European currency system (the Euro), and served as president of the Electronic Payment System in his native Belgium. He also co-founded one of the largest and most successful currency funds." In this interview, he is impressively candid, cogent, and, curiously, hopeful, particularly about "private monetary systems." There is a small system in place in Berkeley, for example.
Lietaer:
It's a chicken and egg story: unstable currency equals unstable government. There is practically no way today for a developing country to have a reasonable monetary policy within the current rules of the game. Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate in economics and formerly head economist at the World Bank, makes the same claims in his book Globalization and Its Discontents (Penguin, 2002). Whether you fix your currency to the dollar or let it float, you end up with an unmanageable monetary problem, like Brazil, Russia or Argentina have experienced. Eighty-seven countries have gone through a major currency crisis in the last 25 years. Their fiscal policies are imposed by an International Monetary Fund (IMF). I am afraid that if the United States had to live by the rules that are imposed on, say, Brazil, the United States of America would become a developing country in one generation. It's the system that is currently unstable, unfair and not working.
The majority of humanity has gone through a recent monetary crisis at least once already. We'e living here, in America, in an island of perceived stability. And even that is an illusion. We could have a run on the dollar under the current rules.
We are dealing with an unstable system, an ailing system. Back in 1975, I had come to the conclusion that there would be a systemic series of monetary crashes, starting with Latin America. And that's why I wrote my book on how the money system was not working and its impact on Latin American development, Europe, Latin America and the Multinationals (Praeger, 1979). I predicted that the first crash in Latin America would be in the early 1980s. It actually happened in 1981 in Mexico. Since then we have had more than 80 other countries undergoing similar monetary crises.
...
Now the point is: there are many new agreements being made within communities as to the kind of medium of exchange they are willing to accept. As I said, in Britain, you can use frequent flier miles as currency. It's not a universal currency, it's not legal tender, but you can go to the supermarket and buy stuff. And in the United States, it's just a question of time before privately issued currencies will be used to make purchases. Even Alan Greenspan, the governor of the Federal Reserve and the official guardian of the conventional money system, says, "we will see a return of private currencies in the 21st century."[bold mine. via robotwisdom]
None, If Any
Not much, but it's better than nothing -
these are legitimate concerns!
- But no one expects options to disappear completely.
Once it was the nameplate of envy.
It may be losing some of that shine:
The methodology of this study has changed over the years,
the problem is that they weren't very good at that.
It raises serious questions but the message is clear:
Savvy competition is raising the bar for everyone,
but from here on out, it will be a lot tougher to stay ahead
of the pack.
It is hard to tell where to begin,
the money has been used to start everything from
rabbit farms to grocery stores.
The monster that ate the music business,
a single-minded, ego-driven bunch for whom compromise doesn't come easily.
- But for everyone's convergence dreams to come true,
that must change.
That's critical, because absent that innovative spirit, things could get grim.
You need to do a number of things concurrently!
We take this very seriously!
These are criminals we're talking about!
Litigation should scare people.
That line got one of the biggest laughs of the night.
Choi Sun Bae, A23Harth, and I, tentatively entitled 3C3, will be making a special retarded appearance at the Seoul Fringe Festival on August 28, in the park across from Hongik University's front gate, from 7-10pm, along with other notable local improvisers. Also, plans are in the works for a SCUM in Seoul Festival in December at Ssamzie Space.
posted by Brad Larcen 8/15/2003[edit]
