[GJM] Youth and Trade - Associative Economics Bulletin - May 2008-4

[robert searle]

--- Arthur Edwards <ame at cfae.biz> wrote:

> Youth and Trade - Associative Economics Bulletin -
> May 2008
> 
> The Associative Economics Bulletin consists of news
> and views on  
> associative economics, including short extracts from
> Associative  
> Economics Monthly (available electronically for ï¿¡1
> an issue at www.cfae.biz/a 
> em or in a hard copy format - tel (UK) 01227
> 738207). To unsubscribe  
> from this list, reply or send an email to
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> unsubscribe' in the subject line.
> 
> 1.    Events at The London School of Economics
> 2.    Youth and Trade - Associative Economics
> Monthly May 2008
> 3.    Upcoming Events
> 
> 1)   EVENTS AT THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS
> 
> Note new room
> May 22nd  Finance and Farming -  Sectors within or
> boundaries of  
> economic life?
> June 19th  Pluralist and Practical - How should
> economics be taught?
> 
> Attendance charge: £5 (Students free). 6.30 - 8.00
> pm
> LSE, Room S306, 3rd Floor, St. Clement's, Houghton
> Street, London WC2A  
> 2AE
>
http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/findingYourWayAroundLSE.htm
> Full details - http://www.arthuredwards.net/events/
> 
> 2)   YOUTH AND TRADE - ASSOCIATIVE ECONOMICS MONTHLY
>  MAY 2008  
> (Editorial)
> 
> An underlying but unarticulated cause of the current
> financial crisis  
> concerns the nature of credit. In the last issue we
> highlighted the  
> problems that stem from a conventional treatment of
> credit. Against  
> this we featured the distinction Rudolf Steiner made
> between  
> ‘personal’ and ‘real’ credit. In Steiner’s
> view it is  
> granting credit to human beings that leads to new
> capacities and  
> future productivity, thereby making goods cheaper by
> the way. On the  
> other hand, granting credit against real estate
> brings into being  
> fictitious values that act with deleterious effect a
> petrified  
> deposits in the economic process, making things
> dearer.
> 
> The kind of financial thinking associated with the
> ‘sub-prime’  
> property situation illustrates well what Steiner had
> in mind when  
> speaking of ‘real’ credit. So how different
> would a world of  
> ‘personal’ credit be?
> 
> Personal credit is capital advanced directly to the
> person, which is  
> to say unsecured, or secured only against the future
> productivity of  
> that person (once called ‘man-to-man’ lending).
> It contrasts not  
> only with credit granted against real estate (and
> against the  
> marketable asset value of the means of production)
> but also with  
> credit for a specific project or sectoral area,
> where the investment  
> may be in individuals, but only because they match
> the lender’s or  
> donor’s interests and priorities.
> 
> However, Steiner’s idea is more radical: placing
> confidence in the  
> economic ability of the human being as such. In his
> words: “When a  
> bank-note is lent to someone who is about to
> undertake some business -  
> at the moment he begins to use it, it would be far
> more important to  
> write on the note whether the person is a genius or
> a fool in  
> business. For the value of the loan money in the
> whole economic  
> process will henceforth depend upon the uses he
> makes of it.”
> 
> Distant as such ideas may seem from current
> thinking, the examples  
> given in the first of our articles, entitled Banking
> on Initiative,  
> suggest otherwise. Others could be cited, making
> clear that this is a  
> now, not a tomorrow development. Their focus is on
> entrepreneurship  
> generally, whereas in this edition of Associative
> Economics Monthly we  
> have put the emphasis on young people - because that
> is a more  
> dramatic foil to ‘real’ credit. It is young
> people who need to be  
> inspired by realising their ideals and goals,
> although perhaps not in  
> the counter image provided by this month’s Sign of
> theTimes,  
> Pernicious Ayn Rand.
> 
> The Steiner feature, Trust, Capital and Credit, is a
> sequel to last  
> month and serves to expand and deepen his argument,
> which in turn cues  
> the 7th of our 21 policies - Invest in Youth. We are
> now at N (for  
> Negative Equity) for the second time in our on-going
> Glossary series.  
> Although not usually syncronised to our overall
> theme, this time it  
> provides a commentary on the dangers of ‘real’
> credit. On this  
> occasion, the Friends’ Page comprises editorial
> correspondence,  
> giving a glimpse of the range of material that
> passes across the  
> editorial desk. Though one could have perhaps
> equally chosen the  
> Prince of Wales himself, May’s AE Hero is The
> Prince’s Trust,  
> chosen because of its far-reaching work with young
> people aged 14 to  
> 30. Accountant’s Corner concludes with a window
> onto a world in which  
> not just the immediate effects but also the wider
> consequences of a  
> company’s decision making find their way into the
> consciousness with  
> which its accounts are done.
> 
> 3) Upcoming AE-Events
> 
> ASSOCIATIVE ECONOMICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY  10-14
> AUGUST 2008
> More details, programme and registration at
> cfae.biz/festival
> 
> THE NEXT COLOURS OF MONEY SEMINAR
> 3rd-5th October 2008, Stroud, UK
> Details - http://www.arthuredwards.net/events/
> 
> FOR MORE EVENT details see
>
http://www.christopherhoughtonbudd.com/activities/workshops_presentations/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 



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