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Alternet
Dara Colwell
March 27, 2009

While Uncle Sam's scramble for new revenue sources has recently kicked up the marijuana debate -- to legalize and tax, or not? -- hemp's feasibility as a stimulus plan has received less airtime.

But with a North American market that exceeds $300 million in annual retail sales and continued rising demand, industrial hemp could generate thousands of sustainable new jobs, helping America to get back on track.

"We're in the midst of a dark economic transition, but I believe hemp is an important facet and has tremendous economic potential," says Patrick Goggin, a board member on the California Council for Vote Hemp, the nation's leading industrial hemp-farming advocacy group. "Economically and environmentally, industrial hemp is an important part of the sustainability pie."

With 25,000 known applications from paper, clothing and food products -- which, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal this January, is the fastest growing new food category in North America -- to construction and automotive materials, hemp could be just the crop to jump-start America's green economy.

SCEC stands for Solidarietà che Cammina - Solidarity that walks. It is a complementary currency that is designed to start its life circulating in common with the official currency, the Euro.

It is adapted to the Italian situation, where alternative currencies are looked upon as competition to the official one. So SCEC defines itself as a complementary currency. It circulates together with the official currency.

SCEC is in the form of a discount chit denominated in Euro equivalents (in denominations of 0.50 Euro, 1, 2, 5, 10 and 50 Euro). It is distributed for free and acquires value only when used. Businesses and professionals agree to give a discount to buyers who pay (in part) with SCEC, usually around 20 %, but ranging mostly between 10 and 30 %.

A full description of the project in English - a bit lengthy but certainly of interest - is available here:

http://www.arcipelagoscec.org/doc/ArchipelagoSCECproject1.pdf

SCEC is putting first emphasis on actually supporting local production and commerce over imports from far away and world wide commerce by multinationals. The currency makes local exchanges more convenient for people who use the system, as they get a break by virtue of getting substantial discounts on the normal price.

The SCEC, once issued, stay in circulation and can be spent at any business or professional that adheres to the program and states how much discount they are willing to give. In this way, SCEC is tax neutral - no tax is to be paid on it as it is merely a discount.

Users of course, who are not subject to value added tax (VAT) when buying/selling second hand goods or exchanging favors and transactions in the social area can use SCEC to replace the official Euro currency in these direct exchanges.

SCEC is a discount as far as the government is concerned, but it is a fledgling alternative currency as far as the users are concerned.

It favors local commerce and as it gets more and more accepted, future uses might even include the payment of rates or (local) taxes.

An electronic system to run side by side with the currently available paper currency is in the planning stage. This would work like any bank account. You can make transfers to other users of the system, and you can convert paper into electronic or electronic into paper, if so desired.

Organizationally, SCEC is organized as a non profit "archipelago of several islands" which are the regional associations that are independent of each other, but agree to use the same kind of currency and to exchange information on who are the member businesses and professionals who accept SCEC as part payment for their goods or services.

SCEC are issued periodically and equally to all participants in the system, in exchange for a voluntary contribution intended to defray the costs of printing and administration.

Loans in SCEC to participating businesses are possible. They are given as an advance on future distribution of the currency. Once someone has received a loan they will not receive any future SCEC distributed to others, until they are "caught up" and are once again eligible to receive the normal distributions. Anyone entering the system gets 100 SCEC to start trading. To get more, they have to either wait for another periodic distribution or have to start giving some kind of service for which they accept SCEC in payment.

Fourwinds10.com
March 13, 2008

LAST NIGHTS SESSION WAS ONLY THE FOURTH TIME IN 176 YEARS THAT CONGRESS CLOSED ITS DOORS TO THE PUBLIC

Word has begun leaking from last nights special, closed-door session of the United States House of Representatives.

Not only did members discuss new surveillance provisions as was the publicly stated reason for the closed door session, they also discussed:

the imminent collapse of the U.S. economy to occur by September 2008,

the imminent collapse of US federal government finances by February 2009,

the possibility of Civil War inside the USA as a result of the collapse,

advance round-ups of "insurgent U.S. citizens" likely to move against the government,

The detention of those rounded-up at "REX 84" camps constructed throughout the USA,

the possibility of retaliation against members of Congress for the collapses,

the location of "safe facilities" for members of Congress and their families to reside during expected massive civil unrest

the necessary and unavoidable merger of the United States with Canada (for its natural resources) and with Mexico (for its cheap labor pool),

the issuance of a new currency - THE AMERO - for all three nations as the proposed solution to the coming economic armageddon.

Members of Congress were FORBIDDEN to reveal what was discussed. Several are so furious and concerned about the future of the contry, they have begun leaking info. More details coming later today and over the weekend. SPREAD THE WORD!!!

Aljazeera.net
February 14, 2007
11:55 MECCA TIME, 8:55 GMT

Britain and the United States are the worst places in the industrialised world for children to live, according to a report by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).

They ranked among the bottom third in the study which looked at overall well-being, health and safety, education, relationships, risk and their own sense of well-being.

The study said that child poverty - defined as the percentage of children living in homes with incomes below 50 per cent of the national median - remains above the 15 per cent mark in Britain, the US and Ireland, as well as Spain, Portugal and Italy.

BBC News, Magdeburg, Germany
By Tristana Moore
February 6, 2007

The next time you venture out for lunch in Magdeburg, check what kind of loose change you have in your wallet.

Like any other city in Germany, the normal currency here is the euro. But bizarrely, they also have another currency in circulation: the Urstromtaler .

Before you doubt its existence, it is not "Monopoly" money - it is very real. At a jewellery shop in the city centre, Gerfried Kliems explained how people use the regional currency.

The Awakening of the UsuryFree Creatives
By Tommy UsuryFree

During the past twenty-five years, the thoughts and actions of the pioneering usuryfree creatives have spread from rural British Columbia to countries all over the world, making a profound impact not only in the movement of usuryfree living, but also in the overall achievement of consciousness-raising of the whole planet.

While cultural creatives are said to be the leading edge creators of a new global culture, the usuryfree creatives are defined as a significant sub-group within the 50+ million cultural creatives who are described in the book The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World‚ authored by Paul H. Ray, Ph.D. and Sherry Ruth Anderson, Ph.D.

Usuryfree creatives are re-educating themselves about our orthodox system of usury-based economics. Through a self-imposed process of re-education, usuryfree creatives are transforming the consciousness of we-the-people. Indeed, usuryfree creatives from all across Canada (and the world) are un-learning the lies, deceit and deception that have been foisted upon them and their ancestors for centuries as they read books, attend lectures and follow self-imposed courses of study using the world wide web of resources available on the internet.

The usuryfree creatives are re-learning the basics of wealth creation from a unique perspective. Proposals for usuryfree community currency projects are surfacing from many different individuals and groups. Though only some of these blossoming projects are focused on usuryfree time currency, given the ease of modern technology, their respective infrastructures can be easily adapted to use the optimal unit of a time-based currency which can be traded globally without the headaches of exchange rates.

These usuryfree creatives admit to formerly being financially enslaved as debtors, otherwise defined as victims entrapped in a culture of usury. As debtors they were subservient to their greedy creditors (bankers) whose economic domination is evidenced by their theft of wealth from the middle class by the exacting of compound usury.

As debtors and for lack of knowledge about how the design flaw of usury really functions, they were submerged in a painful economic reality in which the experience of usuryfree living was forever illusive. Only recently, have the debtors been offered resources to facilitate their re-education process.

Thanks to the pioneering usuryfree creatives, debtors are now learning that the current, usury-based system of orthodox economics is forever causing the debtors to experience economic pain because the design flaw of usury malfunctions to cause wars, violence, poverty, scarcity and lack.

Usuryfree creatives commonly confront the many problems caused by the design flaw of usury and turn their attention to the usuryfree community currency movement as one of the major planks in any platform that seeks to abolish the culture of usury.

Over the past twenty-five years, the usuryfree creatives have engaged in a process of study and active participation that has produced various workable exchange and/or trading models that are being implemented in local communities all over the world.

From situations of active participation in the struggle to liberate debtors chained by the albatross of usury, these usuryfree creatives are liberating men and women as they evolve towards a usuryfree lifestyle. These usuryfree creatives are developing a new economic perspective which is authentically different and which seeks to facilitate the transition to a concrete reality of usuryfree living in this 21st Century.

These innovative thoughts on the philosophy of usuryfree living first emerged in the early 1980's after Michael Linton created the usuryfree LETS (Local Employment Trading System) software. The LETSystem model has been widely used in local communities all over the world since 1982. Pioneering usuryfree creatives have written and published many articles, booklets, and books during the latter years of the 20th Century. As we progress into this 21st Century, active usuryfree creatives are producing CDs and DVDs as well as hosting live seminars and workshops.

The latest DVD commonly promoted within the usuryfree community currency movement is Money As Debt by Paul Grignon. Since its release in the summer of 2006, it has been lauded as an excellent introductory lesson about the creation of money as debt and the growth of any debt as accelerated by the design flaw of usury.

Indeed, usuryfree creatives are becoming aware of the abstractness and sterility of the conventional and erroneous teachings by orthodox economists. And they are excited about evolving processes midst our ongoing struggle to experience the reality of usuryfree living in this incarnation.

Usuryfree creatives are encouraged when men of the stature of Peter Keonig, an international lecturer from Switzerland hosts seminars about liberating your life, liberating your money, because it demonstrates the awakening of the group consciousness, while negating formerly accepted limits and opening doors to the reality of usuryfree living.

Peter operates on some basic assumptions about money, one of which is that in the future we may expect a time where we have the opportunity to buy things and trade with each other in a multiplicity of different currencies. Peter concurs with the usuryfree creatives who explain that the most empowering element of these modern community currencies are that indeed, they are without interest or otherwise usuryfree.

For complete details about Peter Koenig's Money Seminars for 2007, including those in Ottawa, Ontario, Montreal and Quebec City, Quebec, Canada in February 2007, visit his website. 

Usuryfree creatives believe that the development of an online database that will serve to facilitate trades/exchanges locally, nationally and internationally will inevitably lead to the ultimate financial freedom for everyone on this planet.

In fact, the pioneering usuryfree creatives anticipate that such an online database will accelerate the mission of usuryfree living and mark the beginning of a new era of peace, prosperity, and abundance for all.

Indeed, the thoughts and experiences of the pioneering usuryfree creatives are making significant contributions towards creating the reality of usuryfree living for everyone in this 21st Century.

NewsTarget.com
April 4 2006
By Mike Adams

This is an article about the disease economy. That's a term I coined because I could find no other existing term to describe what I'm observing in our economy today. I call it the disease economy because such a huge percentage of the economic activity and economic growth I see in this country is based on the manufacturing, marketing and selling of products and services based on disease. That is, products and services that either cause diseases or "treat" those diseases.

A Justice of the peace in the southern Italian town Lecce has decided that the Italian Central Bank's practice to retain the seignorage on paper money for its own profit is illegal and that the money should be turned over to its rightful owners - the citizens of Italy. The amount in question is a total of 5 billion Euro for Italian Lira paper-money issued in the time period from 1996 to 2003. After 2003, the issue of paper money became part of the European Central Bank's mandate. Seignorage is the difference between the cost of producing banknotes and the nominal value of the notes.

The legal case was sustained by the Italian consumers association ADUSBEF, which deals especially with consumer implications of banking, financial and postal services as well as insurances. Elio Lannutti, the president of the association says that while the case is for one individual only, it opens a way for restitution of all the money illegally put into its own coffers by the Italian Central Bank, which is owned by Italian commercial banks. Lannutti says "we would like the money to go to the victims of financial cracks" adding that the government fund for that purpose is woefully lacking behind.

Agriculture has been suffering a fatal flaw since the discovery by Justus von Liebig (1803-73), of artificial nitrogen-based fertilizers. Every year, the nutrient minerals in our foods have becoming more and more scarse - the plants simply cannot take them up in sufficient quantity and in the broad spectrum required for our health.

Sustainability of agricultural practice is becoming a critical issue. Soils are degraded with use and much of the substance gets lost through wind and rain - washed into the ocean. Poisons used to control weeds and "pests" are having unintended side effects and end up on our tables.

The Independent Science Panel is proposing to break with the von Liebig tradition of artificial fertilization and degradation. Here is their call to action...

19 Calif. Pharmacies Sue 15 Drug Makers
PAUL ELIAS
26/08/2004
Source: Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - Nineteen California pharmacies filed a state lawsuit Thursday accusing the world's largest pharmaceutical companies of conspiring to inflate U.S. drug prices.

The pharmacies accuse the 15 drug makers of illegally conspiring to charge inflated prices in the United States while barring pharmacies from buying the makers' drugs at lower prices outside the country.

"We are being charged higher prices than foreigners are being charged," said Joseph Alioto, representing the pharmacies. "If we are selling the same drug we want to pay the same prices as everyone else."

Doctors' body accuses drug firms of 'disease mongering' By Michael Day, Health Correspondent
(Filed: 29/08/2004)
Source: Telegraph

The Royal College of General Practitioners has accused drug companies of "disease-mongering" in order to boost sales.

The college, whose members include many of Britain's 37,000 GPs, says the pharmaceutical industry is taking the National Health Service to the brink of collapse by encouraging unnecessary prescribing of costly drugs.

In evidence to a parliamentary inquiry, the college accuses the companies of over-playing the dangers of conditions such as mild depression or slightly raised blood pressure.

Dr Maureen Baker, the college's honorary secretary, wants the Commons health inquiry to investigate the companies' practices.

High Cholesterol Key to Drugmaker Profits
Wed Jul 21, 2004 12:14 PM ET
By Bill Berkrot
Source: Reuters.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc. on Wednesday posted solid quarterly earnings on surging sales of cholesterol treatment Lipitor, while results of rivals Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. were hurt by increased competition for key drugs.

Merck and Schering-Plough are awaiting imminent approval for a new cholesterol treatment that combines their two drugs and should spark a reversal of fortune.

Wyeth reported strong second-quarter sales growth from its key drugs for depression and ulcers, despite the ongoing litigation from its recalled diet drugs that has forced it to set aside more than $16 billion in liability reserves.

Overseas, Roche's profit nearly doubled on strong cancer drug sales.

AARP: Drug Prices Increase Faster Than Inflation
Drug Makers Say Increases Match The Rise In All Healthcare Costs

POSTED: 5:11 pm EDT July 1, 2004
Source: nbc6.net

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A new study finds that prescription drug prices are rising faster than the rate of inflation. The nation's senior advocacy group AARP is calling it an outrage.

The new study concludes that prescription drug prices are soaring, confirming the worst fears of seniors

"They're angry and they're scared because these are drugs that they need to stay healthy and stay alive," said John Rother of AAPR

Drug sales rising yearly, data show

By ANDRÉ PICARD
PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER
Wednesday, June 23, 2004 - Page A2
Source: The Globe and Mail

Canadians seem to have a boundless appetite for drugs.

New data published yesterday show that spending on prescription and non-prescription drugs reached $19.6-billion last year, an 8.1-per-cent jump from the previous year.

"As technological possibilities increase, so does use, so I don't see any drop-off in the foreseeable future," said Paul Grootendorst, an associate professor in the University of Toronto's faculty of pharmacy.

82 Million in U.S. Lacked Health Insurance -Study
June 16, 2004
Source: Lycos News

By Joan Gralla

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Almost 82 million people in the United States or one in three under age 65 had no health insurance for at least one month in the past two years, a study by a consumer group said on Wednesday.

Nearly two-thirds of those people had no insurance for at least six months during 2002 and 2003, and just over half went without benefits for at least nine months, according to the study by Washington-based Families USA.

Many of the uninsured had middle-class incomes and live in presidential battleground states where a pollster said voters' fears of losing their health benefits could tip the balance.

"The growing number of Americans without health insurance is now a phenomenon that significantly affects middle-class and working families," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA.

Glaxo Shares Under Fire As $400 MM Lawsuit Looms
By Mickey Clark
06/04/04 12:05 AM PT
Source: E-commerce Times

Spitzer accuses GSK of assuring doctors that the drug was safe for children to take while withholding research that indicated it was ineffective and in some case could lead to depression and even suicide. Early estimates say Glaxo's potential liability relating to Paxil could be almost US$400 million.

Is this scandal limited to only Italian MD's ????

Over 4,000 doctors face charges in Italian drugs scandal

John Hooper in Rome and Heather Stewart
Thursday May 27, 2004
The Guardian

One of the biggest inquiries into marketing practices in the drugs industry ended yesterday with Italian police asking for almost 5,000 people to be put on trial, including more than 4,000 doctors and at least 273 employees of the British pharmaceuticals giant, GlaxoSmithKline. Some face up to five years in jail if tried and convicted.

Italy's revenue guard, the Guardia di Finanza, said in a statement that GlaxoSmith- Kline and its predecessor firm had spent €228m (£152m) on "sweeteners" for doctors, chemists and others over four years. The alleged bribes ranged from cameras, computers and holidays to outright cash payments.

World pharmaceutical market to surpass $900 billion by 2008
30 May 2004   
Source: Medical News Today

Though the pharmaceutical industry remains one of the most profitable and stable industries, several macro-level variables are influencing fundamental changes in the industry structure.

The chief variables are: the increasing role of substitutes-generic pharmaceuticals threat; the threat of new entrants-emergence of bio-pharmaceuticals and genome revolution; increasing buyer power-power of third party payers, government buyers, and health maintenance organizations, and increased health awareness amongst patients and changing suppliers-enhanced outsourcing in manufacturing and R&D.

When advocates become regulators
President Bush has installed more than 100 top officials who were once lobbyists, attorneys or spokespeople for the industries they oversee.

By Anne C. Mulkern

Denver Post Staff Writer
Post / Linda Shapley / AP

Source: DenverPost.com

Washington - In a New York City ballroom days before Christmas, a powerful Bush administration lawyer made an unprecedented offer to drug companies, one likely to protect their profits and potentially hurt consumers.

Daniel E. Troy, lead counsel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, extended the government's help in torpedoing certain lawsuits. Among Troy's targets: claims that medications caused devastating and unexpected side effects.

Angioplasty or bypass surgery patients with money problems have double the mortality rate
18 May 2004   
Source: Medical News Today

Heart patients who had angioplasty or bypass surgery and felt burdened by medical costs were more than twice as likely to die within a year of their procedure as patients who didn't have trouble paying for healthcare, according to a study presented today at the American Heart Association's 5th annual Scientific Forum on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke.

Many studies have found an association between socioeconomic status and cardiovascular death, but they had not analyzed how patients' perceptions of economic burden affect cardiovascular survival.

Open Letter from Ralph Fucetola JD, for the SHRI Trustees, April 10, 2004
Source and full story: Life Spirit

Dear Alternative Health Advocate,

A new and treacherous attack on alternative and complementary practitioners has just begun to unfold in Ohio, a state notorious for its strict regulations that hamper the practice of nutrition and other complementary modalities.

What are the Main Problems with the Present Money System?

Richard Douthwaite
18th January 2003
Source: Global Public Media

Most people don't realize that we are using a particular sort of money at the moment. We are using a debt-based money. That is, virtually all free money that is used in industrialized countries at the moment only exists because somebody has borrowed it. So, for example, if you have paid off all your debts, you don't owe anything on your house or your car, you don't owe anything to the bank and you've got a positive bank balance, then you have money because someone somewhere has borrowed that money and he's paying interest on it.

The Altered Human Is Already Here
By JAMES GORMAN
Published: April 6, 2004
Source: New York Time

In the popular imagination, the technologically altered human being is a cross between RoboCop and the Borg.

The hardware that would make such a mating of humans, silicon chips and assorted weaponry a reality is, unfortunately, still on back order.

Many people, however, have already made a different kind of leap into the posthuman future.

Their jump is biochemical, mediated by proton-pump inhibitors, serotonin boosters and other drugs that have become permanent additives to many human bloodstreams.

Over the past half century, health-conscious, well-insured, educated people in the United States and in other wealthy countries have come to take being medicated for granted.

Medicare's Magical Movie Shocks Washington: Andrew Ferguson
Source: Bloomberg Columnists
Andrew Ferguson is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.

March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Last week, as the debate in Washington over the federal government's Medicare program took surreal and unexpected turns, I happened to be reading "Things Worth Fighting For,'' a posthumous collection of articles by the great journalist Michael Kelly, who was killed a year ago at the dawn of the Iraq war.

I was delighted to discover the following passage, which I adorned with little exclamation points and smiley faces.

Nowadays, Kelly wrote, "politics is not about objective reality, but virtual reality. What happens in the political world is divorced from the real world. It exists for only the fleeting historical moment, in a magical movie of sorts, a never-ending and infinitely revisable docudrama. Strangely, the faithful understand that the movie is not true -- yet also maintain that it is the only truth that really matters.''

EDITORIAL

Bush's Medicare deceit
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Source SFGate.com

AFTER FIRST covering up and then misrepresenting the facts about the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, the Bush administration is now shamelessly working to further mislead the public by staging phony "news reports" about how well the law will work.

Last November, during the heat of the congressional debate on the law, the White House reportedly threatened to fire a top Medicare official if he told the truth about the cost of what President Bush described as a $400 billion Medicare bill.

by Christian Gelleri, Jaqui Dunne, Bernard Lietaer

This complementary currency experiment is already catching the attention of dozens of other communities around Europe and beyond. This is an application of the realization that: “Money is not a thing, although it appears as an object (paper, gold, silver, coins) Money is rather an agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange. Therefore, money resides in the same space as all social contracts, such as marriage, rental agreements, and political parties..”1 So why not create a money agreement that would be both consistent with Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy and supportive of the Steiner schools?

Our current monetary system is deeply inequitable, leaving the producers of value with crumbs, while a large part of what is produced is automatically transferred to those who happen to have accumulated great piles of monetary resources.

Tommy-Usury: Free reports from the ongoing International Seminar About Financial Responsibilities and UsuryFree Community Currencies at UQAM, the University of Quebec in Montreal.

22 November 2003
In the first interim report, Tommy says Bernard Lietaer presented the concept of complementary community currencies. Litaer's prediction: "Orthodox economics will fight complementary community currencies just like conventional medicine fights the introduction of acupuncture and other alternative healing methods."

27 November 2003
A second interim report on the presentation of Molly Scott, Professor at the University of Wales, who relates of experiments with local currencies, designed to liven up the economies of villages that suffered from the closure of coal mines - their former principal source of income and economic activity.

28 November 2003
The third interim report relates the talk of Michael Linton, the software engineer who designed the original usuryfree LETS (Local Employment Trading System) software in the early 1980's. Tommy also adds his own thoughts on how to expand the local employment trading system into an internet-based world wide exchange of "hours", the currency LETS are based on.