Monetary Reform to address the Financial Crisis

Here are my recommendations to the President and Treasury Secretary for how to handle the financial crisis:

1. Government should bailout the people, not the corporations. Why give more money to Wall Street, when average people are struggling to pay their mortgages? Investment in green infrastructure jobs will build the economy. Stimulus checks unattached to anything are inflationary, but other types of payments should be implemented, including the Sky Trust, which would reward people for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

2. If government acts as the short-term investor of last resort, it must demand several things in return: a) stock that will be owned by the American taxpayers, held in trust, and that will pay dividends to all Americans equally on a per capita basis, similar to ESOPs and the ideas listed by Jeff Gates in his book "The Ownership Solution," b) enforceable pledges and action plans from companies to alter their business practices towards sustainability for the next 30-50 years, and their bailouts would be contingent on the companies' progress towards sustainability goals, especially for high-GHG-emitting companies like General Motors, c) demand that companies receiving bailouts reduce their ridiculous executive compensation back to normal levels and implement a common sense ratio between the lowest paid employee and the highest as advocated by Ben Cohen, d) oversight and prosection to limit the obvious corruption that follows any disbursement of hundreds of billions of dollars, e) when necessary, fire the executives who caused the problems and install new, more trustworthy leadership.

3. Convene a monetary reform group that would offer recommendations to change the following unsustainable parts of the monetary system: a) fractional reserve banking, b) debt as the only backing for our fiat currency, c) the positive compound interest rate that impoverishes people and causes poor people to pay rich people in order to rent the currency that should actually be a public utility.

4. Implement monetary reform with some of the following characteristics: a) create a local currency that circulates only at the regional level, supporting locally owned businesses and services, b) allow states to issue currency instead of just bonds that must be repaid with interest, c) alter the national currency so that it can be issued as a public service backed by something besides debt and without the positive compounding interest rate - some possibilities are the JAK banking model, d) initiate the creation of an energy-backed currency unit for foreign exchange transactions, based on the EBCU energy backed currency unit advocated by FEASTA.

Rumsfeld Invaders moves to MCSandlerbrau.com

The Rumsfeld Invaders website, featuring a fun video game based on the Atari 2600's famous Space Invaders, has moved a new home at MCSandlerbrau.com. The website move was prompted by the fact that Rumsfeld's accomplices, Residents Bush and Cheney, will be leaving the White House soon. Though Rumsfeld Invaders was conceived during a dark time in our nation's history, the move to MCSandlerbrau.com represents an audacious hope that our country has reached a turning point. With such change (if we can believe in it, and I truly hope that yes, we can), this website will undergo a parallel transformation into a new era of activism, humor, and creativity.

It's been a tough 7 years, as shown by the 57,000 people who have played the Rumsfeld Invaders game to relieve their frustration at all the lies, wars, and swagger. Let's hope, audaciously, for the next 7 years of truth, peace, and humility. Let's hope for 7 (or even 70) years of clean water, sustainability, renewable energy, fuel efficiency, climate protection, social justice, green jobs, healthy lives, quality education, financial and monetary reform, and real homeland security.

Click here to play Rumsfeld Invaders.