What about identity?

Five feet six inches tall, weighing 130 pounds with brown hair and green eyes is the description given on my driver’s license. It offers along with my age a means of identification. I can be identified as being the person described. I however am not the physical form I am trapped within. I have an identity beyond my physical form. This identity is of much greater importance to my state of wholeness and personal well being. Who am I really? Am I the sum of all my actions and choices? Am I what I think or what others perceive?  Am I merely an apparition or miniscule part of some obscure imagining?

Over the years I have acquired a long list of identifying labels.  Some bestowed from mere association to others such as: daughter, sister, cousin, wife, mother, grandmother, neighbor or friend.  Many labels are strictly related to jobs such as: lifeguard, dental assistant, office manager, gas station attendant, accountant, financial consultant or estate manager. Both of these categories are subject to individual interpretation. What it means to be a mother,  for example, is different for everyone. Who I am as a mother and who my daughter is as a mother are not the same. Consequently to identify me solely as a mother would not offer much to distinguish me from someone else unless you had more specific information.  To be identified as Charles Manson’s mother is certainly a unique identity as it would be to be Martin Luther King’s mother. Each of these sparks questions about who they were as people in their own right that produced such offspring.  Yet even being uniquely identified does not necessarily define or encompass an identity. These labels I see as insufficient to describe myself or anyone.

Religious labels are interesting. Being Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist adds some framework to identity, as the family / friend associations and job labels do. These religious distinctions seem to hold more defined meaning but in reality are as vague as the distinction of being a mother. They do not tell us much if anything about the real person beyond the assumptions we bring to the label based on our perceptions of the religious label being applied.  These stereotypes bring meaning albeit quite possibly belying the truth about an individual. They do offer more content as to the character of an individual than the description of their physical appearance.

There are people that I feel I know very well, my husband, children and my mother to name a few. These people know me better than most as well. Their uniqueness and personality are apparent to me and I would recognize them instantly. I am not however sure that I could put into words what I know or sense about them that makes them uniquely who they are. 

I read a quote today from Albert Einstein, “Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.” This was so helpful to me. There are many things about each of us that miss the mark, we are not perfect nor are we meant to be so. We have limitations and faults and even in those areas that we excel we err at times. As a whole, the human race has a huge variety of abilities. As individuals we each have something that we excel at, that may in the end be something that defines or identifies us. Perhaps it is the the things that we can do rather than those that we can not that deserves our focus and attention.

Our identity is a compilation of many things, physical attributes, personal choices and actions, gifts and abilities and beliefs. It is the combination of all these things that make us a uniquely identifiable creation. It is our identity. So when we are feeling like the fish that couldn’t climb the tree we need to step back and look at ourselves through the eyes of the creator.What were you created to be?

What about banks?

Too big to fail or so big they best fail? One of the main tenets of capitalism is competition.  In the United States now, after the 2008 banking bailout, we ended up with a few banks holding the majority of our deposits. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorganChase, and Citigroup are the banks that hold most of our funds. These are also the banks that we bailed out in 2008. What has changed since then? Was the bailout a good thing? Would, should, could we do it again?

Well, as a nation we threw a lot of money, in 2008, at the banks and trusted them to make things right again. We did nothing to ensure that the issues that got the banks in trouble were corrected.  Now, nearly four years after the bailout, these same banks are still not doing well. Bank of America is struggling to keep its head above water. It’s stock is in free fall and has lost some 40% in the last month. Granted the whole market has been pretty volatile in the last week but aside from that even, Bank of America stands out among its banking peers. 

According to some it is the unregulated hedge funds behind the scenes that is the source of the real problems with the banking industry. Hedge funds do not have to report their holdings and are not accountable to the SEC like other securities. This leads to a lack of transparency on the part of the banks. 

http://youtu.be/WshxmT3Fawo

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/stiglitz-considerable-risk-banks-today-because-little-changed-151748128.html

 

Both of these videos describe the same issues. The first video was made in 2009 while the other was done today, August 2011. Nothing has changed!

According to Professor Joseph Stiglitz, two time Noble prize winner and Columbia University professor of economics, the solution is to let the banks fail. Bailing them out would just lead to more of the same. This time we would need to allow them to fail and allow them to be taken over by the government to be run as public entities for the good of the people. 

After watching the Professor speak in this second video it seems clear the course of action required. In addition to this methodology I see it as our responsibility to take intelligent action to mediate our own risk.  

How does one go about that you ask? Publicly traded banks have shareholders and bottom lines to answer to. They are doing whatever they can to make more money to stay ahead of the competition. With the now limited competition they are working to more than ever to line the pockets of the CEO’s and the major stock holders. 

Community credit unions on the other hand are operated by and for the members. They are backed by the FDIC just like the big banks but they are driven by totally different motives. They are run in a manner that allows and requires them to be transparent in all their dealings. I have found that they are much more responsive to the members they service than any corporate banking institution that falls under the “Too big to fail” umbrella. I have been a customer of all the big four mentioned above. I speak from experience that my local credit union outshines any of the four big banks in every way. 

Beyond my peace of mind that my money is secure and being used for the benefit of the other credit union members also living in our community, I am confident that undue risks are NOT being taken with my funds to pay huge sums to the CEO so he/she can live in a mansion and drive a fancy car. It is banking as it should be. You can also benefit from the security and community support offered by your local credit union. 

I recommend finding a credit union that is only local, serving just your county or state.  Shop around and do yourself and this country a favor. We don’t need the big banks to carry on our business. Life can be simpler and easier if we divest ourselves of the milking machines that are sucking us dry as a nation. Let’s build communities of people that take care of each other. I want to live in a community where I know my neighbors and my banker and live a happier less stressful life.

What about Integrity?

I don’t believe many politicians, bankers, stock brokers, CPA’s  or corporate lawyers possess it. It is a quality that was once required by Americans from all such “Professionals”.  It was considered to be the single most important characteristic without which employment in such professions was not allowed. What is it? According to Merriam-Webster it is a “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : incorruptibility” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integrity ). When did it become acceptable for these once trusted professions to lie, cheat and steal from the American public? What has become of our once great nation?

This past weekend, over dinner, my mother expounded on her disgust and frustration with the state of our nation financially and otherwise. She shared, to my husband’s amazement, her belief that revolution was required.  She could see no way back or around the current financial debacle exposing so much government corruption as well as general corruption of our financial systems. She reminded us that it is our responsibility as citizens of a democracy to revolt in situations like this. My husband’s immediate response, as a veteran of foreign wars, was to question the need for revolution and the violence and death associated, in his experience.  Were we willing to stand in the streets and revolt?

This conversation at the table hit everyone sitting there hard in the gut. None of us wanted to be party to a violent revolution but what options do we have and how can we turn our country around as is our job? If we are not willing to do something to affect the change then we have the government we deserve and the complaining is simply the whining of the powerless. Nobody sitting at the table was willing to be simply the “powerless whiners”.

The truth about the culpability of the bankers, securities traders and brokerage firms in the mortgage crisis and the ensuing economic meltdown is beginning to come out. I learned today about the lawsuits that are currently in progress against JPMorgan for illegal activity and their attempts at covering it up. This is activity that was and still is being practiced by the financial community that the American people bailed out in 2008. The illegal activity is the source of the huge mess that has lead to the debt crisis that resulted in yet another market crash and leaves the American people feeling powerless to fix. 

I found hope today! Hope that indeed the system of government created by our forefathers is not yet completely lost. The judicial branch of our government is actually hearing cases brought against the criminals. It seems to me that the executive and legislative branches were unable to combat the forces of darkness perhaps for lack of integrity themselves. 

The fear I have stems from the fact that the media has not made it known to the people of this nation, who have been wronged, that these trials are even underway. I found the information on RT, Russia Today. The Keiser Report 171 has a guest, Teri Buhl, with documented information.  If the American judicial system can prosecute and bring down some of the corruption that plagues our nation the whole world will benefit. We will tell the world that the United States will not tolerate this kind of abuse. We will tell bankers and Wall Street that the people of this nation are watching and we DO require integrity and honesty!!

Watch this video from Russia Today and see if you don’t find some hope once again in the checks and balances built into our system to combat corruption! If we bring it into the light and into the mainstream media, the people will gain power and integrity as a nation once again.  http://rt.com/programs/keiser-report/keiser-debt-deal-gold/

PS As an after thought I checked out the website of Teri Buhl... it is full of great information not available in the mainstream press... check it out!   http://www.teribuhl.com/

What about politics?

“I am so disgusted by the whole political mess I don’t even want to hear about it anymore!” lamented my dear mother. “Just last month I decided to move some funds from a safe secure spot to one that would bring a slightly better return. Now I stand to loose those funds. I have to hold on and hope it turns around before I need the money.”

At seventy-six years of age she is still healthy mentally and physically. She has over the years invested well with the once middle class resources her and my father accumulated. Now as a widow on a fixed income she is fairly stable. This latest down turn in the economy may push her stability on tilt! 

I have been closely watching the political news this last couple weeks. I was quite concerned that congress could not come to an agreement on the debt ceiling issues. The subsequent market responses around the globe are still spinning our futures in the air. 

I have long been a proponent of taking back the democratic process by becoming involved in the political process. My mother feels the same and has for several years even done volunteer work at election polls to help the democratic process. 

I am distressed by the fact that many people in this country have a gross misunderstanding of some key concepts at issue in America today. I would like to take a minute to clarify something that the media in general seems to work at distorting. Democracy is a method of governance, “by the people, for the people”. Capitalism is a means of economic distribution. The two are not joined at the hip. We can have Democracy without Capitalism. We can have Capitalism without Democracy. That is what we have now! Capitalism has supplanted Democracy with Oligarchy.  Oligarchy for those who may not be clear is a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes, according to Merriam-Webster definition. ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oligarchy )

This week along with the markets free falling toward further economic peril, I read an article that made me realize just how fully the democratic process has been supplanted.  The article linked below is entitled “A dozen donors account for bulk of ‘super PAC’ money”. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-08-03-super-PACs-elections-2012-campaign-spending_n.htm

My son is self employed and has a drive to achieve financial independence. He is well on his way and is not thirty years old yet. He has worked hard to make his way in this treacherous political/economic system that we currently have in America. I think he has seen what was needed to get to a stable financial situation in our current environment. He was not willing to work for someone else hoping to somehow stay ahead of the downsizing and outsourcing. I applaud his initiative and determination.

This week my son had this to say: “I graduated in late 2004 and by mid 2007, the credit crunch was big news. There hasn’t been a single piece of good economic news since 2007. Not just in the economy, actually, but the whole world! I really hope that before I’m 40 the US at least has something to be positive about because having this low grade anxiety about the economy (as a small business owner) and the world in general is like having a slight fever I never get over.”

It is the young people like my son that our future rests with. Here are some statistics about small businesses in the United States that are of importance:

·         Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.

·         Employ just over half of all private sector employees.

·         Pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll.

·         Have generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years.

·         Create more than half of the nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).

·         Hire 40 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers).

·         Are 52 percent home-based and 2 percent franchises.

·         Made up 97.3 percent of all identified exporters and produced 30.2 percent of the known export value in FY 2007.

·         Produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms; these patents are twice as likely as large firm patents to be among the one percent most cited.

Cited from the U.S. Small Business Administration(http://www.sba.gov/advocacy/7495/8420 )

From these statistics we see that the small businesses are the backbone of our country. In a democracy these small business owners would have a vote in the politics that legislate how they conduct their business. In the present Oligarchy however,  based on the information in the article about the “super PAC”, unless you’re neighbors with the likes of John Paulson, a New York hedge fund manager, or Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation,  it is not likely your voice will be heard by anyone in government.

The old and the young in America are in agreement, things are bad and seem to be getting worse. Is it Capitalism or is it the supplanting of our democracy that has brought us to this place? Perhaps it is a combination of both. What is the answer to the crisis? I think we are all beginning to realize that the status quo we thought we were voting for was a dream from the 50’s and hiding our heads is not an option any longer.

What about cell phones?

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It is SuperCellPhone!  Able to find tall buildings with its GPS, take video and pictures to send to the internet, listen to music, find the nearest fast food restaurant and transfer money to the checking account, pay the bills and send party invitations. Sometimes you can make phone calls and actually hear every other word being said without losing the connection.

I am stuck! I admit it. I am not even ashamed of being stuck. I am saddened by those who want to get me unstuck. I liked the phone that was black, unbreakable plastic with a metal circular dial on the face with holes and a stop, attached to the wall with a cord. I liked the simple ring that everyone recognized because everyone had the same one. I liked that I could clearly hear EVERY word the other person was saying and they could hear me. I liked going to the market knowing if anyone was trying to get in touch with me by phone they would call back when I was home. I didn’t worry that I was missing anything. Important news would find me soon enough.

I feel daring some days when I forget my cell phone at home and don’t turn back to get it but continue to my destination. I apologize to people who have called me when I didn’t hear the phone to answer it. The phone lets me know I missed a call and beeps at me until I acknowledge it.  It also beeps at me when it needs to be plugged into the charger.  The ring tone seems to get turned off when the phone is in my pocket or purse but the annoying beeping to alert me to some urgency continues.  For all of this, so called “convenience” more appropriately labeled “annoyance”,  I pay large amounts of money every month.

Perhaps for those younger than myself who don’t remember or were not around for the era of peace and tranquility, pre-Information Age, these technological advances seem a necessity of everyday life. Perhaps they are just oblivious to the stress it adds to life. To all those out there who feel stressed in general, I challenge you to take a vacation from your cell phone. Turn it off for a week. Commit to not using a cell phone. Walk down the street and through the park. Enjoy the scenery. Listen to your thoughts. Notice the people around you and greet them with a smile. Venture out into the world and experience it without the burden of answering to the demanding beeping and ringtones that direct your day. Take the time to talk to people face to face. Ask for directions from real people. Step out of the virtual world of cell phones in cyberspace communication and step back in time.  Let the SuperCellPhone strip down and once again become the phone booth on the corner that Clark Kent used to enter.