One Woman Warned About Derivatives & Financial Meltdown

FRONTLINE has produced a remarkable documentary titled "The Warning" which documents how Lawrence Summers, Greenspan and Ruben attacked and blocked Mrs. Brooksley Born, who was in charge of the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) when she warned of the derivatives danger in the mid 90s and heroically fought to regulate them. The OTC (over the counter) Derivatives market represented a Black Box within the Wall Street, with very little information, reporting, knowledge or understanding by anyone in the Government and its Regulators. The toxic assets of Banks once considered 'too big to fail' consisted mostly of OTC derivatives.

See how Michael Moore tried to get a simple explantion of Derivatives which are complex financial Instruments or rather complicated betting schemes designed to escape regulation. The financial sector has five lobbyists behind every congressman.

Alan Greenspan, the wizard of Wall Street admitted that his worldview and ideology of 40 years about the self-correcting free market and unfettered capitalism is false. This brilliant presentation takes the problem that created the crisis back through the Greenspan, to its origin in his philosophical mentor, Ayn Rand. Watch the PBS Frontline "The Warning" here.

It remains to be seen how Obama fares with his top economic advisors Tim Geithner and Larry Summers! Are we as conscious citizens paying attention or willing to learn and grow in wisdom from our experience?

Buddha spoke about the importance of the practice of 'heedfulness' or the quality of 'appamada' that keeps both kinds of benefit secure — benefits in this life & benefits in lives to come. More on 'appamada'. Also see subtle meaning of 'pamada' and 'mada' in Pali Text society dictionary. Here's Bush's insight off the record.

A site with interesting links and perspectives on 'Physicists Play with Finance".

Free Market Theology & Priests of High Modernity

Thirty five years of free market ideology and the many intellectual cross currents and 'isms' of High Tech Modernity (postmodernism) with its common traits of individualism, political liberalism and economic capitalism is failing miserably to improve the human situtaion at the most basic level of collective survival and social well being. Law, regulation, violence, revolutionary ideologies, science and technology are not sufficiently addressing or affecting the roots of injustice in social political structures (including democracy, socialism, communism) and bases of economic system and foundations of society.

Ken Jones in his book the New Social Face of Buddhism comments on high modernity's personal identity crisis and its attendant inner void that insatiably needs to be filled. These needs previously addressed by community, religion [and nationalism] are increasingly being commodified into whole culture of consumerism. Consumerism is winning more converts more quickly than any other previous belief or value system in human history (David Loy).

Ken urges Buddhists to renew their understanding of dukkha (suffering) by looking deeply into our contemporary global society, reflecting on how it can be healed. My sense is we need to go back deep into our collective unconscious and develop a deep understanding of our inner journey and outer social institutions begining with gender based patriarchy and ending with class based elitist supremacist global-imperialistic capitalism. With the advent of internet and web 2.0 history is being rewritten from persperctives not explored and disseminated before.

Listen to this surprising admission from Alan GreenSpan.

Asian and European Markets Fall with Greenspan's remark.

<> G20 Summit was a failure <>

Here are questions posed by engaged Buddhist Robert Thurman in Dropping knowledge