| June 4, 2020 In these times of unrest, which we view as a Great Awakening, the Hudson Valley Current would like to reaffirm our commitment to promoting social and economic justice, recognizing the value of all people, and providing exchange opportunities to create a just economy. We will continue to recognize and uplift all individuals, but specifically those most impacted by injustice and inequality. We hope you have love in your day today. When my wife and I met, we were activists. We worked with different nonprofit organizations to successfully remove old growth forest products from Home Depot, highlight Pepsi’s support of the dictatorship in Myanmar, and educate people about our unfair tax system. Over two decades later, we’re still activists and are raising our children in this manner—every day. The Hudson Valley Current, the second love of my life, is an opportunity for our community to achieve financial independence by localizing the majority of production and uncovering the value that we all have to share. To highlight this, next week we are presenting, “Five at Five,” a five-part webinar about monetary systems, the inequity they bring for the masses, who actually benefits from them, and what we can do to create a just economy. Go to the HVC Facebook page each day at 5pm to watch or participate. As a Current user, you probably know a good bit. “Five at Five” will be a refresher and a deeper dive, and it’s a great chance to share knowledge with neighbors who are interested. So please, share this invitation far and wide. A lot of people don’t think much about the structure of money. We’re not encouraged to analyze it beyond how much of it we have and how to get more. Understanding is power. As a friend recently said to me, ‘they muddy the water to make it look deep.’ Now let’s take that deeper dive. Each day my colleague, Keyvious Avery, and I will be talking to a variety of guests throughout the week (there’s still time to be a guest; if you’re interested let me know). Here’s a brief rundown of our schedule: June 8 at 5pm: What is Money? We’ll examine definitions of money and why most people don’t understand what it is and how it creates inequality across the world. Does money come from only the Federal Reserve, or are there other types of money? Is there enough money to go around? June 9 at 5pm: The Evolution of Currency. On Tuesday, we’ll review the many types of money that have been used since humans started trading—from salt and polished seashells to flattened metal coins and digital crypto wallets. Let’s talk about how we got from there to here and what we lost along the way. June 10 at 5pm: Dollars and Inequality. On this day we’ll discuss things like managing scarcity. When we don’t know about something like the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913—or how the dollar was accepted as the global currency in 1944 through the Bretton Woods Agreement—we lose out on understanding how dollars create poverty. We’ll discuss serious topics like compounding interest, usury, redlining and other racist financial policies, the unbanked or underbanked, and New York’s potential Inclusive Value Ledger. June 11 at 5pm: Universal Basic Income: Where does the money come from? Andrew Yang brought national attention to the concepts of a UBI and human-centered capitalism. Next Thursday we’ll talk about how governments afford social programs like Social Security, and where the money comes from for a safety net like this. What happens when we borrow too much money from the Federal Reserve—as we just did over the last three months? June 12 at 5pm: The Current Community Protection Plan. The Hudson Valley Current will be rolling out our Community Protection Plan on July 1st to celebrate Independence Day and our vibrant community. Let’s take a look at the differences between the federal CARES Act that created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Current’s CPP. Let’s permanently lock money into our local economy by embracing the Current. As a complementary currency, the Current is designed to strengthen the dollar. |
Menu
