Wealth and responsibility

Who is John Galt?

Americans are undergoing a rough transition from the politics of the New Deal to one of No Deal. We have been transforming our social mores for the past 40 or 50 years beginning with the rise of Ayn Rand novels and the teachings of economist Milton Freidman. I have read, studied and followed these teachings to the point of outgrowing them. Much like Alan Greenspan, I had come to a point where the failings of these philosophies  in everyday life were too blatant to ignore.

With Ayn Rand, it was the late 1960's and I was sold on the idea of 'Atlas Shrugged .' I came to understand, I was in my 20's, that this was ego-centered, selfish behavior that was unsustainable in a life that included loved ones, family and an extended social circle. Being sold on the idea that I am the center of the universe and anyone that opposed my interpretation of events was a threat to my rugged individualism only lasted so long. Too many people had helped, and continued to help, me achieve my goals. That was an easy one to figure out.

A little more challenging was my experience in Graduate school in the late 1970's. I enrolled in the University of Rochester M.B.A. program to continue my career in health care administration. I enjoyed working with others in the hospital field to deliver quality health care in my community. Of course, I was young and on the rise in my organization and feeling great that they were giving me a recommendation and Fridays, with pay, to attend classes. The UofR program was staffed mostly with "monetarists" trained in Chicago by Mr. Freidman. It wasn't long before I was up against the same principles that Ayn Rand espoused, but with statistical and economic twists. It took me until my second year to figure it out but then my challenges to their teaching became somewhat disruptive; I wrote poems, made statements and left classes in a flurry of disbelief at the blatant propagandizing going on in the name of education. We were the elite and expected to swallow everything whole in order to advance in the corporate line-up. I declined.

The root of it all came into focus over the following years. In order to be successful at business one needed to concentrate on the details and ignore the bigger picture of life, not pay attention to anything that Ayn Rand wouldn't approve of. Developing a faith in the ability of the profit driven system to regulate itself was both a belief and a rationalization. By giving oneself to this mechanism one never had to question the outcome of ones actions nor come up with another justification for ones actions. This is what Mr. Greenspan held dearly to for so many years until the debacle of the banking collapse when he realized that greed trumped rational self interest.

Now we have a political movement overtaking the country based on these basic ideas, philosophies and economic theories with a large dose of anti-science and scapegoating thrown in. It isn't pretty and it isn't moral, or healthy, or good for the long-term good of the country.

I met a man who spent his health to gain his wealth, and then with might and pain, spent his wealth to gain his health, again.

When you collect your wealth using whatever means possible, one should endeavor to preserve it by being good to others. Keep some portion of it in reserve for charitable purposes. You might say that this is a process of atonement to maintain one's riches; a way to launder and atone for the actions taken to gain wealth with the exclusion of all else. This is more the way of the world, in fact.

In the pursuit of wealth most people neglect their eating habits, social interactions and family life; you have to follow a pretty strict regimentation if you want to stay rich. Then you have to spend it all to become whole again. Such is life.

Anger on either side of this transitional struggle will only deepen our divide. If you have an understanding of the shape of the problem facing us, then you are the one to begin building the bridge to the other side. It's those that have the tools that have to do the building.

So those with wealth in wisdom must share with those in the poverty of ignorance just as they expect those with wealth in riches to share with those in financial poverty. A way will be found... it always is, to come back into balance.

Many wisdom traditions of the East and West offer a different way of life that includes charitable giving of wealth and heart. It is by balancing out work life with our spiritual life that the puzzle is often solved.

"Money is a good servant but a bad master." F. Bacon
"Money is the means of exchanging love." W. Wilson

Yoga-nomics - Let them eat cake!

What is astonishing to the writer of the article http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/01/21/treasurys-astonishing-statement-on-us-default/ is the idea that payments to Social Security recipients should come before payments to US bond holders. But that's what should be done, I think! Some hold the wealthy lenders as having a prior right over the poor and elderly and will cause untold suffering, if they have their way. To their way of thinking, if we don't pay Senior Citizens the consequences are not nearly as catastrophic.


Their policy is "Let them Eat Cake!" 

A more complex and less obvious set of circumstances occasionally occurred in the 1980s, when the advance tax transfer could not be invested in certificates of indebtedness because the limit on Federal debt had been reached and the Treasury was prevented from issuing new debt. Longer-term obligations then had to be redeemed in order to pay benefits. When the Treasury's cash balances became extremely low, these obligations were redeemed prior to the payment of benefits in order to create borrowing authority and use it to borrow from the public the cash needed to make the benefit payments. This practice also enabled the Federal government to continue other, non-Social-Security financial transactions for a longer period than otherwise could have occurred. As a result, the Treasury action was viewed by some as an inappropriate use of Social Security funds and was the source of considerable controversy. In retrospect, however, it was agreed by most knowledgeable observers that Treasury had few options and had taken the best course of action during a very difficult period. http://www.ssa.gov/oact/NOTES/note142.html

We have a situation of sustained low interest rates for Treasuries. This, it seems to me, is a guaranteed way to deplete Social Security faster. If this is so, isn't this the wealthy exploiting the elderly in a form of class warfare?

What is really going on here?
Oh, and the government has borrowed money from Social Security for decades leaving behind approximately $2.5 trillion in IOU's. I'm not sure how much interest is charged on these IOU's...
I've only found one reference to the interest rate that the Social Security Trust fund get's from IOU's at http://www.tscl.org/NewContent/101188.asp

More background at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_debate_(United_States)

Yoga-nomics: What's going on?

  Yoga is arguably about integration. Aside from a misunderstanding in America about what exactly is integrated, we also have a lack of understanding about the way our monetary system is integrated into the fabric of our lives. We can do so much good with an intelligent awareness of how things actually are and operate.

Hopefully, you will be interested in learning more.

I've been working on a large scale article on money but as things unfold have decided to simply write about the situation. Having just read Secrets of the Temple, the politics of money are more in my mind. By politics of money I mean who benefits and who looses by the actions of government agencies.

Banksters work without guns but take wealth from borrowers

Here's one view, that I think accurate, of the current situation: the policy has been to create a “workout” time line for large banks to “earn” their way out of balance sheet problems.

The problem with this approach is, of course, that the Federal deficit basically funds the “earnings” of the banks. The FED provides new money that the banks can borrow at near 0% and the banks then buy Treasuries that pay higher interest rates. The “earnings” that the banks get from this “carry trade” process is achieved by the further indebtedness of the citizenry through the increased national debt.click here for full article

So, the banks are sitting on piles of borrowed money and buying financial paper (treasuries) to increase their wealth as a way to get out of the massive bad loans they have. But it's our money that they are borrowing and re-investing! In this way they take from the poorer tax filers and keep the interest income. Oh, and they do keep any money that comes in on old loans to boot.

My hope is that enough people will start to learn about how all this works. We are in the midst of a horrible situation: "... even when we adjust for inflation and normalize to population, this crisis is orders of magnitude larger than anything else in the past in financial terms, including the Great Depression. As much as we criticize actions taken, there are lots of worse conditions we could be in right now. The size of the financial system catastrophe is of historic proportions and we are still alive." here for details and here

I'll be posting more on this topic in the near future.

Yoga-nomics: Where are we headed?

Yoga is about seeking truth... about stilling the illusive aspects of mind to see clearly what is. In this video, Meredith Whitney describes what is going on in the economy and let's us see a picture of the next 6-12 months. From all I have been reading, this is an accurate appraisal. Municipal and State governments are cutting back and housing prices continue to be under significant downward pressure.

Click to see video

Additionally, the effects of the Financial Regulations now being put together in Congress will slow the velocity of money, slow down the mania that led to the financial crisis, and be a short term negative for the poor and middle-class. Again, those who can ill-afford it will be making large sacrifices to put the financial system back into shape.

With this pessimistic outlook I have re-shaped all of my finances. It's time.

Specifically for the Yoga teachers and businesses, be ready to mark down your fees, hope your resources will hold out and be ready to re-negotiate rent and lease agreements. It's time.

Of course, nothing of long term value is at stake here. It is our spiritual practice that will sustain us all. I am studying Vivekachudamani and the Bhagavad Gita this summer. Really looking forward to a new teacher and some time in silence.

Yoga-nomics: Who owns what?

Years ago I began integrating 'Core Strength' into my yoga practice and teaching. However, I have always acknowledged the influences outside of Yoga that gave rise to the changed elements. Satya, i suppose.

This is a tricky issue in Yoga: what are the influences that give rise to 'adjective yoga.' Should they be acknowledged? Whether the influences come from 'inside' yoga tradition or from 'outside,' does this integration allow branding as a 'new' yoga? This is a broad question, not only asked of you, but of all integrators of new elements to Yoga practice.

Well, now the Indian government is taking it seriously. (read the full article)

Dr Vinod Kumar Gupta, who heads the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, a Delhi-based government organisation set up jointly by the ministries of health and science, told the Guardian: "Simple text isn't adequate. People are claiming they are doing something different from the original yoga when they are not."

"Yoga originated in India. People cannot claim to invent a new yoga when they have not."

From the information at hand, I am in agreement. The problem isn't one of having access to practicing Yoga, rather the issue is individuals laying claim to the right to own some parts of Yogasana practice and name it as their own. The phenomenon of 'adjective yoga.'

"There is no intention to stop people practising yoga but nobody should misappropriate yoga and start charging franchise money," said Gupta, who, like many Delhi residents, practises the ancient art in a park near his home. "As for hot yoga, power yoga, or whatever I have no views to comment. Our job is to provide the evidence and let others decide."

The campaign to preserve yoga as Indian has its roots in a bid several years ago by Bikram Choudhury, the self-proclaimed Hollywood "yoga teacher to the stars", to get his Bikram yoga style patented in the US.

"They are creating brands," said Guru Singh, who has himself invented what he calls "Urban Yoga".

In our culture, Pilates has really brought the whole issue of 'Core' into popular consciousness. Joe Pilates used these principals, which he acknowledged were influenced by gymnastics, yoga, etc., as foundational. In turn, yoga teachers have begun to emphasize the core in recent years. Many teachers are strong, like Dharma Mitra, but the whole core emphasis is of a different kind. 

Today it seems yoga teachers are straining credulity. They do this by finding the slightest connection with bandhas and/or mudras to bring in innovations of other modalities or by selecting one aspect of the broad teaching of Yoga and creating what they call a new style of yoga.

Satya, Yogi's and Yogini's.

Sate hitam satyam. Which translates to "The path to ultimate truth or Sat  is satya (i.e. the real truth).

Download a partial listing of the various Styles of Yoga in the USA... all 'adjective' Yoga's.

Yoga-nomics: Is Yoga a business or a practice?

If you come to Yoga through a local studio or yoga class where you do the physical practice, welcome! You've begun to follow a tradition that is very old, revered and spiritual.

There is the anecdote about a group of people in a dark room trying to identify an elephant by each one feeling different parts. That's kind of like what this question is about: practice or business. When you come into Yoga through the business of teachers, classes and studios, which are business oriented, it might be evident that is what Yoga is. Not really. That's just the current and popular face of Yoga.

Yoga is vast. It has survived for thousands of years by integrating practices and philosophies and, as has been talked about here before, has no "college of yogi's" directing it. One of the key elements of all of this has been to encourage newcomers to enter in and do Yoga. It seems to have worked well over the years.

Right now, in America and the western world, Yoga is synonymous with asana; that is the physical practice, one of the eight limbs of Yoga practice. Asana lends itself very well to being commoditized and sold in classes. This is the business of Yoga today. Selling of the meditation limbs has been done before, as in the popularity of Transcendental Meditation many years ago. But the real money-maker is in asana. Oh, and the clothes and stuff you need to do it!

If you are attracted to Yoga, any part or 'limb', simply do it. I've learned over the years that Yoga has a power to attract and illumine people. All by itself. So however you enter, however you practice, Yoga will invite you to more, and perhaps deeper practices.

The nature of those deeper practices is not so mysterious. Many old, sacred texts lay them out so that they can be explored. If that interests you, start by asking your present asana teacher. If they don't know, ask who they can refer you to that can answer your questions.

So, to answer the question directly, in my opinion and experience Yoga is not a business. In fact, the business gets in the way. Yoga teachers that own studios find that they have less time for practice because the business demands attention. It is inevitable. There are business people doing Yoga and I trust the Power of Yoga will transform them. To some degree. In time.

To see some other takes on question this visit: Yoganomics™

Money, the Power of

I've been reading Liars Poker, a book about the Bond Traders by Michael Lewis. He lived the life of a bond trader on Wall Street in the 1980's and recounts his experiences with great clarity.

In his concluding remarks he says:

For me, however, the meaning of making dollars crumbled; the proposition that the more money you earn, the better the life you are leading was refuted by too much hard evidence to the contrary. And without that belief, I lost the need to make huge sums of money. The funny thing is that I was largely unaware how heavily influenced I was by the money belief until it had vanished.

To me, this is the under-pinning of greed. To consciously be aware of the structure of belief that actions are based on. Rarely does this happen, and is transformative. Seeing clearly this 'hard evidence' can come slowly, over a period of years, or in a flash.

The adventure begins when one alters behavior based on this kind of insight.

Yoga-nomics: Structuring the Business

With the wave of social awareness cresting in the Blue states, how can individuals and groups bring "Change" that is necessary. With current structures of ownership, it can be difficult at best.

So, as the pitfalls of unbridled capitalism are uncovered around us, we require new ways of organizing socially responsible activities.

Social enterprises that have a clearly defined mission often don't fit neatly into existing ownership structures. Those that register as nonprofits have trouble tapping private capital to expand, while for-profit companies risk compromising their missions because they must put shareholders' returns first. But growing interest in hybrid business models has brought about efforts at the state level to create new corporate structures that allow entrepreneurs to combine nonfinancial goals into for-profit businesses.

One new form, known as the Low-profit Limited Liability Company (or L3C), is intended for companies that put their missions before profits. The structure lets them qualify for loans or investments that further a foundation's goals and also may yield financial returns. First adopted in Vermont in April 2008, the L3C is now also on the books in Michigan, Utah, and Wyoming. There are 53 L3Cs in Vermont and a handful in other states so far.

For now, however, social ventures must find creative ways to straddle the line between nonprofit and for-profit. All of these entail complex combinations of for- and not-for-profit corporate structures, attorneys for each organization, property right and intellectual property agreements and clear-cut equity and debt arrangements. Putting together these solutions can be time consuming and cumbersome.

Excerpted from Business Structure Article