Aaron Wissner

Thank you for searching for me on the Internet, and welcome to my page.

I'm doing most of my work via my professional network via Facebook, which surprisingly, is a good tool for doing work.

Here is my page:  http://www.facebook.com/aaron.wissner

I am currently in study of what is going on with the energy, the economy, and the environment; and attempting to find an improved economic model.

draft --   Money and Energy Book by Aaron Wissner

I've been studying and writing in this area for the past few years:

Value System: Analysis of Money, Energy, and Civilization by Aaron Wissner

I'm reading articles in this space and am bookmarking the more interesting ones on my Delicous page.

Aaron Wissner's Money, Energy, and Interesting Bookmarks on Delicous

Here are some of the sources I've been studying and analyzing.

Reading and Viewing I Did in 2009 (in more or less chronological order)

• Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution -- Thomas L. Friedman (stopped at p. 171, "solutions")
• The Great Crash, 1929 -- Kenneth Galbraith, 1954 -- (stopped at about p. 160)
• Crash Course by Chris Martenson (2008 film, documentary)
• Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender -- Thomas Greco  (reread chapter 4 on 8/26/2009)
• BerkShares (assorted TV news and online stories)
• Ithaca Hours (assorted TV news and online stories)
• Calgary Dollar (assorted TV news and online stories)
• Money As Debt (2007 film, documentary)
• The Great Crash, 1929 -- John Kenneth Galbraith (stopped at about 3/5 mark)
• Coming Home: E.F. Schumacher and the Reinvention of the Local Economy (2009 film, documentary)
• Feed-In Tariff Renewable Energy event (Lansing, MI) - video recorded four talks on feed in tariffs, uploaded one
• The Ecology of Money -- Richard Douthwaite
• Milk (2008 film, based on historical events, about person murdered for due to his use of freedom of expression)
• Flow: For Love of Water (2008 film)
• Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free -- Ellen Hodgson Brown
• The Story of Stuff (2007 film, documentary, about destruction via consumption)
• Earth Day Expo (Rochester, Michigan, video recorded talks on climate change and voluntary simplicity)
• Slumdog Millionaire (2008 film, about living life of poverty in a destroyed environment)
• Affluenza (documentary)
• As The World Burns: 60 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial -- Derrick Jensen
• Endgame (video talk) -- Derrick Jensen
• What We Leave Behind -- Derrick Jensen
• Life and Debt (2001 film, documentary, about how corporations & government destroy communities)
• The Century of the Self - Part 1: Happiness Machines (2002 film, documentary)
• Valkyrie (2008 film, based on historical events, about plan of resistance  to murder Hitler)
• Michigan Energy Fair (taped talks on Passive House, wind turbine production, peak oil, community electricity, etc.)
• What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire (2007 film, documentary, about our culture's overall situation)
• Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? (2008 film, documentary, about global cultural similarities & differences)
• The Unforseen (2007 film, documentary, about the impacts of the concept of "property")
• The Slope of Dysfunction - Dmitry Orlov (essay)
• Without the King (2007 film, documentary, about power, unorganized resistance and the last king in Africa
• Reinventing Collapse:  The Soviet Example and American Prospects -- Dmitri Orlov
• Religulous (2008 film, documentary, about illogical and destructive nature of religions)
• The Culture of Make Believe -- Derrick Jensen - pp. 1-225 so far
• The Money Masters (1990's documentary, watched first 100 minutes so far)
• Money as Debt (2006 film, documentary, about money creation, usury, etc.), (rewateched in Aug.)
• Money as Debt II: Promises Unleashed (2009 film, documentary), (rewatched in Aug.)
• Tales of Adam -- Daniel Quinn (2005) - very short, half-hour read
• Our Local Future: Peak Oil, Climate Change, and the End of Money - 30 min. presentation I created
• The End of Money and the Future of Civilization -- Thomas Greco (2009) - pp. 1-40, 87-100 so far
• Work, Work, Work -- Daniel Quinn (2006) - "children's" book
• The Holy -- Daniel Quinn (2002) - completed (2009/08/03)
• Endgame: Volume 1 -- Derrick Jensen -- pp. 1-20 so far
• The Obama Deception -- Something is definitely going on in the world, something that the general public isn't putting together, so it makes sense to consider arguments that we might normally dismiss out of hand.  This film is interesting because it was a mix of things that I've already learned about, the film sometimes agreeing with what I've learned, and in other cases disagreeing.  For example, its pretty clear that Obama did not follow through with a number of his campaign promises once elected, that the Federal Reserve is not a government agency, that the control of money is vitally important to any people, and that Obama seems to be the head of a cult of personality.  On the other hand, the notion that climate change is a scam and that energy isn't important (since it wasn't included in the film at all) doesn't mesh with everything I've learned and spent a lot of time researching. (2009/08/21)
• Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve, 1996 -- (transcript) -- 42 min., (YouTube) -- (2009/08/22) -- Bias towards abolishing Fed and central planning, and backing money with gold.  General Note:  The weakest links, the poorest understanding, on the side of the government, have allowed a system that has perpetually more problems.
• I.O.U.S.A., plus all DVD extras, 2008 -- 85 min. (2009/08/23, second viewing)
• Banking and Money by Salman Khan, Khan Academy, first 21 videos (2009/08/25), quite good, worth a second viewing to take notes down, starts from people holding gold, all the way up to fractional reserve without backing
• Credit Crisis by Salman Khan, Khan Academy, 13 of 15 videos (2 unavailable), (2009/08/25) on the housing price bubble, mortgage backed securities, collateralized debt obligations (CBO), credit default swaps, and wealth destruction (to home owners and banks in declining real estate market)
• Current Economics by Salman Khan, Khan Academy, first 8 videos, (2009/08/25), interesting arguments that falling capacity utilization leads to falling prices, looking at rising unemployment figures implies falling capacity utilization, which in turn suggests deflation, and that the negative savings rate will turn positive, which will cause more lack of spending, leading to even less consumption, with the implication being that the next few years will see a deflationary situation (or spiral)
• Paulson Bailout by Salman Khan, Khan Academy, first 14 videos (2009/08/25), basically shows how the bailout money just gets held by all the banks as they try to deleverage to save themselves from their own toxic assets, or the chance that loans they have made are to others with toxic assets (who might be insolvent or bankrupt); and talks about why using that money to create new banks might be a better option
• Geitner Plan by Salman Khan, Khan Academy, first 8 videos (1-7, 2.5), (2009/08/25), explains how Fed and Treasury money are channeled into the banks, most likely never to be repaid, to buy the worthless "troubled" assests for much more than the market would pay
• Ecological Economics by Robert Costanza, (he starts speaking at 5 min.), 55 minute video
• Food, Inc. (2010/01/13)
• The End of Money: The Future of Civilization -- pp.

My "To Read" List 2009

• The Collapse of Complex Societies -- Joseph Tainter
• The Future of Money -- Bernard Lietaer
• Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change -- William Catton
• Collapse: How Civilizations Choose to Fail or Succeed -- Jared Diamond *
• Endgame (Volumes II) -- Derrick Jensen
• A Language Older than Words -- Derrick Jensen
• The Transition Handbook:  From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience -- Rob Hopkins *
• The Man Who Grew Young -- Daniel Quinn
• Blackout: Coal, Climate and the Last Energy Crisis -- Richard Heinberg
• Small is Beautiful:  Economics as if People Mattered -- E. F. Schumacher
• World Made by Hand -- James Howard Kunstler *
• Silent Spring -- Rachel Carson *
• Against Civilization: Reading and Reflections -- John Zerzan
• The World Without Us -- Alan Weisman
• Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future -- Bill McKibben
• The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism -- Naomi Klein
• Pacifism as Pathology: Reflections on the Role of Armed Struggle in North America -- Ward Churchill
• In Search of the Primitive -- Stanley Diamond
• The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late -- Thom Hartman
• The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community -- David C Korten
• Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television -- Jerry Mander
• The Dream of the Earth -- Thomas Berry
• Atlas Shrugged -- Ayn Rand
• The Revolution: A Manifesto -- Ron Paul
• The Selfish Gene -- Richard Dawkins
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference -- Malcolm Gladwell
• The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbably -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• The Lost Science of Money: The Mythology of Money, The Story of Power -- Stephen Zarlenga

* I have copies of these and done some reading but have not completed them.

To View List 2009

• Zeitgeist
• Zeitgeist II
• The Power of Nightmares
• The Century of Self
• Escape From Affluenza

Lists of Possibly Interesting Documentaries 2009

• Zeitgeist.com
• HTFiddler.net
• UnitedDiversity.com

Upcoming Events of Interest 2009

• Great Lakes BIONEERS Conference Traverse City -- Environmental Sustainability
• Passive House USA Conference
• Conference Program - 2009 ASPO-USA Peak Oil Conference
• The American Monetary Institute - Monetary Reform Conference

Other Projects I Worked on 2009

LocalFuture.org -- I'm the founder, and working on this project has been an unequaled learning experience.

FutureMichigan.org -- I organized this, including securing about 50% of the speakers.

PowerPoint Tips 101 -- Used for my public high school to help students and teacher better communicate.

PV Panels Live Monitoring -- I'm hoping to participate in a feed-in tariff program in Michigan.

 

2010 Study
(added on August 13, 2010)

In 2010, we had a child, and my study shifted to the baby for a while.  I'm only in the summer getting back to the study of money, finance, economics, etc. in detail.  Note, these are in the order that I remembered them, not in the order of priority.  Read the comments to get a feel for importance.

• The Lost Science of Money: The Mythology of Money, The Story of Power -- Stephen Zarlenga -- I read the first 100 pages or so, which basically explains the origins of money in Europe, and how metal money was originally fiat, and that once the value of the money fell to where the metal was worth as much as the money itself, that this caused issues, especially because there were two different gold-to-silver exchange rates, one in Europe, and one in Asia, and this caused gold and silver to flow in the opposite directions, while the people in between got rich.  It looks like a very interesting book.
• The Automatic Earth -- This web site by former "The Oil Drum" editors looks at the current economic system, and more specifically, how the credit bubble is collapsing, what deflation is, etc.
• Nicole Foss a.k.a. Stoneleigh -- One of the two "The Automatic Earth" people is Nicole Foss, who is currently doing a speaking tour, discussing peak oil, market bubbles and manias, deflation, and personal preparedness responses.  I've found her talk to be very useful, and have listened to it multiple times.
• The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936) -- John Maynard Keynes -- Thus far, I've only searched this for a few points, but it was written in response to the last economic depression, and undoubtedly is useful in understanding current economic thought.  It was apparently the most highly regarded work on economics for some time.
• The Natural Economic Order - Silvio Gesell -- I'd come across this work before when studying complementary currencies, particularly demurrage type currencies, which lose value naturally over time, just like produce or anything else would lose value.  In order to keep the bills useable, a postage type stamp must be affixed every three months.  This helps to ensure that people do not save them, but use them to buy actual goods and services that are valuable for their utility.  Keynes speaks highly of Gesell, but thinks that Gesell didn't quite understand everything.  That is probably true, but I also suspect that Keynes didn't understand everything, particularly energy/labor; but I haven't read either of these books yet, so I just can't say for sure.
• Value System by Aaron Wissner -- It may seem odd to be referencing myself in my study list, but sometimes I'll have insights into something, write them down, and then promptly lose the thread, and forget about it all together.  In addition, sometimes I'll reread something, and recognize a flaw in my previous thinking, but be able to build upon whatever prior insights there were.  Unfortunately, I don't have all of my writings online, some are in PowerPoint or Word or Notepad documents in my computer, a few in Google Docs, some here, and actually quite a few writings and diagrams just on scattered papers all over my study at home.  I need to collect them in one place, and mean to, at some point, to write a book.  On my blog, not all of my thoughts on money are public, there are probably at least 1/3 of my writings that are invisible to most viewers, because they either didn't seem quite right to me, or were incomplete, or seemed to go in the wrong directions, or the timing was bad with other things that I was sharing at the time.  I would say that over 1/2 of my writings on money, finance, economics, energy, etc. are here.  Here's one called "When This Recession Ends".  In retrospect, I wasn't really aware of the mechanics of money at the time, so I was thinking that only energy was the driver, but now, I do believe I was uninformed, and if I was to rewrite this article, I would do it differently, although my conclusion would be more or less the same.
• Facebook -- I've carefully created a friends network of people interested in energy, economy, environment and the future, and they share very good links to news articles, videos, charts, etc. that have been useful in understanding the situation.  I removed pretty much everyone from my friends list that posted anything useless, and that made Facebook much more of a networking and thinking tool.  I also have been responding to conversations, and starting conversations, around money, and that has proved useful in pointing out weak spots in my thinking, and brining new sources to light.
• FEASTA -- This group of folks has been highly motivated to look at what is going on with the economy because they are based in Ireland, which has been in a serious unemployment and property market collapse situation.  One of their more recent publications is here:  Tipping Point: Near-Term Systemic Implications of a Peak in Global Oil Production - An Outline Review.  I've also received a few pre-published pieces, including a few draft chapters from a book currently titled "Fleeing Vesuvius", which they are hoping to publish in November 2010.  One, or perhaps the primary, author here is Richard Douthwaite, who spoke remotely to the 2009 conference, and with whom I've been in correspondence.  I reread most of his "The Ecology of Money" short book this year as well.
• Beyond Growth by Herman Daly -- To Read -- Several people have recommended this one to me.  I notice that he spoke at FEASTA, which is yet another recommendation.
• The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) -- They have taken a number of their lectures and made them into excellent 10-minute animations, that get across some very interesting points, primarily about psychology.  I'm attempting to watch all of the animations, and sharing them via Facebook, and then listening to the full lectures.  There are many excellent talks here; a true resource.
• Crude (documentary)-- Shows how corporations work to extract or steal resources in other countries.
• The Journey of Man (documentary) -- About why people moved out of Africa, and how they expanded throughout the Europe, Asia, and Australia.
• Ben Dyson -- Ben spoke at the AMI Monetary Reform Conference.  He had a very well put together talk, and very good points about the current banking system.
• Simon Dixon -- Simon also spoke at the AMI Conference, and is also from the UK.  He is doing a speaking tour throughout the UK to help people understand the structure of the current monetary system.
• AMI (Stephen Zarlenga's) Monetary Reform Conference -- This was a really interesting set of talks, some which were well done, some which were a bit rambling, but all examining the structure of the monetary system itself.  It was very good stuff.  I took lots of notes, and it really got me thinking.  They are doing the conference again in 2010.  My major gripe about this conference is that they keep everything secret, which is to say, they don't share the videos online, or even the podcasts.  Second, that they don't look at local currencies or state-owned bank solutions (or any other solutions that I don't know of).  This is because the conference is structured around the concept that only by changing the Federal government, can monetary form be effective.
• Bernard Lietaer -- Videos and articles online, still trying to get his "The Future of Money" book.  I did get to flip through a copy at a talk on local currencies in Detroit by Mira Luna and Chris Lindstrom.
• Local Money: How to Make it Happen in Your Community by Peter North -- To Read -- Brand new and highly recommended by someone who has already read Lietaer, Greco, etc.
• The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve - G. Edward Griffin -- To Read -- To learn more about the Federal Reserve.
• We, The Tikopia by Raymond Firth -- Perhaps the most important book to read.  It examines an entirely different form of economy on a small, isolated island, in the middle of the Pacific, in the 1920's.  Via this book, one can compare economic systems.  One can think of this as the control, and a model of sustainable economics, upon which all other economic and monetary models can be compared.  I've read portions of this book, but still working to read the entire thing, and not have it on my desk, waiting for time to read.

AaronWissner.com Web Site by Aaron Wayen Wissner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.