NAMASTE NEWSLETTER – "ECONOMY"

NAMASTE NEWSLETTER – JUNE 2009

Namaste, Inc., P. O. Box 22174, Oklahoma City, OK, 73123 – 405-773-5210

Website:  NamasteConsciousness.org

 THE ECONOMY

 

 Usually when I ask God or the Universe a question, a book, article or person is sent with the answer.  one of my recent questions was: How did the economy get into such a mess without anyone stopping the trend?  Why wasn’t it noticed before it collapsed?  The article that was put before me was in a magazine I subscribe to called PURE INSPIRATION.

 

 “The worldwide economic collapse is causing Americans—and many people around the World—to question what wealth means to them, as well as question all the activities they do to acquire wealth:  Why they work, why they invest, how money functions in their lives, and what does money really buy?”

 

 “Just as a serious problem or event—divorce, illness, death in the family, an accident—can cause individuals to reevaluate their lives, the stock market, business, banking and housing downturn has sparked mass self-reflection, causing not just a crisis of capital and confidence, but also a crisis of values.  Where, as a country—as a World—did we go so wrong?  What fundamental shifts do we need to make?”

 

 The economists who wrote the article mention that our economic attitude must change from an economy based on pure profit to one based on “responsibility for the whole.”  They point out that we don’t just need a change in economic policy, we need a change of consciousness.  They state, “Out of nothing, we can create everything.  It just takes a different way of thinking.”  These writers, economist,s are calling for a new economic paradigm, one that moves away from the current “dominator model” of economics.  The dominator model is basically dominate or be dominated and is designed to benefit those at the top at the expense of those at the bottom.  It is a system held together by fear and force which suppresses caring and compassion.  These economists advocate the “partnership model” of economics; a system that supports the notion that we are all connected.  “Business should provide goods and services that society needs and profits should be created from that, not to exist for profit just for profit’s sake.”

 

“If we try to profit at someone else’s expense, it cannot work.  Until we understand that, we are not going to get out of this mess.”

 

 These financial experts state: “The problem is that financial systems have developed over the past several years that were not based on anything of tangible value, but rather ‘financial instruments’ of paper assets, or ‘phantom wealth,’ that led to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the bank crisis, the inability to access credit and the stock market collapse.”

 

 “Before the ‘80’s, according to these economists, the scenario for mortgages went like this:  ‘You have a job, some money, and want to buy a home.  So you go to the bank.  You put down 20%, get a loan, and now you are a homeowner.  That loan is sitting on the bank’s balance sheets.  If you cannot pay back that loan, it becomes the bank’s problem, and the bank doesn’t want that hassle.  Let’s say there are ten people like you.  The more loans the bank makes, the more risk.  That risk limits the amount of loans the banks are willing to make.  They are using depositors’ money to make those loans.”

 

 Mike Mortara, a partner at the large investment banking firm of Goldman Sachs, figured out a different system in the early ‘80’s.  Mortara suggested taking the cash flow of ten mortgages and creating a financial vehicle that was one cash flow payment.  We could take the loans off the books of the banks, package it as a security, and sell it to pension funds that were looking to invest in a financial instrument which gave better yields than corporate bonds.  This was pretty much a win-win scenario for awhile.  Banks could make more home loans because they no longer had as much risk exposure.  Therefore, home sales and prices began to rise.  Banks made money on the loans.  The securities traders packaging them made a commission on selling to institutional investors.  The difference between then and now is that those loans were “creditworthy.”  Banks lent to people who had jobs and put money down.

 

 After a few years, the market became saturated with these high-quality loans.  So banks decided to drop their standards to accommodate people with less strong credit ratings.  These were not creditworthy loans.  But the banks did not care because the loans were not on their books.  Wall Street didn’t care because they turned it into a bond.  Everyone mistakenly believed that the housing market would just keep rising.  No one predicted the lower housing market.  So now all these trillions of dollars of less than stellar credit and adjustable mortgages were adjusting up.  The minute housing prices flattened, people defaulted because they could not refinance.  

 

 The people who were bundling these non-creditworthy loans were not thinking about homeowners.  They were only thinking about themselves and profit.  They did not emotionally connect that the bond they were selling represented the mortgages of 200 actual families.

 

 What we are seeing happening now is a leveling of the playing field.  People on Wall Street lost much of their wealth.  They are now forced to figure out what they missed.  They missed the Human Connection.  If we try to profit at someone else’s expense, it cannot work.  It is not sustainable.  Until we understand that, we are not going to get out of this mess.

 

 People drew on their home equity to obtain luxuries and now they have no equity left and their home is worth less than they owe against it.  What do we actually need to live a good life?  How much money is enough?  How important are things?  Are things more important than spending time with people?  This reconsideration of values will have to occur at all levels.  We will, of necessity, be required to move into caring economics.  This shift requires that we look at the World; not through the eyes of dominators, but through the eyes of stewards—of the land, of people.  “People were so busy taking care of themselves, they have forgotten to take care of each other and the Earth.”

 

 We must now create increased economic activity for our fellow Humans and enrich our biosphere—as opposed to degrading it.  When we do this, we are creating greater wealth than we are expending.  It is a basic metaphysical principle:  Abundance creates abundance.  Scarcity creates scarcity.  We, and business owners, have to be cognizant of everyone around us and how our actions affect others.  This is not socialism.  This is the Golden Rule.  Think, “Would I sell this to my mother?  My best friend?  My child?”

“Money is not the issue.  Reevaluating where we want to use that money, what we value, is the issue.”

 

 “We are being presented with an opportunity to redefine who we are and how we contribute to every aspect of life unfolding in our immediate world--and in the Cosmos.  Humanity seems to need to be pushed to the limits, cast out of our comfort zones, before we take the giant leaps in our evolutionary journey.  We can see this as an opportunity or we can see disaster.

 

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 It takes time and effort to write and publish what I receive.

 Thanks, bj King

 Namaste, Inc., P. O. Box 22174, Oklahoma City, OK 73123 Namaste Consciousness.org