Course-Correcting the Economy

A War of Words that must be fought by Warriors With Words against "the immune system of our culture" that keeps us locked on a course that leads to catastrophe.        

In public discourse on social media, Joe Zammit-Lucia issues this challenge:

what are practicable steps that can move us in a different direction

In answer, I share this that I see: the hardest part is disabling the immune system of a our culture that keeps the heart-aligned institutionally constrained.

It's a language problem, at the beginning.

Before we can course-correct the economy, we need to agree a new way of talking about how we got here, and where we can and want to be going.

This will include talking about where we are, in fact, currently headed and whether we want to keep going that way.

It will necessitate shining a disinfecting light on the special pleadings for the special interests of vested interests, to show us the truth that those special pleadings are only in their special interests, and that they are disingenuously tricking us into believing that what is in their best interest in also in our best interest, even in the face of pervasive and persistent proof that it is not.

I see that new way of talking as:

1. starting high, with a recognition that institutions matter,
2. then drilling down to talk about Finance as an institution of agency, authority and accountability that matters,
3. then de-constructing the whole of Finance to see its various parts and subparts, and the authenticity and integrity of each part to its own unique language and logic for choosing where the money that flows through that part of Finance can, should and will be made to go,
4. then teaching ourselves to see the need to keep each part true to its own unique language and logic,
5. then teaching ourselves to see that one part of Finance is the Capital Markets and that another, separate and distinct, part of Finance is social trusts for Pensions & Endowments, and that each of these parts must be kept separate and distinct from the other, each true to its own unique language and logic,
6. then we can focus in on Pensions, to see their uniqueness in their fiduciary duties of prudence in the exercise of capacity derived from character true to aims, which are to invest money for income as well as safety to assure income security in a dignified retirement to evergreen populations of current and future retired workers (and that it is NOT their legally constituted aim to maximize the highest possible profit extraction in the Capital Markets),
7. then we can spread horizontally, focusing on Pensions to see what Private Equity shows about their capacity, derived from their character of vast size, programmatic purpose and forever time, to negotiate with enterprise of any size, in any business, anywhere on the planet,
8. then we can look more closely at Private Equity to see how they use the capacity of Fiduciary Money controlled by Pensions, to financially engineer "value creation" for profit extraction,
9. then we will be ready to imagine an innovation in fiduciary finance as an upgrade on Private Equity value creation to a new kind of what may be called Social Equity financially engineering the right economy for workers in their retirement, directly, as a private benefit, that will also be the right economy for all of us, consequently, by negotiating equity paybacks to an actuarial/fiduciary cost of money, plus opportunistic upside, from enterprise cash flows prioritized by contract for suitability, longevity and fairness in the right economy under the circumstances then prevailing,
10. NOW we can begin to talk about course-correcting towards the right economy for our times.

That conversation can be curated by porting the proven practices of Citizens Assemblies, from Politics to Fiduciary Money, as mini-publics, for guidance, and advisory trials, for accountability of faithfulness to The Hypothetical Prudent Stewards of a Social Trust.

It's a long journey through structure and rules, that takes a lot of words, and careful attention to the meaning of words, that many may find more than a little bit pedantic.

But if we are not willing to become Warriors with Words and to join in the fight of this War of Words against "the immune system of our culture"( Tom Sgouros ), I see no way that we will be able to course-correct our economy, without first cashing into catastrophe, and correcting our course only after that fact.