Is this email not displaying correctly? Click here to view in your browser.

February 2011 - The Quality of Commerce

1) Associate! February 2011

2) Research Studies in Associative Economics

3) Finance At The Threshold - The World Beyond Banking

4) Edge Funding, A Course in Finance for Teachers

5) Associative Economics Seminar in Ghent, Belgium

6) Two Films and Two Books

1) Associate! February 2011

: Click image to subscribe

Lead: A Mark of Association - Christopher Houghton Budd

A Sign of Our Time: 4 x 4: Getting Traction

Feature: A Critique of The Quality Guarantee Mark in Associative Economics

Feature: Market to Mark Arthur Edwards

Feature: Redressing the Balance Stephen Torr

Glossary: T : Threesomes

AE Exchange, News and Views: Fractional Reserve Lending

Accounting Corner: Responsible Accounting Stephen Torr

Click here to subscribe

Editorial

The January issue set out our associative economics stall, key to which is the (ae) Quality Guarantee Mark. In December 2010 we received a critique of the (ae) Mark from Richard Masters of this, which gave rise to this issue. As the critique refers to details of which readers may generally not be aware, we felt it best to lead with a word from the sponsors of the (ae) QGM and to include details of the mark under Sign of our Times.

Richard's commentary appears on page 2, followed by articles from two users of the mark in the UK (both also editors of Associate!). In Market to Mark, Arthur Edwards - a user of the Mark for several years - revisits a detailed study he made of the Mark when doing his Diploma in Associative Economics.

Stephen Torr addresses a particular point about balance sheets, namely their meaning beyond mere data and money-making motives. Stephen is also a user of the Mark as of this year, having been quietly engaged in its development in the UK for several years already.

Accounting Corner this month deals with a subtle aspect of modern accounting - the help double entry bookkeeping can provide for the individual to experience his relationship to the economy other than as something used for one's own ends.

2) Research Studies in Associative Economics

Ongoing research into today's economics events from an associative point of view.

21 January / 4 February / 25 February / 18 March

Open to anyone, but prior registration required. All sessions: 6.30–9.00

For fuller information:

Email: economics@goetheanum.org Tel/Fax: Centre for Associative Economics (0044) 1227 738207

Finance At The Threshold - The World Beyond Banking

: Click for Link

11 February The Future of Corporations

Overcoming the private-public divide

4 March The History of Money

From clay tablets to online accounting

11 March A World without Banks

It's all about financial planning

25 March Banking on Youth and Trade

The importance of youth financial literacy

4) Edge Funding, A Course in Finance for Teachers

An introductory course with Dr. Christopher Houghton Budd. Follow this link for details

There is perhaps no greater challenge today than understanding modern finance. Many of today's pressures derive from the way we behave or are expected to behave in regard to finance; pressures that are only increased by lack of understanding and the bewilderment and disempowerment this can bring. This is even more the case if one sees finance as something merely outer and not as the deeply spiritual event it in reality is. By bringing together two themes normally kept apart - finance and the threshold - and by spanning from the big picture to hands-on, from comprehension to competence, this course is designed to equip participants with an appreciation of modern finance, cladding them against an often otherwise harsh environment.

12 Saturdays (9.00 to 10.00), 26 September 2010 to 9 July 2011

5) Associative Economics Seminar in Ghent, Belgium

The seminar will take place from Friday 1^st till Sunday 3^rd of April 2011 in Ghent, Belgium. This first Æ-Seminar in the Low Countries also marks the first publication of C.H. Budd’s book Economic Sketches in the Dutch language. The seminar will be in English.

Attending the seminar will also give participants the opportunity to discover the beautiful and well-preserved historical centre of our city, which was (especially from an economical point of view) one of the most important in late medieval Europe (see programme).

The seminar can be organised with a minimum of 15 participants. You can registrate using the enclosed form and by paying the participation fee of € 187.00 p.p. on the bank account no. BE90 5230 8023 4132 of the AE-Vereniging Gent (the Bank Identification Code is TRIOBEBB). The deadline is 15^th February 2011.

After registration and payment, you will receive a confirmation and an itinary.

Accomodation (bed and breakfast) can be organised on request. If you want to make a reservation, fees will be mentioned on your confirmation and are to be paid on our bank account before 15^th March 2011.

6) Two Films and Two Books

Films

The Future of Money (http://vimeo.com/16025167)

“What are young adults thinking about money and value? How can we create new systems of wealth generation and abundance? What does the future hold for banks and other financial institutions in the wake of massive peer to peer exchange?” As one of the film’s makers, Gabriel, noted: One of our patrons told us that her husband, who was a banker for many years, first saw the video and speechlessly immediately rewound it to the beginning and watched it again and again

and again. And after he had watched it four times without any comment, he kind of just held his head and said, we haven’t been thinking about this stuff at all.

Finance at the Threshold - Ten financial monologues (on Vimeo and Youtube)

Filmed by Frigyes Fogel as part of a film on cultural creatives, and conceived as a response to Chris Martenson’s ‘Crash Course’, this film touches on the main themes of Christopher Houghton Budd’s new book, see below.

New Books

Associative Economics: Spiritual Activity for the Commmon Good

Gary Lamb, 164 pp., from AWSNA Publications via publications@awsna.org.

Finance at the Threshold - Re thinking the real and financial economies

Christopher Houghton Budd, from Gower-Ashgate.

The Friends of Associative Economics Bulletin provides an overview of what is going on around the world in the associative economics movement. The bulletin is viewable as a webpage at www.cfae.biz/fae-bulletin/11feb/