All economic life centres, stand and falls, and is governed by prices. But how do prices arise? Are they, like the mercury in a thermometer, the reflection of real events, economic fundamentals, and so on, rising and falling when the sun comes out or goes in? Or are they to be achieved by fixing the mercury at some pre-determined setting and forcing events to match it - the equivalent, surely, of making the sun shine? Conceived meteorologically, the latter is clearly preposterous except that we can indeed 'seed' clouds today. In this issue of Associate! we focus on price in the context of financial markets, this being the core issue for understanding the global financial crisis. For many, the reliance on the efficient markets hypothesis is part and parcel of the culture of anonymity that pervades economics on account, mainly, of its unspoken deism.  We touch on the question of price by looking at the ideas of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Rudolf Steiner and Friedrich Hayek, these being important milestones in the history economic thought.

i) 15 Nov: Finance and Education ll - Financial Literacy

Financial literacy is now a 'must' in many schools, with teachers, administrators and governors alike under growing pressure to adhere to finance?s strictures. This seminar will look at school financing from an associative point of view and as a test of literacy. See here for full details.

• Freely funded education - a modern way of using up excess capital
• Understanding finance and the role of accounting 
• Sources of revenue to ownership of premises

Based on working conversations that give rise to intuitions, one of three standalone but connected gatherings designed to take a hard and detailed look at three main areas of a practical nature that depend on spiritual insights. Summarised notes of the first event are available on request for prospective participants. Contact chb [at] cfae.biz

15 November | Financial Literacy  / 13 December | Public Benefit

ii) 27-29 Nov: Two events in Spain

Triodos Foundation's 2nd International Conference on Economics and Organic Farming
Madrid 27 November
Keynote speakers: Christopher Houghton Budd, Director of the Centre for Associative Economics, Canterbury, England / Patrick Holden, President of the Soil Association, Bristol, England.

Dinamis - Social and Environmental Development and Innovation
Girona 28 & 29 November
As a practical follow-up to Colours of Money, The Economics of Farming - A workshop with Christopher Houghton Budd.

iii) Feb 2010 The Colours of Money Seminar

UK: 5-7 February 2010
In the Bristol area, see here for details