Enough of this settlement pattern chatter, let us talk of PIGS.
PIGS as in ‘Euro Zone PIGS’ and especially the ‘Gs’ of PIGS as in the nation-state, Greece.
In the Friday, 21 May 2010 WaPo, Steven Pearlstein published another powerful and insightful column titled,
“Forget Greece – Europe’s Real Problem is Germany.”
The column is a must read. Reprinting it here would deprive WaPo of the web traffic that generates ad revenue.
Hopefully a brief summary will inspire all to read the column with care and distribute it widely:
Germany’s quality exports generate a trade balance.
Germans are saving folks by nature and so they save the surplus.
Unfortunately they ‘save’ the money by putting it in under capitalized banks.
The banks then buy the Agency, Enterprise and Household debt of the trading partners (especially the PIGS).
The PIGS use the proceeds to buy more German goods and Services AND / OR they spend it on unsustainable programs that make PIGS citizens happy, fat and believe they are entitled.
(NB: The German banks also use some of the funds to gamble on worthless mortgage backed securities, etc. but that is another story.)
Now the Germans (aided by other NonPIGS) have to waste the rest of their hard earned income bailing out the PIGS.
You have to read the column and Pearlstein’s use to PIGS to illustrate similar practice in the Global economy including the current US of A economic doldrums.
What the PIGS story reinforces is the reality that humans must start to become Intelligent Globalists.
That means understanding what is happening to the PIGS, to the US of A and others and to the enablers of PIGS like Germany and China.
Based on this understanding, Intelligent Globalists must not just marvel at the Flat Earth, they must fundamentally change direction to keep from falling off the edge.
EMR deals with what needs to be understood in more detail in the section titled UNDERSTANDING THE MEGAMEGA ECONOMY in the review of David Owen’s Green Metropolis. (The most recent version is in Chapter 50 of TRILO-G)
The Bacon Bottom Line (to barrow a phrase from The Jim Bacon Himself) is:
Intelligent Globalism is Regional Sustainability.
Regional Sustainability rests on Balanced Communities as documented in The Shape of the Future a decade ago.
For any citizen and her Household the most important aspect of the economy – Global, Continental, MegaRegional or Regional – and guidance of where to “invest” is understanding the importance of:
Economic, social and physical investment in her Unit, her Dooryard and her Cluster See PROPERTY DYNAMICS PART ELEVEN of TRILO-G.
To make her Unit, Dooryard and Cluster ‘livable’ (aka, provide a path to a high quality of life for her Household), her Neighborhood and Village must be functional.
To achieve functional Neighborhoods and Villages the Community must be Balanced.
Balanced Communities are the building blocks of sustainable Regions, especially New Urban Regions.
There you have it. That is what one can learn from the PIGS.
OK, so we got back to human settlement patterns.
But that is to be expected. Human settlement patterns are the primary determinate of human economic, social and physical well being. You can take that to the bank.
EMR
Two hopeful signs on the way to a rationally scaled world order:
Thai X-ing, a Thai restaurant with three tables in the Federal District, will get two stars from the WaPo restaurant critic tomorrow.
The new bakery on Main Street in Warrenton has four tables and is running two cash registers with lines out the door on Saturday morning.
