The Big Zero

OP-ED COLUMNIST

The Big Zero

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: December 28, 2009

Let’s bid a not at all fond farewell to the Big Zero — the decade in which we achieved nothing and learned nothing.Click here

Chanukah, the festival of energy conservation…

Op-Ed: Seven Principles to help heal the planet | JTA – Jewish & Israel News

 

The director of The Shalom Center implores grassroots action on healing the climate crisis using Seven Principles that should underlie Jewish and interfaith efforts to shape U.S. and world policy.

Sunday evening

We are in winter’s icy grip …

Cancer Care in Canada

Originally published in the Globe and Mail …

Cancer Care fall 2009

The first report in our autumn Good Living series!

We’re celebrating couples and individuals in midlife that inspire … I hope you enjoy these uplifting stories, and if you know someone who should be celebrated, please let me know. Sep 10 Healthy Retirement

Some new work…

Recently published in the Globe and Mail, on investing in 2009 and the challenges faced in the current economic environment by organizations that depend on our generousity…

Investing 2009

A Time to Give 2009

Updating my portfolio…

As I find a bit of time here and there over the summer, I’ll be updating my portfolio pages. If you’re interested in finding out what I’ve been so busily writing about, please check it out.

Someday …

Joy is an essential element in every life, and in our quest for financial freedom, we’re all striving for that balance between spending and saving that is highest on the joy scale.

In order to spend or save, most of us have to trade our time for money. Because our time is, in fact, our life, we’re trading the single most valuable resource we have for whatever we turn our money into. If we turn it into something that gives us joy in good measure, we’re living life well.

That’s true whether we spend our money now or save it to spend later. There are people who default to buying more stuff, or living a more luxurious lifestyle today; there are people whose primary pleasure comes from accumulating savings and investment.

For me, real freedom comes from reducing my need for money now and in the future. I love stuff, believe me — I love my iPod and nice clothes and (especially) eating great food. But I treasure my time, and as a result, I am very frugal. There are some things I don’t stint on: it gives me a lot of pleasure to support my favourite charities, and I try to buy organic food when I can. But I’ve learned to be a smart thrift store/Craigslist shopper, and I love being part of the Freecycle community.

For me, it’s not about money at all. It’s about having as much life in my life as possible.

How about you? What’s the perfect balance in your life?

Change

Yesterday, I had the privilege of being part of a discussion on the nature of change and our relationship to it.

One of the ideas that occurred to me as a result of the insights offered by people around the table is that while change is the only constant, we are challenged to deal with the often surprising products of change. (Credit derivatives change; the unexpected product is the financial crisis.) And with any change, some people are affected more than others. Those who are affected least are those who have the most resources, which make them the most resilient. Therefore, if we want to be a society that evolves in the direction of change mastery, which seems to be at the heart of innovation, it seems we have to first address issues of income disparity and strong social safety nets.

As has become clear during the financial crisis, corporate safety nets can be too encouraging to innovation — but in the larger world, social safety nets allow people to make investments in things like education and job training, preparing them to respond to change products in a creative way.

What do you think?

Money worries got you down?

Lori Bamber speaks to Breakfast TV about using the energy created by anxiety to align your money behind your values. 

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