5 May Planning Meeting Notes

These are the notes from the initial meeting where we planned out what we wanted to get out of the reading group

What we want to learn in this study group

• Causes of the Financial Crisis
• Progression/stages of capitalism
• Banks/credit unions
• “Stress tests”
• Credit card debt
• consumer credit
• What is: 1)hyperinflation 2)deflation 3)stagflation
• Wages and the crisis
• City budget/social services
• Taxes/types of taxes
• Fiscal policy/The Federal Reserve
• Immigration/US-mexico relations
• Informal economy
• Privatization
• Regulation of the financial system
• What is money?

Why study the economic crisis?

• Develop a critique of capitalism
• Envision alternatives/other systems
• Personal empowerment
• New perspectives/ability to talk to people
• Better Organizing
• Preserving and expanding social services
• Fighting to win/strategies/vulnerabilities
• The role of the gov't in the financial system

Potential projects once we learn about economics

• Philly property market
• Teach-in
• Zine on unemployment and immigration
• Population shifts in philly / displacement
• City budget / taxes
• Study of what kind of businesses operate in Center City?

Logistics

• Blog
• readings
• Speeches by Obama
• Multimedia