Blog

– more on money

Good day for reading The Seven Laws of Money / two hawks circling, then hovering still against the wind

The book was an absolute delight, especially when I was viewing it from my role as an accountant.

On this planet, the way we handle our money says a lot about how we handle our global resources.

In my work with many small, struggling enterprises, I’ve found that the words “debit” and “credit” can be explained much more readily by using the concept of yin and yang. From what little I know of Zen teachings, a Zen text of accounting, an approach from that perception, might be an efficient and graceful teaching device.

That accountants are the “high priests” of money may be only because they have learned the ritual of measuring its flow via a monetary shorthand. This ritual allows them to toy with the alternative futures of this flow via the macrame of financial projections. I sincerely wish that more people knew the relatively simple rules of double entry; they too could play with the macrame.

It scares me to think of all the people who are not doing what they want to do (and therefore being more productive) simply because our schools and our society have created this Puritan view of cash and currency. The prime example of this Puritan-spawned myopia is the fact that it has taken accountants 40 years to publicly acknowledge the fact that the value of the dollar changes constantly. They have yet to agree on how to deal with this phenomenon in a practical way.

There are alternative currencies, for alternative purposes. How ’bout using a negative value currency? Now we give others money to take our trash away (or hide it, or deodorize it, or put it in the water or sky). We could achieve something completely different if we had to take trash or pollution in order to get the goods we want.

One of the most useful of financial statements, more so than the balance sheet or the income statement, is the Statement of Changes in Financial Condition, for it tells you where the capital has been coming from and where it is going. This statement has many working variations and is also commonly known as a
funds flow statement.

So much for my ramblings; I’d like to hear yours. Sign me up for a subscription to the Briarpatch Review.