NDC sacks officials for issuing nomination forms

The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has dismissed party officials who issued presidential nomination forms to presidential aspirant, George Boateng.

General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, announced the party’s decision Thursday afternoon when he presented President Mahama’s nomination forms to the Vice-President, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur.

He said the accountant at the party’s headquarters who has worked there for 20-years now, and who issued the forms to Mr. Boateng, ought to have known better.

According to the party’s rules, it is only the General Secretary of the party or his assigns, who can endorse and issue presidential nomination forms.

It was therefore unacceptable for the accountant and the other officials to facilitate the process for the polling station youth organizer of the party at Oyarifa in Accra, George Boateng to pick up the forms.

Goerge Boateng made the headlines last week after picking nomination forms at the NDC’s headquarters to challenge President Mahama for the presidential nomination of the NDC for the 2016 election.

He told journalists the president had failed the country.

He made a curious proposal to legalise the cultivation and exporting of Marijuana to raise foreign exchange to fast-track the country’s development.

His emergence infuriated party leaders in more ways than one.

Before today’s announcement, Johnson Asiedu Nketia had promised investigations into the matter.

He said the presidential aspirant needed psychiatric examination.

A deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Koku Anyidoho, told Joy News’ political correspondent, Kwakye Afreh Nuamah, the NDC is embarrassed by the development.
He said the governing party cannot have a person with the character of George Boateng challenging the president for the party’s nomination.

Meanwhile the Vice-President after the nomination forms for Mr. Mahama, told journalists the president was ready for any internal contest.

He was sure the president would beat any contender to retain the NDC’s presidential candidacy in next year’s polls.

Asiedu Nketia begging me to step down - George Boateng

President John Mahama’s challenger for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer slot has alleged the party’s General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia has appealed to him to rescind his decision.

According to George Boateng on the Ultimate Breakfast with Prince Minkah, he will not kill his presidential ambition because of General Mosquito’s – Nketia’s alias - budging requests.

“Asiedu Nketia himself does not know what is going on in the party. When I mentioned last week that on Thursday I was going to pick my forms, the next Friday President Mahama issued a cheque of GHc51, 000 to go and pay and pick his forms,” Boateng, who is being described by party stalwarts as a mentally unstable person, added.

“President Mahama has paid for his filing fees, ask Asiedu Nketia does he know that President Mahama has paid? When I picked my form, it took Asiedu Nketia by surprise…he called me begging that, what I’m saying is a joke. He thinks that I’m not going to contest the president and it will not make the president to be popular,” Boateng remarked.

Boateng believes he is the best person to represent the NDC in the 2016 presidential elections because to him, President Mahama has failed to deliver on the social democrat principles of the party.

He cites the collapse of the National Health Insurance Scheme and the educational system under the watch of Mahama.

One other key campaign message he is drumming home is to legalise cannabis and make it exportable to shore up Ghana’s economy.

Meanwhile, President Mahama is expected to pick his forms at the party’s headquarters in Adabraka today at 13.00hrs.

Economy may suffer as export revenues plummet

Finance Minister - Seth Terkper

Government says it is losing revenue needed to execute its 2015 budget because of continuous decline in crude oil prices and other commodity prices.

The oil price used to prepare the 2015 budget dropped to $57 per barrel in July and forced government to revise the budget in July.

But since the 2015 Mid-Year Review and Supplementary Budget Estimates was presented to Parliament on Tuesday, July 21, 2015, revenue from crude oil has dropped even further.

Finance Minister Seth Terkper said at a news conference in Accra that Brent crude price had fallen to US$45.70 per barrel.

In effect, the Finance Minister says the failure to achieve revenue estimates is “negative implications for the Budget execution”.

But government says it will not pursue the option of increasing taxes domestically to make up for the shortfalls in revenue.

Instead, government will raise revenue by issuing Eurobonds on the international market, the Finance minister has said.

The Minister has assured Ghanaians that government is working to control public spending because of the fall in revenues. On the brighter side, Seth Terkper said government has made "remarkable" achievements in meeting the Performance Criteria and Structural Benchmarks under the IMF programme.

Read full statement presented by Finance Minister below

About a month ago, I presented a mid-year review of the 2015 Budget and Supplementary estimates for 2015. Since then, there have been new developments both domestically and externally which has necessitated this briefing.

The Mid-Year Review was also based on end-May 2015 performance of the economy. This media brief updates the performance to June, 2015.

I also wish to take the opportunity to provide an update on major activities the Ministry is embarking on as well as the World Bank's approval of a Policy Based Guarantee (PBG)in June 2015 and the decision of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)Executive Board's meeting on Ghana's first Extended Credit Facility(ECF) review in August 2015.

Update on Global Developments

The update to the IMF's World Economic Outlook(July, 2015), projects a slower growth in emerging and developing economies and a gradual pickup in advanced economies. Global growth is, therefore, projected at 3.3 percent in 2015, marginally lower than in 2014.

It is important to note, however, that in view of major shifts in economic trends during August, 2015 such as the devaluation of the Chinese Yuan observed in Mid-August coupled with the slowing Chinese economy and the FEDs interest rate increase will in due course, necessitate another update to the IMF's WEO to reflect these significant economic changes.

A setback to activity in the first quarter of 2015, mostly in North America, has resulted in a small downward revision to global growth for 2015 relative to the April 2015 World Economic Outlook(WEO). Nevertheless, the underlying drivers for a gradual acceleration in economic activity in advanced economies -easy financial conditions, more neutral fiscal policy in the euro area, lower fuel prices, and improving confidence and labor market conditions --remain intact.

Oil prices which begun to rebound at the start of the second quarter have suddenly begun to plunge due to excess supply. Other commodities prices such as gold and cocoa continue to decline due to soft global growth which is hurting the demand for these commodities. Oil price shocks for net importer countries have already started experiencing terms of trade shocks, decline in growth, exchange rate instability and declining domestic revenue collection among others.

n emerging market economies, the continued growth slowdown reflects several factors, including lower commodity prices and tighter external financial conditions structural bottlenecks, rebalancing in China and economic distress related to geopolitical factors.

According to The Economist (15th August edition), no single factor can explain what is going on.

However with the World's biggest economies setting the tone for interest rates and currencies via different directions, is causing significant troubles for emerging economies such as Brazil. India on the other hand, is showing signs of gradual recovery. A rebound in activity in a number of distressed economies is, however, expected to result in a pickup in growth in 2016.

The Sub-Saharan Aica region is expected to remain weak throughout this year, reflecting the negative impact of falling commodity prices, rising fiscal constraints and instability in the financial and foreign exchange markets.

These global developments have implications for us as a country, particularly with regards to our output (GDP), reserves, and foreign exchange earnings-contributing to the weakening of the Cedi that we are experiencing. Being mindful of this government has been implementing a number of short to long term measures to address the situation.

Developments in the Domestic Economy

Developments during the first half of 2015, particularly with regards to fiscal performance, indicate that Government policies and reform measures implemented since 2013 are taking hold and yielding results.

Although fiscal performance shows significant improvement, the economy experienced some challenges during the first half of 2015, mainly due to lingering energy sector problems, depreciation of the local currency and softening commodity prices.

Inflationary pressures remained elevated, while increase in foreign exchange demand as against limited supply sources largely underpinned the weakening of the cedi against the major currencies.

Hence the situation would have been much better but for the impact of these setbacks notably commodity (gold, cocoa, crude oil) prices and disruption in gas supply between 2013 and now.

Inflation

Headline inflation rose to 17.9 per cent in July 2015 after easing to 16.4 per cent in January 2015 from 17.0 per cent in December 2014. The increases in inflation was driven more by cost-push pressures emanating from increasing input costs associated with the energy sector challenges and depreciation of the cedi. On a month-on-month basis, the rate of change in CPI was 2.3 percent in July.

The increase in inflation was reflected in both food and non-food inflation. Food inflation rose from 6.9 per cent in January 2015 to 7.6 per cent in July 2015, while the non-food inflation also rose from 23.0 per cent in January 2015 to 24.6 per cent in July 2015.

Fiscal impact of declining world crude oil prices

As mentioned in the mid-year review and Supplementary Estimates I presented to Parliament last month, the oil price assumption for the revised Budget estimates was revised down to US$57.0 per barrel following the decline in crude oil prices.

Since the presentation to Parliament last month, we have witnessed a continuous decline in crude oil prices. As at Thursday.27th August 2015, Brent crude price had fallen to US$45.70 per barrel.

With the continuous decline in crude oil prices the original and revised estimate of Petroleum Benchmark Revenue for 2015 may not be achieved and this can have negative implications for the Budget execution.

The Ministry of Finance is taking necessary steps to control spending to ensure that the continuous fall in the crude oil prices does not derail the achievement of our fiscal deficit target for the year as well as our medium term fiscal consolidation objectives.

In this regard, MDAs that are funded from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) are to control their expenditure within the Budget allotments provided by the Ministry of Finance.

Consequently, the 2015 budget aims at reducing the fiscal deficit from 10.2 percent of GDP in 2014 to 7.3 percent of GDP in 2015.

There has been two adjustments of the budget deficit mainly on account of crude oil price developments.

Preliminary data for the first half of the year indicate that, total revenue and grants was higher than the target for the period.

At the same time, total expenditure including the clearance of arrears was lower than target. As a result the cash fiscal deficit for the period was 2.3 percent of GDP against a target of 3.4 percent. This compares to a deficit of 4.3 percent of GDP for the same period in 2014.

Total revenue and grants for the period was 11.2% of GDP, against a target of 10.6 percent of GDP.

In nominal terms, the outturn was 5.4 percent higher than target and 32.9 percent higher than the outturn for the same period in 2014. The good performance in total revenue and grants was mainly due to a strong growth in domestic revenue.

Tax revenue amounted to GH¢11,403.9 million, 8.4 percent higher than the Budget target of GH¢10,516.3 million. In nominal terms tax revenue was 32.1 percent higherthan the outturn recorded for the same period in 2014.

The strong performance in tax revenue was mainly due to the good performance of petroleum taxes, VAT and trade taxes resulting from the imposition of the Special Petroleum Tax and exchange rate depreciation as well as improved revenue administration and efficiency.

Total expenditure, including payments for the clearance of arrears for the first half of 2015 amounted to GH¢18,068.5 million (13.5 percent of GDP) against a target of GH¢18,805.7 million (equivalent to 14.0 percent of GDP). The outturn was 3.9 percent lower than the budget target but 14.1 percent higher than the outturn for the same period in 2014.

The growth in expenditure was mainly due to higher spending on goods and services and foreign financed capital expenditure.

The cash fiscal deficit of 2.3 percent of GDP for the period under review was financed mainly from domestic sources, resulting in a Net Domestic Financing(NDF) of the budget of GH¢1. 875.4 million (1.4 percent of GDP). The NDF for the period was 57.3 percent lower than the budget target of GH¢4,395.1 million and 48.6 percent lower than the outturn for the same period in 2014.

Foreign Financing of the budget was GH¢1,218.0 million representing 39.4 percent of total financing, against a target of GH¢206.1 million. Thus domestic financing constituted about 60.6 percent of the total financing of the deficit for the first six months of the year.

Update on IMF Programme

The Executive Board of the IMF completed the first review of Ghana's economic performance under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Programme. Following the completion of the review, a total amount of SDR 83.025 million (about US$ I16.6 million) will be disbursed in the coming days.

In spite of the unfavourable global developments our performance under the Programme has been remarkable with the achievement of almost all the Performance Criteria and Structural Benchmarks.

Government remains committed to the implementation of the Programme and achievement of the objectives of the programme.

The second review of the programme will be based on performance under the programme as at the end of August 2015. In this regard the IMF will field a mission to Ghana in October 2015 to assess the performance criteria targets for end-August 2015 and the status of implementation of the structural reforms.

An IMF Board meeting to complete the second review is expected to be held in December 2015 after which the disbursement of the third tranche of the amount due Ghana under the ECF arrangement will be made.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I wish to reiterate Government's commitment to ensuring a sound and stable macroeconomic environment that will spur our return to high growth and job creation whites paving the way for the nation to benefit from the bright prospects envisaged for the medium term. A few months from now Government will be presenting the 2016 Budget Statement and Economic Policy which will outline Government’s economic policy direction for 2016 and the medium term

INDIA AWAKES’ EXPLAINS A COUNTRY’S RISE FROM POVERTY TO PROSPERITY

by Eric D. Dixon

Ambrish Mehta, a founding member of ARCH-Vahini, a non-governmental organization, helped the Sagai Village map out the land they farm so that they might ultimately be given deed to their land. Photo credit: James Tusty
What makes the difference between poverty and prosperity? For individuals and families, there could be an endless number of variables, such as health, intelligence, education, initiative, perseverance, community, or opportunity. At least some circumstances vary widely in every case. When almost an entire society begins to rise from poverty and approach prosperity, though, it’s important to understand how and why it happens. India Awakes, a new documentary airing on public television stations throughout the United States, hosted by Swedish author and economist Johan Norberg, tells the story of how a country mired in poverty for hundreds of years has seen a dramatic change of course in the space of only a couple of decades.

Watch the trailer for India Awakes:

India has experienced a long history of deprivation, much of it resulting from centuries of a caste system that kept people regimented by genetic lineage into class, status, and even occupation — some, like the Dalit, also known as “untouchables,” are shunned entirely by higher castes. This alone would be enough to keep economic activity at a crawl, because it prevents capital, labor, and entrepreneurial insight from flowing to the best, most productive uses. An even bigger strike against prosperity came in the late 1940s, after the British granted India’s independence and the new government sought to alleviate poverty by embracing socialism and its central planning — nationalizing industries, building a maze of bureaucracy, erecting extensive trade barriers, and controlling every aspect of the sprawling economy.
Even granting that India’s leaders had good intentions, their actions were disastrous. India only plummeted further into hardship, with more than half of the population living in poverty by the 1980s and a financial crisis fast approaching. Redistribution may alleviate some poverty temporarily, as long as there are still productive sectors of the economy from which to take, but as economic activity grows scarce, there’s little left to redistribute.
Despite India’s bleak prospects only 25 years ago, something remarkable has happened between then and today. In 1991, a new prime minister began a series of economic reforms, reducing India’s central control of the economy and opening the country to an influx of foreign investment. These reforms weren’t perfect, and could have gone much, much further, but even this relatively small degree of new economic freedom began to work wonders. Within a decade, the average income in India had doubled, and nearly 250 million people — about a fifth of the population — have risen out of poverty since then. A new middle class has exploded, bringing extended families and villages into a newfound and solid quality of life.
With such a dramatic turnaround in nationwide prosperity, the question becomes how India can sustain its progress and bring the benefits of this new era of opportunity to the people who are still struggling. There are an estimated 25 million street vendors in India, who sell everything from food and clothing to transportation and electronics — and, despite their prevalence throughout the country, they have often been denied legal status or recognition. This has begun to change in recent years, often thanks to organizations like Atlas Network partner the Centre for Civil Society, which recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of the street vendors in Jaipur, the capital of the Rajasthan state in northwest India. Banwari Lal Sharma, one of the entrepreneurs featured in India Awakes who started his first food cart with his wife more than 20 years ago, expanded their business through tireless work but struggled under India’s epidemic of public-sector corruption, bribes, raids, confiscations, and evictions. He is now president of a growing association of street vendors, fighting for their legal status and protection, which also enables them make longer-term entrepreneurial plans, invest in better goods and production, build a better quality of life, and create jobs for others.
India’s population also contains a sizable population of agrarian tribal people, who live in the hills away from mainstream society. During India’s period of British rule, their traditional forests and common lands were declared the king’s property, and the people whose families had farmed and hunted that land for centuries suddenly found that they were criminals for living the only way they knew. The status of their lands didn’t change once India gained independence, and so tribal villages were often subject to raids, property seizure, and forced eviction by government officials. As with the uncertain status of street vendors, tribes found that their precarious legal position left them without any reason to invest in efficient cultivation, or to improve their homes, lands, or other property that could be destroyed or taken at any time — and they gained a strong incentive to extract as many resources as possible from their depleting surroundings.
The government finally passed legislation that would grant indigenous tribes legal title to specific parcels of land that they could prove they had been cultivating prior to passage of the law, but even this significant step didn’t offer much of a practical solution. How could destitute villagers prove their past farming, especially when they had tried to keep their activities as secluded as possible? India Awakes tells the story of one village, led by a Sagai tribal leader named Rama Bhai, whose applications were almost all refused. Barun Mitra, president of Atlas Network partner the Liberty Institute, introduced the tribe to new technology — an innovative combination of GPS plotting and archived Google Earth satellite images of their land — that eventually allowed them to prove their property claims and acquire legal title to their traditional lands, as well as a new future of security and investment in efficient production.
“This is not rocket science,” explained Tom G. Palmer, Atlas Network’s executive vice president of international programs, in an interview for India Awakes. “All the way back to Aristotle, people understood: If you can’t own it, you won’t improve it. And now we’re seeing on the ground that when people gain that ownership right, they invest. They improve, because they want a better life, like everybody.”
India has a long way to go, and many people have yet to achieve the newfound prosperity arising throughout the country. It’s evident, though, that economic freedom is the crucial ingredient in India’s recovery. One of the most dramatic stories of change in India Awakes belongs to Mannem Madhusudana Rao, a member of the “untouchable” Dalit caste whose family sacrificed everything to give him an education. After he left his rural village for city life, his entrepreneurial initiative gave him business success — and his ambition and perseverance helped make him a millionaire in the construction industry. When economic freedom is ascendant, people care far more about the value that others provide than about their family background.
India Awakes demonstrates that the more the people of India are able to build, produce, buy, sell, trade, and invest with one another — and with the rest of the world — the more each person’s unique talents and skills can find their own valuable niche in meeting the needs of others, creating new wealth and opportunity at every turn.

MONETARY DISCIPLINE RETURNS TO THE POLICY HORIZON AT JACKSON HOLE SUMMIT

September 3, 2015 | by Johannes Schmidt

From left to right: Atlas Network Sound Money Project Editor Johannes Schmidt, Dr. William Luther of the Sound Money Project, U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chief Economist and former Sound Money Project Fellow Dr. Thomas Hogan, Atlas Network Senior Fellow and Sound Money Project Co-Director Dr. Judy Shelton, Atlas Network President Alex Chafuen, and Atlas Network Sound Money Project Manager Gonzalo Schwarz.
Money has become so far removed from public debate that everyday citizens seem to have forgotten the importance that the Federal Reserve plays in their lives and in their futures. That’s why, this past weekend down the road from where the Kansas City Fed held its yearly Economic Policy Symposium, Atlas Network partner the American Principles Project (APP) hosted the first Jackson Hole Summit. There, economists, policy makers and sound money advocates gathered to “challenge the policies of the Federal Reserve System and to hold the Federal Reserve accountable for the impact of today’s monetary policy on the nation’s economy,” as Steve Lonegan, director of monetary policy at APP and summit organizer, stated in his welcome address.
The organizations represented at the summit included the Heritage Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Cato Institute, the British Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and Atlas Network’s Sound Money Project. As the first of its kind, this conference was by all measures a success. Not only did it sell out two weeks in advance and attract press from across the country, but also brought together advocates of monetary reform and challenged them to address monetary policy in a way that could easily reach the general public.
The Jackson Hole Summit took an important first step in making monetary policy, also known as the “currency debate,” a mainstream issue once again. This is important because, for years now, politicians have made monetary policy an issue that is incomprehensible for the majority of Americans, although it affects their day-to-day lives, both in the short and long terms. From buying bread at the grocery store to paying off mortgages, the value of money plays a fundamental role in the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans. Furthermore, discretionary policies mean that Americans cannot effectively plan ahead, instead wasting time and resources because the purchasing power of their money is not stable.
Although money is largely absent from public consciousness today, it should be noted that this was not always the case. Elections have been won and lost over monetary issues, and monetary stability affects everybody’s life. It is therefore “important to challenge the privileges, prerogatives, and the power of central banks,” argued Dr. Judy Shelton, co-director of Atlas Network’s Sound Money Project, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “I think that having a conference to bring up the possibility that central banks are not the solution, but actually the problem in terms of regaining real economic growth, is vitally important.”
Fortunately, throughout the course of the summit, the speakers did just that. The first lecture, “Government & Money: A Historical Perspective,” was given by Dr. Lawrence White of George Mason University. There, Dr. White explored the history of money in the United States and set the tone for the conference by suggesting that inflation rates under gold had remained relatively stable, and that “price level uncertainty has been much higher under the Federal Reserve than during the pre-Fed period.” Certainly, such conclusions were not likely be reached by central bankers just down the road at the Fed’s symposium, although some central bankers both here and abroad are beginning to question the effectiveness of central bank discretion.
In the first Sound Money Project lecture of the day, however, Dr. Shelton did raise that necessary though still provocative question: “What if Central Bankers Are Wrong?” Throughout her lecture, Dr. Shelton noted that the world’s largest economies are currently operating under different monetary regimes, manipulating their currencies and undermining international monetary stability. Contrary to what some central bankers might believe, that does not constitute competition, but rather cheating. The world needs rules, but as Dr. Shelton noted in a recent article published in The Hill, “there’s only one problem with warning nations not to manipulate their currencies and to play by the rules: There are no rules.” Because of this, the world has not known a system where free trade was based on genuine value since the collapse of Bretton Woods in 1971.
A later panel, titled “A National Monetary Commission to Chart the Uncharted Monetary Territory,” discussed the plausibility of reestablishing a national monetary commission where experts could provide testimony on the Fed’s performance in terms of output, prices, employment and overall financial stability. The participants, Dr. William Luther of the Sound Money Project, U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chief Economist and former Sound Money Project Fellow Dr. Thomas Hogan, Ralph Benko of APP, and Dr. Norbert Michel of the Heritage Foundation argued that a commission could garner public interest in the Federal Reserve’s record and also put pressure on politicians to analyze the Fed’s performance as a lender of last resort. As Dr. Luther sagely noted, if we had had such a commission in 2008, “perhaps it would have allowed us to avoid or at least mitigate some of the monetary missteps that we experienced during that period.”
Later, in a panel titled “The Impact of Fed Policy on Millennials,” I had the opportunity to join Jared Meyer of the Manhattan Institute, Jiesi Zhao of the Young America’s Foundation, and well-known libertarian blogger Julie Borowski in a discussion of how the Fed’s discretionary monetary policies affect young people. Here, the panel concluded that Fed discretion and economic activism disproportionately affects millennials and makes it harder to reach traditional milestones such as getting a first job, buying a house, or even getting married. As Jared Meyer noted, “the Fed picks winners and losers through its policies and the young are consistently the losers.”
The panel also offered me an opportunity to speak about the history of the morality of money and to call on millennials to help reclaim money’s moral high ground. As I stated in a recent piece published in Townhall Finance, “for those who are interested in living in a just and moral world, the idea that money should not be debased or manipulated should come as naturally as the idea that theft and plunder are wrong.”
The final Sound Money Project panel was moderated by Dr. Alejandro Chafuen, co-director of the Sound Money Project and president of the Atlas Network. There, Dr. Chafuen led British MP Kwasi Kwarteng, Dr. Judy Shelton, and Mercatus Center Vice President for Outreach Maurice McTigue in a discussion of “The International Monetary System and the Frontiers of Reform.” This panel provided the audience with an international perspective of the direction in which international monetary policy should take.
One concept that was particularly well received was Dr. Shelton’s “gold-convertible” Treasury bonds. As Breitbart explained, “The bonds would be equivalent to regular 5-year Treasuries, but the face value would be redeemable at the option of the bondholder into dollars or a fixed amount of gold. Bondholders would gain protection from losing purchasing power, and the government would be able to pay much lower interest costs.”
Perhaps the best embodiment of the spirit of the conference were Dr. Shelton’s concluding remarks, during which she questioned the Federal Reserve system in a pointed and uncompromising manner, reprinted in a New York Sun editorial:

We dare to talk about the gold standard and its relative merits, knowing that the merest whisper of a gold standard is enough to elicit the guffaws of the central bankers down the road. Because they say “that’s just crazy.” And I think, really? Crazier than negative interest rates? Crazier than paying banks to keep loanable funds in sterile depository accounts at the Fed? Crazier than having the Fed buy up trillions in government debt, remit the interest payments back to treasury, and then count that as revenue to the federal budget?

Is it crazier than having hordes of financial market analysts parsing every word uttered by a monetary official, obsessing over the minutes of the latest Fed meeting trying to glean clues about what might happen next? It’s almost as if we’ve forgotten how to engage in free enterprise, because we’re waiting for marching orders from a central planning agency. I think we’re the rational ones. They like to brand us as ideologues, but in truth we’re the realists. And that sobering fact is becoming clearer every day as reality continues to whipsaw global markets.

The success of the Jackson Hole Summit should allow proponents of sound money to rest easy knowing that there are individuals ready once again to bring the cause of money to the mainstream. The Sound Money Project is committed to remaining on the forefront of that public policy battle and, surrounded by such passionate allies, I am sure that we will see success in a not-so-distant future. After attending the Jackson Hole Summit, it is clear to me that the age of discipline and a rule-based monetary system is once again on the horizon.

A true story of unconditional love when my wife of 11 years left me for another man

A post I wrote about unconditional love on the “Life Is A Fork In The Road” Facebook page has raised the question about whether humans are capable of true unconditional love. Here is the quote that inspired me to write this true love story: “Love is unconditional. It is a spiritual state, not an emotion. It’s not a choice you pick at a fork in the road….it exists forever.” Is this just an ideal we strive for but can never attain or is it possible for a human to actually love someone unconditionally, love them even if they do something we hate or they decide to leave us?
The human condition is affected by all types of pushes and pulls from our emotions, upbringing, personality, temperament, ego and experiences. This makes us who we are and it also makes us imperfect and fallible. Of course, that’s what makes life interesting. Can we rise above all this and actually love someone unconditionally? The post I made was not just something I pulled from the sky because it sounded nice. It was based on my own personal experiences and observations. Now, for the first time since I started collecting stories from others, I am going to share an inner voice experience of my own that first awakened me to what true unconditional love means. This is a true love story on many levels.

I Was Not My Wife’s True Love

The year is 1986. After being happily married for 11 years, my wife suddenly and without warning told me she was divorcing me to go back to a man she had dated before we met. There were no obvious problems in our relationship. No arguments. Nothing was going on to indicate any trouble brewing. Even after she told me this, she never said there was anything wrong with us. She just said that she had come to realize she loved this other guy in a way she didn’t love me and that’s all it was about. Two days after she told me this, she moved into an apartment. The guy left his wife of 25 years that same day and moved in with her. They got married within the year and she remained with him until she passed on a few years ago.
Hearing this coming from completely out of the blue crushed me. It was like I was run over by a steam roller. I have never before nor ever sense felt pain like that. I had imagined we would spend the rest of our life together. I didn’t want anyone else. I loved this woman with all my heart. There is no way to describe the hurt and pain I felt. It was like every cell in my body was being torn apart and run through a food processor.

Unconditional Love Isn’t About What the Other Person Does

Yet, within hours of hearing this something else from deep within me spoke loud and clear. This was my true inner voice of wisdom. I still loved this woman as much as I had before she broke the news. I still wanted her to be happy. I still cared about her. If she would be more happy with someone else rather than me, that was her choice. I realized at that moment that if you truly love someone, you want them to be happy, you want the best for them even if that means not being with you.
This realization did not make the pain and hurt go away. It was so severe and intense that it took me over three years to finally get back to being me. All my friends told me she was no good and would say unkind things about her. They thought that would make me feel better. They simply didn’t understand. The way I saw it, how can someone go from loving someone to not loving them overnight just because they did something you didn’t want. That would negate the previous 11 years as if they never existed. It would disrespect all the good that happened in that relationship.

A Love Song About a True Love Story

A couple months after she left, I did a very strange thing which was the next step in helping me move forward with my life. Once again, my inner voice of wisdom came through loud and clear. Suddenly, I started thinking about this guy she went back to and how he must be feeling. I literally began to look at this through his eyes instead of mine. That inspired me to write the lyrics to a love song written from his point of view. Maybe someday a songwriter will happen along that could put some music to this and turn it into an actual song.

Ticking

Lyrics by Don Shapiro

Courtesy of Rykristo Music Publishing

You told me we were through

It was what we had to do

We made our beds before we met

When our love’s fate was set

Our homes blazing oh so bright

With anger and more in plain sight

So we sought solace as one

Embraced away hurt on the run

(chorus)

It wasn’t right

Oh, no

It wasn’t right

To fly away in the night

To believe we could unite

So you hid our love

Deep inside of you

Tucked away from view

Ticking

Just ticking

Ticking for too many years

Ticking through a thousand tears

(Verse 2)

You locked your love far away

Deep in memory so they say

We became friends for many years

Saying hi without any tears

The years have taken flight

Family chains wrapped so tight

As our seedlings grew up, oh wow

You’ve come back for my love now

(chorus repeats)

(bridge to finale)

You couldn’t keep your love locked away

Just ticking til judgment day

So you threw away that old bed

And came back to me like they said

How was I able to still consider her happiness as being of paramount importance after what she had done? How could I go through the most devastating pain and hurt imaginable without having any ill feelings toward her? How could I possibly write a song lyric that was a love song written from the other guy’s point of view? There is one and only one answer to these questions. I loved this woman unconditionally regardless of what she did. I am living proof that it is possible for a human being to love unconditionally.
It’s one thing to wax philosophically about what we believe is and is not possible concerning the human condition until we are thrown into the fire and discover how we respond in the moment. I wasn’t thinking about the meaning of love or the concept of unconditional love before this happened. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before so I was not prepared for it. Maybe we never are. If you had asked me a year earlier what I would do under such a circumstance, I’m sure my answer would have been different than what I actually did. How I responded to this situation came from deep within my heart and it was as real as it gets. My reaction surprised me and inspired me.

What Unconditional Love Really Means

Since then, I have given a lot of thought to the meaning of love versus how the word is thrown around all too easily. From this experience, I came to learn what true love means. The test of true love, unconditional love is this: would you still love the person even if they did something awful or left you for another? Would you still care about them and want the best for them? If you can answer that question yes, you love unconditionally. If you answer that question no, what you are feeling is not love. It may be a very strong emotion and feeling of attachment but it is not love
The state of true love occurs when the love that is inside of us aligns at a deep energy and frequency level with the love that is inside of someone else. This connection isn’t about desire, attraction, enjoyment, similar interest, common values or emotions. It is something that simply happens outside of human control. Once that internal love alignment occurs, it will last forever. It can never be broken. Our spirit is forever connected to the other person’s spirit regardless of what happens with us on a human level.

True Unconditional Love Is Not a Choice

I honestly don’t know why some people have the capacity to love unconditionally and others do not. It is still a mystery to me why I was able to act and feel this way through such a nightmare. I have my doubts how many could go through this experience and discover their capacity for unconditional love. From my experience, this was not a choice. It simply reflected the state of love that existed inside of me and my natural and normal response due to that state of love.
It may be just fine for many people to exist in relationships based on strong emotional ties that they call love even though, in reality, it is not love at all. Unconditional love may sound like something wonderful but it appears we have no control over its occurrence though it would be something that I would hope all people would strive to find.

Relationships Are Conditional. True Love Is Not.

Relationships are conditional. True love is not. We can and will place all kinds of conditions on having a relationship with someone based on a laundry list of human issues. We may decide we don’t want someone in our life anymore, even one of our children, if their behavior is too awful for us to handle. Most parents love their children unconditionally, even step children and ones they adopt. If we truly love, love unconditionally, then regardless of what someone does, we will still love them whether we want them in our life or not or whether they want us in their life or not. True love never dies. Love is a spiritual state, not an emotion.

Unconditional Love: How to Give It and How to Know When It's Real

According to the book Real Love, unconditional love is, in essence, true love -- so different from the kind of love most of us have known all our lives that it deserves a definition of its own. Unconditional love is caring about the happiness of another person without any thought for what we might get for ourselves. It’s unconditional love when other people care about our happiness unconditionally. Now for me this is slightly “touchy feely." Even dipping into the conversation about love and true love and what is real love can give the impression that we’ve gone all soft and “hippie," but it’s important for each of us to be aware of when we have experienced unconditional love, and more importantly, how to share it with another individual. I have been talking about this behavior for years but only recently understood it on a deeper level and I realize there’s a lot more to it than we think.

It is not unconditional love when other people like us for doing what they want or because we give them what they demand of us. Under those conditions we’re just “paying” for love in a way (or literally in some cases) with what we do to get that attention. We can be certain that we’re receiving unconditional love only when we make foolish mistakes, when we fail to do what other people want, and even when we get in their way, but they don’t feel disappointed or irritated with us. When we make a seemingly poor choice about our lives, take a wrong turn, undo or sabotage our own happiness... its unconditional love that keeps them right there, not judging or punishing but loving without conditions. It’s that love alone that has the power to heal all wounds, bind people together, and create relationships quite beyond our present capacity to imagine. 

To love another person under any circumstances is not relegated to passionate love either. It is not what the pop psychs refer to as “enabling” or just letting someone be discounting to us and you continue to accept the neglect. Unconditional love allows you to love yourself first, so that you have the strength of heart and mind to give the same to another person. Friends and family can be completely unconditional with their love for you, however it is pretty rare; we are programed to be conditional, to expect something in return for our love. I cannot say with complete confidence that we don’t place some degree of conditions on almost all our communication and interactions. We are quite specifically conditioned to only give love when we are reciprocated, and most often according to what we think is worthy of our love. Unconditional love is not a loan needing to be repaid, but a string-less gift of the heart - a gesture where only you benefit directly. 

On the occasion you are fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of such an act of thoughtfulness, the experience can be both endearing and a bit awkward -- what do you do for someone who gives to you unconditionally of themselves and asks for nothing in return? Recently I had such an experience and it has given me a sense of value that is very treasured. Genuine unconditional love is a little strange to receive in our world of expectations and reactions, and yet if you allow yourself to be the receiver, I can tell you it’s pretty terrific.

So how do we love unconditionally?

1. Loving unconditionally is more a behavior versus a feeling. Loving is the act of extending ourselves, vulnerabilities and all, into uncharted emotional territory with the belief that regardless of the outcome, we want to benefit another person. Imagine love as a behavior in and of itself, with the satisfaction being that feeling you get when you act a certain way for them, not when someone else acts a certain way to you. This becomes a pure act of generosity. 

2. Ask yourself "Am I truly acting with the most love I can for this person at this moment?" I know for myself I can come to a situation with my ego too big and in the way of my unconditional responses... this stuff has to be a conscious act for most of us, so check yourself. Unconditional love is a entirely new process for us in every situation, and we want to convey sincerity with each person we extend that love to so that it is genuine and not conditional.

3. I have a situation in my life right now that’s uncomfortable to accept and my behaviors and reactions, while not harmful to me or others, are not necessarily in the best interest of my personal growth. To love someone unconditionally does not mean that the act of that love is always going to be easy or feel comfortable. To be there for someone when they have challenges and need to foster growth, even those individuals in the fog of confusion know that there is going to be pain and some serious discomfort -- if you choose to protect them from these feelings and emotions you’re not loving them unconditionally. Unconditional love means you tell them the truth with gentle, kind communication and you are there, without judgement, to see them to the other side.

4. What does it mean if you are someone who only loves others, giving of yourself freely without any boundaries? That is you being a “people pleaser” which means you're not being unconditional or loving to yourself first. Let me tell you, playing the martyr is not rewarding or validating and only leaves you and the other person resentful. Work to recognize when doing what is best for you first might sometimes have you prioritizing your needs and desires above someone else's. This is a healthy part of defining who we are as individuals and crucial to know your own gauge for self-love. Remember, only when we know intrinsically that we have value to be loved, can we give love cleanly.

5. Forgiveness is so important. Again, this is a behavior I like to think I have mastered but I haven’t. It’s probably the most difficult and truly unconditional act we perform. In any circumstance where we feel we have been wronged, neglected or taken advantage of, if someone doesn't apologize, it's inherently the most loving to them and to yourself to choose to let go of any anger and resentment. Harboring that energy is hurtful to you spiritually, and over time, physically. The noted author and philosopher Piero Ferrucci shares in his book, Beauty and Soul, that forgiving "is not something we do, but something we are." Granting forgiveness unconditionally isn’t communicating you’ll allow someone to be hurtful or discounting. The act of practicing unconditional love will be tainted and not at all healing if you choose to hold onto negative stuff. I’m preaching to my own choir here, again. This is something we consciously work on every day. There is no perfect, simple way to love without conditions.

Life is hard more often than we’d like it to be. Life is definitely conditional; if we don’t eat, sleep or drink water we will surely die. Scientists, philosophers, gurus, and priests have for centuries spoken of the “unconditional, perfect and everlasting love” and I think it’s real, but not a given. I believe we all have good and light, dark behaviors and weaknesses, and to deny this human condition is to be ignorant to the foundation of our human nature. I do think, however, having been someone who has experienced unconditional love and someone who has consciously chosen to give it, this expression of our kindest Self is a part of growth and generosity we can all benefit from every moment of every day.