  In this lecture we present some interesting issues that arise when the
dynamics of the charge carriers in the CuO$_2$ planes of the high temperature
superconductors is considered. Based on the qualitative picture of doping, set
by experiments and some previous calculations, we consider the strength of
various inter and intra-cell charge transfer susceptibilities, the question of
Coulomb screening and charge collective modes. The starting point is the usual
p-d model extended by the long range Coulomb (LRC) interaction. Within this
model it is possible to examine the case in which the LRC forces frustrate the
electronic phase separation, the instability which is present in the model
without an LRC interaction. While the static dielectric function in such
systems is negative down to arbitrarily small wavevectors, the system is not
unstable. We consider the dominant electronic charge susceptibilities and
possible consequences for the lattice properties.
