An idea worth spreading: Barry Schwartz’ passionate plea for practical wisdom, a standing ovation talk fresh from TED2009.
Source: http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html
In his inaugural address, Barack Obama appealed to each of us to give our best, as we try to extricate ourselves form the current financial crisis. But what did he appeal to? He did not, happily, follow in the footsteps of his predecessor and tell us to just go shopping. Nor did he tell us , “Trust us, trust your country. Invest. Invest. Invest.”
Instead, what he told us, was, to put aside the childish things. And he appealed to virtue. Virtue is an old-fashioned word. It seems a little out of place, in a cutting edge environment like this one. And besides, some of you might be wondering, what the hell does it mean?
Let me begin with an example. This is the job description of a hospital janitor that is scrolling up on the screen. [a list with the mundane chores of a janitor scrolls up the screen] And all of the items on it are unremarkable. They are the things you would expect: mob the floor, sweep them, empty the trash, restock the cabinets.
It may be a little surprising how many things there are, but it is not surprising what they are. But the one thing I want you to notice about them is this: even though this is a very long list, there isn’t a single thing on it that involves other human beings. Not one.
The janitor’s job could just as well be done in a mortuary as in a hospital. And yet, when some psychologists interviewed hospital janitors, to get a sense of what they thought their jobs are like, they encountered Mike, who told them about how he stopped mobbing the floor, because mr. Jones was out of his bed, getting a little exercise, trying to build up his strength, walking slowly up and down the hall.
And Charlene, told them about how she ignored her supervisor’s admonition, and didn’t vacuum the visitor’s lounge because there were some family members, who were there all day, every day, who at this moment happened to be taking a nap.
And then there was Luke, who washed the floor in a comatose young man’s room twice, because the man’s father who had been keeping him vigil, didn’t see Luke doing it the first time, and his father was angry.
And behavior like this, form janitors, from technicians, from nurses, and, if we are lucky so now and then, from doctors, doesn’t just make people feel a little better, it actually improves the quality of patient care and enables hospitals to run well.
Now, not all janitors are like this, of course. But the ones who are think that these sorts of human interactions, involving kindness, care and empathy, are an essential part of the job. And yet, their job description contains not a one word about other human beings. These janitors have the moral will to do right by other people, and beyond this, they have the moral skill to figure out what doing means.
Practical wisdom. Aristotle told us, is the combination of moral will and moral skill.
A wise person knows when and how to make “the exception to every rule”, as the janitors knew when to ignore their job duties in service of other objectives.
A wise person knows how to improvise, as Luke did when he rewashed the floor. Real world problems are often ambiguous and ill-defined, and the context is always changing.
A wise person is like a jazz musician, using the notes on the page, but dancing around them, inventing combinations that are appropriate for the situation and the people at hand. [Fellow jazz players cover up for each other's mistakes, always in harmony]
A wise person knows how to use these moral skills in the service of the right aims, to serve other people, not to manipulate other people.
And finally, perhaps most important, a wise person is made and not born.
Wisdom depends on experience, and not just any experience. You need the time to get to know the people that you are serving. You need permission to be allowed to improvise. To try new things. Occasionally to fail and to learn from your failures. And you need to be mentored by wise teachers.
When you ask your janitor to behave like the ones I described, how hard it is to learn to do their jobs, they tell you that it takes lots of experience. And they don’t mean it takes lots of experience to learn how to mob floors and empty trash cans. It takes lots of experience to learn how to care for people.
At TED, brillance is rampant. It’s scary. The good news is that you don’t need to be brilliant to be wise. The bad news is that without wisdom, brilliance isn’t enough. It is as likely to get you and other people in trouble as anything else. [applause]
Now, I hope that we all know this. There is a sense in which it is obvious, and yet, let me tell you a little story. It is a story about lemonade.
A dad and his eleven year old son were watching a Detroit Tigers game at the ball park. His son asked him for some lemonade and dad went to the concession stand to buy it. All they had was Mike’s Hard lemonade which was five percent alcohol.
Dad, being an academic had no idea that Mike’s Hard lemonade contained alcohol. [laughter] So, he brought it back and the kid was drinking it and the security guard spotted it and called the police who called an ambulance that rushed to the ball park, whizzed the kid to the hospital.
The emergency room ascertained that the kid had no alcohol in his blood. Pfew. And they were ready to let the kid go. But not so fast. The Wayne County Child Welfare Protection Agency said: No! And the child was sent to a foster home for three days.
At that point, can the child go home? And the judge said, Yes, but… Only if the dad leaves the house and checks into a motel. After two weeks, I am happy to report, the family was reunited, but the welfare workers and the ambulance people and the judge all said the same thing: “We hate to do it, but we have to follow procedure.”
How do things like this happen?
Scott Simon, who told the story on MPR, said: “Rules and procedures may be dumb, but they spare you from thinking. And to be fair, and to be fair, rules are imposed because previous officials have been lacks and they let a child go back to an abusive household. Fair enough. When things go wrong, as of course they do, we reach for two tools to try to fix them. One tool we reach for is rules, better ones, more of them. The second tool we reach for is incentives. Better ones, more of them. What else, after all, is there?
We can certainly see this in response to the current financial crisis. Regulate. Regulate. Regulate. Fix the incentives. Fix the incentives. Fix the incentives. The truth is that neither rules, nor incentives are enough to do the job. How could you even write a rule that got the janitors to do what they did? And would you pay them a bonus for being empathic?
It is preposterous on its face. And what happens, as we turn increasing the rules. Rules and incentives may change it for the better in the short run, but they create a downwards spiral that makes them worse in the long run. Moral skill is chipped away by an over reliance on rules that deprives us of the opportunity to improvise and learn from our improvisations. And moral will is undermined by an incessant appeal to incentives that destroy and our desire to do the right thing. And, without intending it, by appealing to rules and incentives, we are engaging in a wor on wisdom.
Let me give you just a few examples first of “Rules and the War on Moral Skill”. The “Lemonade” story is one. Second, no doubt familiar to you, is the nature of modern American education—scripted, lock-stepped curricula. Here is an example from Chicago kindergarten.
Script for day 53.
Title: Reading and enjoying literature/words with “b”.
Text: “The Bath”
Lecture: Assemble students on the rug or reading area… Give students a warning about the dangers of hot water… Say, “Listen very quietly as I read the story.”… Say, “Think of other pictures that make the same sound as the sound bath begins with.”…
Say 75 items in this script to teach a 25 page picture book all over Chicago in every kindergarten class in the city. Every teacher the same, the same words in the same way on the same day.
We know why these scripts are there—we don’t trust the judgment of teachers to let them loose on their own. Scripts like these are insurance policies against disaster. And the prevent disaster. But what they assure in its place is mediocricy. [applause and cheering]
Don’t get me wrong! We need rules! Jazz musicians need some notes on the page. We need rules for the bankers, God knows. But too many rules prevent accomplished jazz musicians from improvising and as a result they lose their gifts, or worse, they stop playing altogether.
Now, how about incentives? They seem clear and clever. If you have one reason for doing something, and I give you a second reason for doing the same thing, it seems only logical that two reasons are better than one, and you are more likely to do it. Right? Well, not always.
Sometimes, two reasons to do the same thing seem to compete with one another instead of complementing, and they make people less likely to do it. I’ll just give you one example because time is racing.
In Switzerland, back about 15 years ago, they were trying to decide where to site nuclear waste dumps. There was a national referendum and some psychologists went around and polled citizens who were very well informed. And they said, “Would you be willing to have a nuclear waste dump in your community?” Astonishingly, 50% of the citizens said “Yes.” They knew, or thought, it was dangerous, they thought it would reduce their property values, but, it had to go somewhere, and they had responsibilities as citizens.
The psychologists asked other people a slightly different question. They said, “If we paid you six weeks salary, every year, would you have a nuclear waste dump in your community?” Two reasons: it is my responsibility and I am getting paid. Instead of 50% saying yes, 25% said yes.
What happens is that the introduction of the incentive gets us to instead of asking, “What is my responsibility?” all we ask is “What serves my interest?” When incentives don’t work, when CEOs ignore the long term health of their companies in pursuit of short term gains that will lead to massive bonuses, the response is always the same: get smarter incentives.
The truth is, that there are no incentives you can devise that are ever are going to be smart enough. Any incentive system can be subverted by bad will. We need incentives, people have to make a living, but excessive reliance on incentives demoralizes professional activity in two sense of that word.
It causes people who engage in activity to lose moral, and it causes the activity itself to lose morality.
Barack Obama said before he was inaugurated, “We must ask, not just is it profitable, but is it right.” [applause] And when professions are demoralized, everyone in there becomes dependent on and addicted to incentives, and they stop asking, “Is it right?”
We see this in medicine. “Although it’s nothing serious, let’s keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t turn into a major lawsuit.” And we certainly see it in the world of business, “In order to remain competitive in today’s marketplace Bentham, I’m afraid we’re going to have to replace you with a sleazeball.” “I sold my soul for about a tenth of what the damn things are going for now.”
It is obvious this is not the way that people want to do their work. So what can we do? A few sources of hope. We ought to try to re moralize work. One way not to do it: teach more ethics courses. [laughter and applause] There is no better way to show people that you are not serious than to tie up everything you have to say about ethics into a little package with a bow and consign it to the margins as an ethics course. What to do instead?
One, celebrate moral exemplars. Acknowledge when you go to law school that little voice that is whispering in your ear about Atticus Finch. No ten year old goes to law school to do mergers and acquisitions. People are inspired by moral heroes. But we learn that with sophistication comes the understanding that you can’t acknowledge that you have moral heroes. Well, acknowledge them, be proud that you have them, celebrate them and demand that the people that teach you acknowledge and celebrate them too. That is one thing we can do.
I don’t know how many of you remember this, another moral hero, 15 years ago, Aaron Feuerstein who was the head of Malden Mils at Massachusets. They make Polartech, burned down, 3,000 employees, he kept everyone of them on the payroll. Why? Because it would been a disaster for them and for the community of he had let them go.
Maybe on paper our company is worth less to Wall Street, but I can tell you it is worth more. We are doing fine. Just at this TED, we heard talks from several moral heroes too, two particularly inspiring to me. One was Ray Anderson [cheering and applause] who turned a part of the evil empire into a zero footprint, or almost a zero footprint business. Why?! Because it was the right thing to do. And the bonus he is discovering is that he is discovering even more money. His employees are inspired by the effort. Why? Because they’d be happy to doing things that are the right thing to do.
Yesterday we heard Willy Smits about reforesting in Indonesia, [applause] and in many ways this is the perfect example, because it took the will to do the right thing. And God knows it took a huge amount of technical skill. I boggled at how much he needed to know, and his associates, in order to ply this out.
Most important to make it work, and he emphasized this, is that it took knowing the people in the communities. Unless the people you are working with are behind you, this will fail. And there isn’t a formula to tell you how to get the people behind you because different people in different communities organize their lives in different ways.
So there is a lot here at TED and other places that celebrate, and you don’t have to be a mega hero. There are ordinary heroes. Ordinary heroes like the janitors who are worth celebrating to. As practitioners, each and everyone of us thrive to be ordinary, if not extraordinary, heroes. As heads of organizations, we should strive to create environments that create and nurture, both moral skill and moral will. Even the wisest and most well-meaning people will give up, if they have to swim against the current in the organizations in which they work.
If you run an organization, you should be sure that non of the jobs, none of the jobs, have job descriptions like the job descriptions of the janitor. Because the truth is, that any work you do that involves interaction with other people, is moral work, and any moral work depends upon practical wisdom.
And perhaps, most important, as teachers we should strive to be the ordinary heroes, the moral exemplars to the people we mentor. And there are few things that we have to remember as teachers. One is that we are always teaching. Someone is always watching. The camera is always on. Bill Gates talked about the importance of education, in particular the model that Kipp was providing. Knowledge is power. And he talked about a lot of the wonderful things that Kipp is doing to take inner city kids and turn them into the direction of college.
I want to focus on one particular thing that Kipp is doing that Bill did not mention, and that is, they have come to the realization that the single most important thing kids need to learn is character. They need to learn to respect themselves. They need to learn to respect their schoolmates. They need to learn to respect their teachers. And, most important, they need to learn to respect learning.
That is the principle objective, if you do that, the rest is just pretty much a coast down hill. And the teachers, the way you teach these things to kids, is by having the teachers and all the other stuff and embody it, every minute of every day.
Obama appealed to virtue, and I think he was right. And the virtue that we need above all others, I think, is practical wisdom, because it is what allows others: honesty, kindness, courage, and so on, to be displayed at the right time, and in the right way.
He also appealed to hope. Right again. I think there is reason for hope. I think people want to be allowed to be virtuous. In many ways, it is what TED is all about—wanting to do the right thing in the right way for the right reasons. This kind of wisdom is within the grasp of each and everyone of us, if only we start paying attention. Paying attention to what we do, to how we do it, and, perhaps most importantly, to the structure of the organizations within which we work, so as to make sure that it enables us and other people to develop wisdom rather than having it suppressed.
Thank you very much.
[standing ovation]
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Tweak Your Brain With Colors
Who needs caffeine? if this is true, get me color changing walls instead!
"
For an all-natural brain boost, skip the pills and hit the colors.
In the latest and most authoritative study on color's cognitive effects, test subjects given attention-demanding tasks did best when primed with the color red. Asked to be creative, they responded best to blue.
"Color enhances performance," said study co-author Juliet Zhu, a University of British Columbia psychologist.
Previous research on red's effects on the brain have found that it attracts people to food and can enhance sexual arousal. But research on the color's cognitive effects have been mixed: Studies have linked red to cognitive impairment on IQ tests, telemarketing pitches and analytical problem-solving, but also to improvements on low-demand tasks and clerical work. The latest findings tip the balance toward the red-as-brain-booster results and fits with work that showed a link between the color and arousal of neurobiological awareness and vigilance.
"Think about red, and what comes to mind: stop lights, stop signs, danger, ambulances," said Zhu. "People want to avoid those things, and that's why they do better on detail-oriented tasks."
While earlier studies tended not to test creativity, Zhu's findings provide a plausible explanation for blue's apparent role.
"Blue is the color of the sky, the ocean, safety," she said. "When their environment is safe, people are more explorative."
Zhu's study, published Thursday in Science, started with tests designed to measure avoidance and attraction. Students vigilantly avoided red and were strongly attracted to blue.
Blue linked to higher scores on subsequent tests of creativity, and red with better performance on memory tests.
State University of New York at Albany psychologist Ronald Friedman, co-author of a study that found red-linked drops on IQ tests, called the findings "quite remarkable." Stony Brook University psychologist Markus Meier, also a co-author on Friedman's study, called Zhu's study "a great paper," one that underscores the unappreciated importance of color.
"Colors are everywhere in our lives," said Meier. "We should use them more carefully in all settings."
To test alternative explanations for the findings, Zhu's team showed that neither red nor blue influenced mood. Test subjects also spent the same amount of time on their tasks, suggesting that neither color affected their motivation.
The colors appeared to enhance performance, but not to impair it. Red- and white-primed students had similar creativity scores, while blue- and white-primed students were equal on attention tasks.
Asked about the implications, Zhu suggested that people engaged in creative tasks surround themselves with blue, and with red when trying to focus.
"In our university, some professors use different color sheets for different groups during exams," said Meier. "Using them in an unthinking way could produce bad results for some students, and good for others."
Zhu is now studying the effects of red on other types of tasks.
It's possible, given the other effects provoked by red — interest in food and sex — that it will have different effects in other contexts.
"The science has been focused on the cognitive domain," she said. "But maybe in the physical domain, like sports, red can be associated with a different meanings, like power or enthusiasm. That's what we're doing now."
Citation: "Blue or Red? Exploring the Effect of Color on Cognitive Task Performances." By Ravi Mehta and Juliet Zhu. Science, Vol. 324, Issue 5915, Feb. 5, 2009."
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Let banks fail, says Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz
My sentiments exactly...
Professor Stiglitz, the former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told The Daily Telegraph that Britain should let the banks default on their vast foreign operations and start afresh with new set of healthy banks.
"The UK has been hit hard because the banks took on enormously large liabilities in foreign currencies. Should the British taxpayers have to lower their standard of living for 20 years to pay off mistakes that benefited a small elite?" he said.
"There is an argument for letting the banks go bust. It may cause turmoil but it will be a cheaper way to deal with this in the end. The British Parliament never offered a blanket guarantee for all liabilities and derivative positions of these banks," he said.
Mr Stiglitz said the Government should underwrite all deposits to protect the UK's domestic credit system and safeguard money markets that lubricate lending. It should use the skeletons of the old banks to build a healthier structure.
"The new banks will be more credible once they no longer have these liabilities on their back."
Mr Stiglitz said the City of London would survive the shock of such a default because it would uphold the principle of free market responsibility. "Counter-parties entered into voluntary agreements with the banks and they must accept the consequences," he said.
Such a drastic course of action would be fraught with difficulties and risks, however. It would leave healthy banks in an untenable position since they would have to compete for funds in the markets with state-run entities.
Mr Stiglitz's radical proposal is a "Chapter 11" scheme for households to allow them to bring their debts under control without having to go into bankruptcy. "Families matter just as much as firms. The US government can borrow at 1pc so why can't it lend directly to poor people for mortgages at 4pc. ," he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/4424418/Let-banks-fail-says-Nobel-economist-Joseph-Stiglitz.html
Professor Stiglitz, the former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told The Daily Telegraph that Britain should let the banks default on their vast foreign operations and start afresh with new set of healthy banks.
"The UK has been hit hard because the banks took on enormously large liabilities in foreign currencies. Should the British taxpayers have to lower their standard of living for 20 years to pay off mistakes that benefited a small elite?" he said.
"There is an argument for letting the banks go bust. It may cause turmoil but it will be a cheaper way to deal with this in the end. The British Parliament never offered a blanket guarantee for all liabilities and derivative positions of these banks," he said.
Mr Stiglitz said the Government should underwrite all deposits to protect the UK's domestic credit system and safeguard money markets that lubricate lending. It should use the skeletons of the old banks to build a healthier structure.
"The new banks will be more credible once they no longer have these liabilities on their back."
Mr Stiglitz said the City of London would survive the shock of such a default because it would uphold the principle of free market responsibility. "Counter-parties entered into voluntary agreements with the banks and they must accept the consequences," he said.
Such a drastic course of action would be fraught with difficulties and risks, however. It would leave healthy banks in an untenable position since they would have to compete for funds in the markets with state-run entities.
Mr Stiglitz's radical proposal is a "Chapter 11" scheme for households to allow them to bring their debts under control without having to go into bankruptcy. "Families matter just as much as firms. The US government can borrow at 1pc so why can't it lend directly to poor people for mortgages at 4pc. ," he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/4424418/Let-banks-fail-says-Nobel-economist-Joseph-Stiglitz.html
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
NEW WORLD ORDER as Global Money Matrix Self Destructs
Now that the genie is out of the bottle, worldwide economic, financial and political events will proceed with the inexorable force of destiny. The forthcoming changes, shifts and breaks with the past that are delineated below do concern the unsavory business of WHAT, positively, will not be brought into the future. This is of critical importance. Why? Because those who do not know, and understand, and heed history, are always, always forced to repeat it.
I. As we all sat back and waited for last year’s October Surprise, please know that it came a little bit early this year on September 15th which will forever be known as PITCH BLACK MONDAY. Actually, the entire month of October was set up to be a series of Black Monday’s, as well as every other day of the week shaped up to be. It’s really a good time to brace your self since this year’s election cycle, and beyond, will bring with it a whole new season of surprises. Things like the beginning of the end of FIAT money – the real root cause of all our financial problems and economic ills. This foundational flaw, together with all of the multi-layered financial/economic/accounting mechanisms and schemes that have insidiously crept into the system, are the ‘not talked about’ institutionalized culprits and structural deformities that really need to go. Without them, the perps wouldn’t be so tempted to stack the deck against us all the time.
The only legitimate currency is that which is backed by GOLD, or some other precious commodity that is universally valued, and issued directly by the US Government, not a privately owned, organized crime syndicate like the FED. Debt driven, fractional-reserve banking – the real bane of global finance – will then be banished from the planet forever, along with the overlords of disaster capitalism, institutionalized usury & loan-sharking (e.g. World Bank & International Monetary Fund), as well as their economic hitmen. Finally, the central organizing principle of modern society, and especially Western Civilization, will no longer be: maximizing shareholders’ wealth.
The writing is on the wall: THE FED IS DEAD. And so is the Fed’s collection agency – the IRS. The FED has obviously been on extreme life support since September ’08, and the only compassionate response is to let it go peacefully into the sunset. Perhaps we should organize a simple taxpayers’ revolt, not too unlike those that occurred prior to the American Revolution, to bury this beast forever. When the people do wake up, and realize that the Federal Reserve Note that they carry in their pocket is exactly that – a note (i.e. debt, obligation, debit, commitment, instrument of indebtedness), things will start to get REEEEAL interesting !
II. Another little surprise will come in the form of an announcement that goes something like this: The USA was conceived to be a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, not a democracy by plutocracy. Or corpocacy, or oligarchy/synarchy, or crony capitalism or any other ism/cracy/archy they have tried to foist upon US. The founding fathers would be absolutely horrified to see the “mob rule by the privileged elites” into which this once great nation has degenerated. Every political philosopher knows that democracy, when sufficiently dumbed down and unduly influenced by the moneyed ruling class, will always devolve into a despotic tyranny. Therefore, the wholesale exportation of our fraudulent notion of democracy, and its supposed freedoms (to buy, buy, buy after watching the boob tube hucksters), by the political and corporate classes must be reconsidered. And it will be soon, on a new channel during this “Fall” season’s new lineup! Stay tuned ---
The recent presidential election, incidentally, is perhaps the most flagrant example of how the US constitutional republic has been suspended (at the very least, once every 4 years, right?). Just as much as the voting populace has been suspended in the state of perpetual ignorance is bliss for generations. Can you imagine – the winner having raised close to $700 MILLION in campaign contributions – just how many debts the president-select* has incurred?! How, pray tell, do you think these debts will be paid back in light of the trillions that are already owed across the world by the US Treasury, US corporations, US citizens, etc. They won’t be paid, because they can’t be paid. The US Corporation is, and has been, bankrupt for quite some time now. It’s stone cold broke and plum busted. And We The People should be thoroughly disgusted. Therefore, this fraudulent corporate entity – US Inc. – can now be trotted off the global stage, so that the REAL Constitutional Republic can be resurrected to its proper place in the nation’s governmental and political life.
*Demoplican or Republocrat – either way, they are still two sides of the exact same coin. The coin of the realm that excludes We The People.
III. Another announcement will be made, in the not too distant future, about the business entity commonly known as the CORPORATION – the main huckster of this ‘brand’ of faux democracy. Surely, if the devil were to ever choose the perfect form in which to enter in order to carry out his nefarious designs, Inc. is it. Is there any other entity on earth – person or party, organization or association, government or institution, jurisdiction or bureaucracy, club or group, fraternity or sorority, etc. that can function with such impunity, as it hides behind the shield of LIMITED LIABILITY. Those two words have given complete cover for the flagrant and wanton destruction of planet Earth.
You name it – oil slicked coastlines, razed rainforests, beaches strewn with dead dolphins and whales. Not to mention the complete erosion of human, civil and national rights, wherever INC decides to set up shop.
Let’s pick a country. Let’s go to India and visit Bhopal of Union Carbide fame. Close to 8000 people died within two weeks of that December day in 1984 in what is known as the worst industrial disaster of the last century. Now that Dow Chemical owns Union Carbide, you can only imagine the veritable phalanx of attorneys who are paid unconscionable fees to ensure proper responsibility and accountability will never be assumed by their master.
Or let’s visit the Punjab and talk to the thousands of widows of farmers who committed suicide because of Monsanto’s “seedless seeds”. Or go to just about anywhere on that subcontinent where a Walmart is being protested for land theft, encroachment and despoilation. Let’s not forget about all the Coca Cola bottling plants that have become notorious for stealing the most precious commodity that every Indian cherishes and covets – WATER. Well, that takes care of land, water, air … and blood. What else in heaven’s name do these stakeholders want?!
We all know the deal. It’s the one where the individual, and his/her environment, is always trampled in favor of the corporate interest. Isn’t it time to really take stock of what our current predicament has left us with? Perhaps it’s also time to seriously think about actually re-ordering the ORDER, instead of once again rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. Like we’ve said, “optimizing stockholder profit” will soon be history, as the cease and desist orders are not far from being issued to Corporate America. Might as well get a head start on dissolving (or re-chartering) that corporation.
IV. Termination of Globalization: The dominating and predatory form, that is. No other global initiative has been more unsuccessful at creating a framework for a more efficient transfer of goods and services around the planet. Truly, every aspect of this corporate inspired policy has failed miserably. Wherever it promoters trumpet its stated intention to make markets more streamlined, effective and resilient, it has done quite the opposite.
One only needs to look at the current debacle within the European Union concerning the banking, credit, and stock market breakdowns. Never has a response from the appropriate governing bodies been more disorganized, full of mixed messages and working at cross purposes with the member states. It was like watching The Three Stooges (France, Germany & Italy) play musical chairs blindfolded with no clothes on. What an unprecedented spectacle, and in plain view for the entire world to watch! This will undoubtedly put the brakes on the concretizing of a North American Union and their planned currency – the Amero. Praise the Lord!
As a matter of fact, all of the financial unions and economic superstates (e.g. European Union; Southeast Asian Association for Regional Cooperation; Union of South American Nations) that have been created over the past many years will, by sheer necessity and desperation, be forced to re–organize themselves in the coming months and years. Even South America, which has two distinct camps that are constantly gummin’ up the works for each other, will abandon their current emerging model in favor of one that enjoys complete freedom from its North American taskmaster. To their credit, they have set the bar higher than it has ever been set concerning their strongly stated desire to be free of IMF and World Bank control. Only Russia has exceeded their standards, as they had already been fleeced by the Oligarchs in what may very well be the grandest larceny of national wealth/resources in history. This, of course, was preceded by a 75 year scourge of incessant rape, pillaging and plundering by the Bolsheviks and their Western financiers & handlers. Clearly Mr. Putin will not allow a repeat of any such conduct within his borders, and the international persecution that he has suffered certainly reflects their displeasure and frustration with him. No wonder Vladimir Putin is now considered a “reincarnation” of Peter the Great by his own people.
The ruinous influence of these two globalization thugs (IMF & WB) can be instantly assessed by looking at the economic calamities they caused in Argentina (1999-2002), as well as in Thailand, South Korea & Indonesia during the 1997 Asian currency crisis. Likewise, every nation in Africa that has chosen to take on their monetary yoke has only misery and war and financial oppression to show for it. Wherever these 2 scrooges show their faces, it’s quite like Ebenezer himself showing up to make a house call. You know the patient will soon find himself in a pine box after all the gold fillings and rings have been removed.
We have seen this globalization scam unfold in country after country, as a ruse to steal a nation’s resources, always taking from those who have, and giving to those who want it. In fact, an objective assessment of all the world’s current conflicts would reveal that the vast majority are directly the result of this geo-political/commercial dynamic. The privatization of water sources/bodies/supplies/rights is perhaps the most provocative and glaring, and can be found at the root of a number of these resource wars.
Clearly the verdict has been delivered: Economies are much less vulnerable, the more locally they are positioned and the less centralized their decision-making process. This arrangement affords much greater resiliency when dealing with the vicissitudes of the marketplace. And it takes the power away from those who are insulated in ivory towers, and far from the plight of the common man. It is time for everyone on the planet to “think globally; act locally”.
V. Stock market will become extinct. There is no greater tool at the disposal of those who can, and do, manipulate the various markets than the charade of “setting up” a formal system of trading, buying and selling of anything, as exemplified by the NYSE. This is where it all happens. From devastating whole national (and regional) economies, to toppling uncooperative corporate execs, to bringing 150 year old multi-billion $$ companies to their knees within a week’s time. From triggering stockholder revolts, to propping up corporate raiders, to extorting billions from national and/or corporate treasuries. They can, and do, do it all right there on the floor.
Really, the very best example of what occurs in these speculative market exchanges is the gambling casino. In Vegas, everyone knows that the house ALWAYS wins. It never loses. Even when there is the appearance of losing, it still wins. Go figure, but it’s true. Your stockbroker is not too unlike the blackjack dealer. And your financial planner is often a croupier in disguise. So, the question remains, do you honestly know what your hard earned retirement money is invested in? If not, this is a very good time to find out!!!
For those of us who have been there, we know that whether you call it an oil bourse, a commodity exchange, or a bond market, you’re still playing in a game that can go against you at any time. Wipe out your earnings in a heartbeat; devour your principal in a flash. It’s often been said that when he comes, “he comes like a thief in the night”. Do you still feel you know where your entire life savings is currently residing?
The derivatives market represents the single greatest threat to worldwide economic stability and financial security. It poses such great potential for financial abuse and economic devastation that the current institutional arrangements of this commercial realm have become completely unacceptable. The alarming proliferation of hedge funds, as well as the growing number and variety of derivative instruments, has reached a critical mass that is incompatible with living a financially sound life on planet Earth. Simply put, some of these instruments are so far from the street – economic reality – that they put into jeopardy all the hard work, which appears in the form of real goods and services, that is produced by any economy at any given time. This predicament signifies a CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER to us all.
Remember – DERIVATIVES are the real megilla. Derivatives, by their very nature, can be highly radioactive, and can go nuclear any time circumstances conspire in just the right, or wrong, way. Those who control their destiny can, likewise, utilize their inherent threat as a means of conducting financial and economic terrorism anytime, anywhere completely under the radar screen. It’s time for them to go. And we trust it’s just a matter of execution at this point.
VI. Mass Consumerism & Perpetual Economic Growth – the Fric & Frac of our Age – are history. One need not look any further than the inside of one’s own home to see the ravages of these adopted twins. They own the bedroom, the living room, the family room and all the closets. They’ve taken over the kitchen, the den and the garage, as well. Since their middle names are Amass and Accumulate, we can only imagine what might lay hidden in the attic, the basement and the shed.
Ever since they became the twin pillars of Kali Yuga’s overarching philosophy of life, things started to really go to hell in a handbasket … or rather gilded cage. How so? What else could one expect from a political economy that demands growth, necessitates growth and extols the virtues of growth at every turn (and on every other commercial and newscast). Growth, at the expense of WHAT!! We’ll tell you what – Life!
One of the most tragic parts of this ever-unfolding tragedy has been the dramatic change in the spirit of the people with whom these twins associate. The very society loses its refinement, as the culture becomes debased. Aren’t so many things associated with Americana experienced as coarse, and crude, and crass? Likewise, the nation, which was once known as the “land of the free; home of the brave”, morphs into a country reviled for its unkindness, lack of compassion and cruelty. Before anyone realizes, the citizenry is easily being herded, and then stampeded, into wars and conflict of every sort and kind.
What else could be expected when the meme of consumerism is subliminally implanted at such a young and tender age, and relentlessly reinforced from cradle to grave? And, what does it really say about a society when all who belong to it are known as consumers. Kind of like little pac-men (and pac-women) gobbling up everything in sight. Starts out with BIG Macs and 24 oz cokes, then super-sized HUMMERS, then oil fields and gold mines and precious rainforests, and then whole countries.
Likewise, in the corporate realm, any board director, company officer, division president, regional director, department manager, production supervisor, etc. will candidly speak to the greatest pressure in their lives. More income, more sales, more profit, more production, more revenue – anything that will show an increase in year over year growth. Always gotta GROW, even though yuv been out of puberty for 20 or 30 years!?
Well, you can imagine that this state of affairs can only go on for so long. As a matter of fact, this party’s now over. And the hangover is about to begin. Perhaps it’s time to send these twins on a permanent vacation to the waterless region.
VII. War, as a means of wealth creation, is now bankrupt. War, as a means of conflict resolution, is over. As a means to any end whatsoever, war is finished. You get the picture, don’t you? War has outlived its usefulness, and has become as obsolete as the derivatives hawker. There is simply no more place for it in civil society. It’s time for the curtain to fall on this show for the last time, and for all of its bad actors to hit the stage exit.
It never was a legitimate policy for conflict resolution, as we know. Virtually all conflicts and wars were manufactured in the boardrooms of the world. And impeccably stage managed by the directors of the war studios. Isn’t the Iraq war a perfect example of this kind of terrible and awful-to-watch “B” movie?
Any deliberate, probing and unprejudiced analysis of all the major wars going back to the French Revolution will reveal an extraordinary degree of carefully calculated and coordinated events leading up to the actual conflagrations we call war. Just read the actual history that is only now beginning to surface, and you will reach this very same conclusion.
War has consistently served its masters in three ways which no longer have relevance in an enlightened civilization: (i) population control (ii) artificial creation of wealth for the plutocracy (iii) imposition of a tyrannical order in the wake of the chaos that always results from war. Population control in this context has different meanings. The number of people who are systematically genocided, wantonly annihilated and deliberately infected with disease agents serve the purpose of population reduction. Then there is the sheer terror of war and its effects on whole populations (see how easily controlled both the Germans and Japanese were after WWII). “Order out of chaos” is made easy when all concerned parties have been faced with the extraordinary distraction, mayhem and pandemonium that war always brings.
There are, of course, many other declared wars whose battlegrounds are far from the traditional battlefields of armed conflict. The WAR on Drugs. The WAR on Poverty. The WAR on Crime. The WAR on AIDS. Just like the WAR on TERROR, all of these so-called wars are entirely bogus and fabricated, as they all have consistently produced outcomes that are completely contrary to their stated purposes. How so? Because each of them has been designed, and engineered, to perpetuate and expand the status quo. The War on Drugs, for instance, was designed in part to ensure that the opium (and all of its profitable derivatives) flows freely and efficiently from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the targeted markets in America and elsewhere. In this way, all clandestine US and foreign intelligence agencies/secrets services are able to fund their innumerable black operations without any congressional oversight or public scrutiny from the massive revenues generated that this perfectly controlled black market provides. Oh, yes, did we forget to mention that most of these black ops are actually wars as well. What a Racket?! As Major General Smedley Butler once proclaimed to the world in his book: “WAR IS A RACKET.”
May the shadow governments of the warmongering and real “Axis of Evil” – the USA, the UK and Israel – truly imbibe the message contained in this ongoing proclamation: WAR is no longer an option. For each of these nations is facing an economic armegeddon of staggering and unprecedented proportions. When confronted with such an incapacitating monetary meltdown, the impulse and subsequent orchestrated plan, historically, has been to provoke wars through false flag attacks/operations. This knee-jerk, yet carefully calculated, reaction will no longer work. The consequential global financial apocalypse, this time around, will simply be too demanding and debilitating, especially for those who would attempt to plunge the planet into a WWIII scenario. Why? The global money matrix, that supports and keeps their war machine well-oiled, has been in a slow motion collapse for many years, and is now in an epoch crashing free-fall. It’s disintegrating before our eyes, and will soon be unable to fund not so much as a dustup in the neighborhood sandlot.
The 4th Reich has completely run its course. This last covert phase of the “Holy Roman Empire” is finally over. And it’s now imperative that the maestro, and his orchestra, in ‘Rome’ get over it. Let us once again proclaim, here and now, that: WAR HAS COME TO AN END.
VIII. There is a very profound and significant connection between the US Government sponsored and staged terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 and the PRE-PLANNED Financial & Economic 9/11 of 2008 that may be difficult for many to fully embrace. But here it goes:
The OMEN that 911 truly was, looks a little bit like THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
Remember the Twin Towers? When they came down in NYC, it was a message to humankind that the reign of the Almighty Dollar was coming to an end. As a nation’s currency goes, so goes its destiny. Her financial strength and economic prowess were on the wane, and soon to be greatly diminished. Just as the WTC (financial capital of the world) was pulverized into dust, the US Dollar would be swept into the ash heap of history. Just as we see it collapsing all around us, exactly 7 years after the original 911 apocalyptic events.
When the Ring of Power was finally destroyed, like the Pentagon (ring-shaped command center of the military-industrial complex) was mortally wounded and damaged, the message was equally clear. Her military might and superior force would be reduced to rubble in the twinkling of an eye. She would, likewise, soon see the demise of Her all-pervasive state sponsored terrorism. This, because She had lost all moral ascendancy. Besides, the empire could no longer be sustained politically, financially, practically or ethically, as the seeds of its own destruction had fully sprouted. The most fatal seed grew into that extremely corrupt and predatory form of corporate, crony capitalism which was so socially unconscious, and so environmentally unaware, it was quite doomed from the very beginning.
The GOOD NEWS is that the nation – its people – will now be compelled to beat their “swords into plowshares” and their “spears into pruning hooks”.
Just as the Phoenix rose from its ashes, so too will America ascend to even greater heights. As long as She ascends with the guidance of the highest of ideals, loftiest of principles and noblest of intentions. And She reforms, and transforms Herself, in good faith, in earnest and with haste.
As a modern day prophet said in the days immediately following September 11, 2001:
“America, Wake up ! ! ! Seize this God-given opportunity. There is no more time to dally in fear and ignorance and greed. For yours is a destiny that must serve as a beacon of Light and Hope and Peace to the world. Make haste, the time is drawing nigh!”
T. Anthony Michael
11/22/08
Publication, posting and printing of this article is expressly authorized.
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/new-world-order-global-money-matrix-self-destructs
Special Message to the Market Oracles and Money Masters of the Universe
Our “PRE-PLANNED FIN/ECO 911 of ’08” scenario in no way ignores the true state of the national economy, international finance or global economic picture. In fact we are, and have been, fully cognizant of the fact that the true state of every market – real estate, equity, bond, commodities, currency, derivative, etc. has been in shambles for many years, just waiting for the Perfect Storm to come around and blow it all away.
It has been obvious to many of us that each of these markets have operated according to the whim of a very few individuals with extremely concentrated power to manipulate. Therefore, all markets can be artificially inflated, as we have seen time and time again. Likewise, they can be artificially deflated, sometimes rather quickly for effect, as we have seen. “The Invisible Hand” of the market is just that – a very carefully hidden(1) hand that makes a complete and total mockery of every economic and financial theory ever advanced. Time for a lot of us to accept this fact of modern economic life.
Perhaps we should now take off our blinders and admit that while, yes, all of the indicators are, and have been, there for a catastrophic economic meltdown & financial cataclysm, these events are still completely controllable. All of us have seen bubble after bubble grow and balloon, and merge and overlap, and inextricably interpenetrate each other, until all we have is one massive bubble ready to pop. But, when will it pop?! It will pop when the confidence level is sufficiently undermined by the very same MEDIA that controls the flow of the relevant information. And who, pray tell, controls the media, if not The Invisible Hand? Clearly, the real Market Oracles are not a part of that MSM juggernaut. Therefore, it is incumbent upon each oracle to get it right, since they are the very best sources of pertinent financial and economic data/information available.
The inevitability of self destructive capitalism does not preclude the process of controlled destruction. As the system eats itself, there are those who are eaten, and those who eat. We are witnessing this devolution in living color, as we both write and read these words. The “strong” at the top of the pyramid have always done the eating, as the “weak” at the bottom provide the bone for the stew. The only major difference at this particular, and final, feast is that the internet has allowed for an unprecedented explosion of true and accurate information in real time. Therefore, the playing field has been leveled like never before. The little guy or gal, for the first time ever, has the opportunity to take back a little, or a lot, of his/her power (WEALTH), should he/she so choose.
Even as the Wall Street gangs team up with the opportunistic political class, as well as the numerous corporate/legal jackals and lobby parasites, to effectuate the most massive redistribution of wealth (aka in your face THEFT) in recorded history, something has profoundly and fundamentally changed. There is a dynamic at work which can alter the game just enough to potentially turn the pyramid upside down. This, however, requires a no nonsense, “look in the mirror with raw honesty” approach. Then we (the oracles) will not deign to render a judgment that is not fully baked. And the recommendations we make are more likely to be issued in the best interest of ALL, especially for those who are in a position of class disadvantage, financial ignorance or structured powerlessness.
So, we have made it clear that all the forces have been put into place for the upcoming monetary apocalypse. But even these forces are controlled, each and every one of them, all the way up to the top. It’s probably a very good time to contemplate just who it is that resides at the peak of the global financial decision-making process. And, their agenda?!?
I. As we all sat back and waited for last year’s October Surprise, please know that it came a little bit early this year on September 15th which will forever be known as PITCH BLACK MONDAY. Actually, the entire month of October was set up to be a series of Black Monday’s, as well as every other day of the week shaped up to be. It’s really a good time to brace your self since this year’s election cycle, and beyond, will bring with it a whole new season of surprises. Things like the beginning of the end of FIAT money – the real root cause of all our financial problems and economic ills. This foundational flaw, together with all of the multi-layered financial/economic/accounting mechanisms and schemes that have insidiously crept into the system, are the ‘not talked about’ institutionalized culprits and structural deformities that really need to go. Without them, the perps wouldn’t be so tempted to stack the deck against us all the time.
The only legitimate currency is that which is backed by GOLD, or some other precious commodity that is universally valued, and issued directly by the US Government, not a privately owned, organized crime syndicate like the FED. Debt driven, fractional-reserve banking – the real bane of global finance – will then be banished from the planet forever, along with the overlords of disaster capitalism, institutionalized usury & loan-sharking (e.g. World Bank & International Monetary Fund), as well as their economic hitmen. Finally, the central organizing principle of modern society, and especially Western Civilization, will no longer be: maximizing shareholders’ wealth.
The writing is on the wall: THE FED IS DEAD. And so is the Fed’s collection agency – the IRS. The FED has obviously been on extreme life support since September ’08, and the only compassionate response is to let it go peacefully into the sunset. Perhaps we should organize a simple taxpayers’ revolt, not too unlike those that occurred prior to the American Revolution, to bury this beast forever. When the people do wake up, and realize that the Federal Reserve Note that they carry in their pocket is exactly that – a note (i.e. debt, obligation, debit, commitment, instrument of indebtedness), things will start to get REEEEAL interesting !
II. Another little surprise will come in the form of an announcement that goes something like this: The USA was conceived to be a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, not a democracy by plutocracy. Or corpocacy, or oligarchy/synarchy, or crony capitalism or any other ism/cracy/archy they have tried to foist upon US. The founding fathers would be absolutely horrified to see the “mob rule by the privileged elites” into which this once great nation has degenerated. Every political philosopher knows that democracy, when sufficiently dumbed down and unduly influenced by the moneyed ruling class, will always devolve into a despotic tyranny. Therefore, the wholesale exportation of our fraudulent notion of democracy, and its supposed freedoms (to buy, buy, buy after watching the boob tube hucksters), by the political and corporate classes must be reconsidered. And it will be soon, on a new channel during this “Fall” season’s new lineup! Stay tuned ---
The recent presidential election, incidentally, is perhaps the most flagrant example of how the US constitutional republic has been suspended (at the very least, once every 4 years, right?). Just as much as the voting populace has been suspended in the state of perpetual ignorance is bliss for generations. Can you imagine – the winner having raised close to $700 MILLION in campaign contributions – just how many debts the president-select* has incurred?! How, pray tell, do you think these debts will be paid back in light of the trillions that are already owed across the world by the US Treasury, US corporations, US citizens, etc. They won’t be paid, because they can’t be paid. The US Corporation is, and has been, bankrupt for quite some time now. It’s stone cold broke and plum busted. And We The People should be thoroughly disgusted. Therefore, this fraudulent corporate entity – US Inc. – can now be trotted off the global stage, so that the REAL Constitutional Republic can be resurrected to its proper place in the nation’s governmental and political life.
*Demoplican or Republocrat – either way, they are still two sides of the exact same coin. The coin of the realm that excludes We The People.
III. Another announcement will be made, in the not too distant future, about the business entity commonly known as the CORPORATION – the main huckster of this ‘brand’ of faux democracy. Surely, if the devil were to ever choose the perfect form in which to enter in order to carry out his nefarious designs, Inc. is it. Is there any other entity on earth – person or party, organization or association, government or institution, jurisdiction or bureaucracy, club or group, fraternity or sorority, etc. that can function with such impunity, as it hides behind the shield of LIMITED LIABILITY. Those two words have given complete cover for the flagrant and wanton destruction of planet Earth.
You name it – oil slicked coastlines, razed rainforests, beaches strewn with dead dolphins and whales. Not to mention the complete erosion of human, civil and national rights, wherever INC decides to set up shop.
Let’s pick a country. Let’s go to India and visit Bhopal of Union Carbide fame. Close to 8000 people died within two weeks of that December day in 1984 in what is known as the worst industrial disaster of the last century. Now that Dow Chemical owns Union Carbide, you can only imagine the veritable phalanx of attorneys who are paid unconscionable fees to ensure proper responsibility and accountability will never be assumed by their master.
Or let’s visit the Punjab and talk to the thousands of widows of farmers who committed suicide because of Monsanto’s “seedless seeds”. Or go to just about anywhere on that subcontinent where a Walmart is being protested for land theft, encroachment and despoilation. Let’s not forget about all the Coca Cola bottling plants that have become notorious for stealing the most precious commodity that every Indian cherishes and covets – WATER. Well, that takes care of land, water, air … and blood. What else in heaven’s name do these stakeholders want?!
We all know the deal. It’s the one where the individual, and his/her environment, is always trampled in favor of the corporate interest. Isn’t it time to really take stock of what our current predicament has left us with? Perhaps it’s also time to seriously think about actually re-ordering the ORDER, instead of once again rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. Like we’ve said, “optimizing stockholder profit” will soon be history, as the cease and desist orders are not far from being issued to Corporate America. Might as well get a head start on dissolving (or re-chartering) that corporation.
IV. Termination of Globalization: The dominating and predatory form, that is. No other global initiative has been more unsuccessful at creating a framework for a more efficient transfer of goods and services around the planet. Truly, every aspect of this corporate inspired policy has failed miserably. Wherever it promoters trumpet its stated intention to make markets more streamlined, effective and resilient, it has done quite the opposite.
One only needs to look at the current debacle within the European Union concerning the banking, credit, and stock market breakdowns. Never has a response from the appropriate governing bodies been more disorganized, full of mixed messages and working at cross purposes with the member states. It was like watching The Three Stooges (France, Germany & Italy) play musical chairs blindfolded with no clothes on. What an unprecedented spectacle, and in plain view for the entire world to watch! This will undoubtedly put the brakes on the concretizing of a North American Union and their planned currency – the Amero. Praise the Lord!
As a matter of fact, all of the financial unions and economic superstates (e.g. European Union; Southeast Asian Association for Regional Cooperation; Union of South American Nations) that have been created over the past many years will, by sheer necessity and desperation, be forced to re–organize themselves in the coming months and years. Even South America, which has two distinct camps that are constantly gummin’ up the works for each other, will abandon their current emerging model in favor of one that enjoys complete freedom from its North American taskmaster. To their credit, they have set the bar higher than it has ever been set concerning their strongly stated desire to be free of IMF and World Bank control. Only Russia has exceeded their standards, as they had already been fleeced by the Oligarchs in what may very well be the grandest larceny of national wealth/resources in history. This, of course, was preceded by a 75 year scourge of incessant rape, pillaging and plundering by the Bolsheviks and their Western financiers & handlers. Clearly Mr. Putin will not allow a repeat of any such conduct within his borders, and the international persecution that he has suffered certainly reflects their displeasure and frustration with him. No wonder Vladimir Putin is now considered a “reincarnation” of Peter the Great by his own people.
The ruinous influence of these two globalization thugs (IMF & WB) can be instantly assessed by looking at the economic calamities they caused in Argentina (1999-2002), as well as in Thailand, South Korea & Indonesia during the 1997 Asian currency crisis. Likewise, every nation in Africa that has chosen to take on their monetary yoke has only misery and war and financial oppression to show for it. Wherever these 2 scrooges show their faces, it’s quite like Ebenezer himself showing up to make a house call. You know the patient will soon find himself in a pine box after all the gold fillings and rings have been removed.
We have seen this globalization scam unfold in country after country, as a ruse to steal a nation’s resources, always taking from those who have, and giving to those who want it. In fact, an objective assessment of all the world’s current conflicts would reveal that the vast majority are directly the result of this geo-political/commercial dynamic. The privatization of water sources/bodies/supplies/rights is perhaps the most provocative and glaring, and can be found at the root of a number of these resource wars.
Clearly the verdict has been delivered: Economies are much less vulnerable, the more locally they are positioned and the less centralized their decision-making process. This arrangement affords much greater resiliency when dealing with the vicissitudes of the marketplace. And it takes the power away from those who are insulated in ivory towers, and far from the plight of the common man. It is time for everyone on the planet to “think globally; act locally”.
V. Stock market will become extinct. There is no greater tool at the disposal of those who can, and do, manipulate the various markets than the charade of “setting up” a formal system of trading, buying and selling of anything, as exemplified by the NYSE. This is where it all happens. From devastating whole national (and regional) economies, to toppling uncooperative corporate execs, to bringing 150 year old multi-billion $$ companies to their knees within a week’s time. From triggering stockholder revolts, to propping up corporate raiders, to extorting billions from national and/or corporate treasuries. They can, and do, do it all right there on the floor.
Really, the very best example of what occurs in these speculative market exchanges is the gambling casino. In Vegas, everyone knows that the house ALWAYS wins. It never loses. Even when there is the appearance of losing, it still wins. Go figure, but it’s true. Your stockbroker is not too unlike the blackjack dealer. And your financial planner is often a croupier in disguise. So, the question remains, do you honestly know what your hard earned retirement money is invested in? If not, this is a very good time to find out!!!
For those of us who have been there, we know that whether you call it an oil bourse, a commodity exchange, or a bond market, you’re still playing in a game that can go against you at any time. Wipe out your earnings in a heartbeat; devour your principal in a flash. It’s often been said that when he comes, “he comes like a thief in the night”. Do you still feel you know where your entire life savings is currently residing?
The derivatives market represents the single greatest threat to worldwide economic stability and financial security. It poses such great potential for financial abuse and economic devastation that the current institutional arrangements of this commercial realm have become completely unacceptable. The alarming proliferation of hedge funds, as well as the growing number and variety of derivative instruments, has reached a critical mass that is incompatible with living a financially sound life on planet Earth. Simply put, some of these instruments are so far from the street – economic reality – that they put into jeopardy all the hard work, which appears in the form of real goods and services, that is produced by any economy at any given time. This predicament signifies a CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER to us all.
Remember – DERIVATIVES are the real megilla. Derivatives, by their very nature, can be highly radioactive, and can go nuclear any time circumstances conspire in just the right, or wrong, way. Those who control their destiny can, likewise, utilize their inherent threat as a means of conducting financial and economic terrorism anytime, anywhere completely under the radar screen. It’s time for them to go. And we trust it’s just a matter of execution at this point.
VI. Mass Consumerism & Perpetual Economic Growth – the Fric & Frac of our Age – are history. One need not look any further than the inside of one’s own home to see the ravages of these adopted twins. They own the bedroom, the living room, the family room and all the closets. They’ve taken over the kitchen, the den and the garage, as well. Since their middle names are Amass and Accumulate, we can only imagine what might lay hidden in the attic, the basement and the shed.
Ever since they became the twin pillars of Kali Yuga’s overarching philosophy of life, things started to really go to hell in a handbasket … or rather gilded cage. How so? What else could one expect from a political economy that demands growth, necessitates growth and extols the virtues of growth at every turn (and on every other commercial and newscast). Growth, at the expense of WHAT!! We’ll tell you what – Life!
One of the most tragic parts of this ever-unfolding tragedy has been the dramatic change in the spirit of the people with whom these twins associate. The very society loses its refinement, as the culture becomes debased. Aren’t so many things associated with Americana experienced as coarse, and crude, and crass? Likewise, the nation, which was once known as the “land of the free; home of the brave”, morphs into a country reviled for its unkindness, lack of compassion and cruelty. Before anyone realizes, the citizenry is easily being herded, and then stampeded, into wars and conflict of every sort and kind.
What else could be expected when the meme of consumerism is subliminally implanted at such a young and tender age, and relentlessly reinforced from cradle to grave? And, what does it really say about a society when all who belong to it are known as consumers. Kind of like little pac-men (and pac-women) gobbling up everything in sight. Starts out with BIG Macs and 24 oz cokes, then super-sized HUMMERS, then oil fields and gold mines and precious rainforests, and then whole countries.
Likewise, in the corporate realm, any board director, company officer, division president, regional director, department manager, production supervisor, etc. will candidly speak to the greatest pressure in their lives. More income, more sales, more profit, more production, more revenue – anything that will show an increase in year over year growth. Always gotta GROW, even though yuv been out of puberty for 20 or 30 years!?
Well, you can imagine that this state of affairs can only go on for so long. As a matter of fact, this party’s now over. And the hangover is about to begin. Perhaps it’s time to send these twins on a permanent vacation to the waterless region.
VII. War, as a means of wealth creation, is now bankrupt. War, as a means of conflict resolution, is over. As a means to any end whatsoever, war is finished. You get the picture, don’t you? War has outlived its usefulness, and has become as obsolete as the derivatives hawker. There is simply no more place for it in civil society. It’s time for the curtain to fall on this show for the last time, and for all of its bad actors to hit the stage exit.
It never was a legitimate policy for conflict resolution, as we know. Virtually all conflicts and wars were manufactured in the boardrooms of the world. And impeccably stage managed by the directors of the war studios. Isn’t the Iraq war a perfect example of this kind of terrible and awful-to-watch “B” movie?
Any deliberate, probing and unprejudiced analysis of all the major wars going back to the French Revolution will reveal an extraordinary degree of carefully calculated and coordinated events leading up to the actual conflagrations we call war. Just read the actual history that is only now beginning to surface, and you will reach this very same conclusion.
War has consistently served its masters in three ways which no longer have relevance in an enlightened civilization: (i) population control (ii) artificial creation of wealth for the plutocracy (iii) imposition of a tyrannical order in the wake of the chaos that always results from war. Population control in this context has different meanings. The number of people who are systematically genocided, wantonly annihilated and deliberately infected with disease agents serve the purpose of population reduction. Then there is the sheer terror of war and its effects on whole populations (see how easily controlled both the Germans and Japanese were after WWII). “Order out of chaos” is made easy when all concerned parties have been faced with the extraordinary distraction, mayhem and pandemonium that war always brings.
There are, of course, many other declared wars whose battlegrounds are far from the traditional battlefields of armed conflict. The WAR on Drugs. The WAR on Poverty. The WAR on Crime. The WAR on AIDS. Just like the WAR on TERROR, all of these so-called wars are entirely bogus and fabricated, as they all have consistently produced outcomes that are completely contrary to their stated purposes. How so? Because each of them has been designed, and engineered, to perpetuate and expand the status quo. The War on Drugs, for instance, was designed in part to ensure that the opium (and all of its profitable derivatives) flows freely and efficiently from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the targeted markets in America and elsewhere. In this way, all clandestine US and foreign intelligence agencies/secrets services are able to fund their innumerable black operations without any congressional oversight or public scrutiny from the massive revenues generated that this perfectly controlled black market provides. Oh, yes, did we forget to mention that most of these black ops are actually wars as well. What a Racket?! As Major General Smedley Butler once proclaimed to the world in his book: “WAR IS A RACKET.”
May the shadow governments of the warmongering and real “Axis of Evil” – the USA, the UK and Israel – truly imbibe the message contained in this ongoing proclamation: WAR is no longer an option. For each of these nations is facing an economic armegeddon of staggering and unprecedented proportions. When confronted with such an incapacitating monetary meltdown, the impulse and subsequent orchestrated plan, historically, has been to provoke wars through false flag attacks/operations. This knee-jerk, yet carefully calculated, reaction will no longer work. The consequential global financial apocalypse, this time around, will simply be too demanding and debilitating, especially for those who would attempt to plunge the planet into a WWIII scenario. Why? The global money matrix, that supports and keeps their war machine well-oiled, has been in a slow motion collapse for many years, and is now in an epoch crashing free-fall. It’s disintegrating before our eyes, and will soon be unable to fund not so much as a dustup in the neighborhood sandlot.
The 4th Reich has completely run its course. This last covert phase of the “Holy Roman Empire” is finally over. And it’s now imperative that the maestro, and his orchestra, in ‘Rome’ get over it. Let us once again proclaim, here and now, that: WAR HAS COME TO AN END.
VIII. There is a very profound and significant connection between the US Government sponsored and staged terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 and the PRE-PLANNED Financial & Economic 9/11 of 2008 that may be difficult for many to fully embrace. But here it goes:
The OMEN that 911 truly was, looks a little bit like THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
Remember the Twin Towers? When they came down in NYC, it was a message to humankind that the reign of the Almighty Dollar was coming to an end. As a nation’s currency goes, so goes its destiny. Her financial strength and economic prowess were on the wane, and soon to be greatly diminished. Just as the WTC (financial capital of the world) was pulverized into dust, the US Dollar would be swept into the ash heap of history. Just as we see it collapsing all around us, exactly 7 years after the original 911 apocalyptic events.
When the Ring of Power was finally destroyed, like the Pentagon (ring-shaped command center of the military-industrial complex) was mortally wounded and damaged, the message was equally clear. Her military might and superior force would be reduced to rubble in the twinkling of an eye. She would, likewise, soon see the demise of Her all-pervasive state sponsored terrorism. This, because She had lost all moral ascendancy. Besides, the empire could no longer be sustained politically, financially, practically or ethically, as the seeds of its own destruction had fully sprouted. The most fatal seed grew into that extremely corrupt and predatory form of corporate, crony capitalism which was so socially unconscious, and so environmentally unaware, it was quite doomed from the very beginning.
The GOOD NEWS is that the nation – its people – will now be compelled to beat their “swords into plowshares” and their “spears into pruning hooks”.
Just as the Phoenix rose from its ashes, so too will America ascend to even greater heights. As long as She ascends with the guidance of the highest of ideals, loftiest of principles and noblest of intentions. And She reforms, and transforms Herself, in good faith, in earnest and with haste.
As a modern day prophet said in the days immediately following September 11, 2001:
“America, Wake up ! ! ! Seize this God-given opportunity. There is no more time to dally in fear and ignorance and greed. For yours is a destiny that must serve as a beacon of Light and Hope and Peace to the world. Make haste, the time is drawing nigh!”
T. Anthony Michael
11/22/08
Publication, posting and printing of this article is expressly authorized.
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/new-world-order-global-money-matrix-self-destructs
Special Message to the Market Oracles and Money Masters of the Universe
Our “PRE-PLANNED FIN/ECO 911 of ’08” scenario in no way ignores the true state of the national economy, international finance or global economic picture. In fact we are, and have been, fully cognizant of the fact that the true state of every market – real estate, equity, bond, commodities, currency, derivative, etc. has been in shambles for many years, just waiting for the Perfect Storm to come around and blow it all away.
It has been obvious to many of us that each of these markets have operated according to the whim of a very few individuals with extremely concentrated power to manipulate. Therefore, all markets can be artificially inflated, as we have seen time and time again. Likewise, they can be artificially deflated, sometimes rather quickly for effect, as we have seen. “The Invisible Hand” of the market is just that – a very carefully hidden(1) hand that makes a complete and total mockery of every economic and financial theory ever advanced. Time for a lot of us to accept this fact of modern economic life.
Perhaps we should now take off our blinders and admit that while, yes, all of the indicators are, and have been, there for a catastrophic economic meltdown & financial cataclysm, these events are still completely controllable. All of us have seen bubble after bubble grow and balloon, and merge and overlap, and inextricably interpenetrate each other, until all we have is one massive bubble ready to pop. But, when will it pop?! It will pop when the confidence level is sufficiently undermined by the very same MEDIA that controls the flow of the relevant information. And who, pray tell, controls the media, if not The Invisible Hand? Clearly, the real Market Oracles are not a part of that MSM juggernaut. Therefore, it is incumbent upon each oracle to get it right, since they are the very best sources of pertinent financial and economic data/information available.
The inevitability of self destructive capitalism does not preclude the process of controlled destruction. As the system eats itself, there are those who are eaten, and those who eat. We are witnessing this devolution in living color, as we both write and read these words. The “strong” at the top of the pyramid have always done the eating, as the “weak” at the bottom provide the bone for the stew. The only major difference at this particular, and final, feast is that the internet has allowed for an unprecedented explosion of true and accurate information in real time. Therefore, the playing field has been leveled like never before. The little guy or gal, for the first time ever, has the opportunity to take back a little, or a lot, of his/her power (WEALTH), should he/she so choose.
Even as the Wall Street gangs team up with the opportunistic political class, as well as the numerous corporate/legal jackals and lobby parasites, to effectuate the most massive redistribution of wealth (aka in your face THEFT) in recorded history, something has profoundly and fundamentally changed. There is a dynamic at work which can alter the game just enough to potentially turn the pyramid upside down. This, however, requires a no nonsense, “look in the mirror with raw honesty” approach. Then we (the oracles) will not deign to render a judgment that is not fully baked. And the recommendations we make are more likely to be issued in the best interest of ALL, especially for those who are in a position of class disadvantage, financial ignorance or structured powerlessness.
So, we have made it clear that all the forces have been put into place for the upcoming monetary apocalypse. But even these forces are controlled, each and every one of them, all the way up to the top. It’s probably a very good time to contemplate just who it is that resides at the peak of the global financial decision-making process. And, their agenda?!?
Friday, January 23, 2009
Vat's going on here?? part 2
In my previous post I highlighted the cabinet members part of the Obama administration that happen to be Jewish. Yesterday, I've received an article (posted below)describing them and others also appointed to serve under Obama who happen to be members of the CFR, Trilateral Commission or Bilderberg groups.
Now its easy to see why some claim there is an international Jewish conspiracy or an international elite conspiracy run by Jews if info such as this is taken at face value. And yes, even by me laying out the facts on such a sensitive topic, only forcing people to draw their own conclusions, I will be a bright red target for all sort of anti-Semitic rants.
But here it is folks!
Draw your own conclusions!
...but with care, and make sure you do proper research first because its not quite what it seems. The only conclusion I choose to draw from this now is that the same people are running the show as did under Bush and under Clinton and under Bush Sr. and under Reagan and... I can keep on going.
All we have now is a new face of hope, a face that has garnered an 81% approval rating for the new government. I believe this is the highest ever? Either way, faith has been restored, a clean slate has been provided, a mandate has been granted.
Show us the way oh wise one!
Demonstrate the change you preach about!
How you can bring about radical change with a posse such as yours will remain to be seen. But maybe they have been preparing for change all along. ...and you are their chosen one to lead them through it.
Either way, some interesting times ahead.
Obama's Cabinet Full Of CFR, Trilateral Commission And Bilderberg Members
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 by Shattered Paradigm ·
Just like President George W. Bush's cabinet, Barack Obama's cabinet is going to be brimming with politicians affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg group.
AmericanFreePress is reporting on the extraordinary ties that members of his new cabinet have to these elitist globalist organizations that have dominated American politics for generations now.
The reality is that no President in the past 30 years has picked a cabinet that was not completely dominated by members of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg group.
Of Barack Obama's 14 top cabinet selections, 9 of them are affiliated with the Bilderberg group, 10 of them are affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations and 5 of them are affiliated with the Trilateral Commission according to AmericanFreePress.
But the reality is that the majority of the American people do not even know that these globalist organizations exist, or that they work to actively promote the interests of the international bankers who own the privately controlled Federal Reserve.
The American people voted for change, but the incoming government is going to be from the same organizations that the Bush government was from, and the policies that the Obama administration will be implementing will look very much like the policies that were implemented under Bush.
If the American people wanted change then they will be extremely disappointed by the next 4 years.
When will the American people finally wake up?
FOR TWO YEARS, Americans have heard an unrelenting mantra of change emanating from the campaign trail. But now that President-elect Barack Obama has begun forming his cabinet, we're seeing a cadre of more deeply entrenched insiders than any administration that has preceded it.
In regard to key foreign policy advisors, all three of Obama's selections either initially supported the Iraq war, or still do. On the economic front, each appointee maintains a close relationship with the Jewish triad of Ben Bernanke, Robert Rubin and Alan Greenspan—as well as bailout engineer Henry Paulson. Barack Obama himself is a Council on Foreign Relations member, has strong ties to Zbigniew Brzezinski, and participated in a clandestine meeting with Hillary Clinton at Bilderberg member Diane Feinstein's house at the time when 2008 Bilderberg members were congregating only a few miles away.
Below is an overview of Obama's top 14 selections to date. When considering their collective histories, a trend becomes clear, proving that the more things change under Obama, the more they stay the same
1. TIMOTHY GEITHNER – TREASURY SECRETARY
Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, president and CEO of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, director of policy development for IMF, member Group of Thirty (G30), employed at Kissinger & Associates, architect of the recent 2008 financial bailouts, mentored by Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin.
2. PAUL VOLCKER – ECONOMIC RECOVERY ADVISORY BOARD
Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, North American chairman of Trilateral Commission, Federal Reserve chairman during Carter and Reagan administrations, president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, G30 member, chairman Rothschild Wolfensohn Company, key figure in the collapse of the gold standard during the Nixon administration, longtime associate of the Rockefeller family.
3. RAHM EMANUEL – CHIEF OF STAFF
Member of Israeli Defense Force, staunch Zionist, congressman, Board of Directors for Freddie Mac, member of Bill Clinton's finance campaign committee, made $16.2 million during 2.5 years as an investment banker for Wasserstein Perella. His father was a member of the Israeli Irgun terrorist group.
4. LAWRENCE SUMMERS – NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL
Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, treasury secretary during Clinton administration, chief economist at World Bank, former president of Harvard University, Brookings Institute board member, huge proponent of globalization while working for the IMF, prot�g� of David Rockefeller, mentored by Robert Rubin.
5. DAVID AXELROD – SENIOR ADVISOR
Political consultant whose past clients include Sens. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Christopher Dodd; main Obama fixer in the William Ayers and Reverend Wright scandals.
6. HILLARY CLINTON – SECRETARY OF STATE
Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, clandestine CIA asset used to infiltrate the anti-war movement at Yale University and the Watergate hearings, senior partner at the Rose Law Firm, key figure in the Mena drug trafficking affair, architect of the Waco disaster, implicated in the murder/ cover-up of Vince Foster, and many other deaths.
7. JOSEPH BIDEN – VICE PRESIDENT
Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senator since 1972, member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, current chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, strong Zionist sympathizer who recently told Rabbi Mark S. Golub of Shalom TV, "I am a Zionist. You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist."
8. BILL RICHARDSON – COMMERCE SECRETARY
Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, former U.S. congressman, chairman of the Democratic National Convention in 2004, employee of Kissinger Associates, UN ambassador, governor of New Mexico, energy secretary, major player in the Monica Lewinsky cover-up with Bilderberg luminary Vernon Jordan.
9. ROBERT GATES – DEFENSE SECRETARY
Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, former CIA Director, defense secretary under President Bush, co-chaired CFR task force with Zbigniew Brzezinski, knee-deep in the Iran-Contra scandal, named in a 1999 class action lawsuit pertaining to the Mena drug trafficking affair.
10. TOM DASCHLE – HEALTH SECRETARY
Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, former Senate majority leader, Citibank lackey, mentored by Robert Rubin.
11. ERIC HOLDER – ATTORNEY GENERAL
Key person in the pardon of racketeer Marc Rich, deputy attorney general under Janet Reno, facilitated the pardon of 16 Puerto Rican FALN terrorists under Bill Clinton.
12. JANET NAPOLITANO – HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR
Council on Foreign Relations, Arizona governor, attorney for Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearings, U.S. attorney during the Clinton administration, instrumental in the OKC cover-up, where she declared, "We'll pursue every bit of evidence and every lead," described as another Janet Reno, soft on illegal immigration (i.e. pro-amnesty and drivers licenses to illegals).
13. GEN. JAMES L. JONES – NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
Bilderberg, Trilateral Commission, European supreme allied commander, special envoy for Middle-East Security during Bush administration, board of directors for Chevron and Boeing, NATO commander, member of Brent Scowcroft's Institute for International Affairs along with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Bobby Ray Inman, Bilderberg luminary Henry Kissinger and former CIA Director John Deutch.
14. SUSAN RICE – U.N. AMBASSADOR
Council on Foreign Relations, Rhodes scholar, campaign foreign policy advisor to presidential candidates John Kerry and Michael Dukakis, member of Bill Clinton's National Security Council and assistant secretary of state for Africa, member of the Brookings Institute (funded by the Ford Foundation and the Rockefellers), and member of the Aspen Strategy Group (teeming with Bilderberg insiders such as Richard Armitage, Brent Scowcroft, and Madeleine Albright).
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Vat's goink on here?
Obama's White House Staff :
So far we have:
Rahm Emanuel - Chief of Staff - Jewish
David Axelrod - Senior Advisor to the President - Jewish
Ronald Klain - Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States - Jewish
Larry Summers - Economic Advisor to the President - Jewish
Paul Volcker - Economic Advisor to the President, Former Head of Federal Reserve - Jewish
Tim Geithner - Treasury Secetary - Jewish
Peter Orszag - Head of Budget - Jewish
Hillary Clinton - long-time friend of Jewish interests
I wouldn't call it a conspiracy theory as many do, since there's no conspiracy involved... its blatantly obvious. But if someone tries to convince me that Jews aren't in control of policy, is either a complete moron or just thinks I am.
In this video, Biden actually states, "you dont have to be Jewish to be a zionist, I am a zionist."
http://www.escapetheillusion.com/blog/2009/01/the-truth-about-the-2009-gaza-massacre/
Any fears Israel had that Obama wouldn't support them, have now turned into a smug self-assurance. So anyone can point to his name and call him a muslim terrorist in disguise, but his actions say anything but... Hence my skepticism about all his sweet sounding rhetric.
Wherever guilt should be placed in the conflict is not the issue that concerns me now. Both side have done their fair share of evil as far as I'm concerned. But now we need to think of solutions and not the end-game.
Will we be seeing any change in middle east foreign policy? Will Obama be able to conduct a balanced approach to the root conflict in the region? Will we be able to address the main grievance of our muslim "enemies", namely our hypocrisy and bias towards Israel? I think not.
Long live war and terrorism!!
So far we have:
Rahm Emanuel - Chief of Staff - Jewish
David Axelrod - Senior Advisor to the President - Jewish
Ronald Klain - Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States - Jewish
Larry Summers - Economic Advisor to the President - Jewish
Paul Volcker - Economic Advisor to the President, Former Head of Federal Reserve - Jewish
Tim Geithner - Treasury Secetary - Jewish
Peter Orszag - Head of Budget - Jewish
Hillary Clinton - long-time friend of Jewish interests
I wouldn't call it a conspiracy theory as many do, since there's no conspiracy involved... its blatantly obvious. But if someone tries to convince me that Jews aren't in control of policy, is either a complete moron or just thinks I am.
In this video, Biden actually states, "you dont have to be Jewish to be a zionist, I am a zionist."
http://www.escapetheillusion.com/blog/2009/01/the-truth-about-the-2009-gaza-massacre/
Any fears Israel had that Obama wouldn't support them, have now turned into a smug self-assurance. So anyone can point to his name and call him a muslim terrorist in disguise, but his actions say anything but... Hence my skepticism about all his sweet sounding rhetric.
Wherever guilt should be placed in the conflict is not the issue that concerns me now. Both side have done their fair share of evil as far as I'm concerned. But now we need to think of solutions and not the end-game.
Will we be seeing any change in middle east foreign policy? Will Obama be able to conduct a balanced approach to the root conflict in the region? Will we be able to address the main grievance of our muslim "enemies", namely our hypocrisy and bias towards Israel? I think not.
Long live war and terrorism!!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Inauguration of the 44th president of the United States: Barack Obama
I feel insignificant, yet full of responsibility
Powerless, yet so full of purpose
Overwhelmed, yet granted understanding
I feel humbled
Humbled in the presence of great words
Words that empowered without focus,
Gave determination without direction,
Emboldened without substance
Mass confusion is now shattered with the immaculate clarity of hope,
and purpose, redefining our mystifying existence.
The lines have been drawn,
Our values are fixed,
Our vision cloudless,
Our hearts one
Now will someone tell me how I can find a damn job?
Powerless, yet so full of purpose
Overwhelmed, yet granted understanding
I feel humbled
Humbled in the presence of great words
Words that empowered without focus,
Gave determination without direction,
Emboldened without substance
Mass confusion is now shattered with the immaculate clarity of hope,
and purpose, redefining our mystifying existence.
The lines have been drawn,
Our values are fixed,
Our vision cloudless,
Our hearts one
Now will someone tell me how I can find a damn job?
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
some funny things happening in Illinois...
This is unbelievable. Maybe I am connecting the pieces wrong. Maybe the order of causation is not quite what it seems.
Monday night before I went to bed, the main sensationalist news headline was that Illinois Governer Rod Blagojevich suspends all state business with Bank of America. "Blagojevich contended that Bank Of America received a multi-billion dollar bailout from the government and should accordingly restore credit to the Republic Windows & Doors company in Chicago" - who recently laid of 350 Illinois workers without severance pay. Blagojevich contended that Bank of America is responsible for guaranteeing support to the bankrupt company so severance pay can be given to the laid-off employees. BofA refused, so the Governor decided to retaliate. The bank was set to lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and commission.
Details:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/08/illinois-governer-suspend_n_149272.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7772823.stm
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Ill._Governor_suspends_business_with_Bank_1208.html
In my mind the significance of this event is huge!! A whole state suspends business with the biggest bank in America. This is nothing less than a declaration of war on our financial elite! There were interviews of people saying he was a hero, a brave warrior who was willing to fight for the people.
The next morning, interested in how the situation was unfolding I was surprised to see there was not one mention of the event.
It was not on any cable news station. It was nowhere visible on any mainstream news website. I was baffled that such a significant event was not given more attention. Until this morning...
It seems now that Governor Blagojevich was taken into federal custody today for, among other things, trying to sell President-Elect Barack Obama's former Senate seat.
indictment here:
http://www.buckeyestateblog.com/illinois_governor_rod_blagojevich_indicted
details:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1321300,rod-blagojevich-illinois-governor-custody-120908.article
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/us/politics/12illinois.html?_r=1
Doing a bit more research I have found that there have been federal indictments in 2006 against Blogojevich' staff, drawing accusation of political corruption closer to him...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/us/politics/12illinois.html?_r=1
A few days ago Blagojevich also threatened to suspend money to the Chicago Tribune and fire its editorial staff. Essentially declaring war on the states main media outlet...
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1321365,Blagojevich-Chicago-Tribune-corruption-120908.article
The more I dig, the deeper the rabbit hole becomes. However valid the connections with the past corruption charges are, the fact that the indictments were just issued today, goes to show that if you declare war on the media and financial powers, you will be taken down. I would bet there won't be one mention in cable news anymore of the state's suspension in dealing with Bank of America, nor of the Blagojevich's dealing with the Chicago Times.
What would happen if some other Governor's got some bright ideas & decided to follow suit when even more companies go bankrupt in the coming financial storm?
Blagojevich will now be known as just another corrupt politician instead of the Robin Hood of Illinois...
Long live the banks!
Monday night before I went to bed, the main sensationalist news headline was that Illinois Governer Rod Blagojevich suspends all state business with Bank of America. "Blagojevich contended that Bank Of America received a multi-billion dollar bailout from the government and should accordingly restore credit to the Republic Windows & Doors company in Chicago" - who recently laid of 350 Illinois workers without severance pay. Blagojevich contended that Bank of America is responsible for guaranteeing support to the bankrupt company so severance pay can be given to the laid-off employees. BofA refused, so the Governor decided to retaliate. The bank was set to lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and commission.
Details:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/08/illinois-governer-suspend_n_149272.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7772823.stm
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Ill._Governor_suspends_business_with_Bank_1208.html
In my mind the significance of this event is huge!! A whole state suspends business with the biggest bank in America. This is nothing less than a declaration of war on our financial elite! There were interviews of people saying he was a hero, a brave warrior who was willing to fight for the people.
The next morning, interested in how the situation was unfolding I was surprised to see there was not one mention of the event.
It was not on any cable news station. It was nowhere visible on any mainstream news website. I was baffled that such a significant event was not given more attention. Until this morning...
It seems now that Governor Blagojevich was taken into federal custody today for, among other things, trying to sell President-Elect Barack Obama's former Senate seat.
indictment here:
http://www.buckeyestateblog.com/illinois_governor_rod_blagojevich_indicted
details:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1321300,rod-blagojevich-illinois-governor-custody-120908.article
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/us/politics/12illinois.html?_r=1
Doing a bit more research I have found that there have been federal indictments in 2006 against Blogojevich' staff, drawing accusation of political corruption closer to him...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/us/politics/12illinois.html?_r=1
A few days ago Blagojevich also threatened to suspend money to the Chicago Tribune and fire its editorial staff. Essentially declaring war on the states main media outlet...
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1321365,Blagojevich-Chicago-Tribune-corruption-120908.article
The more I dig, the deeper the rabbit hole becomes. However valid the connections with the past corruption charges are, the fact that the indictments were just issued today, goes to show that if you declare war on the media and financial powers, you will be taken down. I would bet there won't be one mention in cable news anymore of the state's suspension in dealing with Bank of America, nor of the Blagojevich's dealing with the Chicago Times.
What would happen if some other Governor's got some bright ideas & decided to follow suit when even more companies go bankrupt in the coming financial storm?
Blagojevich will now be known as just another corrupt politician instead of the Robin Hood of Illinois...
Long live the banks!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
My friend the space cadet has to vent his frustrations from time to time...
For quite some years now there has been plenty of public criticism on "excessive" space research funding. The European Union alone is throwing a projected 3.4 billion Euros at it from 2007-2013, while NASA is planning tlo spend $17.6 billion for 2009 alone! Is it seriously worth it in such dire times? Where is it all leading to? Why give so much money at something that hasn't provided anything in return for decades??
"As you may know, the space shuttle is nearing the end of its service life, which is set for 2010 and the politics of our times mean that the prospects for its successor Orion are not assured at all. The financial crisis has become a full blown recession and America's global monetary machine, which we now know is inherently flawed from the get-go, is in need of some serious maintenance. Not only the recession, but the relatively recent disasters such as Columbia, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina have added to a nation's doubts about the space program's priority in terms of funding. The myth of straightforward space exploration and space travel for everyone has been all but shattered by these tragedies.
Such is the nature of my job that just recently I completed a study on the mechanics of the shuttle's orbiter vehicle design. The scale of the technical challenge implicit in any shuttle mission is quite literally awe-inspiring. It's legitimate to question the motives of the space program, but it's wrong to overlook, let alone to denigrate the remarkable technology, enterprise and organization that underpin it. I believe that this aspect of the program alone is sufficient to justify its advancement. It surely marks one of the most brilliant achievements in science and engineering yet attained by our species.
People tend to forget that it is only through the trials and tribulations of technological pioneering and the discovering of new frontiers that we progress as a species. We have become a space faring civilization and have taken our first steps on worlds beyond our own. This is significant not only because it stands as a testament to our capabilities, but also for less ideological and more practical reasons. To put it bluntly: the amenities of your life as you know them today are linked directly and indirectly to the space program. The computer and its exponential advancement along with all of the countless benefits it provides, the internet, cell-phones, microwave, TV, navigation, and basically all of the electronic products you know and depend on today, all thanks to mans modern quest to explore space.
It seems that the products of our technological strife have ushered in an era of technological comfort and already we have become too complacent. Perhaps it is time that we lost our odd penchant for oversimplifying our greatest triumphs. There is nothing ordinary about the people who engineer and pilot machines like the shuttle. They are an elite, and they personify the immense contribution of their nation to human technology and civilization. A concept that has become all but diluted or even forgotten since President JFK first set the nation on its path towards progression in the early 60's.
The space shuttle is much more than a flying brickyard. Its launch and homecoming, although laden with danger, is anything but a reckless trust-to-luck. Engineering doesn't get more audacious than this and that is the beauty of human nature. We have come so far thanks to our intelligence and curiosity that sets us apart from the other life-forms on this planet. Can you imagine what our species and life on earth would be like if instead of exploring we had just stayed in Africa? The stars are beckoning, and the shuttle marks one more step on mankind's glorious road."
For quite some years now there has been plenty of public criticism on "excessive" space research funding. The European Union alone is throwing a projected 3.4 billion Euros at it from 2007-2013, while NASA is planning tlo spend $17.6 billion for 2009 alone! Is it seriously worth it in such dire times? Where is it all leading to? Why give so much money at something that hasn't provided anything in return for decades??
"As you may know, the space shuttle is nearing the end of its service life, which is set for 2010 and the politics of our times mean that the prospects for its successor Orion are not assured at all. The financial crisis has become a full blown recession and America's global monetary machine, which we now know is inherently flawed from the get-go, is in need of some serious maintenance. Not only the recession, but the relatively recent disasters such as Columbia, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina have added to a nation's doubts about the space program's priority in terms of funding. The myth of straightforward space exploration and space travel for everyone has been all but shattered by these tragedies.
Such is the nature of my job that just recently I completed a study on the mechanics of the shuttle's orbiter vehicle design. The scale of the technical challenge implicit in any shuttle mission is quite literally awe-inspiring. It's legitimate to question the motives of the space program, but it's wrong to overlook, let alone to denigrate the remarkable technology, enterprise and organization that underpin it. I believe that this aspect of the program alone is sufficient to justify its advancement. It surely marks one of the most brilliant achievements in science and engineering yet attained by our species.
People tend to forget that it is only through the trials and tribulations of technological pioneering and the discovering of new frontiers that we progress as a species. We have become a space faring civilization and have taken our first steps on worlds beyond our own. This is significant not only because it stands as a testament to our capabilities, but also for less ideological and more practical reasons. To put it bluntly: the amenities of your life as you know them today are linked directly and indirectly to the space program. The computer and its exponential advancement along with all of the countless benefits it provides, the internet, cell-phones, microwave, TV, navigation, and basically all of the electronic products you know and depend on today, all thanks to mans modern quest to explore space.
It seems that the products of our technological strife have ushered in an era of technological comfort and already we have become too complacent. Perhaps it is time that we lost our odd penchant for oversimplifying our greatest triumphs. There is nothing ordinary about the people who engineer and pilot machines like the shuttle. They are an elite, and they personify the immense contribution of their nation to human technology and civilization. A concept that has become all but diluted or even forgotten since President JFK first set the nation on its path towards progression in the early 60's.
The space shuttle is much more than a flying brickyard. Its launch and homecoming, although laden with danger, is anything but a reckless trust-to-luck. Engineering doesn't get more audacious than this and that is the beauty of human nature. We have come so far thanks to our intelligence and curiosity that sets us apart from the other life-forms on this planet. Can you imagine what our species and life on earth would be like if instead of exploring we had just stayed in Africa? The stars are beckoning, and the shuttle marks one more step on mankind's glorious road."
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The Rising Snowflake
Today is the first day of snowfall this year, and as I'm looking outside, the large snowflakes near my window are actually flying upwards. It seems to be defying all laws of gravity.
Just like the US dollar.
The U.S. economy is collapsing, a recession, no, a depression is imminent and the dollar is rising. Whats going on here??
We are in the midst of a readjustment. Err..., slight understatement... what we are seeing is nothing less than the birth of a new international monetary system . This has to be taken in steps, and while the average observer is left baffled by the fluctuation and contradictory trends of asset prices (equities, currencies, commodities etc..), for viewers behind the scenes the market volatility we are seeing is understandable and natural. But the snow has gotta fall somewhere.
It looks like our friend, The London Banker seems to have a good explanation for this current reversal of trends. A very interesting read.
In [very] short:
1) The Paulson plan required hedge funds raised margin requirements from 15% to 35% worldwide. That resulted in a huge contraction in global liquidity.
2) to meet those margin calls, the money flowed back to the US in form of treasuries, raising the demand and price for the dollar and causing a sharp sell-off in funds, resulting in the decline in commodities.
...but what happens when this is over? "Will anyone want to buy dollars when they don’t need them to repay dollar debt?"
The crash of the dollar and another rise of commodity prices is inevitable. Foreign demand for treasuries is falling and with our debt to foreigners over $10,000,000,000,000 (yes thats 12 zeros!!), paying back that money is much more expensive when the dollar is high. There will be a concerted effort on behalf of the US to again depreciate the value of the dollar so it can deflate its debt. Why give our creditors expensive dollars when we could give them cheap ones?
The system will be aflush with dollars, [hyper?]inflation will kick in, and a crash in the dollar will begin. The money has to go somewhere. Since the dollar is the international reserve currency, and in times of extreme volatility most investors just want a safe store of value. But where else can money be stored? Will it flow into Euros? WilI it will flow into commodities? How about other currencies?
Euro and other currencies: There is an unusual lack of commentary and specalation on the future price of the Euro. It seems everyone is afraid to guess which direction it may go. The eurozone feels its currency is still overvalued and is resisting capital inflows which would increase its value. This goes for other large economies around the world as well. Until an alternative systemic solution can be found, the money will have to flow somewhere. My prediction: until we hve a viable alternative, we will see a rise in the Euro and other currencies with a current account surplus relative to the dollar.
Gold: Hedge funds have been selling assets across the board and turning gold into dollars, or at least the paper gold of futures contracts into greenbacks. This caused the recent price decline, but there has been an over 120% rise in the retail demand for gold this quarter alone! Once hedge funds have no more liquidation to do, we can expect gold as a traditional store of value to remain an attractive target for capital. There is also speculation that there could be an official revaluing of gold (to over 10x its price today!!) in order to monetize our outstanding debt and reinflate asset values. Something similar to what happened in the 1930's. Whatever happens, it probably won't happen overnight. Stock up on gold jewelry, and expect prices to rise again rise to record levels as the USD weakens in 2009.
In summary, we can expect the dollar to sharply decline and gold to sharply rise as the financial crisis unfolds. Time-table? Always the most difficult to predict, but if the trends continue, then by early next year we will have already seen some trend reversals.
But what does the mid to long-term future hold? Can the dollar remain the international currency? What form will the new international monetary order take? Who will be the power-brokers? The money-holders? There are several interesting initiatives and ideas on this I'll take up in my next post....
Just like the US dollar.
The U.S. economy is collapsing, a recession, no, a depression is imminent and the dollar is rising. Whats going on here??
We are in the midst of a readjustment. Err..., slight understatement... what we are seeing is nothing less than the birth of a new international monetary system . This has to be taken in steps, and while the average observer is left baffled by the fluctuation and contradictory trends of asset prices (equities, currencies, commodities etc..), for viewers behind the scenes the market volatility we are seeing is understandable and natural. But the snow has gotta fall somewhere.
It looks like our friend, The London Banker seems to have a good explanation for this current reversal of trends. A very interesting read.
In [very] short:
1) The Paulson plan required hedge funds raised margin requirements from 15% to 35% worldwide. That resulted in a huge contraction in global liquidity.
2) to meet those margin calls, the money flowed back to the US in form of treasuries, raising the demand and price for the dollar and causing a sharp sell-off in funds, resulting in the decline in commodities.
...but what happens when this is over? "Will anyone want to buy dollars when they don’t need them to repay dollar debt?"
The crash of the dollar and another rise of commodity prices is inevitable. Foreign demand for treasuries is falling and with our debt to foreigners over $10,000,000,000,000 (yes thats 12 zeros!!), paying back that money is much more expensive when the dollar is high. There will be a concerted effort on behalf of the US to again depreciate the value of the dollar so it can deflate its debt. Why give our creditors expensive dollars when we could give them cheap ones?
The system will be aflush with dollars, [hyper?]inflation will kick in, and a crash in the dollar will begin. The money has to go somewhere. Since the dollar is the international reserve currency, and in times of extreme volatility most investors just want a safe store of value. But where else can money be stored? Will it flow into Euros? WilI it will flow into commodities? How about other currencies?
Euro and other currencies: There is an unusual lack of commentary and specalation on the future price of the Euro. It seems everyone is afraid to guess which direction it may go. The eurozone feels its currency is still overvalued and is resisting capital inflows which would increase its value. This goes for other large economies around the world as well. Until an alternative systemic solution can be found, the money will have to flow somewhere. My prediction: until we hve a viable alternative, we will see a rise in the Euro and other currencies with a current account surplus relative to the dollar.
Gold: Hedge funds have been selling assets across the board and turning gold into dollars, or at least the paper gold of futures contracts into greenbacks. This caused the recent price decline, but there has been an over 120% rise in the retail demand for gold this quarter alone! Once hedge funds have no more liquidation to do, we can expect gold as a traditional store of value to remain an attractive target for capital. There is also speculation that there could be an official revaluing of gold (to over 10x its price today!!) in order to monetize our outstanding debt and reinflate asset values. Something similar to what happened in the 1930's. Whatever happens, it probably won't happen overnight. Stock up on gold jewelry, and expect prices to rise again rise to record levels as the USD weakens in 2009.
In summary, we can expect the dollar to sharply decline and gold to sharply rise as the financial crisis unfolds. Time-table? Always the most difficult to predict, but if the trends continue, then by early next year we will have already seen some trend reversals.
But what does the mid to long-term future hold? Can the dollar remain the international currency? What form will the new international monetary order take? Who will be the power-brokers? The money-holders? There are several interesting initiatives and ideas on this I'll take up in my next post....
Monday, November 17, 2008
Ron Paul is a Nazi and Obama is a Commie!
When recently confronted on how I can support first and foremost Ron Paul for the presidential ticket and then Obama, since that is absolute political philosophy schizophrenia, I had to give it some thought...
Paul extreme right, and Obama extreme left? Maybe. Although that would mean Paul is a Nazi and Obama a Commi. Am I sorely confused in my political philosophy if I can see myself supporting both at times? Some might say so, but I don't see any contradiction. Where I stand on the pidgeon-holing spectrum is not the issue.
I look in terms of goals. My goal is to have a society that is more egalitarian. Where every person is given similar opportunities despite his financial background. Where meritocracy still stands. Where the difference between rich and poor is not increasing day by day. Where hard work is enough to guarantee a good life. Where dreams can be pursued. Very idealistic and I like it that way.
So far free market capitalism is the best system humans have devised for this end. But just like communism in its ideal form could not be practiced due to the corrupt nature of people, the fanciful free market we have today is anything but free. It is designed, engineered, regulated for the benefit of the rich. It is designed by then rich to ensure they will stay at the top. Just like the international monetary system was designed by America to guarantee its prolonged hegemony. This is human nature.
So when in theory free market capitalism should guarantee prosperity to the highest amount of people, we are instead seeing differences in living standards growing daily. Why? Because this invisible wealth transfer is built into the structure of our fiat monetary system. The systems of debt and interest ensure the rich their premier position, whether we are looking at this nationally or globally.This is a dictatorship masking itself as the freeiest and fairest system of self-governing.
Paul wants a return to monetary ideals. He would like a system that is based on physical wealth, a currency that is underpinned by something of real value. So free market capitalism can truly flourish for the benefit everyone. He sees the Federal Reserve, the international bankers, as the root of evil, the root of all that is unjust. The reason for the war in Iraq. Find the cheerleader, save the world.
Obama sees that as not being possible. At least not under the current power structure. Getting rid of the Fed, attacking the source of wealth for the world's decision-makers, going against the most powerful people in the world might not be the wisest strategy if he ever wants to change anything. If we can't change the system, lets regulated it to make it work for us. Let's redistribute wealth overtly to counterbalance the built-in skew.
Btw...
Far right: less government controlling you fiscally, but more government controlling you socially.
Far left: more government controlling you fiscally and less government controlling you socially.
...and simplified, yes Ron Paul is a libertarian, pretty far right, and Obama is a socialist, pretty far left, but at least they way I see it... their end-goals are a lot closer to each other than the their place on the spectrum. In terms of their goals, the spectrum has come full circle.
There is nothing antithetical about preferring first and foremost a radical change proposed by Ron, but if seen as unreachable, then a compromised but maybe workeable position espoused by Obama. They're a lot closer to eachother than many think. Lets not let the labels fool us. Besides, do we really know whether the left or the right is a better road to prosperity and egalitarianism? If we did, the world wouldn't be as divided as it is now. What we have, doesn't work, so lets try something else...
Paul extreme right, and Obama extreme left? Maybe. Although that would mean Paul is a Nazi and Obama a Commi. Am I sorely confused in my political philosophy if I can see myself supporting both at times? Some might say so, but I don't see any contradiction. Where I stand on the pidgeon-holing spectrum is not the issue.
I look in terms of goals. My goal is to have a society that is more egalitarian. Where every person is given similar opportunities despite his financial background. Where meritocracy still stands. Where the difference between rich and poor is not increasing day by day. Where hard work is enough to guarantee a good life. Where dreams can be pursued. Very idealistic and I like it that way.
So far free market capitalism is the best system humans have devised for this end. But just like communism in its ideal form could not be practiced due to the corrupt nature of people, the fanciful free market we have today is anything but free. It is designed, engineered, regulated for the benefit of the rich. It is designed by then rich to ensure they will stay at the top. Just like the international monetary system was designed by America to guarantee its prolonged hegemony. This is human nature.
So when in theory free market capitalism should guarantee prosperity to the highest amount of people, we are instead seeing differences in living standards growing daily. Why? Because this invisible wealth transfer is built into the structure of our fiat monetary system. The systems of debt and interest ensure the rich their premier position, whether we are looking at this nationally or globally.This is a dictatorship masking itself as the freeiest and fairest system of self-governing.
Paul wants a return to monetary ideals. He would like a system that is based on physical wealth, a currency that is underpinned by something of real value. So free market capitalism can truly flourish for the benefit everyone. He sees the Federal Reserve, the international bankers, as the root of evil, the root of all that is unjust. The reason for the war in Iraq. Find the cheerleader, save the world.
Obama sees that as not being possible. At least not under the current power structure. Getting rid of the Fed, attacking the source of wealth for the world's decision-makers, going against the most powerful people in the world might not be the wisest strategy if he ever wants to change anything. If we can't change the system, lets regulated it to make it work for us. Let's redistribute wealth overtly to counterbalance the built-in skew.
Btw...
Far right: less government controlling you fiscally, but more government controlling you socially.
Far left: more government controlling you fiscally and less government controlling you socially.
...and simplified, yes Ron Paul is a libertarian, pretty far right, and Obama is a socialist, pretty far left, but at least they way I see it... their end-goals are a lot closer to each other than the their place on the spectrum. In terms of their goals, the spectrum has come full circle.
There is nothing antithetical about preferring first and foremost a radical change proposed by Ron, but if seen as unreachable, then a compromised but maybe workeable position espoused by Obama. They're a lot closer to eachother than many think. Lets not let the labels fool us. Besides, do we really know whether the left or the right is a better road to prosperity and egalitarianism? If we did, the world wouldn't be as divided as it is now. What we have, doesn't work, so lets try something else...
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Gecopol update - Oct 15th, 2008
The Syndrum Files Gecopol update
Oct 15th, 2008
I haven't written in a while so today's rant is a bit long and a bit emotional...
It is also focused mainly on the US.
Question of the day: Are the financial bailouts the right way to go?
First the numbers: According to many economists, the recession will last 18 to 24 months, driving unemployment to 9 percent, and already depressed home prices will fall another 15 percent. Economist Nouriel Roubini believes the U.S. government will need to double its purchase of bank stakes and force lenders to eliminate dividends to save them from bankruptcy.Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said yesterday he plans to use $250 billion of taxpayer funds to purchase equity in thousands of financial firms to halt a credit freeze that threatened to drive companies into bankruptcy and eliminate jobs.
The U.S. unemployment rate stood at a five-year high of 6.1 percent last month. Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell 16 percent in July from a year earlier, the most since records began in 2001, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home- price index. Bank seizures may push home prices down further, scaring away buyers in coming months, after U.S. foreclosures rose at the fastest rate in almost three decades in the second quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
For those of you who have read my earlier posts, know that I have been against a bailout of the banking sector. Banks that knowingly put their institution at risk through predatory lending, over-leveraging, repackaging of risky assets as Grade A safe investments, must not be rewarded for their actions. Their greed induced monetary philosophy is what propelled our financial system to this point of collapse.
When the Tech bubble burst in 2001, the stock market needed another boost to keep its record levels of valuation. Too many bigwigs would be losing too much monopoly money if something was not done. It could not be allowed to crash. The Fed, led by Alan Greenspan, lowered interest rates to the point where people nearly felt stupid if they didn't get into debt. Mortgages were force fed, propelling further loans and an ever increasing level of liabilities. The bubble formed again, a much larger bubble, but this time in the housing market. The forced infusion of cash so we can consume more and more without consequence has now found its day of reckoning.
And what do we do again?
We throw more money at the banks and its executives. As if we have not had enough of this irresponsible fiscal behavior. They will will certainly blow new bubbles, which means incredible volatility in prices (ie. the incredible stock market swings this week alone) and exploding monetary inflation around the world. And finally we can wind up with a situation where the common man cannot afford a loaf of bread, people are rioting in the streets, and martial law is imposed upon the land. Complete and utter stupidity.
The system is attempting to perpetuate itself.
The greed of the bankers is feeding off the greed of the people.
I'm talking about Big Macs, SUVs, McMansions.
The average person in India or China eats less, needs less energy. They don't consume as much and their consumption is more renewable, cotton, food, against oil, metals.
Homo suburbianus is heading toward extinction
Savers are gonna be robbed blindly in coming years through inflation or hyperinflation. Sooner or later governments will default on their debt (many are now guaranteeing everything) and the result would be even more money printing. The cost will be billed to the middle class and working people in the form of more inflation, higher taxes, and lower benefits.
Small banks in the US who are not even in danger of defaults, are actualy being forced to take on money from the Federal government! This is unbelievable! Banks who have been responsible money brokers are in essence being punished, while others who are near collapse due to their predatory actions, are being rewarded. Other large investment banks are being systematically taken over by the federal government. Is it any surprise that our Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was the CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the largest recipients of the bailout money?
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." (attributed to Mussolini)
Why are we undergoing an enormous correction now? Because Greenspan wouldn't allow a more serious recession in 2001-2002. At least ... many people believe that, and I'm one of them.
And now that the Fed is trying to pump the credit system again ... it just puts off the final day of reckoning a little longer. But it doesn't eliminate it.The current ones put the stage for new imbalances and unattended consequences without solving the underlying issues. This will only lead to hyperinflation, creeping social unrest, and the rise of totalitarian regimes. To me, it seems just a bit suspicious that they want to put out the fire by pouring more gasoline on it... (but I'll leave the conspiracy side of this for another post)
To sum it up: It's necessary to inject some money in the system to minimize the damage as much as possible for your average citizen. But this needs to be done with a lot more regulation to avoid the path of moral hazard we are one. What we are experiencing is nothing less than a real painful reordering of the international monetary system and no amount of printed money can stop it. Lets let the system crash, pull out the weeds and start anew!
Upcoming posts:
- What will happen in good ol' Hungary?
- Where is the value of the dollar, euro and other currencies heading? This ones a bit difficult to get a clear picture on, but with everyone wanting to know where to keep their money, its worth doing a bit of research.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
and a little something positive...
All we hear nowadays is doom and gloom, world-wide financial disaster, record breaking stock market crashes, bailouts, recession, depression, CRISIS! CRISIS! CRISIS!
And it will be bad. It will be bad for years to come. But we do have some cause for hope.
I went on a little hunt for some good news. Good news that doesn't fudge over the facts and distort reality. That's nearly mission impossible these days, but I found this below...
Charles Hugh Smith
http://www.oftwominds.com/
1. We can protect ourselves against declines in paper assets and currencies with hedges.
Frequent contributor Harun I. has repeatedly suggested in these pages that the prudent household/investor attempt to hedge the risks of huge swings of valuation via futures or options contracts. Harun has also provided many charts which depict the relative strength of gold as compared to the stock market. Unsurprisingly, stocks have lost considerable value compared to gold. Thus gold can be viewed as a hedge against paper currencies and other non-tangible assets. Oil (or other tangibles) can also be viewed as a hedge against devaluations in currencies and paper assets.
2. One-third of all U.S. houses are owned free and clear. While the media has now glommed onto the millions of insanely risky mortgages which are in default or otherwise distressed (risks skeptics had long pointed to as highly dangerous), let's not lose sight of the fact that many Americans are frugal and have either low mortgages or no mortgages.
Many of you avoided the housing bubble hype and remained renters or sold in 2005 or 2006 and escaped the carnage. Many like Alberto R. and others have lived frugally and are waiting patiently for housing to bottom, at which point they will be buyers as long-term investors.
In one sense, what is happening is not the bankruptcy of America but the transfer of assets from the spendthrift imprudent to the frugal prudent. Is this a bad thing? I don't think a "good/bad" statement has any meaning here; it is simply a market economy at work. Excesses get unwound, cash is always king, prudent investors tend to be rewarded and gamblers tend to lose all their money.
3. Not everyone speculated in housing or the stock market. Some $6 trillion has been squirreled away in money markets for years. Trillions more are in 401K and IRAs, and though much has been lost in those accounts in this crash, much is in bond funds and precious metals funds.
4. The U.S. has the ability to print trillions of dollars which are still accepted in exchange for goods and services. Now I have never said this is a good thing, as eventually this will drive the value of the dollar to near-zero, but nonetheless in the short-term possessing the global reserve currency which is still used for 2/3 of all global transactions is a powerful advantage. If the U.S. decides to print a few trillion dollars and do an FDIC-type workout of bankrupt/insolvent lenders, it can do so. Will it have negative consequences? Yes, but unwinding excesses leaves us few good choices. Being able to print a couple trillion dollars without sparking immediate hyper-inflation is still better than not having that option. (Note I was adamantly against Paulson's bogus TARP bailout, but would support financial triage along the lines of FDIC workouts.)
5. The vast majority of Americans have running hot water and electricity. These are very good things. As anyone will tell you, having money is more fun than being broke, but if you can cobble together shelter, running water and some grub (beans and rice are still cheap), then life's happinesses are not quite as dependent on constant consumption as marketers would have us believe.
As correspondent Riley T. recently noted:
"Remember getting rich has nothing to do with being happy. I worked all my career with the rich and for the most part they are not very happy and their children are very miserable and seem hopeless."
6. At least until the Federal government itself becomes insolvent, millions of people are getting Social Security and military pension checks. As my father recently noted (he's 82 years old), in the Great Depression nobody received Social Security; now it acts a a safety net not just for individuals but for the economy as a whole.
I would add that the standing U.S. Armed Forces were relatively small in the pre-WW2 eras (On 30 June 1939 the Regular Army numbered 187,893 men, including 22,387 in the Army Air Corps. On the same date the National Guard totaled 199,491 men. Source: military history online.)
Millions of veterans receive medical benefits via the VA and millions more (and their spouses) receive disability and pension checks. All of these provide a cushion of spending for the economy.
7. The U.S. still pumps 4.5 million barrels of oil per day. While we're still consuming about 20 MBD, nonetheless it is entirely possible to create an economy which consumes only 4.5 million barrels a day, should we wish to do so and should we collectively make this transition a priority. Will the energy consumption per individual remain as high as it is now? No. Nonetheless a very nice lifestyle with shelter and running water and transportation is possible in a largely solar-powered economy. Will grapes be flown in From Chile? No. Changes will have to be made. But having 4.5 MBD is a lot better than having zero.
8. There are 15 million vacant dwellings in the U.S.. There seems to be plenty of shelter available once the price drops down to market rates.
9. This is still the land of opportunity. Yes, we're all being ripped off by The Powers That Be, our politics and media are corrupt, venal and clueless, and blah blah blah, fill in the blanks with all the other ills we suffer. I do not say this cavalierly but merely in recognition that rights and citizenship are relative concepts with implicit tradeoffs. I like France and China and Japan and Italy and Thailand a lot, but there are tradeoffs to living in each nation. There is no Paradise on this planet, only various sets of tradeoffs.
Immigrants (you know, those people who fight their way through endless paperwork to get green cards and citizenship) still recognize this as a land where you can better yourself via working hard and prudent saving/investing. Unfortunately many native-borns seem to have forgotten this in their rush to a entitlement-based personal ideology.
10. We have the Internet. Want to learn how to lower your blood pressure? It's online (caveat emptor, of course--buyer beware). If you want to learn more about living better, cheaper, smarter, we have astonishing resources available online. That is a stupendous advantage our ancestors did not have.
NO MORE REALITY, DAMNIT!!!
Are you sick of the jolt of reality you get everyday by turning on the tube and hearing how you might not have a job waiting for you the next day... when all you wanna do is watch your favorite TV show?
Well, no need to listen to that garbage any longer!
Stick your head in the virtual sand of internet TV and avoid any chance you might have of your remote running out of batteries when flipping past your local news channel.
Internet TV Universal Remote -- The foolproof way to avoid reality!
http://gizmodo.com/5061851/internet-tv-universal-remote-quick-links-to-all-free-shows
Well, no need to listen to that garbage any longer!
Stick your head in the virtual sand of internet TV and avoid any chance you might have of your remote running out of batteries when flipping past your local news channel.
Internet TV Universal Remote -- The foolproof way to avoid reality!
http://gizmodo.com/5061851/
Monday, September 29, 2008
The Syndrum Files Gecopol update - Sep 29th, 2008
Just some headlines from today:
-- The largest government intervention since the Great Depression, the $700 billion bailout bill, was voted down in congress. 205 Yes - 228 No -- Republicans overwhelmingly voted no, while most Democrats voted yes. This is unprecedented. The treasury secretary, the president, the speaker, and the chairman of the senate finance committee all supported the bill. This is a popular uprising and the awakening of people who are finally realizing what is happening.
-- The Fed takes unprecedented action to increase dollar holdings worldwide in order to prevent a full collapse of the currency
-- Gold rises to $915 an ounce. Gold coin sales halted after retail rush
-- S&P plunges 7.2%, most since Black Monday Oct. 26, 1987
The No vote today is a victory for capitalism and democracy in America. This alone should give reason for hope. Let the bankers reap what they sow. Let the them suffer for their greed and ignorance.
If the bill would have succeeded, they would be walking away with our money. $700,000,000,000 for 138 million US tax payers, is over $5,000/person.
The bailout wouldn't have solved the structural flaws. It wouldn't have cured the irredeemable ilk that glue the present financial system in place.
It would have only delayed the inevitable.
Total systemic financial meltdown.
"It is no surprise as financial institutions in the US and around advanced economies are going bust: in the US the latest victims were WaMu (the largest US S&L) and today Wachovia (the sixth largest US bank); in the UK after Northern Rock and the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB you now have the bust and rescue of B&B; in Belgium you had Fortis going bust and being rescued over the weekend; in German HRE, a major financial institution is also near bust and in need of a government rescue. So this is not just a US financial crisis; it is a global financial crisis hitting institutions in the US, UK, Eurozone and other advanced economies (Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc.)." - Nouriel Roubini
The dominos are just beginning to fall. The fight for manioulated markets is not yet over, but these are signs of a natural reordering of a skewed world economic and political system. The systems of checks and balances are finally striking back full swing, awakening our need to rethink our most basic assumptions about life. About the role money.
If we want to build a new financial monetary system, we have to let the old defunct system destroy itself. We will all feel the pain, but we will all walk away with lessons learned.
-- The largest government intervention since the Great Depression, the $700 billion bailout bill, was voted down in congress. 205 Yes - 228 No -- Republicans overwhelmingly voted no, while most Democrats voted yes. This is unprecedented. The treasury secretary, the president, the speaker, and the chairman of the senate finance committee all supported the bill. This is a popular uprising and the awakening of people who are finally realizing what is happening.
-- The Fed takes unprecedented action to increase dollar holdings worldwide in order to prevent a full collapse of the currency
-- Gold rises to $915 an ounce. Gold coin sales halted after retail rush
-- S&P plunges 7.2%, most since Black Monday Oct. 26, 1987
The No vote today is a victory for capitalism and democracy in America. This alone should give reason for hope. Let the bankers reap what they sow. Let the them suffer for their greed and ignorance.If the bill would have succeeded, they would be walking away with our money. $700,000,000,000 for 138 million US tax payers, is over $5,000/person.
The bailout wouldn't have solved the structural flaws. It wouldn't have cured the irredeemable ilk that glue the present financial system in place.
It would have only delayed the inevitable.
Total systemic financial meltdown.
"It is no surprise as financial institutions in the US and around advanced economies are going bust: in the US the latest victims were WaMu (the largest US S&L) and today Wachovia (the sixth largest US bank); in the UK after Northern Rock and the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB you now have the bust and rescue of B&B; in Belgium you had Fortis going bust and being rescued over the weekend; in German HRE, a major financial institution is also near bust and in need of a government rescue. So this is not just a US financial crisis; it is a global financial crisis hitting institutions in the US, UK, Eurozone and other advanced economies (Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc.)." - Nouriel Roubini
The dominos are just beginning to fall. The fight for manioulated markets is not yet over, but these are signs of a natural reordering of a skewed world economic and political system. The systems of checks and balances are finally striking back full swing, awakening our need to rethink our most basic assumptions about life. About the role money.
If we want to build a new financial monetary system, we have to let the old defunct system destroy itself. We will all feel the pain, but we will all walk away with lessons learned.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
...the next banks/brokers in danger of collapse
This past week we saw the shit hit the fan. Lehman brothers went bust and AIG, the world's largest insurer had to be saved by the government; but this is still the tip of the iceberg. Q3 numbers should be out at the beginning of October, but banks are already finding it difficult to sugarcoat their situations.
Who's next? How many more banks are in danger of going under?
This, in a large part depends on their exposure to difficult to trade, value and sell junk -- illiquid assets -- dubbed "Level 3"
Who's next? How many more banks are in danger of going under?
This, in a large part depends on their exposure to difficult to trade, value and sell junk -- illiquid assets -- dubbed "Level 3"
Check out Citi, and Fannie & Freddie. A few months ago Bear Sterns was just under Lehman Brothers in terms of level 3 assets as a percent of equity...
If we take the level 3 assets to equity ratio, or the level 3 assets to total assets ratio, we can see who is really in danger...How much longer can the rest hold out?
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