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Conscious Capitalism, And Open Thread
Zero Hedge will be out of pocket for several hours: please use this post as an open thread opportunity to discuss how honest and transparent the government economic data dissemination complex is, how efficient the stock market is, how free of monopoly the Wall Street Fixed Income trading complex is, how altruistic the Federal Reserve is, and everything else that tickles your fancy. In the meantime, here is the latest controversial, and very much must read letter from Mike Krieger: Conscious Capitalism.
From Mike Krieger of Kam LP
Conscious Capitalism
Action alone is the province, never the fruits thereof.
Let not thy motive be the fruit of action, nor shouldst thou desire to avoid action.
- The Bhagavad Gita
Renunciation means absence of hankering after fruit.
As a matter of fact he who renounces reaps a thousandfold.
He who is ever brooding over result often loses nerve in the performance of his duty.
He becomes impatient and then gives vent to anger and begins to do unworthy things;
He jumps from action to action, never remaining faithful to any.
- Mahatma Ghandi
A Merging of the “Left” and the “Right”
During my most recent interview with Max Keiser I briefly introduced a concept that I referred to as “conscious capitalism” and I promised to expound on this idea in future writings. When I look around me I see a lot of encouraging signs but I also see a political, military and industrial establishment that is fighting with all its might to squash what I think could be a very powerful merging of forces on both the motivated and moral “left” and “right” sides of the political spectrum. As I have mentioned previously I tend to be libertarian philosophically yet I find myself in agreement with many of those who the mainstream media tells me are on the “other side.” Side issues like who is “racist” and the ground zero mosque are used to emotionally separate us and we must not give into such tactics. I think the most important thing for people that really want to change things for the better and lessen the stranglehold of the current corrupt and dependency/warfare model that is the United States of America should do two things. First, find the issues that we can agree upon and secondly as Ghandi instructed us “be the change that you want to see in the world” and spread this idea to everyone you come in contact with. We must remember that we have the ultimate power as individuals and consumers and at the end of the day this nasty little system we’ve got going survives based on our compliance whether we want to admit that or not.
What are the Main Issues we can Agree On?
End the Fed. I think the first issue to be dealt with is the Federal Reserve. Either it needs to be castrated or ended. As I have said before I think we are already on the road to achieving this end but we can’t give up now. The keys to ending the Fed in its current form are several fold. The first is to educate the masses on how and when the Fed was formed, what the Fed is, and finally who it ultimately answers to. Secondly, we need to support Congressmen like Ron Paul in their bi-partisan efforts to “Audit the Fed” or audit the gold reserves in Fort Knox. Despite having had considerable support from Congressional Democrats the bill was not passed as Mr. Paul intended and indeed the Fed was given more powers in that laughing stock of a Financial Reform Bill. Many will view this as a setback and in some ways it was; however, it was also a victory in that it served to “awaken” a growing percentage of the citizenry to how things work and to recognize that the Congress does not listen to the will of the people but rather protects the corrupt establishment at all costs. Having the power to create money and credit out of thin air, the Federal Reserve is the ultimate tool of the establishment and the noose around the necks of us serfs. When we have forced the Fed to respond to our inquiries their response in all cases is to grab further power and fight to avoid any disclosures of the actions they have taken in the shadows. Whereas truth can always shine through even the darkest night, lies must be compounded upon themselves indefinitely to maintain themselves. To quote Ghandi yet again: “The wicked can prevail only when they number multitudes, but goodness will rule when embodied to perfection even in one person.” This is a man who was able to boot the most powerful empire the world has ever seen using nonviolent methods. I think we can learn a lot from him.
End the Warfare State. When 9/11 happened I was working in the World Financial Center. I saw the buildings come down with my own two eyes. I saw the people falling out of the towers. I was scared and traumatized and for a while felt like I needed the government to protect me. Initially I was willing to give up some civil liberties to achieve some sense of comfort. I have since realized the grave error of my ways and I now shudder to think of the police state the establishment is trying to move us toward. Yesterday I read an article about how a Virginia court has upheld the right of police to place a GPS tracking device on a car without a warrant. Article can be found here http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/crime/Va-appeals-court-upholds-tracking-suspects-with-GPS-102431294.html. Someone tell me how this does not violate the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution? This is really terrifying stuff. What is so hard about getting warrant? Is this the type of country we want to live in? Beyond this, there is a clear trend toward more invasive screening tactics to prevent terrorism. The bottom line is this, if someone wants to blow something up or hurt people they will do it. Furthermore, instead of us sheepishly just giving away whatever self-respect we have left so that Janet Napolitano can scan your naked body before getting on a plane how about we stop invading countries in the Middle East and killing people. Sounds like a good start to me.
End the Stranglehold of the Large Banks, Multi-National Corporations and Unproductive and Overpaid Government Workers. When you look at the latest polls about what Americans have faith in at the top of the list is small business and at the bottom are Congress and the Banks. This is perfectly rational as everyone that has observed with an unbiased eye how things have unfolded since the financial crisis occurred has seen that the political establishment and Fed have made it their primary order of business to protect the big banks, big corporations and the overpaid and bloated public sector at the expense of the productive and hardworking citizenry and at the end of the day what they have really sacrificed is our currency (this will become painfully obvious soon enough) and our standing in the rest of the world (we are now seen as the third world banana republic we are).
First, the large banks. If there is anything anyone that dislikes the system as it stands should be against it is the TBTF (Too Big To Fail) banks. They played a huge role in destroying the global financial system and the long-term wealth creation mechanism of the United States. Not only that, but as a punishment for their sins they have taken taxpayer bailouts, paid enormous bonuses while 35 million Americans entered the food stamp breadline, fought real reform every step of the way (successfully I might add) and the executives have escaped punishment. We protect these banks as if they are some sort of national treasure. The one trend that becomes clear when it comes to the banks, the Fed and the power players in Washington D.C. is the more you screw up the more power you get. It is amazingly Orwellian.
As far as the Unproductive and Overpaid government sector I am not going to spend much time on it myself. Rather, I ask you to listen to this compelling interview given by Stephen Meister to King World News http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2010/9/4_Stephen_Meister.html. One of the key points he makes is that there are 7.9 million public sector union members and that for the first time in 2009 there are now more public union members than private sector union members (7.4 million). More importantly, the private sector workforce is five times as large as the public sector workforce so what you get is a situation where union membership is 34% in the public sector and 7% in the private sector. A lot of “conservatives” like to demonize auto unions and the like but the real issue is the public sector unions. He goes on to point out that at least at a private company there is a profit motive and so if the unions push too far they end up hurting themselves. Not so with a government union since there is no profit motive and their pay is just subsidized by the taxpayer! To summarize, what are we subsidizing? The TBTF banks, the war machine, a growing police state, and public sector unions that keep taking more and more. Everything is completely backwards. We live in and participate in a complete and total insane asylum.
Finally, the multi-nationals. As many are starting to understand we do not live in a world of “free trade” we live in a world of rigged trade where China manipulates its currency lower to keep the labor arbitrage alive. Due to rising inflation and wages in the coastal areas this is beginning to change, but the key is not to have companies now move from China to Vietnam or Mexico. We need jobs here. Our days of pushing paper around as a nation of traders, lawyers and bureaucrats is OVER. We don’t know it yet since the currency crisis hasn’t fully shown up in commodity inflation but it is happening underneath the surface. As a result, it is key to get producing jobs back to American shores as soon as possible. That way we will be able to provide for ourselves better after the currency loses much of its purchasing power abroad. This will not be easy but it is necessary. Furthermore, the longer we export such jobs abroad and continue to just collect food stamps, day-trade and file lawsuits the less skills we will have here to do the necessary things when the time comes.
Implementing Conscious Capitalism
So now we are back full circle to the idea of conscious capitalism. Back in 2002 in my personal journal I wrote a little essay titled “Ambivalence Toward Capitalism.” I decided to go back and read it before writing today and one of the lines stuck out to me. I wrote: “In my opinion capitalism is the best form of society that has graced this earth and yet is the worst form of ideology that has ever become so widely accepted.” What I meant by this was that I saw the inherent dangers of using a system based in large part on the selfish desires prevalent in mankind. Harnessing the abilities of man to produce, innovate and create to the best of his or her ability by offering rewards is essentially what capitalism does when it works well. However, what has become abundantly clear as of late is that if the society itself is immoral then capitalism will fail to function and it can be as destructive as any other system. This is where I disagree with many libertarians AND big government folks. There is nothing wrong with some limited federal government and there is nothing wrong with capitalism, where we get into problems is when we view either as a panacea or a religion. This is because they are both merely systems devised by imperfect human beings and as such will ultimately reflect the morality and ethics of the human beings interacting within that system. The United States has become in recent years, decadent, aggressive, immoral and brainwashed by television and mainstream media. As such, should we really be surprised that nothing seems to work whether it be Federal government or capitalism?
At the end of the day I still think as long as human nature remains the same capitalism is the best thing we’ve got. The reason it is the best thing we have come up with is because at the end of the day it is not something we came up with. Real capitalism, as opposed to the crony capitalism we have today, consists of the natural state of affairs in complex societies. As is wisely noted over and over in the epic Bhagavad Gita, we run into trouble when we become obsessed with the “fruits of action” since then we would lie, cheat and steal to achieve ones ends. However, those that attempt to demonize capitalism must understand that if the moral base of a society is unchanged it doesn’t matter what system is in place it will eventually become corrupt and tyrannical.
Therefore, what I think is of paramount importance in today’s America is we need to get a grip on reality as it is not as we wish to see it. The first thing is to understand how the financial system operates and how the Federal Reserve controls it. The second thing is to spread this knowledge to everyone you know. The third and final stage, which is the one we are entering in my view, is to be the change you want to see in the world. The most effective way to protest the system is to shed counterfeit money for honest money. This means for everyone that has the means to should sell a certain percent of their dollars and buy physical gold. If we did this the Fed would be history tomorrow. More importantly, once this happens the last thing we should do is accept another fiat currency devised by these same insane academics and central bankers that want to push this ridiculous idea of an SDR on us. Other things people can do is to look at their own lives and be more thoughtful about what bank one uses or what products one buys. I do not bank at the TBTFs and this is a conscious choice. This is conscious capitalism. Buying local goods produced nearby rather than something produced by Asian slave labor is another way. If we do these things based on a sense of morality, then not only can we get back to real capital markets rather than praying to the false god of crony capitalism, but indeed we can change the world through a paradigm shift in our collective consciousness.
All the best,
Mike
»
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You would be extremely foolish to default on the CC debt. First of all, you have no reason to do so--you claim solvency of a high order. Secondly, there would be little pain for you to cover the debt. Defaulting will be held against you in many ways, as a result.
From a business aspect, you will be held accountable for a very long time should you or your wife apply for another job; your default will be considered strategic, and therefore totally immoral. And while immorality appears to be rife in business, and elsewhere these days, nobody wants to hire anyone of proven immorality. This is especially true of the Federal Government. I don't know your business specialty (you claim none other than speculation), but as a former CEO, I would be exceedingly suspect of someone who did this, especially if he applied for anything related to "numbers."
As to this being a good business decision, you apparently have no business of your own, aside from your personal life. Your personal life depends upon your personal reputation, period. Do not listen to the hype planted daily on your disinformation system of choice. I'm rather surprised someone of your apparent ignorance landed on ZeroHedge.
Those who qualify can still get credit. But many refuse to do so, for good reason.
Should you decide to expatriate, BTW, you will not only be required to pay up, but the blot on your credit may bar you from being accepted as a citizen, or resident, elsewhere in the world.
Quite frankly, doing any of this renders you into the category of severe putz. QED.
debaser. which is happening to our money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGj9WPf3QwY
I can already hear the sweet sound of guillotine: Chop, Chop, Chop
Maybe this fucking "here you have" email bomb going off around the world will kill the algos!
Only cause this is an open thread, i will ask what do y'all think of recent graduates who have chosen to work in the fin services sector.
If they are recent graduates, the chances are they know very little. So they chose an option which still pays more fiat than other options, for as long as the game lasts. Better than unemployment.
At my NY area school, that's who recruits.
My cousin is in this situation. I think they are good people who haven't been exposed to the idea that the finsec is a leech on the balls of society at the moment. They are just trying to make their bones and pay their student loans off for the most part.
I think the next several years will be a real wake up call for them and they can have an active hand in the insanity that is most likely on the way.
Good question ZP, thanks.
Nothing against them, but somehow we still have to reduce the entire financial sector to 10% or less of the economy.
I also don't think that any of it beyond boring retail banking and insurance has much utility. I think it is largely a giant gambling operation (I mean that literally). Somehow it has convinced the country that it is performing some sort of service.
When considering that, i don't see how its good to have a constant flow of some of our most motivated people going into that sector.
Just want to add a short statement, economics is not necessary the voodoo science, however most that participate are voodoo practitioners. And it mostly has to do with the human nature and bad incentives. You won't be recognized in the academia for pushing your own ideas and research, but rather you'll be booted.
Hayek was depressed most of his professional career, so much for recognizing a brilliant mind...
I tried to read the early Hayek, and there was some brilliant gems in it, but it was so hard to read. I think he recognized the right questions, but the problems had too many working parts to be tractable. Keynes simplified things and owned him as a result. It's kinda sad how that works sometimes.
Simon Hobbs (CNBS), my least favorite bloke on the tele, is suggesting Irish bonds are a great way to make a lot of money at 6% interest. What a knob. So, you can make 6% and risk 20-30-40% Or more? On a country clearly having political, economic, banking troubles? Sub-prime is contained?
What a tool.
The Dead Parrot Sketch - a financial metaphor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npjOSLCR2hE
I resemble that remark...
Yee Haw! Open Thread!
Nuke every country that makes their women wear funny clothes. Print up 100 trillion zillion in T-Bills and tell the Chinese to get stuffed. Fire all the police then declare arson and looting legal. Unplug ’Bama’s teleprompter and start a military coup. Make the Marseillaise our national anthem and storm the Federal Reserve building. Load all congressmen into donkey carts and haul them to the guillotine. Make Knuckles the Clown Emperor for Life and make Sudden Debt his Press Secretary. Expel California from the Union and move the Capital to Las Vegas. Round up all BP executives and burn them at the stake. Breakout your AR-15s and shoot everybody who isn’t wearing a tinfoil hat or at least smoking marijuana. Rape all MSM female talking heads and drag all the male ones behind pickup trucks. Unloose all the aliens at Area 51 and let ‘em eat anybody they want.
Attila, you certainly can't call your imagination wimpy! Perhaps you are the reincarnation of Attila the Hun!
he's one of the other half martians
HEEELL YA...... Time to crack a beer & roll 1:)
I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter .
Define "funny".
That was just ... wow.
What a mind.
That mind is us, ZHers. Most of that crap has been suggested around here, anyway. Great synthesis though.
Things are such that any news from any source has to be checked, double and triple checked for veracity with the assumption that said "news" will be denied later. These are truly terrible times.
http://www.durham.net/~neilmac/great.htm
Everybody knows the illustrious name of Scotland’s greatest poet, Robbie Burns. But how many have heard of William Topaz McGonagall -- the worst poet that Bonnie Scotland ever threw up, and arguably the worst poet ever to massacre the English language?
http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/poems/gems.htm
The Tay Bridge DisasterBeautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.
'Twas about seven o'clock at night,
And the wind it blew with all its might,
And the rain came pouring down,
And the dark clouds seem'd to frown,
And the Demon of the air seem'd to say-
"I'll blow down the Bridge of Tay."
When the train left Edinburgh
The passengers' hearts were light and felt no sorrow,
But Boreas blew a terrific gale,
Which made their hearts for to quail,
And many of the passengers with fear did say-
"I hope God will send us safe across the Bridge of Tay."
But when the train came near to Wormit Bay,
Boreas he did loud and angry bray,
And shook the central girders of the Bridge of Tay
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.
So the train sped on with all its might,
And Bonnie Dundee soon hove in sight,
And the passengers' hearts felt light,
Thinking they would enjoy themselves on the New Year,
With their friends at home they lov'd most dear,
And wish them all a happy New Year.
So the train mov'd slowly along the Bridge of Tay,
Until it was about midway,
Then the central girders with a crash gave way,
And down went the train and passengers into the Tay!
The Storm Fiend did loudly bray,
Because ninety lives had been taken away,
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.
As soon as the catastrophe came to be known
The alarm from mouth to mouth was blown,
And the cry rang out all o'er the town,
Good Heavens! the Tay Bridge is blown down,
And a passenger train from Edinburgh,
Which fill'd all the peoples hearts with sorrow,
And made them for to turn pale,
Because none of the passengers were sav'd to tell the tale
How the disaster happen'd on the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.
It must have been an awful sight,
To witness in the dusky moonlight,
While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray,
Along the Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay,
Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay,
I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed.
He was the blueprint for Vogon Poetry.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/guide/poetry.shtml
"...For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed."
He really closed with a bang.
Homebuilding stocks are again relatively strong today. LEN is up more than 20% off its intraday low of about 10 days ago. September lumber broke out to a 3 month high today by crossing over $220, now around 223. The biggest job loser/gainers which has historically swung in recessions is the construction iindustry. While it is unlikely that home building is going to go gang busters, affordability has gone up tremendously since bond yields have cratered. When looking at homebuilding and construction don't forget to understand the concentration of overbuilding and foreclosure. A 100000 foreclosed condos in Vegas is not going to be home supply for someone living in North Carolina or New Jersey or anywhere else that isn't Vegas.
Don't overlook the fact that energy prices are significantly down. Nat gas is trading comfortably under $4 and inventories are building. Crude is going nowhere. There are a lot of macro tailwinds the biggest being rates, that no one is really taking into account other than to say 'its Japan'.
This 'reversal' looks like all the others....
NYC bracing for Wall Street culling.
Welcome to the future
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/asia/100831/bangladesh-megacities-par...
Dhaka: fastest growing megacity in the worldhttp://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/08/16/beyond_city_limits?page...
Beyond City Limits The age of nations is over. The new urban age has begun.Here, let me throw another log on the campfire. I am just passing this along, btw. And I haven't vetted the source.
Aspen Times Weekly
February 2010
Barack
Obama is the best thing that has happened to
America in the last 100 years. Truly, he is the
savior of America 's future.
Despite the fact that he has some of the lowest
approval ratings among recent presidents, history
will see Barack Obama as the source of America 's
resurrection. Barack Obama has plunged the country
into levels of debt that we could not have
previously imagined; his efforts to nationalize
health care have been met with fierce resistance
nationwide; TARP bailouts and stimulus spending
have shown little positive effect on the national
economy; unemployment is unacceptably high and
looks to remain that way for most of a decade;
legacy entitlement programs have ballooned to
unsustainable levels, and there is a seething anger
in the populace.
That's why Barack Obama is such a good thing for
America . Here's why.
Obama is the symbol of a creeping liberalism that
has infected our society like a cancer for the last
100 years. Just as Hitler is the face of fascism,
Obama will go down in history as the face of
unchecked liberalism. The cancer metastasized to
the point where it could no longer be ignored.
Average Americans who have quietly gone about their
lives, earning a paycheck, contributing to their
favorite charities, going to high school football
games on Friday night, spending their weekends at
the beach or on hunting trips - they've gotten off
the fence. They've woken up. There is a level of
political activism in this country that we haven't
seen since the American Revolution, and Barack
Obama has been the catalyst that has sparked a
restructuring of the American political and social
consciousness.
Think of the crap we've slowly learned to tolerate
over the past 50 years as liberalism sought to
re-structure the America that was the symbol of
freedom and liberty to all the people of the world.
Immigration laws were ignored on the basis of
compassion. Welfare policies encouraged
irresponsibility, the fracturing of families, and a
cycle of generations of dependency. Debt was
regarded as a tonic to lubricate the economy. Our
children left school having been taught that they
are exceptional and special, while great numbers of
them cannot perform basic functions of mathematics
and literacy. Legislators decided that people could
not be trusted to defend their own homes, and
stripped citizens of their rights to own firearms.
Productive members of society have been penalized
with a heavy burden of taxes in order to support
legions of do-nothings who loll around, reveling in
their addictions, obesity, indolence, ignorance and
"disabilities." Criminals have been
arrested and re-arrested, coddled and set free to
pillage the citizenry yet again. Lawyers routinely
extort fortunes from doctors, contractors and
business people with dubious torts.
We slowly learned to tolerate these outrages,
shaking our heads in disbelief, and we went on with
our lives.
But Barack Obama has ripped the lid off a seething
cauldron of dissatisfaction and unrest.
A former Communist is given a paid government
position in the White House as an advisor to the
president. Auto companies are taken over by the
government, and the auto workers' union - whose
contracts are completely insupportable in any
economic sense - is rewarded with a stake in the
company. Government bails out Wall Street
investment bankers and insurance companies, who pay
their executives outrageous bonuses as thanks for
the public support. Terrorists are read their
Miranda rights and given free lawyers. And, despite
overwhelming public disapproval, Barack Obama has
pushed forward with a health care plan that would
re-structure one-sixth of the American economy.
Literally millions of Americans have had enough.
They're organizing, they're studying the
Constitution and the Federalist Papers, they're
reading history and case law, they're showing up at
rallies and meetings, and a slew of conservative
candidates are throwing their hats into the ring.
Is there a revolution brewing? Yes, in the sense
that there is a keen awareness that our priorities and
sensibilities must be radically re-structured. Will
it be a violent revolution? No. It will be done
through the interpretation of the original document
that has guided us for 220 "FANTASTIC"
years--- the Constitution. Just as the pendulum swung
to embrace political correctness and liberalism,
there will be a backlash, a complete repudiation of
a hundred years of nonsense. A hundred years from
now, history will perceive the year 2010 as the
time when America got back on the right track. And
for that, we can thank Barack Hussein Obama.
Gary
Hubbell is a hunter, rancher, and former hunting
and fly-fishing guide. Gary works as a Colorado
ranch real estate broker. He can be reached through
his website, aspenranchrealestate.com
The usual Orwellian terminology mixup.
The so-called "unchecked liberalism" is all but, it's actually pretend-liberalism that masks indifferent egalitarian and socialist policies.
Which such people like the (original) writer I always get afraid the they throw out the baby (freedom) with the bathwater (allegedly "excessive liberalism").
Obama is the symbol of a creeping liberalism in the same way that my saggy boobs are a symbol of a new American standard of beauty.
If this guy's a liberal, let's some some liberality out of him instead of the continued support of corporate fascism in every action. Watch his hands, not his mouth.
and furthermore...
ooopsy.
VI you are a curious one. gary hubbell dumb pecker head. did he have his mug shot with this shit article. the realtors up there, think they are all bloody rock hudson or mel gibson pick your poison. puck ole.
This is a great piece by Steve Keen called "What Bernanke Doesn't Understand" via John Mauldin at Investor Insight. I could not cut and paste it. Sorry but well worth reading:
http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/john_mauldins_outside_the_box/arch...
If I ever get real rich, I hope I'm not real mean to poor people, like I am now.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Oahspe:_A_New_Bible
Basic teachingsOahspe emphasized service to others; each person is graded according to service to others.[8] Each individual, group and nation is either in ascension or descension; sooner or later, all ascend, rising in grade. The higher one's grade, the better are the conditions within one's own soul, and the better the place awaiting one in heaven.
According to Oahspe, when mortals die their spirits continue to live, regardless of who they worshiped, or even whether they disbelieved in an afterlife.[9] The spirit realm becomes their new home, which is called heaven, and the individual spirit is called an angel. There are unorganized heavens close to or on the earth. Also starting there and linking to the highest heavens, are the organized heavens. And both types of heavens are accessible to mortals. If a portion of heaven lives in anarchy and delights in evil, that portion is called hell.
An angel must subsist for a season after death somewhere along the continuum from delightful, down to abysmally wretched conditions. The heavenly place where angels initially live for a season is determined by habits of what they did as mortals as well as by their aspirations and diet.[10] Selfish behavior, low thoughts, or eating animal derived food will place a newborn angel in the lowest level, being on the earth. Evil oriented persons enter heaven into hellish conditions. Nevertheless, all in descension eventually turn around and ascend upward to more delightful places within an organized heaven, whose chief is called God. God is an advanced angel ordained into office for a season.
The morphologically plural name Elohim, often translated as god-singular in the Old Testament, is not used to mean the Creator throughout the main body of Oahspe; the singular Hebrew terms "Jehovih" (SHD 3069) and "Eloih" are used instead.
[edit] Arrangement of OahspeAccording to Oahspe, the history of humankind is marked by a series of progressions. These lessons come in cycles: advancement followed by recession, being in turn succeeded by other cycles of improvement and regression. Cycles exist within cycles, but one important cycle, used in improving the grade of humanity, is a 3000 year cycle (average), and it is this cycle around which the books in Oahspe are organized.
The first few books of Oahspe lay the groundwork for understanding the nature of the work. This merges into a concise history taking the reader up to the present time, the new era. Separate from the history books are a series of books intended to illume for the reader the requirements of humanity for this day and age.
An interesting graphological characterisitc of Oahspe is that a number of its sub-books are printed on pages divided in two, top to bottom. In these, the top half of the page contains a narrative of celestial events, while the bottom half describes the corresponding events on Earth.
"all we know is that we're gonna get our kicks before the whole shit house goes up in flames." Splitter group of Rhode Island Puritans.
I'll take the Vikes +5.5 and the over 48.
I think you'll lose the first half of that one Turd, Saints should blow the Vikings out tonight. And I'm not a Saints fan by the way.
What I think should happen to the Fed is let be in charge of the checking system as it is now, nothing more, nothing less. It should just guarantee checking/cash payments between banks and credit unions.
Everything else creation of money and controlling of money supply and buying of treasuries and so forth should be taken away.
Was it so long ago that we all calculated and were in awe of the Hindenburg Omen. (As I type The Dow is up 37 and climbing.)
sunny
No, it wasn't long ago, and that means still a few more weeks left in the statistical timeframe for a large move to the downside.
1/4%!!! WOO-HOO! Look out 36K!
What should we do?? I don't know but the most unfair thing about this life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A death. What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alchohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months warm, happy, and floating…you finish off as an orgasm... SLeepy Weasal
its not unfair. you have a choice.
death is not the end - just the beginning.
Beginning of what? A prolonged period of being devoured by worms?
It's ok, I'm breathing again
.thguoht my gnieef rof sknahT .ti tog I .das eb t'noD. ...ypeelS raeD
:-)
Elizabeth Warren Makes Another White House Visit
09/ 9/10 10:04 AM | excerpt
WASHINGTON — “Elizabeth Warren, a popular but polarizing consumer advocate, met with President Barack Obama at the White House Tuesday, adding to speculation she could be named to head a new consumer protection agency.
Warren also met with senior administration officials last month. However, White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said other candidates are still being considered and that no decision has been made on who will lead the agency, which was created under terms of the financial overhaul bill Obama signed into law earlier this year.”
http://tinyurl.com/3yuxqwz
She would be accepting more responsibility than anyone has since Barry asked, yes asked, to be el heffe. I could not understand why she would want to be in such a position. Never the less, if she gets nominated, I am sure she will do a fine job continuing to meddle through the mess as she has and laughed off currently. Meh.
+10,000
One of the best essays I have read anywhere in a long time.
"Side issues like who is “racist” and the ground zero mosque are used to emotionally separate us and we must not give into such tactics"
Just two of the countless "issues" that are invented by political operatives / industrialists and blown out of all normal proportion by their media operatives to keep the masses divided.
Divide and conquer. The oldest form of crowd control know.
baby you can drive my car
yes i'm gonna be a star
baby you can drive my car
and maybe I'll looovvve you.
That's a democrat sayin' that!
I told that girl I can start right away
When she said listen babe I got something to say
I got no car and it's breaking my heart
But I've found a driver and that's a start
So I assume this part is the Republican response?
"Divide and conquer. The oldest form of crowd control know."
I didn't post the somewhat inflammatory comments (obama piece and prophets crack) for shits and giggles. I posted them because they really are caustic in nature. And someone is working overtime to turn this divisive shit out.
Watch what happens when the next shift rolls in and see's these two pieces of bait on the floor. Just watch.
the exploding mats bit was pretty funny, btw.
Edit: hey, nothing happened. good sign.
I can't wait for this election to pass for all the recent Islamophobia to magically disappear again. It's almost like it's mysteriously being drummed up right during campaign season. Hmmmm.
Reminds me of the great "gay marraige backlash" of 2004. GOP won, never mentioned it again. Hmmmm.
If a thread is open, does it still tell a tale?
Sophist Economicus
MACBETH
Wherefore was that cry?
SEYTON
The queen, my lord, is dead.
MACBETH
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
no truer expression of love between one man and one woman ever spoken. May we all be such idiots.
"a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
must contemplate this.
more wood...
Things are looking up.
A friend of mine just started his own business, making landmines that look like prayer mats.
It's doing well. He says Prophets are going through the roof.>
Good one.
Village, I just passed that on to 26 people on my joke email list.
how about "knocked-unconcious capitalism" ?
because the diabolical globalist banker/central banker scum of the earth have killed the system
and now we are down and out
Excess sell orders blamed in ‘flash crash’
Sudden drop in Canadian markets on May 6 was also caused by stop-loss orders, withdrawal of electronic traders, IIROC says
Thursday, Sep. 09, 2010 2:44PM EDT - Globe & Mail
The “flash crash” of Canada's stock markets in May was due to a dominance of sell orders at the opening of trading, the withdrawal of electronic traders from Canadian markets and the triggering of investors' stop-loss orders as markets slid.
A review of Canadian trading patterns on May 6 by the Investment industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) found no evidence of erroneous orders, computer glitches or any futures or options trading that spurred the decline in Canadian markets, according to a report issued Thursday.
IIROC said a review of 47 securities that faced the sharpest declines on May 6 found no one factor was common to all stocks examined, and an array of issues helped exacerbate the steep market drop.
The report concluded that while Canadian markets reacted rapidly to the decline in U.S. markets – with Canada's market drop lagging the U.S. by about two minutes – the drop in Canada “was neither as steep nor pronounced as that in the U.S. market.”
The unexpected market crash saw stock markets across North America fall by more than 5 per cent in a matter of minutes on May 6, then recover a short time later. Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index fell a total of 453 points, or 3.8 per cent, that day, but quickly reversed itself and closed the day down just 33 points from the day-earlier close.
The report proposes that IIROC study several reform options to prevent a similar steep crash in the future, including examining the market-wide circuit breaker function to see whether current trigger levels are appropriate. IIROC will also review whether Canada needs a Canadian-based circuit breaker level that is independent of U.S. markets.”
http://tinyurl.com/22tzf66
They save on vegetable oil that way. Just fry them in light, sweet crude. Delicious.
+1000
I try and get everyone I know to not put their money into TBTF banks by telling them based on fractional reserve how much they are actually giving them....looking at jpm wouldn't their reserve requirement REALLY be something like 1.86%? so every 1$ you put in they get 99$ of credit...and in one of the small banks they would only be getting 10$....when you start leaving your cash in these banks it really starts adding up...and they say they seperate it off but you know when the bankers look at their balance sheets all they see is one big pool of money....assets+liabilities=assets - liabilities=assets seems to be the way they calculate it...
fractional reserve is what is destroying capitalism...get rid of that and no bank runs..add gold gold,silver standard...no wealth destruction through printing...add in risk capital account at banks where depositors divert portions of money to collect interest via loans....solves lending capital issue.......
I think we would have our modern day utopia...well nothing could ever be perfect but I think that would be DAMN close
Sometimes I think the world has gone completely mad. And then I think, "Aw, who cares?" And then I think, "Hey, what's for supper?"
Roubini says were f&%#@d.......
U.S. still faces double-dip threat: Nouriel Roubini
Dr. Doom more bearish than ever about U.S. economy during appearance in Toronto
Toronto — Sep. 09, 2010 10:12AM EDT - Globe & Mail
Dr. Doom has gotten even gloomier about the U.S. economy.
"Speaking to reporters in Toronto Wednesday, New York University professor Nouriel Roubini said the odds of a double-dip recession in the U.S. within the next year stand at 40 per cent.
And Canada won't be immune, he added.
“Canada has its own sources of economic strength...but it can not fully decouple from the U.S.”
He expects the Bank of Canada will now pause in raising rates, after the it raised its key lending rate to 1 per cent Wednesday. Dr. Roubini, who predicted the U.S. recession, started this year estimating the odds of another downturn at 25 per cent. He is speaking at a C.D. Howe Institute dinner. He wasn't impressed by the latest round of better-than-expected U.S. economic reports, saying the results, particularly in the labour market, remain “dismal.”
Even if the economy doesn't slide back into a technical recession, it will still feel like a recession for many Americans, he said. Efforts on the monetary and fiscal side to bolster the U.S. economy won't have much of an impact because “fundamental debt problems” have yet to be resolved, he added."
http://tinyurl.com/dr-doomed
I just saw Maria interviewing Trumka on CNBC. Trumka ate Santelli for a light snack and spit him out in little tea-partier pieces...and with great good humor.
At least CNBC is finally reporting...via Epperson & Pisani...that the jobs number was a guess due to fabricated "estimates" from states that didn't report....just as Zero Hedge reported right after the number came out.
"If you want a heart transplant, Larry, get one from a banker." Bill Ford, former head of Atlanta Fed.
errr.....yeah.......trunka.
more of the communist dnc circle jerk that is cnbc.
He hasn't missed too many meals.
I hope someone kills that fucker.
Roubini is like a failed rock star, attempting to resuscitate his star status by regurgitating the old 2008 playbook....
Why is it that these perma-gloomers always have that "disheveled" look?
Meanwhile, looks like they are re-ramping the SPY again since the news this morning was "less bad"..
LOL....
RobotTrader wrote:
"Why is it that these perma-gloomers always have that "disheveled" look?"
Talk to Dr. Phil, your comments lack insight or substance.
I mentioned recently to another follower of the Lord of the Flies, that I lost the need for self-validation by disparging others when my gonads descended, I would suggest you return when you have achieved the same state of enlightment.
If you are going to post charts, provide some real metrics. LOL.
I think it's a college professor thing which replaced the tweed jacket with the elbow patches. It probably holds him in good stead on the cocktail circuit and gives him a certain credibility with the unthinking.
I guess I needed to clarify my request - Please post pics of HOT Babes
Because they're depressed.
Just like one of my next door neighbors who was in charge of all the mental hospitals, wards and associated institutions in the state where I lived years ago. He was a fucking nut case mad-hatter lunatic. And in charge of the asylums. For Real, Dude! What with being around nutcases all day under lock and key and a staff that's around the same. What would you become?
Same logic for Steven Hawking giving up on God. 'Cause he's stuck in that fucking wheelchair.
And the general population, caught somewhere between clinical depression and homicidal rage with absolutely not even a prayer of relief on the horizon.
And you ask why these people look like they do?
"Goled is in a bauble."
This has to be the most corrupt and dishonest administration ever known in our history, and we have had some doozies. These people can't tell the truth if their life depended on it. I have never seen such a dishonest bunch in my entire life. People in this country better wake up and realize, voting alone, is not going to change anything. It is going to take riots it seems to get this government to stop lying and manipulating everything from news to data to markets.
Has it ever changed since 1913 ?
I was going ot post the entire first 100 pages from war and peace.... but instead I will just say this.
Erin Burnett is a cunt!!!
this made me laugh
Love the ideas, Mike. Your pieces are the highlight of my week.
However, this is America. The Gandhi approach ain't gonna cut it. Lots of blood will have to be spilled.
Agree ending the FED is of primary importance, as once money is controled, all else falls in line.
Term limits for politicians!
Definition of Politician: One who seeks re-election!
We Americans have a solemn duty to automatically vote out every incumbent in every election as long as there is a democratic process. (Although it has been argued that a democracy is doomed ultimately to failure as a majority can vote for the minority to hand over their assets they have earned through PRODUCTIVE labor. )Constitutional amendment needed to establish limit at which people can be taxed for earned income.
Once a politician is established, then the influence money tunnels from the lobbyists -galleries out the whole house, just like a bunch of termites.
If I were president I would :
Double the secret service protection because a lot of the established interests would probably want to assasinate me. You don't think JFK's assasination was a Cuban plot do you.? (@1:20)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiTikduJ15Y
Term limits
Abolish the FED
Reinstate Glass-Steagal
Tax all non productive "earned" income at 90% , except for savings and long term capital gains.
Reduce taxes on earned income to 15% , possibly a VAT to replace.
Any foreigners who graduate from a US university with a Masters or PhD, especially in engineering, agriculture, physics, chemistry etc get automatic citizenship...yet
...Defend the borders from illegal immigration.
Legalize drugs, but require drug tests if you apply for public assistance.
Clawbacks and jail for those that got us into this mess.
Only Congress can declare War. No war without declaration. Bring home all our troops, but maintain adequate defense/deterence. This means if we have to send troops in harms way they should have adequate weapons, transport vehicle protection, support, etc. Walk/talk quietly but carry a big-ass club.You don't think China has regional aspirations? (It looks like Japan 1930's revisited- the need for raw materials led to expansion.) Hmmm, already China trying to claim parts of Philippines, South China Sea as it's own. Then local extension into southeast Asia? Hello Japan. 'member 1930? Paybacks are hell. Not so fast Taiwan.
I'd better stop before I really get carried away, and I haven't even had a drink yet.
Ooops. Gonna be a little trouble with that one. Might involve gun fire.
This all sounds very nice and eloquent, it's very MLKish, Ghandish, Jack, Booby Kennedyish and Sermon on the Mountish.... Perhaps, even a little Obamaish.... I was moved, bowl moved, but moved just the same. He's right about one thing however. You're getting robbed....!
He is wrong however about the action, history would prove him wrong. The fight against exploitation and oppression has never been won by peaceful means. The only language that the oligarchs understand comes out of the barrel of a gun and until you are willing or have to come to terms with that reality, I can pretty well assure you that you will incrementally loose everything you have, including your dignity.
Bitch slap the asshole today....!
Best regards,
Econolicious
wrong. Ghandi.
"Political power flows from the barrel of a gun."
Chairmain Mao
This is a perfect article. I agree 100%. I love it so much I put it up on my blog.
Instead of trying to find new ways to fix the government, how about people step back and realize that government is the problem. You can't fix it because it isn't broken. Government concentrates power into the hands of a small number of people. People who want power correctly identify government as the fast track to where they want to go, either by getting into government or paying off those who are in government.
When it comes to wasteful government programs, if they are handing out free money most people are going to take it because if they don't someone else will. Also people working for government aren't sensitive to waste. They think what does it matter, a hundred, a thousand, a million, it is nothing next the billions and trillions the government spends, the government has deep pockets. No they don't, they don't have any pockets. They just have their hand in everyone else's pockets.
Government make things abstract. You wouldn't go into your neighbors house and steal their money to pay for your child's private education but people think nothing of the government stealing from their neighbor and then using that money to run public schools. If you saw your neighbor smoking pot in his yard you wouldn't go attack him and lock him in your cellar for 7 years, yet most people support the government doing it. All manner of evil is done by the government but because the government does it people think it is ok.
If people spent a little time thinking about it they'd realize that if someone set out to find a way to attain lots of power and money, that setting up a government would be a good method to achieve that goal.
"Give me the control of a nation's money, and I care not who makes the laws. . ."
~ Baron Nathan Meyer Rothschild
thank you for your thoughtful post, blacksheep.
Has anyone else seen this BS?
Starting in 2011, (next year folks), your W-2 tax form sent by your
employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health
insurance you are given by the company. It does not matter if that's
a private concern or governmental body of some sort.
If you're retired? So what... your gross will go up by the amount
of insurance you get.
You will be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you
have never seen. Take your tax form you just finished and see what
$15,000 or $20,000 additional gross does to your tax debt. That's
what you'll pay next year.
For many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it's even
worse.
This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the15% that
don't have insurance and it's only part of the tax increases.
Not believing this??? Here is a research of the summaries.....
On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE
OFFSET PROVISIONS-(sec. 9001,
as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 "requires employers to include
in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable
employer sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the
employees gross income."
Someone has to pay for the stimulus ...
I'm not sure you are taxed on the money itself. What may happen is if on the upper edge you are moved up to the next tax bracket. But I'm not sure.
No no no no no nonononononononono ooooo
You/we are/will be taxed on the $ value/amount paid by your employer even though you did not receive any cash.
And if it stuffs your/our sorry overtaxed asses into higher tax brackets, even though you/we ain't received any additional cash, you/we pay more taxes on it, anyhow. Meaning a net cash drain on our checkbooks.
Now that's what I call reducing my healthcare cost.
Bullshit
Hah hah ha hahahaha ha
But Wait, There's More!
Just like the "new" tax breaks for businesses. Nobody's said they're gonna take advantage of it because of no aggregate demand. But the tax breaks are gonna be offset by higher taxes on oil companies.
Now, since nobody's gonna take the tax deduction whilst oil companies are gonna be taxed more and pass the taxes along to the consumer..... We're fucked again!
Wheeeeee! Tax cuts where we all pay more!
Happy days are here again.... Fucktards.
When is it, in November we vote again?
Edited outraged post. Chet has the dope from Snopes.
You are indeed correct. Thank you for the instruction and accurate information. I admit my terrible wrong and shall do my best so as not to repeat such transgression.
Again, I humbly thank you.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/hr3590.asp
“be the change that you want to see in the world”
Yes sir, i have no debt, i live simple and i change my fiat money into silver money on a monthly basis.
I tell all my colleagues , friends and family the system is fucked you need to get out off debt, by silver and gold and start living.
But no, they look at me as the dumb ass i am, totally crazy not to ride along and enjoy "the easy money", the system is fine no problem.
So i am the change i want to see in the world, or maybe i am the change i wont see in the world ?
I don't expect many people around me to do anything about it soon, with 30 years mortgages refinanced to the max, any change in attitude will take time to play out.
I relax, and enjoy life hoping more people get to be free. Its been my lifestyle the last 20 years, i work 8 months, play 4 months a year and i feel free waiting for more people to catch up!
I am back, better than ever. oh, thanks 4 the kick in the butt.
Hi.
It's only when you have lost everything, that we are free to do anything....
Oh sorry did I interrupt you ladies?
;)
Not possible Mr. Lennon Hendrix, not possible! Glad to see you back on the threads even if you are sporting a corpse who has been animated for profit.
lol
It's only when you have lost everything, that we are free to do anything....
lessons in life come in many forms, mine come slowly.
Either the Fed is independent of Government or it isn't.
If you end it or "castrate it", you have ended its independence of government and it is now a tool of the House SubCommittee chaired by Barney Frank.
Am I an old-fashioned guy? Certainly not! . Am I a maniac depressive guy? Certainly not! I strongly believe in the financial market as a source of funding for innovative companies. All the more as I strongly believe that for the next ten years the GDP growth rate (especially in the OLD Europe) will be under the potential, in a sustainable way (that is a quasi-certainty).
I strongly bet on innovation as a competitive advantage. When I was a student, the financial markets as a necessary source of funding for innovative companies was a leimotiv.
After 10 years in the financial industry as an equity fund manager in Paris, France, I'm definitely fearfull of the wind of change that our industry has faced since the TMT Crash of the early century. As an equity fund manager, our status has changed from client to counterparties in brokerage companies (ty HFT and flash trading.... and we got the MIFID 3 years ago who were designed to offer more transparency, more liquidity to our clients...). The structure of market participants has changed: more ETFs, more High Frequency Trading (which accounts for more than half of the market volume, especially on low volume days).
We fight against HFT robots and a majority of asset managers have sold their soul to the devil due to the pressure of short termism (don't fight the tape, follow the trend, the trend is your friend.........). Did they ever possess a consciousness / soul / spirit before this structural change? Why has NOT the asset management industry draw lessons from the crisis? Please, take a pause, please shake your brain.... don't underestimate the long term undergoing tendancies (demography, structural mass underemployment, structural change of consumer (investors) habits in our societies). Do you believe that we must go back to the pre-crisis system? Our capitalist system is good, but we will never be back to the pre-crisis one (we must not....).
www.hedgeyourmind.blogspot.com
I believe that the asset management industry is locked in a vicious cycle: They keep adapting their investment models to meet their clients' expectations of performance while the clients keep changing asset managers to reflect the latest "flavor of the month" trading strategy. The process is being driven by the structural change in the market away from fundamental investment into more HFT, algorithmic and correlated investment.
"Democracy has proved only that the best way to gain power over people is to assure the people that they are ruling themselves. Once they believe that, they make wonderfully submissive slaves."
– Joseph SobranOne of my fundamental complaints about pieces like this and most all others is that they are so general as to be completely fruitless. We need incredibly basic and specific instructions for how to get from Point A to Point B (hell, we don't even look at maps anymore, we have GPS to speak to us). You have to cram it down our throats as specifically as humanly possible.
Conscious capitalism is going to, eventually, fall the same way "business ethics" does... doing right for right's sake really has no place in business decision making. This should be incredibly obvious. e.g. hiring minorities to exploit a particular market, while looking to play the part of concerned and consciencious organization.
Don't get me wrong, I like consuming it... but we basically need documents that we can pass on to people who don't want to read them... and who have no financial background... and who can understand and follow... above the noise bombardment.
So write something useful.
Create content
I actually have one planned as soon as I can get my work schedule cleared up... Going to do a case study on my city's recent spat with increasing taxes... a kind of historical perspective... who the players are, how they work to achieve an increase, what we do generally to stop/counteract, the outcome, etc. I'm sure it's all been done before, but it should be a solid look at a very specific situation and how to learn from it, even if no solutions are presented... although I suspect I will offer a few solutions. I think this is one of the most important issues for grass roots style campaigns.
I love first-hand reporting. Looking forward to reading your work.
+1
I have spent most of my, too long, adult life waging a campaign aginst the issues that plauge us (ZH'rs)today. I think Mr Krieger offers good and simple advice.
END THE FED!
We'll deal with the rest later.
Am I an old-fashioned guy? Certainly not! . Am I a maniac depressive guy? Certainly not! I strongly believe in the financial market as a source of funding for innovative companies. All the more as I strongly believe that for the next ten years the GDP growth rate (especially in the OLD Europe) will be under the potential, in a sustainable way (that is a quasi-certainty).
I strongly bet on innovation as a competitive advantage. When I was a student, the financial markets as a necessary source of funding for innovative companies was a leimotiv.
After 10 years in the financial industry as an equity fund manager in Paris, France, I'm definitely fearfull of the wind of change that our industry has faced since the TMT Crash of the early century. As an equity fund manager, our status has changed from client to counterparties in brokerage companies (ty HFT and flash trading.... and we got the MIFID 3 years ago who were designed to offer more transparency, more liquidity to our clients...). The structure of market participants has changed: more ETFs, more High Frequency Trading (which accounts for more than half of the market volume, especially on low volume days).
We fight against HFT robots and a majority of asset managers have sold their soul to the devil due to the pressure of short termism (don't fight the tape, follow the trend, the trend is your friend.........). Did they ever possess a consciousness / soul / spirit before this structural change? Why has NOT the asset management industry draw lessons from the crisis? Please, take a pause, please shake your brain.... don't underestimate the long term undergoing tendancies (demography, structural mass underemployment, structural change of consumer (investors) habits in our societies). Do you believe that we must go back to the pre-crisis system? Our capitalist system is good, but we will never be back to the pre-crisis one (we must not....).
www.hedgeyourmind.blogspot.com
we're burning korans tonight in my cul-de-sac. oh yeah... we are grilling pork loins also.
funny though... i'll be wearing my shemagh.
Overheard in 1938: Ha ha! Me and the fellows are going to break out the windows on some Jewish shops, then we'll eat some pork sausage!
Yeah, Milwaukee was a real party down kind of town before the war!
"There is nothing wrong with some limited federal government..."
That is like saying there is nothing wrong with a little cancer. We know that a little cancer won't kill you, but we also know that a little cancer spreads into a lot of cancer. Government never stays little, it is not in its nature.
Capitalism didn't work because we never had unfettered capitalism. It has always been subject to taxation and regulation of government. Corporations use donations and lobbyists to get laws passed that will restrict competition, remove barriers or provide subsidies. Corporations, as a creation of government, are going to support government growth and expansion, since they stand to benefit from the increased influence a larger government has over the market. Corporations can easily afford to send lobbyist to congress to push through a law, but if you are an individual that wants to see change, good luck trying to having an effect.
Just one of the many examples of government/corporation complicity was the scandal with Mattel and lead paint, where Mattel helped push through a new law requiring lead testing but exempted themselves from the new law. And of course only a large government could have been in a position to bail out those corporations that were about to go under do to bad business decision during our current economic down turn.
Double post
The Fourth Turning — In a Nutshell
April 28, 2009
Every 80 to 120 years (a saeculum) society goes through 4 phases. Just like the weather.
1) We have a Spring, or founding period.
2) We have a Summer, or awakening period.
3) We have a Fall, or unraveling period.
There is always a catalyst to push you from a 3rd turning to a 4th.
4) We have a Winter, or crisis period.
Now, you don’t have to take my word for it. Just go back through history, say 300 generations, or the last 3,000 years and see for yourself. It has not missed. However, for the first time in history most of the world is on the same part of the cycle at the same time.
http://thestarforum.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/the-fourth-turning-in-a-nut...
"Although in the book they expect this era of crisis-- the fourth turning-- to begin by 2005 and last untill 2025, They give leeway in saying "give or take a few years." It seems clear with present trends it is just around the corner. We are (and will be) witnessing a massive Global Realignment ..."
The Pentagon announced TODAY the formation of a new 500-man elite fighting unit called the United States Redneck Special Forces (USRSF)
These boys will be dropped off in Afghanistan and have been given only the following facts about terrorists :
1. The season opened today.
2. There is no limit.
3. They taste just like chicken.
4. They don't like beer, pickups, country music or Jesus.
5. They are directly responsible for the death of Dale Earnhardt .
The Pentagon expects the problem in Afghanistan to be over by Friday.
#uck! You're funny!!! LOL
I added the states where the boys come from (Arkansas, Texas, Alabama, etc.) to your USRSF joke and fired it off to my 26 member email joke list. Thanks for sharing!
Can't take credit, it came from a buddy. I wish I could have posted the picture that came with it, though.
It would be a lot more funny if the people over there weren't disproportionately from arkansas, texas, alabama, etc...
Mahatma on Tiger:
"He who is ever brooding over result often loses nerve in the performance of his duty.
He becomes impatient and then gives vent to anger and begins to do unworthy things;
He jumps from action to action, never remaining faithful to any."
I really can't see where any of this truly matters that much any more. I think we have only a few years at best before the paper pyramid collapses, and food becomes money. When I read some of the insane shit that goes on in the financial world, it seems like a fucking Soprano episode, only in high finance and the markets.
Today I read an article about some dirtbag that used to work for BOA being convicted of rigging municipal bond sales so as to rip off the towns, and enrich a string of cohorts. Nice! Let's jack the taxpayers again! We should be reading about the thousands ot thieving sumbags that have been arrested and tried on a multitude of criminal charges over this disaster that nearly destroyed our entire economy. Instead, we get record bonus payouts and record earnings, along with nearly perfect trading records for an entire quarter.
What the hell is going on here anyway? Did I wake up in bizarro backward world, like Marty McFly in Back To The Future?
Where are the trials? Where are the perp walks? Where are the indictments?
Is our collective memory really that short? Are they just going to let this one slide?
If you really want to get upset, read this from Bloomberg:
http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aCK.CQ4kpXSU
Tell me: How did Prince and Rubin not know?
It's not even surprising any more. How long did it take the Pecora Commission to do its work? We are running a bit behind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecora_Commission
yeah rocky i got really excited when i learned about Pecora and his commission this winter. really optimistic. bill moyer, simon johnson were all signing the blues about how this should go down in this country immediately. no go huh got shot right down and no commission. boy, back than those guys were steadfast and serious and smart and willing to risk life for truth. no more men like him around.
It may be shocking, but it is by no means new. Getting to rip off the rubes who make local finance decisions is a sweetener for the trade. Really, you think Buttswarm, Pennsylvania could find anyone willing to waste their time doing a few million for a new sewer system if they didn't get to soak the town for outrageous fees and crappy terms in the process?
While not a proponent of giving the state the power to kill me or anybody else, I have to say that it might be enjoyable to see a number of nicely coiffed heads hung up on poles around Wall Street.
It would need its own website and maybe a cable channel. Then we can all tune in and see the faces of those faceless bastards who have been screwing us faceless eaters.
Just one of my many nasty little fantasies.
Problem is, many of those heads would have to be those of Congress. That's why you won't see any incumbents rushing for hearings.
I'd give congress their own channel. That work should be done at a local level, so people can take the kids out and point at their lifeless faces in a large city or state capital nearest them.
"See that Trevor, unless you study harder in school, you could end up in politics just like that."
"No, Mommy! I promise I'll study harder from now on!!!!"
I have three pages of facts about Chuck Norris if anyone is interested?
Only 3? Chuck Norris wrote the book on facts. He kicks facts' asses just by thinking about it.
LOL
You're right, it's an entire book. just Googled it. Listed among many accomplishments was the this one, which sounds almost unbelievable -
"Chuck Norris once roundhouse kicked someone so hard that his foot broke the speed of light, went back in time, and killed Amelia Earhart while she was flying over the Pacific Ocean."
VI
Chuck Norris is so tough he refused to fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship where he would have had his azz whooped.
ROFLMAO...
PANCAKE (those abs) BITCHES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l40MCXqr0ug
Capitalism isn't an ideology. It's an economic system: a tool. It isn't the "ideology" of capitalism that's a problem here, but how ideological world-views currently much in vogue are using and manipulating our capitalist economy to their own advantage. Capitalist economies certainly have their weaknesses and modes of failure, but blaming them for ideological failures is as foolish and disingenuous as blaming a hammer for hitting your thumb. A tool is good for some things and bad for others. You need a philosophy (in the political realm, an ideology) to tell you what you should be using it for.
Foremost among the ideologies that rule the major Western economies is what, for lack of a better word, we call Liberalism. By "Liberalism" I don't mean the arbitrary party platform of some left-of-center political organization or the knee-jerk quasi-socialism so fashionable among the elites these days. Rather, Liberalism is a centuries-old philosophical/ideological stance predicated first and foremost on one thing: radical individual autonomy.
In the Liberal ideological schema, the central concern is that "the forms of social life be rooted in the self-conscious value affirmations of autonomous individuals," (from Bruce Ackerman, Social Justice and the Liberal State). By autonomous, Liberal ideological tradition means: self-created, self-chosen, self-determined, self-authored. A core ideological premise following from this is that every person should be self-authoring in action, identity, and value. The Liberal stance insists that you are whatever you choose to be.
A corollary of this position is that, for the Liberal, that which is unchosen (the given, pre-existing conditions) is of no value: an obstacle to autonomy which must therefore be somehow removed from consideration or destroyed. This is why Liberal political movements emphasize radical social, political, and economic reforms in reaction to pre-existing social/political/economic orders and tend to be highly antinomian in character.
Note that we see this ideological position permeating the platforms of every major political organization in every Western country in the world today. The fundamental premises of the Liberal ideology (emphasizing the positive modalities of self-determination, liberation, and justice) strike those of us who live in Western societies as wholly unremarkable and good, since our societies have been driven by Liberal ideology for longer than any of us have been alive (the United States itself was founded on a radical Liberal platform, which it then transfused whole and undiluted into the wreckage of much of the rest of the world following World War II). After all, we all want to be free and in control of ourselves with as few limitations on our desires and actions as possible, right?
The ubiquity of the Liberal ideology of radical autonomy in the modern era serves to hide the fundamental extremity of its program, however. What are some of the most fundamental un-chosen realities against which we are struggling in the present crisis? Here are but a few:
- The ultimate mathematical limitations inherent to debt expansion policies and ponzi schemes
- Demographic realities of chronically low birth rates in developed nations
- The unsustainability of wealth redistribution systems
- Human biological behavior determinants and structural limitations
- Physical laws which govern our technology and selves which are outside our control (e.g. energy systems)
- Objective truth
A core premise of Liberalism is that, because they are unchosen, these things are impediments to individual autonomy, and must therefore be denied and circumvented to achieve the ideal state of liberty, equality, and justice.In practice, a Liberal social order will tend to treat all of these things, and any other non-chosen limitation, as an enemy to be attacked relentlessly and without mercy. This even applies to the Liberal order itself, as its established systems themselves become givens and thus obstacles to individual autonomy, prompting paroxysms of auto-revolution and radical reform. Two great Liberal political theorists, Thomas Jefferson and Leon Trotsky, described this latter process from different perspectives as a necessary precondition for the Liberality of society being near-constant revolution.
As a political system, democracy is well-suited to accommodating and managing this need for near-perpetual civil war, and thus we find that most Liberal political orders emphasize some sort of democratic organization until a power elite can entrench its control. This, of course, leads to the next round of reformism and revolutionary fervor. All the while, the core premise of Liberalism goes entirely unchallenged.
This is the ideology at work in most of our modern world, true both on the "right" and the "left." These chiral designations in modern politics only have meaning with respect to mainstream (or "middle") thought in any case, and the mainstream in every Western society on the planet is firmly and staunchly Liberal. In all our left-right political discourse, we argue over minutiae with respect to what sort of individual autonomy we should be focusing our efforts on at the moment. On the deeper Liberal ideological principles there is a broad, unchallenged consensus.
But here's the thing: those things that limit and define us which we do not have any chosen control over (mathematical and physical realities, our biological natures, many of our culturally assimilated norms, our family relationships, etc.) encompass the majority of our lives. To deny their importance is to fundamentally impoverish our lives. To struggle against them or try to destroy them is a Quixotic enterprise doomed to failure.
Once we acknowledge this, a great deal of nonsensical behavior in the political and economic realms becomes clear. Coming back to the issue of how Liberalism is driving the manipulation of our nominally Capitalist economic system, we can see at once that the Liberal ideological program of radical individual autonomy is causing our political leadership to treat inflexible mathematical realities of debt financing schemes as irritatingly inconvenient trivialities to be safely ignored so long as we are sufficiently determined to not let them affect us in our pursuit of happineff or social justice or whatever self-authorial windmill we happen to be tilting at on the White House lawn these days. A full accounting of losses in the banking system would reveal rampant insolvency and limit our ability to spend what we want on whatever we want whenever we want? Then change the FASB mark-to-market rules to hide these inconvenient so-called "realities." Perception is reality, after all.
The capitalist engine of productivity is harnessed to the Liberal program, to sustain and facilitate this kind of widespread war on unchosen realities and enable all the pet projects of our various journeys of self-discovery and self-realization. Our capitalist economic infrastructure has allowed us to accumulate vast wealth and generate mind-boggling productivity. It's a powerful tool, no question. But the tool has been used for so long to sustain the Liberal pursuit of autonomy that it has become encumbered with a array of internal contradictions and conflicts. A Capitalist system, as an adaptive, non-directed, evolutionary, self-organizing economic system, must operate on realities: the reality of supply and demand, the reality of truth (facilitating trust and ensuring actual justice), the reality of success and failure. These realities are anathema to Liberalism, and our Liberal policies have been forcing us to use our Capitalist tool for tasks for which it is inherently unsuited. For radical individual autonomy to be our pole star:
This is the conflict between our ideology and our economic system, and it is the root cause of most of our economic problems today. Capitalism may be broken, but it's just a tool. You can break a hammer if you try to use it as a crowbar.
The hammer isn't the problem. The person using it wrong is.
Sometimes, if your only tool is a nail, every problem starts to look like a hammer.
Agreed, Capitalism needs constant evolutionary change being overseen by a system of checks and balances by representative participants of large social demograhic cross sections in order not to experience violent upheavals of financial systems and social order.
Without people giving a shit, the elite take over and promote self interest to staggerring degrees where the disparity between the haves and have nots becomes self defeating even to the elites interests.
Ultimeately, all revolution isn't abot religion or color, its about poverty against greed.