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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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Hammer or sickle?
http://video.pbs.org/video/1581037108
Just for shits and giggles:
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Why the American Empire is in remorseless decline..
On Tuesday Feb. 23, Iran announced the capture of Abdulmalek Rigi, the boss of the terror organization Jundullah, which works for NATO. The capture of Rigi represents a serious setback for the US-UK strategy of using false flag state-sponsored terrorism against Iran and Pakistan, and ultimately to sabotage China’s geopolitics of oil. The Iranians claim to have captured Rigi all by themselves, but the Pakistani ambassador to Teheran is quoted in The Dawn as claiming an important role for Pakistan. The Iranians say that Rigi was attempting to fly from Dubai to Kyrgystan, and that his plane was forced to land in Iran by Iranian interceptors. This exploit recalls Oliver North’s 1985 intercept of the accused Achille Lauro perpetrators, including Abu Abbas, forcing their Egyptian plane to land at Sigonella, Sicily. But other and perhaps more realistic versions suggest that Iran was tipped off by the Pakistanis, or even that Rigi was captured by Pakistan and delivered to the Iranians.
Jundullah, otherwise known as the Rigi organization, is a clan-based Mafia organization that has long infested the Iran-Pakistan border. The Rigis are traditionally smugglers and drug pushers of royalist persuasion, and now they have branched out into terrorism. Jundullah is mounting a Sunni rebellion against the Shiite Iranian regime in Iranian Baluchistan. They have blown up a Shiite mosque, killing 25, and managed to kill 50 in a bombing in Pishin last October, where their victims included some top commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, against which Mrs. Clinton has now declared war. There is no doubt that Jundullah is on the US payroll. This fact has been confirmed by Brian Ross of ABC News, the London Daily Telegraph, and by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker. Hersh noted that Jundullah has received some of the $400 million appropriated by the US Congress in the most recent Bush-era regime change legislation targeting Iran.
Jundullah is a key part of the US-UK strategy of fomenting ethnic and religious civil war in both Iran and Pakistan. Jundullah is a twofer in this context, since it can help destabilize both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border. Baluchistan has special importance because any oil pipeline linking Iran with China must go straight across Baluchistan. Jundullah’s false flag jihad is a means to make sure that strategic pipeline, which would help solve China’s energy problem, is never built.
There is also no doubt that Jundullah functions as an arm of NATO, a kind of irregular warfare asset similar in some ways to the KLA of Kosovo. Rigi is reported by the Iranians to have met with Jop de Hoop Scheffer when he was NATO Secretary General. Rigi has also met with various NATO generals operating in Afghanistan. Who knows — he may have met with McChrystal himself, a covert ops veteran from Iraq.
This capture comes at a moment when Baluchistan is the object of intense US-UK exertions. The current US-NATO offensive in southern Afghanistan targets Marjah and the rest of Helmand province, which directly faces Baluchistan. Many observers were puzzled when the US and NATO publicized the Marjah offensive in advance. Militarist talking heads like General Barry McCaffrey responded that the main goal of the Marjah offensive was not to destroy the Taliban, but to drive them out of the province. It was thus clear from the beginning that the real goal was to drive the Helmand Taliban fighters into Pakistani Baluchistan. Why?
A statement from the Afghan Taliban covered on the RIA Novosti web site suggests that the real goal of the US-NATO offensive in Marjah-Helmand is to attack Chinese economic interests in Pakistani Baluchistan, and especially the port of Gwadar, one of China’s largest overseas projects. If the US can push the Taliban into Pakistani Baluchistan and into the area around Gwadar, they will have a pretext for militarization – perhaps through Blackwater mercenaries, who are already operating massively in Pakistan, or perhaps through direct US military involvement in the zone. US jackboots on the ground in Baluchistan would interfere mightily with Chinese economic development plans. They would also allow the US to commandeer Gwadar as the home port of a new NATO supply line into southern Afghanistan, allowing the avoidance of the Khyber Pass bottleneck. The US could also use Baluchistan as a springboard for bigger and better terror ops into Iran, electronic surveillance of Iranian activities, and so forth.
The US and NATO had evidently planned a double envelopment of Baluchistan, with Taliban fighters from Helmand arriving from the north, while the Jundullah escalated their own activity on the ground. Now that Rigi has joined his brother in Iranian jails, Jundullah has been decapitated, and the NATO strategy has consequently been undermined. Iran has bagged a dangerous terrorist foe. Another winner is Pakistan, whereThe Dawn celebrated the capture of Rigi as “a godsend” and “a lucky break” for Pakistan. By helping Rigi to fall into Iranian hands, Pakistan may have finally found an effective way to counter the US-UK strategy, which notoriously aims at the breakup and partition of Pakistan. The coming Iranian trial of Rigi may go far towards exposing the real mechanism of terrorism in today’s world, with the CIA sitting in the dock next to Rigi.
Next post:
The Detroit Christmas bomber was deliberately and intentionally allowed to keep his US entry visa as the result of a national security override issued by an as yet unknown US intelligence or law-enforcement agency with the goal of blocking the State Department’s planned revocation of that visa. This is the result of hearings held on January 27 before the House Homeland Security Committee, and in particular of the testimony of Patrick F. Kennedy, Undersecretary of State for Management. The rickety US government official version of the December 25 Detroit underwear bomber incident, which has been jerry-built over the past month and a half, has now totally collapsed, and key elements of the terrorism-spawning rogue network inside US agencies and departments are unusually vulnerable to a determined campaign of exposure.
These developments decisively confirm the analysis offered by the present writer in a Dec. 28, 2009television interview on Russia Today.1 On that occasion, my estimate was that Mutallab was a protected patsy being used by rogue elements of the US intelligence community for the deliberate and intentional creation of a high profile incident with the goal of obtaining a large-scale political effect. On January 4, Richard Wolffe reported on the MSNBC Countdown program that the Obama White House was investigating whether the Detroit Christmas incident had been “intentionally” created by an intelligence network with an “alternative agenda.”2 It was in this report that Wolffe posed the alternative of “cock-up or conspiracy.”3 Unfortunately, Obama opted for the screw-up version on January 5.
Based on what was already known a few days after this incident, it was clear that normal screening and surveillance procedures had been scrapped and aborted in order to allow the youthful patsy Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria to board his flight from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Detroit. Mutallab’s father, a rich, well known, and reputable Nigerian banker had gone to the US Embassy in his country and formally warned a State Department official as well as a CIA representative that his son was in Yemen and in all probability consorting with terrorists. Under normal circumstances, this report alone would have been more than enough to get Mutallab’s US visa revoked in the same way he had already been denied entry to Great Britain. He also would normally have been placed on the no-fly list, thus setting up two insuperable obstacles to getting on his Detroit bound flight and winging off to produce an incident which caused several weeks of public hysteria in this country, completely with demands for body scanners in airports. In addition, the US intelligence community had reports that a Nigerian was training with the purported “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” in Yemen. Obama had called a December 22 meeting with top CIA, FBI, and DHS officials because of reports of a terrorist attack looming during the Christmas holiday.
The January 27 hearings of the House Homeland Security Committee were also addressed by Michael Leiter, the AWOL Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, along with Jane Holl Lute, the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, who was sent in place of HHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, who boycotted the hearings. But the important testimony came from Kennedy, whose responsibilities include Consular Services, and therefore visas. In his opening statement, Kennedy offered a tortured circumlocution to describe what had happened. Attempting to head off the question of why the State Department had not revoked Mutallab’s visa, Kennedy stated: Continue reading State Department Admits: Detroit Christmas Bomber Was Deliberately Allowed to Keep US Entry Visa, Board His Flight
Next:
The case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is not a matter of unconnected dots, but rather that of a protected patsy or puppet deliberately used by the US intelligence community for a Christmas Day provocation designed to facilitate US meddling in the civil war in Yemen, which is where Umar Farouk allegedly trained and was given his PETN device. Banker's son Umar Farouk had been denied an entrance visa to Great Britain and had been denounced to the US Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria as a possible terrorist by his own father in mid-November. His one-way ticket to Detroit was bought in Ghana for $2800 in cash, and he reportedly entered Nigeria illegally. In Amsterdam, he was assisted at the Northwest Airlines gate by a "well-dressed Indian" who explained that Umar Farouk had no passport. He did have PETN, the same substance supposedly used by the mentally impaired shoe bomber Richard Reid in his abortive attack of eight years ago. In spite of all this, Umar Farouk's US entry visa was never revoked, he never made it onto the no-fly list, and he was never thoroughly searched. These egregious lapses in normal procedure show that Umar Farouk was part of an orchestration sponsored by the CIA, which has now yielded 4 solid days of media hysteria. Obama has formulated his new version of the Axis of Evil, composed of Afghanistan-Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. In Yemen, a civil war pits the Saudi-backed central government against the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels, whom the US has bombed at least twice this month. The goal here is to play Iran against Saudi Arabia so as to weaken both the pro-Moscow Achmadinejad government in Iran, and also those Saudi forces that are fed up with their status as a US protectorate. The US is openly now sponsoring a regroupment of "al Qaeda" (the CIA Moslem legion) in Yemen, including by sending fighters direct from Guantanamo. The new CIA-promoted entity synthetic entity is "Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula" or AQAP, a gaggle of US patsies, dupes, and fanatics which is claiming credit for the Umar Farouk incident. The US hopes to further dominate the exit from the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, while also easing pressure on the battered US dollar by jacking up the price of oil in an atmosphere of tension on the Arabian peninsula.
Should I continue??
Yes... WAR over and Over and Over and Over Deja Vu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiDOMuhpqUo&feature=related
War is over, if you want it.
again
Behind the drama of the mind lies the peace of the soul. The mind burns for knowledge, or better, it burns during the attainment of such. The fire in the mind will ignite the soul of (wo)mankind; just as we remember all eternity with our last breathe, we will remember why we are here, and how this came to be.
clearest post, i have ever read of yours. VB
alibabaandthefo...wrote
on Thu, 09/09/2010 - 17:39#572931
http://video.pbs.org/video/1581037108
Thanks for the update. I'm aware of the Bloomberg case. I thought I heard everything - amazing stuff!
" Working in the gap between the promise and the reality."
This would be an Out Of Pocket Situation, or OOPS, as it's called in the business community.
"Smithers, we missed you at the management presentation."
"OOPS!"
Whenever I hear out of pocket, my mind wanders to an old joke. Maybe Rodney Dangerfield?
When I was a kid, my family was so poor that if it weren't for the hole in my pocket, I wouldn't have had anything to play with.
I miss Rodney!
It took me 3 reads but I got it. Funny stuff!
"The Myth of the rule of law":
http://faculty.msb.edu/hasnasj/GTWebSite/MythWeb.htm
You say you want a revolution?
Check out:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block165.html
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.
Good quote. Finally some ideology on ZH I can agree with. Looks like the Libertarians mostly avoided tackling this one on the open thread today..but there is still time.
And that's why I'm on the next saucer outta here with my family, the Grays.
barbarians...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/us/09secrets.html?_r=1
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that former prisoners of the C.I.A. could not sue over their alleged torture in overseas prisons because such a lawsuit might expose secret government information.
The suit was denied even when the plaintiffs attorneys stipulated that only public information would be utilized.
That goes to show the incredible depth of corruption and complete co-option of the rule of law in this so-called country.
.
The policy of judicial exclusion gets filled out...
Feels like a slow grind up every day.
Bears are clinging on to short positions.
And index put/call ratios skyrocket immediately when there is an intraday selloff.
Notice how there were NO BIDS in gold or bonds when the stocks sold off this afternoon.
Looks to me like a major rotation going on out of safe havens and back into risk assets.
Those who can catch the rotations vastly outperform:
Much better.
He's right. It ain't the Kentucky Derby...you CAN change horses mid-race.
Have a low tolerance for pain; if it goes down 10% then sell it all.
If it doubles, then sell half (50%) and pray it is the worst trade you ever made.
Take off the bra, Robo, and show us the breasts
Otherwise, it is as usual with you . . . .
All show and no go.
.
Thanks..
Burning the USA flag is permitted, now the pastor in Fl. has been shut down, so no Quran bbq. Capitalism is being killed by socialism. Soon ZH will lose it's investigative journalism right. Are you going to stand for this?
ZH is but a vessle. Stand on a mountain, hear yourself roar. The birds will talk to you, they know your struggles. Maybe they do not speak English but they are alive, they know pain and sorrow.
And if you drop your guard, the birds will stop talking and peck out your eyes, for they are hungry and you are alive and fresh. For even though they talk to you, they don't really like you very much because you are human and they are birds.
Yes best to talk to them!
i am pretty sure my mr squirrel knows exactly what i am. he really likes me, he can sense my every energy. he drops acorns for me, and i give him a little b_seed. we look into each others eyes. well, i guess i have two friends, me and mr squirrel.
skull & bones
freemasonry
The rothschild dynasty
Illuminati
The Masonic New World Order
http://af.reuters.com/article/metalsNews/idAFSGE68803620100909
Could THIS be the future, short term bias, of silver and gold.. hang onto your hats gents.. tread carefully, VERY carefully and let the TRUTH be your guiding light..
Strange Religion Troll with the peculiar posting history,
I have good news for you. Talked to God the other day. He said he is trying to like you.
Best,
Ms.Creant,
Demoness Extraordinaire
Okay, I'll stop being mean to you. But I am, after all, a demon so I can't help it.
A gift for you, Screwball.
You do not have to be good.You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
from Dream Work by Mary Oliver
published by Atlantic Monthly Press
© Mary Oliver
Whew. I did it. I read every single post on this board. Ah yes. Now I can finally take a...shit there's another one!
Are you implying that reading ZH acts as a laxative for some?
"Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom."
- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 6
Suffice it to say that I have been deeply moved by many things I've read here.
Why has the government not started a program to fire proof all the tall buildings in America? you would think losing 3 to fire would be motivation?
And why no protective shields around all the oil rigs in the gulf of Mexico, or the Chlorine gas tanks at every water treatment plant in every subdivision in America? I demand to be protected from terrorist!! get on it, spend some money.
Also I think Blackstone and Carlyle Group are a solid buy tomorrow.
"Gort, Klaatu barada nikto"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiRUOzJ-FrE
Clatto Verata N... Necktie... Neckturn... Nickel... It's an "N" word, it's definitely an "N" word! Clatto... Verata...N-
*cough*
For the ones predicting an exodus of people from the country -- why didn't it happen in Japan during the lost decade(s)? How is the US situation so different from Japan? Where would you go if you were to Get.Out?
Centauri Prime? I hear things are better under the new emperor.
We're all going to Mike Kreiger's place. He has been preparing for a long time. Everyone is welcome, just show up.
I demand that every Friday there be one open thread where everyone is to junk everyone else, just because. Just for the hell of it.
Junking you now as I may not get back to it in four hours. Navigating these threads without the proper data management tools gets cumbersome.
Only one junk, you call that a junk? What a bunch of wussies.
No wussies here, just a bunch of junk'n bitchez.
open thread, kernal cheat!
per B9K9's "grab":
Perhaps America will make the grab. Its seems to me that the majority of Americans hold a general world view akin to "Who cares, we'll just kick their ass!".
To all those who insist on profiting from a collapse: You are part and parcel of the problem at worst and complicit at best.
prophet wrote:
"To all those who insist on profiting from a collapse"
"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Benjamin Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence
Things didn't work out that well for me when the elevator was headed up. What's wrong with hoping for a little action just before the car crashes into the basement?
Besides, if you're not part of the problem, you'll probably be part of the elevator floor.
You are a dark creature.
Gee, thanks Ms.
We all have a skill of some kind.
I'm guessing army doc. Not my business. But you do have an edge. This is mostly good, a little, eh, sad maybe. Too much armament sometimes. But there are good reasons for these things.
No games without players and vis a vis .. does that mean that we're all part of the floor in one way or another?
"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."
Well, let's place tracking devices on the cars of the police and politicians since we do not need a warrant.
Already done, the data awaits. It reveals no more than you already know.
One of the root causes of the issues we have is that people do not adhere to the following: Individuals need to act responsibly and be proud of who they are and what they do.
There is nothing unknown to fear.
I'm on a boat!
any of you guys been affected by this 'here you have' email spam shit?
yeah it tells me to take a flu shot.
“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.
My formulation: the free market is like fire: a useful servant but a terrible master.
Most notably, our free market in political influence.
Rich people march on Washington every day - I. F. Stone
Indeed. It seems that one of free markets most admirable qualities is its capacity to clearly determine winners and losers. Unfortunately, the winners consolidate power, become inefficient and ultimately the state while the losers seek the coercive protection of the state to preclude their demise.
This is nothing new..I used to call it Nixonizing..been going on forever...Just like the Plunge Protection Team....They will not let this thing fall until the morons stop buying our paper...There is going to be a crash..just do not know when..
Ben, Ben, look out!
Hit the brake pedal.
No, the OTHER brake pedal.
sudden unintended acceleration
A Vision of Gloom and Chaos
September 09, 2010
Reuters
“Just in time for the new year, Ian Bremmer and Nouriel Roubini have delivered a 4,000-word thumbsucker on the global political economy. Essentially, they take Mohamed El-Erian’s idea of a “new normal” and start getting very specific about where and how it’s going to fall apart. And it’s hard to disagree with things like this...
http://seekingalpha.com/article/224454-a-vision-of-gloom-and-chaos
Where do I sign the petition, Tyler?
Soros spending $45 million so corporate elites can pick their own judges
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=201409
"A new report released today by the American Justice Partnership reveals that radical progressive billionaire George Soros has spent some $45 million in recent years on efforts to make sure voters have little or no say in those who are candidates to judge them.
The report, done by attorney Colleen Pero, was introduced today at an event held by the Heritage Foundation, and identified $45 million Soros, who funds a large range of left-wing action groups, spent to "remake the judiciary and fundamentally change the way judges are selected in the United States."
As Traderjoe would say...Judges Bitchez!
tyler is getting laid!
...
No Sarnuk, Tyler is probaly probaly having a few brewskys with Jim Cramer talking about going long on stocks and talking about how the Nikkei is soaring to the moon. Its ok Tyler..
Haven't you watched Fight Club? Tyler is Cramer.
Stocks Rise on Fake Stats
New York (AP) - Wall Street insiders continued to buy into markets today after more evidence was released this morning that the government will pump markets higher by any means possible, regardless of the true underlying state of the economy. While average investors without the stomach for this shit exit the markets in record numbers, those "in the know" continue to revel in the synthetic circle jerk that the financial markets have become.
Just dropped off the 5th batch of yankees in as many weeks ..Hunting, trying to learn the business, but all with the same bottom line: "How can we establish a "new office" here? All I can tell the ZH people is that people are coming here for business to stay- big time.. Texas is going as well as it was in 2008.
Let's see what is wrong here...I have a business but I have a "partner"- the federal government. This partner considers me rich and takes 50% of my profits but takes no part in the risk. In fact they create laws that add to my risk if I don't follow everyone of their rules. There are so many rules the "partner" can investigate me and take what they feel they are owed. Then this partner tells me if I want to hire more than 50 people the rules get even more serious, the burden of proof much greater. This partner spends as much borrowed money as he extorts from all his collective partners, but then wastes over half of it. Then I have a junior partner- state government who wants income from franchise taxes that take a precentage of sales regardless of profit and every year he wants more money for the property I own.
Even though my partner and junior partner take now 60% through direct and indirect taxes at the corporate level, they now want more of my net personal income so they want to raise this tax as well. They will take 2/3rd's of my income for my entire working career, then If I managed to save anything to pass on to my kids they want 55% of that as well.
The partner's logic is: "if you can still make money given the hostile rules and taxes we put forth then it is clear you are working too hard". The partner won't tell me what is in store for next year, employee mandates- taxing my employees' health care, tax rates etc. but he is counting on his cash- he has already spent any money all his partners can provide if we gave him everything.
Insanity can only last so long, my partner does not understand that- He thinks he can be biggest debitor in the world and still have a stable currency. Bad things will happen to this partner who sticks his nose in everyone's business around the world. He is not liked (except by those he speads the wealth with) at home or abroad; he is nothing but a bullying shakedown artist worse than the Mafia and his days are numbered.
Now amazingly enough this partner conned an additional $2000 from every taxpayer/ employee in this country for 4 years all based upon a "guarantee" of healthcare... I won't be surprised when my partner tells me that because I worked too hard I won't be entitled to either healthcare or social security.
The last place a person could put their savings, (not to prosper- but just to maintain against the inflation/ quantitative easing) is physical gold. Now the parnter closed that "loop hole" as well and wants his cut if I sell coins. Capital controls on foreign markets (no more than 10k in an overseas account without new reporting rules), but the national casino is a joke. Impossible to make reasonable interest on savings. No protection, no hedging. Want to expatriate?? The partner wants his cut. Congress passed the Heroes Earning Assistance and Relief Tax (HEART) Act that will give you an anal exam covering 7 years of transactions before you leave. There is no way to beat the partner unless you are uber rich with political connections- the type whose UBS account in Switzerland won't be found.
Just sick of paying so much for nothing but more obstruction and then being called greedy. This country is starting to suck worse than Europe and I know things will only get worse. I long for the collapse- I hate the worthless partner and his police state...
Home of the Free; MY ASS.
Perhaps the Seventh Flag of Texas will fly over Austin?
The FED is a private bank, who basically has an unconstitutional mandate to manage the currency of the US. Then they went and bought a bunch of bad debts to clear them from the shareholder banks, and now expect the treasury to pay them back?
Ha, I say. the FED made a bad choice, and the bank has been running the currency of the US poorly. I say fire the FED, and their bad debts are their own.
I just want to say thanks to Cognitive Dissonance. His posts made me feel so much better about the state of the economy and the banks, and the crash that is coming. He explained to me how inculcated into the FED and bankers culture I had become, until I believed that what is bad for them is bad for me, bad for the rest of the 99.9% of the population. I got de-programmed, had a paradigm shift, or whatever. The "crash" is nothing to fear for the vast majority of us. It will be our liberation. I'm no longer anxious.
yes...i'm a whore with these things...but whores make people happy :)
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B64086D4A6EDA49C
Not sure what to add to all this, except that I've published another article on my blog, on the futility of delaying post-credit-boom deleveraging through unsustainably low interest rates, the futility of delaying post-boom fiscal adjustment through unsustainably high public borrowing, and how it will lead to an eventual default on the US public debt. Happy reading.
http://keynesianfailure.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/delayed-deleveraging-meets-the-keynesian-endpoint/
1. We are witnessing the beginning of the end of the American empire. 2. "Everything is extraordinary in America, the social condition of the inhabitants as well as the laws; but the soil upon which these institutions are founded is more extraordinary than all the rest. When the earth was given to men by the Creator, the earth was inexhaustible; but men were weak and ignorant, and when they had learned to take advantage of the treasures which it contained, they already covered its surface and were soon obliged to earn by the sword an asylum for repose and freedom. Just then North America was discovered, as if it had been kept in reserve by the Deity and had just risen from beneath the waters of the Deluge." Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America 3. Having squandered the material riches we inherited as God’s bounty, it will be seen in hindsight that the zenith of America’s true prosperity occurred around the turn of the 20th century. In many respects its demarcation to a debtor could be considered the founding of the Federal Reserve in 1913, a stylized, structured and seemingly official way to get something for nothing. Its karmic debts of empire finally settled by the middle of the 21st century, America will rejoin the rank of the 8 or 10 wealthiest nations at about the mid-point of the prosperity scale. Its capital will be Omaha.
Hi Folks, just finished an article on my conversion to Libertarinism from liberal Dem, I thought it might be interesting for the readers on Zero Hedge, I would love to get your comments on the blog http://www.thecactusland.com/
Holy crap, huge fire in San Bruno CA. Gas line explosion, it seems like that's what they're saying. Many houses destroyed.
deleted - in poor taste
some more conscious reading:
Our species is NOT stronger due to science. It has instead foundered in the wreckage of a compacted, fragile, scientific existence -created largely- since the Enlightenment.
This phenomenon is truncating the potential of EVERY human life. The Enlightenment-fashioned-world is NOW beset by poisonous pollutions and systemic failures of critical systems -systems created by an overly optimistic, pragmatic culture intent on aggressively cutting a dangerous path into an ever more perilous future.
Humanity ALREADY COULD BE walking-dead -thanks to science.
http://americansjourney.blogspot.com/2010/09/don-robertson-commentary-on.html
I am amazed over and over again how stubbornly close-minded the community on this board is-especially taking an absolute US centric view. The best "religion" that we got is "capitalism" states the author. Well, then Mr. Krieger as I remember religios beliefs are demanding "absence of hankering after fruit" as Mahatma Gandhi accurately explains. But Mr. Krieger´s hypocrasy is unbelivable. It is easy for him to dash the FED - as most probably he is one of the "libertarian philosophers" earning a decent living. Maybe over $200.000 per year.
Question : what did you do personally, Mr. Krieger, to enhance the situation of one of the unemployed people in the country called US of A ?
Question to all ZH "dahers and bashers": what have you done to improve the employment situation in your homeland ? Hah ?
Before you all start moaning about the FED: one of the missions of the FED is not only to promote "price stability".
Section 2a. Monetary Policy ObjectivesThe Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee shall maintain long run growth of the monetary and credit aggregates commensurate with the economy's long run potential to increase production, so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.
MrTrader,
Your post is pompous and arrogant. How dare you assume that out of the millions of readers this web site has that NO ONE is doing anything to " improve the employment situation in your homeland."
Am I supposed to smugly answer your post with a list of all the things I have done and then join you on the other side of the line you have drawn in the sand as "superior?" Not taking your bait. There are lots of folks who do stuff.
Hell, my family alone is the major reason the local Taco Time is even open. They probably account for at least 20 jobs right here in our town.
We would do more, but somebody would eventually have to start carrying our bloated asses to and from the car.
I don't think any one family can be much more patriotic than that, without actually sending our own kids off to be killed on behalf of American business.
I'm right about you.
Great discussions!
Thank u, i found this for a long time.
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