This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Guest Post: The Age of Mammon
Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform
The Age of Mammon
“Financiers – like bank robbers – do
not create wealth. They merely distribute it. While the mob may idolize
holdup men in good times, in the bad times it lynches them. What they
will do to the new money men when their blood is up, we wait eagerly to
find out.” - Mobs, Messiahs and Markets
As our economy hurtles towards its meeting with destiny, the
political class seeks to assign blame on their enemies for this Greater
Depression. The Republicans would like you to believe that Bill Clinton,
Robert Rubin, Chris Dodd, and Barney Frank and their Community Reinvest
Act caused the collapse of our financial system. Democrats want you to
believe that George Bush and his band of unregulated free market
capitalists created a financial disaster of epic proportions. The
truth is that America has been captured by a financial class that makes
no distinction between parties. These barbarians have sucked the life
out of a once productive nation by raping and pillaging with
impunity while enriching only them. They live in 20,000 square foot $10
million mansions in Greenwich, CT and in $3 million dollar penthouses on
Central Park West.
These are the robber barons that represent the Age of Mammon.
The greed, avarice, gluttony and acute materialism of these American
traitors has not been seen in this country since the 1920′s. The hedge
fund managers and Wall Street bank executives that occupy the mansions
and penthouses evidently don’t find much time to read the bible in their
downtime from raping and pillaging the wealth of the middle class.
There are cocktail parties and $5,000 a plate political “fundraisers” to
attend. You can’t be cheap when buying off your protection in
Washington DC.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break
through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break
through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and
love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and Mammon. – Matthew 6:19-21,24
It seems that Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, may have
been overstating the case in saying his firm doing God’s work. With his
$67.9 million compensation in 2007 and payment of $20.2 billion to his
co-conspirators, Blankfein appears to be a proverbial camel trying to
pass through the eye of a needle. This compensation was paid in the year
before the financial collapse brought on by the criminal actions of
Lloyd and his fellow henchmen. After having his firm bailed out by the
American middle class taxpayer at the behest of his fellow Goldman
alumni Hank Paulson, Lloyd practiced his version of austerity by cutting
compensation for his flock to only $16.2 billion ($500,000 per
employee) in 2009. I’m all for people making as much money as they can
for doing a good job. But, I ask you – What benefits have Goldman Sachs,
the other Wall Street banks, and hedge funds provided for America?
Never have so few, done so little, and made so much, while screwing so many.
In 2005, the top 25 hedge fund managers “earned” $9 billion, or an
average of $360 million. One year after a financial collapse caused by
the financial innovations peddled by Wall Street, the top 25 hedge fund
managers paid themselves $25 billion, or an average of $1 billion a
piece. For some perspective, there were 7 million unemployed Americans
in 2006. Today there are 14.6 million unemployed Americans. While the
country plunges deeper into Depression, the barbarians pick up the pace
of their plundering and looting of the remaining wealth of the nation.
Bill Bonner and Lila Rajiva pointed out a basic truth in 2007, before
the financial collapse.
“On the Forbes list of rich people, you will find hedge fund
managers in droves, but no one who made his money as a hedge fund
client.” - Mobs, Messiahs and Markets
Ask the clients of Bernie Madoff how they are doing.
1920′s Redux
The parallels between the period leading up to the Great Depression
and our current situation leading to a Greater Depression are revealing.
When you examine the facts without looking through the prism of party
politics it becomes clear that when the wealth and power of the country
are overly concentrated in the clutches of the top 1% wealthiest
Americans, financial collapse and depression follow. This concentration
of income and wealth did not cause the Stock Market Crash of 1929 or the
financial system implosion in 2008, but they were a symptom of a sick
system of warped incentives. The top 1% of income earners were raking in
24% of all the income in America in 1928. After World War II until
1980, the top 1% of income earners consistently took home between 9% and
11% of all income in the country. During the 1950′s and 1960′s when
Americans made tremendous strides in their standard of living, the top
1% were earning 10% of all income. A hard working high school graduate
could rise into the middle class, owning a home and a car.
From 1980 onward, the top 1% wealthiest Americans have progressively
taken home a greater and greater percentage of all income. It peaked at
22% in 1999 at the height of the internet scam. Wall Street peddled IPOs
of worthless companies to delusional investors and siphoned off
billions in fees and profits. The rich cut back on their embezzling of
our national wealth for a year and then resumed despoiling our economic
system by taking advantage of the Federal Reserve created housing boom.
By 2007, the top 1% again was taking home 24% of the national income,
just as they did in 1928. When the wealth of the country is captured by a
small group of ruling elite through fraudulent means, collapse and
crisis becomes imminent. We have experienced the collapse, while the
crisis deepens.
It’s Good To Be the King
The Wall Street oligarchs were able to accumulate an ever increasing
portion of corporate profits by inventing securitization, interest-rate
swaps, and credit-default swaps which swelled the volume of
transactions that bankers could make money on. These products were
originally introduced as a means for corporations to hedge their risks.
Wall Street shysters chose to use their “creative” financial products to
build the biggest gambling casino in the history of the world. They
functioned as the house, siphoning off billions in profits, but then got
caught up in the hysteria and placed billions of bets themselves. This
resulted in the financial industry generating 41% of all business
profits in 2007. From World War II through 1980, financial industry
profits ranged between 10% and 15%. Simon Johnson explains the despicable hijacking that has taken place since then.
From 1973 to 1985, the financial
sector never earned more than 16 percent of domestic corporate profits.
In 1986, that figure reached 19 percent. In the 1990s, it oscillated
between 21 percent and 30 percent, higher than it had ever been in the
postwar period. This decade, it reached 41 percent. Pay rose just as
dramatically. From 1948 to 1982, average compensation in the financial
sector ranged between 99 percent and 108 percent of the average for all
domestic private industries. From 1983, it shot upward, reaching 181
percent in 2007. 
The original robber barons amassed huge personal fortunes,
typically through the use of anti-competitive business practices. These
well known titans of industry included Henry Ford, Andrew Carnage, John
D. Rockefeller, and JP Morgan. They may have practiced questionable
business ethics, but they did create wealth while benefitting the
country as a whole. They introduced the automobile, provided the nation
with steel, produced the oil that powered our economy, and brought order
to industrial chaos of the day. It seems their fortunes were built by
creating rather than destroying.
The disgustingly rich Wall Street wheeler dealers who live in
Greenwich CT and NYC and summer in the Hamptons have created nothing.
Their immense wealth has been created through draining the economic
system of its lifeblood. Their financial innovations have created no
lasting benefit for our society. Wall Street knowingly created no
documentation (liar loans) mortgage loans, Option ARM loans, and
subprime loans. You do not create products that beg for fraud unless you
want fraud. The packaging of these fraudulent mortgages into CDOs and
CDSs by Wall Street’s crime machine benefitted Wall Street only. Those
who got the loans defaulted, lost the homes, and had their credit
ruined. Wall Street financiers have lured the American public into debt
with easy credit and a marketing machine geared to convince the average
Joe that he could live just like the rich. Simon Johnson explained the phenomena in a recent article.
“Excessive consumer debt is an
outcome of prolonged inequality – in trying to remain middle class, too
many people borrowed too much, while unscrupulous lenders were only too
willing to take advantage of such people.”
outcome of prolonged inequality – in trying to remain middle class, too
many people borrowed too much, while unscrupulous lenders were only too
willing to take advantage of such people.”
You Call This Capitalism?
Capitalism is supposed to be an economic system in which the means of
production and distribution are privately owned and operated for
profit; decisions regarding supply, demand, price, distribution, and
investments are not made by the government; Profit is distributed to
owners who invest in businesses, and wages are paid to workers employed
by businesses. The American economy is in no way a free market
capitalistic system. It has become a oligarchic consumer capitalist
society that is manipulated, in a deliberate and coordinated way, on a
very large scale, through mass-marketing techniques, to the advantage of
Wall Street and mega-corporations.
When you hear the Wall Street class on CNBC argue against tax
increases for the rich, they hark to the fact that small businesses
would be hurt most by the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. There are 6
million small businesses in the US, with 90% of them employing less than
20 employees. These are not the rich. The vast majority of these
businesses earn less than $1 million per year. There are only about
134,000 people in America who make on average $2.5 million per year.
There are another 600,000 people who make on average $760,000 per year.
Out of a workforce of 150 million, less than 1 million rake in over
$750,000 per year. These are not small businesses. They are the Wall
Street elite, corporate CEOs and the privileged classes that control the
power in NYC and Washington DC.
The following charts clearly show that perverse incentives in the US
financial system have allowed corporate executives to reap ungodly pay
packages, while the middle class workers who do the day after day heavy
lifting in corporations have been treated like dogs. Considering the
S&P 500, which measures the stock returns of the 500 largest
companies in the U.S., has returned 0% for the last 12 years, the CEOs
of these companies would slightly embarrassed paying themselves 300
times as much as their average workers. Not in the age of mammon. Big
time CEOs are rock stars. Outrageous pay packages are a medal of honor
in a world where humility and honor don’t exist.
The Depression that currently is engulfing the nation was 30 years in
the making. The criminal Wall Street financiers are the modern day John
Dilingers. They have mastered the art of stealing from the masses while
convincing these same people that they should admire them because they
are rich. This is the oddity about Americans as pointed out by Bill
Bonner and Lila Rajiva.
“The poor genuinely believe the rich
are better than they are. They are smarter and better educated. The poor
even support low tax rates for the rich, as long as they have a lurking
chance of joining them.” - Mobs, Messiahs and Markets
The truth is that the poor have no chance of joining the the rich.
The game is rigged. The poor have admired the rich for decades. But,
hard times have arrived. And they are about to get harder. The rich have
armed guards to keep the poor at bay. They will need an army of guards
before this crisis subsides.
Leonard Cohen sums it up perfectly in his song Everybody Knows:
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
»
- 37342 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Relax, everything will soon be OK...
"Anton Kreil, who starred as the portfolio manager in the BBC Two programme that gave eight members of the public $1m (£640,000) to run their own hedge fund, has set up a training business, called the "Anton Kreil Institute of Trading and Portfolio Management", to give students and private investors an insight into the complex world of share trading.
The school is aimed at helping its students gain an insight into how the top 5pc of City traders make real money." - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/7970715/Star-trader-Kreil-to-share-his-million-dollar-tips.html
http://www.antonkreil.com/category/institute-of-trading-and-portfolio-management/
The HFT lessons should be good fun.
Populist trash. Posts like this degrade ZeroHedge
I had no idea there were so many whiney Socialists reading ZH. Their sense of entitlement is amazing; just because the received a degree they think they are deserving? Look, I received a degree in mech. engineering from a podunk school and had to lower my expectations to work at a company where I knew there was a future. I started out as a service tech, but I worked my ass off and volunteered for the longest worst jobs in horrible countries. Seeing the the conditions in the rest of the world only pushed me harder. Soon if there were problems, I was the one the engineers turned to for answers; but I never became an engineer there. When it was time go I knew I could start my own business and never had a doubt I could be successful. If your are truly good you start your own business and do it. If you want to complain and protest your worth- you are finished, get out of the workforce. I guess these whimps need to really hit bottom before they take a job that is "beneath them". I went to shitty countries young, and realized how good things are here; you fools will sit on your asses until this country is shit and then it will be too late. 99 weeks of unemployment??? Who besides the government would hire such a loser who sat on their ass and whined like a Katrina victim?? If you want to solve this- take away those benefits and make these losers go to their families for hand outs. Nothing like family confronting you about being a loser to inspire motivation. A little harder to whine to people who know all you need is a good kick in the ass.
zh is a veritable orgy of whiners, you know the type, the one person at school or in the office who when you ask them how they are reply, downcast, "oh, alright I guess."
They aren't hoping for a crash to clean out the mess and start over to build again, they just hope for a crash to bring others down to their level.
What they don't realize is that the 'elite' (anyone who has earned a good living apparently, if it wasn't earned by manual labour but by using their brain instead) are elite for a reason.
Elites will learn to adapt and do well in any scenario.
Then there are the few who also realize this, and so want to kill everyone.
The upside is, there are some good posts with up to date news on potential warning signs.
I suggest you construct a post that you feel is appropriate for your fellow ZHers.
Create content
The Harvard Princeton Yale Club....
Once in...you get a shot at being in the 1% of the US population that controls the same level of wealth that 90% of US population has....
Sound fair ?????
Tell me, what are the chances the Dems pull the plug and turn their back on Wall Street?
Yes, I agree, WS would shut down the banking system and mayhem would follow.
But if the Dems want to have power to govern that would be the only option open to them, no?
Eeehhh, sorry, that ...and war.
That train left Barry Obama station the day he signed-on to the Bush bailouts - before he was even elected.
Some call it Babylon. Politricks, I say.
Sorry Lenny Cohen, but you suck as a singer. Everybody knows that Don Hensley's remake of Everybody knows is a much better rendition. http://www.amazon.com/Actual-Miles-Henleys-Greatest-Hits/dp/B000000OUU/r...
This could all be solved quite easily, were there the desire to do so. For instance, below is A modest proposal by Professor Emeritus Richard Wolff, published under the title "Economic Recovery for the Few" @ http://www.rdwolff.com/content/economic-recovery-few
Now, of course the mere mention of such a possibility will ignite howls of interference with the sacrosanct free market, and outrage at the suggestion of such a violation of property rights, and general wailing and crying.
This is to be expected. And the proposal itself is, of course, beyond the wildest possible politically feasible solution.
It's a non-starter. Instead, we shall punish the innocent, and reward the guilty with absolute dominion over those whose lives and country they have ruined. The predators will rule like gods over the sheep, and the republic will be consigned to the dustbin of history.
Where is this elusive recovery? The banks, some say, have "recovered." Yet they remain dependent on Washington, they do not make the loans needed for a general recovery, and many medium and small banks keep collapsing. The stock market shows no recovery. The Dow index was 14,000 in late 2007 when capitalism hit the fan, and it is around 10,000 now. The Nasdaq market index was 2800 then and is 2300 now. Everywhere else -- unemployment, foreclosures, bankruptcies, depressed housing market, and so on -- no recovery in sight. Yet, my search finally found genuine recovery for one group, and its recovery offers a better policy to treat this crisis.
Every year, two major companies catering to rich investors co-author a survey of their clients. Capgemini and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management's World Wealth Report covers the two groups that interest them: High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) and Ultra-High Net Worth Individuals (Ultra-HNWIs). The first group counts all individuals with at least $1 million of "investible assets" in addition to the values of their primary residence, art works, collectibles, etc. The second group includes individuals with at least $30 million of such investible assets.
Their latest Report, covering the year 2009, finds 10 million HNWIs in the world that year: 3.1 million in North America, while Europe and Asia-Pacific each had 3.0 million. The rest of the world had a mere 0.9 million of the rich and richer.
The 10 million HNWIs -- in a global population of 6.8 billion in 2009 -- amounted to 0.14 per cent of the earth's people. Together, they owned a total of $39 trillion in "investible assets." To see what this means: in 2009, the US GDP (total output of goods and services) was $14.6 trillion. The combined GDPs of the world's 9 richest countries(US, Japan, China, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, and Spain) totaled less in 2009 than the investible assets of the world's HNWIs.
During 2009, as tens of millions lost their jobs, the number of HNWIs rose by 17.1 per cent and their combined wealth rose by 18.9 per cent. They had a genuine "recovery." HNWIs regained in wealth most of what they lost in 2008. No wonder they celebrate "recovery" while the rest of the world wonders (or rages at) what they are talking about. In the US, for example, the HNWI population grew by 16.6 per cent in 2009 while the US GDP fell by 2.4 per cent.
Only 1 per cent of all HNWIs were Ultra-HNWIs, but what a group that was and is. Ultra-HNWIs alone owned 35.5 per cent of the $39 trillion owned by all 10 million HNWIs. And they recovered more during 2009 than their fellow HNWIs.
Capitalism is the name of the global economic system that delivers the outcomes summarized in these numbers. Capitalism produces "recovery" for those who need it least while offering austerity for nearly everyone else. Today's business and political leaders tell the people of all advanced industrial countries that there is no alternative to years of government budget austerity (raised taxes and/or reduced government employment and services).
They don't explain that they could tap instead the immense wealth of the richest 0.14 per cent who (a) made huge gains in wealth over the last 25 years, and (b) already recovered in 2009 what they had lost in 2008.
What notions of fairness, decency, ethics, or democracy could justify such economic performance, especially in a time of global economic crisis? Recall as well that these same rich and richer people contributed so significantly (as industrial employers, bankers, and investors) to generating that global economic crisis.
Let's now concentrate on the HNWIs in just the US (including its Ultra-HNWIs). They numbered 2.9 million in 2009: well under 1 per cent of US citizens. Their investible assets totaled $12.09 trillion. For 2009, the total US budgetary deficit was $1.7 trillion. Had the US government levied an economic emergency tax of a modest 15 per cent on only the HNWI's investible assets, it could have erased its entire 2009 deficit. Over 99 per cent of US citizens would have been exempted from that tax.
The European, Japanese, and other governments could have treated the crisis likewise in their countries. Then governments would not have had to borrow trillions. They would instead have taxed the super rich tiny minority a small portion of its immense wealth. Those governments would not then have had to turn to lenders (often those same super rich). There would be no current "sovereign debt crisis" in Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, etc., and no need for the resulting austerities to satisfy those lenders. Republicans would have no "deficit, deficit" drum to beat hoping for election-day gains.
Taxing the HNWIs and Ultra-HNWIs would be the policy of governments responsive to the needs of their working-class majorities instead of their rich and super-rich patrons. Austerity is not the only policy. Modestly taxing the wealth of HNWIs is the far better policy choice. The two wealth management companies that cater to HNWIs have kindly provided us all with the facts and figures needed to support the better policy.
Across Europe, coalitions of trade unions, socialist, communist, and some green parties, and many social, religious, and community organizations are organizing growing mass demonstrations and general strikes. These oppose austerity and demand alternative ways to deal with economic crisis. In France, mobilization focuses on a nationwide general strike September 7. Plans are underway for an all-European day of public actions on September 29. National actions like this have already happened in Greece, Portugal, and other countries.
The business and political leaders generated by the last 30 years of neoliberal capitalism simply assumed that they could impose the costs of their crisis on their countries' people. That assumption is now being contested. The European people are beginning to fight back. And here, in the USA?
Capitalism is the name of the global economic system that delivers the outcomes summarized in these numbers.
When you start your "analysis" from such a ludicrous premise the ensuing lunacy is to be expected, I suppose.
Here's the problem - the U.S. has a structural deficit of about $1T, so for your "tax the rich" scheme to work you would have to take 15% of the Ultra-wealthy's wealth every single year. Do you really think they would sit around and take it year after year? No, they would bug out as fast as they could taking their wealth to more friendly countries.
Think of it as a claw back. Kinda like the gov't saying, "Ooops, our policies allowed you to be overpaid a tad there." After enough of being clawed-back to death there would be some reforms. Like maybe some sort of way to hide the wealth. I think Greece has some experience we could tap to reach that end. Those who don't get covers for their swimming pools or register their yachts in small Caribbean countries don't deserve to keep their spoils!
There is no doubt that the stratification of classes is more prevelant in the recent past in the US. Two comments: (i) historically, you need to look further in the past; and, (ii) it is ironic that there are so many "libertarian" thinkers and commentators on these pages, yet the group-think seems to be to rail against enterprise - fair or unfair - highly (overly) or not compensated. That really makes it easy to feel victimized by the "evil" bankers. That is just the mental equivalent of curling up in a fetal position. Unless you all want to be living in a more socialistic state like Germany, Britain or France (nothing wrong with this, mind you...), then you may want to consider that historically, the disparities between the top and bottom are not so wide now to be out of range (look it up) and if you are truly interested in limited government then let people earn what they can - absent fraud. We have a lot of laws that prevent fraudulent behaviour (except with the government sanctions it or participates). Sure, respond agrily...
The US mirrors the world in wealth distribution. And, yes, todays stratification is it is not out of line historically. All wealth structures pull wealth from the periphery towards the center. Which is why we get a pyramid structure with wealth concentrated at the top and "wealth conveyors" pulling wealth towards the center. Debt markets are a good example of "wealth conveyors" . The US is the center of the global economic structure, so it gets wealth conveyed to it in the form of resource extraction via globalization and sophisticated forms financialization.
Now is about the time in history when these wealth conveyors start to break down. As time goes on, we should see an increased number of failed states globally and underclass internally. As the periphery gets stripped of all it's wealth, the elite will move further up the pyramid via public policy to maintain their privileged positions and levels of wealth extraction as well as increased fighting over resource deposits on a global scale. This really can't be stopped and what we are witnessing is the elite using their political power not to lose their god-given share. As time goes on, and the wealth pie shrinks, even they will start to turn on each other as their is not enough to go around. I should be quite a show.
(1) knowingly using forged or altered bills of exchange, promissory notes or cheques;
(2) knowingly using invalidated bills of exchange, promissory notes or cheques;
(3) illegally using another's bills of exchange, promissory notes or cheques;
(4) signing and issuing a rubber cheque or a cheque, on which the seal is not in conformity with the reserved specimen seal, in order to defraud money or property; or
(5) signing or issuing bills of exchange or promissory notes without funds as a guaranty, in the capacity of a drawer, falsely specifying the particulars thereon at the time of issue, in order to defraud money or property.
(1) using a forged or altered letter of credit or any of its attached bills or documents;
(2) using an invalidated letter of credit;
(3) fraudulently obtaining a letter of credit; or
(4) in any other ways.
... AND if the amount involved is especially huge, and especially heavy losses are caused to the interests of the State and the people.
And they mean it, too.
...would turn the Hamptons into a ghost town...even during the dog days of summer.
There will NEVER be ANY sort of offical investigation/prosecution of these this elite class of banksters/lobbyists.speculators that ran the Republic into the ground like Soros did with Asia in the 1990's. There is no Truth and Reconcillation Committee. Everyone knows it. There wasn't after the First Great Depression, or the Second. The few with much to lose have already left the country - hanging their shingle in Dubai, or some other gelded monarchy, waiting for the statue of limitations to run or to avoid another half-assed subpoena, to dance a fantasy that more consulting to make/trade debt paper is a possitive impact for society. Everyone knows its a farce.
It is most regrettable that as the real economy decouples from the Central Bank fantasy of bailing out wholesale Patrician waggering; people - Citizens, cold from the Winter, dreadful of their children's ruined future, starved for Justice will bizarrely act out of rage on those perceived un-punished criminals.
A saw a t-shirt yesterday. It said, "Kill the Rich."
That's a little gauche. I prefer the 1970s expression of the same sentiment - "Eat the Rich."
It's time the American people stood up and took responsibility for their part in supporting there own exploitation. In their attempts to avoid footing the bill for outrageous spending, they have demanded lower taxes, lower interest rates and suported wasteful and immoral foreign wars. Start by changing yourselves.
Know what the pivot point was for Wall Street?
The 401(k) laws that went into effect January 1, 1980.
That was the biggest, bestest bailout Wall Street ever got. For thirty years now, Americans have been throwing money at Wall Street and the biggest joke in the world is those "investments" have underperformed inflation and you still owe taxes on ALL of it (initial investment plus gain). This means inflation adjusted losses of more than 20%.
And we're going to re-load this trade?
Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
~Einstein
"It has become a oligarchic consumer capitalist society that is manipulated, in a deliberate and coordinated way, on a very large scale, through mass-marketing techniques, to the advantage of Wall Street and mega-corporations."
"They are the Wall Street elite, corporate CEOs and the privileged classes that control the power in NYC and Washington DC."
I don't disagree with main tenets of this piece. These people are criminal traitors and they and their protectors need to be punished. I disagree with calling it a form capitalism. I'm not fond of the term "crony capitalism" and its variants, because I think it muddies the water, contributes nothing to communication and permits propagandistic spin and confusion. It should be called what it is - mercantilism. An elite is benefitting and they beleive in big government to cover their actions, provide protection, propagandize, confuse and fail to properly inform the citizenry, and maintain control nationally and globally (stormtroopers). This ain't new folks. We've been at war with this impulse since the founding of the nation and we've been in the clutches of "big government" PTB for about 150 years - protosocialism and increasingly globalist socialism (progressivism). Leonard Cohen needs to ask "Which war?". Where is a jack hammer when you really need one? This shit needs to end and soon. We need real live laissez faire to re-center, determine real value and rebuild wealth. I suggest Austrian School economics.
I'm outa here. Call me when it's over.
P.S. Faith has no place in discussions of markets, law, economics, or finance.
One guess who decided that only Gold and Silver are money, that fiat currency is an abomination and the other rules of economics. Economic rules that are as finely and carefully balanced as the fundamental forces of the universe.
Wow! What a junkfest!
Is that a president on that $100 bill, or your deity?
I'm reminded of the Blood Sweat and Tears Song.
It seems to be a common philosophy around here...
"I swear there ain't no heaven and pray there ain't no hell"
Whether in bed or on a pike, all psychopaths die uneasy!
Morality and religion are difficult to separate, but the
laws of cause and effect keep working.
We know what SHOULD happhen, but exactly what WILL happen? - NOTHING!
Let's just leave the oligarchs alone and enjoy some good dancin.
I hope they rot. There are plenty of high paying engineering jobs. They are malingering pussies. Jobs don't meet their self-worth?? I wouldn't hire anyone who did nothing for 6 months aftering graduating- fricken flakes, it is not gonna get easier.
invicta watches|640-816|JN0-101|pandora beads
Once a time long ago common people endured 6 to 9 months walk to get to these great western lands. The ones of good stock that survived the trip are able to make do with what they have and they have done well.ccie 350-001 ccna 640-802 mcitp 70-680 mcitp 70-640 ccnp 642-813 ccnp 642-902 icnd 640-822 mcitp 70-642 mcts 70-662 security+ sy0-201 mcts 70-649 icnd 640-816
This is a great post. you got cheap handbags online .I like cheap designer handbags as well give you designer handbags outlet
In other words, the very banks that Europe is bailing out are betting more and more aggressively with each passing day against Europe's own survival! Even George Soros has shed a tear of pride in how beautifully his initial plan to take on the BOE has mutated for the Bailout Generation. testking CGEIT
testking CISA
testking CISM
testking CISSP
testking SSCP
testking BH0-006
testking JN0-101
testking JN0-332
testking JN0-343
testking JN0-360
testking JN0-532
testking 117-101
That explains a lot, thanks Tyler, that's one of the most interesting pieces I've read recently on ZH or elsewhere. From that you can pretty much see the character of the next criris as the moral hazard and imbalances are still there.That explains a lot, thanks Tyler, that's one of the most interesting pieces I've read recently on ZH or elsewhere. From that you can pretty much see the character of the next criris as the moral hazard and imbalances are still there000-977 \ 640-816 \ 70-432 \ 70-652 \ 70-433 \ 642-642 \ FCNSP \ 640-461 \ 70-448 \ 70-450 \ 70-686 \ 646-230
In a way, I admire the elites, the movers & shakers, the oligarchs, the rapers & pillagers, the robber barons, the shysters - I mean THEY'RE JUST GOING FOR IT!!! No restraint, no morals, no compassion, no regrets!! Just full-on, full throttle, totally & completely selfish with only ME! as a reference point!ccna wireless exam questions
ccnp exam questions
ccnp security exam questions
pass 4 sure
ccnp voice exam questions
ccnp wireless exam questions
ccsp exam questions
cisco exam questions
cissp exam questions
citrix exam questions
comptia exam questions
cwna exam questions
The absolute funniest part of this whole thing is watching the pols scramble to try to manage the economy, which is, of course, impossible. What is revealing about it is this: they still have their heads stuck firmly in the old paradigm, the one they grew up with, inculcated in them by Greenspan, that the Fed has always got their backs, that the system can go on forever based on lies and borrowed money scbcd braindumps/scmad braindumps/VCP-410 dumps/350-001 dumps/640-802 dumps/SY0-301 dumps/70-680 dumps/642-813 dumps/350-030 dumps/642-902 dumps