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Guest Post: Ook And Mook Invent Money, Wealth And Taoism
Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds
Ook and Mook Invent Money, Wealth and Taoism
Demonstrating Humankind's remarkable ingenuity with financial and philosophical innovation, Non Sequitur's Stone Age geniuses Ook and Mook invent money, wealth and Taoism with only sticks and stones.
A comment left by a reader on the Non Sequitur comics site reveals that Ook and Mook also invented Wealth and Taoism:
A guy I know was so certain that we’d be in economic chaos by now that he bought a substantial amount of gold. He kept prodding me that I should be buying some as well.
I assured him that I had bought sufficient amounts of lead. If it became a significant issue, I’d be by to pick up his gold.
From The Way of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton:
For security against robbers who snatch purses, rifle luggage, and crack safes,
One must fasten all property with ropes, lock it up with locks, bolt it with bolts.
This (for property owners) is elementary good sense.
But when a strong thief comes along he picks up the whole lot,
Puts it on his back, and goes on his way with only one fear:
That ropes, locks, and bolts may give way.
Thus what the world calls good business is only a way
To gather up the loot, pack it, make it secure
In one convenient load for the more enterprising thieves.
Who is there, among those called smart,
Who does not spend his time amassing loot
For a bigger robber than himself?
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Ook and Mook are an awful lot like my sofa, which I call "Nook and Cranny".
Every time I need money for the pizza delivery I just dig through Nook and Cranny. Viola!
If you find a Stradivarius in there, it fell out of my pocket.
But Barack Obama said he was putting the economy in overdrive yesterday.....Aren't we still in reverse?
"But Barack Obama said he was putting the economy in overdrive yesterday..."
So, we're out of the ditch, driving down the road, sucking on a slurpee...excellent!
Check out the new blog by the Capital Research Institute, the Web of International Finance: http://www.capitalresearchinstitute.org
Is the US (and World) economy really recovering?
The short answer is, no. Those economists looking for a double-dip are unlikely to find one, because the economy never truly recovered in the first place. But wait, you might be asking, on television they say the economy has recovered. How can the ‘experts’ be wrong? The structural issues at the heart of the world’s problems have not been addressed or resolved, whatsoever.
To know whether the economy is healthy or not perhaps it would be wise to refresh our memories as to what the goal of the economy is, in theory, of course. The goals are:
1) full employment
2) stable prices
Right now is when you should realize that central banks all over the world have done a TERRIBLE job of fulfilling this mandate. Clearly with the ongoing financial crises we are witnessing the failing of an economic paradigm (Keynesian economic policy meets the fiat money system).
Well, of course I was being sarcastic...this is my view as well. Being the rebel I am...I refuse to use the sarcasm button. It's usually this... ;-)
I believe we are witnessing the death rattle of Keynesian economic/social policy as well...and good riddance.
As an aside, I will also refuse to honor the new world currency they are now contemplating. By their own design or by their incompetence (I choose the latter) they (governments the world over) refuse(d) to act responsibly in their fiscal/monetary policy. Those at the top of this "new and improved" currency scheme are also human...full of the same bias's and prejudices...this is where the defeated Keynesians will go...to play with this "new" toy.
A "new" currency will be no different than any other, ultimately.
I would imagine their economic and social policies will mirror what we see now. Theft & redistribution from the producers to the non-producers with them taking an ever increasing proportional cut of the action for "administrative costs".
Full faith & credit my brother...LOL.
Hello - legal tender laws.
When laws are just as debased as currencies they cease being law in any meaningful sense.
What is law if not uniformly enforced?
Hello - GM secured bond holders ;-)
More like rocking back and forth out of the mud next to a cliff.
No way. He didn't really say that, did he? Like Biden's Summer of Growth or whatever it was... lasted about 36 hours and that was pushing it.
Green shoots. Right up there.
Or comment to Who's on First the other day; "We want to sell you all sorts of things. We want to sell you airplanes, we want to sell you cars. We want to sell you software."
His speech and teleprompter writers (I assume they're of a distinctly differing caliber I mean; "What do you do for the preidnet, daddy?" "Oh, Dilbert, I'm a teleprompter script-er.") really do need to bone up on China.
They're exporting airplanes, manufacturing every and any brand of auto conceivable except the extra specials like Ferrari, Rolls and Pintos, and the bootleg the software.
Next!
"We want to sell you all sorts of things. We want to sell you airplanes, we want to sell you cars. We want to sell you software."
And Hu thought to himself - Oh goody, like we need you - Fuck we own you! and your shit breaks or freeze up.
We make quality goods, you American only afford little trinkets. Dream on Mr President
"We make quality goods, you American only afford little trinkets."
Unfortunately, that's not quite true, is it? In recent years I have bought 3 electrical appliances (desklight, heater, & something else - nothing hi-tech) which were made in China. There's a reason they're cheap - ALL turned out to be so deficient in either materials, design or quality control as to be classed as THIRD-rate. Similar to the crap the Japanese made in the 60's - synonymous with "cheap crap" - so caveat emptor.
Perhaps the chinese have learned a valuable trick from the americans:
the products they make for export do not have the same value
as the products they make to keep at home ...
Take a look - http://www.seagullwatch.eu/
As a Collector, the quality is beyond question. Only three makers can do a Flying Tourbillion and prices are stratospheric.The Swiss are resigned to the fact that they just can't make them as well and now source them. BTW - the good Gulls come with Life time warranty.
You get the trinkets because that's what you think they make.
You really need to alter your thinking. They (China) do Quality and precision better than anyone. It just not on display in Walmart.
You're exactly right. The cheap junk is made to a price point... and with Walmart's prices, what do you expect? I have a guitar that was made in China in a factory that has been making violins and cellos for over 100 years, and it is a fine instrument.
LOL...I think they've abused the phrase "hard pivot" to the point of causing national gastrointestinal distress...and...
"Did you plug the hole daddy?"
"Ummm, no Malia. Don't you remember we just got back from our ten day North Carolina vacation, Daddy's gonna get right on it after a few rounds of golf."
Open prayer...God, please deliver us from more Harvard graduates as president.
ook and mook just explained American hegemony also... Who needs gold backed dollars when you have fear backed dollars?
That's tha Chaircreature with tha club.
duuuuuude. no way.
I don't understand the concept of wealth.
a pimp who has lots of ho's
a secret recipe for fried chicken
blackmailing a judge
basically any catalyst that produces future gains
and gold is the way people store that wealth, like energy in a battery
Pure genius and so true. You have defined the income generating asset and a way to measure it./p>
Sorry, but those are not examples of wealth, but of the ability to produce an income.
Wealth is something you have now, that you didn't have before. For example, if you have a roof to sleep under, you are wealthier than when you did not. Total roofs = wealth of roofs.
If you have clothes to keep you warm, then you are wealthier than someone who does not. Total warm clothes = wealth of clothes.
Wealth is an existing store of the things we need, want and desire. Rome had massive granaries to store the annual wheat harvest. The wheat inside those granaries was the wealth of Rome (plus the roofs and clothes and wine and olive oil).
Regardless of what happens to your income, the United States is still extremely wealthy. It has roofs, clothes, shoes, roads, lamps and even food in abundance. More than the bottom 80% of the world's population put together.
To desire ever increasing income, when one is already wealthy is a type of mental illness. I think Americans would do well to ponder that.
Wealth is only wealth when it bears the claw mark of the Federal Reserve.
Most people don't. They confuse it with money.
long..
sticks
Was QE-3 just announced today ?
Looks like it
As The Wall Street Journal reports today, President Obama is planning to unveil a series of new spending plans in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100073121/barack-obama%E2%80%99s-state-of-the-union-address-could-be-a-big-government-disaster/
Yeah - the shit hit the fan. Big B probably understands 3 years down the track. Monkey got no bananas, Monkey not happy.
Judas priest - it should have been about jobs 1st not after the booze was drunk.
A bright Lot you have governing over in The US of owe
Sounds like the Japanese plan. Worked out great for them, eh?
@Mentaliusanything....
US of Owe .. priceless??
The decepticons were onto something when hoarding energon cubes. The ultimate currency.
lol, so true:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SBrcmffD84
Mook? Did anyone see mean streets?
In one of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy books some of the characters end up on pre-civilization Earth. They set up some ground rules and declare (instead of sticks or stones) leaves to be legal tender. Terrible inflation is near instantaneous so they go about de-foresting the planet in an attempt to get their monetary system under control...
" For security against robbers who snatch purses, rifle luggage, and crack safes,
One must fasten all property with ropes, lock it up with locks, bolt it with bolts.
This (for property owners) is elementary good sense.
But when a strong thief comes along he picks up the whole lot,
Puts it on his back, and goes on his way with only one fear:
That ropes, locks, and bolts may give way.
Thus what the world calls good business is only a way
To gather up the loot, pack it, make it secure
In one convenient load for the more enterprising thieves.
Who is there, among those called smart,
Who does not spend his time amassing loot
For a bigger robber than himself?"
Is someone planing a crime here? This is outrageous.
The declaration that the recession is over is the Democrats "Battleship moment". http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/larry-summers-white-house-economic-adviser-predicts-jobs/story?id=9325851
Feel free to add definitions and examples to this new phrase ready to sweep the country. Battleship moment- Declaring victory without actually resolving the issue that continues for at least one year. (Republicans Bush / ending the war. Democrats Obama / ending the recession).
Example: Vietnam was not a battleship moment, we declared victory and left.
Note: You may want to add qualifiers i.e.The longer the lag the better class of battleship.
Battleship moments currently happening.
Obama's voter approval rises back above 50 percent.
Intel posts record profits.
Apple CEO declares himself the most creative person on the planet with only a few million buttfucked alter boys.
Blythe Masters denies she is getting her ass completely and utterly beaten into a frog in the well. Where she looks up at the sky and sees a tiny round circle of sky from the bottom of the well and thinks it's the ENTIRE universe.
RoboTroll declaring victory day after day after day like a horse with blinders on.
Taoism???
http://theopeningrange.blogspot.com/