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The Last Resort Of A Dying Economic System: From "Beggar Thy Neighbor" To "Beggar Thyself"
The phrase of the week comes from The Privateer's Bill Buckler, who has coined the one term that best describes the lunacy that has gripped the world: "Beggar Thyself." Unlike the 1930s when the theme of the day was "beggar thy neighbor" and which culminated in World War 2, this time the emerging paradigm is one in which the first to defect wins... if only for a few seconds. Because when the "beggar thyself" process is complete, it will mark the end of not only the central banking regime, and the days of excess wealth accrual to the financiers of the world, but also the termination of the 140 year old Bismarckian "welfare state" which is the primary culprit for the creation of trillions of imaginary wealth out of thin paper. When the fiat system ends, so will end the hallucination that developed societies are capable of providing for their hundreds of millions of existing and future retirees. And with that will come the "social instability" that always marks the closure of a failed monetary regime and the admission of global bankruptcy.
From the October 17th edition of Bill Buckler's Privateer:
What Other Choice Is There??:
In the hundreds of articles appearing in the mainstream financial press all over the world and especially the English-speaking world, one headline stood out. It was this - “Currency wars are necessary if all else fails”. The headline appeared in the October 11 edition of the UK Telegraph.
The contents of the article are not germane. What is germane is the naked contention that the nation or nations which will emerge the “strongest” from the current financial malaise is the nation or nations which succeed in devaluing their currency faster than any other. Only in that way can the “currency wars” be won. If these “wars” develop further, they will become a race to see who can come up with a worthless currency faster than anybody else. The 1930s coined the phrase “beggar thy neighbour”. Today, the financial potentates have gone one better. They are working on a “beggar thyself” policy.
Co-operative debt-based stimulus didn’t “work” and neither have “austerity” programs, according to the IMF. Their “World Economic Outlook” comes to the conclusion that the world can neither “stimulate” its way out of the current GFC nor get there via “austerity” programs. And it isn’t too sanguine on the prospects of currency wars either. As the IMF report noted: “Not all countries can reduce the value of their currency and increase net exports at the same time”. After all, they tried that in the 1930s. The only thing that “saved the day” then was a REAL war, not one on the foreign exchanges.
But still, the global financial potentates keep thrashing around inside their own context looking frantically for a way to overcome their plight. As they want the citizens of the nations they “represent” to see it, they have no choice. If they for one second admitted that the entire system as it is presently constituted is deficient by its very nature, they would instantly have the “social instability” they are warning us against.
In other words, with each passing day the fraud that is the concept of Bismarckian social cohesion and stability, brought to you by a hundred years of central banker subjugation, like a putrid onion, loses layer after layer of its mask, until soon the entire world will see behind the lie. The resultant explosion in pent up decades of anger could easily make all prior conflicts seem tame in comparison. Hopefully it can be avoided. But for that to happen, the fate of the dollar as the reserve currency must and will end. Buckler again:
The “Game” Explained:
On October 12, the minutes of the FOMC’s most recent meeting (on September 21) were released for scrutiny. The gist of these “deliberations” are contained in one sentence - “Policy-makers had a sense that (more) accommodation may be appropriate before long.” This is the expectation on which the world has been basing its investment decisions ever since that September 21 meeting.
The reaction to the release of these minutes was by no means confined to the US. An excellent example of this is a quote from Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega. For weeks, Mr Mantega has been maintaining (quite rightly) that the world is already in a currency war. This is what he had to say about the US central bank - “The Federal Reserve is promising quantitative easing, which is monetary policy’slast resort. I don’t think it will reactivate the economy, but it will weaken the Dollar.”
This is more than “monetary policy’s last resort”. It is Ben Bernanke’s “helicopter money” scenario writ large. The US central bank proposes to use the Federal Reserve notes it creates out of thin air to “buy” the debt of the US government which the Treasury creates out of thin air. This is the last gasp of a monetary “system” which is as far from sane and historically sound money as it is possible to get. Not only is it doomed to failure, it will doom the US Dollar if it is put into practice to any substantial extent.
Since the US Dollar remains the premier global reserve currency, that will leave the rest of the world with absolutely no choice but to institute radical changes to the money which underpins everything. In the modern sense of the term, there can be no markets without a viable money. The Fed is on a path which will remove the money. The markets can only then survive with a different, and better, underpinning.
What are the alternatives? These should seem obvious.
[The BRIC nations] rank first, second, fifth and ninth in terms of world population. Two of them, China and India, are the two most populous nations on earth with almost 37 percent of the global population between them. The BRIC nations are often singled out as the coming global economic powerhouse, the nations which are and will increasingly drive world economic “growth” in future. In recent surveys done in the US, they were seen as being a better investment bet than is the US itself.
The majority of the “ordinary” people in ALL these nations, but in India and China in particular, are still living in a coin economy. They still conduct their transactions the way the whole world did until the 1920s or 1930s and the way that all but the richest nations (the US and Canada in particular) did until the mid 1960s. Coined money is not a nuisance to these literally billions of people, it remains money itself.
The history of indirect exchange developed in two main stages. First came a steady narrowing down of the physical economic goods which were seen as having the utility to be a medium of exchange. That ended when Gold (and silver) were singled out. The next development was a tangible form that these two metals could take so as to be used as money. Gold and Silver coins emerged and lasted (in the case of silver coin) right up until the mid 1960s. As an illustration of the consequences of the banishment of precious metal coin money, consider this: The US stopped minting Silver dimes (10 cent pieces) in 1965. At current prices, the silver in one of these coins is now worth just under $US 1.70. A pre-1930s US Gold $US 20 Double Eagle coin is now worth about $US 1310 in Gold content. In the early 1930s, $US 20 was a month’s wages for many. At today’s minimum wage, $US 1310 is considerably more than a month’s wages. The difference is that the wages then were TANGIBLE. Today they are promissory.
In essence, that is what the history of the global fiat money era has been. The masters of the universe have taken a simple thing like precious metal coinage and turned it, in stages, into a galactic game of GIGO (Garbage In - Garbage Out). Computers, without which our modern monetary “system” would be impossible, will accept anything that is fed into them. So will a lot of people. But many will not.
The idea of Gold and Silver coin circulating as money may seem like something out of the distant past. But Gold coin DID circulate until about 65 years ago. And Silver coin was still circulating as money in the US when Kennedy was assassinated in late 1963. For half the world, coins still ARE money.
There is little, if anything, that can be added to this.
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+1
Exactly.
The real problem is not the welfare state. Until 1982, the share of income that went to wages and employeee social benefits was relatively stable in the West at 70%, and 30% for profits and dividends. Since then, this share has gone down to 60%, and the crisi has even accelerated this process rather than reversing it. Rentiers are getting always richer, those who work for a living are getting always poorer even including the welfare state benefits.That's the fundamental problem with our system and not the welfare state.
War IS welfare for many.
And yes, many of us focus on both.
The US can "win" the debasement race because of it's reserve status. All that it takes to get to the bottom is the rest of the planet to realize how insane our policies are and run screaming for the exit. The flood of dollars coming back joining with the dollars shooting out of the press will merge together and form the currency debasement equivalent of Vultron.
The whole idea of debasement for economic good is silly on it's face. "If we reduce the real wages of our citizens to that of paupers they will be better off!" It's like saying that if all wealth and ability to generate wealth is taken from a country that country is better off. Like most things, it's just flim-flam provided by out "leaders" to help facilitate the consolidation of wealth and power.
There is little, if anything, that can be added to this.
"blurf." there. i just added something. move on now, nothing going on here.
The magical "Shazam" moment.
+1
TPTB are willing to crash the dollar system in an experiment. It's the ultimate table stakes poker game...and, the ultimate bluff. No one asked me if I wanted to play...how about you?
If one understands this then the debate over the usefullness of gold is quickly resolved in any thoughtful individuals mind.
More like "Bugger thyself"...
The Fed's Zero Rate Policy is Destroying America
October 12, 2010
You ever hear the story of Mr. Faded Glory?
Says he who rides a pony must someday fall.
I've been talkin' to my alter, says "Life is what you make it.
And if you make it death well rest your soul away, away, away."
"Crown of Thorns"
Pearl Jam
Ament/Fairweather/Gilmore/Gossard/Wood
In this issue of The Institutional Risk Analyst, we turn the camera eye on two different perspectives on the continuing crisis affecting the U.S. economy, the Fed's deflationary monetary policy and the surging price of gold. We look at how the rapid changes now underway in how consumers and investors alike view the dollar will affect the risk picture facing banks, companies and individuals. BTW, tomorrow IRA cofounder Christopher Whalen will be travelling back to the heartland to visit our friends at Indiana State University. We will give a talk entitled: "Do Americans Need a New Deal?" More on this theme next week.
Last week The IRA traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the latest event sponsored by our friend Alex Pollock at American Enterprise Institute, "Living in the Post-Bubble World: What's Next?" We received a great deal of media buzz before and after the event, but the most poignant comment came in this unexpected and very disturbing letter from Dianna in Rockford, IL:
Now you know why we at IRA take time away from our business to engage in public debate about how the world of finance affects real people. And you also see the horrible damage that the Bernanke Fed is inflicting upon real American in order to bail out the large Wall Street banks. And the irony is that all of this damage and sacrifice by Dianna and tens of millions of American individuals and businesses who depend upon interest income to survive will be for naught. The Big Banks will have to be restrructured in any event using the resolution authority in the Dodd-Frank legislation.
We also heard from our friend Henry Smyth, proprietor of Granville Cooper Asset Management Ltd., which features a unique gold fund that is comprised solely of rolling forward positions in the noble metal. The fund is domiciled entirely out of reach of America's spendthrift government and settles via Julius Baer in Zurich. (Disclosure: IRA co-founder Chris Whalen is a neighbor of Smyth and an introducing party of GCAM.)
Smyth, who we know from our Mexico days, has been pestering us since the summer about a chart created by his colleague Zeke Brustkern that illustrates the growth of the demand for gold over the past decade and how the increased estimates each year understate the actual market performance. Click here to see the gold chart which Smyth explains below:
Consider these two data points: First, an American retiree named Dianna who has seen her retirement savings rendered worthless by the ill-considered policy actions of the Federal Open Market Committee. Second, the action of the gold market, which is likewise suggesting that fiat paper dollars have no value. If you take the two observations together, it suggests to us that the Fed's actions are feeding global deflation and that the next leg down in the U.S. financial markets could be particularly severe -- especially if the Fed resumes printing more funny money.
While some analysts are calling for a mild devaluation of the dollar, what we see forming ahead could be something far more dramatic and potentially disruptive to the world economy, namely a protracted period of deflation driven by the subserviant position of the Fed vis-a-vis the largest banks. This new shrinkage will not only see gold moving higher but will also see the dollar collapse a la the FDR dollar devaluation of the early 1930s. This crisis is being caused by Fed zero interest rate and quantitative easing ("QE") policies.
As we have said before and we'll say again, the FOMC's zero rate policies imply that the dollar and all assets denominated in dollars have no value. Stocks, bonds and other financial assets depend upon income to make these obligations money good. Without a positive return, there is no reason to hold dollar assets. When President Abraham Lincoln introduced fiat paper dollars backed by nothing to finance the Civil War, these pieces of debt originally were convertible into Treasury notes that paid interest. But the need of a growing nation for a means of exchange rendered such devices irrelevant.
Today the situation is reversed. Non-commercial demand for dollars is collapsing in much of the global economy, in part because the Fed is transferring something like three quarters of a trillion dollars annually from individual and corporate savers to the Wall Street banks. And even this vast subsidy will be insufficient to prevent the ultimate restructuring of the top three U.S. banks. What will Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the other members of the FOMC say to Dianna and the millions of other Americans impoverished by their policy errors when we have to break up the top-three U.S. banks anyway?
Forget more QE. If the FOMC does not soon allow interest rates to rise and thereby rebalance the policy equation between American savers and borrowers, then we fully expect to see gold prices climb further. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the FOMC will hand the detractors of the central bank led by Rep Ron Paul (I-TX) the political issue they need to eliminate the Fed once and for all. And President Barack Obama will be wearing the concrete booties that once belonged to President Herbert Hoover. Unlike your worthless greenbacks, you can take that to the bank.
http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAMain.asp
I thought it was Mother Love Bone.
+ it is.. Awesome song too..
oh gl O-O my that was a very good musical selection along with your masterpiece writing.
I have two questions: First, if coins are money in "half the world" (actually, they prefer U.S. $20 bills, but, whatever) then which half is that? The prosperous, industrial half?
Second, let's say that the Fed and Treasury swapped out some or even most of their sub-3%-yielding debt of various maturities for 0% yielding, zero maturity federal reserve notes?
So what would happen?
The wealth effect on the holders of that debt would be nothing. Risk-free debt has by definition a NPV close to (or sometimes even less than) cash.
There would be inflation, certainly, and the currency would be devalued, certainly. And?
U.S. assets would be devalued relative to assets in other countries (except that all the countries with the most financial assets are in the same boat the U.S. is). But then again it's a lot easier to pay $400 billion or so in interest to yourself than to pay it to rich people and foreigners.
"Risk-free debt" ---- do you realize how absurd that concept actually is?
Well, "risk-free debt" means "inflation-risk-only debt" (albeit for holders of the reference currency). I figured that on ZH that was self-understood.
It is still an oxymoron, both in theory and most especially in reality --- just another trap for the unwary and the ignorant who actually trust their corrupt and self-serving "leaders".
certain powers that be mess up and the government bails them out. how is there no reality for risk free debt? what risk is there when TBTF exist. is not the anger so many feel with TBTF because they get risk free debt. I will surely agree that the concept of risk free debt is a oxymoron in a logical world. but we are not living in a logical world. we are at the end game of a financial system.
The underlying assumption to currency debasement (reserve or otherwise) requires the consent of the other party of the transaction(s) to accept less value for the same product or service. Therein lies the rub.
Debasement requires idiocy on the part of your trading partner.
Well, no, I have to disagree.
Currency debasement is the right of the sovereign and always has been, so those are the terms of the contract.
"Currency debasement is the right of the sovereign and always has been, so those are the terms of the contract."
What contract? No contract exists between two or more soverigns that states that one of the parties must continue to take fiat that is constantly declining in purchasing power vs any or all commodities.
So tell me there bright boy how did society care for all these people when they were children? Put them to work in the mines perhaps? Has been done. But in the modern era we built the schools and the hosts of other infrastructure for the poor pitiful unproductive creatures. Now retirement programs need to be amended for sure but a basic level of support must still be maintained. Oh and by the way, when we were building all those schools and bearing all those other expenses the marginal tax rate on the highest earners was 90% under republican president Eisenhower. Not part of your reality created fresh daily mantra though.
yes but there were thousands of loop-holes and deductions that were wiped out by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 which, if not mistaken, actually led to an increase in net collected taxes by 1990.
your impression that the government simply confiscated 90% of an individuals earnings is naive. The individuals who made/make that kind of money will simply leave the jurisdiction and take their money making apparatus wih them. The deductions, like depreciation rules, are fabricated to motivate those high earners to "invest" their money and avoid the taxes.
They will not take their 'money-making apparatus' with them.
WE are their money-making apparatus.
Ha! Who's "we", Kemosabe?
You think the muscular force of workers is what drives production in this world? Then I challenge you to get together a group of two hundred men, none of whom have any construction experience, and build a skyscraper (or a factory, your choice). You have one year to build a twenty story building. According to your mantra, you need no capital, no motivating force, no experience, and no knowledge. So get moving. Make it happen.
Atlas does indeed shrug when you lay too many chains upon him.
The unemployment lines are absolutely chock full of people with construction experience, with project management experience, with engineering experience. There is also a glut of dollars floating around so the financing of such a project, if not for the banks' monopolistic control of our money, would also be laughably simple.
This country would survive just fine without the parasitic FIRE class.
"your impression that the government simply confiscated 90% of an individuals earnings is naive. "
You are sub 40 and ignorant. I am an old man and remember having to fork over $260K in takes on $425K taxable earnings. It was that way and no one left the country just as you would not if push came to shove. Whatta ya gonna do bright boy? Become a baker in Slovakia? When you split you also can't get a visa under the old rules either. No visits or business of any kind without paying your taxes. No access to the markets. That's the way the rules used to be and will be again.
"if not mistaken"
You are correct.
I saw your ABIDE icon or whatever a month ago in Manhattan. A bumper sticker. Killer.
Why do all liberals talk like arrogant douchebag assholes? That's something I see nearly everytime, and I find it quite amusing for people who're supposed to be empathetic and to cry on the impoverished, widows and orphans.
I'll just come out and answer your question: Because sometimes we just can't help ourselves. Even alot of us know it ourselves. We can only try our best. Like anyone.
What would it be in your comment that supports you as a legitimate source of criticism of that, I'm wondering?
"So tell me there bright boy how did society care for all these people when they were children?"
I will take a shot at this one . . . how about this . . . raising and caring for children was the responsibility of the PARENTS. Caring for the aged was the responsibility of the CHILDREN, not society.
This was the way it once was, and for responsible families, it actually worked well. We will return to this system, not necessarily by choice, but we will return to it.
The concepts of personal responsibility and personal liberty have been lobotomized right out of our citizenry through the propogation of mass media. The majority of peasants in this country prefer the welfare-warfare state because it's all they know. The idiot box tells them what to think, and that's the end of it.
1. http://www.amazon.com/Public-Opinion-Walter-Lippman/dp/1617430293/ref=sr...
2. http://www.amazon.com/Propaganda-Edward-Bernays/dp/0970312598/ref=sr_1_1...
You bet.
Mention the word 'responsibility' to J6P and you will see one instantly ticked off J6P.
J6P has transfered his responsibility to TPTB...and how has that worked out?
I will take a shot at this one . . . how about this . . . raising and caring for children was the responsibility of the PARENTS. Caring for the aged was the responsibility of the CHILDREN, not society
Another benefit of this system is that there is generational equality in diaper changes...
Right on. War on Poverty since 1964 8+Trillion. Higher poverty rate today. Wow, that worked just fine. War on Drugs 1966, another great success (for prisons and asset forfeiture). Screw the goobermint, social security, 401Ks/IRAs (seized soon anyway), medicare, medicaid, no useless punk left behind. If you depend on the DC thugs for anything, consider yourself a slave. Darwinism rules, always has, always will. 3 cheers for Mother Nature.
Hate to burst your bubble, but Darwin's view of things was horribly distorted by others. Read Peter Kropotkin's Mutual Aid to better understand what the true arguments are.
Who built the schools and other public infrastructure? Parent working parties?
Originally, yes. Schools were built by the local community (parents) and the teacher pay came from local funds. It was not until the creation of the Department of Education that such expense fell on the government.
If the US$ failed, The US would be hurt and its power and privilage would be severly impaired, It would be debt free and be ok, China India and most other BRICS may become failed states and WW III would ensue. The US$ must survive,
The need for the dollar to survive dosnt look good next to the facts, A gradual debasement of all the Western currencys next to the BRICS will help and an honest adult type governmental structure may even avoid a collapse of the system, Lets hope these problems get sorted.
Please explain to me, if you will, why the US MUST survive. I am quite curious to know.
Silly you! Get out your megaphone and repeat- "USA, NUMBER!" :-)
Hidden cameras have recently caught a similar scene in many bankster offices around the globe. Click here to see a recent capture of this phenomena.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzHtm1jhL4
that was scary. still, i did not find his laughter very genuine.
So let's actually think this through: what if the Treasury and Fed swapped out a significant portion of - or even most of - the $8.5 trillion in sub-3%-yielding debt of various maturities for 0% yield, zero maturity federal reserve notes.
From a NPV standpoint, debtholders are not hurt. After all, the NPV of risk-free debt (more appropriately called "inflation-risk-only debt") is the same as cash. And it's a lot easier to pay a significant portion of the $400 billion or so in interest every year to yourself rather than to a lot of rich people and foreign governments.
So the relative value of the currency goes down and the relative value of dollar-denominated assets goes down. So what? Most of the other countries whose currencies denominate a significant portion of tradable assets are in the same fiscal/demographic boat.
Why not gold as an all-currencies hedge, wait for the devaluation to end and dispense with the talk of the "end times"? There's not gonna be a dollar-based hyperinflation because foreign holders of dollars have nowhere else to go. Even if they sell their bonds for dollars, they will just take massive amounts of dollars out of the system.
Ignored in all this talk of commodity-based money is the fact that when people sink wealth into commodities, it injects cash into the monetary system. So, I think Mr. Bernanke would be pretty happy if a lot of people with dollars bought a lot of gold, oil or whatever.
When you generalize "gold" to "any real asset", isn't that really the risk-on/risk-off dynamic in a nutshell?
Timing is everything, and unexpected shocks come fast.
Quantitative easing swaps dollars for treasuries, so what you are recommending has already commenced. Selling treasuries lowers the supply of money, while QE does the opposite.
That is why Bernanke is screwed. The treasury must sell bonds to fund the deficit, and BB must purchase said bonds to prevent economic collapse.
Gold is the all currencies hedge and it always has been.
All paper is a short on gold...this is not new.
Not Pearl Jam,but close :Mother Love Bone
this is totally bullshit. nice try. after giving capitalist banker profiteers huge inhumane bonuses, free money after they go bankrupt, after mind reeling american defense budgets...yeah some A-hole will use the whole thing to blame it on the "welfare state". its bullshit.
Where have you found that bankers are capitalist?
ok good point.
Perhaps reread the article. Then consider that the NPV of all unfunded US welfare liabilities (SSN+medical) is $100 trillion. And lastly, think before you comment: all the article is saying is that the only way these liabilities coule have ever been funded is by growing money on trees. The money growing season is now over.
"The money growing season is now over".
Maybe where you are. By the way, I heard it was a bumper crop this year, at least on Wall Street. Looks like harvest figures come in at $144 billion. That's a lot of fertilizer tossed around the halls of Congress and on K Street!
Anyway, out here we have three growing seasons. New plantings now. I hear, though, that Bernanke can plant a new crop of money anytime he wants, and it ripens in nanoseconds. Guy must be full of manure.
LOL. I'd wager those are stolen crops though. Benny Boy can just flog the peasants to give up more of their winter reserves when he feels like it.
Sadly, my money tree died a few years ago. Wife and kids are still in denial. I think they need something like a ZH intervention!
well, this time of the year the planting or growing season really is predicated on the first frost/freeze.
Then consider that the NPV of all unfunded US welfare liabilities (SSN+medical) is $100 trillion...
Wrong, it's more like $47.5 quintillion. I'd much rather hank paulson got that money than my cat food eating grandmother. [/sarcasm]
FDR and HST were gods. They are the only thing that prevents the impoverishment of america by assholes like the squid sucking buttwipes who are ruining this country. Unfunded liabilities myass.
I must have missed something here...why is it that the liberal left think that if you are anti welfare then you must be pro-bankster? I hate the banksters...they ought to be taken to task under the fullest extent of the law for the damage they have wreaked on our economy. Likewise, every lazy fuck who can work oght to put away his or her pipe and get off the couch and be a productive part of society. I disdain crooked banksters as much as welfare leeches...they're the same in my book, lazy greedy fucks who suck my hard earned savings away.
Well said.
directly said maybe. I was waiting for a sexual comment lacking in innuendo myself. One of those "i love you too, honey" sarcasmic moments.
Fine, no SS for you.
P.S. I am not a liberal. These new demoncrats aren't either, they are kleptocrats. I am an FDR new deal libertarian. No way in hell I am going to let those bastards steal trillions while pensioners get the shaft over and over.
edit) answer me this: why do the criminal bank gangsters get bonuses for accounting fraud and I don't? why do the deadbeats get a do-over with principal writedowns and a lower rate than I can get and I don't? Why does CONgreff get a cola and 90 y.o granny doesn't?
If we're going to rewrite the rules for some but not others then I say let it all burn down and don't spare the gasoline.
A FDR new deal libertarian!?!? I have thought many things about FDR, but never libertarian. Perhaps you could give more details on how this works.
i wasn't serious, that was meant to mess with eatthebanksters.
i am apolitical. both parties serve the kleptocrats. my philosophy is that of fight club, bring it all down.
Got it. Did not realize it was sarcasm.
I'm at least 9 years away from being able to collect anything from SS. I'm bettin' the Great Implosion will happen way before then!
prepare for the worst.
..."How will developments in the subprime market affect the evolution of the housing market? We know from data gathered under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act that a significant share of new loans used to purchase homes in 2005 (the most recent year for which these data are available) were nonprime (subprime or near-prime). In addition, the share of securitized mortgages that are subprime climbed in 2005 and in the first half of 2006. The rise in subprime mortgage lending likely boosted home sales somewhat, and curbs on this lending are expected to be a source of some restraint on home purchases and residential investment in coming quarters. Moreover, we are likely to see further increases in delinquencies and foreclosures this year and next as many adjustable-rate loans face interest-rate resets. All that said, given the fundamental factors in place that should support the demand for housing, we believe the effect of the troubles in the subprime sector on the broader housing market will likely be limited, and we do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system. The vast majority of mortgages, including even subprime mortgages, continue to perform well. Past gains in house prices have left most homeowners with significant amounts of home equity, and growth in jobs and incomes should help keep the financial obligations of most households manageable"......
..........."Servicers of loans aim to minimize losses, and they appear to be actively working with thousands of individual borrowers to modify their mortgages. To some extent, the dispersed ownership of mortgages may combine with legal and accounting rules to make successful workouts more difficult to achieve. For example, the "pooling and servicing agreement" associated with a given securitized mortgage pool may restrict the share of accounts that can be modified. Accounting rules that, in some cases, require substantially modified pools to be brought back on the originator’s balance sheet may dissuade lenders from undertaking workouts. And extensive modifications that reallocate expected cash flows across different securities associated with the pool could trigger a review of those securities by the ratings agencies. At the same time, if workouts are economically viable, then an incentive exists for third parties to purchase distressed pools at a discount and to undertake the workout process. We see these purchases taking place in the marketplace, a development that should help to increase the number of successful workout"..........
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke At the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s 43rd Annual Conference on Bank Structure and Competition, Chicago, Illinois May 17, 2007The Subprime Mortgage Market
I still think putting the blame on the "welfare" state is like a cheap trick. there are other countries, sweden, norway, france, germany etc...they have massive welfare programs for their citizens. their citizens expect that and get it. we should cut back and reduce the deficit, but why not start with our defense budget which is way out of line with any other country. do we need bases in every country of the globe? do we need homelands security's massive wasteful budget for x-ray machines and arresting entrapped "terrorist bands" of low brow drug users convinced by informers to maybe put a bomb somewhere? do we need to give the banks all the money they need to stay afloat? trillions...do we need to give money to countries just so they will buy our weapons? do we need to give multinational corporations every possible way to escape paying taxes? dont forget big business doesnt have the interests of americans at heart...its looking for multinational profits....
I'm sorry, I like your blog, but I did think when I wrote, it was emotional, but with thought behind it.
I also am not trying to say that social security is such a great thing, but it just amazes me that when people in this country look to blame something, their knee always jerks in the same direction, wanting to blame everything on socialism or welfare...
"do we need bases in every country of the globe?"
Some seem to think so, that it says so in the Constitution... war is ALWAYS the end of empires. Power never cedes without a fight: and the fight kills the power; go figure.
Because welfare is not a constitutional function of the federal government and raising and maintaining an army is. Honestly, the federal government could be cut in half and still be too big. Depts of Energy, Education, HUD, HHS, Labor, EPA, Homeland Security, are unconstitutional jobs programs that need to be terminated.
No. We are in agreement on this one. We could easily project force from "lily pads" Aircraft carrier groups out at sea and long range bombers/drones from Kansas. Let our allies defend their own borders. Lets see if they can spend as much in welfare when they become responsible for their own defense.
tyler this is your best one yet. this should be headlines everywhere. jon stewart needs to quote you. i am sure george carlin would of.
Whoever in the fuck junks the moderator is a retard. What in the fuck? It's his site, get over it.
And the Right-Wrong partisan horseshit on this entire thread is beyond ridiculous. Seriously? When was the last time the Democratic Party bought you a beer? Or the Republican Party told you a joke that made you laugh?
Wake up.
Currency Wars: Q&A
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/currency/8067431/Currency-Wars-QandA.html
For starters, why would I or anyone else buy a ZERO RATE bond? You are saying that I can give you or USG my money for nothing in return. If that's what you believe, please wire me all your money. I'm debt free and actually produce something - I'm a better credit risk that BHO and the gang. Just kidding on the last part.
Also, as the dollar value declines, hard asset, food stocks & commodity prices increase in dollar terms - they do not decline as you suggest.
No offense, but what Bennie wants at least in part is money velocity... gold investors do not fit that bill... He is however liable to get velocity squared if he creates hyperinnflation.
Nowhere else to go??? This is silly.... Its king dollar, it will always be king dollar... blah, blah blah. The article lays it out - at some point you are so successful in currency devaluation, that you beggar yourself rather than competing export economies. Under your way of thinking you cannot destroy King Dollar. Tell it to the Romans, or the Brits, or ...
NPV - You are suggesting a 0% disco rate - but the true disco rate is not the ZERO RATE you are being paid, its the risk adjusted yield required to hold the bond is USDs.
did someone say disco? whohooo!
Do you really want to know what they are trying to do?
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_bible_gen_47.htm
47:15 And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth.
47:16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.
47:17 And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.
47:18 When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:
47:19 Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.
47:20 And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh's.
47:21 And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof.
47:22 Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands.
This story had come to my mind as well as I see all the "cash4gold" commercials. People are selling their scrap physical gold/jewelry to buy food. At the same time, many are seeking safety by buying paper gold through the likes of "GLD".
We are seeing the impovertization of society on a massive scale.
there is an inequality to it i would agree.
Please, fella, let's have some political correctness here. You know what I mean? Like they're not little people, they're "vertically challenged", and they're not dumb, they're "learning impaired".
So in polite company we no longer use the term "welfare state". We now say "Wall Street".
yes..."and between them and Wall Street stands the rights of man" should government wish to enforce it. How predictable when the time comes "the law seeks advantage in the name of all things being equal."
Dwarfs, midgets, and the retarded ---- let's call a spade a spade already!
I am sick to death of PC bullshit. I just had somebody call me RACIST for calling an Oriental an "Oriental"! No, they are NOT "Asian", unless they were born there! And aren't Indians and Pakistanis and Arabs and Israelis and Armenians "Asians" as well? Or has there been some recent geological subdivision of the continents that I am not aware of?
If a person born in the USA of Oriental background is an "Asian", I guess logically that makes most of the rest of us "Europeans"! (Except for all the Africans living here as well --- not sure how to categorize the American Indians, er, Native Americans, er, Amerindians, er, Aboriginal First Nations Peoples .... Fuck this political-correctness, I have to keep buying new dictionaries!)
A friend of mine loved to mark "African American" on all the little boxes. White guy, born in South Africa and grew up there. People would hassle him about it and he would come back with "I'm from South Africa. I'm American now, that makes me an African American right?"
Beautiful!
When asked for "race" on any form, I like to write in "transhuman".
Even attempts at weak humor require a set-up, thus my opening line or two above. I'm sure you knew that.
PC does get a little old. I've lived outside of the US since Reagan was President, so when I go back, I not only need to learn stuff about popular culture, such as who is Lady Gaga and its brother Jackson (sic) Bieber, but what terms I need use to describe all the different shades, shapes and sizes in which the fellow members of my species come. I never seem to get any sort of designer tag for myself, being unshort, unfat, undumb, apparently without any color at all and completely lacking in a racial heritage point of origin. I don't even get a damn Pride Day, much less a whole month. Then again, like Catholics and their Original Sin, I seem to have inherited a host of offenses of which I am guilty. At least out here I vary from being a gaijin, gwai lo, farang, forayna, and khawaja. I've also been a sahib. Makes me feel special.
For whomever out there is the PC Webster, as in dictionary, when those of my forgotten ilk finally do get officially classified, can we make it something sexy? For color, I'm thinking something post modern, like Malibu Sand. Flows off the tongue, it does, even if the real stuff is a little polluted. For height, let's borrow from Starbucks and go with Vente. Weight, I'll accept Calorically Challenged, or maybe Materially Challenged, as it reflects how much wool or cotton it doesn't take to wrap a 31 inch waist. I do not have ADD, don't think I'm in denial---though I would never admit it even to myself if I was---and if I've ever had priapism, which is the Sword of Damocles (that's what PC Founder Andrea Dworkin called it) extended in both space AND time, it's because the woman was entitled to it. I don't need to ask my doctor if all those pills on TV are "right for me" because I don't have any of the ills for which they might be the treatment (BigPharma prefers not to cure if it can help it). I'm up, rather than down on my luck, and don't think I am owed any special privilege by virtue of my unrequested debut on to this planet. And I'm worth more than my weight in gold, though that may be more literal than figurative, since the latter is for others to judge.
Bottom line: I'm just human.
I live in Britain so I don't understand this at all. Let me guess, the guy who called you a racist was white? As far as I know, there are no negative connotations associated with the description Oriental. All the classy things in Europe - The Orient Express, Oriental Carpet, Oriental cuisine, errr.. Leyton Orient employ the lovely word. In fact I always insist on it to describe myself instead of the catch-all Asian which we use to describe the lovely people from the Indian subcontinent.
I guess words change their subjective meaning geographically and temporally, and we have to learn to adjust. No big deal. We're all cousins anyway, right?
In a SPIEGEL interview, renowned Chicago-based economist Raghuram Rajan discusses the dangers of a global currency war, the risks of persistently low interest rates and the growing income and wealth inequality in the United States
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,722520,00.html
Reading this interview is only useful for laughs:
SPIEGEL: Politicians also could have fought poverty by increasing taxes for people who earn more.
Rajan: There is very little appetite in the US for the kind of redistribution that is practiced in many parts of Europe. Moreover, the housing credit boom seemed to be a solution in more ways than one. For instance, it also created employment for the unskilled.
SPIEGEL: With moderate success. The unemployment rate has reached 9.6 percent and 14 million Americans are without a job.
Rajan: Precisely. The stimulus was unsustainable. And we are at it again. At least unemployment isn't 20 percent here like it is in Spain. If it was, there would be a revolution in the US because the safety net is so much weaker.
I do not know where to begin with the critiques of this piece. A country that does fight poverty by taxing the rich more, Spain, has 20% unemployment, but no revolution.
Studies in economics should be outlawed in Chicago and Germany. They provide us with many theories that result in dead economies and worse, dead people.
Two Fed officials favor aggressive easing options
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1620844520101016
U.S. backs off in currency dispute with China
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69E0OB20101016
Mr. Bernanke is protege of one shrewd, oldtime goldbug Mr. Greenspan. Mr. B. is not stupid.
It appears his aim is to destroy the dollar. (Calling it a "dollar" sullies not the original but imputes false credibility to the flimsy instrument, FRN, that now goes by the name.)
Mr. Bernanke just might be among the craftiest insiders in history, a circumspect patriot of high cause.
The usurious slavemasters comprising what we call the banking system is a huge, tough-skinned reptile. No frontal attack can kill it. I submit that Mr. Bernanke has beguiled it onto a log hanging over a high cliff -- and that he will cut the log.
By that same line of reasoning Ted Bundy was a good guy. He didn't rape and kill all those women because he was a sick twisted monster. He did it to try to teach young ladies not to trust strangers...
I get what you're saying, but the roles you assign -- Bundy as Bernanke, innocent dead women as greedy bankers -- are fallacious. I think you know that and I credit you with trying to draw me out on this. Thanks. I’ll try.
Mr. Bernanke is supposedly an expert on the Great Depression. It was this nation's most recent shot, when both aim and will might have aligned, at deposing the rule of the bankers. We missed it.
Some 70+ years later -- a Kondratief Cycle -- we're there again. This is the alien and seditious government Jefferson warned us about. Once again, aim and will may align. There's a lot about the character of the American people that gives me hope. The financially or morally disabled however will not participate in the revolution. The active cadre will comprise guys who can do stuff, men and women who cotton to the ideal of unimpeded self-reliance and are not afraid to act.
What's needed is a spearhead. My hypothetical Bernanke working within the banking system to bring it down is the simplest explanation for the apparently stupid policy coming down the pike. No flood of liquidity into the system will keep it sustainably propped if not backed by production. Real productivity here is in a state of paralysis, the inevitable result of the piling of years of Fed-fostered corruption and distortion.
Here's a bonus: If Monopoly money is good nowhere except on the Monopoly board, QE2 represents an extraordinary opportunity to convert gameboard winnings to tangibles, stuff that won't be available on the other side of the deflationary landing. I don't think this window will last long. Rather, I don't think it can. It's one last Homestead Act before we go into the post-Apocalyptic Mad Max tunnel, a place too crowded for any central controlling entity.
If Bernanke can effect the downfall of the Fed -- the institutionalized usury banking system of the past 300 years -- the system of the past hundred here -- he will certainly go down with it. I can see no other individual on the planet with the ability, craft and proximity to this end. Many will get hurt. Americans will patch each other up, and, cleansed, rebuild -- but without a central bank. Mr. Bernanke will be remembered as the St. Patrick of the United States.
Or not. Call me an optimist. I hate my government, but I love my people. The wealth of this nation is its people.
You speak as is if Bernanke is acting alone, without serving those who put him there.
Just like any chairman of the board, he serves his shareholders. I would guess his shareholders are more astute about money and power then Bernanke. So, what do his shareholders want. If the shareholders were really concerned about the fed, wouldn't they want to relieve him of his duties, aka pressure him to resign?
Unless this is what they want because they have other plans.
You completely misassigned those roles. The banks are not the victims dollar holders are. Now I'm sure your thinking "Banks are dollar holders" and that is true, but who get that all important first spend of counterfeit money? That's right the banks. How on earth do you arrive that the Fed is against the banks, when they are doing everything in their power to save them? If Zimbabwe Ben was agasinst the banks would he not have cranked rates in 08? No instead he lets them borrow at nearly nothing then also provides them a risk free vehicle to earn interest on. I would kill to find "enemies" that trip over themselves to give me free money. So if anyone wants ot be my enemy and provide me with limitless free money let me know!
The premise makes no sense on any level. Who owns the Fed? That's right the big banks. If the Fed is against the Banks then why not raise rates and protect savers and kill the banks? Or is Ben simply trying ot hurt Americans as much as possible in the process for no reason at all? "Ben is hear to save us! But he says he just saw Saw, and wants to try some things out..."
I understand you want to believe that someone in power is fighting for us, but this is right along the lines of battered wife syndrome "Bernanke saved the banks and hurt me bad! But he swears he loves me and will never do it again!". Do you think that Gideon Gono is fondly thought of in Zimbabwe?
Show me ANY evidence to back up your claims other then wild eyed hope. This will end with the oligarchs and their banks owning all the real property. Will be easy with the free money and the people you claim to love in slavery to them. How, with the power of the Fed, our "saviors". The "stupid" policies that are coming down the pike are to save the banks at all costs. Their balance sheets will be made whole if the Fed has to cover the face of the earth in dollars. If Ben were giving out money to the people or access to the Discount Window, yeah I could see your argument, but it's not. Remember with monetary policy that first spend of the new money is the sweetest. By the time it gets down to the masses the devaluation is in.
"Remember with monetary policy that first spend of the new money is the sweetest. By the time it gets down to the masses the devaluation is in."
And how "sweet" it is... case in point:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5375495.ece
Being a Banksta sure beats working!
This speaks to a theory I began ruminating upon back in 2000. Having spent most of my career in finance, on the retail side, and witnessing the lending standards dropping off a cliff, I could see that the banks were up to something. My first thought was that they, in addition to the typical greed and avarice, might have other motives as well.
If the banks were INTENTIONALLY offering credit on terms so insane that the loans would almost certainly default (ie: 150% LTV auto loans), then one inevitable consequence would be the wholesale drop in the average credit scores. The lower the scores, the higher the rates, etc...
"But what if?" I thought to myself. What if this philosophy was coming from even higher up the food chain?
In my youth I had been a big fan of Ayn Rand and learned of the venerable Mr. Greenspan long before his name became a household word. Understanding something of the man's character it seemed totally wrong for him to be heading up the "most evil institution the world has ever known" (Congressman Louis McFadden if memory serves)
Now I might be giving more credit than is due here, but assuming Sir Alan really is, deep down, a good man, then that changes the game somewhat. Could his presence in the halls of the FED be more than just a conincidence? What if he purposefully maneuvered his way to the top of the pyramid for the express purpose of destroying the FED?
His performance on the job, in retrospect, certainly dovetails nicely with this theory. It may just be that when the dust settles Mr. Greenspan will be villanized for destroying the FED and the economy along with it. Wouldn't it be something if he were sitting in his living room watching events unfold with a knowing smirk on his face?
Others have suggested the possibility that Greenspan knew exactly what he was doing, e.g., http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_02/heller052102.html.
Thanks for the link. I had never seen that editorial. So I am not the only one out there who pondered this. I would love to speak to the man directly, off the record, and see what he has to say.
i was living in aspen when ted bundy did the escape route out the second story courthouse floor. i was well aware of this dude. i had some other dude profiled in Time Magazine, as a con du joir. he came on to several of us bike racers ladies as a champion runner. well he was short so i didn't fall for it.
I can see Greenspan and the whole Road to Roota thing, but Bernanke? I think he wants to bring the country to the breaking point so he can prove he's so well-studied about the Great Depression he'll be able to stop this one. Of course, a fail so epic will ensue that never again shall the words be spoken, it will just be referred to as Bernankeing.
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb92/sinistar816/Demotivator__Epic_Fa...
Oh if only it was beggar thyself.
Isn't it really
from dilute the other guy far away
to
dilute the other guy closer to home.
Ladies and Gents,
I have taken the plunge - I have just registered a new limited company in the UK. I aim to provide my future clients with information to help get them through the madness that is about to be unleashed on the world. I need your advice.
We all know that the majority of people have very short attention spans, therefore, I would like to know what 'hooks' you believe work best when attempting to wake people up to the massive fraud that is the global economy. Here are the ones that work best for me:-
1. Fractional Resreve Banking and the ability for banks to simply create money out of thin air.
2. The gold chart.
3. Quantitative Easing aka 'funny money'
4. The Federal Reserve and the Bank of England (Bank of England Nominees (BOEN) Ltd. are private, not governmental, institutions.
5. Self-inflicted currency devaluations.
I find that fractional reserve banking is the best one, even though most people simply do not believe it.
Any thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. It feels great to be starting a new business in the midst of the 'Greatest Depression'.
The thing that wakes people up is the mortgage fraud, particularly when you give them details that it exists outside the realm of people who have defaulted on loans. They don't feel sorry for folks who have defaulted, but when they find out the fraud is much broader than the realm of defaulters....they don't like that.
This opens the door to most any discussions you might need to hold.
Thanks, title examiner. I appreciate your reply.
If I use the mortgage fraud as an example, people will more that likely say, "but that's in the US". I will still use it as an example of what is happening in the wider world.
All the best.
Europeans and even Russians will listen to plausible arguments backed up by something.
Been there, done that, before folks here were willing to admit something was even slightly wrong--before tech bubble popped. The mortgage crisis was being paved before the Tech Bubble popped. Little changes that make one wonder...WTF are you guys planning?
I am glad that folks have joined the fight against the BS...even if they have waited until it was just about too late.
There is a thing called honor. Honor has nothing to do with stealing.
I have been doing it for years for free. Now I am going to do it for profit. Maybe if people pay, they will pay more attention.
Way too advanced already for most J6Ps, HB. Maybe start here:
"This is a Dollar. (hold up a 1956 Silver Certificate or a 1922 Peace Dollar). It was worth 100 pennies. This large coin is now worth 2000 pennies.
"This is a FRN. (hold up a FRN or a square of toilet paper). It is worth 4 pennies.
"Any questions"
If there are no questions, run away rapidly.
:) I hear ya! "In God We Trust", eh? Thanks for your help, c55.
I quite agree with title examiner. Surely you understand that most people will never "get"the majority of the stuff on your list unless you hook them with something that they can more or less easily comprehend, and that deals with their own life directly. The mortgage fraud stuff is perfect, especially the case of the fellow who paid cash, yet was foreclosed upon.
It is quite unwise to ignore the utter ignorance of the overwhelming majority of the population; I've had far more success with my mother than with my kids. All (ranging in age from 80-27) are college grads; one was even an economics major. But the kids seem to feel that the world is still their oyster, for some idiot reason, including the econ grad. They cover their ears when I attempt to talk sense into them. Mom, on the other hand, now owns Perth Mint Certificates.
I like your Mum, puckles. Regarding your kids, never underestimate the power of the modern media and the effect it has on people nowadays. It is absolutely chilling.
Thanks for your advice. I hear what you are saying about my list; it is exactly the reason why I decided to ask the question on here. We have all been there, trying to give people advice (for the right reasons), and only receiving blank expressions in return. We are all going to end up in a perilous state if the people remain in their perpetual slumbers.
Thanks for taking the time to reply and for the honest answer you gave.
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was and never will be.”—Thomas Jefferson
This mess that is going down now, it is pissing me off.
It is time to start writing a hell of a lot of names on the wall of shame. They need to be shamed beyond any repair and they need to dig ditches for a living, into infinity. And that is the nice version.
And speaking of the Perth Mint, they have a blog now. Also a facility to buy bullion on-line.
With regard the Perth Mint Certificates (which I hold for gold and silver) they say this with gegard to the Govt guarantee. It is long, but an issue that worries many
This would be 5.B. The fact that currency devaluations are a trade war based, this time, not on tariffs but on competitive attempts to lower the cost of one's exports.
Thanks, TJW. I tried that one yesterday with one of my dad's friends, do you know what he said to me (with a straight face)? "That isn't really going to affect me unless I am getting money changed for going on holiday". At that point I said, "maybe you are right". Some people are wilfully stupid, but others are not; I am pinning my hopes on the ones who are not.
I wish I could say I'm surprised by that guy's response. Ah well. At this point, maybe I'll just keep my eyes open for ways to profit off others' stupidity.
It sure is tempting.
I have found that the best way to define the Federal Reserve to others is to explain that in 1913 the US privatized it's monetary policy, and based on the failed bubbles of the past 30 years it is a failed experiment. When you talk about U.S. Gov privatizing actions/responsibilities they understand very quickly and the rest is very easy for them to grasp.
All the statistics you mention are useful, but to reach the man on the Clapham omnibus (as they used to say out your way) go on to express the implications of the past 100 years' money shenanigans in practical terms. Compare and contrast economic quality of household life from then and now. Bring the message home.
Just show them Dr. Albert Bartlett's presentation Arithmetic, Population and Energy. Pretty much paints the picture. If, after watching it, people don't get it, then they're a lost cause...
perhaps the real meaning of this is "booger thy neighbor, booger thyself."??? profundity and dramatis personae abound at "the end days. so "go long hollywood then." most beautiful people in the world in that space.
Nothing makes sense; the IMF wants an international currency.
Late one morning in the middle of the night
Two countries (US and Japan) got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other.
drew their currencies and shot each other.
The deaf policeman (IMF) heard from his station.
He came and shot the two dead nations.
If you don't think the stories true,
ask the blind man (Germany), he saw it too.
My wife and I are middle-class. We've got about 15% of our assets in gold and silver; nothing in the stock market anywhere at the moment. We visited Peru a year ago, and we were very impressed by how hard working everyone was. A lot of people were hustling clothes, medicinal teas, offering to perform traditional music and dances for a tip, but we saw no one just begging. Now we're looking for farmland, possibly in the US, if we figure it's land that we can reasonably defend, but also possibly in Latin America.
I'll be pretty surprised if the shit don't hit the fan, big time.
Tip: Always secure your water source.
We've definitely thought of that. Thanks. A secure-as-possible well would be best. Also, one or more off the grid energy sources.
An off the grid well. I helped a neighbor put one in the year (supplies three homes). Solar powered.. buried well head for insulation, etc.
"The road will seem so straight and fair to travel, you will kick yourself for stumbling through the brambles for so long, and wonder at your neighbors who still can't see the path, though it is truly a freeway." Aristotle (no, a different one)
The crisis of the currency is value, not function. We have been tricked into accepting debt, on top of debt, on top of debt as a reasonable store of value over time. That debt is collapsing. A gold coin is forever.
All a bunch of nonsensical bullshit talk.
Let's imagine for a second, arguendo, that Oil production has peaked. Everything we're seeing now would be what we should be seeing as a result.
And there IS NO MONETARY FIX. Paper does not cause oil. You can't PRINT oil.
We will see sustained global recession, malaise, unrest, declining wealth, etc. So enough bullshit about how we can eliminate the Fed and the whole problem will go away. There is no monetary solution to a problem of the real.
Let's say you're locked in a vault running out of Oxygen and someone offers you 0% interest or how about free money to stop breathing? Will it work?
Everyone needs to lay down the hopium pipe and get their heads around what's really happening and that there is no freakin bandaid that can be slapped on this.
Right. Real things. And oil is the most important real thing in modern societies.
It's gonna be hell.
We have now raised two generations of people that believe in 'second chances' and no consequences for their actions. No foreclosure for the deadbeat, debt repair services for those over extended, debt forgiveness for all ... we are now conditioned to the moral superiority of debt forgiveness ... next year's debate will be "Should the US Default?"
electric vehicles would work IF you have a vast supply of cheap electric.
potable water is easy. desalination plant technology is routine, if you have cheap electric
paper may not produce anything physical, but it is the impetus to get someone to make it happen. and those who control the flow of money, control the flow of the oil. someone has been paying to stop all viable alternatives to oil. and my guess is that eventually all roads lead back to the same culprits. take that control out of their hands, and the future is boundless.
got nuke?
Got uranium? For how long? Go ahead and promote them, as the rich will be the ones tethering off of them, while the rest of the masses live amongst the waste...
Trav:
You’re the voice of reason in all of this. If people just look at the population growth since the petro-world came to be and where it is now… all talk would cease.
Wanna talk about bubbles? Human population is the biggest bubble that has already burst.
You still gotta kill fractional reserve banking. There is no way the 'human ponzi' could have happened w/o the fed.
"Paper does not cause oil."
Bottom line here. Pay attention.
A chilling NYSE photo over at Shorpy.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/4951?size=_original
Back to the future?
This time around, it's going be worse. God help us all
Blood on the streets would be very messy. An EMP on the other hand...
Well, if you want to plan, take a look at what happened to the Russians--and plan for worse.
I have approached politicians and regional bankers about keeping the food supply up and running. The farmers must have the things they need to produce food and bring it to market, or you get what the Russians had....food lines to stores that had no food. Some have laughed at me, while some have not.
Americans don't have plots and they don't know how to grow anything on a plot.
Thing in terms of low tech solutions, like canneries on empty big boxes. This economy could turn really bad, one a dime....it just doesn't take very long.
I love how "anarchists" are always the scapegoats... of course, they're losing favor for the more ubiquitous "terrorists." TPTB can really implant BS! Never mind that it's the authoritarian types who are more responsbile for such acts.
What wakes people up to the massive fraud that is sucking their blood every day? It's called an epiphany and it will occur when the last drop leaves their scrawny bodies, and not unitl.
I hope you are wrong, americanspirit. But, I fear that you may not be. It reminds me of the old saying - a recession is when your next door neighbour loses his job and his house. A depression is when YOU lose your job and your house.
What wakes people up to the massive fraud that is sucking their blood every day? It's called an epiphany and it will occur when the last drop leaves their scrawny bodies, and not unitl.
I never understand why people would defend social welfare and then act like the problem is only other forms of government spending. Its both. Why have any welfare or wealth redistribution at all? How about just having very low taxes and small government?
People want free stuff. There will always be a core of people who will rally around a guy who promises to take from someone else and give it to them. Somehow theft at the barrel of a gun becomes moral to them when done by an elected government.
I don't want anything free. I want a level playing field and the rule of law FOR ALL which is NOT the case today.
How are things level if there is theft from one to another? Now lets say your smarter then me, and are able to make more income. Do I have a right to your income because of this "level playing field"? Now if you think it does I'll provide you with a PO box to send checks to.
The simple fact is there is never and can never be equality among people. I doubt anyone here on this board can play like Jordan at his prime, so we are clearly not equal to his skill. And really doe anyone think that nature wants everyone to be on the same level? Natural selection happens for a reason in all species, why would man be any different. Now some will recoil in comparing man with animals, fine. Is it moral in most religions to steal? Forced redistribution of wealth is nothing short of theft, "God" gave abilities and then people create value with them, then others go in and take part of it at the point of a gun.
As to the rule of law. I will point out that the law is more and more abused as the state more and more ignores private property rights. The Soviet Union had a great set of laws for human rights, as does Argentina. To bad it's not enforced.
Solution: Avoid the playing field, the bleachers, the parking lot, and the city.
Stay away from all organized activity.
If you get good at any of it they will change the rules anyway.
Count yourself in the minority.
A related question is ... "who will break ranks and sell equities first ?". The squid is a good guess. And I think they got a lot of stock on the books.
The squid is already leaking negative market comments. The squid is too clever to die.