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Leaving New York: Mike Krieger On The Biggest Trade Of His Life
From Mike Krieger Of KAM LP
The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without.
Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
- All Quotes by Ernest Hemingway
The Biggest Trade of My Life
If all goes according to plan the next time you hear from me I will be settled in my new home of Boulder, Colorado. This is a huge move for me as I have essentially spent my entire life aside from college and a semester in Spain living in NYC. When I resigned from my prior job in January of this year I didn’t know what to expect. I was taking a huge risk walking away from a very comfortable life and income. Nevertheless, I knew that stage in my life had run its course and it was time to open my life up to other possibilities. More than anything else I wanted to see how I would feel and what would happen if I just let all the things that were tying me down fall away and experience total personal freedom in every way imaginable. What has happened is that I have just lived the most fulfilling year of my entire life.
Crucial to my personal evolution this year was driving across America for five weeks this summer. Up until that moment (although I had become considerably more independent) I was still pretty much staring at screens all day. Being on the road for that period of time after having worked on Wall Street for ten years straight was an enormous shock to the system. There were many places I fell in love with on my journey but nothing jolted my soul to its core more than the American Southwest and the Rocky Mountains. The landscape presented me with some of the most powerful scenery I had ever seen. Nature dominates everyone and everything. Rather than man dominating nature or nature dominating man there is symbiotic relationship that permeates the entire culture. I felt alive and connected out there. The people are infectious. As I rushed back from Bozeman, Montana to Montauk, New York for the July Fourth Weekend in a four day caffeine infused blur, I had this very uneasy and profound sensation in me. I felt uncomfortable heading back east. The closer I got to NYC the more I didn’t want to be back there. I knew I had to seriously consider a move. My lease was set to expire in two months and the only thing I knew for certain is that I couldn’t sign a new lease. I arranged for a three month extension so that I could make sure this wasn’t just a brief emotional spasm that would dissipate after a few weeks. It wasn’t.
New York City is Committing Suicide and I Can’t Watch It Happen
One thing I do not want this article to be is a giant bashfest of New York City. I love this place. It is where I was born and it has shaped my personality in every way. The energy is like nothing else on the planet and it will always hold a spot near and dear to my psyche. Who knows, maybe I will return. That said, the current leadership in this city, and by that I mean the financial services industry and the TBTF banks in particular are destroying the city to such a degree that I think it could take a generation to recover. I hope I am wrong on this, but the longer the paper ponzi pushers control this town the worse the devastation will be.
I grew up in Manhattan and I can recall the professions of my friends’ parents. I am sure there were plenty of financial industry parents but I can’t remember any. The vast majority of my friends’ parents owned small businesses, worked in the garment district, were lawyers, psychiatrists, or medical doctors. I bet that if you went to my high school now 50% of the parents work in the financial services industry in one way or the other. This is a complete tragedy and is killing the long-term future of the city I love. What 2008 should have resulted in was a changing of the guard in the United States and in New York in particular. Yes it would have been hard but if we continue in this direction we will end up with a nation where financial terrorists control all the wealth and power and then fund a police state where the only jobs left will be working in the prison system or the police state grid as a TSA type worker that fondles their fellow citizens as if everyone is guilty until proven innocent.
The hardest part about living here now is that most of my friends work in this industry. They are not bad people and they are not fleecing the American public on purpose. They are trying to provide a decent life for their families and afford the ridiculous and unsustainable cost of living that this city and the surrounding areas demand. It is not the rank and file folks on Wall Street that are the problem it is the executives and then the financial “leaders” like Warren Buffett and Lloyd Blankfein that are the problem. These people have proven that they are ego maniacs and greedy beyond belief. They rarely if ever stop to think about whether or not the system that made them so fabulously wealthy is fair or moral. They could give a crap. They are cancers not leaders and until they are discredited and put into positions of zero influence, the United States and NYC in particular will continue to suffer and move further into bondage.
So at the end of the day I feel very uncomfortable in New York City right now. It and Washington D.C. are at the heart of the gulag state and I have chosen to physically remove myself from it. Even if none of this was happening, I still feel like I eventually would have found myself out West. It just feels like the journey I am meant to take. The lower taxes and open spaces aren’t so bad either.
P.S. Nothing will really change from my end. I will continue to manage money and write. I may even experiment with new tools like video blogging down the road. Also please take the time to watch my latest interview with Max Keiser that was posted on Wednesday. Here is the link, I come in at 12:45 but the whole show is great as always. As one of the comments proclaims: “It’s the best show not on TV!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjIWH7CSP8U
See you out West,
Mike
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Don't feel lonely. Power is about to abandon both D.C. and NYC, and with them the Ponzi state. There is no more power to be looted from the state, and power goes to power.
Welcome to the wild west MK
Nice piece MG... Hmmm.. The conscience.. It's a strange thing... For those of us that have one..
Physically removing yourself from the Empire State is good, getting out of the money system, even better. Get the money out of those TBTF, diversify out of Federal Reserve Notes, vote with your remaining dollars (don't encourage the de-industrialization of the United States by spending it at Wal-Mart). Consider a move to Southwestern BC, Canada, A.K.A. the Pacific Northwest.
The whole system will have to be reset. Luckily, no one has to save the world, as it isn't worth saving, in its current state.
http://psychonews.site90.net
PsychoNews: Exposing the Oligarchy, one Psycho at a time.
F*ck this punk-ass Mike Krieger guy - already had enough of the enviornment he helped create in NYC, now he's moving on to infect another place...
Don't bother stopping in TX on your way to CO. - your liberally delicate and pretentious self isn't welcome.
Traitors deserve to pay with their lives...
LMFAO!!
.....this guy leaves NYC a multimillionare right before the collapse and then pens a memoir why it feels all wrong. Save it for the confessional your just like a nazi running for the sanctuary of another country. I bet he changes his name when the sht hits the fan.
Jim Rodgers left, although he left because he saw the forthcoming real estate collapse.
Unlike this scumbag who's leaving because he sees the horror to come from the public outcry.
14 people flagged your post as junk. Yet you are right on:
"I grew up in Manhattan and I can recall the professions of my friends’ parents. I am sure there were plenty of financial industry parents but I can’t remember any. The vast majority of my friends’ parents owned small businesses, worked in the garment district, were lawyers, psychiatrists, or medical doctors. I bet that if you went to my high school now 50% of the parents work in the financial services industry in one way or the other. This is a complete tragedy and is killing the long-term future of the city I love."
And then the fuck writes:
"P.S. Nothing will really change from my end. I will continue to manage money and write. I may even experiment with new tools like video blogging down the road. Also please take the time to watch my latest interview with Max Keiser that was posted on Wednesday. Here is the link, I come in at 12:45 but the whole show is great as always. As one of the comments proclaims: “It’s the best show not on TV!”
Priceless!!!
Ther really sad part is that all our new upcoming talent will gravitate towards the TBTF's instead of where we need them, like medicine and the sciences. Humanity is being robbed to the core.
I've seen a lot of talent in fabrication shops, construction sites, engineering departments, utility maintenance.. Your comment is absurd..
Will? It already has. Almost every single person I know who graudated from a university came out with a business degree and more than half continued on to get their MBA. All of them brainwashed and incompetent after being able to hang the prestigious diploma on the wall.
Sadly, those who are attending our universities and are persuing degrees in advanced fields take the knowledge and run back to their country of origin. With the regulations, patents, copyrights, taxes and endless other obstacles; this is the doing of generations of hapless, me-me-me, buy-now-spend-later, liberals who still don't f*cking get it!
And when I say liberals---it applies to both democrats and republicans.
Who will save us from ourselves??
Music for the transition. Don't let the album cover fool you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHWsKTSdS74&feature=related
Awake, my soul
boulder is hardly the wild west
its probably more liberal and screwed up than NY
uh-huh. Used to live in the area. Colorado ain't what it used to be.
love Colorado but the whole state is leveraged to the hilt in the real estate ponzi
spent a great year recently in Telluride, and I can tell ya the economic outlook there scares me to death
this guy is not dumb though, I would be getting out of all large cities in the US; but more than that, I would be exiting the US financial system "with extreme prejudice"!
I'm sure Boulder is loaded with a boat load of commie-tards; if the guy had any class he would be headed for the western slope (avoiding Vail like the plauge)
I left NYC last January. Haven't regretted it at all. Go ahead and bash. It's a one industry town now -- which is probably the saddest thing you could ever say about one of the most incredibly dynamic and colorful cities of the 20th century. Now the city is a sad shell of it's former self, rewarding only the bankers -- while the rat race only gets harder for everyone else.
I'll make a prediction on a slightly different note: People seem to forget that NYC also has all the ingredients to be an incredibly dangerous city. It's been safe for a couple decades now... but the formula for crime never really went away despite Giuliani's efforts to supersize law enforcement. NYC has extreme wealth snuggled up with extreme poverty. It has been dangerous before and it will be again. Watch crime closely. The wave is coming. Yuppified Brooklyn is where it will start.
My neighbor and I talked about this last week. We're sitting on a powderkeg that just needs about a million people to get their bennies taken away then it's riot city
Hizzoner Bloomberg just announced axing 10,000 city workers today.
I don't know if all NYC bankers are frauds, but it appears that the Mayor's journalists are...
You read that correctly. "...jobless claims climbed...," ergo, "recovery is accelerating."
http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid=azzKDx73v9Y8
"Better than expected"
"Moving forward"
"Change"
"Jobless claims climbed, less than forecast signaling the economy is accelerating"
If you didn't know modern day magicians existed, here's the proof! Look, we can magically make an increase in jobless claims a sign of an accelerating economy! Ta da! Bet you didn't even notice.
http://psychonews.site90.net
bloomberg is worse than cnbc. you should see the blurbs bloomberg asia runs at night at the bottom of the screen - e.g. "obama inspires investor confidence"
About a year ago, I started to notice a big change in Bloomberg TV's production values. They became gratuitously louder (compression amped), flashier (color scheme more lurid) and jerkier (camera motion). In terms of substance, with a couple of notable exceptions (eg., reporters of the caliber of Mark Pittman, now deceased), it has deteriorated badly, and in a most skeevy kind of way. The Obama blurb you mentioned is a prime example. Also a prime example of NLP-esque, Bernaysian mind rape. I've turned Bloomberg TV off and I boycott any products I remember advertised on it. (Predominantly forex bucket shops, so it's not that hard). Both Bloombergs are disasters.
Par for the course for Boomberg. They were (and no doubt remain) among the worst liars and spinners of housing numbers during that bubble as well.
Brooklyn and Queens are a powderkeg. Once the recession gets worse because of the heavy austerity,and taxes coming add upon this that police layoffs are not to far away. I hope that the crime wave that is coming does not happen while I'm in college. I graduate in 2013. You should leave because whats coming will be very ugly.
Once the recession gets worse because of the heavy austerity,and taxes coming add upon this that police layoffs are not to far away.
Police layoffs? You must be joking my friend. The police state is coming and it's gonna be bigger than ever (especially in places where the ultra wealthy pig bankers like Lloyd Fuckfein reside).
The police state will be federalized, as there is no bigger hole in local balance sheets than their pensions. My city is having to contribute nearly 50% of their salary this year to catch up to the lack of returns in their pension fund.
There are huge parts of Brooklyn that white people never set foot in, and where gentrification has yet to reach. I have been to some of those parts (drove a courier van for a while, and went wherever the radio sent me) and let's just say that on a few occasions I attracted some unwanted attention.
When those folks run out of "hope and change", New York City could become an ugly place to be.
ok
Could happen sooner than (you) I think.
Bill to extend federally-funded benefits for long-term jobless fails in House http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jobless-benefits-bill-fails-in-house-2010-11-18
A few extremely rich, surrounded by countless poor. Maybe we should merge with Mexico. Sounds like we already have.
Well, DC spent the last 10 years "normalizing" regulations with both Mexico and Canada.
Of course, they do this to solve the immigration issue. </sarc>
I dont think Canada has enough fast food drive-thru's per capita to satisfy very much U.S. emigration.
I made the transition years and years ago. You will be emotionally tied to the city for a few of years until reality sinks in...and you wonder why you didnt move sooner. I've never looked back.
The rise in crime is a function of the rise in the number of males 18-24. This coming bunch is unique in both its sheer number (huge), and that it will be the first bunch of truly fatherless boys.
Yeah, chaos will reign in these places with such wicked disparity. It won't be long.
People with nothing have nothing to lose.
Wonderful, folks turn NYC (and the world) into crap then leave for greenfields because they canr stand the smell of their own shit, bringing the city attitudes with them. Typical.
Which folks turned NYC into crap? Was it the musicians? The university professors? The architects?
Don't pin the tyranny of the American Oligarchy on New Yorkers. Believe it or not, bankers are a very small percentage of the city...
Reminds me of a rap song: "Who run it? You're acting like you don't know. Who run it?"
Reminds me of all the a-holes that left Boston for southern New Hampshire..................now southern New Hampshire is like Boston............bring their "quality of life" to a city near you.....
Don't get me wound-up, I moved over the border into Maine and loved the fair judicious system until it too began adopting the Feminazi bullshit. If you have a penis in Southern New Hampshire, you have a tax bullseye on your head and the taxes come in the form of police. I give credit to the town of Sanford, they took the cuts to the police. My business is still here in Dover but it won't be too much longer. Probably won't be in the States much longer either. If it is a Fascist (substitute for "State-Run Capitalism") world, may as well be on the beach shucking corn.
Sucks doesn't it?
Libtard invasion.
Bernie Madoff left the ponzi state behind too, but now he needs soap-on-a-rope. Unfortunately the ponzi state controls the police state and the citizens are tossing their salads.
moving in with chris martenson???
Isn't Martenson in Western Massachusetts?
I concur, but please try explaining to someone here how bankers aren't the devil. Not all bankers. Much clearer:)
This is an extremely delicate subject that is nearly verboten here on ZH. And I love the qualifying term "on purpose" that washes the hands clean.
So am I to presume that the low level officer who voluntarily joined the Imperial Army war machine, or the trader who works inside the TBTF bank or on a HFT desk, are not at all responsible for even a small portion of the endless wars or the Ponzi?
We talk about pulling money out of the TBTF to collapse them. Or no longer flying to collapse the airlines and by extension the TSA. Why aren't we telling the traders and back office employees to quit?
Let the screaming begin.
^^^^What he said!^^^^
No single raindrop believes it should be blamed for the flood...
I like this saying and I get the point. But I'm not even asking for that level of responsibility. Maybe I should rephrase the saying to read......
"No single raindrop believes it should be blamed for it's minute presence and small contribution in the flood."
Has anyone ever seriously pondered how the Auschwitz doctors, nurses and lowly guards justified their "minute presence and small contributions" to the collective insanity and mass killings? As much as we wish to deny it, some of us are a bit more responsible for the collective insanity than others, even if it's just one percent of one hundredth of a percent more.
The Ponzi and endless Imperial Wars rely upon the passive (and sometimes eager) acceptance of their roles by the war and Ponzi workers to perpetuate the wars and Ponzi. This implies a greater responsibility for the wars and Ponzi by those workers that is often vigorously and sometimes viciously denied by those very same workers.
I did my undergrad work in Finance. When I graduated I realized that it was all about sales and in fact you would be punished for not pushing "products" that may or may not be right for your customer. I had an interest and aptitude for technology so that's where I ended up. There are a lot of back office analysts and technology types who are doing a good job, but the people in front of the customers are sharks.
So you just write the software that feeds the beast...
Get out, do it now!
You don't need to go that far, CD. What about the clerks in the rail offices scheduling the trains to Auschwitz, Dachau, Sobibor, Treblinka, Ravensbruck, etc,... or the inventory clerks processing the articles left behind for distribution, the manufacturers of the ovens and their employees. It is endemic to the system. Anyone can justify anything if that is what floats their boat. Laws are cover. There is no law here.
Never mind the workers at the camps, how about the US corpses: IMB, GM, Ford and Coca Cola to name a few... They made a killing while helping Mussolini and HItler along the way.
Agree. The personal responsibility we all share, in various qualities and quantities, to enable and perpetuate 'the great ponzi', is the same personal responsiblity that calls us to revolt through mass protest. We so need energy of activation to be reached already..
The way you talk you would think they had a choice.
the wall st. douches (some of whom i am related to and friends with) know exactly what they are doing. but to live in the NYC area you need to make a very good salary if you even want to dream of buying a house and having children. to raise two children in a 3br in NYC and send them to private school (b/c after middle school they will be murdered) you LITERALLY have to be a millionaire.
They just rationalize that they need to do what they need to do to live the dream. Personally, I think they should be turned into soylent green (even my friends and family).
I can't wait until I can escape NYC (even though it is a truly great place, esp. if you are a single male).
Aroostoock County bitchez!
Ah, but i'm not talking about them, i'm talking about US.
what he said too x 2.
Agreed, CD.
The American J6P is quite resilient it seems, and theres only so many times one can take an ass raping before declaring it's enough. I believe this (era) is the time when enough is said.
"I was just taking orders."
+1 bajillion
Agree.
The avg American soldier is just trying to feed his family and make a living...innocent casualities of war and occupation are ok, cause it's not on purpose, just a side effect.
The avg person in Financial services is just trying to make a good living in a tough city...casualities of the middle class and our currency are ok, cause it's not on purpose, just a side effect.
As long as people are acting in their self-interest pretty much no matter what they do (hmm, torture, theft, bombing), and arent possessed by some satanic evil plot they are good folk!
This launched your post into 'epic' territory: "arent possessed by some satanic evil plot, they are good folk!"
Couldn't agree with your sentiments more.
Umm, the whole system IS a Satanic evil plot, and people lose little pieces of their souls whenever they say "Just doing my job", "The law is the law", "It's for the public good", "If I don't take it, somebody else will"... Channel Satan long enough and he replaces your humanity with his own vile, parasitic essence. This process works better if you don't believe in Satan, and it works best when you think God is on your side.
yeszir. The on purpose is the killer.
An EDIT explaining that people at the top of this industry committed a load of fraud on purpose or at least distinguishing the level of culpability between MBS portfolio stuffers, swap against your clients, swap your products, calling the Treasury secretary for an AIG backdoor bailout, stuffing legislation for years.... from a lowdown salesman would have helped his cause.
Maybe money managers won't lead this revolution after all, hey gang?
I worked in student loans for a little over a year. While there I learned that:
- their most profitable loans were to the kids that they KNEW would never be able to repay (ie the kids that borrow gobs of money to go to some well-marketed trade school that will, if they are lucky, help them get a minimum wage job upon graduation)
- that these were their most profitable loans because of the accrued interest, fees and penalties that we would levy on these poor saps that were just doing what you are 'supposed' to do to get ahead (get a college education whatever the cost)
- that student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy and these poor kids will be trapped in debt slavery literally the rest of their lives.
Anyway, once I learned all of these things, I found another job.
I'll tell you, CogDis.
Having turned my back on several jobs which would've paid me far better money than I earn today because I couldn't live with the compromises they'd have required of me, I feel no moral righteousness. I'm not superior. I can't judge the people who ended up taking those jobs.
If there's a single person I've ever known and persuaded that there is such a thing as "real value" to be provided through their labor, I'm happy. If most of them went on doing whatever they thought they had to do, and that involved evicting widows and orphans or knocking bread from the mouths of the starving, so be it. No one benefits from my scorn.
As far as I can tell, "we" don't tell them to quit their jobs because of a simple thing known as humility. Many folks don't know that virtue and never will, and they'll do their part too. But if one DOES know humility, it's rather difficult to preach to any flawed struggling creature just how wrong their life-path is.
I ask people if they're happy with their decisions, and explain why I couldn't make the same ones. In my view, that's far more valuable than offering judgment and derision to the people doing work I don't respect.
Solidarity. None of us have much time.
++ BD, excellent.
Bullshit. They have no problem accepting their TARP bonuses. If it walks like a duck.......
"They are not bad people and they are not fleecing the American public on purpose. "
accidental fleecing??
They are just following orders like good nazi's , they aren't responsible for the new homeless families that live in cars or under bridges . Or the small business owner who closed his small business after 10+ years to go work at walmart etc etc etc
I have quite a few friends who work in banks. Only one of them understands the zero-sum nature of most of the profits that banks make. They genuinely think they somehow 'earn' millions or billions of dollars a year. When I attempt to explain their fortunes derive almost entirely from inflating the money supply through FRB or jiggering the reserve requirements they think I'm some kind of conspiracy theorist.
The one guy who does 'get it' spends his spare time writing free-market and pro-Austrian articles for major papers.
Jim they think your a conspiracy theorist because if you are right ( and you are ) it would probably make their worlds turn upside down and they wouldn't be able to get out of bed for a job they already hate . Your other one guy , justifies his paycheck by writing articles for the other team and may lose his job one day when Keynes and Mises go head to head in the near future . But he is still a welfare recipient like the rest of them .
Exactly, most people are ignorant of the damage they do. I would wager a large portion of the Germans fighting on the front lines throughout the war really didn't have a clue what was going on with the Jews, maybe if they had they would have said no, maybe not.
Little Eichmanns
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Eichmanns
A lot of these guys are paid enormous bonuses and they know exactly what they are doing , the money is just "too good" to leave . Most of these guys own homes so they are trapped because the number of buyers for these upscale houses drops yearly as this drags on and wealth continues to flow up to fewer and fewer people.
Cry me a river. It must be hard to be "trapped" in a high paying job and in an expensive luxury home. Maybe we should take a collection to help them out...oh wait nevermind the Fed and Treasury already did that.
he he
Actually, believe me, it is hard.
We're talking the "average bonus" guys out there with their luxury addicted spouses...it's not easy to let that go but at the same time the work you do kills you. You want out and you can't -- that's how it is a trap.
I agree cry me a river and such but speaking from some experience it is not an easy thing to one day say I AM DONE I CAN'T TAKE IT ALL
I've actually always thought that the "luxury addicted spouses" played a big role in the crisis. They are friggin clueless and greedy and just wanted their men to come home with bigger and bigger bonuses. and they are still clueless.
I am just pointing out that from "their" perspective they are trapped. From your perspective they are living the American Dream they robbed from everyone else . I get it and I agree with you for the most part .
NYC got a lot of sympathy in the midwest after 9/11. The way I feel right now is if they all up and died en masse tonight it wouldn't slow me down to breakfast in the morning.
NYC got a lot of sympathy in the midwest after 9/11
And in less than a year they were back to their old Ponzi putred pox ways
I’m here to defend 99% of the banking industry.
Yes… the NYC banking industry!
You see, 99% are grunts in every sense of the word. Absolute debt slaves that take whatever job they can get to keep up with the ludicrous cost of living that the area sets.
These grunts are 100% American in every sense. Tax payers, paying more then their share, workers, working in the most competitive arena due to the ability to be replaced by 1,000 other people willing to do your job for less.
You see, when Detroit makes a car and makes money off of it… The CEO-ish types and a couple of investors make it rich. Not the guys on the assembly line! …and whether the car is great, or it’s gas peddle sticks and kills someone, when things go wrong we don’t as a nation slam the assembly line grunts!!! NO!!! You freaking bashing fools!
99% of NYC workers are grunts just trying to get somewhere.
There are 3,000,000 people working here. Guess how many of them make less then $50,000 a year.
Guess how many of them have a property that is 60x 100x or smaller.
Guess how many of them pay between $10-15,000 annually in property taxes.
Guess how many of them pay $1,000+ for day care for their kids… because both parents HAVE TO WORK THEIR GRUNT JOBS JUST SO THEY CAN MAKE ENOUGH TO STAY AFLOAT!!!
…so just after you finish saying that if another 9/11 happened to us, you won’t be too upset, I say go F- yourself you stupid piece of SH!T
All the best,
Miss America
So can we use the same argument for the guards at the Soviet Gulags and Nazi death camps? Just regular Joes trying to make a living?
Three words: Stanford Prison Experiment.
The herd has been conditioned to worship/obey authority found in collectives as it removes the need for individuals to be responsible for their own actions. Hell, they've even been brainwashed into voting for their own enslavement, just to fit their self-image into the lie more comfortably.
Look around you, the lie is everywhere. Even here. Voting is evil, yet they have to DO SOMETHING!!!
Of course, the idea of stopping their own participation in evil never occurs to them, as they are blind to it's consequences (that self-image thing again (along with good ole CD)).
Myself, I did not spend six years in the USMC in order to support fascism, especially the Coup of 1913. Simply put, I do not, and will not consent. I govern myself to the best of my abilities, and expect the same from others. Anything else is simply armed aggression.
www.regenerationx.org
Perhaps it is conditioning but I'm inclined to believe that the majority of humanity wants to be lead and dominated. If the natural condition of man was that of freedom then it seems we would see more of it. Instead we have people of all cultures and creeds throughout cry out for strong leaders, and are eager to hand their wealth, lives, and freedoms to that leader. I watched a bit years ago how some missed Stalin, as he was such as string leader.
The sad fact is many desire to be slaves. Freedom to them is scary and foreign. They want the feeling of being in a group and safe, and the chains of slavery are a comfort to them. The people who desire freedom are the economy not only of the salve master but also the slaves. Many of the slaves are in love with their slavery and will attack those who try to disrupt it. It's not that they never think of it, being slaves and gears in the machine is a comfort to them.
Absolutely. The herd always chooses the path of least resistence, all the way to the slaughterhouse.
The difference today from a century ago though, is that the assembled herd is a much greater percentage of the population, especially in the US, which was born of individualism. Then along came the Prussian school system that placed us all into permanent kindergarten.
Dude, we all support the 'system' to some degree.
BEFORE the Stanford Experiment, there was this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_Experiment
Even closer to the mark.
Then the feeling is mutual. Mengele would be proud.
Guess how many of them have a property that is 60x 100x or smaller.
Guess how many of them pay between $10-15,000 annually in property taxes.
Guess how many of them pay $1,000+ for day care for their kids… because both parents HAVE TO WORK THEIR GRUNT JOBS JUST SO THEY CAN MAKE ENOUGH TO STAY AFLOAT!!!
Please don't make us guess. Or we'll assume you've just been guessing all this stuff yourself.
I can easily guess which of you have never set foot in NYC and which have. It's not really a guess though. It's a certainty.
Miss America:
In return for my guesses (below), I ask that the address the obvious question: if they are grunts as you describe and their living conditions as miserable as you imply, why don't they leave? And if they don't (i.e, if they voluntarily remain), then I have two observations:
1. those who stand pat and continue to work in banking/finance/fraud are willingly part of the mass-destruction machine;
2. All who remain have no one to blame but themselves if either a) another 9/11 event occurs; or b) they are adversely affected when civil acrimony blossoms into civil unrest and violent strife.
The possibilities are plain to any one willing to perform a dispassionate analysis of potential outcomes from present dangers.
We come into this life alone and we go out of it alone. In between, we alone are responsible for our decisions and the consequences of them. OWN YOUR LIFE.
Answers:
1. Most;
2. Very few--at $50k/annum in NYC, you aren't owning property
3. $1,000 per what time unit? Month? quarter? Year?
Just as qualified as you, I live in the "heart of darkness", smack in the middle of it. Most workers in NYC are DRONES! Is this their fault? No.
Why? Because the collective consciousness in this city has become one of absolute systemic control by the massive corporations that occupy the place. They neuter the men, turn them into spineless, ball-less, obedient shmucks all for a paycheck to keep their kids in private school and Muffy happy. They turn women into raving, narcissistic wenches that feel they must achieve at all costs, like its something different to be a woman and have a fucking job! Yeah, you made it baby! This is carefully planned, carefully implemented, and thus, the slaves police themselves into compliance....or else!
The sickness that is the responsibility of the people is one of unconsciousness: the unawareness of what their day to day actions do to their society and the human race as a whole. So what, you need to get ahead? You need to pay the bills? All the while hollowing out the society in which you live and in which your children will be brought up in. All about "me and my family"? Well, it ain't! You better start paying attention to the big picture.
A balance between "me and mine" and the "collective whole" is what is necessary. We are conditioned and encouraged to be narcissists, ever since Ed Bernays learned about Uncle Sig's discoveries. Look deeper.......
if your living like a rat in NYC or any other place for that matter becuse your programming is still at full warp, then too fucking bad
if on the other hand, your slaving away to keep your children safe and warm that's a whole different ball game
i'm single and work in architectural/engineering, and i do not let this carrer consume my whole being
I also have investments in organic gardening, yes my own operation.
I look forward to the day I can tell anyone to fuck off if they don't want to deal with reality
there are many smart people here on ZH, and they are getting out of Dodge the best way they know how. for the statists and corporate wage slaves, too bad for you but your not smart enough to figure it out
Methinks the midwest is one place I would like to be if things get REALLY bad, at least in the grain belt somewhere. I have read many op/eds about the grain belt being one of the more stable regions because of the tilt towards agriculture....I just can't stand the thought of an Iowa winter
Oklahoma isn't bad at all.
Shhhh. We don't need any accidental fleecers showing up.
That's what a lot of parents with hungry kids in Missouri thought too. And things haven't even gotten really bad yet.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/11/14/greene.hunger.backpacks/index.html...
But yeah, you're probably right.
so true so true. nice to know that i'm not the only one any more. left two years ago......for EXACTLY the same reasons. i too, feel uneasy, to the point that i didn't feel that it was safe to live there any more....not only due to terrorists.....at some point, the middle and lower classes in NYC, pushed to the brink, will explode. without a doubt. the chasm is so wide now....so wide....
I agree completely I know a ton of boiling frogs there ,on the otherhand I also know some people outside of NY who have been almost completely wiped out from the crisis years ago . NY has definitely not seen the worst of it yet .
Good Luck Michael. Throw some money toward self sufficiency.
Oh Man ,dont feel sorry, i have seen many cities in the world. The New York city is not the best place, i don't like it, there are many places to live, you wont regret that you are leaving... go for it.
Hong Kong, London, Monterrey, Santiago, Singapore, Stockholm, Tokyo, Zurich come immediately to mind
Concering the Asian cities - that's simply not everyones bowl of rice.
I would like to add Montreal which is super close-by (since T.O. is too similar to NYC).
or Vancouver
Or if you want something with all the benefits of Vancouver, but even friendlier people and even less rain, try Victoria. The Olympic mountains act as a rain shield that reduces the amount of rain there by 30% compared to Seattle and Vancouver. All the benefits, w/ 30% less rain!
Or Berlin or Melbourne
The Asian ones just happen to be the best on the list and they'll be comparatively better in 10 years. Directionality is the key.
I won't argue the quality of life is great in Singapore, but Hong Kong and Tokyo are way too crowded to be considered a possible response to leaving NYC (unless on mandatory work purposes). At the same time, dont get me wrong i love HK and would go back any chance i could, but for living there, i would definitely think twice and look at my options. The busy nightlife of the main island isnt exactly bliss for everyone living there.
That GD nightlife has made a few next-days almost unbearable! They take you out and drink you under, then they throw you in a sea of people the following morning with directions. You love it or you don't no doubt.
Rio, with a name change.
Weather in London blows.
Good Luck!!
Know Boulder lived there for years, go back whenever I get a chance, have clients in that area too, I might stumble into you at the chop house or on 16Th street mall! Good luck, it is a very nice place to live, if you like peace and freedom right after 8PM!
Hey Michael K - all the best to you on Boulder Corarado...fyi
I thank God and my guardians daily that Goldman Sachs
did not hire me in 1977! There is life outside DC and NYC....
you may also visit California and/or kiss a tree in a pristine forest
on the land on Oregon ...I enjoyed you chat w/ Max...got silver?
By: Edward - expressly reserving all rights ...
sorry, but you are fucked bro.. while wallstreet was melting down, there were some other big changes going on in the country. these include geoengineering (chemtrails) and the new food police state (s510 on senate floor now)...
the countryside is no longer safe. agenda 21 has been activated..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZPuM8HQ_Rs
Welcome to Canada. Feel free to bring your gold with you.
I for one will never live under QEII.
I graduated in natural resources from an Ivy League university. My freshman year NatRes introductory course textbook had all this (Miller, Living in the Environment, 1980). I was being set up to believe in and accept Agenda 21, global warming & global depopulation. Twenty-nine years later I was a victim of chemtrail poisoning, along with my dogs and surrounding biota.
Nowadays this Ivy League university has abolished all classic NatRes majors except 'policy & planning'. Everybody else is grouped under 'applied ecology'.
As for yours truly, he has become an 'environmentalist according to the Torah'. Never bought that Pachamama, Gaia, Mother Earth stuff.
Chemtrails? Read Ephesians 2:2
"You used to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God."
Hazatan is using the atmosphere to attack us. What's more, the atmospheric sciences department of this Ivy League university wants scientists trained in chemtrail ops:
"We have PhD opportunities for earth system science modeling, especially for mineral aerosol interactions with biogeochemistry and climate for current, past and future."
How about it?
SPX
Ben's engorged channel...down.
http://99ercharts.blogspot.com/2010/11/spx_6644.html
http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/99er-charts
The epigraph about living from a man that took the wrong end of a winchester 1200 into his mouth.
After surviving two plane crashes in three days..., the concussions made it impossible for him to think, much less write. Papa is greatly misunderstood, but he had the guts to live an incredible life and work it into his art. We should all be so fortunate.
There is an undeniable energetic sense of exhilaration
that is part and parcel of life in NYC - but it can be toxic.
I wish Mr. Krieger all good fortune.
I think it is a move he will not regret.
Good post. +1
You deserter! You traitor! You Neil Kashkari wannabe!
Think you can go native and survive the pending collapse? NO city slicker will find refuge in Boulder CO once the tractor trailers and trains stop rolling.
Also, Coloradans outside Boulder don't want any more of you eastern city slicker liberal latte sipping whining faggots to mess up their state.
Whatever you do, cockpunch Hickenlooper on first sight.
Check this place out for your midlife crisis place... Buddhist temple way up the mountain, good people... not too far from Boulder...
http://www.kttg.org/pages/retreat-cabins.php
Above is a joke,
Good luck out west...
Remember, nature photoblogs bring in eyeballs, then you can convert them to Austrian economics later!...
5 h.s. buddies went to UC Boulder, 4 dropped out and are snowboard bums now. One graduated, and is a hiking guide out near Tahoe.
Best advice I got from them, climb the stairs in the high rise every day for weeks before moving to Colorado.
Colorado, all of it, is a piece of crap. Lived in the "city above the clouds" for 2 years. Colorado is like going through a pat down in Denver every day of you life. And, don't dare get off the road, you'll be trespassing. Frickin -28 degrees in a high mountain pass in a blizzard. F Colorado.
Just my opinion.
Forbes ranks Utah #1 for 2010.
Brigham Young is spinning in his grave.
He probably started spinning when Utah became the #1 location for muli-level marketing. GS will have to actually put forth at least a reasonable exertion to fit in with the level of chicanery the MLMs display.
SLC has been a hotbed of securities fraud for decades. Lots of wealth hiding out there. There are local families who pass down the bilking skills to their kids and know how to title their assets in unknown Nevada LLC's.
Some of the best fraud stock promoters set up shop in Salt Lake. That GS has a big presence makes perfect sense.
Loads of Mormons work for GS. Been true for at least 25 years.
Not much of a fan of Colorado.
Home to USNORTHCOM, your TSA helper outer.
Born and raised in NYC (west side midtown Manhatten -before it was gentrified)
Was NY centric for 40+ years. Thought the world revolved around NY.
Moved to OR byway of 2 years in SC. Best thing I ever did.
Good Luck MK
OR is indeed the place to be
Once you buy OR you cannot sell
The good news for you is that people out in the Rockies and the Southwest just love Manhattanites, but that's really true everywhere. You'll fit in really well. Boulder? I hope you enjoy exchanging your relentless and conspicuous materialism for relentless and conspicuous health-consciousness.
The good news for you is that people out in the Rockies and the Southwest just love Manhattanites,
Go well with beer and bonfires.
= wrong
= right
Choose one.
Congrats and welcome to Boulder Mike, please don't tell your friends...
Meet me at the Trident for coffee?
just incredible haven't seen you around since the spring classics. damn you must know university bicycles? best two block radius in the world. what do you think of the condator story line? what about the FBI investigator over in France gaining steam to bust LA's ass. maybe he will have to sell his aspen McMansion. cry my a river.
As a kid, I pulled coffee at the Trident in the 80's when Hudson owned it. Cool dude, Hudson. Buddhist, he is (was?). I can't remember the name of his partner. Shorter bald guy.
Forrest Noble is the guy you want as a real estate agent in Boulder. World class paddler, climber, mountain biker, skier, boarder, and all around great guy.
http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_15580752
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjLd8lyBwes
fuck off†
What 2008 should have resulted in was a changing of the guard in the United States and in New York in particular.
Indeed sir! And until they finish taking the medicine that they started to take at that time, the very one Ben and Timmah have helped them avoid taking, "the guard" will continue to not be changed. They can fight all they want, but this is a battle they will eventually lose.
Bingo
New York City is an international/insular, inspiring/threatening, crowded/hollow, rapidly evolving/status quo bound, prosperous/impecunious, egotistic/demeaning place where the most extreme paradoxes live and thrive. It is the galactic capital of hypo-criticism. It is a gravity well of morals. It is the place where people with vision go to have their eyesight degraded.
I grew up and worked in The City. I hate The City.
Congratulations on seeing NY for what it is, and for knowing its path for the future.
Good luck on your move to America.
Well said, but as anyone with Corks should already know, Boulder is not an actual part of America.
It's entirely possible that the Merry Prankster's dropped more than just a little acid on their last epic road "trip" outside of the Bay Area and it, unfortunately grew up into the shining poop-cycle on the hill known as Boulder. Come to think of it, John Denver might have had a little diarrhea on his way through there to Aspen back in '74.
Either way, Boulder is a place that will commit suicide just as quickly as NYC in any circumstance that interrupts it's steady supply of bean sprouts, tofu burgers, and self-absorption. It's not as if they actually produce anything but the same sort of peak-humanist, enviro-death-wish that comes out of Madison or Berkeley. Big whoop.
If he wants to find America in Colorado, he best look to Durango or Grand Junction.
Colorado = Fort Collins =Frisby Golf = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qoCq-KsmZU
I lived in both Boulder and FC. For what Krieger seems to be looking for he should definitely go with the latter.