This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
The Coming New Recession: A Game Plan
This article was written by DoctoRx and it first appeared on the Daily Capitalist. The Doc has 30 years of investment expertise.
I wanted to summarize some major themes we have been addressing on the Daily Capitalist.
First and foremost, my view is that the markets and the mainstream media have been giving insufficient attention (if any at all) to the core problem that was revealed by the meltdown in 2008. Massive amounts of capital was misspent ("malinvested") during the boom. In order to finance the boom to its excess, financial companies ranging from small mortgage brokers in Orange County, California to titans of Wall Street burned through and pledged and hypothecated unbelievable amounts of capital. Recall that at the time, the total amount of base money in the U. S. was around $1 T. But the actual amount of bad loans and writedowns- not market value, which is a price that is evanescent- was gigantic. So it is my contention that what happened in 2008 was bankruptcy on an incomprehensible scale.
In other words, much of the "money" that "cash-rich" individuals or companies had "in" the bank or on loan in a money market mutual fund may have been worthless, or nearly so, due to poor lending practices. It is hard for me to see how Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Countrywide and Merrill if not acquired by BofA, various mortgage insurers, CIT, General Motors (a financial company with an automotive subsidiary, as it were), Chrysler, etc. could simply have imploded under any scenario other than gross near-insolvency of the financial system and mismarking of their assets and liabilities along with absence of prudent balance sheet management.
This quantity of huge bankruptcies (and all the averted ones due to massive government intervention) is extraordinary and may be without precedent for any leading financial power in modern history. But how often on CNBC or out of Washington have you heard matters framed this way?
If you believe the above, then an additional great tragedy is the failure to examine publicly at the highest levels what went wrong for so many years to lead to this catastrophe. Instead, the official explanation is that something unexplainable such as a Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans with a defective protective structure that was breached.
The deflationary events of the early 1930s saw almost none of this level disaster amongst the giant banks, even though objectively economic matters were much worse by 1932-3 than in 2008-9, in real terms which were amplified by the massive price deflation that assets suffered then. For example, the Bank of United States was based in New York City. James Grant recounts it as not being especially well-run, but there was no embezzlement or fraud. It went bust in1930; it was not a giant. There were no level 3 assets or CDOs, much less CDO squareds. When the economic downturn came, the bank simply had a duration mismatch/illiquidity problem. It had financed good properties, but it had to go through bankruptcy. Several years later and many deflationary price percentage levels lower, depositors recovered 83% of their money. Given what happened to the stock market in the interim, these depositors did fine. They may even have gained purchasing power. Now, compare that to what you think you would have received if you were a depositor in Citibank if it was left to fail (let us talk about funds above the FDIC limit) amid a massive deflationary (price and credit, both of them) liquidation spasm that could have occurred in 2008-9 (and beyond) similar to the one that occurred in the early 1930s. Remember that every big money-center bank paid 100 cents on the dollar back then to both depositors and bond-holders (if there were any bond-holders): there were no insolvencies, and I have read that "only" about 2% of money deposited in banks was lost during this time period. Does anyone think that things were anywhere near so robust compared to the 1930s amongst the banking companies that did not go bust in 2008-9? There is no way to really know, of course, but remember that the big guys all did well enough then to survive in vastly more challenging situations than they were recently faced with.
Thus I contend that matters were in many ways worse in 2008 than after 1929 even though the economic downturn was much less severe, and that we are paying the price for that but in a different way. The result could be ZIRP on and on and on as the authorities continue to create enough new money to replace the immense balance sheet holes that the public is not allowed to see. There's no way for me to know, but secrecy and complexity in financial matters speaks for itself, at least in the DoctoRx mindset.
I contend that the current systemic instability is an (the?) absolutely fundamental reason that the Fed keeps "printing" money but there is no hyperinflation and that residential and commercial real estate prices have been falling again: the newly printed money is partly overwhelmed (though only temporarily) by the ongoing depressionary forces. The evidence of the ongoing depression is all around us. Just look at the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Survey, the NFIB survey, the Discover/Rasmussen Small Business and Consumer surveys. Look at the Gallup survey that is posted daily. Unfortunately I cannot post their daily charts, but if you go to Gallup.com and look at the trends in hiring/not hiring; daily spending; and living standards, the highest any of these got in the "recovery" was to early 2008 levels: recessionary levels. They may already be declining again. Ignoring all the machinations in Europe, the U. S. has its own cyclical problems.
Is it too soon for another recession?
No, no, a thousand times no. Since 1940, there have been 12 recognized recessions in 71 years: one has begun less than every six years. The last one began nearly 4 years ago. According to NBER, the Great Recession ended in June 2009. Thus it officially was a 19 month official recession. The prior recession, as mild as the 2007-9 one was severe, ended exactly 10 years ago. That means that in the past 10 years, the U. S. has officially been in recession only 19 months: about average for the past 71 years.
Can a recession occur with a positive yield curve? Yes for at least two reasons.
One is Japan.
The other is that the Economic Cycle Research Institute says that it does use the yield curve to forecast recessions.
When the free market cannot match capital assets with what are perceived to be good investment opportunities, a somnolent future economic state is expected. When the profit motive doesn't stimulate borrowing at rock bottom interest rates, and when there is so much capital available, my conclusion is that there is simply enough of most things.
So the central government goes on "filling a demand void" when the problem instead is a lack of real savings. Borrowing/printing money to give $500 handouts to old people regardless of need simply because they "consume" is representative of all the wrong-headed but "nice" tendencies of American Keynesianism.
To summarize: the country ran out of a lot of its real capital during the boom/bubble 1996-2007 period. This was masked by financial shenanigans but the lack of real capital was revealed when a mild recession forced the financial emperors to be revealed as nearly naked.
The "Great Recession" did not cause the lack of capital. Instead, it revealed it, just as the little dog Toto revealed the fake wizard behind the curtain in the merry, merry land of Oz. Only after that revelation did the recession become a depression.
So once again, in case I have not been clear, the (neo-)Keynesians may have the best of motives, but from the standpoint of stimulating healthy future economic growth, they have matters backwards. What is needed for a true recovery is more useful savings, not more consumption paid for with borrowed or newly printed money. Until real savings (real capital) is rebuilt, it is difficult for me to see other than a continuation of the current pattern: limited economic growth and upward price pressures as the quantity theory of money gradually wins out.
From a timing standpoint for investors, however, which is more of a micro than macro concern, my sense is that we are so far from the onset of the Great Recession that another down-wave in the depression (or a new recession if you go by NBER) is either here or due soon. It may not be a severe downturn, as housing and autos would be falling from first- or second-floor windows in that case, but it would be occurring on the backdrop of a weakened structure, and thus the financial effects could be more severe than the economic effects (which could be severe or mild). Remember that the mild 2001 recession was associated with about as severe a stock market crash as was the 2007-9 monster downturn.
My suggestion is: watch the ten-year T-bond rate, lower meaning more economic weakness; watch the gold:platinum ratio, which is already signaling recession; do not trade off of European developments (you will be front-run by those in the know); do not use trend-following techniques that used to work and equally, do not use counter-trend trading techniques. For that last point, the algos will beat you most of the time in either direction. Some markets are untradeable except by true pros. So if one has a "good" investment, don't sell just because the price drops. Some robot might be getting you out at the bottom of the move.
As far as gold, I have recently suggested it would be quiescent for a while. I stick with that view, with a positive longer-term view, though there is significant downward price pressure possible from this level should a new recession be recognized and lead to a temporary asset liquidation to gain access to plain old fiat U. S. dollars.
Finally, I want to state the core paradigm that has worked reasonably well the past few years. It uses the recent Japanese ZIRP experience and combines it with the very prolonged period of very low interest rates in the U. S. following the 1929 crash, even though price inflation resumed after FDR took office in 1933 and deflation never really came back. In this scenario, real short- and intermediate-term Treasury yields can stay lower than one thinks for longer than one thinks and can be negative after accounting for inflation year after year. Right now I favor the Japanese trend of yet lower long-term rates because I consider that the destruction of real financial capital was greater in the bubble years now than perhaps ever before, and whereas America went back to saving as quickly as it could in the 1930s, that has not been the case ever since Mr. Greenspan ramped the presses while Mr. Bush told us to go shopping right after 9/11 and ever since the Fed began QE1 in late 2008.
In this hybrid Japan-U. S. post-Depression scenario, long-term bonds have their best use as trading vehicles to be sold near the end of recessions, but given much (much!) higher stock valuations now than in 1933 and its aftermath, stocks have more crash potential now than they did at most points in that era (until the 1960 time frame and beyond, when stocks finally began to get frothy again).
Financial matters are at best a confusing mix of matters, more so now, and central authorities will do what they will, when they will, without giving you a heads up. And the robots and trading costs will beat you as certainly as the slots in Vegas if you try to trade where you are not an expert.
People who think the Austrian way and go back to the first principles that the economic damage occurs because of malinvestments during the boom, and that the bust should be the healing phase, are way ahead of the game in contrast to Keynesians who misdiagnose a lack of real capital for some implausible anorexia consumptionosa of the public at large. So long as the authorities keep doing what they are doing, I would analogize this bust as a wound that is not allowed to heal because the doctor keeps damaging the scab.
Sometimes it just is best to get up each day, go to work (or a coffee house), and not think too much or do too much about the financial markets, all the while increasing one's knowledge about things one has real interests in. The world keeps turning, and one wants a coherent game plan for the period ahead when the times are not out of joint.
»
- advertisements -
"In this hybrid Japan-U. S. post-Depression scenario, long-term bonds have their best use as trading vehicles to be sold near the end of recessions, but given much (much!) higher stock valuations now than in 1933 and its aftermath, stocks have more crash potential now than they did at most points in that era"
So wait, why should we not be short the market???
And how does he think we will get to a "period ahead when the times are not out of joint" ? This a form of "delay and pray" brought on by excessive 2nd hand hopium exposure.
People who think the Austrian way and go back to the first principles that the economic damage occurs because of malinvestments during the boom, and that the bust should be the healing phase, are way ahead of the game...
Bingo. Double, triple bingo.
Malinvestments should be considered the cardinal sin of economic activity, condemning those who are so stupid, ignorant, unsophisticated and generally incompetent to be managing their own affairs, let alone a multi-billion dollar investment, to eternal damnation of poverty until they realize the errors of their way and repent.
And to those who ran up tens of thousands in debt getting their degree in a field where they can't find a job? Think of it as a stupidity tax: those folks will eliminate themselves out of the gene pool because they won't be finding a mate any time soon.
Risk rules the universe, and you ignore it at your peril. Trying - as so many have thought to do so - to eliminate risk by buying some sort of insurance (aka CDO) or hedging their bets don't understand that risks are part of doing business, indeed of life in general. Trying to cover all your bets and ensure that whatever you do, you can be ensured of no losses only means that you don't understand how risks are always there.
I enjoyed that-- makes sense to me-- its what I have been doing--concentrating on my little business-using tax incentives and keeping the nest egg safe. I have found that with a little extra effort I can earn about %10 a year on my net worth with my business--kept me even with dollar devaluation so far--Thumbs up on this one--thanks.
Dense, informative piece here.
I always have said this depression/recession is more of a beach erosion rather than a free fall. Although free falls are more flashy for the MSM.
You just wonder what will be the day when the populace wakes up and finally notices the economic beach is completely eroded from the face of the Earth?
http://saposjoint.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1292&start=60#p34756
Great article!
Econophile - there is no "coherent plan" and no central command and indeed there is no fuking God either
Austrians have the same failure mechanism as every other global mangler. They think there is one true way and they want to orchestrate it (manglers just like Govt, just like socialists, just like all the failures in all institutions and academia)
I suggest you take a look at nature, the most successful living organism on the planet. What nature teaches us super-intelligent humans what we don't know is there's hundreds of ways to proceed. Hundreds of coherent plans. Not one true way, no one God, no one book of commandments or one book of rules
Nature (the DNA worm in all living beings) is a wise old Poker Player and still the sharpest cookie on the planet (much sharper than man that's for sure). Nature backs (mates and multiplies) current success but also mutates a little at the fringe to explore and cover the unknown (ie. nature tries to cover all bases and spreads risk through diversity)
The other thing of huge note is that nature is not a centralised system. It is an individual based system, each individual going about their own thing daily.
If TSHTF each individual takes its own individual action plans to survive, probably hundreds of different plans. If nature was all one system listening to one Austrian or Keynsian plan and that one Masterplan did not work, the whole system is (cue technical term) 'totally fucked'
Nature is not so stupid as a Keynsian or Austrian, nature spreads risk through diversity. It has seen the stupidity of central anything. It is has the futility and indeed danger of putting all your eggs in one basket (answer) or belief system or way to do things
That includes Austrians think they understand economics and by nature thinking they are Gods with one answer and one coherent plan for the future
My advise is like nature, you Austrians (like Keynsians and Freedmanites) mind your own fuking business stop trying to orchestrate others and get on with your own life. The rest of the planet will sort itself out (like nature) without reference to Keynsian and Austrian windbags
There is something admirable, perhaps even innocent and childlike, about someone so unconscious that they deliver opinions as though they are universal statements of fact.
take a point and run with your critique of it and let's see who is the childlike unconscious zombie... when you're ready Einstein, i'm all ears for your greater knowledge
Exactly, the laws of physics and Nature make no promises regarding your survival. Especially if you smoke, drink, eat shit, etc.
Let's get this collapse started already so we can find out just how "smart" everyone is and just who's labor is actually worth decent compensation.
we have the statistics on survival rates for drinkers, smokers and the people who eat shit numbers are just being correlated
smokers and drinkers lifetime risks are 0.001% different to non-smokers and non-drinkers which is why the hysterical Health Nazis in central command (Govt) should be taken to the operating tables and have brain surgery (instal a peanut, it'll triple their IQ)
all people that think they have the 'One True Answer' be they socialists, politicians, Keynsians, Freedmanites, Austrians and other institutionalised morons or academic windbags have the same problem: they think they're God.
the problem with the world is too many people cannot mind their own business. We have been institutionally acclimatised to wanting one answer or one leader or one way... there is no one way... you have to find your own path (like nature). We have to mind our own business, stop interfering in others, and get on with it
will the pea-brained windbags from all over the globe who cannot stop giving everyone else advise kindly STFU
Dear god man BRAVO!!!! :thumbsup
*begins golf clap*
So your advice is for everyone else giving advice to STFU? Good advice.
you got it in one Kritter ...brilliant
Dude, you might wanna refill that prozac prescription.
Lunatic - still firing blanks from that pea shooter ...your acidic dribble of generalised garbage suits your fat mouth but can't mount a single argument ...speculating i take legal drugs is dumb but then dumb is what you are isn't it gobshite?
I know there's an argument in you hiding under that obnoxious front of a retarded blogger you're putting up now.. so put up (an argument) or shut up
Funny, I read this line:
"First and foremost, my view is that the markets and the mainstream media have been giving insufficient attention (if any at all) to the core problem"
as:
First and foremost, my view is that the markets and the mainstream media have been giving sufficient inattention (if any at all) to the core problem
every time I read it. Strange, but so true.
The only solution that will ever work in a capitalist system is to eliminate fractional reserve banking. Everything else is just a ponzi scheme. The real solution is to eliminate money and evolve society to an automated surplus model, but that's many years away.
actually there's no (one) solution...
the current problem is the current system is a host of monopolies (Govt, central banking etc) installed by the globes various parasites to milk productive wealth out of society through taxation, fraud money and intervention in the free market for monopolists (see Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Healthcare, Big Insurance, Big Pensions, Big Utilities, Big Rothchild etc)
...we simply need to stop this system by removing our productive wealth from their counterfeit wealth monopolising system (Govt and central banking)
so the solution to our current problem is simple: stop funding it. Stop paying your taxes. Defund the parasites monopoly machine. Do not pay tax to Big Govt, do not deposit in a big bank, do not deposit in any big institution or buy goods from big retail/onliners... deal only in small cash (no big Visa or MC) and with small businesses
the secondary problem after the solution is everyone and their cat thinks they have a new solution or system... but all these pinheads simply want to replace a new one-size-fits-all monopoly system in the place of the old monopoly. This new system will soon be rammed with monopolist parasites who will infect it all over again.
the actual solution is simple: freedom... or free markets to be precise
freedom allows a sharp cookie to find one solution. Freedom allows lots of other sharp cookies to come up with lots of solutions. Lots of solutions always beats the living crap out of one solution. That's because lots of solutions gives society lots of options (power and flexibility). Hence less systemic risk piling your eggs all into one shaky basket
Freedom (and competition) is the answer to monopolisation by Govt (killing competition)...don't worry about a solution, freedom will deliver you many, all you have to do is choose. Simple
The so-called capitalist economy is centered around profits.
At its core, all “capitalist” profit is based on one form or another of limited access, whether to markets, resources, or labor.
It is the ability to turn a good or service into cash flow. And this, in turn depends upon the power to exclude - the power to deny customers a valuable product , rivals from a market.
Without property “rights”, patents, licenses, captive markets, or captive labor, profits diminish. There is a built-in bias toward monopolization of resources and production, and labor arbitrage - and the symbioses with government, … all done to establish and protect privileged access.
“Capitalism is not about free competitive choices among people who are reasonably equal in their buying and selling of economic power, it is about concentrating capital, concentrating economic power in very few hands using that power to trash everyone who gets in their way.”
-David Korten
Those who rail simply against “gubmint” are succumbing to a fraudulent paradigm. They are missing the point how the TOTAL economy (public and private) is geared to impoverish nearly all of us.
Nearly all of us are being ruined by a combination excess militarism, unbridled plutocracy, rampant public and private corruption, neglected infrastructure, debt and currency debasement.
Consider the idea of ‘profit’.
Profit is a man-made concept. It is a limited concept. Profit does not and cannot measure the worth of every and all things and be the ultimate guide to human conduct. The concept nonetheless underpins the whole notion that the pursuit of micro self interests will result in the best of all possible worlds. And it is that mistaken notion which is often used to justify the worst of all outcomes, and pronounce that the solution to our miseries is to increase business profits.
Never mind the profits made by ruining forests, rivers, and oceans. Never mind the profits from destroying the fisheries and polluting the air. Never mind financial parasitism. Never mind sweatshops, child labor, and poisoned foods. Micro profit, it seems, does not measure the environmental losses to society, nor the debilitation and destruction of human beings. But yet, it is to be the ultimate arbiter of human conduct. Or so we are told.
A system based on maximizing work, maximizing production, maximizing consumption ultimately values neither leisure nor the quality of life, human or other.
The corporation is the apex profit-driven organization of a misnamed and mythological “free market” capitalism. It is autocratic and elitist, with a narrow single-minded goal, denigrating all that stands in its way.
Government, like corporations, has evolved around the pursuit of profit. Government has become to be like corporations, autocratic, secretive, and obsessively entangled in the furthering of corporate profit-making, to the detriment of all else.
And finally, to paraphrase an oft-quoted meme:
"The problem with capitalism is that sooner or later you monopolize all wealth".
concise and spot on rwe2late
RWE - you are spouting all the usual cliche crap about capitalism. There are a number of simple (but powerful) things you need to understand in which your State education, the media and no book has told you to date.
Firstly capitalism is about creating wealth, productivity. So a farmer sows seeds, harvests and what he sells his goods for minus the costs of his labours is his profit. From the profit he lives, he stores any excess wealth and sows seeds again. Without profit the farmer, the industrialist, the fashion designer is dead in the water.
Capitalism is about productivity. The peope who destroy this enriching process are Govt who consumes others wealth. Monopolists who destroy the free market. See fascists and socialists taking over the private sector and systematically destroying productivity because they are thicko peanut-brainded morons who cannot be productive. See the USSR, see North korea, see previous China regime all ending in bankruptcy (death of productivity in their countries)
Secondly the free market is competition, the most simple mechanism but most powerful force for good in nature, society and economics. Competition sorts the wheat (good, productive, profitable, creative, high IQ sharp cookies) from the chaff (bankrupt, unproductive, low IQ stupid and dumb).
Monopolising a market destroys change for the good and hands over all power to one set of low IQ cunts whereas competition in the market gives consumers choice (distributes power rather than hoards it). Without competition the unproductive parasites ruin the market (see utilities, healthcare, US property, Big Pharma etc)
So now you understand productive and profit versus unproductive, bankrupt and destructive and competition versus monopoly let's address your points:
"all “capitalist” profit is based on one form or another of limited access, whether to markets, resources, or labor.
Rubbish. Profit is based on productivity. Limited market access, labour or resources are all monopolist practices and precisely what Govt (the biggest intervener in the free market) does for monopolists
the power to exclude - the power to deny customers a valuable product , rivals from a market.
Yes that's precisely Govts role... to ruin the free market and rig it
Without property “rights”, patents, licenses, captive markets, or captive labor, profits diminish.
All that Govt red tape is designed to restrict and strangle the free market for the fat cat monoplists. Govt is a protection racket and 'captivating markets' is what Govt does, strangling them in red tape
Capitalism ...concentrating economic power in very few hands using that power to trash everyone who gets in their way.” - David Korten
Korten is describing the role/intervention of Govt and corporate monopolists in the free market, not capitalism
ruined by a combination excess militarism, unbridled plutocracy, rampant public and private corruption, neglected infrastructure, debt and currency debasement.
Yes, you're describing Govt again
A system based on maximizing work, maximizing production, maximizing consumption ultimately values neither leisure nor the quality of life, human or other.
Er, how did we get from cave to Condo/Concorde Einstein? Sitting on our monkey arses or through industrial productivity and profit?
ZG
"All that Govt red tape is designed to restrict and strangle the free market" - correct, but look a little deeper. What you dismiss as "red tape" (property “rights”, patents, licenses, etc) are the building blocks of capitalism. Further, what that means is that there cannot ever be a capitalist "free market" devoid of those building blocks.
"Property rights" enforced by some sort of government are intrinsic to capitalism. Concentrated wealth arises from those "rights" (privileges). In a snowball effect, wealth is utilized to garner more privilege (lawsuits, propagandizing, limiting information, intimidating workers, etc., AND also through government).
----------
A system based on maximizing work, maximizing production, maximizing consumption ultimately values neither leisure nor the quality of life, human or other.
“Er, how did we get from cave to Condo/Concorde Einstein?” - Slavery, sweatshops, imperialist wars and environmental pillage.
RWE
i'm guessing you're a student because your 'image' of each topic is so simplistic (like a cheap plastic toy in a Christmas cracker). You don't appear to do any of your own investigating/thinking past what some anti-capitalist moron has told you to believe/swallow! So here's some answers you could have easily put together yourself with a little observation of the world you're living in:
What you dismiss as "red tape" (property “rights”, patents, licenses, etc) are the building blocks of capitalism
No they are the building blocks of monopolisation. In a free market there are NO RULES, that is the definition of free. If you want an example of a free market without any rules (free of Laws, judges, lawyers, regulations, employment and consumer protection legislation) see the brilliant free - black - market in illegal drugs. It works year in year out, decade after decade suppliers supplying consumers with $100's of Billions of product and everyone happy 99% of the time.
'Free' market means free of rules so what are rules? They are a persons/committees/groups set ideas on how others should behave/conduct. Yep, some adults telling other adults what or how they should do things. They can all go fuck themselves. Free market means free of others mind-numbingly stupid interference. It's none of their business, nobodies business but buyers and sellers. The only rules are those between buyer and seller, set at time of business, flexible for change whenever
Change is the only constant. So setting rules is stupid par excellence. Free = freedom (no rules, self determination on any issue). Hope you got it now :)
here cannot ever be a capitalist "free market" devoid of those building blocks.
why do you think capitalism needs a Govt registry office to pass title for property? Hundred Billion Dollar companies pass title/ownership every month without a Govt registry. Trillions of goods are traded (pass title) business to business around the globe every year plus more Trilions of goods and services are traded business to consumer every year without any Govt office required, any legal system or lawyers, any contracts. Why imagine Govt is needed to pass title on land or buildings???
Property rights" enforced by some sort of government are intrinsic to capitalism.
See previous answer
wealth is utilized to garner more privilege (lawsuits, propagandizing, limiting information, intimidating workers, etc., AND also through government
Wealth and power is certainly mis-used but that is the exception to the rule and in the nature of man (and all animals). No rule is going to change that. We must accept a little collateral damage, no system operates without it, there is no free lunch nor anything productive that does not have some negative or waste gas. Nature is the exact same.
Regards "intimidating workers" here you can do some thinking outside the box of garbage someone has given you to think. Walk around any US, European or city/town in Thailand, Singapore, HK or anywhere. Ask every person how much "intimidation" their employers gave them to work at the company that employs them? I think you'll find of the millions you interview absolutely zero were intimidated, all applied for the job voluntarily and worked willingly of their own free will.
That is the reality, a million times over. Where'd you get the extreme view companies want to intimidate employees rather than attract them to work for them? You have swallowed an age-old extremists view that bares no relationship to reality (ie. is so fuking insane it's beyond stupid). When people give you ideas, don't swallow them whole. Think for yourself, that's the definition of being an individual and not a sheeple/zombie herded by pea brained loonies
“Er, how did we get from cave to Condo/Concorde Einstein?” - Slavery, sweatshops, imperialist wars and environmental pillage.
Have you, your parents or Great-Great Grandparents ever worked in a sweatshop or been slaves?
Where is the "enviro-pillaging" going on? You mean man mines minerals out of the Earth (like a tree for example) constructs them very cleverly into toasters, cars and games consoles(like a tree for example).
Question. Has the Earth lost (if so where have they gone?) its minerals and metals and oil/plastics man mines and manufactures or is it like life/nature itself, he uses those resources more productively and they are scurrying around the surface of the Earth in productive use (like life/nature itself)?
If man has pillaged/depleted a single element of Earth please name it?
ZG
Thanks for making your “NO RULES” philosophy explicit.
(By the way, from the “Opium Wars” to today, drug dealing has never been “free” of government and corporate involvement. It works similar to the former alcohol Prohibition. Restricting the availability, promoting it on the sly. Look up Air America, Oliver North, and our drug lord ally Karzai, etc.)If man has pillaged/depleted a single element of Earth please name it?
Bison, various fisheries, forests, wetlands, aquifers, unpolluted fresh water, cluster bombs everywhere. You confuse the issue of whether matter is destroyed with the issues of pollution, degradation and destruction of habitat, and extinction.
ZG, I would only add that you must also live with your choice once it is made. In a world that has tried to stamp out the idea of winners and losers, this might be the most difficult thing for the sheeple to accept these days.
Well said. Since taking more direct control over my finances in our recent environment, I have learned nothing more valuable than what it means to lose based on a decision I come to. I win some, and I lose some, and it is definitely from the losses that I learn and grow. Far too many of us still trust someone else to go through that winning and losing process "for us". The biggest lack continuing to this day in our financial system is accountability. This is as true for the smaller investors giving their money to "advisors" to handle as it is for the TBTF custodians who have never remotely been asked to take responsibility for the collosal clusterf*** they were at the center of creating. When accountability at all levels returns to the market, I will gladly go balls-to-the-wall long. Not there yet, but maybe getting to the low (Europe is about as disgustingly unaccountable as I can imagine it getting). Here's hoping.
SofaPapa - the answer to your question of accountability is in your own actions. namely you now manage your own money for yourself. The idea we hand our money over to an institution and they do a better job is the biggest (institutionalised) hed-fuk ever devised. Like Govt whenever we give our money to someone else (to spend) they always do a truly crap job with it
and the worst part of this is we are destroying our own communities and even their revival by handing our wealth to big national organs. You want to invest then do so locally. The big pensions funds and hedgies are crap and the big markets are crap also. Stay small and account for your own investment decisions
Small is the answer to big indeed lots of small always beats big in economics and most other fields
LoP - the free market offers lots of choices which in turn offers us the ability to make more than one choice (spread risk) ...so if 7 or 70 new money systems comes out of the free competitive market we have choices to store our value/labour/wealth in one or more systems
our problem now is our monopoly money system gives us no choice while it is being systematically trashed and defrauded by Benny the Gangster ...ok in truth we can swap currencies and we can also invest in assets or commodities ...but as a means of exchange they're not so easy, we still have this Fed/ECB/BoE toilet paper
snakeoil salesmen (politicians) continually use the 'one great answer' (false promise) to hed-fuk the sheeple into some fluffy pillow cosseted State solution. It's very difficult to dismantle their lies in debates staged on TV with 15 second sound-bites and bent presenters isn't it?
which is why i hold out some confidence for the power of the internet to spread more cognitive and sophisticated arguments than the shallow corrupt garbage TV and newspapers banter about. On the Web we have something approaching proper debates on issues
Fingers crossed
"Sometimes it just is best to get up each day, go to work (or a coffee house), and not think too much or do too much about the financial markets, all the while increasing one's knowledge about things one has real interests in. The world keeps turning, and one wants a coherent game plan for the period ahead when the times are not out of joint. "
Great sage advice . Avoids Tagamet, sleeping pills , frustration , anger , and HUGE MONEY MISTAKES . Thanx
Thanks that was really informative.