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Party Like There's No Tomorrow
Via Mark J. Grant, author of Out of the Box,
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
-Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
One of the most famous opening paragraphs ever penned. A tale of the years leading up to the French Revolution that ended in the Jacobin Reign of Terror. The world, today, is neither in the best of times nor the worst of times but perhaps the oddest of times would be appropriate. Italy is in total disarray---don’t care. The United States faces sequester tomorrow---don’t care. Earnings at many companies are coming in far short of expectations---don’t care. “The world’s central banks are handing out free money at the giant ATM and don’t bother me until they finish,” said Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men in the Marketplaces.
“Anything that happens, happens. Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen. Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again. It doesn’t necessarily do it in chronological order, though.”
-Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless
There is little sense to all of this except the flood continues, no letup in sight, and money like water must go somewhere and all of the boats, without exception, have been floated. Political governance has become irrelevant, a sideshow, both technicals and fundamentals are of paltry value, and I am reminded of the boys at the table in Oliver, “More gruel, if you please.” The central banks slop it out into the various bowls, it is consumed, more is demanded, more is ladled out and the dining continues unabated. You would think, a rational man would assume, that there was an end to this somewhere but with nowhere else to put the gruel; the feeding frenzy continues. A momentary glance at Spain, at Greece, at Italy; a fleeting look at the U.S. budget, a brief examination of the sushi table, but who cares, nothing else matters, “More gruel if you please.”
“The wind is rushing after us, and the clouds are flying after us, and the moon is plunging after us, and the whole wild night is in pursuit of us; but, so far we are pursued by nothing else.”
-Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Money is not like a commodity; there is no end to it. You don’t have to grow it, find it in the ground, drill for it or plant it in the spring. It is not even that the supply of lumber will curtail the paper for most of it is not printed at all. Made from nothing, recorded on a spreadsheet, sent out across the wires, a digital divinity of man’s own creation. It is a world that none have seen before. It is not Huxley’s “Brave New World” but something far stranger; a financial system cobbled together in counting houses and made from nothing but air. In the last days Bernanke promised that the feeding would continue, Draghi promised a food laden table without end and the Band of Merry Men rejoiced and the gauge of their elevated mood, the markets, responded accordingly and the party continued.
The world is partying as if there is no tomorrow. I will certainly give you that. One day, however, some event is going to draw open the curtains and then the partygoers will notice the sunrise and then the light will dawn.
You can party like there is no tomorrow. The problem is this; either the Universe ends or tomorrow always arrives.
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Take a check for that?
Post dated 30 years ?
Here's to the End of the Universe Club ....... sorry no hairless monkeys allowed
"Money is not like a commodity; there is no end to it. You don’t have to grow it, find it in the ground, drill for it or plant it in the spring. It is not even that the supply of lumber will curtail the paper for most of it is not printed at all"
What this gentleman is describing is fiat currency, not money. Actual money is a common unit of exchange representing our labor and production, and as such is finite by definition.
Great video on Currency vs Money here:
http://www.silverdoctors.com/gold-silver-hidden-secrets-of-money-currenc...
Money as an unlimited commodity is utterly Keynes, (not even 'Keynesian') and in my opinion has a fundamental flaw in that the concept of capitalization (to invest dollars for a return) diverges from the basic purpose of money (dollars as a claim or store of wealth, i.e., stored labor as a claim on materials, resources, and services).
from The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money:
"... Interest to-day rewards no genuine sacrifice, any more than does the rent of land. The owner of capital can obtain interest because capital is scarce, just as the owner of land can obtain rent because land is scarce. But whilst there may be intrinsic reasons for the scarcity of land, there are no intrinsic reasons for the scarcity of capital. An intrinsic reason for such scarcity, in the sense of a genuine sacrifice which could only be called forth by the offer of a reward in the shape of interest, would not exist, in the long run, except in the event of the individual propensity to consume proving to be of such a character that net saving in conditions of full employment comes to an end before capital has become sufficiently abundant. But even so, it will still be possible for communal saving through the agency of the State to be maintained at a level which will allow the growth of capital up to the point where it ceases to be scarce."
Now tested. Now proven wrong.
An unsolvable problem seems to be that our means of capitalization is the same as our monetary unit (and must be, by definition). This is similar to POKER where, unlike other contests, the points, or quantitative ‘score’ is kept in money won versus lost, net profit/loss, +/- (unlike, say, football where Ravens def. 49'ers 34-31 in points, not dollars). It would be interesting to examine if we could somehow diverge our monetary unit from the capital unit. Most likely this is impossible.
In the old days, someone had to print or coin it which created some jobs in paper, ink, printing, mining, transportation, etc.... Now with digital fiat currency, it's just a click on a keyboard, a swiipe of a card, etc.... No jobs created to produce it, no limitations on it's creation, just limitless zeros and ones.
I think we need a 10 for 1 reverse split on the money supply... Whatever the number is now, create 10x more of it for book keeping purposes and distribute new spreadsheets to everyone via the IRS... So if your 2012 adjusted gross income was $40,000, for the purpose of this exercise it's now $400,000... But it's just bookeeping on a spreadsheet, so you don't really get the extra $360,000, you let the IRS keep that to pay down the debt, defecit, deficate, and your taxes on that amount, etc. Problems solved...
And all you need is for the communist democratic party to sell that to the american people. They are very good at it, it seems...
Oh wait, they may have already done that... sorry, hard to keep up with the insanity...
More likely, I envision the rolling out of the "New US Dollar" backed up by gold at some rate commensurate to Fed gold reserves right now (~$10,000 New USD / oz) with a bid and ask (10,000 x 10,020) set by The FED, and moveable as the FED sees demand wax and wane. Both Old and New USD would be legal tender for US debts, public and private.
On your 10-1 split idea... there would also be an EXCHANGE RATE for Old (non-gold-backed) USD to New (gold-backed) USD, however I haven't worked out how this would work yet.
In this manner the Fed can back out of the toilet paper grade monetary unit it has crept into, and into something that people would have confidence in.
Thanks KTV...
Either this is new or I just missed it coming down the pipeline... I am sending this link out to all my friends... Because that is what friends do...
Post dated 30 years ?
Its not that you think strange things are happening, but rather, strange things ARE happening more than you possibly think.
.
We would probably shit our pants if we REALLY knew what was going on...
As we begin to wander from the norm, you will find this happening more and more. In other words, as the Black Swan event (5 sigma) gets closer, your 'strange things' (2 or 3 sigma) become more probable and begin to happen more often.
The increase in shootings are in evidence of this, in my opinion. People are starting to lose it. Protect yourselves and your family.
Party like it's 1999: isn't that the year the TBTF megabank phenomenon was birthed?
......
"Draghi promised a food laden table without end..." ehm... he promised something else, and some are complaining it's a bitter, hard fare and would prefer a richer table, remember?
.......
"Italy is in total disarray" Mark, you mean more than in the last 15 months? How so?
Dickens via Frazier Crane: "There was a king with a square jaw and a Queen with a plain face on the throne of England (Cheers gang begins to lose interest)... and there was a bloodthirsty clown, who would lure children into the sewer and swallow them whole"
The Grim Reaper cometh. Prepper Alert, the days we have being planning for are now upon us, ACHTUNG!!!
Good thing that when bitcoins run out, they RUN OUT... Right?... Right?
~~~
I mean, if I had something THAT VALUABLE, I'd go out & set up vending machines [to collect more paper fiats for myself]... All you ZH'ers should do that with your gold [that is, of course, if you haven't lost it all while boating]...
HEY FELLOW NAZI OBAMA WORSHIPER. WHERE AND WHEN DO YOU FELLOWS OF FLUFF GERT TOGETHER TO GO AFTER THESE ZH'ERS? KEEP IT UP . YOU SEEM SILLY AND YOU DONT WANT A FOURTH REICH DADDY TO DRONE YO ASS
I wear a yamulke to keep myself safe from dronings...
.
don't laugh CH1 ~ It's been working so far...
Given the level of debt, the only choices were default or hyperinflation. The politcians always choose hyperinflation since the pain is in the future. So printing will continue until everyone is a billionaire and bankrupt like Zimbabwe. And Bernanke will be assuring you everyday that inflation is under control.
justobserving,
if they were printing and sending checks i'd agree with you completely. but it's a big club, and we ain't in it. maybe it ends in hyperinflation but we are going zirp with a big side of financial repression until everyone is busted out. It's gonna suck.
What are these things ... these "markets" ... of which you speak?
Princess Bride:
Vissini: Inconceivable.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not believe it means what you think it means.
"Where have all the honorable men gone?"
...
The dollar was hyperinflated long time ago. It´s the worlds low monetaryvelocity of the dollar that hid the truth. The hyper will come, it´s inevitable. But inevitable isn´t the same as imminent. What will ignite the implosion? I don´t know, i´m just curious of whether it will be by design or by that dirty old swan.
It's not a problem ... except when it is
No adults in Washington, just party and trash the shit out out of the house.
Seriously, just make sure everything is destroyed-
it will take a lesson like that for these idiots to learn.
The dead do not learn.
What?
You find Keith Moon in charge of the money machine a disturbing thought?
Who let the party go, ON!
Glad we don't worry about hangovers!
who is partying? everyone I know is going broke.
How can that be with DOW 14K?
that's why you are richer than I am.
+1 very clever.
And before long Dow 20k and 30k and 1,000,000k!
In the last Great Depression there were plenty of things to buy but no one had any money. In the next one everybody will have loads of money but you will not be able to buy anything with it.
I have been reading forums over the past two days where Federal employees are squealing about having their jobs cut.
I have to laugh because this is how the rest of us have lived for several years now.
I guess I should have some empathy for them. But, I lost a client yesterday because of budget cuts. I cannot stir up enough positive emotion to get to the point of empathy.
Fuck them all. Welcome to the party, pal.
Amen brother. When you lose a client because they've gone down, not because you screwed up. It sucks. If it's a big client it also takes some time to overcome.
Fuck you Bernanke. We live in the real. Please explain, if everything in the shopping basket has gone up by a minimum 5% and many upwards of 30%.
How so inflation at 2%. You fucktard.
Welcome to the party public......ummm.....servants.
This party population will grow to the backyard. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 10% up day soon
I just saw douchebag LIESman on CNBS. Everything is fine. Party
Party on Dude!
Its 'dayjavew' all over again!
Pass the gruel...
And the award for the most mixed metaphors per paragraph, ever, goes to...
Bubble Bernanke and the Fed is telling Obama and those in DC he's bringing much more booze and drugs to the Keynesian party.
No stopping until the fiscal police show up in the form of a currency crisis.
At which point the Fed doves will be shock. Like being hit by a freight train.
Until then, party on!!!!
Party with Paul Masson
"We will sell no wine, Before its time"
-Orson Welles
More likely:
"This is the end now. Poison smoke drifting over the city, people running and diving into the East River like rats."
- Orson Welles (War of the Worlds)
A man falls off the Empire State Building. As he flys past the 22nd floor, someone shouts out the window:
"How's it going"
The man replies:
"So far so good"
Don't know why I thought of that.
What a brilliant and fun story. The man is Krugman, right?
Could be Krugman - did the person break any windows on the way down?
D.C.
That's pretty funny!...
The grillo manifesto,
A 20-hour working week, free internet for everyone, free tablets for schoolchildren, a freeze on interest payments that could make the country default on its debt, tax cuts for working people not just rich investors, stricter rules to punish and prevent corporate and govt corruption, strong new environmental laws and increased corporate and govt transparency.
There’s even a proposal to replace PIL (Gross Domestic Product in Italian) with BIL (Gross Domestic Happiness).
Party like's 1939.
Party like it's 1999 BC...
Tally sticks are us
no risk of that
The Wealth Effect.
It’s kind of like that whole Trickle Down Theory (actually it is the same theory, we just gave it a more appealing name). You see, my buddies on Wall Street must to get rich first. Then, by a form of economic magic that we have proven mathematically (though never actually observed in reality) you will eventually become wealthier too. Trust me, you’ll thank me for this one day. Frankly, what do I care if you don’t. I’m outta here in three years anyway.
Ben B.
After watching Benny "the dip" (your pockets) Bernankes pathetic performance defending to the hilt his Failed policies there is no alternative but to immediately institutionalise him in the Nut House right next door to Jamie Dimon at JPM Towers.
Lock the fucking retard up. He shows Zero remorse for his part in screwing up peoples lives for the benefit of a handful of scum (Buffet; Obumba; Flloyd Blanketyblank etc etc) to name the main beneficiaries. Drone strikes on these offices will be far more beneficial to the US than a million strikes in the Sahara.
Who is going to lock him up? Holder? ....
This whole bullshit system is really remarkable. A perfect Ponzi to capture the work of millions of people that they willingly pay into every year. It's really comical when you step back from it a bit. The 'wealth effect' is inflation working to stealthily steel the value of your currency and transferring it to the Lords of Finance and their foot soldiers in DC. A real tragi-comedy.
a day's wages for a slice of bread,,, coming soon to a grocery store near you. I was at my daughters house the other day and was making some soup. A pound and a half of ground beef price on the package, 6.41. No worries, be happy. This whole scenario reminds me of the scene from Gladiator when the senator is about to rape Luciuios mom. This won't be pleasant and you won't enjoy it. There is an ill wind blowing in this country. Everyone knows it and I think unless your head is completely in the sand you sense it. You can't put a finger on it and when I bring up the 85billion being spent from thin air with my "educated" friends I get looked at like I have a 3rd eye in my forehead. But that doesn't mean it isn't coming. Hell, I can't even descrbe what "it" looks like but it truly isn't rocket science. My mother-in-law bought a home in a DC suburb for 200k in 2000 and now it appraises for 485. I bought a home in a Chicago suburb due to a job transfer from Cincinnati for 170K in 1998 now appraises for 118k. Nothing but paying insurance and property taxes for 15 years. I think we will get to the place where the 2 classes in our country are government employees and non government employees. It is coming.
Do we need to tell you that Bernanke is full of horseshit?
Still dont have the balls to use em tho do ya?
The plan is that the banks will WANT to stop being so big.
Oink oink, Flap flap?She scalped him.
Woodward thinks differently; he says there are free lunches, especiually when you want to go to war.
This guy had his best days.
It is amazing really to see how many clamor for money from the government spigots. We can't pay for the spending so we print what we need and promise to pay interest on that too. As that new money gets spent and works it way through the economy prices go up. All, even those at the spigots, are "taxed" by those higher prices and most don't even understand what is happening. What a mean game is played when all have wealth stolen from them by higher prices and then we still demonize the productive even more. Strange times indeed.
"..either the Universe ends or tomorrow always arrives.."
But the Universe is expanding, so tomorrow is late
"Money is not like a commodity; there is no end to it"
Err, ...currency, not money
If giving people free money/free shit is the answer, and we still have problems, then we aren't doing it good enough - so we should:
1. give everyone enough cash to pay off their current debts
2. give eveyrone $250,000 on their birthday
3. for those who work, set the pay rate at $500 per hour
4. for those who don't work, set the money-for-nuthin rate to $1000 per day
All problems solved in 4 easy steps. What could possibly be wrong/bad with this approach, eh Krugman?
It's not quite free money. It's getting paid a premium for your shitty collateral.
I've just decided to RUN FOR PRESIDENT in 2016 on this platform - will I have your vote?
"1. give everyone enough cash to pay off their current debts
2. give eveyrone $250,000 on their birthday"
I would like mine in gold and silver coins if you don't mind... Half of each please...
War is hope.
War is hope.
If "tomorrow" comes 100 years from now, it's a "tomorrow" I couldn't care less about. Our lifespans are short compared to the time it takes for empires to collapse.
Quantitative easing is the greatest income redistribution program in US History. War on Poverty? Bah!
Sorry, no political "solution" will unfold now. The players know the game is over ... The dollar is in "check". Read above this post about the empty shelves at Walmart and horsemeat supply chain failure already underway. When the dollar system (monetary plane) stops supporting the physical plane - because commodity and resource holders stop supporting IT ... checkmate !
Drugs don't get shipped to Greece. yadda yadda. more to come ...
Hopefully you bought enough time on credit to hold your stocks (and I'm not talking about paper ones).
They can have my cans of beef stew when they pry them from my cold dead hands.
Wrong. Guess you missed that Irving Fisher's "money illusion" has been resolved post-reset. Q no longer equals infinity in the block chain. I guess you could argue we're not headed there, but you would have to deny all the evidence to the contrary.
http://tradewithdave.com/?p=15440
We are all becoming Charlie Sheen.