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Davos – The Arrogance Of Officialdom
Submitted by Martin Armstrong via Armstrong Economics,
In 55BC, Cicero stood before the Senate of Rome and warned of its demise because of a trade deficit importing spices and silk from China. He spoke of the “arrogance of officialdom” and the more I studied the going ons throughout history, the more it hit me – history repeats because the passions of man never change.
It is simply a Shakespeare’s play where the plot remain and story remain the same but only the actors change over the course of centuries.
The gathering at Davos located in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland where those in power ski at taxpayer’s expense and discuss maintaining their power over coffee and champagne, illustrates this arrogance of officialdom. This is supposed to be the World Economic Forum, but it is all about them manipulating society and the great unwashed – us. The tremendous arrogance of socialism is that those in power see the productive forces of the people as their asset to play with and manipulate to their benefit. There is no hint that just perhaps the free markets cannot be manipulated – God forbid such a thought. The common theme is simple. All of these groups do not really believe in free trade or a free market economy for such ideas defeat these ski trips since the state would be passive, rather than trying to control the world by active regulatory measures. The press is on-board as well for when the US Congress passes less laws from one year to the next they call it the “do nothing Congress” as if passing new regulations is somehow advancement since they obviously never make mistakes.
Then there are those who are so arrogant and misguided that they are incapable of admitting a mistake ever. These people go to try to argue for more manipulation of society. Once again, they assume we are just no different than cows and chickens to be herded in order to comply with their dreams or fears. At the top of the agenda will be the warming of the planet to be discussed by none other than the delusional Al Gore, the former US vice-president, who has described climate change as “the biggest challenge our civilization faces”. He is joined by another top expert on such science Pharrell Williams, the pop star, who reached No: 1 on the charts with Happy. These people never have considered there are cycles to anything or how did Ice Ages and Warming periods happen before automobiles in the 1930s? Between lawyers, pop stars and academics, one must wonder if we have any future at all.
Then we have the European Central Bank which announced its new stimulus program on Thursday, saying it would purchase nearly $1.5 trillion of bonds in the coming months. But the policy makers and specialists at Davos were divided over the effect of even that program. This division among OPINION illustrates our problem. Where do these people get off assuming they have the ability and right to manipulate the world?
There are essentially three camps at loggerheads over the who QE stimulus idea.
The first is typical of the German politicians and bankers, who have little faith in central bank manipulations. This camp’s overwhelming emphasis remains on policy measures that are referred to as “structural reforms” yet even they are clueless as to what reforms are even necessary without returning to Laissez-faire (an economic system in which transactions between private parties are free from intrusive government restrictions, tariffs, and subsidies, with only enough regulations to protect property rights).
Clearly, major structural overhauls are needed as the European Socialism has seriously reduced the standard of living throughout Europe. The EU has piled on top even more restrictive regulation when in fact Europe needs to strip back the regulations that European businesses often face. The cost of a worker in Europe runs at nearly twice that in the United States, but the added cost goes toward taxes – not greater individual income. Such policies need to be changed simply to make the Continent more competitive and, thus, more prosperous. The ECB policy is to reduce the value of the Euro to increase productivity rather than reform.
Those who may grudgingly support the ECB stimulus in the hope that it will buy time for governments to enact structural overhauls, keep praying that politicians will push aside their own personal self-interests for once and focus of the interests of the people. Such wishful thinking is foolish since history demonstrates that only takes place when the system collapses. People who do hold to this view are also worried that looser monetary policy may work against structural measures. The European Central Bank’s stimulus gives they grasp diminishes any incentive for governments to reform. Lowering the value of the Euro artificially devalues the income of labor without facing the voters.
The second camp in this debate, which includes the most dangerous woman alive, Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund, is joined by her groupies among many top bankers and investors, who delusionally see themselves as the correct mainstream viewpoint. It supports structural changes but also sees important roles for monetary and fiscal policies.
The third camp, is promoted by Lawrence H. Summers, now a professor at Harvard and a former United States Treasury secretary who instigated the negative interest rate strategy.
Summers agrees that a range of various policies is necessary, however, he asserts that a heavy emphasis on structural changes could undermine other efforts to generate growth. “A lot of structural reforms are on the supply side, and a lot of the problems are on the demand side,” Mr. Summers has stated just on Thursday. Summers remains the mouth-piece for New York Bankers.
Structural reforms are way overdue. The whole idea of Euroland was to force a single policy upon all member states. However, there was no real structural reform, just more regulation piled upon more regulation. Labor costs in Europe are simply twice as much as in America. Without major structural reforms to taxation, Europe will continue its slow death as the world economy migrates to Asia. Christopher Columbus set sail across the Atlantic because he was trying to find a short cut to India which was the Financial Capital of the world.
Europe was the bottom-feeder and this is the role it has chosen once again. It is over-regulated and destroying its own economy just as the Byzantine Empire died from over-regulation.
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The people at Davos are parasites who believe themselves to be the new nobility obliged to privilege and comfort at the: expense, suffering, and serfdom of normal people.
Off with their heads!!!
please STFU and fetch me another bottle of pinot, while you're at it prole clean my shoes and then bend over while I print you another Trillion........ I just love Davos so I can mix with the common proles like Joe Kiernen.....He actually thinks he's one of us......Joe...Joe oh there you are..go get Becky for me. I just love that little cheerleader routine she does for me and Warren.
Not a damn thing they can they can do about it now, even if they wanted to. No, the ship has struck the iceberg and water is gushing in. But the band sure is playing a catchy tune. Let's dance!
Keep that music playing while all Eurocrats, bankers, and extremely high net worth individuals quietly make their way to the new trillion euro lifeyachts for some more bubbly without disturbing the serfs...
With the developing situation in the Ukraine (Mariupol in particular), another of Cicero's timeless quotes comes to mind:
Inter arma enim silent leges - "In times of war, the law falls silent."
Lol @ kliguy38, just epic. :D
I nominate ebworthen as a candidate for the new position of Queen of Hearts.
Thanks for not suggesting me. Though I may consider the role of the Red Queen if pressed.
Miffed;-)
But you wouldn't even have to dress in drag for the part. (Note to ebworthen: That part is negotiable. Frequently saying "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" is not.)
They fear the lost of control thu a inside Dow gaming system that keeps them fluid to borrow money at dealer Federal Reserve rates. Once interest rates rise, they become underwater investment advisers calling 20% return mistake. They pocket your gains and state, market is in a contraction.
It's deeply ironic that the average Davos (wo)man is a high representative of both Capitalism and its excesses, yet Zero Hedge still manages to somehow lay the blame squarely with Socialism in this article.
Some here on this website are eager to blame the working class and the poor for needing government programs or "handouts", yet go on to habitually ignore the billions (and more) that are given to large corporations, industries and wealthy individuals in the form of subsidies, tax shelters and tax breaks.
Of course the working poor did it! My pool guy invented the credit default swap. The garbage man was SOLELY responsible for collateralized debt obligations as well! High frequency trading? That was the guy who bags your groceries.
The very wealthy love to trumpet their view of a "self made man." Total horseshit. If you pulled the gov't support they lobby and purchase, they'd fall flat on their face in 40 seconds.
Please. The notion that we have capitalism today is laughable. If we do then prisoners in Soledad are free.
And that would be handouts without the quotes.The welfare state destroys.
Amen as to billions going to large corporations. I think more and more realize that we are cursed with crony capitalism.
I don't hate these people. I hate the people who bear arms to protect them.
If security, police, army, whatever, in Davos had any conscience they'd abandon their posts and let the hordes in to take care of things.
Take away their printing press & the soldiers go away, which may happen soon anyway...
After all, you can't keep a ponzi scheme (retirement) going forever & big gov. has far too much bloat!!!
A great place for an ISIS convention at the same time ...
What! Fifty five ISIS silver shekels for a dog burger?!? Hassan chop!
The ISIS Founders Convention is already there...
True dat......
the delusional Al Gore, the former US vice-president, who has described climate change as “the biggest challenge our civilization faces”.
Climate change is what keeps this planet alive, isn't it? If nothing changed, wouldn't this planet be a "dead planet?" Am I wrong here? Hasn't anyone stopped to consider that if we indeed "address" and "stop" climate change that we are in fact killing our planet intentionally so that it no longer changes or heals itself just for our own twisted perception of "benefit?"
Fuck Al Gore with the Climate Change he Created
did Gore create Climate change or the other way round?
Ask his BANK ACCOUNT !
CHICKEN AND EGG.
The Limo Lib promotes the idea that sheeple should live within their means. It's the hypocrisy.
Mankind cannot influence natural warming and cooling.
When Constantine took Rome the Treasury had already been bled and paying for soldiers wasn't in the cards. He told the priest clsas to open up the gates and he wouldn't kill everyone if they would build Christianity with him. The priest class accepted, and Rome changed forever.
Constantine was 300 years after Cicero.
So?
Constantine's christian beard was much longer the Cicero's clean shaven face of pagan.
Constantine chased the philosophers of Athens (school of Plato) from his kingdom as dissolute pagans in 531 AD ; to the great pleasure of the Persian Empire.
it made them much more intelligent than the Christians during the dark ages!
Unintended consequences bitchezz. They invented the zero and the most intelligent woman in literature: Scherezade. She could bunga bunga and recite tales of wisdom about Aladdin and Sinbad. She wasn't Blythe. She was unique in modern literature; and she was a moslem ! some irony !
Something that they forgot a century later when women were relegated to the harem for more than a thousand years.
Obscurantism is a bitch; first it bit Constantine then it bit the Moslems until today.
Just ask that Saud top man who won't let his women dance the boogie woogie in Mecca, like Scherezade did in Baghdad a thousand years before!
You are confusing Constantine with Justinian. Pathetic.
Yes, drunk on history. My bad!
Justinian had a more interesting wife : Theodora. How could I have confused the two.
Byzance is full of twirling dervishes! But that came from being Theodora'd by the ottomans.
PS : Glad to see somebody was awake to catch that one!
« ...Romans, be it your duty to rule the nations with Imperial sway...to impose the rule of peace, to spare the humble, to crush the proud... »
So spoke Virgil, who spun the tale that saw the birth of Rome making its legendary beginnings (Romulus and Remus) and republican ideal the source of its worldly power, but with its roots deeply imbedded in the lessons of greek wisdom and ethos as inculcated by the original philosophers.
A lesson now forgotten by the Rome of this age.
Both Cicero and Virgil (aka Jefferson and his inceptual mission statement; question of Being; about pursuit of happiness for new Rome) are more and more buried in the sands of time, like the tombs of Tutenkhamen for a long dead imperial Egypt.
All empires follow the same route.
All empires love bunga bunga and Pompiean glory, like Gotham city and WS shenanigans today.
I would like structural reforms via a nail gun starting at the top!
You could bomb Davos level and kill all of the "elite" assholes there and it would not change the course we are on one degree.
The system is to full of rot, it will destroy itself in time.
I do like the idea on bombing those bastards anyway!
What about that 60% pay raise for the US military huh?
Cicero was declared 'an enemy of the state' and was killed by the authorities 12 years after this speech against the state. Yet another thing that never changes... Presumably, it was not by nail gun...
“If the Communists win Europe and a large part of the world, it will not be because they know how to stir up discontent or how to infect people with hatred, but because they know how to preach hope.” ~Eric Hoffer
But, but...they are stirring up discontent and hatred as they preach hope.
And lying and scheming as they preach treason.
One mustn't stir up discontent against the wealthy. It's uncouth! Our jobs as serfs is to happilly, and without complaint, shore up the rich. Don't forget, the rich lie awake at night worrying about our well being.
Destiny of the "True Believer"(51) or the "Passionate Stte of Mind" (55) Miestones
The Red Terror In Russia by Sergey Petrovich Melgounov.
yeah Eric, but the ommunists didn't win - they became just as corrupt as every other 'system'.
These great systems have to have viloent revolutions every 200 years or so. We are there, and are just living in the decadent times of Central Bank control before the fall.
See Grant, on Roman Empire History (and fall).
"Communism" is misunderstood - its just another scam by the Khazars.
It does not lead to a "classless society", but rather to a two-class society - those who rule, and those who are ruled. It was never really meant to be a platform towards real equality - that was just the come-on, just as "life after death" is the come-on to get the downtrodden to fill Christian church coffers.
The parasites gave up on the USSR host back in 1991 or so, hence the original host for Communism collapsed into a lifeless heap, its last stores of value being fought over by the chosenite oligarchs (whether Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Polish, etc) like wolves contesting the choisest organs of a dying horse, while the normal Communist nomenklatura emigrated to the US, Europe, and Israel to assume positions of influence comparable to the ones they left...
Communism's true nature was, and still is, to act as an affirmative action vehicle for Zionist chosenites to assume positions of power and prestige and in the process set up filters to keep out non-Zionists, thus concentrating and extending their power.
You know, the same techniques used in the US in Hollywood, Congress, Academia, the MSM, Silicon Valley, and book publishing... and of course, Wall Street and the Fed. Moreover, their techniques are now extended to the US Military and all the analogs to the aforementioned in other countries all over the globe.
Once critical mass was achieved, it became impossible to stop. They are now far enough along that subterfuge is no longer necessary - the mask falling off no longer matters much - things will get much more blatant from now on out.
The end game is upon us.
No the communist s didn't but an argument could be made that the Nazis did.
Oh they won alright in Russia, China, etc. They just didn't succeed. In America and Europe they didn't win but they succeeded.
I can only imagine what the Davos crowd is thinking about the common man:
The dearly departed Gore Vidal grew up in the lap of luxury. Years ago in an interview, he said that if you heard the way the wealthy talked among themselves about the common man, you would never vote for one of them. Some things never change.....
Hey Martin, If Labor costs are twice as much in America, how about raising our worker's pay until we are equal with them?
Hey Martin, Where do you get off calling Davos attendees, Socialists?
Gimme a break!!! They are raging reichwingnut capitalists as evidenced by the 1700 private jets parked at airports in Switzerland that brought all the oligarchs to the meeting.
Question for Zero Hedge: Where did you find this asshole?
1) Socialists can have private jets too. Though they aren't socialists.
2) They aren't capitalists either, capitalism has never existed in the west, that is the problem.
3) They are criminals. Do more research.
Majority of ZH-res will NEVER get what you've just written.
Even the Main article could not wait, so in third sentence informed us that bunch of North Koreans and Cubans (for the sake of argument)are attending Davos "Socialist get-together".
Capitalism is easy when you lobby or purchase gov't for favors. The way I see it, this is just crony capitalism and the TWO of them are guilty when they engage in it.
True, though it's hardly capitalism. Maybe we should say that business is easy when you purchase government favors, though it's hardly business. It's easy to run a "business" if I know that the income side of the ledger is a done deal.
Hell I bet they have meetings on how to rub everyone elses nose in their wealth.
I bet that drone driver would feel a little better about himself if he "accidently" let a hellfire go on the Edelweiss hotel.
Kill all the Pedo Monarchists.
I like the Cicero quote but I fear they are not Cicero's words.
Can someone tell me the original source?
"There is no hint that just perhaps the free markets cannot be manipulated"
ermmmm .... the banksters have been manipulating the markets and been fined for it.
How do you create free markets?
De-regulate banks and trust bankers, then they manipulate every market they can.
Human nature makes deregulation impossible.
Those that run the markets will always try and rig them for their own gain.
It does help when you let the bankers reap what they have sown. TBTF should have crumbled after Lehman, not been propped up. Jamie Dimon, should by all rights, be a hobo today.
The problem is that bureaucracy, integrated circuits, signals on wires and the internal combustion engine have peaked. We really need some new inventions to grow and develop. We're just refining the old ones.
Larry Summers is responsible for this entire Worldwide financial debacle and he is still at the helm attempting to re-boot evething they were doing pre-2008 crash of the 4th largest Investment Bank in the World.
Rajan pointed out to the World that Larry Summers is an abject fuck-up
and yet Summers is still pushing his crack cocaine subprime Wall Street culture with not a care in the World that he will continue failing until the US ARMY is called out into the streets to prevent the masses from hanging Larry Summers to the nearest lamp post or Oak tree that they
can see. Brooksley Born also pointed out to the World that Larry Summers was an abject fuck-up, but nobody listened when she said it either. The real reason behind the failure to heed the advice is obvious to all with a modicum of intelligence.
Indeed, Master of the Universe, things are especially screwed up because of the degree to which the publicly significant "opposition" is controlled. In the case of Canada, here is another example that:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/02/21/john-ivison-why-justin-trudeaus-new-guiding-light-could-have-a-dramatic-impact-on-canadian-public-policy/
Why Justin Trudeau’s new guiding light could have a dramatic impact on Canadian public policy
By John Ivison, February 21, 2014.
Justin Trudeau was billed as the main event on opening night at the Liberal Party convention but the most important speaker was the bombastic American economist who preceded him. Larry Summers is a former chief economist to the World Bank; ex-Secretary of the Treasury; and an economic advisor to two Democratic presidents.
He is now the intellectual guiding light for Mr. Trudeau and his key advisors – a development that may have a dramatic impact on Canadian public policy, given the views on debt and deficits he espoused Thursday. ...
P.S.
After public opinion polls in Canada were consistently showing two thirds in favour of "legalizing marijuana," Justin Trudeau, as the new leader of the Canadian Liberal Party, adopted that policy. HOWEVER, given the overall context in which that is manifesting, that is similar to how George Soros, and other evil billionaires, have taken control of the "legalize marijuana" movement in the USA, by picking which organizations to give tens of millions of dollars to, so that those groups could become the most publicly significant.
IT'S ALL ORGANIZED CRIME &
CONTROLLED "OPPOSITION."
When they meet it's called leadership. When we meet it's called Terrorism.......
We're all shitbags here at ZH. It's quite obvious these people are of such superior intellect that they know how to manage our lives better than we do.
They've certainly mucked up this planet pretty well, right?
I look at the guy who lives next to me on one side and the old lady who lives in the flat next to me on the other side. Each day they wake up and they do not want to Lord over me. So why do these people of superior intellect in DC, London, Davos feel it necessary to embed themselves into my life like a fucking tape worm?
They are parasites. They do not produce. They skim.
You can find much of the "reasoning" for their criminal actions in the talmud.
Larry Summers is responsible for this entire Worldwide financial debacle and he is still at the helm attempting to re-boot evething they were doing pre-2008 crash of the 4th largest Investment Bank in the World.
Rajan pointed out to the World that Larry Summers is an abject fuck-up
and yet Summers is still pushing his crack cocaine subprime Wall Street culture with not a care in the World that he will continue failing until the US ARMY is called out into the streets to prevent the masses from hanging Larry Summers to the nearest lamp post or Oak tree that they
can see. Brooksley Born also pointed out to the World that Larry Summers was an abject fuck-up, but nobody listened when she said it either. The real reason behind the failure to heed the advice is obvious to all with a modicum of intelligence.
Well said, Master.
Love,
Igor
it is just so frustrating that these people are going to do evil things to us and there is nothing we can do about it because the crowds are either oblivious or apathetic.
There will be justice eventually. When these monsters face up to their mortality, then the justice will enter their souls. Until then, a lot of innocent people and especially children will suffer as these people try to hammer out a world that conforms to their desires
It’s wrong to believe that the likes of Larry Summer can control the population of the world. For these bloated crooks will present a target a mile wide for the revolutionaries who will come from the woodwork and the corners of the nation.
And these modern day Sam Adams types are not the sedentary couch potatoes watching TV and accepting the tiny handouts that the tyrants give them, from Obama’s State of the Union “cheap gas” saving them money at the pump to spend elsewhere to welfare to the circuses of political campaigns.
The rapid increase in the sale of guns is not because Americans have suddenly discovered the joys of hunting. It is their fear of their government and their realization that their freedoms and security are being narrowed.
This fear, and you can count on it, is the reservoir for revolution. For many thousands of these people, running away, compromising and surrender are not an option.
The key to remember is that the inner circle of the tyrants is few and that the Americans who will insist on a return to self government are many. All of the trappings that the international bankers have collected from the people, their estates and even countries that they’ve purchased with their fiat currency, will be as sifting sand to Ozymandias when they are caught and dragged from their perches.
“When the next economic collapse comes, and it’s inevitable, the revolution against the upper class will kick into higher gear! …
“This extended bubble is now (belatedly) reaching its peak, a fact we know because income inequality has become so extreme. We’re rapidly approaching the point where, unless something changes, everyday people will start to revolt.
“This is a fact further supported by the larger political and social revolutionary cycle that occurs about every 250 years, when the average Joe rises up against the excessive gains and tyranny of the rich.” –Harry Dent, August 19, 2014, The Coming U.S. Economic Collapse Will Trigger a Revolution http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article46959.html
In Taylor Caldwell's book, “A Pillar of Iron,” Cicero’s grandfather, Marcus, told him in brief words the things he should know as a young man: “A man owes it to his manhood to be prudent, honorable, frugal and courageous. The coward is more to be feared that the evil man. Beware of the mendicant (the beggar), the dependent. They destroy empires. They will eventually destroy Rome, as they destroyed other nations.
“In our history, there have been times of danger when we needed swift action, unfettered by law. So we appointed dictators. But we removed temptation by denying them honor and luxuries; and as soon as they had done what they must, we removed their power. The day of the dictator is almost upon us again—this time the dictator of prolonged, illimitable power (Julius Caesar). My grandson, it is your duty to hold back these evil men. Remember, it once took only two heroic men, with Horatius, to stand on a bridge and save Rome. Swear by our gods and the name of Rome that no one shall reach her heart and halt it.”
Cicero, “Rome’s angry man,” never forget his grandfather’s words.
U4 - I for one am here to read or contribute how to avoid further robbery. Sometimes at the end of cycles of peak predator, best one can do is minimize it and hide some seed corn for a rebuilding phase.
The cycles of evolution include excess which attracts predators. What just becuase we're human and can put a name to defensive herd positions or fancy names for predation that we aren't animals in a jungle?
There is good news and bad news. The good news is we are 2/3rds through a nasty cycle of predation. The bad news is the climax years are going to get worse I suspect 5-7 more years.
Man has tools to slow down or accelerate evolution but the exact year when sanity has a second breath and it starts heading in another direction is not easy to predict as Martin attempts to.
It seems evolution is moving faster and the more they try to retard it to preserve status quo the faster events move along the lines of Soros Reflexivity theory and a rubber band.
I thought oil had to be priced in petrodollars, according to Ben Bernanke. Since oil has declined, what is the harm to Ben Bernanke or Janet Yellen?
The deranged davos dickheads [bilderburgers etc] biggest fear is that the people rise above their extremely effective divide and conquer tactics deployed by the media they own.
If that were to happen and people were to focus on the actual problems such as rigged polls and their pathological megalomaniac governance, they are done and they know it.
If the mass of people do act, be prepared for a new Constitution and new form of government. The existing document simply no longer works in the manner intended by the original Convention.
There is s Constitutiaonal Convention called for 2016 as spelled out in the Constitution. Far more important than the 2016 election! How much of this is known by most sheeple? Where, when etc? No one knows. DO YOU?? Milestones
True.
The author of this piece has missed the boat. The main issue in the EU is the same issue in the USA. Governments who are unaccountable to the people and only to the 0.001%. And bail out packages which are all to do with feeding money to the banks, not feeding money into the real economy.
It is the European version of saving Wall St at the expense of Main St.
Thank God they know what's best for us and have our best wishes at heart. Just think if they were like, greedy theiving little shits.
Larry Summers...isn't he the guy whose investment guidance lost the Harvard endowment $10 Billion? Or was it $20? A dim bulb indeed. With an ego big as Tex-ass.
When money is tied to nothing physical and the banks encourage/allow governments, corporations, and individuals alike to be leveraged to the hilt what do they expect in respect to a carbon footprint. There are many causes for warming outside of the anthropogenic realm but if the crowd at Davos wants to point fingers at who is responsible for rising carbon levels from the human side of the equation then they must point them at the banks.
When there are little to no limitations on debt because there are no limitations on money printing then resources will be misused. Entities will build more than necessary and people will consume more than necessary. Certainly there is such a thing as self restraint but who in the end supplies the credit? Who encourages people to borrow more than they can repay.
One example- go back and look at the average size house prior to the gold standard being removed in 71. Look at the dramatic increases in average size homes. Larger homes require more resources in building and in heating and cooling. Another example- look at the trend of the Big Box stores. This too has increased at a greater rate. More inventory, larger energy consumption to run. Look at all the storage facilities that we have to have to store the tons of stuff we just had to have at the time.
I am not saying humans are driving climate change- there are lots of things going on with planets throughout our solar system but the Davos crowd sees this as an opportunity to tax us even more. I say either tie the fiat system to something physical so there is some restraint or tax the bankers for all the carbon they are allowing by issuing credit out the wazoo. Gold is discovered at about 2.5% increase per year- this is about the increase of population. This is conveinent. Something needs to tie Central Banks to reality.
"Such wishful thinking is foolish since history demonstrates that only takes place when the system collapses" ... no, when the system collapses, another set of power hungry self-centered malevolents take over and the evil starts all over again. Only once in history did an 'enlightened' group of men create a balanced, self-checking, and liberty-based government. It lasted from 1793 - 1913, then the grotesque elitists took over.
The fact these little gatherings have never been interrupted by 'terrorists' proves to me these so called terrorists groups we hear about are nothing but CIA/MI5/ZWO creations to keep the sheeple at bay. A true terrorist group would attempt to cut the head off the beast, not fart around with cartoonists and such.
And, that LaGarde thing - she-male or what?
Regulation is like the alphabet. It takes years of learning and work before it becomes easy. Dealing with many goverment departments for licenses and reporting begins hard, but becomes routine and becomes a positive business procedure.
Regulation and reporting is a part of doing business. If you can't deal with it, you shouldn't be in business. Leave it to the bigger companies that have economies of scale and can deal with regulation and reporting effectively.
Now to claim this is going to cause the death of Europe, what a joke. Such a claim is pathetic and is a blurted response to the thought that Europe might have a working model, inclusive of regulation. Let me elaborate.
Structural reforms are different to regulation. In this Martin Armstrong is correct. But the primary thing that comes to mind when I think of regulation isn't the sort of regulation and reporting a small business owner faces but is the sort of regulation we know as protectionism between nations.
Most regulation is in response to dynamically varying market conditions - in particular - regulation is frequently implemented to manage circumstances that would be adverse. This sort of regulation is in most cases, required, but is also being worked out in free trade agreements by globalists. Globalists are generally pro-equality, between nations. Free trade allows any nation to take advantage of competitive or strategic interests. This is the highest form of equality there is. Tariffs are a type of regulation. Globalists, through free trade, are trying to abolish tariffs, or protectionism.
Example: If Australia has iron ore and the ability to mine it, then ship it, at low cost, then a globalist would suggest that China should NOT impose regulations restricting the import of such ore to protect local miners, or to protect the strategic interests of neighbouring countries that might also be able to supply iron ore to China. A globalist would say, 'Do away with protectionism and allow Australia to be a supplier. But don't exclude competition from other countries, for the benefit of Australia'.
Hopefully at Davos the true globalists have been working together to try to overcome protectionism. If your country has an income stream from a product or service that can be produced more efficiently elsewhere in the world, you will suffer from high unemployment in that area. Either you reducate your population, redevelop competitive industries, or you remain uncompetitive.
The US and Europe are suffering from the effects of free trade and globalism. The very thing that people like here on ZH, laissez faire 'free trade' is the very thing that is causing pain and unemployment in the US and Europe. It is Laissez Faire, or the abolition of protectionism that is creating unemployment and economic weakness.
It becomes a delicate balancing act for the leaders. They are globalists, for the most part, who also care about their population. So they have to selectively manage regulation (protectionism) to carefully keep their economies level, or to build or shrink their economies as they see fit. This means a slow wind back of, and maybe reimplementing protectionism in certain areas to prevent severe declines.
So, if you are pro free trade, if you are pro equality, if you like the concept of Laissez-faire, just call yourself a globalist and be done with it. And accept that university and trade colleges are probably the ONLY things that will save your country. I think this is primarily why Barack Obama announced free trade college for certain groups recently. He, or one of his advisors or consultants, is on the ball in this area. But they are still far behind Sweden which offers free university, and taxes accordingly.
"I think this is primarily why Barack Obama announced free trade college for certain groups recently. He, or one of his advisors or consultants, is on the ball in this area. "
"They are globalists, for the most part, who also care about their population. "
If you're fishing for an invite to Davos - probably not the right forum. Your answer strikes me as an economist/policy maker wannabe. The globalists 'care' for us - what are we - sheep and they're our kindly master? No thanks
15 to 1 ... is that the ratio of the degree to which you believe in bullshit, rather than make sense?
There is NO free market capitalism in a system where the public "money" supply is created out of nothing as debts by private banks, which gained that power to legally counterfeit that public "money" supply by persistant and prolonged applications of the methods of organized crime, in order to dominate the political processes so much, for so long, that almost all the surviving, successful politicians are the banksters' puppets, who are voted for by enough of the masses of muppets, that were brainwashed to believe in the banksters' bullshit.
15 to 1, your rhetorical arguement is based on attitudes of deliberate ignorance towards the basic FACTS, while you promote ridiculously superficial parroting of the hypocritical assertions regarding what "free trade" is supposed to be, which has almost NOTHING in common with the real world, where the actual political economy is based on ENFORCED FRAUDS.
The article above was another typical screed by a reactionary revolutionary, blending relative truths with attitudes of evil deliberate ignorance towards the real situation: "history repeats because the passions of man never change" EXCEPT real progress in science and technology has amplifed the social pyramid systems based on being able to back up lies with violence to astronomically amplified SIZES. The politics stays the same, to the degree that psychological and political habits stay the same. However, that politics constantly becomes more criminally insane, at an expoentially accelerating rate, as progress in science and technologies ends up being channeled through social pyramid systems.
The "arrogance of officialdom" is based on being able to back up lies with violence, which has become systems of legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, i.e., the current situation, where one could supposedly state with a straight face: "The European Central Bank’s stimulus diminishes any incentive for governments to reform."It is RIDICULOUS to speak about "reforms," when what is necessary are intellectual scientific revolutions, which could transform political science enough to make it become more consistent with the progress in phsyical sciences, which have already gone through a profound series of scientific revolutions, while politics continues to almost totally cruise on its autopilots of old-fashioned religions and ideologies, such as were expressed above by 15 to 1, as well as Martin Armstrong, both of which indulge in their own favourite kinds of nostalgic nonsense, to string together bead of facts in ways which deliberate ignore the strings that actually connect them.
Another recent example of that approach was the article republished on Zero Hedge entitled "A Bunch Of Criminals" ... OF COURSE, governments are the biggest form of organized crime, controlled by the best organized gangs of criminals. The problem is that they have been able to so totally dominate civilization for so long that the dominate natural languages and philosophy of science that we use to discuss the political economy is almost totally based on the bullshit of the biggest bullies, i.e., the banksters' bullshit.
Human beings necessarily operate as entropic pumps of energy flows, and so, human beings necessarily operate as organized lies and robberies, which have become more symbolically sophisticated, to become the banksters' government enforced frauds. "The arrogance of offiicialdom" is what one gets from those processes producing social pyramids which are run by the best available professional liars and immaculate hypocrites. The resulting political paradoxes become extremely intense, since both the established systems, and the controlled opposition, like 15 to 1, as well as Martin Armstrong, specialize in promoting their own kinds of bullshit, which is more or less adapted to operating inside of social systems which were built on bullshit for thousands of years, because society was controlled by backing up lies with violence.
The political economy necessarily operates through combined money/murder systems, because money is measurement backed by murder. The ruling classes are the best organized gangs of criminals, while everyone else are less well organized criminals, in the sense that everyone lives through some systems of organized lies operating robberies, since everyone lives through being entropic pumps of energy.
OF COURSE, our society is dominated by the maximum possible deceits and frauds, which explain those basic social facts in the most backwards and absurd ways as possible. Hence, the goofy comments from 15 to 1, upon the similarly goofy comments of Martin Armstrong, because the basic political paradoxes continue to become bigger and more intense, since progress in science and techology gets pumped through social pyramid systems based on being able to back up lies with violence, such as how governments enforce the banksters' frauds of being able to make the public "money" supply out of nothing as debts for everyone else.
The arrogance of officialdom is due to their entire careers being proportionately successful depending upon the degree that they could be professional liars and immaculate hypocrites, inside of social pyramid systems where the pyramidion people (such as those attending Davos, etc.,) were the best of the best professional liars and immaculate hypocrites, who were therefore able to make the most "money" inside of systems where that "money" was all based on ENFORCED FRAUDS.
The ONLY thing that is NEW is the real progress in science and technology, enabling social pyramid systems based on being able to back up lies with violence to become MORE CRIMINALLY INSANE, by orders of magnitude, than was ever previously possible during human history. HOWEVER, it does not seem like we could adapt to that better, because doing so would take a prodigious series of political miracles, in the form of intellectual scientific revolutions regarding how human beings understood themselves and their civilizations, in ways which became consistent with the other forms of progress in physical and biological sciences ... Like I said, that is practically guaranteed to be politically impossible, since it would take enough of the professional liars and immaculate hypocrites who are personally successful within the established social pyramid systems to address and admit more of the radical truths about themselves, which also could not become socially successful unless enough other people also did so.
... Since that looks like it is practically impossible, the most probable future is that the established systems of lies backed by violence, or enforced financial frauds, will continue to get pumped up and UP by more orders of magnitude, by progress in basic science and technology, while nothing like that is allowed to happen within political science.
Therefore, our civilization is headed towards a series of psychotic breakdowns, since the arrogance of officialdom, and the ever greater arrogance of the pyramidion people, have no ways to be rectified other than by continuing to automatically become more criminally insane, and more psychotically out of touch with relatively more objective realities, since, within human society, personal success continues to be based on being an awesomely arrogant professional liar and immaculate hypocrite, who continues to be proud to spout his or her favourite bullshit stories.
+100
With the exception of some minor tweaks, our current political/socio-economic systems are primarily based on secular and religious philosophies and thought processes that are at least 200-400 years old. Yet, in technological terms we have moved forward exponentially in comparison thanks to the scientific method. The technological advancements made in the last 150+ years have provided the psychotic ruling class with even better tools with which to wield power and manipulate the world around them and channel resources in their favor.
Much of the founding documents of the US were based on concepts like being endowed with inalienable rights, things being self-evident, cogito ergo sum, etc... What are "rights" other than humans agreeing that some rule of law will be adhered to as regards others' property and lives? Apparently, black people and women weren't endowed with these same in rights at that time. I don't know about you, but unless you think that this should still be the case and that God has only endowed white men with these rights, then it follows for me that we have to concede that here is an obvious flaw, contradiction even, in the way humans thought at that time. And while this doesn't make me want to throw everything out about the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, I definitely feel that some concepts may need to be examined more closely.
Moreover, the concept of checks and balances via multiple branches of government set forth by the constitution was a quantum leap forward in making a government more accountable to the people it 'served'. However, I think we can all agree that something has gone wrong and that despite the best efforts of our founding fathers, human nature, being what it is, has been able to sidestep the constitution and the 'elite' of today are extremely similar to the 'aristrocrats' and 'nobility' of yesterday. Feudal serfdom seems to have been simply replaced with debt serfdom. Our current socio-enonomic systems have not been able to protect the common man from the corruption and distortion by those in power. My guess is that no system will ever be perfect, because humans aren't perfect...and maybe this is the best we've got. But I'd like to think that if we can make electrons do our bidding, we can figure out a better way to govern ourselves which, whether by fostering or by getting out of the way, enables everyone to lead productive and fulfilling lives - one that is not so dependent upon fucking over our fellow man.
Good points, ersatz007.
I agree that: "the concept of checks and balances via multiple branches of government set forth by the constitution was a quantum leap forward in making a government more accountable to the people it 'served'."
However, as you point out, the funding of the political processes systematically overthrew those checks and balances, by being able to corrupt all the branches, so that they all ended up becoming government of the money, for the money, by the money.
Some of the worst events were when corrupted courts allowed the constitutional validity of legislation that should have been ruled blatantly unconstitutional. Also, the courts snuck through some of the greatest perversions when corporations became "persons" that ended up having more real rights and freedoms than flesh and blood people.
The combination of demigod corporations, operating through fundamentally fraudulent financial accounting systems, have made a "new royalty," worse than anything that ever existed previously, since, as you wrote: "technological advancements made in the last 150+ years have provided the psychotic ruling class with even better tools with which to wield power and manipulate the world around."
Meetings of that psychotic ruling class, are demonstrations of the power of that "new royalty," wherein the national central banks are the Kings of Fraud, while the Bank of International Settlements is the King of Kings of Fraud. The national governments, and the officialdom of those governments, are almost all those banksters' political puppets, due to the prolonged and persistent feedbacks in the funding of the political processes, corrupting the monetary system into reinforcing those spiraling loops, where practically nothing is left of those nation's constitutions except the false front of fake democracies, where there is also mostly fake education, so that the enough of the masses of muppets will vote for the banksters' political puppets, to keep the vicious spirals of government of the money, by the money, for the money going.
Since money is actually measurement backed by murder, the power of "We the People" is used against them, to rob them blind, while the police and armed forced primarily enforce the banksters' frauds, because that is what the national and international governments have actually become, as integrated into global systems that operate that way. The national and international officialdom in that system are merely lower levels of the courts of the Kings of Frauds, that rule everyone else through the systems whereby the national government enforce the banksters' frauds, in vicious feedback spirals which are automatically getting worse, faster ...
The current situation is that the people who represent the Big Corporations symbolize a system where the virtual world of finance is now orders of magnitude BIGGER than all the flesh and blood people. The government of the people has been transformed into a government of the corporations, where the courts generally uphold the view that those corporations have no other duties than to their shareholders.
That situation has been developing for several Centuries, and has been powered up by advances in science and technology to become worse than can be fully imagined, especially since the on-going problem of the funding of the political processes being ALREADY TOTALLY LOPSIDED make any practical political solutions to those problems NOT POSSIBLE. Instead, "the psychotic ruling class" is directing civilization towards its own self-destruction, which will manifest as a series of psychotic breakdowns, during times of Peak Insanities, along with Peak Everything Else.
Government of the money, for the money, by the money, is government based on ENFORCED FRAUDS, which can never stop its frauds from still being false. Therefore, controlling civilization with HUGE LIES, backed with LOTS OF VIOLENCE, is driving civilization to behave in more and more criminally insane ways.
In that context, "the arrogance of officialdom" is merely some of the lower level manifestations of that overall system manifesting the ARROGANCE OF ENFORCED FRAUDS. The primary way that works is through the public "money" supply being made out of nothing, while that fraud is enforced against everyone else by "their" governments. In that context, guys like Martin Armstrong nick-pick about lower level problems, and falsely label the situation, because they do NOT want to recognize that money is measurement backed by murder, and that any little piece of relative wealth that they have only exists inside of systems of public violence, backing up the overall financial frauds.
The ONLY things that exist are the dynamic equilibria of different systems of organized lies operating robberies. The ONLY connection between human laws and natural laws is the ability to back up lies with violence. Therefore, the only genuinely possible better resolutions of the current runaway problems would require developing better dynamic equilibria in the rates of social robbery (which would also respect its environmental robbery).
At present, that is practically impossible, because almost everyone has been brainwashed to believe in the biggest bullies' bullshit world view, which includes that all of the controlled opposition groups, which included reactionary revolutionaries like Martin Armstrong, are NOT able to change their paradigms enough to perceive politics in ways which would enable science and technology to not continue to be applied in ways which are overall becoming more criminally insane every day, and more and more literally PSYCHOTIC, in the sense of out of touch with the reality of powers which have become trillions of times greater than anything in previous human history, such as global electronic communications, and atomic bombs, etc. ...
Human beings MUST live as robbers in their environment, as soon as we perceive them as separate from their environment. Furthermore, they MUST live as robbers against each other, as soon as we perceive them as separate from each other. Ideally, we should develop better divisions of powers, that allow there to be better checks and balances against the abuses of power. However, the existing systems have ALREADY become based on runaway triumphant applications of the methods of organized crime to the political processes, with the result being the runaway government of the money, for the money, by the money, controlled by the psychotic ruling class, who rule over people who have been conditioned to not want to understand that.
Instead, as you said, ersatz007, ideas which are hundreds, if not thousands of years old, dominate politics, while at the same time progress in science and technology is reducing those old-fashioned ideas to nostalgic nonsense. But nevertheless, since most people still want to believe in those old ideas, most of the controlled opposition is based on proposing bullshit "solutions" that would go backward to those old ideas ... while the real world rushes forward, faster and faster ...
There are some good things still partially present in old-fashioned ideas, but those have to be radically reworked into better integrated systems, before those old-fashioned ideals would go beyond being impossibilities that always caused the opposite to actually happen in the real world. At present, we are STUCK in the social situation where the established systems only have publicly significant opposition that is controlled to stay within the same basic bullshit frame of reference, which is what guys like Martin Armstrong repeatedly do in their articles, which then get republished on Zero Hedge.
There is way, way, way too small a group of people who both understand the history of science and politics enough to understand their real relationships, and therefore, what kinds of intellectual scientific revolutions might be possible and necessary to cope with progress in science having NOTHING like that happening, so far, in progress in politics.
Tragically, I feel like I am wasting my time to endeavour to promote that view, because, overall, things are getting so much worse, so much faster, that there are no hopes for any genuine resolutions of those problems to be able to be significantly developed before the established systems already have gone through their psychotic breakdowns and collapses into crazy chaos. Therefore, it seems to me that whatever we attempt to do to try to make a better political science will end up being way too little, way too late, and thus, way too trivial to matter, since the real world of politics is already MAD and getting MADDER & MADDER!
L
they have the right to manipulate the world because THEY CAN
In case you are looking for somewhere to target, here are some coordinates:
46° 48’ 08.20” N 9° 49’ 52.07 E Elevation 5206'