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A Modest Proposal To Save The World
Submitted by Charles Gave via Gavekal Dragonomics,
The last few years have been some of the most intellectually interesting of my career as the post financial crisis period has seen policymakers test the limits of economic theory, and push well beyond. Inspired by their example, I would like to post my small contribution to the sum of new knowledge that this era of extremes has thrown up.
The starting point of this journey is that I was not smart enough to graduate in mathematics; instead I opted for the “dismal science”. I have never understood why Niels Bohr, the great Danish physicist, claimed to have dropped economics for nuclear physics, as the former was too difficult. As every modern reader knows, economics is easy and has the advantage of not requiring any great knowledge of philosophy, history, or the social sciences in order for the basics of the discipline to be grasped.
What any student with an eye to getting on in the world should realize is the core truth underpinning right-minded economic analysis: the value of assets in a properly constituted economic system is a direct function of the money created by the central bank. All other knowledge is subsidiary to this key insight. I know this to be true because the great minds of Princeton declare it to be so, and who am I to argue?
This insight results in the key truth that money equals value. It therefore follows that the more money that is created, the more value there is in the system. The trick for policymakers, of course, is to prevent too much of this happy juice from getting into the real economy since there is still the irritating possibility that 20th century-style inflation will break out. And this is where zero interest rates, the elixir of the enlightened, comes in. The application of ZIRP leads to an almost infinite velocity of money coursing through the financial system. Financial geniuses, of which there seem many in our era, are able to constantly package and resell assets in a near limitless value creation exercise (remember value=price). Strangely enough for reasons not explained by my teachers, it seems that in the real economy ZIRP pushes the velocity of money to near zero.
But who cares? Certainly not the rich. They benefit from asset prices going through the roof and can hire poor people for a pittance. And why does no one call time on this great game? You do not have to be a conspiracy theorist to see that most economists are agents of the wealthy. There can be only one outcome so long as the money supply is growing and interest rates are kept at zero (okay, we should add the proviso that the new money not be allowed to reach the real economy as the increased demand cannot be met, as quite rightly no investment in fresh capacity has taken place). Yes, the only way for asset prices to go is up.
As the discoverer of these great truths, Lord Keynes has clearly shown that a lack of demand is always and everywhere the result of excess savings by those kulaks tight-fisted enough to clog up the system. Faced with such unreasonableness, the only solution is to lower interest rates to zero, or better still make them negative so that demand from the next century is brought forward to today. And of course, just as Stalin sought to eradicate the pesky kulaks who insisted on hoarding a few farm animals, so the solution to over-saving has to be the euthanasia of rentier.
Needless to say, this move will adequately deal with the lack of final demand created by the aforementioned rentiers. There are some sideeffects from such enlightened policies in that savings will effectively dry up. And since every student knows that savings=investment, then investment must plummet and the poor will struggle to find jobs. Fear not, however, the rich will continue to enjoy La Dolce Vita.
But why stop there? Some of these simpleton kulaks may mistake their economic insecurity as a good reason to save more not less. Imagine such foolishness. Hence, the solution must be not only to confiscate their return on capital through ZIRP, which is a tax on the poor since for the most part the poor have no assets, but also to confiscate the actual savings.
As such, it seems that the ultimate aim of policy must be to transfer the nation’s entire wealth to an ever smaller number of rich people, most of who work in finance. Perhaps this is as it should be, since as already noted, money and only money can create value. Hence, the final mission of any truly modern government must be to redirect the inventory of savings for the benefit of the rich (while, of course, claiming it is acting for the poor). Interestingly, Europe’s socialists and the Democrats in the US have the ideal political cover to carry out this important exercise.
And this, of course, brings us to Greece and my own big solution. The lack of final demand in that benighted country shows that Alexis Tsipras must manage an economy suffering from not enough government spending. In response, Athens should issue unlimited sums of perpetual zero coupon bonds, which will be bought by the European Central Bank. Next, the Italian, French and Spanish governments should follow suit. The proceeds can be transferred to local government districts in order for civil servants to be hired in earnest. The effect would be to greatly boost the local GDP, by the amount of the salaries paid to the civil servants, while the debt-to-GDP ratio will fall accordingly. The Bundesbank will be happy.
Of course, the simple minded (non-economist fellows) might wonder who will buy this paper. The answer is simple: the authorities must slap a 100% reserve requirement on all products held by insurance companies, banks and pension funds, and ‘hey presto!’ bond issues will be oversubscribed. Of course, if the choice is between a zero coupon perpetual bond and shares in the stock market, I have no doubt that the Dow will be at 100,000 in no time. At the same time, since the only competition for the perpetual zeros will be cash, the use of bank notes will need to be outlawed. Some smart fellows have already started working on this highly progressive idea.
The only thing that I do not understand is why it has not yet been adopted. It must be the fault of incompetent politicians, advised by poorly trained economists. There is no other explanation.
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Imagine such foolishness. Hence, the solution must be not only to confiscate their return on capital through ZIRP, which is a tax on the poor since for the most part the poor have no assets, but also to confiscate the actual savings.
The Keynsians are just going to say: "OK...universal income".
There is no set of circumstances or conditions where massive intervention is not the solution.
I vote for throwing all the banksters in prison, closing the Federal Reserve, abolishing the CIA, restoring the US Constitution and arresting everyone who has worked to abolish it . . . especially those who took an oath to protect and defend it.
It's like MDB got his own aricle.
I'll admit, it was tough getting through this much sarcasm at once. But, I'm sure the responses below will make it all worthwhile.
It was well written but going over familiar territory again, which seems to be all that can be done here. We need a positive, well-constructed path to perimeter's plan. And some leaders who can avoid assasination.
+1 Hope he develops his arguments more conscientiously in the future. Seems to be speaking a language that only his personal circle would understand.
Edit: You nailed it with MDB.
Indeed it is.
Also hiring millions of new civil servants will only serve to create more and larger unproductive economy choking agencies with new paperwork and regulations that will need to be enforced by the hiring of yet more armed police.
It's times like this when Krugmans idea just to hire people to dig holes and fill them actually makes more sense.
We are doomed... doomed I say.
From art:
I have never understood why Niels Bohr, the great Danish physicist, claimed to have dropped economics for nuclear physics, as the former was too difficult.
Maybe [because] Neils understood that a balloon has no measurable or quantifiable property!
If economics were the same as physics, it would require the same laws of conservation that physics do?
For example, neither matter nor energy can be created, or destroyed, they can on be converted to one form or the other. Cool, nothing can be gained. Nothing can be lost. Even the energy required to produce the conversion is retrievable.
If Neils were to write llaws relating to conservation as it pertains to economics, he might have offered something like ... " Neither wealth nor value can be created or destroyed, they can on be converted to one form or the other (redistributed)."
Wealth is a token representing value, not a commodity traded like most sovereigns do, since Willey boy signed off on the Glass Seagull to avoid court time for staining Monica's dress.
Those kinds of laws would not accept fractal reserve banking or sovereigns without a tangible underly. The notion of intrinsic value would be 86'd. And paper assets, smirk, forget about it. Thank you tricky dicky, wherever you are!
Price is not value. Money is not wealth. Wealth is a token of value.
The global fascist neo liberal financial system humanity allows itself to suffer for the false comfort of the gilded cage, with few exceptions, is not to be confused as anything remotely resembling science. The false science of modern economics is little more than well garnished alchemy. And dat all it be,
Saw a "Through the Wormhole" episode. One of th physicists suggested viewers ponder, providing a suitable extreme environment diving suit was available,: What they would see if they could dive under the surface of the Sun.
The answer was poetry. It would be the blackest of black. Absolutely without light. Why? Because the phptons under the Sun's surface are encased in an opaque material. Photons do not present as light until the escape the solar ocean.
Every photon the unveriverse has to offer was created in the first moments of the unverse. In other words, the photons blasting from the sun came into being when the universe did. They've probably been rolled and recooked by other stars or stars no longer in this world.
Krugman - his moment of pissing on a high voltage transformaer was graced to us a few years back, when, without a bat of eye from anybody, the "Krug" suggested the world come together to finance weapons to fight invading space aliens. A case of being shagged were the sun don't shine, or did does the "Krug" really believe dat shit?
The Nobel don't mean what it used to. Obama barely had time to wipe the blood from his hands before he walked up to receive it!
A not-so-modest proposal on fractional reserve banking monopolies... by an irate redneck ex-banker.
(The 5800-word unibomber "anthology version" as opposed to the more concise Howard Beale "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this monopoly anymore!" version)
Unfortunately those are the words of treason today.
Best just to put Ron Paul in charge of the CIA and task him with removing the traitorous perps to somewhere safe like Gitmo.
Fortunately, Obama has two years left to continue protecting us from the Keynsian asset confiscators.
Speaking of asses...Romney dropped out because he wanted to give other people a chance at winning...because with him in the game, no one else had a chance...what a fuken doof...thank your Deity Obama buried his ass for good.
you lost me at "Lord Keynes".
"you lost me at "Lord Keynes"."
Me too!
Really sick of the Keynes bad-mouthing...the guy WAS FUKEN RIGHT ON THE MONEY!
1. The business cycle is up and down.
2. Straight up and down sucks.
3. Better to have a gentle wave.
4. EXCESS tax revenues set aside during the good times.
5. EXCESS/SAVED tax revenues spent during the bad times.
6. The extremes of business cycle are smoothed.
WHAT THE FLUCK IS WRONG WITH THAT IDEA?
>>>Keynes DID NOT SAY:
1. Spend like a fuken madman 24/7/365 in order to eliminate the down part of the business cycle.
the ship MUST sink first. then we can try to set sail with new money changers. ha...
So... which part of "savings is evil" did Keynes not understand when writing #4?
Oh, and what is wrong is that you'd believe the idiocy of the idea of the political class "saving excess revenue." Shit, I don't even think Keynes believed that, but instead, used it as a way of stroking his ego while getting his dick sucked for supporting further government plunder.
In other words, he was a fucking sophist, NOT an economist.
"you'd believe the idiocy of the idea of the political class "saving excess revenue.""
It was an IDEA moron...Like Capitalism and Communism...which are two other PERFECT IDEAS on PAPER that fail FUKEN HORRIBLY in reality.
I'm sorry, if it doesn't look good in reality - it doesn't look good on paper. All over the web I see people saying things like, "oh communism is a great idea, if only people weren't so dumb." - who the hell are you designing your political or economic system for then, if not people? These fairy tale ideas are nothing but a pony show for the control freaks of the world to try to centrally plan and spy and micromanage fucking everything.
The extremes of the business cycle are smoothed only by price discovery in a freely traded market. Look at a US chart from 1776 to 1912. The swings from trough to peak and back again are negligable compared from 1971 to present. Keynes was not "right on the money".
But the most comical part of your post is #4- "Excess tax revenues set aside during the good times". The first time they actually do this would be, well- the first time.
Let's try something else-
As Von Mises wonderfully said-
"The issue is always the same: the government or the market. There is NO third solution."
"Let's try something else-"
Agreed. Unfortunately we can't get to there from where we are since we have to pay for the sins of the past by dying first.
#1: The "Constitution" is nothing more than a plan to slow the decay to despotism; following it will not indefinitely bring out the Nirvana you so desire.
In Ben Franklins own words...
"I believe farther that this (The Government of the United States) is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other." Benjamin Franklin
As for #2, #3, and #4...looks great on paper, but HAS (And would again) FAIL miserably in reality.
The deck is stacked fundamentally here against boogyman Keynes, favored whipping boy of people who can't--actually, simply refuse--to take him for what he really said, as you note.
Seems to be about way more than econ to me.
Useless idiots of the coming neofeudal order, perhaps?
All you gotta do is spit "Keynes," throw in a few nods to "real money" PM's, curse the poor, bemoan "capital repression" and restraints on "free trade," worship the almighty "invisible hand" of the omniscient market, stamp it with the Liberty trademark and you've somehow made sense in this parallel universe.
It's been interesting to see sympathy for Greek socialists somehow creep into the narrative, though.
Reality is funny like that.
Krugman is a real asshole, though.
"EXCESS tax revenues" - the purpose of tax revenue is to pay for the interest on the national debt. The purpose of the national debt is to fund fun things like wars, welfare, and public pork projects. The purpose of this "special" funding is to get elected politicians into office.
Keynes is excessively maligned, mainly because he believed that "goosing" the economy by increasing liquidity ($$$ printing) wasa good thing. He was likely right but was dead wrong in believing that the credit junkies could be "un-goosed".
This gentlemen assumes infinite growth on a finite planet, right?
We're dealing with numbers here and everybody knows they're infinite.
yep, the population is almost declining in developed countries, how is demand going to pick up if we already have everything!
I read somewhere on ZH today that Greece wants the profit that ECB made on holding the Greek bonds they bought. Nice work if you can get it.
Ok,
Now I get it.
I was confused before.
Gold standard, gold standard, fucking gold standard.
2015, not 1915
2015, not 1915
2015, not 1915
2015, not 1915
2015, not 1915
2015, not 19 fuken 15
Give it up; there's not enough gold for a "gold backed system".
How much gold is sufficient?
"How much gold is sufficient?"
Well, if you're going to back paper money with gold, then there would have to be enough gold so that if every last piece of paper money was turned in, everyone could get their gold..
So you'd need $70 Trillion worth of gold to run the just the US economy? What about the rest of the world?
Imagine that fuken headache.
WEll then riddle me this big thinker. If the amount of gold mined anuually increases in proportion to the population - a well proven fact....AND if the amount of gold was sufficient in 1915.....then what is stopping it from being suffiencient now?
Answer: Gold is grossly undervalued compared to the number of $ pounds, yen, euros,....in circulation. As Japan and EU continue to print, this is changing RAPIDLY.
"Imagine that fuken headache."
Well bubs, that's not a headache, as everyone else in the world calls what you have a pain in the ass.
A new Classical Gold Standard would never work, but if you measure currencies to a floating gold price their will always be enough gold. The price of gold's value will just go higher in currencies that print more and trade / produce less competitively. The current currency war objective is to devalue one's currency against the USD. At some point soonish I think a new monetary order will replace the USD with Gold as the global 'monetary benchmark'. The currency war will end with all currencies resetting to the gold price (which will dramatically revalue), as such a new monartay agenda will be to strengthen one's currency against gold and doing one's best to limit the quantity of a nation's currency. These stronger currencies will then be measured against each other for trade and determine the trade relations between each country. Gold will eventually decentralize (and in my dreams... decriminalize) the current financial monetary order.
1915 = 1.5 billion people...most with no wealth at all besides a cow and some chickens..basically a peasant trader economy.
2015 = 7 Billion people, most with some wealth beyond cows and chickens.
you'd needs 100's of trillions worth of gold...got it?
An ounce would have to be worth a $100k...so a dollar would be worth 1/100,000 of an ounce...so I take my dollar to the bank and demand gold, and they hand me an invisible spec of dust in a plastic bag.
Yeah, that's gonna work/
I think you would end up using silver for most transactions. A silver dollar was a day's pay for a long time. Would that be manageable today?
Let the market decide what is money and its value therein.
Toss all the fiat scams into the ash bin of history.
2015 = 7 Billion people, most with some wealth beyond cows and chickens.
No. Even in the US, supposedly the richest, over half the people are pure debt slaves, living pay check to pay check. Those peasants you speak of were more likely to own real goods than the debt slaves of today. Sure you think of cows and chickens as dirty, almost useless animals (thanks to huge farm production increases since), but they were agricultural gold. Then, there are the 40+million US folks who are collecting welfare. Yea, I'm sure they're wealthier than a peasant, too./sarc Then, there's the students who are up to their eyeballs in student loans that are non-discharge-able in bankruptcy. Debt slaves."you'd needs 100's of trillions worth of gold...got it?"
Trillions of what? Markets set prices. This, even in Communist countries, with a delay. We are witnessing such a delay.
Gold is a reflection of the indebtedness of a particular country using fiat. Just look at it's price in Yen.That's painful to read. $70 Trillion worth of gold? Is that at 1914 prices or at Krugman's $1 Trillion coin price? Really?
Anyway, in an honest market, there would all shapes and sizes of gold backed deposits(100% down to a market based minimum) to reflect folk's choices. Nowadays, if you don't hold it, you don't own it.
Today's dollar is worth about two cents of a hundred years ago.
Right. Gold $1235/$20=61.75
100/61.75=1.62 cents.
IMO, gold is about 1/3 undervalued vs. the current debt-based dollar. $2000/$20=100, or 1 cent.
Deliberately undervalued.
"Give it up; there's not enough gold for a "gold backed system"."
That is and always has been a complete fabrication. It is right up there with "ya gotta have a government because who else could field an army."
Two popular myths that go great together.
""ya gotta have a government because..."
10,000 years of recorded history and NOT ONE FUKEN civilization has formed without a Central Government.
But Torpedo knows better...keep dreamin.
There is ALWAYS enough gold... it's just a matter of price. Of course not at current prices, but current prices... don't get me started on "gold price"...
"I have never understood why Niels Bohr, the great Danish physicist, claimed to have dropped economics for nuclear physics, as the former was too difficult."
Economics is incredibly difficult if you are an honest person. Admitting that you don't know, or can't know is very hard. Easier to deal with inanimate objects of various size.
Economics is not a real science.
Economics is a political science.
Political science, of course. There is no simple "economics." Within the field, somewhere along the line, the majority have decided to break and pretend to be something more "neutral." Meaning, in the end, not free, but available for hire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy
Political/Religious Science. That's why I think of them as high priests of financial fraud. They sell 'future' promises thru debt enslavement, for a gov. paycheck. Preachers sell 'future' promises thru soul salvation, for a donation. Neither one works for free.
End usury and compound usury.
End fractional reserve banking.
If a company wants to pay a dividend, pay it.
The government is not a company.
I agree, however governments all around the world have incorporated, research it.
Governments should not be a company!
My solution to that problem is liquidation.
Too bad the Keynes Lord Keynes was cremated.
He deserved to be buried in a septic field.
Likely would've killed all of the beneficial bacteria.
Fuckin A. That's some brutal ideologue appeal there, buddy. You're assaulting reason with the blade of language as you claim to personify it. God Complex, much?
Gives me the creeps, all alarms sounding.
Somebody's desperate, and I sure as fuck don't like their tone.
"Save the world" indeed. As for modesty, surely you mean to jest.
Just ADjust for inflation
http://www.showrealhist.com/yTRIAL.html
his ideas live on because the fed needs to create moar debt to keep their ponzi scheme going. every other cog in the wheel is well "greased".
Currency in a FR central banking system is nothing more than a claim on debt. MONEY on the other hand (gold, silver, and other "commodities") actually does hold value and is a claim on future labor.
"As every modern reader knows, economics is easy and has the advantage of not requiring any great knowledge of philosophy, history, or the social sciences in order for the basics of the discipline to be grasped."
You don't really need to read one word more after this sentence. Peak illiteracy!!!
Sarcasm at its best to defend a status quo of wealth distribution that is cancerous like in 1930.
Just remember in 1930s when this occurred the first time it led to two things thru the corruption of dialogue between the Oligarchs and the people : National socialism; aka state despotism; in countries where they believed in a strong state without a free civil society and... painful reset in those countries where they beileved in finding a balance bewteen civil society entrepreneurs and a socially active state bent on mending the repairs of austerity years.
We are heading to the same breakdown of western society. But the socially active state is now seen as bogey man !
Falak, you're right. We are heading into the same abyss as the 1930s and it's leading to modern day fascism - we see that already in the ever bigger lies being told by our "leaders". A breakdown in trust and co-operation with the increasingly authoritarian state soon follows.
We should all be very sad that when these phases in history arise, much of mankind is incapable of seeing what's happening or choose to ignore it and a lot of damage already gets done by the time people stand up and say "enough is enough". The clearing up afterwards is always more difficult and more costly because it wasn't nipped in the bud.
Save the world? One heart beat of your time is worth one heart beat of my time. Fuck the banksterz. Produce or die. You skim? You perish....LOL. How's them apples?
oh, you mean its rather the price of assets than the value, that is a function of money created...?
wow!
nice to know.....
-.-
Money does not equal value. Where did ZH find this bozo?
Value requires a reference point. If the reference point is fraudulent and continually moving, there is no importance, or value, to using that reference point.
Money does not equal value. Where did ZH find this bozo?
Value requires a reference point. If the reference point is fraudulent and continually moving, there is no importance, or value, to using that reference point.
Gesell said there is no such thing as value. There is only price, and it is discovered in markets.
Prices are pushed by money, especially if money system is improperly constructed. For example, usury on money is embedded in every stage of production, and hence shows up as prices at end. Extra credit creation chasing after fixed goods, causes asset inflation.
Keynes Bancor is related to goods, and goods may be referenced. For example, so many tons of ore, or cows, or grain. In this case, Keynes Bancor would be a stable reference and national currencies would have a frame of reference. Gold bugs would want to put their shiny metal into the reference basket as well. At that point, markets would be able to resolve prices better.
Gessell is only partly right. There is only price but there is no such thing as markets either. There is only man-to-man trade and that is the only way a price is discovered by the individual.
To be more practical, the individual either has a good understanding of his supply chains or he is in the dark. If he thinks potatoes are made in grocery stores and that fuel magically comes from the town gas station, then the concept of a "market" is pure fiction to him.
I understand the sarc in the OP but in a serious vein, the solution is simple: non-violent abstention from the fiat economy. People have to take as much control of their supply chains as possible. That means barter in products and or services --- I include trading bullion as a form of barter. It is not easy but 99% of humanity, past, present and future, thrives that way. It is our turn. I do not believe we have any other peaceful choices.
Any book-keepers out there willing to shift their paradigm?
A moment of silence for the irony impaired.
"This insight results in the key truth that money equals value. "
Um no. Money is a store of value, but is not value itself. This is why Keyenesians are fucking stupid. Value is determined by supply and demand. Money is how you MEASURE value.
Silvermoney bags...very good:
"This insight results in the key truth that money equals value. "
Um no. Money is a store of value, but is not value itself. This is why Keyenesians are fucking stupid. Value is determined by supply and demand. Money is how you MEASURE value.
------------
This is close to the truth. Money in circulation is available to settle debt/credit contracts. Money’s volume flux at that moment in time should be in close relation to goods/services in flux. This can only be done by monitoring prices, volume and velocity.
Excess money as savings should be available to satisfy wants/needs for future. Future labor and capability should be able to serve latent demand.
Money as savings is latent demand, it is not wealth.
Keynes was a credit theorist, and his biggest contribution was that government should countercycle spend, especially as banks have instability built in. For example, people stop taking out loans, and then money supply contracts as credit disappears into ledger. Contracting money supply leads to fewer loans and the cycle goes into positive (unwanted feedback). This then causes a depression. This cycle is built into private bank credit means, and hence much of the depression/inflation events of the past are not natural, but instead system design.
Also, public debts are necessary in a private banking credit system for people to have savings. Keynes knew this. The reality is that a large percentage of the supply should be debt free money, and Keynes wouldn’t go there. Think about it: Savings should not be under velocity compunction to return to its debt ledger. Maybe Keynes was afraid of being assassinated if he spoke real truth.
A modest proposal was as brilliant work of economic and political planning. It set the tone for the British Empire to rule for a 100 years. This latest version produced by this author will be just as brilliant.
I think all you negative commentors have never read the original. I'm LONG on Long Pork.
Off with their proverbial heads!
Okay, it's sarcasm. I wish people would SAY they're being sarcastic, for the slow-brained among us. :-)
"Athens should issue unlimited sums of perpetual zero coupon bonds which will be bought by the European Central Bank." (because the ECB ALWAYS buys currencies which compete with its own Euro, because the ECB, like the Bene Geserit, "exists only to serve".)
"Next, the Italian, French and Spanish governments should follow suit." (I should follow suit, too, with my new "Recovery Bonds".)
"The proceeds can be transferred to local government districts in order for civil servants to be hired in earnest." (because nothing helps an economy more than adding produce-nothing civil servants who busy themselves tieing up business with red tape.)
"The effect would be to greatly boost the local GDP, by the amount of the salaries paid to the civil servants, while the debt-to-GDP ratio will fall accordingly." (because devaluing the savings of citizens, by creating money out of thin air, in order to add produce-nothing civil servants whose PRODUCT is red tape which ties up business, is the Nirvana of Economics, since it is the ONLY way to increase Gross Domestic PRODUCT without limit. For instance, if one clerk can grant a Red Tape Permit, why not hire twenty clerks, increasing both Permit review time and GDP by a whopping 2000%!!!)
"The Bundesbank will be happy." (The Bundesbank's Charter specifically states that the Bundesbank is not allowed to be happy. Ever. :-)
"...Alexis Tsipras must manage an economy suffering from not enough government spending." - I am too tired to laugh so this is just annoying.
actually this could be true....Bankers and .Gov took most of the money/loans...the economy got very little if any
Yes this is perfectly true. Total money = total value.
But that doesn't mean what they think it means. Value is effectively a constant over any short period so changing money doesn't change value, all it does is change how money is divided up. More money means each unit represents less value.
"It must be the fault of incompetent politicians, advised by poorly trained economists. There is no other explanation."
It is due to civilization necessarily being based on the principles and methods of organized crime. I have pointed that out every time I have commented on an article by Hugh-Smith which was republished on Zero Hedge, as just today here:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-06/greece-are-you-finally-ready-do...
However, it is practically impossible for guys like Hugh-Smith to get out of their rut of always applying Hanlon's Razor, instead of moving past that ...
+1 for brevity, my friend.
watched the first two movies of the new planet of the apes series recently and i actually thought about that very track as a result of your teachings about lies based upon systems of legalized lies backed by violence (sic.).
get the fuck out of my head, man! wtf.
actually added alot to the movies. thanks.
Yeah, Bob, it helps to think about relatively primitive conditions, in order to perceive the basic foundations upon which the elaborate superstructure of culture has been built.
"It is due to civilization necessarily being based on the principles and methods of organized crime."
(as famously outlined by Machiavelli, in "The Prince", still required reading)
Nice sarcasm! And for my "big solution":
The Germans, Dutch, Austrians and Finns must do what the Swiss have realized is necessary for the long-term health of their citizens … bail on the Keynesian lunacy of unlimited money-printing and “ponies for all”, and leave the euro (in the Swiss case they broke the peg). Yes, it will require the respective governments capitalizing brand new banks to absorb both the bank liabilities they wish to protect (e.g. bank deposits of citizens and businesses) and the “good assets” held by the bad banks (those “assets” that have any prayer of being repaid in real terms). But if done right, the new banks can be privatized in short order, recouping the initial taxpayer capitalization. Let the shareholders and debtholders of the failed banks, which have brought the middle classes to their knees, rapidly descend into the abyss of insolvency. And let the nations which believe they can bring prosperity through QE, MMT, or magic beans, continue to destroy their currencies, sinking their citizens into poverty. Remaining in the “print-till-you-drop” fold only ensures your own demise.
I'm hoping the Greeks intend to ultimately follow the path I advocate for the Germans, Dutch, Austrians, and Finns.
Value and worth.You know it's not the same.
Worth is more related to how things taste, digest, make you happy or angry. Worth comes from how things resolve to the benefit of sustaining our life form.
The belief in values other than what can be proved in the process of resolving them, not to trust here therefore is a setting by default.
Whenever you give attention to a piece, the question is posed, is that a thing that resolves good for me or not.
So it's the wit of attention that indicates worth.
Is the thing worth my attention.
When value comes to that place it must proof along that inquiry.
How much worth has value.
What then may happen, I think, as much I've understood, this is what the article tries to highlight.
People is toggling fingers on the upper right side of their heads or the left.
I cannot restrain to give notice, others are already manning the life boats.
A result, in acceptable conjunction with that modest proposal of theory.
Amen.
If a Central Bank doubles the supply of money, then the "value" of my house doubles. But the WORTH of my house does not change at all.
This is how economists lie. They take a commonly-used word and redefine it to mean the opposite. And, since they own the press, the press does not question this redefinition, but accepts it as "expert", and therefore "over the heads" of "uneducated" citizens, who are "uneducated" because they are taught to be "patriots", and taught that "patriots" do not question the lies, or they might be labeled "troublemakers" and therefore lose their jobs.
Let it burn. If there is a galactic federation of light? They shound nuke it from orbit. Twice just to be sure.
I wonder when the new Troll-talking-computers will take over the comments?
Our yolk will be easy. Don't panic. 43. :-)