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Finally The "Very Serious People" Get It: QE Will "Permanently Impair Living Standards For Generations To Come"
When "very serious people" (especially those who work for a company whose executive chairman once ran now defunct Bear Stearns) announce it, with a 6 year delay, they make the Financial Times.
On the other hand, when Zero Hedge said precisely this 6 years ago, it was cast as a tin-foil clad group of conspirators who see the worst in every situation.
What is "it"? This:
The long-term consequences of global QE are likely to permanently impair living standards for generations to come while creating a false illusion of reviving prosperity.
In this case, it was said this week by Guggenheim's Chairman of Investments and Global Chief Investment Officer, Scott Minerd. We are happy that increasingly more "serious people" come to the same conclusion which we posited first a 6 years ago.
* * *
Here is the full note:
The Monetary Illusion
As economic growth returns again to Europe and Japan, the prospect of a synchronous global expansion is taking hold. Or, then again, maybe not. In a recent research piece published by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, global economic growth, as measured in nominal U.S. dollars, is projected to decline in 2015 for the first time since 2009, the height of the financial crisis.
In fact, the prospect of improvement in economic growth is largely a monetary illusion. No one needs to explain how policymakers have made painfully little progress on the structural reforms necessary to increase global productive capacity and stimulate employment and demand. Lacking the political will necessary to address the issues, central bankers have been left to paper over the global malaise with reams of fiat currency.
With politicians lacking the willingness or ability to implement labor and tax reforms, monetary policy has perversely morphed into a new orthodoxy where even central bankers admittedly view it as their job to use their balance sheets as a tool to implement fiscal policy.
One argument is that if central banks were not created to execute fiscal policy, then why require them to maintain any capital at all? Capital is that which is held in reserve to absorb losses. If losses are to be anticipated, then a reasonable inference is that a certain expectation of risk must exist. Therefore, central banks must be expected to take on some risk for policy purposes, which implies a function beyond the creation of a monetary base to maintain price stability.
Global Nominal GDP Growth, as Measured in Dollars, Is Projected to Decline
With a surging U.S. dollar and growth remaining sluggish in much of the world, Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecasts that world output measured in dollars could fall in 2015 for the first time since the financial crisis. Over the past 34 years, this has happened just five times.
Source: IMF, BAML, Guggenheim Investments. Data as of 2/6/2015.
What kinds of risk are appropriate for a central bank? Well, the maintenance of a nation’s banking system would plainly be in scope, given the central bank’s role as lender of last resort. The defense of the currency as a store of value and medium of exchange is another appropriate risk. This was the apparent motivation of Mario Draghi, European Central Bank president, for his famous promise to defend the euro at all costs in the summer of 2012. The central bank balance sheet has proven a flexible tool limited in use only by the creativity of central bankers themselves.
In response to those who argue against the metamorphosis of monetary policy into fiscal policy, one need only point toward the impact of quantitative easing (QE) on interest rates. The depressed returns available on fixed-income securities, largely as a result of QE, are acting as a tax on investors, including individual savers, pension funds, and insurance companies.
Essentially, monetary authorities around the globe are levying a tax on investors and providing a subsidy to borrowers. Taxation and subsidies, as well as other wealth transfer payment schemes, have historically fallen within the realm of fiscal policy under the control of the electorate. Under the new monetary orthodoxy, the responsibility for critical aspects of fiscal policy has been surrendered into the hands of appointed officials who have been left to salvage their economies, often under the guise of pursuing monetary order.
The consequences of the new monetary orthodoxy are yet to be fully understood. For the time being, the latest rounds of QE should support continued U.S. dollar strength and limit increases in interest rates. Additionally, risk assets such as high-yield debt and global equities should continue to perform strongly.
Real Median Household Income Has Been Flat for 20 Years
Despite ultra-loose monetary policies over the past several years, incomes adjusted for inflation have fallen for the median U.S. family. With the benefits of monetary expansion going to a small share of the population and wage growth stagnating, incomes have been essentially flat over the past 20 years.
Source: Haver Analytics, Guggenheim Investments. Data as of 12/31/2013.
In the long run, however, classical economics would tell us that the pricing distortions created by the current global regimes of QE will lead to a suboptimal allocation of capital and investment, which will result in lower output and lower standards of living over time. In fact, although U.S. equity prices are setting record highs, real median household incomes are 9 percent lower than 1999 highs. The report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch plainly supports the conclusion that QE and the associated currency depreciation is not leading to higher global output.
The cost of QE is greater than the income lost to savers and investors. The long-term consequence of the new monetary orthodoxy is likely to permanently impair living standards for generations to come while creating a false illusion of reviving prosperity.
* * *
Wait, you mean printing money won't fix the world's problems? Unpossible.
Yet what is truly amazing is how many "experts" revealed themselves as useful, if utterly clueless idiots believing that one could create prosperity by printing money.
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In God we trust
All others pay cash
Another ridiculous diatribe.
It says so right there on the bill, er, the Federal Reserve Note.
Don't just blame QE. Blame Congress for running up unsustainable debt and blame the 0.001% for paying Congress to do its bidding.
we're gonna keep on stealing from the folks
What I don't like about the article is that it portrays the central bankers as lackeys of the political class with statements such as, "...central bankers have been left [or rather instructed by the political establishment] to paper over the global malaise with reams of fiat currency." This is tantamount to believing that the cart pushes the horse.
The Fed really needs to be moved to Cincinnatti.
Soooo......how much QE cash did you guys get?
I personally haven't seen a damn dime of that money.
We impaired some folks.
Some folks....fify
"Don't just blame QE. Blame Congress for running up unsustainable debt and blame the 0.001% for paying Congress to do its bidding."
Blame voters for sending Congress back at an average reelection rate of 90%+. In fact, the great Watergate election year of 1974 still sent 88% of incumbents back to the House in DC. And the 2010 GOP wipeout of the Obama Democrats only took out 15% of House incumbents.
Sure, sure, I know, anyone who thinks voting matters is a fool. But if even in an historic wave year fewer than 1 in 5 and closer to 1 in 10 stand any chance of being tossed out of office, its not like we've even tried the easiest tool available.
See https://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/reelect.php
Voting, on an individual basis, does NOT matter. It's sort of like buying a lottery ticket. Sure, the chances that SOMEBODY will win that $5 million bucks (or whatever) are 100% but the chances that person will be you are essentially nil. If a large segment of the population can be counted on to vote in an inrelligent, informed, and rational way, sure, change can be accomplished but, like buying a single lottery ticket, the chances of your single intelligent, informed, and rational vote in creating a positive result are also essentially nil. This is the fatal flaw in Democracy and it is what every politician counts on. I have not voted in many, many years and I have never bought a lottery ticket in my life.
The fatal flaw of democracy is tyranny of the majority -- two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. The US is supposed to be a Constitutional Republic which protects against such injustices, but it stopped being so long ago.
Exactly right. But the other side of the protection against those injustices is supposed to be a well-informed citizenry who are willing to enforce the rules via the ballot box or by other means when needed.
When we have 85-95% reelection rates, even in the face of outrageous behavior, that enforcement isn't remotely close to happening.
Can you honestly blame those in power when every signal they are sent reinforces the idea that they are doing just fine?
@Not My Real Name: I get it. However, just like if you don't play you can win; if enough intelligent, informed, and rational voters opt out, who does that leave voting? I don't play the lottery because I don't need that outcome versus those odds. I do vote every time because I do value those outcome.
Fuck man, just go pull the trigger (opps, I mean ballot lever) for all non-incumbents. In the primary first and then the general. If ZH let us communicate directly or build a community, we could create a ZH voting bloc.
Seriously, get 50-100 people together and you can decide a local race, 500 and you'll control a State Rep or Senate race. Do that a few times and then you'll be sending people to DC.
Try it bro then get back to me and let me know how it works out.
I already know how it does and can work out: so long as everyone puts an oar in the water and pulls, we do just fine.
Your turn. Don't miss a chance to voice your displeasure.
And blame the US proletariat for accepting this goverment and corrupt system as sufficing as legitimate.
"Another ridiculous diatribe."
I'd bet quite a lot that you neither understand how interest on loans works, nor what the Constitution has to say about the issuing power.
The Constitution says nothing about debt.
Federal Reserve doesn't issue money. If you want to drive a stake thru them, exchange your FRN's for quarters.
He meant nickels, not quarters.
i guess enteraining pics are not welcome ? ;-(
Tittytainment you say, eh?
.... can i have an example?
Mind controlled and proud of it.
EnTITtainment Shirley...
William, great stuff once again!
The artwork sort of reminds me of WWI era propaganda posters after the Lusitania sinking, only without the lies.
And vodka. Don't forget the Russian vodka.
I served.
2084: An Oral History Of The Great Warming - James Powell $2 ebook at amazon 91 pages.
What I see is the economic/social collapse played out with the ecological collapse just coming into view. Excellent.
Gwynne Dyer gives his thoughts on what 2184 will look like in his book Climate Wars
By 2080 we could be at +4 degrees C and '20:84' would symbolize that, the over-population (104%) of humans, and the Orwellian nature of society.
A global debt reset and a currency backed by GOLD solves this issue in years, not generations.
The cost of QE is greater than the income lost to savers and investors. The long-term consequence of the new monetary orthodoxy is likely to permanently impair living standards for generations to come while creating a false illusion of reviving prosperity.
This statement assumes the plantation can keep running on a deficit, forever. When no one accepts the plantation's script (IOU's), things will change. If you don't have savings and rely on Uncle Sugar, you may not have a future. So, not counting a few million dead, living standards will go up. /sarc/ Forest overgrowth and fire tells us what we need to know. Fireproof your savings or leave the forest while you still can!It seems those serious people read my comments on Zerohedge since May 2013 when I declared that QE is harming the economy on purpose and by design.
Well, thank you for recycling my commentary.
you need to be stupid to think that printing can solve anything
QE was actually designed to do harm.
There was no intention to fix anything.
exactly. ultimately, the constitutional republic that was the USA must be destroyed in order to advance the ZWO globalist agenda. a nation that is bound to inalienable truths is a major problem for the ZWO and hence the long war to discredit and shred the constitution in media and academia.
This is designed to bring them that much closer to their goal
Take these vulturous lying asshole parasites always at the opposite of their word and their labels.
e.g. Quantitative Easing actually means Ponzi Acceleration
what's your basis for that belief, ekm?
my take is that qe was designed to postpone collapse, so that those in power who are skimming off the top can continue skimming a bit longer.
Which makes the economy....hmmmm, what's the word we're looking for here?? Healthy........, no, that doesn't seem right.....think,think,think...............uhmm....
Sounds like violent agreement. Yes, the are holding off the inevitable while making it intentionally very bad for the general population. I believe they get a charge from suffering. It's a way of paying homage to their god, I suspect.
Sounds like Monsters, Inc. One can get power from scaring the masses. It's been forgotten or ignored that one could do even better with the opposite.
Hollywood often drops subtle hints as to how the world really works. Never thought of Monster's Inc. nice catch.
I agree. QE is a desperate attempt by individuals with an academic perspective, without real world business experience, to stave off economic collapse. Unfortunately their efforts only exacerbate the problem and the end result will be magnified rather than mitigated. I don't believe that Bernake, Yellen, et al, are malignant people bent upon the destruction of the middle class. They're simply trying to manipulate something that is too complex for them to control.
The people in the federal reserve, the government and the banks do not have to actually accept the fruits of their labor. When people are laid off or go hungry - they simply watch from a distance and adjust their policies - not to help the common man but to help protect the system.
They care not if a million or a hundred million starve as long as their accounting numbers are protected and the debt is protected. 6000 years ago they started building the pyramids and it was constructed with an endless supply of slaves. Today it is just the same except the pyramid is virtual.
Our children will live in abject poverty because of the results of these long term policies and the elite will reply with 'hmmm guess it didn not work - oh well my job / mansion / limo was protected."
It is horrible on the order of a Stalin / Mao Zse Tung, or Pol Pot.. and it won't be in a far away land it will be here. Naturally the end result will be war, famine, and the rest of it.. Sad.
But it's still shown on the reverse of the $1.00 note.
It is really hard to believe that the board of the Fed was unable to understand what those on this site have been saying for years: that QE would do more harm than good. They may not have been trying to destroy the middle class but it is hard to argue that a very serious attempt to save the banks and banksters was not undertaken via QE and ZIRP at the expense of those saving for and/or living off savings for their retirement. Long term poverty for vast swathes of the population is the byproduct of QE.....not deliberate you say? Do you really believe that or are you afraid to consider the implications to your world view if you accepted the opposing viewpoint? All imho.
QE is a wealth transfer mechanism. From all of us, to the bankster cabal.
These people are not stupid. They are calculating satanic criminals who think they are gods on earth and the rest of the world are sub humans put here specifically to be their slaves.
They would like everyone to believe it's an accident that they have eviscerated the middle class and taken the wealth of the world for themselves over the past 200 years.
Yes, they sure would like us to believe the results of their actions are due to miscalculations and honest mistakes by them.
Let's put the stolen wealth "mistake" into context by reminding ourselves of another honest mistake they've apparently made. "They" have simultaneously placed all of us into a state of constant surveillance and a complete militarty police state where potentially everything is against the "law".
Thought Crime is now a reality.
If there is such a thing as evil, this is a great example. I have no faith in humanity whatsoever and the meek willl not inherit anyhting but slavery and chains.
The Fed board and banker elite know exactly what the results would be but they also know they are dealing with a vulnerable and apathetic population.
Personally I believe that the vast majority of humans are decent and incapable of evil. In a fair fight evil always seems to win and it only takes few humans to ruin everything.
This probably sounds blasphemous but who cares. It might be a great time for at least one of these umteen deities out there to come along but they seem pretty apathetic too. Nothing else seems to work.
The vast majority of humans are quite capable of evil as long as their televisions tell them their evil actions are moral.
Police state is necessary only because, once the majority realizes the free lunch they've been feasting on since Bretton Woods is over, they will flip out.
Exactly, and this is the way to understand how both ekm and stacking12321 are correct.
QE is the means with which the puppetmasters will hand the 'world reserve currency' baton to China. Think US/UK in the 20's, 30's and 40's. We're at around 1936. The US probably won't survive, intact.
http://redefininggod.com/nwo-schedule-of-implementation/
My friend your wording is incorrect. QE was designed for stealing not harming.
And we need that clarification because, what, stealing is so helpful?
All fiat is theft, of course. They just need to keep the masses 'drugged' on free money while the transition (hollowing out of the US) is completed. If the freebies were to run out, they'd have to kill a lot of hungry sheep. I still think there will be a lot of sheep ultimately slaughtered. 5-10 years, which rhymes with 1936-45 time frame. Look what our glorious Nobel Peace Prize winner is doing;
http://www.safehaven.com/article/37062/war-games-russia-threatens-denmar...
There's no way to fix anything. The problem is most refuse to face that fact.
The only thing that can be done is 'manage' the collapse. In that respect, QE is doing quite nicely.
It would if you printed up pink slips for everyone in government.
Utah is leading the way by reinstituting the Firing Squad!
And this;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/22/utah-gold-standard-silver_n_865...
Ever see a doctor's handwriting? Printing instead of cursive can save lives.
Umm, long before 2013 the phrase Financial Repression was a common rejoinder among toothless hillbillies in a place where the moon comes over the hill in a Mason jar.
ekm1
First: QE is there because there is no more growth. QE keeps US standards of living going for a while longer.
Second: No one can fix our coming social, political, economic, energy, and demographic problems. No one, Period!
Third, by Ron Patterson: “When water tables are dropping by meters per year, when rivers are running dry, when forests are being clear cut, when species are going extinct by the tens of thousands per year, when most fish have already disappeared from the ocean and when the human population of the earth is about three times the long term carrying capacity of human flesh, it don’t take a Nostradamus to figure out something has to give.”
http://peakoilbarrel.com/jodi-iraqi-reserves-and-ghawar/comment-page-1/#comment-506767
FU
Don't try to use the "we're destroying the environment" ruse as a cover for the plain human evil that is the real destroyer of world(s).
1) Droughts come and go.
2) We can clear cut the forests (when the greens let us) because we also keep wild fires from burning for months
3) You don't KNOW that thousands of species are going extinct...it's a greeny wacko guess pulled out their collective asses. There aren't enough observers to count all the life forms to confirm this "fact".
4) Fishing boat are little dots in big oceans. The fish have more than enough places to hide. As one colony is netted, others live on.
IT is humanity's love of war and theft that is going to kill us.
Control, war and death are just methods of gaining or maintaining control.
Like hate. The death of caring and the destruction of thinking clearly.
Firstly - oil is abiotic - proven by the Russians in the 1950's when their reservoir engineers noticed the oil deposits were replenishing themselve. Oil is the by-product of a chemical reaction in the earth's crust from the pressures - the same goes for natural gas.
Secondly there are no shortages. India has 8,000,000 tons of Thorium and by using Thorium Salt Reactors we can power the entire planet comfortably with a high and unpolluted standard of living at 15 billion people for the next thousand years. Not only that but people have successfully grown a million pounds of food off three acres. youtube it if you think otherwise.
Finally the only thing that is happening is the elite are cannabilizing the world's middle class simply to protect their own self-interests. The rivers will still flow, and the grains will still grow wether there is a financial breakdown or not - the only question is to what point with the income and production inequalities get to before it is rebalanced.
But to get throught that it looks like we arer going to go through the greatest depression in the history of mankind..
From rocks and minerals spring hydrocarbons? By what alchemy is this accomplished?
"Not only that but people have successfully grown a million pounds of food off three acres"
Although the numbers vary by size & weight, the following numbers represent a 'medium' of what 'a million pounds' of, say, corn translates to:
Average ear size [MEDIUM] = 6 1/2 in to 7 1/2 in long
http://fshs.org/proceedings-o/1964-vol-77/256-262%20%28SHOWALTER%29.pdf
Number of these types per bushel = 40-60 [let's say, 50, for our purposes]
National average of bushels per acre [yield] = 158.2 bushels per acre
http://www2.kenyon.edu/projects/farmschool/food/bushel.htm
Average # of calories per [MEDIUM] ear of corn [raw] = 77.4
http://calorielab.com/foods/corn/148
So:
- 3 acres = 476 bushels
- x 50 ears per bushel = 23,800 ears
- x 77.4 calories per ear = 1,842,120 calories
- divided by [roughly] 2,000 calorie per day need for ONE medium working adult
= 921 days of caloric sustenance
So yes, 3 acres, for ONE to TWO PERSONS, could 'theoretically' work, assuming:
- ample water
- good soil
- proper harvesting equipment
- proper storage
- no major problems with regards to disease or pestilence
- adequate sunlight, proper drainage, etc.
- &, of course, how much BRAWNDO you'd need [because it has electrolytes ~ It's what plants CRAVE ~ lol]
My POINT, however, is that throwing out a number like 'a million pounds per 3 acres' has almost ZERO utility value in understanding food production.
You need to be looking at high caloric density per square volume + utility... I mean, WTF?... You could grow soy, peanuts, beans, potatoes, etc... But if you use the space to only grow lettuce & tomatoes, you'd find the caloric yield would not only not be enough, but would lack the versatility as 'feedstock' to chickens, pigs, goats, cattle, or even rabbits PLUS, meet your own needs... I used 'CORN' as a prototype because it typically ranks high on the density & versatility scales [not to even mention things like ethanol]...
It's a stupid GENERAL statement [that fails to account for millions of possible variables]...
Corn? Why?
Makes more sense to grow, say, potatoes. Or beans.
I'm not advocating 'corn' vs. others... I simply used corn as a baseline example...
The 'utility' of corn has benefits as you can make 20 lbs of chicken meat, & 6 pounds of beef using that as a foodstuff... You can also produce ethanol...
Naturally ~ a 3 acre farm should have a variety of things... But in the end... It's CALORIES... Corn produces one of the better calorie/utility benefits vs. all others... FFS ~ If you have 'water' on your 3 acres, you can farm catfish or tilapia... They're not gonna eat potatoes...
the mass of organic material in the form of subterranean bacteria is estimated to be magnitutdes greater than what us surface dwellers call the environment. meaning
there is more than enough biomass below ground to account for abiotic formation. additionally, the amount of water in the earths crust has been shown to be vastly greater than the liquid on the surface. add in the heat and high pressure, and the ingredients and means are all there.
the links have not been proven, but would be well worth investigating, well, except if you were part of the elites whos fortunes and power depends on oil being a finite resource. then you might be very interested in that theory never being researched, and to be smeared at every opportunity.
Water and CO2 under high pressure.
"youtube it if you think otherwise."
Your Youtube reference is false attribution, laziness, and threatens to undermine your argument, such as it is. Firstly, it gives the impression that some "proof" of your allegation actually exists. Secondly, it assumes that YouTube is a reliable authority. And thirdly, if you are too lazy to provide a link to your supposed proof, it calls into question the rigor of your entire proposition.
'Will this help ... http://www.beginningfarmers.org/trends-in-the-growth-of-small-farms-and-... Most farms in the United States are now small, with almost 40% of U.S. farms now less than 50 Acres, and 60 percent of all farms reporting less than $10,000 in total sales of agricultural products. New farms, in particular tend to be small. While USDA-NASS Ag. Census data shows a net increase of 75,810 new farms between 2002 and 2007, they disproportionately fall within the lowest size categories (2007 Ag Census). The following data shows the change in the number of farms by size category between 2002 and 2007:
http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-small-business/2009/0... he 2007 farm census counted 2,204,792 U.S. farms, an increase of 75,810 over 2002. The census also shows that more than 300,000 new farms have started operation since 2002. These new farms tend to be smaller and operated by younger farmers than existing farms.
The census results show that the majority of U.S. farms are small, and many are part-time and hobby businesses. More than 36 percent of all farms are classified as residential/lifestyle farms with the farm operators listing a primary occupation other than farming. An additional 21 percent are retirement farms, with farm operators reporting that they are retired.
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=126&t=171 The growth of the prepper movement while not APPLE >.. is a significant phenom .. growing backard gardens and raising chickens .. http://articles.submityourarticle.com/increasing-egg-production-from-bac...
cnmcdee
Your Positive—misinformed and delusional—argument is nonsense.
First: Abiotic Oil.
What does it mean? Oil fields that never depletes.
Second:
There are no shortages.
Third:
The elites are cannibalizing the world's middle class
Well……
Abiotic oil: Two links to educate you on this subject. And on Russia’s abiotic oil fields.
The fields surveyed here constitute the core examples repeatedly adduced by abiotic adherents. And we have found ample evidence that none of these plays are of abiotic origin. As for volcanic outgassing, that too is explained by organic chemistry in conjunction with plate tectonics. The abiotic hypothesis remains just that, a hypothesis which has failed in prediction and so cannot be elevated to a theory. It is completely ignored by the oil industry worldwide, and even within Russia. And that is the final testament to its failure.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/011205_no_free_pt2.shtml
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/727
There are no Shortages, for Dummies: By Professor Al Bartlett:
I got a report recently (1991) from these giants (surface mining and deep underground mining) coal fields of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia and they estimated that we have another 30 years (2021) before it becomes uneconomically to mine there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umFnrvcS6AQ&feature=youtu.be“#t=30m22s”
The elites are cannibalizing the world, by Chris Hedges:
…. It’s the end of literacy and the triumph of spectacle. What are our emotional and intellectual energies diverted to what? the kardashians -- I can hardly keep up with it. Anthony Weiner’s boxer shorts, you know?
Every week there's something else.
And it's, go back and read the end of ancient Rome. Cicero, you know, in vain against the absurdities of a Nero and of the coliseum and the investment of emotional and intellectual life into the arena, and look at the entertainment industry, the way sports, professional sports, college sports, celebrity culture has, essentially, they flicker like the images on the wall of Plato’s cave.
And we're unable to see that the world's on fire.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4049795/clip-depth-chris-hedges
Final Word
Reg Morrison: The human brain remains a piece of stone-age machinery, however you look at it, and no amount of culture can make it otherwise. Genetically speaking we are a finished product, not a prototype. What you see is what you get—there will be no bright utopian future. The Spirit in the Gene, page 247 (Midnight Prognosis).
An interesting debate that took place some years ago between Carl Sagan, the well-known astrophysicist, and Ernst Mayr, the grand old man of American biology. They were debating the possibility of finding intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.
And Sagan, speaking from the point of view of an astrophysicist, pointed out that there are innumerable planets just like ours. There is no reason they shouldn't have developed intelligent life.
Mayr, from the point of view of a biologist, argued that it's very unlikely that we'll find any. And his reason was, he said, we have exactly one example: Earth. So let's take a look at Earth. And what he basically argued is that intelligence is a kind of lethal mutation ... you're just not going to find intelligent life elsewhere, and you probably won't find it here for very long either because it's just a lethal mutation ...
He pointed out that if you take a look at biological success, which is essentially measured by how many of us are there, the organisms that do quite well are those that mutate very quickly, like bacteria, or those that are stuck in a fixed ecological niche, like beetles. They do fine. And they may survive the environmental crisis.
But as you go up the scale of what we call intelligence, they are less and less successful. By the time you get to mammals, there are very few of them as compared with, say, insects.
If nothing significant is done about it, and pretty quickly, then he will have been correct: human intelligence is indeed a lethal mutation. Maybe some humans will survive, but it will be scattered and nothing like a decent existence, and we'll take a lot of the rest of the living world along with us.
http://www.chomsky.info/talks/20100930.htm
And now you want to quote Noam Chomsky???
What a d...w...e...e...b
Chomsky is a statist ... just like escrava.
If , by intelligence, you mean the sum total of the functioning of the human brain , then there is some rationale for your conclusion.
The "competitive advantage" that resulted from the "mutation " or selection (if you prefer) of the hominid brain to produce homo sapiens, is bound also to be the Achilles heel of the species.
Our intelligence does not consist purely of rational scientific processes ; we also have a roughly equal propensity to imagine ; call it what it is -- superstition.
It is this second-mentioned facet which will prevent us from ever being a super-species., capable of acting to the detriment of the planet.
How is "imagine" the same as "superstition"?
As in, I imagine myself with a squad of horny college cheerleaders is somehow a superstition? Are you one of the word turner people? You know, like authoritarians and violent criminal pederasts who call themselves liberal.
burn the witch!!!!
Things that exist only in imagination are no more than superstition unless they are also observed in reality.
Things like gods, walking on water , resurrections , virgin births. There are people who believe those things. Some believe in AGW , the second coming etc.
I'm just saying that there is no empirical evidence for those beliefs.
superstition- a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like.
The point I was trying to make (obviously rather badly) is that you can imagine anything that you like . If you check it against reality , find that it's not possible , but continue to believe that it could happen , then that is superstition. Humans do it all the time, unless they apply the scientific method to their beliefs.
The best example is the person in a hopeless situation who continues to believe that something good will turn up.
I don't believe we can overpopulate the whole planet with humans, but there are plenty of places that are overcrowded to the point of unsustainability and collapse.
O.K. here is a better way of expressing it. This is from the book "The Spirit in the Gene" by Reg Morrison
"Despite the astonishing behavioral flexibility that has steered this maladapted primate so adroitly through some 2.5 million hazardous years, the animal is still vulnerable in the way that all animals are vulnerable: through its adaptive specialisations.
By endowing the human brain with its language facility, evolution has ensured that human genes will continue to bypass the cerebral cortex at will, disguising fact with ‘significance’ and turning imagination into perceived fact.
This prodigious talent for spiritualising its perceptions seems certain to keep this sapient primate safely sequestered from reality and well within reach of the biosphere’s standard forms of population control."
[I'm just saying that there is no empirical evidence for those beliefs.]
I'll give you AGW but for the rest there's no empirical evidence against those beliefs.
Or for them. Lacking empirical evidence the only logical opinion is no opinion at all.
You got it. If it is not a falsifiable proposition , then belief it in it amounts to superstition using the dictionary definition that I posted.
Superstition- a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like.
Human intelligence is NOT a lethal mutation. However, advanced intelligence in the hands of predators is indeed very dangerous. However, this would not be a major problem if intelligent non-predators defended themselves from human predators.
And the problem is... honest, ethical, productive, benevolent human beings DO NOT defend themselves (and others) from human predators.
I can assure you that if even 1% of the human population would get "fed up" with mankind letting human predators run wild without ANY resistence (the current state of affairs), those predators would all be dead in a matter of months. Gone. And that would also be an excellent (and necessary) lesson to every other human who considers being a predator.
But instead, and precisely because honest, ethical, productive, benevolent humans DO NOT kill human predators, the human predators dominate mankind.
But again, if only a few percent of humans (at most) decided to kill human predators (which all honest, ethical, productive, benevolent humans beings SHOULD DO), all the problems you and other good folks worry about would vanish like a fart in a category 5 cyclone.
Sadly, the human predators have been allowed to manipulate the concepts that fill human consciousness for so long, few humans can even think straight. 99.999% of human beings today are clinically insane in the most fundamental possible way (the ability to distinguish real from unreal AKA "fiction").
There is NO REASON mankind can't live a joyful, healthy, wonderful life... without screwing up the planet. Just the opposite in fact. And the only reason this is not the state of planet earth is because human predators rule the earth, and nobody will stop them, even though they can (but only if 1% or more decide to do so). No individual has the power, but only a small minority like 1% is sufficient.
Read this now; you can thank me later.
http://taxicabdepressions.com/?p=1193
"Wheeler got quiet for a few moments, and then he said something that I will never, ever forget.
“These people are playing with matches… I don’t think they understand the scope and scale of the wildfire they are flirting with. They are fucking around with a civil war that could last a decade and cause millions of deaths… and the sad truth is that 95% of the problems we have in this country could be solved tomorrow, by noon… simply by dragging 100 people out in the street and shooting them in the fucking head.”"
and John Maynard Smith (Evolutionary Biologist) wrote: "Perhaps the main consequences of the lack of high intelligence in animals is that they are not as good as we are at fooling themselves." There's a lot of intelligent people on ZH!
Okay, it is now "later". Thanks for the link. It was indeed a fun read.
Of course my major gripe with the article is the implication that the solution is "better government". He doesn't actually say that, but that's the implication I draw.
The point being, "government" doesn't exist, has never existed, and in fact CANNOT exist. So-called "government" is pure, unadulterated fiction. My usual way of addressing this issue is the phrase:
predators-DBA-government
Yes indeed, the human predators who call themselves "government" exist. Their actions exist. The weapons and ammunition they've purchased with fiat, fake, fraud, fiction, fantasy, fractional-reserve debt-based computer bits exist. And the harm these predators cause exists.
But "government" is just a word, a pure fiction. When a group of human predators sit around a table, smear ink on paper (or parchment), NOTHING pops into existence. What existed before (human predators, paper and ink) is all that exists after they smear the ink on the paper.
Just because they SAY some "government" popped into existence doesn't mean one did. And in fact, any sane individual can see that nothing popped into existence when they smeared ink on that paper or parchment.
But for humans who just can't see the obvious in front of their faces (the description I just laid about above), consider another way of looking at this same issue.
Is there ANY way to make legitimate (or even "not insane") the following notion. A group of a few to few dozen human beings smear ink on paper and claim that "millions to billions of human beings are somehow obligated to obey whatever assertions and demands they scribbled on their paper or parchment"?
NO sane individual can honestly answer that question with a "yes".
Not only can any sane individual understand this easily and clearly, but the very claim is inherently self-refuting. Why? Several reasons, but here is just one fairly obvious one. Any number of small groups of human beings can do the same, make their own claims of authority (another inherent fiction), claim everyone must obey their assertions and demands.
So just imagine dozens, hundreds, thousands of these contradictory pieces of paper with ink smeared by endless small groups of insane human beings with delusions of grandeur. Massive contradiction. Immediate and total self-refutation.
One can create a similar exposition on an individual basis with regard to the term "authority", which is central to ALL fictional claims of "government".
You are a sentient being, and you came to exist by being born.
Every other sentient being came to exist by being born.
The mere symmetry of these fundamental facts illustrates that no individual can have any more so-called "authority" over any other individual than that other individual can have over the other. Namely NONE. ZERO. NADA.
-----
The point being...
GOVERNMENT CANNOT BE REAL.
GOVERNMENT CANNOT BE JUST.
GOVERNMENT CANNOT BE FIXED.
GOVERNMENT CANNOT BE PRACTICAL.
GOVERNMENT CANNOT BE BENEVOLENT.
And in fact, government cannot exist.
But human predators definitely can and do exist, and the worst of them hide behind fictional labels like "government" and "central bank".
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE that MORE HUMAN PREDATORS can work, except to further the human predators, to further injustice, to further destruction, and make life on earth suck.
-----
The ONLY hope mankind has is... abandon government, and instantly execute anyone and everyone who claims to be "government" or any kind of "authority" over you or others.
Unfortunately, humans are too stupid to wake up and distinguish real from fiction. And so...
Humans are a failed species.
Humans are finished.
-----
PS: It is a bit remarkable to encounter human beings to claim "the republic" was the greatest government every conceived or implemented, then also correctly claim the USSA is the most dangerous and evil empire the world has ever seen... then conclude with "we need to start over the same way"!
Wait! We need to repeat the formula that because the most dangerous and evil empire the world has ever known? Seriously? Wow !!!
Get a clue. The only solution is to identify and reject ALL fictions, most definitely including "law", "nation", "official", "authority", "government", "corporation" (limited liability fictitious entity) and so forth.
honestann You may enjoy this. I just discovered FEE: http://fee.org/blog/detail/anything-peaceful
But first there must be what you said.
and you still beleive the Earth is flat, ill bet
so you drank the environmentalist kool-aid , eh. Sagan? LOL - he's a unique POS.
Anyways, wise up as to what the real agenda is. This use of environmental alarmism was posited as a way of controling the masses as early as the mid '60's.
http://www.stopthecrime.net/docs/Report_from_Iron_Mountain.pdf
Particularly sections 4, 5 and 6.
The earth has been unable to support the poppulation for 12k years now, yet here we are.
1.6 billion people on the planet at the start of the 20 century, 6.1 billion by the end of it. That is an unprecidented number of people in the history of the human race. You really do not have to look far to see the consequences of over population
It is all relative. The population needs only be reduced by 1% no matter what the total number happens to be.
If the right 1% is shaved off, this planet can grow to support much more than 6 billion people into the future. There is more than enough land on this earth to give every man, woman and child their own mulit-acre farm. Do the math. Lots of carrying capacity on this rock!
Idiot.
people are one of the deepest resource on this planet if their potential can only be allowed to put in use. it's true, most of the world population is mouthbreathers but that is all by design.
what you are advocating for is central planing in the domain of human existence. central planing is the very cause for most of our problems, and you want more of it. you are the worst criminal to the humankind and to the rest of the life on this planet.
instead of killing them off, set them free by providing them real education and access to non-manipulated information, and the next generation will be off this rock. currently this planet is a plantation, and you want to cull it even more.
yes, and there were famines and starvation then, and now, and will be if even if we eradicated 90% of the population. For fucks sake people, the problem is not with the number of people so much as it is with their propensity to congrate in large numbesr in to small unsustainable areas, and the .5% that are predators out there.
alarmism is just another way to control the masses. you seem naive enough to think the scientific 'evidence' we are presented by the 'state' and their paid branches in the scientific community is pure and without bias. Hence, another problem with humanity, the inability to think critically, or in some cases, at all.
Problem is not too many people.. its how they are distributed... most of humanity lives near a coastline .. ever fly over Canada . CA has 34 milllion poople less than "California .. and much of Canada is habitable .. meantmie China has nearly 1.3 billion people but is in demographic decline because the population is aging . and because of sex selection heavily weighted toward males.. China has a lot of people mostly OLD and getting older.. its one child policy may be a short term solution but n the long term . China will have a lopsided same sex aging population ... given most Chinese live in city areas .. much of China is prety empty same with Russia .. which has five time zones.. and 150 million people compared to USSA .. 325 MILLION ..Russia is alos having a huge demographic meltdown . Putin has been trying to get Russians to have babies.. otherwise . good bye native Russian population ... both China and India have played games with demographics.. both have sex selection polices which have resulted in a skewed society wiht a shortage of womeen .. . In the USSA .. 40 percent live near a coastline within 100 miles.. that is expected to increase by 8 percent by 2020 .. the world population is a problem of distribution . same as food and other things. .. 'Want to cut pollution . this will go down well.. end cities .. disperse population .. solver a couple of problems . one of them being polutioni . environmental and social caused by to many living in too confined an area. Look up 'asphalt effect' .. it gives some indication of the impact of large cities on the enviornment. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/pavements/l... http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/09/one-more-reason-to-say-asphalt-aff... My bet . most enviros live in cities.. and would not move if not forced to .. their answer is always move more peope into city areas and force them into public transportation and Hobbit type apartments .. more concrete . more 'island' effect.
Great comment, and one of the few people who mention the real Elephant in the room, over population. So why all the red arrows?
Are you volunteering to exercise you're personal contribution to solve overpopulation?
Prince Phillip and Bill Gates are in the room.
Es. You are on the money. We reached the end of growth in 2005 when conventional oil peaked. The run up in price that followed that was a market that was getting pricing information from the industry itself. The actuaries very quickly understood that ponzies could not continue in a contracting economy. The evidence of a collapse begins to first appear in the periphery. The subprime mortgages blew up taking down AIG. Then the real-estate Ponzi imploded and a bunch of people including myself lost a ton of money. Then the banks seized up. What happened next was a rigging of everything financial. The market was put into an induced coma and what passed as market activity was taken over by the central planners. The soup lines were hidden behind a wall of EBT cards and the illusion of rising prosperity was maintained by the plunge protection team. The market continued to go up. The charade continued.
Fracking and shale oil plays had been around for decades. The shale oil miracle was nothing more than another Ponzi created by hot money seeking a return in a no interest return environment. The money rushed in, the boom rapidly expanded the next bubble. Now we are momentarily awash in oil.
The lion’s share of the world’s oil production growth was in shale oil and tar sands. The EROEI on these plays are so energy intensive they cannot be sustained by what’s left of the real economy. They can only be sustained by fabricated financing. The oil produced is a drag on growth and the contraction continues. The surplus is nothing more than inefficiency in the market. The economy continues to contract while ever more expensive oil is brought on line. This is a result of hot money, not economic demand.
It must be remembered that farmers in the Great Depression were pouring out their milk and slaughtering hogs because there was no market. Meanwhile, people starved in the cities.
There was always a market in the depression for everything. People just had no jobs and no money to provide for food.
Any Hog killing wasnt done to kill off so called unwanted meat. They were killed to put meat up for farm families.
But also remember farms were foreclosed on everywhere when the markets collapsed. the dust bowl took a further percentile of farms and made for mass exoduses of people everywhere.
The FED printed so much money that by 1932 they had to call I the cash to shore up its devaluations going on around the globe. The next morning everybody lost everything. You think FDIC will save anything. All it means is the FED wil absorb the lossesand print more money to replace what was lost. The same thing QE and the cash window at the FED have done in wall st to make the DOW what it is up up and up with no physical signs of realvalue in any of it. A plastic bubble ready to implode anyday.
Yes I allways stop and read what you post.
For gawds sake people buy our stawks & bonds! The entire financial world is hanging in the balance!!!
Exactly ;-)
The great reset will destroy everyone's wealth if you have any.
It all comes down to holding it, laws come and go, governments come and go, acknowledged rights (property or otherwise) come and go.
Holding it with force (and blood) is all that has ever mattered in the end, its a very civilized arrangement.
All parties know whats expected of the other ;-)
This, of course, is gold negative.
(until it's not)
I wonder if one day ZH will be referred to on a major newscast as in "the forward looking Zero Hedge..."
Probably not... "Newscast? What is that?!" is more likely...
i
One thing for sure, retailers are taking a bloodbath. Go to your local mall [but DO NOT walk out with a pair of Air Jordans on yo feet!] and see how many people this weekend are buying anything other then fast food in the packed food court. My neighbor is a manager of a fairl ylarge local retial store and gets more depressed every day seeing his revenue plunge and losses soar, including theft, or 'shrinkage' as they call it in that industry.
Gun shows are packed
ammo can still be hard to get at reasonable prices
dreamers, all. lol
guns w/o balls are just placebos.
If it is the gunners versus the liberals in end? Guess who wins?
Molon Labe
One of the biggest failure of humanity is their lack of understanding that growth and human progress don’t increase continuously.
An empty, closed shopping mall is nothing compared to what we will be facing.
Wonder why most Americans, Europeans, South Americans can’t even see it?
Well, this might help. By Chris Hedges:
…. It’s the end of literacy and the triumph of spectacle. What are our emotional and intellectual energies diverted to what? the kardashians -- I can hardly keep up with it, Anthony Weiner’s boxer shorts, you know?
Every week there's something else. And it's, go back and read the end of ancient Rome. Cicero, you know, in vain against the absurdities of a Nero and of the coliseum and the investment of emotional and intellectual life into the arena, and look at the entertainment industry, the way sports, professional sports, college sports, celebrity culture has, essentially, they flicker like the images on the wall of Plato’s cave.
And we're unable to see that the world's on fire.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4049795/clip-depth-chris-hedges
The second biggest failure for almost everyone walking on this earth is understanding that future technologies will give a different meaning to growth and progress.
The biggest failure is in not understanding that government has been, and always will be, totally evil, and an utter catastrophe.
"future technologies will give a different meaning to growth and progress."
lol, we've had a lifetime of 'future technologies' and this is where we are.
it's not the technologies per say, it's the fools (humans) that implement them.
psychologically, we have never gotten any farther than the neanderthal.
doomed, by our own unrecognized ignorance.
High speed rail = "Great!! We can get home from work to spend quality time with our children faster than ever before!" == "Great! We can get our forces/army/policy enforcers over to quell the uprising faster than ever before!"
<<...future technologies will give a different meaning to growth and progress.>>
OMG You're puttin' the 'scare' in scarcity!
"Wonder why most Americans, Europeans, South Americans can’t even see it?"
sad it is.
but then look at the down votes.
they are not any brighter on ZH
tic toc zombies
Guggenheim's Chairman of Investments and Global Chief Investment Officer, Scott Minerd: No Fucking Shit, GENIUS.
QE Will "Permanently Impair Living Standards For Generations To Come
Nope, not for the 0.1 % and well connected. They will stay well off during the neo-feudalism...
It's always been a zero sum game. Bankers win and everyone else loses.
exactly. wealth is never destroyed but transferred.
many here on ZH keep saying that most of the western wealth is imaginary, paper claim etc. WRONG!
yes, most of the financial industry is not based on the sound economic footing, but those who blow these bubbles, are wise enough, when the time comes, to transfer that gain off, often to real assets, on the expense of everybody else, obviously. and as a result, the economy contracts, and the prosperity seems to vanish, though it just moves to the higher strata of the society, who are not stupid to expose their lucre. instead, they commence the media, which they own and control, with stories of recession and depression, for the plebs, of course, while they take control of majority of the resources and economy, to the extent proportional to the downfall of the economy and the markets.
the notion that wealth is imaginary, is just based on the observation that the wealth disappears for most of us. it doesn't, it's still out there, out of our sight. zero sum game.
however, they say that stocks will continue to perform well...so...BTFD
Maybe the gig really is almost up? All of these .gov lifers and TBTF bankers coming out and basically admitting to what we have been discussing for years on websites like ZH. Either way, I will continue to quitely and deliberately go about my way of preparing for the worst and praying for something less than the worst.
one has to go back a bit farthur than QE to find out what is impairing living standards.......
''The future cannot pay back todays debts"
Folks here are planting clover in the fields ( good for bees a d deer) shopping for chickenhuts at tractor supply or southern states
Too bad it's too late for the young would-be taxpayers! What's the real unemployment number now?
paper, rock, scissors. for generations. ha.
There are going to be generations. Why all the optimism?
an optimist is a person that buys a wallet with their last $10.
can't change what has been ordained
Try using real inflation on that chart and then you begin to understand the problem.
Creation of money out of thin air is embezzlement of privately-held wealth that accrues to the benefit of government. Direct economic damage is done to many parties starting with those who previously had earned income from interest on their savings. Austrian economists can demonstrate that the greater the difference between the natural rate of interest and the suppressed rate, the more planning distortions that will be induced and the longer the time horizon on a contractual commitment, the greater the miscalculation such suppression will induce.
Government gets to spend the money it creates its efforts to suppress interest rates on things that benefit government. Government not only buys off favored constituencies, but it gets to fund its rule-making and rule-enforcing bureaucracies more generously than it otherwise would. Funding is the first restraint on government.
When government has near-infinite money, it can fund near-infinite bureaucracies that can entertain whims and power grabs. This is how we get a government property manager that is so well-funded that it can afford the luxury and implied liability of operating its own SWAT para-military. This is how a bureaucracy can afford to send dozens of well-armed agents to raid a maker of musical instruments for the alleged crime of having wood that is not correctly marked. This is how government can afford to run a trial and send a person to prison for several years for the horrible crime of shipping seafood in plastic boxes when the regulation requires the use of cardboard boxes.
This is exactly why the Article V Convention of the States must first consider an amendment that prevents government from spending more than it takes in.
now imagine for a second that this government would also have the world reserve currency in their disposal
Welcome to the Cassandra Club!
Earlier record of my 2005 views:
World View: Marijuana & Money
A society based on dishonesty can have no long-term future. Unfortunately, the only way that the truth appears to be able to change the way things are is by natural selection causing the decline and fall of the entire civilization.
Looking at the big picture, the money the rich are accumulating is not based on what is happening in the real world that the rich people are a real part of. Ultimately, they too will suffer the final results from their fraud. In this context, the younger an individual is, then the more they are being lied to, cheated and robbed by the political system that they have been born into. A social system based on dishonesty will finally collapse, but like a cancer grows well at first, it will be in the long-term that this cancer will in fact kill itself too.
Our fraudulent financial system is the way in which the history of robbery is still now the most powerful force. This is a general principle that applies everywhere. Since each and every aspect of our society uses the same accounting system, and since that system has now become almost completely crazy and corrupt, each and every aspect of our society is now like that. As the saying goes, we are penny wise and pound foolish. All the correct calculations that are done, within this system, are subverted by the way the system as a whole works. Money should be the symbol of human co-operation, however, our money system is actually a symbol of human coercion. It is not money that is evil, but rather the way that the whole monetary system has been corrupted that is very evil.
Letting a few bullies control the banking system, and everything controlled by this banking system, has resulted in the value of things becoming a fetish. More and more, the banks were allowed to create almost all new money out of nothing as a debt (which is why we can best call this system a debt engine) and that system undermines and erodes all values. Within this system, most of the values placed on things become an insane fetish. While all realistic and reasonable values are gradually rendered less and less rational or effective. The monetary values placed on marijuana and marijuana seeds are simple examples of how totally insane the system is now.
The people should take control of their monetary system. We, the people, are the money system, but we the people mostly act like idiots who are too ignorant and afraid to do anything to assert political power effectively. According to legal theory, we the people control the government, and we could change the laws to stop the debt engine from running. We should pay off our old debts, but we should stop the fascist plutocracy from being able to continue to control the operation of the debt engine to relentlessly rob everyone. Theoretically there is nothing to stop a government from changing who the system robs and how it can rob them. The same rule of law that lets our governments rob the many and transfer it to the few, could allow any other kind of robbery to still be legal.
At the present time, the system is designed to shovel money out of the public and into the private, as fast as possible. That machine could readily be driven in the opposite direction. However, that is not the most important thing to change. The fascist plutocracy’s control over credit makes it possible for that system to control whatever the direction in which the economy grows. The fascist plutocracy’s ability to control the creation of money out of nothing gives it the power to control which way our human and industrial ecologies grow.
Power over future production is much greater than the present power to prohibit production. Whatever the distribution of wealth that exists now may be, the real ability to produce future wealth is more important. We should attempt to make poor people rich, rather than try to make rich people richer, or to make rich people poorer. The solar system has trillions of times more potential than planet Earth, and Earth has billions of times more potential than we are using now. (And these are actually very conservative estimates.) However, we can not create more real wealth until we stop being so vicious and dishonest in the ways we organize our political economy. We could create vastly more wealth, if we thoroughly applied the principles of ecology to industrial processes. However, at the present time, we are quite deliberately ignoring the principles of ecology and evolution almost everywhere they have bearing upon human endeavours. These insane debt engine systems are a one-way express trip of turning natural resources into garbage and pollution. As long as those systems are allowed to dominate us, all of the so-called wealth we produce is a fraud.
After one understands how extremely bad the overall system is, there appears to be no practical way to fix it. There seems to be no practical way to build a better structure of resistance to stop us from doing what we want to do in the short-term, regardless of what that will mean in the long-term. After one thinks enough about the reality of the debt engine, it becomes clear that we are up against a social group that practically owns most of the world’s governments and has an abundance of private mercenary forces that they can use offensively. Therefore, the entire debt engine system seems untouchable, except by the after-effects of too much of its own success. We are most probably locked into vicious cycles that will result in the decline and fall of civilization. Too bad.
The people with the most money and weapons control the world. They are doing an extremely bad job because they are not good at anything but being dishonest and violent. But nevertheless, that is the only thing they really need to be good at to keep the well-established system of robbery working the way it is right now. It is practically impossible for more truth to prevail against dishonesty backed up with violence. We are limited to the vain effort to try to diminish the degree of dishonesty, while we can not stop the dishonesty from still being backed up with violence.
We need a wide-spread increase in the amount of human intelligence and imagination, in order to stop the future from being a product of too much stupidity. However, the institutions that are supposed to help us do that are themselves already so completely crazy and corrupted that we can hardly even begin to make progress, but rather, we are going more backwards at an exponentially increasing rate.
______________
TEN YEARS LATER, I can only repeat that "we are going more backwards at an exponentially increasing rate."
This. We're fucked. Sorry mother nature, better luck next time. Maybe you should try producing a sentient species with the ability to think beyond next Tuesday.
I wish that I could reasonably disagree with you 2handband, however, I can not!
It's amazing how fictional zeros in a computer can destroy things in the real world.
Greatest magic trick ever.
Medieval alchemists searched for a way to conjure gold out of nothing.
Central bankers figured it out, and most of the world still don't understand what "the emperor's new clothes" is really talking about.
Why do so many authors skirt around the issue that QE was NOT to save the economy but to save the banks and if the economy recovered in the process, then that was a bonus?
Intellectual honesty is hard to come by these days.
I wonder the same thing. I don't understand why there are so many articles about how QE affects the economy. It's completely beside the point. Bankers are doing very well, mission accomplished.
Dear Scott,
You are talking shit. You are "copied from web page": He is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets, works with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and is a contributing member of the World Economic Forum.
You got obviously much, much wealthier during last 6 years, no front running? I advice you to give a serious part of your wealth to the future generations in cash or gold. And please quit your insider job.
Cheers,
Vesna
These parasites play both ends against the middle.
Guess who's the middle?
"We are happy that increasingly more "serious people" come to the same conclusion which we posited first a 6 years ago. "
Happy, how nice.
'serious people' don't give a rat's *ss. they've got theirs.
you've got nothing.
happy? lmao