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Guest Post: Davos Shocked To Hear That Poor People Exist
Submitted by Finance Addict
Davos Shocked To Hear That Poor People Exist
Ok, I exaggerate. But that’s my cynical first impression after finding the following diagram in the briefing book for the gathering of the good and the great at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (Click for a larger size.)
As you can see “Severe income disparity” is #1 on the Top 5 risks list this year, after having failed to make the short list for the preceding 5 years.
Now it’s not as though the attendees of Davos were completely inattentive to the economic plight of the less fortunate all this time. “Economic disparities” was on last year’s laundry list of risks and was featured prominently in the executive summary of 2011's report. But the urgency has been ratcheted up quite a bit this year: note the new modifier “severe” and the use of the more specific “income” rather than “economic”. But wait, there’s more.
Compare 2011's anodyne language:
the benefits of globalization seem unevenly spread – a minority is seen to have harvested a disproportionate amount of the fruits. Although growth of the new champions is rebalancing economic power between countries, there is evidence that economic disparity within countries is growing.
with this year’s:
Dystopia, the opposite of a utopia, describes a place where life is full of hardship and devoid of hope. Analysis of linkages across various global risks reveals a constellation of fiscal, demographic and societal risks signalling a dystopian future for much of humanity. The interplay among these risks could result in a world where a large youth population contends with chronic, high levels of unemployment, while concurrently, the largest population of retirees in history becomes dependent upon already heavily indebted governments. Both young and old could face an income gap, as well as a skills gap so wide as to threaten social and political stability.
They actually used the “D” word. Remember, this is not the research paper of some grad student with a flair for the dramatic. This document was written in part by Swiss Re and Zurich Financial Services — two of the most solid P&C insurers and re-insurers in the world. Their only business is the identification and management of real world risk. When you start hearing the language of Huxley and Orwell on the slopes of the Swiss Alps, then you’d best believe that something fundamental has shifted and that a lot of the rich and powerful are more frightened than they used to be.
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And Santa Claus really does deliver toys his elves have made. Yeah.
The Fed enables the bankers to create a form of national debt for which they surrender nothing, that the people can never repay, allowing this supra-national power to monopolize all the basic creative and productive activities of man. Daily. the Fed cartel and its U.S. Treasury arm extract by means of interest and inflation and taxation and creation of money for themselves out of nothing an annual tribute from the nation.
America’s standard of living is plummeting; the bankers’ standard of living is soaring via their creation and destruction of money, in secret, for their personal private gain and acquisition of world power.
Sir Josiah Stamp, president of the Bank of England and the second richest man in Britain in the 1920s explains it better than I: “The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banking was conceived in inequity and born in sin. Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them but leave them the power to create money, and with a flick a pen, they will create enough money to buy it back again. Take this great power away from them and all great fortunes like mine will disappear, for then this would be a better and happier world to live in. But if you want to continue to be the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let bankers continue to create money and control credit.” (Speaking at the University of Texas, 1927)
Look around you; the bankers are creating “poverty amidst abundance” all around the globe. It’s called exploitation. It leads to tyranny or, in EC operative Van Rompuy’s own words, “world governance.”
Bill Sardi asked recently in America’s Wealth Eroding: What does Mr. [Ron] Paul mean when he says this is what happens when "a country destroys its money" and "destroys or eliminates the middle class." What does that mean in dollars and cents?”
Says Sardi: “It means the American people are aggregately losing the value of their banked money at the rate of $16,881 per second, $970,904 per minute, $58,254,253 per hour, $1.398 billion per day, or $510,304,260,000 per year (that’s $510 billion!). That is the most conservative figure, based upon a 7% rate of inflation. The erosion of American wealth could be as high as $780 billion/year if a higher 10% inflation rate is employed. …
As for the inflation rate, Sardi explains the current inflation ruse:
“The federal government says the rate of inflation is around 3%. However, the real rate of inflation is not the 3% figure government provides (government calculations don’t include the cost of fuel or food, for example). According to ShadowStats economist John Williams (www.shadowstats.com), who reverts back to ways the government calculated the rate of inflation in 1990 and 1980, Americans are losing 7% to 10% of purchasing power of their banked money annually.
“Using the 7% figure, that comes to a $510 billion erosion of saved money per year. Using the 10% inflation rate, Americans are losing $780 billion of their banked money via inflation per year.
“In just 5 years $8.505 trillion in aggregate banked wealth will diminish to as little as $4.250 trillion in purchasing power using the 10% inflation estimate. John Williams shows savers who deposited $100 in banked money in 2006 would need $160 today to buy the same amount of goods and services as 5 years ago.”
By the way, when it comes to bankers, there is no such thing as "cheap" propaganda.
But what about the skiing ? I want to know who is getting the face time with the powder !
Really, all this concern for those people is beyond me.
i kid thee not...
talk radio show • chatting about obama's u of m speech • caller by the name of "hope" • she thinks the speech was ¡GREAT! • also says she and the hubby owe 100kilos of student loans • call gets cut off • host says, "looks like we've lost hope.."
IMO the Davos crowd would love to see, oh, 25-35% of the 99% die off in some quick manner (Bird flu, SARS, etc). Would be a nice "reset for humanity" in their minds.
This is why I think they feel the need to add to the extrodinary wealth they already have. Getting through the "die off" unscathed will probably be extremely expensive.
There's been a fairly widespread & common drive since mid 2011 focusing on pandemic scares. Even got a Hollywood movie.
This selection is merely for UK, Olympics:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16545017
http://www.theweek.co.uk/olympics/44564/your-marks-london-2012-olympic-g...
http://www.sovereignindependent.com/?p=33312
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/05/health-agency-olympics-eme...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jan/15/health-campaign-prevent-epid...
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099%2811%2970...
Of course, the Telegraph prefers snark, so went with:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/jmagnay1/100023284/london-2012-olympi...
UK Olympics, brought you by Dow. Bhopal beckons, hmm?
Things will not even begin to turn around until some top executive in an extra-legal financial body is gunned down in the street, a high profile board member of some Fortune 100 company is found decapitated, or an unknown CFR member is awarded a Colombian necktie.
Until there is some level of mortal terror in the lives of the 0.01%, the pirates will continue to rape and pillage.
Mostly rape.
I want to be all Gandhi and King on all of this, but you got to break some eggs to make an omelet.
Of course we all know the establishment WANTS "domestic terrorism" to consolidate power, so really either way the Davos crowd wins.
And that's the rub.
By example, after months of ratcheted confrontations, meetings with school officials, professional counseling and maybe even a few karate practices, your kid is still faced with a bully at school. Obama passed all kinds of anti-bully legislation. There was even a candle light vigil. But Obama is golfing on the big day.
One of these days, you know your son has to fight the school bully on that long walk home and you know he's going to lose because he is 50 pounds lighter and his reach is 6 inches shorter.
What advice would you give your son in such an inevitable confrontation?
You can only run for so long. Eventually the wolves catch up.
Because that is where our whole society is.
School yard.
Prison.
Last mag.
The last 3+ years of economic dishonesty.
You might have 15 seconds on your feet.
Maybe they are your last 15 seconds.
Did you OWS'ers ever talk about this while getting your frappuccinos?
all those worthless guns.
WORD!
I would like to go all Ghandi and King too. But when I was the kid being stalked I fought back and the problem stopped.
"Fair has got nothing to do with it." Unforgiven.
"a dystopian future for much of humanity."
Brrrrrr......... getting a little chilly in here.
Looks like broad categories are represented by different colors. 4/5 of last years' top concerns were green (environmental), yet only one, "rising greenhouse gas emissions (BS)," is listed this year. Also, there are no green categories for the previous four years before that. Do they really think that the biggest problems in the world change so quickly? My conclusion is that either the people who create this list are incompetent, or that they purposely change the topics each year to keep the discussions fresh. So, this list = worthless.
Some of these assholes in Davos need to understand what life is like for the rest of us.
Here I sit, filling out my MF Global claim forms to meet the month end deadline to try to recover my honestly earned money. The money is gone because Jon Corzine and his firm made stupid bets. The bank that lent MF Global money, JPMorgan, allowed someone at MF to pledge customer accounts as collateral for margin calls. They probably knew that they were customer accounts. Undoubtably someone at MF Global knew they were customer funds. So MF Global bets the farm, loses and rather than having their banker take the hit with them, they looted the customers. Meanwhile, no prosecutions, no perp walks. But, hey, it is OK because in the SOTU address Obama told us he is going to get Eric Holder to establish a new agency to crack down on financial crime. Meanwhile, my small firm is being forced to register under Dodd Frank because scumbags like Madoff stole money. Nevermind the fact that Markopoulos warned the SEC.
This shit is Orwellian. You cannot make it up. Black is white and white is black. Think fully naked emperor and lots of little kids asking questions.
Surely the end must be near.....I hope the swells in Davos are beginning to realize what this means for them.
"threaten social and political stability" translates to getting your bmw 8-series keyed, no?
Davos Good Cop/Bad Cop: You're squeezing too hard.
Recall Statue Of Liberty: ...yearning to breathe free
H/T Emma Lazarus:"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
the age of envy and dishonesty is leading to the age of destitution.
http://covert.mypressonline.com