The vampire bat is a horrifying pig-nosed wart of a creature which feasts in a manner that, believe it or not, is a rather familiar scene to those of us who closely study alternative economics. After erratically flittering about in the sinking evening sky, it targets the warmth of a sleeping farm animal and latches onto it with its claws. Carefully, it inserts a fang into a vein dense region of the creature’s body, and laps away at the blood. Normally, the oblivious livestock are completely unaware and helpless to the attack. The tiny parasite does not inflict an immediately mortal blow to its host, but over time, disease and physical debilitation result. The vampire has destroyed the animal, and, pathetically, the animal has no idea.
Just as in nature, the economic world has its own bloodsucking vermin in the form of banking elites which are a wretched drain on the whole of the human race. Without their vicious and predatory presence, I envision a world so rapturously above and beyond what we wallow in today that it is impossible to describe. The disgust many feel when considering the virulent feeding habits of the common mosquito or the slithering leech does nothing to compare to the utter gut churning revulsion I feel when studying the financial habits of banks like the Federal Reserve and the “too big to fails”. They are without a doubt the most malignant form of social cancer imaginable.
And yet, after nearly four years of ongoing fiscal exsanguination, a sizable portion of the American populace is still looking to these pests for economic comfort and reassurance, just like farm animals consistently grazing near the entrance of a vampire bat cave, as if it is a shelter from harm. Worst of all is the willingness by which investors still, to this day, commit their savings and their livelihoods to the stock market meat grinder. Let’s be honest; the typical American daytrading investor is a complete moron. They have absolutely no sense of the fundamentals of our financial structure nor the eccentric rules by which it operates. They only have the faintest inkling of the functions of the highly manipulated stock market. They foolishly believe that what little money they make today riding the wave of an illegitimate liquidity driven rally they will actually get to keep. For them, stock investment is no different from buying a scratch-off lotto ticket at a hillbilly gas station; it is a cheap and tawdry game rife with failure but exciting to play, if only for a fleeting guilt addled thrill.
To be fair, they play because the game is indeed “rewarding”, at least, initially. The first taste is so sweet that it soils the plasma; the very skin of the cellular membrane of the financial mind becomes saturated. It swells within the weakening heart of a culture, and overrides its sense of logic. It makes us do terrible and stupid things, and we clasp our hands together and pray that it will never end. But, of course, an ending is painfully inevitable. The more we indulge, the more it takes down the road to satisfy us. We become an addict nation, riding the chemical wave of a pharmaceutical roller coaster fed by the opiates of fiat and fantasy.
The bottom line; we are being drained of our lifeblood as a country. However, the mainstream media is rife with talk of “recovery”, and one might ask how this could be possible. An overwhelming spectrum of solutions has been presented over the past 3-4 years, and each one has given the stock market a little push towards the green, so what’s the problem?
The problem is, the actions taken by our government and banking elites have built the connecting strands of a spider’s web, instead of a safety net.
Let’s examine some the most common solutions presented to the increasingly desperate American public and why these delusions have lulled us into the role of victim in the most elaborate monster movie of all time…
Centralization As a Solution To…Centralization…?
Europe’s current disintegration is a perfect example of this strange and ultimately destructive policy. The EU as an experiment is an utter disaster. Once the jewel of the open border dynamic and a bastion of the “merits” of globalization, the economic union has been exposed as a kind of waxwork museum; a tourist trap curiosity filled with illusions of life, but rather hollow upon closer inspection.
Half of the countries committed to the EU are burdened with liabilities well beyond the 60% debt to GDP ratio outlined in the ‘Growth and Stability Pact’. Some countries, including Greece, met few if any of the presented criteria for membership and were allowed to join anyway. The only reason the system was able to function at all was due to the imaginary wealth of the toxic derivative framework which now no longer exists.
The problem with globalization is that it requires assimilation; it demands that sovereign nations adopt the fiscal character of their neighbors in order to present the face of a single entity. Of course, when these countries are unable to do this because of their cultural differences, or their incongruent economies, something has to be slapped together instead. Artificially tying together societies by forcing them to financially harmonize is, in my view, a criminal act of collectivism. Now that this crime is being unveiled for all the world to see, though, the corrupt governments and banking puppeteers of Europe have suggested even MORE of the same! That’s right…their solution to the collapse of the EU is a harmonization not just of finance, but of politics and law. A single governing body which would dictate every nuance of the union.
The claim that Europe was not centralized enough, and that this is what caused the breakdown, is absolutely preposterous. Globalization makes a system inflexible and weak. If any portion of that system fails, it sends shockwaves through the rest. This is because centralization removes the protections of independently insulated structures and allows corrupt policy to spread like a plague. As the economic situation grows more dire, the end result will always be a reduction in the common citizen’s standard of living. In harmonization, It is far easier to make everyone equally poor than it is to make them equally rich. With a single, narrow minded leadership, especially one that is completely unaccountable to the people, the EU will become the most fragile makeshift empire in history, and a model for a global government that hopefully will never exist.
Print To Avoid The Pain…
I can’t tell you how truly exhausted I am with the constant rehashing of bailout bills and cheap lending windows as if they have ever or will ever change anything. Let’s make this clear; Keynesian stimulus measures are useless. They will always be useless. Governments do NOT create jobs, they destroy them. Central banks do NOT create wealth, they dilute it. Quantitative easing and zero interest lending does NOT diminish debt, it displaces it; removing it from the shoulders of private corporate banking institutions where it belongs and dumping it in the laps of taxpayers. I’ll say it again; the debts created by major banks have not been paid. They have been handed to you, and your children. Forget the December Santa Rally and the temporary holiday job boost. Nothing has changed since 2008.
The process of transferring private debt into public obligation is a tool of economic vampires. The utility in this is obvious. A program of wealth transference has the ability to prolong full collapse while at the same time giving the impression of stability. The dollar itself characterizes this conflict. The currency has been overprinted since the credit crisis began by some estimates in the ten’s of trillions. Not only has it been devalued to temporarily stave off a purging in the U.S., but now also in Europe. And yet, the dollar index, which supposedly measures the Greenback’s global value, has spiked. We are lulled into a sense of safety by such arbitrary measurements, but our buying power is being subversively annihilated. In less than a year’s time, those who dove into the dollar as a safe haven will discover their bones picked clean by predatory banks and hidden flesh eating inflation. Count on it…
Create A New Currency…
Globalists love currencies, as long as they aren’t tied down by a commodity. For central bankers, each fiat currency is a stepping stone to something more sinister. They are disposable. They are expendable. Like toothbrushes. Yes…even the dollar. And in this rests the key to economic control. A currency is a symbol of trade and labor; if you can create and destroy that symbol at will, then you can dominate trade and labor. Through a mere piece of paper, you manipulate the very breath of social life. No one should be given that kind of power without uncompromising transparency and constant public governance, but the Federal Reserve is free from both.
The suggestion that we can solve our current financial despair with the formation of a whole new currency, or a global currency, is like suggesting to a slave that he would be much more free with a shinier set of chains. Any solution that purports to undo the crisis by doing more of the same was probably devised by an economic vampire.
This includes digital currencies like the failed “Bitcoin”, which swagger about in the classy looking threads of technology and diversity while flashing us impromptu peace signs. Digital currencies are a Star Trek theme park distraction, and just like any paper fiat currency, they make promises they cannot keep. Any trade system that depends upon good faith in ones and zeros traveling across a network of machines that can be hacked or rendered useless by collapse is doomed. We have already tasted the danger of digital through the debauchery of credit cards. Why tempt fate even further?
More Regulation And Control…
Regulation is not the problem in America’s economy; the REGULATORS are the problem with America’s economy. The SEC is given thousands of potential investigations a year to pursue, but rarely do they ever follow through, and when they do, it’s to throw the angry masses a Bernie Madoff or two; an act of insincere appeasement in light of much greater fraud.
Being that true free markets have not existed for at least a century, the insinuation that free markets are the root of the collapse is a bit absurd. The guidelines for government oversight of business in the U.S. already exist; government has just refused to implement them. Adding new restrictions to an already restricted market will change nothing. Therefore, the only solution that makes any sense whatsoever as far as regulation is to wipe the slate clean entirely. Remove the Federal Reserve, replace the SEC, and replace the current establishment leadership.
I have heard it said that the philosophy of our economic system is the problem. This is an ignorant cop-out. The principals of free markets are not the issue; the men who abuse them and diminish them, on the other hand, are. Anyone who suggests that we as a country focus our anger on the idea of the system rather than the men behind the misuse of that system is, without a doubt, an economic vampire.
Lurking in the Shadows...
The question of solutions is difficult, not because there aren’t any, but because those that will actually succeed require pain, sacrifice, and incredible hard work. Most people don’t like to think about that sort of thing. This is why global banks and their proponents have been able to maintain the recovery magic act for the past few years (just barely), and it is why the useless concepts they put forward are still given public consideration. We WANT to be sold on the proposal of an easy way out.
One rule to never forget when considering any solution is to take into account who benefits most from its implementation, and who has to labor for its success. If average people are forced to exert all the effort, and an elite few reap all the substantial benefits, this contradiction outweighs any assertion of practicality. It is not worth our time, nor our energy, to shadowbox reality. Unfortunately, this is all we have been doing as a nation since 2008.
The creeping terror that lay ahead is not the economic collapse, but the men who would use it to their favor. The stakes are high. With the NDAA and similar bills in place, fiscal distress is no longer just a matter of economics, but a matter of personal liberty. Without a doubt, a collapse will be used as a rationalization for totalitarianism. If we do not make the hard decisions now, and take it upon ourselves to construct our own localized economies separate and insulated from the mainstream, we will, indeed, find ourselves one day cowering in the dark of a long drawn night infested with fiends, and desperate enough to actually ask them for help. They will be happy to give it, at a very bloody price…
That sounds pretty shitty. But is it any different then what happened to debt holders at GM and Chrysler? They had their money taken and given to the unions. Even worse, they were forced to say it was voluntary and legal. Just like Greek creditors.
BTW their is a reason that even the slightest rumor of trouble at a brokerage causes run on the bank. I saw the $10bbn HF I worked at yank everything from MS when rumors were out they might be next.
And look at what happened at Lehman UK. They transferred everything to the UK where the laws would ensure as messy of a liquidation as possible. Sucky wanted to punish as many people as possible for not bailing him out.
excellent read,... thankyou
and a 'Tabula Rasa' for you - :-))
absolutely corruscating brilliance...thank you.
"Globalization makes a system inflexible and weak. If any portion of that system fails, it sends shockwaves through the rest."
exactly why tbtf is a sham for raping....
Bravo, this article would give Matt Taibbi a run for its money.
The entire Globe's Retirement income is counting on them to keep the Ball in the air.
Hard to imagine if that security net gets stripped away. From Private Pensions Funds to Social Security. What will happen to the old people in our and other Countries Societies?
Only the Wealthy will be able to take care of their older generation. Everyone else their fate is in question.
Maybe that is their game to strip the Elderly of any type of support and then they will die.
If banks are vampires, then mark-to-market accounting is a mirror.
I knew some vampires, they tried to go for my neck, but I put something sharp in thier throat first. Then peace, so nice.
I dont agree that trading is a fool's errand.
I have made about about a five percent annual return these last ten years dollar cost averaging into my kids college savings accounts. Didnt have much of a choice and in developed markets a five petcent annual return these next ten years is the optimist scenario.
The most important lesson I learned, get out of losing positions after no more than a five percent loss, cost me thirty percent of my portfolio when i capitulated at the bottom with gdx in 2008.
In spite of that I am extremely pleased with this last decade of trading. I almost did as well as you guys who just held gold the last ten years! Almost!
Dont trade often.
Trade only extremes.
Sell quickly when the market turns against you.
Jesse Livermore died impoverished because of a personality flaw. He held losing positions too long. Dont be stubborn.
You have to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run...
But you do need to count (keep trsck) of your money when you're siiting at the table. Stack management is as important as card management.
manage your bankroll
or you might need to obtain gainful employment
USA is just a Utopia. Rainbows and Unicorns forever. The poor go to jail and banksters buy a stairway to heaven. I wish I could be brainwashed like the others. Life is to short to live in reality.
Well.. last time I tried an avant garde post I got hit with a universal sea of red. In retrospect, probably a bit wild for this site. So, I'll keep this one more preppy, succinct, and financially sound:
If we are talking Vampyre, we must take on board the remarkable progression that the trope & myth has taken during our century. From the silent horrors of Nosferatu we have tripped through Berlusconi (even an idol for Italian Presidents), the first terrifying and then titillating bodice ripping of Christopher Lee in many a Hammer Horror (a favorite "Bride of Dracula"), forward into the late 70's lesbian delights of 'The Hunger'1 (with Bowie, not for very long, however). We then, in the 80's, touched on "Lost Boys" where our young men saw how cool and powerful being in an all male gang was (hello GS first years, you sad little fuckers) onto the 90's gay lovers of Brad and Cruise (important to keep it under male gender control, hint hint, or did you miss that the only female vampire was a girl-child?) in "Interview with a Vampire" to the modern day sparkles of "Twilight" where a sociopathic desire to eat your fuck buddy is a model of modern relationships. Women now lust after sociopaths, and society desires debt.
These films make money. Shit loads of money. They also shape the form of a strong fictional narrative within Western culture.
If you track the public perception of the Vampyre with credit / debt, you'll see an obvious linkage. Credit / debt was a horror to most people before the 1960's. It simply wasn't the "correct moral stance". People who borrowed money were either slatternly or wastrels, and the loan sharks who lent money were universally reviled as either criminals or Jews2. And... then it changed. In the 1970's, the Vampire transcended horror to become... sexy. At about the same time personal debt became... possible. And so on, and so forth. You add the daisy chain already. By the time we hit the 90's debt isn't something you fear, debt defines your credit rating - and thus your mortgage, your car and so on. Just like how having a sparkly sexy vampire called Edward lusting after you defines you as a woman.
It ain't subtle, but hey. Cattle prods rarely are.
Now tell me. How sexy are predators in your mythology? Current Western tropes declare that predators are not only the sexiest mother-fuckers on the planet.. but they deserve said desire. Same for credit... 'technocrats' my arse. The 20th Century was predicated on (Freud, hello!) sublimating sexual desire from people onto objects (ADVERTISING, BITCHES, AND BOY IS IT A BIG MARKET). The next logical step is to cut out the object, and make it about the benjamins. Your desire is money. You have no money, but we'll give you credit to satisfy that sexual urge you're getting. And then the pathetic Libertarian Randians decry why people "give in" to it. Listen up ~ it is the basis of your society, and everything education and society tells a growing person is that money is everything, money is sex, money defines you, but as we all know... Only the banks make money. And thus, they hold sexual desire as their product. As any courtesan can tell you, sex is power.
Or is this too much reality for fantasy island here?
I'd bother to step this up into a mature discussion over the modern monetary system and authentic human beings, but no-one is playing. Get a grip. Disaster Capitalism is based on devastating psychology, and if you're not playing the game with a decent knowledge of how manipulation (yes, a humorous jibe at Tyler, who knows exactly the game) then you're a product. A sexy, red blooded, meaty product we want to chew on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo-wkv8gW6k
Junk all you like, but I'd give two pints of blood for some decent commentary around here.
How Funky is your Chicken (17 sec)
How Dead is your Bela?
"last time I tried an avant garde post I got hit with a universal sea of red."
mmm, sounds juicy...care to share a link to it por favor?
p.s. don't forget this one:
http://youtu.be/yJt2N7LSptg
to provide for equal opportunity and flip the good vs. evil paradigm just in time for the 21st century (sorry for the violence, couldn't watch past 0:58 meself)
p.p.s. brilliant as usual. nice to see you back.
I need some wolf Bane . Where the fuck is Van helsing?
"being drained of our life blood" ... and the blood of our kids (via US military)
VIDEO: End of Nations: Canada, the US and the "Security Perimeter"- by James Corbett, Paul Hellyer - 2011-12-17 The End of Canada as a Sovereign Nation State? Learn about the path toward the North American Union on GRTV
Obama Raises the Military Stakes: Confrontation on the Borders with China and Russia- by Prof. James Petras - 2011-12-10 Obama has embraced a policy of encirclement and provocations against China, the world’s second largest economy and the US’s most important creditor, and Russia, the European Union’s principle oil and gas provider and the world’s second most powerful nuclear weapons power.
I suppose "they" will say "if not us (US), then someone else worse will do it". Point taken but could you please ask what we think before you act?!
You do not need to look any further than the life and times of renowned human propagandist Edward Bernays, building on the works of his uncle Sigmund, together with politicians and the banksters these guys changed the world into what it has become today. No matter how you cut it, the works of these two guys made however you want to view it, either the worst of human nature or in the alternative the best. Take a few minutes to watch this short presentation on Edward Bernays and his uncle Sigmund and come away with a perspective that makes total and complete sense of the manic and broke world we have come to know today.
Merry Christmas Zerohedge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KLnaQhC73o
Bela Lugosi's Dead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKRJfIPiJGY
"The problem with globalization is that it requires assimilation" -
I think a less inflammatory verb could be used in place of assimilation, and that would be harmonization.
Edit - whats with the italicization ?
Just tell Homeland Security they have a new mission.
They don't need a bigger budget either, plenty of resources available
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