Guest Post: Social Fractals And The Corruption of America

Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds

Social Fractals And The Corruption of America

Social fractals and social control myths help explain the complete corruption of America.

Correspondent Kathy K. recently elucidated a powerful concept: social fractals. We typically think of fractals--structures that are scale-invariant--as features of Nature or finance. For example, a coastline has the same characteristically ragged appearance from 100 feet, 1,000 feet and 10,000 feet in altitude. It is scale-invariant, i.e. its characteristics remain constant whether it is viewed on a small, medium or large scale.

This is how Kathy described social fractals:

"This dishonest, self-serving individual behavior is a fractal of what is happening in our society at large: dishonest and self-serving people are extending and pretending, and their complicity keeps the system going."

The concept of social fractals can be illustrated with a simple example. If the individuals in a family unit are all healthy, thrifty, honest, caring and responsible, then how could that family be dysfunctional, spendthrift, venal and dishonest? It is not possible to aggregate individuals into a family unit and not have that family manifest the self-same characteristics of the individuals. This is the essence of fractals.

If we aggregate healthy, thrifty, honest, caring and responsible families into a community, how can that community not share these same characteristics?

And if we aggregate these communities into a nation, how can that nation not exhibit these same characteristics?

If this is so, then how do we explain the complete corruption of America's financial and political Elites? What else can you call a nation that passively accepts financial predation, looting, robosigning, etc. by protected cartels as the Status Quo but thoroughly corrupt?

There are three distinct but highly interactive dynamics in America's social and financial fractals that have led to the nation's corruption. We can think of these dynamics as feedback loops: positive feedback is self-reinforcing, negative feedback offers restraint and opposition. From Wikipedia:

Negative feedback is used to describe the act of reversing any discrepancy between desired and actual output. A simple and practical example is a thermostat. Biological examples include regulating body temperature and blood glucose levels.

Positive feedback is feedback in which the system responds so as to increase the magnitude of any particular perturbation, resulting in amplification of the original signal instead of stabilization. Any system where there is a net positive feedback will result in a runaway situation.

These dynamics also share certain characteristics of the dialectic method in philosophy, a system of reasoning through arguments and counter-arguments (thesis and antithesis) to reach a synthesis or new understanding. The Socratic method is to show that a given hypothesis leads to a contradiction that forces the withdrawal of the hypothesis as a candidate for truth.

The social fractal element is individual behavior: the actions we choose based on our internal values, emotions, worldview and goals, and our belief in social control myths. This is a powerful concept brought to my attention by correspondent Diemos, who cited these examples:

The untouchables in India are told that they deserve to be treated as outcasts because of their karma from bad deeds done in a previous life. Of course, in reality, they are no more or less deserving than any other human being of a good life but as long as they believe that they deserve their station in life they are less likely to agitate for changes that will impact the wealth of the ruling class.

In the US we're told that an all-powerful, all-seeing, perfectly impartial free market gives everyone the wealth they deserve due to their own efforts. So if you're poor it's because you deserve to be poor and if I'm rich it's because I deserve to be rich. So you're more likely to accept your place in the Status Quo than if you believed that the division of wealth was more a function of an individual's political power and ability to participate in various crony-capitalist schemes.

In all cases a social control myth is an idea designed to affect the behavior of the people who believe it to the benefit of the people who are promulgating that idea.

I had a devil of a time understanding economics until I understood that 95% of what gets said in the name of economics is a social control myth rather than science. Economics is actually pretty straightforward to understand once you strip out all the propaganda, self-serving rationalizations, wish-fulfillment and outright misinformation that passes for analysis these days.

There are two key social control myths in America: one, that everyone is equal before the law, and two, that similar fundamental opportunities are available to all.

Using the Socratic method, let's see if these hypotheses are true or false.

When a select class of people are given unique opportunities unavailable to others of different ethnicities, religion or social class, then we recognize this as bias. Since there are laws against bias, then this violates both our belief that "everyone is equal before the law" and also our belief that opportunities in America are fundamentally open to all based on merit.

Now let's consider the U.S. tax code. The 70,000 pages of tax regulations are legal, and since they are in the public record then presumably they are open to all. America's tax codes seem to fulfill both hypotheses.

In other words, everyone should be able to find perfectly legal provisions in the tax code to match Mitt Romney's tax rates: Romney paid a 13.9% tax rate on $21.7 million in 2010, paying about $3 million. His 2011 estimates show an income of $20.9 million and a tax rate of 15.4%.

Since a self-employed person pays 15.3% Social Security tax on 92.35% of his/her income up to about $106,000, (and 15% income tax on the first $34,500, 25% on everything up to about $83,600, and so on up to 35% on everything over $379,150), then it seems Mitt Romney is in effect paying .1% Federal income tax in 2011, since the self-employed person has to pay 15.3% right off the bat, even before income taxes are levied.

According to our hypotheses, the tax code is equally open to all. Does the average citizen have the time and expertise to plow through 70,000 pages of tax codes? Clearly, the answer is no, so it's simply not true that the tax code is equally available to all.

Let's imagine a different set of values and governance. Let's suppose the tax law stated that the entire tax code must meet two requirements: it must be able to be read and understood by the overwhelming majority of citizens with a high school education in one hour or less.

The national labs (or equivalent impartial bodies) would be tasked with conducting a randomized sampling of 100,000 citizens to test each year's tax code. If 80% of the adult citizenry with a high school education (or GED) were unable to put the tax code into practice after an hour of study, then the code would be rejected and sent back to Congress for revision until it passed this simple, transparent standard for equality before the law.

Clearly, the tax code is both legal and completely skewed to the very wealthy and politically powerful. $100,000 is still a fairly significant contribution in politics, and if that contribution ends up yielding a tax break that gains the donor $1 million in lower taxes, then that donation earned a 10-fold "return on investment."

Only the wealthy can afford to hire Panzer divisions of tax attorneys to pore over the 70,00 pages and game the system to pay less than self-employed citizens pay in Social Security and Medicare tax, never mind income tax.

The first hypothesis is still vaild--the tax code is legal--but the second--that fundamental opportunities are open to all--is demonstrably false. Equal opportunity is revealed as a social control myth promoted by those benefitting from opportunities that are not available to the citizenry at large.

This is the definition of an oligarchy.

Now consider the vast quantity of fraud and embezzlement that took place in the upper reaches of American finance in the past decade and then ask how many people have been indicted, tried and punished for these crimes. Just as in a totalitarian society, only a few unlucky fall-guys have been scapegoated in show trials. The vast majority of those who committed fraud or acted as accomplices or co-conspirators have not even been investigated, much less indicted and convicted.

Thus the first hypothesis is also demonstrably false: it is simply not true that everyone is equal before the law in America.

We can propose two new hypotheses to replace the false ones.

1. When the system enables fraud, collusion, misrepresentation of risk, moral hazard (the separation of risk and gain) and embezzlement, then it also rewards them. When breaking the rules in a systematic fashion garners huge rewards in wealth and power while playing by the rules dooms one to lower returns on the same investment of labor and capital, then the system itself is thoroughly, totally, completely, hopelessly corrupt.

Since America has enabled financial fraud, embezzlement etc. on a systemic basis, America itself is thoroughly, totally, completely, hopelessly corrupt. There is no other logical conclusion.

2. When the rule of law is routinely bypassed, flouted, negated or simply ignored without triggering uniformly applied consequences, then the system is thoroughly, totally, completely, hopelessly corrupt. Since America's financial and political Elites have routinely bypassed, flouted, negated or simply ignored the laws governing mortgages, finance, insider trading, etc., actions that would lead to an average citzen's arrest, indictment and routine conviction, then we must conclude that America itself is thoroughly, totally, completely, hopelessly corrupt. There is no other logical conclusion.

There are thus two distinct problems. The system, though nominally legal, is corrupt. The financial and political Elites (the Power Elites, or the Plutocracy) as a matter of course are not bound by the same laws that control the non-Elite citizenry.

Is it any wonder than the average citizen has surrendered their autonomy, independence and will to resist in such a pervasively corrupt society and economy? No wonder the average American is busy extending and pretending, remaining passive, quiet and complicit in the corruption. Why put my slice of the swag at risk when everyone else is getting away with perfectly legal looting, illegal but "enabled" predation and unparalleled financial parasitism enforced by the Central State?

But hey, there's going to be quite a battle of gladiators in the Coliseum tomorrow, and free bread will be distributed before the entertainment extravaganza.

Comments

[lolmao500]

The corruption of the youth :

15 years old murders 9 years old and says ``it felt fucking amazing``...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097307/Alyssa-Bustamante-senten...

She was probably for the gold standard...

/sarc

[resurger]

History in 5 minutes of CBanks

#1 As a result of the Seven Years War with France, King George III of England was deeply in debt to the central bankers of England.

#2 In an attempt to raise revenue, King George tried to heavily tax the colonies in America.

#3 In 1763, Benjamin Franklin was asked by the Bank of England why the colonies were so prosperous, and this was his response….

      “That is simple. In the colonies we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Script. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers.

      In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one.”

#4 The Currency Act of 1764 ordered the American Colonists to stop printing their own money.  Colonial script (the money the colonists were using at the time) was to be exchanged at a two-to-one ratio for “notes” from the Bank of England.

#5 Later, in his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin explained the impact that this currency change had on the colonies….

      “In one year, the conditions were so reversed that the era of prosperity ended, and a depression set in, to such an extent that the streets of the Colonies were filled with unemployed.”

#6 In fact, Benjamin Franklin stated unequivocally in his autobiography that the power to issue currency was the primary reason for the Revolutionary War….

      “The colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction. The inability of the colonists to get power to issue their own money permanently out of the hands of George III and the international bankers was the prime reason for the Revolutionary War.”

#7 Gouverneur Morris, one of the authors of the U.S. Constitution, solemnly warned us in 1787 that we must not allow the bankers to enslave us….

      “The rich will strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest. They always did. They always will… They will have the same effect here as elsewhere, if we do not, by (the power of) government, keep them in their proper spheres.”

#8 Unfortunately, those warning us about the dangers of a central bank did not prevail.  After an aborted attempt to establish a central bank in the 1780s, the First Bank of the United States was established in 1791.  Alexander Hamilton (who had close ties to the Rothschild banking family) cut a deal under which he would support the move of the nation’s capital to Washington D.C. in exchange for southern support for the establishment of a central bank.

#9 George Washington signed the bill creating the First Bank of the United States on April 25, 1791.  It was given a 20 year charter.

#10 In the first five years of the First Bank of the United States, the U.S. government borrowed 8.2 million dollars and prices rose by 72 percent.

#11 The opponents of central banking were not pleased.  In 1798, Thomas Jefferson said the following….

      “I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution – taking from the federal government their power of borrowing.”

#12 In 1811, the charter of the First Bank of the United States was not renewed.

#13 One year later, the War of 1812 erupted.  The British and the Americans were at war once again.

#14 In 1814, the British captured and burned Washington D.C., but the Americans subsequently experienced key victories at New York and at New Orleans.

#15 The Treaty of Ghent, officially ending the war, was ratified by the U.S. Senate on February 16th, 1815 and was ratified by the British on February 18th, 1815.

#16 In 1816, another central bank was created.  The Second Bank of the United States was established and was given a 20 year charter.

#17 Andrew Jackson, who became president in 1828, was determined to end the power of the central bankers over the United States.

#18 In fact, in 1832, Andrew Jackson’s re-election slogan was “JACKSON and NO BANK!”

#19 On July 10th, 1832 President Jackson said the following about the danger of a central bank….

      “It is not our own citizens only who are to receive the bounty of our government. More than eight millions of the stock of this bank are held by foreigners… is there no danger to our liberty and independence in a bank that in its nature has so little to bind it to our country? … Controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence… would be more formidable and dangerous than a military power of the enemy.”

#20 In 1835, President Jackson completely paid off the U.S. national debt.  He is the only U.S. president that has ever been able to accomplish this.

#21 President Jackson vetoed the attempt to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States in 1836.

#22 Richard Lawrence attempted to shoot Andrew Jackson, but he survived.  It is alleged that Lawrence said that “wealthy people in Europe” had put him up to it.

#23 The Civil War was another opportunity for the central bankers of Europe to get their hooks into America.  In fact, it is claimed that Abraham Lincoln actually contacted Rothschild banking interests in Europe in an attempt to finance the war effort.  Reportedly, the Rothschilds were demanding very high interest rates and Lincoln balked at paying them.

#24 Instead, Lincoln pushed through the Legal Tender Act of 1862. Under that act, the U.S. government issued $449,338,902 of debt-free money.

#25 This debt-free money was known as “Greenbacks” because of the green ink that was used.

#26 The central bankers of Europe were not pleased.  The following quote appeared in the London Times in 1865….

      “If this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become endurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The brains, and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe.”

#27 Abraham Lincoln was shot dead by John Wilkes Booth on April 14th, 1865.

#28 After the Civil War, all money in the United States was created by bankers buying U.S. government bonds in exchange for bank notes.

#29 James A. Garfield became president in 1881, and he was a staunch opponent of the banking powers.  In 1881 he said the following….

      “Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master of all industry and commerce…and when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate.”

#30 President Garfield was shot about two weeks later by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2nd, 1881.  He died from medical complications on September 19th, 1881.

#31 In 1906, the U.S. stock market was setting all kinds of records.  However, in March 1907 the U.S. stock market absolutely crashed.  It is alleged that elite New York bankers were responsible.

#32 In addition, in 1907 J.P. Morgan circulated rumors that a major New York bank had gone bankrupt.  This caused a massive run on the banks.  In turn, the banks started recalling all of their loans.  The panic of 1907 resulted in a congressional investigation that ended up concluding that a central bank was “necessary” so that these kinds of panics would never happen again.

#33 It took a few years, but the international bankers finally got their central bank in 1913.

#34 Congress voted on the Federal Reserve Act on December 22nd, 1913 between the hours of 1:30 AM and 4:30 AM.

#35 A significant portion of Congress was either sleeping at the time or was already at home with their families celebrating the holidays.

#36 The president that signed the law that created the Federal Reserve, Woodrow Wilson, later sounded like he very much regretted the decision when he wrote the following….

      “A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men … [W]e have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated, governments in the civilized world–no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men.”

#37 Between 1921 and 1929 the Federal Reserve increased the U.S. money supply by 62 percent.  This was the time known as “The Roaring 20s”.

#38 In addition, highly leveraged “margin loans” became very common during this time period.

#39 In October 1929, the New York bankers started calling in these margin loans on a massive scale.  This created the initial crash that launched the Great Depression.

#40 Rather than expand the money supply in response to this crisis, the Federal Reserve really tightened it up. #41 In fact, it was reported the the U.S. money supply contracted by eight billion dollars between 1929 and 1933.  That was an extraordinary amount of money in those days.  Over one-third of all U.S. banks went bankrupt.  The New York bankers were able to buy up other banks and all kinds of other assets for pennies on the dollar.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Funny how the history books make it seem like taxes on Tea caused the Revolutionary War, when it was really all about who was going to control the money supply of the Colonies.

Filthy bankers and their lust for money that they didn't earn-- why does that always seem to be the source of virtually every conflict in the world, when you dig deep enough?

[trav7777]

fractals?  WTF...this is not fractal.  Human systems have emergent complexity; the system acquires goals, attributes, desires independent of and in many cases contrary to those held by all of the individuals.

Look at the old example of stalinist standing ovations.  No one in the room believed in it, yet they all clapped.  The system is a powerful enforcer of conformity.

Fish just school...the school has its own mind.

[flacorps]

Great post. It should be a book. But you might include JFK attempting to erode the Fed's power with his executive order 11110 authorizing silver certificates. Followed within 6 months by Dallas.

[Death and Gravity]

That is even sillier than trying to tie Lincoln's asassination to the bankers.

[Dr. Engali]

Good post. It makes me wonder though if we will ever be free from bankers. It seems they are too embedded in our society.

[Widowmaker]

Then end them.

It's that simple.

Their "fraud-money" is 100% bullshit, what more reason do you need?

You've been conditioned worse than any mut at the pound to crave their bullshit.   Don't use it.  Commerce doesn't need bullshit to operate.

Don't fall for the government lie that money is required for an economy. It isn't, nor will it ever be.

As literally all life on the planet with the exception of man can affirm; money = 100% bullshit, nothing but fucking lies built on lies, built on more lies.

Opps, now I'm a "terrorist."  Come fucking get me.

[Dr. Engali]

I have not been conditioned to do anything.

[Death and Gravity]

"Ah, but thats how they want you to believe..." :)

[Death and Gravity]

Money ranges from unecessary through convenient to almost essential for an economy, but it depends on what you expect of the economy. Long discussion I cba to take now.

Anyway: You CAN end the bankers influence without resorting to all or nothing thinking:

Barter, use PMs or any alternative currency. Hell, even LETS if you fancy that. Or Nuka-Cola bottle caps.

[Sudden Debt]

I really enjoyed reading this! THX!

[earleflorida]

thankyou resuger 

i'd like to add just one more tidbit reinforcing your excellent read [ please take no offence, for i know space is limited].

jackson/ gold, and the, trail of tears

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Gold_Rush

Ps. Andrew Jackson & Abraham Lincoln loved our country unconditionally and couldn't be bought off - whereas W.Wilson was a charatan and shill for the oligarchy

Ps2. Garfield was set up to meet someone and at the time their were no gov't police, or any private personal protections afforded  [presidents just went about as ordinary citizens]. His personal physician was responsible for his death, knowing quite well the newly introduced antiseptics would have stopped the infection that eventually took Garfield's life. It has been documented as a deliberate botched/ hack job - a personal physician's direct contribution of malpractice to the nth degree.

thanks again  

[Chump]

Lincoln was a piece of shit.

ETA: for the butthurt Lincoln-lovers, you can thank him for the this precedent:

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/historicdocuments/a/lincolnhabeas.htm

In response to the arrest of Maryland secessionist John Merryman by Union troops, then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Roger B. Taney defied Lincoln's order and issued a writ of habeas corpus demanding that the U.S. Military bring Merryman before the Supreme Court. When Lincoln and the military refused to honor the writ, Chief Justice Taney in Ex-parte MERRYMAN declared Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus unconstitutional. Lincoln and the military ignored Taney's ruling.

But a-herpity derpity derp he freeded da slavies and such.  Yay Lincoln!  Yet another action with no Constitutional basis.  And nevermind the fact that he was as racist as they come, preferred to "save the Union" without freeing the slaves if at all possible, and loved the idea of using blacks in the Union Army...as meat shields for the whites.

[blunderdog]

It's all fine to hate Lincoln, but today's USA wouldn't exist without him.  There's a bit of a contradiction in hating Lincoln if you don't hate the USA, too.

[Chump]

Today's USA wouldn't exist without the Federal Reserve, either.  Should I go give Bernanke a hug?

[blunderdog]

I don't care who or what you hate.  It's your problem, not mine.  :)

[Chump]

You care enough to respond, twice...  But anyway, one thing I do hate is your problem, and that's logical failure.  Your defense of Lincoln has no logical support; you're just extrapolating based on what your personal vision of history might have been if 'X' had or had not happened.  I would be just as correct to say that after secession the North and South would have come to terms at some time in the future, slavery would still have been properly and Constitutionally eradicated, and we would have been stronger for it.

Instead, we're left with a legacy of centralized executive power exercised on a whim by an arrogant fuckwit President who defied both the Constitution and its powers as vested in the Judicial Branch.  But I should let that slide, since our *cough cough* totally awesome nation - which obviously has no problems with centralized executive power and arrogant fuckwit politicians who ignore the Constitution - just wouldn't be what it currently is if it weren't for Lincoln.  That is the whole point...

But anyway, glad to know you fully support the Federal Reserve, IRS, Treasury, the Patriot Act and the NDAA.  After all, this country just wouldn't be what it currently is without all those things, right?

[blunderdog]

Very little of your little flight of fancy is actually suggested by what I said.  It's true that we have no contrafactual of "what if the South had been permitted to secede" to compare to current history, but we DO have comparable periods of history during which competing countries explored new territory.

There are no existing examples of competing countries during the 18th/19th centuries becoming strong central states. 

Could it have happened?  Sure, I guess, although I'd never take that kind of speculation seriously without some pretty compelling support.

As for me: I don't have strong feelings about Lincoln.  I didn't even defend him.  The point I raised, which I stand by, is that if you hate Lincoln, it's impossible NOT to hate "The United States of America" without some extremely twisted rationalization going on.  The USA exists as it does as a direct result of the Civil War--things would be very different without it.

Personally, I believe if the Civil War hadn't been fought, we'd have at least two (and likely several) nations existing on this same piece of territory, and we'd have developed comparably to Europe--a state of perpetual warfare between small competing states that prevented construction of the level of infrastructure that made early 20th century America the global superpower.

Since you brought it up.

But no, none of your bullshit applies.  I don't care about the Fed or the IRS or Patriot Act.  Government power is what it is, and I'm not personally interested in participating.  I'm also not *angry* about it, which is a lot better for me as a person.

Lighten up, Francis.

[Chump]

You shouldn't have explained, because your central point is simply vapid.  You repeat your flawed logic (Lincoln contributed to the current state of America, therefore if you hate Lincoln you hate America) as if repetition lends credence.  You pretend that you'd never take historical speculation seriously when mine was posited in response to your juvenile comment of "...today's USA would not exist without him."  In short, you have no idea, and that may actually be a good thing.  Regardless, it is not a reasonable defense of someone who so egregiously shredded the Constitution, someone who set us on the path of centralized executive power wielded with no thought at all to the consequences and in direct contradiction to the power check of the Supreme Court.  But of course this doesn't bother you in the slightest:

I don't care about the Fed or the IRS or Patriot Act.  Government power is what it is, and I'm not personally interested in participating.

Then go back to sleep and pretend you're not participating, simply because you say so.  The fact remains that Lincoln left us with a model for abuse of executive power and outright disregard for the Constitution, your garbage logic notwithstanding.  If you want people to lighten up in Fight Club I'm sure there's a nice Yahoo! forum where you'd be more comfortable.  You can even pretend that saying you're not participating is a meaningful statement.

[blunderdog]

Yep, OK, maybe I'm missing your point.  It is just that it's Lincoln's fault the NDAA was passed recently?

[StychoKiller]

In the game of Jenga, which removed piece first leads to the downfall of the tower?  Check yer premises.

[Death and Gravity]

"It's all fine to hate Lincoln, but today's USA wouldn't exist without him. "

Considering what a blight on the world the US has been in some respects, and seems to be today, you consider this a good thing?

[blunderdog]

Naw, I've gotten out of the value-judgment business. 

I'm only interested in the relationships between things--I needn't dwell on whether things are good (yay!) or bad (ohNoez!).  I've been wrong about too many things to continue believing my personal preferences have anything to do with it all.

[Death and Gravity]

Oodles of butthurt judging from how your post was rated down.

Apparently there are some ZHeeple who think that because Lincoln issued greenbacks and feuded with the banksters, he was an A-OK guy. No, fellas, then enemy of your enemy is not automatically your friend, or even someone you want to be around.

[resurger]

Hi Earle,

No thank you & others for reading, i always remind my self about how fucked up those high priests of finance have become by reading this piece that i read long time ago (i dont know who summarized it)

and yes you are right regarding your notes.

[Death and Gravity]

"Abraham Lincoln loved our country unconditionally"

Enough that the war he engaged in turned his beloved nation into an abbatoir of a scale never before seen, and not rivalled in deaths-to-population until WW2.

[greyghost]

resurger great post.......long live "UNITED STATES NOTES". death to "federal reserve notes". it only costs one nickel [5 cents] to print a one dollars bill. it only costs one nickel [5 cents] to print one five dollars bill. it only costs one chubby nickel [5 cents] to print one ten dollar bill. it only costs one Jefferson nickel to print one Jackson twenty dollars bill......wow that leaves $19.95 profit. how low could the secretary of the treasury get the cost of monies should all soc. security payments be made in x's and o's computor transactions directly into pensioners bank accts??????  wow, does that cure the soc. security problem? people really need to wrap their minds around this concept instead of saying no right off the bat.....why because some college professor says you can't do that? yet the same moron professor will tell you not to worry about the debt of the u.s......"because we only owe it to ourselves." oh hell no professor we don't owe it to china or the saudis or the banks or the private citizens who bought u.s. treasuries. i have been wraping my mind around this "united states notes" concept for years now and firmly believe that the only way out of this mess and to make everyone whole is for the united states to print it's own monies and pay it's  bills and debts. i believe it is the only way to make everyone whole. please let this float around in your minds for several weeks...months and years and please stop with the nonsense about how one cannot flood the market place all at once....well do you think???? there are many questions to consider...how long would it take to pay off the u.s. debt without destroying the monetary system of the u.s. and other countries etc. etc. etc. how does the u.s. correct a century of abuse without lighting the world on fire???? inquiring minds want to know!

[Jumbotron]

To resurger and History in 5 minutes of CBanks

+1000 Benjamins

[lostintheflood]

you sound just like my friend, reinhardt, of enterprise corruption dot com.

[collon88]

Right on!  It's about privately owned central banking and a debt based monetary system, not social fractal nonsense.  I might add that slag, impurities and scum rise to the top.  If Capitalism incentivizes greed, who can resist the deceitfulness of riches?  Not the greedest.   

[battlestargalactica]

SARC< But THIS TIME its really gonna be different... We got change you can believe in, bitchez!?!

SARC< THIS TIME unemployment, poverty, homelessness, and food 'insecurity' will not happen... Got green shoots, bitchez?!?

SARC< THIS TIME the market will not crash... Got nanosecond robo traders, bitchez!?!

SARC< THIS TIME precious metals will not be a good place to protect wealth... Got a strongbox and shovel, bitchez?!?

SARC< THIS TIME a rising tide lifts all boats... Got a submarine, bitchez?!?

[Bansters-in-my-...]

@ resurger...

Looks like 3 bankers have read your post.

Thanks for the great post.

Ps....

Nice knowing you.

What color flowers do you want at your funeral...?

[tamboo]

sounds suspiciously like this book:

The Syngogue of Satan by Andrew Carrington Hitchcock

[Death and Gravity]

Very nice summary, however too colourful in its (borrowed from "the money masters?") claim that a bankster conspiracy killed Lincoln.

Also leaves out the issue of bi-metallism completely, and makes no mention of the free banking period (perhaps because that doesn't support the tale of all-powerfl banksters?).

[vast-dom]

pray tell us something else about this porno tattoo culture we live in? 

"Then, as now, violence, suffering, and the cheapness of life were the rule."

only difference now is that you can come home after night out at coliseum and download the fight onto your iPad and maybe even catch a glimpse of yourself at the event...

[Red Heeler]

Sounds more like a central banker to me.

"The corruption of the youth" Or, The Side Effects of Anti-Depressants.

[Mr Lennon Hendrix]

Interesting article.  I have written about this for sometime.  It is one of my favorite avenues.  I've never thought about the fractal part.

It also breaks down to idol worship.  We worship the CEOs of corporations.  We want to golf like they do, spend like they do.  They are fat and slovenly, so we are.  Of course they eat $50 hamburgers, but a hamburger is a hamburger, right?

[Gully Foyle]

Mr Lennon Hendrix

Ponder these two articles, follow the links and read them both.

I was pretty disgusted by the passivity and on the other by the stereotyping.

Also these "kids" assume governemnt is an entirely seperate entity that isn't supplied ny their own taxes.

http://exiledonline.com/thirty-more-years-of-hell/

Thirty More Years of Hell

Generational analysis is bullshit. Or so I’m told. Fit for netroots liberals and horoscope clippers, maybe. And to be fair, it’s mostly thinktank types who’ve been profiting off that whole Millennials Rising genre. One of the authors of that book is a former writing partner of Pete G. Peterson’s, the octogenarian billionaire who has spent the last couple of decades trying to kick over the Social Security ladder before us young’ns can scamper up and collect. Most of it reads like a debriefing after a recon mission—you can feel them sizing us up, drawing up blueprints for the generational counterrevolution that we’re living through right now.

So if you want to screech about the trappings of generational politics and the careless demonization of everyone born in a twenty-year stretch in one particular country, fine. I hear you. But this piece isn’t for you. You’re okay.

This is for my fellow Millennial. The one who gets his or her rocks off to visions of a glorious Boomer-hegemonic extinction, like those old claymation movies of dinosaurs getting nuked by meteor-fire. This is for those of you who, like me, need a vision of that mighty Boomer Brontosaurus keelin’ over for good—and the furry little dino-eating Repenomamuses scurrying across all the corpses to claim the planet once and for all.

Take a hit of that glorious vision, friends. It’s okay to get a little excited. Just as long as we keep in mind that the Brontosaurus, we now know, was nothing more than a big paleontologist fuck up–the misassembled and amalgamated remains of other great lizards. Yet it remains a useful word for ancient, gigantic beasts with acorn-sized brains and a penchant for mindlessly crushing everything in its wake.

http://exiledonline.com/from-the-archives-boomer-reactionaries-in-subpri...

From the Archives: Boomer Reactionaries in Subprime Suburb of Victorville, Calif., Rage Against Giving Healthcare To Their Kids And GrandKids…

It was a hot day, still 98 degrees at 6 PM, as I zoomed through gridlock on my freshly fixed 1979 Kawasaki KZ-400, squeezing between the monster trucks and lifted SUVs clogging one of Victorville’s main drags, pouring sweat into my helmet and leather jacket on my way to an anti-Obamacare “town hall” meeting at the local community college.

I thought I knew what to expect when I got there. Like everyone else in this country, I had been watching the packs of deranged tea bagger types and their astroturfing overlords dominate the healthcare reform debate like a pack of retarded howler monkeys in heat. But TV hadn’t quite prepared me for the reality of it. You can’t really appreciate how fucked this country really is until you see, as I did, hundreds of blue collar Americans sync up their primitive brains in a paranoid racist-hick seance, channeling White Power ideals through Reagan’s damned soul.

This Obama-bashing meeting was brought to the people of the High Desert courtesy of the Representative from California’s 41st District, Mr. Jerry Lewis. No, not the “Great Balls of Fire” guy. This one was a different type of performer: a great wads of cronyism political scam artist. In the two decades Lewis has served as this district’s rep, he’s made quite a name for himself as one of the most corrupt members of Congress, using his position as a ranking Republican member of the House Appropriations Committee (one of the most powerful committees out there) to “steer hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks to family and friends in direct exchange for contributions to his campaign committee and political action committee.” But as I was about to find out, Lewis’ constituency was so crazed they made him look less like an uber-successful used car salesmen and more like Mr. Mackey.

[trav7777]

naturally, anything anti-obama is rayciss

[blunderdog]

Apes read philosophy, Otto, they just don't understand it.

[vast-dom]

don't be sore re: $50 burgers! a rich man is just a poor man with money, as evidenced by general predilections in cuisine.

[lotsoffun]

this is lots of fun.  please check it out   

http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/05/20/us-usa-hamburger-idUSN2047220420080520

[Mercury]

 If we aggregate healthy, thrifty, honest, caring and responsible families into a community, how can that community not share these same characteristics?
And if we aggregate these communities into a nation, how can that nation not exhibit these same characteristics?  If this is so, then how do we explain the complete corruption of America's financial and political Elites?

By first realizing that your premise is wrong.

[Dr. Engali]

Because every family, no matter how stable and loving, has that crazy uncle. Every family says " oh don't mind him he won't harm anybody". Until he does. Apply that to the community then to the nation and you will find that we are a nation being ran by crazy uncles, and aunts. 

[Mercury]

Crazy uncles aren't  a new development.  The new development is that contemporary American culture is now fragmented to the point where it is absurd to assume that the vast majority of Americans have these kinds of bourgeois virtues and values in common.

[Silver Dreamer]

I was under the impression we were the crazy uncles.  Within my family at least, I'm definitely the crazy uncle.  I'm the one that worked my ass off to become successful, and I'm the one everyone hates because of my efforts.  My siblings feel entitled regardless of their efforts however, and according to them I do not deserve my success.  They do not care about what is right or moral anymore.  All they care about is what they can get out of others.  I wonder where they learned that from? hmmm

[Pool Shark]

Dishonest citizens elect dishonest leaders.

'nuff said...

[Gully Foyle]

Mercury

I don't vote. Two reasons. First of all it's meaningless; this country was bought and sold a long time ago. The shit they shovel around every 4 years *pfff* doesn't mean a fucking thing. Secondly, I believe if you vote, you have no right to complain. People like to twist that around – they say, 'If you don't vote, you have no right to complain', but where's the logic in that? If you vote and you elect dishonest, incompetent people into office who screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You caused the problem; you voted them in; you have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote, who in fact did not even leave the house on election day, am in no way responsible for what these people have done and have every right to complain about the mess you created that I had nothing to do with.”

“The next time they give you all that civic bullshit about voting, keep in mind that Hitler was elected in a full, free democratic election”"Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. Fuck Hope.'"

"I have solved this political dilemma in a very direct way: I don't vote. On Election Day, I stay home. I firmly believe that if you vote, you have no right to complain. Now, some people like to twist that around. They say, 'If you don't vote, you have no right to complain,' but where's the logic in that? If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent politicians, and they get into office and screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You voted them in. You caused the problem. You have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote -- who did not even leave the house on Election Day -- am in no way responsible for that these politicians have done and have every right to complain about the mess that you created."

George Carlin

[Mercury]

Well, I encourage you to get out of the house and vote for Obama in November.

The faster inevitable collapse/reset comes the better and he's just the man to make that happen.

Sort of like putting out a well fire with dynamite.  Dangerous, but effective under the right circumstances.

[LFMayor]

I think you're spot on.   I would argue that it doesn't matter which of the two candidates you're allowed to vote for wins, but I'm all for this idea of stoking the fires until the bitch melts down.

[caerus]

A statesman is an easy man,
He tells his lies by rote;
A journalist makes up his lies
And takes you by the throat;
So stay at home’ and drink your beer
And let the neighbours’ vote,
Said the man in the golden breastplate
Under the old stone Cross.

- W.B. Yeats

[Death and Gravity]

"keep in mind that Hitler was elected in a full, free democratic election”"

No, he was not. He was *appointed* Chancellor by a weakened Hindenburg. The Nazi Party , together with their political allies at the time, the Communists, did however get a sizeable portion of the popular vote, so if he hadn't gotten the fancy hat, they'd have grabbed power some other way before too long.

[StychoKiller]

He WAS Elected to the German Parliament, get yer facts ENTIRELY right.

[lolmao500]

People accept it because they have been brainwashed that this whole thing is ``capitalism`` which it's totally not. It's a fascist economy.

[Roland99]

The Power of Nightmares

[resurger]

deleted

[simone]

.

[uno]

Barry Ritholtz  made it official, he is now Hank Paulson's fluffer.  Talk about selling out for TPTB.

My Newfound Respect for Hank Paulson

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/02/my-newfound-respect-for-hank-paulson/

[Stax Edwards]

You guys are being relentless with your attacks on BR

[Greenhead]

Some are more "equal" than others.  Consumption tax will make a huge positive impact, exempt basic foods and medicine and quit trying to define income. 

[Sandmann]

People are extraordinarily bad at detecting Sociopaths and let them gain access to power and then play their games to stay in control. It is really a weakness of people to know how to recognise Sociopaths and Narcissists and how to deal with them. They are so busy managing upwards that there is no protection from above for those who encounter these deviants. They ascend the structures, not because they are the best or the brightest but because they are the most socially ruthless and self-serving.

The whole culture reinforcies this cultural identity in TV and media as if it is a Darwinian attribute rather than a social malformation, but the Media, Hollywood and TV are repositories of this behaviour and propaganda units for the asocial values that allow maladjusted individuals to pervert and subvert. It is a brutal fact of past decades that TRUST has been trashed completely and that basic communities of trust that existed even in poor ghetto areas in pre-war eras have been replaced by atomised self-serving approaches.

In one era it was men with real physical assets who were regarded as rich, but today it is men with bigger credit lines. It is not what you have built but what you have bought. There is no act of creation only an act of acquisition

[Acet]

Have you noticed how most of the entertainment out there is "chewing gum for the brain" - you can chew on it for hours but get no nourishment from it?

How education is so pre-chewed nowadays, how hard subjects like philosophy are barelly touched, how so much of it is rote learning? How kids are trained to trust, obbey & depend on authority and punished if they are skeptics, question authority or defend themselves? How everybody is taught to be tool users rather than tool makers?

Notice how the few that overcome this indoctrination are ostracized and branded as weirdos, alarmists, even terrorists.

Our societies would not be such easy hunting grounds for the sociopats amongst us if people weren't trained from childhood to be unthinking, unchallenging, willful followers of authority.

[lotsoffun]

my sarcasm is on.  how does one make a living studying philosphy?  how do i fill the tank?

this is kind of fun.  at other times the royalty was raised to play chess, learn a martial art, speak other languages.  there were concepts of 'ruling'. george bush played space invaders, rode bull machines and could barely speak english.  obama - go ahead - tell me.

ethics, philosophy, aesthetics.  mcdonalds doesn't want any of that.  their stock goes up everyday, as it should.  they won.

[Death and Gravity]

Of course. The conditioning that makes good "sheeple" for the state apparatus meat grinder, makes also in general good victims for con men and abusive individals. Case in point: The early sucess of the "Nigeria Mails", with people getting scammed out of their savings by email.

[lotsoffun]

in the 'united states of america' the sociopaths have won.  big time. we accept it now as normal behaviour and cower down.

[NewAmericaNow]

Economic Collapse -- Why It Won't Be Stopped

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D71aiYq7jeM&lc

[Archon7]

Well, some people believe that "virtue is its own reward", so to speak.  They know others are corrupt, the system is corrupt, and everything's broke, but to participate in the corruption so as to assure that "you get yours" simply isn't a good enough reason.  "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet lose his own soul?"

[Diet Coke and F...]

"explain the complete corruption of America"

I submit one word: "Scarcity"

[Seasmoke]

i submit....I better do it now and quickly or i will be left in the dust

[InconvenientCou...]

Most social problems could be solved with more human empathy. The Earth is reaching an unprecedented turning point in it's population trajectory.

Think global act local is an example of fractal sociology. A pretty elegant idea for a being so limited by it's animal spirits. Any chance the mean intelligence of Earth will rise during the coming biological recession? LOL!

Keep crowding to the front of the line for your ticket to the next life. You know you deserve it.

[Oh regional Indian]

Indeed Inconvenient. I wrote about the death of empathy some time ago. So much rage in the machine, now transferred to us.

ori

/the-death-of-empathy/

[LFMayor]

I'll stick with autoloading, magazine fed weapons.  Thanks though.

[adr]

It is just the simple premise that the further concentration of power to an ever smaller governing body corrupts absolutely and in th end only benefits the governors at the expense of the governed. You can have small pockets of good honest people, even full communities, but they no longer hold any power because they can not influence the central power in any way. I live in a good middle class city with affordable housing, low utility rates, very good schools, and a low crime rate. Over the past decade the central government of the state and the country have decimated my town because it is a threat. We didn't allow Section 8 housing so the state decided to pull all state funding for projects and the school system unless our town turned a block of apartment complexes into section 8. The EPA forced my town to raise water rates because our municpal owned water works charged too little. The EPA was going to cancel our permits for pumping water from the aquifer. So water rates have tripled over the past 5 years. The EPA set a goal of 5% of the average income as the target water rate. Even with the rate increases our charge is still only 1% so we still have 500% inflation left to go. Our town rec center allows people from other communities to join at a higher rate but has discounts for family memberships. Our town is being sued because we will not give a gay couple a discounted rate, you must be married to recieve a discount. They were married in Mass but Ohio does not recognize the marriage. We now have Gay/Lesbian picketers outside the entrance intimidating families with young children.

[flacorps]

Your first couple of lines describe "The Iron Law of Oligarchy" which states that all political systems devolve into oligarchy.

[Billy Bob]

Mr ADR

Something about your comment just does not ring true. Your town as a threat to what?  What kind of threat?  Threat to who?

Forcing the city to provide section 8 housing?  Why is that a problem?

Water rates too low? Decided 5% of income was to be the rate for water?  Whaat?

Offering discounts for family member ships, but discriminating among familiies that qualified and then being angry that families discriminated against would object?

My guess is that it is not your town, rather it is the planet you are on.

Bill

[flacorps]

What would you say about Kiryas Joel?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiryas_Joel,_New_York

It seems some people (Amish, etc.) are given leeway to live as they choose, while others are not.

How is that right?

No biggie though, Agenda 21 is coming to force everyone into a procrustean bed.

[bob_dabolina]

You have to maintain a certain level of homogeneity in a society otherwise it begins to break down. A society needs to have an accepted identity to thrive and without it you end up with corruption, disorder, and moral turpitude at every level.

[Sandmann]

Between 1921 and 1929 the Federal Reserve increased the U.S. money supply by 62 percent

http://mises.org/rothbard/agd/chapter4.asp

Yet the US also held 30% global gold stocks after France and Britain had shipped gold to pay for the War and with them both off the Gold Standard it might have given the US banking system access to more liquidity than otherwise. The article link suggests the Federal Reserve reduced reserve requirements on some banks which increased their lending capacity.

[Alcoholic Nativ...]

This country is one big fucken fraud, noble lies, after noble lies, after noble lies, cept noble lies are supposed to maintain social harmony not social insanity. 

Constant propaganda by crooks and war criminals trying to convince the people they are savy free market capitalist and war heroes.  That's all this country is now. 

[flacorps]

The name for what we have now should be "plutocronyistikakistocracy" ... and I believe it is shorter than "antidisestablishmentarianism" ... but I admit I haven't counted. "Oligarchy" is the traditionally applied term, and though it's shorter, it fails to carry within it the who, the how and the inevitable result.

[Death and Gravity]

Why not just "badocracy"? It gets the point across without over-fancy wording.

[Seasmoke]

perhaps thats why Mitt Romney just got his ass kicked 3 times yesterday (by Santorum of all people !).....but of course he (the rich) will never understand why

[LFMayor]

don't let the sea smoke cloud your eyes man.  It's all a play.  The script already has the winner printed in it.

[Use of Weapons]

Life is fractal.

http://forum.thefreedictionary.com/postst6989_Natural-fractals-in-real-l...

[semperfi]

"When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice, you may know that your society is doomed."      -- Ayn Rand

"We have become a nation of thieves who use the govt to take other people's property"   -- Walter Williams

"At its birth, America embodied the highest hopes of mankind, but is now a tragic caricature of those great ideals. As it enters the 21st century, America finds itself bankrupt morally as well as financially. Its ideals stood the test of time, but America did not."   -- Darryl Robert Schoon

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it, and a moral code that glorifies it."   -- Frederic Bastiat (political economist, 1850)

WHICH ENDS UP IN.....

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."  -- Thomas Jefferson

[Stax Edwards]

+1

[juangrande]

Semper Fi, our nation was born and strengthened thru plunder and slavery. We were never "moral or righteous". Just more propaganda. "Highest hopes of mankind". I guess black folk, mexicans,Irish,Chinese, Italians welsh and especially native Indians are not considered mankind. Learn to distinguish his-story from truth before opining about the good ole days.

[ChacoFunFact]

"When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer "Present" or "Not guilty." "
Theodore Roosevelt

[Threeggg]

So,

The rule of supply and demand does not apply to oil prices ?

Either does the rule that volume preceeds price in the markets ?

and Santorium won 3 States ?

WTF is going on here ?