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"The Wasteland" - How Central Planning Broke All Markets... And What We Can Do To Fix Them
In his latest ruminations in ruination, Diapason's Sean Corrigan does nothing short of a brilliant post-modernist collage of all the fragments of our broken economic reality and capital markets which, just like the defining 20th century poem by TS Eliot (further exemplified by the Flesch-Kincaid reading complexity of Max+1 inherent in both works), summarizes the terminal situation that we currently find ourselves in. And while in The Waste Land, Eliot focused more on the existential breakdown of society in the "entre deux guerres" period, Corrigan does the same for the trader/financial archetype of the 21st century. But all is not lost. Just like the Waste Land ended on a glimmer of an optimistic note by invoking the Three Principal Virtues of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (be self-controlled, be charitable and be compassionate) wherein according to the Nobel winning author the germs of social salvation lay in understanding of our own intractable and self-destructive complexities, so too does Corrigan provide an outcome to our mangled reality based on a trio of our own actions which may one day save us from the economic, financial and capital destruction we (through the creeping dictatorial pervasiveness of central planning, but not only) have brought upon ourselves. "What lies broken, we can surely fix, but only if we break in turn the habits of mind and the tyranny of the man-made institutions which we first allowed to break the things we value - our freedom of association, our independence of action, and our individual chance of prosperity."
Must read from Sean Corrigan
The Wasteland
So here we stand, exactly eighty years on from the collapse of CreditAnstalt, the run on the Danat bank, and the disastrous abrogation of Britain of sterling's gold status which turned and earlier stock market setback into an enervating slough of Depression.
Here, we stand, almost forty years to the day from Nixon's abandonment of the dollar's pivotal membership of the bastardized gold-exchange standard and the horrifying decade of rampant inflation which followed.
And here we stand, a week shy of four years after the Fed's first, tentative response to the looming CDO/wholesale funding disaster which would threaten to seep away not just those hooked up to the eyeballs in America's grotesque sub-prime bubble itself, but feckless borrowers and risk-insensitive lenders - both public and private -right around the globe.
So let us take stock of what we have wrought in the meanwhile by following mainstream economic exhortations to emulate what we thing the hallowed FDR may have enacted or the venerable Keynes may have ordained, were these two leading lights of cynical expedience and willful interventionism each alive today.
With over $2 trillion in excess reserves parked with the Fed, the ECB, and the BoE; with unsecured, interbank loans for anything other than the shorter of terms all but impossible to obtain; the the thirst for security sporadically driving rates on T-bills, general collateral - even deposits - below zero; with the benchmark LIBOR rates increasingly inoperative and their replacement OIS rates barely standardized - with the spread between the two varying widely and with the latter diverging from supposedly stable official base rates which they are supposed to reflect - it is clear that the money market is broken.
With even short-dated basis swaps between the major currencies wandering far, far from their near-zero normal levels, with countries like Brazil attracting peer group interest for imposing taxes on inflows into and bets on the appreciation of its currency; with the Swiss trying to stem a 7.8 sigma, one-in-300-trillion, two-week move in the currency by aiming to swell sight deposits by 10% of GDP and by showering hapless East European carrt-traders with precious francs; with EUR-USD risk reversals at their most extreme ever, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of underlying volatility - what can we say but that the FX market is broken.
With the DAX - for example - undergoing its own, 6.3 sigma, 7-in-a-billion chance, two-week move - one only exceeded in its compressed magnitude during the Crash of '87; with the peak five days of frantic selling seeing record volume, thanks in part to the less-than-benign influence of the high-frequency trading which hummed along the fibre-optic cabling at triple the normal rate and accounted for up to 75% of overall trades, according to the Nasdaq's biggest execution broker, it is no wonder the VIX doubled in only four days, a jump only exceeded by last May's HFT-led "flash crash." No wonder either that several European and Asian authorities saw fit to intervene, either to prop up prices or to outlaw short selling, or both. The only inference to be had - the equity market is broken.
With the ECB being forced to take drastic - and arguably illegitimate - action to cap the 3-month, 225 bps rise in the Spanish-Bund and the concomitant 270 bps rise in the Italy-Bund spread; with US Treasury bonds plunging amid the rout to record low nominal and negative implied real yields, all the way out to 10-Years; with record low mortgage rates forcing duration-hungry investors and hedgers to receive long-dated swaps at minus-40 bps; with record levels of junk issuance having been conducted at record low yields, before a frozen market saw spreads explode a 5.6 sigma, 218 bps to stand 50 bps wider in just ten days - to cite just a few instances of a widespread disruption - it is fairly evident that the bond market is also broken.
With the ratio between the two main oil benchmarks - WTI and Brent - having crashed from ts well-behaved, long-term, pre-crisis ratio of 1.07:1 +/-0.2, to hit 0.79:1; with gold trading to a 5% premium to platinum for only the second time in at least the past quarter-century; with base metals showing less and less correlation between price, curve shape, and visible inventory as funding games and warehouse manipulations distort trading patterns; with industrial commodities being driven more by CB inflationary-"Risk On" considerations than by the specifics of usage and production - perhaps we must admit that the commodity market is broken, too.
With the widespread frustration of the masses spilling out onto the streets of the Maghreb, Egypt, the Levant, the Gulf, Spain, Greece, Eastern Africa, Bangladesh, Chile, and others; with even the mighty Chinese Communist Party quailing before the popular wrath excited by the divisive symbolism of the high-speed rail crash; with 80% of surveyed US voters saying the country is "headed down the wrong track"; with widespread unease in Germany at the executive's dismissal of the citizens' understandable reluctance to bankroll the wider EU; with the emerging realization that three generations of an ever-encroaching, 'tutelary deity' welfarism have not only sapped the vitality out of the economic organism, but have bred out all vestige of responsibility and self-restraint from the teeming, unweanable mass of perennial dole-puppies it has whelped - it is therefore undeniable that politics-as-usual is broken too.
With the glaring failure to predict even the possibility - much less circumstance - of the recent Crash and with the even more foreseeable failure of its tired old, rehashed nostrums of ending the slump by means of an inequitable programme of corporate welfare, inflationary "unorthodoxy", and the unleashing of the debt-spewing monster of the state to gorge itself upon such things as individuals and private concerns no longer care to consumer, it should hardly be controversial to asset that mainstream macroeconomics - and the reputations of the many panderers to power who practice it - are equally broken.
Breaking the mold [or Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata]
Whatever our individual pre-occupations with the specifics of this collapse, we must bear in mind that, amid all the wreckage, there are countless millions of hard-pressed souls, each trying to earn an honest living by first identifying and then satisfying the needs of their fellow men in the best, most cost-competitive manner they can accomplish. In the attempt to do so, the overwhelming majority of these strivers cannot fail to provide a living to others, too - whether by employing their labor directly in their own factories and offices, or indirectly, by buying in the goods and services these latter work to supply at the workbenches and computer docks of other hirers of their effort.
In their constant struggle to peer into an uncertain future so as to estimate whether anyone will buy their output and, if so, at what price; and then to decide what they can afford to pay in turn for the necessary means to meet this potential market, they cannot in any way be assisted by the ramification of all the multiple breakages outlined above.
If they cannot trust the signals being sent to them about the cost of inputs or the acceptable charge for outputs; if they cannot assume a certain stability in the rent and availability of working capital, or rely on the calculus of securing longer-term funding; if they and everyone with whom they deal are being subject to wild swings in currency rates and commodity prices; if there is no clarity about the framework of regulation, the structure of legislation, or the outlook for taxation - but only a well-founded pessimism that none of these are likely to change for the better; if they begin to see themselves as the targets both of material expropriation and pseudo-moral condemnation - are they then likely to gove full reign to their innate spirit of enterprise, to fully express their characteristic get-up-and-go and, by so doing, give the rest of us a greater opportunity to sell our wares in the marketplace for skill and sweat?
Hardly, and therein lies the rub. For if we are to pull ourselves out of the quagmire into which we have stumbled, it will be to little purpose to take three short, backward steps before hurling ourselves deeper int the morass, not just with renewed energy, byt while carrying the growing weight of mud which clings to our clothes as the result of each previous failed attempt.
Debt cannot be the cure for over indebtedness, nor a more rapidly debased currency the antidote to its ongoing debasement. We must forgo the intellectual conceit that we can impose some higher order on the seeming chaos of the world and instead we must simply smooth the way so that its own emergent properties can seek out a better constellation of interconnections, all by itself.
We must recognize that there are no workable macroeconomic solutions which can be laid down: that everything is a matter of functioning microeconomics building things up; that the diamond takes on its lustrous geometry, atom by atom; that the masterpiece hanging in the Louvre came into being brushstroke by painstaking brushstroke.
Only get the microeconomics right and all else will follow.
Make labor once more affordable and its terms no longer and indentured servitude for the employer. Ensure that entrepreneurship is no more risky than it has to be and that it reaps the full fruits of its success - as well as seeing that it bears the full responsibility for its failure - by clarifying law, minimizing red tape, and, once this is achieved, by resisting the bureaucratic urge to tinker any further.
Set prices free to perform their function, insist that markets are able to clear, and see to it that titles to property are both secure and simple to transfer. Under such circumstances, we will each help to build a lasting recovery for the other, one job and one company at a time, much more certain of our success - however much patience will be required in its achievement -than if we were to heed the thundering decree of some sweeping, Collectivist Five-Year Plan emanating from the mouths of the tin gods who frequent the Platonic centers of world power.
Financial markets may be broken, politics and mainstream economics may be broken, but, fortunately the economy of men is a robust, highly redundant network, furnished with its own immune system and self-help mechanism, consisting of unhampered entrepreneurial search and action.
As Adam Smith famously remarked, "there's a lot of ruin in a country" - though, contrary to what our present rulers seem to believe, he was not issuing a challenge to them to seek to quantify its limits.
If we are to avoid that final ruin, if we are to properly rectify much of what is broken and not merely smother it in inflationary balm and patch it over with a plaster of false accounting for a further, brief, electoral, half-life, there are three things which we could and should usefully add to the list of the downcast and destroyed.
These are, namely: that unsound money which is truly the root of all evil; the unfunded mountains of government debt with which such bad money engages in a poisonous symbiosis of executive tyranny and political corruption; the duty-free but rights-encrusted Provider State which waxes fat on that unholy alliance of illusory finance and which not only robs Peter piecemeal to pay Paul, but empowers Pericles to oversee the theft, and so suffuses the commonwealth with a miasma of perverse incentives, ethical degeneracy, and irreconcilable conflicts of interest.
What lies broken, we can surely fix, but only if we break in turn the habits of mind and the tyranny of the man-made institutions which we first allowed to break the things we value - our freedom of association, our independence of action, and our individual chance of prosperity.
[Shantih]
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+1
.
Then you should absolutely not listen to 1 minute of this. If you're feelin' bad 'bout things, don't read this. If you do, put away all sharp objects. I have checked in on ths guy over the years and, even in the depths of '08/'09, he could always see some policy options on the table to pull out of the dive. Not now.
Listen to the words he chooses and watch his mood as he describes the probability of things working out: capitulation. I call capitulation of hope, and witness despair at how global leaders conduct themselves in the face of crisis. S'gonna be ugly: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/08/12/video-roubini-says-recession-risk-greater-than-50/
Mr Corrigan has not it seems, learnt the prime law of writing.......Never, never, never proof read one's own material!
The financial markets of the world act pretty fair and reasonable... until the U.S. markets open... and then obvious market manipulation which, in turn, affect the rest of the world's markets, is breath-taking.
Remove the cancer of the world, the U.S. (more accurately, the U.S. fascist government which is whole heartly supported by the U.S. peoples acquiescence).
It would be a much much better world.
I get into work early each morning. I browse the markets as they make their movements before 9:30 a.m. There is usually the 8:00 take-down of metals. There is the wild ramp-up of the futures in the U.S. at about 7:30. There is generally some piece of news at 8:30 that sends the futures even higher on the pronouncements that it is "better than expected".
Prior to this I see all of the union workers at the Freedom Tower. Their collective arrogance is fucking appalling. I see gaggles of NYPD doing absolutely nothing. You should have seen them prepping for Obama's visit the other day. I saw a van of them sleeping. Two were standing, talking about nothing, while one of them smoked a cigar. The other had tattoos up and down his arms. They often look like nothing more than common thugs. One officer I saw on Friday had a mohawk. That sends a nice message to kids.
By WTC 7 you see the young sociopaths in training getting to work. They are readying themselves to destroy companies, countries and untold lives. They have to have that Land Rover and the house in The Hamptons. They have to. They will still be miserable little twats but at least they will have a house in the Hamptons and a Land Rover.
Then you go into the subway to see the racist MTA fuck up the transit system. When all employees seem to be black, and not exactly rocket scientists, there is clearly racism at play. I know we know this here but the "elites" don't seem to understand that you don't have to be white to be a racist. And then you look around at your fellow passengers, with heads bobbing, radios blasting, angry looks on their faces, and you realize just how deeply fucked we are.
What is the solution again? Oh, yeah, let's fix the micro problems. All I see are problems everywhere that look like Godzilla.
When the Great Reset happens all the people above will starve to death. Darwin's law is a Bitch.
fema will keep most alive..mre meals
The government will default so FEMA will have no funding. FEMA employees will take all the MRE's for their own survival. The dumb ones will attempt to shelter in place and will be killed by gangs because government buildings will be the first places the gangs target.
Those are Civil War II types of paranoia. Not that you are wrong, we may be headed that way. http://www.futurnamics.com/civilwar.php
The instant I came across the standard prose about the first civil war being about slavery I immediately stopped wasting my time reading it.
In a letter he wrote to Horace Greeley on March-21-1862 he admitted he cared not about slavery. To whit he wrote....
I am a little uneasy about the abolishment of slavery in this District, not but I would be glad to see it abolished, but as to the time and manner of doing it.
At this point in the war the North was losing badly and needed soldiers to replace the "Cannon Fodder" his generals were intent, supplying them on a massive scale. Escaped Slaves were told that if they fought in the war they would be given 40 acres and a mule. Abolishment of slavery came about due to the war and not the result of that war. Note the date for the quote in the letter above. The war had been going for quite a few months before he started the abolishment process.
http://www.freedomfiles.org/war/fema.htm
I'm guessing FEMA will "survive" even without funding - it's there to protect the government, and as we all know, WE are not THEM.
So you think FEMA exists for the benefit of the American people! Ha, ha ha! Tuco
they have underground bunkers the size of small cities, food and fuel for generations, seed banks, private islands, private jets, boats as big as cruise liners, their own nuclear arsenals and bioweapons, just to name a few of the disparities...
need to break out of your cognitive dissonance. it's not that the economy isn't producing a lot, it is. the issue is all of the production is going into long term survival plans for a handful of families.
ever since 911, new york has been a concentration camp.
Yes, you never know when the CIA and Mossad may strike again! Tuco
You are looking at a totally unsustainable world -- one that won't exist some time in the next 100 or 200 years. Imagine the resources which that concrete jungle needs to survive, and how far it all must travel to get there.
The sad and angry little monkeys you describe are unhappy because of their cognitive dissonance. They know their little world is hell, but they keep running on their hamster wheels hoping the cage will be more pleasant tomorrow. Those resources get harder and harder to scrape up every day. They'll be fighting for a smaller and smaller pie as time goes on.
What do all public union employees have in common, whether they be teachers, fireman, cops, postal employees? This could probably go for private union employees, too.
None of them thinks they should ever have to change or evolve. They have chosen to do something and it is their god given right to do that same thing the rest of their lives, at ever increasing pay. Asking them to change or adapt is an insult and they will fight it with every fiber of their being.
The union thugs will be the least likely to change and be the most bitter. I would put money on it.
+COLA
:)
Gotta love NYC.
I'm actually planning on moving there next year.
That's funny. I'm planning to move out. I hate these fuckers.
I hear you. Lived there on and off for past 25 years. Once its in your blood its hard to get out....but you gotta take a break from the city every once in awhile.
Gonna try it with it an escape valve place in the Poconos this time around....
Gotta good lease?? I got some nice Midwest residential ifn you're interested.
Ny is like London, unique and cosmopolitan with a beat which is intense. Honeycomb effect. I wonder what the recession will do to it...Normally, these mega poles resist well on the whole. Its tough for those at the bottom but they show great resilience...and they adapt fast.
And you are going to need those thugs to keep the lid on the pressure cooker........for if they can't.... hand guns et al won't save you...
Not that I can prove this other than my own reseach and speaking with global investment professionals from countries such as Sri Lanka, Spain, Korea, Japan, Sweden, but a number of markets are intervened in by governments. I think that is, or should be, common knowledge.
For example, isn't currency intervention, market intervention? Tell me a country that isn't manipulating their currency. I would like to know, seriously. We know that any idiot can run a printing press. The world is laughing at us as they are used to their government meddling.
Sure, the US is the biggest culprit on the world stage because it is one of the bigger players on the economic stage but the world is waking up to the move toward one society and the end of our individual sovereignty. It will be even more alarming when the world wakes up to the fact that the U.S's capital base is half or 2/3 the economic value they think it is due to that overwhelming manipulation.
Spontaneous order, bitchez.
+1 ~> Hayek FTW.
Spot-on, and not just for economics either. The problem is this "we". Without the freedom of association, which also implies the freedom of disassociation, "we" are forcibly mashed together. When the States can and do peaceably secede from the union I'll have more optimism. Until then the central planners are even defining "we". Most of these "we" are of the something for nothing & beggar thy neighbor variety... democracy & all that. The only recourse I see is to let the parasites destroy the host. Maybe they'll learn, most likely they'll not but when it (the empire/state) crumbles under the weight of it's own hubris and hypocrisy freedom can really step out of the shadows. Meanwhile, see you @ Galt's gulch.
Cheers,
Dane
tyranny of the man-made institutions
You are correct, this is at the root of the problem. Man has an insatiable desire to control other men, power is the ultimate elixir. Above all else men desire power.
These men who enjoy this power will not give up this power easily. Those that are the beneficiaries of this power will support those men in power. But they are still a minority. We have created/allowed a monster that only violence can slay.
For men to rid themselves of this pariah will take years, violence and diligence. My hope is slim that we can pull it off.
sschu
True, This! —
Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch-enchanters wand! — itself a nothing! —
But taking sorcery from the master-hand
To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike
The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —
States can be saved without it!
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, which opened in 1897, has the adage decorating an interior wall.
Though Bulwer's phrasing was novel, the idea of communication surpassing violence in efficacy had numerous predecessors.
The pen may be mightier than the sword, but it's not mightier than the TV and the machine gun.
All we need to do is STOP FEEDING THE BEAST. Stop doing business with large banks. Stop watching TV and buying all the crap advertised. Stop using credit to pretend to be a rich. Just opt out of what is hurting you anyways.
The banks and most large corps are so leveraged, opting out on any scale will BREAK THE SYSTEM. Stop feeding the beast and the people win WITHOUT FIRING A SHOT.
I certainly can not disagree with that. Use your "pen" to spread that message.
The pen is mightier than the sword - maybe, and I hope so, but I fear divesting this power will take some bloodshed.
Equally interesting is why men are drawn to this elixir of power over another.
This question takes you to the true answers we all seek.
sschu
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Thomas Jefferson
In Soviet controlled Hungary, a group of men were sentenced to life for owning a printing press. They were freed during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. The people of Hungary were robbed of their freedom of expression and a spontaneous revolution happened.
As long as the internet remains "free", there is a very good chance of "change" without a major revolution.
As long as the internet remains "free", there is a very good chance of "change" without a major revolution.
Yeah, see, that's going to be a problem. TPTB can shut down our communications if they so choose. And if they need to, they will.
the most accessed internet meme is porn.
while information exists, it is mostly ignored because of strong habitual bias - the "reward" of using porn online is pavlovian, and even in supposedly "intelligent" sites such as this, it's ubiquitous.
I'm betting those Hungarian men weren't using their printing press to make the big bucks keeping the masses pre-occupied. . .
+ 1861
Three books which are required reading for any and all who believe that the individual is superior to the collective.
F. Hayek, "The Road to Serfdom,"
B. Goldwater, "Conscience of a Conservative," and
R. Paul, "End the Fed."
If communism is the goal, then central planning obviously broke everything on purpose.
It is never meant to be fixed, only crash so one world Gov can arise from the ashes.
While many of these fine suggestions would work in a normal world, our world is obviously anything but. Tomorrow is going to tell quite a story.
And for those wondering: Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata is from an ancient indian text and
means, broadly...: Give, Have Compassion, Control Yourself.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/crop-circle-craziness-and-thoughts/
can you own guns in india?
As long as you promise not to shoot any cows.
Well, actually beef is served all over Bangalore today. That happened slowly, sneakily, without a whimper.
Cows are killed with abandon now in India. Probably co-incident with it's decline.
ORI
Back in the days, down on the prison dairy farm we had a Sargent of Indian ethnicity fill in for the day, very nice laid back guy.. just so happened that one of the cons got caught beating on a cow that day... whew!! did he beat that nigga's ass!! Poor con had very bad luck with his timing.
Yes HPD, but super complex licensing process. India is mostly unarmed, except the usual suspects...thugs, in and out of uniform. ;-)
ORI
what do indians think about what happened in mubai back in 2008?
average indian : Pakistan did it. Muslim's bad bad.
Folks like me: Mossad+CIA+RAW paw-prints all over it.
In fact, the recent blasts in Mumbai were probably meant to re-establish the Bad Mooslim/Bad Paki vibe.
India is mostly asleep. We have a KGB agent's daughter from Italy as our most powerful political leader-ess. Enough said, hmmmm?
ORI
U forgot sumpin for yer pumpin: http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/crop-circle-craziness-and-thoughts/
fix tit
isn't it true that there was a significant amount of firing coming from the local synagogue? hmmm? did any of these attackers live? or did they all "die" ? i think the jews did it and then tried to make it look like the paks did it to continue on with this never ending goy attacking goy routine while the controllers sit back and have a good yuk while the killing ensues.....i think a lot of the religions in india were created by kabbalist "travelers" in ancient times who passed through there spreading lies etc.......it is interesting to note the congruences in indian religions when compared to the kabbalah...too many for this to be a mere coincidence.....on the subject of jews ( i know, i know it gets tiresome at times) but isn't it true that the british east india company was owed by the rothschild cartel? they enslaved your country for a long time until gandi. but gandi was a british agent as well and since the jews have controlled jolly old england since the days of cromwell, well they move as one and the same. the brits were used for a while to control the world and when they became less useful, it was time for the united states to be used during the final scene which is taking place on stage as we type.....such is life in 21st century occupied amerika....
The East India Company was established in the 1600's by Royal Commission. Meyer Rothschild wasn't even a sparkle in his grandfather's eye.
Superb insights HPD. All true.
Truely the theater of the absurd.
ORI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CyjD6Ulf6s
interesting similarities between star trek episode and 911. the 911 script was written a long time ago....
http://thy-weapon-of-war.blogspot.com/2008/11/mossad-connection-to-mumba...
chabad lubavitch and the mossad complicity in the mumbai attacks....the attackers were white guys? say what?
supposedly some rebbe and his wife got killed. mr indian, do you know if there was any outside independent confirmation of this? another words did anyone besides certain parties unknown shall we say, confirm these deaths? i am suspicious....
Nothing secret about the Chabad deaths. Probably sacrifices:
http://israelinsider.net/profiles/blogs/chabad-house-death-toll-4
ORI
Jaw-dropping paranoia run amuck! And sometimes I think I'm a nutcase. Wow.
You are not being paranoid just because you think everone is out to get you.
listen man, you need to read some. you need to catch up some. you need to think outside the box. if you don't these people will eat you alive. they can be beaten but you have to get up early in the morning to do it...............
Ironically even the US flag is entirely based on the flag of the East India Company.
and just what was the boston tea party really all about? it had nothing to do with liberty and freedom, that is for sure.
Is Goa really as nice as it looks?
yes, very picturesque.
vey foreigner friendly. ruskis and israeli's rule it.
ori
They fight the terrorism :-) Especially in central India where the aussi mining companies destroy everything. War on terror in India is pretty much Pol Pot style - estimation 100-150K / Y "terrorists" bite the dust ...
Franchise succesfull ... since East Timor, hello Henry K. ....
... how much for an Freedom Nobel Prize on ebay ?
Agreed. I guess the big question is: “Is the Sheppard’s goal wool or mutton?”
There are a number in this community that will escape the shears and be in a position to help after the predictable events, but will the flock be left in a sparse pasture or a truck to the butcher?
Interesting way to see it, wool or mutton.
This time, I think they want it all.
We'll be left with dem bones, dem bones.
ORI
that's good, right?
those bones did ok, didn't they?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Vision_of_The_Valley_of_The_Dry_Bones.jpg
The Holy Bible: King James Version. 2000. The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 37 The Valley of Dry Bones 1The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,
2
and caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
3And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.
4Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: 6 and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. 7 ¶ So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. 8And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.
9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, Rev. 11.11 an exceeding great army. 11 ¶ Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
14
and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/crop-circle-craziness-and-thoughts/
Well, might as well get into the swing of things..
http://www.vahrehvah.com/MuttonAndLambRecipes.php
@ ORI's 1st ad 0' the day:
"If communism is the goal, then central planning obviously broke everything on purpose."
what if: communism is not the 'goal'?
what might another "goal" be?
could teilhard be right?
@ "Tomorrow is going to tell quite a story."
can you tell us now?
pullleeeease, ORI?
peace, shithead
now that my bong is totally warmed up, and the second pot of coffee, you're prob right. again, ORI.
the fuking nannies are scoring huge, world-wide
i can understand the banksters, and you know how much i respect their black little ponzi schemes, but nannies? wtf?
un-freaking-fathomable
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/crop-circle-craziness-and-thoughts/
.357s for everybody and a plane ticket to Wall Street and DC?????
I think that would "fix" things.
I take a longer view so I would prefer 7.63 X 39. I don't like close work.
0.338 Laupa
then stay outa DC; they'll take you off the rooftops with rockets from LOCHs; i think Every_man is looking for a few, good dirty harry's; from fight club?
357? man that is too much cannon for inside work...........
I prefer my 7.62x25 Tokarev for that sort of thing. I call that sort of thing a clean-up operation. Just walking around taking care of the groners and gurglers.
those things are sweet aren't they? typical of eastern block guns. never jam and keep on ticking. i have one and i love it, plus the ammo (so far) is cheap.... its like 9mm really......
It's between a 45 ACP and 9MM. A necked shell prevents jamming and seals the chamber so it stays cleaner. Recoil is lower than a 45 ACP so you can get back on target faster and it has more power than a 9MM. It's easy to take down and clean too. The Magazine design is so simple any machinist can whip out simple tooling to make them easy to manufacture in a handyman's garage.
"It's between a 45 ACP and 9MM"
That would be a Glock 22 .40 S&W.
Peferably with an internal Lasermax, a Glock Tac light and Pow'RBall slugs (like mine).
You must factor in costs. Google 7.62 X 25 ammo and the cost of a new Takarev.
Looks like a fun and economical piece to add to the collection.. I'll keep my eyes out for one.
For serious business, though..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAhKOu1dl-A
the best work gun for close quarters made!
no blood on your shoes and quiet!
are we in battle or are we executing traitors? :)
We will be defending ourselves from roving gangs looting and burning everything.
Google "London Riots"
It all gets real when the rioters google "affluent neighborhoods" and riot there with firearms.
Not until. Nothing will change until bullets start entering affluent skulls.
+100
The chart of "who owns stock" and would loose if there was a crash shows EXACTLY why TPTB are doing what they are doing; to protect thqat 10% with over 80% of the stocks.
I am a GOPer, but am done with them and the D's as well becaue all the political idiots and their vapid apppointees all prostitute themselves for a buck and sell 300,000,000 down the river for the 3,000,000 that have crazy amount of bucks and most are gotten illegally or at the Gov't slop trough. These people do not get "rich" the old fashioned way by geiving a better service it is no accumulated through BS, lies and ill gotten gains.
"2 to the body and 1 to the head." That is where we are going and those that are going to be "targets" have brought this upon themselves for ripping off the masses for their selfishness and greed.
Hell, hooker's have more class and integrity then most of these bankers and theives and the uber-wealthy. Yes, Virginia there is a class war, and the uber wealthy started it.
they come into my affluent neighborhood and we will be stacking them like firewood. Large calibre repeating firearms are the province of the affluent
silenced 22's are the things of assassins and mob people etc. most people can't own one of don't have one etc. so most will not have access to silencers. technically there is no such thing as a silencer per se due to the sonic crack etc. they are best described as noise suppressors. to take advantage of the suppressor you have to use a special ammo for it called sub sonic ammo which is specially loaded so the bullet will travel much slower (than sound) etc.....
A suppressor for a .22 can be made from an empty soda can or bottle and duct tape.
Just stick the mouth of the can or bottle over the barrel and tape it in place.
After use just toss it.
yep, crude but effective...
Long John, in Ken Kesey's book "Sometimes a Great Notion", the main character put a balloon over the end of a 22 longrifle, when he wanted to poach a deer without making a lot of noise... does this work?
I don't think you could find a modern balloon that would survive the heat and rapidly expanding gasses leaving the barrel that would allow sound suppression to any great degree.
Perhaps 20 years ago that might have worked with real rubber balloons. Modern balloons are made of latex which will melt rapidly when exposed to heat.
Good luck aiming, with a plastic bottle duct-taped over the front sight!
Rioters, whether provocateured or not can be handled. It's the terrorists in government at all levels that will be our biggest problem! Tuco
there are so many to get rid of! I was trying for cheap ammo! LOL!!
More people are killed with a .22 than any other calibre. The bullet shreds into so many fragments all the doctor can do is watch them bleed to death.
use good ammo!
I love the smell of cruse missles exploding in the morning. Collateral damage, you just can't avoid it.
Tuco
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/collateral-damage/
ori
If you were at the receiving end like Rudyard Kipling's son I would believe you. Until then, you stay an imperial clown, like Kipling. But he got his comeuppance later on...
One of top ten responsible for the crisis Lary Summers is advisior to Democratic party President! This how much is the system corrupeted. We are at point when Republican party supports Obama Husein for 2 term and making everything to supress Ron Paul, plus look at the media reporting after Iowa.
i cannot believe some of the bullshit coming out of iowa this weekend. the whole thing is one big joke and the joke is on us.
Garbage.
TD, you write like a girl.
ok , asshole, don't mess with number 1.........
what makes you think that this TD isnt a girl?
and what does the truth have to do with a penis?
do you have penis on the brain?
why does it have to be a man?
maybe you are telling more about yourself than some of us what to know?
keep your penis love to yourself please.
yes jw, penile erectile glands have a mind of their own........:)
I was talking to the guy up above who called Tyler a gril.. not you! fruit cake!!
You guys are on fire! I was alluding to the writing style, reminds me of our fair sister Marla. Safety's back on.
Maybe TD is an hermaphrodite. We shall ALL be green with envy! Double whammy!
Yes, but he punches like a gorilla! Great combo in my opinion? Tuco
Broken!!!
Bitchez.....
Hare Krishna, Bitchez..
Great post. beautifully written.
Is anyone anywhere saying the US is lacking a private marketplace? I rest my case. Now the truth be told and we are told to fear. Fear what? The functioning of the private market place? YEAH RIGHT.
I agree. Once one market is corrupted, people go to another. Better deals on the black market these days, and no bullshit either. Only "free" markets left.
You've come to the right place for an answer to that question!
I don't see how tons (literally) of regulations, tens of thousands of government regulators, laws written to create barriers to entry and an injustice system ready to pounce on the smallest infraction of the most obscure rule creates a 'private marketplace'. We have a government managed marketplace, regardless of propaganda to the contrary.
Until you see the regulatory clusterfuck in action you can't really imagine just how fucked up it is. Appalling is too good a word. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and a shitload of regulators.
+1000
Amen to that.
but..but..but... how can I trust that my barber won't lop off an ear or something without keeping his state licensing current?! [/sarc]
Exactly. "I don't recall ear lopping as part of the..." Could be a Star Trek piece tho. No gambling on that ship. "I bet Picard phucks this up" kinda thing.
Yes, now it appears that small farmers will have to obtain commercial licenses to operate their farm vehicles on their own land! Gee, do you think Monsanto might be exempt?! This is corporate fascism at its finest. Crowd out the little guy while a few corporations who make the laws through our bought and paid for goverment take all the business. Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez
The author is well intentioned but delusional on many levels. Nothing changes until accountability and sound money return to the markets. Stop sociallizing the losses, while allowing criminals to keep their "profits". I laugh when I see a CEO rail against "entitlements" after they have laid off thousands and their company needs a bailout. Guess what fucknut, you are not "entitled" to that bailout or that large salary or bonus if your company is failing.
The author says things like "Make labor once more affordable". Is he refereing to human labor or robotic labor? Human labor needs to eat, sleep, and shit. Robots do not. Despite the bullshit spewing from economists, we live in a finite world with finite resources and therefore energy, food, water, and waste management will only become more expensive. Seems to me that even well-intentioned folks like this idiot point out the obvious future for us all - human deflation on a massive scale. Hedge accordingly.
The author painted a very large picture with accurate and insightful strokes. He wrote an article, not a book. Just because he didn't single out your pet peeve doesn't make it any less a work of art that reflects a truthful image of the world today.
+1
Art is in the eye of the beholder. I really don't give a shit if you don't like what I see. I don't complain about what you are seeing. Please cry on some one else's shoulder and allow other to see what they like.
Laws, why dont you tone down the snot attitude, punk.
I think you need to reread the last two paragraphs. He pretty much nails it.
the labor that isn't affordable is EXECUTIVE labor.
Companies can't afford their workforces because they have to preserve executive bonuses
Nailed it.
Planned economies directed by a selected few always fail. This is how monies are made within Down Jones markets. Wash, rinse and repeat.
can say, beyond agreement or disagreement, this will prove to be the high water mark of the ZH opus...
amazing...all this was hiding in a supposed "economic" blog... who knew?
Kudos.
btw...Erza Pound actually nailed the whole scam... ironically, poets turned out to be the most accurate economists....so much for 'higher education'!?!
Ezra Pound was uneducated?
deprogrammed.
Or if you prefer, educated/captured/ and released before the advent of the "general education" epoch. Current living economists do not qualify for either category.
I'm hip with me too. Let love rule brau.
Pound => Penn
Eliot => Harvard
If it wasnt for Pound (practicality) the Eliot (reclusive, non-engaging perfectionism) version of The Waste Land would have been total gibberish. Complete redo post the Pound corrections.
Look up "echt"
No wonder Wharton rules Wall Street and Harvard rules egomania.
"He was a marvelous critic because he didn't try to turn you into an imitation of himself. He tried to see what you were trying to do."
sometimes it's simple as that. thanks for the link tyler.
yes+, for the link; and the ink
the need for a more Real psychology was itself Real Psychology
The fact is that the coming collapse of current systems is the opportunity to create a pattern of living that can deliver the world into a more sustainable and beneficial future. The problem is people. They can contaminate pretty much anything and consistently do so. But I am hoping that this is a crisis that will not go to waste. But there will be a lot of pain getting from point A to point B, so be prepared.
Free market fundamentalism died in the crash and burn of 2008. "The fundamentals of our economy are sound" didn't work. Bernanke didin't even start really cutting and loosening until it was clear that markets were not self-correcting. Because he was still drinking free market cool aid. Without massive intervention we would have reached S&P 66.6. And then nobody would even have cared anymore.
It's amazing to me that anyone ever really beleived that a large country like the US ever had a moment without central planning in its enitre history. Thas'a a school-boy myth like believeing that once upon a time there were unicorns and Willie Wonka. If you don't have central planning by elected government, then you'll get it up the ass from the next Al Capone. Capisch?
Capone is the central planner smart guy. Capisch?
"Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class" - Al Capone
And the alternative that works is?
Al was no commie. Capisch? But he understood that wthout a strong counterforce (in his case the Federal government getting into law enforcement for the first time in US history) that his racket could take over the whole crap game. He was diversifying into hundreds of legitimate businesses, expanding operations outside CHicago. He was a business man who's primary business plan was fear.
"I am like any other man. All I do is supply demand" - Al Capone
"This American system of ours, call it Americanism, call it capitalism, call it what you will, gives each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it." - Al Capone
I think it was Gotti that said, "I give people the things that they want, that the government won't let them have."
He also supplied plenty of what they didn't want: Vig on every sale they made, mandatory protection money, exclusive contracts and partnerships with him or his consigs without competition (or else), forced complicity in rackets, and of course you see nuttin you say nuttin.
What was his primary means of income? Drugs, prostitution and gambling. Without those, he would have never been able to finance a protection racket.
It always begins that way before moving on to legitimate business, run on a fear model. The goal is to quash competition. Just like on the street.
If anyone had the answer to that I don't think we would be here. Change at this point is inevtitable, and is coming.
Whats needed now are innovative ideas and real leadership. Capital is plentiful.
Made me laugh. So US citizenish.
Basically, what do we have? We have people who put a mess and when called on the mess, ask for a solution in return.
Either these people clean the mess by themselves, providing an answer. Or they quit the mess making and let others provide answers.
It is funny because it echoes that story of socializing losses, privatizing profits. It is a US citizen thing. Not simply a banker thing.
When call on the mess they put, US citizens naturally demand a solution to the mess they put. They are entitled to it, they are US citizens.
nice, An_A
a decent punch and also shows the type of thinking that a decent american citizen might aspire to
I'll take my chances with Capone! Tuco