---This one is better, please publish this one and not the other one, thanks.---
The youth protesting are all doing the right thing. They know something is very wrong,
but they aren't quite focused yet on what the problem is.
First, some background. Remember those 1960's hippies and their anti-war protests?
Those young people wanted easy sex, drugs, anti-war, a hedonism lifestyle, etc.
And then they grew up to run this planet. Obama is the offspring of such a failed
generation. Well they got their wish - a free and easy life at the expense of others.
Now, it's time to take back.
But first back to the "problem". Corporations dominating politics is a symptom. The core
problem is the currency, the creation of paper money unbacked and unrestrained by Precious
Metals leads always to people with a gangster mentality running things. 47 years ago, in 1964
we removed silver from our coins. In 1971, we went off the Gold Standard. Since then, spending
has been out of control and government has turned into a monstrosity of epic size.
With the Gold/Silver Standard, Government is limited to how much money it can issue because they
cannot issue more than the Gold/Silver in the Treasury. The Founding Fathers called this a
Sound Money policy. It limited the size of Government size because you cannot spend that you don't
have. There are no lobbyists, because Goverment and Corporations are not in bed together
plotting how to separate you from your money. So removing the Gold Standard created the "Problem" and the "solution"
will be a new monetary system.
Under the "Free and Easy Money" system we have now many people end up deeply in debt (student loans,
mortgages, child support, etc). This is intentional on the Government and banks part...because then you stay under the
thumb of the government and the banks they are partners with. College costs are so high - because student loans removed all the competition and allowed colleges to raise their tuition! Ron Paul is the one candidate that really understands this problem and how to fix it. But I do not believe our economic world will live until November 2012. What I think is a financial crisis that will make history is coming before then.
Government and the Banks will probably never just give up and "let you go free". The only real way out of this "evil system of debt slavery" is a reset of all debts to zero...and that is what you should MARCH FOR!!! If you read the Christan Bible, the evils of debt slavery are well known. The solution is always the same - freedom from debts solves the problem. When the economic crash comes - and it will - this will also be a time of great danger to America. Government
will insist on new security measures to protect itself from the now-very-angry people who will no longer get Social Security, Unemployment, and Welfare checks. We must not give into Government and your efforts will help to safeguard us all will be vital.
A new Dollar currency can then be started, backed once again by Gold and Silver. Government will survive, but only at 10-20% of it's current size. And all the large banks and corporations will be out of business. The "rich" will no longer be rich. We will all be poor, but we can rebuild. Within a short time, our ecomony will grow again and you, and all of us, will have no debts to pay. We can build the new society and live in freedom and liberty again. You will tell your grandchildren about this historic event.
Please beware of celebrities who want to join the protests. They are usually only looking for free publicity
and to influence your views to suit their own agenda. Listen to them, let them march with you, but their advice is useless.
So protest well my young friends. Send the message of hope. I do think an economic reset of debts
is inevitable - as it is the only solution to trillions of dollars of endless debt - and we will all be
free from debt bondage. In the meantime, defend all of our Constitutional rights and God Speed.
with his philosophy the government isn't supposed to offer services, help to the people they govern.
You might like this post, Bretton Wood II where the history of monetary currency, exchange rates goes into some detail.
Taking haircuts across the board and forcing the private investors, i.e. GS, BoA, the very banks who were bailed out, something to get out of all of this sovereign debt, sure seems like the way to go.
My issue is free flows of capital and derivatives. We need these things banned, and we need incentives to invest in the real, or production economy, i.e. manufacturing.
The youth protesting are all doing the right thing. They know something is very wrong, but they aren't quite focused yet on the problem is.
First, some background. Remember those 1960's hippies and their anti-war protests? Those young people wanted easy sex, drugs, anti-war, a hedonism lifestyle, etc. And then they grew up to run this planet. Obama is the offspring of such a failed generation. Well they got their wish - a free and easy life at the expense of others. Now, it's time to take back.
But first back to the "problem". Corporations dominating politics is a symptom. The core problem is the currency, the creation of paper money unbacked and unrestrained by Precious Metals leads always to people with gangster mentality running things. 47 years ago, in 1964 we removed silver from our coins. In 1971, we went off the Gold Standard. Since then, spending has been out of control and government has turned into a monstrosity of epic size. With the Gold Standard, Government is limited to how much money it can issue because they cannot issue more than the Gold/Silver in the Treasury. The Founding Fathers called this a Sound Money policy. Many end up deeply in debt due to free and easy money (student loans, mortgages, child support, etc). This is intentional...because then you stay under the thumb of the government and the banks they are partners with. Ron Paul is one of the candidates that understands this problem and how to fix it. But I do not believe our economic world will live until November 2012. I think a financial crisis that will make history is coming before then.
It is doubtful Government and the Banks will ever give up and "let you go free". The only way out of this "evil system of debt slavery" is a reset of all debts to zero...and that is what you should MARCH FOR!!! A new currency can then be started, backed once again by Gold and Silver. Government will survive, but only at 10-20% of it's current size. And all the large banks and corporations will be out of business. The "rich" will no longer be rich. We will all be poor, but we can rebuild.
So protest well my friends. Send the message of hope. I do think an economic reset of debts is inevitable - as it is the only solution to trillions of dollars of endless debt - and we will all be free from debt bondage. In the meantime, defend all of our Constitutional rights and God Speed.
Folks, we're getting the "digg effect"....alot, as in 4000 hits in a matter of minutes.
So, I had to move the comment form to open in a "new page" in order to further optimize and compress site pages for faster server load times, so the site can handle more traffic like this.
So, you have to look for the link at the bottom of the post that says add new comment and click on that.
Please still comment and I'll see what else I can figure out here.
EP is a news source and when people like a story on this site, we get the traffic, so I'm working on how to handle it, yet continue to make this site more "user input", discussion than it currently is (and not crash the site!).
Here's a link to Bowery page I meant to link to
http://majorityrights.com/index.php/weblog/comments/doing_the_basic_math...
And his original 1992 article on the topic
http://mysite.verizon.net/res10kjcq/ota/others-papers/NetAssetTax_Bowery...
His citizen dividend is nice as far as it goes, but its an idea that's been given fairly widespread support from everyone from James Tobin to Charles Murray. I highlighted Bowery's net asset tax proposal because its pretty unique and I think, damn clever. As for his extremely right wing comments, well, look at the topic headings just to the left of his 2009 piece at the first link. "Miscegenation Race FAQ White Genocide Project "
I dunno, it gives the impression he's extremely... something. I'm not a fan of his cultural politics but we must take knowledge from where we find it, I linked to his page because I'd be remiss to not give credit to where credit is due.
"How did you ever come across this to connect it up and post it here at EP? Remarkable."
I"ve been lurking at EP off and on for years. I came across a blog comment (by Bowery) at another site which linked back to his 2009 article. I figured it was worth sharing.
Folks, registered users have the ability to create glorified mini-posts in comments.
To embed a video, which you should do, in youtube, click on share, click on embed, set the video size to 480, copy the code, paste it here in the plain text editor.
Alternatively, click on the switch to the rich text editor and use the buttons to embed media.
It's very easy, but remember people are reading your comments so please, if you want to share a video, simply copy the embed code and paste it here.
That way someone doesn't have to go through 4 steps to watch a video.
Also, yes, GS owns the world and we covered their loans, CDSes on Greece earlier.
You know MNCs control the media as well. Notice how Republican candidates who want to do something about China, trade, reform banking are literally blacked out not only from the debates but any mention at all in the media that they are even running.
It's pathetic, I might do up a "links" style post on the people exposing this massive global corruption today.
But the comments here are really enabled for you to write, communicate and use media.
Please format links too, that helps people reading your comment and makes it look more like a post to which the comment is attached.
Saw this at Huffington Post, from statement made by a London trader on a BBC video:
"This is not a time right now for wishful thinking that governments are going to sort things out," Rastani said on an interview with BBC on Monday morning. "The governments don't rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world."
The statement came towards the end of an almost three and a half minute interview in which Rastani warned viewers to "get prepared" for the inevitable: "The savings of millions of people are going to vanish" in less than a year, he said.
"This economic crisis is like a cancer, if you just wait and wait thinking this will go away, just like a cancer it's going to grow and it's going to be too late," he continued.'
...
"But the crash will be good news for traders, Rastani told the stunned BBC anchors.
"For most traders we don't really care about having a fixed economy, having a fixed situation, our job is to make money from it," he said. "Personally, I've been dreaming of this moment for three years. I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession."
I couldn't find a breakdown in actual sovereign CDS (I might have not read the report right), but I know U.S. banks are exposed from previous reports. The majority of derivatives were in currency swaps, but it's unclear the stability with the Euro crisis.
I did catch that credit derivatives risk taking appears to have increased.
That said, the fact that 96% of these are in just 5 banks is clearly some sort of circle jerk. How can that possibly be stable when they are seemingly trading among themselves?
You can see the one watching the hen house, the OCC is turning around and arguing against any sort of faux paus version of the Volcker rule, which I also am not too impressed with.
As I was writing this article up, I looked over to see Ritholz picked up on this report too and was noticing the same thing (with a much less dramatic article title), so I included his article at the last link.
Why $600 Trillion in derivatives world wide is the same
question in the economic sphere as having over 70000
nukes (not sure how many U.S. and Russia have destroyed
but clearly not enough) in the military sphere.
A sane world would get rid of weapons like these in the economic and milatary sphere. The usual defense of derivatives is hedging. How are you hedging when your portfolio is 6 times global output? These derivatives are being written as simple speculation but the banks can't say that, otherwise regulation ensues. Yet, derivatives regulation was fought harder than anything.
What would banks do instead to hedge against risk? Build bank equity world wide with preferred or common equity.You cannot keep pushing more debt from the central banks on the member banks without eroding capital ratios. The more bank equity the more the banks can lend and the lower the fear level.
That fear level in Europe is showing up a a drought in inter-bank lending, a classic liquidity squeeze like 2008-2010 and 1929-1933. ECB and Fed need to build bank equity on an doing the preferred equity buying. Who is paying attention to this?
"Now it's their [China's] turn to rule in spite of any international objections." -- Anonymous
If China becomes the next global hegemonist, it will not be in spite of, but in acquiescence to, the demands of ruling national elites -- which are mostly subservient to, and corrupted by, anti-national and anti-democracy global capital.
Unfortunately, it is only democracies that can be depended on to limit their planning to nothing but taking care of their own. That is the great virtue of true democracy, a fact which seems to be almost forgotten here in postmodern Super America. When the democratic instinct to benefit the people is lost, democracy is lost. And when democracy is lost in a nation based on democratic traditions and institutions, the nation is lost.
The importance of the democratic instinct applies not only to the USA, but in every nation. Of course, if a nation has never developed democratic traditions and institutions, it can't lose them. However, it is ultimately fatal for any government to lose the democratic instinct -- unpopular kings tend to have short lives. The elitist rulers of China (Communist Party of China) have no doubt that they must deliver the goods in material terms if their power is to survive, but they do not premise their power on visions of global conquest as did Hitler or Stalin, in order to justify sacrifice from the people.
While China was indeed conquered through corruption by foreign imperialists during the 19th Century, they do not currently see themselves as 'hemmed in' or as seeking lebensraum the way that the German people did under Hitler's spell. Nor are they at all likely to embrace any kind of military adventurism.
Of course, it is true that Beijing is aware of a global expectation that the People's Republic will soon inherit the mantle of global hegemonist. And it is true that global hegemony is likely to lead to arrogance that self-righteously disregards international objections. This was demonstrated when Bush-Cheney led USA in a noble-hearted (or ill-considered?) attempt at implementation of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) doctrine. However, it is precisely the failure of that attempt that makes anything like postmodern imperialism unlikely on the part of China. We can carry our thinking farther without much fear of contradiction -- China was never worried about PNAC adventurism, because China's leadership played it for all it was worth, risking nothing and picking up the pieces afterwards.
It's like security guys are always taught -- if you have to pull out your guns and start shooting, that means that you have already flubbed up. Beijing is surely of the view that, if you find yourself in a real shooting war, that can only mean that you have been invaded or you are a born loser. What else could anyone conclude from the history of USA wars since World War II (constitutionally undeclared), through which USA has managed to knock itself out repeatedly to end up as the national equivalent of a punch-drunk fighter who "never lost a fight." That's the guy with the title who is incapable of speaking a coherent sentence. That's the guy with the manager who has all the money.
Although the Chinese are notoriously fond of gambling, China is extraordinarily averse, as a nation, to risk-taking. Meanwhile USA has been wrestling with its imperial status, eating itself, slowly but surely dissolving its own democratic traditions as a gesture to a distorted version of American exceptionalism. A truly democratic nation should be prepared for war, but it should also be like a good bank -- never underwriting anything without a solid risk-free plan. No democratic nation will ever find that its leading industry is warfare.
World War III with USA versus China is unlikely to occur. However, what is likely is that trade wars of the old-fashioned guns-and-killing kind may break out, in which China may be implicated. Indeed, China is already implicated in such wars. However, what China has done in such cases is to follow the strategy of Sun Tzu that the best way to win a war is without anyone knowing that you have ever been involved in it.
China much prefers proxy war to actual war. Beyond that being a well-established military doctrine in Chinese thought, China studied the techniques from the British -- the most recent in a long line of conquerors of China. Britannia never attempted to conquer China unless covertly or with trade wars around the edges -- in which strategy the British Empire was notably successful.
I agree that our primary 'potential adversary' (to use the politically correct NSC term) is the People's Republic of China (PRC), but we need to understand what that means in the current global context.
The idea that our primary adversary is some kind of alien culture represented by Al Qaeda is off-the-mark -- a propaganda ploy. It would be more apt to compare China versus USA/NATO with France versus England during the pre-revolutionary French and Indian War (North American theater in the grand series of trade wars known as the Seven Year War). Native tribes and nations fought on both sides, but the battles were never between 'the West' (Europe) and a monolithic alien culture.
Yes, back in 18th Century North America, there was 'cultural war' in the background between a culture that was possessed of guns and steel versus stone-age cultures playing catch-up. Similarly there are today cultural conflicts or conflicting cultures, but that has been true for as long as history records.
A tightly interwoven global theater of operations is what's relatively new, and then there is Toynbee's conjecture that the world is currently headed toward a global culture, which is ultimately inevitable (but 'ultimately' is a very long time).
In terms of workable politico-military geo-strategy, despite that such truth is invariably kept under wraps, the primary 'potential adversary' facing USA is our friendly banker, the PRC. However, that should not be taken as meaning that some kind of great final conflict -- yet another 'war to end all war' -- is about to unfold.
All USA needs to do is mind our own business a lot better than 'our' corporate ruling elite have been!
Wise dragon is content. Dragon hunts trouble, finds it.
Dragons fight in the meadow.
Their blood runs black and yellow.
-- I Ching, 'The Receptive' (changing line in the sixth place)
It is crazy what Murdoch did to boost his newspaper sales. He should be put in jail and News Corp should be broker up. Scary what big corporations can do to you.
"The relatively few really gifted people, the migrant farm workers, are a small percentage of the whole pie." -- Jersey
I understand that those are intended as two separate categories, but in truth some farm workers are exceptionally gifted. I mean gifted at agricultural work. That's true. There's a degree of experience and judgment required in all agricultural work.
This is true of almost any kind of labor ... I sometimes wonder what is meant by 'unskilled labor' ... I think that's either an oxymoron or it can easily be automated (and probably already has). This truth underlies the reality that you cannot recreate a workforce overnight that has been systematically destroyed over years.
In the early 1970s, I witnessed large corporate farms running off legal ('Californio' US citizens), experienced and willing, in favor of hiring blatantly illegal workers, in order to accomplish what can only be described as illegal exploitation.
Remember when local kids came in for the various harvests? Do you realize that the university quarter system, starting in October, was all about college students needed to work the harvest and processing?
Cesar Chavez was opposed to illegal immigration when he saw that it was being used to break the UFW union.
So, yes, at this point in time, US farmers have no choice but to rely on 'migrant' labor (some of it pretty settled in and permanent) ... but that isn't because there can never be a workforce of US citizens who are capable of doing, and willing to do, agricultural work!
"China indeed is planning something other than taking care of it's own. For far too long the Chinese have been hemmed in by foreign imperialists to their thinking. Now it's their turn to rule inspite of any international objections." -- Anonymous
The question here is "Who is seriously objecting?"
Or more to the point, "What nation is actually acting like a serious contender to defend or otherwise win the World Championship?"
USA military are currently attempting to hang in there -- after years of mismanagement and ill-conceived ideology-driven misadventure -- but what is a military without coherent national leadership? Of what use is a military in a nation divided against itself? What is a military that is driven by short-sighted profiteering, perpetuated by a political elite that refuses even to consider a war profiteering act? (See, comment below, 'We should do our thing', as to "aggressive prosecution of War Profiteering Prevention Act and anti-trust law.")
Unsustainable population growth is still more of a global problem than a national problem.
Image from World Bank, World Development Indicators,
via Google Public Data Explorer
However, the global impacts the national, especially when USA progressively opens ourselves to such impacts through brain-dead acceptance of WTO doctrine.
For example, USDA researcher recently spoke to California Department of Agriculture at UC Davis, saying that California agriculture needs to get over all the organic small farm ideas because the only way that increasing world population can be fed is through heavy reliance on corporate farming, including expanded 'free' trade 'agreements', use of imported labor, untested GMO crops, increased reliance on petrochemical fertilizers -- anything and everything that is contrary to the principles of sustainable organic farming.
What was the database for this apparently official doctrine? It seems to have reduced to this: we can project about 8 Billion to 10 Billion souls on the planet earth by 2050.
When I objected to my informant (who had been present at the event in Davis) that I did not believe the projection, his response was to presume that I was advocating for 'pro-choice' politics. (My informant is strongly opposed to legalization of abortion.) In fact, I did not have pro-life vs. pro-choice political (or ethical) issues in mind at all.
To me, it was like looking at 695 lab rats packed like sardines into a cage that encompasses a limited foraging area, where I see rats already cannibalizing, and when somebody says there will foreseeably and sustainably be 1,000 rats in there, thanks to that growth media in the foraging area is going to receive increased fertilization ... I am skeptical of the projection. I would be especially skeptical of that whole thing with the rats if it would be supposed to apply to world population projections.
Maybe my skepticism means I am cold-hearted or just don't understand that I am one of the lab rats ... I don't know. I do know that I am a big fan of information free of polemics, despite that this concept of information or data is contrary to all 'postmodernist metaphysics' (fancy term for apologists for FAUX approach to news). I also know that I remain skeptical of the 8-10 Billion world population projection -- much more skeptical of it than I am about global warming, on which I keep a reasonably open mind. Or, for another analogy, I am as skeptical of the 10,000,000,000 population projection for 2050 as I am of the projection that gold will hit its $10,000 'target' value sometime in 2012 (or at any time in the foreseeable future).
No one is allowed to mention reality that increased population is using up the globe's resources, increases global warming, crowding and on and on. -- Robert Oak
Black at left shows years when population was more of an estimate, continuing into Blue showing population based on more accurate data
Red, amber and green show three projections
BTW: 'Open Borders' is an ideal that we can all accept as such. As a policy recommendation, it's ridiculous. Until about 10 years ago, I used to come across pseudo-libertarians spouting that nonsense. I would ask them if their town, their neighborhood, their street or road, their parcel, their front-yard, their porch, their living room .... is that where the open border stops? I made some enemies that way, really. They just stopped talking to me. It's risky when you challenge people to think. Daniel Willingham (Why Don't Students Like School?) has it right -- thinking is work, takes energy, and people will do almost anything to avoid it!
Folks, we're doing economic related funnies, "editor's choice" no longer weekly. There are some weeks where the pickin's are too sparse, plus it takes a long time to sift through all of the youtubes, video clips, network websites, and cartoons, so forth to find economic parody and such that is actually screamingly funny.
But you can always find the funnies round up under the main video menu if you need a good laugh about what is truly FUBAR and makes you want to throw your chair through a window.
I must say this one is a scream, so enjoy when the economic events get so heavy you think Armageddon is upon us. This will help at least with your mood!
The opposite is true. His philosophy is how this country was founded, How quickly we all forget how to be Americans!
FREEDOM! You have no idea what that means, you are a slave.
---This one is better, please publish this one and not the other one, thanks.---
The youth protesting are all doing the right thing. They know something is very wrong,
but they aren't quite focused yet on what the problem is.
First, some background. Remember those 1960's hippies and their anti-war protests?
Those young people wanted easy sex, drugs, anti-war, a hedonism lifestyle, etc.
And then they grew up to run this planet. Obama is the offspring of such a failed
generation. Well they got their wish - a free and easy life at the expense of others.
Now, it's time to take back.
But first back to the "problem". Corporations dominating politics is a symptom. The core
problem is the currency, the creation of paper money unbacked and unrestrained by Precious
Metals leads always to people with a gangster mentality running things. 47 years ago, in 1964
we removed silver from our coins. In 1971, we went off the Gold Standard. Since then, spending
has been out of control and government has turned into a monstrosity of epic size.
With the Gold/Silver Standard, Government is limited to how much money it can issue because they
cannot issue more than the Gold/Silver in the Treasury. The Founding Fathers called this a
Sound Money policy. It limited the size of Government size because you cannot spend that you don't
have. There are no lobbyists, because Goverment and Corporations are not in bed together
plotting how to separate you from your money. So removing the Gold Standard created the "Problem" and the "solution"
will be a new monetary system.
Under the "Free and Easy Money" system we have now many people end up deeply in debt (student loans,
mortgages, child support, etc). This is intentional on the Government and banks part...because then you stay under the
thumb of the government and the banks they are partners with. College costs are so high - because student loans removed all the competition and allowed colleges to raise their tuition! Ron Paul is the one candidate that really understands this problem and how to fix it. But I do not believe our economic world will live until November 2012. What I think is a financial crisis that will make history is coming before then.
Government and the Banks will probably never just give up and "let you go free". The only real way out of this "evil system of debt slavery" is a reset of all debts to zero...and that is what you should MARCH FOR!!! If you read the Christan Bible, the evils of debt slavery are well known. The solution is always the same - freedom from debts solves the problem. When the economic crash comes - and it will - this will also be a time of great danger to America. Government
will insist on new security measures to protect itself from the now-very-angry people who will no longer get Social Security, Unemployment, and Welfare checks. We must not give into Government and your efforts will help to safeguard us all will be vital.
A new Dollar currency can then be started, backed once again by Gold and Silver. Government will survive, but only at 10-20% of it's current size. And all the large banks and corporations will be out of business. The "rich" will no longer be rich. We will all be poor, but we can rebuild. Within a short time, our ecomony will grow again and you, and all of us, will have no debts to pay. We can build the new society and live in freedom and liberty again. You will tell your grandchildren about this historic event.
Please beware of celebrities who want to join the protests. They are usually only looking for free publicity
and to influence your views to suit their own agenda. Listen to them, let them march with you, but their advice is useless.
So protest well my young friends. Send the message of hope. I do think an economic reset of debts
is inevitable - as it is the only solution to trillions of dollars of endless debt - and we will all be
free from debt bondage. In the meantime, defend all of our Constitutional rights and God Speed.
with his philosophy the government isn't supposed to offer services, help to the people they govern.
You might like this post, Bretton Wood II where the history of monetary currency, exchange rates goes into some detail.
Taking haircuts across the board and forcing the private investors, i.e. GS, BoA, the very banks who were bailed out, something to get out of all of this sovereign debt, sure seems like the way to go.
My issue is free flows of capital and derivatives. We need these things banned, and we need incentives to invest in the real, or production economy, i.e. manufacturing.
The youth protesting are all doing the right thing. They know something is very wrong, but they aren't quite focused yet on the problem is.
First, some background. Remember those 1960's hippies and their anti-war protests? Those young people wanted easy sex, drugs, anti-war, a hedonism lifestyle, etc. And then they grew up to run this planet. Obama is the offspring of such a failed generation. Well they got their wish - a free and easy life at the expense of others. Now, it's time to take back.
But first back to the "problem". Corporations dominating politics is a symptom. The core problem is the currency, the creation of paper money unbacked and unrestrained by Precious Metals leads always to people with gangster mentality running things. 47 years ago, in 1964 we removed silver from our coins. In 1971, we went off the Gold Standard. Since then, spending has been out of control and government has turned into a monstrosity of epic size. With the Gold Standard, Government is limited to how much money it can issue because they cannot issue more than the Gold/Silver in the Treasury. The Founding Fathers called this a Sound Money policy. Many end up deeply in debt due to free and easy money (student loans, mortgages, child support, etc). This is intentional...because then you stay under the thumb of the government and the banks they are partners with. Ron Paul is one of the candidates that understands this problem and how to fix it. But I do not believe our economic world will live until November 2012. I think a financial crisis that will make history is coming before then.
It is doubtful Government and the Banks will ever give up and "let you go free". The only way out of this "evil system of debt slavery" is a reset of all debts to zero...and that is what you should MARCH FOR!!! A new currency can then be started, backed once again by Gold and Silver. Government will survive, but only at 10-20% of it's current size. And all the large banks and corporations will be out of business. The "rich" will no longer be rich. We will all be poor, but we can rebuild.
So protest well my friends. Send the message of hope. I do think an economic reset of debts is inevitable - as it is the only solution to trillions of dollars of endless debt - and we will all be free from debt bondage. In the meantime, defend all of our Constitutional rights and God Speed.
Folks, we're getting the "digg effect"....alot, as in 4000 hits in a matter of minutes.
So, I had to move the comment form to open in a "new page" in order to further optimize and compress site pages for faster server load times, so the site can handle more traffic like this.
So, you have to look for the link at the bottom of the post that says add new comment and click on that.
Please still comment and I'll see what else I can figure out here.
EP is a news source and when people like a story on this site, we get the traffic, so I'm working on how to handle it, yet continue to make this site more "user input", discussion than it currently is (and not crash the site!).
With 14 million official unemployed and unofficially it's about 28 million in the United States?
Good God.
You had me until you said, "hire an American."
Sorry folks, I have to take off this afternoon, so I have a few posts in the works, but not done.
Consider using the SMC, FMN, Saturday reads as open threads for what's happening.
Here's a link to Bowery page I meant to link to
http://majorityrights.com/index.php/weblog/comments/doing_the_basic_math...
And his original 1992 article on the topic
http://mysite.verizon.net/res10kjcq/ota/others-papers/NetAssetTax_Bowery...
His citizen dividend is nice as far as it goes, but its an idea that's been given fairly widespread support from everyone from James Tobin to Charles Murray. I highlighted Bowery's net asset tax proposal because its pretty unique and I think, damn clever. As for his extremely right wing comments, well, look at the topic headings just to the left of his 2009 piece at the first link. "Miscegenation Race FAQ White Genocide Project "
I dunno, it gives the impression he's extremely... something. I'm not a fan of his cultural politics but we must take knowledge from where we find it, I linked to his page because I'd be remiss to not give credit to where credit is due.
"How did you ever come across this to connect it up and post it here at EP? Remarkable."
I"ve been lurking at EP off and on for years. I came across a blog comment (by Bowery) at another site which linked back to his 2009 article. I figured it was worth sharing.
Folks, registered users have the ability to create glorified mini-posts in comments.
To embed a video, which you should do, in youtube, click on share, click on embed, set the video size to 480, copy the code, paste it here in the plain text editor.
Alternatively, click on the switch to the rich text editor and use the buttons to embed media.
It's very easy, but remember people are reading your comments so please, if you want to share a video, simply copy the embed code and paste it here.
That way someone doesn't have to go through 4 steps to watch a video.
Also, yes, GS owns the world and we covered their loans, CDSes on Greece earlier.
You know MNCs control the media as well. Notice how Republican candidates who want to do something about China, trade, reform banking are literally blacked out not only from the debates but any mention at all in the media that they are even running.
It's pathetic, I might do up a "links" style post on the people exposing this massive global corruption today.
But the comments here are really enabled for you to write, communicate and use media.
Please format links too, that helps people reading your comment and makes it look more like a post to which the comment is attached.
Sorry.
HuffPo trader says Goldman Sachs rules the world:
Geither? Dodd? Frank?
What a bunch of dummies.
Saw this at Huffington Post, from statement made by a London trader on a BBC video:
"This is not a time right now for wishful thinking that governments are going to sort things out," Rastani said on an interview with BBC on Monday morning. "The governments don't rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world."
The statement came towards the end of an almost three and a half minute interview in which Rastani warned viewers to "get prepared" for the inevitable: "The savings of millions of people are going to vanish" in less than a year, he said.
"This economic crisis is like a cancer, if you just wait and wait thinking this will go away, just like a cancer it's going to grow and it's going to be too late," he continued.'
...
"But the crash will be good news for traders, Rastani told the stunned BBC anchors.
"For most traders we don't really care about having a fixed economy, having a fixed situation, our job is to make money from it," he said. "Personally, I've been dreaming of this moment for three years. I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession."
I couldn't find a breakdown in actual sovereign CDS (I might have not read the report right), but I know U.S. banks are exposed from previous reports. The majority of derivatives were in currency swaps, but it's unclear the stability with the Euro crisis.
I did catch that credit derivatives risk taking appears to have increased.
That said, the fact that 96% of these are in just 5 banks is clearly some sort of circle jerk. How can that possibly be stable when they are seemingly trading among themselves?
You can see the one watching the hen house, the OCC is turning around and arguing against any sort of faux paus version of the Volcker rule, which I also am not too impressed with.
As I was writing this article up, I looked over to see Ritholz picked up on this report too and was noticing the same thing (with a much less dramatic article title), so I included his article at the last link.
Why $600 Trillion in derivatives world wide is the same
question in the economic sphere as having over 70000
nukes (not sure how many U.S. and Russia have destroyed
but clearly not enough) in the military sphere.
A sane world would get rid of weapons like these in the economic and milatary sphere. The usual defense of derivatives is hedging. How are you hedging when your portfolio is 6 times global output? These derivatives are being written as simple speculation but the banks can't say that, otherwise regulation ensues. Yet, derivatives regulation was fought harder than anything.
What would banks do instead to hedge against risk? Build bank equity world wide with preferred or common equity.You cannot keep pushing more debt from the central banks on the member banks without eroding capital ratios. The more bank equity the more the banks can lend and the lower the fear level.
That fear level in Europe is showing up a a drought in inter-bank lending, a classic liquidity squeeze like 2008-2010 and 1929-1933. ECB and Fed need to build bank equity on an doing the preferred equity buying. Who is paying attention to this?
"Now it's their [China's] turn to rule in spite of any international objections." -- Anonymous
If China becomes the next global hegemonist, it will not be in spite of, but in acquiescence to, the demands of ruling national elites -- which are mostly subservient to, and corrupted by, anti-national and anti-democracy global capital.
Unfortunately, it is only democracies that can be depended on to limit their planning to nothing but taking care of their own. That is the great virtue of true democracy, a fact which seems to be almost forgotten here in postmodern Super America. When the democratic instinct to benefit the people is lost, democracy is lost. And when democracy is lost in a nation based on democratic traditions and institutions, the nation is lost.
The importance of the democratic instinct applies not only to the USA, but in every nation. Of course, if a nation has never developed democratic traditions and institutions, it can't lose them. However, it is ultimately fatal for any government to lose the democratic instinct -- unpopular kings tend to have short lives. The elitist rulers of China (Communist Party of China) have no doubt that they must deliver the goods in material terms if their power is to survive, but they do not premise their power on visions of global conquest as did Hitler or Stalin, in order to justify sacrifice from the people.
While China was indeed conquered through corruption by foreign imperialists during the 19th Century, they do not currently see themselves as 'hemmed in' or as seeking lebensraum the way that the German people did under Hitler's spell. Nor are they at all likely to embrace any kind of military adventurism.
Of course, it is true that Beijing is aware of a global expectation that the People's Republic will soon inherit the mantle of global hegemonist. And it is true that global hegemony is likely to lead to arrogance that self-righteously disregards international objections. This was demonstrated when Bush-Cheney led USA in a noble-hearted (or ill-considered?) attempt at implementation of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) doctrine. However, it is precisely the failure of that attempt that makes anything like postmodern imperialism unlikely on the part of China. We can carry our thinking farther without much fear of contradiction -- China was never worried about PNAC adventurism, because China's leadership played it for all it was worth, risking nothing and picking up the pieces afterwards.
It's like security guys are always taught -- if you have to pull out your guns and start shooting, that means that you have already flubbed up. Beijing is surely of the view that, if you find yourself in a real shooting war, that can only mean that you have been invaded or you are a born loser. What else could anyone conclude from the history of USA wars since World War II (constitutionally undeclared), through which USA has managed to knock itself out repeatedly to end up as the national equivalent of a punch-drunk fighter who "never lost a fight." That's the guy with the title who is incapable of speaking a coherent sentence. That's the guy with the manager who has all the money.
Although the Chinese are notoriously fond of gambling, China is extraordinarily averse, as a nation, to risk-taking. Meanwhile USA has been wrestling with its imperial status, eating itself, slowly but surely dissolving its own democratic traditions as a gesture to a distorted version of American exceptionalism. A truly democratic nation should be prepared for war, but it should also be like a good bank -- never underwriting anything without a solid risk-free plan. No democratic nation will ever find that its leading industry is warfare.
World War III with USA versus China is unlikely to occur. However, what is likely is that trade wars of the old-fashioned guns-and-killing kind may break out, in which China may be implicated. Indeed, China is already implicated in such wars. However, what China has done in such cases is to follow the strategy of Sun Tzu that the best way to win a war is without anyone knowing that you have ever been involved in it.
China much prefers proxy war to actual war. Beyond that being a well-established military doctrine in Chinese thought, China studied the techniques from the British -- the most recent in a long line of conquerors of China. Britannia never attempted to conquer China unless covertly or with trade wars around the edges -- in which strategy the British Empire was notably successful.
I agree that our primary 'potential adversary' (to use the politically correct NSC term) is the People's Republic of China (PRC), but we need to understand what that means in the current global context.
The idea that our primary adversary is some kind of alien culture represented by Al Qaeda is off-the-mark -- a propaganda ploy. It would be more apt to compare China versus USA/NATO with France versus England during the pre-revolutionary French and Indian War (North American theater in the grand series of trade wars known as the Seven Year War). Native tribes and nations fought on both sides, but the battles were never between 'the West' (Europe) and a monolithic alien culture.
Yes, back in 18th Century North America, there was 'cultural war' in the background between a culture that was possessed of guns and steel versus stone-age cultures playing catch-up. Similarly there are today cultural conflicts or conflicting cultures, but that has been true for as long as history records.
A tightly interwoven global theater of operations is what's relatively new, and then there is Toynbee's conjecture that the world is currently headed toward a global culture, which is ultimately inevitable (but 'ultimately' is a very long time).
In terms of workable politico-military geo-strategy, despite that such truth is invariably kept under wraps, the primary 'potential adversary' facing USA is our friendly banker, the PRC. However, that should not be taken as meaning that some kind of great final conflict -- yet another 'war to end all war' -- is about to unfold.
All USA needs to do is mind our own business a lot better than 'our' corporate ruling elite have been!
Wise dragon is content. Dragon hunts trouble, finds it.
It is crazy what Murdoch did to boost his newspaper sales. He should be put in jail and News Corp should be broker up. Scary what big corporations can do to you.
purchase annuities
"The relatively few really gifted people, the migrant farm workers, are a small percentage of the whole pie." -- Jersey
I understand that those are intended as two separate categories, but in truth some farm workers are exceptionally gifted. I mean gifted at agricultural work. That's true. There's a degree of experience and judgment required in all agricultural work.
This is true of almost any kind of labor ... I sometimes wonder what is meant by 'unskilled labor' ... I think that's either an oxymoron or it can easily be automated (and probably already has). This truth underlies the reality that you cannot recreate a workforce overnight that has been systematically destroyed over years.
In the early 1970s, I witnessed large corporate farms running off legal ('Californio' US citizens), experienced and willing, in favor of hiring blatantly illegal workers, in order to accomplish what can only be described as illegal exploitation.
Remember when local kids came in for the various harvests? Do you realize that the university quarter system, starting in October, was all about college students needed to work the harvest and processing?
Cesar Chavez was opposed to illegal immigration when he saw that it was being used to break the UFW union.
So, yes, at this point in time, US farmers have no choice but to rely on 'migrant' labor (some of it pretty settled in and permanent) ... but that isn't because there can never be a workforce of US citizens who are capable of doing, and willing to do, agricultural work!
"China indeed is planning something other than taking care of it's own. For far too long the Chinese have been hemmed in by foreign imperialists to their thinking. Now it's their turn to rule inspite of any international objections." -- Anonymous
The question here is "Who is seriously objecting?"
Or more to the point, "What nation is actually acting like a serious contender to defend or otherwise win the World Championship?"
USA military are currently attempting to hang in there -- after years of mismanagement and ill-conceived ideology-driven misadventure -- but what is a military without coherent national leadership? Of what use is a military in a nation divided against itself? What is a military that is driven by short-sighted profiteering, perpetuated by a political elite that refuses even to consider a war profiteering act? (See, comment below, 'We should do our thing', as to "aggressive prosecution of War Profiteering Prevention Act and anti-trust law.")
Unsustainable population growth is still more of a global problem than a national problem.
Image from World Bank, World Development Indicators,
via Google Public Data Explorer
However, the global impacts the national, especially when USA progressively opens ourselves to such impacts through brain-dead acceptance of WTO doctrine.
For example, USDA researcher recently spoke to California Department of Agriculture at UC Davis, saying that California agriculture needs to get over all the organic small farm ideas because the only way that increasing world population can be fed is through heavy reliance on corporate farming, including expanded 'free' trade 'agreements', use of imported labor, untested GMO crops, increased reliance on petrochemical fertilizers -- anything and everything that is contrary to the principles of sustainable organic farming.
What was the database for this apparently official doctrine? It seems to have reduced to this: we can project about 8 Billion to 10 Billion souls on the planet earth by 2050.
When I objected to my informant (who had been present at the event in Davis) that I did not believe the projection, his response was to presume that I was advocating for 'pro-choice' politics. (My informant is strongly opposed to legalization of abortion.) In fact, I did not have pro-life vs. pro-choice political (or ethical) issues in mind at all.
To me, it was like looking at 695 lab rats packed like sardines into a cage that encompasses a limited foraging area, where I see rats already cannibalizing, and when somebody says there will foreseeably and sustainably be 1,000 rats in there, thanks to that growth media in the foraging area is going to receive increased fertilization ... I am skeptical of the projection. I would be especially skeptical of that whole thing with the rats if it would be supposed to apply to world population projections.
Maybe my skepticism means I am cold-hearted or just don't understand that I am one of the lab rats ... I don't know. I do know that I am a big fan of information free of polemics, despite that this concept of information or data is contrary to all 'postmodernist metaphysics' (fancy term for apologists for FAUX approach to news). I also know that I remain skeptical of the 8-10 Billion world population projection -- much more skeptical of it than I am about global warming, on which I keep a reasonably open mind. Or, for another analogy, I am as skeptical of the 10,000,000,000 population projection for 2050 as I am of the projection that gold will hit its $10,000 'target' value sometime in 2012 (or at any time in the foreseeable future).
"No one is allowed to mention reality" ... but groupthink doublethink Newspeak party-line fantasy is officially encouraged.
Here's a chart showing the diversity of projections that are actually being made by UN researchers/analysts --
(from Wikipedia article 'World population')
Graph shows years 1800 to 2100
Black at left shows years when population was more of an estimate, continuing into Blue showing population based on more accurate data
Red, amber and green show three projections
BTW: 'Open Borders' is an ideal that we can all accept as such. As a policy recommendation, it's ridiculous. Until about 10 years ago, I used to come across pseudo-libertarians spouting that nonsense. I would ask them if their town, their neighborhood, their street or road, their parcel, their front-yard, their porch, their living room .... is that where the open border stops? I made some enemies that way, really. They just stopped talking to me. It's risky when you challenge people to think. Daniel Willingham (Why Don't Students Like School?) has it right -- thinking is work, takes energy, and people will do almost anything to avoid it!
Folks, we're doing economic related funnies, "editor's choice" no longer weekly. There are some weeks where the pickin's are too sparse, plus it takes a long time to sift through all of the youtubes, video clips, network websites, and cartoons, so forth to find economic parody and such that is actually screamingly funny.
But you can always find the funnies round up under the main video menu if you need a good laugh about what is truly FUBAR and makes you want to throw your chair through a window.
I must say this one is a scream, so enjoy when the economic events get so heavy you think Armageddon is upon us. This will help at least with your mood!
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