@ AmanfromMars

I found that the banter between you and Ingo Bischoff put me in Perplex City. Now I cannot seem to leave.

@ AmanfromMars on 12/23/2010 2:27:26 AM

Aman, Hi...

"Sapere aude"....That is my motto and one I suggest to you and anyone else.

"Writers like Brooks become irrelevant in shaping overall opinion once people come to realize that the "experts" do not have the corner on "reality". As the individual reality of millions of people combine and overlap, a view of a larger reality appears which is much more dependable. BE AWARE OF ANY "EXPERT" WHO CLAIMS TO KNOW THE "LARGER REALITY"." ..... Posted by Ingo Bischoff on 12/22/2010 6:09:50 PM

Ingo Bischoff, Hi,

Please be advised and be aware, and if one is into skullduggery and deceit should one also beware, that there are those who would never claim to be experts but who do, by virtue of what and how they do what they do, have a corner on virtual reality, which when presented as novel information in a qubit and binary stream, delivers a constantly morphing, stealthy larger reality which the media machine will carry as the Future and AI Fab Work in Progress. And paradoxically/enigmatically, is the less that it is believed to be so, the faster and deeper is the programming sown and embedded.

And Daily Bell Ringers might like to read this quite fine essay on the flowering Wikileaks movement/concept/paradigm/political correction ....... Click to view link.nz/blog/2010/the-blast-shack/ ...... which caused this peal in response and support of all who would offer real hope in an artificial world, and would be much more than they are poorly portrayed. It is a valid comment here too as it has everything to do with the media product placement/Presentation of a Futuristic Expert Larger Reality ......

[blockquote] "I don't have a lot of cheery hope to offer about his all-too-compelling gesture, but I dare to hope he's everything he thinks he is, and much, much, more." ..... Bruce Sterling

Who dares wins, Bruce, and your hope is well placed for there is so much more yet to come, and that which it tells will absolutely amaze ...... and change lives forever.

Oh, and thanks for the edutaining read. It was most enjoyable.

You might like to consider now though, that there is a new breed of ...... well, let us just call them ARGonauts with SMARTs who would be into Bigger Pictures and Great Intelligence Game Play, in the Reality of Live Operational Virtual Environments ........ for such is the MetaDataMorph which may best describe the Present Dynamic Future Leading Manifestation. [/blockquote]

@ Al

"my $70,000 is just sitting there rotting away, the professional liars called " investment advisors" tell me it will be worth $400,000 by the time I retire at 67!"

Al, I'd hazard that your $70,000, if it were invested in just about anything, including stockpiles of scrap iron, will be worth more than $400,000 by the time you're 67. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that your $70,000 in real goods today will be worth billions of dollars in 17 years, possibly even an almost infinite number of dollars. Of course, a dollar won't be worth more than the electrons used to represent it.

I wonder exactly how many electrons it takes to make a dollar? If you burn a dollar onto flash memory does it hold its value?

"The Anglo-American power-elite controls the mainstream media and one way that confidence is usually restored in the system is through the kind of "happy talk" that writers like Brooks provide."

Writers like Brooks become irrelevant in shaping overall opinion once people come to realize that the "experts" do not have the corner on "reality". As the individual reality of millions of people combine and overlap, a view of a larger reality appears which is much more dependable. BE AWARE OF ANY "EXPERT" WHO CLAIMS TO KNOW THE "LARGER REALITY".

While the tribal sense, still strong in the societies on the European Continent, can help Europeans to unite for survival, in the U.S. it is only free access to information and the ability to worship which will allow Americans to survive.

As regards education, it is a blessing of the human race that offspring are born with a "clean slate". That means that while it takes only a few generations to be educated to go in the wrong direction, it will take again only a few generation to correct the course.

Pew Research found..." ' individuals between the ages of 18 and 29 ' had a bleak view of the way things are going today." These are the individuals which constitute the future of this country. Every possible effort must be made to instruct them on a workable monetary system and on free markets to contrast Adam Smith and Antal Fekete with J. Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman.

Educational efforts towards the baby boomer generation are generally wasted. Only major hardship will destroy the paradigm created for the baby boomers by the Anglo-American elite. Sadly, however this education will come too late for them.

The reading of "The Daily Bell" should be made mandatory for each college freshman class...(Of course, I say this with tongue in cheek, yet I would like to see nothing less)

Reply from The Daily Bell

Thanks for the kind words.

"In the U.S. it is only free access to information and the ability to worship which will allow Americans to survive."

Interesting point ...

Very good article, especially mentioning the depressed population growth. I've been reading the anti-immigration blogs for a long time where people like Mark Steyn and others have emphasised the declining demographic profile, but none of those people have been able to connect the dots.

Though Steyn might be able to see it, most of the antijihadist bloggers cannot seem to understand the role of the state, central banks and inflation as a support for this unsustainable society, and they have become irrelevant in my opinion. The christmas present will go to you this year because of this article instead of the usual statists from the aniti-immigration lobby. Thankyou, Bell.

Reply from The Daily Bell

Thanks for the kind words.

"If the incumbent officials actually told the truth, it wouldn't be pretty, as in the U.S. Fed hiding its surreptitious lending activities to Ford, Goldman Sach, J.P. Morgan/Chase, Citibank, et al. So it is unlikely we will ever hear that truth until a 'crisis' unfolds, then extraordinary, draconian steps, i.e., outside the ordinary constitutional and legal boundaries, can be taken to 'solve' the 'crisis.'

In the meantime, it seems as though no one in government has the courage to propose anything but 'band aid' solutions to the entrenched problems for fear of alienating their supporters rather than acting for the more general good and continuance of civilization." ..... Posted by Brent on 12/21/2010 1:02:00 PM

Should this tale be true, Brent, ..... "Obama Prepares Executive Order For Indefinite Detention" .... Click to view link .... then will no one be in any further doubt that Uncle Sam is ready for the lunatic asylum, for it extraordinarily renders the admission to the world that its Capitalist Administrative System and Intelligence Services are an ongoing and deepening, cascading failure which it is either unable or unwilling to fix, and some would even suggest that both defects are manifest ..... and that will see it savaged in the markets and in fields in which it previously thought and deluded itself, invincible and untouchable.

Just what on earth do they think they are playing at, whenever they are destroying everything that they hold dear and which took centuries to build, although I suppose that is the madness confirmed?

If you want to rule the world, then you had better be prepared to have some plans for whenever there is a knock at the door.

And in the following short copied post from elsewhere, Biffo is an affectionate nickname for Brian Cowan, the current Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland. And ECB is of course the European Central Bank.

There is a popular saying in many parts "He who pays the piper, calls the tune" .... so what's the tune to be, is the question being asked. Gifting remote control of government to that which renders governments able to function, soon reveals whether there is the necessary intelligence inhouse that which renders governments able to function, to stop a catastrophic meltdown or the contagion spreading virulently.

[blockquote]amanfromMars
21 December 2010 at 5:15 pm

"Those who create and issue money and credit direct the policies of government and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people." ‒ Reginald McKenna

Amen. How about Biffo and the boys ask the ECB for the policies the people must follow to sustainable wealth and growth/solvency.

Methinks that would put the Money Bags on the spot and out them as being wannabe emperors without any clothes, and without a baldy notion about anything other than creating crippling and enslaving debt to invented paper currency, allowing for foreclosure on defaults which nicely deliver to them valuable expensive assets and prime properties which have been pledged/demanded as collateral. It's a really nice, sweet scam, but it works best whenever no one knows about it, so the sensible thing is to tell everyone about it ..... or end up as paupers and slaves to .... well, what would one call such sharp operators?

Click to view link [/blockquote]

The system is truly broke,as 50 year old with my super being drained away by inflation, I feel total disgust with the compulsory super that I must save, my $70,000 is just sitting there rotting away, the professional liars called " investment advisors" tell me it will be worth $400,000 by the time I retire at 67! I think they are total frauds and charlatins,the irony is that I know what I would do with it if I had access to it.

After all who knows better what to do with your money than you do ?

Green Shoots!!! We have been hearing for weeks that Americans are "paying down" their credit card debt. Whooopeee! A more cynical financial "bear" examined the actual numbers and discovered that credit card debt is actually increasing! How can that be? Accounting standards--the few that still exist--require banks to "write off" old debt, which happens to be the reason credit card debt has declined.

Completely off topic I know, but I thought this was interesting. I hope Mr Murdoch doesn't win this 'war'.

Click to view link

Without the official 'happy' talk from our elected and appointed officials, societies would fall apart and go to insurrection, chaos and riot. The status quo cannot cope with such a situation.

If the incumbent officials actually told the truth, it wouldn't be pretty, as in the U.S. Fed hiding its surreptitious lending activities to Ford, Goldman Sach, J.P. Morgan/Chase, Citibank, et al. So it is unlikely we will ever hear that truth until a 'crisis' unfolds, then extraordinary, draconian steps, i.e., outside the ordinary constitutional and legal boundaries, can be taken to 'solve' the 'crisis.'

In the meantime, it seems as though no one in government has the courage to propose anything but 'band aid' solutions to the entrenched problems for fear of alienating their supporters rather than acting for the more general good and continuance of civilization.

Perhaps a Thomas Jefferson quote would be appropriate here:

"How soon the labor of men would make a paradise of the whole earth, were it not for mis-government, and a diversion of all his energies from their proper object -- the happiness of man -- to the selfish interest of kings, nobles, and priests."

Of course, these titles are different in today's world.

@DB, please copy my comments directly into this thread from the link below. Thank you in advance.

Click to view link

Reply from The Daily Bell

Here you go ... (good summary of Dreamtime!):

----

re: Failure of Economic Happy Talk

"...but the change in the global social structure has created a psychological crisis in the US."

I don't believe Americans are having a psychological crisis because the Chinese or Indians are catching up. Few Americans have ever even seen anything of these countries, and for those who haven't, most likely continue to be blinded by the arrogance of the now certainly false American exceptionalism. No, most Americans are either a) not aware enough of the world around them, or b) believe the US is so far ahead of the unwashed third world to say the psychological crisis is caused by this reality of the world catching up.

Certainly, for the source of any psychological crisis one need look no further than home, both in today's stories and those passed down by parents and grandparents. Such a national psychosis is not born in one's own head, but is consciously and subconsciously passed along and increased from one generation to the next. For many, the dots are not consciously connected, yet certainly they must somehow be relatedto the extent one is even aware of the history.

The Constitution. A wonderful document. Yet in it was enshrined the idea of slavery. Well, it was the best we could do, many said. But was it? Why did anything need to be "done"? And to enshrine this sickness so quickly after "We hold these truths to be self evident..."

The war of 1861. Lincoln saved the republic. Or did he? There are certainly many from that generation who believed otherwise: both in the north and in the south. These were the children of the founding generation. They understood freedom. They understood checks and balances. Many were not so easily fooled. Of course, in the aftermath, all that was left was to go along and get along. But this knowledge " a very conscious knowledge " did not leave them. One way or another, they passed this on to their children.

The terrible year of 1913: the income tax, direct election of senators, and the Federal Reserve all hoisted on the people in one fell swoop and all in a less than transparent manner. What harm, under the surface, might these have caused to a people who still understood 'real money and the freedom from paying homage to the national government? What about the nagging feeling that the control was now more permanently moved from the local state to the national government, especially to those somehow aware of the true implications of Lincoln's war? These events were immediately followed by the Great War. For some reason perhaps not quite understood by the masses, the US got involved, despite a population at that time quite firmly against such foreign entanglements. Was this somehow connected to the events of 1913? Somewhere, if only in the subconscious, many must have struggled with this question. These people were the same people who only a short time before lived in a reasonably uncontrolled society. To them, perhaps the full picture was not clear, but certainly something inside was beginning to nag them.

Within a generation, the suffering of the Great Depression. But the "20s were roaring. How could this happen? A decade of financial calamity. Still not resolved, they find themselves maneuvered into fighting a war that, prior to the day that will live in infamy, few wanted to fight. This war, always called 'the good war, resulted in the deaths of millions and contributed to the subjugation of hundreds of millions behind an iron curtain. Somewhere, in the minds of anyone with a pulse, nagged the question: Is Hitler really worse than Stalin? Especially when, almost immediately after the war it was 'decided that Stalin's empire was the new enemy. This could not be conciously resolved.

After the war, seeming calm for a time. However, in order to mask the underlying decay brought on by events earlier in the century, a new enemy was created. A Cold enemy. Wars, some larger, some smaller were fought indirectly in places few heard of. The Great Society was born, a race to the moon for further diversion. The gold standard, no longer maintainable, was ushered off in a summer day in 1971 " the second major default since the advent of the Fed. But, this only unleashed the economic calamity, culminating in a decade of high inflation and high unemployment, only resolved (on the surface at least) by high double digit interest rates and two additional significant recessions. Again, the dots were not connected consciously by most, but the mind is a wonderful instrument, able to subconsciously understand and integrate what the conscious does not.

The "80s. Reagan. Happy, upbeat, defeat the commies. Stock markets only go up. Bond markets only go up. Real estate only goes upwell except for a nasty little downturn in the early "90s. But look at how quickly that was 'fixed. Debt crisis in Mexico. Debt crisis in Asia. Wait, why is the US Fed involved in these? Well, never mind: we have dotcoms, we will all retire as millionaires. But perhaps questions lingered deep down inside. Then, another blowup in 2000. The market crashed.

September 11. Somehow the story doesn't quite make sense. Some are quite aware and make a point to say so. Qualified engineers, for example, state that buildings cannot collapse like this. Other point out a collapsed third building that was not hit by anything. Where are the airplane remains? But for most, the policy is: Don't ask, don't tell. This may pacify the conscious mind, but the subconscious is not so easily fooled. The diversion comes: here comes a real estate boom to save the day. And we can all buy new cars and flat screens every year. There is no calamity too large for this wonderful machine. Happy days, but is the mind fully content? How can it be? Too many unresolved traumas passed along from one generation to the next.

2008, the economic charade is fully exposed. No happy retirement, no social security, no Medicare, no 401K. Heck, no jobs. But they do see theft. From the Fed to Wall Street. From the government to the cronies. They conclude there is little to be done about it and how hopeless they truly are, or they don't want to admit the true ramifications behind the facts of the cronyismat least not consciously. Somewhere deep down inside, they know the system does not work for them; it is designed to use them for the benefit of others. They know that what they have been taught over a lifetime is false, but who can easily admit that the lessons of a lifetime were, in fact, some sort of brainwashing? But subconsciously they know it is over, the lessons past along subconciously from one generation to the next tell them this is so. The only question is when, and exactly how.

They know, deep down inside, that they are staring a kind of death in the face, without knowing anything of the means or the timing. Only knowing, somewhere deep down inside, that the one they trusted to be their friend and to take care of them, is the one who lied to them all along and has brought on all this pain.

They have known this through several generations, going back to their grandparents in the time before 1913, perhaps even before 1861 or 1789. Such psychological trauma does not spring forth in one generation: it takes several generations of abuse. Whether or not parents know it, they pass this on to their children, and on it goes generation after generation.

The US does not have to look outside for the source of its psychological crisis. It was homegrown, over generations, with the lessons subconsciously passed from one generation to the next.

In his new book, Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream, author Christopher Whalen says the Gold Rush " 1849 " created an alternative to the Puritan notion of hard work and saving that had characterized the nation's early days. Another watershed was the legal-tender act under Lincoln, which paved the way for an acceptance of deficit spending. By the way, how do I create a Click to View Link?

@Ken

We need to know what is going on in places like Kenya. If Africa is opening up, and as long as it moves in a positive and independent direction, then this the continent of the future to which we would contribute.

@Equpoised

Brasil has had high interest rates, and high tariffs to do Abraham Lincoln proud.

For example, a Brasilian mortgage is usually 50% down and 5 years to pay. However, the "leftist" government of Lula has instituted something like national subsidized farm and housing loans. In imitation of the USA, Brasil wants to have its own Fannie Mae type of organizations.

You can guess where this will lead to. And what angers me the most is that the farm loan program was announced at the top of the grain markets. That is a good way to ruin farmers and leads one to believe that the motivation is to destroy these people.

To argue that such an artificial system...
Such eloquence in thought, it is refreshing. When others question your motives, I would recommend refering back to this paragragh as it states so purely your message. Thank you for the succinct read.

Reply from The Daily Bell

Thanks for the kind word ...

To argue that such an artificial system produces either satisfaction or long-term progress more efficiently than the 'real economy could " an economy run on honest money (gold and silver) " is illogical on its face. Human beings cannot substitute their judgment for the market and expect a better outcome. Of course the elite knows this; but it relentlessly propagandizes everyone else with the message that central banking is a market-based occurrence. It is not. Central banking is price fixing of the rate and quantity of money (through the issuance of paper money) and the outcome will never be better in the long term than what the market itself is capable of providing. Today's system stifles real growth and promotes artificial prosperity. It's really that simple. What's not so simple is the end result of such systemic fraud and all of the civil chaos and human tragedy that lies in the wake of such a disastrous tack.

I think you have to admit that there are two trends going on simultaneously.

The increase in population worldwide over the past two centuries caused a massive increase in division of labor, which produced a huge increase in wealth and health, worldwide.

The elite in the Western economies tapped that wealth via centralized bureaucratic control, and are now suffocating continued growth.

So the less "civilized" regions of the world are now poised to blow by the old great powers of the West.

For example, digital money on cell phones is revolutionizing Africa right now. But to achieve it, the African governments had to give it free reign without all the money-laundering controls that Western governments insist upon. The result is an economic boom, especially in Kenya. And this one is not based on borrowing.

The powerful forces of decentralization changing the world right now are at work in spite of the best efforts of the elite to contain them. The elite will fail to build their Neo-Babel.

Things are getting better, just not for the reasons they would lead you to believe.

Is Brazil any better off than India or China?

You mention those two countries as headed towards inflation, do you feel that Brazil is in the same situation, or are their relatively high interest rates insulating them?

Did you limit your examples to India and China for brevity's sake, or is Brazil's situation different? Thank you very much.

Reply from The Daily Bell

China and India seem to have the most inflation now, but Brazil doubtless will get there too. They all have central banks ...

Why the U.S. is broke and getting broker:

Click to view link