News & Analysis
Elite Promotion Rolls On – Are BRICs the Hope of the World's Future?
Don't be scared away by BRIC inflation ... Whether it's been ongoing inflation fears and rising interest rates or the extreme volatility in commodity prices, it's been a pretty rough year for these four darlings of the emerging markets. With investors running scared from all things risky these days, it may get even worse in the weeks ahead, but that doesn't mean that all is lost for the investment play that has led the way during most of the post-financial crisis rally. Indeed, it must not be forgotten that these developing nations have a powerful secular growth cycle at their backs and should ballooning inflation peak later this year as many analysts now expect, better performance from the BRICs will soon return. – National Post
Dominant Social Theme: The BRICs are great.
Free-Market Analysis: The power elite and its controlled mainstream media continue to "talk up" the BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India and China. This is a swelling dominant social theme and one that bears watching because the powers-that-be will do anything to continue to prop up the world's central banking economy.
We can see this elite dominant social theme in this article in the National Post, "Canada's source for market intelligence." The article makes the point that the BRICs are fairly troubled economies, but that investors shouldn't be worried about it.
Where have we heard that before? Maybe in the US just before the housing bubble popped. Actually, we hear it ALL the time. "Don't worry, be happy." The powers-that-be badly yearn for pre-Internet days when people weren't as yet, in aggregate, illuminated (and only certain people were).
There IS a power elite, of course, and it has been around for centuries, for millennia. We even found an Indian historian who claimed elite influences go back nearly 20,000 years and can first be found in India. You can read about it here: The Conversation of Freedom is Not Jewish.
In the modern era, the power elite controls societies through central banking and the ability to print money from nothing. This allows the elites – comprised, in fact, of more than one "ethnic" group – to fund their goal of world government.
In the rest of this article, we shall discuss larger monetary concepts to show why the BRICs "miracle" is just one more fear-based elite promotion. The idea is to get people to think that the modern system of central banking is viable, even though it is not.
By pointing to the BRICs, those who are behind the world's current central banking economies intend to make the argument that it is not central banking that ruins economies but other inherent factors: morality, work ethic, etc.
This is not true, of course. It is not culture that determines economic fate in the modern world (certainly the West) so much as monetary and fiscal policy. Monopoly-fiat central banks are themselves inevitably responsible for much of the the ruination of the world, and especially the West, by printing too much money, which causes first booms and then terrible busts. This is now hand appening to the BRICs, too. Their economies are flooded by money printed by their own "public" banks and the results will be drearily predictable.
The mechanism of money printing is effective in any form. It doesn't matter, of course, whether central bankers are mercantilist – hiding behind public authority – or entirely "public" – putatively run by the government itself. This latter formulation is especially naïve.
Proponents of central banking and money manipulation in general (the idea that governments are somehow "of the people" – or ever can be) are increasingly vociferous. If WE can just control the money printing, then the problems of the world shall fade away ...
In the late 20th century, it was popular to point to Japan as a good example of a consensus society, where the government and private sector "worked together." Japan, we were told, was a great example of "good governance" and Japan, as a result of its better model, was scheduled to take over the world. (See other article this issue.)
Didn't happen, of course. Japan's economy virtually collapsed in the late 20th century, a victim of the same mercantilistic nonsense that has sunk the West in the early 21st century.
Government planning and money printing only cause ruin in the long run. This is unfortunate but true. It is because of what the great Austrian free-market economist Ludwig von Mises called "human action."
This is the idea, born out by life itself, that shows us that any plans made by central authorities must obviously fail because people will take their OWN action. It is impossible to PLAN for people, because people are not potted plants. They plan for themselves.
This is why free-market economists generally believe that government programs are simply a waste of money. This accounts for the skepticism that free-market thinkers acquire as they begin to understand that they have grown up in an environment where they have accepted elite memes regarding the efficacy of government.
Every rule and regulation stemming from government and imposed by force on the larger masses is a kind of price fix. Price-fixing in the long run simply doesn't work. It only degrades society's wealth and over time pools more and more of society's assets in the hands of an elite.
And this is the point, of course. The efficacy of government is yet another dominant social theme, promoted by the elites for centuries. The elites NEED government because they operate behind the scenes, generating laws and regulations that bolster their OWN interests.
Austrians generally – the Rothbardian wing, especially – have been a thorn in the side of the power elite because free-market economics in its modern incarnation has pointed out the uselessness of government.
The free-market, non-statist approach of the Austrians so irritated German statist economists that they received the name "Austrians" out of contempt. The "Austrians" decided instead to wear it as a badge of honor. And the truth-telling generated by free-market economists has continued to grow, thanks to technology – what we call the Internet Reformation.
Yes, free-market economics has triumphed in recent years thanks to the Internet and the emergence of the alternative news media. It has done so despite increasingly vicious counter-attacks that continue to this day.
Austrian, free-market economics, in its purest (modern) form has been the only discipline that focused relentlessly on making a linkage between the average human being and economic truths. Its top people have decried "experts" and explained in timeless prose that the individual himself not only makes a difference but makes virtually the ONLY difference.
Austrian economics has, inevitably, been susceptible to divide and conquer. The Chicago Freshwater School, with its monetarist emphasis and its embrace of F.A. Hayek's "soft" free-market economics is one such example. Some argue that the overly complex and pedagogical orientation at George Mason University is another such attempt.
The "purist" wing of the Austrian school also has problems, in our view, and we have long pointed them out. The idea, for instance, that fractional reserve banking is a formal crime and that a gold standard ought to be enforced via criminal sanctions seems overly emphatic to many.
Thus, modern free-market economists (not just Austrian ones) take the view that monetary competition ought to be the gold-standard of a free-market economy, not the "gold standard" itself.
Here at the Daily Bell we've long argued for monetary competition as money has proven over the course of history to be whatever human beings decide it is. High-profile economists like Republican-libertarian candidate Ron Paul now take the same view.
We have also observed that bi-metalism, gold and silver, have proven to be a very popular solution to the problem of private money. This is because a bi-metallic standard allows average people to detect if the elites are trying to manipulate metals by cornering the market or some other practice.
The first pure silver coins were created thousands of years ago and thus, logically, humans have operated via a bi-metallic standard of some form for thousands of years. Of late, it's become fashionable in some quarters to argue that only government can be responsible for money. But this ignores the argument that government inevitably creates its mandates via price fixing.
Government works, unfortunately, through force and by transferring wealth from those who have created it to those who have not and often don't know what to do with it. This is the iron-bound fact that pure paper money proponents inevitably run up against.
The idea has been advanced, for instance, that central banking's price-fixing would somehow be made more palatable if it were entirely a "government run" operation – that is, if the public sector alone administered money.
But the problem with central banking is that those in charge CAN NEVER KNOW how much money to print. Only the marketplace itself can adjudicate the price and volume of money. This is why the most successful forms of money involve PRIVATE issuance of money-stuff into the economy.
As soon as human beings are involved in determining the supply of money, the business cycle – as analyzed elegantly by von Mises and others – becomes a main and ultimately ruinous factor in a given economy.
Inevitably, the hand of man creates an overabundance of money. Too much money in the economy makes people feel rich and the overspending starts. Eventually the boom collapses, turns to a bust and the cycle sooner or later starts over again. It is this elegant Austrian/free-market insight that drives modern money-elites bonkers.
The really damaging part of this boom-bust cycle is that it provides tremendous wealth to its controllers, those closest to the money spigot. It doesn't matter how is controlling the spigot – they will be enriched beyond measure. This guarantees corruption.
Another reason that free-market thinkers understand that only the marketplace itself can create money is because any other kind of monetary organization gives wealthy elites the opportunity to retain a money monopoly. Is this so?
Take gold, for example. In a free market economy, private monopolies are unsustainable and can only be perpetuated by force or government favoritism. In a free-market money economy, those who own the gold would find it impossible to sustain their monopoly were they to try various manipulations.
In fact, the manipulations would drain them of their wealth without having a long-term impact on prices. This is standard – and basic – economics. Begin to abuse your "monopoly" and people simply won't patronize your product or service. They will move elsewhere.
This is also the reason that modern monetary schemes such as those offered by Greenbackers and "social credit" theorists are theoretically difficult to implement long-term. Once government (or some other power) acquires the power of monopoly issuance, it will inevitably be abused. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Alternatively, greenbackers, social credit-ers and central bankers all can exist happily under one roof so long as the monopoly force of government is not brought to bear on behalf of any one of them. Yet ... we would argue in such a case – within the context of a free-market in money – that gold and silver would find their place alongside other solutions and perhaps even win the day as they have in the past.
Surely over time those who issue paper money would succumb to the temptation of printing too much of it. This is inevitable. No matter the scheme, and even within a non-monopoly context. At some point "man" must determine the money supply. And when man substitutes his judgment for the market ... look out!
Too much money inevitably generates price inflation (desbasement). As a given paper currency grows unstable people begin using more gold and silver, which tend to hold their value. If one looks at the sweep of history, this is an observable fact. There is no mystery to it.
This is why many paper-money schemes may end up with their backers insisting on some sort of government monopoly. They cannot really compete any other way. (The exception to this may be fractional reserve banking, as Selgin and White have long observed.)
Also, some of these schemes seem to rely on forcible or voluntary confiscation. We find it difficult to believe that people would voluntarily join a monetary system that proposes to remove their "excess" earnings in the name of redistributive justice. This is another reason why such facilities may end with proponents suggesting government force.
You see? These are very simple concepts and also ineluctable ones. They are the reason, theoretically speaking, why free-market economies that utilize the Invisible Hand are better places to live in than controlled economies that use monetary methodologies empowering certain people to administer the awesome power of government on behalf of others.
Where we really part company from those who advocate various kinds of pure fiat is in their occasional emphasis on the salving effects of government itself. We can understand that a small government is preferable to a large one, but we certainly don't need to make the case FOR government in order to argue for a limited State.
To the degree that monetarist theorists BEGIN with the idea that governmental force is an inevitable adjunct to civil society, we reject it. Make the argument for freedom first – in all aspects of human society, including money. These arguments go back THOUSANDS of years, of course, and we are disappointed they have come under attack even in the alternative media.
Conversations about freedom occupied ancient societies even before the so-called Greek Golden Age. Roman philosophers were concerned with them, too, as were religious economists in Asia and Europe. No particular ethnic group has a choke-hold on a conversation that is as old as humanity as itself.
It's a BIG CONVERSATION. You MAY get to have a voice if you have something new and interesting to say. The Austrians, for instance, are valuable to this conversation in the modern era because of "human action" and the "business cycle," concepts that explain how modern economies work, and why they don't work.
To the degree that Austrian economics has contributed to our understanding of freedom generally, we are grateful to those who have clarified its concepts and made the case for its superiority. We see no reason to concoct conspiracy theories about Austrian economists generally as their WORK speaks for itself. Attacks, seen in this light, are nothing more than an ad hominem fallacy.
Human beings are obviously tribal creatures. But the traditional clan-methodologies of social interactions are constantly perverted by elites that wish to take advantage of human instinct to create larger societies that they can control behind the scenes.
This is the reason for the constant celebration of the "new." Yesterday it was Japan's turn. Today, the BRICs are being talked up as the latest and greatest examples of how Big Society can create prosperity for all. But it cannot.
The fate of the BRICS will be the fate of Japan and of America and Europe. They will inflate themselves into ruin sooner or later. Such bigness – and big money monopoly fiat systems – is unsustainable. The concept is an elite meme floated by the powers-that-be to try to justify their behind-the-scenes control.
Their very bigness makes them unsustainable. As the crashes begin, the elites inevitably begin to foment war and to suggest alternative forms of (big) government that might alleviate problems caused by the previous forms of big government.
It is always bigness that the elites want, the bigger the better. A big PUBLIC central bank would surely be preferable to none at all. Faced with this alternative, elites will likely abandon their current mercantilist. With a public central banking system (with public banks generally) they have a good chance of retaining their monopoly influence. We would certainly question whether the BRIC's public banking systems operate with less Money Power control just because they are in the public perview.
The only real solution is to insist on privatization. To choke the thing that the elites use so successfuly to implement their manipulations. One need not suggest MORE government or DIFFERENT government. Welcome what is inevitable: the eventuality of private solutions to public problems as the current disastrous elite regime, worldwide, continues to collapse.
There IS a difference between private and public/mercantilist sectors. Wall Street, for instance, was, initially anyway, a PRIVATE evolution that built on another PRIVATE evolution of the French auction-based stock market itself ... a 1,000-year-old facility that began, supposedly, when someone needed to raise capital to build a mill.
Conclusion: Real prosperity, humankind's past shows us, begins with freedom and individual human action, likely within the context of flexible tribal-oriented communalism, minarchy, etc. This is a clear fact, historically. Why would anyone want to contradict it?
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Posted by memehunter on 03/14/12 01:17 PM
DB: FOFOA makes it sound so, well ... elegant. Look around at the world's misery, bloodshed and starvation and ask if the "delightful duet" between government and the people it "serves" is as splendid as FOFOA makes it out to be.
FOFOA is fairly critical of government in general, though this may not be obvious from the passages I quoted. The important point, in the context of the DB's article, was that FOFOA clearly points out that the role of government is not to produce capital, but to enable and support the private production of capital.
As for myself, I will simply restate that, while I am in favor of a minimal government, I see Money Power as a much bigger issue than government. Following my "driver" analogy, as well as feedbacker John the Just's comments about a bottom-up form of governance (see the Foster Gamble thread), I would like to suggest that it is possible to conceive of other forms of government than the ones we have now in most Western countries. While reforms are probably necessary, changing the "driver" should be the first priority. Clearly, the current driver is Money Power in most Western countries (and probably around the world).
More generally, I suggest that one of the ways to limit or reduce the influence of Money Power is to think about ways in which our monetary system could be reformed such that, no matter who or what entity is in control of issuing a currency, the issuer(s) draw little power and wealth from his ability to control this currency.
I must thank feedbacker Luis Magno (see Foster Gamble thread) for encouraging me to clarify my position on the matter. As far as I am concerned, the best long-term course of action is not to try to "take control of Money Power" (as Magno suggested), but rather to think of monetary systems that do not give rise to a Money Power.
Gesell (and FOFOA as well, it seems) saw that it was unnatural for the monetary plane to dominate over the physical plane, as is the case with the current monetary system (and would likely still be the case with a gold standard or other gold-backed currencies). In stating this clearly, Gesell made (in my view) a insightful and very perceptive observation.
While the DB and other readers may disagree with Gesell's idea that the focus on interest-free currencies (or interest-negative currencies) is the optimal solution to this problem, I believe that it is a good starting point for a discussion. I wish to add to this FOFOA's emphasis on using physical gold as a store of value, and differentiating between physical gold and paper gold, gold standards, or fractional reserve bullion banking.
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Posted by memehunter on 03/14/12 10:50 AM
Another interesting comment by FOFOA, from the same article:
FOFOA: "The physical plane is all that matters. The monetary plane only exists to assist the Superorganism by transmitting information through prices and lubricating the flow. Savers drive everything. If they are saving, the economy will expand (sustainably or unsustainably). If they are not saving, the economy will contract."
Memehunter: I would obviously disagree with the idea that "the physical plane is all the matters" (this ignores the ideological/spiritual plane), but in this instance FOFOA is contrasting the physical plane with the monetary plane. I personally find FOFOA's point interesting in light of similar views expressed by Gesell regarding the hierarchy between the physical and monetary planes (I'm not sure whether others have made this parallel, given that FOFOA is not exactly a follower of Gesell's ideas, but this is interesting nonetheless).
Note also FOFOA's insistence on the "Superorganism" (and this is a recurrent theme in his work), which suggests an economic model that is not centered exclusively on individual "human action" and initiative. And this, despite FOFOA's Austrian proclivities.
Reply from The Daily Bell
"On the national scale, however, we are all both blessed and cursed by the presence of government. Governments are always net consumers, as it is their very job to redistribute part of our private savings into the infrastructure and secure environment that enables us to produce capital in the way that we do. Government's job is not to produce capital, but to enable and support the private production (and accumulation) of capital!"
"very job to redistribute part of our private savings into the infrastructure and secure environment that enables us to produce capital in the way that we do."
Incredible. You believe this stuff? How do you think "government" redistributes "our" private savings? By asking politely? Or at the point of a gun, by threatening incarceration.
FOFOA makes it sound so, well ... elegant. Look around at the world's misery, bloodshed and starvation and ask if the "delightful duet" between government and the people it "serves" is as splendid as FOFOA makes it out to be.
You reallly think so? Why do you bother to argue this stuff? ...
We will add this to your "list" ....
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Posted by memehunter on 03/14/12 10:36 AM
DB: Government planning and money printing only cause ruin in the long run.
There are some interesting comments by FOFOA that are pertinent to this observation and to the role of monetary systems in general (I note that FOFOA is generally sympathetic to Austrianism, though he probably would not think of himself as a "pure" Austrian/Libertarian).
FOFOA: "We should think about the global economy in terms of production and consumption in the physical realm as opposed to the financial or monetary realm, what I like to call the physical plane versus the monetary plane. A "net producer" produces more capital than he consumes. Likewise, a "net consumer" consumes more than he produces. The global aggregate is generally net-neutral on this production-consumption continuum. I say "generally" because there are times of expansion and times of contraction, so taking time into account, we are "generally" net-neutral (or close to it) as a planet. At least that's the way it is under the global dollar reserve standard.
On the national scale, however, we are all both blessed and cursed by the presence of government. Governments are always net consumers, as it is their very job to redistribute part of our private savings into the infrastructure and secure environment that enables us to produce capital in the way that we do. Government's job is not to produce capital, but to enable and support the private production (and accumulation) of capital!
Being such that human society has evolved in this way, we private citizens must, in aggregate, be net producers so that government can net consume. And we become net producers by saving. Therefore we enable and support our own future net productivity by saving some of our past production of capital today, in the form of savings.
The financial system is really just the monetary plane's record-keeper of this vital process that actually takes place on the physical plane. In its modern incarnation, the global financial system has allowed for a strange international balancing act whereby (literally) one whole side of the planet's net production has allowed the other side to net-consume for decades on end. But this is an unsustainable anomaly, and it is beside the point of this discussion."
DB: Take gold, for example.
FOFOA: But for gold to fulfill this vital function in the capital creation process, it needs to trade in a fixed (or at least constrained) quantity that will allow its price to rise every time a new capital net-increase is contributed to the marketplace. And, unfortunately, paper gold and fractional reserve bullion banking doesn't allow this process to work properly. In fact, it makes paper appear generally competitive, even to gold.
Memehunter: I must highlight these last few sentences: "And, unfortunately, paper gold and fractional reserve bullion banking doesn't allow this process to work properly. In fact, it makes paper appear generally competitive, even to gold."
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Posted by TheLibertyCap on 03/13/12 04:56 PM
Bitcoin is a great example of a private currency. I think the emergence of the first cryptocurrency is a real achievement and it was only made possible with the invention of computers, networks and cryptography. Let this serve us as a proof that the Internet reformation's tools are really powerful.
I understand that the DB hesitates to advertise this money because it is in fact a brand, but it serves a good purpose in showing us what might lie ahead of us in the future. The free market can thrive with such unregulated money.
The first thing the DB would ask: Is it an intel invention? Maybe - but it seems like they would be shooting themselves in the foot. However, the smart move is to always be the first and in control when you see the inevitable.
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Posted by speedygonzales on 03/13/12 04:37 AM
Daniel Lipsic was trained in the US
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Posted by speedygonzales on 03/13/12 04:35 AM
Sorry for poor google transalation. All is about that folx in crypto democratic EU are permaently beaten to the blood and bones by police which represents ruling class.
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Posted by speedygonzales on 03/13/12 04:27 AM
This is democracy and Dominant social themes. This folx after 22 years of bulying as democracy just started fight for!
Click to view link
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Posted by speedygonzales on 03/13/12 04:18 AM
Mrs. Kurucova and everyone else you've been there ... ... I have personally attended your "intervention" (your intent is small), the human nature and composition of the protesters I saw with my own eyes, so Dear citizens interpreted for me to read the words of police spokeswoman, in Slovakia we have extremist groups INDUCE mess and destroying public spaces to people in their councils, such as pensioners, disability pensioners (eg meter from me stood an elderly lady on crutches), 13 year old children, their parents, people between the ages of your parents. yes this was all those extremists who were around me. hovorkina so weighted, weighted and weighted Lipšic CA, firstly by Ocana SR was grossly and unreasonably restricted freedom of movement and other rights guaranteed in democracies and those that have no apparent cause of the armed police forces in the middle of the street people physically arrested at that time located in beneath the castle area. since there is no reason for this procedure and consider it a gross violation of constitutional rights of citizens of Slovakia, approves the crowd reaction that threw a few eggs and toilet paper (I do not say that I've seen everything but the eggs I counted 10 and toiletpaper remember only one, yet there were two firecrackers thrown by what I saw were those described cobbles and especially do not know where the asphalt road paving one tailed). repeat surgery consider unconstitutional and grossly violating the fundamental rights of persons and therefore tetno act of revenge (if they want to call a couple of eggs) was absolutely fine and even, as opposed to intervention components and PZ with constitutional law obbcanov SR. procedure and lends those "self-defense kicks" were probably following after the third call the police about the crowd nerozišiel (and why should he when there was a fraudulent police not citizens), there was something not seen live who can not imagine the peace of people sitting or standing crowd began officers with insane views suggestive of their low intelligence and moral limit burn flash Bangi, rubber bullets, people in the first place got hit full gas, of course niekolkorkát a row, after the Board of blood horny PPUckarov began to move forward and hitting everything indiscriminately. I saw people who schytali spray in the eye after the attack and fell to the ground, were beaten with batons and snap on the ground after gunmen on 5 pieces of a lying, piece from me was a young man whom the blood rushed to the skull beaten with batons and kicking because they did not proceed at a speed what seemed the oddball enough, jackets unbroken broken head, I saw a woman aged 50 years nestíhala estimated to be at which he also identified additional armed offender in the guise of Police and received baton blows. Dear fellow citizens so this is the democracy in the Slovak way that you are 22 years and feeding a call to civil liberties, We are ashamed that even with my taxes were paid a man who was my fellow citizen without reason, but apparently, the gentlemen in CA already looking forward to They will return again and Kalinák omnipotent hand mafia, once the events of the last day you nepresvecili that democracy died in Slovakia and we have to take it back to me so people simply deserve freedom and democracy
Read more: Click to view link # ixzz1oz00HWeP
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Posted by speedygonzales on 03/13/12 04:15 AM
' Do not trust the media! Washed your brains!
I have personally witnessed the brutal suppression of a protest unjust. I stood in the first place and no blocks and bricks, as claimed by media nelietali. Eggs and flew toilet paper, and also subject to exceptions for turtles to protesters did not targerted own front board. If something flew air, and after the intervention. No extremists, but students, workers, pensioners, women, parents with older children, and min. and a pregnant woman. We sat down, sang the national anthem, holding banners, flags, hands up and threw it between us smoke puff charges, tear gas bombs, tear gas canister was thrown against us, and fired rubber bullets indiscriminately began to throb as rye. I protected the friend's own body, because in that time was injured and disoriented from the blast, which I now sand in your ears. With the backpack, thick jacket and cap have only a slight injury. Rozšklbané pants, dirty jacket, bruises and broken head is nothing compared to some 60 year old master, whom next to me kicked in the head, while the non-waste, a woman by two heroes stlkli unconscious, and guys who poskákali on hand so well that he stuck bone. Those who steamrolled, not undermining, the earth dorážali their shots and pulled out apparatus, where the ambulances as they went. The country was left lying about 30 people, roughly about 10 women. Because you probably thought I was knocked out, I quietly hid the injured friend for photographers who we luckily smuggled outside "interference." Ambulances in any case not two as claimed by the media sold out, but they were a dozen people walked after being charged on other streets as the crowd not to be "in sight". My friend with a height of 158 cm has only recharge leg. They tried us so much more than knock down and nail, but I could not find it, for what the Police Force sorry, and in particular, the Interior Minister Daniel Lipšic that no further accused extremists in the table! Did the promise to be more police on the streets and seen it safely so I've never felt. Thank you. Even that fights gorillas. They should be hitting on all demonstrations. Never in my life of any police officer not only attacked eggs, but when I saw the blood in zmlátených people, I already have an understanding, if in some sadistic DEMENTA throw stones!'
Click to view link
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Posted by Danny B on 03/13/12 12:00 AM
The BRICs appear to be the next preferred "host". Probably due to the internet, several countries have instituted capital-controls to keep their country from being flooded with hot-money.
Click to view link
They weren't take by surprise.
You have to take a good look at the financial landscape to get a true idea of where America is at the moment. Then, you can make a good guess where it [we] are going.
"'The federal government recorded its worst monthly deficit in history in February, according to a preliminary report Wednesday from the Congressional Budget Office that said the deficit in fiscal year 2012 is already more than half a trillion dollars. . . .
The nonpartisan agency projected the government will run a deficit of $229 billion in February, the highest monthly figure ever.' That means the government spent nearly $8 billion more than it took in each and every day of last month"
$8 billion every day,,, negative.
Click to view link
There are 5 million fewer people working in America than when obummer took office.
Credit grew at 6 times the rate that the GDP grew. That GDP growth INCLUDES financial services. There hasn't actually been any growth in productivity in the last several years. It's been negative.
It IS going to make an adjustment.
50% of the cost of any "item" is for finance. It runs 19% for trash collection and 78% for low-income housing. The average is 50%. So, imagine what the financial-services industry is going to do when productivity in America is commensurate with actual wealth & consumption and NOT credit.
They are going to need a new host. Martin Armstrong said that we [all of us] are going to ride this pony until it hits a wall. Lindsay Williams said that we are definitely going to default in 2012.
U.S. representative Roscoe Bartlett says to move your family out of the city.
Click to view link
OK, so after the dust settles a bit, what are all the [surviving] bankers going to do? They're going to try to trade up ... a new host.
Like Northern carpetbaggers, they're going to follow the money. I hope that they get flayed and salted :)
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Posted by seer on 03/12/12 10:48 PM
" We can see this elite dominant social theme in this article in the National Post, "Canada's source for market intelligence." The article makes the point that the BRICs are fairly troubled economies, but that investors shouldn't be worried about it."
No surprise here. The entire current economic system is based on expanding consumption to fuel the expanding debt. Central Banks can print money forever but the natural resources necessary to fuel this expansion cannot last at the current rate of consumption. When this expansion slows enough it will implode.
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Posted by taxesbyanyothername on 03/12/12 08:30 PM
There was wealth to be stolen before there was stored food. Prefered land, and, at least as important, women.
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Posted by rossbcan on 03/12/12 08:18 PM
DB: "It was the Neolithic (whenever that actually was) and the rise of urbanism that ushered in the initial conspiracies in our view."
IMHO, it was the transition from hunter/gatherer to the advent of agriculture leading to stored food (wealth) that caused this conflict in mankind.
The peaceful and pruductive evolved to co-operate for "mutual self-interest", self-organizing in communities (to protect from predators).
Some (barbarians) did not make the leap (and STILL, have not) from hunter / gather to civilized, but, did adapt to more lucrative prey (the productive and STORED wealth).
Predators "follow the money" and, prey who KNOW that survival depends on predator control KNOW they must follow the predators by following the money and determining "cui bono".
"Conspiracies" are merely predators cooperating for mutual self-interest, as powerful a goal-seeking methodology for criminals, as it is for the civilized, a division of labor.
Thus, if civilization is to survive, predators MUST be controlled and the "carrots and sticks" must be such that "crime does not pay".
Hence, the "rule of law" versus "predators on the bench", like moths to flame:
Click to view link
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Posted by taxesbyanyothername on 03/12/12 07:09 PM
BRICs, yes any way to twist the perception of the unwashed masses. But the unwashed masses don't seem to be so unwashed, and their perception not sophisticated enough to be twisted in the elite's desired direction. The emergence of the "Tide Money Tribe" indicates (at least to me) that dollars are more expendable than those with many of them might think, and that money may have a much more flexible definition in the immediate future.
How much time and effort have experts put into currencies with even less value as a medium of exchange? Gold and silver yes. Keep your banks, bits, and bytes. I'll grow food.
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Posted by memehunter on 03/12/12 05:25 PM
DB: It was the Neolithic (whenever that actually was) and the rise of urbanism that ushered in the initial conspiracies in our view.
Maybe it was the "initial conspiracies" who actually had something to do with the rise of urbanism and of "bigness".
Remember how bananas, corn, and several other staples of modern agriculture seem to appear out of nowhere about 10000-5000 B.C.
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Posted by BladeMcCool on 03/12/12 05:23 PM
the Bitcoin economy is a free market. Nobody can steal or tax my Bitcoins, nobody can inflate the supply of Bitcoins. All Bitcoin exchanges can be voluntary and all market participants can engage one another on a purely voluntary basis, with (practically) no overhead/fees imposed by any third parties. I know people here don't like Bitcoin, but that doesnt change any of its fundamentals and the fact that it is very much a free market beyond the control of any nation states or bands of armed thugs.
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Posted by samson on 03/12/12 04:55 PM
DB. Agree with your hypothesis of preferred methods of National money varieties which trade in free societies, without Central Banking control, and subject to Global control by the Elite banking titans, who will not willingly relinquish their stranglehold in their goal of eventual absolute control of Earth's masses. These powers plans ebb & flow for centuries as they continue their relentless diabolical master program.
The Middle East,thru Islamic determination, is attempting to reclaim the glory of the past Ottoman Empire, not only thru force & intimadation, but also the monetary programs of utilizing Gold & other forms of barter, in energy trading. They are a threat to the global money barons as they also have a master plan to control the masses globally, and subject all to Sharia law, worldwide. We are a voice in the wilderness in our lifetime as the powers that be will not give up. Only a supernatural cosmic event will change the competition.
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Posted by rossbcan on 03/12/12 03:13 PM
@DB: "So you believe"
Please connect the dots, from A to B, exactly how, from my post you arrive at we can possibly be in disagreement.
all in, total agreement:
Without complexity (alleged to require monopoly organized "professions", experts to manage intellectual turf, various disciplines EFFECT: we "need them") the elites cannot properly practice mercantilism. Without bigness, they cannot hide. It's evident and obvious.
I only stated that without hieararchy they cannot control (main goal, side effect: bigness) as opposed to your "Without bigness, they cannot hide". Sure they can hide without bigness. Any "control endeavor", independent of size can hide who "is pulling the levers" (it may really be the janitor, watching the peons).
This may appear to be a trivial point, but, if the problem is concluded to be "bigness", "solutions" will be targeted at "bigness", which, IMHO, will not neccessarily improve matters. Targeting "hiarchical command and control", well, that is a dagger to their heart. They cannot exist without it.
Reply from The Daily Bell
We do not believe that modern elite hierarchies can exist without considerable complexity, ie: bigness. It was the Neolithic (whenever that actually was) and the rise of urbanism that ushered in the initial conspiracies in our view.
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Posted by rossbcan on 03/12/12 02:31 PM
DB: "It is always bigness that the elites want"
No, it is "top down controlled hierarchies" that elites want. Bigness is a consequence, a side effect of elite GREED (consuming more than you produce), resulting in endless consolidation into bigger coercive structures.
Hierarchies are Rube Goldberg structures, doomed to collapse by information subversion / corruption as it traverses "management" levels (inability to correctly choose equals survival) . The "bigger they are, the harder they fall" is not just a truism, it is TRUTH:
Click to view link
The ad-hoc organizational structures that the internet is facilitating and, mandating for competetive advantage reasons is eroding and, will ultimately make big "command and control" organizations extinct, either because they are uncompetetive, or the controllers decide to kill a large percentage of the population, especially the FREE, because they MAY do something controllers don't like, which in their circular tautologic "logic" is initiating aggression.
Reply from The Daily Bell
So you believe modern elites exited in the wandering tribal societies of eons past? You believe modern-style elites existed among the Amer-Indian in the US and the Paleolithic era? Are you sure? Without complexity, the elites cannot properly practice mercantilism. Without bigness, they cannot hide. It's evident and obvious.
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Posted by vivek on 03/12/12 01:45 PM
I think you meant to say that free market theory has triumphed through it's dissemination to a wider audience via the Internet reformation?
But the 800 pound gorilla in any "real" transformation, a bricks (not clicks) transformation, requires the breakdown of the current structure. Corruption in India as an example. The resulting up-heaval would radically alter the landscape of this discussion, eh?
Reply from The Daily Bell
OK. Now you have written something we may agree with on every level.
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