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A World on the Brink

By Rick Ackerman Posted on November 18, 2011, 1:59 am EST Last Updated November 18, 2011, 4:16 pm EST

[How much longer can Europe and the U.S. postpone the global financial system’s collapse? We doubt that the chicanery that has sustained it so far will see us into the New Year. In the essay below, Rick’s Picks contributor Erich Simon sees an epiphany coming that could reshape the face of modernity.  RA]

There is a beginning and end to everything, and I find it interesting that Italy and Greece, two of the oldest, are “winding down” as expressed by their financial dredge. Meanwhile, the countries to the north, whose social thrust is mediated by harsher environments, continue to service existing loans into managed growth and a semblance of balance. The debt game is all about growth into a finite environment. We are witnessing countries at the margin of both demographic and cultural surge beginning to falter. Perhaps this is indictment that nothing can last forever because the universe doesn’t allow for that;  like immortality, it would never allow for “turnover” or “progress.”  How many Michelangelos before it’s time to move on?

No one has a better sense today that the human race has collectively extorted its environment than the countries facing debt-based Armageddon. Quality of life is diminishing right in front of our eyes. The EU is fracturing like the Hatfields and McCoys. While humans are quintessential adapters to change, which is the only thing certain about the universe, the change is ramping into the span of one generation, so that we are all, young and old, witness to a larger social awareness. A deep seated sense of loss comes from our recognition that the world of yesterday was preferable to that of today. That toying around in your living room behind a game console is a mockery of the physical adventures enjoyed by our recent past. That the journey is over, the walls are closing in on both rich and poor, and we either take the next step — perhaps a repudiation of the origins of our animal selves, certainly the reigning in of such to accommodate overcrowded conditions — or go down in the flames of a Shakespearean overlay that has merry-go-rounded us all into the final act.

One of the oldest societies is Japan. The Japanese are caught right now in an astounding lemming-like run over the cliff in regards to the realization that they have indelibly poisoned their environment with the melt-throughs at Fukushima. The Emperor’s family, the Prime Minister, news anchors, are quite possibly sick, some sporting the telltale face of “Hiroshima City Burn.” These stalwart artisans of the human experience delicately balanced in harmony with Nature are punishing themselves in the greatest Death Wish of the modern era – this, in the global village’s top of the technology-producing food chain and once second largest economy.

Fed’s ‘Holiday Plans’

In the United States, our debt overhang is similarly caught up in oblivion and apathy. OWS is rearing its feeble attempt to shake the nation out of its catatonic freeze to moderate our coming transition. The rest of us are in denial and shock even, clearly perceptive on an instinctual, cellular, almost genetically pre-programmed level that this is not going to end well; but worse, that we are all going to go over the falls and there is nothing that any of us can do about it. It’s just too big and unruly now. The credit markets are tip-toeing on egg shells, afraid to awaken a panic that we all know is coming. On the day of the upcoming international bank runs, the banking system is going to go on hiatus. The Fed has been making its holiday plans, right alongside Homeland Security, since at least the free-money tax rebates and Cash-For-Clunkers.  Unlike 9-11, this next holiday will last for weeks certainly, if not months. Dissension will erupt everywhere and push through the floodgates of martial law, the strength of those gates dictating the duration of social suffering; the longer martial law imposes detriment, the longer before a return to balance.

Meaningful change is going to take place, like it or not. On that day, society will work through the numbers, the real numbers, and emerge either in some semblance of new round of mark-to-market and debt re-ratings… so far removed from today’s fantasy that the whole concept of “Debt” might just be rescinded for being such a bad idea, or else the whole social board is going to change as chaos and anarchy remake the face of the modern era, pulling off the mask to show it for what it really is.

***

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  • Seawolf November 21, 2011, 1:22 pm

    Nothing wrong with thinking like an engineer. After all it is the engineers who have kept the Malthusian catastrophe at bay. However, we still have to contend with the Laws of Thermodynamics, which when taken together say you can’t get something for nothing or there is no free lunch. So,everything has an energy cost which is distinct from a dollar cost. Do not confuse the two.

    Now let us go back to our Kansas oil reservoir. There are energy costs and dollar costs associated with this reservoir of oil. Since we cannot crawl around in this reservoir directly we will use a thought experiment. Most people seem to think of an oil reservoir as if it were an underground swimming pool. Drill a hole to the pool, stick in a pump and pump the oil out. Don’t work that way.

    Imagine an empty swimming pool. Call up a construction company and order enough course sand to fill the pool,pack the sand down. Now call another contractor to bring you a tank load of light weight oil, sewing machine oil would work. Pour the oil into the pool until the pool is full. You now have an oil reservoir. Keep track of all expenses to fill the pool. Don’t worry about the cost of the pool itself. Now my challenge to you is: find a way to separate the oil and the sand that is less than the cost of putting them together in the pool without pushing any of those costs unto someone else.

    The financial engineers thought that they had found the Holy Grail of risk free gambling. They are now discovering that you can’t always have your input costs subsidized by someone else. Risk is the friction in the financial world and friction can never be totally eliminated. Friction produces heat which can never be fully recovered.

    We live on a finite planet, not in an Ayn Rand or science fiction world. Friction obeys the Laws of Thermodynamics and friction tells us there are limits.

    Blaming the socialists or the idiots in government accomplishes nothing. They are doing what DNA tells all alphas to do, grasp and hold unto power.

  • mava November 21, 2011, 7:10 am

    You’re thinking as an engineer.

    As my first objection, I would ask you, what prevents us from using that same oil at costs where translated say to fuel, one gallon is $40? I understand that simply raising the price of output in no way solves EROI limit directly.

    However, it does solve it indirectly! Because at $40 per gallon, there can be a lot more R&D funded to:
    – Raise energy efficiency of oil recovery, by having machines with higher coefficient of useful power to spent power.
    – Bring alternative energy technologies to the level where they can be used to replace hydrocarbons.
    – Realign our energy uses to insure that energy is not used foolishly.

    This, is impossible with socialists, because they insist that those who do not work, continue to eat. To that end, we see the government mis-allocating capital in significant ways by subsidizing non-productive use (any use that can not pay for replacement of energy used).

    Further, socialist government would rather pay exorbitantly for R&D of alternative energy in unnatural ways (for instance by mandating, by subsidizing, by “equalizing”, by conducting wars, etc), than to allow prices to rise naturally and organically, therefore bringing needed changes right along.

    Consider the world before the discovery of oil. What did it look like to it’s inhabitants as far as energy perspective? Do you not think it look pretty dim, if you were to pose the same question back then? Would you not hear the answer that the population back then (1 billion in 1820) was at the possible limit that the Earth can support? But the population increased sevenfold since then, again, thanks to capitalism exclusively!

    We did not know about the source of energy right below out feet. Thanks to capitalism, the profit motive existed and the source of energy was found.

    In the same way, we do not know now, what other forms and sources of energy exist right in front of our nose today. Without capitalism, unhampered and undirected by idiots in Washington DC, we will get stuck at this level.

    Remember, that as prof. Reisman had put it, the earth is nothing but a ball of resources, and so is our solar system, and so is the universe. The only question is and always has been – the EROI. But EROI is dependent on technology. Consider nuclear energy and the EROI that it affords us. Was that same EROI even thinkable to people without capitalism?

    There is no limit. Literally, because there is no limit to the universe. We can do anything, nothing stops us from delivering hydrogen from distant planets to turning moon into a giant nuclear plant and beaming the energy to earth.

    The only thing that stops us on that road is the socialists, because they always insist on using resources below cost of replenishing, which stops any technological progress.

    Look what they do. They construct their managed pricing in the way that productive use has to pay higher price per energy unit, while unproductive use pays below cost. Instead of having volume discount for more electric energy used, heavy users pay way above what market would dictate, while the poor burn it for no purpose and without cost.

  • mava November 21, 2011, 2:40 am

    Seawolf,

    Yes, I was responding to Mercuious’ idea that there is something special worth saving about us. My point was we would only be special if we didn’t have the socialist among us. But with them, we are a waste.

    Not that I agree with you entirely either. What makes you think that 7 billion is above of what Earth can sustain? Sure it is not 50 billions? Why do you think we can’t continue without oil? There is an important distinction here: socialists can not continue without oil, for now. They need to either reduce population (gas stoves work great) or allow capitalists to find the way forward. Capitalists will go on without as much as a flinch.

    • Seawolf November 21, 2011, 4:25 am

      Why do I think that a population of over 7 billion is unsustainable? It comes down to “Energy Return on Investment” (EROI). Briefly stated it says that if it takes more energy to extract it then the energy you can get out of then you don’t extract it. An oil field is a good example. Let us take a small,shallow field in Kansas. It is discovered, delineated and put into production. In the first years of production extraction is easy and lets say that the energy input equal to one barrel of oil brings up 40 barrels. we have a net output of 39 barrels of oil energy equivalent. As the field ages and the internal pressure drops it takes more and more energy to get the remaining oil until you reach a point where it takes more energy to get a barrel out than is contained in that barrel. At that point the field is abandoned even though there is still about 50 per cent of the original oil still in the ground.

      Peak oil is real. From now and into the future energy from oil will get more and more expensive. Without cheap oil the world food distribution network collapses. The energy inputs to build and maintain that infrastructure are huge. First you need the roads and railroads, then the vehicles that travel on them that move the food from distant farms which need fertilizers and gasoline and diesel fuel (more oil derivatives). Now imagine feeding Chicago (9.8 million people) without that infrastructure. Now imagine that for the whole planet. That is why I say that the current population is well above the carrying capacity of the planet.

      EORI!

      You can forget your gas stove. It too is dependent on that infrastructure. Beware the Seneca Cliff.

  • Seawolf November 21, 2011, 1:05 am

    Rick, I just noticed your complaint about the major browsers. Have you tried Opera or Sea Monkey? Opera is about as user friendly as you can get.

    &&&&&

    Thanks, Sea, but it’s not so much the user-friendliness that’s been a problem, but the dodginess of each new browser version. They all stink, as far as I can tell, but at the moment, IE8 seems to stink least. RA

    • Seawolf November 21, 2011, 5:21 am

      I’ve been using opera for about 10 years now. Their upgrades stay pretty much under the hood and the user interface stays pretty constant so you don’t have to relearn how to use it with every upgrade.

  • Seawolf November 20, 2011, 9:06 pm

    I assume Mava that your post is directed to both Mercuious and myself. I will answer for myself and allow Mercuious answer fro himself if he wishes.

    In my short post I was agreeing that we as a species are well on a track to destroying oursleves. You will notice that I used the word could, not would or will.

    We humans, being the third and most developed member of the chimpanzee family, have been blessed or cursed with a large complex brain and forelimbs suited to manipulating our environment. There are other species with large complex brains and there are other specieswith dexterous forelimbs. Humans have both and so far we have been using them to foul our environment.

    As you say, we procreate like rats. Not only do we procreate like rats, but we save our defectives and allow them to procreate. Now we have a world population well in excess of the natural ability of our planet to sustain the species. Without oil, a depleting resource, we cannot sustain our current numbers. Not only are we fouling our nest but we are destroying it as well. We are a dysfunctional, narcissistic species and evolutionary dead end. It doesn’t have to be, but we look to alphas as leaders (its in our DNA) and could very well commit species suicide. That is why I say the large primate brain could be an so far that leadership has not been good.

    As far as the universe or outer space caring about what we do, it does not care. It will just go on doing what it has always whether we survive to watch or not.

  • mava November 20, 2011, 7:17 pm

    But, the humans have a nasty habit of procreating like rats. Look, there is already 7 billion.

    If you’ll look at the numbers, the population is ever growing, – where is the confirmation of your thesis?

    On a personal note, I agree this was a miracle, for a while. And then the human mind invented communism, socialism and democracy. Do you really think the outer space wants that scourge to continue to exist? I don’t think so. We have veered off the highway of progress back in 20th century, and haven’t got back on it yet.

    Making a parallel with Dead Sea Scrolls, imagine that it turned out that they are the direct message of Satan to corrupt us, and that the scrolls have never been witnessed being destroyed, instead anything you do to them, they just multiply and multiply like common mold. Would you still relish such a treasure?

  • Mercurious November 19, 2011, 11:56 pm

    You want to know what I find interesting? Probably not, but I’ll share it anyway.

    Think of the violence, brute force, unbridled greed and titanic swath of destruction of human life on this planet; for the moment, don’t even consider animal or plant life.

    Then, reflect that, to the best of our current knowledge, there is nothing remotely like us in the entire known universe. Yes, yes, I know, law of averages, etc. etc. But the fact is, we have a hard time isolating even microscopic matter that may be thought of as “living” in near-space exploration.

    Then look up at the night sky–if you live 125 miles away from a city–and understand we may be in the process of destroying the most advanced organic life within parsecs of our cosmic neighborhood. Nothing like us to be found and yet we’ll gun down hundreds at at time in a Syrian street, incinerate thousands with conventional fuel-air ordnance, and threaten the deaths of millions of these incredible creatures called humans with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons…with nary a thought. It would be like using the Dead Sea Scrolls to wipe mud off your boots. And yet we’re doing it, with increasing frequency and ferocity, every day.

    I hope Robert’s comments above are true, that no species has willingly made itself extinct voluntarily. The problem with that analysis is that we have reached such a level of dysfunction, we seem to be incapable of projecting the clarity of thought necessary to even avoid an outcome like that. Can we be saved as a species?

    Do miracles happen? We better hope they do.

    • Seawolf November 20, 2011, 4:49 am

      The large brain in a primate species could very well end as a failed experiment.

  • Bc November 19, 2011, 9:35 pm

    “Slow the world down, it’s too fast for me. ” is what many will soon be saying. The down escalator always goes faster than the up one. Sorry, but government can’t stop or slow down what’s coming. My one hope is that the calamity predicted when the big banks fail is exaggerated and we wake one day in a world without big banks that is trading and building and consuming just fine without them.

  • mario cavolo November 19, 2011, 11:48 am

    Financial free fall or financial melt up? What’s the difference really?

    Let’ say I mine is a 5 trillion dollar economy with 2.5 trillion of debts that I know I’ll never repay. So then two choices:

    Option 1. I face reality, I forgive the debt, I default the debt. My economy takes the hit. Now my economy is worth 2.5 trillion – 50% less and the economy and its people are now 2.5 trillion poorer, 50% poorer in their need to buy what they need to survive, get educated, care and hopefully be productive in my economy. This is deflation, recession, prices start dropping because demand is dropping, yes?

    Option 2. I print 2.5 trillion which reduces the value of each dollar’s purchasing power by 50%. Likewise the economy and its people are now 50% poorer because the dollars they are holding now buy 50% less, the prices of goods they need to buy go up. Everyone is poorer.

    Oversimplified but either way, everyone is 50% poorer. So what’s the fuss?

    The fuss is that for the rich, its ok to be 50% poorer or have your wealth cut in half. Your life is still ok, not a struggle. You can downsize from a BMW to a Toyota and your kid can go to ASU instead of Cambridge. You can eat out 2x times per week instead of 4x time per week, etc., etc.

    Everyone else, the lower and middle income folks will tolerate the imbalance in this state of unfair affairs until they get pushed too far.

    Here’s a True Story: On a Sunday evening, here in Shanghai in September, my wife and I walked into the Emergency door of the main hospital, we paid $5 at the window to see a doctor. There were lots of other sick people all over the place, mostly elderly. During the chat with the doctor, we found out she was a doctor who had, oh yes you’re gonna love this, studied at Harvard Medical School.

    On a Sunday evening, in Los Angeles in March, my wife , a Chinese citizen, and I walked into the Emergency door of the main hospital. There were lots of other sick people all over, mostly elderly. We asked how much the fee was because we don’t have medical insurance. They said, and oh yes you are going to love this, “We can’t tell you, its against the law, and at the same time, we can’t refuse to treat you either, that’s also against the law and so come on in. We waited and then as expected chatted with the doctor for ten minutes, they recommended some additional tests, which we declined because we wanted to do them after we got back to Shanghai a couple of days later. My wife then received a bill in the mail for $1000 USD. My wife called customer service and all of you know what they said “Yes that’s the charge. If you can demonstrate that you can’t pay it by submitting unemployment records, tax returns, etc, we will work with you, etc. If not, of course you must pay it and if you don’t it appears as bad credit on your credit record. You do OWE it in fact.

    $5 for a ten minute hospital visit versus $1000 for an identical ten minute hospital visit in two different major city locations on planet earth.

    Meanwhile, banksters screw up to the tune of trillions and government bails them out and they keep earning millions per year in salary. Hmm…

    I want to vomit. I am scared. Genuinely scared. Can’t imagine why any idiot would vote for a person in office that doesn’t care about them at all and who has been given millions by other interested parties. If they have been given millions by other interested parties, why do they need your vote and why would you give it to them when by their actions they clearly and obviously don’t give a flying f*&^%k about you? Why would anyone do that? The power is in the supposed right and freedom to NOT vote, THAT is your vote!

    Yet at the same time I think in the end, inflation eating away at your life is how this elitist-driven corrupt mess will work itself along over the coming years. Slowly boiling the frog in the pot is better than financial and social Armageddon, which many here seem to think is a needed strategic cleansing of the system, a good idea. I strongly disagree because it will not play out in favor of the little guy, but that’s another story.

    Cheers, Mario

    • Buster November 19, 2011, 5:38 pm

      Agreed, Mario.

      What is likely is a continuation of the trend, since the forces that rule are still firmly in place & moving towards the extreme of their ideology. All that will be different is the growing awareness of the corruption by the sheeple, since the new input of the internet is changing the formula, much like the printing press did in the middle ages. Also, I expect a frenzied attempt at spin & mindless entertainment to try to counter this new input, especially directed at the young. (Investments in media & entertainment such as computer games & movie companies, even X-Factor type shows will continue to do well on the back of this.) Anything to keep the sheeple pre-occupied & accept their lot. But this growing awareness is supported by the trend itself, as it approaches its conclusion & becomes clear for all to see. ‘Ignorance is bliss’ is fast running out of time!
      As well as manouvering the financial system to the majority’s disadvantage, expect a continued & intensified attack of our basic health such as through FDA rules & twisted science for profit. Beware of ‘natural’ disasters as the silent war using Haarp technology is continued. Stay away from countries that don’t embrace the Elitists’ agenda.
      We’re all seen as just cattle in the abertoir to this system. Protect yourself however you can.
      OK, I’ll stop now, & let events clarify these points for those who have yet to connect enough of the dots!

    • mava November 20, 2011, 7:21 pm

      Mario, I am not understanding you. One one hand you seem to enjoy paper money. On the other, you don’t like the consequences (namely that it becomes entirely possible for the government to bail out gambled out bankster, regardless of what any of us think, simply by printing).

      I honestly can’t tell.

  • Bc November 19, 2011, 7:11 am

    Yes, we are in financial free fall. This is due to our failure to advance macroeconomic theory one iota after Keynes. Read Steve Keen for how we got here.
    No, we are not reaching insurmountable physical limits. Financial intermediaries love this meme because it offers an alternate explanation other than them as the cause of this crisis. Let’s please not help them.

  • Sadcracker November 19, 2011, 6:45 am

    I have been enjoying your insights into the commodities/futures markets for some time. It has provided me with a peephole into a world which I do not feel even comfortable to flirt with. Usually you seem staightforward and anylytical about your prognosis of the short term future. Suddenly you seem possesed with a spirrit usually associated with carreer gold-bugs and end of the worlders’. I’m used to hearing that stuff from the typical gallery of doomsayers but now you? Did the scandal with MF Global send you on a bender? Did you wake up with a nasty hangover and write this piece? Or do you really see the house of cards collapsing really soon. Your’e the guy I go to as the last man to say it’s all going to hell….pull out now asap. (Well, I do like Rick Santelli from CNBC, but I know who pulls his strings so you are my man) Calm down please, and then explaine to us all what this last proclamation/tirade/inpirational vision means. Thx.

    &&&&&&

    Not sure whether you’re addressing me, or Erich, the author of this guest commentary. If me, I’ve shifted gears and see the financial collapse as no longer merely inevitable, but imminent. The reason, very simply, is that market borrowing rates are starting to overwhelm the lies and delusions that until now have sustained the Euro Experiment. RA

  • Chris T. November 19, 2011, 1:26 am

    Finally, to this article:

    great piece, especially the sad part about Japan. Of course that problem, while showing itself in the worst way there, will come to cause us all problems.
    Probably already has and is, but no one is telling us.

    As if only the Japanese will suffer from an irradiated Pacific Ocean.

    One thing I would caution about:

    Comingling problem/collapse in a sphere of complete human construct and existence (financial markets/etc) with those PERHAPS caused by humans as a part of the natural world (use of natural resources, crowding out other species, etc).

    The eventual outcome may not, as Rick mentions, come before 12/31 (THEY always seem a way to prolong just a bit more), but in the economic sphere it will come as mentioned above, I agree.

    But such things as anthropomorphic ecological doomsday scenarios, with the questionable “science” it has engendered, do not belong, even just by implication, here, I would not agree to that.

    If I read just one more intellectual aritcle that cites “Nasa scientist James Hansen”…. ARRGH!

    If Mr Hansen were to get a viagra-like reaction every time his name is mentioned, he would have died of priapism long ago

  • Chris T. November 19, 2011, 1:17 am

    “Neither Greece nor Italy are old countries. Get your history straight. Athens and Sparta are old. Not Greece. Rome and Venice are old but Italy is not.”

    In terms of political geography this is correct.
    In the spirit that the author meant it (surely), I would disagree.

    What is really at issue, if one care’s to go there, is
    how comparable is the society/culture that inhabits the landmass of Italy (and Greece) today vs. roughly that same part of the world about 1900-2300 years ago?

    And that definitely is a different thing, though the inhabitants of today love to lay claim to what emanated thence.
    The germanic migrations throughout Europe, then the slavic migration from western asia, then the various islamic (arabic/moorish, turkish) moves-in left their traces behind, much of that not clearly discernible today, but woven into the fabric enough to render a different entity.

  • BJ November 19, 2011, 12:58 am

    In fact Mava old “Greece” to be complete would have to include Macedonia and parts of Turkey. There is no collective psyche, not psycho by the way.

    I stand by my comments that Greece and Italy are NEW countries.

    • mava November 19, 2011, 6:13 am

      I was actually fiddling with this word, but though the “psycho” was the correct spelling. I was wrong. Thank you for correcting me. Now I just need to remember the correct one.

    • mava November 19, 2011, 6:18 am

      Wow, Russia is the old country? Barely couple decades and already old?

      You are sure good at grammar.

  • BJ November 19, 2011, 12:31 am

    Mava you prove your lack of understanding by using the wrong its… It’s is a contraction of it is. Proof read your submission.

    Northern Italy and southern Italy have no collective conscious, what they had was a shared religion and the pope wanted to consolidate that.

    • Chris T. November 19, 2011, 1:08 am

      BJ:
      we used to have lots of spelling police around here, but that has thankfully abated.
      Please don’t start that up again.
      Criticize the argument, not the way its (just kidding) delivered.

      We all make these mistakes, even though we know better. There is no proofing feature here, but Rick doesn’t need to add one.
      It really takes too long to reread everything, and as you surely know, being one’s own spell checker, especially shortly after writing it, doesn’t work anyway.

      I do not believe you can infer a lack of understanding about a subject of history by a misplace apostrophe.
      Just my $0.05

      &&&&&&

      By now, some of you must have noticed that your possessive “it’s” are getting changed to “its” by, um, someone. RA

    • mava November 19, 2011, 6:15 am

      Makes sense, and actually should not be so hard to remember. I am going to use this parallel in the future:

      Let’s = Let us, therefore It’s = it is.

      Where have you been when I was in school?

  • BJ November 19, 2011, 12:27 am

    No, Russia was the old country and the USSR was the new one. Now the old country has re-emerged because the commingling of historical competitors is long term unstable. Just. Like the creation of Italy and Greece.

    It is not a name change Mava. Athens and Sparta were not integrated as a nation but hostile rivals. The states of Venice and Milan were hostile to Calabria and Sicily.

    This just entropy in the political form. It is natural.

    Learn your history.

    • Larry D November 19, 2011, 1:54 am

      BJ, you put a period in the wrong place: “Just. Like the creation of Italy and Greece.” Every schoolboy knows that by doing this you have created sentence fragments. In addition, correct grammar dictates a comma between the word “unstable” and “just.” Otherwise, it is unclear whether you refer to historical competitive rivalries between Italy and Greece, or competitive rivalries within the respective countries.

      You also forgot to place a dash between the words “long” and “term”, which is the modern convention.

      If you don’t know that, your opinion is worthless.

      &&&&&&

      Amen. Love ya, guy! RA

  • BJ November 18, 2011, 9:11 pm

    Neither Greece nor Italy are old countries. Get your history straight. Athens and Sparta are old. Not Greece. Rome and Venice are old but Italy is not.

    If you don’t know that, your opinion is worthless.

    • mava November 18, 2011, 10:41 pm

      And would you also say that Russia is a new country, while U.S.S.R. is an old one?

      Do you think that mere name change somehow stopped the development of the tendencies (whichever those might have been), and progression of those in a collective psycho of it’s population?

      On the opposite then, do you think the country would still behave as an old one, if we were to leave the name alone, but to replace the population completely?

  • C.C. November 18, 2011, 8:04 pm

    Marc –

    Your observation is not so ‘completely unrelated’. Here’s why:

    Per the similarity of the replies to this piece, most have an underlying concern for ‘the environment’, ‘overpopulation’ and other matters related to human frailties. However, the biggest human frailty they fail to see, is found in your post regarding the creeping dragnet of government control, combined with the increasing penalization of acts that seek to preserve anonymity and/or privacy – i.e. Liberty.

    A crushing Authoritarian State – either domestically inspired, or One-World-Government imposed, should be at the Top of people’s list for things to worry about, because Liberty will be the first casualty in the ‘change’ to come about.

    I submit that those who Value Freedom will find that ‘environmental’ issues as a result of our ‘debt’ related problems, are going to be found somewhere at the bottom of the list of things to worry about. People do quite well actually, when they can function and transact among themselves, without the grubby hands of a 3rd party getting in the middle and generally making a mess out of the contractual agreements among men.

    • Buster November 18, 2011, 9:23 pm

      Always be suspicious of Government interference. Due to our corporate fascism system (government run by corporations) & NOT free market capitalism, there’s nearly always an agenda.- one with a lot of zero’s on the end of it, I’m sure!

      http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/18/dangers-of-vitamins.aspx?e_cid=20111118_DNL_art_1

      Despite a few possible deaths from vitimin use over the decades & yet 100,000 deaths a year from prescription drugs!!?? (Is that true?) the FDA moves closer to eliminating the competition to Big Pharma under the guise of ‘protecting the public’.

      …..when they finally see a profit from turning us all into bars of soup we’ll all ‘get’ what’s really going on.

  • Marc November 18, 2011, 5:45 pm

    I apologize for this compeltely unrelated post, but I had something I wanted to share with Mecurious, so I’m hoping he will be reading through today’s comments.

    The other day you posted that you “looked at the legal consequences. The statute passed a year or two ago that specifically address this deals with ‘online harassment’ and makes it a felony to create phony profiles on social networking sites with the intent to ‘harm, defraud, intimidate, or threaten’ others.”

    That is not the statute to which I was referring. Texas Penal Code sec. 33.02(a) makes it a crime to “knowingly access a . . . computer network, or computer system without the effective consent of the owner.” That language has been applied to people who violate the terms of acceptance for various websites, including social networking sites, by registering with fake personal identifying information. I just learned today that the federal government also brings such prosecutions under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which makes it a crime to exceed one’s “authorized access” to a website.

    Like I said, it’s a ridiculous law, but it is on the books and it is used against people simply for using a fake name when they register on a website.

  • Seawolf November 18, 2011, 5:39 pm

    Chicago Tribune cartoon from 1934. Nothing has changed.
    http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/sites/default/files/Chicago%20Tribune%201934.jpg

  • ken horn November 18, 2011, 5:18 pm

    Erich, thanks for my early morning pick-up. I woke up a little on the down side, but now I’m high as a kite. But, seriously, I agree that we (collectively speaking) have some big economic problems & systems in place that can’t possibly deal with them. I have been positioning myself to try to avoid the big downturn. I think it will play out over a longer period & I don’t see a total collapse, but, I do see a very noticeable change in society coming.

  • dan November 18, 2011, 4:47 pm

    It is happening because people are too busy to educate themselves as to the economic and political bozos that they have trusted and or elected….They have trusted liars and thieves to safe guard their country and families…as history shows ..a fatal mistake

    • Robert November 18, 2011, 6:20 pm

      Bravo Dan!

      Trust is more convenient than scrutiny, a path of least resistance, if you will.

      However, like electrical current, sometimes the path of least resistance ends in shocks, sparks, fires and destruction.

      Electrical current must be productively ROUTED (scrutinized) through an organized circuit in order to yield productivity.

      likewise we must USE our power of scrutiny to determine what is in our own best interest. That’s not to say that trust is not noble or a positive part of the human experience- I have friends and relatives that I trust (a couple of them I trust implicitly); and I concurrently have other friends/relatives that I love, and whom I REALLY enjoy spending time with, but that I would/could NEVER trust, simply because they demonstrate an immature capability of formulating quality judgement.

      The above probably makes me sound like an arrogant jerk, but it’s hard to express the particular sentiment I really feel without it coming across that way.

      Suffice it to say that my unwillingness to trust you does not mean I think you are a lesser person than me, it merely means that if “birds of a feather flock together” then it must equally be valid that some people in my social environment definitely have different colored feathers than I.

    • mava November 18, 2011, 10:31 pm

      Very good, Robert, but, I think dan had a good point.

      I’ll try to say what (I think) dan meant by trust.

      You can trust all you want if you are the one to suffer the consequences, should there ever be any to suffer.

      Such as with people you love, it is up to you to extend to them your trust, to spare them the “qualifications”, and assist them, at risk to yourself.

      But to trust the politician? This is not possible, because where you trust, I distrust. Therefore, we can not build anything that requires trust, as we will all share the consequences, while you may be deservingly, if you trusted, – I may suffer them undeservingly, if I did not trust. Point being that trust is only applicable individually, it should never be extended on behalf of others.

      Same with accounting system that money is. With those we love, we frequently do not use any accounting, as we are sure that if time comes, they will give us what is due, without having to sue them, and if not, then again, we will take that gladly, as we truly love them.

      But, many people mistakenly try to apply the same to other people, whom they do not love, and by choosing to have a cooperation without accounting, they set everyone up for a disaster, as it always turns out that they forgot to accept beforehand, that they will be willing to gladly take whatever bad comes from those others in return.

      In general, I come to realize that anyone who says “I trust”, must be understood as “I agee to, and will gladly suffer any injustice if I am wrong”. Once stated, we should never accept any complaints from a person that have declared his trust to someone, about any injustice returned back by that someone to the person who declared trust.

      Does this make any sense…?

  • Rick Alexander November 18, 2011, 4:39 pm

    Excellent article that goes right to the heart of what we face, indeed, it goes right to our own hearts. Here are some supporting quotations to add:

    So, can Europe “fix it”? The answer to that question is a clear and simple “No”. What I expect now is that Europe will do what America has done for some time now. In the latter part of 2008 and early 2009, the American and British governments, faced with their biggest debt crises and no longer able to service their debt with any ordinary measures, started “buying” the bonds they issued in their right hand with the “legal tender” they created with their left hand. It’s ludicrous, I know. But that is the concept of “debt monetization”. It is something governments in desperation will do and I believe it is what Europe will start doing as well.
    – Frank Suess, Nov 12, 2011

    When politicians try to monopolize currency with legal tender laws, the people find it harder and harder to survive the inflation and taxation to which they are subjected. Bankers should take their dreaded haircut rather than making innocent people pay for their mistakes.   The losses should be limited and liquidated, rather than perpetuated and rewarded.  This is the only way we can recover.
    –Ron Paul, Nov 14, 2011

    What these revelations tell us is that Central Bankers LIE, DECEIVE and HARVEST what is sacred: the tangible wealth of countries in which they operate. The notion that such atrocities could and do happen without being widely disclosed should no longer be hard for anyone to grasp. Powerful men and “leaders” entrusted to safeguard what society holds dear have clearly demonstrated their propensity to conspire, hide, obstruct and remain silent even when confronted with OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE – while that cherished treasure is defiled, stolen, sodomized or discarded in the name of protecting and perpetuating the status quo.
    “We came, We saw, We stole”. Whatever is being “stored” at Fort Knox – rest assured IT IS NOT GOOD DELIVERY BARS OF SOVEREIGN U.S. GOLD BULLION. It’s likely not gold at all. Wake up people.
    –Rob Kirby, Nov 14, 2011

    The fact the US is clearly in grand theft nation mode [after MF Global went down] in addition to utilizing cover ups, kick the can tactics, and bought government,  should be highly disconcerting and bearish.  If this doesn’t put people in the streets, wait until a huge high profile theft hits. The problem now is that the criminal ratlines are controlling markets. This is no more sustainable than the Soviet Union was sustainable.
    My game theory up to now was that if banksters took the haircuts on insolvent’s debt, that the market could be bought at 900-1000. It is obvious that the opposite is taking place, and that the criminals are in full court loot mode.  The kleptocrats even have their boyz in place with the insolvent of Europe,  with Draghi at the ECB and Monti as the Italian Prime Minister, the new Greek guy “what’s his name”, squid or somethin’ like that.   I smell large scale privatizations, and inside jobs coming.  Therefore I have lowered by projection on the S&P to the 500 area and expect a series of events to finally burst the confidence game dyke.
    –Lee Adler, Nov 15, 2011

  • Robert November 18, 2011, 4:39 pm

    Erich- Very Nice essay.

    The interesting thing to me is that the flood of available information has simultaneously proliferated information that is high quality, versus information that is low quality but appeals to peoples’ fantastical assumptions about what reality really is…

    People seem to psychologically cling to information that supports or confirms their own pre-conceived biases or cultural dogma. If the information enables you to avoid the inputs of your own senses, then it seems to get devoured in a ravenous feeding frenzy.

    I find it fascinating that there is a rapidly rising number of people who believe that the US Government is successfully hiding the evidence of extraterestrial beings that have had (either benevolent, or abductive) contact with humanity. I’d be willing to bet that the majority of people who find such a thesis reasonable would simultaneously tell you that Bible clinging Revelationists are “crazy redneck idiots”.

    These UFO people live in utter denial of the fact that if you edit/replace “aliens” with “Jesus” then you arrive at the EXACT same thesis statement.

    It seems that once the “Jesus is coming back”, or the “aliens will save us” premise is taken as fact, then no matter how bad things are today, they can only get worse; because if this was as bad as things can get then Jesus (or the aliens) would already be here to save the faithful before the final collapse.

    The good news for the true skeptic is that Jesus (and the benevolent aliens) are nothing more than a reflection of our own inner emotional health. Benevolence is the final destination of our emotional species. Humanity can not survive by killing each other en mass, and archeology/natural history offers ABSOLUTELY no evidence of any species ever willfully extincting themselves. Despite the fact that humanity has developed the technology and ability to do so, we have not developed the WILLINGNESS to become the first species to demonstrate success in this most Luciferian endeavor.

    But back to change…

    Escapism (whether via drugs, or through the willing ignorance of the inputs of our own senses) is such a fascinating element of our psyche, and I think it is the aspect that seperates the people that face change head on and treat it like a wave- relax, don’t waste your energy fighting it; but be mindful of the direction it is carrying you so you can make small inputs of energy to avoid the rocks; versus those who frantically thrash against the wave in a vain attempt to hold their position. Both types will end up on the same shore, but whereas one will retain enough energy to stand and walk up the sand to higher ground, the other will be either exhausted, disheveled, and ill prepared for the next phase of the experience, or worse: they will be a drowned, lifeless carcass.

    I started working on my book last week.

    • JimK November 18, 2011, 5:43 pm

      Robert,

      I smelled a rat with the whole ET thing a few years ago when I saw a photo of a crop circle with a coded message to the effect of ‘Man is being naughty with the environment’ next to an angry looking stereotype alien face:

      http://www.astrojourneys.com/images/et_cropcircle_450_opt.jpg

      More recently, I listened to the interview with Carol Rosen, talking about her conversations with Werner Von Braun, who was the father of rocketry here. He warned that a Space Based Weapons program would be sold to the US on the basis of countering these threats – First, fear of the Russians, then the terrorists, then third world country ‘crazies’, then asteroids, and finally ET’s – the final card… He would say “Remember, the last card would be Extra-Terrestrials – and it’s all a lie”

      Listen to her:

      http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/the-secret-government/the-staged-alien-invasion-threat.html

      I fear that the space based weapons program is already installed – it was all those ‘classified military payload’ space shuttle missions that went up openly and without any public outcry, during the period of SDI debates, and following. So, who owns the button? It can vaporize any spot on Earth, and without any warning or defense…

    • Buster November 18, 2011, 7:59 pm

      “Evidence of UFO’s in Bible history”……now that’s an interesting subject for anyone who is able to disconnect thir own dogma for long enough to give it serious consideration . As a skeptic of both Aliens & the Creator, it was ironically seeing 5 UFO’s together with my own eyes that led me to eventually accept that the two are very possibly connected. Don’t laugh or shout me down, please, it’s pointless.
      Anyway, moving swiftly on, -the financial death spiral could be fixed very simply by changing the way that money is presently created as debt. That old bucket is just too full of holes (interest payments) to hold any water now! The bail outs were just pointing a fireman’s hose straight onto the Elites pastureland. None of it even got into the bucket to quench the thirst for water (currency) of the debtor public. The whole thing is a stitch up from start to finish. Make no mistake about this, rather than let go of their control by debt the elites would have us all starve to death…. Surely capitalism says it’s right that houses are left empty whilst families join the tent cities? That losers starve whilst the victors get sick from overeating?? They lost & we won the game (that they created the rules to.) Wrong! This is not capitalism, it is a monopoly of power through money. Let no self rightieous try telling me otherwise. None of the rules of the free market apply here! No judgements are just in a rigged court.
      The bigger picture is really quite simple. Just like scam trading a stock, you drive up the price beyond belief and then, when no more suckers are left to buy, you crash it down beyond belief.
      When no more borrowers could be found to jump on board another mania, the big profits were to be found in the collapse, catching all those in debt (ie.everybody indirectly via their governements borrowing their own darned money at interest from those private cartel Banksters), yet making sure all those in the ‘club’ had access to as many digits as they wanted.
      Adding insult to injury, the very bail out money pledged to be for the purpose of helping the real economy was even used to bet up the price of essentials, thereby making life even more unbearable for the sheeple whilst handing hugh profits to the insiders. But wait! There’s more! The bonuses paid out to themselves on the back of these profits helped to push up the cost of living for everyone else still further, as the Boyz went on a spending spree in centres such as London, like it was boomtime all over again!
      We have a self-interested hierarchal society from top to bottom. Those at the top are doing what most would do in their shoes, despite their complaints of how (criminally) unjust the system is. I’ve learned to trust not those at the top who now rule, & neither those at the bottom who would. Self interest rules over ‘humanity’ or what is just or right. It’s every kid for himself in this playground, unfortunately.
      A self-interested hierarchal species cannot govern itself successfully long term. The strong will dominate the weak, and the extreme tendencies we exhibit tells me things are gonna’ get very ugly. Greed knows no bounds is just one example. This belief doesn’t even take into account the very strong evidence of an end game scenario fast approaching. Those here who have connected some of the dots know what I’m talking about. Those whistle blowers who keep getting laughed out or shouted down ‘see’. My sincere sympathies to you all.
      Don’t worry, the masses are gonna’ ‘get it’ soon enough! We’ll all see the man of lawlessness laid bare, and the atrocities of man dominating man will be brought into the sunlight.
      I’ll end with saying what I’ve said here before…. Nothing short of a superior military force can save humanity from the calamity that awaits us down this road. It’s all baked into the cake. Sooner or later we’ll all be on our knees, …so I should get some practice in praying now or we’ll all look pretty stupid!

    • mava November 18, 2011, 10:14 pm

      Buster,

      You’re making a lot of sense, I am just at loss of why are you dragging the name of Capitalism into this.

      In capitalism, there is no central bank, no paper money legal tender, no shenanigans with a government monopoly to screw the people to pay for corporate gamblers.

      The central bank only comes in play if one wants to build communism, which is right there, on communist manifesto, plank number 5:

      Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly (legal tender).

    • Buster November 19, 2011, 2:50 am

      That’s exactly what I was trying to clarify, if very badly. Capitalism isn’t truly part of these shenanigans. We don’t have capitalism, we have corporate fascism. They are attributing the whole over-regulated man-made mess to the free market so they can bring in yet more controls as a false solution. The anti-capitalists are being led up the wrong path. They need to recognise that it is Coporate fascism that has screwed us all. Monopolies of first the money supply via private central banking, followed inevitably by everything else, with the government acting as front men for the Elites.
      Though I see the slippery slope into chaos as inevitable now, I believe we must be clear as to what is really happening, and not get hoodwinked into attributing blame for our ills to the wrong cause.
      Further, those who believe that there is any sense of justice in making the debtors suffer do not understand the system, or worse. The whole monetary system is designed to trap people in debt and servitude. In fact, there is overwhelming evidence that the powers that be have not only our servitude in their designs, they have our destruction in mind too. In such a system all judgment of debtors is off the mark. The whole damned monetary system is fraudulent & needs to be scrapped. Those being judgmental of the debtors judge in peril.

  • mava November 18, 2011, 10:04 am

    Well, cullino, just check what happened to our own Celente! I had expected any gold bug worth his salt to understand why taking delivery is paramount. I thought only the newbies, the ones that just starting to open their eyes needed an advice and explanation. But Celente talked the talk as if he had an understanding.

    He too, had been caught by MF Global, holding gold futures! To do that, one must gullibly believe that there is gold that can be delivered. If that was so, the why would there be the war on Libya, and Uganda? Why would there be Tungsten GDBars delivered to China? Why wouldn’t there be a third party audit of Fort Knox? Why would there be bars publicly shown as belonging to a well known fund, while on closer examination the bar was listed for an entirely different fund?

    I mean this is all ABC for a gold bug. If one is to assume that there is adequate physical gold, then there is no reason to be a gold bug.

    • Seawolf November 18, 2011, 2:19 pm

      Mava, I don’t think you understand what Mr. Celente was doing with a futures contract. He was not speculating. He owned a single futures contract with intent to take delivery in December. His method has been to buy a futures contract on margin and then in the intervening time period add to his account to take delivery in the delivery month. At the time when MF Global blew up his account was fully funded to take delivery. He has been buying his large bars this way for many years. The reason his account was with MF Global is because his long time broker with whom he had a trusting relationship was taken over by MF Global. He is now screaming angry because the cash money in his account was literally stolen and has not been returned.

    • mava November 18, 2011, 5:28 pm

      Likewise, I don’t think you understand, what a gold bug does. The reason for buying in small portions and always taking delivery, is because you know that the system is INSOLVENT. Not because the gold is going to go up or down in dollar terms.

      Actually, I readily forgive you this tiny, but very significant mistake. Because anyone who lives “withing the matrix”, cannot see it. You say: “intent of delivery in December”. There is no such thing. Only paper believers can have something that is called “trust”, in that they believe promises. If you do believe in delivery in december, then you believe in words of contract, then you believe that there is a law, and also you must believe that paper is money. Otherwise, if one of this is missing, then you can not trust in the promise of delivery.

      You buy a bit, not because you don’t have paper, no you do that because you understand that MF Global can happen any second. So, the portion that I allow to be lost, I am ready to lose, I won’t flinch, because I have already determined how much that is hat I care not for.

      Do you follow? Do you see the principally different view here? I already know I am dealing with crooks.

      You want to know what is going to happen? Every one of gold dealers will stop delivery. And every one will keep some money (because it would be said that the company had collapsed and the money went to pay for other things) of it’s customers. Because, not a single one of them has full weight of a metal behind the numbers they show. It is simply a smaller scam than the government.

      If it wasn’t a scam, if they actually had bullion, then there would be no way that the bigger bully, the government, would allow them to operate. Look at what has been done to Gadaffi. Because he had full weight.

      I believe it has already been decided that Celente will receive 60% of his money, but only in paper, not in real money.

      Largely, this conversation is pointless. I distinctly remember, that before I had cracked my own brainwashing, if someone told me this stuff above, I would definitely called him a cook and pointed him to “irrefutable evidence” that everything is as it is promised to be. Or may-be I just had a thicker scull that others.

  • GM November 18, 2011, 9:57 am

    Phew – one of your better ones Rick – glad I moved to a small town in the Aussie countryside a few years back – feels a bit like I am living on the set of the Waltons at times. Any profits I make trading go straight into buying kilograms of PAMP Silver delivered within a week of purchase. Egg laying chickens and milk producing goats onsite with lots of solar panels – hope I have done enough

  • cullino November 18, 2011, 8:59 am

    I don’t know about you guys in the US but over here in Ireland the public are completely oblivious to whats going on. You mention buying gold and they look at you as if you have two heads. The media are completly controlled and dumb down any info.
    Ah well, as long as you can get pint or two when it’s all over, who cares, eh?

    • Mel November 18, 2011, 5:48 pm

      cullino – I live in a progressive California university town, and it’s the same here. Folks are just waiting for this to pass.

  • John Jay November 18, 2011, 4:39 am

    The only ones in good shape are the OPEC nations.
    Handing out huge contracts to Boeing/Airbus with their oil money. All the chaos in MENA is very likely our CIA types putting the pressure on the Eurozone. In spite of Bernanke’s jive talk, they all know how close we are to a financial breakdown. So creating a shambles in MENA buys the USA some time I would argue. No more talk of a United States of Africa with a gold backed currency, sorry about the collateral damage Libya. I hope we come out on top in this mess.

  • Grass Ranger November 18, 2011, 4:37 am

    In small incremental steps, the collapse is already occuring. The following is from Barnhard Capital Management.

    “Dear Clients, Industry Colleagues and Friends of Barnhardt Capital Management:
    It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator.

    “The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy. ”

    Go to the website to see the whole letter.

    • Robert November 18, 2011, 5:57 pm

      Annie Barnhardt is awesome.

      I’d like to see her place more faith in the Nature of her God, rather than the ambiguous wording of biblical scripture, but that’s a minor fault…

      Financially, her head is in the right place, as is her obviation of the fact that futures and options markets are the tail, and not the dog.

    • Imran November 18, 2011, 7:01 pm

      Annie Barnhardt is an Islamophobic nutjob; wanting Muslims deported (including converts like my family), doesn’t pay taxes, etc.

      More to her letter’s point, to blame massive systemic leveraging on Obama or a trite Democrats vs. Republicans issue is ludicrous. If you want to try to solve this problem, you have to go beyond the simplistic and narrow-minded right/left paradigm.

  • mava November 18, 2011, 4:36 am

    from a communist Manifesto:

    2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

    5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly (legal tender).

    10. Free education for all children in public schools.

    • Steve November 18, 2011, 4:57 am

      A whole bunch of planks missed mava.

    • mava November 18, 2011, 9:55 am

      Yes, I listed only the most obvious, for those that still believe the myth that US is a capitalist country.

    • Henry November 19, 2011, 6:51 pm

      **10. Free education for all children in public schools.**

      This is part of a Communist manifesto?? Some one who make such a statement is ignorant of U.S history. Free education for all children in public schools has been a integral part of American society since before the founding of this country. It seems to me that the U.S. has done very well with an educated population. Much of the great success of this country can be attributed to this.

    • Kev The Wonder dog November 20, 2011, 10:57 am

      Henry, American education takes you to the level of being smart enough to get a job but dumb enough to swallow what they feed you,WMD as a point in case. It may be your right to freedom of speech but a lot of Americans don’t relize that in a democracy you have an obligation to think and from what I’ve seen of your country there’s not a lot of it. You people bought the “pet rock”. True education comes from self taught instuction most of our greatest thinkers and inventers were autodidactic and from what they discovered we turned into rigid systems that do more damage than good. Then when new thinking arises that proves them wrong they do damage in not letting the truth rise, defending their modern institutions, they become rigid and brittle. Look at all the business studies in America, the god of growth.
      Great minds don’t think alike.

  • mava November 18, 2011, 4:32 am

    Not to worry, J. This is not why it all had happened.

    It had happened, because we, humans, are just too stupid to learn how all the previous experiments with fiat money had ended.

    Unlike the OP, I, for instance, do welcome this change. I never liked to live under communism, even if covered up under the stripes and stars.

    What’s coming, is going to be much better, even if for a short while (again, because we humans are just stupid enough to trust whatever the new fiat will be offered to us), it’s going to be the world where if you don’t feed others, you don’t eat.

    • Robert November 18, 2011, 5:53 pm

      “we, humans, are just too stupid to learn how all the previous experiments with fiat money had ended.”

      HEY HEY HEY!…. make that:

      “MOST (or many) humans, are just too stupid to learn how all the previous experiments with fiat money had ended.”

      🙂

    • mava November 19, 2011, 9:50 am

      Ain’t it a tragedy?

      This stuck with me: “The Blessing is the Curse”. Think about it… If we were living longer, most if not all could have learned these things. But we die way sooner than some of these scams need to self-destruct.

      So, we have a progeny. This is our blessing. The blessing, that needs to start it all over again, to learn most important things from scratch. This is why government schools teach children math, cause that is easy. They do not tech them wisdom, no way. So by the time they learn it by being milked like cows most of their life, by being thrown in bloody conflicts where not them, not the children on the other side have any “beef”, it is their time to die too!

      Kings understand this. They are always setting up scams that attempt to last longer than a human life, for this precise reason.

      In that our children have to start from zero, is our curse.

  • j November 18, 2011, 3:24 am

    And to think all this happened because we humans imo are never satisfied, its never enough land, never enough money, never enough power, never enough stuff!

    Beam me up Scottie for there is no intelligent life here on earth, just greed!
    Sad…..j

    • JimK November 18, 2011, 5:15 pm

      I call it Life, not greed. All living things seek advantage – a vine seeks the sun, its roots seek the water – and every organism will fill its ecological niche until it is stressed (both niche and organism) – it is called ‘the balance of nature’.

      Fiat money exaggerates how deeply we exceed our capacity, because the consequences are delayed. Fiat money encourages unrealistic altruism – ideas that feel good, but are not able to be implemented when the time comes. The end game lands somewhere between a Communist Dictatorship (with the authorities driving around in their airconditioned vehicles – making sure that the resources are distributed ‘fairly’ while the masses starve outside) and a Malthusian Mad Max anarchy. Unless…

      We recognize the debts are un-payable and there is a jubilee, a repudiation of some portion of the debts people owe. e.g., “All debts, public and private shall be reduced by 50% – written down immediately”. How would that play out? Deflationary spiral? Or how about a more just outcome – no more bailouts – let them fail – would the smaller, more responsible banks be able to pick up the pieces and take over the functions of the dying T-Rexes?

    • Robert November 18, 2011, 5:51 pm

      JimK-

      Fantastic post. We are indeed seeing what Nature’s reaction to unnatural hubris is really like.

      In a discussion over dinner last week, I was challenged for the fact that my viewpoints were representative of such a small minority of people.

      No logical are debatable refutation of my arguments, mind you, simply that “people like you are too few to be right”…

      At that point I admitted to myself that perhaps my faith in humanity has indeed been misplaced and that I actually might be wrong (about humanity, not about nature); but since suicide is morally reprehensible, I instead shrugged my shoulders and went back to enjoying my plate of grilled shrimp and my glass of Reisling…

    • ws November 18, 2011, 8:30 pm

      JimK, how can you suggest that debts be written down? These people took on these debts, let them work until they die to pay them back. When you enter a contract for debt, you enter a contract—-whether institution or individual, there needs to be a price to pay. What about the people who were not irresponsible? Do we get “credits” for not having debt? How can you honestly stand there and encourage debt forgiveness? Are you a sadistic criminal?

    • Jim N November 18, 2011, 10:22 pm

      WS…..you so miss it. A debt is a business deal. It is a contract between 2 entities. There are terms and conditions. Nothing more. If you choose that you can’t or won’t pay the debt back, there are specific consequences. One of them, in our society is not working on it till you die.

      With all debts, there will be 2 outcomes. It will be paid back, or it will be defaulted on.

      Take your VISA card. If you don’t pay it, it is specifically written what will happen. You make the decision one way or another. You pay the piper if you default. Each entity has to make their determination if they will enter into the agreement or not. Does VISA give you a seven figure debt limit? Probably not. They understand the risks of default. You don’t seem to.


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