ΩΩLast week, a former Wunderkind who was once featured in a CNN story about kids who earned huge incomes programming for computer corporations, asked me to intervene in his downward spiral to an early death. His good fortune led him to a now short life drinking vodka and running around like crazy.
.
ΩΩNow, at age 30, he is dying. He lost everything: his wife and child, his home, his car, his relations with his own parents, all of his friends are vanishing and he has diabetes and is going insane. So I told him he can be saved but only if he follows my simple rule: call me whenever he has the desire to drink.
.
ΩΩInstead, he lied to everyone and told him he was doing this while not doing this at all. Instead, he used this as another excuse to go on a vodka bender. Suddenly, I showed up and began the hard intervention which basically involved forcing him to tell the truth to everyone (this involved getting his friends and family to compare notes with me and my prosecution of his delusions by unmasking all his stories as lies).
.
ΩΩEvery time he blamed someone else for his drinking, I took a vodka bottle I confiscated and said, ‘No one forced you to drink this. Miss Vodka is the only one who got you to drink this.’ This tactic was used over a dozen times as he continued to blame everyone for his own problem he created, himself and insisted on doing, himself.
.
ΩΩThe end of the intervention was classic: I had to put him into the streets to survive. We hope that none of his friends will enable him by taking him in so he can drink more. We figure, life on the streets in winter will either wake him up or it is hopeless and he will die even if we shelter him. The chance he might wake up to his dire peril is the only hope left. Keeping him warm while he drinks only will guarantee his obvious death.
.
ΩΩNow, one of my big stories here is all about the CAVE OF WEALTH AND DEATH 
ΩΩThere is nothing sadder than humans who think they can evade the iron rules of reality and one of these is, the showering of benefits and easy wealth always leads to the moral and physical destruction of the humans granted these benefits. But the benefits from hard work, caring for a family, love and concern for neighbors and the environment leads to a long life and good future.
.
ΩΩDespite many fairy tales, cautionary stories, religious tales, common wisdom, people persist in wishing on the stars for great wealth and wish for this to be EASY wealth, if possible. This is why lotteries and gambling are so desirable to most humans and which are one of the more obvious roads to ruin, moral destruction and suicide. The other easy road is pure crime: robbing people,, invading countries to steal oil, looting and raping innocent people and dropping nuclear bombs on civilians.
.
ΩΩThis week, the news came out that yes, the US did plan to nuke North Korea. This is why I say, all nations should have nuclear bombs. If the US refuses to disarm, no one should be disarmed. The entire world is engaged in a massive game that is destroying the environment and leading us all to WWIII due to a desire to get rich quick and in the case of the US, do this without doing much real labor.
.
ΩΩMany of our conflicts with Asian countries is due to our desire to be rich while they work. This is ridiculous and impossible. And no one is doing an intervention to stop this madness since all the ‘friends’ of the US are actually ENABLERS who want us to drink gallons of vodka and lose not only our homes and businesses but to cease caring for our families, our own future and eventually, enslaving us or killing us. This cynical business is no surprise since as I told this Wunderkind the other night, ‘YOU picked up the bottle, YOU drank the vodka and YOU chose to do this, no one else did this to you.’
.
ΩΩAnd here is the news showing clearly how this works and why we have to put down the economic vodka bottle and be realistic for once: JPMorgan Third-Quarter Net Rises 23% on Lower Credit Costs, Beats Estimate. ZIRP isn’t leading to a more productive society. Due to a flattened tax code which doesn’t even begin to try to cover our government spending, bankers simply have to take up cheap loans from the government and turn these magically into literal gold: they are buying gold and I believe, are anticipating gold resuming its old business of regulating trade again.
.
ΩΩEven as whole populations are turned into paupers and seeing social services vanish in order to bail out the bankers, they are expecting billions in bonuses – Telegraph. This is ridiculous and the cure is to tax these fiends to death. They are the ones lifting the vodka bottle and in this case, forcing us to clean up the drunken mess they are creating.
.
ΩΩDuring the housing bubble here in the US, I was immensely annoyed as to how bankers suddenly ceased careful examination of borrowers and gave money out like vodka at a frat party. When my kids bought their home, they were closely examined, they put down 20% and had a hard time convincing the bankers. Then, just one year later, the same bankers were happily handing out mortgages to criminals in prison, illegal aliens, house flippers, drunks and unemployed welfare mothers.
.
ΩΩThis insanity grew and grew until the entire drunken mess collapsed. Now, everyone pretends no one is responsible. So, instead of putting the purveyors of this drinking mess into jail, they were kept at the apex of society and are continuing to reward themselves with lots of loot while producing nothing, not even mortgages anymore.
.
ΩΩIndeed, the collapse of the default process is the fault of the drunken bankers who ran rampant for 5 years. The mess they created can’t be undone very easily since they broke all rational rules for banking. Papers which were of immense importance were treated poorly just like kids who get their Wunderkind hands on too much loot and then can’t even keep files on finances. Not only should the reckless homebuyers be tossed into the streets but also, the bankers tossed into JAIL.
.
ΩΩIf we hospitalize these people who all went on a wild consumption party, all we get is a resumption of this. My friend who chose to destroy himself did this: every time he was arrested or put in the hospital, he was bailed out or fixed and he immediately ran out to the nearest bar, literally, and guzzled more vodka! This is why all the coddling and caring for the bankers and the outrageous borrowers who deliberately took on immense debts isn’t working: the cure is to give everyone more vodka in the form of central banks buying up all the debts and holding them…IN OUR NAMES so when the drunks crash to the sidewalk in winter, dying, we get stuck with all the losses.
.
ΩΩThis Wunderkind’s parents were crying on the phone last night. We agreed they would NOT bail out their child. He is bankrupting them, the poor dears. Instead, they have to stand aside and watch him rage and scream and throw tantrums while dying. If he learns to be humble and to look at himself realistically, he might live but his life is already doomed to be shortened by at least 20 or more years. But at least, he could live another 10-20 years.
.
ΩΩThe US empire is exactly like this unfortunate child. We love to pretend we are a ‘young’ nation while staggering about like an old nation, barely able to lift our legs out of the gutter. More news: China’s Currency Reserves Rise to Record, Fueling Calls for Stronger Yuan. HAHAHA. We guzzled more vodka and are angry that the bartender is asking us for cash and we hand it over and then demand more vodka. While cussing the bartender for providing it and threatening him if he doesn’t give it to us.
.
ΩΩObama Bond Demand Insatiable With Japan to Pass China (Update2) – Bloomberg.com
Japan added $55.3 billion of Treasuries this year, swelling its holdings 7.2 percent to $821 billion, Treasury data show. China, which overtook Japan in September 2008, cut its stake by $48.1 billion, or 5.4 percent, to $846.7 billion. Japan made its biggest purchase in 10 months in July, just after China cut its position by the most on record.
.
ΩΩThe Chinese bartender is plenty pissed at us and is now pulling the rug out from under us and is planning to have the bouncer toss us into the streets. But the Geisha Girl joint across the lane wishes to serve endless vodka so we stagger over to Japan and sell our worthless bonds to the lady there who helpfully pours more and more glasses into our open maw.
.
ΩΩGlobal Finance Chiefs Fail to Resolve Currency Spat (Update3) – Bloomberg.com
Finance ministers and central bankers pledged to improve cooperation, yet did little to show how they would alter their ways beyond agreeing to let the IMF study the matter. With the dollar down 11 percent against the yen since mid-June, compared with less than 3 percent versus the Chinese yuan, the focus turns to Group of 20 talks in South Korea in coming weeks to prove international policymaking isn’t in tatters.
.
“Policy makers seemed to be trying to diminish concerns about currency wars,” said Steven Englander, head of Group of 10 currency strategy at Citigroup Inc. in New York. “There did not seem any commitment to change behavior, however. There is little to suggest that the dollar’s direction is anything but down.”
.
ΩΩThe currency wars began in the 1960′s when LBJ began destroying the value of the dollar and the silver coins were debased. Nixon then killed the Golden Goose by cutting the gold peg. Since then, all nations have tried various schemes to lure the US into drinking their vodka via various tricks and schemes and the best was the Japanese FOREX system which sucked down US drinking dollars and kept them off world FX markets and didn’t use them to buy things but HELD them.
.
ΩΩSo the value of the dollar was totally artificial. And this increased Japanese profits. Rising Yen Sparks Sense Of Crisis: Biz Leader
At a regular news conference, Sakurai mentioned the yen’s appreciation to the 81-range against the dollar. ”It is considerably losing touch with firms’ business plans,” Sakurai said. “This will play a huge role in eroding sales and profits. I can’t help but feel a sense of crisis.”
.
ΩΩThe Japanese want to tie us down and force vodka down our throats for our own good, they claim. That is, they are desperate to keep us guzzling and will do anything to engineer this. Of course, the problem here is, the US wants to passively sit on a bar stool and have Miss Geisha pour booze down our throats! We could scream, ‘You dirty bitch, you are killing me!’ She will giggle and wiggle and say, ‘No, I love you! Drink some more.’ But if our doctor says we are dying, we say, ‘No.’
.
ΩΩVery simple. But we want the drinks so we don’t fix what is broken and the broken tool is tariffs: these have existed for centuries alongside the gold standard as a means of protecting a nation from being destroyed by imports flooding in and credit balloons distorting domestic markets.
.
ΩΩHere is the suicidal US solution: Fed Considers Raising Inflation Expectations as Means to Encourage Growth. AAAAARRRGGGGHHHH. This is pure insanity. Inflation will encourage growth like any cancer but it still kills the organism! This is a suicide solution that is very alluring to an addicted population that wants easy money handed out like candy or rather, poured out of Miss Geisha’s bottomless bottle. All good economists know that this is the easy solution with fatal outcomes
CAVE OF WEALTH AND DEATH PART 1 « Culture of Life News
There are two sisters who live in the Cave of Wealth and Death: the goddess of Infinity and the goddess of Zero. These are philosophical as well as mathematical constructs. These magical sisters can interact with each other in interesting ways. They are the opposite of Libra, who represents ‘steady state systems.’ These two are extremely unstable. They are yin and yang. They switch powers very easily. And can even exist at the same time, tearing systems in two.
.
For example, if we want more money and add zeros to the number one, the closer to infinity of zeros we get, the more worthless the money we are using. These goddesses are also known as other aspects: the goddess of Inflation and the goddess of Deflation. Any system using ‘money’ has to deal with both of these dangerous goddesses. There is no escape.
.
ΩΩI firmly believe that all economics systems should first be expressed as mythological stories before we dive into math systems and formulas. This gives us a sound basis for examining events and putting things into their ultimate context. I keep meeting humans, for example, who really believe they can fly on Infinity’s wings and survive because they really believe they can control inflation! History is clear about this: it is delusional. We cannot control inflation this way.
.
ΩΩThat is, our nature is to be tempted to drink endless inflation vodka and mistake the agitation, wild party atmosphere and lunacy as ‘economic activity’ even when any outside observer can see, our productive base is dying and our economic system is destroying lives. Retirees will die thanks to this planned ‘inflation’ created by the desperate Fed and fed by the desperate Japanese buyers of US bonds.
.
ΩΩThis doesn’t stop anyone from doing the obvious stupid thing: Fed Certain to Act in November In a Big Way: Survey – CNBC
Nearly 93 percent of the 70 respondents, including economists, fund managers and traders, believe the Fed will boost the size of its portfolio, up from 69 percent in the survey two weeks ago.
.
Of those who expect the Fed to move, 86 percent look for an announcement in November, up from 38 percent in the last survey.
.
ΩΩAnd good analysts can see the obvious end to all of this: Fed Intervention Could Lead to ‘Flash Crash’: Strategist – CNBC. Here is another story along the same lines: Faber Sees Global ‘Turning Point,’ Credit ‘Bubble’ (Update1) – Bloomberg.com
Investors should buy stocks and sell cash and bonds because governments are continuing to print too much money and may create a new “credit bubble,” Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, told reporters during a forum in Seoul today.
.
“Instead of interest rates going down, they could start to go up, instead of the dollar being weak, it could strengthen,” Faber said. “I’m ultra-bearish on everything, but I believe you’ll be better off owning shares than government bonds.”
.
ΩΩThe vodka sellers want a strong dollar: they make profits this way. The inflation route won’t make the dollar stronger so long as the vodka sellers put the paper money we hand them into private accounts and use this to lend us more money so we can continue drinking ourselves to death. We have to say no. They won’t say no. They have no reason to say no.
.
ΩΩCurrency wars are necessary if all else fails – Telegraph
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The countries actively intervening in exchange markets to suppress their currencies – China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, even Switzerland, to name a few – are all too often the same ones that have the biggest trade surpluses with the US. They are taking active steps to prevent America extricating itself from the worst unemployment since the Great Depression, now 17.1pc on the latest U6 index and rising again.
.
…The atomic bomb, of course, is quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve. America has in effect issued an ultimatum to China and G20: either you stop this predatory behaviour and agree to some formula for global rebalancing, or we will deploy QE2 `a l’outrance’ to flood your economies with excess liquidity. We will cause you to overheat and drive up your wage costs. We will impose a de facto currency revaluation by more brutal and disruptive means, and there is little you can do to stop it. Pick your poison.
.
ΩΩHAHAHA…this is like a drunk telling the vodka venders, he is going to commit suicide! Guess what? The Wunderkind I tried to save did exactly this: he told everyone, if they don’t give him more time to drink instead of going to the hospital, he would commit suicide. Well, blast away! No one can stop a stupid drunk intent on suicide. Americans See Future Dimming for Children in Poll Showing 50% Pessimistic is the final link in my story and the parents of the Wunderkind are now preparing for his inevitable funeral and are very, very unhappy and sad.
.
ΩΩAnd when he was told this, he snarled, ‘I hate them. They won’t give me any money. I wish they were dead.’ And this, dear readers, is why drinking economic vodka turns people into suicidal maniacs who drop bombs all over the planet, kill children and steal stuff. We are this creature today. And think we are still Wunderkind heroes.
The US is at the point in the Magical Fish fairy tale where the fishwife asks to be made Empress of the Universe. After that, the fish sends her and the husband back to their hovel.
It doesn’t help that your ‘best friend’ is also your chief enabler ..
That is a really sad story about the Wunderkind. I am always amazed at how young adults go crazy with large sums of money, but in many ways, they are just imitating other adults who they idolized as movie stars or sports heros. I wonder also if it might be genetic deficiency of some kind. My own father expected the same from his mother, who was poor, yet neither I nor my brother expected anything from our parents.
Elaine, like others, has been outside preparing for winter. It is very hard work, especially for those who have no one to help them. Elaine runs a small farm. She does not sit in an office everyday, so expecting her to produce drawings and cartoons for our entertainment is not realistic. Be grateful that she still writes informative articles.
Finally–something I understand on Elaine’s blog without having to chew my tongue, wrinkle my forehead, do Web searches, re-read paragraphs, and contemplate.
I understand booze a hell of a lot better than I understand economics.
I am an alcoholic, just not a drinking one now. When I was much younger, I drank desperately and obsessively–self-medicating with booze and pills against unbearable mental and emotional anguish.
It’s difficult to explain to people who aren’t addicts. All of my life, I had felt weird, out of place, different, alienated, socially crippled. Many young people go through this, but it’s deeper and darker with some people. It was with me.
And then, at 16, I found booze. The first time I ever drank, I drank to drunkenness. Something in booze “fixed” me. It was as if all the emptiness I had ever known or felt vanished–but only when I was drunk. It was like a miracle drug, and I clung to it for about 10 years.
It began to destroy my life in ways similar to those Elaine describes above. But still I held on. The two hardest things for an addict to realize are that (1) the booze is the problem, not the solution and (2) no one will save you except yourself.
I did a stint in rehab, got out, and was drunk within a week. I went back to rehab after a month or two on a bender, but the second time, I “got it.” I finally had no more excuses, no escape route into self-pity, no more talent for blaming others, no more childish delusions about my life.
That was 31 years ago, and I haven’t had a drink since. I honestly don’t know what the difference was in that second trip to rehab. If I knew, I would gladly tell the world. Something in me just snapped. The booze didn’t work anymore, and I had to deal with life on its terms instead of my boozed-up terms.
Yes, it was horrible at first. All the pain I had anesthetized came out with a vengeance. But, despite my morbid expectations, I survived it. My life’s darkest moments didn’t kill me.
I am extremely fortunate. There are many addicts who do not find their “bottom” and who end up dead. They never feel the shift I felt within myself from self-absorption to self-awareness.
I was also fortunate to find AA and NA. They are wonderful, wonderful organizations and I recommend them to anyone who feels a need for help. But anyone who goes needs to remember that getting help requires giving patience. It’s not easy. (I always remember what someone said to me at my first meeting: “Well, junkie, you ain’t gonna be better by Tuesday.”)
I’m sorry for the long post, and I fear I may sound like one of those recovering celebrities who can’t wait to get on TV and tell the world about themselves. But Elaine’s story brought back so many memories. Thankfully, they’re only memories now and not my life. In fact, I now rarely even think about drinking; but when I do, I don’t remember the good times; I remember the hellish life that once almost destroyed me.
I hope the Wunderkind benefits from Elaine’s tough love. It is the only chance an addict has.
Thanks for sharing that, Daliwood. I have always wondered what motivated my father to start drinking and never stop until he almost died. It was that near death experience that forced him to confront the problem and start going to AA. He struggled for many years, but eventually he stopped totally.
@ Elaine
Re: …Instead, he lied to everyone and told him he was doing this while not doing this at all….
Sadly, I agree and accept the reality the principle players are too conflicted to cope with reality.
i wist it was not so.
You have an amazing ability for relevant insightful analysis that is tied to allegories.
This talent is rare in our technology dominated culture.
As you have said previously, allegories are the method our species used to pass on wisdom to the next generation.
It seems we lost our way when we ignored the power of allegories with its ability to communicate both reason and intuition?
media hypes the money splat everywhere like its a wedge issue… ignoring the failure to inform people that our leadership is in it for themselves, thats what its all about… ignorant money for the elite
.
they will give us banks
.
seems WTO/NAFTA was a bad deal, and they have no idea how to put the markets back together again… really this whole thing is 5% compound interest the banks swore they could raise on expanding global capitol supplys, and as WTO/NAFTA unwound social norms and accountability turns out the US and the rest of the world has more and more contracts that look like shit… and people are figuring out its hard to tax super national banking syndicates and their cronies
fluff
.
.
they will give us banks
back when bear/lehman puked i thot it was a big deal that a private bank could be so lazy and vulnerable with other peoples money
.
now the whole system is fast and loose years later, and the MSM still sits there jawboning how many people have an unfavorable opinion
.
MEANWHILE slaves like Rush Limbaugh GORGE people on mindless polarizing misinformation that only dancing dogs can make up… cuz its a free country and free press
.
OUR LEADERSHIP HAS A GLARING PROBLEM OF NOT BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE
O, and get drunk… live a little
behind those bear walls theres sunshine too
My best childhood friend died a while ago from all sorts of mental problems caused by all sorts of drugs abuse.
We had so much in common, but one stark difference: I pretty much avoided all substances that alter my mind while he embraced them after finding them. Well, I did not care about him / friends smoking little weed, they were just funny after that (I get more anxious around drunk people), but things went downwards from there.
Naturally this lead us apart, while I still wanted to be his friend drugs just changed everything. Well, at his last year alive I met him a few times… we still had the same friendship and connection, but he still could not give up on messing his head.
At the end I knew what would probably happen, but wished for him to find a way to recover. Of course having real mental problems at the end really ruin most of chances for recovery, and being too stubborn to accept enough help for those either…
Rest in peace, dear friend.
Ah, I forgot: I feel the same urges inside of me, I am pretty sure if I’d start drinking at all regularly, I could go down to the drain very fast. Only thing probably that saved me is that I feel like being completely honest with myself:
Since I have heavy urges for fast and easy enjoyment, that is exactly what I must avoid all my life to stay alive. Or at very least direct those desires to things that don’t kill me with addiction.
Hey Elaine, you practice Tarot, right?
Doesn’t that make you a black magician?!?
ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ
ELAINE: Only if I first paint myself with black paint.
“”The powers of financial capitalism had [a] far-reaching [plan], nothing less than to create a World system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the World as a whole. …Their secret is that they have annexed from governments, monarchies, and republics the power to create the world’s money… This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the World acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the World’s central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank… Sought to dominate its government by its ability to control treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in thebusiness World.”
Prof. Carroll Quigley
Most of the people on here sound very economical and intelligent, yet they do not seem know what money really is and how it’s created and controlled. That’s like saying i can count to ten but i never heard of number one.
Elaine
Excellent work
The Fed are the Drunkard with power.
The people are the drunkard with sleep
Elaine, I don’t believe in drinking any economic vodka as I don’t want impaired vision; nor do I want to live in a stupor. I have clear insight into today’s economic situation; and a clear vision of what the future holds.
I perceive that the Eurozone became a region of global governance on May 10, 2010, as the EU Finance Ministers announced European Economic Governance and called for a monetary union with seigniorage authority to issue eurobonds.
Global governance is the political driving force of this age as Flash News Today provides The Hindu report. India To Participate In Asia-Europe Dialogue: “On Monday, October 4, the leaders will convene “the eighth Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit in Brussels and will address “priority number one” — moving towards a declaration calling for more effective global financial and economic governance.” ConsiliumEuropa provides the PDF transcript of the Herman Van Rompuy speech More Effective Global Financial And Economic Governance given at the 8th Asia-Europe, ASEM, Summit held in Brussels. And, Stock Market News Australia reports Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said at the Europe Asia Summit: “We must explore ways to establish a more effective global economic governance system”.
Many today would like to dismantle the Eurozone by one means or another. My reply to them, is that there are indeed many problems in the Eurozone, these include different rates of productivity, growth, inflation, sovereign debt interest rates, taxation and others issues such as the report by Tyler Durden that The ECB Directly And Indirectly Monetized All Irish September Treasury Auctions; the action raised Irish ECB borrowings to 9% of liabilities, the same as Portuguese banks.
In my mind, there will never, repeat never be any dismantling of the Eurozone, nor will ever be any default of either sovereign debt or banking debt by Eurozone members. The periphery countries, particularly Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain indeed have significant issues, but they will never voluntarily leave of their own accord.
Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, presents a video reporting the accomplishments of the task force on economic governance which took place in Brussels on Monday July 12, 2010; and he specifically said that at the current time, sovereign debt default is out of the question — sovereign debt default would imply separation from the Union. And EuroIntelligence has it right as they report on October 8, 2010: No bond holder participation in Ireland: “It sounded like an exciting piece of news, when Ireland’s regulator pronounced that Ireland may after all participate the senior bondholders in the rescue costs. Ireland’s finance minister Brian Lenihan yesterday not only contradicted this. He also outlines the rules for the subordinate bondholders, which suggests that even those will not really be participating. It would only apply to institutions which are not listed on a recognised stock exchange, are in 100 percent state control and could not survive in the absence of total state support. That exempts pretty much anybody. So the Irish bank bailout is de facto finance to 100% by the tax payer.”
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Telegraph article Europe Prepares Nuclear Response To Save Monetary Union, writes provided an astute observation: “The walls of fiscal and economic sovereignty are being breached. The creation of an EU rescue mechanism with powers to issue bonds with Europe’s AAA rating to help eurozone states in trouble — apparently €60bn, with a separate facility that may be able to lever up to €500bn — is to go far beyond the Lisbon Treaty. This new agency is an EU Treasury in all but name, managing an EU fiscal union where liabilities become shared. A European state is being created before our eyes.”
Yes, as Mr. Evans-Pritchard communicates: national sovereignty was waived as the EU Leaders announced their agreement, just as in the United States, in March 2005, the three leaders of the North American continent announced the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, The SPP, at Baylor Baptist University; in so doing they abrogated Constitutional law; and waived sovereignty, and established a home, or better stated, a homeland for the continent’s people.
The future has been set; it is as Angela Merkel said, “If we are to have a global order and global governance we need to have an understanding for each other.” according to BBC report Germany’s Merkel Calls For Tougher Finance Regulation.
The application is that the word, will and way of politicians, government administrators and banking leaders is emerging as the governing principle in economic affairs. An Observant Mind believes a Financial Regulator, acting in concert an unannounced council of stakeholders, specifically elected officials, bank presidents, SEC/ECOFIN officials, and GSE administrators will effect policy that sustains an intertwined state corporate rule, that maintains the interest of the political and economic elite. One of their goals is to maintain the value of banking and real estate assets at the current levels as much as possible; and as such they effect policies to mitigate deflation. I present several examples below:
On, October 5, 2010, Japan took the ultimate action. In a unilateral decision, it went nuclear in the currency war that started September 15, 2010, when it intervened in the currency markets and sold Yen. In a unanimous vote, the Bank of Japan’s nine-member policy setting board set its interest rate at zero, that is, it established a Zero Interest Rate Policy, ZIRP, in an attempt to stop the rise in its currency and to appease political dissent that has risen over Japan’s ongoing deflation.
EconomicPolicy Journal relates that the Bank of Japan announced that it may buy J-Reits and J-ETFs as well, in an attempt to appease Japanese politicians who relate they have had enough of deflation.
Shaun Richards relates: “In addition it stated that it would look at establishing a temporary 5-trillion-yen ($60 billion) fund to purchase various financial assets such as government securities, commercial paper and corporate bonds in an attempt to stimulate the economy by lowering longer-term interest rates or what are more commonly called asset purchases or Quantitative Easing. The central bank will offer another 30 trillion yen ($359 billion) through its loan program.”
It is quite a stunning thing when a central bank goes to zero; Japan has simply decided to print money at will. Furthermore, the central bank of Japan, has in effect become the unitary, and sole provider of capital and money in Japan crowding out all bank lending. It has integrated banking and government into a state corporate combine; and it has effected a bloodless coup, establishing state corporatism, that is state corporate rule over the people of Japan.
I relate that in the United States, the Dodd Frank legislation established a Federal Financial Regulator, that being the Treasury Secretary, and granted him wide discretionary power of the economy. From the Robert Wenzel, EconomicPolicy Journal article Secret SEC Meeting with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, I conclude that in the US, through an October 6, 2010, meeting of bankers, investment bankers and SEC officials, that an elite group of stakeholders has arisen to act as a “banking, lending, credit, and investment Regulatory Council”, supporting the Financial Regulator in overseeing the US economy. I believe that the Dodd Frank legislation, empowers the Federal Financial Regulator, to intervene in the foreclosure moratorium issue; and that at some point in the future he will provide a solution that integrates the banks with the Government in state corporate governance over housing and mortgage securitization. Perhaps, Annaly Capital Management, NLY, may have a role to play, given that it has done so well in the Government debt field.
And I envision that in Europe, with a fall in the EUR/JPY from 114.71, seen in chart of FXE, FXY, there will be currency deflation, with th Euro, FXE, falling below 139.04, and stock deflation, with the European Shares, VGK, falling below 51.23, and European Financials, EUFN, falling below 23.31. Then a liquidity crisis will emerge, where there will not be enough buyers for sellers of stocks as well as bonds, causing small business failures, and banks to become sorely decapitalized, resulting in the president of the ECB arising to be an “Eurozone Credit Seignior” and provider of liquidity to Europe. The word Segnior means top dog banker who takes a cut. Europeans will come to trust in him to conduct their economic affairs as he will oversee all banking, lending, and credit throughout the entire Eurozone.
Europeans will come to trust in him to conduct their economic affairs as he will oversee all banking, lending, and credit throughout the entire Eurozone…
Well,yenguy, I doubt very much that there will
be a eurozone or a euro to oversee in a years
time.Much more likely is Trichet,Weber or any
other banker swinging from a lamppost along
van Rompuy,Barroso and the other unelected
politcommissars from the EUSSR.
Gosh, after reading the news this morning, this article, and the latest report from inflation.us……I am expecting America to turn into Zimbabwe any day!!
Unbelievable, taking over with out a shot
Chinese oil giant takes big step into Texas shale
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/7242533.html
Big bank collapse dead ahead!!
Bank of America, Citibank and JPirates Morgan look like they are in trouble and their share prices are dropping!
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=169169
I can count to twenty but I have to take my socks off first.
they don’t smell too good.
@ Elaine
Re: …Instead, he lied to everyone and told him he was doing this while not doing this at all….
Musing on what can happen: What can the outcome be from the US QEII imitated currency war?
I will assume the currency war will not turn into a shooting war in this exercise.
Hopefully, my speculation elicits comments from Elaine and readers?
Speculative outcomes
• US senate will modify QEII and negotiate a deal with China.
• US QEII will not create more exports nor solve or materially retard its economic decline trajectory.
• Low USD will cause huge price increase in imports (oil and products) that cannot be substituted by domestic production for at least 10 years.
• USD becomes isolated because its currency war opponents will introduce capital controls and use bilateral trading currency mechanisms to avoid using USD. This means USD used only when trading with the US until a new basket of currency and commodity based architecture is setup.
• IMF and World Bank will be replaced unless they change in the face of US and EU opposition today on voting rights to reflect the economic realities existing today.
• London and Wall Street will be marginalized as Global Financial Centres.
• The US will transition from a democracy to a Fascist or Oligarch society as was Rome in its twilight years?
• The UK, US and EU will face the prospects of possible revolution as the masses rebel in some form of class struggle before a new society comes about? What type of society?
My question:
• What is wrong with my speculation?
• If I am close to the mark then why is Washington and Wall Street so intent to destroy their own nation and the future of its citizens?
Am I so delusional?
Does all this sound like the periods of great powers in transition as pre WWI and WWII and before the rise and fall of European Concert of powers and the rise and decline of Napoleon Bonaparte?
Daliwood said “It’s difficult to explain to people who aren’t addicts. All of my life, I had felt weird, out of place, different, alienated, socially crippled.” Likewise. I started drinking at 20. Been sober 13 years now. Elaine does have a gift for using analogy in explaining hard to understand concepts. Seems we are inching toward the financial precipice of disaster with no parachute. Except for the Elites and their golden parachutes, of course. We sub-Elites don’t count, as you well know. All you useless eaters will just have to take what they give you. It’s almost enough to drive a person to drink.
I want to include a post I found on another blog, so you know how they will handle the rabble once the collapse occurs:
Now, the security company I did work for has ALREADY created the infrastructure needed to, quite literally, imprison you in your own home. They do not need to build any additional systems. The only part left for them is marketing to State and local government.
Just to really freak you out, I’ve seen with my own eyes the nice chip that will go in your thumb that holds all of your records – drivers license, passport, medical records, xrays, banking information, credit cards and you can transfer cash to your thumb also. It already exists but I was listening to politicians and CEO try to figure out how to get the public to accept it. BTW, they are going to start with a biometric key fob.
See, 911 funneled a lot of money into companies that worked on things like voice and face recognition or data mining firms. These companies pounded a lot of that money back into research and development and with the blessing of the state how now developed some very serious total information systems that can damn near predict a crime.
These guys have tons of government money and they have used it in ways that the police and FBI have not.
I’m saying that it may not be necessary to house any non violent offenders anymore because they can be monitored 24/7 in real time. They can be screened for drugs, eavesdropped on or given “pain compliance” all from an automated system – all of it remotely.
Of course, these systems will eventually be used on everyone as that is the real target audience.
Wu Wei
October 14, 2010 at 10:57 am
Most of the people on here sound very economical and intelligent, yet they do not seem know what money really is and how it’s created and controlled. That’s like saying i can count to ten but i never heard of number one.
.
ITS NOT CONTROLLED… its alleviating
.
and its not a currency war… its currency for dummys, poor is poor and money is for stupid
.
banks are disgraced but as i witness, what is new… gold is worth ‘something’, and money is worth ‘nothing’
.
there was no election for moron credit, just stumbling dead drunk
@ nah
Re: ..there was no election for moron credit, just stumbling dead drunk..
Good turn of phrase.
Your nihilism is very tempting in this crazy world of ours.
I wish it was not so.
It is interesting to hear how private bankers talk today.
One told me today that he regularly revises his “data sets” to correlate with new developments?
My interpretation: they got it wrong often and its all about trash talk.
Next wanted to talk about risk profiles and preferred “instruments” etc.
My comment: What paper instrument or institution is good with Bernanke in charge causing gold and silver to rise with speculation in other commodities?
What I find so interesting is the near total lack of outrage on the part of the American people. Why is that? Alot of Americans lost upwards of 50% of their 401k accounts thanks to Wall Street. In addition to losing their jobs, deflation, etc. Why no protests? In other countries, they take to the streets en masse to voice their ourage over relatively minor changes to pensions and other social services. Why do so many Americans sit idly by why their world crashes around them? Of course the teabaggers are hopeless–and the puppets of billionaires, but what about everybody else? Things won’t change for the better until the crumbling Middle Class organizes and asserts itself, imho.
Paul S. Man has been reduced from spiritual man into simple animal man who is solely lives to please his imaginary “I”. It’s called brainwashing. Thank Darwin, Nietzsche, Marx, Freud, CNN, FOXnews et al.
You really expect animal man to think about his present situation and who might be responsible for that?!?!? You really expect animal man who does not even understand himself, to understand what got him into this mess?
“The ‘you’ who you think you are does not exist.”
Hey Elaine, all magic is black magic. It’s all EGO wanting to be like God. Silly Luciferians.
The occult is the greatest deception on earth.
The truth is not hidden!
Wu Wei: Yes, what you say is very true. But it does NOT have to be that way. The current state of apathy among many Americans is the net result of a concerted effort on the part of the US ruling class. Through mass marketing, Americans are fed a diet of junk food and junk TV. They receive, by objective standards of measurement, inferior educations–by design. (It also explains why so many Americans are overweight.) Some Americans can and do receive very good educations, but not the ‘masses’. The vast majority of Americans are woefully undertrained in critical thinking skills, which explains the popularity of obviously biased, right wing media outlets such as Fox. It also explains the ‘teabagger’ phenomenon. A majority of ‘baggers’ are BIG recipients of big ‘guvmint’ assistance, yet there they are protesting the intrusion of “Socialism” into their lives. Go figure.
I will get off my soap box now.
“This week, the news came out that yes, the US did plan to nuke North Korea. ”
This is news?
Hey… if we didn’t nuke North Korea when the Red Chinese came across the Yalu River, we aren’t going to nuke it now.
And NK is such a perfect country to nuke, too. No one in the world would give a damn except the Chinese, and they’d get over it.
@Paul S – So, do you count NPR as a biased media outlet, also?