EASY READING CULTURE OF LIFE NEWS: 7 FAT COWS AND 7 STARVING COWS: WEALTH CYCLES « Culture of Life News 2
Numbers have been magical, since the inception of assigning names to digits. The names of numbers came up as the numbers were created. Words are, in their own selves, magical. They assign sounds that are, over time, enriched by the past usage of these sounds, to create a new reality. On top of this, we have the reality of nature and things that we call ‘real’. One of the forces of nature we strive to understand it the nature of cycles. Day and night cycles, lunar cycles, seasonal cycles are all at the very basis of human philosophy, religion and civilization.
It is hard for modern humans to understand how the understanding of these obvious cycles is the fundamental basis of all our thought-systems which we call ‘The Brain’. Modern economics is very fond of understanding cycles, yet, at the same time, many people don’t like the information this gives us. Even as many graph and chart readers work for many investment houses and universities, the philosophy of how this works eludes many users of graphs and charts because the lessons embedded in this business are most unsettling.
This is why sudden reversals are hard to anticipate. Generally speaking, people like to keep any status quo going to infinity or conversely, they want to prematurely terminate a cycle so they can keep the one they prefer, going. Instead of striving to understand the nature of balance and control, they want out of control expansion with no alleviating contraction cycles.
Many people inside of our government systems want to have a single dynamic rather than understanding waves and figuring out how to navigate these sea changes. The notion of waves, the idea that things have cycles is very ancient and there are many, many stories told for thousands of years, that try to explain cycles and how governments ought to cope with these inevitable cycles of drought/rain or plenty/famine, cycles of wealth/poverty and cycles of dynastic growth/dying empires.
Today, we see many people bewailing the collapse of the easy credit cycle. The United States is trying to fix the end of the flood of easy credit by giving itself even more easy credit and then giving it out to others so they can lend more, too. This isn’t going to work, in the long run, the more we refuse to balance things, the more out of balance they become and the more effort is required to keep the out of balance things running.
This is the ancient notion of rolling rocks uphill. Only I would suggest, it is more like rolling a snowball uphill. As you push it upwards, it grows bigger and heavier and will eventually roll backwards, crushing everything in its path for it will grow bigger going down, as well as going uphill! This is the nature of the Beast: interest accumulations without savings doom any negative wealth-flow systems.
A lot of people misunderstand the concept of savings and how this is the basis of all lending systems. They think that savers are hoarders. Gold buyers are hoarders, incidentally. But this is the fault of the bankers and politicians who severed the money/gold connection. Normally, savers prefer to park their capital in banks. Then, the banks lend money using these savings as their base of value. Bankers have to pay savers for using this money as lending.
When bankers cheat savers and insist on running banking on a zero-profit for savers so savers give bankers money which the bankers get to use for free as their basis for lending where the bankers get all the interest profits accrued off of the savings that earn no interest, we get a negative banking system. To protest this theft, savers have been buying gold and hoarding it and keeping the money out of the lending markets. This is why the lending cycle has collapsed and will continue to collapse.
Back to cycles: there are cycles for saving and cycles for spending. Generally speaking, wise people save during good cycles and spend their savings during bad cycles. People who save during good cycles get to be the bankers during bad cycles. This is very ancient, as old as civilization itself. The earliest empires knew they had to accumulate wealth during good times and spend it during bad times.
I wish to talk now about one of the oldest Bible stories about this business: the Seven Fat Cows and the Seven Starving Cows. It is embedded in the middle of a lot of very bizarre and quite funny stuff. Just for example, the cheek of the Jewish scribes who wrote up this story thousands of years later, decided to take credit for the creation of tithing taxes in ancient Egypt!
As if a bunch of shepherds figured out what the Egyptians created many thousands of years ago! The very earliest agricultural communities were the antithesis of the herding mentality: herders tracked the ebb and flow of the seasons, moving northwards or upwards in summer and going south or downwards in winter. Instead, the farmers were sedentary and stored up food in the fall for the winter or, if in deserts like Egypt, they stored the produce of the rainy season and used it during the drought season.
On top of all that, the Egyptians had another cycle: the annual flooding of the Nile. This was due to the monsoon season in the Upper Nile.
Like the Mississippi, Rhine, Danube, Volga, Yellow, Mekong and Amazon rivers, this is one of the great continent-spanning rivers of the world. The rain forests of Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya provide the regular river flow. But the monsoon rains that come off of the Westerlies blowing off the warm Indian Ocean are the cause of the annual flooding of the Nile.
This has been terminated since the building of the Aswan Dam. For many, many thousands of years, one of the chief agricultural grain growing regions of the earth are along the banks of this river as it winds thorough one of the driest deserts on earth. Across the earth, we are putting in dams and levees that prevent annual floods. We have been doing this for less than a century. And the bad effects of this are barely begun.
One of the Greater Cycles is how desertification overtakes older agricultural lands and turns them into dead lands. We are cutting down our rain forests at the same time, we are preventing floods and this combined force is driving desertification of prime agricultural lands.
Back to cycles: the very earliest agriculturalists noticed that not only rivers have cycles, there are tidal cycles, too. These came from the moon’s pull on the oceans. Many agricultural civilizations launched navies and used these to expand trade. For the basis of civilization is agricultural excess crops during good years. These could be easily stored and transported and then, traded for other, non-local goods. For example, there was a huge trade going on since 4,000 BC between the olive-growing regions and the grain growing regions.
This was so profitable, many of the Aegean ships discovered by divers, are nearly always filled with both wine and olive oil products, sent to Egypt, for example. Now, back the Genesis 41, in the Bible:
41:1 It happened at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.
41:2 Behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, well-favored and fat-fleshed, and they fed in the reed-grass.
41:3 Behold, seven other cattle came up after them out of the river, ill-favored and lean-fleshed, and stood by the other cattle on the brink of the river.
41:4 The ill-favored and lean-fleshed cattle ate up the seven well-favored and fat cattle. So Pharaoh awoke.
41:25 Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dream of Pharaoh is one. What God is about to do he has declared to Pharaoh.
41:26 The seven good cattle are seven years; and the seven good heads of grain are seven years. The dream is one.
41:27 The seven lean and ill-favored cattle that came up after them are seven years, and also the seven empty heads of grain blasted with the east wind; they will be seven years of famine.
41:33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look for a discreet and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt.
41:34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint overseers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt’s produce in the seven plenteous years.
41:35 Let them gather all the food of these good years that come, and lay up grain under the hand of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it.
41:36 The food will be for a store to the land against the seven years of famine, which will be in the land of Egypt; that the land not perish through the famine.”
41:37 The thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
41:38 Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”
41:39 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has shown you all of this, there is none so discreet and wise as you.
41:40 You shall be over my house, and according to your word will all my people be ruled. Only in the throne I will be greater than you.”
41:41 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”
41:42 Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in robes of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck,
41:43 and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had. They cried before him, “Bow the knee!” He set him over all the land of Egypt.
41:44 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without you shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.”
41:49 Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until he stopped counting, for it was without number.
41:53 The seven years of plenty, that was in the land of Egypt, came to an end.
41:54 The seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
41:55 When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do.”
41:57 All countries came into Egypt, to Joseph, to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all the earth.
First, here is a satellite photo of the region of Giza, Egypt:
The very ancient Egyptian people were extremely intelligent. They figured out very early on, say, around 15,000 years ago [if not much earlier]—bodies buried in the extremely dry desert sands would naturally ‘mummify’ and thus, not rot away. In the Americas, burials of important people were often hauled into drier parts of the desert and buried there, too, for the same reason.
The pyramids of Giza are one of the most famous examples of desert funerary locations. Human-made mountains stored the remains of the demi-god human rulers. The point being, to preserve the bodies forever. Of course, like any ‘eternal’ system set up by jealous rulers, this always fails. Eventually, other humans will raid the tombs and steal all the equipment and even the corpses, themselves. So now, the rulers of ancient Egypt now are doomed to sit inside their glass showcases and entertain masses of barbarians who come to gawk.
The powerful pharaohs of the Old Kingdom years were so cock-sure of their power, they thought, if they built huge pyramids right on the edge of the flood plains, they could protect their remains from robbers. This, of course, failed miserably. All empires rise, rule and then rot. The Egyptian dynasties followed this rule time and again so we know this is not a cycle we can easily evade. It is pretty stubborn.
Before we go further, here is a BBC – History – Ancient Egypt Timeline:
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Middle Kingdom (11th-14th Dynasties) 
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1630- 1520 BC | |
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1539-1075 BC | |
New Kingdom (18th-20th Dynasties) 
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1075-715 BC | |
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715-332 BC | |
Late Period (20th-30th Dynasties, 2nd Persian Period) |
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Many Bible believers love to use archeology to locate their favorite myths. This is easy to do in some ways. For example, the chances of the horse/cow/sheep people invading agricultural Egypt was always high. And sure enough, they have succeeded in this! The 1630-1520 century of invasions of the Horse People, the Hyksos, is associated with the Genesis story of Joseph and the dreams.
The lunacy of this whole story is obvious at a glance: if most people including many Jews, believe that this story is historical and happened in 1500 BC, then it is really stupid. Because the Pharaohs of Egypt had been taxing the farm people for at least 2,000+ years before this story was supposed to happen.
In other words, why would a Pharaoh and his ‘wisest priests’ be stumped by such an obvious dream? This would beg a level of stupidity greater than what we see today in the center of our banking/economic systems! HAHAHA.
Actually, as a 7 year old, I was puzzled as to why it was so difficult to figure out the dream riddle. It seemed childishly simple to me, back then. As it was. The Jews, who descended from wandering/herding tribes, probably found the ancient Egyptian system of water allocations, land-use rules, tithing systems and storage to be utterly miraculous. Instead of giving credit for inventing all of this civilization, the Jews needed to pretend that the clever Egyptians who built immense public structures, water systems, field systems and the art of writing, etc, were too stupid to figure out taxes!
This is what the Seven Fatted Cows are all about: taxes. That is, during good times, a surtax has to be applied so that a surplus can accumulate and be stored. You can bet, the very first farmers of Egypt thought about how to do this. Accumulating grain means protecting it from rodents, water and human theft. This meant having guards, strong houses and cats. And true enough, the very first people to domesticate cats were the ancient Egyptians.
Guarding the surplus grain meant having someone in charge of the storehouses and this was the job of the Pharaohs and their priests. This is also why cats were elevated into goddess-hood by the ancient Egyptians.
Of course, the shepherding tribes from the Middle East didn’t understand all of this which is why there is no mention of cats in the Old Testament. Indeed, when I was young, I doubted the entire story about Egypt due to the fact that no one in the Jewish version of history, mentions cats despite supposedly being there and assimilated for generations, they didn’t know about cats?
Cats (Felis sylvestris catus), known in Ancient Egypt as the miw, played a large role in ancient Egyptian society. Beginning as a wild, untamed species, cats were useful for keeping down vermin populations in the Egyptians’ crops and harvests; through exposure to humans, the cat population became domesticatedover time and learned to coexist with the human population. The people inhabiting the area which would later become unified and known as Upper and Lower Egypt had a religion centering around the worship of animals, of which the cat became one.
Originally praised for its aid to humans in controlling vermin and its ability to fight and kill snakes (such ascobras), the domesticated cat slowly became a symbol of grace and poise. The goddess Mafdet, the deification of justice and execution, was a fierce lion-headed goddess. The cat goddess Bast (also known as Bastet) eventually replaced the cult of Mafdet, and Bast’s image softened over time and she became the deity representing protection, fertility, and motherhood.
As a revered animal and one very important to Egyptian society and religion, the cat was afforded the same mummification after death as humans. Mummified cats were given in offering to Bast; in 1888, an Egyptian farmer accidentally uncovered a large tomb containing tens of thousands of mummified cats and kittens. This discovery outside the town of Beni Hasan contained around eighty thousand cat mummies, dating back to 1000-2000 BC.
Indeed, one of the most favored goddesses of the household was Bast. Museums today have many cute representations of this extremely popular goddess. Often, she carries a basket and has bracelets and earrings. She was always a civilized goddess, very domestic. The fact that the writers of Genesis make no mention of Her is a sign, they were telling fairy tales passed from hand to hand.
What is also a sign of dishonesty is the inability to name the clueless Pharaoh in this story. Even in Ur, where Abraham was supposed to come from, the city officials knew all about storage of grain and how to tax people. Indeed, one of the earliest signs of any city-state is the institution of taxes!
To this day, we see people denying the utility of taxes and the need for all civic organizations to tax properly and spend carefully. The US stands as a perfect example of this: we hate taxes and have had a half a century of tax revolts that had only one outcome: the more we revolt against taxes, the more the bankers [aka, the priests] enable us to borrow more money so we are now in a perpetual debt flow which, in bad times, leads us to destruction.
The Jews who wrote Genesis acted as if the very-developed kingdom of the Pharaohs didn’t know about taxes until a Jewish guy figured it out. Here is what happens next, according to the Jewish version of events:
Genesis, Chapter 47 (King James Bible) – ChristianAnswers® WebBible™
13 And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.14 And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house.
15 And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth.
16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.
Aha! Now, we have a most interesting thing here! We know from ancient records that the storage of grain was for bad times and during that time, to prevent riots, revolutions and the topping of regimes, the rulers would hand out bread rations during bad times! This was a smart survival move.
When the British allowed one third of Ireland die of starvation during the Great Potato Famine, this was due to a desire to see the population of Catholic Irish natives greatly reduced. Then, the occupation of Ireland would be much easier for the invading British troops. This was, in other words, a hostile move to destroy a population. One third dead and one third forced to flee to distant lands suited the British Crown just fine.
But the Pharaohs of Egypt did not want their peasants dead! They wanted them alive so they could farm in the future and grow more crops and build more stuff for the rulers. I suspect that many public projects were done in ‘bad years’ and the workers were paid in bread. Bad years were also times for raising large armies to do two things: protect the farmlands from hungry, marauding herding people like the Israelis of yore. Usually, when the rains fail, the herders become extremely aggressive.
I would guess, the earliest Egyptian rulers from before the Old Kingdom, figured this out. But in this Jewish rendition of the discovery of taxes, the Jewish advisor who was second in command, according to this story, was ruthless. He demanded money for these stored grains which were collected as taxes!
Now, normally, when a ruler has a second in command who does this in a time of privation, we see an increase in crime, riots and insurrections. So, according to this thousands-year old story, Joseph helped the Pharaoh suck up all the ‘money’. Which they hoarded. And there was no more commerce.
So the Jewish advisor had a neat idea: force the Egyptian people and others to hand over all their ‘wealth’ in the form of their livestock, etc. Well! According to this story, his own tribe was starving and wanted grain. So they came to Egypt for it. Um, let’s be realistic: a bunch of desert herding people with a very violent history and obvious bad tempers came pouring into Egypt looking for food. The very people the Pharaohs feared and hated. Yes, this sounds like the Hyskos invasions.
Genesis, Chapter 47 (King James Bible) – ChristianAnswers® WebBible™
17 And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.18 When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:
19 Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.
20 And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh’s.
21 And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof.
22 Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands.
23 Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.
24 And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.
25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.
26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh’s.
YIKES! So, according to the Jews, after Joseph forced everyone to lose everything to the Central Government to gain access to grain which was collected in the form of taxes, this grain was then given back to the people who grew it but in return, they had to lose all their lands to the ruler and his foreign advisor, Joseph? And then become perpetual slaves?
Even funnier is the part whereby Joseph couldn’t confiscate the lands and taxes handed to the priests! They got to keep everything despite this drought. Actually, this odious story is a lesson to us: we do need a government to protect us during the inevitable bad years. We know that these bad years come with depressing regularity. And tremendously bad years come in huge waves that takes half a century to gather strength.
Many things come in waves of seven years. For example, some insects follow a seven-year mating schedule. I learned, while doing this story, that men’s ears have a seven year growth cycle which is why the size of the ears change over time. How peculiar is that? Rhythmic ear growth– research indicates men’s ears grow in seven-year cycles.
Engineering News:The Stainless Steel Market and the Seven Year Cycle – is all about this mysterious seven year cycle in metal markets! Commodity Future Trading and the 30 Year Cycle:
The tops of the cycle are approximately thirty years apart. Once the top is pinpointed we just add 30 years to the top. So every 30 years the major highs are made and the cycle repeats.
Within this 30 year cycle there are seven years which produce massive price moves to the upside. So, seven years before the actual top is made, we look for commodity future prices to begin their big moves. Slowly at first, but all the while getting progressively bigger and bigger.
Cairns Lockie eMortgage Newsletter 14/2000
The Seven Year Property Cycle
Could good times be here again for homeowners and residential property investors? Over the past 30 years, there has been a general cycle with house prices rising quickly every 7 -8 years. The boom years have been 1973/4, 1981/2, 1987/8 and 1994/5. Based on these figures 2001/2 may be a good year for the residential property sector. One cautionary note however. Each price appreciation had been proceeded by a period of inflation. Certainly over the past two or three years this has not been the case. We will have to wait and see.
Economist calls bottom in 2010, based on US cycle
Anderson bases his prediction on an 18-year cycle which he says has manifested itself in the United States since 1800. “The cycle is as regular as clockwork. It is quite bizarre,” he said.
There were peaks in land sales or real estate speculation in 1818, 1836, 1854, 1888, 1908, 1926 and 1944. The peaks were followed by downturns or depressions, typically lasting four years. World War II disrupted the pattern. But the cycle resumed in 1955.
The real estate market in the US again peaked in 1989 and bottomed in 1991. And 18 years later, in 2006-07, it hit another high. We are now into the third year of downturn, so by next year the market should bottom, which will mark the beginning of the new 18-year cycle.
The next boom, peaking around 2024, will be huge because hundreds of millions of Chinese will enter the market for the first time, he said. “Singapore is well-positioned to take advantage of the next boom because of its proximity to China. I am very bullish on Singapore. Although real estate is already expensive in Singapore, it is going to be more expensive.”
Anderson is confident the cycle will repeat itself as long as land is tradeable and in private hands. “It will continue to happen because people will chase the capitalized rent of land,” he said. “It will be gone only if the rent is collected by the government.”
China’s privatization of its real estate market guarantees a real estate cycle, according to him.
Also, everything that has been done to tackle the current financial crisis is to preserve the system. “So the system will start again.”
There are smaller cycles within the big 18-year cycles. The first seven years are characterized by a gradual improvement in activity and confidence following the previous crash. The next seven years see steeper increases in activity and prices, with the sharpest gains taking place in the final two of the seven years.
“That’s when most people take on more debt. That’s also the easiest time to buy real estate because loans are easy to get as banks have a lot of money. But that’s absolutely the wrong time to do so,” said Anderson.
The Jewish culture has a big thing for the number seven: it is the Jubilee cycle. Every seventh year is a ‘sabbatical’, Saturday is the seventh day, of course, the day of ‘rest’ and every seven years, which is 49 years [effectively, every half a century] is the Jubilee year where all debts are cancelled.
This is rather peculiar. For we see our government and our bankers and everyone rushing about like mad, to keep the debt payments flowing faultlessly and they are even rewriting mortgages written less than three years ago, all in a vain attempt at keeping the mortgages paying back!
Indeed, to keep the lending cycle running past the 49 year mark, they are going ZIRP whereby no new loans pay any interest at all! This zero percent lending system is a sign, the ability to soak up more debts has reached its cyclic limits. We have to zero out everything. Savers are being punished, and the ones who have money left are running to gold. But we can see from the very ancient story about droughts, this doesn’t work. The Pharaoh and his foreign advisor will suck up all the gold and only then, will they hand out the means of survival!
At least, this is how they hope things go: during this ‘drought’, desperate for medicine, food, housing, we will give up all our freedoms and rights as citizens and become serfs? I think they are of two minds: they know that, instead of a ‘Jubilee’, they hope to transfer all the debts to the government, itself. And with a fine sleigh of hand, convince us that these debts are really ‘assets’.
But these ‘assets’ are for them, not us. These ‘assets’ are TAXES on our futures. And promises that these future taxes will never show up is pure baloney. Note how this 5,000 year old tale ends: the people have no money, no gold, no livestock and no land. They are forever, serfs. What is even funnier is, the Jews skip forwards a tad from this story to the story of Moses. In this story, the Jews are also slaves in Egypt! Well! Isn’t it funny, they claim authorship of the system that did this? Talk about irony.
I think this is the cat goddess’s revenge.
ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ
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Culture of Life News 
Elaine – via James Wolcott .. check out these 2007 words from media dipstick Larry Kudlow ..
America’s bull market economy stands at the epicenter of the newly-capitalist world market economy. Therefore, it is no surprise that America’s stock rise is being emulated around the world. This is called economic leadership.
The reality is that non-inflationary growth and rising living standards are occurring all around the globe. For this, thank the spread of American-style, free-market capitalism. Some call it cowboy capitalism, but I prefer to think of it as prosperity capitalism.
Record wealth is now being created among a hundred million plus investors in the U.S., including union and public employee pension fund holders who are 60 percent invested in the Bernanke bull market. This, even though they rail against stock market wealth and business in general, and still don’t get it that their retirement wealth bread is being buttered by the fabulous expansion of the portfolio value of the ownership society.
Stocks are the best barometer of future business and economic health. They are signaling that the wealth of the nation currently and prospectively looks excellent.
[snip]
The recessionists are wrong. The bears are wrong. The pessimists are wrong. The doom and gloom crowd is wrong.
We are witnessing the Bush/Bernanke boom. It is still the greatest story never told.
Really, any decent economics blog needs to be a psychiatry/mental disturbances blog. Which is what you are .. 🙂
sharkbabe When you prefix it with Larry Blowhole Crudlow I hit the mute and just look at the pretty pictures.
Wasting time on the 18% is just a losing proposition.
Elaine Did you talk about your computer problem and where can I find it?(the problem)
When my computer was manufactured, it had an electrical problem that suddenly got very bad. So I am getting a new one, gratis, from Apple. But, while this is going on, I am stuck here on a very old, much weaker computer that is a bitch to use since I do complicated things.
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This will be better when Apple ships out my new computer which will be in about 5 days or less. I can’t wait! It is really bitchy, typing faster than a computer can respond and waiting for it to put up the letters I type in. 😦
This guy was executed for his cycles-theory.
The Kondratieff Theory
http://www.kwaves.com/kond_overview.htm
Cycles are fantastic… i love change its the best… i get to be right all the fuking time and wrong all the fucking time… the depression is making me enjoy life, maybee more than i would otherwise enjoy life ‘not that i dont go out of my way the suck the meat off the bone’… I hope the next 7 year cycle is a good one ‘if the whole damn thing iznt a ponzi scheme to begin with’… pay for everyonelses shit cuz we owe the joy and beauty of life to any boner who can pick it up and lie about it… thats a joke its not a ponzi scheme only rich people are vain
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it takes an individual
five words lazy monopolistic socialists
five words lazy monopolistic socialists
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gets better with time
Just what Elaine allways told everyone
Paul: Bin Laden pleased with US policy
http://tinyurl.com/cn4vbh
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE51R1LM20090228
Chavez orders army takeover of Venezuela rice mills
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Yeah herd’ Binladen is dead… bet the economy looks alot better when your rotting in hell
What an interesting story!
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A Jewish “advisor” to the king (a non-Jew) convinces the king to break his social contract with his own people and use their own grain (savings) to steal everything they own, including their freedom and their childrens’ freedom, when they need it the most (the reason for saving it and entrusting it to the king’s guards in the first place).
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How many times have I seen or heard of this being done before?
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Here is an explanation:
http://www.markfiore.com/clapper_0
Crunched into modernity http://tinyurl.com/bhvo5a
“…A generic clearing-union network of direct financing will enable a simple but radical new approach to global economies. It could enable systemic fiscal reform based upon taxation of privilege rather than earned income, and it also offers new solutions for financing public assets. Most exciting of all, it enables a new networked generation of global markets, and even the potential for a “New Settlement” – a Bretton Woods II – establishing a new global architecture for world trade.”
“Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalised and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to Communism.”
Karl Marx, Das Kapital 1867
The Dark Stimulus! 🙂
President Obama explains how the budget he sent to Congress will fulfill the promises he made as a candidate, and assures special interests that he is ready for the fight.
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wow listening to President Obama talk about carbon tax credits and clean energy education and oportunity makes me wonder if im small minded… i think the suburbs are wasteful, i think oil is evil ‘pay for unamerican treatment of populations’, i think corporations are lazi ‘hella layz’, and i think human potential is unlimited except by buracracy and licence to fleece… could a black man be president
Alice In Wonderland
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http://larouchepac.com/alice
Sorry I should have checked the Karl Marx quote, it appears to be bogus. Should have seen not many workers can afford to buy housing and services in those days…
Simon, I recommend reading the actual books. I do this all the time. There are a lot of bogus ‘one liners’ out on the internet set into motion by liars. Anti-semites do this as well as people who want to justify putting all Palestinians in ghettos, etc, ect. There is a LOT of lying out there on the internet. Winnowing through all this is hard to do and one has to use judgement, etc. I try to stick to the actual, documented stuff. Even if I know more than that, it is useless to simply say things. We need documentation.
Well, looks like the current Joseph, the homegrown Uncle Warren Scrooge is going Sherlock on his quickly dwindling, and loosing big time fan club. Even his Wiseness has not been spared the Derivatives lash. http://tinyurl.com/c36eo7
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Buffett and business partner Charlie Munger can’t predict how stocks will perform in 2009, they’re certain “that the economy will be in shambles throughout 2009 — and, for that matter, probably well beyond,”
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I just love this oracle’s honest Scroogeness, Home purchases should involve an“honest-to-God down payment of at least 10 percent,” Buffett said. “Putting people into homes, though a desirable goal, shouldn’t be our country’s primary objective.”
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And he continues, “Whatever the downsides may be, strong and immediate action by government was essential last year if the financial system was to avoid a total breakdown,” Buffett said. “Had that occurred, the consequences for every area of our economy would have been cataclysmic. Like it or not, the inhabitants of Wall Street, Main Street and the various Side Streets of America were all in the same boat.”
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Well, golly gee Sherlock, since you pandered to, fed and nurtured the monster to its present size, you’ve earned the right to pay for it. You were supposed to protect the ignorants from themselves first, and from your friends, second. But instead chose to join the rape and pillage party. So go stuff it in your mattress, you fake!
The survivalists sure reckon on a lean few years. All the gun shops are out of firearms and ammo. I wonder when this tinderbox will ignite?
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“First, its not just guns, its all of the accessories as well. I had to return some items from Christmas to Sportsman’s Warehouse and found that the whole gun department was basically empty. They only had some black powder firearms and a couple of shotguns. Nothing else.”
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“Now in my wanderings in the store I also found that communications gear is also disappearing off the shelves. I had a brief conversation with the kid that was working there and it turns out that this is another trend they are seeing. Basically all of the walkie-talkie units that can take ear buds or microphones are gone. The only things left are some cheap FRS units. The same thing was at work with the flashlights – all of the better units (like the Surefire models) were gone. I begin to wonder what is at work here – am I being paranoid or is this the next run on “near tactical” equipment?”
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“FYI, just got done shopping at Midway [for ammunition handloading components] and all of the .308 150 grain soft nosed bullets priced at $25.00/100 and under are gone. All gone! This includes all round nose and flat point for 30-30. Only some of the premium stuff is available.”
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“Cabela’s seems to have a fair selection of all .308 spire point bullets and 9mm/.45ACP JHP, and a very limited amount (500 rounds) of the cheap 7.62×39, and limited quantities of .223 and .308. The run on ammunition continues and is amazing. A report from the latest gun show in our area described [buyers with] dollies stacked with cases that emptied the place within three hours. What is the most shocking is that reloading components are also disappearing.”
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“One thing you definitely had nailed: They did not have a single high-cap magazine left in the store, except the one that came in the mag well of the AK I mentioned.
I cleaned out the last of their .45 and .308 ammo–just a few boxes. There was not a round of 9mm, .223, of 7.62 [x39mm] Russian to be found. Those was some slim pickin’s! I wonder: What will they have left by Saturday night?”
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The link for the above got axed, so here it is:
http://www.survivalblog.com/2009/02/three_letters_re_the_feeding_f.html
Have a look further what happened with the Joseph story. The “advisor” to the King helps him to reduce his people in bondage, then he calls his relatives from abroad to settle in the land. “So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions there and grew and multiply exceedingly” (Genesis, 47, 27).
“And Joseph died, all his brothers,and all that generation. But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people: ‘Look the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; ‘Come let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply and it happen in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land. Therefore they set task masters over them to afflict them with their burdens” (Exodus, 1, 6-11)etc.
So, the former masters were subjected to the insufferable situation to work. We know that God did not permit that and punished the haples Egyptians with all sorts of plagues so that the Pharaoh let them go.
Which they did, not before killing the first born children of the Egyptians (sorry, God killed them personally)and plundering the silver, gold and clothing of the Egyptians (of course, because God said so: “Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses and they had asked from the egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold and clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in sight of the Egyptians so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians” (Exodus 12, 35-36). Notice that the egyptians have given them benevolently what they demanded!!! This is what Marx called the “primitive accumulation of capital”. That’s where the Jews always have capital from to lend to people in distress.
Jimmy: what you have said is disturbing. The run on .223 & .308 ammo is quite indicative of future unrest. First off, these are not defensive rounds, they are assault rounds. Also you mentioned the .308 150 grain soft nosed bullets are all gone! These are hunting rounds, usually used on unsuspecting animals who do not seek cover when being fired at.
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Military units never carry soft tips, even sniper units, they lack penetration, and are no good against milspec body armor. So whoever has bought this ammunition have a specific intent to use, and I doubt there are too many animals roaming the streets in your cities.. Definitely not a positive development.
Jimmy and CC:
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I did some work for an old Republican guy the other day, a big, ultra-conservative deer hunter, and, after he made a racist joke about Obama and some casual,ultra-right political ramblings, he mentioned that if I liked to deer hunt, “I’d better store up some ammo cause Obama is gonna put a 500 percent tax on it…It’s a commin!” he said hysterically. I had not heard this, and I don’t visit conservative or gun nut websites often so I hadn’t heard anything about this.
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I asked the old dude if the law had been passed, he said no, but it was in the works of these Obama/Hillary democrats.
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So, in my opinion, what is really happening, is the Republicans are already working to stir up the masses and to spread alarm among the grassroots faithful and it has the usual anti-gun, racist tint to it. Of course, the ammo importers are going to sell as much as possible while the mood to buy is there.
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Same thing happened under Daddy Bush when he limitied certain types of look alike military weapons. There was a run on guns and ammo by the gun lovers and hunters who wanted to stockpile as much as possible before they were taken away.
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These republican types have been taught that democrats are behind all gun control, and there was a spate of annoying laws and increased ATF funding passed after Kennedy was killed, but aside from that,Daddy Bush and the republicans passed more restrictive anti-gun legislation than democrats have passed during the last 30 years.
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Still, Republicans stir the gun owning masses with fear to move votes to the Republican side… and the NRA does the same thing to promote gun ownership. It’s a sure thing.
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But, if we move into a major depression, things might take a more serious turn. Lets hope not. I shop at pawn shops for cheap tools and I’ve noticed the empty gun shelves too.
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CC is right. Soft point .308 ammo will not penetrate very well at long distances. However, at close range, it will penetrate. .223 soft point will disintegrate or deflect when it hits solid objects, even tree limbs…all it’s good for is target shooting and small animals like varmints…groundhogs and coyotes. However, .223 or 5.56mm hard point ball is another matter. It will penetrate and will stop humans, but it will deflect on solid surfaces.
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To give you an idea of the penetrative powers of military ammo, I once shot a 30-06 surplus military round at a 20 inch diameter white oak tree and it easily penetrated completely through it.
I’ve heard that armor piercing .308 will penetrate a car engine block or through a railroad track, but I’d be afraid to try shooting something that hard because the bullet might glance back at me.
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I’ll “stick to my guns” in saying that the best personal defense weapon is a short barreled repeating shotgun in large gauge with buckshot. All you have to do is point and shoot, and they’re reliable too.
That’s interesting, David. I have been getting emails from the Sportsman League I belong to about bills and laws that will make it impossible or impractical to buy or own a gun. The last email I got mentioned HR 45 (state or federal, who knows?) that would require fingerprinting if you buy a gun and also allow the police to make surprise inspections of your home if you own a gun to see if it is locked up properly.
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I find that hard to believe, but the idea of police officers knocking on my door and demanding the right to inspect my home for unsafe firearms is most unsettling. I can see how this sort of thing would cause people to panic.
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It is amazing the amount of damage liars can do, which is why I thoroughly detest them. It’s like yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre: someone’s going to die in the ensuing stampede.
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It is not quite the same here. All rifles and handguns in pawn shops are gone, but most stores still have plenty of rifles and ammo (last time I looked).
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I cannot understand why people buy all these strange guns and ammo. I mean really. What do you need to shoot a squirrel or a rabbit? What do you need to shoot an intruder? A .22 LR and a shotgun are more than enough for most people, in my opinion.
Guns are used in depressions to rob banks, etc. Stick ups, too. I still remember the seventies: lots of gun crimes due to desire for money. I once clipped a robber with a gun [I didn’t know he had a gun!] with a broom when he ran past me as I was sweeping my stoop in NYC.
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When I saw the gun fly from his hand as he fell [he jerked it out of his pocket] I jumped on him and started screaming ‘You are under arrest’ until the cops came running up. He tried to crawl from under me to get to the gun under the parked car but I used the broom to snag his arms.
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Bad economic times means we have more crimes. On top of this, we have ill-educated people thinking that if they do ethnic cleansing, they will have peace and quiet. But this, in itself, is a crime! We can see in other countries, when racists get armed and go out to do things, they will create dead societies that are barely civilized at all.
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the worst part is, these same creepy people think they are civilized! Civilizations are dearly bought! And easily lost. History is very clear about this. Having gangs of armed people going around, killing people because of their skin color or religion is totally evil and I don’t want to see this.
You may appreciate the usefulness of SUVs. They may be equipped with machine guns and become like armored vehicles. So that the “people” can take in their own hands the protection against the wave of criminality that will grow. I always believed that this was the real reason to produce the SUV.
Elaine, you wrote
“Even funnier is the part whereby Joseph couldn’t confiscate the lands and taxes handed to the priests! They got to keep everything despite this drought. Actually, this odious story is a lesson to us: we do need a government to protect us during the inevitable bad years.”
All I can say is, only one who does not understand our constitution and our founding principles would make such a statement. In fact, we do not need government to protect us from things we can protect ourselves from, through prudence and foresight. The worst of ‘bad years’ are brought about by government. Nature and her cycles are certainly going to outlast all governments and were here before we had government. Government is helpless in these matters….unless of course they follow the ‘lefty’ strategy of first taking away from the productive parts of society and then as you say….”giving it back to the people”, after taking a sizable cut for themselves and their lackeys. In other words; government is ‘helpless’ in the sense that they make things worse. This is what is happening now. The rulers are NOT looking out for the people, they are looking out for themselves, and if they have to destroy our economy in the process….so be it! There is not enough money in the world to save the banks and all the other indebted entities….this is a stalling game while the looting continues unabated. It takes time to steal as much money as they are going to finish stealing. The stimulus is too small and they know it, this is just the beginning, they will come again and again as we slide into third world status and we will beg for the new replacement of the dollar as we listen to the promises that the ‘new currency’ will solve all the problems that have driven us to despair. We will fall for the old trick again as they implement a new [partially gold backed] currency and the ‘new and improved’ version of the FED…..only this time it will be on an international basis…..the scam will work forever this time as there will be no alternative. Welcome to ‘The Brave New World’ of Huxley’s and Orwell’s ‘1984’ all rolled into one.
David & DeVaul: that’s an interesting scenario you got from the Republican, David. Well, all opportunists always make money in uncertain times, this will be no different.
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You are right on the 22LR and shotgun for defense. Keep a few slugs in your inventory though, they may come in handy, a Remington Premier Copper Solid sabot slug can do 3″ groups at 100 yds., accuracy with penetration you may need in a serious situation. 🙂
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Elaine, I hope it doesn’t come to that. But after Russia in the 90’s I believe anything is possible.
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Seraphim: The best defense is invisibility. Anything armored can be penetrated. Iraq was the test bed for all things IED.
Actually, one of the biggest concerns the US government should have right now is economically planning for the return of the soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010, seeing to it that their health benefits and job opportunities are given top priority. One of the worst things that can happen is to have battle hardened troops in impoverished circumstances (ask the russians after Afghanistan); that would be a travesty of justice, not to mention a serious breeding ground for criminality.
Angry soldiers are very dangerous. When the Czar armed his people in great numbers to fight WWI, they took their new guns and paid him a visit.
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After WWI, the mob of surviving Germans were also very dangerous. They formed the core of the Nazi party.
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As for governments protecting us: anyone who thinks he can make it on his own is NUTS. I am a survivalist and still, when my husband was poisoned at work, we had to be protected by the government! We need social systems! And trust me, if you think you can brave it alone when all falls apart, that is pure lunacy. If you don’t have a fair-sized militia, you will be sadly surprised at how even neighbors will turn on you and raid your holdings or kill you, if they are desperate enough!
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This is why it pays to keep everyone on an even keel and to keep a government honest, open, CARING and social not antisocial.
Yes, yes yes, Elaine! And people should start organizing their local areas now. Start social functions, get-to-know-one-another parties or teas. Sift and categorize the reliable and caring types, then form a symbiotic socio-defensive perimeter composed of the best of them. Eventually by osmosis, even the not so well rounded and committed ones will gravitate. Smart people change and adapt before they need to, all others when they have no choice.
My attitude towards people/religion are:
Humans are sHIT, but gODS are even worse
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