Stacy Summary: This is really too funny and sad at the same time. Let the market decide. It’s all seeing and all knowing. It’s the Wizard of Oz! What do you think? Will people finally realize that there is no free market in the US? And would they even know how to do anything about it? I’d like to know who gets the insider privilege to place these trades on behalf of Geithner/Bernanke?
Updates:
- Inflation will save the day! (h/t Elizabeth)
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Regarding the BoE profit.. its just so sick.
I can’t stop giggling at the Trump story.
And to think I’ve been giving away my thoughts here for nothing!
“If you think this is normal price action, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn”
http://chart.ly/pmwyfk
Donald Trump is clearly a disillusioned old man! Brightened up my morning!
M&S, what concrete action would you two propose in light the injustice the bankers create? Haven’t we seen enough? What would be most effective?
I agree there is no free market in the US. I’m a laborer in the US. I’ve sent you papers that I believe assure the successful revolution of the American worker if not make it history already. Have you received them? PS about 3 days ago the police/hospital stopped my heart. I awoke to find my face impersonating a punching bag. I left against doctors’ advice and am recovering now. Peace.
@Stacy: “thoughts”: Well yes “the donald” is one small piece of the facade that we have expected from the “wizzards of wall street”…..I remember in mid-winter of 1966 when my dad invited a (his?) stock broker to the house and in the kitchen gave his spiel about Gerald Tsai–’the whiz kid of wall street’–and his mutual fund Manhattan Fund…we were spell bound ( Max is that how you wowed them back in the day??) We both purchased shares and in fact the market was, even back then, upbeat and the shares fared well and then leveled off; after holding them for 6 months, and no further uptick, I cashed them in and purchased a plane ticket to London ( I was 16) for the summer..oh the grand ol’ days!!! so that is the entire aura of Wall Street where “perception” is everything..Since then Gerald Tsai continued his career and became the president of American Can Co.during the junk bond era, sold off the production end of the biz and formed Primerica….so he was a camelian who bobbed and weaved with the ebbs and flows…and so is “the donald”….after all this is his third bankruptcy!!!!! With all the tens of thousands of available high end condos worldwide..exactly why would you buy a TRUMP model???…”Perception”…Just the other day I was on the phone with a fellow from Sarasota FL and he told me there are 9 Ritz-Carltons there ( 9???); what was even more peculiar was that he told me that Waldoff-Astoria was set the build a few there too ( both as condo/hotels)….NOW??? what are they thinking??? Just down the road is Cape Coral FL the city w/ the highest foreclosure rate in the entire USA!!!! The cult of personality reigns supreme still….Frankly I don’t think he has a leg to stand on…But we still go along with the “too big to fail” mantra…and see where that has gotten us: ALL the players will remain in their desk chairs with few who will actually have the axe fall on them….So why should ‘the donald” expect anything different????Isn’t he one of the “good ol’ boys too?” as always, Richard@atttitude30N
Re: Bank of England (puke!).
Whilst reading I thought: would it be possible for a hacker to type over the article? If so, then something along the lines of:
USARY!!!
ENSLAVERY!!!
THIEVES!!!
GANGSTERS!!!
ROBBER BARONS!!!
MAFIA OPERATION!!!
SCUMBAGS!!!
And the list goes on. Problem is, when you contact these newspapers to expose the BofE’s practices they just don’t get it or won’t even consider it……..B*stards!
Re: $10 – $20 billion market manipulation. Do we know who is doing it? At that level there can’t be too many to choose from.
thanks donald. i reassessed my net worth using your “mental projection model” and to my delight, found i am worth five times more than previously calculated. sweet.
What did i say Stacy
It is NOT a level playing field!!!!
Mike
May be his “Maxness” Should do a Video on the BOE.
Mike
The article says “The Bank makes most of its money from the spread on its money market operations and its repo operations, in which it lends money in exchange for collateral” soo, the bank of England works for itself? Which must make the Federal Reserve System working for some other than itself, if the fed is printing and taking over toxic assets nobody wants that surly must put them in a bad position and the other banks in a good position? Or is it a case of good versus bad management?
Now to something completely different – Damn, does scientist, engineers or inventors have no moral compass? When I read “old” stories like this one:
“Patent for killer chip denied in Germany”
http://www.presstv.ir/classic/Detail.aspx?id=94070§ionid=351020604
I can’t help wondering why people do this kinds of things, don’t they see the ramifications it could have or the blowbacks it could give to once own people? Well it is good to read and know about this kind of thing so you can have the info in the back of your head for that one day the friendly doctor is giving you a much needed vaccine with a notable lager needle hehe…
Reading the Donald Trump article brings back that Christmas shopping feeling when your in a mad rush in the store and then you open your eyes and realise that it’s all just tat! A scam to suck your wealth – ugly, pointless and decadent tat. Donald Trump is the Santa Claus of property tat…
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Then again there is always the contemporary art bubble …
If you want an invite to “TheBox.bz” email me at
mhev at netzero dot net
===========
http://thebox.bz/details.php?id=77602
Broadcast Information:
Channel: BBC 4 (via DVB-T)
Date & Time: 18th May 2009, 9:00 p.m.
Programme Description (source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kk499):
Art critic and filmmaker Ben Lewis spent 2008 following the booming contemporary art market, from its peak in May until its collapse in October.
The last five years have witnessed an unprecedented craze for contemporary art, in which works of art by Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, and Mark Rothko sold for record-breaking prices of thirty million pounds upwards. It all climaxed in September 2008, when Damien Hirst sold 111m pounds’ worth of his art at an unprecedented auction at Sotheby’s, and Lewis was there to see it all.
In mid-2009 amidst the credit crunch, that bubble has burst. Since autumn 2008, contemporary art has dropped in price by up to 50 per cent.
In this inside eye-witness journey into the art world, Lewis visits auction houses, art fairs, galleries and the homes of billionaires across the world, searching for the reasons behind the greatest rise in financial value of art in history. He interviews leading dealers, art collectors and art market analysts and discovers an extraordinary world of unusual market practices, speculation, secrecy and a passionate enthusiasm for art.
So might one infer that the missing trillions of dollars that the Fed won’t investigate or talk about is being used to prop up the market every few weeks at 3:55pm?
Shouldn’t we start referring to the banking system as the second government? Or the fourth branch? Lets call things by their name, there can be no government without banks..
@ Mep
I jest! I guess we’re all just looking for the ‘Gandalf’ figure whos gonna come in and tell us everythings gonna be alright.- I’m still waiting….
@sharon
Its just unbelievable isn’t it…… just unbelievable
– I was doing a bit of research last night. Can anyone confirm if the idea of a central bank is a communist idea and in fact, was never meant to be attributed to a ‘capitalist’ system that we’re all supposedly living in today??
The rabbit hole just gets deeper and deeper doesn’t it….
re:donald trump
Give the man credit at least he’s truthful about his accounting methods.
Found this short promo film for the Donald Trumps apartment complex and village narrated by the man himself, briefly explaining his philosophy….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKhMP2r4XGk
Stacy, I’m sure that plenty of people will lose faith in the market, temporarily, but I don’t think that many will come to the realization that there is no free market. People like to believe in things. On this, Glenn Beck captured the American sentiment: “It’s time to stop playing games in this country. It is time to actually believe in something. I do. I know you do as well. Believe in something. Even if it’s wrong” (Beck on Fox News, March 11, 2009).
I found an old article on the Plunge Protection Team. In it, it says that the SEC came up with the following rules in order to prevent a 1987-style stock drop:
“What would happen today during a stock drop would depend on the particulars. Here are current guidelines:”
* If the Dow Jones industrial average falls 350 points within a trading day, NYSE trading would be halted for 30 minutes.
* If the DJIA falls another 200 points that day, trading would stop for one hour.
* If the market declines more than 550 points in a day, no further restrictions would be applied.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/blackm/plunge.htm
Anyone know when the SEC did away with those rules?
About Trumps’ “mental projections,” one can only laugh.
Think that Donald Trump will be more than happy if the rampant hyperinflation kicks in so that will defend his billionaire status.
Hell, he may be even a trillionaire after a while of nice hyperinflation.
@ Danny,
Everything is gonna be alright:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsUxnAKlJWQ&feature=related
@Regan Patno re:Paragan Ten
I don’t know how to tell you this but your real name is Max Keiser. You are the victim of Paragon Ten a secret zionist brainwashing unit, you were kidnapped on friday…please try to remember. I’m sure it will all come back to you, just keep saying ‘Tell the People’, we’re all here for you haven’t been ….ABANDONED.
Mike: Jeepers, you could be right.
The article says: The Bank of England yesterday revealed it has made its biggest profits since its foundation in the late 17th century. The £995m pre-tax profits in 2008 were largely a result of the extraordinary measures carried out during the past year.
Do you know what the purchasing power of 995m is today compared to 2008? We have seen massive dilution via M0/M4 payments making a direct comparison complicated. At least I can claim my 25% pay increase with a clear conscience knowing that catastrophe as been averted
Great article here …
Cara’s Commentary & Community Chat, Tues., May 19, 2009
http://caracommunity.com/content/caras-commentary-community-chat-tues-may-19-2009
Reflects my views as well.
Also check out the “Wash Trades” and “Too many ETFs” article linked on that page .
FWIW
If only the strong survive, why are so many rich neo-republicrats afraid to level the playing feild? They are inherently superior human beings! So they would still end up rich right?
Whenever income equality comes up in America, the response is always “thats socialism.” There is some kind of esoteric comparison between the jungle and the market as being places where the strongest survive.
However this analogy between a natural ecosystem and the “free market” is deeply flawed. Nature has evolved a system where energy and nutrients are continuously recycled by decomposers (fungi). This obviously doesn’t happen in the market, as capital becomes centralized and unavailable to the rest of society. For the market to be like nature, there would be no inheritance. Upon death everyone’s assets would be returned to society. See: old growth forests
If our “free market” was an ecosystem like earth it could only end up extinct.
Market fundamentalism cannot be rationalized with our fiat currency system, because the money supply is not fixed. Therefore certain bankers can essentially print money forever while joe has to earn a paycheck. It’s like professional baseball players(steroids) vs. little league.
I have a question. What would you do?
If you were facing a bankruptcy; knowing all this crazy shit is a foot, would you use what money you have to get the hell out of the US; forgetting about the debts and foreclosure,
Or stick it out and file bankruptcy?
Best to all
Don
@ Don, I’d file for bankruptcy, although if I thought that there was a good chance that in the near-future, I wouldn’t be able to feed myself, I might be tempted to get the hell out of dodge–knowing that I might get caught and thrown into jail . . . where I could count on at least a couple of meals a day!
Donald Trump is a yahoo. I remember he was on a real estate show were he was telling everyone to ” just borrow the money “.
Then he goes on O’rielly and claims that he is a buyer in this resession.
Trump is a buyer ? Yeah right. If Trump is a buyer then we have no resession yet.
@Don
Just depends, is your second name Trump?
It seems that there are more people concerned about Donald Trumps billionaire status:
U.S. Needs MORE INFLATION Says former: White House adviser Gregory Mankiw & Chief economist IMF Kenneth Rogoff ???
http://tinyurl.com/p38j2f
Re:Trump – what if the journalist is looking at what cash Trump has and Trump himself is looking at the whole value of his business? If Trump counts his property as his own even if it is bought by borrowed money then I guess he could be as rich as his mental imagination clams (False rich that is). If you wealth is based on borrowed money then you’re really not rich are you, so maybe the journalist actually is telling the truth about the real cash money Trump has.
Joseph Cassano: the man with the trillion-dollar price on his head
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article6281953.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1
There is a great lesson to be learned form the inflation story: If you you want to fix a problem, call some thing (doesn’t really matter what) the solution.
“In order to fix the economy we need (fill in whatever is likely to occur) to happen.”
This only works if any solution is expected to take time to work, but at least it is non interventionist.
Now if these non interventionist could only get the hell off this planet as they seem to hate it so thoroughly…
Hate ot spam this blog, but the banks (don’t call them credit card companies) have gone mental..
“Those that manage their credit well will in some degree subsidize those that have credit problems.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/business/19credit.html?_r=1&hp
I saw Credit Suisse trade a couple dozen 100 share lots in a stock throughout the day only the clear them all at the end of the day. And then do the same, day after day.
I saw a stock make a public offering at $3.10/share after selling huge volumes at $3.75-$3.84. The stock price dropped substantially just before the public offering was announced, but was still well above the absurd $3.10.
That and seeing nearly every company in silver mining rise at a similar ratio to it’s late November low.
On the one hand, after following the markets for just one year it was obvious to me that it’s a criminal enterprise with worse odds for outside investors than a casino.
On the other hand it was as if the market were a simulation running on someone’s computer and I was just tagging along for the ride.
Mind you when I won money at a casino, someone sat beside me to chat me up and buy me a drink. Only drink I’ve been bought in my life. Someone asked me for the time in the washroom to check out my unit. Again, only time that happened. They changed the “dealer” to someone who spun the ball right off the wheel past my head. Only time I’ve ever seen that happen. And someone walked fast on the other side of the street from me caught my eye. When I stopped to look he was taking my picture (or one of the building behind me I suppose), when I looked again he was gone. So, I wouldn’t bet on casinos being legit either.
Take a listen to this. http://mises.org/multimedia/mp3/misescircle-colorado09/04_ColoradoMC_French.mp3
It’s called bubble economics. It’s pretty funny. It ties in very well with the solution to the problem is higher inflation. Creating more money, so that credit is easier to obtain, so that people can spend, which will cure the problem of easy money and people spending too much! What these “economists” don’t state about higher inflation, is that the middle class and below, are the ones who suffer the most with higher prices to live. The benefit of creating money goes to those who first get it. (Notice how the don’t advocate the poor printing a bunch of bills at staples)
Without inflation there is no real incentive for the average Joe to invest his money in risky schemes or even to keep his money in a bank. Inflation also encourages people to buy now before prices go up. This applies especially to the purchase of homes during the real estate bubble.
Modern day predatory capitalism cannot exist without inflation. Therefore from the point of view of the banksters, inflation is good.
The Market.
The “free market” today is like democracy. Both are suppose to represent the people. Democracy is mob rule at best, and does not equal freedom. (two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner; I believe is the saying)
The point is they are both myths. The people are not Free. The people are being manipulated. The Market is the People. It’s time to free the People.
Re: Inflation. In order for inflation to “be good for debtors,” wouldn’t wages have to increase? Given the failure of wages to keep up with inflation over the course of the past 3 decades, I don’t see any reason to believe that that would happen. And, wouldn’t it just piss off our foreign creditors even more to see us attempt to inflate away our debt? One more question: wouldn’t following this advice make it more likely that we will experience a currency collapse sooner rather than later? (If we further debase our currency and upset foreign creditors, who would want to do business with us?)
What I really don’t understand is how the Treasury and Federal Reserve expect US citizens to help pull the country out of this. People are being wailed and pushed further to the brink of bankruptcy due to the banks jacking up interest rates on old debt and adding all kinds of new fees. Now, it looks like the more responsible credit card holders are going to be targeted. Oil is going up. Food will be going up. Folks like my aunt who have lost their health care are having to come up with $500 a month that they’re not used to paying. Etc. etc. How in the hell to they expect people to be able to consume anything? People like myself who have no credit card debt are too turned off to even think about opening a CC account. Those who are getting the screws put to them will stop borrowing either by choice or because they lose their ability to borrow.
@ Max and Stacy
Just listening to an interview with Jim Rogers On Lew Rockwell. Jim’s paying American tax while living in Singapore. He said Americas one of the few countries who taxes people who live overseas! Is that true!? Don’t mean to pry now but are you guys paying American tax while in Paris?? and french taxes??
Crazy….
There are a number of significant happenings concerning the use of gold as money. The first story is from Germany, where ATMs will be set up in the coming months to sell physical gold bars:
http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/19052009/323/german-firm-plans-gold-atms-meet-growing-demand.html
Private investor demand for gold is on the rise in Germany and elsewhere as a result of the financial markets crisis, which has made many investors wary of holding traditional assets such as equities, bonds or mutual funds investing in such securities.
‘In absolute numbers, the demand for physical gold is still tiny in Germany,’ Geissler said. ‘But in relative terms, the growth is explosive, inquiries have been doubling every six weeks,’ Geissler said of the trend in recent months.
TG-Gold-Super-Mark.de’s main precious metals business idea is based on online commerce.
The gold ATMs to be set up at central locations such as airports, railway stations and shopping malls are intended to gradually accustom people to the idea of investing in physical gold, Geissler said.
The ATMs will dispense 1-gram, 5-gram and 10-gram pieces of gold as well as Krugerrand gold coins. Each ATM can hold up to 1,500 pieces, he said.
And in the UK, a market sees the use of Islamic silver coinage for the first time:
http://www.globaliamagazine.com/?id=718
What gave the market its particular significance was that all traders accepted both the gold dinar and silver dirham. The timing of the event could not have been better when we consider the economic situation the world is currently being confronted with: people are crying out for an alternative to what has been exposed as both an unjust and untenable system. That alternative was on display in practice, in Norwich – furthermore, the gold and silver currency was not just a novelty, but rather it was traded and exchanged. The proprietor of the coffee stall personally accepted around €40 worth of silver in exchange for coffee over both days. Over the weekend there was around €100 worth of silver coins exchanged, which were then used in the marketplace. Additionally many people brought their own stockpiles of gold and silver coins from home.
Although not a huge amount, it was nevertheless a significant step for Muslims and for European society as an entity. As one visitor remarked: “We all know gold and silver is correct, so why aren’t we using it?”
@Mother Earth
You caught my drift there cause indeed you could say just anything and don’t forget to add the sentence:
“Otherwise the economy would be worse off”
which never can’t be proven anyways.
@ Will
Thanks for that. Maybe the people aren’t so stupid after all.
@Don,
If I was in your position, and found out all the things I know now; I would walk away. It doesn’t make sense to me to hang onto a house that’s going to be worth less in the coming years. I would stop paying the bills that I couldn’t; and I wouldn’t file for bankruptcy unless it was absolutely necessary.
I’m a bit curious of how things are in your country when it comes to interests from your bank. How big percent do it need to be before you make a profit by having money deposited to a savings account?
To give an example to what I mean: if I had put 200 000 Kr in the bank 01.Jan. And let it be there a whole year till next year’s 01.Jan. Let’s say the bank gives 3% interest on the money.
Now the government demands taxes on that money, first off is the interest income tax which is at 28%. Second there is the Wealth Tax at 1,1 % and last we got the “Inflation Tax” which the central bank has its aim to be 2,5 % each year.
200 000*3/100=6000Kr in interest that year
6000*28/100=1680Kr to pay in interest income tax
200 000*1,1/100=2200Kr to pay in wealth tax
200 000*2,5/100=5000Kr loss of purchasing power by the “inflation tax”
That makes 206 000 – 1680 – 2200 = 202 120Kr which will be standing on the bank account. BUT if you take away the inflation: 202 120 – 5000 =197 120Kr and that is what the buying power of the money next year is. Not a good deal I would say.
If I am going to sustain the purchasing power of the money then I need a 5% interest rate from the bank in my country “to break even”. And to actually start making a profit from investing the money into a bank (or lending the money to the bank or saving the money in the bank if you call it that instead) I need to get 5,1 % and above.
How is it where you live?
“Inflation will save the day!”
More inflation and rise in wages.
Hehe, they fooled us all. They actually know how economy works, but pretended not to.
Now when all is crashing down, they are starting to think about creating true wealth. Labour and production.
@Danny,
People aren’t stupid, they just have been bamfoozled into thinking that economics is complicated. Nearly every central banker will tell you that their goal is to control inflation. Now, as it says on the home page of Malaysia’s Dinar site:
This has nothing to do with Islam, it’s just a simple fact that gold and silver money retains its value and has no counterparty risk! A lot of people have just forgotten about this, but are obviously starting to remember it.
Full stop. Our market is never wrong. Nothing can stop it.
@ Will,
That’s a really good point. Gold and silver are free market money. As soon as there’s an entity that is given a monopoly of money creation, the free market ceases to exist.
@Will .. ” Zero inflation in 1,400 years ”
http://www.publicdinar.com/
Not bad at all !
So that’s why the Western Financiers are so scared of Islam ?
@Wiliam – Free markets always work, and they really are free, but sometimes it’s hard to see because they’re also black ;^) This idiotic talk of “Free markets not working” is newspeak, contrived to confuse us and to keep us from thinking things through. The drug market is a great example of how markets really work. Disputes are settled quickly and without lawyers, and a “bad counterparty risk” happens exactly once. There are no bailouts, just hard reality and salaries commensurate with the risk involved.
@Phil – Thanks for posting the link. I meant to do that, but there’s no Preview or Edit button for comments. Maybe Stacy could put in a request for an Edit button? Oh please?
@ Will
Fair point. That why I buy gold and silver
@Phil
Thats so true- the demonization of Islam. The more I learn about the world, the more I realise that most problems are a result of a gross misjustice in monetary policy. To quote max- “If we returned to a gold standard- 90% of the financial corruption would be wiped out in the morning”
Listening to John Perkins earlier and he said ” the world is on the cusp- a momentuous time in human history”. i think so too. we’re either gonna fall to these bankers or a new dawn will arise.
@Danny “Listening to John Perkins …. we’re either gonna fall to these bankers or a new dawn will arise.”
Well said .
Perkins has a new book out – as you probably know already.
… te EHM book tied in nicely with Griffin’s TCFJI.
I am half way through “Schwarzbuch USA” by Eric Frey.
It covers a much broader “record” of US political history. Damn shame it is not available in English ( AFAIK ).
( transl.: “Blackbook USA” )
@ Will – “Free markets always work, and they really are free”
Is that a joke?
@Mep – It’s not a joke. Ask anyone who has lived in a place without official free markets. You can still buy whatever you want.
Maybe it’s just a question of semantics, but I like to say things like this because there is also a “war on language” waged by governments and their toady journalists. I am simply trying to bring out a distinction between “free” and “legal.”
History of the pasties on bbc, was apparently designed to give miners a frim grip on the hard crust
Black Markets are NOT free markets.
William@Black markets are not free markets.
I’ll concede your point without arguing it, but only wish to say that truly free markets are an intellectual concept that doesn’t exist in material reality. If I say, “Markets always work even if they are relatively unfree,” does that fix the semantic problem?
But chickens always cheep!
Well, to all who posted about my situation. Just a refresher, no job, mountain of bad debt, a little savings in the form of tools, seeds, survival gear, guns, ammo and silver.
With the knowledge of the markets, the gov., NWO and camps in the US built for folks who just can seem to “get along”, like me. I feel compelled to leave the US and head south with what we have. I am fluent in Spanish and I have lived in Latin America for a number of years. People do not die from starvation in Latin America they might die from a number of other causes, but starvation is not one of them.
Here in the US, in Wyoming for example where the cost of living is already high; all it would take is a disruption in the supply chain,
$3.50 to $4.00 a gallon for gas and price hikes on food will be considerable, or heaven knows what and life becomes very difficult to sustain.
Tough decision, leap into the unknown with the family, or hope and pray that all will go well here folks will “rise up!!!” and we will rebuild.
Any thoughts?
Chart of the Day: S&P 500 earnings have declined over 90% over the past 20 months
http://tinyurl.com/o6jfdr
Don (Joe bag O chickens),
I sympathise with your predicament. I have been racking my brains along those same lines, thinking where can I move my children so that they’re safe. I think first of all you have to identify a country that will escape the madness and that’s where I draw a blank. I have thought about South America but decided that they are probably on the hit list because they’re going against the agenda, eg. coming up with a new reserve currency and Hugo Chavez goading the USA.
Cuba perhaps? or some little island off Australia? God knows.
Re: your complaint of $3.50 to $4.00 a gallon for gas. Here in Britain it’s about $8.00 a gallon. Everything is really expensive here and so I figured if I could sell my house I could practically retire in a less expensive country, but where – that’s the $64 million question (or with interest the £640 million dollar question).
Anyway, I wish you luck and if I do manage to identify somewhere I’ll let you know.
Youri,
That chart includes the negative earnings of the banking sector. It is true, but not concise or compleet, and not really helpful.
The Royal successor has chosen Romania to take refuge in..I’m only half joking because he recently purchased land and an orchard in Transylvania…in a county (Harghita) (and country – Romania) where many people still live off their land.. he might know something we don’t.. Don, maybe you can take refuge with the Amish in Pennsylvania…
prince Charles I’m talking about, of course
@don, re starvation;
Over half the people that die, die from starvation/malnutrition. Over 1 person per second, 100 000 a day. A billion go to bed hazardously undernourished each night.
The fact that this has gone on in our “prosperous” past is ignorance and negligent to the highest degree. We have all been warned about food shortages, and even seen food riots so far, food control is life control.
The obvious for those who are free, or seek freedom is to be able to self sustain, be able to provide shelter, food, and clothes of our own device, and the true revolutionary’s will not only feed and shelter those who cannot or have not but teach them how to do so for themselves and others.
The western lifestyle is not permissible by definitions of freedom, as the western lifestyle harms and destroys other humans and life systems, constantly, I cant stand depopulationists, as its the most massive, murderous, decision one could conceive of other than death star like destruction. We can do alot better than that.
If there is a group doing this purposely to us or not, it is still happening, and should not.
If shit hits the fan people will take to the fields out of necessity.
@M
Well the whole economic situation is not helpful, can’t help it.
@ Sharon
thank you for your kind thoughts. Yes, the question is “where?” so long as the food falls from the trees down South hunger will not be an issue. The real question is along the lines of the political environment and the character of the people. I adore Colombia, but there is always tensions with Venezuela and Ecuador. Costa Rica is to expensive and “out in the open” as an Oligarch hot spot.
Can’t go back to Paraguay because that is Bush turf now and prone to summary executions well the corrupt power elite feel threatened. Not sure where, just not sure.
Does anyone have the link to the On the Edge Show on Press TV?
If you have some money to spare you can live in Surinam easily. Land is dirt cheap, food grows on trees all year round. The only drawback is lack of modern infrastructure, but that also means its a relative strategic backwater. And, with a shovel you can dig for gold (and make 10.000 Euro a year). Also you ar supposed to keep a second girlfriend (the’ll be fat, loud and won’t care to much about you though, I can attest to that
), they even have a name for it: ‘buitenvrouw’ or jungle wife..
What I find appaling is the complacency about the obvious ‘to be expected’ speculation on the commodities (food) market. Speculative trading may mean certain death for many. There should be mandatory physical delivery for all futures contracts. They where created to finance the production of the to be delivered goods, not to become derivatives.
In that sense depopulation is well underway. I calculated that at the current mortality rate the swine flu will kill about 2 million globally, with a genetic russian roulette to be played during each flu season. Bird flu is more lethal in asia and africa if it returns, because apparently our relative cold noses are a barrier.
On other question I had was: How long will the Bloods and the Cribs confine themselves to southside and da hood ? When will they start breaking out looking for whities with da monay? What happen when the po-lice run out of cash?
@Don ( bag of confussion ): Oh my…that’s just too much information!!! Regardless,when I left the Black Hills in January 1982…it was 30 degrees below zero wind chill factor!! I was a family of 5 at the time and we thought ahead…sold the goats…and started two “home businesses” which we survived on for a time while traveling…The main thing was we purchased a 1969 F-700 Ford 66 passenger bus and outfitted it as an RV..(very funky actually) it had a wood fired stove installed and a LPG gas range among the acutraments…So we headed south and then west!!! Finally warmed up in Yuma…So my unsolicited advice 2 u is be prepared…Oh yeh when I saw that huge billboard in Mexico that said…NO WATER FOR 200 MILES I turned around!!! It was a great adventure..wouldn’t have done anyhting differently…you have to have great “old lady” to do it with if you are a family….It gets rather rugged and we wound up in Humboldt County California for the height of the growers season…stayed for several years…it’s an ongoing saga…no time now to go into it any further. as always, Richard@lattitude30N
@ispice
before the fields people may take to the neighbors! I agree that there is hunger in the world, but Latin America has food dropping from the trees, granted there are seasons only 3 to 4 of them!
It also seems that people who are closer to agriculture during these times will stand a better chance for surviving them.
I would not feel so bad about being here if it were not for the fact that the vast majority of the population is ignorant of what is going on. This type of ignorance breeds fanaticism, panic and chaos when they wake up to find out that the gig is up.
@ mother earth
‘Does anyone have the link to the On the Edge Show on Press TV?’…..Now thats funny……..from the looking comes the seeing, one with real eyes realise…………..sorry…just funnin…….dunno….
I should just say, don’t hold your breath…..
I’ll post On the Edge from this week forward!
@Richard
Holly shit man! You are a man after my own heart. Before the repos I trade a Ruger 270 rifle for a 1975 Dodge school bus conversion that had a custom safari rack, 71K original miles and 10 ply tires. Parked out front as I type. Anyway, some
years ago my wife and I lived in Chiapas Mexico. My son was born there. I was working illegally cooking Thai food for $5 a night, and the locals called me “el gringo mojau” “The wetback gringo”!!! The problem is always visas and $$$.
@Mother Earth
I have thought about Suriname, and I am a prospector. i just don’t think my wife would tolerate a girlfriend!!
Mother Earth, gangs by their nature don’t confine themselves. The Bloods for example are all over the place. http://www.insideprison.com/prison_gang_profile_BL.asp
I lived in a small walk-up apartment that had about a dozen Asian gangsters with their swords, knives, Bruce Lee posters and red-dyed tufts of hair, down the hall. They used so many drugs the weeds outside their window turned to black ash. And a blood or red gang member lived on the floor above. He was hilarious. He had a newborn and kept making the appeal that other gangsters stay away from his place on account of that. Violence was good enough for everyone but his child apparently.
Many people seem to think gangs, sex-slaves, etc are “somewhere else”, but you can find a few in just about any place if you know how to spot them. Or rather if you’re willing to. Some people go through a rich neighborhood and see nice houses. Some see homes with the occasional slave-laboring immigrant trapped inside.
The massage parlor you don’t think about, probably DOES have forced sex-slavery inside. The alterations made on suits at your local seller probably ARE made by an immigrant being paid a fraction of the minimum wage. The business that is always empty and yet stays open year after year, probably IS a front for the laundering of illicit funds. And the local police probably DO know about it.
Again, people won’t rise up because they are complicit and have already surrendered in small ways hundreds if not thousands of times. How does one rise up against themselves? They’ll buy slave-made goods to save a nickle. They want to run away instead of solve their local problems. And I say this as the guy who has actually stood up to bullies including gangsters. Alone. I won’t again.
One question.
Do the credit card companies have the same luxury as the banks in regard to fractional reserve banking? If they have 1 million dollars, can the card companies loan out 10 times that amount, like the banks?
Don, looking at American Express’ return on equity over the past ten years. I think it would be an impossibility if they didn’t benefit from fractional reserves. They profit like a drug-money laundering candy company.
@don
Were we all not once ignorant? The “wakening” proccess can breed fanatics/panic/fear/ etc, but it doesnt have to.
@bleh
The first step is a self revolution, to rise up from ones own complacency
–
Ive been looking at land down south for years. Got a shine towards argentina and brazil. Im going to stick to canada for now, as I feel I have access to greater advantages, I dont want to start from nothing, and build, to me its not ideal, Im preparied to take on an enormous amount of debt, and start producing food and medicine for the, “ignorant” “sheeple” and anyone in need. I can pay off the any debt easily, While using cultivation to heal and repair the pollution and ecological damage of the industrial age. I believe I have the potential to save millions, this is the attitude I beleive we all need.
@Bleh
unless you are ready willing and as crazy as a gang banger it is wiser to avoid the situation, right?
I spent many years on the streets and I was in gangs. It was a violent life and we relished in the insanity and violence. I would challenge 10 to 20 foot ball players because I did not care about the out come. This in itself makes a person dangerous to themselves and others. I am grateful that I got out of that insanity. It is a lot like what gun people in the US say about guns, “don’t take it out unless you are ready to use it”.
@Bleh
correct. I am sure that I am ignorant of many many things.
That was to Ispice. sorry
@Danny
The US and Japanese governments tax worldwide income. I am unaware of any other countries that do so, though in Australia income earned abroad may be taxed in some circumstances.
I do agree gangbangers are one of the many crazy mofo’s floating around, like Max and Stacy are well apt at pointing out the other side of the spectrum, the financial gangsters, each are deadly crazy and not to trusted or your back turned toward. But I cannot give it to the fear, sure darwin would adivise hiding a quite pasture to ensure a healthy life with many kids, but the wallace in me cannot hide or let my, our, freedom be shit on. Im alive now because of the slavery of others and environment. Freedom for all or for none. We need to take it.
Gang bangers of any backround couldnt survive in a free society.
@ Don, Here are some resources that might be of help:
On avoiding foreclosure: http://www.hud.gov/foreclosure/index.cfm
On gov’t resources: http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Benefits.shtml
On Wyoming bankruptcy law: http://research.lawyers.com/Wyoming/Bankruptcy-in-Wyoming.html
I realize that a few people who frequent this site are convinced that US citizens will be rounded up and thrown into concentration camps if things get bad. That’s one thing that I do not worry about; I see no reason at all to believe that the current President and administration would ever allow that to happen.
Wow……….84 comments and still going…this could be a record.
Intellectual Property — A Libertarian Critique
http://c4ss.org/content/521
Checkit.
A talk on the Federal Reserve and the big NY banks by Edward Griffin, author of The Creature from Jekyll Island:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6155108/A-Talk-by-G-Edward-Griffin
Max, Stacey, you must MUST read this!
@Don ( bag of tomales): If I’m not mistaken…the new terminology for an American headed across the southern border is: DRY BACK!!! But really you are at home wherever you are…I crawled up many a friend’s driveway during those years…I believe it’s called “good karma”…”as you sow shall you reap” along with the many truths that bind us all…..the folks you are meant to meet will appear to you as gently as the sun greets your face at dawn…. go placidly on this earth….as always, Richard@lattitude30N
I like reading the headlines as the next person, but it seems everyday is the same. Everything is revealed like an old book under a small layer of dust. When you truly know things are truly bad, nothing is a surprise.
If we all just sit and keep tasting the witches cauldron of poisonous tripe, we will get no where except the same place the poison is taking its intended victims. Where is the final collapse, and where is the revolt?
Just when I thought I was nearing shock-resistance . . .
Banks funding bonuses by taking out life insurance policies on employees?!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124277653430137033.html
Sick man, sick. I’ve never heard of employers doing such a thing before.
geez Americans go on about universal health care like it will be the end of the world. They print money to fight wars, bailout banks, and all sorts of spending but the minute you mention some poor person might get basic health cover, it will be fascism or socialism and they live in a free market so they can’t have that. Quite hysterical hand waving going on. They’re really not interested in how the rest of the world gets by and learning from other countries.
actually, thinking about it, it probably would be fascism once the corporations move in on it in the US.
The US stock market is the junky and the Fed (US government) is the dope dealer. Mr. Victor Sperandeo explained that relationship in his books more than 15 years ago. The easy money has been making the markets there and world wide abnormally distorted. So much for free markets. The saddest time span is 2002-2007. You can look at the multi-year charts, moving averages, supports and resistances in that period. All doppelgangers of a bull market, all part of a gigantic trading range that has only one final destination, like Nikkei for last two decades, and that is down! I was listening to a short interview that Mr. Jim Rogers gave a few days ago. He was asked something like when the US market was going to resume its decline. He said he hoped it wouldn’t take a couple of years. Forget about the regular definition of a bear market rally. We live in the different time now. The time when “Soros opportunity” trend can last for a couple of years. Maybe, we entered into another one of those. But then, what is supposed to bubble up instead of the ravaged real estate? Oh, well. Regards to everyone. Mr. Supergeek mentioned that this could be a record number of posts, so I felt compelled to send my piece of mind for today.
@Mep
that is nuts! Now instead of early termination to avoid paying out retirement, they have a stake in the employee’s life. Danger!
@Richard
Beautiful brother, so true. thank you for the reminder to just Be and the remember to remember that there is more to Being than this life.
Colin Campbell predicts credit crunch due to peak oil (2005)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDNMjV6sumQ
ispice, I’m not complacent. I’m saying the gangsters are right. I’ve not lived a complacent life. I’ve made the sacrifices of self-education and taking significant action relative to my means. I was wrong.
Psychopaths get their power from exploiting traits people evolved to succeed in societies that are no longer competitive or viable. It is no longer a world of tribes. The banksters and gangsters are right in so far as one wants to indulge in that abstraction. Natural law is proving it. Psychopathy is an advantage in a world of centralized power. The centralization is holding up. Even here people defend it. Many of you will be supporting your enemies with your last dollars (if it comes to that) as you scramble to save yourselves. Thus YOU ARE YOUR OWN ENEMIES.
Don, I didn’t see it as someone else’s responsibility, so I dealt with it and got one of the gangsters out of my building. But in hindsight I took great personal risks for people who were worthy of nothing. If I were in the situation again I’d either attempt to befriend him or move out. I cannot lead sheep such that they are no longer sheep, and I know of no one who can.
The convo’s here remind me of Che’s reference to people who joined the revolution so they could wear the uniform. It’s always up to someone else. “Some one should do something.” “I hope someone does something.” Well they are. The psychopaths are kicking our butts.
People who are unwilling to sacrifice are not worthy of it. People who finance their enemies and worry about where they can run to, deserve to be crushed. Preferably with something bought at a Big Box store.
I visited my brother in law this weekend in a small western Canadian town. His buddy runs the local sporting goods shop.
The buddy says that there has been a HUGE increase in guns and ammo sales in the northern Border States. That would be North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington.
Must be to protect themselves from the coming hordes?
@bleh, I wasnt singling out you when I said people are complacent, just like your not singling out people when you say “you are your own enemy”
So your saying every man for themselves? The gangsters, the psychopaths are right?
The psychos are kicking our butts, indeed, dividing and taking names. The systems of modern civilization are psychotic and insane, what is the correct path to resolve the issue? Is freedom possible, without destruction of someone or thing else?
Hide! Your boss owns a contract on your life..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/19/banks-use-life-insurance-_n_205565.html
100!
Thinking about these life insurances. How weird is it to have someone else having thousands of dollars staked on your death? All that while it is illegal to mortgage your life (as it has been the case historically).
There is a real opportunity for organized crime here. First you get in a situation where someone can make a picture of you with the boss. Then you (assuming you are a criminal) take the initiative to kill one of his employees. When the boss gets the money you blackmail him with the picture.
Hired assasins just struck futures market gold! This in turn will make bosses the target of premptive eliminations by scared employees. This creates a need for them to be protected by organized crime as an asset.
Do these bosses swap their contract list based on the life expectancy of their portfolio (“in the category of 60 year old males, can I get one with a smoking history instead of one of those health freaks bitte? I need an extra swimming pool you see..”)?
Hey what is your job? I’m in the accident business..
@Mep
The insurance article very dark, too dark, made me think along the lines of mother earth….. my brain said..you couldn’t make this up.. black comedy..script…..a film waiting to be made….it could be brilliant…as always truth is stranger than fiction!
@Don (Joe bag O Karma)
re: your situation.
I think richard has pretty much said it all….A camper or bus something mobile as a stopgap, always comes to my mind…A great option for anyone even if you don’t need it…..Good Luck..
P.S.
“You know, the worst ain’t so bad when it finally happens. Not half as bad as you figure it’ll be before it’s happened”. Bob Curtin:
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
The death of the net neutrality and the rise of corporate and state controlled internet are getting more and more visible. Damn are the west going to end up like “internet china” or even worse without even knowing or bothering to fighting against it?
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=no&js=n&u=http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2009/05/18/apres-la-dadvsi-et-hadopi-bientot-la-loppsi-2_1187141_651865.html&sl=fr&tl=en&history_state0=
Just a little quote from the text:” without consent, to access data, to observe, collect, record, store and transmit such that they appear to the user or as he introduces by entering characters. This is the legalization of “Trojans” (spyware) in the Internet”
Oh forgot, it seems like the fight against illegal downloading is to be the perfect excuse to get control over the internet without having people fighting against it. After all who can fight against it, who can argue that illegal activity should be allowed to continue, you know the straw man.
@ Stacy: gooooooood morning europe!!!!
Found this as I scanned the internet:
This is for all the “goldbugs” who scan this site—
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8058360.stm —–it’s well into the afternoon GMT—”…car 54 where are you?” be well asd sttay well, Richard
@Stacy: Here’s another: Brooksley Borne receives JFK Profiles in Courage award yesterday:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=awU535_erBP4
IMO ten years too late!!! as always, Richard@lattitude30N
UAE abandons monetary union plans
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/05/2009520114944428570.html
Fed to get more power:
http://compliancex.typepad.com/compliancex/2009/05/us-may-strip-sec-of-powers-in-regulatory-overhaul-.html
U.S. May Strip SEC of Powers in Regulatory Overhaul
Debt that deare not speak its name
http://www.theage.com.au/national/debt-that-dare-not-speak-its-name-20090520-bfpk.html
This may be worth checking out:-
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13673
“It was horrible. Horrible! Like lightning it struck. No one was prepared. The shelves in the grocery stores were empty. You could buy nothing with your paper money.” – Harvard University law professor Friedrich Kessler on the Weimar Republic hyperinflation (1993 interview)
Some worried commentators are predicting a massive hyperinflation of the sort suffered by Weimar Germany in 1923, when a wheelbarrow full of paper money could barely buy a loaf of bread. An April 29 editorial in the San Francisco Examiner warned:
“With an unprecedented deficit that’s approaching $2 trillion, [the President’s 2010] budget proposal is a surefire prescription for hyperinflation. So every senator and representative who votes for this monster $3.6 trillion budget will be endorsing a spending spree that could very well turn America into the next Weimar Republic.”1 ………………….