http://solari.com/blog/

If the above quote corresponds to a true situation, then the ranks of said “authorities” need to be reduced into line with the bleaker economic realities on the ground. Also, no Solon should have access to any special retirement or healthcare program which is not readily available to the average citizen. Further, Solons should not have the authority to control their own pay – their pay levels should be determined by voters through the means of a periodic ballot. It is apparent that Solons are less a part of the value-added process, and more of the converse – and they should be treated accordingly by the electorate.

Since 72% of the American economy is driven by consumerism, and all job growth since 2000 has been reversed, the consumer-driven paradigm has obviously not been supported by major decision makers. The un-and-under-employed worker can no longer be a significant consumer of the discretionary goods that fuel econobooms. The paradigms of globalisation and automation have failed to ensure a reasonable prosperity for workers. And yet, our fearful leaders are trying to combat the rising temperature of failure via the same nostrums that got us into this mess in the first place.

The old rhubarb, “the second kick of a mule is not educational” is still true, today.

Some of the reasons some economists are fearing deflation over inflation are as follows: 1) excess capacity abounds in every productive nation – how many more strip malls, fast food restaurants, clothing stores, cell phone brands, housing divisions, etc. do we now need?; 2) the manufacturing engine of growth has been outsourced to third world nations – in the 1970s manufacturing accounted for 40% of the economy, now it is only 9%!; 3) since the stock market and housing prices are well off their highs, these ATM machines are no longer available to support rampant consumerism – we have become a nation of savers, overnight!; 4) there is a tremendous debt overhang that will have to be resolved – and serviced – which will effectively dampen future demands upon output. Inflation can only arise under present conditions if the Fed is able to blow another significant bubble of some kind – which is not likely under a regime of high structural unemployment.

Ends of Empires are always somewhat distasteful for the person in the street – much like a vegetarian being forced into a Haggis-eating contest. The best prescription is to garner as much marketable education as possible, avoid debt, stock up on canned goods, and actively cultivate the art of self-protection in all of its forms.

And now a rollicking song in honour of the passing of a major pop star who was associated with a few bizzare habits, practices, and fantasies:

SEX BUST AT THE PARK
(An Irish drinking song)
By William H. Shakesrear

When night falls at the monkey cage
Four fiends come to the park.
They try to find young strapping lads
With whom to have a lark.
They line ‘em up behind the wall,
Then make ‘em hunker down,
And then there comes the big surprise
With hopes no one will drown!

O, rumppa-pumppa, rumppa-pumppa,
Let the good times run!
Go call the mop and bucket brigade
To clean up all the fun!

That ancient fossil was a sot
Who did some shaky steppin’.
His crime was known both far and wide –
Assault with a dead weapon!
The chubby guy was full of talk –
He liked to bend your ear –
But when a young boy came around
He tried to bend his rear!

O, rumppa-pumppa, etc.

Them other two that made the team
Were suffrin’ loads of stress.
But they relieved their tensions by
Creatin’ gobs of mess!
The young lads got corrupted from
Free beer which flowed like wine.
And so, were willing victims of
Those rude, light-loafered swine!

O, rumppa-pumppa, etc.

There was a sex bust at the park:
Cops caught the lechers four!
These sorry gents in chains and ‘cuffs
Cried, “We won’t sin no more!”
They got stuffed in the monkey cage
Where they felt right at home.
And if you come to view this lot –
Please don’t step in the foam!

O, rumppa-pumppa, rumppa-pumppa,
Let the good times run!
Go call the mop and bucket brigade
To clean up alllll theeeee fuuuuuuuuun!

Agreed China would love to lift wages, ramp up consumer spending! But that in turn pushes up production costs, invites a vicious spiral. No one wants to be left behind when it comes to profit margins.

China’s big appeal for foreign investment has been cheap labour and no-questions-asked or ‘streamlined’ infrastructure. Once they’re no longer competing quite so well there internationally, it makes it doubly hard for domestic investors, even with fiat currency.

There already are massive problems in social cohesion there, because of the unbalanced distribution of wealth and a political system that’s no longer communism, even as an ideal, and not exactly democracy as it’s known in any of its western models. For some time observers have been saying the boom will eventually tear China apart at the seams. It is a corrupt or rotten system, repaying a centralist elite, and it can only have engineered it’s exploitative labour market on these terms. To try and turn that around and spread the wealth a little more at some point must injure vested interersts. This is where the rubber meets the road, as they say, quite apart from all the environmental and macro-economic positioning, there is a real problem with the size of a disaffected opposition. And it’s not as if they don’t know about revolutions now.

World-wide depressions famously are remedied by war, (there’s an excellent post by Jesse on this) but you could argue the wars start as revolutions.

I think the biggest problem that the Chinese have is to convert their outward directed economy into a more domestic oriented economy. China has 4x the U.S. population so an enormous potention in economical growth which the autosales figures of today proved again. (Chinese Auto Sales Skyrocket http://tinyurl.com/nr2nsq )

But this requires a completely different mindsetting for the Chinese government. They no longer have to concentrate on keeping their product prices low for the American consumers since they won’t succeed anyways with this everlasting sliding dollar. Instead they have to increase the purchasing power of their domestic consumers which will pull the Baron von Munchhausen out of this currency swamp holding on to his own long hair.

They no longer would have to worry about the dollar since it’s now only used to prop up the Weaponary Industry. In a very sick way the Chinese pay for their own encirclement so much wanted by crazy Brezinski who allready has Iran encircled in a pre-stage China encirclement. So, why should the Chinese stimulate this anyaways?

But China is like a big oil mammoth tanker, if you want to make a turn you had to start steering one mile back.

I have been writing about it here http://tinyurl.com/klbzj8 with the difference that I now think that China has no use at all keeping it’s wages low. China still thinks that the U.S. will learn it the soft way but will discover some time that the States is like a woonded wolf looking for blood. Homo Homini Lupus.

Here is a idea? Why not have a inflation spotting web site where you have to photograph the price and item and date it with an attached comment and what it was before and date it. Like a random sampler. Stupid idea really.

I guess you could list things that you would want sampling and have a table that populates an ongoing graph?

Not only Silvio Berlusconi shown sympathy and support for a earthquake town, I cant help but like his seance of humour.

LOOK New World Currency gold coin presents for the G-8 leaders and a nice book, on Canova,
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http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/showthread.php?p=636751
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He also took them site seeing in earthquake destroyed Italian L’Aquila . You don’t think there is a statement here?

Earthquakes are destructive perhaps, and it can take along time to rebuild?
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http://www.g8italia2009.it/G8/Home/Media/Foto/G8-G8_Layout_locale-1199882116809_1246708060200.htm
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Mike

@Starstrike, Christopher Story has a mad take on Common Purpose, that is part of a communist plot:

(Warning! Barking mad website link)

http://worldreports.org/

Who are the British people? The average 750k leaving every year?

Then again they don’t really have a lot of options. Their domestic economy is not broad enough to generate or even sustain the kind of ‘growth’ they’re ‘banking’ on. At best they can hope that they’re only temporarily in denial – that all this ‘confidence’ will breed honest trade.

The petulance with Rio Tinto shows that when push comes to shove, China can’t wait for bulldoze. Yeah, Crapitalism, it’s best run by a government – especially against smaller, less cohesive interests.

You can run from G20, but you can’t hide…

Clearly some pretty frayed nerves back there among the Mandarins.