Topic: Economic Devastation - page 121. (Read 504811 times)

...

iamback & CoinCube

Jim Quinn is an uber-bear often featured at Zero Hedge.  He is a follower of macro-cycles (Howe & Strauss's "Fourth Turning"), but in a different space than Martin Armstrong.  You may very well have bumped into his material before, but if not, here is his latest piece:

http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/02/11/fourth-turning-the-shadow-of-crisis-has-not-passed-part-three/

Feeling shit health. 6am. Just woke up. Haven't eaten.

Done with 300 pushups baby! 100 then 100 then 100. First time I could do 100 each time, since I did 600 pushups in 2010 one time (before I got so ill).

Off to run...

My backbone will break only the day I die! My football coach said you never fail, until you fail to stand back up.

One rule: no alcohol, no smoking, no sugar, no fruits or chemicals that are addictive (e.g. MSG and Durian).

Europe will not disintegrate

Coase’s theorem says that an inefficient internal order will continue for as long as there remains an unavoidable frictional barrier insulating it from the more efficient external possibilities. The fundamental reason the EU crisis will not result in a disintegration of the union, at least not until its people significantly abandon collectivism, is that organisms which are unable to comprehend the mechanism by which they are consuming resources faster than their ecosystem can replenish, thus are unable to stop the mechanism before they perish. So the implosion of the friction and thus the order only occurs when they perish, because they will continue to repeat the mechanism which they do not understand to be a cause of their suffering. This can be verified in a petri dish, as an organism will reproduce until it consumes all of its food or oxygen. Due to the lack of a pre-frontal cortex, it is unable to comprehend the connection of reproduction to unsustainability. Unfortunately, even though humans have a pre-frontal cortex, they do not comprehend that debt, insurance, bonds, fractional reserve money, and centralized governance, cause the demand (and thus production) of resources to be overconcentrated in sectors of the ecosystem that create a less productive future. In the next section, I will explain that these financialization mechanisms cause collective failure and thus demand ever increasing centralization (i.e. “too big to fail”), because from their inception they all pool capital. Thus they are always collectivism.


Thus the people are blind to the mechanism which is enslaving them and reducing their prosperity. Thus, since they will not change the mechanism, centralization of governance will grow stronger from the current financial crisis, and will diminish only when the involved organisms perish. Entropy is continuously culling the center of the bell curve so that knowledge can advance. I make no political judgment when I state factually that these mega-death cullings take many forms, e.g. abortions kill 42 million annually, it is reasonable to assume birth control probably more than that, some statistics claim that governments and wars have killed a couple 100 million in the past century, totalitarianism (the political end of pooling resources) kills millions, drugs and medications probably kill millions, cancer rates are double in the ‘developed’ world (the countries with financialization), and arguably GMO food may add to that. I am not making a political judgment on reproduction, rather to state the fact that actuarial economics are constrained and politically intractable without a sufficient population of youth. And as will be explained with the entropic force, it is the antithesis of knowledge formation, to a have uniform (replicated) social action.


Europe is predominantly retirees (low or negative birth rates exacerbate this), that own various european country bonds via their retirement plans. If interest rates go up, the bond values decline, and their retirement is toast. The politics is to appease subconscious denial, which is why you see Merkel talking tough and simultaneously making gradual steps towards centralized printing and fiscal controls. The savers want to penalize the non-savers, under some illusion that they can convert the non-savers, but they don’t accept culpability for causing the problem with a collectivist form of saving. If the collectivist non-savers were converted to collectivist savers, then who would borrow? Illogical.

Thus, the savers are blind to the fact they too are collectivists. Productive europeans (e.g. Germans) want to have a fixed interest rate return by loaning money to less productive sectors who can buy their exports. Now they want to deny they are subconsciously in support of money printing, because they also don’t want their fixed income to disintegrate (even though it will be debased either way). Due to the psychological phenomenon of ‘false attribution error’ (i.e. blaming the stone that one tripped on, a form of cognitive dissonance), they want to be the victim who will spank and control the bad PIIGS, via increased centralized control. Neither the savers nor the borrowers are the victim, they all are collectivists and being culled by the entropic force. Note, Germany’s debt ratio is as bad as the USA and Canada.

Fiscal centralization to come next (link explains how), with copious money printing and centralized rationing (i.e. austerity and/or price controls). The recent health care legislation in the USA, is price controls and rationing. The only prosperous fix for health care, was to eliminate insurance a priori so that individuals could maximize and individualize their preparations for aging. I will explain that pooled savings, i.e. insurance, is collectivism and thus automatically wasted.

My outlook is optimistic, in that those who understand how to avoid collectivism, facilitate maximum knowledge formation and efficiency of market fitness, will prosper and (they and their offspring will) survive entropic culling.

- You ran away to Canada

- Defected as a conscientious objector (not likely for approval)

What you are is an entitled 20-something who grew up in suburban America in a nice part of town.

Keep this statement in your back pocket. Life has a way of beating down everyone at some time or another. I think you will change your opinions as you grow a bit older and wiser.

I have no hatred for the wealthy; what I do have is a distinct appreciation for all walks of life and a defending spirit against others discrediting them because they have had different opportunities in life, a different background, look different, etc. This country was built by the hands of all types (more so the "underbelly" you speak of). It's disingenuous to write the things you do about people you have no idea about.

Don't be so naive. Sergio, the founder of Google, grew up with a decorated Mathematics professor father and a NASA researcher mother. He wasn't born in Harlem or Compton. This is not to say he wasn't a hard worker, but he went to a Montessori school for elementary education in the States. It's a $100 just to apply! This is elementary school.

You would not of had a choice to serve in Vietnam or not. There was a draft!
 
Exceptions from service:
- You ran away to Canada
- Defected as a conscientious objector (not likely for approval)

What you are is an entitled 20-something who grew up in suburban America in a nice part of town. You have or just may be finishing up a BA degree in econ/accounting or some business field which makes you feel confident enough to armchair regurgitation from some websites muddled with your thoughts. You are entitled to all your opinions and I can stomach that.

What you lack is respect for those who served our country, their thoughts/ways of life and a healthy appreciation of all walks of life. This I cannot stomach.


Keep this statement in your back pocket. Life has a way of beating down everyone at some time or another. I think you will change your opinions as you grow a bit older and wiser.

B.A.S. again I detect an undercurrent of hatred (envy) for the wealthy in your writings (i.e. Socialist or Communist ideology). I am asserting we get wealthy by being productive and not associating with those losers who blame their problems on others (e.g. blaming the 1%).

Yeah government, finance, and fiat money systems are corrupt. So what? It still doesn't change the fact that self-discipline is what makes success.

The founders of Google didn't get there by whining, hiring losers, and farting around on the beach all day! They worked hard long hours.

It doesn't mean I don't have compassion for their plight and bad luck. And I surely wouldn't try to exacerbate their suffering. But I also know I can't invest in fixing their morass because it will drag me down with them.

P.S. I would not have served in Vietnam! No way I will be a slave of the corrupt who run governments. Sorry but those weak people lack a backbone! And you can see that in the video. They don't have the capacity to stand up and fight their way out of their hole.

Sorry but those weak people lack a backbone! And you can see that in the video. They don't have the capacity to stand up and fight their way out of their hole.

I bet a lot of those guys in the video served in Vietnam. They were most likely upstanding young men who came back PTSD'd and shunned from their families. They fell in with some bad folks and here they are 20-40 years later.

Automation may wipe these people out from the job market, but most of America is not actually producing anything anyway. Money is being made on the transferring of money around and through its exportation to the World which is demanding USD. In years long ago, the US actually manufactured lots of things. Today it still does that, but on a very limited scale. People today are getting rich on the backs of others through financial markets with large lumps of cash and uneven odds.

I watched the film. It's a very good look at what drugs and alcohol can do to people as well as what a simple life outlook and philosophy looks like. Nothing wrong with the latter. The characters may not be the 'perfect' people, but I can assure you all that separates these people for many in the upperclasses is a higher level vernacular and better clothing. I've seen both and the sad part is they both end up looking more alike from a holistic perspective. Rich and poor people like drugs/alcohol equally.

This is a good film for anyone not familiar with what the American underclass looks like. http://vimeo.com/118532076

Rather unsettling to see just how ubiquitous these attitudes are. With so many of these people, devoid of any productive capacity or purpose, coupled with the continuing trend of automation, it certainly seems like much of what you are saying is inevitable. I don't see how an increase in socialism can be avoided in this country.

As B.A.S. has admitted, the thinking (attitude and circumstance) of Westerners is aligned with spiraling the abyss. I have observed such attitudes in my own family in the USA. CoinCube has an exceptionally erudite nuclear family and a high quality career path, so afaik he probably doesn't associate with the lowlife underbelly of our society in the USA (thus I think he may not be aware how widespread the underbelly is and how intractable the ingrained attitudes are). I am intimately familiar with the lowlifes. I should send him a link to a facebook profile with 100s of "gang banger" attitude Likes.

COMMENT: My wife took our 4-year old Alex to the bank today to open a savings account for him with his piggy bank of about 10k baht ($333.00). The teller noticed he was half Thai and asked if he was American, to which she said he was both Thai and American.

The teller: “We won’t open an account for him because we have to report him to the IRS.”

So my wife said “open it as a trust account as a Thai citizen.” The teller: “Can’t do that. It’s evading U.S. regulations.”

End result: Alex can’t open an account here.

Amazing, simply amazing.

One question a lot of people ask – where can we go this time? America was the place people fled to from Europe and the economic abuses. This is why the American people were such isolationists for World War I and II distinct and apart from its politicians. The politicians did everything to get Americans to support a war. Roosevelt even went to Boston to promise their sons would never go to Europe, just arms. The Irish were not very tolerant of defending Britain when they saw the English as the oppressors of the Irish that sent them fleeing to the States.

Asia may present some problems for any kind of a mass exodus. That really leaves Africa and South America. One of the best kept secrets was the fact that many Southern Confederates fled the USA upon losing the war and they took off to Brazil. To this very day they still celebrate the American Confederacy in Brazil.

...

So perhaps the only place left will be south of the border. Where American’s called Mexican’s swimming across the Rio Grand “wet backs”, they may apply the same term to Americans fleeing the new draconian America if the direction we fall is authoritarian rather than freedom – cómo está.

I do not believe the current system is sustainable, but some of the Obamacare enactments will help forge a new direction for healthcare. A fundamental mind set change needs to happen (AKA a few generations need to die off with the newest generations begin taught a new way of thinking towards their health). What's troublesome for me is that the US healthcare system is not universally organized for set pricing. I don't get a larger salary because pricing increases. A heart surgery can run on the low end of $50K at a less known hospital to upwards of $150K at the best hospital with the most well known surgeon. In both cases, the docs know how to do the surgery, were trained identically; yet the price is different.

Healthcare is competitive in the US. Not only do they want you to pay for it, but on top of it; you have to pay TOP dollar to get expected care in these situations. This is not sustainable or dare I say 'fair' in a country where basic care is an unalienable right. I don't blame either side, but sometime long ago someone said basic healthcare was a right and now we are finding out how hard it is to live that statement when the "basic" component has been stretched to include everything from a routine physical to diabetes.

Massive overhauls need to happen with respect to surgeries, cancer, expensive treatments, ER visits, etc. This is where the money is being lost because the majority of Americans who get these procedures don't have a penny to pinch in regards to paying it off. If America operated like Singapore today, we would most likely have a healthier population who value their health more, but this is not the American mindset right now. Necessity is the mother of all invention.