350 Greek Tragedies in Athens in June Alone

 

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  • #5158
    wp_admin
    Keymaster

    [article]356[/article]

    #5159
    steve from virginia
    Participant

    You have to wonder how people will cope when it really gets bad.

    When all the conveniences vanish, when Europeans live like Pakistanis and Pakistanis live like dogs.

    #5160
    peter
    Participant

    Yes, Greece is the model, to be applied as far as possible to all countries with any middle class wealth to harvest.

    We will need help from our community if we are to survive the coming decades. This is the message from TAE from the start.

    Forget about the guns and ammo, and food stores for 6 months.
    We are going to need friends in the future worlds where we will all be living soon.

    Christoulas must have felt so completely alone in his battle to survive (and see a credible future where he could continue to survive and live). It is not overt or planned by the powers that be, but never the less it is clear the modern western life that focuses on individual efforts and rewards and personal responsibility for life outcomes means total estrangement from community building. What we will need in the future has been destroyed – happily and with full support – by those who are going to be in most need of it.

    Stoneleigh sez “build community relationships and shared interests” as part of her lifeboat. It appears nearly at the bottom of the list. I think it should be at the top. Start building networks of sharing of surplus food and skills and energy first, and reduce your debt. Keep building networks and put aside some cash in a hole somewhere. Add other connections to people and networks as you plant a kitchen garden as you share your excess potatoes with those who might have too many tomatoes. Consider some solar panels for the roof and share your knowledge of TAE with others. You get my drift?

    After a few years of the above you will then be able to ask others “what can I do about my problem here”. Share your problem in other words. Then it will not seem to hopeless and we might be much better positioned to live and survive.

    Not die off quickly. That is what THEY want.

    #5162
    SteveB
    Participant

    “Money has no value in and of itself; it derives that value from the world it rolls in. Take away that world, and you take away the value.”

    Promising opening and an accurate followup. It’s that second clause in the middle that shows just how tenacious the use of money is in affecting our thinking. That clause is a lie. Money has no value, derived or otherwise. That’s the long-standing, unquestioned lie that led, ultimately, to those suicide attempts.

    #5166
    gurusid
    Participant

    Hi Folks,

    Perris also left a suicide note, placing it on the kitchen table. “My life has become a constant tragedy,” he wrote. He tried to sell his house, but no one had the money to buy it. He owned a house, a boat and a moped.
    “What’s the use of owning things when you don’t have any money to buy food?” Perris asked in his suicide note.

    Here in lies the end game for the whole darn thing. It parallels the popular saying “Only when the last tree has been felled, the last fish caught, will man realise you cannot eat money”.

    Greece, a country whose Orthodox Church does not condone suicide, has always had one of the lowest suicide rates in Europe. But now, there were 350 suicide attempts and 50 deaths in Athens in June alone. Most of the suicides were among members of the middle class and, in many cases, the act itself was carried out in public, almost as if it were a theatrical performance.

    From tragedy to farce to divine comedy. While such a belief structure (Orthodox Christianity) may provide a sacred umbrella to the faithful against the anomic forces raining down on modern Greece the sad truth is that the prevailing ‘religion’ is that of mammon; in a world where the only value is monetary, what value to life is left without it?

    Shame the Greeks didn’t keep Buddhism:

    The Buddha, in Greco-Buddhist style, 1st-2nd century CE, Gandhara (Modern eastern Afghanistan).

    The Core teaching of which is the Four Noble Truths:

    1st Noble Truth: There is suffering.
    2nd Noble Truth: There is a cause of suffering. (Caused by attachment and clinging/desire to/for something).
    3rd Noble Truth: There is an end to suffering. (which is to ‘see’ through the causes and ‘let go’).
    4th Noble Truth: The Way out of Suffering, the ‘Eightfold Path, (that is the way leading to the elimination of suffering codified as, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.)

    They might have ended up like Bhutan, with its Gross National Happiness plan adopted as part of democratisation – democracy being an idea itself born in Greece:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXJwNSkdTH0

    (Though the irony of the Royal murder/suicide in 2001 in neighbouring Nepal is not without relevance here – ironic in the sense of the ‘rich and powerful’ succumbing to the same fate of ‘going postal’ usually seen reserved for the ‘lower ranks’.

    While ‘suicide’ is very much a culturally laden act, as in Japan where Seppeku, originally reserved for the Samurai, is a ritual disembowelling act performed in front of spectators, the real tragedy in any suicide is not so much the perceived inability to live through the circumstances of the person who commits suicide but of the people who are left behind who cannot fathom the loss; a loss that is often compounded by the same situation that drove the dead to take their lives in the first place.

    Ultimately it is, (apart from a cry for help – witness the 300 reported attempts) a recognition of the end of ones world, a death of the old ‘self’; that self that is made up of old and now redundant psychological conditioning (which btw is all that Buddhism says you will find as regards a ‘self’ or ‘ego’!). What needs to be seen is that this self can die without the necessity of the physical bodily death. If this is allowed, a rebirth can occur that can lead to a better and happier existence, even in the seemingly most dire of ‘material’ circumstances. All that glitters is not gold…

    L,
    Sid.

    #5168
    rwg
    Member

    Beautiful video! Much food for thought.
    I have several conflicting inner impulses ranging from my own strong Buddhist leanings to far less charitable ideas about turning banksters into organ donors.

    This reminds me of a fascinating little book by Robert A. Johnson called Transformation: Understanding the Three Levels of Masculine Consciousness.
    To grossly oversimplify, level one is exemplified by Don Quixote – the windmills he saw were monsters to him and nothing could change his mind. In other words, “The way I see it is THE way it is.” Period. And no other realities are possible to that individual than his own. He is Unconscious Man.

    Level two is exemplified by Hamlet, a tragic figure who could see that there are multiple ways to interpret a situation and, when he had the opportunity to kill the right man to avert great tragedy, he froze in his own confusion and questioning of his own perception. Tragedy ensued. In other words, There are multiple, legitimate ways to see things and who is anyone to say that their way is the right way? (Johnson says our culture is at this level now. It is dangerous and difficult place to be.)

    Level three is exemplified by Faust. There are numerous versions of this tale. The one Johnson uses to illustrate is different from the one I read, but the fundamental take-home is this: At level three, the Conscious Man can see things multiple ways, but is in a state of equanimity about his choices. He does not second guess himself and get stuck. He chooses, quite wisely, and moves along. He actually looks quite a bit like a man at level one – but with vastly different inner workings.

    I often end up swirling around in my own “what-to-do?” level two stuff. But my advice to myself is to choose something and take action. Learn to build a solar water heater today. Deleverage myself a bit more today. Build community. Whatever. Just take some action.

    In the words of an ancient Chinese Proverb: Many a false step is taken standing still.

    #5169
    Barak
    Member

    Where the heck is Nicole? Does she still blog here?

    #5170
    bluebird
    Participant

    SfV said “You have to wonder how people will cope when it really gets bad.”

    I suspect most people will not cope well, especially with no phones to text friends.

    #5173
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Good article, but Greek episode is just the latest one in endless chain of disasters caused by liberal-democracy. It is maybe better to say – fascism.

    https://www.ukrainianstudies.uottawa.ca/pdf/Stuckler,%20King,%20McKee%202009.pdf

    There is Lancet’s study of so-called transition in Eastern Europe from “state” to “market” economy. Maybe, economy should be put in quote too, since an economy as separate branch of society doesn’t exist.

    So, in that study the authors claim that up to “10 million missing men because of system change.” Another UNICEF’s study claim 3.2 million unnecessary deaths due capitalist restoration. I’ll say, abovementioned is just direct consequence of “transition”. Not to mention undirected one, which hardly can be measured.

    Greece country is bordering with Macedonia which was federal unit of now ex-Yugoslavia (when one speak about capitalism there is lots of ex, former, defunct and the like). That country is raped, literally, by German and US Gov. primarily. There were 100.000 of death in Bosnia alone; damage? more than $100 billions. After that “privatization” (Western looting) followed by suicide and disrupted families, human trafficking and sex slavery, drug problems, corruption.

    Another case the newest one is Syria, and again Germany and US and deep in the neck in destruction of that country.

    It is not that I do not have the problem with ongoing drama in Greece; it is just they may consider themselves lucky they did not get situation like in Yugoslavia or Syria or Chile.

    My hope is, and wish, that I’ll see, in my lifetime, the war is going on in Germany, UK and the rest of so-called “civilized world”. I would like to see and read Spiegel (which is fairly despicable paper) and see “transitional government” is formed in Berlin, Paris or Amsterdam.

    #5174
    Anonymous
    Guest

    As this article explains very well, it’s not the euro that’s in trouble. It’s the people

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/16/the-euro-is-not-in-trouble-the-people-are/

    The Euro is Not in Trouble; the People Are
    by VINCENT NAVARRO

    One of the phrases frequently written in economic circles in the United States (and to a lesser degree in Europe) is “the Euro is going to collapse.” Those who repeat that phrase over and over again do not seem to know how the Euro was established, by whom, and for whose benefit. If they knew the history of the Euro, they would have noticed that the major forces behind the Euro have done very well and continue to do so. As long as they continue to benefit from the Euro’s existence, the Euro will continue to exist.

    Let’s start with the Euro’s history and the major reason it was established. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall, it looked like East and West Germany could reunite and¾as the Western German establishment wanted¾become, once again, a united Germany. That possibility did not please democratic Europe. Twice in the 20th century, the majority of European countries had to go to war to stop the expansionist aims of a united Germany. The European governments were not pleased to see post-Nazi Germany reunited. President François Mitterrand of France even said ironically that, “I love Germany so much that I prefer to see two Germanys rather than one.”

    The only alternative these governments saw was to make sure the united Germany would not become an isolated country in front of everyone else. Germany had to become integrated into Europe. It had to become Europeanized. Mitterrand thought one way of doing this was to have the German currency, the mark, be replaced by a new European currency, the Euro. This was thought to be a way of anchoring post-Nazi Germany to democratic Europe.

    The German establishment, however, put forth conditions. One was to establish a financial authority, the European Central Bank (ECB), that would manage the Euro and have as its only objective to keep inflation down. The ECB would be under the heavy influence of (i.e., controlled by) the German Central Bank, the Bundenbank. The other condition was to establish the Stability Pact, which would impose financial discipline on member states of the Eurozone. Their public deficits would have to remain lower than 3% of their GDP, even in moments of recession.

    To understand why the other countries accepted these conditions, one has to understand that neoliberalism (which started with President Ronald Reagan in the United States and with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom) was the dominant ideology in those countries. A major position within that neoliberal dogma was to reduce the role of the states as much as possible, encouraging private financing and de-emphasizing domestic demand as the way of stimulating the economy. In this view, the main motor of the economy should be the growth of exports. These are the roots of the problem¾not of the Euro, which is in good health¾but of the welfare and well-being of the population in those countries.

    The European Central Bank is Not a Central Bank

    What a central bank does is to print money and, with that money, buy public bonds of the state, making sure the interests of those bonds are reasonable and do not become excessive. The central bank protects states against the financial market’s speculation. The ECB, however, does not do this. The interest of the states’ public debt in some countries has skyrocketed because the ECB has not bought any of their debt for quite some time. Spain and Italy are fully aware of this.

    What the ECB does, however, is to lend a lot of money to private banks at a very low interest rate (lower than 1%), with which they buy public bonds with very high interest (6% to 7% in Italy and Spain). It is a fantastic deal for these banks! Since last December, the ECB has lent more than 1 trillion Euros (1,000,000 million Euros) to private banks, half of it (500,000 million Euros) to Spanish and Italian banks. This transfer of public funds (the ECB is a public institution) to the private financial sector is justified by indicating that this aid was needed in order to save the banks and, thus, ensure credit is being offered to small and medium-sized business enterprises and families in debt. Credit, however, has not appeared. Both individuals and businesses continue to have difficulties obtaining it.

    Occasionally, the ECB buys public bonds in the secondary markets from states that are in trouble, but it buys them in an almost clandestine way, in very small doses and for very short periods of time. The financial markets are aware of this situation. This is why the high interest of the public bonds goes down for a while when the ECB buys them and then goes up again, making it very difficult for states to sustain them. The ECB should announce openly that it will not allow the interest of the public bonds to go over a certain level, making it impossible for financial markets to speculate with them. But the ECB does not do this, leaving the states unprotected in front of those financial markets.

    In this situation, the agreement that Spain and Italy must reduce their public deficits to recover the confidence and trust of financial markets is not credible. Spain has been reducing the public deficit, while the interest of Spanish bonds has been increasing, proving that it is the ECB, not the financial markets, that defines that interest.

    Who Controls the European Financial System?

    In theory, the ECB was supposed to be the manager of the Euro. But the one that really controls the Euro, and the European financial system, is the Bundesbank, the German Central Bank. It was designed that way, as previously noted. But there was another reason for control of the European financial system by the Bundesbank and the German banks. That influence (almost to the point of control) was the result of a set of decisions made by the German government, specifically by the Schröder social democratic government (Program 2010), and continued by Merkel’s conservative governments, which emphasized the export sector as the economy’s main motor. Oskar Lafontaine, Schröder’s Minister of Finance, wanted to put domestic demand as the main motor of the German economic recovery. He proposed increasing salaries and public expenditures. He lost and left the social democratic party, forming a new party, Die Link/The Left, and Schröder (now working for an export-oriented industry) won. As a consequence of that emphasis on exports (the majority to the Eurozone), German banks accumulated an enormous amount of Euros. Rather than using these Euros to increase German workers’ salaries (which would have stimulated not only the German economy, but the whole European economy), the German banks exported those Euros, investing in the periphery of the Eurozone. That investment was the cause of the housing bubble in Spain. Without German money, the Spanish banks could not have financed that bubble, which was based on a huge speculation.

    When Did the Crisis Appear in Spain?

    When German banks stopped lending to Spain as a result of their panic (when they learned that they themselves were contaminated with toxic products from U.S. banks) the housing bubble collapsed, creating a hole in the Spanish economy equivalent to 10% of its gross domestic product, all within a few months. It was an economic tsunami, an authentic disaster. Immediately, the public national budget went from a surplus to an enormous deficit, as a result of the collapse of revenues to the states. It did not have anything to do with the growth of public expenditures (Spain had the lowest public expenditures per capita among the EU-15), but rather the dramatic decline of revenues. The emphasis by the “Troika” (the European Commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund) that Spain needs to cut its public expenditures even more is profoundly wrong because the public deficit has not been caused by a growth of those expenditures (as suggested by the frivolous remarks of Chancellor Merkel about the “extravagance of the Spanish public sector”). Moreover, those cuts are causing an enormous recession.

    What is the Purpose of the Financial Aid?

    The official rhetoric is that the financial authorities of the Eurozone have made available to Spain 100,000 million Euros to help its banks. Reality, however, is very different. The Spanish banks and the Spanish state are deeply in debt. They owe a lot of money to foreign banks, including German banks, which have lent almost 200,000 million Euros to Spain. These banks are screaming to have their money back. That is why the 100,000 million Euros have been approved by the German parliament. Peter Bofinger, economic advisor to the German government, put it quite clearly: “This assistance is not to these countries in trouble (like Spain) but rather to our own banks who owe a lot of private debt in those countries.” (Chatterjee Pratap, “Bailing out Germany: The Story Behind the European Financial Costs” [28/05/42]). It could not have been said better.

    If the European authorities had wanted to help Spain, they should have lent that money at very low interest to the Spanish public credit agencies (such as ICO, Official Institute of Credit), resolving the enormous problem of lack of credit in Spain. This alternative was, of course, never considered.

    Where is the Supposed Problem with the Euro?

    The fact that Spain has an enormous problem of lack of liquidity does not mean the Euro is in trouble. Many regional governments cannot pay their public servants because of a lack of money. As a matter of fact, those enormous differences in credit availability within the Eurozone are benefiting the German banks. Today, there is a flow of capital from Spain to Germany, enriching German banks and making German public bonds very secure. The fact that there is an enormous crisis with huge unemployment rates in the peripheral countries does not mean, however, that the Euro is in crisis. It would be in crisis only if these peripheral countries, including Spain, would leave the Euro. That would mean the collapse of the German banks and the European financial system. But this is not going to happen. The measures being taken in Spain and other peripheral countries, with the support of the Troika, by the Spanish and other governments are the measures that the conservative forces they represent have always dreamed of: cutting salaries, eliminating social protection, dismantling the welfare state, and so on. They claim they are doing it because of instructions from Brussels, Frankfort, or Berlin. They are shifting responsibilities to foreign agents, who supposedly are forcing them to do it. It is the externalization of blame. Their major slogan is, “There are no alternatives!”

    When Mr. Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, calls Mr. Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish president of the most conservative government in the European Union, close to the Tea Party of the United States, he tells him that in order to help him, he will have to make reforms in the labor market (i.e., make it easier for employers to fire workers). He is quite open about it. In a recent press conference (August 9, 2012), Mr. Draghi was quite clear. The ECB will not buy Spanish public bonds unless the Spanish government takes tough, unpopular measures such as reforming the labor market, reducing pension benefits, and privatizing the welfare state. The Rajoy government will gladly follow these instructions. It has already made many cuts and projects 120,000 million Euros more in cuts within the next two years. The Euro and its system of governance are working beautifully for those who have the major voice within the Eurozone today. The ECB is instructing the governments of its monetary zone to dismantle Social Europe and they are doing it. It is what my good friend Jeff Faux, a founder of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., used to call “the international class alliances,” that is, the alliance among the dominant classes around the world. That alliance is clearly operating in the Eurozone today. It is because of this that the Euro is going to be around for a long, long time.

    Vincent Navarro is Professor of Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University in the United States and Pompeu Fabra University in Spain.

    #5175
    rwg
    Member

    Garbage production and US GDP are closely correlated. Check out the brief story here.
    https://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/tracking-economy-and-gdp-through-trash

    I could not figure out how to copy the graph into this post, but it’s a jaw-dropper. I’m sure that election-year politics are playing a part in keeping the bottom from falling out right now.

    #5176
    gurusid
    Participant

    Hi rwg,

    Yes this parallels the ‘triumvirate’ found in most spiritual traditions, exemplified in the Zen saying of “Before enlightenment mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers, during enlightenment, mountains are not mountains, rivers are not rivers, after enlightenment, mountains are again mountains, and rivers are again rivers.” This shows the three stages of unawakened, awakened and finally liberated of the spiritual path. But as Bernadette Roberts points out, the path is only ever seen in retrospect: https://www.spiritualteachers.org/b_roberts_interview.htm and ‘Edji’ also has a good take on getting stuck in the middle: https://www.wearesentience.com/awakening-vs-liberation.html

    As for the current ‘illusion’, the biggest resource/obstacle is that little bubble of reality in side your own ‘head’.

    “Morpheus: The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.”

    L,
    Sid.

    #5177
    draego454
    Member

    >> It is no use to be well-off yourself if you don’t have a functioning society to be well-off in.

    Ethically, I agree with you. But I am exhausted in my soul from trying to figure out how to fit the all Titanic’s passengers into 5 life boats. The math just doesn’t support all of us making it through what I think is coming.

    >> and people, if I understand it well, can only be saved if banks are saved first

    It just hit me that this is “trickle down” all over again. “Let us move all these jobs overseas and with the money that we save we will be able to create even more jobs…” I think we’ve all seen how THAT works. Trickle down…doesn’t. And by extension, destroying society to save banks will not save society.

    Steven in Dallas

    #5178
    skipbreakfast
    Participant

    Just met a Syrian living in Switzerland on holiday in Thailand. Without any prodding at all he said everyone he knows in Switzerland is preparing for “collapse”. Again, I didn’t bring up anything about this–he did! I didn’t show my cards as a crazy collapse-nik even for one moment. I’d say the guy is about 25. He says all his friends are leaving the cities and trying to find a place to live in the countryside because they are expecting the absolute worst. Maybe only anecdotal, but interesting. Is this how fear spreads?

    #5182
    Jack
    Member

    Hi Folks!
    I already had a link to something like this before but this is a bit different.
    Christopher Jon Bjerknes explains how our current crisis is linked to the
    Rothchilds and the Zionist movement.

    Like he says in the video that this is
    Not anti semitic or hater of this or that.

    The Jewish Genocide of Armenian Christians Part 3
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY3JPwu_T70

    #5185
    skipbreakfast
    Participant

    Jack, the dude is a total anti-Semite. Don’t be fooled. And it’s a shame you’ve broken the incredible track-record in the TAE comment section which avoids legitimizing such conversations (unlike the plethora of other financial collapse blogs, such as Zero Hedge et al.).

    Check out The Armenian Weekly essay entitled, Jacobs: The Outrageous Claim of Christopher Jon Bjerkness: The Jewish Genocide of Armenian Christians.

    https://www.armenianweekly.com/2010/01/12/jacobs-the-outrageous-claim-of-christopher-jon-bjerkness-the-jewish-genocide-of-armenian-christians/

    If you refuse to read the well-written, and well-argued article in its entirely, here’s a snippet or two:

    It is a mainstay of anti-Semitism and anti-Semites that conspiracy theories abound, most especially about supposed world-wide Jewish power and Jewish behind-the-scenes control and manipulation of all those currently in positions of political, governmental, economic, and military leadership. This has been very much in evidence since the beginning of the 19th century with the publication of the notorious Russian forgery The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a totally spurious and fraudulent document supposedly telling the story of a secret midnight cemetery meeting of a group of rabbis at which their leader spells out their plans in twenty-four “protocols” for world take-over.

    And, with the advent of the aforementioned technological assistance of the Internet and the ease of constructing websites, the haters have proliferated and continue to spew their filth through slick and professional-looking sites including streaming video, PDF books and documents, and the like. Indeed, a case could conceivably be made that the international community of haters—for this is truly a world-wide phenomenon and not confined to any one geographic locale—has become “unionized,” or, if not unionized, then, at the very least, networked. One finds much of the same material, including conspiracy screeds and downloadable and printable copies of the Protocols, available on many of them.

    One such site—www.jewishracism.com— is that run by Christopher Jon Bjerkness (b. 1967) (“B’yerk-ness,” though I personally prefer to pronounce it with a “j”) of Chicago, IL, who, according to fellow traveler Henry Makow, PhD, of Winnipeg, Canada, and author of the anti-Semitic text Illumnati: The Cult that Hijacked the World (BookSurge Publishing, 2008), “a scholar who know what plagues mankind and believes his knowledge is necessary to stop Armegeddon”[iii], and whose site is “dedicated to protecting all Jews from the anti-Semitism and inhumanity of racist Jews.” […]

    If you think you can trust Bjerkness, ask yourself why he has such a fascination with this Armenian genocide. Why is he struggling so hard to expose this genocide? Why is he writing such extensive books, doing so many interviews, and even traveling at his own expense from his home in Chicago to Glendale, California to give a speech about the genocide to a group of Armenians?[…]

    He also employs such rhetorical devices “it is a well-known fact that” (pg. 16), “it appears unquestionable that” (pg. 17) without any source citation whatsoever. Early on, he makes the following claim (without any supportive evidence) which appears throughout the text: Jewish leaders then placed Adolf Hitler in power in the hopes that he would chase the Jews of Europe into Palestine. (pg. 20)

    Not content with this absurdity, he also rails against “the Jewish controlled book publishing industry…Jewish controlled academia…Jewish control of the press” (pg. 24), tropes which are also included in the Protocols.

    Etc…etc. Goodnight.

    #5186
    Jack
    Member

    Hi skipbreakfast
    The guy is listing his facts and giving all the proof one by one and you are still refusing to accept that.
    This issue is very much related to the economic crisis of our time.
    The choice is yours believe what you want.

    #5187
    skipbreakfast
    Participant

    The choice is all of ours not to repeat the egregious evils of our past. The previous financial collapse of the 20s was accompanied by the very same conspiracy theories. In this age of the Internet, it’s the same phenomenon just dressed up in a digital suit and tie. Simple answers, like grand conspiracy theories which target a small identifiable “race” or culture simply satisfy our basest needs. It’s the easiest and most evil of our human traits.

    We have a responsibility to do more for the people of the world, and for the planet itself. Let’s start by getting people to think about how we consume as individuals and as a culture, how we must reject debt, how houses don’t answer our prayers for riches, how we need to become more community-based and self-sufficient. There is quite a lot of work there alone, given most people would rather just buy Apple stock and supposedly live off the windfall.

    Darkness is everywhere and within us. And people like the dude you’re endorsing are going to take us down even darker paths than we’ve gone yet. Don’t let them.

    #5188
    Jack
    Member

    You can live in a world of lies and call the facts
    conspiracy theories
    or you can look yourself in the mirror and say I was wrong.
    or we were wrong

    If I do something wrong than I say Jesus how could I have done something like that.

    Than that makes me a better better person.

    The important thing is to give people the choice.

    #5192
    jal
    Participant

    Off topic …
    conspiracy theories have a habit of hiding behind some facts.

    Here is some research. You might want to check what you believe to be facts.

    The Lost Science of Money
    by Stephen A. Zarlenga,
    a masterful work that traces this debate back to ancient Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome.

    … the harvest cycle in ancient farming societies, but Zarlenga (2002), Del
    Mar (1895), and the works cited therein contain numerous other historical examples where
    this mechanism was at work. It repeatedly led to systemic borrower defaults, forfeiture of
    collateral, and therefore the concentration of wealth in the hands of lenders. For the
    macroeconomic consequences it matters little whether this represents deliberate and
    malicious manipulation, or whether it is an inherent feature of a system based on private
    money creation. We will return to this in our theoretical model, too.

    A discussion of the crises brought on by excessive debt in ancient Mesopotamia is
    contained in Hudson and van de Mierop (2002). It was this experience, acquired over
    millennia, that led to the prohibition of usury and/or to periodic debt forgiveness
    (“wiping the slate clean”) in the sacred texts of the main Middle Eastern religions. The
    earliest known example of such debt crises in Greek history are the 599 BC reforms of
    Solon, which were a response to a severe debt crisis of small farmers, brought on by the charging of interest on coinage by a wealthy oligarchy. It is extremely illuminating to
    realize that Solon’s reforms, at this very early time, already contained many elements of
    what Henry Simons (1948), a principal proponent of the Chicago Plan, would later refer
    to as the “financial good society”. First, there was widespread debt cancellation, and the
    restitution of lands that had been seized by creditors. Second, agricultural commodities
    were monetized by setting official monetary floor prices for them. Because the source of
    loan repayments for agricultural debtors was their output of these commodities, this
    turned debt finance into something closer to equity finance. Third, Solon provided much
    more plentiful government-issued, debt-free coinage that reduced the need for private
    debts. Solon’s reforms were so successful that, 150 years later, the early Roman republic
    sent a delegation to Greece to study them. They became the foundation of the Roman
    monetary system from 454 BC (Lex Aternia) until the time of the Punic wars (Peruzzi
    (1985)). It is also at this time that a link was established between these ancient
    understandings of money and more modern interpretations. This happened through the
    teachings of Aristotle that were to have such a crucial influence on early Western thought.
    In Ethics, Aristotle clearly states the state/institutional theory of money, and rejects any
    commodity-based or trading concept of money, by saying “Money exists not by nature but
    by law.” The Dialogues of Plato contain similar views (Jowett (1937)). This insight was
    reflected in many monetary systems of the time, which contrary to a popular prejudice
    among monetary historians were based on state-backed fiat currencies rather than
    commodity monies. Examples include the extremely successful Spartan system (approx.
    750-415 BC), introduced by Lycurgus, which was based on iron disks of low intrinsic
    value, the 390-350 BC Athenian system, based on copper, and most importantly the early
    Roman system (approx. 700-150 BC), which was based on bronze tablets, and later coins,
    whose material value was far below their face value.

    Many historians (Del Mar (1895)) have partly attributed the eventual collapse of the
    Roman republic to the emergence of a plutocracy that accumulated immense private
    wealth at the expense of the general citizenry. Their ascendancy was facilitated by the
    introduction of privately controlled silver money, and later gold money, at prices that far
    exceeded their earlier commodity value prices, during the emergency period of the Punic
    wars. With the collapse of Rome much of the ancient monetary knowledge and experience
    was lost in the West. But the teachings of Aristotle remained important through their
    influence on the scholastics, including St. Thomas Acquinas (1225-1274). This may be
    part of the reason why, until the Industrial Revolution, monetary control in the West
    remained generally either in government or religious hands, and was inseparable from
    ultimate sovereignty in society. However, this was to change eventually, and the beginnings
    can be traced to the first emergence of private banking after the fall of Byzantium in 1204,
    with rulers increasingly relying on loans from private bankers to finance wars. But
    ultimate monetary control remained in sovereign hands for several more centuries. The
    Bank of Amsterdam (1609-1820) in the Netherlands was still government-owned and
    maintained a 100% reserve backing for deposits. And the Mixt Moneys of Ireland (1601)
    legal case in England confirmed the right of the sovereign to issue intrinsically worthless
    base metal coinage as legal tender. It was the English Free Coinage Act of 1666, which
    placed control of the money supply into private hands, and the founding of the privately
    controlled Bank of England in 1694, that first saw a major sovereign relinquishing
    monetary control, not only to the central bank but also to the private banking interests
    behind it. The following centuries would provide ample opportunities to compare the results of government and private control over money issuance.

    #5193
    rwg
    Member

    Off topic –
    Regardless of economics, we need to make our energy systems radically more resilient.
    Here’s a great example of technology that could soften the landing: Solar pocket factory.
    Not sure about the haz waste generation issues, but HOW COOL IS THIS!?!? (Very!)
    ….
    This is from
    https://www.resilientcommunities.com

    The NEXT Global Economy is Being Built Right Now, I’ll Help You Find It
    By John Robb
    Pssst! Here’s a secret.
    A new, resilient global economy is emerging and the timing couldn’t be better.
    How so? It’s amazing luck that a new resilient economy is emerging at the very same time the current economic system is in the process of being reset. Fortunately, this new resilient economy will make it increasingly possible to re-localize economic life and will radically improve the quality, stability and prosperity of its participant’s lives over the long run.
    Here’s An Example
    A good example of the emerging resilient economy is a venture called the Solar Pocket Factory, founded by two MIT grads. This venture is dedicated to finding new and better ways to manufacture Microsolar cards.
    What is Microsolar?
    As I mentioned in a previous letter on when to use solar electricity, one of the best uses for solar power (right now — and timing is everything) is to use it to power appliances that are either remote or mobile. A good way to do that is to use small and inexpensive Microsolar cards. It’s a card that you use to power or recharge small devices, lights, etc.
    Here’s Shawn Frayne, one of the venture’s founders. He’s holding up a cell phone that is being powered by a Microsolar card:
    The founders of this venture (Shawn and Alex) have found a way to make Microsolar panels that are 30% cheaper and can last at least ten years (over five times longer than the panels produced today).
    That’s great news. However, what is new and interesting about this venture isn’t that it’s going to produce better Microsolar panels, it’s HOW they are going to do it.

    The Solar Pocket Factory
    The first big departure from traditional business practice is that this venture isn’t going to outsource the manufacturing of the panels to China or India.
    Instead, they are taking advantage of rapidly evolving technology to build an automated factory that can produce Microsolar that’s small, cheap and powerful.
    How small? It can sit on a desktop.
    How powerful? It can produce as many Microsolar panels as any factory in China (a panel every 15 seconds or 1 million panels a year). Shawn and Alex have spent the last six months working on a prototype of the factory and this is what it looks like:
    https://www.resilientcommunities.com/wp-content/uploads/Solar-Pocket-Factory-2.png

    In short, this factory is being built to be used in a community of nearly any size (we’re going to see many more factories this small in the NEAR future).

    Community Funding and Participation
    The second departure that’s interesting to us is how they are funding the venture. They cut out the extortionate middle men on Wall Street (and Sand Hill Road) and went directly to the online community for funding by using Kickstarter.
    Here’s their offer page on Kickstarter. They are currently raising only $50,000 to finish developing the pocket factory. Don’t be surprised at the cost. As factories shrink in size, the cost to develop them drops too, particularly if the instability of the financial sector can be avoided or marginalized (relegated to simple functions like funds transfer, etc.).
    Given their early success, I fully expect them to reach their funding goals.

    Hope you find this useful. I’ll keep you up to date on signs of the new economy as it emerges

    #5197
    greydogg
    Participant

    Greece wounds me By Eirene: https://99getsmart.com/?p=4527

    Greece: The Troika Even Sets the Sales-Tax Rate for Restaurant Meals: https://99getsmart.com/?p=4506

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