Chris M
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Zerosum,
You might argue that is a fringe benefit of stock buybacks.
But…why are these companies so gung-ho about stock buybacks in the first place?
As long as I’m asking questions, what was or is the goal of the Jews having their own country in the Middle East? What’s their over-arching objective? I have my own opinions, but would like to hear from our resident scholars.
Hmm..propaganda funded by the debt money monopolists to keep their cozy empire going. The military/industrial/university complex is their hammer to crush rebellion.
I’m reminded of the movie “A Bug’s Life”. Here’s a famous quote in film:
“You let one ant stand up to us, and they all might stand up! Those “puny little ants” outnumber us a hundred to one. And if they ever figure that out… THERE GOES OUR WAY OF LIFE! It’s not about food. It’s about keeping those ants in line.”
Bullies indeed.
Dr. D,
I take issue with your notion that tripling the price of wheat triples the price of food (unless you are eating raw wheat berries). In processed products such as bread, the price of the wheat is a small percentage of the price of the loaf the end consumer pays.
Getting wheat to a parity price would help the economy tremendously. Wheat prices are badly manipulated down by the commodity markets. Paper contracts in wheat are approximately 3 times (if not more) the amount of wheat actually harvested on an annual basis.
There is an economic paradox few people understand. Cheap food makes hungry people.
The young need to know the truth about the way it really is.
Lies, in the form of propaganda and the like, will not help them start a better world.
Dr. D.,
The reason Stockman doesn’t provide any solutions is because I don’t think he really knows how a solvent, functioning economy works. It appears Stockman is still in that group which clings to the notion that wealth creation starts with the government. If we just tinker with income tax policy, everything will be fine.
Labor applied to raw materials creates physical wealth. That wealth needs to be priced in such a way so that producers have the income to keep producing, and consumers, or laborers, have the income to keep consuming the production. It’s not very difficult.
The problem is, our lovely casinos, otherwise known as “price-discovering” commodity exchanges jerk around the prices of raw materials such that the production and consumption can’t be sustained. In fact, most of the time, the prices, especially for agricultural raw materials, are much too low.
What has kept this whole thing going? Debt.
I know. It’s a cruel joke.
So, unless Stockman starts talking in these terms, he doesn’t demonstrate that he has any answers.
Nassim,
Responding to your post yesterday–thank you for the insight.
That kind of historical information is sorely lacking in today’s news reporting. It is becoming so obvious now, it almost seems silly for me to say it. To me, this concept of “fake news” is mostly about lying by omission. That is quite an insidious form of lying, because unless the public is already knowledgeable about what’s being reported, they have no way of knowing that type of lying is being used on them.
It is good timing for Mr. Meijer to bring up the article about Facebook. This is more of what I just stated. Indeed, these marvels like Facebook and Twitter have become a place for people to get affirmation for what they believe. It’s always been that way. That’s part of the human condition, you might say.
I would dare suggest that many people don’t want to know the truth. That’s because truth, invariably, forces a person to change. Scripture talks about people loving the darkness more than the light. Light exposes a person’s need to change, to reform something.
This is simply our desire to be our own masters, to hold our own “truth”, that keeps us in that position. Bluntly stated, we want to be our own gods. This is nothing new.
Another aspect of Facebook, Twitter, and the like (which is no surprise to anyone here), is how it can be used by the established power to keep tabs on people’s potential or current subversion. In addition, more people are suggesting that some websites and blogs, especially of the white nationalist/new world order conspiracy ilk, are really psyops run by folks such as the CIA, Mossad, military intelligence, etc. Why would they do that? Well, to me, perhaps the biggest reason is the old divide, conquer, and distract technique. If they can get people spending time arguing and fighting about who is at the top of the New World Order and/or whether there is a dirty Jew under every rock, the people won’t have the time or means to stop the real perpetrators whose only goal is more wealth and power. In addition, by visiting these sites, potential “subversives” can again be tracked and monitored.
The bottom line to me, as we see a bad moon arisin’ (so aptly put by V. Arnold), is to keep seeking and proclaiming the truth as best we can. We should be salt and light. Both of those sanitize and preserve.
Oh…and loving your neighbor as yourself, loving justice, and loving mercy, are not shabby things either.
Nassim,
Is there any truth to the claims that Erdogan wants to bring back the Ottoman Empire in some form?
Or what about the Shia mullahs in Iran and their apocalyptic prophecies?
Is this all a bunch of propaganda or is their any merit to it?
The way to win is not to play.
That’s quite profound. That’s been said about casinos and street hucksters before.
It’s rigged against you. Just don’t play.
This is now being said about Kim in North Korea. Just back away. Don’t give him face. Want to win? Don’t play his game.
So, is this the same Dr. D that posts in the comments section?
And…does this Dr. D have a blog or website..or contact information? 🙂
V. Arnold,
Reminds me of something that was attributed to G. K. Chesterton.
(Paraphrasing) “Don’t talk to me about progressivism until you tell me what we’re progressing to. And don’t talk to me about conservatism, until you tell me what we’re conserving.”
I’ll add my own:
Don’t talk to me about liberty until you tell me what we’re liberating ourselves from.
(For all you libertarians out there) 😉
olo530,
Nice reference. A peasants revolt, huh?
What happened to true statesmen and women running for office, and the citizenry having the savvy to vote them in?
Reminds me of the ox being led around by the nose. If that ox only knew it had the brute strength to overpower and maul its taskmaster.
It’s been said that the first things a new tyrannical dictator does when coming into power is to control the communications and confiscate the pitchforks and guillotines from the citizens.
And as Yoda might say, “Slaves you will be.”
Trump talking about fair trade perked up my ears.
We often hear about the concept of free trade. It is touted as some kind of utopian moral. But there is no basis for free trade whatsoever. There is no basis to cheat someone out of their wealth in a trade. This is true between trading individuals within country borders and across borders.
When an individual or company sells their product at a cheaper price across a country border, they are undercutting the industies in the importing country who are making the same product. Yes, that exporting entity may have found a way to make it cheaper through some kind of efficiency or reduction of waste, but we know that’s often not the reason. Often times they have cheapened somebody or something to reduce the price. There is a saying that you cannot cheapen your way to prosperity. Another saying professes that cheap goods make cheap men.
Tariffs have been used by countries to protect their industries from this form of cheating, or cheapening. It protects the country’s price structure and economic balance such that the producers have the income to produce, and the workers, or consumers, have the income to consume their own production for their daily needs. Ultimately, tariffs are not a trade measure at all, as most people perceive. They are ultimately a monetary measure to protect the value of a country’s currency. If enough cheapened goods from an exporting country invade the importing country, the industries of the importing country must cheapen their product to match it. That cheapening undermines the consumers in the importing country, undermining their purchasing power, and ultimately their standard of living, especially if the cheapening is achieved through concessions of compensation. In other words, their income needed to consume is reduced. This could be thought of as that race to the bottom we hear about so much.
However (and this is a big however, because here is the kicker), if consumers can borrow, they can use that borrowed money to maintain their standard of living. If the country issues that debt through fractional reserve banking, the currency supply can be inflated through that debt to maintain consumption. Thus (and I will gladly take critiques for saying this) is the reason a country’s tariff is a means to protect the value of its currency.
The United States Constitution has a provision for the government to protect the value of its money. It is in the same section that spells out how that same governent has the authority to prevent cheating through the establishment of weights and measures. That’s no accident. The currency could be thought of as a yardstick, measuring the value of the items being traded. Is it right for a country to keep their “yardstick” the same size as much as possible? Doesn’t that promote stability and peace?
So, when Trump talks about fair trade, we must rightfully ask ourselves what he really means. Is “America First” really about protecting the country’s currency, protecting it’s standard of living? Is it about protecting our price structure and balance, such that producers have adequate income to produce, and workers have adequate income to consume without resorting to debt? Is it about bringing up the price structure of other countries around the world to our level, such that their citizens have the same means to improve their lot, and not live in sh**holes??
If that’s what Trump is talking about when he talks about fair trade, I can get on board with that. If that’s what he is really about, they’ll have to start manufacturing “Making the World Great” hats, replacing the “Making America Great Again” hats. It’s time to think big. Time to think about peace and prosperity for all.
The founders of the United States and the writers of the Constitution were no fools. They knew the dirty economic tricks of the crown and the rest of the old country. Enough of them had enough of that, and decided they’d fight to the death to liberate themselves from that kind of tyrrany, that kind of sin.
Sustainable bubble? Hadn’t thought of that oxymoron before.
So…is that the new term for escape velocity now??
Oh..and V. Arnold, don’t you worry about it. You have wise things to say.
V. Arnold,
There certainly were assassinations of US presidents that occurred before Kennedy that were politically motivated. But you’re right. Kennedy’s was brutal on purpose to send a message over television for all to see.
The more I monitor the utter ignorance and naivety of the citizens of the US, the more freightened and sad I become.
On the otherhand, I take solace in a biblical passage that has kept coming to my mind, as of late.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” Matthew 5:9
So here we go again. The latest and greatest headlines are that there are economic protests by the people of Iran.
Now, how do we really know who started these protests? On top of that, how do we not know that these supposed organic protests have not already been co-opted by the west?
Another “Arab Spring” that is no spring at all? How did things like that go in Iraq? Libya? Syria? How’s that going in Yemen?
Yeah, V. Arnold. I can only shake my head.
Nassim,
How much do you want to bet that the story you posted won’t make the headline news on main stream media?
V. Arnold,
At the risk of stating the obvious, people need to understand the old “boom, bust, repeat” thing.
Someone once said that when the wealth gets shuffled into fewer and fewer hands, that’s a situation ripe for revolution.
Bad moon rising indeed.
V. Arnold,
“The bank created the money out of debt; the worst of all possible actions; the world is powered by debt; how fucked up is that?”
Yes. That’s why I keep preaching that we should monetize production instead of debt. But who listens to me? You know?
Dr. D,
As someome who has Polish heritage, I will never forget all the jokes as to how backwards we were.
My favorite joke was the lightbulb one.
How many Polish does it take to change a lightbulb?
5. One to hold the lightbulb, and 4 to turn the ladder. 😉
This debate about alternative currencies like Bitcoin reminds me of something someone once told me:
When your alternative currency starts taking away too many users from the debt money monopolists’ currency, you are now on their radar screen, and you better watch out.
V. Arnold,
That closing paragraph wasn’t meant for you specifically. It was my pontificating to the wider audience. If you got something out of it, all the better.
Part of my point was to address some of the hand-wringing that is going on about what to do in the Middle East and Jerusalem. To me, it would be prudent to agree to disagree about those differing beliefs, and not kill each other over them.
I know. Easier said than done.
A multitude of blessings to you today, and everyday.
V. Arnold,
I commend you for drilling down to the heart of the matter.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, really after I listened to a big blow up on talk radio the other day. They were arguing the merits or demerits of Trump moving the embassy to Jerusalem.
Remember the old philosophical proclamation that it’s impossible for us to prove a universal positive or universal negative? That’s simply because, as humans, we’re limited in our ability to do so. Therefore, a lot that we proclaim to be true or not true is based on what we believe, not what we know for sure. It is really faith.
So yes, watch out for what people believe.
So, allow me to give this advice.
Be charitable to your fellow human beings. Be understading. Be forgiving. But….don’t be naive. Do that at your own risk.
Oh, while I’m at it, I found this little nugget today. Don’t know if Twain actually said it.
“It’s easier to fool people than convince them they’ve been fooled.”
Mark TwainThis thread got interesting today. So here’s my two cents.
Watch out for the communists. Watch out for the Zionists. Watch out for the globalists. Watch out for the neocons. Watch out for the neolibs. Watch out for the Fabian socialists. Watch out for the facists. Watch out for the racists. Watch out for the pedophiles. Watch out for the sexists. Watch out for the sexual harassers….
You can add to the list.
SteveB,
I would like to live in this life you describe where everyone is charitable and gives away the excess of the fruit of their labors.
But what do you do about greed and sloth?
These questions are eerily similar to the ones I have after reading the article about George Bernard Shaw and universal basic income.
SteveB,
I’m not familiar with your type of economy. If you would be able and willing to expound upon it, I’d greatly appreciate it.
Again, for an economy to function, it must be in balance. The income of producers must be in balance with the income of consumers. Producers need consumers to provide the labor needed to bring their products to the marketplace, and for the demand to consume that product. Consumers need producers for the products they need to live, and for the wages to buy those products. It’s circular.
Income is product X price. The product can be a physical good, a service, or labor. The important factor is price. You CANNOT cheapen your way to prosperity. If cheap is good, cheaper is better, and cheapest (free) is best. We know that’s ludicrous. The price of anything must be at parity, or in balance, with the cost to produce or the cost to consume.
Trade is fine, especially if you can’t or don’t want to be self sufficient. But trade is not free if it is not fair. It is simply a form of tyranny. The value of my labor must be respected just as much of yours in the transaction, or the trade.
What happens when income is not in balance? People go without, or borrow to consume. The problem with borrowing is that it throws the economy even more out of balance. Income that could be used for today’s consumption is siphoned away to pay for yesterday’s consumption, plus interest.
Zerosum,
Well said. The light sanitizes.
Predators, as you state it, include those who accumulate their wealth by cheating others out of theirs. They don’t provide a product or service that raises the standard of living for all, or raises all the boats, as some describe it.
Mr. Meijer,
If you allow me, I’ll expand on your analysis of the map of the United States.
It is true that there is a concentration of people who favor the status quo, or the establishment, because they benefit from it, in the city centers of wealth. This was especially apparent with the neo-cons who explicitly proclaimed they were voting for Clinton, even though they were camped out in the Republican Party.
The concentration of Democratic voting was certainly on the coasts, in the big cities of Boston, New York, Washington DC, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and San Diego. But you can also see it in the heartland–Pittsburgh, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Detroit, St. Louis, Denver, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Reno, and Las Vegas. Cities hold a high population of minorities and those minorities still mostly vote Democratic, especially blacks. These minorities generally are still attracted to the economic welfare promised by the Democrats and the Democrat’s identity politics.
Leftist politics is taught at many universities, and those who believe in and benefit from jobs from centralized government, at both the state and federal level, congregate at the seats of government. Thus, you can see concentrations of Democratic voting at places like Madison, WI; Columbia, SC; Raleigh, NC; Iowa City, IA; Moscow, ID; Boulder, CO; Des Moines, IA; Pierre, SD; and Charlottesville, VA (also Washington DC, of course).
Fortifying my contention that ethnic minority tend to vote Democratic, you can see Democratic voting in the map where Native American reservations are located–Wisconsin (Menomonie County), Montana, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
You can see the evidence of immigrants voting Democratic, by the blue counties that border Mexico in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
Also, to lend support to your contention that the rich vote status quo, you can see the predominance of Democratic voting in the rich mountain resort counties in Colorado and Jackson Hole, Wyoming (might be some Democratic leaning environmentalists there too).
I don’t know for sure why there is so much Democratic voting in the Mississippi Delta region of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. It might be the predominance of black voters there, including Black farmers in the rich soils of that region who vote Democratic.
You could see some of these trends in the Republican primaries too. Marco Rubio, who is establishment, got a lot of his support in the cities and around and in Washington DC. The maps showed that clearly.
V. Arnold,
I’m impressed. Debt does equal death.
I was delighted to read the interview Steve Keen did with Michael Hudson. In it, Michael Hudson commented about how Jesus proclaimed that the year of Jubilee had arrived, which was the cancelling of debts.
I interpret that as the cancelling of the wages of sin, which is death. That means we could never possibly pay it off.
Debt most certainly is the same as death. You become a slave to it.
Freedom is what we crave.
Mr. Meijer,
I’m really glad you posted the article by Robert Parry. Not too long ago I expressed my frustration, in one of my comments here, that whenever one criticizes something the leadership in Israel does, he or she is automatically labeled as an anti-Semite (should be anti-Jew, because you don’t have to be a Jew to be a Semite). With all the criticism about political correctness lately, this seems to be the one last form of political correctness that is still ok.
The depth of the debate about Israel gets into theology. Did God endorse the recreation of Israel, after such a long period of non-existence? In Christian circles, that gets down to a biblical debate involving preterism vs. dispensationalism and interpretation of scriptural passages of prophecy.
I, myself, am still researching that debate. I’m quite interested in how Orthodox Christianity views it. It is claimed that Vladimir Putin is an Orthodox Christian.
Interestingly enough, it is also claimed that Jared Kushner belongs to an ultraorthodox Jewish sect that is awaiting the coming of the Messiah.
The plot thickens.
I don’t think Ms. Booth would like Michael Hudson’s comment that in order to work for the Federal Reserve you couldn’t understand how the economy really works.
I have to admit that I have been disturbed all day by the reports of the supposed gas attack in Syria. I’ve said that it is easy for the media to pass off propaganda from war-ravaged foreign areas, because we have little ability to go into those areas to discern the truth.
I tend to believe that the Syrian military hit some storehouse of chemicals that the rebels controlled, or it was a staged false flag operation by the same said rebels, ISIS, not the least of which.
I was disgusted that Hugh Hewitt, who has an early talk radio show in the United States and who can be frequently seen giving commentary on NBC, was already, this morning, calling on Trump to punish Assad by bombing some of his palaces, or something that is dear to Assad. Hugh Hewitt calls himself center-right. But I can’t help but thinking who in the world does he work for? Start bombing an ally of Putin? Seriously?
As Mr. Meijer said, this just looks all too familiar in terms of what happened with Hussein and Gaddafi.
Dr. Diablo,
I enjoyed what Michael Hudson recently had to say about the calculation of GDP in the United States. He suggested that a lot of the “growth” stated in the number is shuffling of money in the financial (aka gambling) sectors and all the paper pushing that goes with it.
I would really enjoy a treatise here about how that hallowed number is really calculated.
