Patricia

 
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  • in reply to: Peak American Wealth – Revisited #32878
    Patricia
    Participant

    You are so right Mrahmamov99. So so much was achieved for the people after WW11 and my generation just took it for granted. We have allowed the wolves in our generation to devour you, our children, for their own advantage. Previous generations recognised that there were always such people but my generation was naive enough to think everybody wanted the good times to continue for everybody. The rape of the people has been done by deliberate stealth and unfortunately your generation has to deal with the mess that my generation failed to prevent.
    The Maori here in New Zealand have a wonderful saying which should be in every countries constitution.
    He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.

    in reply to: Peak American Wealth – Revisited #32848
    Patricia
    Participant

    How lovely to hear from your younger readers Ilargi. It must be hard to listen to us ‘oldies’ talking about how things were and how things should should be done. We are not having to live in the ‘now’ as you do and perhaps, in some way, we are expressing our bewilderment at how bad things are for you: they were not for us when we were your age. How did things get to this stage? But you are young and you have energy. They are the two things that will enable you to change things. Hopefully incrementally and not by revolution. Incremental changes was how things were changed to the disaster that is the now. You are your children’s future.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle February 27 2017 #32847
    Patricia
    Participant

    I cannot see that the debt ceiling is a problem. It is only a problem because someone says it is. The ceiling has always always been raised. The real question is if that is the case why have one at all? The American currency is the world’s reserve currency and as it is a sovereign country it can print its own money. So what is the problem?

    in reply to: When Was America’s Peak Wealth? #32811
    Patricia
    Participant

    I am worried. Everybody who comments here is in their 70s as I am. Is that because we have more time to reflect and write down our thoughts or is it because the youth of today aren’t interested in anything except Facebook? If that is the case then I am so glad I am at the end of my life but what about my darling grandchildren.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle January 5 2017 #32054
    Patricia
    Participant
      I think Russia should be very worried that its central Banker is named the best European central Banker of the year and is lauded by Lagarde for Gods sake. Perhaps she is a Western agent……..
    in reply to: Debt Rattle New Year’s Day 2017 #32018
    Patricia
    Participant

    While I understand why you don’t like calling a UBI a UBI when it is trialled on a few surely it has to start somewhere? My concern is not that but the amount, whether it is indexed to inflation and wages. In a world where employment is no longer full time or even part time a UBI must be considered. In my view it must be at least $20,000. It must be indexed to inflation and wages although in a world where there will be no ‘wages’ or ‘salaries’ that may not work. Here in New Zealand we have a form of UBI for everybody over the age of 65 irrespective of wealth. The are next to no poor elderly people in New Zealand. It does work so a UBI for all over the age of sixteen would not only help the people but the economy too. As all sovereign countries can print their own money there is no problem of ‘where will the money come from’.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle December 17 2015 #31789
    Patricia
    Participant

    What I would like to know is if, as the Bank of England says, 97% of all money in circulation is created by the Banks through their accounting system then why can’t the same be done for personal debt relief? Let’s say a Government ordered a twenty percent reduction in all debt on all the Banks’ books. There would be an immediate reduction in an individual’s debt and put more money in their pocket. Certainly the Banks would have a twenty percent reduction in the amount of interest receipts which would affect their profits. But so? They have been milking the system for so long. Just look at their dividend payments. There would need to be accompanying legislation to stop the system from repeating it self but there would not be any need for helicopter money.

    in reply to: Heal the Planet for Profit #31775
    Patricia
    Participant

    A very thought provoking article Ilargi – even with my electric car sitting in my garage.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle December 11 2016 #31710
    Patricia
    Participant

    And a further thought. As central Banks are independent of Government then all monetary control will be through the central Banks. They will tell the commercial banks what and how they can lend. Isn’t this just another way to reduce the power of the people as to how their country is run?

    in reply to: Debt Rattle December 11 2016 #31703
    Patricia
    Participant

    As 97% of all money in circulation is created by the Banks and only 3% is created by the State why is there this burning desire to get rid of cash? In my view this is the ultimate in privatisation of the money supply. Neoliberalism will have triumphed if this happens.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle December 9 2016 #31669
    Patricia
    Participant

    Well I don’t know about the article on electric cars. I have an electric car. It can travel around 168km – although I have never tested it – on one charge which costs me around NZ$3.00 for 15kwh. As it is summer here my house uses around 941kwh a month. – around 30kwh per day. Double that in winter. Electricity is my sole source of energy. Our electricity is hydro so it is green but irrespective of that the article is a load of codswallop.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 30 2016 #31479
    Patricia
    Participant

    What I can’t understand is the hysteria about the debt. If a sovereign country borrows overseas in its own currency then all it has to do is print money to pay it back. Yes, it might, just might, cause the currency to fall vis a vis other currencies but isn’t that supposed to make exports cheaper and so help the country get back on its feet? The problem only occurs when a country borrows another’s currency. America’s dollar is the world’s reserve currency so I can’t see the problem for America.

    in reply to: Trump Moves as America Stands Still #31463
    Patricia
    Participant

    It works!!
    From far away New Zealand – thank god – the whole world looks like a boiling cauldron. Perhaps it is something in the air or perhaps there is the start of a world wide revolution. Personally I would not be surprised if it is the latter. The western world is used to their standard of living rising and rising but when the group of disadvantaged people gets bigger and bigger can we be surprised when the Trumps of this world get elected? No, he is not a particularly nice person but there was no box marked ‘nice’ to tick. He has been elected though. And even uncouth people can have some good ideas. And, most importantly, he is not afraid, to take on the oligarchs.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle September 12 2016 #30410
    Patricia
    Participant

    All this angst about growth. Lowering interest rates will not make it happen and It certainly won’t come from private enterprise. If Government started building/improving infrastructure then it will happen.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle September 2 2016 #30177
    Patricia
    Participant

    Perhaps it is because I am in Australia at the moment? We will see if it works when I get back home tomorrow.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle September 2 2016 #30176
    Patricia
    Participant

    Don’t know why but I got through!! Unfortunately I haven’t got any comment to make!!

    in reply to: Debt Rattle May 17 2016 #28255
    Patricia
    Participant

    Before 1984, which was when neo liberalism was let loose on my country, New Zealand, we probably had around half the population we have now which is 4.5m but we had a national shipping line, hydro works, a national railways, a national insurance company, a national life insurance company, we built tunnels and roads, we had a state housing system that provided cheap housing to those in need etc etc. Everybody was encouraged to own their own home and have it paid off by the time they reached 60 when they received the state pension. Which we still do have that pension and it is adjusted annually with reference to wage increases and inflation. There was the Family benefit where every Mother received X amount per week to help with the bringing up of her children. We had an army, an airforce and a navy (I think). And now we have next to none of that with the current neo liberal government promising $3b tax cuts next year. (Election year). We have politics without policy with the American emphasis on personable leaders. Snake oil salesmen I call them. Meanwhile the crime rate has soared and we have one of the highest child abuse rates in the world. The philosophy now is dog each dog. People live in garages, cars and tents and most of the rest are in debt up to their ears and can’t manage because wages are kept low for those international companies to take advantage of the situation. And now we are, according to the Panama papers, a tax haven for the rich. That has happened in less than 30 years. A once wonderful country is now reduced to this and all because of the ridiculous belief in the free market economy.
    .

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 26 2016 #27858
    Patricia
    Participant

    Dear God, what is happening when the British Government, any Government, refuses to help children. In 1947, when the New Zealand population was probably about 1.5m at the most the government of the day heard about a group of polish children stranded in Iran. They were offered a home here and 724 children came out by ship. A camp in Pahiatua was set up for them and their polish schooling was continued there although those of high school age went to the local school. When the War ended the idea was for the children to return home but of course by that time Polind was under Russian control. The children were given the option of being able to go back or to stay. Some went back but most stayed. I remember when they arrived they travelled by train to Pahiatua and all the schools were told to send their children down to the railway tracks to wave at the train as it went past! Such a different time.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 10 2016 #27666
    Patricia
    Participant

    “Not sure this is explains the entire issue”. How true! One of the issues for the high cost of infrastructure here in New Zealand is earthquakes. We have around 15000 each and every year and so any infrastructure built by Government has to be built to a very very high standard. Sure private enterprise tries to get round things but generally speaking those standards impose a high cost on any developer. And long may that continue.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle January 8 2016 #26062
    Patricia
    Participant

    But, Dr. Diablo, who is the “20-$200 Trillion in National Debt” owed to?

    in reply to: Debt Rattle Christmas Eve 2015 #25810
    Patricia
    Participant

    “Accordingly, what lies ahead is not history repeating itself in some timeless Keynesian economic cycle, but the last twenty years of madcap central bank money printing”. I find it interesting that the word “Keynesian” is repeated in a a derogatory manner, time and time again. We are obviously being manipulated to think that such an economic theory is unsound. When money printing is “madcap” then it is obviously wrong but imagine if money printing was used to improve a countries infrastructure instead of just giving it to Banks who do create inflation by mostly, in New Zealand’s case, lending it on housing. According to the B of E only 3% of all money in circulation is created by Government, the rest is by the
    Banks. And the Banking industry wants to get rid of “cash” altogether so that only Banks create money. Now where is a country’s sovereignty when the power of money creation is handed over to privat enterprise completely. And that is being sold to us by telling us that this is the only way to stop “the Black Market” and “money laundering”. Nobody seems to look behind the spoken word.
    Another example of the use of words to distort the facts is Aljazeera’s “Disturbingly more journalists were murdered in targeted killings in Iraq than died in combat-related circumstances, according to the group Committee to Protect Journalists.” How much more telling if those words had said “Disturbingly the US murders more journalists in targeted killings in Irag than died in combat related circumstances……etc etc.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 27 2015 #25289
    Patricia
    Participant

    When talking about a country’s unemployment rate is it possible to create an acronym to show who in that country is not included in those figures? Otherwise the figures are meaningless and only say what the provider of those figures wants you to think. They can be utterly misleading about who is suffering in that country. For example the picture I have been given of those who are unemployed, have little employment, have never been employed or are volonteers in Japan is very different from the one above.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 5 2015 #24759
    Patricia
    Participant

    “In 2014, 12% — close to one in eight — of US men between the ages of 25 and 54 were neither in work nor looking for it.” MEN! What about women! What about the youth of both sexes – those between the school leaving age and 25. What about those between the age of 54 and the retirement age. Here is New Zealand the school leaving age is 16 and the retirement age is 65 when everybody gets a Government Superannuation. I have no idea what either is in America but such figures are meaningless in the overall scheme of things. You might as well give the figures for those with Down Syndrome or those who are bipolar.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 28 2015 #24645
    Patricia
    Participant

    I am not advocating printing money holis bolis because that, as you say Dr Diablo, would cause inflation although I don’t know what society will do when, as they say, in 20 years 50% o all current jobs will be done by Robots. Someone will have to think up a new economic system to deal with the unemployment which will result. However I do believe, mostly because it was done before, that a country can build most of its infrastructure with out borrowing from overseas. It is merely a book entry. After all if Banks print money by merely a book entry so can a Country. In this little country of mine a huge infrastructure was built in the 1930’s when we probably only had about 1m people. Now, today the Government says it can’t do anything!! Economics is a man made system and as such can be altered and adjusted to fit the current situation any time it is needed.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 28 2015 #24636
    Patricia
    Participant

    Exactly. They ‘borrowed’ from foreigners. A sovereign country only needs to borrow overseas if they need a foreign currency which when repaid has to be in an acceptable foreign currency. Most of the stuff necessary to build infrastructure can be sourced locally and paid for in the local currency. It is not rocket science.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 28 2015 #24630
    Patricia
    Participant

    The only places that need to ‘borrow’ are states and members of the EU. A sovereign country never needs to ‘borrow’ it’s own currency. A sovereign country is not revenue constrained because it has, in simplistic terms, ‘a money tree’. It can print money to provide for all this infrastructure. This was how it was done before all this current neoliberal economic argument and economics is politics – nothing more nothing less.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle July 12 2015 #22389
    Patricia
    Participant

    I don’t think America is a good example to compare its amount of wealth in houses with China. I live in New Zealand and a large percentage of the older generation own their own homes. That percentage is likely to be different in all countries. The aim here has always been to be mortgage free once you retire which most people do here at 65. A lot of New Zealander’s wealth is in their home. Everybody here gets a state pension when they are 65 so that would influence many peoples’ decision. The Chinese willingness to save is different from ours and America’s. Every country is different and because of that its people’s decisions are different. While certainly a bubble in houses is not desirable that is a world wide phenomenon and not just peculiar to China. It is getting very mad here too. Personally I think it is caused by the free market mantra combined with the deregulation of the Banks who, it seems, will lend to anybody as long as they are not dead!

    in reply to: Debt Rattle July 8 2015 #22249
    Patricia
    Participant

    The following appeared on bill Mitchell’s website yesterday.
    Last Wednesday (July 1, 2015), the ABC radio presenter, Phillip Adams, in a wide ranging interview about the upcoming referendum in Greece and the prospects for the nation, asked the then Greek Finance Minister: “My jokes about printing drachmas in the cellars, remain jokes?” The then Finance Minister replied: “Of course they do … we don’t have a capacity … because … Maybe you don’t know that. But when Greece entered the euro in the year 2000 … one of the things we had to do was to get rid of all our printing presses … in order to impress on the world that this is not a temporary phenomenon … that we mean this to be forever … we smashed the printing presses, so we have no printing presses”. The interchange occurred at the 49:46 minute mark in the – following program. In my research for my Eurozone book, which was published in May this year, I studied in some detail how the euro was introduced, how it is disseminated, how the notes are printed and the coins minted and how nations in other contexts had introduced their own currencies. When I heard that interview I wondered why the then Greek Finance Minister would want to mislead the Australian listeners, even though interviews like this are no longer geographically restricted and that he was clearly intent on convincing the world, a few days before the referendum, that Syriza was committed to the euro and exit was not an option. Earlier in the week, I had railed against the lies and misinformation coming out of the EU leadership. The boot was on the other foot in this case. But it also raises questions of how an exit might occur in the event that Syriza actually stand up for its electoral mandate (anti-austerity) and refuse to agree to any further austerity. I doubt they will do that but hope springs eternal.

    This map locates the Bank of Greece, Banknote Printing Works (IETA) at 341 Messogeion Avenue, 15231 Halandri (Athens).

    IETA_location

    The Bank of Greece has an information page where it describes the location, functions and capacities of – The National Mint – aka The Banknote Printing Works of the Bank of Greece.

    We learn about its history (constructed in 1941) and by 1947, it was production the “1,000 drachma banknote (Series IV) and of cheques and other securities for the Bank and the Greek government”.

    In 1971, the Bank of Greece became the legal tender producer in Greece (after the function was previously the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance).

    The Bank of Greece tells us that far from smashing the printing presses, the “National Mint was organised in line with Western European standards and was equipped with state-of-the-art machinery for the manufacturing of coin dies and the striking of legal tender coins, commemorative and collectors’ coins, medals, etc.”

    It retains those capacities to this day.

    The European Central Bank tells us – The production and issue of banknotes in the EU member states – that “Thirteen EU Member States have their own banknote printing works”, with “eight countries” including Greece, locating this facility within the central bank.

    When Greece entered the Eurozone, the National Mint’s functions changed marginally. It now produces euro banknotes and euro coins, among other things.

    The Bank of Greece say that:

    The tasks of the Banknote Printing Works Department are:

    – To print the Euro banknotes after ECB’s approval.

    – To strike Eurocoins on behalf of the Greek State and third parties, as well as commemorative coin series and medals.

    – Το perform printing works on behalf of the Bank, the Greek State or third parties which mainly concern security documents, such as Securities, Bonds, Treasury Bills Surety Bonds,Lottery Tickets, Passports, Identification Cards, Residence Permissions etc.

    IETA has “highly qualified and experienced personnel”, “state of the art equipment” and access to “materials of top quality and features that guarantee the high quality of final products”.

    So despite what Australians were told on our national radio the other evening, it certainly looks like the ‘printing presses’ are fully functional and were not “smashed” in “the year 2000″ or, for that matter, in 2002 when Greece, in fact, entered the Eurozone.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle June 29 2015 #21951
    Patricia
    Participant

    It will be interesting to see if the Greek people vote to stay with the Euro and the Syriza party resigns whether the Troika then gives the new Government the necessary money to keep Greece going. It is after all nothing but politics.

    in reply to: How To Spot A Bubble #21428
    Patricia
    Participant

    Variable 81. Truly that earthquake wasn’t that bad. Certainly not an enjoyable experience but we do have worse. Not often but with 15000 earthquakes a year here there are always some that make you rock and roll!

    in reply to: Debt Rattle May 16 2015 #21127
    Patricia
    Participant

    Diogenes Shrugged. I found Steve Keen very coherent and quite understandable. I am a New Zealander so I understand how Australians talk, as they do us. Perhaps you should read more of him and then you might understand him better. He is highly respected.

    in reply to: Quote Of The Year. And The Next. And the One After #20875
    Patricia
    Participant

    Such a good essay and so so true. When you said “this is because we – inadvertently – allow the more psychopathic among us to play an outsize role in our societies” it made me think how the old fashioned word that the word “psychopath” replaced was a much better description of such people. The condition used to be called “moral insanity”.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 14 2015 #20493
    Patricia
    Participant

    Well I don’t know. We are told that the CMI index is down which is, apparently, a BAD thing and then we are told that the U.S. Retail is up, which apparently is a GOOD thing. Perhaps the U.S. Consumer is buying without credit? Or is nothing what it seems!

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 5 2015 #20340
    Patricia
    Participant

    The main problem with the TTIP and the TPTA is the Investor State Dispute Settlement “ISDS” As always the devil is in the detail and this “Devil” is indeed very very big. Signing these agreements will mean a country will have to give up its sovereignty. A country’s Government will then be little more than a Council. All power will, in reality, be held by large international corporations who can sue a Country if that Country passes any law that affects their bottom line. Any decision as to whether that law does so is decided by a choice of three (out of 15) faceless men from which there is no appeal.

    in reply to: The Elegant Simplicity Of The Greek Conundrum #19217
    Patricia
    Participant

    Perhaps that old one liner has some truth in it after all. “Germany is trying to do with Banks what it couldn’t do with tanks””

    in reply to: Making Money While The World Burns #16716
    Patricia
    Participant

    I think making money/having money will be irrelevant when the system collapses or when disaster strikes. Imagine this scenario. Bush fires – I am thinking Australia – are raging and cannot be controlled. People are on the beaches trying to get on the few boats to New Zealand where they will be safe – if they can get across the Tasman – except New Zealand will only let so many in and it has earthquakes….. Do you really think some person trying to get on a boat will accept money for his place? If he does I think the rich person will be killed and that place will be taken back by that other person. Anyway in such circumstances the AUD$ will have no worth in New Zealand. And talk of gold and silver is just silly. Life will not be orderly. I think just work out how you could survive in a disordered society. Cooperation just might provide an answer.

Viewing 36 posts - 121 through 156 (of 156 total)