[XYZ]

English is great fun.

From the Bloomberg article on Greece:
Disbursements up to then should also “cater for the build-up of seizable cash buffer” of around €9 billion…

Though one must wonder if the EU commission did not misspell “sizable” on purpose…

That one is going into my list along with “ceiling wax” and “sewing political tensions”.

Ciao,
XYZ

[XYZ]

Hello,
A while ago, there was an article on the FED data concerning household wealth and the fact that the general increase in wealth was misleading.

If I remember correctly, it is because a large part of household wealth is locked into real estate and real-estate values are in a bubble.

Can anyone point me to that article?

Thank you,
XYZ

[XYZ]

Hello All,

Don’t you love it when you write a post, lay out your case and the first person to respond completely misses the point, not only that, they continue to spew the same bile that the post was intended to mitigate.

This is going to take some time, I guess. But truly, how much time do we have?

[XYZ]

Hello,
Steve Keen is always interesting to hear, but I have for years been struck by his strictly economic approach to our problems. He again says in the film above that if we deal with the debt (and primarily private debt), it would be possible to return to a functional economy.

But what about the energy situation, what about the environment (depletion of arable land and potable water, of essential resources, acidification of the oceans, sixth extinction, etc., etc.), what about our social, cultural and political issues? Do they not all tie into restoring a functional economy?

The whole point at TAE is adopting a wider view, looking at the bigger picture. Keen is interesting, but does he fit the TAE bill?

Regards,
XYZ

[XYZ]

Supranational,

I looked at the first of the three documents you propose (Treatise).

It argues that “we” must kill or enable the death of 90% of the current population. “We” being “the most meritorious, intelligent, creative, rational, and willful, humans on the planet”.

The others are “Saboteurs, Ignavi, the weak willed, guilty, stupid, irrational, apathetic, or non-meritorious”.

Your document is clearly a spoof, if only because of the obvious question, i.e. who decides on the 10% worthy of living?

To say nothing of the fact that you will have 90% of the people against you.

We may perhaps arrive at a die-off of several percent, but not in the manner you suggest. No way. So do not waste your time on it.

Ciao,
XYZ

[XYZ]

Hello Supranational,

Your post sounds interesting, but could you please rewrite it in a more understandable form?

Also, do you use the term “problem space” as a synonym of “problematic” (the noun, not the adjective)?

Thanks, I look forward to reading you,
XYZ

[XYZ]

Hello,

Nicole mentions catabolic collapse. Interesting term. I wonder where that came from.

Kidding aside, I am sitting here asking myself if I can recall her using Greer’s term in the past. Tough to say.

It raises the question of timelines and I wonder how aligned TAE and Greer are concerning the time it will take for events to unfold.

Best to all,
XYZ

P.S. What was the name of the fellow many years ago who often spoke of his trees and bees? And who signed “Bee good” and “Bee careful”.

[XYZ]

Hello,

Polistra wrote:
“Ideally the banks (or some other agency) should increase money supply whenever they see a transaction that increases REAL VALUE. Part of this mechanism already exists in many countries. The VAT registers creations of value. If banks can increase the supply of money to match the numbers given by VAT, we’d have a real-value system.”

That is an interesting idea. Could you elaborate on that?

For example, would banks receive a credit allocation? How would that allocation be calculated? It would certainly be useful to provide smaller, local banks with room to grow while scaling down the larger banks.

Would a return to Glass-Steagall still be a useful reform?

A VAT-based system is an interesting starting point that raises many questions.

Ciao,
XYZ

[XYZ]

Thanks for the info on local spending.

Raul, I understand the concept, it is simply that some factual data to back up the argument is always useful.

Ciao,
XYZ

[XYZ]

Hello,
I would be interested in obtaining more info on the statement:
“You see, a dollar spent on locally made products goes much further than one spent on products that are shipped in. About 4 times further.”
That is an extremely useful argument, but if I use it, I will need to substantiate and document it. So, any bibliographical references?
Thanks in advance,
XYZ

[XYZ]

Tremendous reaction to the attack against Charlie Hebdo. Vigils in just about every major city. The Front National is playing it very cool. Marine Le Pen knows that she does not need to say much. She has essentially said “Well, we told you so” in a very calm and measured statement. She can let other non-FN politicians speak because she knows that this attack will boost her results in the coming elections.
I know that this may be theoretically unfair to Muslims (there has been a major debate as to whether they should come out vocally against fundamentalism when they are in fact not any more responsible than the local Catholic, Jew or Buddhist), but if there is not some convincing sign of true adhesion to some basic principles on the part of their organisations, this may leave some very harmful scars.
I have for years felt that when the economy eventually turns decidedly south, some of the main victims will be people of MENA origin. Like Negroes in the U.S., they are simply too visible and too easy to target for people looking for scapegoats.
Hard times are coming.
XYZ

[XYZ]

Hello,

When people here speak of “a coordinated revaluation of gold”, I understand you mean a devaluation of currencies with respect to gold, ex. gold suddenly being worth 2500 USD and not 1200 USD.

Is that correct?

Thanks,
XYZ

[XYZ]

To Professorlocknload

I often tend to agree with your views, but the mention of French nukes in relation to the euro crisis was beyond the pale.

XYZ

[XYZ]

Hello,

In response to Skip who wrote, “Going back to being sheep farmers terrifies them. So credit is what they want no matter what.”

I agree that people are afraid of “going back”, but I do not think they are consciously thinking about credit.

This is simply speculation by me sitting here in France and talking to neighbours, reading the press, etc., but my impression is that people from recently poorer countries in the EU are convinced that they must “modernise” and that such a process is possible only by joining, associating with, perhaps even “merging” with the richer EU countries. Exiting the euro is seen as throwing away any chance of making “progress”.

People are not thinking in economic terms, they are thinking politically and even culturally. The Union is seen as the only way forward.

To my mind, that is why we have seen, over the past six years, so little inclination to re-evaluate the situation. The EU is still seen as the only way forward.

It will be interesting to see how long that lasts.

Ciao,
XYZ

[XYZ]

Ilargi,

I am aware of all that and certainly do not contest it (except the part about retirement reform which, if you look at the data, concerns just over 100 k people in a country of 65 million, i.e. about 0.15% of the total population and 0.35% of the active population).

The overall situation is deadly serious and people have been writing about it for years (TAE, Mauldin, G. Williams, etc., etc.).

Yet, we continue full speed into the wall, even taking time off to go on desert excursions. Such is human nature.

Ciao,
XYZ

[XYZ]

Hello,

I essentially agree with the analysis on France, but I note an error that has come up repeatedly in the foreign press, that is that Hollande reduced the retirement age to 60.

That reform applies only to people who started working at age 19 or younger and have racked up an impressive number of “quarters” (points toward retirement are counted on the basis of full quarters worked).

The number of people concerned by that reform is simply not significant and, given social trends over the past half century, will drop.

The retirement age in France is creeping up steadily and I know that I will have to work at least until the age of 65 or 67. The required number of quarters for most people now stands at 168 and I bet 172 is not far off.

By the way, if anyone is interested, there are reports that there will be another “reform” in 2013 and, like Ilargi, I also think Hollande will run into serious trouble before long.

Ciao,
XYZ

[XYZ]

Hello Bluebird,

I just looked at it. Yes, that is it.

Thanks for the info.

XYZ

[XYZ]

@ RE
I agree about spiritual growth, we indeed have a long way to go, but please watch out with your analogies. The bit about chocolate mousse slathered over truffles is revolting.

[Author]

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