Who wants to buy land for a survival compound? Me!
2010-Nov-05, Friday 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerDo I have to consider myself a pessimist if the realistic view really is that terrible?
I "threw away" my vote on Tuesday, and I was happy to do it. I learned that Ken Pentel (formerly of the Green party) was advocating not only for an economy based on material accounting (rather than baseball trading card mania) but he even wanted to print a Minnesota state currency! That's the kind of crazy that I'm talking about! Woohoo! So I voted for him as Minnesota state governor, and I did it gladly. He was discussing the extreme action necessary to weather the coming storm. Sadly, I was one of a paltry 6,180 Minnesotans who voted for the Ecology Democracy party. Even the Grassroots party (which advocates legalizing marijuana) received more votes than my candidate. *disappointed sigh*
1) Meanwhile, on the national stage, corporations earned more profit as productivity increased 1.3% during the last quarter even while labor costs decreased 0.1%. Yes, that's right, the economic recovery continues even as people's hardship increases. Bureaucrats will profit while workers lose pay. Yay, Team America!
2) On top of that news, the government will be dumping another heap of money into the economy, furiously trying to stave off collapse of the stupid exponential function that is our banking system. By increasing our money supply by 10% over the course of 8 months, they have effectively (not this straightforward) reduced (similar to taxation) all existing dollar values by 10% in less than a year. They tell people it will help, of course, but as I keep warning everyone... an exponential function doesn't work that way. This news means that next time we'll need the 10% increase in less than 8 months (perhaps 7), and afterwards in even less time than that (perhaps 6 months). That's how exponential functions work. By definition, the pace must keep increasing or else there's catastrophic collapse. It isn't Republicans or Democrats who make this determination; it's mathematics.
3) So of course people (Chinese) who hold lots of US dollars are quite upset by #2 above. While local politician Michele Bachmann (font of stupidity) falsely claims that Obama's trip to Asia will cost taxpayers $200 million, one can easily imagine that it's intended to calm our angry owners who rightfully insist that "It would be appropriate for someone to step forward and give us an explanation, otherwise international confidence in the recovery and growth of the global economy might be hurt." Distrusting American financial stability, some Asian countries are already planning ways to limit their vulnerability when the dollar nosedives. I hope Obama can convince them to avoid worsening our troubles. Even at $200 million, that would be a very cost effective delay to the upcoming disaster.
4) And finally on top of all that bad news, I see this chart of cost increases for basic items in America. I haven't tried to confirm/disconfirm the data. I'm too wiped out and discouraged after all of the other news. I know that the grocery store "feels" more expensive this year even than last year. I don't know whether to hope this chart is accurate or a complete fallacy. Economic recovery is proceeding nicely, right?
Printing local currencies doesn't seem so crazy now, does it? I was absolutely right to "waste" my vote on Ken Pentel. Republocrats are lost. He was the only local politician who seemed to understand the horrible danger of the exponential function. We need an economy based on real items in the real world, and we need it fast. The Ecology Democracy network sounds better every day.
Am I the only one who remembers Mickey Mouse warning us about the awful dangers of perpetual growth?
So who wants to pool money to buy land for creating a survival farm? I have food crop seeds that work in Minnesota. :)
I "threw away" my vote on Tuesday, and I was happy to do it. I learned that Ken Pentel (formerly of the Green party) was advocating not only for an economy based on material accounting (rather than baseball trading card mania) but he even wanted to print a Minnesota state currency! That's the kind of crazy that I'm talking about! Woohoo! So I voted for him as Minnesota state governor, and I did it gladly. He was discussing the extreme action necessary to weather the coming storm. Sadly, I was one of a paltry 6,180 Minnesotans who voted for the Ecology Democracy party. Even the Grassroots party (which advocates legalizing marijuana) received more votes than my candidate. *disappointed sigh*
1) Meanwhile, on the national stage, corporations earned more profit as productivity increased 1.3% during the last quarter even while labor costs decreased 0.1%. Yes, that's right, the economic recovery continues even as people's hardship increases. Bureaucrats will profit while workers lose pay. Yay, Team America!
2) On top of that news, the government will be dumping another heap of money into the economy, furiously trying to stave off collapse of the stupid exponential function that is our banking system. By increasing our money supply by 10% over the course of 8 months, they have effectively (not this straightforward) reduced (similar to taxation) all existing dollar values by 10% in less than a year. They tell people it will help, of course, but as I keep warning everyone... an exponential function doesn't work that way. This news means that next time we'll need the 10% increase in less than 8 months (perhaps 7), and afterwards in even less time than that (perhaps 6 months). That's how exponential functions work. By definition, the pace must keep increasing or else there's catastrophic collapse. It isn't Republicans or Democrats who make this determination; it's mathematics.
3) So of course people (Chinese) who hold lots of US dollars are quite upset by #2 above. While local politician Michele Bachmann (font of stupidity) falsely claims that Obama's trip to Asia will cost taxpayers $200 million, one can easily imagine that it's intended to calm our angry owners who rightfully insist that "It would be appropriate for someone to step forward and give us an explanation, otherwise international confidence in the recovery and growth of the global economy might be hurt." Distrusting American financial stability, some Asian countries are already planning ways to limit their vulnerability when the dollar nosedives. I hope Obama can convince them to avoid worsening our troubles. Even at $200 million, that would be a very cost effective delay to the upcoming disaster.4) And finally on top of all that bad news, I see this chart of cost increases for basic items in America. I haven't tried to confirm/disconfirm the data. I'm too wiped out and discouraged after all of the other news. I know that the grocery store "feels" more expensive this year even than last year. I don't know whether to hope this chart is accurate or a complete fallacy. Economic recovery is proceeding nicely, right?
Printing local currencies doesn't seem so crazy now, does it? I was absolutely right to "waste" my vote on Ken Pentel. Republocrats are lost. He was the only local politician who seemed to understand the horrible danger of the exponential function. We need an economy based on real items in the real world, and we need it fast. The Ecology Democracy network sounds better every day.
Am I the only one who remembers Mickey Mouse warning us about the awful dangers of perpetual growth?
So who wants to pool money to buy land for creating a survival farm? I have food crop seeds that work in Minnesota. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-Nov-06, Saturday 09:22 am (UTC)I'm getting very tired of all the woes of the corporate world.
no subject
Date: 2010-Nov-06, Saturday 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-Nov-06, Saturday 08:46 pm (UTC)It's not ideal or even the best option of a bad set but at least it can be done ( thanks to the fed being autocratic and beholden to no one). It sort of like trying to get someone to exercise by slipping the a laxative, it might get them off the couch but it's really not what is needed. Unfortunately what's needed is a newer bigger round of stimulus the actually stimulus and not tax cuts. Too bad that's politically unviable.
I'm sick and tired of people handwringing about the Chinese debt. Show me a bond that has better long term security than US treasury certificates. Until you can nobody is going to dump them. The reason people buy them isn't because theyre making growth investments, but because they're the safest option available for idle money.
Sure, theoretically china could crash the american economy by dumping them on the open market in all at once. Of course they'd have to be willing to write off everything they invested in them so far. They'd also have to be interested in killing their biggest customer and crashing all their other customers as well.
A good bet is never thrown away no matter the odds
Date: 2010-Nov-06, Saturday 10:45 pm (UTC)Jct: Yes, you voted to save yourself and the others didn't and that can never be called "throwing away your vote." It may have encouraged him to stay in the race next when he might win. A smart gambler looks at the pay-off and the odds and no matter the odds were long of electing someone who had a plan to do something real about poverty, you made the profitable bet regardless of the outcome. That's winning. Take it from the TajProfessor / Great Canadian Gambler.