Adam:
VeganDB12 expressed a sentiment that I and (I am sure) many others feel, an appreciation for what you done and for your position.
I agree with Gyurash that we are past the point of “gee lets frown at the bankers and show our displeasure” passive actions such as writing a letter to the editor or voting or complaining to someone.
It’s over. Bankers don’t care if you protest or frown at them. Furthermore they control the main stream media, the politicians and the entire apparatus of googlefacebookyahoo etc., which is dedicated to protect the bankers position from an angry populace. Just look what they (federal police) do to facebook posters who protest too much in that medium, or how they simply altered postings of those supporting Ron Paul by trying to post a positive comment, when he was a threat to the banker’s ownership of the political system (or now, using “fake news” as a cover to silence opposition). It is game over for the political system and it is useless to resist via old mechanisms the the racketeers themselves control.
As Gerald Celente pointed out about a year ago, our situation is analogous to what happened at the commencement of the Dark Ages following the collapse of Rome. As an alternative to “resistance,” good intentioned reason-following thinkers had to drop out of the corrupt (in our case racketeering) society and form enclaves such as monesteries where the spirit of human freedom and culture could be kept alive. We need to do this. The PP group itself is very small and of like minded caring rational thinkers, which is a step in the right direction. As they say in Asia, “a journey of a thousand (miles) begins with one step.” Each little act such as meeting in Rowe, growing even a little bit of food, making even some of your own electricity, fixing something yourself when broken instead of throwing out etc. is a significant victory in this racketeered up world and is cause for celebration. This PP site and more importantly the members and what they do within the conduit of PP, are invaluable for this reason. This is the real significance of this blog site.
I have had a number of conversations on this topic with would-be refugees from the big city who would like to move to my small isolated community… and all terminate with the end/show stopper, conclusion that the person is caught in the “need to make money” in the city. Our main goal should be to gradually, step by step replace the racketeering “need to make money” with resiliency. We are working on this (our little steps) by providing farm land space, cooperation in preparing land/planting and a place to visit for like minded people when they have a chance to get away from the racketeered up banker system “need to make money” life. A big reason why the racketeers continue on is because of their lock on the legal and monetary systems, which are NOT based on reality but instead on confidence games, implemented on keyboards and computer programs.
Because of internet-driven free technology, it is simply a matter of time before an independent resilient community can develop a trading/cottage industry (that reflects the unique attributes of the community) to produce value to the outside (other communities) and provide the “jobs” needed for an individual to breakaway from the racketeered up bankerized “system.” PP has a nice communities section for initial contacts but I think that each community has its own go-to internet space because the issues are hands-on and most information needed comes from a wide-deep search from thousands of sites (PP cannot be a “go to” site for every problem in making food: we did not find a solution to infection for our new goat from the deep archives of PP for example, or learn when to plant potatoes locally). On the other hand, independent resilient communities striving to develop their own industry DO need things such as dispute resolution, contract validation, validation of monetary value that can be provided at the blog/internet level at a single go to site such as PP.
I dont see a good site for this kind of problem solving and note that the racketeers in fact rely on their monopolization of law and politics to achieve their ends and an alternative is needed. Thus, along with a section of food resiliency, energy resiliency etc. we need dispute resolution and contract validation resiliency (such as a smoothly operating virtual currency). Furthermore, these last two elements needed for peak prosperity in a resilient community can be easily satisfied via internet (unlike food and energy production which require physical acts off of the keyboard). We need alternative resiliency paths as well that let us operate away from the rigged and corrupt legal system. This is actually rather easy because the “acts” are mostly done by typing keys. An example in this direction is Home Owner Association law wherein the larger corrupt system recognizes local community created law via a deliberated writing. A similar thing can be done with commercial contracts and even intellectual property wherein a group (and sets of groups) can establish its own encouragement and protection of inventors and other doers, outside of the existing corrupted system via a writing, which can be done over the internet and managed via a website.
This is my response to the problem of “its useless to resist the racketeers” and we all “need a job” from the racketeers: we CAN provide (in little steps and via a website blog community) resiliency in these important areas as well. The legal topics for resiliency are crucial but missing and could add great value to PP. I realize that the fear of litigation is a major racketeering tool used for control, but we can do a lot about this via website-organized keyboarding.
“In previous discussions, I have shown that, beyond a certain level of per capita GNP, the cost of social control must rise faster than total output and become the major institutional activity within an economy. Ivan Illich
When the Borgia family came into their prominence, in the 15th century, it was after the Church had found that institutionalizing religious thought and behavior followed quite naturally from the increase in commerce spawned by the Hanseatic League and the Mediterranean trade in slaves (energy). The foment of the Reformation threw a spanner in the works of the status quo for the following 150 years, ending in the Thirty Years war.
And to think that Martin Luther was nothing more than a snarly, old monk, needs to be reconsidered. I hope our age of enlightenment doesn't take that long to begin.
From ZH's 3/17 post on Goldman's delinquent mortgage buying spree:
"So, how does it work? Well, the first step is to buy up billions of dollars worth of non-performing loans (NPLs) at massive discounts of up to 50 cents on the dollar. Then, you negotiate mortgage modifications with borrowers that reduces their principle balance, of course by less than Goldman's initial discount on the original purchase, and allows them to start making payments again. That principle forgiveness then gets counted towards Goldman's $1.8 billion mortgage relief obligation even though it actually cost them absolutely nothing because they acquired the debt at an even larger discount. Finally, and this is the real beauty of the scheme, when the loans are performing again they can be packaged up and resold as AAA paper once again...
Here's a quick example of how it might work on an individual mortgage:
Lets assume a borrower has a $200,000 mortgage outstanding but isn't making payments. Goldman then comes along and buys that mortgage for $100,000 from Fannie Mae. Goldman then goes to the borrower and offers to reduce his mortgage balance to $150,000 if, in return, he'll agree to start making payments again. That $50,000 debt reduction then gets applied to Goldman's $1.8 billion settlement obligation. And the coup de gras, once the loan is performing again, Goldman can sell it for $150,000, thus pocketing a $50,000 cash profit plus settling $50,000 of their obligation to various government entities...
Goldman has paid between 50 and 90 cents on the dollar for the loans, according to Fannie Mae records."
GoldMoney provides somewhat of an alternative to the banks. You keep your wealth as gold, you can be paid in gold, you can invoice in gold, you can pay in gold. It’s like a personal gold standard, and the more people that use it, the more powerful it becomes. It’s worth checking out.
I believe in the principle of “reversion to the mean”. It is math.
When I think about lack of “moral hazard” intrinsic to today’s structure, I also think the reversion principle applies. The moral hazard has not gone missing, just pushed into a closet. With springs. I think it is going to pop out the first time the closet door’s knob gets turned. Then the moral hazard will return with a vengeance, with interest due (and penalty fees). I think there is a critical mass of people who understand with who specifically the root cause has been…caused. It will be a very bad time to be a banker or a pol. I also think that people who don’t really deserve it will get swept up in it, similar to the way the reformist aristocracy got monkeyhammered during the French Revolution for a period of years.
Got Rope?
Cheers
m
Thanks, Time2Help, for that video clip. Very cogent. I had to look up the movie so I could rent it (available on the Amazon Squid).
For others like me that might be interested: “The International”, 2009
m
It’s not just that banks buy politicos–the central state and the banks are in essence one system. neither can survive without the other in the current mode of production. The idea that the system can survive the banks’ demise is illusory. The state needs financial profits to fund itself, and financialization is the only source of “growth” and profits at this point. I address this dynamic in my book “Resistance, Revolution, Liberation.” There is no way to liberate ourselves from the banks without also liberating ourselves from the central state. Analysts like Michael Hudson grasp the problem with the banks, but ignore the other side of the coin because of their worship of the central state as the “solution.” Does anyone really think a state bank wouldn’t be corrupted by the same forces as a private bank? Look at Fannie Mae, which is essentially a state bank. If we strip out financialization, where’s the “growth” coming from? The house of cards collapses, and from the state’s POV, that’s to be avoided at all costs.
"worship of the central state as the “solution” is the problem itself.
Charles, thank you very much for making this point.
I suggest that we define “globalist” as one who "worship(s) the central state as the “solution.”
This is an important distinction because such “globalist” is now the number one enemy of human progress.
Human civilization is fitfully evolving towards small resilient communities that organize and trade between themselves. Even up until now, the most successful civilizations were organized this way: The Greek city states, Venetian cities in N. Italy in the Renaissance, Holland in its golden age, and America before it became a global power, come to mind. This advance contradicts the very notion of worship of a global government run by superior sociopaths (Chinese emperor, Saudi King, Rich Guys at Davos, unelected Euro-dictators etc.) that know better than us. The two sides (real progress vs globalism) have entered a life and death struggle. Much of the strife going forward can be understood based on this realization.
The resilient community based from-the-ground-up organization will eventually win for many reasons, (not enough time to detail those reasons in this short keyboarding). However, I fear that a new Renaissance will only emerge after a prolonged dark ages, during which local communities refine their adaptations to their local environments and advantages and cannot be displaced by the globalist marauders who do not produce but only rely on banking/law to control, steal and plunder. Any inter-community organization that may extend over large geographic distances will emerge from and be used by those small communities, and NOT by one or more sociopaths, or sociopath cliques as is the case now.
I conclude that how we deal with “worship of the central state as the solution” (i,e, globalism) will determine our fate. It is very helpful to keep your idea in mind when trying to understand and survive the antics of these new age barbarians.
lol
best wishes
Mots
Wow, I thought I was the only one on the verge of indignant breakdown. Bravo! I truly empathize. 8 years of continued excuses of good faith and “they’re doing the best they can for all us” by the bankers and system has driven me to almost apoplexy - the main reason being that no one else seems to want call a spade a spade and cross that threshold of impugning bad faith amongst these actors. Thank you.
The debt will be continuously created to maintain the “status quo” and then selectively written off when it goes bad - again keeping the system afloat, and enabling and rewarding the bad actors. Moral Hazard, such a quaint term is institutionalized into our system - but it is no longer a hazard, it is now the only way.
In 1988, I bought a Ford F-150 XLT Lariat 4X4, the top of the line fully loaded model at the time. Cost: $14,400. I went shopping for a truck today. The similar model today, not top, but mid-high end vehicle was priced at $55k. Now granted there is more technology embedded in the new vehicle, but this is almost a 300% increase over 30 years. The $ is certainly losing value, but I think another reason is the unlimited availability of credit. The subprime auto loan business is alive and well.
Fed lends money to Goldman (and other broker dealers at ~1%)
Goldman lends to GMAC (or other auto finance company at 3%)
GMAC lends to good credit customers at 5% and poor credit customers at 10%
Everyone who can fog a mirror gets a car loan and the auto business booms, and the financiers at every level make money… AND
When defaults begin to occur en masse, the Fed buys the bad back (essentially monetizing it) to maintain solvency of the chain of lenders. In this way the system continues to perpetuate the creation of debt which “stimulates the economy” by being used to finance new purchases - i.e., this a Ponzi scheme. B/c the fed can print out of thin air, there is no limit to this unless and until a systemic event destroys confidence (or people understand what is happening - although actually I’m not sanguine about people wanting to change anything as long as it continues)
I believe this pattern exists in many areas (e.g. higher edu). It is anathema to freedom and fairness; more importantly, it truly does enable a group a rent skimmers to control the system.
Keep Calm and Carry On … meh
Break-away civilization. You’ve been extracted.
Exotic new technologies require a lot of money. The pentagon accounts department was hit by a SLAM.
And here Dr. Judy Woods points out what we missed.
Exotic weapon? You Bettcha. That huge battleship you spent the nations wealth on, what is it made of? Steel.
That You Beaut small arms that is essential when the SHTF, what is it made of? Steel.
Let Dr. Judy Woods show you what happens to Steel.
What else have they got?
And why was Cold Fusion squashed? (Do you know why Pons and Fleischmann knew that energy was being produced? Because their original battery and electrolysis experiment blew a 2’ hole in the lab bench and took a large chunk of concrete out of the floor. Electrolysis won’t do that.)
speaking of banks… http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-19/deutsche-bank-prices-%E2%82%AC8…
Deutsche Bank Prices €8 Billion Stock Offering At 35% Discount
db is getting desperate for cash, something is going on behind the scenes.
anyone have info on what is prompting them to sell sharply discounted shares, and why they badly need cash right now?
speaking of banks… http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-19/deutsche-bank-prices-%E2%82%AC8…
Deutsche Bank Prices €8 Billion Stock Offering At 35% Discount
db is getting desperate for cash, something is going on behind the scenes.
anyone have info on what is prompting them to sell sharply discounted shares, and why they badly need cash right now?
This is amazing. If you were a DB long, the correct move would have been to sell on Friday and then buy some of these new shares at a whopping -35% discount today.
What "should" happen in a normal market is that the shares would be pummeled by this news, perhaps by the entire 35%.
But that's not how these ""markets"" work anymore. They are so tightly controlled now that nothing appropriate ever happens anymore.
Case in point, here's DB in the pre-market (er...pre-""market"") just seconds ago:
Not even down -2.5%(!!)
And try to act surprised when it somehow doesn't budge all day, wobbles slightly, and then vaults into the final minutes of the close to 'they' can come out with a set of headlines about how "investors" were cheered by the move, etc.
But make no mistake, in any normal world this is a really awful moment for existing DB longs. We don't inhabit that world anymore....
Even so, this doesn’t change things very much:
Sell your shares on Friday as quickly as you can because the price is about to drop 35%, right?
Well it only dropped 2.5%, so you were good even if you were slow.
Buy the rights to the new shares anytime in the next couple of weeks. Their going to be traded on an exchange! You take on a bit of risk that the price will go up before you buy (working against you), or down (working in your favor), but you have a 35% tailwind!
Question: What shenanigans prevented that 35% price drop?
There’s no reason that it has to be this way. We fought against a central bank for a hundred years, and then in 1913 we finally got one. We promptly had the crisis that the bank was supposedly there to avert. In the intervening time, our money has lost 97% of its value. We’re mired in enormous debt, and there are no provisions for periodic forgiveness like a Jubilee year, a Biblical tradition oddly forgotten by many otherwise-religious folks. So this debt is forever, a crushing multi-generational burden. Many Americans are suffering in real poverty, while a few individuals and corporations get grotesquely rich. Why are we allowing this? And why did it happen in the first place?
The answer is simple and ugly: Because those at the top of the system are not pursuing rational, benevolent, or wise courses of action. They are not representing the interests of the people, nor the environment. Their policies serve simply to enrich and protect those who are able to buy access to politicians. It’s corruption-as-institution. It’s not necessarily that they’re personally evil people (oh, but they are - emphasis mine), but the effects of the system on the environment and the majority of humans are pretty evil, so it’s an evil system, formally.
The situation is ridiculous, just absurd. Money is the most important thing on earth for most people, because most people lack the money to get what they need, let alone what they want. Meanwhile, a select few get to create their own money, and use it to buy anything and everything. I guess it’s just too large for most people to notice. But it’s eaten us all, it’s consuming the planet and everyone on it, and we really need to see why this is happening.
I ended up selling one of the companies I work for on behalf of the owners to a private equity firm. What improved after the sale was that the balance sheet began making some sense, since money was no-longer spent on all sorts of seemingly pointless activities. Additionally, the atmosphere became more professional or, should I say, “corporate” or “predictable” and the people on top (including me) were able to get better compensation plans with their base increasing by as much as 25% and their bonus potential going up from about 5% of total comp up to 50% of total comp.
However, some things became a lot worse. The work environment became cut-throat, my team has been downsized every year (lowest paid positions going first) and is now 15% smaller than before the acquisition. The lowest paid people can’t get meaningful raises and are practically capped at COLA. Most operations are outsourced god knows where and hence I can no-longer get reliable support. The private equity firm runs the company with surgical precision and with the requirement that our profit margins increase by 3 percentage points (not 3%) every year or else more people will be laid off - and this is a company whose profit margins are already above 50%!
So it’s not only the banks who are evil, but most financial entities. Despite having practically doubled my salary from before the acquisition, I now feel worse off, since I have to let someone go every year whom I’ve worked with for years and the support that I took for granted is no-longer there. To top it all off, the stringent performance requirements are practically eating all my free time. I’ve finally realized that the reason the past company was enduring balance sheet abnormalities and sub-10% margins was because the company had other goals than pure profitability such as a pleasant work environment, job security, salary increases for everyone and general decency. I never thought I’d say it, but I do miss the old days.
Stabu- Reading your comment reminded me of my wife’s description of a timber company takeover that she experienced in Canada in the mid-late 80’s. She and all of the employees of the company that was being taken over were required to take a test. Essentially the test enabled the buyers to determine who was sociopathic. Those identified as sociopathic were kept on and those that were not were dismissed. I’m happy to say that my wife was dismissed.
Not even down -2.5%(!!)
And try to act surprised when it somehow doesn't budge all day, wobbles slightly, and then vaults into the final minutes of the close to 'they' can come out with a set of headlines about how "investors" were cheered by the move, etc.
But make no mistake, in any normal world this is a really awful moment for existing DB longs. We don't inhabit that world anymore....