David Stockman: The Global Economy Has Entered The Crack-Up Phase

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Utopian or gift type societies worked well during times of economic emergency, in the past.  Of course many of them, like present day Amish communities utilized money as well. 
Once the emergency is over though, most people are just itching to get out.  There are very real constraints on personal freedom in these communities, even when they aren't  structured around oddball gurus, scam artists or hopelessly dogmatic and doctrinaire belief systems. 

It's not Hobbitville. It's Peyton place with fresh blueberries. 

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With fresh blueberries…talk about painting a picture with a few select words, that is real poetry, brilliant.  I haven't laughed that hard in a while. The problem with utopianism of course is that it is externalizing what must occur within each one of us.  Who wants to live with a group of volks running away from themselves.  What you will get of course is as was so well said, "Peyton place with fresh blueberries".
We must transform ourselves and the places where we are present.

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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-stocks-fall-near-record-143245605.html

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Here's a little inspiration…http://www.silverdoctors.com/the-newest-country-to-defy-the-banksters/

Under Orban’s leadership, Hungary has not only managed to pay down their near $26 billion IMF loan, but did so early.  In 2013, with just $2 billion in payments left to go, he actually requested, via the central bank, that IMF officials should pack their bags and leave, noting that their “services” were no longer needed!
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of Orban you know can't be far behind either.  Perhaps he will be blamed for assisting Russia in the shoot down of another jet liner. The banksters will not go quietly into the night.  The connection between wall street and the secret services is the foundation of the Anglo-American empire.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/polish-leader-holds-difficult-talks-hungarys-orban-29073107

We are always at war over money and power, whether it be overt, covert, cold or hot.  Any macro economic analysis that does not take this into account will always be lacking.  We have to come to accept the destructive addiction to money and power that human beings have and how much that drives our world.  Till we realize this and we do all that we can to stop funding the power of the national state and the multinational corporate/banking structure that supports it, all will be for naught.

I would like to believe that the formation of strong local economies that are cash poor and rich in all other things, will be the answer.  That transformation and not confrontation will work out.  Heres to hoping for the best.

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Pinecarr and Treebeard,  In my mind there is no higher service to which we can aspire right now, at this point in time, than the business of exposing the false narrative that is force fed to the masses.  The true narrative is not an easy sell though, as most of us know.   

The banksters will not go quietly into the night.  The connection between wall street and the secret services is the foundation of the Anglo-American empire.
No, they won't.  And Yes, Yes it is. 

I ran across this recently, and it well states the frustration I feel as I try to wake up those I care about most;

  http://coyoteprime-runningcauseicantfly.blogspot.com/2012/01/chris-floyd-no-ways-tired-in-sea-of.html

"No Ways Tired in A Sea of Lies" (Adapted)

by Chris Floyd
"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies. One of the hardest things to accept is that the reality of our world is buried under so many layers of official deception and well-cultivated public ignorance about our history and our political system. Even if you break through somehow, momentarily, and hold up a fragment of the truth, most people have no context for dealing with it. It's like a bolt from the blue, they can't process the information. And so the sea of lies closes over us again, and again, and again. And yet the reality of our economic future appears on the horizon, denial be damned, an irresistible tsunami of destruction, changing all our lives forever. These are the facts, and they can't be altered. But how to respond to this catastrophe? Shall we weep, moan, rend our garments, cover ourselves with sackcloth and ashes? Shall we sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of republics? Shall we cower in the shadows and sing glamorous dirges for the Lost Cause, for vanished glories and broken dreams? Or shall we come out fighting, unbowed, heads high, laughing fools to scorn, rejecting at every turn the moral authority of murderers and thieves to rule our lives, determine our reality, act in our name? Let's dispense with lamentation - give not a single moment to that emotional indulgence - and get right back to work, more determined than ever to bear down harder, dig deeper and excavate the radioactive nuggets of truth still glowing beneath the slag-heap of ruin...........
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I really like this, Jim H.:

http://coyoteprime-runningcauseicantfly.blogspot.com/2012/01/chris-floyd...

"No Ways Tired in A Sea of Lies" (Adapted)

by Chris Floyd
"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies. One of the hardest things to accept is that the reality of our world is buried under so many layers of official deception and well-cultivated public ignorance about our history and our political system. Even if you break through somehow, momentarily, and hold up a fragment of the truth, most people have no context for dealing with it. It's like a bolt from the blue, they can't process the information. And so the sea of lies closes over us again, and again, and again. And yet the reality of our economic future appears on the horizon, denial be damned, an irresistible tsunami of destruction, changing all our lives forever.
I have found what Chris Floyd says about holding up a fragment of truth, and not having a context for dealing with it, rings true, even for those of us seeking the truth (well, speaking for myself, at least).  We find fragments of truth here and there, and hold them up as truth, without even realizing that they are just  bits and pieces of the truth; just the rents and tears we can see through the larger narrative that we have been taught is "the truth".  But we then find that if we keep on poking and prodding, even more rents and tears are made in that narrative, until the whole "picture" we grew up with is revealed to be only a backdrop to a man-made story, just like a backdrop for a play in the theater. 

There are things I would never have even questioned 10 years ago, because I believed the "backdrop" I grew up with was real.  It has taken years of willfully choosing to examine the rents and tears in that backdrop, and making new rents and tears to see the truth behind it, to discover that the worldview I believed in was just a manmade construction; the backdrop for a story.  No wonder it is so hard for others less inclined to look to "see"!

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Utopian or gift type societies worked well during times of economic emergency, in the past.  Of course many of them, like present day Amish communities utilized money as well.
Sorry, but this is a strawman argument.  Please point out to me in any of my previous comments regarding gift economies where I categorized or portrayed them as "utopian."  In case I wasn't clear in the previous post, I suggest nothing of the sort.  Rather, I suggest that a functioning gift economy exists as a source of social cohesion (with its own attendant baggage, to be certain), where a market economy often works in the exact opposite manner.  Religion is another force of social cohesion in human societies, historically speaking -- and pointing out that it is does not immediately mean that it has taken on the status of a utopian society.

 

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I second CAH.
When I said that I could imagine an economy where people were warm, fed, living in fellowship and enjoying themselves without any money in circulation I didn't mean to suggest that they were also living in McMansions and driving SUVs.  Quite the contrary, such people are typically living in wigwams ( igloos, yurts, mud huts) and wearing furs ( felt, homespun, or what ever the local variant may be ).  I would hope that such people would be able to live in relative peace, though history and anthropology would seem to suggest that as the competition for resources increases so does the violence.  Our current state of overshoot would seem to suggest that there may be a protracted period of starvation and violence before the population drops to a point were people can have a reasonable expectation of living in peace.  The price of peace may be profound ignorance and material poverty.

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

John G.

p.s. "Peyton Place with fresh blueberries" describes where I live so aptly that I really can't say it's funny. wink

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I have been following this thread for days now without time to jump in.  Very interesting.  Here are some of my thoughts.

Having lived for almost ten years in a consensual community I can attest that it is not “utopian” in any sense of the word.  All the same pressures, problems and issues of the larger society manifest themselves in one way or another.  There is also a goldfish bowl aspect to a shared life, as everyone comes to know much more about everyone one else, than normally happens in present day American middle class life. Peyton Place with fresh blueberries is a very apt description.

The “gifting” economy was a large part of our community’s economic life. Clothes and furniture were constantly recycled.  Cars, trucks and equipment were readily loaned and borrowed. Repair work, moving, yard care and other services were often handled “Amish” style. You gave your time to other members knowing that you could call on them when you had a need.  Members participated in the money economy, each having their own employment and owning their own homes, businesses and goods.  The benefit of the gifting economy was that it allowed the funds from the money economy to go much further than would be possible for an individual person, couple or family trying to make their economic way under their own power. 

Our community encompassed people from very divergent economic circumstances.  While few were on welfare, a number of people were disabled, or existing on small pensions.  Other members were millionaires plus.  For the folks at the lower end of the spectrum the gifting economy gave a sense of stability and security in that a member would not be allowed to go hungry or without medical care or housing.

My wife and I, for the past three years, have owned a summer cottage in a northern New England town of Twelve Hundred people, less than five hundred households. Over that time we have come to see, and participate in a limited way, in a lively “gifting” exchange. Things no longer needed or wanted, or surpluses of perishables, are freely passed on (If you do not know anyone who could use an item you place it at the edge of your property with a “free” sign. Unless the item is totally worthless it will disappear in a day or two.). There is of course a money economy here also but I get the sense that the gifting is extensive and that very little is thrown out or goes to waste.

JT

 

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Lies and the Grandchildren of Lies
I can really relate to this statement!  I have posted on facebook my abhorrence of torture and secret assassination programs (that incidentally take out all the family and friends of the "target" within a hundred yards) and am met with:   "Yes but we must stop the Islamo-fascists before they take over the world" and "Well ordinarily I'd agree with you but national security trumps humane treatment due to the severity of the situation."

This is the reason that 9/11 is SUCH A GIFT.  In big bold pictures that can be reviewed by anyone AND we can see the inconsistencies.

No building in history has ever "collapsed" in anything like this manner.  Yet on this one morning TWO buildings did nearly identical complete destruction of all portions of the building with the fragments thrown outwardly hundreds of yards.  Try to find ANY building in history that has done anything like this in the past!

No building has EVER collapsed due to office furniture fires.  Yet for the first time in history this building did, and in a pattern that is classic for an implosion demolition.  

The detonation diagram of a classic "implosion" pattern explosive demolition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWorDrTC0Qg

 

And we are told that a jet liner crashed here.  But are not shown any pictures of the crash despite the most heavy security of any building on earth, ringed with surveillance cameras and housing the command and control structure of the largest military in the history of the Earth.  Not a single picture of the incoming airplane.  Nothing at the crash site clearly identifieable as airplane debris.

We are told that the jet fuel burned so fiercely that all of the plane's structure, including the multi-ton engines made of steel and titanium, were "vaporized."  Same with the seats, luggage, bodies.  Really!?  

And despite no visible plane fragments or body parts, and fires that melted the plane, we are told that DNA testing identified the remains of 184 of 188 passengers.   This is quite remarkable!

And here, another jet liner crash without identifiable jetliner.

You can't see the airplane because it fell like a "marble into water" sinking beneath the soft Pennsylvania soil which spontaneously "back-filled" to cover the entirety of the wreckage.   Fortunately, the grass around the crash site was undisturbed by this.  Really?

And all if this happened on ONE action filled day.

And THIS is the reason that the FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF CIVILIZATION ITSELF must be dismantled.

Here we have the Grandfather's grandfather of the pyramid of lies being used to reshape the world into a private/corporate military dictatorship designed much like the Roman Empire.

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As we have discussed before, you are coming very close to making a believer (or maybe a non-believer in the lies and coverup) out of me. It's a position I find most uncomfortable, but one which is making more and more sense to me.
Change of thought patterns does not come easily.

JT 

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and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The anti-lie can be maintained only for such time as the patriots can expose the people to the political and or military consequences of the anti-lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the patriot to use all of its powers to promote dissent, for the anti-lie is the mortal enemy of the state, and thus the anti-lie is the greatest enemy of the state."
Bastardised Goebbles.

Credit to Sand Puppy!

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In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

George Orwell

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgeorwe136282.html#hDkzOYJtk9JZqD0v.99

 

 

 

 
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Roth’s book has set off a stampede by her former colleagues in the aviation industry, who are rushing to provide details supporting her revelations. They are confirming the installation of FTS (Flight Termination System) equipment on the models “hijacked” on 9/11, which allowed those planes to be taken over remotely and flown from the ground. When FTS takes over a plane, it completely shuts down that plane’s communications with the outside world. That explains why not one of the four pilots on any of the 9/11 planes managed to flip a toggle switch and squawk the hijack code. Had the aircraft been hijacked in a normal manner, the pilots, who are trained to instantly squawk “hijack” in such an emergency, all would have done so.
The failure of any of the 9/11 planes to squawk the “we are hijacked” message is absolute, conclusive proof that the official story of hijackings by Arabs armed with box cutters is false.
According to the author’s hypothesis, the FTS-captured-and-silenced planes landed at a nearby Air Force base with gigantic hangars, which Roth identifies and a colleague who was there confirms happened, less than 20 minutes after takeoff. Once on the ground, selected flight attendants and passengers were guided (or forced) to place cell phone calls, during which they read from scripts prepared by the perpetrators.

This scenario is very similar to one planned by the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962: the infamous Operation Northwoods. And it is entirely plausible. The main counter-argument – that the FAA tracked the two Boston aircraft from takeoff to crashes – has been disproven, since we now know that the 9/11 perpetrators were inserting false blips onto FAA controllers screens and thereby controlling what they saw.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/01/31/airline911/

The book being referred to is here;

http://www.amazon.com/Methodical-Illusion-Rebekah-Roth/dp/0982757131#customerReviews

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JimH,
While that sounds like an interesting book, don't be too surprised if it ends up being completely discredited.  That's just one of the tricks of the trade of information warfare.  

My preference, instead, is to stick to the science and avoid the conjecture.  We know that bldg 7 came down symmetrically at free fall speeds for 2.25 seconds.  Therefore we know it had zero resistance to gravity.  Therefore we know that there were no supports in place.  Therefore we know that a minimum of 8 stories of structural steel were removed simultaneously.  Therefore we know that it could not have been fire or asymmetrical structural damage that led to the observed free fall.  Therefore we know - without a shadow of a doubt - that the official NIST story is completely wrong.

If one part of the story is dead wrong, the whole story is wrong.

We can defend that line of logic all day long and against anybody.

My concern is in exploring the lines of inquiry that require us to rely on somebody's say so, or witnesses, or trains of 'logic' that have one or more nodes of pure speculation built in…those quite often to turn out to be wrong either intentionally or unintentionally.  Then those failures are trotted out to discredit the every aspect of the questions that are sitting out there no matter how legitimate.

And there are dozens ranging from melted steel to nano thermate particles.  

So I think it's interesting when people try to follow some of the more exotic and speculative lines of thinking but I do not place them at all in the same category of legitimacy as those with solid, verified evidence.  

…and I would never expose a newly curious person to anything but the most sound and certain 9-11 territory.    

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This home science experiment, challenging National Geographic and BBC claims that thermite can't cut steel, is also worthwhile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d5iIoCiI8g

An interesting question is, why is the engineer in the video able to make thermite at home that will cut steel when big TV productions can't find experts able to do this?

Somebody is either lying or incompetent.  Perhaps the engineer is lying about the material he used to cut the steel.  Maybe it's not thermite  Or, perhaps either BBC and National Geographic are lying (or incompetent) regarding their claim of the impossibility of cutting steel with thermite.

Interestingly, Popular Mechanics, known for challenging unorthodox narratives of 9/11, seems to corroborate the engineer and backyard experimenter's claim that thermite can cut steel, not in a recent issue, but way back in 1935.

So, either thermite can cut steel, or it can't.  If it can, then why do National Geographic and the BBC claim that it cannot?

 

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Very interesting comments, Sandpuppy, Bankerslave, JT and Jim.  I found myself in a conversation about some of this recently.  That's has typically not been a very rewarding experience for me, although I would say that between 1 in 10 people of my very small sample size are willing to take a second look.  
My new favorite video on the topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ySUrEiVFIM

 

Although this one is also a relatively recent classic; very evidence based, recommended by a member here:

http://youtu.be/l0Q5eZhCPuc

 

Aside to the NSA:  Hello, yes, I am here, and I think these videos raise valid and disturbing concerns.  Is it within my constitutional right to read and share this material?  Do you even care what the Constitution says about my rights?

Sorry for the paranoid aside.  Maybe they care, maybe they don't.  Either way, data -measured in zettabytes - that can be monitored and stored at the NSA's complex in Utah do appeal to one's sense of paranoia.

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I try to resist commenting on 9/11 anymore.  The idea that a steel frame building could collapse into its own footprint at free fall speed after 5 stories or so of the building burned for a few hours is so patently absurd, as horrid and serious as the whole thing is, I don't know what to say, it just boggles the mind.  Its like for some strange reason someone wanted to convince everyone  that the moon was made of blue cheese.  Then there were ensuing debates regarding theoretical and technical aspects of a blue cheese planet, the density of blue cheese, its modulus of elasticity, fiber strength, moment of inertia, etc. Its just so, I don't know, twilight zone-ish.  It really is that insane. It makes me wonder if the NSA or whoever has really has perfected some sort of mind control machine. My only theory is that we are incapable of believing the evil that your average well dressed normal looking human being is capable of.
How did the perpetrators think they could get away with such an absurdity?  Then they actually got away with it!!  No wonder the elite (whatever that term actually means) are so confident they've got pubic opinion in the palm of their hand.  I've got to stop, otherwise I'll start muttering to myself, better off planning the garden.

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Thanks, Treebeard, for this important point.  I spent a good amount of time in the 90's reading about the Holocaust, asking myself over and over again, how it was possible.  

Hannah Arendt (and Hilberg before her) said there wasn't anything uniquely bad about the Germans, but rather that one of the greatest forms of evil was also the most banal form: an institutionalized, legalized, everyday evil.  

The next iteration of state-directed evil is not going to do us the favor of resembling Hitler or Stalin in an obvious manner, because while history may rhyme, it doesn't duplicate itself in photocopies.  

We have to keep our eyes open to recognize it, realizing that it may be as present as water is around a fish.  I doubt most Germans realized how bad things were getting until it was far too late to stop the Nazis.