Topic: WE'RE STUFFED!!!

[Jahn]

1. Because it outlines how the 'system' we accept as 'our society' stuffed and shafted us.
2. Because it suggests another way of thinking about this economic predicament and would lend a focus to the dialogue taking place on Soma.

Ad notam 

The first part of this film Zeitgeist Addendum is about criminality, corruption, how to build an empire with dollars, economic hitmen, jackals and war as means to reach the goal. Poverty and deforestation are some results of this criminality. The film also deals with “Monetarism” as the common denominator in different political systems.
Dollar-bill, a bill is a debt (a credit). Money is exchanged on agreement, best would be to take out the salary in coins or gold. Paper itself has very little value while metal always has a value.

To lend money is to be in debt. As our prime minister said after the financial crash in Sweden 1992 and also named his book with:  “The one that are in debt is not free”.

[Jahn]

The Zeitgeist Addendum paints much very black – like that old man saying that politicians cannot solve problems – now they can at least create problems  . But as you will see politicians has one instrument to solve a problem. They can distribute welfare to the society through taxes, and companies as well as citizens pays taxes.

We must remember that there are societies that function and care for their citizens quite fair. Therefore they are called “Welfare states”, welfare is built by using taxes as an instrument to distribute wealth to all citizens regardless of their position in the life cycle and the society ladder. Inequality within a country is a greater health problem than inequality between countries. In terms of justice though we can of course put on another eye glasses if we acknowledge that country A is poor because country B exploit the resources of country A. But that is another problem, that is foreign affairs. “Our problem” within our country is to build a society that care for the citizens, healthy people provide more benefit than sick people or dead people, (I didn’t say profit but that could be the case too).

I refer to Prof Richard Wilkinsson below, he is  a very vivid and interesting scholar that I have had the pleasure of to  listening to a couple of times. With the aim to put his findings in a more conspicuous way he once asked the audience how they would judge the leaders of a society; if they once a year allowed the military to take some lorries with soldiers on the lorry platform and drive in among  the public and shoot people and thereby kill a certain amount of the population.

Wilkinsson says that inequality kills and that it is one of the government’s most important tasks to reduce (great) spans of inequality.



Introduction



Review: Richard G Wilkinson, The Impact of Inequality

“So Greece, with half the GDP per head, has longer life expectancy than the US, the richest and most unequal country with the lowest life expectancy in the developed world. The people of Harlem live shorter lives than the people of Bangladesh.”

“Homicide rates (and other crimes) track a country's level of inequality, not its overall wealth. The fairest countries have the highest levels of trust and social capital. The American states that have the more equal income distribution also have most social trust: New Hampshire, the most equal, is least likely to agree that "most people would try to take advantage of you if they got the chance". “


http://www.who.int/social_determinants/commissioners/baum_article/en/index.html

[Jahn]

The first part of this film Zeitgeist Addendum is about criminality, corruption, how to build an empire with dollars,

I should correct myself, I started to watch the movie on about 20 minutes. The first part is about banks and bills.

On a seminar with Joseph Agassi* he told us with great conviction that "Money is an institution" - well when watching this movie it become more clear "How money is an institution".

*Heh, I have met him and his wife in a series of table seminars when I still was a PhD student. I attended these round table seminars because I thought that was the best seminiars my deptartment would ever create.  He is from Israel and that perhaps color some of his scientific views and choice of topics to discuss but from my narrow perspective he were a a very interesting scholar and a entertainer at the same time, like a true man of the World, a real global citizen.

Joseph Agassi

"According to Agassi, democracy is so outstanding that no matter what the agenda is, it is still best. He developed further the methodology of critical rationalism which he adopted from Popper. According to him, critical rationalism gives the possibility to rationalists to account for checks and balances and democracy within their rationalism"

"Agassi has written widely on global politics and on the methodology to implement global politics. His methodology is consistently procedural, without having requests for systematic procedures. His demands from those that design global politics are minimalist: small methodological changes may lead to large scale achievements. "

[Jahn]

Now, in the first 20 minutes of the Addendum movie there is a questionable example. It is about these original 10 billion that leads to the split of exessive inheritance in the relation 1 to 9 billion dollars. The narrrator then draw a few less likely assumptions; because the guy that lend 9 billions would probably not deposit the whole sum back into the bank, he would probably buy something for that money, build something, invest in his firm and so on. And by that the bank will have less liquidity to lend on.

The money cycle out of thin air will stop earlier, the original 10 billions will not lead to 90 billions as suggested in the movie.

I would like to add that we had one year of deflation in Sweden in 1994. That is something rare and a option not mentioned in the movie.

[Angela]

I'm listening to the audio clips on the left side of the home page.  Refreshing ideas!!

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/support.htm

[Jahn]

I like Colin Powell, not for what he have done but because he was a friend to our minister in foreign affairs, Anna Lind, and that he has a couple of old Volvo Amazon cars that he maintain (warms my heart).

When I look at the USA, Colin Powell is one of my "promise guys" if anyone understand that. Now he made some controversial statement, by voting on Obama instead of Mc Cain (He is supposed to vote as a Republican).

Powell take a stand

[nichi]

I like Colin Powell, not for what he have done but because he was a friend to our minister in foreign affairs, Anna Lind, and that he has a couple of old Volvo Amazon cars that he maintain (warms my heart).

When I look at the USA, Colin Powell is one of my "promise guys" if anyone understand that. Now he made some controversial statement, by voting on Obama instead of Mc Cain (He is supposed to vote as a Republican).

Powell take a stand

That's going to carry a lot of weight for Obama.

[Jahn]

That's going to carry a lot of weight for Obama.

I think Powell is very tough in his analysis and arguments and perhaps many listen to him from both parties.

[nichi]

Spirituality for Apocalyptic Times
by Robert V. Thompson

Nearly 135 years ago, Mark Twain said, “October is a particularly dangerous month to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.”   

The tenuous nature of speculation in the stock market is perhaps a metaphor for the tenuous nature of life itself.   From unanticipated joy to unexpected pain, from temporary calm to inexplicable chaos—the markets imitate life.

The dismal news of recent weeks is vaguely reminiscent of the days surrounding 9/11.  Remember? The airlines stopped flying, the stock market crashed, for a few days, life came to a halt. 

Although the financial crisis of 2008 is not as unnerving as the experience of 9/11 we keep hearing financial news that heightens anxiety and dampens the spirit.  In these uncertain times it is clear that Yogi Berra was right: The future isn’t what it used to be.       

Few would deny that recent events have triggered a palpable fear, fear, anxiety—even dread.   

We find ourselves in an apocalyptic moment. 

Apocalyptic moments have interrupted the lives of human beings as long as human beings have been around.  These moments come in a variety of forms but the result is always the same—the end of one reality is the birth of another. 

The art of spirituality is to, as the cliché says, go with the flow. But this is easier said than done.

To “go with the flow” is an idea that has its roots in the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism. Here’s the rub.  One cannot go with the flow unless one is willing to detach from the external circumstances of life.   

For many people, especially in the West, equate detachment with being aloof or not caring about people. 

This is not the meaning of spiritual detachment. 

Most of us enjoy a good movie.  We enter the theater and sit down with our popcorn and coke and hope to be transported to another world, for a couple of hours, anyway.   If the movie is really good, we laugh, we cry, we feel fear and joy.  Sometimes the heart beats fast. Sometimes we sigh.  But when the movie ends we read the credits, get up and go on.

Spirituality is the art of being able to view the comedies and dramas of our lives the way we watch a movie. 

The art of detachment is expressed nowhere better than in the story told by the ancient Taoist master, Hui Nan Tzu. 

Here is the story he told.

A poor farmer's horse ran off into the country of the barbarians.  When all his neighbors gathered to offer their condolences, the farmer said, "How do you know that this isn't good fortune?"

After a few months the horse returned with a barbarian horse of excellent stock.  All his neighbors offered their congratulations, but the farmer said, "How do you know this isn't a disaster?" 

The two horses bred , and the farmer became rich in fine horses.  The farmer's son spent much of his time riding them.  One day the farmer’s son fell off  the horse and broke his hip.  Again, all his neighbors offered the father their condolences, but the farmer answered, "How do you know that this isn't good fortune?

Another year passed and the Barbarians invaded the frontier. All the able bodied young men were conscripted, but because of his broken hip, the farmer’s son could not go and fight.  All of the young men were killed in the war—except of course, the farmer’s son. 

After telling this story, Hui Nan Chu asks the question, "Who can tell how events will be transformed?"

Nothing that happens to us is the last thing to happen to us.  Learning to go with the flow, being carried by the Tao occurs when we detach ourselves from the idea that the last thing that has happened is the most important thing. But the truth is, the last thing is never the final thing.  There's always more to the story.

The art of spirituality is seeing that life is one drama after another.  The last thing that happened to you is just the last thing, it’s never the final thing.   

We are all actors in a bigger story than that of our own little dramas.  To understand this is to be liberated from being controlled by external circumstances.   

The art of spirituality is learning how to bend without breaking.   

The art of spirituality is learning how to play our own transient part in the inimitable eternal story of life.   

In Thornton Wilder’s classic play,  Our Town, one of the characters says, “There's something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being."  When we awaken to this way down deep of the eternal within us, we let go of our attachments to the external and open to a deeper reality.  In each and every one of us there is a wholeness that’s hidden beneath the surface circumstances of our lives.   

When we touch this truth we are able to say,  no matter what is happening in the world around me—I know that all is well with my soul. 

Spirituality is the process by which we touch this hidden wholeness.

What matters is not what happens to us, but our ability to touch this hidden wholeness.  
http://www.examiner.com/x-1390-Chicago-Spirituality-Examiner~y2008m10d20-Spirituality-For-Apocalyptic-Times

[erik]

How very funny it is - the best hope offers no hope. It seems that we, humans, are hellbent on destroying earth - one of the organs of our solar system. That'll take  time, but meanwhile we busy ourselves with accelerating destruction of organs of Earth.

Look from whatever end you like, but we are monumentally stuffed.

Remains to be seen who'll do the ultimate sacrifice, i.e. will there be any being willing to pay the price.

The Times
October 20, 2008

Environment will wither whoever win US election

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4974536.ece

Tom Baldwin and Lucy Bannerman in Washington

Eager anticipation of the next American president offering a dramatically different policy on climate change is being tempered by the chill winds of the financial crisis.

Barack Obama or John McCain will inherit a blighted economy, a ballooning deficit set to reach $1 trillion and a political landscape in upheaval from the market turmoil of recent weeks.

Environmental groups are already bracing themselves for delays or disappointment on action to tackle global warming which, they say, will inevitably be seen as having an impact on American jobs.

Steve Clemons, a director at the liberal think-tank The New America Foundation, said that whoever succeeds President Bush is “going to have a horrible time”. He added: “They are not going to be able to do everything they said they were going to do. The economic constraints were always going to be huge, even before the current crisis. Now, with the drama over the financial markets, when the next president is sitting behind the desk of the Oval Office he will have to weigh up different programmes, cut back and pare down.”

Already there is talk of plans for universal healthcare or expensive tax cuts being reconsidered, while Britain is among the international governments alarmed over what the crisis may mean for hopes of getting a breakthrough deal on climate change. Mr Obama has proposed cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of 80 per cent by 2050 and wants to fund a ten-year, $150 billion energy independence programme by selling carbon-use permits to industry through a European-style cap and trade system. Mr McCain is not far behind, promising cuts of 60 per cent by 2050.

Diplomats acknowledge that the prospects of securing Congressional agreement for such measures are diminished. Gordon Brown is known to be concerned about how little time the next president will have to focus on the issue before heading to Copenhagen in December next year where a new international treaty on climate change will be negotiated.

The last such summit produced the Kyoto Protocol that Mr Bush rejected because it would disadvantage American workers unfairly against those in China and India.

A bi-partisan effort to introduce significant cuts in America’s carbon use failed to pass the Senate this year and state-wide measures have recently been marked by their modesty. In Michigan, for example, legislation was introduced to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by just 6 per cent over the next 12 years.

Even though Democrats — who are more inclined to fight global warming — are expected to tighten their grip on Capitol Hill after the elections in November, they will still encounter opposition from Rust Belt states and those heavily reliant on coal, as well as lobbying from industry and unions.

“Right now, I don’t think that will be our primary concern,” said Hank Cox, of the National Association of Manufacturers. “If a truck is coming straight at you, that’s your main worry, not the truck coming round the bend that might get to you eventually.

“The next thing is getting consumers out of their lairs to start consuming again.” Against these, carbon emission schemes are a distant concern, Mr Cox said. “If the economy remains in the same suspended animation that it is now, there will be a reluctance to undertake any expensive new legislative regimes.”

Frank O’Donnell, of Clean Air Watch, said: “The state of economic turmoil throws up a whole new question mark over climate change legislation. It was already an uphill struggle and the state of the economy has made the angle of that hill even steeper.

“I’m not expecting any economic-wide effort to introduce the cap and trade measures to come bouncing on to the Senate floor any time soon. It’s like turning a great battleship around. I know the next president will have to ease it around in the right direction.”

The British Government has spent more than three years paving the way for the next president by chipping at the road block the US has long represented on getting a binding agreement — designed to “penetrate every layer of American society”.

Dozens of MPs have been dispatched to sell the virtues of a cap and trade system to state legislatures, while the Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Rev James Jones, has preached the environmental stewardship of God’s creation to evangelical leaders of the Religious Right.

The TUC and the CBI have told their American counterparts how new jobs — and fortunes — can be found in carbon-efficient technology. Retired American generals have been lectured about the security implications of being too reliant on Middle Eastern oil.

Even the Royal Family has got involved, with the Prince of Wales lobbying Congress and the White House on the issue. Mr Obama will send observers to the climate change conference in Poland in December and Susan Rice, his foreign policy adviser, told The Times: “This will remain one of our priorities.”

John Ashton, the British special representative on climate change, said: “We’ll have to fight harder.”

The British Embassy in Washington said that extra staff had been hired to prepare for a new offensive on climate change. “Both candidates are talking about the energy crisis, and that is encouraging. We have to be very focused on the benefits that green jobs can bring. The economic turbulence will mean people focusing very hard on whether they can afford to do it — we will say they cannot afford not to.”

[Jahn]

Spirituality for Apocalyptic Times
by Robert V. Thompson

Nearly 135 years ago, Mark Twain said, “October is a particularly dangerous month to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.”   

From the Swedish Wikipeda (my translation)

The 19th October in 1987 has been called the "Black Monday" when stock markets fell dramatically worldwide. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)  fell with 22,6 % that day. The fall was the next largest in the global stock market history next after the 11th December in 1914 when DIJA fell with 24 percent.

On the Black Monday in 1987 Stockholm went down with over 20 percent and in the end of the year the stock markets in Hong Kong had decreased with nearly 46 percent, Australia with almost 42 percent, Great Britain with 26 percent, the US 23 percent and Canada also close to 23 percent.

[Jahn]

From the Swedish Wikipeda (my translation)

The 19th October in 1987 has been called the "Black Monday" when stock markets fell dramatically worldwide.

Heh, that is 21 years ago, three quarters of a full Saturn cycle.

[Michael]

Here's my latest summery.

We are now into phase two of the crunch. Basically phase one was the credit crisis which swept the western world, behind the scenes. The quick action - compared to 1929 - of funds injection and backing, caught the wave just as it was about to toss the world into an abyss.

That crisis is essentially over, unfortunately however a deeper layer is creeping forward - the hidden derivatives crisis. Will that break? No one is sure - maybe, maybe not.

Phase two happened like this. US stock markets rebounded on the news that all major governments had stepped up to guarantee the banks, and inject fiscal stimulus packages. That lasted as I watched, about two to three days. Then US investors looked around, and all of a sudden (?? stupid people) recalled that US was heading into a recession before all this happened. Main Street was not only crumbling, but the Financial Crisis had exacerbated the decline. They sold stocks again. And they have been selling ever since.

This second wave is now beginning to break on the developing world economies. Most of them, including some of the vulnerable second tier countries like the Baltic states and Iceland, do not have the reserves to step in and halt the slide. This covers Africa, South America, Asia and East Europe.

It appears that the 'new power' countries, China, India and Brazil, have the stability to withstand the worst of this second wave, but the rest collapsed last week.

The comment from the experts is that if this hasn't affected you yet, it will soon.

Some curious details:

In Australia, BHP Billiton and RIO are very upbeat about their future resources business with Asia. ANZ bank is confident that Australian banks and property values will hold. Local supermarket giant Woolworths is showing a record profit.

This is all tied to the question of whether Asia will crumble at last, after withstanding the first wave. Most commentators seem to think only the big two, India and China, will escape, and the rest will crash.

Vast sums of money are racing for cover across the world. Where to? To the big economies, and away from the small - 'big is safe' is the mantra. The biggest is US bonds market which is why the US dollar has risen. But many sober analysts are rolling their eyes at this - USA is on the brink of national bankruptcy. Those bonds may soon become worthless. The problem for large investors is where to park trillions of dollars of cash - huge amounts can be lost in an hour by being in the wrong place.

Jahn is correct about inflation solving some problems, but at a cost, and no country want to go that way. The problem is that no one can work out whether this downturn will be accompanied by inflation of deflation. This is a mystery right now, and it does make a big difference.

On the moral side, we have Gordon Brown and Sarkozy stepping forward in a bold leadership move, to initiate a new global financial and business paradigm. But is it really new? More to the point, are they putting forward a drastic revolution or a patch-up job?

It's a patch-up job.

Reason is, that despite all the hoopla, the pain is insufficient to leverage big changes. The old guard are still entrenched, and so is their philosophy. A little regulation and a little centralisation - that should fix things and then we'll be back to business as usual.

Witness the sneaky assault by the US on the credibility of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF boss - highlighting an internal investigation about his affair. That man has been too vocal recently, and needs to be put in his place - recall what happened to Joseph Stiglitz.

Witness the scandal of the huge bonuses and payouts in the Wall Street banking sector, of over $70bn! - money coming straight from taxpayers funds into the pockets of bank employees. Why? Because they don't get it - they believe this is a short hiccup in the gravy train, which will soon be back to normal.

The changes being evoked by this roll of crisis, are just too dramatic for anyone to contemplate. For God's sake, I haven't even heard anyone mention the Tobin tax yet.

I feel the human race is now entering a valley which will change the face of our species for many centuries to come. This will reveal itself over the next 50 years, and possibly in a much shorter time than that. Personally I do hope the global economy doesn't collapse in a pile of shit, because gradual change is more effective and lasting than violent change - on a social scale that is.

[Michael]

now we sit and watch....

I think I heard the leaders are going to get together on Nov 15th - it'll all be over by then me thinks.

This week will be critical.  The Asians and George had a get-together, and seems like it was all talk. With George still holding on to his undies.

I hear them speak of, 'is it going to be a V, W, U or L shaped recession.... or a total catastrophe'.

What we watch for at this point is the 'extra', coming in from the side. This is what you always should look out for when ever you are stretched to the absolute limit - something happens to test your real mettle.

An unrelated event, that comes in from left wing, and spins the whole crazy parade into complete anarchy.

There are lessons to be learnt in all this about these so-called companions we share our species name with. And about ourselves. So long as it is only in the news, it's fairly safe, but if it's the neighbours that are going rabid... best you keep an eye out.

[erik]

Heh, in terms of physics, it looks as if the initial pulse from the US has been sent, and now the closed space vibrates.

We do live in a closed space/system here, in physical life on Earth and it occurs to me that thinking that we were in some sort of open system has been one of the major illusions so far. The ideas of continuous economic growth, these weird security and risk-management instruments like CDS and others - how could anyone expect them to work in closed and finite space with finite resources?

Some waves are returning and they make the US shake a bit more strongly... We'll see how much of a resonance we'll get. I would expect several waves of reverberations to follow.

I'm looking at Russia now as they are running into a liquidity crisis. Their banks experience cash shortages and they simply wouldn't pay when people want to withdraw their money. There are penalties being instituted for those who want to end their deposits before set date.

That is an 11 time zone-state spanning the space from the Baltic Sea to Pacific.