Greetings All, there is a new film I’m urging all of you to watch, no matter where you live in the world.
This version was just released last week, well-timed considering the current state of affairs and the financial terrorism we face around the globe.
Share your thoughts, speak your minds, it is free and brave – essential components for a society to thrive and survive.
Stay tuned, until tomorrow…
Posted in Brave New World News | Tagged Banking, centralised banks, Economics, Federal Reserve, Financial systems, Government, money, Society, Zeitgeist, Zeitgeist Addendum | Leave a Comment »
Recently my good friend Philea forwarded an email that talked about the December solstice and there was an interesting numerological passage about 2009. It said:
“Eleven is the master number that reflects the transformation of the physical into the Divine. The archetypes for the patterns of perfection for the New Earth were securely anchored into the physical plane in August 2008. In 2009, through our creative faculties of thought and feeling, we will expand these patterns into our daily experiences.”
9 Sept 09, 9:09 am London, UK GMT
Posted in Wendy's World | Tagged Astrology, Numerology | Leave a Comment »
Neither US presidential candidate is the right choice for a country that is on the threshold of a decline so destructive that in the next ten or twenty years could force poverty-stricken, brainwashed masses into absolute submission. The stripping of civil liberties in the last eight years has exceeded all the reductions that occurred since WWII.
There’s very little room for idealism right now. Practical concerns are pressing, the collective knows it and nationalising banks, the consolidation of the financial systems is just another mechanism to perpetuate debt and further the cause of those holding the strings of characterised marionettes.
The country, America is so needing an evolutionary leap – It’s on the threshold and either it will look back and restore the founding principles with great fervour as it crosses over or it will become a fascist, militaristic, experimental mess.
Depending on how long the enlightened citizens of the US such as yourself are willing to put up with the garbage will determine how long the process will take.
What would happen if 120 million US citizens actually voted and those votes were really counted, tallied? And on 4 November, at let’s say at 9 pm Pacific Time they discover and reveal that Ron Paul has won 70 million of those votes?
Does Congressman Paul become President Paul in a country for the people, by the people in January 2009?
Will America voice their desire to stop the madness, to direct their country towards a more meaningful existence?
These are the practical questions that seem to matter in the larger picture, from very far away….
Sending only hope that the land of my birth will come to its senses.
Till soon, W
Posted in Brave New World News | Tagged Banking, Financial systems, Founding Fathers, Government, Politics, Ron Paul for President, Vote | Leave a Comment »
Ladies and Gentlemen, while you sleep this headline broke on the internet airwaves and upon waking you have the choice to either be afraid or see the big picture and be smartly informed:
More than 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson had this to say about what is happening now:
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
Thomas Jefferson 1802
It’s a BRAVE NEW WORLD – He helped start it with a lot more enlightenment than what we face now. Heed the prophetic warning People of the World. What we do about current affairs is a civic and global responsibility. Mr. Jefferson watched the Bank of England drive the US into debt, to lead the way toward centralised banking. He looked into the crystal ball of the present and saw the consequences, also known as the future.
America, Vote for Ron Paul on 4 November 2008.
SAVE THE NATION, PRESERVE ITS ORIGINAL INTENTION and PURPOSE. USE YOUR VOTE WISELY, YOUR VOICE STILL COUNTS DESPITE CENSORSHIP AND THE RESOUNDING EFFORTS TO ELIMINATE YOUR LIBERTIES
Thanks for sending this quote, Dominique, my dear sister and soul friend.
May we all wake up sooner rather than later… stay tuned, more news at 11
Posted in Brave New World News | Tagged banks, brave new world, Centralised Banking, centralized banking, Civil Liberties, Economics, Finance, money, Ron Paul, Ron Paul for President, Thomas Jefferson, Vote | Leave a Comment »
Ladies & Gentlemen of Aotearoa, as you slept the media filtered through more propaganda to induce panic, it is essentially terrorising the masses – many of us, many of you are aware though, and are not digesting the incessant fear-mongering. Well done.
Did you wake up to breaking news that the Dow Jones dropped? Australia has cut lending rates and Europe is expecting a run on the banks? – It’s good, brilliant manipulation really – tell the people what they need to do with blatant subtlety. It’s all so ridiculous and brilliant, the paradox of our time.
And for those of you panicking, because you do not want to embrace responsible citizenship, heed the information below. Maybe you’ll wake up and find a sixth sense too.
If you had gone into business on the day Jesus was born, and your business lost a million dollars a day, day in and day out, 365 days a year, it would take you until October 2737 to lose one trillion dollars.
The U.S. Congress has done nearly five times this damage to their constituents in a little over seven years and eight months.
Debt to the Penny (Daily History Search Application)
http://www.treasury direct.gov/ NP/BPDLogin? application= npNational Debt 01/20/2001
5,727,776,738, 304.64National Debt 10/04/2008
10,148,749,284, 084.15U.S. National Debt Clock
http://www.brillig. com/debt_ clock/Cost of the War in Iraq Clock
http://www.costofwa r.com/
People of the World, financial terrorism is so NOT necessary. Shock and awe have numbed and dumbed too many humans by now, and it only takes a few who are awake to pay it forward and change the momentum.
I say let’s boycott using plastic credit. New Zealand, my fellow Kiwis what would happen if we didn’t even use our Eftpos card for a week? Just cash. What if, for one week, all around the world we stopped spending money? What would happen?
This is not to say that we don’t buy basic needs such as food, shelter, etc… But maybe that is all we purchase. Millions of people in conscious objection. The U.S. is a nation of consumption, it might be good to start the idea there as well. Seems that greed and consumerism are the ideal bedmates who also feed off of one another just like their ruling sycophants of government and business.
It’s a Brave New World. Are the global citizens willing and equipped to participate or have they unwittingly resigned and succumbed to the Illusion of smoke and mirrors? To being content taking Soma and bowing to centralised systems?
I know there are enough of us out there, smart enough, aware enough to assist a new direction, because it’s a waste of energy to attempt the cessation of what is in place. It will be more effective to carve a new world, one that is brave, intelligent, and non-reliant on Reserve Banks. That Ladies and Gentlemen is what we need – Abolition of central banking systems, debt-drivers, greedy mongrels afraid of losing so they make you believe that you are losing. Ridiculous and brilliant. You see? The paradox of our time.
These are big topics, large thoughts, broad possibilities, a request to find your sixth sense and to rely on it. Turn off network news.
Stay tuned for more later.
Till then, W
Posted in Brave New World News | Tagged Banking, Centralised Banking, Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve, Finance, Government, Politics, Reserve Bank, Thoughts, Treasury | Leave a Comment »
Greetings, I received this article link today from a good friend. Matt Taibbi has a very witty style with keen perception and the content is relevant to the decisions voting American citizens will make in the coming weeks. Enjoy the read. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/23318320/mad_dog_palin/3
Till soon, W
Posted in Brave New World News | Tagged Government, Matt Taibbi, Politics, Rolling Stone, Sarah Palin, Voting | Leave a Comment »
Ladies & Gentlemen, financial terrorism has been eating away at the global psyche. It is the 1st of October, a new moon, a new month, a new quarter, and a new persepective about our Brave New World in the City is here.
Mind the extra gap again, please. For weeks now the news bombardment and absolutely obvious manipulations of entire global systems has been stewing, waiting to break out, be breaking news. It still is, however, in the meantime, here is an entree to consider, to think about, and hopefully read through.
When treachery is no longer necessary to mobilise humankind towards greater consciousness, what will the world look like?
Once we travel through the past, even semi-consciously, we can then somewhat intelligently view future possibilities. The past is riddled with evidence revealing our persistent, albeit occasionally unconscious movement to expand our consciousness. Consider what is required to become and be great. To be remembered and respected.
Today, what is our history going to look like? Who will shape legacies monumental enough to last generations? It certainly won’t be pathetic publicity-mongers such as Paris Hilton. (I think in about 40 years we’ll read a headline that will say, “Whatever happened to the Hilton Girls?” And there will be a photo of two large blonde women wearing mu-mu’s surrounded by their 12 cats and 6 birds 🙂
The 20th century holds a long list of thinkers, doers, innovateurs: Madame Curie, Nikola Tesla, Aldous Huxley, Edward R. Murrow, Lucille Ball, Leonard Bernstein, and The Beatles. I’m going to sound like a Billy Joel or R.E.M. song in a minute. The list gives you an idea. They gave us legacies; they shifted our lives, culturally, socially, and politically. While living through their respective decades, each was an evolutionary leader with vision. They crossed thresholds and barriers which actually shifted human consciousness. Back to the theme of icons for a second. I have to ask. Who are we creating to show tomorrow’s world?
More than ever, tritely addressed too, corporate tentacles reach across the globe, shifting Earth’s face to pillage her in pursuit of oil, zinc, and gold, while mainstream media feeds the empty recesses amongst masses to consume the packaging and contents of what is mined and sold.
One may argue a case of sustainable energy; however, it is more of reversed sustainability. Motivations and intentions are the fuel for our consciousness; cultivation and innovation raise consciousness to propel us along; while greed and lust for control create more toxic pollutants.
Hence, we have our mythic stories from Mr. Lucas and Mr. Spielberg. Art mimicking life, or is it the other way around? Really, I am serious. What about members of The Jedi, those of us non-muggles, and those of us as the masters and apprentices, to know and use The Force.
My generation is upcoming on their fourth eleven, and two decades ago, this point in time seemed so far away. What kind of world do we want to create along our part of journey? What will be our legacy? We are it, those of us in the Bridge Generation, born 1962 to 1969, (Pluto & Uranus conjunction for us all at varying degrees). We entered our lives knowing that landing on the moon was a given, that fax machines, cellphone conference calls, the internet, space travel, pure intention and raising consciousness are motivations to mobilise humankind. Consider that treachery is no longer required.
I know and recognise the fact we have advanced technologically and in ratio, so did our desire for holistic health, fitness, nature, and the ever present desire to meet Yoda & Han Solo on a planet ten million light years away. We seek outwardly. We move in a spiral, the Earth on her elliptic around the Sun, us along the winding path of our DNA’s evolution. The macrocosm and the microcosm.
Earth and Human. The Universe and the Milky Way.
Life as we dare to imagine it.
Now imagine what the world will look like if we take the knowledge acquired along humankind’s spiral ascent of consciousness and utilise the enlightening jolts we received along the way by adept leaders and manipulated machines.
Would advertising actually become educational? Would government actually be separate from the sacred pulpits of corporate boardrooms? Would the population of insightful leaders and knowledgeable consumers help shift the course of corporate bodies and structures?
What will the world look like when business and government are no longer co-dependent, only interdependent? Laws would need to change, those societal boundaries craftily written and overtaking a human’s ability to behave sensibly and just. The purpose of a civilisation is…
Can anyone write me a summary of key points in a paragraph?
Bytes of information, a constant barrage, and it’s changing twice as fast as we learn it.
What does this say about future capacities?
Till soon, W
PS – I don’t use Microsoft Explorer and seems there is an issue of HTML code that appears if you do – I recommend using other browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari – anything but Microsoft
Posted in Brave New World News | Tagged Business, consciousness, Economics, education, evolution, Government, philosophy, Politics, space, Star Wars, Thoughts | Leave a Comment »
Greetings on this 9th day of August 2008. My friend Troy sent me a link to a most informative article he found. I am sharing the link with you so if you have an inclination to discover more, understand more, please read it. Knowledge is power and application of the knowledge leads to wisdom. Till soon, W
http://seekingalpha.com/article/89684-the-great-american-economy-take-a-closer-look
Posted in Brave New World News | Tagged Banking, Economics, Inflation, Monetary Policy, Ron Paul for President | Leave a Comment »
Welcome to Brave New World News.
Tonight’s topic: NAU
Ladies and Gentlemen, as global citizens becoming more connected through technology and innovation we have limitless opportunities to succeed, to evolve, to unite. The question is, What happens to Sovereignty?
The European Union, the African Union, and soon, the North American Union. Oh, you didn’t know about the African Union? You will notice it now. Awareness of a thing brings greater attention to it.
BBC and The Nation are just a couple of examples using AU and African Union in their reporting. Surely there are millions of global citizens whom aren’t even aware this happened between 2000 and 2002.
Consolidation to centralise anything in life is a single-edged sword. Perish the thought that we will allow centralised blocs of power to dictate our lives as human beings on this planet.
Breaking news update:
There is no imminent threat to your safety, other than your own carelessness.
Centralised governments want you to feel insecure, unsure of your own capabilities because then you will rely on them at an ever increasing rate, in an ever increasing number.
People of the world, we are capable of greater autonomy.
Many citizens are switched on, (not to network news, mind you). They are being curious, asking questions, looking for truth and logic, and understanding. Many are aware that the U.S. has signed an agreement with Canada and Mexico to create the North American Union as of 31 December 2009. This is not far away, 17 months. Considering how fast the last 7 months have vanished, it is imperative that we not wake up on New Year’s Day 2010 and ask ourselves, “How did this happen?” (Reminiscent of the Talking Heads song, Once in a Lifetime) If this comes to fruition, it will be a time of further consolidation as a single currency for Mexico, Canada & the U.S. will be introduced. It’s called the Amero. But you knew this already. Network news won’t report about it, & CNN has mentioned it a few times.
And folks, if McCain or Obama takes an oath in January 2009, you can rest assured either man will be required to follow through on the implementation eleven months later on 31 December 2009.
This is one of the numerous reasons Dr. Ron Paul is needed as President. He is a strong advocate of free markets, free speech, responsible monetary policy, and has my vote for President. Ron Paul wants to maintain a sovereign nation with sound economic and monetary policies which in turn requires a logical return to the gold standard and the eventual dissolution of the Federal Reserve. Dr. Paul, as a 10-term Congressman knows first hand that business and government don’t mix, as I’ve written before in another commentary entitled In the days before Dumbledore, “…, as we know, government and business make for wicked bed partners. The outcome cultivates torrid monetary affairs.”
Which leads to our dominant headline story at the moment here in New Zealand.
Our current Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has been snagged for dodgy actions with fundraising contributions. Oh, the delight of greed in politics and the media. Mostly owned by our Tasman neighbour, Rupert Murdoch, the printed and broadcast news networks paint convoluted images and thrashing messages to swing mass opinion. All it does is reinforce the point above about government and business.
Now back to our main story.
Where does Ron Paul stand on the NAU? He opposes it. It’s the expansion of socialism.
The seeds of the NAU agreement were planted in NAFTA, followed by secret meetings. Shocking, I know. You can even read about it at wikipedia.
I think this writer is starting to understand the dynamics of the last 7.5 years. Cheney, Carlyle Group and even Condi are the ones creating policies to benefit corporate balance sheets. Not that this is a revelation by any stretch of the imagination. It was a matter of understanding how George Bush the younger fits in to the scheme. It may be that he just shows up when he’s told to and does what his ‘advisors’ say. He is not a businessman, nor is he a statesman. George W is a trust fund baby, mainly incompetent and unmotivated to do anything substantial. Hence, how he became the President all fits in with the larger picture.
However, and this is crucial – all his lacking was the golden bounty for hidden powers behind his embarrassing terms as President. George Jr has been a willing, useful and lucrative pawn for those more adept at manipulation. George can go to sleep every night, blissfully ignorant, because in this writer’s opinion, he isn’t told very much. Ever. I wonder if he actually attends meetings and listens to what is being said. We know he gets paid to wear a suit, wave, sound ludicrous amongst other world leaders while the “real” work happens, and vacation in Crawford, Texas. We also know he’ll wake up on New Year’s Day 2010 without any concern for the loss of ideals, rights and liberties. If the NAU happens
George Jr. was sent to meet with Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon and Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, more than once. Mind you, amidst all it’s secretive encounters, the NAU initiative is now more obvious, and known to be engineered by a group called SPP, Security and Prosperity Partnership.
In light of the medionic language romancing citizens for decades now; there is a disturbing percentage whom are actually conditioned to respond positively to the word ‘security’ – airport security, Homeland Security, safety and security.
Here is the harsh truth my fellow citizens: Security is not found in the arms of your government.
It is essential that this understanding be communicated to All Countries, particularly those in the OECD. If unified, consolidated blocs of economic and legal power determine the strategies of its member states, then we are looking the rear view mirror in the eye.
Kingdoms and fiefdoms lasted only so long before tyranny induced those being ruled to unite and overthrow that which was oppressing them. There are many (?) who would keenly and competently argue that SPP and NAU are good for the U.S. and for the world. Check out how the SPP attempts to dispel myth versus fact. Any citizen with a modicum of intelligence and insight will probably feel their skin crawl in a vain effort of the SPP to sound convincing about their version of what is fact.
I’d like to hear these points, this logic, this debate. It seems that the crashing U.S. economy is part of the necessary steps to introduce the new currency.
The Amero, Ladies and Gentlemen, will be set up to solve the economic and monetary crisis. I’d like to be wrong on this one.
It is this writer’s belief that the responsibility, and ultimately the freedom of citizenry relies on the willingness to speak out, stand firm, keep questioning, and to keep thinking. These are the ways we will determine what is good and right for our speck of a planet amidst this grand universe.
Thanks for listening. Tune in tomorrow, we live in interesting times.
Until soon…
Posted in Brave New World News | Tagged Amero, Central Banking, Economics, Federal Reserve, Media, Monetary Policy, NAU, News, Ron Paul for President, Ronald Reagan, SPP, Winston Peters | 2 Comments »
Welcome to Brave New World News.
Events in politics, business, eco-nomics, culture and editorial expression to help enlighten our global citizens. (As opposed to pacifying, numbing and de-sensitizing human beings)
Condi Rice was here during the weekend, in New Zealand spouting the words of “21st century ally” to NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark and National Party hopeful John Key. Then yesterday, in the afternoon, on Radio New Zealand National, on a programme equivalent to Talk of the Nation on NPR in America, the commentators alluded to the fact Her Honourable Ms. Clark seemingly sees right through the manipulations and implications of aligning with an imperialistic bully.
Quite frankly Ladies and Gentlemen, from seven thousand miles away, I see this as if the Cheney/Bush/Carlyle Group is the dark side of the Force, and Ron Paul, Helen Clark, Kevin Rudd, Ann Richards, Mario Cuomo, Bill Bradley, and a few other voices and leaders scattered throughout recent history are the Jedi. This may be construed as an over-simplified analogy or metaphor, however, this writer has had enough of double entendre, political spin, euphemistic phrase conditioning and all the other silly games played by corporate media.
Today we have special coverage asking questions about Carlyle Group.
Their list of gentlemen (women seem to hold positions of marketing, business development, administration, support) involved with the management of the group reads like an issue of Barron’s, Wall Street Journal, Fortune 500 and Forbes. Know who’s listed?
The whole list of one-time and former associates and affiliates at wikipedia.org is here
The following is written on the website for Carlyle Group:
“Carlyle is a private partnership, which means that it is owned by a group of individuals, most of whom are Managing Directors at Carlyle, and two institutional investors. CalPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement Systems, owns approximately 5 percent, and Mubadala Development Company, a strategic investment and development company headquartered in Abu Dhabi, owns 7.5 percent. The companies and real estate in which Carlyle invests are owned by the funds that made the investments.”
“While open to opportunities wherever they can be found, Carlyle focuses on sectors in which it has demonstrated expertise: aerospace & defense, automotive & transportation, consumer & retail, energy & power, financial services, healthcare, industrial, infrastructure, real estate, technology & business services and telecommunications & media…”
“Carlyle’s conservative investment philosophy and disciplined investment process has generated extraordinary returns for its investors. Since its founding in 1987, the firm has invested $43.0 billion in 774 transactions. More than 1,200 investors from 71 countries entrust Carlyle with their capital and their reputations. As one means of aligning its own interests with those of its Limited Partner investors, Carlyle has committed more than $3.9 billion of its own capital to its funds.”
Their areas of expertise and interest pretty much cover all industries which would have a direct effect on the economies of whole countries.
Let’s do the math 1200 investors divided by 71 countries = 16.9 investors on average per country.
Global citizens awake. Who would those 3, 9, 17, or 32 be in each country?
The names, positions held, inter-connections are blatant, quite incestuous really.
However, in their FAQ section, you will find these statements:
This writer would like to remind the reader that Global Vision is greatly enhanced by the involvement of former Prime Ministers and Presidents – who better to express the trends so money is invested according to such exponential gains? Conservative investment philosophy shows that 66% of their fund is ‘Buyout’and 16% is Leveraged Finance. In my simple assessment, that would be 82% of extreme wealth essentially controlling what they invest in.
Carlyle’s investors are public and private institutional investors and high net worth individuals. Carlyle does not disclose information about its investors.
5. How is Carlyle different from other private equity firms?
Carlyle’s global presence and local market knowledge sets us apart from other private equity firms. We have Global Vision : Local Insight – Global because Carlyle operates 60 funds in 21 countries; Local because our more than 500 investment professionals work in their home countries. Carlyle is also different because of its conservative investment philosophy; rather than swing for the fences with every investment, we strive for consistency, hitting singles, doubles, and triples with far fewer strike-outs. Carlyle investment professionals also invest their own money alongside our investors, so when we say we treat our investors’ money like our own, we mean it.
Stay with us and watch this pattern take shape. <short, pleasant station break>
And we are back, discussing news that no one else will. This may not bode well for wide viewing interest; however, it is our aim to educate, to motivate thinking and the desire to question.
Here’s an example: Le Figaro, France’s printed bastion of published right wing thought followed this course of ownership:
In 1999 the Carlyle Group obtained a 40% stake in the paper, which it later sold in March of 2002. As of 2004, Le Figaro is controlled by Serge Dassault, a conservative businessman and politician best known for running the aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation, which he inherited from his father, its founder, Marcel (1892–1986).
Please take notice of which INDUSTRY Monsieur Dassault was from, and now connect the dot to the notation about the expertise in aerospace and defence that Carlyle purports to rely upon for investment. A very convenient chain of association.
In 20-21 years, Carlyle has managed to accumulate $82 billion in managed assets and funds. An awesome feat, then again they’ve had help from some very key principals and directors along the way. Their inception in 1987 was one year before George Bush Sr took residence in the Oval Office. Quite timely.
People of world, if you read this report, it is only a sketch, some might accusingly point out it’s an etch-a-sketch of how the Military Industrial Complex is protecting its lucrative interests and increasing global control. This leads to the enquiry of, “why did Dwight D. Eisenhower warn the American public of the MIC?”
He described the Cold War saying: “We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose and insidious in method…” and warned about what he saw as unjustified government spending proposals and continued with a warning that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex… Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
Was he not describing the role of powerful U.S. industries manipulating the post-war economies around the world?
We encourage interaction, taking responsibility, learning.
We hope you will espouse your views and comments.
Thank you for tuning in.
Brave New World News – when truth needs to be heard.
Here’s to Evolution – the name defines the concept.
This writer supports Ron Paul for U.S. President
Posted in Brave New World News | Tagged Business, Carlyle Group, Cheney, Condi, Economics, Finance, George Bush, Helen Clark, Media, Military industrial complex, News, Politics, Ron Paul for President, Star Wars | 4 Comments »
Yesterday’s news is just the beginning.
“Australian Financial Crisis” to follow.
It is expected that other countries still trading with and printing their own currency will follow Australia, such as New Zealand, Cook Islands, Fiji in order to introduce a unified bloc currency.
Then More Good News after 10
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/25/2314957.htm?section=justin
Financial calamities are seemingly real because centralised banks around the globe are playing a new game to induce panic. Medionic frenzy is my word to define it. Even newsreaders* are trained in how to effectively use their voice to relay the messages which dumb down our ability to decipher newsworthy versus news pithy. Turn it off. Just say no!
The idea is to not panic, please avoid knee-jerk reactions of fear and victimization. Of becoming numbed by the repetition. Your instinct, insight and intuition will guide you to the exit. Please follow their instructions and you won’t get lost or trampled. Civilisation will return tomorrow with a new episode.
Will any one be able to ask Kevin Rudd to comment here?
Till soon, W
*News journalists are now kept hidden from the masses in the event they impart knowledge and or truth
Posted in Brave New World News, Wendy's World | Tagged ASX, Australia, Culture, Economics, Finance, Kevin Rudd, Media, Monetary Policy, News & Entertainment, World News | Leave a Comment »
Get Enlightened, World
If you didn’t see Bill Moyers interview U.S. presidential candidate, Ron Paul in January 2008, please watch this
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01042008/watch2.html
Being AWARE and ATTUNED IS REALLY OK
And if someone who knows Mr. Moyers ever reads this, please ask him to interview Ron Paul again before October. Thanks much.
Till soon, W
Posted in Wendy's World | Tagged Bill Moyers Journal, Civil Liberties, Government, PBS, Politics, Ron Paul for President | 1 Comment »
Hello World – Ron Paul is the only candidate who is actually BRAVE enough to speak truth. Below is a recent speech from him, a true Statesman, an enlightened leader. The U.S. doesn’t need another muppety puppet holding the office of President, nor does it require the suffocating reins held by the likes of Cheney or Rice to rise from the ashes. Speaking of which…The AUSA in Auckland offered an award to someone who would make a citizen arrest of Condi as a war criminal this weekend when she visited here. But threats from NZ police, and more likely members of her fascist administration have now put a stop to it, sadly. Offer withdrawn. I say, fingerprint her and everyone else who dines with her. Let them sit behind bars. Although, she & Cheney may be fierce enough to chew through metal….So much for free speech and honouring the virtue of protest.
What has occurred in the U.S. during the past year is also taking its toll on New Zealand, a wee country with a population of 4.2 million. George & Dick have sent Condi here to meet with Helen Clark, our current PM & John Key, the National candidate for Prime Minister in November. (Personally, I believe Mr. Key is a most dubious character, seemingly connected to the backroom wheeling and dealing of centralised financial manipulations)
I didn’t write the date of the following quoted thought, however, it must be fairly recent based on the topic of surging oil prices. In the next post above, the interview with Bill Moyers in January 2008 echoes a lot of this too.
It is a habit to always have pen and paper close by and inside a tee-niny notebook, I found this the other day:
The play on oil supply and price keeps our populations more stationary. Perhaps it is like breathing; exhaling quantity, speed, industrialisation, consumerism, expelled in scope and now the socio-economic, inward gasp will bring about controlled mobility. Will this spurn more community focus, innovative thinking for the microcosm to flow with the macrocosm.?
Perhaps our universe is breathing in, in order to breathe out, to exhale a new energy, a new air to propel our spiral galaxy (and DNA) another leap forward. Maybe the astrophysical movement every 2200 years when we change astrological ages, the spiral of our galaxy, Earth’s orbit, and our DNA turns one level higher and wider. Sort of like the way perspective and consciousness must grow in the individual.
I think if Obama or McCain take office (notice I didn’t say if one is voted in), the world is in for the worst case scenario. I am not being pessimistic. Pragmatic, yes. I am an idealist at heart, and the country where I was born hangs on a precarious cliff. Only the people can rise up and push her back on the path.
And I don’t say this because my insights happen to coincide with what is happening in the world now. I knew Hilary wouldn’t make it, called that one in October 2007 while visiting the U.S. with about 6 witnesses around me. Whether I am right now remains to be seen. Hindsight is always 20/20 with a telescope 🙂
Now the words of Ron Paul, the man who needs to take the helm of the United States, and who the country and the world needs to be sworn in as U.S. President in January.
Ron Paul’s entire speech before the House:
Madam Speaker, I have, for the past 35 years, expressed my grave concern for the future of America. The course we have taken over the past century has threatened our liberties, security and prosperity. In spite of these long-held concerns, I have days–growing more frequent all the time–when I’m convinced the time is now upon us that some Big Events are about to occur. These fast-approaching events will not go unnoticed. They will affect all of us. They will not be limited to just some areas of our country. The world economy and political system will share in the chaos about to be unleashed.
Though the world has long suffered from the senselessness of wars that should have been avoided, my greatest fear is that the course on which we find ourselves will bring even greater conflict and economic suffering to the innocent people of the world–unless we quickly change our ways.
America, with her traditions of free markets and property rights, led the way toward great wealth and progress throughout the world as well as at home. Since we have lost our confidence in the principles of liberty, self reliance, hard work and frugality, and instead took on empire building, financed through inflation and debt, all this has changed. This is indeed frightening and an historic event.
The problem we face is not new in history. Authoritarianism has been around a long time. For centuries, inflation and debt have been used by tyrants to hold power, promote aggression, and pro vide bread and circuses for the people. The notion that a country can afford guns and butter with no significant penalty existed even before the 1960s when it became a popular slogan. It was then though, we were told the Vietnam War, and the massive expansion of the welfare state were not problems. The seventies proved that assumption wrong.
Today things are different from even ancient times or the 1970s. There is something to the argument that we are now a global economy. The world has more people and is more integrated due to modern technology, communications, and travel. If modern technology had been used to promote the ideas of liberty, free markets, sound money and trade, it would have ushered in a new golden age–a globalism we could accept.
Instead, the wealth and freedom we now enjoy are shrinking and rest upon a fragile philosophic infrastructure. It is not unlike the levies and bridges in our own country that our system of war and welfare has caused us to ignore.
I’m fearful that my concerns have been legitimate and may even be worse than I first thought. They are now at our doorstep. Time is short for making a course correction before this grand experiment in liberty goes into deep hibernation.
There are reasons to believe this coming crisis is different and bigger than the world has ever experienced. Instead of using globalism in a positive fashion, it’s been used to globalize all of the mistakes of the politicians, bureaucrats and central bankers.
Being an unchallenged sole superpower was never accepted by us with a sense of humility and respect. Our arrogance and aggressiveness have been used to promote a world empire backed by the most powerful army of history. This type of globalist intervention creates problems for all citizens of the world and fails to contribute to the well-being of the world’s populations. Just think how our personal liberties have been trashed here at home in the last decade.
The financial crisis, still in its early stages, is apparent to everyone: gasoline prices over $4 a gallon; skyrocketing education and medical-care costs; the collapse of the housing bubble; the bursting of the NASDAQ bubble; stock markets plunging; unemployment rising; massive underemployment; excessive government debt; and unmanageable personal debt. Little doubt exists as to whether we’ll get stagflation.
The question that will soon be asked is: When will the stagflation become an inflationary depression?
There are various reasons that the world economy has been globalized and the problems we face are worldwide. We cannot understand what we’re f acing without understanding fiat money and the long-developing dollar bubble.
There were several stages. From the inception of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 to 1933, the Central Bank established itself as the official dollar manager. By 1933, Americans could no longer own gold, thus removing restraint on the Federal Reserve to inflate for war and welfare.
By 1945, further restraints were removed by creating the Bretton-Woods Monetary System making the dollar the reserve currency of the world. This system lasted up until 1971. During the period between 1945 and 1971, some restraints on the Fed remained in place. Foreigners, but not Americans, could convert dollars to gold at $35 an ounce. Due to the excessive dollars being created that system came to an end in 1971. It’s the post Bretton-Woods system that was responsible for globalizing inflation and for generating a gigantic worldwide dollar bubble. That bubble is now bursting, and we’re seeing what it’s like to suffer the consequences of the many previous economic errors.
Ironically in these past 35 years, we have benefited from this very flawed system. Because the world accepted dollars as if they were gold, we only had to counterfeit more dollars, spend them overseas (indirectly encouraging our jobs to go overseas as well) and enjoy unearned prosperity. Those who took our dollars and gave us goods and services were only too anxious to loan those dollars back to us. This allowed us to export our inflation and delay the consequences we now are starting to see.
But it was never destined to last, and now we have to pay the piper. Our huge foreign debt must be paid or liquidated. Our entitlements are coming due just as the world has become more reluctant to hold dollars. The consequence of that decision is price inflation in this country–and that’s what we are witnessing today. Already price inflation overseas is even higher than here at home as a consequence of foreign central banks’ willingness to monetize our debt.
Printing dollars over long periods of time may not immediately push prices up–yet in time it always does. Now we’re seeing catch-up for past inflating of the monetary supply. As bad as it is today with $4 a gallon gasoline, this is just the beginning. It’s a gross distraction to hound away at drill, drill, drill as a solution to the dollar crisis and high gasoline prices. Its okay to let the market increase supplies and drill, but that issue is a gross distraction from the sins of deficits and Federal Reserve monetary shenanigans.
This bubble is different and bigger for another reason. The central banks of the world secretly collude to centrally plan the world economy. I’m convinced that agreements among central banks to monetize U.S. debt these past 15 years have existed, although secretly and out of the reach of any oversight of anyone–especially the U.S. Congress that doesn’t care, or just flat doesn’t understand. As this gift to us comes to an end, our problems worsen. The central banks and the various governments are very powerful, but eventually the markets overwhelm when the people who get stuck holding the bag (of bad dollars) catch on and spend the dollars into the economy with emotional zeal, thus igniting inflationary fever.
This time–since there are so many dollars and so many countries involved–the Fed has been able to paper over every approaching crisis for the past 15 years, especially with Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, which has allowed the bubble to be come history’s greatest.
The mistakes made with excessive credit at artificially low rates are huge, and the market is demanding a correction. This involves excessive debt, misdirected investments, over-investments, and all the other problems caused by the government when spending the money they should never have had. Foreign militarism, welfare handouts and $80 trillion entitlement promises are all coming to an end. We don’t have the money or the wealth-creating capacity to catch up and care for all the needs that now exist because we rejected the market economy, sound money, self reliance and the principles of liberty.
Since the correction of all this misallocation of resources is necessary and must come, one can look for some good that may come as this Big Event unfolds.
There are two choices that people can make. Th e one choice that is unavailable to us is to limp along with the status quo and prop up the system with more debt, inflation and lies. That won’t happen.
One of the two choices, and the one chosen so often by government in the past is that of rejecting the principles of liberty and resorting to even bigger and more authoritarian government. Some argue that giving dictatorial powers to the President, just as we have allowed him to run the American empire, is what we should do. That’s the great danger, and in this post-911 atmosphere, too many Americans are seeking safety over freedom. We have already lost too many of our personal liberties already. Real fear of economic collapse could prompt central planners to act to such a degree that the New Deal of the 30’s might look like Jefferson ’s Declaration of Independence.
The more the government is allowed to do in taking over a nd running the economy, the deeper the depression gets and the longer it lasts. That was the story of the 30s and the early 40s, and the same mistakes are likely to be made again if we do not wake up.
But the good news is that it need not be so bad if we do the right thing. I saw Something Big happening in the past 18 months on the campaign trail. I was encouraged that we are capable of waking up and doing the right thing. I have literally met thousands of high school and college kids who are quite willing to accept the challenge and responsibility of a free society and reject the cradle-to-grave welfare that is promised them by so many do-good politicians.
If more hear the message of liberty, more will join in this effort. The failure of our foreign policy, welfare system, and monetary policies and virtually all government solutions are so readily apparent, it doesn’t take that much convincing. But the positive message of how freedom works and why it’s possible is what is urgently needed.
The so called good that government claims it can deliver is always achieved at the expense of someone One of the best parts of accepting self reliance in a free society is that true personal satisfaction with one’s own life can be achieved. This doesn’t happen when the government assumes the role of guardian, parent or provider, because it eliminates a sense of pride. But the real problem is the government can’t provide the safety and freedom.
It’s a failed system and the young people know it. Restoring a free society doesn’t eliminate the need to get our house in order and to pay for the extravagant spending. But the pain would not be long-lasting if we did the right things, and best of all the empire would have to end for financial reasons. Our wars would stop, the attack on civil liberties would cease, and prosperity would return. The choices are clear: it shouldn’t be difficult, but the big event now unfolding gives us a great opportunity to reverse the tide and resume the truly great American Revolution started in 1776.
Opportunity knocks in spite of the urgency and the dangers we face.
Let’s make Something Big Is Happening be the discovery that freedom works and is popular and the big economic and political event we’re witnessing is a blessing in disguise.
SOURCE: House.gov/Paul
Ron Paul Video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-785128162617846417&q=Ron+Paul+Big+Events&ei=qIWHSPfEHYzYqwOU3qDOCA&hl=en
Visit: The Denver Patriot Community web
HERE’S to the EVOLUTION – change the word to change the outcome 😉
Posted in Wendy's World | Tagged Central Banking, Globalisation, Government, Politics, Ron Paul, Society | 4 Comments »
Greetings from Aotearoa, life has been full of change and Brave New World in the City has been neglected once again. I do have a worthy post, though – this was sent from a Kiwi friend living in Pennsylvania. If you saw Bill Moyers on PBS this weekend, you will have seen his interview with William Greider. If not, then do give a read. These are the topics, the issues, the knowledge media needs to impart. Thankfully Bill Moyers returned to television, a sane, clear voice to help balance the medionic propaganda of network news. We now receive satellite transmissions of some PBS programming in New Zealand, being aired on Triangle TV, channel 50 on Saturn cable. Till soon, W
BILL MOYERS: With me now is one of America’s leading chroniclers of money, power, and politics, who says what’s happening is the disgrace of Wall Street, its excesses paid for by people like those in Cleveland and millions like them around the country.
William Greider has spent forty years examining how powerful institutions affect ordinary people. Once a top editor of THE WASHINGTON POST, a columnist for ROLLING STONE, and now National Affairs Correspondent for THE NATION, he has produced a series of best-selling books: SECRETS OF THE TEMPLE: HOW THE FEDERAL RESERVE RUNS THE COUNTRY, ONE WORLD, READY OR NOT: THE MANIC LOGIC OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM, WHO WILL TELL THE PEOPLE: THE BETRAYAL OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY, and this one, THE SOUL OF CAPITALISM. He’s working on a new book with the title: COME HOME, AMERICA.
Good to see you in person.
WILLIAM GREIDER: Thanks Bill.
BILL MOYERS: What were you thinking as you saw that report from Cleveland?
WILLIAM GREIDER: Made me angry all over again, even though I know the story. And then I thought, “This is usury.” This is a living example of what the Bible prohibited, which is the sin of usury. Most Americans have never heard of it probably.
BILL MOYERS: Usury?
WILLIAM GREIDER: Usury, to be clear about it, is rich people taking advantage of poor people by lending them money on terms that are sure to make them fail. All three of the great religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, had a moral prohibition against usury because they recognized that society can’t function like that. People of great wealth and their institutions like banks naturally have the power to overwhelm people of lesser means. And you can’t allow that in a decent society. It won’t survive.
BILL MOYERS: Where were the gatekeepers? Where were the watchdogs? Why did it take the Fed so long to put an end to-
WILLIAM GREIDER: Well-
BILL MOYERS: -predatory practices?
WILLIAM GREIDER: To make the story overly crude, Congress repealed the law against usury. It was done in 1980 by a Democratic Congress, Democratic President. And, of course, the Republicans all piled on and voted for it. And that was the first stroke, only the first of many, in which they stripped away the regulatory laws from the financial system and from banking.
And that allowed the free market modernized gimmicks of one kind or another, all these things we’re now reading about, to flourish. And that’s where we are. I mean, the gatekeepers said to the banking industry and to the financial industry, “We don’t think federal control or regulation is good for you, so we’re, therefore, liberating you to do your own thing.”
BILL MOYERS: So why did they do that in 1980? I mean, there was, of course, the rise of the backlash to regulation from 40 years of Democratic rule-
WILLIAM GREIDER: The-
BILL MOYERS: -there was the rise, the arrival of the conservatives with their free market ideology.
WILLIAM GREIDER: Right, right.
BILL MOYERS: What was the issue?
WILLIAM GREIDER: Well, the driver then, and it was a powerful driver, was inflation. And through the ’70s, for lots of reasons inflation, which tends to undermine the value of financial wealth and money, was out of control. The Federal Reserve had lost control of it, not entirely its fault. But that set up a political climate that said the government is not working and that wasn’t wrong at the moment. Let’s get the government out of the way.
And that was very appealing as framed by Ronald Reagan and other conservatives. But I think it’s fair to say most Democrats yielded to it against whatever their original instincts were because of political necessity. And then the third dimension, maybe the most important, was that you had this very powerful industrial sector, that is banking and finance, that wanted and had pushed for years to get out from under the regulatory controls, limits on interest rates, the law against usury, the merger of commercial banks with investment banks, which had been prohibited in the New Deal because it caused the disaster of 1929.
I can go on and on. But you see the pattern. And the point I keep trying to make to people is that history learned the hard way that you do need prudential controls on industries like banking ’cause they’re so central to everybody’s well being.
BILL MOYERS: Left to their own devices, they go too far?
WILLIAM GREIDER: Yeah. They will use their power to their own advantage. And that’s what we’re witnessing now, a kind of recklessness that was set free by political retreat and people, some of them were sincere. Some of them were just on the make. But here’s our great American tension. We want an economy that’s dynamic, that’s growing, puts more jobs out there for people to get, rising wages, all that good stuff. And at the same time, we want an economy that’s stable. And that means no inflation, steady as you go, so forth and so on.
And this is the, you know, this is the mortal condition. You’re not going to escape that tension. Government is a powerful intervener that tries, ought to try, to balance those two desires. For many years, the Federal Reserve served that role and tried to strike a balance.
BILL MOYERS: And then what happened?
WILLIAM GREIDER: During the last generation, 25, 30 years ago, the Federal Reserve, the central bank that regulates money and credit, tipped hard in one direction.
BILL MOYERS: Toward?
WILLIAM GREIDER: Crudely put, toward capital, in favor of capital and against labor. It not only hardened the value of money by suppressing inflation, but it participated very aggressively in the role of stripping away regulatory breaks on financial system and banks. Declined to enforce many of its own regulatory powers that exist in law. And meanwhile, sort of kept a foot on the brake about economic growth and full employment and all those good things that might help working people by encouraging rising wages.
BILL MOYERS: So at the same time the Fed was helping to keep wages down in order to keep inflation from escalating, its policies were, nonetheless, helping banks and investors to inflate the cost of their-
WILLIAM GREIDER: Right.
BILL MOYERS: -the value of their assets beyond reality-
WILLIAM GREIDER: That’s it.
BILL MOYERS: -right?
WILLIAM GREIDER: That’s it. At one point, writing in “The Nation,” I somewhat playfully and wickedly referred to Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, as the “one-eyed chairman.” He can see inflation and wages and goods and services, the prices that consumer prices, even when it doesn’t exist. And he’ll put his foot down on the brake. But he doesn’t see the inflation in the financial system at all.
And the inflation in the financial system is the value, the prices, of financial assets, most obviously stock, rose fantastically over 20, 25 years, two, three times the growth in the real underlying economy. Something’s wrong there, right? How do these financial assets, which supposedly reflect the economy, suddenly become worth three times more?
BILL MOYERS: Yes. How did they?
WILLIAM GREIDER: Well, now we’re back in the game, aren’t we? With deregulation, with the help of the Fed, and with the success of the Super Bull market, everybody’s animal spirits in the financial system became more animal. And they and they went for it, and they said, “If you’ll get this rule out of the way or you let us make this kind of weird little gimmicky paper innovation, we’ll do even better.”
BILL MOYERS: Yeah, you-
WILLIAM GREIDER: And you had this force rising up, driving things higher in the stock market while, in many sectors of the economy, if not everywhere, people are saying, “Gee, this doesn’t feel that good to us.” And particularly working people.
BILL MOYERS: You’ve written about a fantasy, an illusion that led to the housing bubble. You wrote about a fantasy that was sold, an illusion that led to the housing bubble. Whose interest was it to sell a fantasy?
WILLIAM GREIDER: Well, the merchants of financial paper, to put it bluntly. I mean, the illusion was that you could dismantle or disregard fairly old-time traditional rules of proper banking and stewardship and that that would definitely allow prices, profits, everything to go still higher. But that they could somehow dissolve the risk in that for the society, not just for the society but for themselves.
One example of that was what you heard about in the sub-prime mortgage thing. Who is holding this mortgage that’s been lent to these people who we know are going to fail ’cause their incomes just aren’t sufficient? Well, it’s kind of hard to say because this mortgage is designed as a securitized package of 1,000 mortgages. And you sell it in the financial market to investors all over the world.
And then they sell it to somebody else, and it moves round literally. So what you’ve done with this innovation is you’ve distanced the lender from the borrower. Each party, the guy who sold the mortgage, the bank, then the next, the guy who buys the bond, takes his returns upfront, sells it on, and you stripped away the responsibility for that lending. And that’s a pretty good microcosm of what happened generally in the financial system.
BILL MOYERS: How is it that these banks wind up holding the rotten mortgage securities that of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
WILLIAM GREIDER: There is a level of fraud here which shouldn’t be neglected that, I mean, people lied to their customers’ banks-
BILL MOYERS: -mortgage-
WILLIAM GREIDER: -banks, mortgage houses, lied to the people they were selling these bonds to. But as we heard, they also lied to the people who were borrowing the money. I mean, this is fraud with the conflicts of interest. There’s an investigation underway now with a number of the biggest banks stuck with all this bad paper, this rotten mortgage securities. Who can they sell them to?
The otherwise savvy investors around the world have gotten burned already, so they won’t touch them. I know. Let’s sell them to our customers. And so they’re literally taking the bonds out of their own portfolio as a bank and selling them to the banks’ closed customers. Now, that’s going to stop, too, because now everybody’s onto the secrets.
WILLIAM GREIDER: I think you can get lost in the mechanics of how all this works. And it’s pretty sometimes pretty dizzying stuff. I think the bigger message is that what some of our old folks knew turns out still to be true.
BILL MOYERS: Which is?
WILLIAM GREIDER: Which is the process of lending, borrowing, investing, all of those things, require a personal hands-on knowledge of what you’re doing but also a level of integrity that, put it bluntly, does not exist at this time in our financial system.
BILL MOYERS: You see a direct connection between what happened to those people in Cleveland and across the country and the cozy relationship that you’ve often written about between Wall Street and Washington?
WILLIAM GREIDER: Yeah. Yeah. The point I want to make, though, is that this is deeper than politician rolling over for his campaign contributor, the guys who finance the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. They do that, too. But they were sold a fantasy, an illusion, which sounded wonderful about how markets make better judgments than government and the public. And that liberating finance and business from prudential rules that society imposes upon them will produce a bigger, better economy and better returns for everyone.
All those fantasies have been destroyed by these events, I mean, wiped out. And if you think about it, as we go through the hard months ahead, America’s going to have to take some pain, right? In one form or another. The government’s going to have to probably ask for some sacrifices.
How do they do that when the American people have just seen the government rush in three days, five days or less, to bail out the biggest, most powerful institutions in the country? That is, the financial investment houses and banks and major banks.
BILL MOYERS: In your opinion, the bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, good or bad?
WILLIAM GREIDER: I think it’s bad. I mean, I think the way they’re doing it is terrible. It’s not done in the public interest. The bailout is necessary. They are failing at the bailout. And I believe they’re failing because they haven’t gone far enough.
They need to start thinking of, okay, how do we save the folks? That is, the broad interests of the American people as a nation, as workers, as family, blah, blah, blah. And the way to deal with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and some others like it is to nationalize them. Make them agencies of the federal government. That’s what they were originally. And they performed for many years a really valuable service to housing markets.
They sort of re-circulated the capital and the mortgages and so forth. Make them a sub-agency of government. Let the shareholders of Fannie Mae and the rest eat their losses. They were playing risk taker shareholders. Let them suffer the consequences of their wrong bets. And go back to a more normal configuration.
Not a casino. No private shareholders. Look, the bailout of Fannie Mae that they’re proposing says, somewhat generously I think, we’ll put $300 billion on the table to buy the shares of stockholders in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And just us saying that should give them a lot of confidence. Well, yeah, wouldn’t it if you’ve just had the federal government promise to buy your shares if you don’t want to hold them anymore.
BILL MOYERS: Maybe that’s why all the foreign investors rushed in yesterday to buy Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-
WILLIAM GREIDER: It might have some connection, yes.
BILL MOYERS: -if they know the taxpayers are going to put the money in, they’ve got a pretty good-
WILLIAM GREIDER: They’ve got what you might call a no-lose proposition. And the other part of that, and this would be simple. You could pass this in three days. Restore the federal law against usury. That won’t have too many details to it at first. But it’ll be a general statement that the federal government is prohibiting the kind of outrageous predatory practices, which have become general in this country, of not just banks but other financial firms.
BILL MOYERS: Credit card companies and-
WILLIAM GREIDER: Credit card – yeah, it’s a long list. We know those abuses.
BILL MOYERS: Put some limits, some boundaries?
WILLIAM GREIDER: Well, eventually you have to draw very precise boundaries, I think, and restore some structure that says, okay, you can get a return of X on credit cards, but you can’t get a return of triple X, right? And that kind of regulation. And that’s not easy to draw. It takes a while.
But the first law that would just reassure the public, we’re against usury. Muslims are against it. Christians are against it. Jews are against it. And we’re going to develop a government laws that prohibited and penalized these institutions when they get caught doing it.
BILL MOYERS: Excessive interest, owned loans.
WILLIAM GREIDER: Excessive-
BILL MOYERS: That’s what you mean by usury?
WILLIAM GREIDER: That’s the narrowest meaning. But the larger meaning is wealthy people, whether they’re banks or individuals, ought not to be able to use their power, their wealth to exploit people who don’t have wealth, great wealth. That’s not too complicated. And I’m not being utopian here. I’m just saying that you can reestablish legal-slash-moral limits on the behavior of finance and their wealthy patrons. And if they don’t want to observe those rules then they need not apply for emergency loans at the Federal Reserve or the Treasury Department.
BILL MOYERS: In other words-
WILLIAM GREIDER: You see what I’m getting at? And-
BILL MOYERS: Yeah, in other words, so-
WILLIAM GREIDER: -and this is a-
BILL MOYERS: -if there’s a bailout, certain conditions on that bailout.
WILLIAM GREIDER: Absolutely.
BILL MOYERS: Not just a free pass.
WILLIAM GREIDER: And what they’ve done in the last year, now two or three times and they’re going to do more is to say, “Oh, my goodness, the biggest investment bank, houses are in trouble. We don’t usually lend directly to them. We only lend to big banks, but they’re in trouble, too. Let’s lend to both of them. Let’s open the windows and pour out the capital, the liquidity, and so forth.” And there wasn’t a day that where they paused to say, “What are we getting in return? That these guys promise not to fail?” You see what I’m getting at? It’s-
BILL MOYERS: I do.
WILLIAM GREIDER: -it’s a wildly grotesque transaction where the public guarantees the life of these firms, and there isn’t any effort that we know of to say, “And in return, you’re going to behave in the following ways for the next ten years or maybe forever. We’ll pass a law later that spells that out more clearly, but this is our starting demand.” And I suppose they would say, “Well, we don’t have time to do that. This is a crisis, blah, blah, blah.” I don’t buy that. I think that’s a way to avoid those questions is not even mention them.
BILL MOYERS: You have been writing for a long time now that America’s moving toward a corporate state. If we become one, can we exercise the self-correcting faculty that prevents us from hitting the iceberg out there?
WILLIAM GREIDER: One of the reasons I think politics is going to change fairly dramatically is that the Federal Reserve, accompanied by the Treasury Department and I think will be accompanied by the Congress, has crossed a very dangerous line in their bailout. They have essentially said, “We will put money on the table, taxpayers’ money on the table, for any financial institution or business that is too big to fail.” That is, if it fails, it’ll send dangerous ripples through the economy.
And we’ve got a list now of maybe 30, 40, depending on how you count them, that we will be there to save you. I regard that as profoundly dangerous for the American Republic because once you cross that line and you have this special club that’s privileged, that has benefits from government that nobody else can get, where do you stop it?
I mean, if I were running a big manufacturing company, I would have quickly run out and buy a subsidiary that’s a bank or a financial firm that looks like a bank. And I would then try to get myself on that list. Who wouldn’t? What’s going on right now it’s gotten a little attention – the union SEIU is fighting it, is these private equity firms, which are huge money pots of investors that take over and change corporations and come away with huge profits. The private equity firms are trying to buy into the banks and financial firms.
BILL MOYERS: And what would that mean?
WILLIAM GREIDER: That would mean that this private unregulated equity fund would be participating behind the door, so to speak, in the management of our regulated banks. But it would also, in a pinch, if it’s big enough, maybe have a tap into that federal guarantee that if you’re too big to fail, we’ll be there for you.
BILL MOYERS: Even if-
WILLIAM GREIDER: You see what I’m getting at? And-
BILL MOYERS: I do. This morning in the “New York Times” one of the big stories in the business section is the financial industry is organizing to stop Congress from trying to regulate excessive speculation on oil and energy. They don’t want this capacity for exploiting-
WILLIAM GREIDER: Well-
BILL MOYERS: -people’s needs.
WILLIAM GREIDER: Well, I could lay us alongside that the Securities and Exchange Commission, which, remember in olden days, was supposed to defend us innocent investors against the guys running corporations. And that’s why we have all these reports and so forth and so on. They announced this past week that they’re going to go after the short sellers in the stock market.
The short sellers are the guys who say these folks at the corporate headquarters are lying to you or the folks at Citigroup are still not telling the truth about their losses and liabilities. So you see what I’m getting at. It’s equivalent to saying we don’t want anybody bad mouthing us in the middle of this trouble. And we’ll try to penalize them if we can. Isn’t that contradictory to the public interest?
BILL MOYERS: Have we hit bottom?
WILLIAM GREIDER: I don’t think so. But I think the short answer is nobody knows. My sense is, partly because the rottenness, the bad assets and so forth and the inflated housing prices and all the other defaults have so much more to play out – I think they will then feed back, and are already, into real economic consequences for the general life of the economy.
BILL MOYERS: Meaning?
WILLIAM GREIDER: Well, people lose jobs. Unemployment will rise.
BILL MOYERS: Like Cleveland. Yeah-
WILLIAM GREIDER: And like, you know, a perhaps less vicious story because it’ll be more gradual than what’s happening in those neighborhoods in Cleveland. But then as that happens, the losses feed back into banks because they’ve got consumer loans, they’ve got car loans, they’ve got business loans. And even banks that have been more or less virtuous in their behavior will be impinged by that. So I’m not making some grandiose calamity prediction. I’m just saying we got a lot more pain to take in this society before this works out.
BILL MOYERS: Both parties have put the watchdogs to sleep, right?
WILLIAM GREIDER: A better metaphor, instead of putting them to sleep, would be castration.
WILLIAM GREIDER: I don’t know what you want, I mean-
BILL MOYERS: Both parties of complict-
WILLIAM GREIDER: Putting them to sleep is just a metaphor that stops me-
BILL MOYERS: Both parties have been complicit in tipping the balance of power to capital, right?
WILLIAM GREIDER: I’m afraid so. That’s right. I mean, if you go back over the last 20, 25 years, it was always portrayed as a cause of conservative Republicans, even right-wing Republicans. And that was, of course, true. But I think a majority of the Democrats were in collusion virtually every step of the way, and sometimes they led the way.
BILL MOYERS: Do you think Washington really knows what’s going on? Do you think they really understand what’s happening out there in Cleveland and places like that all over the country?
WILLIAM GREIDER: The short answer is, no, I’ve been in Washington as a citizen and resident for 40 years. And I’m still occasionally shocked by its ignorance of the rest of the country. And some of that is willful, of course. But some of it is just, it’s a very nice life in Washington. You get used to certain protective qualities.
We saw that recently with these political players, who got good mortgages. How do they do that? Well, we know how they did it. And in any case, Washington doesn’t yet see the depth of the problem.
If you ask me, well, who’s figured this out? Who understands, at least in general terms, where we are? The guys in Washington? The politicians and their governing policy advisors? Or the dimwitted public? I would say the public. And I think there’s a lot of evidence in that. You know, they keep seeing these polls where the public expresses doubt about this, about-
BILL MOYERS: Eighty-one percent of the people in the most recent polls say we’re heading in the wrong direction.
WILLIAM GREIDER: I call that an extreme consensus. Why do the newspapers not celebrate that? They’re always looking for consensus politics. Here’s the American public, they’ve got an eighty– you know, that’s extraordinary.
WILLIAM GREIDER: We have an opening in this crisis for, this is really going to sound grandiose. We have an opening in this crisis for a deep transformation in American politics. I don’t say it happens this year, next year, or it’s going to take a number of years. But we are in the shock of reality. And people get it everywhere and see the blood in the streets. And you tell them how this worked and who did what to whom, and that’s a basis for a new politics.
But it requires people – this is the hard part – to get out of their sort of passive resignation to, “Well, we follow the Democrats” or “we follow the Republicans” or “we let this group or that group tell us how to think” and engage among themselves in a much more serious role as citizens. And when, as they do that, they have to be willing to punish the political powers, in smart ways or crude ways, however they can, first, to get a place in the debate. But, secondly, to force the changing values of the system.
And I, this may be wishful, but I think in the next year, two years, five years, you’re going to see both political parties floundering. What do we believe about all this stuff? We’ve told folks this, you know, lovely story for 20, 25 years about the magic of the marketplace. Do we still want to kind of prop that up? That’s where they are now. They’re still trying to prop up the marketplace vision and make it work again. It’s over.
I think events will demonstrate that. So if they’re not willing to change then we need to change the politicians. And that’s all a bloody process and doesn’t happen quickly. But that’s why I’m optimistic.
BILL MOYERS: Bill Greider we look forward to your new book, the title of it will be-
WILLIAM GREIDER: “Come Home, America”
BILL MOYERS: And you come back to the Journal.
WILLIAM GREIDER: Thanks.
Posted in Brave New World News, Wendy's World | Tagged Banking, Bill Moyers, Business, Economics, Finance, Government, Journal, Media, Politics, William Greider | 3 Comments »
Winter has been gusting and swirling through our idyllic city. I’ve been meaning to write more often, and haven’t. Then today, I received my monthly briefing from Trend Watching, and the ‘innovation avalanche’ is quite inspiring. Some of the trends indicate that a ‘What if’ from yesterday may be possible.
Here are examples of autonomy, greater self-governance blooming in the world:
Scottish Tennent’s Lager has launched Tennent’s Mutual, a new music venture that will ultimately result in a live music festival later this year in which fans select artists, debate locations for gigs and call the shots on ticket prices. To kick off the effort, Tennent’s created a start-up fund of GBP 150,000. Fans are given founder member status and the right to vote on the who-what-why-where of all decisions made and how the start-up money is invested. Ticket income, meanwhile, will be ploughed back into the central fund, which will be used to bankroll other live events.
The Point takes the notion of the tipping point—that point at which group action will produce a clear result and inevitable change—and applies it to organizing group efforts. Those who join a campaign pledge to take specific action—to boycott a company, for example, or donate funds toward a cause—but no one actually acts until the campaign reaches its preset tipping point, or number of pledged participants. When that point is reached, however, the action is triggered and participants make their donations, attend an event or boycott as planned.
Be inspired as often as you can, it’s soul food.
Till soon, W
Posted in Wendy's World | Tagged Advertising, autonomy, Business, Culture, Media, trends | Leave a Comment »
It all started 30 minutes ago with a clear out of paper which has a tendency to accumulate until I sort and sift all that requires residence on the laptop. I found a shop receipt for January of this year and on the back was something I said either later that month or in Feb.
It’s the consciousness of the individual contributing to the humanity of the greater whole.
It is the dawning of a new age. We, as a planet are on the cusp of the Age of Aquarius. This sign is the water bearer, symbolised by a man, almost androgynous who is carrying a vessel of water. Water usually represents consciousness amidst the psychological and metaphysical interpretations; therefore, man holding consciousness. Hopefully.
Now about the What if’s. Three were discovered on another notepad in the same catchall drawer.
Those are my curious offerings for today. No record as to when I wrote them, but I’m pretty sure it was in the last 6 or 7 months.
They may very well make for some great dinner conversation.
Until soon, W
Posted in Wendy's World | Tagged age of aquarius, consciousness, Culture, Thoughts | Leave a Comment »
Brave New World in the City 