. . .
L “They say that 70 percent of economic growth is driven by consumer spending. Yet the consumer is spent. So many consumers borrowed money (at substantial interest rates) from tomorrow to consume yesterday. Today, the consumers must borrow from the day after the day after tomorrow to pay for necessaries.”
. . .
M “What will they do when they can’t consume?”
. . .
Bumper sticker of the week:
Work Buy Consume Die
. . .
4 “If I look up and can see the bar, I drop everything and raise the bar until I cannot see it. Even with a pair of 10 by 40s. I am not interested in surmounting a bar I can see. I then move the bar down the field and out of sight. Outta sight, inna mind.”
. . .
4 “That is true. They say that if you hold someone to a higher standard, the person may aspire to reach the higher standard. When I look around, however, at the end of the day the only way others can pass the bar is to drop the bar on the floor. Maintain even low standards and no one passes.”
8 “So much gross incompetence and ineptitude today. Perhaps it has always been that way.”
. . .
4 “If you hit a target they cannot see, they say that you missed the target they can see.”
. . .
4 “Build a better mouse trap and you may trap a few more mice. Build it and you will need to buy a riding lawn mower.”
8 “Bloom where you are planted. You may be able to trap more mice in your nicely manicured field. Or you may decide to let the mice roam in a wild field.”
. . .
8 “Perhaps nobody cares.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
“Talent hits a target that no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.” Arthur Schopenhauer
“There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time, I owe him my best.” Joe DiMaggio
“A Thing of Beauty is a Joy For Ever.” John Keats
Nobody cares.
. . .
3 “Pensions will be even more problematic.”
4 “When the stock markets reset catastrophically, pensions will need to be reset correspondingly.”
3 “We will need to muster the collective intellect and imagination to craft a provision allowing states to file bankruptcy.”
. . .
3 “Interest rates cannot be allowed to rise and will not be allowed to rise beyond a nominal .25 percent. Any greater rise would result in devastating financial and economic consequences. Some nominal rise will be imposed to proclaim that interest rates can indeed rise above zero without negative consequence. Those citizens who planned to fund a retirement with interest-bearing instruments have been sacrificed and will continue to be sacrificed without even a vote or even a debate on the policy.”
4 “Sacrifices have to be made. Few folks are concerned or even aware that the Federal Reserve rather than the market sets interest rates. The way I see it the Petrodollar will continue to rise as other currencies decline and those with the wherewithal seek the safety of the Petrodollar. At this time. The Petrodollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency and fundamentally weak foreign economies are a double magnet for money. When the world establishes its own world currency such as a system of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) and circumvents the Petrodollar, the Petrodollar will explode and decline precipitously in value. As I describe it, the ‘Supernova Dollar.’ The last American export – the Petrodollar and resulting inflation – will not be imported by the world.”
3 “Along those lines, the physical dollar will disappear from circulation in the United States before it disappears from the world stage. The U.S. government and large corporations are slowly discouraging and will ultimately outlaw the use of dollars as ‘legal tender’ and as a medium of exchange. Possession of gold and silver bullion by private citizens also will be outlawed. The government will outsource to large corporations the issuance and control of the Universal Electronic Benefit Transfer (UEBT) cards to its subjects. Current credit and debit cards will be re-purposed seamlessly. The IRS will send a statement each year or even each month dictating one’s tax obligation and deducting the amount owed directly from one’s government controlled account. As a consequence, everyone’s inclinations, transactions, and movements will be monitored and manipulated as necessary.”
4 “On the other hand, possession of gold and silver in any form by foreign citizens and governments will be the law and settled practice. The West has readily abandoned gold and silver to an East that has eagerly absorbed the precious metals at rates that have been manipulated down by the West. And gold and silver will be a component of the Special Drawing Rights.”
3 “The West will no longer be able to use paper and electronic transactions to manipulate the prices of physical gold and silver.”
4 “If the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system and the Petrodollar are circumvented, the West will be less able to use paper and electronic transactions to manipulate prices.”
. . .
3 “The nations in the oil-producing regions will not fight over the oil they have but over the water they do not have with far less involvement of and intervention by the United States.”
4 “Nation-States will also disappear as thriving and functioning communities and be replaced by Corporation-States that dictate policy. The United States Congress took the lead and sold out to become the ‘Citigroup-Congress’ recently. More than just naming rights are involved. Current nations are just entities that can be manipulated and maneuvered to go to war with each other when necessary.”
3 “Along those lines, shares in United States Senators will be sold more openly akin to shares in corporations. The news will announce that shares in ‘Senator Larry Jenkins, Inc.’ are up 3.1 percent today on news that he will sell his vote for the Big Project. The John Roberts Supreme Court has endorsed the two-step business plan. If you pay a politician directly for a vote, you are in trouble; if you pay an intermediary that pays a politician for a vote, you are blessed.”
4 “Notions of freely-established supply and demand for goods, services and commodities will yield to quotas per subject each month. Without functioning markets and with regular and systematic market manipulation and intervention, notions of inflation and deflation will be antiquated. World population will continue to grow and resources will continue to be more precious which under the old paradigm would fuel inflation. However, people will simply do without.”
3 “Along those lines, capitalism is a system that socializes the costs of activities and privatizes the profits. The end stage is the emergence of a very small cabal who control all resources and allow the subjects access to just enough resources to subsist in a police state that throttles any debate or dissent.”
4 “The treatment of Cyprus and Greece are intermediate stages in the process.”
3 “The future is not unpredictable.”
. . .
[See the efforts to eliminate cash at http://betterthancash.org/.%5D
[See the e-commentary at Monitoring The Masses: The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015).]
Bumper stickers of the week:
If you do predict a definite event, do not pick a definite date. If you do pick a definite date, do not predict a definite event. Unless you want to.
In the past, if you could predict the future accurately, you could make a fortune. In the present, you can predict the future astutely, but you cannot do much to protect your fortune or your future. Even if you want to.
“The best way to predict your future is to help create it.” Attributed to Abraham Lincoln
There are few warning signs on the off ramp down the road to serfdom.
What about global climate change?
. . .
1 “It means that Blacks are second class citizens.”
2 “It means that voting rights should be denied.”
3 “It means that discrimination should be allowed.”
4 “It means that lynching should be legal. For Blacks, I mean.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
E “All of the above.”
It’s mean?
e-commentary 