Google and other companies that manage the flow of information are killing what is left of our free market system. Continue reading
Google Kills Free Markets
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Tag Archives: financial crisis
How We Create Our Own Corruption
Why do Americans complain about corruption? Americans create their own corruption. Continue reading
This Is The Way You Do It
This is how I figure things out and anyone can do it. I do mean anyone. There are many interesting things about the present moment. The one thing that is most relevant is that all living things have an innate ability to almost flawlessly recognize danger and opportunities in the present moment. Continue reading
Worshiping False Idols
Natural law has preeminence over any principle derived out of human intellect. This presents a problem for mainstream economists. The best sources of natural law are largely off limits to to academics. The ideal sources of natural law are found in ancient writings. The very best sources for Americans are the Old and New Testaments. Natural law is modeled in the stories contained in both books. When modern day activities parallel the stories in these books, it is easily noticed that there are common outcomes. Persons of antiquity thought very deeply and constantly looked for meaning. Now that knowledge has largely been reduced to letters, deep thinking is not that commonplace. People and institutions are observed according to how they are defined and not how they function. Packaged ideas are the norm. People and institutions are seen in terms of how we would like them to be and not according to the way they really are.
In democracy based governments citizens do not behave as modern thinkers insist they do. In these types of systems ordinary people are charged with controlling their various governments. What actually happens when leaders and representatives are elected? Citizens relinquish control and give it to those they have elected. The assumption is made that the motives of elected officials are pure as driven snow. This is complete fantasy. The practice of worship is not restricted to giving respect to and acknowledging a deity. Humans are far more likely to worship each other than a supreme being. Leaders and representatives are worshiped as if they are in charge of providing essence to the population. In the ancient writings this is called worshiping false idols. Believing or not believing in God is a personal issue. One thing is certain. No living thing on earth is divine. The folly of worshiping false idols is constantly demonstrated throughout ancient writings.
Still mankind is prone to seek essence from higher powers. Higher powers are assumed to be possessed by all who govern whether elected or appointed. There may be no harm in denying the existence of a supreme being. There is great harm in deeming various individuals and institutions as being substitutes for a supreme being. Natural law guarantees that great harm will follow the practice of worshiping false idols. I will paraphrase the words of a very insightful person, Roy Masters. “Wherever you place your faith, there you unwittingly surrender your soul.”
The truth is a hard sell. Fantasy Free Economics gains readers one at a time. Major search engines simply do not list blogs which disagree with their political agenda. As long as folks share the link to this blog and others speaking out against the grain, the truth will at least trickle into the public consciousness.
Fantasy Free Economics recommends the following blogs.
Woodpiler Report Of Two Minds Liberty Blitzkrieg Mises Institute Straight Line Logic Paul Craig Roberts
How Natural Law Works
Mention the words natural law and what image does the mind conjure up? Say natural law and the brain might create for you and image of airheads living in communes preaching agape love. As a teacher of natural law, I treat the subject quite differently. Make an observation of a principle that works over and over again over all of history’s long timeline. Then, even with all of the effort in the world, folks can’t come up with a universally accepted, or even a good guess as to why it works. The cause is often unexplainable or elusive and not concrete at best.
Taking the Stock Market Private
So the stock market gets organized support. Is the news bad? If it is the market gets extra support. Is the news good? Then the market get just enough support. I have written a lot to the effect that there are advantages to centralizing and concentrating stock ownership into strong cooperative hands. Each day that goes by, corporate buybacks and central bank purchases take trade-able stock out of circulation. With every passing day, the task of elevating stock prices gets easier. There is less supply so moving stocks higher gets easier and easier. What is the end game here?
The stock market is being taken private. Don’t misunderstand. Ordinary people still own stock and quite a lot as a group. The plan is for the elite of the world to own a controlling interest in all of the world’s major corporations. That is not as hard to do as it first sounds. Free money from the government is limitless. What we are witnessing is the wealthiest segment of the world finding ways to own or control the factors of production globally. Wars for profit control land. The media as an opinion management service controls the reasoning of the general population. That leaves the capital markets of which the stock market is the most significant part.
The important point I am going to make is that there is no point at which manipulation of the stock market will be discontinued. That is because there is more to the stock market agenda than just churning out profits in the immediate time frame. Profits are a big deal but the goal of privatizing the stock market is bigger than that.
No one who understands markets or economics seriously believes it is reasonable to expect rising asset prices to generate aggregate demand indefinitely. In terms of independent and dependent variables, economic activity is the independent variable. Asset prices are the independent variable. These kinds of variables are not like wild cards in a poker game. Demand driven by increased asset prices is a reversal of the dependent and independent variable relationship. So, that process has a lifespan. No smart person believes this is a permanent situation.
The goal of privatizing the stock market is separate and independent from efforts make trading profits or using the wealth effect to generate temporary GDP numbers. The goal is to concentrate and centralize stock ownership. That effort will not be abandoned willingly.
The truth is a hard sell. Fantasy Free Economics gains readers one at a time. Major search engines simply do not list blogs which disagree with their political agenda. As long as folks share the link to this blog and others speaking out against the grain, the truth will at least trickle into the public consciousness.
Fantasy Free Economics recommends the following blogs.
Of Two Minds Liberty Blitzkrieg Mises Institute Straight Line Logic Paul Craig Roberts
Bull Market Over
During the 1980s, while Ronald Reagan was president, government began tampering with the financial markets. In the spring of 2003 government started working aggressively with Wall Street to elevate asset prices. In spring of 2006, when asset prices were showing signs of weakness, Henry Paulson was named Treasury Secretary for the purpose building a larger and more active consortium to keep housing and stocks on an upward path. When this effort failed, TARP was passed partly as a face saving effort and partly to save the remaining assets of the politically privileged upper class.
Quantitative easing first under Ben Bernanke and now Janet Yellen provided unlimited funds for stock purchases. Laws prohibiting manipulation were not enforced. Friends of the Federal Reserve have traded risk free for three years. The U.S. Government has been reduced to an income redistribution engine. All laws that come before congress are for the purpose of rigging one market or another.
The poor and middle class have been robbed blind. Most are still clueless as to how the process has worked.
One by one the pillars of our free market system have been discarded. Central economic planning has allocated the nation’s resources so inefficiently that genuine growth is no longer possible. Government at all levels requires a high rate of growth in order to produce enough tax revenue to continue operating.
The bull market that began in 2009 has been politically engineered without much regard for the consequences. A hand full of billionaires has benefited and will never have any regrets. For all others, their financial futures have been destroyed. Most who haven’t already are going to lose everything they have.
But, it does look as if all efforts by all of the governments in the world are no longer enough to keep the market from falling. I do believe the bull market is now over.
Income Distribution and Morality
When income distribution becomes lopsided such as it is in the United States today, a depression is highly likely. A lopsided income distribution is a classic sign of instability and precedes most serious economic downturns. Morality is not directly a part of the picture. The problem is mathematical in nature. High end spending is more discretionary than low end spending and is reduced rapidly at the first sign of an economic downturn.
Worst Financial Crisis In History?
I say it will be and so does the governor of the Bank Of England. It is going to get worse than you can presently imagine. Find a way to save yourself and your family.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8812260/World-facing-worst-financial-crisis-in-history-Bank-of-England-Governor-says.html
When Will The Depression End?
When will the depression end? Very simply, when reasoning on economic matters begins correcting. If no change in reasoning occurs, the economy and the political system will fall apart. There is a very real chance that will happen.
When will the depression end? Very simply, when reasoning on economic matters begins correcting. This could take years. If no change in reasoning occurs, the economy and the political system will fall apart. There is a very real chance that will happen.
Lonestar Card Lonestar Card is a song I wrote and recorded as Curbside Jimmy a number of years back with the Curbside Jug Band. If you listen very carefully to the bass, you will discover that it is a Jug. The jug was played by the late Gator Ron Ramey, who was the probably best jug player who ever lived. The the jug is prominent at the very end of the song. Lonestar Card celebrates the welfare system in Texas of which so many Texans are very proud.