This article is adjusted or embellished infrequently. I point to the navigator’s task of interpolation: a simple mathematical adjustment of plotted course to accommodate the relative difference between true ( magnetic ) North vs the geographic or cartographic North. I also suggest as analogy, the act of adjusting a ballistic trajectory, based on local weather, terrain and angle of attack-point of aim. Travelers arriving at the requisite destination & the marksman’s ‘five touching’ ( at 100 yards ) are the gold standard for both activities. Been there, done both.
The 2010 election only means that we have made a great noise-will ‘they’ listen?
Is our run finished, has the fiscal, sovereign ( debt ) insanity been the killer iceberg for our American Titanic ship of state?
At 3 AM reassurance begs facts.
I previously posted that we reside in a literal matrix, which is contrived of mazes of propaganda, enshrouded by fog. We must seek truth about reality. Economics is as physics, underlying all other similar endeavors. Physics underlies all hard science and economics is the underlying ‘physics’ of all behavioral understanding, i.e. the social sciences.
For a beginning, we have an article posted on line, from a man of superlative education & experience, Niall Ferguson, just published in Foreign Affairs, as well as the extrapolated version having been delivered in a live speech-informing me that my instincts are sadly on target. Our problem is now widely acknowledged to be DEBT, complicated by an archaic political structure-which has become the tool of foreign hostiles-Russians & Chicoms, and the lovely consortium of super-wealthy known variously as Bilderbergers, &etc, all of whom have designs on our American machine. So large is the problem, it afflicts all developed and the developing nations. It threatens to destroy our entire culture.
It seems apparent that we are about to default, devalue our currency, and ‘bust’ the international system, or isolate ourselves with a wall of tariffs-not necessarily in that order-and do other horrific things, as a direct result of our debt far exceeding our GDP. America is one-third of the world’s GDP, and world-wide we already see major currency imbalances, contrary waves of deflation in general versus some classes of commodities, a virtual zero in the velocity of cash ( in the course of ordinary business ), and artificial or contrived movement in all the levers of economics. Here is the link to the saddest and most alarming analysis, yet a most classy work, about our current predicament: http://www.iie.com/publications/papers/niarchos-ferguson-2010.pdf AND see the illustrations at the adjacent site, http://www.piie.com/publications/papers/ferguson201005.pdf Read this and weep for the Judeo-Christian West.
Niall Ferguson, Harvard University, “I want to emphasize this evening the non-linearity of fiscal
history, the suddenness with which things can go wrong in the realm of public finance
and from there, to the realm of geopolitics . . . the theme of my talk this evening and indeed
of that essay in Foreign Affairs is that very little in the realm of financial history and
particularly the realm of fiscal history is gradual or cyclical.”
Uncharted territory-Terra Incognito. My 13th & 12th generation ancestors went there deliberately, when there was indeed a great deal of ‘there’. They founded & helped fund one of the most significant Tudor trading companies. They had no idea how far or difficult would be the voyage to Muscovy-but from prior trade & adventure they had good reason to expect a return on investment. That first voyage would cost one of the three ship’s entire crew-frozen to death. The rest prevailed, and went on far beyond their earliest destinations. As we say here in Texas, ‘it was not their first rodeo‘-nor was it their last.
We also have clear reassurance as simple as the promise I heard from a retired CPA & widely experienced business manager in East Texas:
“Let the whole world’s monetary system go down, and WE, the US Dollar { as our agent specie } will still be the prettiest girl at the dance.”
Well, that would be the hard way out, but it would in fact be a most substantial ‘return on investment’, after a few short centuries in America.
“Steady now. Hold, & see what happens.”
We are still one-third ( no, wait, I’m told only 20% ) but our simple moral authority is immense, and thus we do drive all of the world’s economy because we are free. In fact we have the personal means at hand to enforce that freedom-making it fact. Our apparent freedom has a hard metal behind it-and we have considerable cultural fortitude.
At 3 AM my need for reassurance begs facts. Not so difficult, but first I encounter the fresh devaluation from the Fed ( a 20% reduction in value of the $US ), then Glenn Beck hawks fear and panic on Denninger’s famous Market Ticker-”Its all going to burst . . . we will loose 20% in one move . . . then finally the ChiComs will cease to lend & all Hell breaks loose, &etc.” Old news, really. Here is some new news, and some fresh views of historical events, but a flawed solution-more paper money, not less, and it is followed by an alternative view-advocating hard money. We have as of 23 November, 2010 the answer from the Russian-ChiCom axis: They announced in St. Petersburg that all of their international transaction settlements shall in future be paid in their own domestic currency. China, Russia to dump US dollar for bilateral trade.
And here too : China threatens ‘nuclear option’ of dollar sales. They hold some 1.33 trillion’$-not so very large, really. Timmy Tax FauxPaux Geitner ( Treasury ) & BennyTheBernanke ( Fed Ubur-Meister ) can trump that in day or so, with one phone call to the Ft.Worth printing press. I’ll bet they have the paper & ink already in house, over in North Tarrant County. We could play that one-an inverse run-around. Hah!
Brave words, we shall see soon enough the true scope of this affectation of independence and challenge, from the toxic Marxists-cum dictators.
We also are awash with depictions of the paper money problems-see here:
1. http://www.secretofoz.com/ Paper money, NO backing. Seems we are already there.
2. http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/printerfriendly.cfm?pffile=meetstill_content.cfm Hard money-gold & silver, OR paper backed by metal. Caution, some gold sellers hawk this solution for mere profit-but then who knows?
But wait, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, of The Telegraph, perhaps among our favorite living Brits, a sort of astute, ‘uber-cousin’ to Americans because he is bold & logical, has a nice balance for this cliff-hanger. He precisely echos what the old CPA from East Texas emphatically warns:
“Currency Wars Are Necessary If All Else Fails
The overwhelming fact of the global currency system is that America needs a much weaker dollar to bring its economy back into kilter and avoid slow ruin, yet the rest of the world cannot easily handle the consequences of such a wrenching adjustment. There is not enough demand to go around.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/8054066/Currency-wars-are-necessary-if-all-else-fails.html
Dear Ambrose hits the strong base key here-demand. Our production capacity has exceeded our consumption. Demands absence gives us much of our deflation, which comes in three types. First benign price decline, then shortage of cash-frequently adjusted in several ‘marketing’ ways, and third-monetary deflation-governmental printing of vast sums of fiat currency is the worst. The second & third now combine or evolve one to another-they can be seen as the Tsunami which now sweeps the globe, more powerful than all of the developed nations-yet it is still worse-oil & a few other critical commodities are yet held high-seeming at first to aggravate all logic. }
Cousin Ambrose is so rational, & so realistic is his view that the danger seems something we may yet endure. After all, WE ARE America. George Soros and all of his ilk, plus the evil tribe of assorted hostiles, Marx’s ugly children in Russia & China, and their illegitimate & aggravated, adopted spawn in the Middle East, are most certainly NOT America. Ditto the super-wealthy who enjoy anonymity as well as supreme comfort and manipulate us seemingly at their pleasure, from exotic places like the Canton of Zug.
Know that all plays have a beginning and an end. Might we yet adapt, evolve and endure? Is that hope supported by more than bravado?
Why do we instinctively perceive that we shall prevail? Simple. We ARE the Cultural Way, we are Of The Truth and we are also The Secular Light. That is why God allowed us to develop, & to develop the Might. That might shall be exercised, the easy way or the hard way- in kindness with civility, or anger-whatever it takes. We shall ‘project’ our power by perception & anticipation, or in kind. And Gen. Geo. S. Patton was correct-we do love a good fight. Because, we also WIN. In fact, we come from people who won their ancient & most critical fights. We are the chosen, natural children of the Judeo-Christian West. It is now just the hour or so before The Bard’s “rosy fingered dawn”, and the fear which creeps into the mind must be kept at bay.
See here how that winning is accomplished:
Henry V, ACT IV, Prologue
{ Better heard perhaps, but reading allows us to entertain ideas, view the action in our mind more slowly, & thus see how we weave our words into the blanket which forms our most audacious & superior culture }
Chorus
