my god...
i have to agree with your assessment and i have been watching putin and his politics for awhile.
that man is one savvy player but as you stated..he knows when to open the table up.
im not giving him a free pass for some serious fucked up shit he has done but we cant ignore his political chops.

i think we all see whats starting to play out and we think to ourselves "no way they would go that far.that would be suicide,on multiple levels".
nevermind the deaths...
or the injured and disabled.
nevermind the collapsed economies leading to death,disease and starvation.
the political fallout alone would ruin many political players...forever.

but i posted a report awhile ago and it has always stuck in my head.its not all conspiratorial and shadow government stuff.its the real power elites and they truly dont care.

the man makes the case that all wars have been bankers wars.
that debt is the new currency and war is their favorite way to enslave a people.
and they have been doing it for centuries.
with globalization and sovereign boundaries not as traditional as they have been,due to the internet and mass communication.
nationalism and religion are not quite the motivating force they once were.

if you look at what russia has been doing with its oil reserves and how it has been dealing with its debt and military.the interview you shared takes on whole new dimensions..and those dimensions are frightening.

its the bankers.
http://videosift.com/video/all-wars-are-bankers-wars-what-school-history-never-taught

(He says that gold is currency, but that's not actually the case. Gold is money and can be made into currency, or as a backing of currency, like the old dollar.)

It would seem like in the US if you are carrying large amounts of currency, you're essentially forced to exercise the right to remain silent unless you want it ceased for simply answering the question truthfully.

To a certain extent, but unfortunately a charismatic (or dictatorial) leadership, or even parents passing on their belief systems to their children, can create or enforce ideals that can shape society. Many people still adhere to religion because "that's the way it's always been", not because the religion actually fits their personal ethics...

In general, I do actually agree with you in regards to the concept that secularity tends to lead to enlightenment, but there are plenty of secular countries that are authoritarian/despotic (North Korea being a shining example), violent and considerably backwards compared to countries which have a high proportion of religious people and freedom. Unfortunately, enlightenment leads to arrogance as well.

The continual push by the media/politicians etc to classify Muslims as a homogenous whole smacks more of an attempt to play on xenophobia and racism than any factual evidence.

Particularly when the enlightened country making the most noise about it has "In God We Trust" printed on their currency. Compound that with provoking and polarising moderate Muslims by marginalising and insulting them? Enlightenment does not preclude gross stupidity.

A simple look at the US (secular mind you) shows stark differences between the north and the south, red states and blue states etc. You're proposing that 1.5 bn people (that would be ~5 times more people than the entire population of the US) spread across most countries in the world are somehow tightly aligned purely because they share a religion that is as varied as any other in the world?

And the mean truth? The arrogance and presumption of "enlightened neighbours" are part of the reasons why certain countries are as they are...

Iran is a classic example. The US (all enlightened and shit) engineers the coup that deposes a democratically elected Prime Minister hailed as a leading champion of secular democracy. And when the Shah was overthrown, it was by fundamentalists lead by Ayatollah Khomeini, ushering in an era of strict theocracy and an abiding hatred of the US.

Your last paragraph highlights the problem perfectly. We have two media reporters, deliberately or ignorantly, disseminating false information which would probably lead to discrimination against Muslims. How ethical is it to incite an entire country to hate over the actions of a tiny percentage of the whole? How ethical is it to ignore humanitarian disasters in countries which have no strategic or natural resource value (and places where no white people have been beheaded)?

And when presented with empirical truth, how ethical is it to refuse to accept it?

Now if they were going to issue their own currency... Then I think you'd see a rash of unexpected apparent suicides and convenient fatal accidents to key persons until the idea was scrapped.

Economically, it'd be really counter-productive for them to leave.

They currently receive more in revenue that they pay in taxes and receive more generous social programs than England. Like mentioned, they'll get full control over their oil reserves just as output begins to decline. Also their banking sector (relative to their economy/tax take) is huge and will have to shrink as investors will see it as a risk and divest otherwise.

They'll most likely retain the pound as the currency by default (at least in the short term), but lose control over interest rates. If the economy sours they will have the same problem that indebted Mediterranean countries had, in that all the pressure will fall on wages and job cuts rather than being eased by lower rates or currency depreciation. If they join the euro, they will of course have same issue.

Speaking of which, an interesting point is that with a large liberal wing of the UK leaving, this will strengthen conservative arguments to leave the EU.

Ok that looks way fucking cooler than I could've expected. I am SOOOOO gonna enjoy this movie.

What's the story with all the pretty lilly white model virgins? Nymphs being traded as currency in the new post apocalypica?

Haha!

If everyone's a babysitter, well, that's not a genuine division of labor, is it? And if money can only buy babysitting, well, that's not really money, is it?

And free markets don't work by agreeing through contract how much a currency will buy. If you restrict currency to one "babysitting" unit only, then, of course you'll have problems. You don't need to "print" more of these tokens. Deflation will invariably take place instead in an actual market, not in one where you have to contractually "centrally control" the value of each token.

And of course, a prison camp is not a free market. No entrepreneur can simply start supplying the goods and services needed.

The prison camp does not represent a "free economy," but only a prison camp economy.

I don't think either of those two examples are useful in any real way, but what exactly did you think you'd learn from them?

This isn't "how an economy works," but it's maybe how a non-divisible "currency" works in a one product/service "market;" or how a food embargo works.

P.S. If you really want to understand how economies work, you should read Mises' "Human Action" (PDF) and stop being lazy, thinking you'll learn something from these short youtube videos. (Once you hear Krugman mentioned, it's enough to know that everything that follows is about as rooted in reality as a kindergartner's fingerpaintings.)

This video's always worth revisiting...

Lord, I’m on a Permanent Holiday I’m goin outside to play.
I ain’t gonna slave away. Not for no corporate Babylon.
I’m never gonna be a pawn in their manipulation games
I’m taking the reigns, breaking the chains, I’m never gonna kneel, no way.
My prophet is heaven sent.
No preacher or president gonna lead I astray

I’m taking Jah highway home.
I’ve got my own path to follow
Don’t know if you’ll overstand , I’ve got my own truth to swallow.
And if I could you know I would throw my guitar on my back,
Pick up the slack and leave here tomorrow. But I know that I’m
A pawn of Babylon, I got to face the facts, embrace the axe
And cut these chains of my sorrow

10,000 years of captivity, we must eventually open up our eyes and see
They’re manipulating we. With so much uncertainty and so many mysteries,
Why are so few questioning the unnatural state of things.
It’s a nightmare, we’re living in a nightmare, everyone’s living so scared
They’re virtually unaware of this fear that rules their lives, occupies, consumes their minds
This fear of bankruptcy, financial impotency. It’s money, money , money.
It’s all this digital currency. It’s all this monopoly money that keeps us from ever being free.
And so it seems we’ll be in this prison for life
Cause If we keep buying then they’ll keep selling the lies
And so it’s up to I & I
I won’t be manipulated, mind-controlled and inundated,
I will seek the revelation, make my life a celebration.
I’m gonna be the change I’m seeking, manifest the words I’m speaking
I refuse to be imprisoned I will make my own decisions

I’ll never go astray no.
I’m leaving the past and forwarding fast cause freedom is here to stay.
We got to take back the knowledge, take back the power
Take back what they have stolen from our hearts
Take back the esoteric knowledge, for too long they’ve been keeping us apart.
We got to take back the knowledge, take back the power,
Humanity don’t let this be our final hour.

Here's the cherry on top: a 31 year old member of our foreign intelligence service was arrested on charges of espionage two days ago. Supposedly, he supplied reports about the parliamentary investigative committee to an unnamed US intelligence agency...

Just one though, not the entire service. Who is going to believe that it's just one guy who hands information over to a US intelligence agency? They work so closely hand in hand that I'd be surprised if the CIA didn't get a proper recording of every meeting on the same day. courtesy of our own intelligence service, free of charge.

Maybe not free of charge. They probably use it as currency to buy something else from your intelligence agencies...

Edit: As if that wasn't rediculous enough, check out this tweet by Jess Radack: https://twitter.com/JesselynRadack/status/485009501796696064

Thugs on the loose again...

Really? That doesn't say much for your imagination. I'll try to help.

1. You don't have a gaming PC
2. You want to play in on your home theater from your easy chair
3. You prefer a controller to a keyboard and mouse
4. You want to play on your 60' plasma and 1080p is good enough.

I could think of more but hopefully that helps.

Honestly , I have a gaming rig but my GTX560ti is about obsolete and the last time I priced new cards the crypto-currency miners had driven up the prices. If I don't buy a nice card before this releases I will enjoy the hell out of this game on PS4. If it has a good multiplayer I'll play it on PS4 regardless.


PC master-race...sheesh.

The markets so flooded with shock, it's a virtually worthless currency.

Energy costs nothing? Er, no. That is exactly wrong.

Energy is cost. Everything we do, make, buy... the only real measurable cost is energy. Currency is just a representation of the energy value we assign a good or service.

It will cost energy to get the materials. It will cost energy to manufacture, install and maintain the panels.

Regardless of what happens with these protests, Venezuela is a classic example of a country where a vast proportion of people have conflated Chavez's socialist policies with the country's oil and gas fueled growth from the early 2000s to the GFC. Nothing is likely to change that anytime soon even if there were a change of government.

The problem recently has been the combination of the new president Maduro who does not have Chavez populist legitimacy and the QE tapering in the US which is seeing currencies slide in emerging markets, but mostly in countries that had issues to begin with (Argentina, Turkey, Venezuela).

Economically the country is screwed because of the hugely corrupt and inefficient state owned energy companies, the expropriation and nationalisation of the agricultural sector. The government has responded with minimum wage hikes, printing money and capital controls on currency conversion which all just forestall the inevitable crisis.

As usual with countries like these, what props up the government is the system of patronage between the government and the elite/military. If the government were to make their state run firms efficient and/or privatise them, they couldn't skim off the top. If they can't skim off the top they have no money, no authority and they get thrown out.

@enoch

I agree with pretty much everything you said, except the part on rewriting corporate law based on its impracticality. Part of the effectiveness of capitalism is its unambiguous incentives, something as subjective as the public good would be too broadly interpretable and open up firms to endless lawsuits.

Negative externalities like pollution, standards on employment conditions, and anti-competitive rent seeking are all things best addressed in an adversarial system of corporation vs. government/citizens. In the same way asking the prosecutor to give a lenient prosecution would not work, polarised, balanced advocates work best in a market economy.

Obviously this has broken down to various extents. Corporate lobbying has tipped the balance. Short terms politicians and executives are incentivised to generated jobs/growth in the short term at the expense of sustainability. Larger corporations have the money to buy barriers to entry for competitors by capturing regulatory agencies.

Ideally countries would go to public funding system once you clear x votes of nominations or something similar, you'd have a shorter election cycle and advertising blackouts for a portion of that to limit the influence of money further, scrap jerry-mandering. Even if that were possible in the US, I'm of the view that the money would seep through in some shape or another. In many ways, the US as a concentration of the wealthy is a victim of its own success in the weight that this wealth has on its socio-economic future.

Somewhat more contrary to more left leaning arguments, I think populism fails equally. Now admittedly what passes for populism nowadays, economically at least, is simply the rebranded intentions of corporations with vested interests. But genuine populist economic policy also fails. People want the government to give them things for free and not give other people things for free. They'd rather see uncompetitive industries be propped up forever with subsidies than let them close.

I'm coming around to the view that what's needed is longer term limits, greater executive authority and concentration of power but balanced by firm limits on any elected office tenure. People don't appreciate the long term effects of effective policy before they have a chance to vote politicians out on the short term cost. Longer term limits, say 5-6 years x 2 possible terms would help alleviate that. It would detach elected officials from the need to constantly raise funds. Politicans could actually effect the mandate they were voted in on. Obviously this raises risks of abuse of power but as with everything, you have to balance that against the costs of long term stagnation.

I hate to create a comparison here to central banks, but it's an undeniable fact that once central bank officials were installed independent to act free from the whims of politicans in most developed countries in the 1970-90s, inflation quickly became a thing of the past. People can argue about current policy, devaluing the currency, the way funds are being distributed currently, but the point above is a historic fact. I am of the view that the same would hold (when applied in a more limited way) for the broader economy.

But anyway, this is all wonderfully imagine fantasy land.