Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Ron Paul’s Reverse Money Bomb

This could be very bad for the country, even though the intent is a good one.

The dollar is being devalued by the fed by making money so cheap. It is bad for the US in many ways, mainly for the working and middle classes. But I’m not sure this is really a solution. This could cause bank runs and other disasters we don’t need right now.

What do you think?

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Monday, February 25, 2008

Lies of our Times: The “Vanishing Middle Class”

The Democrats and the Media (redundancy alert) want us to believe the economy is bad and the middle class is vanishing. Well, they will if the left gets its way. They want everyone to be dependent on government bureaucracies because that’s how they get more power. By taking it away from the people.

Thats one of my biggest problems with the Democrats. They think higher taxes and more bureaucracy is the answer to everything. History has shown time and again that it’s the problem, not the solution. 

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Sunday, January 06, 2008

The Opposing States of Mankind

NOTE: This article was on my old blog, which got lost when the database was incompetently deleted by my previous web host. Thanks to Amritas, here it is again.

In researching my American Intifada post the other day, I started thinking about the Mezo-American cultures and why they hadn’t advanced as well as Europeans. When Cortez came to Mexico, he discovered a stone-aged culture with impressive cities but backward ideas.

The “Aztec empire” wasn’t very large by modern standards. Neither were the empires that preceded it, like the Mayan and Olmec. The transportation systems we invented in Europe, from the carriage to the train, allowed the transportation of people over long distances, which made vast empires possible. The Mezo-Americans didn’t have the wheel or the Horse. When you’re stuck with Fred Flintstone technology, you don’t get too far.

So why were they so backward? It’s a really good question. One that sheds light on the importance of today’s debates.

Many patronizing Europeans of the time (and even today) thought it was because the people in the New World and Africa were stupid. Why else would they be so primitive? But there’s a good reason why some societies advance while others stagnate. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with human nature.

There is a yin-yang of societies. Two frames of thought that humans seem to possess. Playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, there are only two stories. “Cinderella” and “Jack and the Beanstalk”. What he meant is that, if you strip all the stories that exist down to their essence, you have “Boy Meets Girl” and the “Hero on a Quest”. In a way it’s the yin-yang of things. As it is in nature, there is the positive and the negative force. One creates, the other destroys. Boy Meets Girl will eventually result in love and children. The Hero on a Quest usually involves hate and someone or something getting killed.

Stories are humanity’s way of explaining how the universe works to ourselves. While stories are symbolic explorations of the material world, politics are a strategic methodology that affects us materially.

Human beings have taken two separate paths in the way they organized their societies. These methods have all kinds of names and variations, but ultimately, there are only two ways that humans have worked it out. I call them the plus and the minus systems. One is positive, the other is negative. Like the poles on a magnet, they repel each other, but oftem, you have elements of both in every social order that exists.

The plus system inspires people to be innovative and creative. The minus system inspires stagnation and economic failure. History has proved this many, many times. It’s proving it as you read this. But people often fail to see the truth taking place right before their eyes.

Let’s use the Mexica/Aztec conflict with the Spaniards as a perfect example.

Many have decided that one race excelled and another didn’t because of some kind of racial prowess. But the truth lies not in the race, but in the career path these groups took. It’s similar to two children in school. One decides to go to college; the other decides to drop out. The educated one becomes successful, the other a failure. It’s the plus and minus system in action.

The Mexica/Aztecs (we’ll call them Mexica from now on) had a minus system, which was tribute based. All minus systems follow a simple logic. A few elites at the top make everyone below them work for their benefit and give them all the resources the society provides. The common people are only allowed to keep what the elites say they can, which is usually enough for them to get by. In the case of the Mexicas, everything was done in the service of the emperor who was worshipped as a god. While not considered a god exactly, he was supposed to be the spokesperson for the gods. He was a divine being in their eyes.

The Mexicas had a virtually stone-aged society. They could make metal art from gold and silver, but they didn’t use iron, copper or metal tools. They didn’t have the wheel. They didn’t use draft animals. So they had to move all goods around by human beings. Imagine all those people carrying everything around on their backs. They not only had to serve the emperor, they had to give their lives to him if he wanted it. Below the emperor were the priests and below that, soldiers. Below that, everyone else. And of course they used slaves like most societies at the time. But the Mexicas were not much better than slaves, whether they were called that or not in their class. They made absurd sacrifices (both human and otherwise) for their leader.

A system like this was very common in the early days of humanity. It’s a system that punishes free thought. Everyone is expected to follow a religious ideology that demands total obedience. Because, this is a form of mind control. Elites can make the people do whatever they want if they get them to believe the gods demand it. But this system stagnates a society because it does not encourage creativity. So the scientific development of the Mexicas and other American peoples was limited. Subjects were told to believe things happened a certain way because the gods ordained it. Therefore, they never developed critical thought. They just followed orders. And those orders came from ignorant people who only wanted personal gratification.

The Europeans and to a lesser extent, the Chinese, invented a kind of plus system of government. The Romans were the first civilization to really use it, which is partially why they were the most successful civilization until modern times. The Spanish also had a weak form of a plus system. While they had a religious ideology than inhibited scientific progress, European nations were competing with each other, which encouraged science and the arts. Individuals were able to think and question things. Plus systems do that. And as a result, science is allowed to flourish. Science made it possible for the Spanish to travel around the world and conquer almost every people they encountered.

When the Mexicas first tried to block Cortez’ soldiers, Emperor Moctezuma II (actual spelling) sent his magicians to stop them. A bunch of feathered, painted men showed up before Cortez and started singing, dancing and shaking bones and totems. The Spanish looked at them like they were lunatics.  An Indian guide explained what Moctezuma was trying to do. They were casting spells on the Spaniards. Using magic to defeat them. Cortez laughed it off. When the Mexicas tried to fight the Spanish in battle, the got slaughtered in the first few rounds because, in that culture, you were supposed to hit your enemy on the head with your club and the losers were supposed to surrender to be humiliated as sacrificial slaves. Except the Spanish just slaughtered them with their guns and swords and the Mexica soldiers were horrified. “You’re supposed to let us live so we can be sacrificed to your god!” Thus, Cortez was able to walk right into the capital and order Moctezuma around.

Again, in minus-style societies, ideology is needed to control people. Free thought and critical thinking is banned. So citizens become easy marks to forces that don’t share their beliefs.

This was true in 1519 Mexico. It was true in Ancient Japan, which had a similar minus system of government. Once Japan adopted a plus style economy, they became an economic powerhouse.

Today we call the plus style “Capitalism”. Its ideological opponent is called “Socialism or Communism”. These are modernized versions of the old tribute system of the Mexicas or Japanese. In Socialism the state and the party leadership become the new elites. But all capital and resources go to feed the state. So called “benefits” are handed back to the citizens as leavings, once the elites enrich themselves. The more extreme the Socialistic/Communist society becomes, the more it resembles the tribute systems of ancient peoples. And it stagnates and fails over time.

We’ve seen multiple examples of this in our time.

China and India both had socialistic societies, but in the last decade they’ve moved toward more market-oriented (plus style) systems. As a result they’re seeing incredible economic progress where before they were stagnate.

Those nations that are still behind the curve almost universally have minus style economies. They are either socialist systems or an old fashioned totalitarian state.  Hitler, Stalin, Tojo, Mussolini, Saddam all ran totalitarian socialist states. Castro and Kim Jong Il are still doing it and their countries are a mess. Such systems stagnate because they don’t allow innovation or progress. People have no freedom. They are kept prisoner in their own countries.

At this juncture of human history were watching the plus and minus system battle it out for dominance. Those who love control and push ideology favor the minus system. Hence, the Islamo-Fascists want a society resembling an ancient Tribute state. The Socialists marching in our streets in the west want statism to provide them with “benefits”. But if you look at the societies that have tried it, that way lies slow death.

There is only one choice that makes sense, but it’s not exactly the disordered mess we call Capitalism today.

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Wednesday, November 07, 2007

The Free Falling Dollar

The dollar has lost a third of its value since 2002. We’re heading for some nasty inflation. The easy credit that fueled the crazy housing market of the last few years has a part n this, as well as Americans being so credit crazed.

The question is, will we take the measures needed to prevent serious economic pain?

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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Thank You, Doctor

Heart warming shot of the day.

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Sunday, August 05, 2007

Tirade DuJour

Dude needs some prozac.

While stock falls are inevitable with the crazy way so many stock are over valued (see 2000 dot bomb crash), the biggest issue is the insane housing market which was grossly inflated by easy money and now we’re seeing cascading defaults. Which I have been predicting for years now. The next President is going to have a very nasty mess on their hands. But this is what you get when fools run the government. And I don’t just mean the Republicans. 

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Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Housing Prices are Just Plain Wrong

Check this graph out. It’s appalling.

Of course, many people go rich flipping houses. Good for them. Except those same people caused what amounts to a speculator boom which will make buying a new home all but impossible for many people for years to come. When the loans dry up, as they’re beginning to. As the defaults and foreclosures escalate and cascade, as they are now, it will crash the value of a lot of properties bringing more misery and defaults. And many of those flippers will be burned.

The only salvation, I think is, so much inventory will be on market, sellers will be desperate to unload their properties. But if the problem levels out, the cycle could repeat.

Housing prices here in Nevada have gotten absurd. And forget about California. Despite what they say about real estate, I think some hard times will be ahead for people who play too much with it. Unless they can ride tings out.

A lot of flippers have too many mortgages to maintain. And people aren’t buying like they were. 

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Monday, July 02, 2007

This Also Bugs Me

I’m sure by now you’ve got a sense of what some of my pet peeves are if you’ve been reading this blog. Here’s another one that really gets on my nerves. In fact, anyone who knows me will hear me complain about it. All the good land is being bought up so no one else can afford any nearby. It’s like monopoly.

Here’s a classic example. If ever there was a reason to hate Arabs, here’s another.

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Thursday, June 28, 2007

The Supreme Court Flips off America

Boy, this Supreme Court is bad. KELO was a disgrace. This is almost as bad.

Manufacturers may set a fixed price for their products and forbid retailers from offering discounts, the Supreme Court said today, overturning a nearly century-old rule of antitrust law that prohibited retail price fixing.

The 5-4 ruling may be felt by shoppers, including those who buy on the Internet. It permits manufacturers to adopt and enforce what lawyers called “resale price maintenance agreements” that forbid discounting.

Until today, the nation has had an unusually competitive retail market, in part because antitrust laws made it illegal for sellers or manufacturers to agree on fixed prices. The Supreme Court, in a 1911 case involving Dr. Miles and his patented medicines, had said that price-fixing agreements between manufacturers and retail sellers were flatly illegal.

The rule’s practical effect was to discourage a manufacturer from setting a price, leading, for instance, to stickers on the windows of new cars that list the “manufacturer’s suggested retail price.”

However, in today’s opinion, the high court described this rule as outdated and out of step with modern economics.

Watch prices go up dramatically as greedy companies ram price fixing down everyones throats. 

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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The History of Fiat Currency

Paper money, like the dollar, is a fiat currency. It used to be a promissory note for real money, but now it is nothing but a promise. And its an empty promise at that. What props up our currency isn’t our gold reserves anymore. It’s the strength of our military and the stability of our nation. So right now, that’s fairly solid. But everything can change.
Here is a history of fiat currencies and why they aren’t really a good thing. 

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