The Individual Mind

While I don’t recommend anyone purchase BTC (current price here), I find it not only interesting for its potential future value (more gamble than investment), but particularly useful as a hedge against currency devaluation. I  bought some a few years ago as support for the underlying philosophy of a fiat currency divorced from government printing presses, aka Fed credit expansion. Today, at $3,700/BTC, those few would not significantly alter my financial status or retirement potential if sold, but certainly make it fun to follow.

Charles Hugh Smith makes some very good points about the motivations for the creation and purchase of BTC in this referenced article that mainstream (non)thinkers will likely miss. Bitcoiners tend to be concerned about: unsustainable national and global debt levels, government cash restrictions, capital controls, wealth preservation, distrust of the financial system with concern for its long-term viability, and the next financial collapse of what many recognize as a market of excessively over-valued assets.

BTC may be nothing more than pure speculation and gambling for some. However, many of us that support the cryptocurrency see it as a potential source of safety, diversification, personal control and perhaps the beginnings of the next great disruption that blockchain technologies are introducing. The risks are huge. The technology could fail. Governments could outlaw it outright. It could merely be the modern day tulip bulb frenzy. Regardless, the technology and the ideas behind it are significant. Even if it fails, what comes next is sure to undermine the status quo.

mtr

Article from The Sun today:

“Angry MPs urge Brits to boycott Amazon as it’s revealed the online giant’s UK tax bill HALVED last year – while sales soared. Politicians and campaigners rounded on the US giant for coughing up ‘peanuts’ to the Taxman despite raking in £1.4 billion.”

Today’s enlightened, individual mind commentary: Brit Gov Officials want to boycott Amazon as an extortion tactic for more tax payments. They apparently want AMZN to pay taxes on their revenues of £1.4 billion, while the competitive, low margin retail business only profited £24.5 million. Gov wants more than the £7.4 million paid in corporate taxes,… and the estimated 24,000 jobs it has and will create in the country. AMZN “isn’t paying its fair share!”

Regardless of actual profits and payments, that is always the mantra of statist apologists – everybody paying their fair share, turning over their property and income and choice and lives. I really don’t care much about people and companies paying their fair share. I am much more disturbed by people and governments that take more than their fair share of other people’s time, product, property; that take more than their fair share of lives lost in endless war and people kidnapped in a prison cell for non-violent “crimes;” their fair share of intimidation and manipulation and threats and extortion and lies and fraud and waste and controls and abuse and dogs shot and civil assets confiscated without trial and failed public education and corporatist favoritism which drives out competition and the fair markets upon which an open and free economy depend.

They take more than their fair share of causing distorted economics and the resultant unintended consequences, of manipulating interest rates to near zero with all of the subsequent artificially driven debt purchasing into the credit and valuations bubbles which will inevitably burst – once again harming the general public but sparing the most irresponsible who tend to be bailed out with public funds and protected by the powerful; more than their fair share of failing those who have made themselves dependent on the promises of the ultimately undeliverable – politically provided health, Ponzi pensions, unfunded entitlement liabilities, poverty programs, education, jobs, safety, security, peace; more than their fair share of supporting heroin growers in Afghanistan via trillion dollar soldier- and society-destroying military ventures which aid the ongoing deadly and recently much-advertised “opioid crisis” back home and lead to jailing or shooting the well-provisioned end user and dealer in the US; of never-ending global interventions which lead to violent blow back from people that hate the destabilizing aggressions and drone bombs and political interferences and resource extractions in their countries and lives; more than their fair share of manipulating news media with its incessant stream of inanity and manufactured crises and personality disorders writ large that turn the viewership’s minds to malleable mush – the ideal fertile ground to grow the nationalist, myth-based, emotionally reactive, and mis-informed mental garbage piles from which important decisions are made at the ballot box.

Indeed, you should be very worried about fair shares. However, I argue that the takers of others’ fair shares are those that should be critiqued and constrained, rather than those taken from.

Just when you thought progress wasn’t being made, technologic advancements and plunging prices in lighting over the past 200 years put things in a different light, so to speak. From man’s early history B.C. it took about 400 labor hours to produce an hour of light equivalent to a 100 watt bulb. Today, that light unit costs a few seconds of labor, or a few pennies of income. Also, due to technologic advancements, consider the availability and falling costs of refrigeration, climate control, transportation, clothing, food, water, plumbing, communications, shipping,…. The poorest 1% of Americans live with comforts that royalty of a few generations back could never have dreamed of.

See statista’s The Cost of Light Through the Ages.

 

*image from The Free Thought Project

** also, see my essay Failure Institutionalized: The Folly, Costs and Consequences of the War on Drugs.

Another great Gore Vidal historic novel in which he weaves together real events and the lives of historic people in something more interesting and readable than fiction. I knew little of Aaron Burr before Vidal’s biographic drama based on the journals, letters, media coverage, court records, etc of the day. What I recalled from my horribly lacking public education “history” coursework on Burr was that he shot Hamilton in a duel. The real Aaron Burr was an energetic, intelligent, thoughtful, if not at times short-sighted, treasure to the new America of his time. Perhaps even more worthwhile is the insight gained on the “founding fathers” through Burr’s own interactions with and impressions of these highly flawed, now-deified, political opportunists as history has been written by those who manipulated for themselves the control of the curricula’s pen. Particularly fun are Burr’s opinions of the worst soldier and general ever, George Washington, and the hypocritical, self-important, highly flawed Thomas Jefferson.

Vidal published Burr in 1973. The political intrigues, power plays, war lust, and human frailties from almost 200 years prior are well-described, and now, 40 years after the book’s publication, are as relevant and evident in the politicos and world stage today as ever. Nothing new under the sun. He describes events of centuries past similar to what is evidenced today: political violence, blackmail, the exploitation and creation of international incidents to start wars and mold public opinion,… Meanwhile, he captures the backdrop and events of the times: catastrophes, fads, disease, diet, mores, daily life.

This is a book that once finished, you hold to your chest in appreciation, process for a while, and wonder if you shouldn’t start over immediately with the first page.

Another Stockman feat of economic insight. The US malaise that has traversed decades and administrations only worsens with time – growing and inflating towards an inevitable mega-crash of currency and asset valuations. The Donald had a chance to stop the trajectory, but has proven himself utterly unaware of the basic roots of the disease.

“The overwhelming source of what ails America economically is domiciled in the Eccles Building. During the past three decades the Federal Reserve has fostered destructive financial mutations on Wall Street and Main Street and among the household, business and government sectors of the national economy alike.

Lynette Zang of ITM trading is a previous Lehman Brothers analyst who now analyzes markets for hard asset investment (precious metals). In her podcast with Greg Hunter, she offers some eye-opening insights and charts concerning the financial status of the US and world. (Of course, there are some very bright financial minds out there – none of whom are in any way associated with government or institutes of “higher learning” – like Jim Rogers, Peter Schiff, David Stockman,… so plenty of other places to find similar insights.)

https://youtu.be/KrdWIb7FYiU

And a related article found in my perusals today from zerohedge:

“The World Is Now $217,000,000,000,000 In Debt And The Global Elite Like It That Way”

From my social media post regarding the article:

Global debt estimate $217 TRILLION, >300% of global GDP. Massive debt “funnels wealth to the very top of the global wealth pyramid. In other words, it makes global wealth inequality far worse because this system is designed to make the rich even richer and the poor even poorer. Every year the gap between the wealthy and the poor grows, and it has gotten to the point that eight men have as much wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion people on this planet combined….”

“… debt-based central banking is designed to get national governments trapped in endless debt spirals from which they can never possibly escape.”

Bill Gross, perhaps the world’s most premier and recognized bond investor said recently, “our highly levered financial system is like a truckload of nitroglycerin on a bumpy road.”

And I stumbled upon Neil Howe again, who shares some interesting points from his concept of “The Fourth Turning” – how societies, like seasons, have historically evolved and cycled each generation. The pending fourth turning now, he argues, is one that will be fomented by a large crisis (as always), lead to the collapse/dissolution of power and wealth structures, permit a creative destruction in which institutions and assets which have real value will persist – an across the board reset with a new societal era beginning. Worth consideration.

Stay safe out there! Forecast is for choppy seas.

Brilliant questions by retired Army Colonel and retired history/international relations BU professor Andrew Bacevich. These show not only what the media and politicians refuse to address, but likely what you seldom, and likely never, have considered.

Read the article here, or get the highlights by listening to the Tom Woods’ podcast, episode 819, here (where I first caught wind of it this morning). And here is Dr. Bacevich’s wikipedia page.

An excerpt from his intro to some basic, fundamental questions for the intellectually curious (or even those with viable brain activity) on the topic of the disaster of US foreign policy:

“Apart from a commendable determination to discomfit Trump and members of his inner circle (select military figures excepted, at least for now), journalism remains pretty much what it was prior to November 8th of last year: personalities built up only to be torn down; fads and novelties discovered, celebrated, then mocked; “extraordinary” stories of ordinary people granted 15 seconds of fame only to once again be consigned to oblivion—all served with a side dish of that day’s quota of suffering, devastation, and carnage.  These remain journalism’s stock-in-trade.  As practiced in the United States, with certain honorable (and hence unprofitable) exceptions, journalism remains superficial, voyeuristic, and governed by the attention span of a two year old.

“As a result, all those editors, reporters, columnists, and talking heads who characterize their labors as “now more important than ever” ill-serve the public they profess to inform and enlighten.  Rather than clearing the air, they befog it further.  If anything, the media’s current obsession with Donald Trump—his every utterance or tweet treated as “breaking news!”—just provides one additional excuse for highlighting trivia, while slighting issues that deserve far more attention than they currently receive.

“To illustrate the point, let me cite some examples of national security issues that presently receive short shrift or are ignored altogether by those parts of the Fourth Estate said to help set the nation’s political agenda. To put it another way: Hey, Big Media, here are two dozen matters to which you’re not giving faintly adequate thought and attention.”

Sharing a thoughtful post from Washington’s Blog for your enlightened consideration:

“Given that the Manchester terrorist was a product of the interventions in Libya and Syria, it’s time to have an adult discussion about what it will take to stop terrorism…. There are 10 basic principles that serious, mature people need to discuss if we want to stop terrorism …”

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2017/05/want-stop-terrorism-just-pretend.html#more-67740

(image lifted from UK’s Metro story of 23 May.)

The future demands a different approach, decentralized power structures, the removal of wealth-consolidating scamsters, the rejection of demagogic race-baiters and crisis actors, a cessation of coercive Imperial interventionism into every corner of the world which perpetuates violence, blow back and war. Dump them all and live.