More Gnomes, Sex And Financial Chaos

July 8, 2008

Elaine Meinel Supkis

The insane, stupid and useless 'buy-out/buy-up' financial markets collapsed very suddenly last July due to the abrupt ending of the noxious Japanese carry trade. Now, all the ugly underbelly business of this cannibalistic capitalist financial system is showing its true nature yet again. For this happened in the past, and not too distant past, either. Three times in my life, this same boom/bust of hostile take overs by con men has blossomed and then collapsed bringing vast banking and social woes in their wakes. Why we do this over and over again baffles me. It is a great way for con men to get rich. It is a thoroughly lousy way to run a capitalist society. It increases debts to unimaginable heights while producing exactly nothing in return! And the side effects are horrible: lay offs, bankruptcies, social chaos and the destruction of the industrial base. Today, the toads and gnomes doing this destruction mourn the loss of free leverage to keep up their destruction.

Kekst, Dealmakers' Publicist, Sees `Frightening' Merger Market

(Bloomberg) -- Gershon Kekst, who pioneered the field of public relations for dealmakers as an adviser to Henry Kravis and Sanford Weill, said the current credit-market contraction is the most ``frightening'' slump in four decades.

``This is more severe and more intense, and if I had to use one word to characterize it, in contrast to the 80's, it would probably be frightening,'' Kekst, 73, said in an interview. ``We just don't know what's going to happen. The economy is being tested in a bear market that could go for a long time.''
*snip*
Kekst, who agreed to sell his firm to Publicis Groupe SA last week for an undisclosed price, has had a front-row seat in four M&A booms and the busts. He worked through the merger wave of the 1960's, led by conglomerates such as Textron and ITT; the 1980's takeovers fueled by high-yield, high-risk bonds from Drexel Burnham Lambert; the Internet and technology mergers of the 90's; and last year's record private-equity buyouts.

The current credit crunch, triggered by defaults on U.S. subprime mortgages, is more severe than the slump that followed the savings and loan crisis and the collapse of Drexel, Kekst said in the interview.
*snip*
He said he once asked his friend Flom whether Kekst & Co. would be crippled if mergers and acquisitions dried up.

``You're not in the M&A business, you are in the `seykhl' business,'' Flom replied, using a Yiddish word meaning ``street smarts.'' ``Business leadership is going to find issues and problems to get themselves into long after the M&A business is gone.''

Three times we went through this same stupid cycle. Three times too many. If there is anything that should be forbidden, it should be hostile take overs based on leverage via getting cheap loans from some foreign central bank that wishes to destroy our economy so they can win WWII. Just because someone surrenders doesn't mean a historical struggle for global power ends. Far from it! Wars can rage for centuries and have raged for centuries. The hostilities between France and England, for example, are still very evident today even if it is mostly expressed by jokes and poking at each other on the public stage. To this day, the Civil War still rages in the US via various means. The Civil War slave state/free farmer state divide is very much alive today.

First off, the gnome named Kekst grumbles and complains that 'We just don't know what is going to happen...' HAHAHA. Right. I hate to tell Mr. Kekst this but he is a humbug lying bastard. Of course he knows what is happening today and what will happen next. He is even older than me and I am an old crone, sort of. Even so, back when I was a young crone, I knew what would happen next with these stupid schemes to borrow money so hostile take overs could be foisted upon everyone: it leads to a raging stock market bubble and then a hideous, ugly 1929-style collapse! DUH. Even an idiot can see this and gnomes know this perfectly well. I lived in this gnomic community in the past when my ex-husband worked on Wall Street, by golly. Since I used to go out drinking with these well-padded gnomes who would subsidize my booze in order to look at my breasts in a dim room, well! I listened to their gossip. And guess what?

They are very secretive to outsiders but when drunk, will spill everything to a buxom young female who smiles and bats her eyes at them. It is laughably easy to charm a gnome into handing over his precious gelt. Eh? Of course! This is why TV economics shows are infested by a thick mix of old, beat up gnomes chatting with buxom beauties who then say, in a piping, pretty voice, 'Remember, buy stocks NOW! They will only go UP! Tee-hee-hee!' See? This is why I am not on TV. I am past prime. Alas, when I was a lass, we females were relegated to the bars on Broadway and Wall Street, not on TV. Shows us there is progress, eh?

Today's gnome specimen does point out that he and his buddies have managed to create a MUCH WORSE than the last three times they did this to our economy. This cycle, they managed to drive everyone deep into debt with hostile rivals overseas. They have created an ocean of debts we can't possibly pay off and thus, we will now ALL go into bankruptcy like we did in 1929. Only this is much worse: back then, our government was solvent! We had huge gold reserves. We were still King of the Hill. We still had an industrial base and a very good trade balance. Thanks to tariffs and barriers. The tax burden was fairly low, too.

Kekst is certainly in the 'seykhl' business but more so, he is like the perennial three card monty players I used to see outside my office on 43rd Street in Midtown Manhattan long ago: he shuffles the same three cards, talks very fast and steals people's wallets while they are distracted. Beats purse snatching by pushing little old babuskas into the gutter. On the other hand, when the three card monty game fails, the push the babuska game commences. We call this 'inflation of food and fuel'. The gnomes always are put on a leash after wrecking our economy. And then spend the following ten years whining about this until they bribe enough politicians to unleash the Power of the Ponzi yet again. Then we have the media trumpet 'A NEW economy!' And everyone talks about how we will all get very rich playing the same stupid game we lost twice before! This is madness, of course. A failure to remember the past. A childish belief that cannibal economics is capitalism.

Hurricane Bertha shifts direction

(CNN) -- Hurricane Bertha -- the first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic season -- began a shift in direction Tuesday morning, a day after growing to Category 3 status, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Already, we have a major hurricane so early in the season. And it formed very swiftly in the Atlantic. The Gulf is one hot tub of potential hurricanes. This is very similar to economics: an ocean of red ink that is in a hot market becomes the cradle of dozens of destructive hurricanes. These then roar ashore one right after the other, wiping out whole cities. New Orleans is still not rebuilt, just for example. Miami Beach sits like a sitting duck, waiting to be destroyed in a hurricane. Just like, as per usual, the very expensive real estate in California is again, burning up. While waiting for the inevitable next blowout of the San Andreas Fault.

Bob Chapman: Bonds keep the system working, Inflation a threat when money moves out of bonds again, funny money dealers, bond market like a drug cartel keeping investors addicted, real estate bubble, bonds a threat to the stability of the entire market system.

US treasury bonds, which are a large segment of the bond market, are used to absorb trade deficits caused by free trade, globalization, off-shoring, outsourcing and both legal and illegal immigration and to keep all the inflation we have exported abroad from returning home. Foreign countries with large forex reserves are told to use their dollars to buy interest-bearing treasuries instead of buying hard assets in the US which would be highly inflationary for our financial system because exported dollars would then reenter our domestic economy and increase our money supply. In this way, the rampant inflation caused by profligate issuance of money and credit by an out-of-control Fed in its attempt to cover up the destruction of our economy stays safely overseas, having been absorbed by the treasuries. This profligate issuance of money and credit was created by the Fed to support the free trade-globalization agenda and the transnational conglomerates, which are gutting our economy, especially our manufacturing sector.

This Ponzi-scheme is now unraveling as foreigners shun dollar-denominated treasuries yielding negative real returns as inflation, a falling dollar and increased risk destroy the value of outstanding treasury bonds. The floodgates are now starting to open as a sea of dollar forex flees in terror from dollar-denominated treasuries into hard assets, the effects of which you are already starting to see in highly elevated commodity prices which are also being driven by banks that are desperate for profits to improve their balance sheets by exploiting the Enron loophole. Hold on to your hat, because this flow of money back into our domestic economy is just getting started. That is why the FTC is discontinuing publication of its statistics regarding foreign investment in the US, citing budgetary concerns, just as the Fed did with M3. Wait until all this money pours back into the US economy. Inflation will go inter-dimensional and take us through a wormhole back to the days of the Weimar Republic as gold and silver head for the Einstein-DeSitter radius at the outermost bounds of the visible universe.

A good, comprehensive read. It really puzzles me why economics writers don't talk about sex more. Being mostly males, I would imagine they would see the obvious. Oh well. One thing Chapman tells us in this article that shocked me was the Federal Government hiding yet more statistics! Just as they now lie about inflation and this causes tremendous damage to the banking as well as business sectors, the Federal Reserve now lies about the M3 numbers and now this: the FTCis now concealing foreign investment statistics???? I use these! It is part of the deep tracking system we run here at Culture of Life News! Up until the crash last summer, the US used to boast about 'foreign investment' that was pouring in. I know it is still pouring in. There are trillions of dollars floating around the planet seeking some way of making money by being activated. Sitting in vaults, it is useful only for hiding trade surpluses from the monetary markets that were supposed to drive up the currencies of all nations with trade surpluses. Like China and Japan, just for example.

The Fed is ultimately responsible for creating inflation along with the Federal government running on red ink. But on top of this is the red ink created by the gnome community who operate offshore banking and financial systems which are fake front organizations. They are circumventing banking restraints by going overseas to Japan for 'free money' which is then hauled back into America and dumped into the money stream here via the stupid 'buy-up and buy-out' business of these con artists. The ONLY way to stop them is to bankrupt the entire system. So far, the Fed has worked very hard to protect these stupid gnomes from their own follies by bankrolling them when their Funny Money™ flows fail. Of course, each time the gnomes crash the entire economic system this way, some of them get caught in the gears and are arrested. Then laws are passed to prevent this sort of stupidity. Then these laws are removed again.

Wikipedia on Drexel Burnham Lambert:

Drexel Burnham Lambert was a major Wall Street investment banking firm, which first rose to prominence and then was driven into bankruptcy in the 1980s by its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by Drexel employee Michael Milken. At its height, it was the fifth-largest investment bank in the United States.
*snip*
By the late 1980s, public confidence in leveraged buyouts had waned, and criticism of the perceived engine of the takeover movement, the junk bond, had increased. Innovative financial instruments often generate skepticism, and few have generated more controversy than high yield debt. Some argue that the debt instrument itself, sometimes dubbed "turbo debt," was the cornerstone of the 1980s "Decade of Greed." However, junk bonds were actually used in less than 25% of acquisitions and hostile takeovers during that period. Nevertheless, by 1990 default rates on high yield debt had increased from 4% to 10%, further eroding confidence in this financial instrument. Without Milken's cheerleading, the liquidity of the junk bond market turned dried up. Drexel was forced to buy the bonds of insolvent and failing companies, which depleted their capital and would eventually bankrupt the company.

Each cycle of leveraged hyper-hot market buy-outs hits us, the gnomes play a very clever game: they rename everything. The magic of a new game and a new explanation for obvious scams is very important. This is the 'Street Smarts' part of the business. The fast-talking con man's job. First, this assures the marks that they are not seeing a repeat of the three earlier boom/busts. Instead, this is NEW. Also, the gnomes assure everyone, the small hole, the tiny opening within strict laws, is small, not huge. Of course, out of these small holes crawl some of the biggest monetary monsters on this planet! We see this clearly in the Derivatives Beast's birth and subsequent growth. The visible part is gigantic and is only 10% of the actual size of this monster. Once the tiny hole is made in the fabric of the law, once the hole is drilled into the bank vaults, the gnomes start to steal small change. Then larger amounts. In the end, they always blast through the banking rule's walls and make the tiny hole gigantic and then rush in to grab all the world's potential wealth. This always destroys the systems and everyone goes bankrupt. This is the price for allowing continuous theft.

I always hated Greenspan. As per usual, all Fed chiefs hand over their governance when things are about to collapse. This happened in 1971, again in 1978, 1987 and in 2004. When Greenspan took over, the Drexel business mentioned by Kekst at the top of this story, was beginning its huge collapse. Here is one of Greenspan's earliest speeches as a new Fed chief:

Testimony by Alan Greenspan, Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System before the Subcommittee on Monopolies and Commercial Law Committee on the Judiciary U S House of Representatives

September 14, 1988

More generally, the major public benefit of Glass-Steagall repeal would be lower customer costs and increased availability of investment banking services, both resulting from increased actual and potential competition and from the realization of possible economies of scale and scope from the coordinated provision of commercial and investment banking services We believe that repeal of Glass-Steagall would reduce underwriting spreads and therefore lower financing costs to businesses large and small, as well as to state and local governments In addition, bank holding company participation in dealing currently ineligible securities is likely to provide the benefit of enhanced secondary market liquidity

Just as this speech was being mouthed, the problems with the collapse of the huge investment house of Drexel Burnham and Lambert was hitting the front pages of the dailies. Is Mr. Greenspan aware of all this? Is he, the Übergnome of all gnomes, is he aware of any of this? Nope. He is happily doing his job for his fellow cave dwelling community of gold-mad sex-starved fellows: he wants more laws passed when the gnomes destroyed the economy back in 1929! The laws passed to cut them off from opening holes in the walls and thus, draining away all the wealth of this nation! Look at what Greenspan wants: more LIQUIDITY! Indeed, throughout the last 30 years of the US running up amazing levels of debt at every possible venue, we see a cry for more liquidty! Not savings, more credit. More debt instruments. Even as the entire system is crashing down upon our heads, Bernanke and his buddies are focused on one thing only: to create more debts.

Greenspan, September 1988:

Some provisions of the bill unnecessarily inhibit competition As I noted in my introductory remarks, the encouragement of competition is not the only objective of Federal Reserve regulatory policy. Other important objectives include a safe and sound banking system, prevention of conflicts of interest, and limiting the federal safety net to insured depositories. These objectives have led us to support locating certain expanded nonbanking activities, including expanded securities powers, in a separate subsidiary of a bank holding company. Successful implementation of this strategy requires the construction and maintenance of effective "firewalls" between a bank and an affiliated securities firm.

Thus, we support most of the firewall provisions of the Depository Institutions Act of 1988. However, two of the firewall and securities activities provisions of H R 5094 are, in our view, unnecessarily restrictive and would, if implemented, impose competitive costs that exceed any benefits. The first such provision is the exclusion of underwriting and dealing corporate equities from the set of expanded securities activities In view of the extensive firewalls, particularly those limiting credit transactions and asset sales, insulating affiliate banks and thrifts from potential safety and soundness and conflict of interest concerns, we see no reason for an absolute firewall prohibiting equity activities.

A second place where we believe the proposed bill would unnecessarily inhibit competition is its restrictions on the sharing of similar name, logo, premises, and joint advertising between the securities subsidiary and the affiliated bank or thrift. Restrictions of this type would dilute and perhaps prevent some of the cost-saving synergies and economies of scope that are expected from the joint provision of these activities within a bank holding company The other extensive firewalls contained in the bill, and in the bill passed by the Senate, are sufficient to insulate the bank from risk, to warn investors of the nature of their risk, and to meet safety and soundness concerns is this area

Firewalls and competition: buy up and buy outs KILL competition. Note how this hasn't inhibited them at all. Indeed, the Fed has thrown away all authority when it comes to creating monopolies and cartels. The buy-up hostile take overs are all about killing competition. This is why, as the new mega-corporation 'grows' in size, the parts that used to be separate are SMALLER compared to before. People are fired, things are thrown away and prices are raised. And the debt on all this is astronomical.

Greenspan in 1988:

Presumably because of the federal safety net and, therefore, a concern over the potential size of failed institutions, banking is the only industry to which laws explicitly restraining overall, or undue, concentration apply. In addition, these restraints apply only to the acquisition of nonbank firms by bank holding companies, and do not appear in any of the nation's antitrust laws.

The proposed bill contains specific numerical standards prohibiting the acquisition of a securities firm by a bank holding company. These standards include prohibition of a merger if both parties are among the top 15 in their respective industries, or if the bank holding company and securities firm have total assets greater than $30 billion and $15 billion, respectively.

While we recognize that the anxieties underlying inclusion of new undue concentration standards in H R 5094 have a lengthy historical tradition, there appears to be little foundation for such anxieties in today's environment This conclusion is supported by two observations. First, the nonbank financial sector in general remains highly fragmented, in spite of the fact it is generally much less regulated than banking. Second, the Board's experience in implementing section 4(c)(8) of the Bank Holding Company Act as amended in 1970, which allows bank holding companies to enter nonbanking activities approved by the Board, has not been marked with any general tendency toward increasing overall concentration in the approved activities. Under section 4(c)(8), when considering expanded bank holding company powers the Board is required to account for possible adverse effects such as undue concentration of resources.

Greenspan knew back then, the sole reason the Fed exists is to be a backdoor around Congress and to provide cover for inflationary lending. Their clients are not the American people. They are fellow bankers and Wall Street. The Fed recognized the utility in keeping the populace quiet and at bay. So they will allow some regulation and controls. But the point is to tempt the people into reckless debt creation. And this has been a total success. On all fronts, people are heavily encouraged to go into debt. From top to bottom. There is a lot of pro-debt growth propaganda. This makes the gnomes richer since they make these debts out of thin air. Very easy for them to do. Hard for anyone trapped in this system to exit. Greenspan had to juggle Congress and his public image so he could slowly unwind or minimize all laws passed during previous banking collapses. He had to sweat bullets from 1988 to 1991, trying to increase debts while the system was in full collapse. Finally, with the birth of the New Venus, the 0% Japanese lending by the Bank of Japan in 1995, Greenspan could give the green light to infinite leverage which was safely tucked away in Tokyo.

Greenspan's 1988 testimony:

In closing, Mr Chairman, the Board believes that the Congress now has an historic opportunity to put the nation's financial system on a sounder footing—perhaps a unique opportunity to make it more competitive, more efficient, more responsive to consumer needs, and equally important, more stable. It would be a major waste of Congress' and others' scarce resources if all the hard work on this subject of the last year were lost. We urge you in the strongest terms to aid in the passage of legislation to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act and to put in its place a new framework allowing the affiliation of banking organizations and securities firms as provided in the Financial Modernization Act and our suggested revisions to the Depository Institutions Act.

The protections Congress put in place that was supposed to restore 'stability' were all removed. The efforts by Greenspan and the Bush family came to fruition when the GOP took over the Congress and threw caution to the winds. President Clinton went along with the joy ride. In one regard, this dynamic did fix one thing: the Federal overspending. Anxious to clip Clinton's wings, Congress depressed government spending. And the US economy took off. Greenspan noted inflation was a problem so he raised interest rates but only so that Gore should lose the election. For Greenspan remembered very well, his friend Nixon complaining bitterly about Martin Jr. doing this to him in the Kennedy race. It was pure politics.

And corrupt. There are many forces at work and examining and remembering all of them at once is important. This is why reading history and especially, going to the original sources is so important. It brings up information that is vital but easily forgotten.

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Comments

[CK]

At its most pervasive, sex might consume 4% of any given days time use. It is a marginal activity. It neither adds to the production of goods and services available to the market nor consumes any. On top of that, sex is ( potentially ) a non-zero sum activity. Both ( all ) participants can come away from the activity believing they are better off than they were before engaging. Economists are much happier with 0 sum non-dynamic activities, things that can be modelled by comparative statics.
Finally, sex is a four ( or more ) handed activity and economists are incapable of going beyond the: "on the one hand, but on the other hand" paradigm.
I can understand ogling legs, legs lead somewher; ogling breasts, while non-productive, does seem to be the reiging mode of behaviour. I can say this because I just watched several hours of FoodTV after watching several hours of DIY TV and H&G TV over the last several days. The best displays of cleavage extant are on those three channels. I swear that one of the hostesses could carry a Kitchen-Aid in her cleavage and still have room for a gallon of EVOO and one of the DIY ladies could keep several 2x8s and a pneumatic nail gun in hers.

[Buffalo Ken]

Hey - CK.

How many variables are there in that model you described above? Just curious.

[Buffalo Ken]

Also, I think sex does add to the production of goods. A whole bunch of goods. Goods and services both produced and consumed.

Sex is big business.

[Gary]

"At its most pervasive, sex might consume 4% of any given days time use"

"Time use" physically speaking.

Now "time use" mentally speaking is another
story.Hahahahaha. I remember not too many
ys ago it probably consumed at least 90pct
of my mental processing, ha ha.

[Paul S]

You mention the gnomes as being old farts, fat, etc. My question is, where are all the young punks in any of this? You know, the 25-35 year old arrogant, smart a##es who think they know it all to go along with their total lack of morals and ethics? It seems to me they would make good 'useful idiots'. Or do the gnomes think including the younger people is unnecessary?

[Buffalo Ken]

I think a many of the gnomes are the younger punks. The ones making all this funky-dunk model error-filled stinking crud.

The older generation supposedly was supposed to keep this shit from happening.

The middle generation will do what we have to, but we are really on the sidelines. I know that I am.

My bet is with the young heroes. The are growing rapidly. They are a force that is undeniable.

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

"They" are growing rapidly.

[Buffalo Ken]

By the way, the book "The Fourth Turning" in an incredible read. I recommend it.

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

I don't agree with everything in the aforementioned book, but some of the ideas are compelling and facilitate a different way of thinking about things....anywho....

Later,
Ken

[Anthony]

And the stupid banks (always the cause of all of economic troubles) are suffering from their own stupidity, and Bill Buckler of The-Privateer.com newsletter notes that "US banks have suffered US$391 billion of losses and write-downs from mortgage-related securities since the start of 2007, according to the data compiled by Bloomberg. US banks could lose another $300 billion on real estate loans during the year ahead."

What makes this $691 billion loss so special is that "such losses could jeopardize balance sheets because the US banking system had only $1,350 billion of equity capital". Hahaha! They've lost two-thirds of the banks capital! Hahaha! Morons!

Since all things are connected to all things, he says, "The sum of it all is that the entire US banking and financial system is so threadbare, fragile and short of capital that a collapse or crash in one place could knock the underpinnings out from under several other US financial sectors which would take even more down with them. A systemic crash - at any time - is today a distinct possibility."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JG08Dj01.html

[Anthony]

And the stupid banks (always the cause of all of economic troubles) are suffering from their own stupidity, and Bill Buckler of The-Privateer.com newsletter notes that "US banks have suffered US$391 billion of losses and write-downs from mortgage-related securities since the start of 2007, according to the data compiled by Bloomberg. US banks could lose another $300 billion on real estate loans during the year ahead."

What makes this $691 billion loss so special is that "such losses could jeopardize balance sheets because the US banking system had only $1,350 billion of equity capital". Hahaha! They've lost two-thirds of the banks capital! Hahaha! Morons!

Since all things are connected to all things, he says, "The sum of it all is that the entire US banking and financial system is so threadbare, fragile and short of capital that a collapse or crash in one place could knock the underpinnings out from under several other US financial sectors which would take even more down with them. A systemic crash - at any time - is today a distinct possibility."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JG08Dj01.html

[Gary]

This just in from the London Telegraph....

"Bridgewater Associates has issued an apocalyptic warning to clients that bank losses from the worldwide credit crisis may reach $1,600bn (£800bn), four times official estimates and enough to pose a grave risk to the financial system.

The giant US hedge fund said that it doubted whether lenders would be able to shoulder the full losses, disguised until now by "mark-to-model" methods of valuing structured credit.

"We are facing an avalanche of bad assets. We have big doubts as to whether financial institutions will be able to obtain enough new capital to cover their losses. The credit crisis is going to get worse," said the group in a confidential report, leaked to the Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung.

Bank losses on this scale would have far-reaching effects. Lenders would have to curtail loans by roughly 10-to-one to preserve their capital ratios. This would imply a further contraction of credit by up to $12,000bn worldwide unless banks could raise fresh capital.

It would be almost impossible to attract or even find such sums from investors. While sovereign wealth funds command roughly $3,000bn in funds, this money is mostly committed already. The funds have grown extremely wary of Western banks with sub-prime exposure after burning their fingers so many times already."

[Buffalo Ken]

I currently am dealing with two banking entities. One of them has mostly savings. The other has my home mortgage. My saving exceed my mortgage. I have no debts.

But, I'm wondering whether I should just have my accounts with a single banking entity. That way it is all under a one roof.

Plus, then if the one with my savings goes belly up, I will not be shit out of luck who suddenly has no savings, but the debt remains. Now that would not be fair. That would make me upset.

What about you?

[Buffalo Ken]

In way, debt has been used to make so many slaves. This has got to stop.

The amount in must be balanced with the amount out in essentially "real time".

Balance is essential and scale matters.

[Buffalo Ken]

No more gambling with out children's future. I hope everyone can understand this sentiment.

Peace,
Ken

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

All the banking collapses in the past feature young gnomes in hot pursuit of the elusive Hot Sex items like fast cars, fast women and fast bucks. But if they don't get killed or jailed, they end up as old gnomes and continue to try to get the fast buck, fast doctor appointments and fast trophy wives.

About sex: throughout nature, all living things invest a tremendous amount of effort, time, life and limb and everything to have progeny. They, not the mere sex, is the whole point.

Children for human mammalian females, is a very big and difficult investment out of sex, you know. Babies last a long time and are a lot of work and are the basis of all FUTURE wealth.

[Buffalo Ken]

Here is what seems to me to be an awesome website recommended by a friend from another website. Ya know?

http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/book/

Elaine - that was a beautiful post. Thank-you.

[CK]

@KEN:
The # of variable models depends on the wealth of the gnome doing the models.
@KEN: That one can think of one thing while doing another is not news.
@Ken: Sex, the act, neither produces nor consumes. Accoutrements to enhance the flagging libido is a modest business. Attempting to convince unsexy folks that some item will imbue them with sensuality and sexual desireability is a large business; it has little to do with sex, the activity and much to do with sex, the daydream.
@Elaine: in agrarian, nomadic, hunter gatherer societies, progeny are productive assets. They can be worked or sold as the situation mandates and replaced with little effort. In a "post-economic" society, they are accoutrements, about as necessary as granite counter tops or Manolo Blahnik shoes. The carrying and birthing process reduces the female's economic contribution for a short while, during that short while the male is supposed to take up the slack.
Divison of labour ... if children were so wonderful, women would go into capital not into labor.
There is really nothing elusive about a Lambourghini, ( or in my day a Stanley Steamer or Duesenburg), nothing elusive about "hot" women, cash wins both. And if the nature shows are to be believed, animals don't spend a whole lot of energy in courting, herbivores do a few head butts and one of them gets to shtup all the females. Carnivores do a few fang bearings, one of them rolls over and presents, the other gets to shtup all the females. Said shtupping taking less than 1% of an animals daily time expenditure. If an offspring becomes a meal for some other member of the food chain, another offspring comes in a few months.
@Ken: a fool puts all his eggs in one basket, a smart person puts all his eggs in one basket and watches that basket like it were his more important possession, but the smart person does not "fall in love" with the basket nor its contents.
@Ken: of course debt is slavery, and of course your progeny will gamble with your future as soon as they are old enough to indulge in politics.

[Buffalo Ken]

CK - I can't hear you.

[Buffalo Ken]

Come to my table in my workshop if you want to have this kind of conversation.

I'm sure the same could be said for much of what I say.

As for Elaine. Her post above was truly beautiful. All future wealth comes from the children. The children are most important.

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

P.S. CK - don't you ever try to tell me about love again. You will regret it.

[Buffalo Ken]

that is not a threat just a statement regarding the strength of my stance. Maybe I'm kidding myself. Maybe not.

[Buffalo Ken]

Lastly - Elaine - Thanks again for the beautiful post. That is what matters.

[blues]

Elaine: The literary value of this post is fantastic! I don't understand all the economic bullshit. But the shear literary value here is sky-high! I love it.

Not posting much. It's just too damn HOT here!

Just the poetry is enough.

[calvino]

I meant to salute you for your call on Freddie Mac, however by today, the success has been vitiated. The chairrat, came on air at 8 am and promised all and sundry an indefinate stay at the rat's liquidity trough. And while Asian, save China, markets slumped and Europe withered, the US indexes jumped as soon as the bearded rat pronounced. The US currency galloped ahead, beating off the Franc, the Yen and the Canuck like they were midgets with a deficit. To the contrary, they all have sizable fiscal and current account suprluses, save for Japan. Masaharu Homma would have a huge fiscal surplus, if he paid his workers a small share of the profits available from the current account surplus. But you cover that story well on your own. And one is left to ponder this mystery, how a crippled currency of an insovent regime is whooping the currencies of substantial creditors, while offering an inferior return, in the case of CAD and CHF. Chaime Dimon provides a clue, as he speaks at two pm and reassures that the credit crisis is passing, well on its way out. Didn't the rat say the same thing two months ago, before Freddie and Fannie were called out on their insolvency by Lehman, of all people. Methinks Lehman is preparing to get eaten, so they are trying to piss in the pot and ruin the taste. This is why Lying Hank is serving all the horseshit about orderly disposition of major financial institutions - Lehman about to be disposed. Of course all the foregoing is just an opinion, and not a libelous statement of fact.

[CK]

@Ken: Now what kind of conversation would that be? One where you ask a question and I answer it? One where you ramble about how you spent your mental energies years ago? One where you disagree with a statement I make but offer no support for your disagreement? One where you ask financial advice and when it is given you make threats about "the strength of your love."? Or would it be another one where you attempt to take over a thread by posting dozens of posts in succession at two or three minute intervals?

[GK]

Basically the Fourth Turning predicts the end of the economic power of the US or all life on earth. Based on some magical flow of nature.

This would be very believable when highly stoned and ignorant of the fact that there are many people who worship money, power, themselves, Lucifer and whatever else they lust after and have dreamed about the destruction of the masses and the beacon of resistance to world government -- the traditional US.

The whole new age worship of mother earth, Gaia is an elaborate cover story to help these self-declared world rulers feel better about themselves as they make plans to exterminate 5 billion people to get the the population to a 'sustainable' 500 million on earth.

But do not get me wrong, I am 100% for excellent stewardship of the beautiful earth, but I do not need some elitist fairy tale to convince me the world is better off if I jump into a cave to reduce my carbon output or that toiling away in a bio-lab on some human terminator virus is doing everyone a favor.

We need to set down the bong and bind together to fight for our self-determination.

http://www.angelfire.com/or/truthfinder/fourthturning.html

"The next Fourth Turning could mark the end of man. It could be an omnicidal armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing. If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly. But this end, while possible, is not likely. Human life is not so easily extinguishable. One conceit of linear thinking is the confidence that we possess such godlike power that—at the mere push of a button—we can obliterate nature, destroy our own seed, and make ourselves the final generations of our species. Civilized (post-Neolithic) man has endured some 500 generations, prehistoric (fire-using) man perhaps 5,000 generations, Homo Erectus ten times that. For the next Fourth Turning to put an end to all this would require an extremely unlikely blend of social disaster, human malevolence, technological perfection, and bad luck. Only the worst pessimist can imagine that.

The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity. The Western saecular rhythm—which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance—could come to an abrupt terminus. The seventh modern saeculum would be the last. This too could come from total war, terrible but not final. There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society. The “Western Civilization” of Toynbee and the “Faustian Culture” of Spengler would come to the inexorable close their prophesiers foresaw. A new dark ages would settle in, until some new civilization could be cobbled together from the ruins. The cycle of generations would also end, replaced by an ancient cycle of tradition (and fixed social roles for each phase of life) that would not allow progress. As with an omnicide, such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet. But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.

The Fourth Turning could spare modernity but mark the end of our nation. It could close the book on the political constitution, popular culture, and moral standing that the word America has come to signify. This nation has endured for three saecula; Rome lasted twelve, Etruria ten, the Soviet Union (perhaps) only one. Fourth Turnings are critical thresholds for national survival. Each of the last three American Crises produced moments of extreme danger: In the Revolution, the very birth of the republic hung by a threat in more than one battle. In the Civil War, the union barely survived a four-year slaughter that in its own time was regarded as the most horrible war in history. In World War II, the nation destroyed an enemy of democracy that for a time was winning; had the enemy won, America might have itself been destroyed. In all likelihood, the next Crisis will present the nation with a threat and a consequence on a similar scale. "

[blues]

Well, GK, you have this stuff down. My own outlook seems to be rather simplistic. We have a United States that has suicidally denuded itself of industry. Plus a developing world that is really starting to develop. On top of that, we have a global energy decline, which will, more likely than not, eliminate the possibility of access to what I call "extreme industrial operations." Such operations depend on having massive amounts of energy that can be be readily employed in concentrated form. It takes concentrated energy and ultra-precise instruments to produce a transistor from incredibly corrosive silane gas. It also demands an extensive array of industrial support systems, including transportation systems, etc.

When the requisite energy is no longer available, the age of technology will come to a halt. And, absent some incredibly unlikely lucky breaks, technology will not arise again.

But we insist on squandering our finite resources on senseless war and hedonism. This should have been recognized 30 years ago. That we are not acknowledging it now is insane. We are not looking ahead. Greed, evidently, is not the answer. It's way past time to wake up. From blogging for years, I have come to view most people as mindless cattle who cannot think for themselves. Perhaps they think they are "educated." They're educated to be cattle, and it's high time for them to realize it.

They better wake up damn fast!

[PJSV]

Elaine,

I think the solution for present crisis will be US GOV infrastructure privatization or private-public partnership to upgrade your roads, railways, airports, telecomunications systems. I think with this kind of colateral, China, Japan and OPEP countries will put again their foreign reserves in US economy. I think it will be bad for US people, because it will be another bubble based on credit. But you know, it hard to change a system from a blog...

By the way, here in Portugal, our governement keep trying to build a new and expensive intercontinental airport in Lisbon, a high speed train network and more 3000 km of high-way based on this concept of PPP. Portugal has already too much foreign debt, public and private, we have one of the biggest car ownership per capita ratio in EU and one of the biggest high-way per km2 ratio in EU. There is the peak oil, we are almost on a recession and almost bankrupted. But our government wants to sell our future and taxes to the project finance/building/real state lobby.

I think you can use portuguese path to forecast what it's going to happen in US. If you need any help in researching this issue to make a post, please drop me a line.

[PJSV]

paulojsvaz@bigfoot.com

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

First of all, the deepest wellspring of all living things on earth center on sex. Whether flowers or trees, mice or men, even if people cease to reproduce, the sexual energy is still very powerful and still very much there. It rules our minds, it disturbs our sleep. It makes us do many things we swear we will never do. Even very old people are still moved by sex.

Disregard of all of this is part of the business of self-delusion. Sex is never mentioned by anyone who is giving us economic information yet the givers of this information are surrounded by sexual triggers. All TV ads love to hook into sexual motivations, just for example. Sex sells.

Thanks for the information about Portugal, Paulo. The ancient conflict between the colder parts of Europe and the Mediterranean sector continues. In the triumphant West, there is rising despair. In the East, rising energy. Japan is very queer: it has become a copy of the West and clings to the West and is internally dying and its sexual energies is fast becoming psychotic yet is is still part of Asia's resurgence.

This is why I ponder about this particular country so much. Then there is the Islamic World: it is full of wild energy and a lot of psycho-sexual hysteria. Tremendous energy is wasted on suppressing the sexual powers of women while the birth rate there is astronomical. This is the source of tremendous fury and fear in the West which is seeing a huge collapse in births.

[Buffalo Ken]

This the the "fourthturning" I was referring to. http://www.fourthturning.com/
It is just a book.

For me two of the best concepts in the book are.

1. How the generations impact and effect each other; and

2. How history can be viewed as cyclical (rather than linear) and how this is closely tied to the generational dynamics.

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

Blues - I agree. 30 years ago it would have been so much easier. "Denude" is the word ain't it?

Just like Elaine talks about all the time. The longer we refuse to face that which must be faced the worse it gets. Medicine is usually not pleasant, but medicine can heal.

Anyhow, time is of the essence and I think the time in now or never, but that is just my opinion.

Peace,
Ken

[GK]

OK, lets have a look at the brilliant hypothesis of this book that says that gramps, dad and grandson all follow a cyclical pattern and each empire last like 100 years.

The thesis looks interesting if you look back in our little box at 100 years in France, 200 years of British rule and 100 years of US rule, but if you step away from the Kissinger Western Banker Controlled history for a few minutes you see a much different picture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_empires

Venetian: 1100 years from 697-1797
Byzantine 1123 years from 330-1453
Total Roman Empire 1906 years: 473BC-1453 AD
Islamic 1313 years from 610-1923

So Yah, maybe inter-generation tension made the Islamic empire crash after a mere 1000+ years.

But maybe if we filter out the years of government education, fluoridated water, and new age fantasy we will instead see that the cycles are cycles of power, greed, sex and killing.

Whoever can moderate those lives a long time, whoever does not dies and/or gets attacked.

And also in the last 400 years when a few people discovered money, banking, debts and war they also learned the power of Creative Destruction. Basically they learned to harness the power of Hegel's dialectic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Wilhelm_Friedrich_Hegel

Hegel's dialectic was most often characterized as a three-step process, "thesis, antithesis, synthesis".

So basically instead of history bobbing along like a cork, they discovered they could decide on an end goal, the synthesis, and then create to opposing forces (thesis and antithesis) to lend money to, have them grow wildly, and then get them to kill each other and end up owning the loot.

These bankers made the most money not from some old steam factory running for 400 years, but from investing in one steam factory until prices and profits started to drop, then blow the whole thing up in a war and move your money to the New World of America and repeat the process.

Lend the US tons of money, build up war industry, then destroy the whole lot (with free trade, socialism, 'education' and regulation) and then move onto fresh territory in China.

Basically it is slash and burn industrialization. A willing (and cheerfully clueless) workforce and lots of great resources is best virgin rain forest for slash and burn. Once the soil (people and resources) are worn out (see Detroit) then move onto a virgin territory in Guandong.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

The Byzantine Empire collapsed nearly totally starting in...hmmmm....hey.....hahaha....600 AD. Yes, it shrank in size with the MUSLIM revolution and the BARBARIAN ATTACKS.

Then, it came back a little by 1000 AD. Only to collapse again to the point, the Venetians brought in a flotilla of barbarians to utterly destroy Constantinople in 1204 AD. It was all totally downhill after that for Byzantia.

Venice: the rot set in when Venice lent money to Emperors, Kings and Popes all of whom went bankrupt one by one by 1400. Then the total collapse came when fist, Africa was circumnavigated and then when Columbus sailed the oceans blue and found the New World a wonderful looting operation.

Thumbnail sketches of history are dangerous. The main theme we see is that NO empire is strong for longer than 100 years. After that, they begin to wither and shrink. As ours will. This is inevitable.

The collapse parts take usually around 500 years to finish it all off. Venice, for example, rotted away until it became a living museum by 1750. Byzantia was overrun by Turks from Central Asia after rotting for 500 years. It then became the living heart of the Ottoman Empire and was refreshed to the point, it almost took over Vienna in the mid-1600s.

By 1800, it was 'the sick man of Europe' and all the other empires devoured it the following years, this causing DIRECTLY WWI and WWII.

[Jojo]

Thumbnail sketches of history are dangerous, but psycho/sexual analysis of nation states can be damn fun.
As stated, the oppressive industrialization in Japan has led to a collective celibacy that has spawned a sex perversion industry.
In the US sexual energy has been married to business with partnerships usually ending in hostile takeovers, or emotional bankruptcies due to employing subprime credit to fulfill expectations.
In China the state has successfully harnessed sexual energy utilizing the one child policy, but is now going through a transition called the "capitalization of the groin" period.
India has evolved the use of sex into a social stratification system with theme music provided by Bollywood.
In South America sexual energy is in it's primal use of species survival blessed by the pope. Sex becomes hyper when populations move north and children are employed as justifications for residency.
Europe has sophisticated sexual energy into an intellectual relationship that is interesting on one level and boring on another that leads to further intellectualization.
Elaine, I would be delighted to have you further expound on this theme....

[Paul S]

Elaine: you say that some of these young gnomes end up getting killed or jailed. Does this mean that there MAY be some hope for the system, that there are some good guys left, or do these sleazoids merely get killed by their rivals a la the Mob? Not trying tio beat a dead horse, but I am curious. It seems to me that if ever a mole got his/her way into the system they could either throw alot of folks into jail OR more likely make ALOT of money via blackmail. If you have any reading recommendations on this topic, I would appreciate the info. Has anyone ever attempted this or do they have a fatal 'heart attack' before they get very far?

[Buffalo Ken]

Many good men have fatal heart attacks. In fact, most of my male relatives have. Hm.

I enjoyed the conversation everyone. We're just talking - right? No bombs are a dropping - right? I sure hope no bombs start dropping. That would pretty much screw it all up (more than it already is) in my opinion.

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

oh yeah, and one last opinion on sex --- i think it usually is best when it starts off slow but then steadily mounts towards a wonderful and splendid crescendo....you know? Sort of like an extended momentary tsunamia in the mind, but not too quick!

But, to each their own.

Takes two to tango (sorry, i couldn't resist....saying all this).

Peace,
Ken

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Across the planet, young females are being aborted or killed. The male/female ratio is way out of balance. This has consequences.

We have no idea what that will be yet. But it will happen. I know that mothers love to have daughters because they tend to stick by mom in the long, long run, just for example. But in many societies, daughters are farmed out to the husband's mother and turned into a slave of this person.

Slavery versus power due to shortages: we shall see.

[Buffalo Ken]

I don't know what you mean by the ratio being "out of balance". Its about 50/50 isn't? I'm not sure what you mean by slavery either. Is choice totally taken away?

Hey, a sort of random thought here, but do you know about so-called "perfect numbers"? You know 6, then 28, then 496, then 8128 (I think thats the first four..). Anyhow, there are more of them, but I don't think we know all of them.

All you variable folks out there - See if you can develop an equation for "perfect numbers" (perfect of course only in the opinion of some!).

Anyhow,
Peace.

[blues]

Ken:

With the new body imaging technology (mostly ultrasound) it is easily possible to observe the gender of pre-birth creatures. This technology has somehow spread to "developing societies." So, people are aborting females, and allowing males to reach birth. The males are generally more useful in the short run. But not in the long run.

The "modern world" is narrowly focused on short runs. In fact, the world has always been run on a short run basis. The males are more useful in maybe the first 13 years. They are better for harvesting grain and shooting "enemies" during that interval.

Too many males chasing too many females is surely bound to lead to trouble in the long run. Use your imagination on this! Wars get started easily when too many males are marching about. It's nature's way of evening scores. It is not a pretty picture. But many people have evidently bought into it. Heaven help us.

[Buffalo Ken]

Blues - Not to be over-simplistic, but from what little I've read on this topic there was a time (perhaps ~5,000 years ago or so) when human groupings were more matriarchal in nature (and probably much more peaceful generally speaking). I think there is much wisdom in this and that a critical aspect of returning some balance today will be the "evolution" of the male/female relationship on many, many levels.

Here is a website that touches on this topic that I have enjoyed visiting from time to time.

http://ancientgreece-earlyamerica.com/

Hope is free;
Remedy can be; and
Peace is what we need!
Don't you think?

Peace,
Ken

P.S. - I only threw that perfect number stuff out there as an idea for all the complicated "economic" model-makers. Instead of wasting time creating uber- complicated, derivative-enhancing, error-filled, mumbo-jumbo, goofy algorithms that cause more trouble than good, they could better understand how numbers and shapes interact. I think "perfect" numbers touch upon many fundamental relationships....

[Paul S]

Oh I don't know about the world being a "softer" place if women held more sway. Be a white male and go through a divorce sometime; you'll find out how much power women can have. And you can't tell me women can't be as corrupt as men. Look at the defense department official--a woman--who went to jail for her role in the Boeing bid rigging scandal.And Haliburton has women executives that Dick Cheney would be proud to call a friend. Women ARE different when it comes to showing hostility. Usually they are passive aggressive: on the surface it's polite, but underneath the knives are out. Usually if men don't like someone, they act like it. Not so with women--generally speaking. Also: watch the dynamic sometime if you ever work in a setting where there is a older female,and a younger, good looking female. Lots of (potential) friction there. People are people and the same emotions that drives their behavior now is pretty much the same as what drove it years and years ago.

[Buffalo Ken]

Paul S - A response:

- I never said "softer" (I don't think);
- I didn't talk about corruption (in that post, I don't think)

I just said things need to REALLY change in this area. Change for the better hopefully.

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

2

Takes 2-2 tango!

[Buffalo Ken]

Paul S. - I should add though that I think I basically agree with most of what you said. Its a quandary, but one that I think can be "solved".

-Ken

[GK]

Is an International Financial Conspiracy Driving World Events?

Richard Cook writes brilliantly like Elaine and he happens to be a former NASA rocket scientist.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8450
(they the F^%&* does Typepad truncate URLs?)

http://tinyurl.com/3x52g5
(or click on my initials below to link to this article.)

"This list should at least give us enough to go on in order to ask a hard question. Assuming again that all these things are parts of the elitist plan which Mr. Rockefeller boasts to have been developing, isn’t it a little strange that the means which have been selected to achieve "peace and prosperity for the whole of humanity" involve so much violence, deception, oppression, exploitation, graft, and theft?

In fact it looks to me as though "our plan for the world" is one that is based on genocide, world war, police control of populations, and seizure of the world’s resources by the financial elite and their puppet politicians and military forces.

In particular, could there be a better way to accomplish all this than what appears to be a concentrated plan to remove from people everywhere in the world the ability to raise their own food? After all, genocide by starvation may be slow, but it is very effective. Especially when it can be blamed on "market forces."

And can it be that the "us" which is doing all these things, including the great David Rockefeller himself, are just criminals who have somehow taken over the seats of power? If so, they are criminals who have done everything they can to watch their backs and cover their tracks, including a chokehold over the educational system and the monopolistic mainstream media.

One thing is certain: The voters of America have never knowingly agreed to any of this. "