Elaine Meinel Supkis
I arrived on this planet exactly 58 years ago. It has been quite an adventure. I have lived through several economic cycles. Just as I went from a baby carriage to a tricycle to two wheeler bikes. then horses and finally to cars, trucks, and tractors, so has my ability to discern and understand basic economic forces has undergone many changes, hopefully upwards due to accumulation of knowledge. And this I know: the frenzy of delirium in yesterday's stock markets was totally insane and a harbinger of the hyperinflation to come as central banks tap into FUTURE taxpayer bases to artificially restart the lending mania which fuels all inflation cycles. This is bad news in the middle of 'good news'. The drunks on Wall Street are happy. They will crash the economic car when they try driving it wildly, while drunk.
Financial Crisis: Gordon Brown calls for 'new Bretton Woods'
He said that British wartime spirit could be crucial in securing such a deal and added that world leaders must show the courage of Sir Winston Churchill to deal with the current crisis.
In a speech to business leaders, the Prime Minister warned that the coming days would be a "crucial time" for the world economy.The Bretton Woods agreement - named after the American hotel where it was agreed - was a historic deal signed in 1944 to shore up the global economy after the Second World War. Under the deal, exchange rates were fixed for almost thirty years and the value of the dollar was linked to gold, ensuring its status as a global currency.
The Bretton Woods negotiations during and after WWII were designed for one purpose only: to restart the UK and French empires that cruelly ruled half of humanity! This project to revamp these vampire empires failed miserably as a rising tide of revolutionaries fought fiercely and heroically to other throw the European aliens. From China to Indochina, from India to Africa, across the planet, one group after another picked up weapons and tore into the French and British overlords and overthrew them.
Occasionally, the US threw its entire weight behind these colonial uprisings. In Korea, this was half-successful. To this day, the US authorities are still extremely unpopular in South Korea. In Vietnam, we fought with terrifying ferocity and bombed, bombed, bombed Vietnam and all of Indochina relentlessly. Literally, in McCain's case.
To fund these dying empires, the US made a deal with them that they could set an artificial peg for their currencies. Germany and Japan were finally included in the Bretton Woods system so they could both grow like crazy and take over the US/UK/French system. They are still quite happy that we did this for them. They will keep us alive so long as we defend them both from their scary rivals who they both tried to annihilate, Russia and China.
Back to Bretton Woods: the US had the majority of the planet's gold hoards after WWII, more than Switzerland. It is comical that both Switzerland and the US are being reduced to beggars due to losing the gold hoards!
So....is Britain asking for us to return to the gold standard? HAHAHA. Or maybe I should write, 'WWWW' which is the icon for 'HAHAHA' in Japan and possibly, China? I don't see the empires of the G7 complex demanding gold be the basis for money making! They want to make infinite funny money and pour it into the Floating Currency stew! They want to have effortless money making with no barriers. They want the Goddess of Inflation to fly like a kite from hell...at 0% interest, of course.
We are entering the realm of international insanity. Everyone is ecstatic. The mania exhibited today is remarkably like a drunken orgy on Mt. Olympus when Pan plays a tune on his pipes and the women scream, tear goats in half with their bare hands and swing the carcass wildly about as they go totally nuts.
U.S. Treasury Said to Invest in Nine Major U.S. Banks
(Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration will invest about $125 billion in nine of the biggest U.S. banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., in the government's latest attempt to shore up confidence in the financial system.The proposed cash injections in exchange for preferred shares are part of a $700 billion rescue approved by Congress and follow similar moves by European leaders to unfreeze global credit markets by helping beleaguered banks. The other companies are Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley, State Street Corp. and Bank of New York Mellon Corp., said people briefed on the plan.
``It's a good thing, it's what needs to happen, it will allow the markets to start functioning again,'' said Ralph Cole, a vice president for research at Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. in Portland, Oregon, which oversees $2.7 billion including shares in JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Goldman.
Do you all want to know who actually owns the Federal Reserve? The Federal Reserve is a private bank consortium. And to look up the names of the owners, look at the list of the banks which the Federal Treasury which is run by our government and which is paid for by the US taxpayers, just look at the names I highlighted above! HAHAHA. They are openly and cynically looting the Treasury!
They do this every damn FUCKING time they screw up everything by lending too much funny money at too cheap a rate! Then it explodes, the economy implodes and they demand we flush our currency down the commode.
Splusch goes to paper money as it becomes cheaper than toilet paper. But these guys don't care! They get the loot FIRST before inflation ravages its spending power. They will use this to buy yachts, palaces and goddesses. Happy as naughty boys and girls stealing cookies from the kitchen before pigging at dinner, they will run off and party, party, party hard. Note the glee in multimillionaire Pelosi's face as she hobnobs with a very relieved Paulson.
Paulson has a severe conflict of interest here. He wants to prop up his Gollum Sachs loot and needed the Ring of Power to do this. Finally, he got it thanks to Pelosi and the corrupt Bush regime. Since all of the trade rivals destroying the US industrial base got a promise from Bush and Paulson that the US will NOT try to change trade flows or stop the flood of imports, ALL world stock market are soaring on the hopes of lending to Americans at 0% interest while we buy more stuff, kill more of our own industrial base and spend our way into the cellar.
Instead of playing hard ball to get things righted, the US is playing Santa and going insane. Time for a hippie musical interlude from the British rock band: Status Quo - Down Down (toppop)
status quo - Down Down (UK No.1!! 1975, toppop) Album: ON THE LEVEL (UK No.1, 1975).
Down the rabbit hole we go! The obvious and easy solution is to flood the planet with even MORE funny money now that the Derivatives Beast has eaten about $20 trillion? We don't really know how much he ate. We don't know how big he is. Or even WHAT he is! But we know he has eaten a lot of loot. So they cynically think, flooding or even just talking about flooding the planet with more funny money means the Derivatives Beast will be satiated and enough will be left over...the limit being 'infinity'...for us to party onwards and ignore reality.
THIS WILL NOT WORK. And to understand this, we go back to when the bankers were first demanding infinite money to flood markets, back when stocks hit a high last October. Back to my own blog to see what I said back then. All of which came true, alas:
A beautiful fall weekend here after a sudden frost. The trees are rapidly changing color and the green grass is white with hoarfrost at sunrise. The headline here isn't in the regular news, only in one NY paper. If true, some people should be arrested. As usual. Time to talk about bank reserves and the differences between the Chinese system and the 'reformed' US system. China again, raised the reserve banks must hold. The US doesn't believe in holding reserves or using this to control out of control speculators. Instead, we use this goofy system which the Fed likens to driving a car with a solid wall for a windshield. Isn't that great? World inflation is rising and the US is encouraging speculators, not savers. Good grief in hell. I wish I could give us good news.
The Fed in 2004:The Fed has other monetary policy tools at its disposal aside from open market operations. It can also adjust reserve requirements and rewrite terms for borrowing from the Federal Reserve discount window, the last resort for banks that can't satisfy their reserve obligations in the federal funds market. But these methods of influencing reserve levels aren't used as often as they were in the past. Over the last 15 years the Fed has hesitated to raise historically low reserve requirements because they impose a cost on banks—forgone interest on $10 out of every $100 deposited by account holders. The last time reserve mandates changed was in 1992, when the rate on transaction deposits was cut, from 12 percent to 10 percent. As for borrowing from the discount window—at one time an actual window at district banks, where banks dropped off collateral for loans—the practice has declined in the last decade, partly because of increased clearing balance requirements but also because of public perception that borrowing from the Fed is a sign of weakness.
That leaves open market operations as the Fed's preferred method of influencing short-term interest rates. The Domestic Trading Desk at the New York Fed, in consultation with Board staff, conducts open markets operations by buying and selling previously issued U.S. government securities. Known as an “open market,” because securities dealers that the Fed conducts business with compete with each other on the basis of price, the U.S. Treasury securities market is the broadest and most active of U.S. financial arenas, trading over $480 billion every day.
Ever since the US decided to degrade the dollar during the Vietnam war and the 'Guns 'n Butter' show, the US has steadily refused to pay for our military or our many wars via war bonds and higher taxes. Indeed, taxes have been cut and the budget and trade deficits have soared to the heavens. The US and our allies have set up various ingenious financial systems like the present FX markets that supposedly used 'free markets' to determine relative value of money and other things. Supposedly, everyone was going to follow the same IMF and FX rules to let money be directly connected to the financial industrial and trade health of a nation. Supposedly, if a nation or an empire were to run in the red, the value of the currency should drop.Of course, political and trade rivals swiftly figured out how to game this system and we know exactly who they are today: anyone with a FOREX reserve that is many multiples of the US FOREX reserves.
Reserves are being tossed out the window today. I will note that China is silent about all this. Has been remarkably silent as they watched the US flounder, Europe scramble and nations begin going bankrupt. They knew that if they pulled us out of this forest fire, we would stab them in the back. Instead, they waited until we crawled to them for help. Now they have plans to deal with the resulting flood of funny money this rescue will pour into the Chinese FOREX reserves.
They are prepared to go to infinity...IN THEIR FOREX RESERVES. This system is like a back door to the Cave of Wealth and Death. Dragons live in this cave and China is a dragon. The US loves to kill civilians and we are doing this across the planet, as usual, while screaming at the Dragon to not kill people. But our killing is killing us. China knows this. We are NOT getting stronger or richer, killing Muslim civilians. We are getting weaker and weaker. So China will let us flail away miserably and even let us pay for all this by generating infinite funny money.
I suspect the Chinese finally figured out inflationary cycles. These come in waves. The last series of waves weakened the US tremendously. We went from creditor nation at Bretton Woods I after WWII to beggar nation today. We willfully ignore the reality and backlash of infinite funny money making. This is because it is masked by Japan and China holding huge sums in FOREX reserves. These reserves were NEVER mentioned in the news this month!
Not a peep. Certainly, neither Japan nor China will talk about what this means and what their JOINT plans are. I keep saying, Japan can't do this alone. It needs China [and Taiwan, etc.] to do this same thing. They will all make their immense FOREX reserves double and redouble. And their creditor national status will rise and rise as the US goes deeper into debt and loses the last of our industrial base. Both have an eye on killing our aviation industry, once and forever. We already are rapidly losing our space faring abilities as China floats astronauts over our heads, waving the Red Flag and its constellation of stars, taunting us as China openly talks about colonizing the moon.
When the Chinese lived with me, I was still talking about space colonization. And exploiting the lunar resources. The Chinese listened. People at NASA hate me because I keep warning them about stuff. They told me to go to hell. HAHAHA. See, Griffin? I am ALWAYS right! But I bet he has given up reading me since I have had no time to discuss physics and space exploration right now. I hope to resume this soon. This economic mess is getting tedious!
From the New York Times:
In what could set an important precedent, federal officials assured a big Japanese bank late Sunday that its planned investment in the embattled Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley would be protected, according to people involved in the talks.After two days of tense negotiations, Treasury officials urged a hesitant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group to proceed with its $9 billion investment in Morgan Stanley, which has sought the capital infusion to reassure investors and customers about its stability...
The Treasury’s assurances amount to another extraordinary move by the government and could serve as a model for future deals. The tense, weekend talks were so critical to the financial markets that they drew in both the Treasury and the Japanese government.
Oh, there are MANY, MANY future deals identical to this one! The Chinese dragon rubs its hands with anticipation. The glee that is sweeping Asia tonight shows up in their markets: the Nikkei is soaring higher than the US stock markets. The Hang The Foreign Devils market is shooting to the moon, too, in China. Whoopee. VICTORY. For them.
Disaster for us.
Icelandic Shoppers Splurge as Currency Woes Reduce Food Imports
(Bloomberg) -- After a four-year spending spree, Icelanders are flooding the supermarkets one last time, stocking up on food as the collapse of the banking system threatens to cut the island off from imports.``We have had crazy days for a week now,'' said Johannes Smari Oluffsson, manager of the Bonus discount grocery store in Reykjavik's main shopping center. ``Sales have doubled.''
Bonus, a nationwide chain, has stock at its warehouse for about two weeks. After that, the shelves will start emptying unless it can get access to foreign currency, the 22-year-old manager said, standing in a walk-in fridge filled with meat products, among the few goods on sale produced locally.
As the poor people of the pirate island of Iceland starve to death, the US will pig out, courtesy of Asia and Europe seeking to drive us deeper into trade debt. We continue to be the Strasbourg Golden Goose being prepared for butchery...the Chinese 50 year game plan is not ready for the US to go bankrupt....but no one needs the Icelandic folk. So they go hang.
The Chinese 50 year plan looks forwards to a totally weak US surrendering our power without nuclear war. Since the US is DETERMINED to undermine our own security and industrial base, this is an admirable goal of the Chinese. They do NOT want WWIII. If we go off the cliff right when our military is at its strongest, we will lash out and attack China. So they want us comfortable, safe and childish so when they finally yank our chains and force us into bankruptcy, it will be after they dominate the moon, control outer space, control world markets and are very, very strong, militarily.
Then they can demand our surrender. Until then, they will settle for simple things like the Japanese are doing: getting our traitors who run our country to cooperate in the fire sale of everything we have left here.
Obama Offers Steps to Stem Foreclosures, Aid Families
``At this rate, the question isn't just, are you better off than you were four years ago?, it's, are you better off than you were four weeks ago?'' Obama said in a speech today in Toledo, Ohio. ``We face an immediate economic emergency that requires urgent action.''Among other measures, Obama wants the Federal Reserve and Treasury to lend money to state and municipal governments that are having trouble raising money and for federal lawmakers to ``keep all options open'' to help struggling automakers.
The Democratic presidential candidate's advisers say all of the measures, including a $3,000 tax credit to companies for each new job they create in the U.S., should be done immediately, either through existing authority or emergency legislation.
*snip*
Obama said the nation needs a new ``ethic of responsibility'' because part of the reason for the current financial crisis is ``everyone was living beyond their means, from Wall Street to Washington to even some on Main Street.''
*snip*
Obama, 47, ``welcomed'' a proposal by McCain to suspend rules requiring retirees to begin liquidating Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k)s at age 70 1/2 to avoid selling assets while markets are down. He would expand it to allow all Americans to withdraw up to 15 percent, with a maximum of $10,000, without facing the tax penalties such withdrawals usually carry.``At a time when the ups and downs of the stock market have rarely been so unpredictable and dramatic, we also need to give families and retirees more flexibility and security when it comes to their retirement savings,'' Obama said.
He also endorsed suspending taxes on unemployment insurance benefits.
Not one of any of the proposals of either candidate fixes what is wrong. All are band aids or, in the case of tax cuts and raiding one's retirement funds, more akin to slashing wrists rather than bandaging bleeding wounds.
This is because we are being infantilized to death. And this childish view of a Santa Claus economy is FATAL. We have to eat dirt and work hard to get out of the deep debt hole we are in. The international consensus to have the US create infinite funny money which we will hand over to Europe and Asia is totally irresponsible, insane and delusional. And so, is also very appealing to children who are on tricycles. Not adults driving a very big economic truck down a steep, winding road in an ice storm, at night.
What are they going to do with all those dollar reserves?
Posted by: Shoshona | October 14, 2008 at 12:58 AM
They lend it back to us at 0% interest, Shoshona.
For now. But ONLY if we run huge trade deficits with them.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | October 14, 2008 at 01:03 AM
Happy birthday Elaine :) Although I am kinda afraid to hope that all your dreams come true xD
My recent attempts at bottom-fishing the stock market has landed me severe burns, but the current bounce should last till the elections in 3 weeks time. After that it will probably be more cliff diving and many things will go under during the transfer period. Maybe I should exchange all my money into chinese yuan by then...
Posted by: WG | October 14, 2008 at 01:35 AM
This bubble will be smaller than the Dot Com bubble. Each bubble requires bigger rescues and cheaper credit to restart.
I should write about this.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | October 14, 2008 at 01:45 AM
The printing presses started running
How the HELL can those debt last?
Watch the Christmas spending for signs of the
economy doom
Posted by: Simon | October 14, 2008 at 01:56 AM
Elaine and Carli,
Check out this article:
http://tinyurl.com/4rtwkl
'Note: tiny little Switzerland, home to banking behemoths UBS ag and Credit Swiss, is not above the looming disaster as those holding Swiss Francs are in the FALSE belief that they are immune to the coming debasement and reflation of the developed world’s banking and financial systems. These numbers are INESCAPABLE and unless these countries and their public servants are suicidal they will rise to meet the challenge.'
You guys are right - no wonder folks are pulling out of Swiss Francs and banks!!!
Options for safe havens are narrowing down to precious metals or objects...
Posted by: OC | October 14, 2008 at 02:17 AM
If the member banks of the Fed are all having to be bailed out, doesn`t that prove that the Fed is bankrupt and that the time has come to call for it`s abolition?
Opportunities to use the power of an opponent against him (as in judo) are rare.
I suppose the Chinese are biding their time waiting for the US to throw itself on the ground.
In the meantime it looks like one of those mechanical rodeo bulls going faster and faster...soon the air wil be full of gnomes being thrown off as the funny money glue can`t hold them on anymore...
Posted by: Rowan | October 14, 2008 at 02:28 AM
If only we are on another planet; we'll be laughing to the death at the stupidity of these so call leaders of the human race.
Right now, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Posted by: OC | October 14, 2008 at 03:20 AM
Elaine, in the referenced Telegraph article Gordon Brown called for "building a new international financial architecture for the years ahead".
I believe a Global Monetary Authority is coming along the lines of what Timothy Geithener envisioned: unified regulation of banking globally.
An I believe that the architects and leaders of the Global Monetary Authority will come from Britain.
Specifically a world ruler, a Sovereign, will arise to rule mankind, this being held forth in Revelation 13:5-10
And a chief world banker, a Seignior, meaning top dog who takes a cut, will arise to rule banking, commerce, and trade, this being held forth in Revelation 13:11-17
Posted by: Richard | October 14, 2008 at 03:30 AM
"It takes two to speak the truth — one to speak and another to listen." ~ Thoreau
Thanks for always doing doing both, Elaine. Happy Birthday!
OC, I lived in Switzerland for a few years thirty years ago. It is difficult for me to imagine how far down they have come, screwing up as they have. They were focused, frugal and disciplined then. However, not all of them have been stupid, check out Marc Faber from yesterday, he has got it down pat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbIzYILrXBA
Posted by: carli | October 14, 2008 at 04:14 AM
The PTB did not have much choice, either deflation now (anarchy before the election due to no credit for goods like Iceland) or hyperinflation followed by deflation (anarchy later when no goods are available due to money being worthless).
The better choice would have been to void all derivative contracts past present and future where the value exceeds the asset and if at least one party does not have the outright ownership of the underlying assets. Abolish the Fed member banks and charter a new National Bank since the US is nationalizing everything already. The National Bank will support short term credit or Letters of Credit to US companies at Libor for 30 days max until new Chart Banks can take over. Fiscal spending for public works, infrastructure and basic social services to tide through the hard times. Nothing for the gnomes they already got their couple of trillion in fees and bonuses in the past decade and can go hang from a lamp post. Foreclosures will accelerate the end to debt slavery sold by the gnomes since 9/11.
The markets will go parabolic for the next few days or months until exhaustion settles in again when almost an infinite amount of money is needed sustain the momentum and there are no more asset classes to inflate, then you will get the start of the final collapse. Imagine Iceland simultaneously on a global scale. Unless somebody gets trigger happy first.
With the Hyperinflation choice, getting a couple extra months of food and necessities stocked up might be a good idea now while it is still affordable and available.
Posted by: Q | October 14, 2008 at 04:19 AM
OK, I have an investment opportunity for you.
I have some Bonds for sale from a creditor that has $12 trillion in existing debt.
They require $1 trillion in new debt every year. (They spend more than they 'earn'.)
These bonds pay between 1 and 0%.
How much would you like to invest? HAHAHA!
Alright, you got me; I was talking about T-Bills.
So here is the scenario: Crash the equities markets and herd everyone into cash in banks. Then crash the banks and herd everyone into T-Bills.
The yield goes to almost zero based on the new demand.
And as everyone should have been taught in Kindergarten we know that when interest rates go UP, the price of a bond goes DOWN.
If you have $1000 bond earning 0%, you of course would sell it if you can get 10% at the bank.
So my prediction is, surprise, an IMF downgrade of AAA credit rating, a resulting huge increase in interest rates (risk adjustment) and an enormous crash in T-Bill prices.
Now the next piece of the puzzle is why did they give themselves the ability to lower Reserve ratios to 0 and for the Federal Reserve to pay interest on deposits at the Fed?
First, the only way a bank to get seized by the regulators is when their Asset (loans) to Reserve ratio falls below the Regulated reserve ratio. So if it is 10, and they have 1 Billion of regulatory capital at the Fed, they can create (out of thin air) 10 billion in loans. If they lose half their loans due to people not paying, they are at a reserve ratio of 5 and can be seized.
However, if the Fed lowers it to 5, they are cool. If the Fed lowers it to 0, the bank can write off ALL their loans and STILL BE WITHIN REGULATIONS!
So why would they do this? Well, when you engineer a depression, the loans are going to be worth crap. And the interest rate will be enormously high like 18% in the 1970s and no one will be taking out new loans so no source of fees from that.
OK, So how the FUCK are the banks going to make any FUCKING MONEY? That my friend, explains the new regulation (allowing interest payments on regulatory capital deposited at the Fed) that was supposed to go into effect in 2010 or 2011 being moved into place in 2008.
The plan is for these criminals to GIVE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM THE TREASURY (our future tax dollars) to the banks, which they will then be able to deposit at the Federal Reserve to rebuild their depleted regulatory capital AND EARN INTEREST while ma and pa kettle eat dog food.
This is SO FUCKING CRIMINAL I CANNOT BELIEVE THESE PEOPLE ARE STILL WANDERING THE STREETS. Or soaring in their G5's.
Then the final coup d'grace will be the Rockefeller McCain (fascist) or Rothschild Obama (communist) start a massive war to self-destruct the US infrastructure and the MEGA BANKS LISTED ABOVE will have ALL THIS LOVELY CAPITAL to loan to ... solar panel makers. HA HA just kidding. New Schools. Fooled ya! Bridges, railroads, space exploration, scientific research, agriculture. HAHAHA!! STILL KIDDING!
Of course they will lend the money to the defense contractors for WWIII.
They will have very carefully targeted bombing campaigns that save the massive estates of the Chinese, European and US defense contractors, bankers and rulers.
Then we will get to see the most amazing rebuilding effort from in the surviving Chinese infrastructure.
Alas there is still lots of money to get from American consumers so I think this will be a ways off.
So at least now when the President asks them to spend as if their life depends on it, he really is telling the truth.
Posted by: GK | October 14, 2008 at 05:09 AM
October 03, 2008
"Fertilizer stocks lead 813-point TSX drop"...
http://tinyurl.com/3kue7r
Posted by: Tell | October 14, 2008 at 06:45 AM
Elaine: Happy Birthday, As you blow out the candles today, I am wondering what your wishes are? I think I know. As the paper debt keeps piling up, the stock markets keeps playing on volatility. In one year the stock market has lost over 5000 points. As we see the artificial rise of the stock market yesterday; knowing that its rising not on Quarterly profits from corporations, but hypothetical debt. So my one question is what would have happen if Bushman would have "privatized" Social Security based on the Stock market? Having cake today would have been an expensive commodity.
Posted by: don | October 14, 2008 at 07:26 AM
"Gary Fraser examines the politics of the voluntary sector and highlights the costs of normalising a corporate-style, neo-Liberal welfare state"...
http://tinyurl.com/4fm27j
Posted by: Tell | October 14, 2008 at 07:45 AM
Dear Elaine. Yours is one of the best sites i've discovered in the last several years -- because you've actually checked into some impt. facts and thought about them, plus you have a gift for explaining them. you're performing an invaluable public service. thank you.
Posted by: c | October 14, 2008 at 07:47 AM
The 0%-0%-0% regime is being locked into place. Not because the Real Rulers want war but because they are frightened of war! They want small murders of weak mini-states like we see today. They want to steal commodities. They want cheap labor.
We NEVER get exactly what we wish for. Why is that?
This is why I talk about the Outer Darkness and the denizens who inhabit the Cave of Wealth and Death: they always grant wishes. But if you wish for power or wealth, they give you death! Mythology and fairy tales all are utterly united in this understanding.
This is why all wishes for physical things turn out evil. And wishes to be loved turn to tragedy. But wishes to give love and get nothing in return has the reverse effect: it is SALVATION. It is the key to the real place of wealth: where the souls are valuable.
Trust me when I say that the denizens of the Outer Darkness value only souls. Why is that?
Ah! It is one of the wonders of our cosmos! We created this place and the only thing of value our ancestors had aside from some stones and the knowledge about how to make fire was the understanding that they could see the future, ie, Death. And thus, invented a thing called 'stories about our souls' which caused the celestial beings we call 'gods' to suddenly materialize.
So this sounds insane yet it is the fundamental basis of ALL religions from the beginning of humanity to today. This is why human sacrifice was nearly universally popular for long times: the offering the living give to these Darkness gods would be a human's soul! Gah!
Jesus, for example, was to be 'the ultimate human sacrifice' just to illustrate this very clearly. The gnomes think their souls are worthless or they can bribe the Guardians who happens to be Libra.
She is utterly cold to any bribes! Nothing earthly can stay her judgments. She looks INTO the souls and interrogates them thoroughly. This is her nature. She should be dreaded but it is amazing how people can avoid this. Including believers in Jesus who imagine he will show up and prevent this interrogation! HA. Nope.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | October 14, 2008 at 07:54 AM
The next best thing to 0%:
ECB pumps $98.4 bln into money markets
Posted by: RobG | October 14, 2008 at 08:22 AM
Wonderful blog Elaine! Your insight certainly provides a very different macro economic perspective. And dearest of birthday wishes!!
Regarding the fate of Australia in the new world order, is there a perception that Australia as a country would be taken under the wings as a commodities supplier to China or a fate more disconcerting...?
Posted by: aidee | October 14, 2008 at 08:35 AM
Japan and China will compete to see who gets Australia.
Don't forget WWII: Japan nearly took Australia.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | October 14, 2008 at 08:38 AM
Elaine,
I have been avidly reading your excellent comments, and those of many of your commentators, for several weeks now. Happy Birthday. You might enjoy the following headline on CNNMoney.com (intended to cheer the plutocrats forward). However, the image is uncannily suitable – U.S. pulls the trigger (against its own head).
U.S. pulls the trigger
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/14/news/economy/bank_bailout/index.htm?postversion=2008101408
Shelby
Posted by: Shelby | October 14, 2008 at 08:46 AM
October 14
Happy Birthday Elaine!
You said,
"This is why all wishes for physical things turn out evil. And wishes to be loved turn to tragedy. But wishes to give love and get nothing in return has the reverse effect: it is SALVATION. It is the key to the real place of wealth: where the souls are valuable."
I couldn't resist:
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also."
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,"..."For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?"
My Mother, rest her soul, is a Libra.
October 19, 1913
Posted by: chorddog | October 14, 2008 at 08:48 AM
You all tell me when you see 0% on your credit cards. It does appear that ALL the auto makers are offering 0% and some of them even give you 0% on the employee discounted price of their autos.
Posted by: CK | October 14, 2008 at 09:04 AM
Happy birthday, Elaine! I'm a few months younger than you, which may explain why your posts make so much sense to me. I hope we both make it to 60 (at least), but I worry things are going to get even crazier.
Posted by: flash | October 14, 2008 at 09:20 AM
Dear Elaine,
Happy birthday!!! Looks like as the Sun leaves Libra and enters Scorpio. The scales tip from deflation to HYPERINFLATION. Why are these asswipes cheering and celebrating hyperinflation. Central economic planning destroyed the Soveit Union. It will decimate the USA as well. Income taxes were supposed to be temporary in 1941, just for the War effort. I can only guess that this Govt move into banking is PERMANENT!!! Central planning will fail, and the USA will experinece hyperinflation. WHAT A FUCKING DISGRACE!!! Please keep up the good work Elaine, we love you. Thanks
Posted by: ralph | October 14, 2008 at 09:35 AM
Not a single Swiss bank had to be 'rescued' by the state up to now. So what's the matter with badmouthing Switzerland?
Posted by: Dingo | October 14, 2008 at 09:36 AM
At first glance, the new plan to pour liquidity into the markets looks insane but we have to remember we are in the new world of technology. The new discovery of 0% loans is our savior.
Now, the government can simply borrow all they need for free. Who cares about budgets with free money?
We won't have to pay taxes anymore since the government can borrow for free as much as they want. After all, why go through the cost of calculating and processing tax returns when they can get the money for free elsewhere?
We no longer have to worry about funding social security or medicare since the money can be created for free as we need it. This new paradigm is great news for citizens who in the "old days" limited their spending by saving instead. Now there is no need to save since we have discovered the power of 0% loans.
Technology is wonderful.
Posted by: DrKrbyLuv | October 14, 2008 at 10:16 AM
Happy Birthday Elaine!
Posted by: DrKrbyLuv | October 14, 2008 at 10:16 AM
UBS is once again in the hotseat. Since the financial crisis began, the firm has experienced heavy losses and has seen writedowns of 45 billion Swiss francs (€29 billion). The investment bankers on Wall Street allowed themselves to run riot, above all with the meagre savings of small deposit-holders. UBS announced last week it was cutting 2,000 investment banking jobs. As the Neue Zürcher Zeitung recently put it -- with refreshing openness -- "the nicest thing you can say about the American bankers -- and about their imitators as UBS -- is that they were unscrupulous."
Many are fearful of the consequences should UBS capsize. Switzerland's gross domestic product totals 512 billion Swiss francs (€332.1 billion). UBS's balance sheet adds up to 2 trillion Swiss francs (€1.3 trillion) -- four times as much. Even Switzerland's second biggest bank, Credit Suisse, oversees assets totalling 1.2 trillion Swiss francs (€778.4 billion).
Together UBS and Credit Suisse have over 640 billion Swiss francs (€415.1 billion) in outstanding loans.
"We owe this crisis an uncomfortable revelation: UBS and Credit Suisse are too big for Switzerland," wrote the ex-editor-in-chief of the German weekly Die Zeit, Roger de Weck, last week in the Swiss periodical Das Magazin. "If they went bankrupt, a flourishing country would be ruined." http://tinyurl.com/3z3npt
Posted by: carli | October 14, 2008 at 10:19 AM
Happy Birthday!
Posted by: Neon Vincent | October 14, 2008 at 10:34 AM
Carli, you are right, Switzerland is in a tough spot. If the Swiss authorities let the two banks fail, they get a depression and lots of WHINING from the gnomes. If they bail them out, the gnomes are happy at the expense of HYPERINFLATION and REVOLUTION. So guess which path they will choose, heh.
Posted by: Ed-M | October 14, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Happy birthday, Elaine!
Posted by: Ed-M | October 14, 2008 at 10:51 AM
Elaine, may this day enrich your life with the continuity of love, courage, strength, and wisdom as you travel your soul's journey of enlightenment and knowledge. You have been a wonderous teacher, master, and student as you illuminate the paths we tread carefully thru the wilderness in our united quest in search of truth and salvation of humanity.
"Inner strength is like a deep river, into which all streams flow. It increases, always moving forward. And soon, there is nothing that can stand in its way."
Posted by: rockpaperscizzors | October 14, 2008 at 11:05 AM
Happy birthday, Elaine.
Have I been around here two years?
Posted by: blues | October 14, 2008 at 11:34 AM
Those zany gnomes sure made stock ticker watching fun! It went up to 9,800 earlier this morning then dropped to below 9,400. All within a few hours.
Who knows...will we go up to 15,000?? Or maybe down to 7,000??? Casinos will be obsolete if this excitement continues.
Yay, it just went up to close to 9,500! Ooops, looks like its starting down again. Dam, I knew I should have sold 11:36 instead of waiting until 11:40.
Posted by: DrKrbyLuv | October 14, 2008 at 11:38 AM
Happy birthday Elaine. You give us a birthday present every day. All I can do in return is spread your insight and "Share The Love" as often as circumstance will allow. Thank you for your work.
Posted by: Grok | October 14, 2008 at 11:39 AM
Happy birthday Elaine.
I must have been around here for two years. Wow.
Posted by: blues | October 14, 2008 at 11:41 AM
Happy Birthday, Elaine:
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
(traditional gaelic blessing)
Loads of sickly youtube vids around this. But this was still in my mind from the first.
Public Image Ltd. - "Rise" (play too loud for best effect)
'Anger is an en-er-gy!'
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jPj-8_wOZcA
Posted by: Bear of Little Brain | October 14, 2008 at 12:01 PM
......a FULL MOON Birthday!
Happy HUNTER'S FULL MOON Birthday to you...
According to the Algonquin tribes in New England (your current domicile), the October full moon is known as the HUNTER'S FULL MOON; how appropriate for you as you hunt and gather all this delicious information... and how thankful we are that you share this bounty with us.
Peace and Love to you on your special day..
The AlgonquinTribe> http://leveillee.net/ancestry/algonquin/algonquinpeople.htm
Full Moon Names and their meanings> http://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names
Posted by: JB | October 14, 2008 at 12:32 PM
Best wishes... Elaine..
and many , many, more!
Posted by: tom | October 14, 2008 at 12:40 PM
Yes, it is a full Libra moon and yes, the huntress is Luna, the Lady with the Dogs. My dogs like this but the cats complain. Though Fluff caught a mouse this morning. So he is part of this cosmic scheme.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | October 14, 2008 at 12:46 PM
a few points;
- best wishes Elaine, you are one of the worlds wonders
- chart-wise this setup was different than 29 , then you had a drop off a parabola then bear flag,drop, bear flag, drop and so on to the bottom. This time the initial fall was in the form of a falling wedge [bullish], ending with a plunge off the bottom[also typical and bullish]. I know you don't like charting, but if you follow it closely you find it has magical properties of its own.
- where do they go now? back to derivatives and SIV's . The spell ha been broken at least.
Posted by: ziff house | October 14, 2008 at 12:53 PM
I hope you have a great birthday!!...a giant chocolate cake, the works! :)
I am very interested to see how all of this is going to effect Christmas spending. Retail is still dying. Our shop has seen a death in sales since June and it isn't getting better. I honestly think we will see lots of mom-&-pop stores go out of business after Christmas. I know of shop owners here in Nashville that are merely hanging on through the holidays....and after that, they will more than likely close. People are not spending and I see this first hand on a daily basis.
Elaine, just imagine how different our economy would be if people followed the example of Jesus and of Buddha, if people lived simply and was concerned about their neighbor's well being. Greed is the source of all evil, indeed!
Posted by: Jeremy | October 14, 2008 at 12:57 PM
We are witnessing the death knell of the status quo. The many indentured to the parasitical few who feed on our labor's wealth is nearing its' demise. Let them run off to their tiny islands and compounds with the nearly worthless paper. They are a violent species de-evolving towards extinction.
"[Our] object is to secure self government by the republicanism of our constitution, as well as by the spirit of the people; and
to nourish and perpetuate that spirit. I am not among those who fear the people. They and not the rich are our dependence for
continued freedom." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816.
Posted by: rockpaperscizzors | October 14, 2008 at 01:03 PM
We are so blessed to have access to Elaine's cherished thoughts, deeds and wisdom. You are truly a gift that keeps on giving, a sage, and fountain of knowledge and courage. Keep up the wonderful work, Elaine!
Happy Birthday, and may all your dreams come true, for I know these dreams are for the many, at the expense of the rotten few.
Posted by: CEO Nutcracker | October 14, 2008 at 01:26 PM
Happy Birthday, Comrade Elaine of the newly formed USSA
"you must have fun. you have no choice" (I remember this from a mock-communist B-day card I received)
Posted by: Timothy | October 14, 2008 at 02:05 PM
*****************************
Instead of counting candles,
Tally stick the years,
Contemplate your blessings,
and to hell with economic fears.
Consider special people
Who love you and who care,
those of us who frequent your blog,
to share your wisdom there.
We think about the carry trade,
and money created out of air,
We think about the gnomes who raid,
and Elaine, our Goddess fair.
Another year is a happy gift,
So cut your cake, and say,
"I’ll short the market tomorrow,
but I’ll party today!"
*****************************
Posted by: DrKrbyLuv | October 14, 2008 at 02:16 PM
I too think the ugly status quo of the few, dominating the many is in its death throes.
I believe we will see people like bill gates, that made billions in such a short time, lose them just as quickly.
I think this will play out through most of this century.
It will be painful, and there will be a lot of deaths, but nobody will be spared, elite rich, or poor.
And humanity will come out of it respecting life and nature, or some new life forms will take our place as custodians of the Earth.
This is the prophecy of JZ.
Posted by: JZ | October 14, 2008 at 02:22 PM
Happy full Libra moon birthday Elaine!
Here are a few things that have happened on your birthday: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_14
The first entry is as follows:
1066 - Norman Conquest: Battle of Hastings - In England on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, the forces of William the Conqueror defeat the Saxon army and kill King Harold II of England.
I suspect if not for this event above, many of us wouldn't be here now --- funny, how things connect in all sorts of ways....
Peace,
Ken
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | October 14, 2008 at 02:30 PM
Amazing video on the IMF based crash of the Argentinian economy in 2001.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/445.html
Posted by: GK | October 14, 2008 at 03:02 PM