I'm going to be talking mostly from the perspective of being a resident of the United States, most of my explanations will apply with a few name changes to almost every nation. Money makes the world go round, not true obviously, but also tough to argue with as it certainly seems to spin the human world. Going without currency is to an extent impossible if you live in a modern nation. we are paid, sometimes even forced to get special accounts just to receive the fruits of our labor. Why given the facts of how much impact money, and finance has on our everyday experience it's a wonder hardly anyone seems to understand it, or even have any desire to. The boons of an abstract store of value, a thing that represents all other things in potential can not be understated, and would have to make it to any list of ideas that changed the world. Having a representational system of value has without a doubt opened up trade, allowed for specialization at unprecedented levels. That does not mean our current system will continue as is, nor does it mean our current system is infallible. There has been much made about how contrived our markets are, with not price discovery, but manipulation at work as the rule. As a world we live in a debt based system, consolidation of resources, and money as a thing. Money as thing is fine, if the money is a thing, ours is figures on a screen or pieces of paper, with the majority of it only coming into being when it is created with interest attached by private parties. This makes for different classes of money, easy to understand if all money is debt, the money created with a lower interest rate attached would have more value than that created with a higher rate. This interest on the creation of money sets in place a organized crime like skim, where the percentage of interest charged is stolen right off the top. All while zero risk, as your product is needed by everyone, yet does not exist till you sell it to them. Many will now be saying that I am ignoring the reserve requirements. These might have been a restraint at one time, with zero interest and the presses on full blast, meeting the requirements is an after the fact event.
How might we change this? Issuing currency is and must remain with the sovereign, be it a nation, or municipality what have you. In order for the money to not take over, it must be maintained as a service to the nation by the nation. The US must issue it's own currency the credit agencies, and private banks would have to adhere to a full reserve requirement. This would eliminate the infinite growth mythology, and allow for expansion and contraction of the currency supply based on the needs to facilitate the exchange of goods and services. Isn't that what representational money is about? Making it as simple as possible for an individual to exchange what they have, for what they need?
In fairness the US monetary system never stood a chance, with even our history being rewritten to leave our money as a prime motivating factor for the revolution. Some even goes so far as to make a case that Hamilton, our first secretary of the treasury was an agent for international banking interests. As interesting as history can be, the who did what who, or he said she said game will not do a thing to change the present. Like all technology, money is a thing most do not wish to spend time thinking about. We just want it to work, ours doesn't, was not planned to, and we are in the world change over of global trade settlement. If there was intent to work our system as intended the bail out would have been in public works projects. Where those with the least are put to work by the government to make improvements everyone will benefit from. This allows the currency to enter at the bottom, and trickle it's way up through the full economic structure. What we have done is cut out the middle and bottom, injecting the currency almost at the top. Combined with interest rates kept artificially low, that currency has no choice but to enter into speculative markets just to find a return. This only adds distortion to the overall economic data.
We can make money the tool it is intended to be, or we can be little more than economic servants to those who understand it's tricks. The choice is always ours.
I've always thought of myself as a relatively intelligent person. Even while what was seemingly to me the rest of the world was screaming I was doing bad, or was a loser in this aspect or that. When I was doing things I knew my mother would freak out, and possibly through misplaced sense of attempting to protect me from myself had me in legal entanglements I'd likely still be dealing with. I just hid those things as best I could. Which was not that tough, my relationship with my mother, while I feel is in a good place, many have called a bit distant. Truth be told, all of my relationships are only so close. I have actively worked to disentangle myself from any relationship that acted as a constriction on the concept of who, or what I am. No one knows what I am, or for that matter what they are, when I bump up against someone that is insistent on defining me, and has expectations based on them projecting what they think I should be, or should do. I had rejected the motivations, and even the pretenses behind them at a very early age. Not out of a sense of rebellion, I just like to hang out, listen to music, smoke some herb, and play with ideas. So far all my life I've insisted I am not more intelligent than anyone else, not that I think of myself as stupid. Quite the contrary, I see myself as capable of doing, learning, and being anything I choose to be. I just understand that everyone else is the same way, People around me have consistently told me, I was smarter than the average bear. This is still a projection, and after a point it doesn't matter if it's true or accurate, or even how I feel about it. As a person I will do what I can to fulfill the expectations placed upon me by those around me. Add in mind expanding chemicals taken in quantity as an informal spiritual exploration, personal experimentation. Shake vigorously, and wait. I still reject much of the fundamental premise of what is thought of as western materialist world view. That view of creation, that consciousness stems from matter, that we are looking for a fundamental particle, a unified field theory equation. That we are still looking for proof that something continues after what we call physical death, Zero is a concept, it is no where reflected in what we experience here. The so called vacuum of space, is still a relative state. The scale of background, of the fabric of we call space/time is so far removed from us in scale it's conceptual. We have no tools that can show, or measure things at Planck scale. We can do so many things, but in our desire to validate our experience as physical beings, we tear at the fabric of creation itself. Attempting to find a particle that imparts mass is in my understanding about the ultimate fools errand. Energy equals mass * the speed of light squared, the energy to mater conversion formula. So commonly known, so little considered in implication. Of what this implies about the nature of what we are, and what this shared experience is. The blessing and curse, of the binary, or ac/dc electric experience. To find a particle in creation where everything is energy, is a matter of containment. Release the energy, and the mass is imparted with breaking of that containment. Kind like breaking one layer of the onion into another, or breaking one layer inside a nesting doll.
My understanding of reality is there is no place where anything starts, and anything stops. In order for me, you, everything to even be having this experience of individuality. We have to be at our core delusional. That there can ever be self, in a state of singularity, Or that there can be anything that is other. Do not mistake this for some existential crisis, been there done that, I love the delusion, it's a small part of a delicious subtext to what we think of as life, or reality or whatever. There is an understanding that everything external is a representation of something internal. For me this is evident everywhere I focus attention. I dropped out of the world, took a few years, to sever most ties, became a hermit to digest, process and fill in enough blanks in my personal data base, or learn to tune myself to what it was I wished to express. It is my rejection of my own reality, and in reflection I do not see myself reflected in the world. I've become absent in my own life, a blank canvas. This is also intentional, I am not so overly fond what has been made of paradise. As much as I enjoy so many aspects, the beauty, the polarity, the spin, the game. Being able to alter experience through just thought, and through influence alter others experience, and have everyone insist they made free will choices is amazing, and disturbing. I am at core a generous person, often taken advantage of with my eyes wide open, just because I wanted to give the person a chance to make a different choice. So while those around me try and get theirs, I try to give mine away, to anyone that will take it. When I reject money, it's not the concept of currency, or the tracking of resources I am in opposition to. I have an issue with a system intentionally designed to be scam, to implode due to structural features, called such as there is no chance they were accidental. I am all for the ideas of equity, value added, open source. Where investment is rewarded, risk is real, not offloaded immediately, or hedged against. Our systems of global trade settlement with the dollar as it's backbone are in essence a cheat a scam, a ponzi scheme. I spent much effort on being as little a part of this system as I could, to where my expenses are pretty minimalist. Not that I do not enjoy the finer things, it's the strings that come attached to every dollhair spent on those trappings is my endorsement of that system.
I'm a fucked up mass of contradictions, that often make sense only to me, I'm ok with that
This has been the age old question, to conquer the end. We all face it, we all find our own answers, and we think we have it all figured out. When your world is black and white, or written in binary this might satisfy. Like everything else we are, this is just a holdover from previous developmental cycles. These go back not to when we had words for me to write this down, but back to primordial ooze of single celled organisms. The universe or God, or as it's coalescing into my essence as panversal is in and of itself conscious, it is structured energy, which is what everything is. Information processing. As every would be sage, poet, musician, blade of grass, and grain of sand has been telling us forever. This is a love story, this is a passion play, the stories do not even change, they get rebranded, updated, but for at least the last 6 thousand years we have all learned variations of these same stories. Oh the names change, characters get makeovers, and costume changes, But from the Chinese dragon emperor's, to the Dogon's of the Sahara, the Aboriginals of Australia, down the lines it goes, not in one place but in them all. We came from the stars, that concept has been twisted around to mean so many things to so many people, from the ubermensch of the aldebaran to Pharaonic gods of Egypt, Right on back to the what we are told is our earliest civilizations in Sumer, and I'm not here to today argue that point. I do not care when, or where, or actually even who. I'm a big picture person, I do really well at taking a dispassionate stance and getting as wide a view as possible calling it like I see it. A valuable skill if you can find work for it, most of my friends just say I think to much, and they are sometimes right. In taking that position expansive view point, the patterns just kinda pop out, like the rivers in this text if you let your eyes unfocus, and just like that, the information you get from the text is not the same, and that view is not even on whole thought of as particularly useful. The people are interested in the words, not the rivers, so I learned to see the words like everyone else around me did, only they didn't seem to say the same thing to me as to everyone else. As a matter of fact they said the same as the rivers, and they were almost all saying the same things. Even when they seemed disjointed, or unrelated the same words were always there.
From the ecstatic altered state inducing dances of the Whirling Dervishes, or Tantric sex practices, Yoga, and Breathing techniques, in joyous upliftment of the celebration of life. On down into the depths of despair, and tragedy, and depravity. They all contain at there core I am alive, I am here, shouting into the darkness, longing for or hoping against that return response. I'm here I see you! This is the most wonderfully terrifying moment for all of us, and in our polarized, 2 dimensional world view of dark versus light we have left room for only 2 options. Some say it's love/hate, some fight/flight, it doesn't matter what the choices are labeled as, the important part is the limiting of choice. It's the offer of false simplicity, and simple is easy, and comforting, even at it's worst it's at least predictable. I mean if I only have 2 choices, there is always a 50% chance I'm right. This is very useful in long term evolution of life. Kill or be killed is valid for much of what we think of as life. The response of nature is always the same, no matter the method used to carry it out, the answer for nature is always, I want to survive. The fox is in hen house to eat to survive, and we made it nice lunch box, and then killed it when it came to collect the meals we so kindly laid out for it. We penned in the range animals, and kept all the goodness of their flesh to ourselves. We killed the wolves not because they ate people, like dogs around the food bowl we chased off our rivals. This existential crisis of just the struggle to survive molded us and shaped us into the most successful predator on the planet bar none. That being on the top of the food chain looking down on all the lesser species is pretty nice spot, it's good to be the king no doubt. Being at the top, and staying at the top are not the same, and getting to top means your not what you were when you started. We celebrate our predatory nature everywhere, from world wars to gold diggers, from pirates to emperors. The monuments to our depravity know no bounds, from triumphal arches to tombs we proclaim our divine heritage of immortality. All in the confused attempt to be remembered, to live on, to proclaim our own mastery over all we survey. This is where our delusions of grandeur really kick in, We start to believe our own hype, and our success translates into leisure time as we have come to call it. This is the true mark of a successful predator, how little time they spend on survival. For those fortunate few at the top of the food chain, it's everywhere, this new found leisure time allows for reflection. Not just to plan the next meal, but more abstract, things not so immediate in the world currently inhabited find the space to become known. A shift starts to occur, to manage your food, because lets face it, your not as young as you were last year, and well how many times can you chase a rabbit till the thrill gets old. So we take the tasty stuff, and shape it, bend it to our will, protect it from those who would take it, you know normal human stuff. At this point we already won, we have no natural predator to contend with, nothing to keep our expansion in check. As predators though we are ever vigilant, lest some scavenger steal our kill, if we lack a predator we make one up, when we run out decent prey, we move on looking for new places to hunt. With nothing else left to do we even hunt each other, oh we give it all sorts of reasons, but it always come down to the 2 choices we decided were the only ones we have. We do it because we want what they have, or we are afraid they will take whats ours. Having nothing else to contend with, having effectively already won the struggle for day to day survival, ensuring our genetic heritage is continued. We have time to place ourselves in the cosmic fun house, and the picture is as majestic as it horrifying. This is when we begin to get that glimpse of our next existential crisis. Having conquered death in an immediate fashion, it becomes a personal struggle, the, but what about me's kick in. We know our blood will be flowing and pumping even if it's through anothers veins, but still it isn't enough. The I is screaming in terror, what happens to me, I did all this work to get here, and I'm still going to die. After fighting death for so long, we begin a new battle, now we are after time. How many years can you cling to life becomes the new game, and being predators we play it with gusto. In the time game anything not you becomes a greater threat the longer it hangs around, just like an infection setting in, or how food rots, we start to learn with profound shock, if your not living, your dying. Or a bit more accurately, when you stop growing, you start dying, even closer, if your not expanding your contracting. This of course is still only a 2 choice idea, it's still locks us into an illusion of choice. If the battle is life and death, and answer shouted by everything is always life how do we reconcile this dichotomy. How can we celebrate the victor in the arena when he dripping in the blood, sweat, and feces of his opponent. How do we tell our children, that it's not ok to hurt others, and when we decide they are no longer children shove a gun in their hand and tell them to kill their neighbor, or be killed. No death is not our boogeyman any more, we coax, and torture nature to provide not what we need, or even what we reasonably desire. We squeeze the golden goose till it bleeds gold, till it's lushest oziest parts are dripping down our chin, staining our silk tie, cotton shirt, lizard skin belt, leather pants, and fur trimmed alligator boots till we puke. We squeeze the last drop, fish the oceans dry, not out of need, for our needs are modest, we do it because we have been offered no other options. Consume, or be consumed. Once our opponents are long dusty, and our glory is fading we miss the good old simpler days, those we overcame taking on status in the telling of our own stories. Yes we carry our demons with us, and with every passing year they become larger, and our deeds in over coming them more heroic. We Proclaim it to all Money doesn't grow on trees you know, and the giving tree withers it's leaves stripped bear, it's bark yanked free, it's flesh made pulp and reconstituted so we can make some pretty pictures on it, and call it ours. I don't hate money, money is an idea, and in the realm of ideas I swim with the sharks. I've been exposed to the trivium, and quadrivium, pi, phi, and even the Harris curve, our newest choice of curves, a new path to follow, a new star before our eyes. We build our temples to our creators, where babies cries are shunned. We rip our ugly growths from our own flesh, and call it cancer, and deny it's attachment to our emotions. Oh make no mistake we have damned ourselves for sure, for in our process of becoming, we have to live with what we've done. This is our state of terror, our splash of liquid light, our stairway to heaven, and highway to hell. Dharma, Karma, Sin, our triplets of story, our mistresses of fate. Weighing our heart against perfection, the living can not pass, for the living sit in judgment, while the dead just watch it pass. The living write the story down, building, destroying, crafting. Deluding themselves all the while, with pretty little dreams, of I can do no harm. We label ourselves dogs, and wolves, black widows, snakes, bears and list goes on and on, than we wonder why we kill. Our own sophistication has become our trap de jour, and I'm crazy enough to be handing out peter pan advice. In our marvel of our own magnificence our march to greater contrast, our rush to ever bigger, bolder, badder. We circle our wagons, lock down the prison, close the bathroom door, all because we can't stand the smell of our own shit. I've been eating shit my whole life, there is no possible way for me to deny it, I gave my top teeth eating the shit put in front of me, oh it's lies were so sweet. The numbing of the mind, of the soul, of the heart, that sweet oblivion of nothingness to take away the anguish of being a pimp or ho. I'm so tired of eating shit for being me, for seeing things I see, I will always chose my truth over your lies, I have to, it's the only way I can live, and die with myself.
Life eats Life, it's all there is, when you make it all one, we end up eating our own shit, you might think me mad, and that is fine we are all mad here, that is not in question. The question we are asking is can we live with ourselves, for eating ourselves. Meat is Murder, and it's all sucking off someone elses tit, we all know these things, they are not new or novel. Don't believe me, well take a look at these. shit burger it doesn't even matter if it's a hoax, or fact, that it's there. That we have become so pained by where meat comes from that people have even contemplated this rings alarm bells. If thats not your speed how about this.
That is adorable little girl is Taylor Momsen, in the Grinch, many of you know here from a tv show she did that I don't recall. Some know now, as the lead singer of The Pretty Reckless. For much of America she grew up on their tv screens, I missed that part as I was absorbing myself in other worlds to escape the pain of lying in my bed. While I was distracted by the glitter of the lights in the distance, She went from singing
Fahoo Fores Dahoo Dores Welcome Christmas Come this way Fahoo Fores Dahoo Dores Welcome Christmas, Christmas day Welcome, welcome fahoo ramus Welcome, welcome dahoo damus Christmas day is in our grasp, So long as we have hands to clasp
To a lovely young woman who's words I hear on many lips, from many tongues. Thank you Ms. Momsen, while I do not really do the fan thing, I see you, and your beautiful to me. This is the price of our denial of nature, this bitter pill is our salvation. In our death spiral of guilt, over all our perceived failures, our pitfalls of loss, we finally give up the ghost. Not because we have to die, because we no longer can take the pain of being alive, and what we have to do to stay that way.
The world devours it's young, Because we like sweets, and babies taste best. It doesn't matter how twisted the appetite. The old say youth is wasted on the young, while the young scream never trust anyone over 30. The age old struggle, the old lion wants to keep his pride, while the young just wants a piece of tail. The widow ate her suitor after he dropped of his seed, not from grief hatred or malice, she knows he'll eat the young, cuz it's good to be the king, But not when there can only be one.
I love you all, it's just a matter if you can accept the only love I know how give, cuz its a jagged little pill.
listen to the music, not just the beat, pay attention to the story, it's your soul speaking
Going to attempt to keep this brief, much of this I have covered before, though not from this particular angle. Quickly to give a basic overview of why bail in's are certain to lie ahead, and will be coming to a bank near you. Our monetary, or currency system can be likened to a pyramid structure. Though an easier representation is monopoly, unrestrained capitalism is like a monopoly game. Someone eventually wins, they take control, and ownership of so much, that the game freezes, no money is able to move around. As anyone who has played monopoly knows, when this happens the game is over, someone won, and everyone else lost. The pieces go back in the box, and everyone including the winner has to find something else to do. In america this was well known, and up till recent time regulations were in place to make sure no one could win the game. You could get ahead of the other players, but a cap was put on how far ahead an individual or group was allowed to get. This was not done to punish the rich, it's to ensure the system continues to function as a whole. It ensured that if a person reached the top they either stop playing, and just maintain, or fall back into the herd, or they work to close the gap between the bottom and the top. Even if it is purely selfish motivation of coveting personal wealth.
The Injection Deception
Make no mistake, taxes are wealth redistribution. Yes we pay taxes ostensibly to pay for public services, and public works projects. You've likely heard the phrase "time is money", if we use that as a lens to understand taxes, why the highest tax brackets were hit with the highest percentage of tax burden for so long. Most people have a job, they trade time directly for money, this is the idea of wages. When you are in a job earning wages, the taxes you pay, can be seen as giving a portion of your time to the state every year. So in simple terms if you pay 10% of your wages for a year, you spent 10% of your time laboring for government. Almost like the idea of 36 days, and work for the government for nothing. So far so good, we all like having nice public services. Like good schools, parks, water, roads, all the obvious things we all use and share. The issues with this begin to show when a person stops trading time for money, and instead trades someone elses time for money. This is the idea of income, it does not have to be exploitive, though when the difference is between wages, and income are forgotten it certainly will be. When you pay rent, or a mortgage any kind of loan, and you are paying it with wages, you can consider the time spent to earn that money as spent working for that person. As is more then likely apparent to most, you can not physically be in more than one place at the same time, your limited to working one job at a time. This is not the case for income, in income you can be working all over, all the time, no matter what you are physically doing.
What does this have to do with you, bail in's, and how close they might be?
Stay with me just a bit longer and it will be clear. If capitalism is like a giant monopoly game, and all monopoly games end the same way, than the governments job in managing a capitalist economy is to make sure no one actually wins. That is the only way the economy can keep going, if to much money is allowed to be owned by any one player the economy stops. That is where the taxes come into play, before the reforms in the 80's there was a 75% tax bracket. This meant that if someone started making so much money that it would hurt the economy, the government would step in and take most of it, and redistribute it back in the game. This type of taxation, where the highest earners pay the highest %, is part of the balance to keep the game from ending. In this set up, the government uses the taxes to provide basic services for everyone, and when it is needed. The government stimulates the economy, by taking money from the rich, and giving it to the poor. Not in handouts, and welfare, but in public works projects. It puts them to work, with the rich peoples money, to make new things for everyone to use. Once the % of earnings paid in taxes inverted with the top earners paying a smaller % than the middle, and low earners. You start cutting off the flow of money to the poorest, and most vulnerable first, though all are eventually affected. The government ends up taking from the bottom, and middle, and directly handing it to the top. We saw this in the 2008 event, what followed is exactly what honest economic models predict. The interest rates, and what normally thought of as safe haven or hedge assets are kept artificially low. Money printing starts, and stays going non stop, money pours into speculative markets, instead of working it's way through the economy. This is what measured in currency velocity, it measures how fast money moves through the economy. Along with this comes the high numbers of unemployed, or underemployed. Though this has been hidden in changing how unemployment is calculated, all you need to do is watch labor participation rates, as more and more are forced out of the system entirely. As this continues, those that understand how the system works begin to see they are going to lose everything when the system crashes. They can pull out, or give away most of their money, or lose all of it. Many of the top earners are doing just that, pulling out, or suggesting the billionaires give away half their money. George Soros are among the pull out crowd, with Buffet, and Gates in the give away camp. Both of these are selfishly motivated, do not kid yourself into thinking a multi billionaire giving away large sums of money is kindness. When Buffet says it's a problem he pays a lower tax % than his secretary it's because he is being altruistic. He understands that if that continues eventually he won't have a secretary at all. These are the QE money injections, they only kick the can down the road a little bit, till you create so much debt that everyone starts to panic, before that is allowed to happen, they will take currency out of the system. This is the bail in, it's purpose is to keep a lid on the panic of hyper inflation, I can't say when, only that it will happen, the law to allow it was in the last budget.
This is a United States one dollar bill, it has been, and is many things. If you have lived on planet Earth over the last couple of hundred years, than this piece of paper has affected your life.
If you have grown up in the United State, you have been told a story of how breaking the grip of monarchy has made you free. Omitted from this narrative has been the story of the dollar, and how the war for it's control, has created invisible shackles of economic entrapment. While it is beyond the scope to offer a complete historical account in a blog post. I will instead hit some high points, and show how our collective misunderstanding of money, currency, and economics has left our continued freedom in doubt.
No More Kings:
Yes the revolution was fought for the right to self determination. In other words to wrest control of the fledgling colonies from english rule. This in part involved the physical arm of rule, the King, military of Britain. Another aspect was the power to create currency, not create money, as I will show later these are not always the same. The colonies had been using a self created currency to allow for trade amongst themselves, called colonial script, much like the paper money we use today. This had the effect of a healthy growing local economy, it also had the effect of cutting the Bank of England out. By this time control of the bank of england was not in the hands of the crown, but had already transferred to private hands. As evidenced by numerous passages from the time, they were well aware that this amounted to a hidden tax on all trade. A hidden mechanism that ensured the transfer of wealth from the colonies to Bank of England. As well as ensuring a method of control beyond force of arms, much like a parent might manipulate a child through monetary controls today. Well documented is the victory over the physical control. When it comes to being governed through control of currency, we lost, so we do not hear about it. Like any conflict, the history is written by the victors. Once the physical conflict ended, the economic conflict kicked into high gear. The First Central Bank of America was chartered in 1791, backed most famously by Alexander Hamilton, and opposed by Thomas Jefferson.
This Means War:
When the charter for the First Bank of America expired in 1811, and fueling the ignition of the War of 1812. This conflict was fought all over the Globe with many varied participants, it ended in 1815. In 1816 the Second Bank of America was chartered, by James Madison with the promise of controlling inflation that had been created as a result of the the war. Lasting until it's charter was not renewed by Andrew Jackson, who had denounced it as corrupt. It's demise in 1836 created what has become known as the "free banking era". During this time there were only state banks, and without a plan to replace the outgoing central banking authority. There was nothing in place to ensure economic interests were being protected. This period culminates in the Civil War, which while it had the effect of ending slavery, a close inspection shows it was not the cause or intent of the conflict. This conflict from a banking perspective culminates with the banking act of 1863. Which set up the national banking system, ending the free banking era. This framework was exploited repeatedly to push forward the need for a central lender of last resort. The final push of instability known as the panic of 1907, prompted the push for a lender of last resort. After the failure of the Aldridge plan, The Federal Reserve Act was adopted in 1913.
The Beat Goes On:
Once The United States entered WWI, which had much of it's underpinnings found in the railway running from Iraq, to Germany, redrawing the economic power structure of europe, The fledgling Federal Reserve became the issuer of the bonds used to finance US participation. Post WWI, the Fed, was able to cement it's power to create and destroy the nations currency, under the leadership of Paul Warburg. It proceeded to institute a series of policies creating booms and busts, leading to the crash of 1929. At this point the United States is effectively bankrupt, the years following known as the Great Depression find their conclusion in 1933 and the New Deal. This had the effect of holding all future generations responsible for the debts incurred by their parents, and grandparents. This was also when the US began to exit the gold Standard. FDR in 33, making it a crime for US citizens to own and hold gold bullion. Once the gold had been confiscated the government price for gold was raised to $35 an ounce. Enter WWII, which of course also, aside from having the highly emotional, and publicized drive of hate. The atmosphere which fostered these attitudes, had roots in the harsh economic penalties placed on Germany with the treaty of Versaille. Post WWII, at the Bretton Woods conference, the dollar was established as the world reserve currency, with the Federal Reserve guiding international monetary policy in 1944. The dollar becoming the world reserve currency had the effect of placing a hidden a tax on all trade settled, payable to the Federal Reserve. This held relatively steady till 1971 when Nixon removed final ties to gold. In it's place had been engineered what has been called the petrodollar. The United States had engineered deals with the opec nations, to only accept dollars in exchange for oil. Thus maintaining the need for all other nations to continue to use dollars to settle international trade. This final decoupling of the dollar from gold, just solidified the identity crisis paper currency has had forever.
It Never Was Money:
Paper currency, even when backed by real money, never was, and never can be real money. It is at best a representation of money, and that only while it is directly backed and exchangeable for real money. Currency is money when it is made out of money, like silver, and gold coins. In 1974 when Ford lifted the prohibition against American citizens owning, and holding gold bullion. The minds of the people had already come to think of the paper as the thing with value. To make things really simple, money is what people turn the currency they do not need for day to day living expenses in to. Currency on the other hand is the accounting tool. It measures how much an economic system owes you, or how much you owe it. This basic misunderstanding has been used to ensure, the masses remain in perpetual debt, and considering this debt to be wealth. Understand, this is not about enslavement on an individual basis, how much or little an individual participates is unimportant. This about dependency on a macro level. If you want to partake of the benefits of the system you automatically participate in sustaining. There is a reason gold is considered money, even when it is obviously not currency, and the same can be said of silver, and many other tangible assets. They hold value over time, and are exchangeable for currency everywhere. Being key aspects of money, the dollar obviously does not fit, having lost over 90% of it's value since 1913.
Now and Forward:
What are called fiat monetary systems, with interest on currency creation have a mathematical life span. This kind of system is in essence what is commonly referred to as a ponzi scheme. It is also the background push behind the infinite growth idea. The interest attached to every dollar created is a hidden tax, or wealth transfer. As long as the economy as a whole has a growth rate ahead of this interest no one is the wiser. In 2008 this system reached a mathematical break point, Interest rates now have to remain at near %0, along with passing around a series of currency printing. The ironic thing being with the suppressed interest rates this new currency does not enter at the bottom. Instead it directly goes into whatever will provide a return. This continues the decoupling of the top from the bottom started in the 80's, as well as lowering the currency velocity. In the simple terms, this is the time of the monopoly game where 1 person owes everything is only a matter of dice rolls from attaining all the paper. Alternately if interest rates are allowed to rise even above 3% the US government can no longer afford to borrow the currency it needs to function. Even at 0 interest, anyone can notice the debt has already gone parabolic, doubling in Obama's presidency this is likely to accelerate. This broken system, will than be offered up as a failed idea, with fiat currency being shelved as evil. Only nothing will be changed, the alternative gold backed currency will be just that. Gold backed, a representation of money, with debt still attached to it's creation. Perhaps if done correctly what has been used to secretly enslave, can be used to ensure a move toward ultimate freedom.
Solutions:
1: Nationalize the Federal Reserve, ownership to be a trust made up of ever citizen of the United States. It's books to be publicly available, to ensure it's transparency. The fed would still be responsible the management of the currency. As well as the IRS, you still have to pay for services if you desire to have services. This is not as bad as it sounds in an a working system.
2: No interest on currency creation, this is so big it gets it's own. Currency being different than money is only created by the Federal Reserve. Money is not created, it's value being intrinsic.
3: End fractional reserve banking practices. This is actually covered in only the Fed creating currency, being in essence a mechanism for creating currency from nothing.
4: End Corporate personhood, along with currency being considered speech.
5: End Currency speculation, currency is to facilitate, and encourage productivity, and trade. Speculation only distorts the purchasing power.
These of course are not complete, or do I believe they are the only fixes. These are small moves that would be steps on the way.
Just a quick one today. A friend started talking about wanting a 3d microphone. Which being a bit high at the time sent my thoughts racing down how a thing like that would work. Quickly returning the though of triangulation of the sound using the know quantities of the speed of sound, and the distance between the microphones. Those are all you need to calculate where a sound originates, Once here it was easy to imagine listening to your favorite performance as if you were sitting in the middle of it. Being able to point to a location in the room and say thats where the guitarist is standing. Of course the recording is only half the equation, and my natural tendency toward playing devils advocate was only to happy to point out. Without a surround sound system correctly set up the effect would be diluted, or dispelled completely. Crap this would for sure limit the appeal, I mean getting the settings right is the biggest pain in the butt for surround sound systems. That was when it hit me. Take that same concept, and reverse it. Make a smart phone app that has access to the microphone, and the settings and playback on the surround sound system. The app plays a series of tones through the speakers. So the phone tells the surround sound systems to play tones out of the speakers, knowing an approximate direction to expect it from. The app tracks the time between when it triggered the tone to play, and when the mic heard the tone. With that information the app can get a location, and adjust the settings for that to be the sweet spot.
As an aside, Many economists despite mainstream reporting of economic recovery, continue to warn of pending bubble collapses. Now for the most part these types of events have little impact on me directly. That doesn't change my curiosity involving this pseudo science governing our lives. The main question asked over and over is when. Not that I believe you can figure out the exact when, but there is a way to figure out a last possible date. The math for when the system itself can not function, This would give you a collapse by date. Of course it would have to be run regularly as the date would shift as policies are enacted to stave off the inevitable. There are some known qualities, and well understood correlations. Things such as, there is a cap on the maximum interest rate the federal reserve can set, before the US government can no longer afford to borrow the money to keep running. My understanding is this is currently about 3%. There is also a predicable point where if the currency velocity drops below the system grinds to a halt. Even the slow down in currency velocity is predictable, as the wealth is concentrated in fewer hands, the velocity of course slows. These would give a great start point for the math certain end date, almost like the doomsday clock. The other side is psychological, as people lose faith, the systems breaks down. This is going to be tied to large indicators, that may or may not be an accurate reflection of economic health, This does not make them any less predictable. Such as, with compounding interest, there will come a point when people are unable to pretend anymore. A mass holy crap, that can never be repaid, related to the rate of the debt increase, which is speeding up. You can get the psychological by looking where it has already happened.
There is much ballyhoo made about the US dollar being backed by nothing but faith. While it is true there is no material resource, gold, silver or the like acting as backing. This does not mean it has no backing at all, only that it not resource based. The truth as is so often the case is stranger than the fiction. Fiat currencies in general are backed by the governments ability to tax it's citizenry in the future. This is partially true for the US dollar, but the dollar has another backing, oil. As I said a resource does not directly back it. Meaning you can not go to your local bank and trade your dollars directly for oil. What we did was much more insidious, and far less noticeable to the everyday person. The US made deals with the opec nations to only sell oil in dollars, ensuring the dollar would be in high demand. Fiat currency is not the real issue at hand, as I've stated many times, if your going to use a currency system fiat is the only way to go. Resource backed currencies always run the risk of the resource being cornered, altering the value of the currency. Our problems with the global financial system are more foundational. Currency creation being held not by the collective, but by private organizations, who than attach interest onto the creation of said currency. This starts the cycle of fiat currency being treated as a commodity. This speculation on what is essentially an accounting tool, distorts the real world purchasing power of the currency. These combine quite nicely with fractional reserve banking, an other distorting effect. Fiat currencies may be many things, legal tender, banknotes, and the like, one thing it is not is money.
There is no way for Greece or any other nation within the EU to fix their economic woes while remaining in the union. What we see taking place across the EU is a direct result of the structural issues of a currency union without a political, and/or a fiscal union accompanying it. The rise of debt amongst the EU nations being shifted to the troika(EU, ECB, IMF) is about centralization of power. Greece was saddled not with economic relief, but loans, and policies that would ensure the loans could never be repaid. All Greece need do is exit the EU, bring back their own currency being printed by the government, not the privately controlled central bank. This would allow them to internally jump start the flagging production, as well as lower the prices on Greek exports. For a real recovery, look to Iceland. For those saying the Greek's entered the debt, and must pay it, is just propaganda silliness. We live within a debt based system, and most of these debts never have any reality other than on paper. Add to that ideas of compounding interest, and debt transfer from private to public, and suddenly they look less and less legitimate.
Once again I'm going to talk about money, and currency, things I find fascinating, frustrating, and generally misunderstood. Money is anything that stores value, and is widely expungeable, meaning it's easy to trade. This makes almost any object money of a sort. Currency on the other hand is often not money, Fiat currency is never money, yes I'm saying those pieces of paper people seem so enamoured with are not money, though they are currency. So what does this mean on a practical level? For many nothing, they will not make the distinction, and will have a confusing relationship
with what has become an essential tool in an increasingly complex global civilization. Others will quickly grasp the concepts and see myriad ways to apply that understanding for individual advantage. Still others, myself among them come to a rather uncomfortable realization, at the core of many "conspiracy" tale. Private central banks of issuance in a fiat system have come to own the world. Crazier still, with how the systems have been set up, future generations taxes have been promised to pay for "borrowing" of the present (I used the quotes there due to borrowing requires something to be transferred). So the productivity of future generations has been promised as collateral for infinite "borrowing" power in the present. We hear screams of out of control debt in a system where no currency is ever created except through debt. There is a valid reason for this, we are in many ways a bipolar system. On the one hand coldly rational, on the other fluidly emotional. In pure fiat systems, being backed up by nothing other that acts of faith (laws, continuity of government, that the sun will come up...tomorrow), perception is often more important than the hard figures. When fiat currency systems reach numbers people start to view as unrealistic, it triggers a cascade collapse. This of course is an emotional event, not a mathematical event. In a purely math sense a fiat system can expand infinitely. So if debt is the basis of the system, yet to much debt crashes the system, what we have is cleaver tight rope act, of keeping enough debt being retired, or payed off, with a constant supply of new debt being created, Issues begin when you start to add in ideas of fractional reserves, leverage, interest, and speculation. Before I get on with a visualization of these concepts, lets take a quick stab at some of those issues.
The Waves
Fractional reserves, and leverage have much in common. Each act as force multipliers to steal a term from military strategy. In fractional reserve it allows for the lending of thing that do not exist. In simple terms, it lets a bank hold 1 dollar, and lend out 10. In a similar fashion leverage allows 1 dollar to pretend to be 10. These both create distortions in the Current Sea(more on this later), or economy, With the bank there is never any risk when using a fractional reserve system. Banks do not lend any money out, when a loan is created new currency is created, supposedly fractionally backed by bank money. This newly created currency has a life span of the loan, and it's value is in it's tie to house, or car, business it was originated for. Leverage distorts the current sea is similar ways by creating an artificial increase in total number of units making up the complete current sea.
Though it does so in a different manor. Using leverage you can take 1 dollar, put it up as your risk, while you use 10 dollars to speculate in some market, or venture. Leverage is generally a short term loan so to speak. often lasting only the day. This is tied in to the ideas of margin, Margin calls have, or the act of calling in all loans due, is how our system has repeatedly transferred real wealth to the banking interests. Interest, or usury, especially compounding interest might be the single biggest factor in turning currency from a tool to support the development of humanity, into a tool to enslave it. As already pointed out if a fiat system our currency has nothing physical backing it, and is only brought into being through creation of debt. This sets up the need for what has become known as the infinite growth paradigm. Essentially, if you borrow 10 dollars today cuz you need to eat, and promise to pay it back in a week with interest here is a simplified version of what takes place. You go to a bank, and ask to borrow 10 dollars cuz your hungry, you say you will have more currency in one week, and pay it back in full at that time. The bank says sure, but, you have to pay us 11 dollars. The bank than types 10 dollars into a computer letting the current sea know you now have access to this newly created energy. Ok so at the end of the week you have used the 10 dollars, and go into the bank and hand over 11 dollars just as promised, sounds ok right? On a closer look this presents many problems. As soon as those 10 dollars are created, the value, or purchasing power of each existing dollar is reduced. The 1 dollar of interest was never created, so must be taken from somewhere else. This where the enslavement comes in. where that effort it takes you to generate that dollar is taken from you. In basic theory the interest is the banks "profit", in reality it's much different. As the dollars did not exist until you asked for them, and you "paid" the loan of those phantom dollars with dollars obtained from another source, be it your work, or a loan from another source, or whatever, the whole 11 dollars is pure "profit" with zero risk, all at the stroke of a few keys. This also creates a system where all currency is not created equally. Currency created at lower interest rates becomes much more powerful, and desirable, as it can be used to for speculative purposes with a higher rate of return. That might seem complex, but really it's fairly simple, if a dollar is created with .10 cents of interest attached to it, or a simple flat 10% interest rate, that dollar starts out with a value of 90 cents. Where a dollar created with .20 cents of interest attached with start out with a true value of .80 cents. Not to tough to see, how these hidden differences in the values of the same currency can be exploited by those with access and understanding. Another distortion occurs when the interest rates are manipulated, causing misallocation of currency, along with a changes in the currency velocity. When interest rates are held artificially low, currency pools as the perceived risks of "lending" it outweigh the potential returns, as well as higher returns are easier to find in speculation of growing pools of currency that new real world productive endeavors. When interest rates are artificially high than the speculative investment moves into making loans. Causing the currency velocity to soar, but increased risk in the nature of the loans made. Many other issues exist in interest being attached to currency creation, just look into the history of usury.
Lastly, before we take a look at the idea of the "Current Sea" lets look at at how speculation warps, and distorts our whole economic system. First off there is a difference between speculative, and productive investment. Productive investment has real world attachment, and purpose, for example a community coming together to be sure the farmers have enough seed to provide for food needs, or even providing the currency for research and development of new technology, or advancement of medical understanding. Productive investment carries a risk to the currency invested, but the pay off is not in a return of currency, but produced item, or resource. The flip to this, speculative investing is purely done with the intent to generate more currency for the investor.
Productive investment adds to the well being of the whole, multiplying the beneficial effects of new development by pooling the resources of a group, and directing the flow of the "Current Sea". On the other hand speculative investing is purely done for the purpose of generating more currency for the speculator. Now it still sometimes provides currency used for productive means, and many productive investments are speculative. The real problems arise when the investing drifts into the purely speculative. In commodities when there is no actual transfer of possession, and the speculation is purely on paper, it creates distortions in value of products people rely on for daily survival such as food, and water. When currency itself is allowed to become a speculative commodity, the potential distortion to the purchasing power of the individual units of currency can be catastrophic. Basically each dollar used to bet on the future value of the dollar distorts the current, and future purchasing power the everyday person uses to sustain their daily lives. Pure speculative investment is a tax, plain and simple it creates no value, instead stealing value from whatever it infects, kind of a parasite, on the productivity of the whole. So how can these be avoid, while still allowing for the benefits or fiat currency? Just change how currency is viewed and hopefully it becomes evident.
Smooth Sailing
I've repeatedly used the term "Current Sea" throughout this meandering, but what is meant by it? Our economic system taken in it's entirety is the "Current Sea", with the people, and corporations being the entities, and the currency being the water all depend on and exist in. Like any body of water it has currents, eddy's, shallows, and hidden depths. It can be likened to a living sea with all different types of entities all connected and sustained by the sea. So pretty easy analogy, currency is the water, the life blood, or energy flowing through our "Current Sea" driving the living system that sustains us all. With this depiction in mind, apply some of the distorting ideas, suddenly some of the entities find themselves as fish out of water. The distorting effects of our current economic systems could be likened to whirlpools, drawing in more and more currency, sucking it away from entities on the edges of the "Current Sea". In a healthy "Current Sea" the currency flows bringing along with it all each entity needs to thrive. This relates to the ideas of money, and currency in profound ways, true money becomes a store for currency, but not currency itself. Currency stays in it's proper place as the life blood of productive endeavor, while money acts as a store house for the future use of
productivity. Under the rules of the game as we now play, a central bank of issue, combined with a cartel of private banks run the "Current Sea" for the benefit of themselves. In an ideal system the currency would be managed from the perspective of keeping the "Current Sea" healthy. In other words keeping the currency as a tool of the people. In this type of system, the entities living in the "Current Sea" naturally direct the flow of the currency, ebbs and flows of industry come back to demand based. The rise and fall of the so called business cycle ceases, to shamelessly steal from those much more perceptive than I, the spice flows.
I have no degrees in economics, and might be inclined to debate if any such thing is reasonable in relation to what is an admitted pseudoscience. Our systems have been increasingly complexified in order to obfuscate it's true predatory nature. If I need more qualification aside from having been a participant for my entire life and being capable of observation, it has yet to been brought to my attention. I could go on and on, but I think that will have to wait for future posts.
I'm going to talk about currency again today. I know, I know it seems to be one of my favorite things to write about. While it might seem like that, I assure I'd rather spend my time pondering the so called deep questions of existence. The thing that keeps me coming back to the topic of currency, and money is simple, it's at the heart of most if not all of the short comings of humanity. I'm not going to cover the history of the hijacking of the world, and I feel full confidence in saying the world. As of the the writing of this there are 3 countries without a privately owned/controlled central bank. When you begin to look a bit behind the scenes you find a very small number of people who flat out own the worlds currency. I intentionally did not use the word money, as we do not use money, what we use as a means of exchange does not fit the definition of money, so in using the term money you help reinforce the open lie. Let me again state I am not anti currency, I'm not even anti fiat currency. I actually am in favor of a currencies value being tied to the nations gdp, and the amount of currency in circulation. Where a nation treated the currency as a utility, an accounting tool to both allow for as well as track the exchange of goods and services. What we have is a magic trick designed to transfer all real wealth into the hands of a few. Any nation that allows for a privately owned/controlled central bank to issue it's currency at interest will fail, this is just a mathematical certainty.
So why do I feel this is such an important issue for the world?
It's simple really, I won't even have pets, as I do not like the thought of being a pet. With privately owned/controlled currency creation we are little better then economic chattel. By even using the currency you help perpetuate the system. Many will balk and chafe at these words insisting we need the system, I agree we need a system to allow for exchange to easily take place. I do not agree we need to allow a small global cartel to profit of the labor of every man, woman, and child. Do not be fooled, if you use the currency of your nation, or union you are profiting people you've never even heard of. Do your research learn how this system works, come to grips with the responsibility inherent in the idea of freedom. Come to grips with the hard truths, once enough of the people point out the emperor has no clothes, we can do something about it.
Fix the money, and many other things will fix themselves.
There is a prevailing view among many that money is only energy, and it's use is the determining factor as to the charge it carries. This obviously carries some truth, what is left out is that every dollar, pound, euro, yuan, rupee, or ruble has a story, they carry their own context. So while the idea of money, or currency is just a means of exchange. A way to remove many of the limitations on barter, I mean who wants to carry around a truck load of chickens, just to get some rice, or pay rent. If we had base neutral money/currency this post would be over right here. The trouble with holding this as your prevailing view is this. It ignores the larger context, the currencies we all use on a regular basis do not exist in a vacuum. This means the currency you receive does not reach you in an energy neutral state. It carries with it the context of all it has been used for before, as well as the context of it's creation. While the polarity of it's previous use can be easily cleared, this is not the case when it comes to it's creation.
Before I continue, let me express that I understand that for most people refraining from the use of their local currency would foster hardship. That being said understanding what accepting it's use means to me is an important step in moving toward a fair, free exchange system. So what type of system for currency creation to we have in place now? The majority of the worlds currency is created by private banking institutions at interest, with little to no backing. This means by using the currency you're inadvertently giving tacit endorsement of what in criminal terms would be a racketeering. Yes it's a sad but true fact, our financial system is little different than a government back organized crime syndicate. By participating we are giving our go ahead to the theft of not just our own future labors, but also those of our children, and their children. This government backed monopoly is nothing short of a built in mechanism to ensure profit of the system off any endeavor anyone may undertake. Taking this idea a step farther and it turns into a method of power retention. This is a bit easier to understand when you realize, your money is not yours, never was yours, and never will be yours. It is always the property of the system that created it, you are a user of it, and pay usury for the privilege of doing so.
So when you next hear that money is neither good nor bad it is only energy, point out this while true in the abstract, lacks the context of the world we inhabit, and the currency we have is no more than a tool of enslavement, designed with purpose, and intent.
I like many others are very excited by BitCoin as well as other crypto-currencies. This is still true as I write this, I still see decentralization as the future of almost all things. 3d printing has the ability to decentralize production. While new developments in energy production as several fronts will potentially make anyone who desires it energy independent. Even with this optimism BitCoin as I see it lacks future potential as a currency is limited. It's math nature makes it unsuited to being used as such with our current model of capitalism. There are some concepts of the nature of currency. Currency is a tool for accounting, its a method to make easy the tracking, and transfer of goods and services. Currency not to be confused with items of inherent value are only useful in the realm of issuance. So what makes BitCoin unsuited to this task? Mathematically planned maximum number of coins would be all that is needed to see it's future is pretty easy to guess. From the much ballyhooed worlds most powerful decentralized network, to the trading of coins.
Miners will cease operation all together when the coins are all mined. With their exit most of the processing power of the network will go with it. The miners those that have kept up with increase in difficulty will turn their machines to other problems, most of these are what are called asic, or application specific integrated circuit making them unsuitable to any other task. So there will be a fork or division of the algorithm used as proof of work for mining BitCoins. Most of the power backing the network gone it's only those trading the coins, and only when they have their machines on with their wallets open to be supporting the network. When trading coins between individuals it's the same as cash no fees, this isn't true when your using it to pay for actual items. The payment processing will take a percentage away every transaction, till the coins are pooled in the wallets of very few. The value of the ideas presented in BitCoin will be realized in the coming of the DAC a digital autonomous corporation. This is a legal entity that once birthed into the digital world it takes on a life of it's own out of the hands of it's creators just as the coins currently do. The difference will be these entities will provide a service and live and die on their own merits paying dividends to those active. Some I've seen ideas for are a streaming service combining torrent ideas with bitcoin ideas allowing the videos to be hosted across the network and rewarding those serving data. We will shortly see the release of many new DAC's reshaping the digital world.
Bottom line is the planned end of new coins will mean the end of use as currency. It still may hold value, as any "rare" item holds value. A currency though needs wide acceptance, and the amount in circulation has to meet the needs of trade. A fiat currency which by default BitCoin is, needs strict controls on issuance, and maintenance to keep the system the currency supports in motion. That is not to say I'm in favor continuing the current system prevalent in the world with private corporations issuing currencies for nations. This leads to a whole other set of problems myself, and others have covered many times.
Today lets talk eternal, what that actually means. First off I defer to great thinkers through out time both religious and secular. So many have reported some sort of continuation beyond what we think of as physical death. If we are talking a purely energetic transfer, where what we think of as us ceases when our body stops functioning we can end the thoughts right now. If on the other hand there is a bit more of us that continues on this journey of existence other questions spring forth. How about even the Idea that energy can not be created or destroyed it can only be transformed. Taken to an extreme that would mean all things that exist now, have in some form or another always existed, and will always exist. That there can be no beginning or ending, there would be only transition, one state or phase endlessly shifting to another. There are so many questions of the why's and how's.
I want to think a bit about what it means from an individualized portion of self. Not a being that identifies with a single name, but one that has been so many names and is in all likely hood experiencing all these names now. To a being like this what a gift it must be to have firsts, or a conception of an end. To forget if only in delusion the infinite self. What a gift the finite, the present would be to an entity with this conception of self. Hold in mind this concept, of a self that has ultimately been every name. Now lets twist things around a bit. From this side we have taken natural time and using computers increased the effective time people live.
I could go into clock cycles, and try to get into ideas of changing the fundamental flow of time. How the pure access to information, and the speed of dissemination changes who we are and how we interact with our world. Many have talked about how disconnected we have become from each other on a personal level. Even as our world has become infinitely smaller, as people all over the globe instantly communicate real time. How quickly our understanding changes and grows, how difficult it becomes to stay current. How easy it becomes to be lost in a technological time warp. If we are to believe that Moore's law will hold true for even the next 20 years the changes from this moment to that moment will be astounding.
Now for a bit of the inane at least from my perspective. I have been playing with, and learning about the crypto-currencies. Some Ideas on Bitcoin, what makes this valuable it has no backing. There is the idea that it currently has the largest distributed network ever created. This is amazing, and sad. Amazing that it's been created at all. Sad that it's being used to make essentially video game money. Virtual gold coins to be traded in a virtual world. Who's use creates the value, Just as the value of the U.S. Dollar is in the decline due to losing it's status as the worlds trade currency. You can argue that last statement, though it would be one of extent. While yes technically the Dollar remains the worlds reserve currency it is steadily losing it's use as a trade currency. Bitcoin's use and acceptance as a cross boarder currency in an increasingly globalized world will only hasten the decline. This doesn't make Bitcoin the answer, as it seems even farther removed from the resources then the traditional fiat currencies we are already using. If the Dollar is rotten, anything that has it's value tied directly to the dollar has to be rotten as well.
Well I've been playing around with mining crypto currencies for a few days now, did some research going in, and as I wrote in yesterdays post stumbled upon Protoshares, developed by http://invictus-innovations.com/ their approach is rather ingenious from my perspective. After setting up a cpl dual core laptops to mine, I know the warnings. I was actually being able to see shares being credited to my account with http://ptsweb.beeeeer.org/ the pool I chose. It suddenly clicked and boy did I feel stupid when it did, people are not using their own machines to mine this. So I started to look at the virtual machines, cloud based computing for those of not up on the jargon. The idea is you rent processor power, memory, the whole nine from a one of the many cloud hosting companies. Once you set up your machine through their interface, and log into it, you can run the mining software remotely. As long as you are making more then the cost of hosting it's profitable. For testing, and learning I am using http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/ there are lower cost solutions, but Microsoft offers a $200 credit for a trial, and pay as you go programs so it's a safe test bed for a newbie like myself.
Setting up the server was a breeze as long as you choose an image from the library and go through the guided set up. I chose the newest linux, 4 cores, 7gigs. once it's deployed and running it's time to log in.
Logging in is simple, you need a terminal client, I downloaded http://www.putty.org/. From the management page copy the ssh details, and paste them into the putty. If all is well your on a terminal for your VM. Log in, this where I had to dig the memory banks a bit. It has been a long time since I was in front of a terminal needing to know command line functions. Even though I've been doing freelance low level tech work for years, very few people knowledgeable enough to use Linux need my help. Thanks to https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=345386.0 to the folks on this forum for having the pieces there even if they were a bit scattered. I pieced together the commands to get the miner up and running.
Here is the list of commands I used,
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y git make g++ build-essential libminiupnpc-dev
other then setting up the pts wallet to make sure you have a place for them to go that was it.
if this was of use to you consider a small gift
PTS# Pd7xb3Q4idGiGa1iMawVuAYx42WZch1KdG
or for BTC
Note it seems this works for intel based. so it will work on the the intel based clouds. I got one up on amd through another pool, will post the steps for that soon.
A couple of years ago I learned about Bitcoin, and Bitcoin mining. I had no actual understanding of what the project was about, or how it actually worked. I just found out enough to if I had been more cognizant of future trends I could have jumped on the band wagon. Really I wasn't all that interested, at the time I was more interested in the idea that the vibration of the planet is increasing. So I figured if that was true there would be a way to work out what the new vibration would settle into. I'm not going to dull your senses with a blow by blow, If you want to know more about that just ask.
Today lets take a look at what could be the biggest thing to hit the web since well the web. Almost all of you have some concern or another about internet privacy, identity theft, NSA spying, the works basicly.
Now what if I told you a start up has figured out how to make the traditional cyber threats individuals face obsolete, as well as how to determine fair market for just about anything you can imagine? Sounds pretty damn amazing huh? Well take a look at this http://invictus-innovations.com/, for all those concerned with privacy you might be interested in watching this video. Even as a low level computer tech it really helped bring into the view the big picture of what These folks have going on. Introduction to Keyhotee, for some reason blogger couldn't find that video.
I am not a pro anything, I play. Because of that I have a lack of desire for riches in the traditional fashion. So for me this isn't about a money making idea, it's the principles behind it that made me look closer, and the desire to get involved. It's the concept of distributed versus centralized power in all forms.
That being said, I'm not devoid of material needs. So as I write this I have laptops mining pts hoping to make at least the minimum 10 needed to get in as a founder before the x-mas deadline. That is a wonderful piece of marketing, the ties to the dates already ingrained, the time crunch. and making it the present you get to give all those who saw the new year coming before it was. Wonderful.
happen to have a pts to spare lol
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I'm gonna take a break for the day on the mystic side of myself. Today is about something I noticed in the crypto currency Bitcoin. For those of you who have no understanding of what Bitcoin is please check out this http://bitcoin.org/en/how-it-works. Then you will need to understand a bit about how Bitcoins come into being, for that please take a look at this https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining. Now that you have a bit of the basics, lets talk turkey. There are at any given time only so many Bitcoins in existence, There is also a limit on how many Bitcoins will ever be made. This combined with trade volume give you a fairly good picture of how the value of each Bitcoin is either over, or under priced. This is a pretty obvious one to one correlation.
This will give you the supply versus demand portion, this however is only half the picture. Due to how Bitcoins are created and the rate at which new, and more processing power is added to the network constantly there is another indicator, This is the network hashrate. What this tells you is how hard it will be to create the next bitcoin, as well as how much processing power is being used to create it. The charts for this can be found on http://bitcoincharts.com/ which has a link to http://bitcoin.sipa.be/ the latter being the charts for the creation, or mining of new Bitcoin.
Now I do not consider myself to be sophisticated when it comes to finance. From my perspective our currencies have become decoupled from the resources being used to create them. With Bitcoin the currency has no way to be decoupled. So as the demand for Bitcoin as a limited edition item goes up, the price for them goes up as well. By watching the creation side of it you can see how easy new Bitcoins will enter the market place in the next 30 to 90 days. This will give a clear picture of how over or under valued each bitcoin is currently. Allowing the savvy trader to predict peaks, and valleys well ahead of there actual appearance.
As I said I'm not a bitcoin or finance expert, I'm just a crazy person that sees patterns where others see chaos. Please feel free to correct assumptions I'm making you know to be incorrect.
Everyone knows we have waste management problems. From Fatberg to the The Great Pacific Garbage Patch . Even our "clean" nuclear energy leaves us with horrible toxic waste we shove in the ground. It seems that regardless of the skeptics, shooting the worst of our waste into the sun might be our best option. Dispose of nuclear waste in the Sun.
They say the costs are just to high, I don't even understand this concept. we are talking about stuff that if left will kill us all eventually. We even keep making more of it. With current conceptions of space travel and rockets I'll admit the idea seems a bit implausible. Though I'm thinking that we set up our current launch facilities based on our destinations. If we want a disposal point it's all about getting out of earth gravity, and being reasonable sure it will have a clear path into the sun eventually. I'd think a polar launch site would be best to eliminate as much of our rotation as possible. A boost to break earths gravity well, and we have roughly a year before we'd see it again. Done correctly it will be well on it's fall toward the sun. I'm fairly certain we have the ability to even calculate the optimal times for launch to use the moon, and inner planets as nice gravity slingshots to accomplish the feat with elegant energetic efficiency. We don't need to rush to get rid of it all yesterday, we just need to begin to get rid of more then we make in a defined period.
I know the effort seems monumental, but I guess we should thought about how to get rid of the stuff before we started making it.
I've been staying away from economics, so many people think it's so dull, and frankly I have never cared all that much for money as an abstraction. My heart does have large tracts of space for all sorts of creatures who still believe in the dollar, or piles of gold. What ever make you feel secure I suppose. The U.S. has been belly up to the bar of cheap cash for so long now, that people don't even know what sound fiscal policy is. This is likely to change, and in the short term as opposed to the long haul. Take a look at this article, and then lets take another look at the financial house of cards has been built. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-20/pboc-says-no-longer-in-china-s-favor-to-boost-record-reserves.html not enough, then maybe this one will get ya over the hump http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/china-announces-that-it-is-going-to-stop-stockpiling-u-s-dollars
I was so not paying attention to it anymore, and it was so under the boards that I almost missed it. Think of this now, we are printing 85 billion a month, someone needs to buy that debt, or we are going to swallow it.
Bottom line, we stop printing and our interest rates must rise, we've been trading long term debt for short term debt. Meaning we have to cycle through it ever faster. If that new debt has no place to go, and the interest rates are forced to rise then we as a nation will not be able to fund our obligations due to the interest payments rising out of control.
Again, for me, this is not a bad thing, it's just a thing. If your counting on dollars for your security, then buckle up it's gonna get bumpy.
One of my favorite people to learn about has always been Einstein. He seems such the tragic figure to me, working tirelessly on fundamental questions of existence to the point of only being partially functional here. There is a quote attributed to him goes something along the lines of "god does not play dice with creation". This is something that has in the past given me fits, Einstein brilliant enough to give relativity theory, and be instrumental in the bomb. I say the bomb cuz, lets face it once you have that one how many others do you need? I mean come on the guys name has become a word for smart person. So of course any halfway intelligent person is gonna use them as a measuring stick.
Well I always came up short, not on relativity, or energy to matter conversion. I came up short on God. I could not conceive of a "God" that would not just allow for the horrors I saw, but insist on them. The conception of randomness became a balm for a pain inflicted on my soul by my own creator. I needed the idea somethings just happened and could not be explained in any meaningful way. Even that stops being randomness when you start to be able to see more and more of the variables. What is true has always been true. GOD does not play dice with creation, but sure does play with the math. Even in computers there are no such thing as random numbers, they approximate it. In the so called "real world" events we tend to call random are anything but. We may or may not understand the totality of an event, that doesn't mean there isn't one. So when your told you are well loved, and cared for, believe it, or don't.
For a clearer example of just what I mean, lets take a look at roulette. On the surface this is a sucker game, and I can not deny it is, as a physical game. Due to so many variables of a physical nature it is almost impossible to predict what numbers will come up next, as well as a skilled croupier will be become proficient enough to influence the outcome intentionally. That being said take this sucker game into the realm of the almighty 0,1 of the digital verse and blamo suck game becomes potential profit maker. Once in a place where random is a thing striven for, we can use that with the payouts, and table limits to slowly make steady gains. The idea is very simple, if I bet 1 credit on # 9 and the payout is 36 to 1, then I do not actually lose any money till the 36th spin, as which point instead of 1 credit, you put 2, this gives you an additional 18 spins before you have lost anything. Of course this is a very simplified version of what I actually set up, as I was starting with the entire game board covered, and would remove them as they hit. Keeping track of the number of spins a current progression had gone, what numbers still needed to be played for the next spin, and how much needed to be bet on each number. It seems tougher then it is, it's only a few tables to memorize and then keep track of whats hit which the machine does for you, you just take off the last one. To tie it up, when you start a progression keep track of your credits. If you are over where you started even by a credit or 2, start over. Believe it or not the first spin of the progression was the best.
Well hope that gives ya pause at least in thinking lol
I've studied so many belief systems, be they religious, new age, magical, science. What I've always believed was if they ever got it right. They would all be saying the same thing using different languages. They all are attempting to accomplish the goal of explaining the who/what/how/why/when of well everything. They all seem to have their own approaches, each starting from a differing perspective, all with the same finish line. In having at least a theoretical understanding of many different views allows you to see commonalities. For quite sometime this was a hobby of mine. I used to love to see where you could find physics explained in religious texts. I know this doesn't sound exciting to most, but like they say "to each their own". What I realized was how realities are formed from the infinite formlessness of the void was being told in each of these systems. I just had never had the eyes to see it. Before I continue, this will be the disclaimer, this is my interpretation of information I've collected from everywhere. I have no expectation of your acceptance of it, and can only say do your own work.
Now to get started, I'm going to have to give you my assumptions.
1. There is only one thing in all of creation. We have come to label this thing God, and God is infinite, defying all definition.
2. Form or structure is not infinite as such it is of the realm of mind, and is knowable as it is definition itself.
For the next portion I'm going to use the tree of life as my model or map.
Here I'd like to point out a few things. This model or map is the one that has been used by most western spiritual, and magical systems. That it is actually a portion of one full fractal in the flower of life model. What I'd like to get across today is about the abyss which is located just below the top spheres, and the veil of life and death which is just above the bottom sphere. I see this in many ways, on the one hand it's a spiritual map providing sign posts in the wilderness. On the hand it's the story of how the infinite was able to turn itself into the finite. In coming to a personal understanding of this story I have been able to come to know myself with greater clarity. The thing that strikes me about this is, if this is a model of how the infinite became what we know, then I ought to be able to see how it was accomplished. If you look at this diagram as the flow of energy, you start to see that the energy runs top to bottom, and bottom to top. This idea of energy flow is important when taken into consideration of how the abyss and veils are working. The story of this image is that the three spheres above the abyss form the original trinity. This is where Enoch went when god came and took him. The story goes that if you go up beyond the abyss you do not comeback. When we take these things into account, it's made pretty clear this is the first cross current, or falsehood we must accept to exist below it is that we are individuals. This is the subject object division. It might be helpful to some to point out that this is a duality, as our reality seems to be, I've noticed that and duality is really a trinity with 2 manifest obviously, and 1 hidden. The bottom veil is of life and death. This one shouldn't be very tough for most people. I have also thought of this another way. In order for us to believe the world we are in is real, we have to be at least double blind to our creator.
