Beware the Bail In

                 Back to the Spawning Grounds

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.  

Living in the Current Sea

         

Toes in the Water

         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.


Jack
aka
PanseyBard 

Money is a Tool

            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.


Jack
aka
PanseyBard   

The Neutral Money Myth, or Context the Hidden Polarity

           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.

As always, think for yourself.

Jack
aka PanseyBard

$15/hr Minimum Wage, and Automation

          So many of you may have heard, or read about the fast food workers push for higher minimum wages, and unionization.  Many reports have come out showing this movement as being pushed from unions, not by the workers themselves.  If your not up on these connections here are a few links to get you up to speed.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140514/OPINION01/305140001

http://laborpains.org/2014/04/09/worker-committees-a-15-million-seiu-project/

        This as I stated when the push began, raising the minimum wage would lead to adoption of automation for many low wage service positions.  I envisioned fully automated fast food joints, with an AI tied into huge data bases allowing for greatly increased efficiency, and profit margins.  I could never have realized how fast this innovation would progress, so fast it's left me wondering.  Could it be that this is a push instigated by the fast food companies themselves, to lend legitimacy to automation of public sector service jobs.  When I look at the idea of greater automation one of the sticking points is the majority still believe people need jobs, while I agree people need to be productive, and contribute, that isn't the same as jobs.  This belief will lead people to protest more machines taking more jobs, unless their is a situation that can be used to justify the automation.  So what makes me see these connections, a few related articles.

http://www.cnet.com/news/mcdonalds-hires-7000-touch-screen-cashiers/

As you can see, cashiers are already obsolete, what has been keeping the change over at bay has been the cost benefit,  potential doubling of the cost of each cashier has for sure altered that equation.

So how about the back end? they will still need people to cook the food right?

Well, not so much

check out http://momentummachines.com/, if you are honest with yourself you can more then likely already see a fast food place with no visible employees.

while innovation and automation have been shown to create more jobs then they replace, these jobs are of a different skill set, with few if any of the current employees having the education to fill these positions.

I called this year to be when smart machines would make their presence known, this is a step in that direction


Jack
aka
PanseyBard

    

The Not so Uncertain Future of BitCoin

       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.

Jack
aka
PanseyBard   

Did You Miss the Boat on Bitcoin?.....Don't Sleep on Keyhotee!!

         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
Pd7xb3Q4idGiGa1iMawVuAYx42WZch1KdG

Jack
aka
PanseyBard   

Does Bitcoin Have an Exploitable Binary Futures Component

       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.

Jack
aka
PanseyBard