Category Archives: the Reserve Status of the Dollar

The Age of Survival Economics

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Survival economics have been in existence since life began on Earth. The primary instinct of all life on Earth, be it plant or animal, is survival, and perpetuation of its own kind. Mankind has been no exception.

With the discovery of the New World, the Colonial powers of the West extracted immense wealth from the rest of the World. New settlements and new countries were founded. The new countries rose to immense prominence such as the US, and others such as Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Australia, etc. to lesser prominence. They prospered and grew, along with the US, as the Lands of Opportunity. Nobody, but nobody could equal the growth, the innovation, the power, and the wealth of the US. The dollar became the Reserve and Official currency of the World in 1944, and was proclaimed as such in Bretton-Woods, New Hampshire, USA. All the world’s debt and trade was denominated in US dollars. The dollar was convertible to gold at 35 dollars an ounce. The US became the master of the world. The only country that would not buckle was the war damaged USSR. The Cold War was instituted to destroy USSR. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1989 through it own internal decay and weakness. The End of History was proclaimed and Western Liberal Ideas were proclaimed as supreme and immutable like the Laws of Nature.

But it was not to be so. Man made concepts cannot be compared to the Laws of Nature. Economic systems are concocted to serve the economic interests of the ruling elite. Laws and ideas are created to brainwash the masses. Eventually, the system starts breaking down and no laws or recycled ideas can save it. We are at such a period now.

Despite denials, the world is in recession. Actually, some areas of the world are in depression. Wages have stagnated, especially in the EU, Canada, and the US. Jobs created in the US are low wage and part time. Attempts to stimulate the economy through quantitative easing have not worked. SNAP {food stamps} have been expanded to help the poor. Under President Obama, the SNAP program has expanded from twenty three million in 2008 to nearly forty five million in 2016. The food program is a double edged sword. It keeps the poor from starvation but it entices them to buy junk food and drinks which leads to obesity and ill health. They buy processed food because it is cheap. At the same time, the SNAP program is a huge subsidy for giant Agri business, food processors, and giant food chains.

There can be no recovery because the US is suffering from negative energy flow which is reflected in the growth of debt, individual, corporate, and governmental at all levels. Wages are stagnating. Whatever positive energy there is, goes mostly to one percent of the population, the ownership class. Some energy goes to around five percent of the population, the overseer class. The overseer class faithfully serves the ownership class, and some members are abundantly rewarded. The Precariat Class which is around ninety percent of the population gets very little, if any, of the positive energy flow. The Precariat Class has some positive energy flow in the form SNAP, etc, which is a form of subsidy to giant corporations.

In the end, everything flows to the ownership class. Tax cuts, deregulation, and infrastructure renewal will not help because it will be based on more debt. Survival Economics is already the Modus Vivendi for the Precariat Class. Massive violence in society could be next.

Negative Energy Flow

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The essence of the Universe is energy. This essence is constant, contracting, or expanding, but nobody knows for sure. The essence of our solar system is the sun, and without  the sun there would be no life on the Earth. They say that the energy of the sun is slowly dissipating, but is still good for about several billion years before it dies. But this is just a hypothesis. In fact nobody knows for sure.

We know that economic systems develop, grow, and then go into a collapsing phase and die, but the remnants of the previous systems become key components of the new system. For instance, the chief components of capitalism are usury and a modern version of slavery which are the chief remnants of two previous systems, slavery and feudalism.

Without the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492, capitalism would most likely have not developed. In my earliest posts, I stated that Christopher Columbus is the Father of Capitalism. The center of capitalism became Western Europe and North America, especially, the United States.

The United States had positive energy flow when the first Dutch and English colonists stepped into North America. The land was abundantly rich and it needed  workers to exploit it. Slavery was introduced and for 250 years, slavery was the main source of wealth extraction and accumulation  for the ruling elite of the new country. The tobacco and cotton plantations needed slaves. The trade in slaves  was very prosperous as well. Many Americans were also involved in opium trade with China, which was the monopoly of the British East India Company. It was the first giant global company, a forerunner of modern American and European corporations. Adam Smith who wrote the capitalist bible,’ The Wealth of Nations’ was an officer of the Company. His view of the ‘Invisible Hand’ that runs the market is more to the fact that the British East India Company methods of conquest and control stayed invisible as to how they got control of all of  India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Burma. They also wanted to keep opium trade with China and the Afghani Wars for control of opium invisible.

Americans wanted to take part in the opium trade with China, and that is one of the main reasons why the Americans wanted independence from Britain. Forget about: ‘ No taxation without representation’; it was just a façade like ‘ the weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq. British rule of its North American colonies was rather gentle. British taxes were barely one percent on tea. One third of American colonists moved to the Canadian Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Ontario. They were known as United Empire Loyalists. Benjamin Franklin’s son left for England.

After the Declaration of American Independence of 1776, the Slave Trade of the North Atlantic and Opium Trade with China boomed, even though Europeans were losing interest in slave trade on moral and ethical grounds. Remember, ‘Amazing Grace’ was composed by a former slave trader in 1805, but the abuse of Africa still continues.

After the Civil War and the emancipation of the slaves, the US economy exploded. By 1900,  the US was the number one manufacturing nation in the world, by quantity and not by quality.  Germany was number one in quality and second in quantity. Attempts were made to create a private Central Bank of the United States, but failed until December 23, 1913. Alexander Hamilton, the first US Treasury Secretary wanted a private central bank. In a duel with Aaron Burr, the Vice-president, Hamilton lost his life. President Andrew Jackson, the 7th President, aborted the second attempt at creating a private central bank. Abraham Lincoln, probably the greatest President of the US, stopped the third attempt. He used ‘ Green Backs’ to finance the war rather than borrow from private banks. He paid with his life in 1865. James Garfield, the 20th President paid with his life for stopping the private central bank. Finally, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the US acquiesced on Dec. 23, 1913.

The Central Bank of the US would be called the Federal Reserve Bank of the US. It would be composed of 12 regional or district banks. The first amongst equals would be the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and it would act as a financial life line to Wall Street. The Federal Reserve was key in pushing the US into the First World War. Germany was winning the War. They sank the Lusitania on May 7th, claiming it was carrying weapons to Britain. True! Britain denied it. Lie! The US kept quiet until 1917. Britain panicked that Germany would win the war and Russia, an ally of Britain and France would conquer Constantinople. Britain then promised  Constantinople to Russia but had no intention of keeping it, hence Churchill’s disastrous Gallipoli Campaign to capture Constantinople.

The World Zionist Movement wanted to create a homeland for the Jews in what would be British occupied Palestine. And if the British agreed, it was agreed that the US would enter the war on the side of Britain and France. They would also eliminate Russia from the war and Constantinople would not fall to Russia. Also, Italy, an ally of Germany, would enter war on the side of Britain and France. The Balfour Declaration of Britain in 1916 allowed unrestricted Jewish settlements  of Palestine. As if by magic, the US enters the war under the cry, ‘Remember the Lusitania’, Trotsky leaves New York with 20 million in gold, Lenin leaves Switzerland in a sealed train for St. Petersburg to start a Bolshevik Revolution. Italy enters the war on the side of the Allies, and bank credits to Germany stop.

In 1917, the US enters the war, and the US tobacco industry wants to help ‘our boys’ fighting in the trenches by supplying them with free cigarettes, and tobacco addiction began. When women won the right to vote in 1920, they were supplied with free cigarettes to celebrate their independence. The boom of 1920 began, and the inventions of Nikola Tesla changed the US;  alternating current, fluorescent lighting, the invention of radio, wireless energy, etc. Marconi did not invent the radio, but sent the first radio signal from Liverpool, England to Gander, Newfoundland based on Tesla’s principles. The boom collapsed in 1929, but the US had positive energy flow. It had the most gold in the world, the strongest currency, positive balance of trade, and could interfere in Latin America with impunity. Hence, it had positive energy flow.

The Second World War enhanced this positive energy, and by 1944, it was able with the help of Great Britain to create the Bretton Woods Convention which crowned the dollar as the official currency of the world. The only opponent was the USSR which had won the war against Nazi Germany.

The US had positive energy flow until a gold run in 1968. The European countries wanted to exchange their trade surpluses for gold. By 1971, the US defaulted on its gold promise. By 1973, President Nixon and Secretary of State Kissinger created the petro dollar. The dollar debt finance of the US and the Third World became the Modus Operandi of the day. IMF and World Bank were loan sharking all over the world, including some Communist countries of Eastern Europe such as Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia.

Consumerism or lack thereof in the Soviet Union led to the dissolution of the Soviet State, even though the basic living standard of the Soviet citizen was higher than that of US citizens. The Soviet citizen enjoyed free education, free health care, public transportation, generous maternity leave and generous holidays. US citizens have none of this in 2016. And the irony is that the Soviet State dissolved and the US still stands. Barely. The people of the US are very angry, and they want change, either by evolution or revolution. The 95 percent of Americans which I call the Precariat Class have barely enough money to survive. The energy flow of the Precariat Class is extremely negative, and never in its entire history has the US faced such a situation.

No wonder Mr. Donald Trump is popular and the Ruling Elite and its overseer class is fearful. The US must restructure its economic system and enable the Precariat Class to have a chance. Change in the US is inevitable either by evolution or by revolution. If it is by revolution, fragmentation of the US is inevitable. Only time will tell.

 

The velocity of money and the Baltic Dry Index.

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The world economy is dying. Powerful people of the world are in denial. They think they will be able to correct the situation, but the world economy cannot be saved. The two indicators of a dying economy are the velocity of money and the Baltic Dry Index.

Let us examine the velocity of money. The simple definition is the speed with which money circulates through the economy. The more dynamic the economy, the more optimistic people feel about jobs and economic security, the more they feel relaxed and the more likely they will spend, travel, feel good about the country, the government, the people, and themselves. Presently, the velocity of money is collapsing. Whatever money ordinary people earn and have they do not want to spend. Also, many, many people have no money to spend. The situation is very dire, but one would not know by watching the “evil vision”. On evil vision, attractive women in eternal spring dresses, and men in impeccable suits with or without neckties constantly proclaim prosperity. The only people enjoying prosperity are the less than one percent of the ownership class and about five to ten percent of the overseer class to which the stars of the evil vision belong. (Evil vision is TV.) There is so much discontent in the country that it threatens the stability of the country. The economy is getting worse. Just look the stock market and the high yield bond market!

Another measure of how bad the US and world economy are is the Baltic Dry Index. Just last week it dropped below four hundred. Before the “Great Recession” of 2007-09, it was registering in the several thousands. After the so called Great Recession ended, it recovered to almost 2000. Now, after seven years of recovery it dropped to below 400, in the year of 2016. Any intelligent person, non-brain washed, knows that there was no recovery. In one of my previous posts, I stated that economic recovery in the US is impossible, because the energy entering the US economic system is decreasing, while the energy needed to maintain its internal and external operations is increasing. The Reserve Status of the dollar in the world is enabling the US to maintain its operation internally and world wide as long the rest of the world is accepting the dollar. That ability to maintain its operations is based on debt. As long as the rest of the world accepts American debt there is no problem. But that is ending and that is the problem. When the dollar is rejected it will be kaput.

The Baltic Dry Index {BDI} is indicating that world trade is collapsing. Empty ships are being anchored in ports. Oil tankers, full of crude, are anchored. There are few buyers of crude. Some experts are telling it is going to get worse. Collapsing BDI is possibly signaling world wide depression. Decreasing velocity of money is indicating that the majority of people have no money to buy even basic necessities.  Why are 94,000,000 people not in the labour force? Why are 47,000,000 people on food stamps? Why are wages for the non overseer class stagnant and decreasing? Why is the infrastructure of this nation dilapidated? Up until 2016, there was plenty of money for Wall Street. Now the stock markets and the bond markets of the world are collapsing. It could be that the world is entering the Economic Black Plague State. Only time will tell.