Pending economic collapse

Here is how I predict an economic crash might start. Lower oil prices trigger unemployment and then gradual layoffs in sectors that rely on oil and gas business. That will trigger lower government revenues that will further lead to layoffs of government employees. Mortgages come due and people need to downsize their dwellings. House selling will trigger panic selling and that will deflate the asset value and balance sheets. The governments can't afford to loan any more they would lose their credit ratings. They spent their imaginary extra funding the TARP bailout. There would be no way to stop the slide in prices.

It may just wipe out the bankers that started this mess. Along with most of us. The bright side is we could start over.

I would recommend bitcoins as an alternative to impending doom.

Stability in the time of economic collapse.

Economic stability in a collapsing market.

The world's economic health is poor and the outlook is uncertain.

This bleak assessment makes me challenge the assumptions on which people are participating.

One, quantitative easing is a lucrative scheme for the bankers and banks that caused the economic uncertainty / collapse in the first place. But it's not being leant out to industry so production can increase, new companies can expand and more workers can go back to work.

Two, given that the same US Dollar and crude oil system is the only market system these same bankers offer there seems to be one choice for investment.

Three, these same bankers are accused of manipulating the value of every investment they offer, including more of the same behaviour that caused the collapse then they haven't learned their lesson. It seems they have learned to cheat the system to remain rich and beyond justice. Their corrupting influence has driven honest investment out of the market. Banks selling toxic loans as credit default swaps to pension funds will backfire twice with average people losing pensions and bankers avoiding risk. This is counterproductive.

Four, it is being said by credible economists outside New York and London that the system is ready to collapse again because it can only go so far with trickery over real economic growth.

In this situation it seems clear to me that competition and the true value are lost in the US dollar and crude oil system. That is the reason they can continue a rigged game is that it's the only one we have to play. They assume we will keep coming back to them and they can continue wrecking average peoples finances.

To me, what people should do is not consider strategies that use the same rigged game but start investing in alternatives. That gives you some stability when the inevitable crash happens and it may provide honest returns better than the current system offers.

If we want the bankers to suffer they should lose their access to your paycheck and eventually they can't finance our destruction. Even real estate is dangerous because it relies on untrustworthy estimates made by bankers trying to get rid of bad assets. If your home is the only asset you own you are not immune from collapse of value. Governments can't step in like they did in 2008 because they rely on income tax and that's still anemic.

So I would argue don't buy gold and oil. Buy bitcoins. Invest in small companies that use alternate currencies as part of their finances. Use digital currencies that are not controlled by those same bankers. Take a portion of your money and move it to a new financial system.

To me, a new and unproven investment like bitcoin is better than a proven old economy sociopath. The risk and reward are honest and connected to real value. Unlike the old system. The more we take away the less they can cheat and the more competitive they are forced to be.

Today I bought my first bit quarter. 0.25 bitcoins. With that I bought 100 Startcoins.  It is scary but at the same time full of possibility.  Which is exactly what the old system used to be 100 years ago.

Do not doom yourself giving money to bankers that return it worthless. Give yourself a life line when the Titanic hits the iceberg. Perhaps become the nouveau riche when those New York bankers are out on the street? Getting in on the ground floor before every one else jumps ship gives you that potential outcome.

The Ultimate Oxymoron of Capitalism: Big Banks don't compete for Federal Reserve windfall.

If every other person or company must compete for business, then why do the biggest banks get access to the largest sums of money without competition?

Should it not be that the largest financial institutions must compete to get the loans, to show that they are improving, to demonstrate how they are benefiting the people in order to remain in the position to get the biggest loans?  If not, why would they change?

Even a policy of higher interest rates for the worst offenders would punish the worst run banks. That would punish those at the centre of the worst abuses.

Maximum Wages - Defeat Sociopathy that ruins Capitalism

Capitalism survived because it works better than every other system.  But what we are seeing now is the less fettered capitalists are, the less they use the system for society's benefit and the more they appeal to their own baser needs.

The whole point of capitalism is it accepts that people are both greedy and lazy - to greater or lesser degrees.  We get people to get out of bed by working for a living and contributing at the blue collar levels.  Basic survival and trying to make a better life for their kids. All workers work for a few dollars more.

Everyone's involvement in capitalism comes down to how lazy and how greedy they are.

Unfortunately, at the highest wealth levels, people are prone to take total advantage of the system they now own by taking full advantage of all the perks.  They play dirty to win a few billion more.


Society owns capitalism, not the wealthy. The social contract is we all agreed to play by the rules in everyone's favour.


When you combine extreme wealth with sociopathy that's not in everyone's best interest. 

How do you combat that?  Make a maximum wage. Or increase taxes over that limit on an exponential scale.

If we cap total income per year at say $10 million dollars then we reduce the incentive to be a sociopathic wealthy person. 

If you can't make any more, then you don't have the incentive to go to extreme measures to make more.  You can be more lazy and less greedy. 

Laws can fix capitalism.  If we invoked a global maximum wage we would solve captialisms ills more than any bailout or legal proceeding.

The Illusion of Sovereignty and Scotland

Max Keiser's Scottish Independence Farce

At the end of Adam Smith's (one of the world's most famous Scots) The Wealth of Nations - which you can download for yourself at the link,  he laments his English king's delusion of control of the American colonies.  He pleads to reason for others to see that you can't control a single people, let alone one across the ocean, without any useful means to do it. As soon as Americans decided to kick out the British soldiers and refuse to pay England the control was lost. 

It must have been a contemporary topic of the time to work it's way into this real economic-meaty book.   But the reality is the same today as it was 300 years ago.  Only the instruments that make a difference should men care about. Sovereignty comes not from ideas but from objects that define the difference.  A flag is a lifeless piece of cloth.  A name is a placeholder for an amalgamation of things. 

Society has realized that money is more powerful than the sword, and for nations banking has become the real currency of civilization.  To be independent yet have no currency is to be subservient to another regime. To allow another country to set your interest rates is to have no control of your destiny.  To make it harder for your citizens to secure loans is to fail them.

So why is Scotland so interested in a flag (symbolic sovereignty) and so unconcerned about financial independence (real sovereignty)?

Mandatory Jail Terms for Bank Executives

If we want our financial system to treat the money held in deposit at banks seriously, then we need to demonstrate to bankers how careful they should be.

We should enact a law that requires mandatory  5 year jail terms for board of directors, presidents, and vice-presidents of all banking and financial institutions should that bank go bankrupt, insolvent, or collapse.

The consequences are serious, the punishment should be as well.