Obama Ask Congress for More Executive Powers? When Pigs Fly!

“If you talk to regular Americans, they’ll tell you.”, Obama said this at the podium this morning, to an audience he welcomed as “business people”, to start. The theme, requesting more executive power from congress to “streamline” the executive branch, comes at a time when Congress seems more like a lame duck session, than some of the last lame ducks sessions.

Some of the things I noted during the speech was that this disconnect between the support for business and a relationship with the people just seems infinitely vast. Especially when you describe the “regular” American’s as “they”. And it’s not just a simple careless phrase, it’s a symptom of the real issues facing this country.

The real problem in the US is the disconnect authority has with it’s own members. Obama spent the entire speech addressing the wrong audience. His focus and language was entirely meant for congressional members and NOT the American people, or they, but rather itself technically; USA.

To me Obama and his political will is missing the real point of leading the “people”. He is a populous president, under the guise of his campaign promises, that is completely ignoring his power base. The Republicans have actually suggested that Obama is behind the Occupation, which is just insane. The fact is that the so called “liberal” media has successfully ignored any social interest in the movement. They have tried to demonize it, covering the events that may finally turn into the Seattle WTO convention. That’ll spike ratings!

If Occupy Wall Street has succeeded at anything it has succeeded at exposing the divide between America the television program, and America the reality. It seemed much easier to breeze through the day content to get by until it became obvious that the left was quite right of the center, an amazing lie!

So essentially, knowing congress will deny any hope to improve his campaign position, Obama makes a lame duck request, to help America see the lame duck, and get a sense for the lameness of the duck! But what does that make the populous president, whose promise for changed filled so many with a hope that would eventually turn that hope into anger and resentment. I knew when he was running that he was just another politician, but for the people who really believed in him, he was more than just a little disappointing.

The problem with Washington is it’s full of politicians. People with the power to support Americans, lost to the tide pools of wealth deciding bailouts and buying earmarks and it all hurts Americans, that have placed their trust in the issues and the people, trust in their judgments as fellow human beings living in this miracle of time we share on Earth. The problem is that our president is wasting time with political games intended to get himself re-elected, instead of embracing the America will for change and yielding it. This is someone who could have done that and didn’t! And, it could actually cost him the race.

Call to Close the West Coast Ports – Sounds Like a West Coast Tea Party! Constitutional Convention/Burning Man!

And wouldn’t that just piss off the Tea Baggers. I think Occupy should shanghai the entire movement, Co-Opt the Tea Party! Instead of dressing up like Indian’s (which are from India BTW) I could see a whole crowd of pretty Church world suits and red bow ties, and Fox News Media Supplies.

But… as an anarchist movement, we should definitely give the event some of the natural colors so famous for the dirty homelessly disorganized krusties that just took hold of the entire planets curiosity. OMG! What do they want?!

And there lies the beauty of the entire movement in a nutshell. The divine power of silence. Truth is that we aren’t enough of the whole to make decisions for the rest of us. What is Occupy, is very easy to answer! It is the chance to talk about our society with each other.  It’s not so much a direction that occupation holds, it’s the way.

The Call to the Ports should be a call to something worthy of the entire movement. Set an example to others in the World of what true value holds for a public gathered. What our society has as its strength and core value is the people who call it home! The foundation of this event called America is the Constitution that proclaims our intentions as Americans, and what we expect as a culture!

Why isn’t every event like its own Burning Man? Why don’t we gather to celebrate our culture. Instead we are met at the gates of our serenity by Police in Bad Costumes for anything fun! Buzz kill, if you ask me! Remember the good old days? Well don’t feel bad, neither can I. All I know about the World around me started with Vietnam, so the whole Freedom things seems a bit theoretical if you were to ask me!

Here’s the thing I have never understood throughout my life. The World around me seems effortless to define, and we all go along with it, but what if it’s the wrong description of the events were seeing? What if it’s something other than the one were reporting to each other, confirming? What if it’s a progression that is leading us through the events and revealing the path along the way! Seems a bit obvious, but what if the change is already happening to us as we figure it out, which innately changes our environment, and we adjust to the change.

Straight up I can tell you that I don’t have a lot of faith in the idea that the Man is going to fold in on itself. Or that we will ever secure substantial or lasting change with the cooperation of  the current system’s momentum. Our goal is not perfection, but rather the principles of freedom be expressed. To stand against this in any way is just silly, and frankly that is my feeling on the way authority practices position, and whether they like it or not, they ultimately serve the people.

We are a Star Fish!

 

 

A Call for A Constitutional Convention – Occupy America

 

It’s seems pretty likely at this point that the people resting in the positions of power in the US have chosen to defend the Institution vs. defend the Constitution. They have coordinated an attack against the 1st. Amendment Rights of American’s, by sending in hundreds of Police wearing riot armor to stop the Free Expression of citizens protected under that Constitution. They have Sworn Oaths to Defend and Protect the Constitution.

This is an open call to bring the Constitution into the future of all Americans. It has been treated without regard for the words contained within it. The Patriot Act and House Apportionment Rules.

The only constitutional rule relating to the size of the House says: “The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand.”^[4] Congress regularly increased the size of the House to account for population growth until it fixed the number of voting House members at 435 in 1911.^[1] The number was temporarily increased to 437 in 1959 upon the admission of Alaska and Hawaii (seating one representative from each of those states without changing existing apportionment), and returned to 435 four years later, after the reapportionment consequent to the 1960 census. –  wikipedia

The intentions of the Founders made it clear that the goal of the House was meant to be a amorphous public voice driven by the  shifts in popular trends. Locking in the number at 435 is like taking the voice of the public interest away; making it more susceptible to the influences inherent in Capitalism . This direction has led this country inexorably down a road further and further marked by the distance from the average US citizen.

The Fourth Amendment has been crippled by those who seek to undermine the protections we all share under the Constitution, to practice our right to privacy. This has been outdated by technological advances that couldn’t be foreseen by the founders and needs to be addressed.  These changes to the basic notion that Congress can shape the Constitutional meaning to fit whatever scenario they have invented for the American People, but I tell you this, there is a process for changing the Constitution called an Amendment. It must be approved by 2/3 of the states within a year, and makes the Patriot Act illegal, as does the idea that our phones can be tapped, ever, without a warrant.

This leaves American Citizens only one way to call into question the positions of Authority, that they be governed by the people they represent. That we call for a Constitutional Convention

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government

These words took time to resolve, even as a free sovereign community. We have every right to stand up and be heard as Americans with a legacy of rebellion in our history.

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government.”

Fortunately we haven’t reached a time where we have entirely lost faith in the system we have. We have in fact come just in time to save the general agreement we have as Citizens of the US to engage in an Open Dialog that gives the proper respect to the founding ideas this country was forged by. Whether or not it is respected, we are a Democracy of People and choose to support the surrounding environment politically, but if it can no longer be proved to be a representative system, then we are demanded by the founders to perform this “Duty”!

It is the wish of this group that we begin the dialog to talk about the Constitution. How can we keep money out of political processes, and how can we clearly define the things like Apportionment at 30,000-1. We Call for a Constitutional Convention, and demand representation clearly defined as “public”.

We demand a Constitutional Convention!

Occupy Earth and Occupy Yer Self Cause the Good Ole Days is a Gone!

You know the old saying, if Americans can’t afford a house, we’ll just start selling them to someone else, and if they don’t live here we’ll give them visas. And the other saying we’re all familiar with, if you came here just for the education, wait, we’ll give you a visa so you can stay and work too! Oh, and my favorite, if you let us build a military defense system in your eastern European country we’ll kick down a bunch of summer work visas so when we visit our own national parks we can be taken care of by your students instead if ours!

I know some of you might be a bit confused and might not remember many of these old cliches. I admit it’s been some time since we sold out our own for a new fold. Let me think, that would have been before most of you were born, but maybe some of you remember. I think it was around the turn of the century. You know, when we used to lock the polish immigrants in the factory until their 15 hour shifts were over.

If I remember correctly there was a fire in one of those which really messed it up for the rest of us, or we’d probably still be gathering new folks from other countries still, but only when the folks we have start to ban together and ask for things like food and water while their working. That really cuts into their productivity if you ask me.

Look I hate to be the dick here, but don’t we have something like 12% real unemployment. I know it’s a bit inconvenient to keep counting the ones that no longer count, but really! Now you want to give foreigners visas so they can buy the homes you just kicked our unemployed asses out of. Better yet, why don’t you up the ante on the next generation and offer them visas if they’ll vote for your party in the future. Seems like the next best thing to telling the truth and actually having to support your constituency base. Oh wait, that’s not us I forgot. That’s for the 1% and we’re just here to get fucked as often as it fits your political bullshit.

And don’t worry about the fact that there are way more of us than you, cause we’re way to dumb to see through all your powerful talking points and misdirections. In fact we’re so dam close to hill billies that you might as well kill us fir be’n so codependent. Probably the only way you’ll really get any real rest at night.

Now that I seem to have your attention, let me tell you what’s going to happen next so that you won’t be totally caught off-guard when the lights go out! A day will come, and it’s coming soon, that you will open the news paper and find out that confidence in the fiat currencies, you’ve bled the world around you by, won’t be worth toilet paper. I know what you’re thinking, that you already knew and hedged your billions in metals, which frankly will help, but not you. In fact the few coins that people do have will be passed around a few times and the raw truth will suddenly dawn on the others, like a vision, that we don’t need to trade anything. That it was all just an idea that was held in place by the fear of the unknown.

Shame too, that you spent everything you had trying to save a failing idea, while we built an entirely new way of experiencing right In front of you, but you couldn’t figure it out. You tried. We watched you and to you it all seemed like a game without rules or an outcome, nothing you could stop or control, so you considered it an unimportant shadow.

You know what the true irony of it all is? That you will be forced to need. Not by any of us, but by your own actions. You’ll really wish there was an Armageddon that would spare you from living in a world without gold plated fixtures and Latvian maids, but mostly you’ll have to live with yourself among us. In plain clothing we made without your investment. And they won’t cost you a dime and we’ll love you for asking and yes of course will always be our true flag of unity!

Here’s a clue, and it won’t be enough for you to realize it in time, but more of something to reflect on when you finally build up the courage to come out side. It’s the same thing that set Harry Potter apart from himself. The thing that pooh could never speak. It’s the sound of a bee on a warm afternoon and a field of flowers without toil. And you can not monetize it, no matter how hard you try. So when it all comes crashing down around you just remember. I and a few friends did this and never fired a shot! Not really. Actually, you did this to yourself… And what a fucking ride that was!

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Socialmedia Influence – Currency of the Future is now available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.de

25% of royalties go to support the Occupywallstreet Movement.

Michael Light started Endoflex in 2006 to report the beginnings of the Subprime Mortgage Industry Fallout and has continued with the recent Occupy – United for Global Change.

Occupy Wall Street has changed the way we see the media, and it’s relationship to the powerful influencers of the World, and may even be the spark that ignites the shift from monetary policy influence to Socialmedia Influence. Michael Light reveals this shift in his book with a succinctly humorous history of influence and the shifts that have preceded what may be the next Global paradigm shift.

Join the conversation on Facebook

Mainstream Media “Talking Points” That Need to be Addressed! – Occupywallstreet

An Aritle released today by the Associated Press, by Christian Salazar paints the occupywallstreet movement, which expands to a global movement on Oct. 15th, as a movement that has still NOT reached the level of “credible”.

Several “talking point” were revealed in this article that show how the mainstream media have decided to slant the issues being addressed. One of the most important factors of this PR driven slander is the very lack of attention it gives to one of the movements core ideals; that being the financial communities relationship with the World’s political systems and their combined control of the media. Not entirely surprising!

What the article does provide is plenty of “credibility” to several of their talking points, coming from past heavyweights from the social equality movement of the 60′s, namely Andrew Young, Reverend Al Sharpton, and Reverend Jesse Jackson, in order to build to build the case that the movement needs a leader in order to make real change.

I find it frustrating that these types of articles and news stories continue to compare it to the Tea Baggers, which are not even in the same league as the Occupy movements Worldwide, but seem to be more evident, on their own, a huge part of the existing paradigm. They have referred to our Constitutional Rights to free speech, freedom of assembly, and the freedom to petition the government as a Class War! How dare the media measure that as comparable.

Another “talking point” that seriously needs addressing is their total failure to acknowledge that the Occupy Movement needs some kind of leader, when clearly central leaderships have led to the current economic collapse, that has been that has been one of the core motivations behind these numbers. And frankly, Mr. Salazar, I believe it is NOT National unorganized criticisms out there… It is fucking GLOBAL!

The last of the talking points I’d like to address is the “demands of the protesters crystallizing around taxing the rich”, is ludicrous. And US Rep. Jim Clayburn of South Carolina, describing it as “the most heart warming thing since President Obama’s Election”, I consider to be one of the most condescending statements to the intelligence I’ve ever heard. Maybe these idiots just can’t fathom that we are smart enough to see through this trite, or maybe they have been so blinded by their own PR Tools that they really believe everyone is actually an idiot that wants to be spoon fed their direction in life with little sound bites.

So lets give thanks where it’s due. I hate leaving a sour note to topics. Thanks everyone who participated in this AP article, for showing your true colors. We could not have seen through your attempts to defame the hard work of millions of brilliant facilitators, coordinators, and supporters Globally, who are protesting you, specifically and everything you represent! In fact, without you, trying to define our participation in Capitalism to seem humanitarian and fare, we’d probably still be enjoying the abundance of a balanced economic system instead of gearing up for Winter on the Streets of our discontent!

A Total Paradigm Shift!

One of my friends recently asked me why the Mainstream Media wasn’t covering the events sweeping the US that started out as the movement called #occupywallstreet. In answering her question I had several epiphanies reguarding her sincere question and I realized thet she is probably not the only one that is confused about the why behind her question. I decided to post the answer, although I have edited a bit, so that anyone confused by this reality might better understand the deeper ramifications of what seems to be happening.

Basically, the socialmedia sites give everyone the ability to communicate directly with each other, in realtime world wide. Information is power and it has been filtered by the media in order to slant it to keep the existing paradigm moving forward. In the past a group of people could be ignored and it kept them alone and without support. Now they can not stop us from changing whatever we want. I finished the book (socialmedia influence – currency of the future) the day the movement started, and steve jobs died the day I release it on amazon. Ironically he was the original visionary who glimpsed the computer as the revolution. He gave us the technology to build the communication infrastructure we needed in order to accomplish it.

The world has been shaped by the influence of money since Nathan Rothschild shifted the paradigm in 1811, when he tricked the markets in London and forced the French to borrow money exclusively from him. This is a similar shift happening. The next king of influence is socialmedia. Since everything in the world is in fact an idea (this is mine, that is yours), currency is an exchange of ideas. Socialmedia on the other hand is a direct exchange of ideas.

When you look at everything we are seeing, there are a few things to consider. The first is that the media NOT responding to the events reveals the loyalties they hold. If they were not deeply intrenched with the financials they would be covering the news. Their coverage thus far has been attempts to downplay it. The NYTimes reported Sunday that it was a small group of 200-300 and grew “at it’s peak” to 1000. Ironically there were possibly half a million people that day and over 2000 were arrested over the weekend. What this tells me is that someone or something gave them the news they were supposed to report. It significantly misrepresents what was really happening. And if you want to know who is responsible for something, consider who it benefits the most. It’s usually pretty telling.

The other thing to consider is the policy makers lack of, or completely negative support of these actions (#ows). It took Obama over two weeks to respond publicly to it. This tells us that the entire political and financial community is in bed with the media. They are all a team.

This shift was actually helped by two things, first George Bush and 9/11 as a homeopathic astringent to activate the desire for “change”, and Obama’s failure to complete it. That coupled with the profit windfalls of the bailout suiters and the failure to hold anyone responsible for the economic turbulence, the general public is suffering mixed to form the perfect ingredients for the frustration and lack of confidence in the system that has become #occupywallstreet!

The news for this event is disturbing to the entire (existing) paradigm. The funny part is that nothing but the most sincere approach to resolve it will have any effect at all. It’s a perfect elixir. We all played a part of this. It was quite surprising to see where it has all led, while making perfect sense. I am amazed at the incredible preciseness of how the mass consciousness ebbs and flows in order to get the perfect mixture of desire and frustration to push the existing paradigm over.

(blog note): #occupywallstreet has grow in the last week from a few cities to over 400 cities, towns and communities, that have either begun their own actions to occupy their own streets. I believe that the direction of this action is headed into a discussion that will involve everyone and is a complete paradigm shift happening that will reshape the entire Global Community.

#occupywallstreet – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised!

A group of radical young men and women who call themselves #occupywallstreet have done just that. They have not only managed to occupy wall street, but they have also managed to capture the hearts and minds of an entire nation, if not the entire World!

Some people, in this country, are entirely unaware of this, ironically, due to the complete lack of news coverage by the mainstream media. A few people including The Last Word, Keith Olbermann, and the Huffington Post have, on the other hand, joined the side of the people and are reporting what is now happening in over 140 cities across the country. It has begun to spread beyond our borders, just as the subprime mortgage scandal has spread like a contagion around the globe.

The real news happening here is not the tens and hundreds of thousands of protestors being counted in the hundreds by the NYTimes, but the some-odd 3000 Tweets an hour being produced by the crowd of American Citizens who have finally reach a level of discontentedness equal to the size of that crowd, which is growing by the thousands daily.

Facebook statuses have been bombarded with pictures of police brutality and the photos of teenage female photographers being “hauled away” for participating in a Constitutionally protected right of the people; the freedom to assemble, and the right to petition the government for the redress of grievances!

These blatant disregards for the Constitution and the following debuts of YouTube video after YouTube video have only succeeded In stirring up even more people to leave the comfort of their unemployed dulldromes, to join the struggle of their community; to be represented by the current political non-sense that sold us “Change” and delivered 4 more years of Guantanamo Bay and an Iraq war nobody wants!

So, keep it up America! You deserve the right to representation, and you are correct to hold this rally at the front door of the reason things got this gray for our country! They will listen to most of us if we speak in one voice! And keep the Tweets flowing, with your links to blogs and articles that support our dialog! This will not end until our change is complete and socialmedia influence is King!

Cheers!
If you like this post visit our Facebook Page @facebook.com/KlickDSE for more news and information about #occupywallstreet or follow us on Twitter @solight111

The Long Road to Transparancy

In 2006, it was hard for me to imagine the response the Fed would offer about the rise in Foreclosures, which pointed to a horrible lending practice that had been thriving through the last few years previous to it. During that time Sub Prime lending was coming of age. It produced a total of no less than $3 Trillion dollars worth of risky loans. The obvious solution, to me, at the time was to restore the conditions of the original titles, to the properties these trillions of certificates represented. The issue during the crisis was, “how to price something no one wants to buy”, which lent to the nickname “Toxic”.

In Goldman Sachs 2010 SEC filing, these previously “Toxic” bonds with a thousand different acronyms, are now being referred to as “Fair Value Financial Instruments”. The Federal Reserve has accepted over $2 Trillion worth of these, as collateral for loans to the banks who would have collapsed in 08 had they been kept on their books. Banks during the crisis were leery to lend to each other on the general concern that these notes or securities were worthless, and that these institutions holding them needed to dramatically ‘write down’ their value. Instead the Fed offered to take them for collateral, under the auspices that they could be traded later when the crisis had passed thereby earning the US a profit for helping.

The challenge for me and lots of other investors is the casual nature that seems to be the “New Federal Reserve”. Gone is the Greenspan age of diligent research and proactive policies. It was a shock to me when I read Ben Bernanke’s comments to Congress in 2007, that the Subprime fallout would stay in the subprime industry and “shouldn’t be” a threat to the general economy. Instead it led to some of the worst days in our economic history, and throwing out uneducated (or un-researched) guesses about something of a $3 Trillion dynasty seems surprising to me.

Today the Wall Street Journal reported that the Fed had failed to disclose some $80 Billion dollars worth of loans it had made to several of the groups that were leading the battle cry for this flimsy market of massive risk. Throughout 2008, from March through December, the Fed loaned $80 billion to institutes like Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank AG, in an attempt to provide liquidity to support more mortgage lending and keep the mortgage security industry moving, while slightly after the main fallout in 08, the Fed was telling Congress that they needed more oversight powers in order to avoid a systemic failure if the future ever presented the opportunity. What I want to know is why didn’t the SEC look into what was happening with the ratings agencies when Steve Eisman went to them with a detailed outline of the market and it’s risks!

I recently had a chance to read, “The Big Short”, by Michael Lewis, which outlines the Subprime Market through it’s various faces and gives the perspectives of men like Steve Eismen who were shorting the market by purchasing Credit Default Swaps, while financial institutes like Goldman Sachs were using the same default insurance to give customers confidence in the products. Everyone claims this was to make cheap credit available for everyone, but what will the over-all cost be when the dust finally settles; when the only thing that changed is the words used to describe the original problem and the original problem still looms in the form of massive debt.

Now the task of getting the US Dollar back on track (solving the deficit) has fallen to the politicians to work out and I have a pretty strong feeling that party pride will weigh in against any wise choices. The fact is that even the best economists, mathematicians and social psychologists, coupled with all the facts and the green light to do whatsoever is necessary to solve the puzzle and put the US Economy back on track would probably not like the options. The one thing I’m sure of is that everything is hinged on the continuing US Dollar, which is now in the hands of a 2 party political drama… Curious.

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Socialmedia Influence – Currency of the Future is now available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.de

25% of royalties go to support the Occupywallstreet Movement.

Michael Light started Endoflex in 2006 to report the beginnings of the Subprime Mortgage Industry Fallout and has continued with the recent Occupy – United for Global Change.

Occupy Wall Street has changed the way we see the media, and it’s relationship to the powerful influencers of the World, and may even be the spark that ignites the shift from monetary policy influence to Socialmedia Influence. Michael Light reveals this shift in his book with a succinctly humorous history of influence and the shifts that have preceded what may be the next Global paradigm shift.

Join the conversation on Facebook

Timing is Everything

Once again we have come to a crossroads in American history where the future will be shaped by politics rather than rational decision making and as usual the Achilles heal will be the past rationale that the US economy is so resilient that whatever decision is made will either be the right one or we’ll have the time to adjust it and everything will work itself out.

I am of course speaking of the US Budget Deficit, which is growing at an astronomical rate for several reasons. On May 15th the US deficit will reach an unrealistic 14.8 Trillion Dollars, this does not include SSI nor Medicare, whose trusts were breached during the Reagan administration in the 80′s. Nor will it include the reality of the Federal Reserves unbelievable holdings of $2 Trillion in still toxic subprime mortgage securities. It will mainly be centered around the bankers and corporations lobbying for their share of a quickly depleting dollar.

The idea that the US economy could never suffer a irreparable hit is the long standing idea that we are America and has no other basis in fact, but lets just weigh that against some truth. The US trade deficit is way to high, and this is a massive liquidity leak, so to speak. The Fed Chief is fudging number that don’t agree with the worlds foremost investors, which has a huge effect on investor confidence, and he seems to be measuring inflation against numbers on paper and not the commodities they purchase. Keynesian philosophy only really works when you have a supply side surplus and excluding food and energy from core inflation is part of that philosophy giving us a false sense of inflation, which can be rated as high as 10% when you take this and other factors into consideration.

In 1971 when the US went off the gold standard gold was $35 an ounce and if we were to rate the US dollars buying power we can see, looking at golds current $1500 an ounce price, that the dollars purchasing power has faded horribly.

We are still seeing adjustments in housing, which for a time, became a meter for the dollars purchasing power, and prices could very well fall back to pre-1980′s levels exposing the system that built the inflated sense of wealth of converting assets into debt. And now the fact of inertia gets to come front and center stage for the final act to answer the question, “can a debt based society beat the odds the past has proven time and time again?”.

The strongest facts, which will likely be overlooked in this scenario of political posturing, will likely be the need to restore the fading confidence in the dollar and a truly responsible fiscal plan to get us back to a long term solvent state. In the Book, “This Time is Different”, the authors point out several indications that have been consistent in the collapse of past fiat currency based economies, and the most prevalent to me seems to be the confidence factor that makes their treasuries a solid investment, and when investors are only interested in 4 and 6 month treasuries, you can practically count the days on their confidence.

The Second Law of Hyper-Inflation

It’s been a couple of years now since the original ripple of the Subprime Market Shift. I am choosing to call it a shift because ever since it occurred we have been steadily moving toward the point of no return. Simply put, the Fed response to the economy over the last 2 years has had a profound effect on the progress and seriousness of what’s happening in the World’s Economy.

The most recent event in the saga has been the slow response to raise interest rates amid a rush of market activity. On paper it looks great, “Highly residual market roars back with a flood of investor cash.” sounds good right? Well without getting into a math quiz prep, lets just look at the basics. In the last 2 years the stock market has gained back 60-65% of it’s pre-subprime shift, while unemployment has very quickly gotten worse, but slowing. Consumer spending is erratic, which means impulsive and not a trend, but rather a whim.

The main problem isn’t any one of these, and there are more I haven’t mentioned. The real problem is that prices over the last 4 years have skyrocketed in many areas of the economy, while some of these are seeing deflation. Much of this inflation has to do directly with the prices of energy. It has effected everything from shipping to food cost, which are the two biggest burdens on an economy. The US Economy was built on cheap food and cheap fuel. It has a hard time thinking outside of that box, and has been excluded as a model type for inflationary scaling. Normally it fluctuates with supplies, but supplies are limited now and the pressure of demand is not letting up, but excelling.

During the peak of the credit crunch part of the shift many people failed to notice that supplies of rice had dried up. During that time China stopped exporting rice and actually imported it for the first time in history. India, the second largest supplier of rice to the world’s markets as well stopped exporting rice. The Philippines could not get 75,000,000 tons from any one country, while a wheat rust began spreading across Africa and the Middle East. All this will put real pressure on the populational scope of possibilities. How many is too many? In any case both energy and food are real factors and can no longer be looked at as separate from core inflation. It must now be balanced.

These factors are mixing to provide an unstable rate of inflation. The argument against this might be that the economy had suffered infrastructural damage and without TARP and keeping interest low The economy could stall and loose any momentum it has gained by our interventions. Frankly I think loosing all of the exisiting banks that jumped on the derivatives bandwagon would not have been such a huge loss. Loosing GM, who is still pushing big trucks and probably helping with the anti-Toyota campaign can go into the dung heap if you ask me. It would be nice to live in a place where oil company and auto maker bedfellow’s didn’t orchestrate our environment economically.

But what to do about Ben. Obama, after having hindsight to call on, stuck with Ben. Congress approved Ben, and if you ask me; I see Ben as part of the problem at it’s crux. You can’t blame Congress for wanting more American’s to own their own homes, regardless of what Fox News might say, and you can’t blame Alen Greenspan for ignoring what shouldn’t have been such a big problem had the SEC asked for clear disclosure from the banks and investment houses on their inventory of subprime investments. In your mind you think of these derivatives as somewhat safe considering the houses were real, that the securities were representing real value. The problem was they were popular raising the value way above the physical value of the homes. So when it fell it fell hard, and that could have been resolved right away when Ben became aware of the collision about to take place… Oh wait!

That’s right! Ben didn’t do anything! He said the subprime fallout would stay in the subprime market. That was way off by the way. Then we fail to recognize the main stress which would prevent this from being an easy recovery… the price of oil and natural gas, which had been going up steadily since the invasion of Iraq. It was causing UPS and Airlines companies to add service or fuel charges to their services. It was effecting food costs, creating shortages, raising values accross the board. Heating cost one winter effect consumer spending directly, but the demand for these things are primary, while supply on the other hand wasn’t to be cured by invading Iraq. It won’t be solved by drilling in Alaska. The only thing that will solve it is greater efficiency. New technology and conservation.

Yes Ben, we have suffered a major systemic threat, but it isn’t the conditions that fail. It is the system which has so many flaws. All we managed to do was put the dying patient on life support for a little while. The conditions themselves were not met with clearly and desisively. They were resolved temporarily in order for the direction of our economic base to keep perpetuating. The problem is that it won’t last and Ben’s gonna provide us with the keys. Failing to raise interest rate in order to keep moving forward is exactly the wrong thing to do. Your might be thinking that he raised them a quarter point, but that was after the momentum in the market was accelerated to the degree is pressing with now. If he would have raised it for the second time it might have slowed down the pace, but he didn’t.

So here is my prediction from this flotsam of ramblings. Ben’s response have been steadily late. He didn’t take inventory when it started and could have done more earlier without pumping 4 trillion dollars into the banks, who should have failed due to poor risk assessment and management. He could have primed Congress to reign in the banks before the splash and had them increase their cash positions earlier. They could have forced the SEC to ask them for full disclosure and written off the debts, assembling them back into real estates, and not paper. None of these things happened. It is likely we will stay the course and what was the direction wasn’t really working all that well. It is likely to repeat itself.

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