Financial topics

[gerald]

A solution to banking issues from a more "backward" society?

"Even Iran Knows How To Fix The Corrupt Banker Problem"

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-2 ... er-problem


The fraud involved using forged documents to get credit at one of Iran's top financial institutions, Bank Saderat, to purchase assets including state-owned companies like major steel producer Khuzestan Steel Co.

A billionaire businessman at the heart of a $2.6 billion state bank scam in Iran, the largest fraud case since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution, was executed Saturday, state television reported.

A total of 39 defendants were convicted in the case. Four received death sentences, two got life sentences and the rest received sentences of up to 25 years in prison.

[John]

Last week, I wrote a controversial column for MarketWatch (http://on.mktw.net/1kg4b5p). In the column, I wrote there are signs a bear market is approaching, although no one can say when. I also don't know the catalyst that will cause the current bull market to end, but I'm looking for clues. More than likely, I wrote, it will be a geopolitical crisis, an economic disruption, or a spike in interest rates.

After the column was published, I received an onslaught of negative comments and tons of emails. A few fund managers wrote to thank me for confirming what they believe, but the majority of investors attacked me for being "stupid," "wrong," and "insincere."

http://www.michaelsincere.com/

Is that all? How about "alarmist"? Or "left-wing ideologue trying to
start a panic or war," or "right-wing ideologue trying to start a
panic or war"? Or "sociopath"?

[Higgenbotham]

Lessons from collapse of USSR for USA: Interview with Dmitry Orlov
May 18, 2104

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sottnet/20 ... itry-orlov

I'm going through this for the second time.

11-15. The economy has stopped growing and the explosion of debt is keeping the economic corpse moving. All of the money in circulation is fake money. At some point there will be a crisis of confidence and banks will stop trusting each other. Trust between banks is necessary for world trade. That is the Achilles heel of this global economy that is stretched thin with just in time inventory and potential supply chain disruptions. A natural disaster can cause supply chain disruptions. The generation of debt will run its course and the dollar will implode.
15-19. The US will continue printing money; it is the easiest thing to do. The Federal Reserve will issue countless trillions of dollars to remain solvent as the rest of the world flees the dollar. The rest of the world will trade in their own currencies and freeze Europe and the US out. China has the doctrine of small steps and moves at a controlled rate. Every step of the way China is decoupling from the US economy and the US dollar. That has been their strategy for awhile now.
19-24. The problem is the growth of debt outpaces every physical process in the Universe. If you exploit a resource at the same rate the debt grows, at some point you will not be able to keep it up and the result will be a collapse. The debt will no longer be payable; bankruptcy. What will tip the US Empire over is unpredictable. It could be a military defeat. The military is still good at assassinating people using drones, death squads, and snipers. They are also very good at bombing countries and Americasns have no qualms watching countries get bombed to oblivion. At some point, the US will come up against a real military and find itself in over its head and suffer a defeat that may actually tip the country into outright political collapse. That is just one scenario.
24-29. Some of the ruling elite are aware that they are precipitating a collapse. They are self-destructive people so it is no surprise that is what they are doing. They behave like "bags of money" and are only concerned with making that "bag of money" bigger. Some have prepared by buying a private island, floating in years worth of supplies, and building a bunker. Bunker mentality is very pervasive. Buying ranches in Montana even though they live in New York. They can only stay alive while they can still pay their body guards. The body guards can turn the tables anyway. The only thing that matters in a collapse is personal connections.
29-50 Even in places people are doing well, like New York, Boston and San Francisco, the number of people who are doing well is becoming smaller. In San Francisco, there are a lot of people at the pet adoption center giving up their pets and leaving town. They disappear. The elite has been destroying the economy by nurturing various kinds of gigantic parasites. They've been nurturing a medical industry that provides similar benefits in terms of life expectancy as Cuba which spends about 5% of what the Americans spend per capita. Barter during the Russian collapse and the fact that what was learned about barter is being used to broker international barter arrangements today.
51-59. He talks about the protection rackets that spring up once the government collapses.
60-135. The features of sustainable communities and he finishes by talking about what is going on in Ukraine.

[Higgenbotham]

Orlov talks about the protection rackets from minutes 51 through 59. This is something I have witnessed so will make some comments.

I had rentals in an area the gangs took over. What do I mean by "the gangs took over"? First the neighbors told me the police no longer patrol this street, they were patrolling it and now they have stopped. Next, I did an eviction and the sheriff had to come to make sure the tenant was out. He came. The tenant was not out. The sheriff said you can take care of the rest and he got out of there. He was there maybe 90 seconds. Last, a neighbor saw someone go into the house and suggested I call the police. So I did and met the cop over there. He said you go in first. He's not supposed to do that. After I went in he admitted to me that he was afraid of the people who had lived there. This is the sort of thing that happens when government loses control of an area and the gangs take over.

There was another effect I saw. Some of the insurance companies won't insure. One of the main companies still did, but I had a lot of other properties with them and maybe that's why they did. I don't know.

Lastly, I see a lot of talk about militarization of the police. My thought is if the gangs have taken over an area and the police challenge that, there is going to be trouble. Policemen are people too and they live in the area when they are off duty and everyone knows where. It may not go the way people seem to think. The police vacated LA during the riots. Granted, that was then and this is now.

Overall, I think Orlov makes some good points about how the protection rackets work when government breaks down. Also, I would say if government becomes too oppressive generally that opens the door to cheaper alternatives, which are already available in the form of gangs in most cities in the US. I doubt the government fully understands how this works but I have seen how it works, and it does actually work OK.

[Higgenbotham]

A protection racket is an operation where criminals provide protection to persons and properties, settle disputes and enforce contracts in markets where the police and judicial system cannot be relied upon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_racket

In that area the police had vacated there was never any theft or vandalism that I was aware of.

Alaska is still full of frontier justice. For example, when the Russian community’s bulls kept breaking through our fence and breeding our cows, my aunt and two of my uncles were finally fed up. They grabbed their rifles and headed out by foot across the meadow, crossed the creek, slipped under the broken fence and onto the Russian village grounds. I was 12 and tagged along, keeping up as best I could. The men and my aunt were wearing dusters that touched the ground, and they all carried their rifles by their side as they walked. The village was tidy and pristine. Neat yards, with Jersey milk cows staked out and grazing here and there. Tidy gardens and small homes made of unfinished plywood, with white lace curtains hung in every window of every home.

The time for talking was over, and this time my dad intended to get the fence issue resolved. As we strode down the hard-packed dirt street up to the official’s house, I remember feeling like I was in a Western – dust kicked up with every step. Women and children peeked from windows to see the cowboys walking in a row, guns glinting in the sun for all to see. Several men came out of the house, and it was negotiated how the fence would get fixed, and the Russian bulls kept in another field.

But there are more extreme examples.

A man named Grimshaw had a stallion that kept breaking on to a neighbor’s place. The neighbor would fix the fence each time and return the horse. Well, the stud broke in another time, and this time the neighbor kept him, saying he had earned the horse in what it cost to mend that fence so often. Grimshaw took his gun over there to get the horse back, and a shoot out commenced. Grimshaw was killed. The neighbor kept the stallion. End of story. Frontier justice.

http://theboot.com/jewel-blog-6/

When the US government collapses, enforcement will probably be done by protection rackets in the cities and frontier justice in the rural areas. I don't think it will be such a bad world.

[vincecate]

apacaloptimist.jpg (47.92 KiB) Viewed 5332 times

When the US government collapses, enforcement will probably be done by protection rackets in the cities and frontier justice in the rural areas. I don't think it will be such a bad world.

If the protection racket keeps the tax collector away, the economy could boom. Higgy, you are sounding like an apacaloptimist! Welcome to our ranks!

[aedens]

Is that all? How about "alarmist"? Or "left-wing ideologue trying to
start a panic or war," or "right-wing ideologue trying to start a
panic or war"? Or "sociopath"?
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/20 ... ging-dicks

The answer is yes on any polo-tic cup level but ask when it applied to those in all honesty that should of been shot on the first salvo of avarice. It would indeed change the inductance calculation to the silent war since 1526 when Kopernicus had written the corpus on the value of money as Monetae cudendae ratio. Fiat as it would be rendered today as Kissinger so elequintly noted the mental facultys of our Men who indeed are our finest men defending us. Thucydides was corrent on the manner to honor those who had fallen and accurate to the condition to those who sent them into the realm of the madness.

Thucydides of the Dorian lineage mentions 20,000 deserting to Decelea (encouraged by the Spartans to put economic pressure on Athens). Factories were designed to minimize risks of slaves getting hold of silver. “Trusty” slaves were given incentives (own houses). Slaves would be owned by wealthy Athenians (like Nicias) and hired out to the lessees of the mines. They were usually prisoners-of-war, not criminals. Their life expectancy was short and they lived and worked in conditions of indescribable squalor."

As he mentioned before in simple terms was exiled for ten years, that what you dig out of the ground is not as important as what is between your ears since the Spartans will only acept balance, and will enforce it. Of course they never listen over time we will see 10 zones as written. We know also what the scrolls entail on that since Patmos.

[Higgenbotham]

If the protection racket keeps the tax collector away, the economy could boom.

Nice thought, but the protection racket is a tax, and it's going to be higher than the tax a good government imposes, but lower than the tax a bad government imposes. But what I mean is a protection racket, if there is a reasonable one, and there probably will be over time, does impose some law and order. It is not the total chaos, every man for himself mad max scenario that some talk about. Though it will probably take a few years to stabilize into such a situation. I had an aluminium extension ladder in plain view behind the house in the area where the gang took over. There was a recycling center maybe a mile away whereby someone could steal the ladder and take it up there but nobody did. I think most would envision that the gang will just take your ladder but they don't want the people they feed off of disabled, if they are smart. I had a discussion with a couple of the gang members, who I gathered were heading the operation in that area. They appeared to be smart people. They indicated that they understood my point of view and that the tenant, who was under their control, had not properly maintained the house. They told me that they explained to the tenant what is required for future behavior. If a protection racket that is not so smart takes over an area there will be problems until a rival protection racket that is smart runs them out.

[aedens]

http://www.ihr.org/ The five percent rule in politics is never regarded as the defined evil.
What actually happens is a simple category of the lie which is the State.
Soviet historians as with most of their colleagues in the West, for decades preferred to ignore the subject.
The facts cannot be denied. This is why Political correctness is so dangerous as seen before.

"Anyone who had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the Cheka," wrote Jewish historian Leonard Schapiro, "stood a very good chance of finding himself confronted with, and possibly shot by, a Jewish investigator." Over here you have NDAA now which is another pointless program with plea bargain sentences which many do not understand jury nullification in a decending mentally debased society. I had a case I was on, as one against another, and we threw it out. The prosecutor afterwards stated in the hallway I win those in a tone of how dare you think. The reply was with this citizen Lady with no physical evidence you lose. A rose by any other name as William Shakespeare's reminds in structured political satire.
http://paperempire.net/exters-pyramid/
No matter your stripe the entire banking system rests on a statistical probability. This denies the statistical possibility of payment. Basically people are unable to see the natural law VS. kantian utiliarianism for the internal Austrian arguments to "the conscious reflection on our moral beliefs with the aim of improving, extending or refining those beliefs in some way." We know the intent of the Founders ideals of "truth, sincerity and integrity," to what we see it today of facts. This is why the effect we noted early as the left, to right , then middle that was professed here as they offered confusion to avert the facts we see today. The small, or large L libertarians understand no Bank is to be trusted in any genetration under fiat. Even today as warned as Mises pointed to that the tastes of the masses will always and everywhere be lower than those educated and cultivated to love higher culture. But, he says, the glory of capitalism is that it brings to every sector what it wants and needs, and more of it than any other system. So, yes, there will be more trash, but also more great work as well. It is a matter of availability: Under socialism, nothing is available. Under capitalism, choice seems nearly infinite. It is not apologetics but a damn fact like a simple production of a pencil that should remind.

Actual market insite from another:
Poorly funded maintenance on nuclear facilities on the entire east coast in a cascading failure across multiple locations with increased power usage on an aging power infrastructure for 100 million people. Radcon has been flashing for a couple of days as something undisclosed happened.

http://www.netc.com/

So it's a good news/bad news situation. The banks and their HFT's farms will be able to make as much money and be as powerful as they like. They just had to trade it for the remaining time they've got left on earth. Seems fair enough I think. Everyone gets what they believe is important on paper, because that's the type of people they are. They'll be so rich and powerful, for a couple of months.

Hope they enjoy it.

Paper that may glows in the night and herd minded consumers lead to ecological slaughter.

[gerald]

A protection racket is an operation where criminals provide protection to persons and properties, settle disputes and enforce contracts in markets where the police and judicial system cannot be relied upon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_racket

In that area the police had vacated there was never any theft or vandalism that I was aware of.

Alaska is still full of frontier justice. For example, when the Russian community’s bulls kept breaking through our fence and breeding our cows, my aunt and two of my uncles were finally fed up. They grabbed their rifles and headed out by foot across the meadow, crossed the creek, slipped under the broken fence and onto the Russian village grounds. I was 12 and tagged along, keeping up as best I could. The men and my aunt were wearing dusters that touched the ground, and they all carried their rifles by their side as they walked. The village was tidy and pristine. Neat yards, with Jersey milk cows staked out and grazing here and there. Tidy gardens and small homes made of unfinished plywood, with white lace curtains hung in every window of every home.

The time for talking was over, and this time my dad intended to get the fence issue resolved. As we strode down the hard-packed dirt street up to the official’s house, I remember feeling like I was in a Western – dust kicked up with every step. Women and children peeked from windows to see the cowboys walking in a row, guns glinting in the sun for all to see. Several men came out of the house, and it was negotiated how the fence would get fixed, and the Russian bulls kept in another field.

But there are more extreme examples.

A man named Grimshaw had a stallion that kept breaking on to a neighbor’s place. The neighbor would fix the fence each time and return the horse. Well, the stud broke in another time, and this time the neighbor kept him, saying he had earned the horse in what it cost to mend that fence so often. Grimshaw took his gun over there to get the horse back, and a shoot out commenced. Grimshaw was killed. The neighbor kept the stallion. End of story. Frontier justice.

http://theboot.com/jewel-blog-6/

When the US government collapses, enforcement will probably be done by protection rackets in the cities and frontier justice in the rural areas. I don't think it will be such a bad world.

H -- This now exists in parts of the American West. A few years ago I was told a story by a builder about a building inspector that was giving builders a real hard time. An anonymous call was made to the building department of that municipality telling them to remove that inspector from their area, otherwise he will get the three s treatment. --- shoot em, shovel em, silence. -- There is a lot of open space out West. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting,_ ... hutting_up --- The inspector was moved to another area.