Financial topics

[Higgenbotham]

This brings us to an important aspect of counterfeiting which should not be overlooked. In addition to its more narrowly economic distortion and unfortunate consequences, counterfeiting gravely cripples the moral and property rights foundation that lies at the base of any free-market economy.

Thus, consider a free-market society where gold is the money. In such a society, one can acquire money in only three ways: (a) by mining more gold; (b) by selling a good or service in exchange for gold owned by someone else; or (c) by receiving the gold as a voluntary gift or bequest from some other owner of gold. Each of these methods operates within a principle of strict defense of everyone's right to his private property. But say a counterfeiter appears on the scene. By creating fake gold coins he is able to acquire money in a fraudulent and coercive way, and with which he can enter the market to bid resources away from legitimate owners of gold. In that way, he robs current owners of gold just as surely, and even more massively, than if he burglarized their homes or safes. For this way, without actually breaking and entering the property of others, he can insidiously steal the fruits of their productive labor, and do so at the expense of all holders of money, and especially the later receivers of the new money.

Counterfeiting, therefore, is inflationary, redistributive, distorts the economic system, and amounts to stealthy and insidious robbery and expropriation of all legitimate property-owners in society.

But what happens when government sanctions, and in effect legalizes, counterfeiting, either by itself or by other institutions? Counterfeiting then becomes a grave economic and social problem indeed. For then there is no one to guard our guardians against their depredations of private property.

http://mises.org/library/case-against-fed

[aedens]

pre tent ious sums up more than the times can follow. Just a condition as the normalcy bias indicates we have been reminded of.
Got to admit at times they got the aspect correct to those which the Gods wish to destroy they first anger.

"I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!
Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.

Hegel remarked that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice.
He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.

In particular, he developed the notion of the master–slave dialectic.

http://gdxforum.com/forum/search.php?ke ... sf=msgonly

More specifically, Samaras noted that during his talks with the Obama Administration an estimated 4.7 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of gas are located in Greece, an amount more than the estimated combined reserves of Cyprus and Israel, which are another 4.5 tcm. Based on those figures he assured that the Eastern Mediterranean contained 50% of the European Union's gas needs for the next 30 years and stretched the need for the construction of pipeline infrastructure to transfer these amounts to Europe so as to diversify its imports. As a comparison, Azerbaijan’s proven reserves are estimated at 900 billion cubic meters (bcm).

And here we are talking about ink and paper which alludes me to who really has the poker chips going forward.....

Pam notes.
This is not fair. I have worked 2 jobs for 20 yrs. and had insurance. Last June my insurance ended due to cuts made at work. Now I work as needed on 2 jobs with no insurance living from paycheck to paycheck. I have a husband and 2 children. My husband can't work cause I couldn't afford daycare. I tried to sign up for Obamacare and my insurance was going to be around $1000.00 a month for me and my husband. I can't afford that. That’s a fact. Before it's over with, there will only be the rich and the poor. No middle class. I have never had to ask the government for anything. But it looks like I may have to quit work and go on welfare, so we can eat.

When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him. Jonathan Swift

Thank you Senator X for your outstanding service.

[aedens]

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 8/abstract

[Higgenbotham]

Pam notes.
This is not fair. I have worked 2 jobs for 20 yrs. and had insurance. Last June my insurance ended due to cuts made at work. Now I work as needed on 2 jobs with no insurance living from paycheck to paycheck. I have a husband and 2 children. My husband can't work cause I couldn't afford daycare. I tried to sign up for Obamacare and my insurance was going to be around $1000.00 a month for me and my husband. I can't afford that. That’s a fact. Before it's over with, there will only be the rich and the poor. No middle class. I have never had to ask the government for anything. But it looks like I may have to quit work and go on welfare, so we can eat.

Maybe Bernanke can take a sliver of the $250,000 he got for that 40 minute speech and help Pam out a little.

[Higgenbotham]

A recent study by the University of Arizona showed several drinking-water treatment plants in the U.S. get their influent from water sources that, under low-flow conditions, consist of 100-percent wastewater from upstream cities. In other words, the wastewater discharges from one city are not diluted at all by clean "natural" water when the next city takes it for their drinking water source.

I would posit there is no solution to this. A lot of people think the worst thing that can happen in a collapse is toilets don't flush. But what if there is a partial collapse and the toilets flush but the wastewater can't be treated and discharges out to the river untreated? During pandemic conditions what wastewater treatment plant or drinking water treatment plant operator in his right mind is going to want to show up for work and get exposed to this stuff? Discharging untreated waste to the river obviously solves the problem for the upstream city but makes the problems worse for all the downstream cities. How many people will the ecosystem support in the event of a breakdown of wastewater and drinking water treatment infrastructure? Such a breakdown may involve the lack of water treatment chemicals.

At public water systems that treat continuously, a 30-day supply of chemicals shall be kept on hand as required by s. NR 108.06 (3). The 30-day supply shall be based on average day demand and average dose.

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/a ... 0/810/I/03

Under those conditions, would the ecosystem support 10% of the current human population? 1%? That would refer just to those areas that rely on certain types of surface water.

I've only explored one source of collateral damage that can result from pandemic conditions.

[aedens]

Micro evidence into macro priors concerns them none at all to maintain the CCI thesis of the last chance opportunity basket seen overflowing. Parameter values do not have an existence of their own, like a Platonic entity waiting to be discovered chained to a wall. They are only defined within the context of a model, and changes in the theory, even if minor, have a considerable impact on the values. The pair orders noted is labor modeling we see as bootleggers and babtist that simply will fit the DSGE models. We noted the spill over and that sums up the nominal values going forward. Private alpha waits as spec capital monitors vol of vol spreads. Scraps for the beta modelers for another round of cluster margins hinging on marginal hopes that debt will save all there sorry asses. Disconnects are staggering in my view, buy options and starve the natives out is all it is I consider. We linked enough here already to see that the funnel rammed in there mouth and why. Logic has a course and the safety valve of Exter has its own recourse also as we already know. Transfer agents do not generate viable plans either. The point is the Consumer has been beaten senseless as the spill in isle five crew was not an accident either for the net transfer of effective costs. Transitory has not a damn thing to do about picking raisons out the governments cesspool. Locally as conveyed we want another percent. Six to seven percent is 15% more for Pam who is at her whits end and I see alot of them since we work in Community. I wish the voters would boot out the lot point blank since we never got the facts on what was already taken for said repairs. Some will say it took Detroit over two decades to rot into bankruptsy court and you got off cheap. Clearly it could be a Hell of alot worse to what we see goings on and FDR knew it also then as we assimalated the periodic logic rather correctly.

[Higgenbotham]

jc's post from last June...and a recent verification from "out in the field".

Hig, I believe that the collapse of agriculture will follow the collapse of the industrial society. Through modern mechanization, ag production will fall rapidly with the failure of industry, because of the "throw away" nature of newer machinery. Many farmers are leery of new, electronic machinery, but we have no choice when replacing equipment. A failure of a $100 electronic part will render a $200,000 tractor virtually useless; and therefore crops won't be planted or harvested timely.

Just today, I had a discussion with the owner of one of the largest US implement dealers. He stated that he wished he could market a tractor that was made in the 1960's because they were dependable and easy to repair. He would have a large market for them. But now as machinery has been replaced with the electronics, they are increasingly hard to repair.

When the machines fail......people will starve, and people WILL NOT be able to easily grow gardens as many propose. There won't be any garden seed because of lack of production and transportation.

oilman2 said...
As a lot of people are comparing old/new designs and tech, let me share an example of hypercomplexity, corporate mentality and reality...

In "farmland", we generally operate on slim margins, have money constantly tied up in future production and require simple but reliable performance from equipment.

Faced with what was available, I chose a 1974 International tractor with fresh mechanical makeover. My neighbor bought a spanking new John Deer (our saying is "Nothing Breaks Like a Deer...). There is no ECU on my tractor, and every tie rod and bearing is overbuilt for purpose.

When the JD tractor broke, it sat in the field for 2 days. Another tractor was required to pull it out of the field and then get it on trailer to go to the shop. It was 9 days to get his JD back. My neighbor, normally quite handy mechanically, told me that several things make him likely to pursue my antique tractor philosophy.

The JD is designed to meet specifications - who wrote them is a mystery - but only to meet them. Sheet metal is half the thickness of my Intl, and it bends like cardboard under actual heavy use. Tie rods of his 65hp are smaller than my 50hp, and the injector pump is a single piece assembly with built in filter. When it fouls or breaks, it is a smooth $1800 plus labor compared to my simpler field replaceable $400 pump.

The JD has an ecu, and the JD ecu is encrypted. You cannot even hack it effectively using normal computer diags - it must go into the shop. If you break the encryption, you have JD on your back under the DMCA, as the encryption is copyrghted... There are numerous "safety features" which are lockouts - if they malfunction, the JD is useless and must go to the shop. Many of these safety switches and such are bolted in with weird combinations of standard, metric and Torx nuts and bolts. My neighbor is beyond disgusted with his new $90,000 JD.

My generator was designed the same way, with proprietary fasteners (which I replaced to make it user serviceable). There were even 'dummy' fasteners on the housing, attached to nothing - you have to understand where things SHOULD BE attached to avoid trying to remove 'ghost fasteners'...

These are intentional design decisions - from the decision to only MEET a specification produced by management to the obvious efforts to force you back into the dealers arms for repair of everyday components. Kubota, New Holland and Mahindra run similar philosophies sans encrypted ECU.

When manufacturers design products to force you to return to them for repair, they force you to make a choice. If they all do it, you can still move backwards and refuse to play this insane game. But most people are conditioned that 'new' is better, and 'warranty' is necessary as insurance against high cost repairs!

Hypercomplex insanity is present in far too many places where simpler is both better and more reliable. Safety is fine, but designing products that attempt to replace common sense leads to more complexity. It is impossible to 'fix' stupidity. Designing for idiots as operators and being simply greedy for maximum profits are what leads us down this road where we turn around and look for a more logical and effective path - regressing to earlier generations with reduced complexity and more reliability.

[aedens]

Proof of concept boxes already exist for the car hacks. Half did not respond to Sen. Markey. Audi was the best
protected from the black hats conferences.

In-A-Gist algorithmically provides updates for threads real-time.

Also the face of dead capital. http://uk.businessinsider.com/russias-f ... 015-2?r=US

https://sostratusworks.wordpress.com/20 ... hale-game/

keyword 2018

[aedens]

1 Barrel of Oil = ~ 23,200 Hours of Human Work Output

It never ceases to amaze me how effective the silent weapons of the silent war actually has been.
Nuetralize a few select proteins in the brain, serf funded of course for your own good number 41, and viola
the those pesky full speed ahead pagan own your no man status posterity. Read book with sixy six chapters
about the sleepers awakening awefull late and the owner of the garden not to happy on a surprise inspection.

[Higgenbotham]

I think there's a good chance the stock market top has been seen and now we begin the descent toward the intrinisic value of the market and economy in its current configuration, which is zero. At the moment, I am wondering how long the manipulators will keep the stock market open as it makes its descent. Will they be stubborn in their insistence to display that all is well and "business as usual" is occurring, or will they cut their losses and propagandize that we are only closing it for a short while, but never reopen it?

Time will tell, but I have my largest short position on in a year and have made money in the past 6 months trading short as it has gone up (not much though).