Smart Cities and Automated Labor.

Curbed Los Angeles - City Council votes to dedicate $27M to Vision Zero, its plan to end traffic deaths.  Vision Zero, ever hear of it? Nope, you probably have not. It is a multinational plan, not a Los Angeles plan, not a state plan and not a national plan. It's avowed purpose is to make streets safer; but, it's real intent is to make the streets friendly to self-driving vehicles and keep personal vehicles out of the major cities. They don't tell you that. Here is a couple of lines from the article.

"Buscaino said he wants to prepare LA for driverless cars with a “smart streets” strategy, which could employ sensors, kiosks, and other tech designed for automated vehicles.

(It should be noted that if the streets were truly smart, they would also be dramatically reduced in size, as autonomous vehicles will not need as much on-street parking and the ability to share them would mean far fewer cars on the road.)" Yep, your tax money at work to stop you from using the roads."

Smart Cities Dive - Pump the brakes: Cities aim to eliminate traffic fatalities with Vision Zero goals. Some general information about which cities are instituting Vision Zero.

Los Angeles Daily News - Botts’ Dots, after a half-century, will disappear from freeways, highways. You know the little bumps that are used to separate lanes and remind you that you are crossing into another lane, they are going to get rid of them and thereby make it safer for self-driving cars and more dangerous for human controlled cars. Do you see the pattern to all of this yet?

FOX - Stan the robotic parking valet gets to work at Paris airport.

Yahoo - AFP - First robotic cop joins Dubai police.  Robotic cops do what they are told. Do you think repressive governments will use them to control people? Just think how many people Stalin, Hitler and Mau could have killed with no regrets and no push back from the police or soldiers.

MSN - Marketwatch - When Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg sound the same dire warning about jobs, it’s time to listen.  They ask a simple question, how will people find a sense of purpose when their labor is no longer needed. As the article points out, the issue of a laborless future is being looked at today by CEOs. For me the problem is that the majority people can't see it coming or be involved in the discussion until they do.

Reuters - Waymo working on self-driving trucks.  Waymo is part of Google.

The Kansas City Star - About half of all U.S. retail jobs could vanish due to computerization, analysis finds. The real issue of the future will not be a minimum wage, it will be any wage.

Daily Mail - Artificial intelligence will outperform humans in all tasks in just 45 years and could take over EVERY job in the next century, experts claim.  This is what is driving all of the changes you are seeing and you don't know it.

Geek.com - Elon Musk: Automation Will Force Universal Basic Income. Must is one of the good guys; but, "conservatives" hate his idea. The money won't come from your taxes because you won't have a job.

The big question remains. What do we do as a society when we no longer need people's labor. It is a moral question and a structural one and if you don't think about it, you will not have a say in it.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/workplace/article153864894.html#storylink=cpy

Money and Media

YouTube - Mark Blyth ─ Global Trumpism.  This is a good video of a lecture by a world famous economist. What he is discussing is anti-globalism on the left and right. I don't agree with everything he said; but, his discussion of the economy is dead on.

Yahoo - Fannie and Freddie's fate depends on whether Trump goes with John or Jeb.  The reality is that Wall Street would like is for the government to give Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to Wall Street. We created it, we funded it and Wall Street wants the profit. They have been saying this for a couple of years and I wrote about it them, this is just a reminder.

YouTube - The Media's Meltdown Over Donald Trump Victory - The Bolt Report.  The view from Australia and New Zealand. Interesting to see how they understand that the election was driven by people wanting jobs while our own media does not.

Bloomberg - Ford Willing to Work With Trump If Policies Are Right: CEO.  Ford in a preemptive roll is saying that they will keep jobs here if they get to tell the government what the fuel economy goals should be. That approach will be a loser with democrats and Trump supporters.

YouTube - UKIP Nigel Farage MEP on BBC Questions - Donald Trump & BREXIT.  The views in England regarding Trump.

Yahoo - Reuters - Web giants to cooperate on removal of extremist content.  "Web giants YouTube , Facebook , Twitter and Microsoft will step up efforts to remove extremist content from their websites by creating a common database." This is called illegal collusion and is a violation of anti-trust laws.

Let's Weaken Democricy

Telegraph - US climate commitment 'irreversible', Francois Hollande warns Donald Trump.  After Trump was elected President, the President of France said that we have no choice but to agree to the Paris agreement on the environment. Lets be very clear, treaties only become treaties after congress approves them and the President signs them. The Paris Accords ARE NOT LAW and this moron knows that. He said if we don't go along with them as if they were law that France might put a tariff on the United States. This man is a globalist piece of garbage who does not respect people right to vote or democracy. That was stated in another article; but, I forgot to save it.

MSN - The Los Angeles Times - Secessionists formally launch quest for California's independence. The media tried to portray this as an anti-Trump thing; but, it is nonsense. In fact this movement has been going on for two years, even before Trump said he would run for office. There was a separate movement to break up California into 6 states. The same people are behind both of these, they are the tech industry leaders trying to take over control and weaken control over them.

Yahoo - Business Insider - Californians might vote in 2018 on taking steps toward secession in a 'Calexit'.

RT - Ex-PM John Major: Brexit terms can’t be decided by ‘tyranny of majority’.  The "tyranny" of the majority is what we call democracy.  I will repeat what I have said many times before, the owners do not like you voting or wish to hear your opinion.

Yahoo - Christian Science Monitor - Why India's prime minister wants a cashless society.  60% of Indians want to keep cash. A couple of years ago I linked to an article about how India was in the process of getting biometric data on all of it's citizens and was getting ready to finish the process. I guess they finished it because the biometrics is your identification when we all go cashless. While I have talked a lot about the election in the past year, I have written about the move to cashless since the blog began and there are many posts about it.

MSN - Market Watch -  Opinion: Why deporting millions of people would be bad for U.S. workers.  The argument they make is that if we repatriated people here illegally to their own nations they would no longer buy goods here. The reality is that businesses want them here because they don't get paid as much or have any protections. This has always been the reality for them. The companies see them as a commodity like grapes, same as they see the rest of us.

Yahoo - Bloomberg - Is It Simpler Than Obamacare? California’s Retirement Mandate.  Five states are considering offering voluntary retirement plans to their citizens. The big money is split on this. Some in finance like the idea as long as they get to invest your money and others don't want it because if you are saving you are not spending.

International Business Times - How To Keep Trump From Becoming President? 25th Amendment Could Declare Republican Mentally Unfit.  Your owners don't like Trump and don't want him to put Americans first. They don't like democracy.

Daily Mail - Russia is developing a mega-rocket that will transport supplies to build a base on the MOON, Deputy PM reveals.  We are richer than Russia and yet, refuse to have a real space program that would provide people with jobs in aerospace that don't involve bombing other countries.
Fox 5 - California regulates cow farts.  It has nothing to do with climate change in reality, it is about increasing the cost for meat. Peasants don't need meat.

Forbes - Thanks To 'Fight For $15' Minimum Wage, McDonald's Unveils Job-Replacing Self-Service Kiosks Nationwide.  Well to begin with, the title of the article is a lie. These kiosks were begun prior to the fight for $15 an hour. Pure and utter propaganda.

The Washington Post - Trump’s populism is about to face a rude awakening.

The talk about Trump being racist, xenophobic, sexist and whatever else is ending and the real issues continue to expose themselves. This is about the rich versus the poor. It is about business versus the workers. It is about oligarchy versus democracy. That has never changed as long as the world has been around.

Trump and Debt

Huffington Post - Great, Donald Trump Threatened To Default On The National Debt.  I want to tell you something and expose a hypocrisy. Donald Trump has said that he would borrow money to fix our infrastructure and would consider re-negotiating the rates if we couldn't pay them. This has driven the left and the right crazy. Both sides say they have never heard of such a thing and that it is outrageous.

You may or may not remember what the Federal Reserve Chairman said during the economic crisis. He said he wasn't worried because we could always just print more dollars to pay our debts. Guess what, it is the exact same thing. Here is the difference. When we print more money, the money you have is worth less. If he offers 90 cents on the dollar for government debt, the money you have is worth the same amount. I know this is sort of technical but I want to explain it a little more.

By the way, the people that buy U.S. debt, tends to be the same banks that we bailed out during the economic crisis. In my humble opinion, we should have nationalized those banks and then bailed them out. I also believe that the heads of the banks that rigged the Libor and commodities markets should have gone to jail and we should have seized all of their assets.

I will go one step further. While at dinner with my conservative friends tonight we were discussing politics and the issue of companies sending jobs overseas came up. I gave a suggestion, I would nationalize Apple and Carrier. Sounds really communistic except I would then sell the stock to Americans who would then be the new stock holders. That is capitalism and nationalism at work. Anyone who works against the best interest of America and Americans is my enemy. My friends liked the idea.

One more story. I am working with a realtor who is from South Africa, he has been here for like 40 years. He supports Trump. I have had the opportunity to get to know the guy a bit and he sees what is happening here. In case you are wondering, he was against apartheid and worked with blacks in South Africa even though it was frowned on at the time.

The fact of the matter is that our friends who are middle class and live in foreign countries, like England, want to see us get our jobs back and secure our borders. The battle we are seeing is not between different cultures, it is between globalist, elitists and nationalist, middle and working class citizens.

The friends I went to dinner with tonight are the most conservative people I know. Old school, cold war Republicans who hate socialism. They are also loving, caring, gentle and giving. They don't read the blog so I can say this. I know they want to lend me the money to buy my mobile home, I know this, they have hinted at it enough. I also know that they give a lot to charity. Look, I have the best friends in the world and they have been with me through some pretty ugly times. None of my readers ever have to worry about me, ever. I can pretty much have anything I want and that is the problem because there isn't anything I want that I don't have. I want to read the news, write and pretty much be left alone other than family and friends. I have those things.

I don't want my friends help because I am a prideful old man. I earned what I have and I have enough. If I absolutely needed help, it is there and I would take it. The hardest lessen and I wrote about this, was learning that if we help others, we have to be willing to be helped if we need it and I don't need it. My choices are not based on need or force, I don't respond to those things and walk my own path.

I have had people say that they like my blog; but, don't like the spiritual stuff. Well, if I didn't say the spiritual stuff than they would not know me. I would not be open and honest to hide those things. I have absolute faith that God will take care of me. If my friends have to help me than I am concerned that it will appear that I do not have that faith. It might be easier to take help; but, I have faith in God.

Different News Articles and Some Thoughts

Fox - Washington Free Beacon - Labor costs to skyrocket for American cars. Since 2008 most auto jobs in the United States saw no cost of living raise. Now, 7 years later they are getting raises of 5 to 9%. This seems to horrify certain conservatives. There are two things I wish to point out. Firstly, American car manufacturers have most of their parts made oversees, not in America. As previously reported, the cars with the highest percentage of American parts are Japanese auto manufacturers. Second, the executives at the companies that took bailouts and were responsible for the economic crash continued getting bonuses since 2008.

Las Vegas Review Journal - Nevada pursues Route 160 widening project. Now, you have probably never heard of this highway as it goes from Las Vegas to Pahrump, Nevada. It is two lanes in both directions and is practically empty most of the time. I have driven it many times and know it well. In fact, I was once snowed in on it's highest point. There is no need to widen it as it is lightly travelled now. Nevada is saying that they are going to widen it for safety and increased traffic. Huh? What increased traffic? What is going to be built north of Las Vegas near Nellis Air Force Base?

Business Insider - Switzerland is about to launch a huge experiment in 'the war on cash'. This is a very interesting article about how the central banks in Switzerland and Sweden are charging negative interest rates on money issued to other banks. Basically, this is charging people a fee for holding their money rather than paying interest. Well, in the countries mentioned about few use actual cash and most transactions are electronic so the people don't notice their money being taken away as much.

Fox - 'Needless experiment': Cities weigh gov't-backed broadband, critics see tax $$ at risk. Basically, some cities and states want to provide their residents with universal Wi-Fi. This is not surprising as it is municipal right of ways that allow the towers to be put up. Certain companies see an opportunity to make lots of money and therefore want to prohibit cities from building wi-fi for their residents. This is amusing as the internet was created by the government and not private industry.

Yahoo - AFP - IMF poised to put Chinese yuan in elite currency basket. I have been saying this was coming for a few years now. While most people will not understand what it means to be a reserve currency or a "hard" currency, it basically means that your currency is accepted in other countries. The dollar has been the world currency for decades; but, that could very well end and that will make it harder for us to pay our debts.

A Meaning of Currency

Fox - AP - Latest self-driving Google car heading to public streets. In the article it says that one of Googles cars paused while driving because it saw chairs sitting next to one another. What would be the safest type of road markings (lines and cross walks) for these cars to navigate around? Do you think European style crosswalks (like you see on the cover of Abbey Road) or old style American single line crosswalks would be more effective? What about to protect bicyclists? Wouldn't they need road markings to protect them? Maybe that is why we are seeing these things done in the United States already.

Huffington Post - Raven-Symoné Suggests Rosa Parks, Instead Of Harriet Tubman, Should Be On The $20 Bill. They claim that there is a discussion regarding whether or not a woman should be on the face of the $20 bill and some survey suggested Harriet Tubman (a famous black women who helped hide escaping slaves headed to the north). Ms Raven-Symone disagrees (she is also a black woman), and thinks Rosa Parks should be on the $20. While it is sad that there are no females on any of our bills (Lady Liberty was on many coins over the years), it sort of misses the point of currency design in the United States. We put Presidents on our paper currency or at least Benjamin Franklin who signed the Declaration of Independence. I can think of many famous men who deserve to be on our currency, how about Thomas Edison or Henry Ford or Albert Einstein (hey if any non representative of the government person deserves his own bill he would have to be it).

The images on the front of our money represent not just famous people; but, people who represented our government not society at large. A few people on a talk shows opinion is no more important than anyone else's and a survey doesn't do it. If we are going to let anyone be on our currency then lets vote on each bill. If we are not going to vote on it then we need a guideline and we have one, what guideline would you choose? Heck, I could understand President Obama on the $20 more than Harriet Tubman. He was the first black president after all, doesn't that count for something? What about putting Franklin D Roosevelt on it, is he not deserving, he did have more years in as President than anyone else in history and he has never had his own bill. In the end the question is not whether or not we should have a black person or a woman on our currency, the question is how should we decide what goes on our currency.

Now personally, I don't really care what we put on our currency; but, there should be some rules if we all have to use it or at least one person deciding. It is real expensive to replace currency. Then again the whole argument is pointless as we are headed to all electronic currencies. I should also point out that governments have put their leaders on coins forever, it was to show you who owned you. That is why the Queen of England is on the currency of so many nations that still owe allegiance to England. In the bible Jesus was asked about a government tax, he told his questioners to take out a coin and asked him who's representation was on the coin. The person told Jesus that it was Caesar's and Jesus said to give to Caesar what was Caesars. Even though we use Federal Reserve Notes, in the end it belongs to "The United States of America".

Cashless Societies, Welfare Costs and Public Pensions

The Telegraph - How to end boom and bust: make cash illegal . A proposed new law in Denmark would basically make it impossible to pay in cash and require you to go all electronic with the government being the bank. Now I could talk about how I am for or against this law; but, in the end it doesn't really matter. The world is going cashless. The question is who will keep the tally, who will keep count of how much money you have? Do you trust JP Morgan Chase, they have been caught manipulating markets and stealing your money and even after having paid over $29 Billion in fines are still not done paying fines. Do you trust the Federal Reserve or do you want it to be government?

Business Cheat Sheet - How Much Do Welfare Programs Cost the U.S.? More Than You Ever Thought. Just so you know the number is $158 Billion. Sounds like a lot until you consider that we have spent TRILLIONS fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. An aircraft carrier costs about $13 Billion to build, the planes it carries cost almost as much if not more, the personnel and expenses are also in the hundreds of millions a year. About 75% of the families on welfare have people working; but, the minimum wage is so low that they need government subsidies to survive. Maybe we should be concerned more about taking care of our own people and spend less time killing people in foreign countries, just a thought.

Yahoo - Reuters - San Bernardino bankruptcy plan: bondholders hammered while pensions kept whole. The City of San Bernardino filed for bankruptcy protection. The article claims that the city wants to pay it's pension debt more than it's bondholders. This is insincere. The City of San Bernardino attempted to avoid their pension obligations and Calpers investigated finding that the city was hiding the money that would have allowed them to make their mandatory contributions. Imagine a company telling the Federal Government that they are not going to pay the employees Social Security money that has already been removed from your paycheck in private industry. Same thing.

News, news for everyone. Maybe some comments on it.

My brother called me tonight, he wanted to correct something I had written; but, he was wrong; but, he did raise an issue about me that I agree with. He thought that teachers and preachers had a duty to interest their listeners. I disagree. I don't write for everyone, I don't waste my time teaching everyone or preaching to everyone. You are responsible for you, I am merely one of a million sources of information. I am not looking for listeners, I only provide information and hope that it reaches the ears of someone who will use it in the right way.

I have to be totally honest, I did not and do not write this blog for society. I don't publicize it and make no money from it. I don't care who agrees with me or believes me, this is not meant to become famous. The article I wrote on Pastor Daniels was not written for her family or the general public, it was for my readers and intended to get them to see beyond the obvious. I am glad that some people found value and comfort in it; but, I never expected that.

I have been collecting articles for the past month or so and have written very little, I will post the links tonight. I am not seeking agreement, I just want to make sure that the information is out for the person that will do something with it, if they find me. I am not trying to inspire people, I am leaving a trail behind for people that are already committed and inspired. It is not that I do not care about the rest of you; but, you are not going to use the information to make the world better, and if so, you are not my target audience, enjoy what you find anyways.

At my retirement a number of people talked about what they learned from me and how it helped them. It wasn't me, I just conveyed information and some people chose to use it in a positive way for them or others. That is all that my posts are meant to be, a resource. Take from it what you will.

Yahoo - Wall Street Journal - Banks urge clients to take cash elsewhere. They are turning away big depositors who don't pay fees and charging small depositors fees so that your money is their money. They don't care about you, they are not banks, they are leaches.

Money - Why Workers Undervalue Traditional Pension Plans. This is a great example of blaming the victim. The article says that workers do not want a guaranteed retirement and that they prefer 401k plans. Would you really rather worry about how the market does than have a retirement that was guaranteed? So, why is business claiming you would?

LA Times - AP - California puzzles over safety of driverless cars. This is just garbage. California has legalized self driving cars and Google has them operating in California. One recently left California and drove to Las Vegas. If you take Marijuana into Nevada you go to jail. Be in a self driving car and you get to be in the show. The powers that be want you to think that they are debating self driving cars, they are not. It will happen and quickly.

Wired - Soon Your Tech Will Talk to You Through Your Skin. Here is an interesting line from the article, "Apple’s new smartwatch can deliver taps of different intensity to your wrist to communicate everything from a new message to GPS directions". Wait, you will be retired to have a wrist communicator to get medical insurance and it will tell you when you are breaking the rules, just like Pavlov's dogs.

The Guardian - Scientists use skin cells to create artificial sperm and eggs. "Skin cells from a woman could only be used to make eggs because they lack the Y chromosome. Those from a male might theoretically be turned into eggs as well as sperm..." If male cells could be used to make eggs and sperm and theoretically, you could have your own kid. We already have kids with three genetic parents, don't disregard the importance of where we are going.

Business Cheat Sheet - How America’s Middle Class Dug Its Own Grave. This article is big business blaming you for not buying American and allowing them to outsource jobs. I didn't know I could get GM to do what I told them and once they outsourced I bought Japanese. You are not responsible for having someone rob you at gunpoint for not killing them before you knew they were going to rob you.

Yahoo - Charlie Hebdo editor: We attack religion when it becomes political. This article is a rather tricky way of justifying bad behavior by confusing two different issues. The first issue is about killing people for free speech, that is wrong. The second issue has to do with attacking religion because you don't believe in a spiritual morality. Politics is deciding what should and should not be allowed. Religions duty is to comment on such matters, not to be ridiculed for having an opinion. ALL law regulates morality and religion should point out when the law is wrong.

BBC News - 'Designer babies' debate should start, scientists say. This is like the article where they blame the middle class for the upper class sending jobs overseas. Most people don't even know that designer babies are already here and outlawing it is too late. The debate ended before most people knew it started. The first set of babies with designer genes (three parents) started over 18 years ago. The first ones have just graduated high school. You cannot put the Genii back in the bottle.

Yahoo - Curbed - The 5 mansions of the billionaire who wants America to live a 'smaller' existence. This guy has 5 mansions as large as 35,000 square feet and he thing the average American should be satisfied with 250 square feet homes so that he can buy a 70,000 square foot house. That is corporate America's view of us, not that we lift up; but, that we live on less.

Bloomberg - Hollywood Deals Stop as David Fights Goliath: Real Estate. This is one of those nonsense articles about how you have power. Some attorney slowed down a few developments that avoided following the rules; but, he didn't stop anything, he just slowed them down. The scum bags will still win because the game is fixed.

Yahoo - Reuters - 'Autisms' A More Appropriate Term Than 'Autism,' Geneticists Say. Let me start with this, the article refers to "affected individuals". Sorry, we are not affected with Autism anymore that someone is affected with their being a jerk or loving or a schmuck. This article basically says that all autistic people cannot be identified by their genes alone as we are each different. That pretty much means that it is not genetic.

Huffington Post - Income Disparity: Corporations Need to Act Now or Feel Pain Soon. I am not doubting the man's sincerity; but, he is still wrong. He argues that the problem is not that there are 1,600 people that own the wealth of a world with 7 billion people; but, that there is extreme poverty. He is wrong. I don't mind that there is extreme poverty and homelessness if people choose not to contribute. I believe that society should reward those who contribute more. The fact is that society does not reward based on contributions. Heck, how many inventions have been stolen from the inventors?

Yahoo - Reuters - Justice Department spies on millions of cars: WSJ. Soon every movement will be monitored. This is coming and when you understand and complain in 10 years, they will say you should have stopped them earlier.

News of the World and Technology

Brisbane Times - Forget self-driving Google cars, Australia has self-driving trucks. I wish more people cared about what I write about. When I say something is coming, it is coming. I have been writing about this for years and people have told me they won't see it in their lifetime, it is already here. Nobody will drive for a living anymore in the not to distant future. No truck drivers, no delivery people, no bus drivers, no taxi cab drivers. Millions of jobs will simply disappear. They are seeking an automated society where people on the lower end just are not needed. That includes your children.

Examiner.com - Area 51 scientist's deathbed video: UFOs are real, aliens have federal jobs. Make of it what you will. I don't believe aliens are visiting this planet; but, I also don't believe we are being told the truth about what is occurring.

Matt Taibbi - Rolling Stone - The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare. I will simplify the article; but, you should really read it. JP Morgan knowingly cheated people out of billions and billions of dollars and the government has protected them.

MIT Technology Review - Google Wants to Store Your Genome. They want your DNA baby, they want to track you and make predictions based on genetics. Diversity of species will be a crime some day. In America we used to actually neuter mentally challenged people, they did it in Nazi Germany too; but, we led the way.

Business Standard - 50% of occupations today will no longer exist in 2025: Report. You need to read this article if you have children or grandchildren. It is the future.

Wired - Startup Builds Sensors That Will Analyze Sweat to Track Your Health. They are going to know more about the workers of the future then they did about the slaves of the past.

Wired - New Initiative Aims to Teach People to Code—Then Find Them Jobs. If you are not new to this blog, more stuff I have talked about. One of the few good jobs will be independently programming apps for less and less money over time.

TechCrunch - The Larger Implications Of Electronic Payments Adoption. The article is about how electronic payments will help the poor and barely mentions how it will also allow big global companies to avoid taxes and transfer money made in one country to another country.

I am at a loss for words. I have been writing for 7 years about what is coming and am sorry that so few have got it. Many will not understand until after the changes have occurred. What a shame. Be well dear readers.

God, Financial lies and the Future

This will be a strange mix-up of things. Hope you enjoy.

TechCrunch - The World’s First Genetically Modified Babies Will Graduate High School This Year. I have written many times about how scientists are already genetically modifying people. I know a lot of people think I am writing about things that they don't have to worry about for many years. Nope. It began years ago and now genetically modified babies are graduating high school and many of them will reproduce, heck some may have already and you would not be able to tell. You or your relatives could marry one and never know it. We have no way of knowing what this will mean to the future of humans.

Let's say this first set of genetically modified humans works out just fine. Okay. We will continue modifying people until we make a mistake with consequences we could not foresee. Mistakes are inevitable. Michael Crichton was a great writer and really smart. He wrote a book called "Jurassic Park" and in the movie version one character points out that mistakes are inevitable and that life finds a way to escape boundaries. They will make a mistake in genetically modifying people and there is no way to know what the impact will be.

Gigaom - Visa: Apple Pay will pave the way for more mobile wallets that people can actually use. There will not be any more cash in the future and the future is coming quicker than people realize. That is the problem. It is already here, most people just don't know it. I don't have as much to write about anymore as everything I said is coming true. It was all true when I originally wrote about these things, it is just now becoming visible to those who didn't pay attention.

Now let's talk about God. Stephen Hawking, the douche, insists that the universe could exist without God and that if there was a God then we would be Gods and know everything. That's just bad logic. Philosophically, he is a retard. All philosophy begins with why do we exist as self aware or even as beings that experience anything. Why do we have awareness of anything? If everything is only physical then why should anything have self awareness, trees don't. Where does self-awareness come from? How can one deny the possibility of a greater self awareness? An eternal self awareness? That is just stupid and violates the principals of the scientific method.

He does not get it, most people don't. He doesn't understand why he is so severely crippled and blames God. He believes that if there was a God then he would not be punished in this manner. He is wrong and he is not being punished. Troubles are not punishments from God, that is an old concept from people who did not understand the bible. Challenges are placed before us so that we can grow. That is Toynbee, one of the greatest philosophers and historians in history. Understanding how things work is not the same as understanding the why, why things work at all.

Sorry, I think I have to write something else about never working again. I think I may have just retired. We shall see.

Fear of Fairness

I am reading more and more things from wealthy people decrying the idea of poor people being given a chance or being treated fairly. They don't couch it in those terms and don't see it in those terms. The basic tenets of their belief system are what is known as "Social Darwinism", they believe that they were successful because they were genetically superior because their family genes and race has made them somehow better than the rest of us. This is the basis of monarchies. They also believe the inverse, they believe that poor people are genetically inferior and therefore should not have children. This is also why they hate the autistic with High IQs, they cannot compete with them.

I want you to understand why powerful people are against a minimum wage high enough to allow people to live on it. It is the same reason why they decry giving anything to the poor. They have a bitter and cynical view of the world, one in which it is everyone for themselves; but, expect that they will have all the privileges and advantages that are derived from living in this society. Much of their philosophy comes from a woman named Ayn Rand. In fact one of her followers was the Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan. The same man that was against any regulation of Wall Street; but, was very much responsible for the bail outs of the banks which is far from capitalistic.

Bonner & Partners - Redistribute the Wealth!. The writer complains thatDrunken thugs to be fitted with tags that check them for alcohol: Bracelets will allow offenders to escape with a caution if they stay sober for 120 days the pope had called for helping the poor. He begins by dismissing God and religion as okay when not followed and that faith is just people faking it for etiquette's sake. He then wrongly states that the bible never called for giving away wealth. Maybe he doesn't understand the bible because he has never read the whole bible. One of the most important stories of the New Testament is where the rich young man came to Jesus and explained how he didn't sin and did good things and he asked Jesus what he needed to do to be saved. I cannot tell you if the young man was being sarcastic or sincere though the story is generally discussed as if the man was being sincere. In either case, Jesus responded by saying that the young man should give up all his possessions and follow him. They young man left because he couldn't part with his wealth. Jesus was asked about it and he said that it was harder for a wealthy person to be saved than it was for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.

Mail Online - Drunken thugs to be fitted with tags that check them for alcohol: Bracelets will allow offenders to escape with a caution if they stay sober for 120 days. Your IWatch as tattle tale. In the future you will be required to wear an device that will monitor your physical condition and actions.

Yahoo - The Fiscal Times - 6 Housing Trends That May Surprise You. I have to start by saying that none of the trends surprised me and it makes me question why it surprised the writer. The trends are that home prices are going up, almost half of all housing purchases were in cash, young people and first time buyers are decreasing from the market, there are fewer people getting mortgages, jumbo loans are up and the housing market is not recovering. If one looks a little deeper they will see that hedge funds have been moving money out of the stock market and into assets including houses which they pay for in cash.

The Atlantic - Thomas Piketty Is Right About the Past and Wrong About the Future. There is a man named Piketty that wrote a book about income inequality. The book has shaken the financial world to it's foundations by questioning why income inequality exists. It is praised as being incredibly well researched and documented. It's basic premise is that capitalism leads to inequality and skewered wealth distribution or an unfair distribution of wealth.

The Atlantic - The Not-So-Distant Future When We Can All Upgrade Our Brains. People believe that soon we will be able to improve ourselves by genetically or technologically upgrading ourselves. There are people fascinated by the fact that they hope one day they will be able to buy brilliance. Aspergers is a form of Autism and those who of that nature see things that others cannot, this frequently makes them fit in poorly with society. The world is currently seeking to cure autism and use chemicals or technology to create people with the same abilities. There is this assumption that somehow we can have our senses improved drastically and it not have a toll or overwhelm; but, watch some videos of people hearing for the first time and read up on how they quickly come to feel overwhelmed and often turn down or off their own hearing devices. Some Autistic people smash their heads into the wall to make all the noises and input go away and now we have transhumanists who seek to put themselves in the same position.

There are those who believe in transhumanism and are seeking rules for it's use. One person has suggested five rules. They are as follow:

1. The right to self-knowledge
2. The right to self-modification
3. The right to refuse modification
4. The right to modify/refuse to modify your children
5. The right to know who has been modified

The meaning behind and the lack of morality behind all of these are interesting; but, I wish to focus on number 4. The right to modify your children without their permission or understanding. True permission cannot be given without understanding. There are people who argue that one should not be allowed to circumcise their children; but, they should be allowed to genetically or technologically modify their children.

Mail Online - Forget PINs - now you can withdraw cash with your VEINS: Hitachi rolls out biometric scanning technology for ATMs. I had previously written about this in relation to Japan; but, it is now being tested in Sweden which has become a cashless society where your biometrics are your identification for you to use your electronic currency.

Hope you enjoyed the post and that it gives you some things to think about.

The State of Finance and Industry

The Independent - Stop moaning about our bonuses: Barclays boss slaps down investors angry at bank's pay practices.

Corporations were created to benefit the owners, the investors. They were not created to benefit just the executives. The way the laws have been changed, the owners do not benefit as much as the executives and neither does the average employee. The investors can change all of that and make American companies benefit Americans and the British and the Europeans can do the same.

Some news and talk about the media

New York Times - Why Employers Will Stop Offering Health Insurance. An interesting interview with one of the people behind the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). He talks about how in the future he believes businesses will stop offering healthcare insurance to employees and instead give them pay increases to allow them to pay for it themselves. I believe this is exactly what we will see and that is in keeping with the way 401k plans work. The real bottom line is that businesses in the United States will be seeking to put more of the risk of being an employee on employees.

Yahoo - AFP - US, Dutch try to deposit billions in fake bonds in Vatican bank. I find this story intriguing as it is not the first time this has happened. On at least two other occasions people were caught trying to deposit billions of dollars in what is said to be fake treasury bonds. Nobody ever seems to follow up on these stories or get more detail and sometimes the perpetrators are let go. Funny.

Yahoo - Daily Ticker - We're in a private debt crisis that could lead to the next economic collapse: Richard Vague. I highly recommend you watch the very short video interview. The interviewee gives some numbers on debt in the United States. He says that the United States consumers and businesses have about $28 billion in debt. Okay, we also know that the US government has about $17 billion in debt. I have yet to hear a number that reflects debt from local and state government. Of the consumer and business debt about $1 trillion is student loans, $13 trillion is business loans, $9 trillion is mortgage loans. Hmm, let me test my math skills. Hey, that means $23 trillion is student, mortgage or business loans. That would mean that $5 trillion was car loans and unsecured or credit card loans (credit card loans are only about $600 billion). Earlier the man mentioned that household debt was about 160% of GDP (which happens to be about $17.5 trillion). 160% of $17.5 trillion is about $26.3 trillion.

He talked about how household debt was 160% of GDP; but, he used a figure that combined household debt with corporate debt. Here is where this gets real interesting, we are told that because of the government debt, every child is born with $50,000 in debt and if you multiply that by 350,000,000 people in the United States it comes out to $17.5 trillion if my calculator is working properly. Hmmmm. If you combine government debt with private and business debt the total is about $43.8 trillion or a little better than twice the GDP.

Now lets talk about household debt for a second. For every $50,000 someone makes, they would traditionally qualify for a 30 year fixed rate loan of $100,000 for a home and this would equate to 40% of their income not including their tax refund for paying their home loan. 40% of $50,000 is $20,000. I know this is a lot of numbers; but, I care about my readers and it upsets me how they are misled by the media which uses experts to explain the numbers while hiding the reality about them. The numbers aren't that bad, the debt is not that much, there is something else going on.

I used to make about $150,000 a year. I bought a house for a little less than $300,000 with a 30 year, 4% fixed loan. I was completely within the traditional requirements for buying a house and was more than capable of making the $2,100 per month payment which included property taxes and insurance. Now before you get too jealous you should know that I turned down well over triple that amount to work for others. You should also remember that I lost everything in my divorce including my house and ended up paying as much in alimony as I did for my house payment. My debt was over 200% of my income when you include credit card debt and car loans. It was not a problem to pay and I paid my taxes in full. Here is what I am saying, it is not uncommon for homeowners to have over 200% income to debt ratio and still easily pay off their debts over 30 years.

Now that is lots and lots of talk about debt numbers and it may be unclear why I bring this up, this is why you should have watched the video. In the video the man says that government debt is never the problem and that private debt is what takes down countries. It all sounds so reasonable until you understand what is really going on and what the man is really driving at, he wants to restructure private debt over a longer period of time and allow government debt to increase. The issue is the total debt that can be had.

He is saying the problem is that you cannot afford more government debt because you bought things for yourself on credit. The fact that the vast majority of household debt is home loans and car loans doesn't get mentioned. Imagine a world where the longest a home loan could be was 10 years and they would not lend you more than your total income. If you made $50,000 a year than you could only buy a house worth $50,000. Okay what would be the effect. Firstly house prices would drop immediately by half and then your payment would drop by half. Heck and increase in taxes by 50% would still leave you with more spendable cash than today.

I have been bothered by all the talk about eliminating the federal income tax. Personally, and I have said this before, I believe in a flat tax and eliminating all deductions. Everyone should pay 15% or so in income tax regardless of how they make the money or how they spend the money, pay as you benefit from living here. What if the end game was to eliminate the federal income tax and institute a federal property tax? Think it sounds crazy, how bout this. Imagine them getting rid of the mortgage deduction from your federal taxes, that would be a federal property tax and you wouldn't even call it that. By the way, I have been talking for 7 years about people who want to get rid of the tax deduction for mortgage payments.

Now I am going to go back to the man who gets interviewed. He lies. He said that banks needed to restructure the home loans that make up $9 trillion in debt. Banks don't own those loans, they are owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government. I wrote a post not long ago about how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are about to return hundreds of billions of dollars to the government based on the payment of these loans, what if they took those "profits" and used them to restructure the home loans they own and reduce the payments? It wouldn't cost the taxpayer a dime as the loans to Fannie and Freddie were paid off this year.

Right now England is experiencing a housing bubble. Whatever the decision we make on how to deal with this debt will be followed in England if this is all coordinated. Sorry, lost my train of thought and have to go to bed.

3/19/14 and News, juicy, intriguing news just like momma used to make

The Telegraph - Fire-sale of US Treasuries is a warning of acute stress across the world. Some nation is selling off it's US Treasury bonds, if they are selling, who will be buying from us when sell them this Friday?

The Street - U.S. Government Ceding Control of Key Internet Body. I have been writing about ICANN for years and years and saying that they were controlled by the Federal Government. I have been called a fool and conspiracy theorist for saying it and I have been told that nobody controls the internet by systems people. Please show me the number of shows people like Jesse Ventura have done about ICANN or where people like Alex Jones have talked about such things, I am patient and will wait. Nope none of these clowns have talked about it until now and how we are "giving up" our control of the internet. The truth is that we are not giving up control over anything, we still own the 13 computers that control how the internet works and are the only ones that can bring down the whole thing and restart it.

ABC News - Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops. I understand beat cops not being brilliant; but, from them come the detectives. If the beat cops are not allowed to be smart than who will become detectives, Sherlock Holmes was smart. Can you become a detective without having been a cop? No.

Myfoxny.com - 'Smart' houses to become a reality. 50 billion devices connected to the internet in a world with 7 billion people.

CNBC - Raise the minimum wage, we slow hiring: Businesses. I am willing to debate the effect on hiring of people if the minimum wage is increased; but, the articles are pure propaganda and silly. You hire people because you believe you will make money off of them, not because they are cheap. That is just stupid. Imagine the same companies saying that if metal costs increase 5% they will stop using metal. Think about that. I detest threats; but, I know how to respond to them. I will agree to not support increasing the minimum wage if the same companies that took the survey promise to increase hiring by 10% next year. We have given trillions in taxpayer dollars to the banks and businesses and have they haven't hired anyone.

Huffington Post - Reuters - Fed Trims Stimulus By Another $10 Billion. Lets keep an eye on Friday and see what happens as countries dump billions in treasury bonds and the Federal Reserve buys fewer, who will buy the remaining ones?

Corned Beef and Todays News

As my readers may or may not know, I am of Irish decent. There is a little English in me; but, we don't talk about that much. LOL. In fact my ex was Finnish, French, English, American Indian and a whole bunch of other things. I used to joke that she had destroyed the purity of my bloodline when we had kids. In reality I consider myself American and I consider my ex and my children to be American. Having said that I will on occassion celebrate my Irish heritage in odd ways. I do not drink beer and no longer drink scotch so I am left with food.

Unfortunately, food was often scarce in Ireland and potatoes kept the country alive for a long time. Ireland has a long history of using fish; but, it never traveled well within the country. After the English took over Ireland, they also took all the beef. What was left was root vegetables and the worst of all beef cuts, which was used for corned beef. They were cooked by being boiled as it used less wood for the fire and a meal could be made in one pot. When the world gives you lemons, you learn to make lemonade and the Irish found spices and boiling made the food edible and okay.

Anyways, I have been feeling better and getting back into cooking from scratch. I decided that with Saint Patricks day coming up I would go old school and boil myself a corned beef. I went to the store and found some a 2 1/2 pound piece of corned beef for $4 and took it home to prepare. I didn't expect much; but, I had picked the best cut I could find and dutifully boiled it for about 3 hours. I intended to cut it extra thin and pair it with pastrami for sandwiches. That is not going to happen, it came out perfectly tender and delicious. I hate to say it; but, it is the best corned beef I have ever cooked. If I could have cut it thinner it would have been even better in a sandwich.

Our elders knew lots of ways to use the worst and cheapest things and still make good meals. Heck, ribs used to be budget food. As we enter tougher economic times we should try and remember how our parents and grandparents made due with what they had. Oh I boiled it with a red potato, a white potato and a carrot. Those will taste fantastic tomorrow.

CNN - Assange to SXSW: We're all being watched. The title speaks for itself.

CBS - DC - Massive Police Hunt For Bank Robbers Shuts Down I-270. You cease having a right to privacy the moment you travel. Whatever happened to probable cause?

Now the fun stuff; but, to understand what is happening you have to read them in order.

Yahoo - Reuters - Fannie, Freddie could send $179.2 billion to taxpayers: White House. It turns out that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the holders of over 60% of all mortgages and they themselves are owned by the Federal government, are not only returning all their bailout money ahead of schedule; but are also on track to make the government a tidy little income stream profit. The bailout cost taxpayers about $187 billion and they are about to repay approximately $202 billion. In addition to paying us back, over the next ten years they should pay the government back about $179 billion in profit. Just imagine, with that return we could fully fund Social Security for a very long time.

Bloomberg - Westhus Reaping Fannie Windfall to Rival Big Short: Mortgages. Okay so when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac looked like they would go bankrupt, a few knowledgeable investors bought up their preferred stock (which do not have voting rights, they are more like company debt than ownership). So the people that bought the preferred stock now know that there is a big payday coming to the Treasury and they want the money themselves. The Treasury has common stock and that allows it to vote on how and who gets paid when profits are made. It should be noted that Preferred stock does not usually share in the profits as much as the common stock which is now owned by the Treasury.


Finance & Commerce.com - Bill would eliminate Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. The first two stories show that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are about to make $179 billion for someone and it should go to the taxpayer; but, private money wants it first. That is a lot of money on the table which might explain this move. Some congressman are now looking to fast track the idea of selling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while still keeping the government on the hook if the mortgages fail. Selling off all the value and keeping all the risk. These people are criminals. What is particularly interesting to me is how quickly the idea of selling off the stock came up after it was determined that the stock had value and our representatives willingness to guarantee our taxes to pay off any losses even once the stock is sold.

I believe the creation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was a mistake. I believe it allowed the cost of housing go up more than it otherwise would have and I do not believe the government should be backing up any loans. I also don't believe in corporate subsidies or tax deductions. I believe everyone should pay the same percentage of their income regardless of how it was earned in the year it was paid to them. Now that we are past all of that, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do exist and were going to go bankrupt and the taxpayers bailed them out.

Isn't it funny how right after it was announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would pay a return to the Treasury (the taxpayers who bailed them out), the fight became over who in private finance would steal the profit from the taxpayers and keep it for themselves and neither of the last two articles really showed any concern over the value of this asset to taxpayers.

Don't trust the mainstream media, they are nothing other than a puppet for the wealthy. And don't trust the alternative media as they tend to be busy trying to sell you stuff like gold that has no real value. We are flooded with garbage, lies and deception so that the wolves can take advantage of the sheep and we are told we deserve to be taken of advantage of because people are sheep, it is all a lie to fulfill greed and selfishness with a justification our abusers like.

Being Home and News

I have been away from home for the past few days to see my new grandchild. I could have driven home each night; but, decided to rent a hotel near the hospital. I stayed at a nice hotel, had some lovely meals and took care of a lot of business (including getting my cars maintenance done), best of all, I got to hold my grandchild and she is lovely. Having said all that, it sure is great to be home. I came back exhausted, I just don't travel as well as I did when I was younger. While I was gone I saved some links to news stories I thought might be of interest.

Yahoo - The Exchange - Wealth rebounds — but mostly for the wealthy. The bottom line is that the total wealth of the nation has increased since the financial crisis; but, all the increases only went to the wealthy and the rest of us lost out, there has been no trickle down and no job creation. There has only been a transfer of wealth to those who caused the financial meltdown.

NBC Bay Area - NASA Admits to Selling Discount Fuel to Google Execs. Bottom line, Nasa was selling jet fuel to Google at half price. The question is not why Google would buy the fuel; but, why NASA would sell it to them at half price. To really understand that we would have to know what Google was doing for the United States.

Yahoo - Business Insider - Scientists Scanned A Woman's Brain During An Out-Of-Body Experience — And What They Found Was Amazing. Another case of garbage science trying to prove a point. A woman who claims to be able to cause herself to have out of body experiences has a brain scan while going through an episode and some "scientists" extrapolate that her brain activity is therefore the same as people who have a near death experience. One glaring problem, aside from the fact she was not dying, is that if the two things were the same then we would see the same parts of the brain activated during a near death experience; but, we do not because the near death experience has been recorded in people with NO BRAIN ACTIVITY.

Reuters - Man called Bitcoin's father denies ties, leads LA car chase. I love this story, someone managed to find the guy behind Bitcoin; but, he says he cannot talk about it. In addition, the people who actually worked with the person who created Bitcoin say they never met him and all communications were electronic. Doesn't it make you wonder why, if it is true. My answer is simple, this guy was merely feeding information to some programmers so that they would create Bitcoin and then use it to test out how people would use an electronic currency.

Mail Online - It's very hard to know why people go to food banks, claims Tory welfare minister Lord Freud
. A great example of how dissociated the wealthy are from the rest of us. One of the people responsible for taking care of the poor in England cannot figure out why people might go to food banks.

Bloomberg News - Global Debt Exceeds $100 Trillion as Governments Binge, BIS Says. I find it interesting that global debt is up 40% since the crash and yet the debt is claimed to be government debt at a time when governments are providing less and less services to it's citizens. Where did the money go.

Bloomberg News - Carney Faces Leadership Test as Currency Scandal Snares BOE. The central Bank of England (similar to the Federal Reserve) has been caught fixing financial markets again.

Well, I am exhausted and going to bed. Have a great week.

News of things to come

Yahoo - Reuters - Global super rich eye office blocks over mansions as wealth hits $20 trillion. Suddenly the super rich are buying more and more commercial properties at a time when commercial properties are losing value; but, it is better to own real assets then hold paper money. Remember this, when they did the bail ins in Cyprus, they didn't take property or assets, they just confiscated your cash.

The Washington Times - Cop-killer case sinks Obama Justice nominee. A nominee to be in the civil rights division of the Department of Justice. He was turned down by the senate because he defended a "cop killer". That is what defense attorney's do. John Adams, our second president (who, by the way, always opposed slavery) was the defense attorney for the British soldiers who shot Americans in the Boston Massacre. Adams also helped write the Declaration of Independence. How can we trust someone to lead the legal system if they refuse to defend people in court so they can get a job for the Justice Department?

When I was in law school, I had a family friend who was a relatively famous attorney. One day he invited me to his beach house for the weekend and took me out for a lovely dinner (in fact, when I graduated, he allowed me to use his beach house for a family celebration). At dinner I mentioned that I was not interested in being involved in defense work and he asked me if I believe in the idea of due process. He asked how we could have a fair legal system if only bad attorneys were defense attorneys and said that it was not an attorney's job to decide guilt or innocence; but, the judge and jury's job. What kind of legal system would we have if your attorney acted as your judge? Think about it.

Occupy.com - Web of Debt - The Stone that Brings Down Goliath?
. I wrote about this when it first came up but I don't remember what I said, it doesn't matter. The short of it is that one city has determined that it can take over properties with bad mortgages through the use of eminent domain from the banks. Many people love this idea; but, they miss the point as did the article. You cannot take from the banks that which they do not own. The banks do not own the mortgages. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (both government entities now) own over 60% of all the mortgages and the Federal Reserve most of what remains. Cities, states and counties cannot use eminent domain against the Federal government, it is all a joke. While the left and the right argue over the right of cities, counties and states to use eminent domain to take over these properties to "help homeowners", it is irrelevant as the Federal government owns the properties and does not need the same chain of title.

Yahoo - 5 futuristic ATM features we can't wait to check out. The article makes me sick. Basically it is all about how losing your privacy and having to use biometrics to access money is a really exciting and fun thing to do.

The Blaze - Obamacare Architect: ‘Be Prepared to Kiss Your Insurance Company Good-Bye Forever’. Firstly, Glenn Beck is just another Ayn Rand type moron to me, an extremist. His organization is bemoaning the fact that medical insurance companies will change and cheaper ones will replace them. The reason medical costs have risen so much is because medical insurance companies wanted them to so that they could charge more in premiums, it was not to their advantage to keep costs down, only to push higher premiums and co-payments and that is why they allowed costs to raise.

NY Times - DealBook - In Banking Overhaul Fight, a Ruckus Over an Obscure Product. The article, like many others is so uninformed on the big issues. The article claims that JP Morgan and two other big banks own 71% of all Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs)which is basically subprime loans to small businesses bundled in groups. The banks hold them and created them; but, usually sold them to pension funds and other countries or hold them at face value (rather than marked to market - current valuation) as an asset in lieu of holding real assets. It is an accounting trick.

New York Times - Study Gives Hope of Altering Genes to Repel H.I.V.. We can change your genetics now, we are god or foolish.

If we love more than we hate, if we forgive more than we accuse, have we not added to the totality of love and forgiveness? The universe is big and we are small; but, we do contribute to the overall experience of the universe. We can add love and forgiveness or add hate and condemnation. Jesus said to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. Don't hate your enemy, don't hate those who abuse you, don't hate.

Random News and Waiting for My First Grandchild

My eldest is pregnant and a week overdue. It is quite frustrating just waiting. Now, to the news.

New York Times - In Search of a Stable Electronic Currency. When I was an undergraduate in college studying for my degree in Political Science, one of my teachers required us to read either the New York Times everyday or the Christian Science Monitor (he was not of that faith), he claimed they were the two best and most objective newspapers. He required that we read it everyday from cover to cover. He would then give us tests which included issues that were in all the different sections.

The above article is interesting in that it discusses how Bitcoin will fail; but, has led the way in showing us how to adapt to an international electronic currency. Here is a quote from the article, "And there could be a “trills” unit — a concept that Mark Kamstra of York University and I have been advocating — that represents one trillionth of a country’s most recently estimated annual G.D.P. There should also be a unit that grows or retreats with per-capita daily consumption. This could be used for pension and Social Security payments as a form of intergenerational risk-sharing: The idea is that payments to older people would rise and fall with overall consumption. With many kinds of baskets, it will be easier to set prices and make contracts that are sensible for the long term."

Remember that quote, in the end, in my opinion, Bitcoin has been nothing more than a dry run for instituting and international, GDP based currency exchange and I have said that more than once.

Huffington Post - Wall Street Has Found Its Latest Dangerous Financial Product, Activists Warn. The story is pretty simple, hedge funds and investors have been buying up all the houses and paying cash. The article is complaining that is keeping good people from getting mortgages and buying the houses themselves and forces people into rentals. That is garbage. The real propaganda in the article is to get you to believe that the companies that own these homes are less likely to take care of them once they are rented out. I live in a rental owned by a family I know, it is a small building and fairly old. There are lots of families and people that own rental properties, I owned one. It can be a fairly passive income for retirees. What is coming is that increased pressures will be put on small owners of rental properties and they will be forced to sell their properties to these hedge funds and larger investors. The real beneficiary will be the federal government which owns Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as they own 70% or so of all the mortgages and the Federal Reserve. They are going to continue putting more and more regulations on rental properties, watch and see.

Yahoo - GMA - $10M Gold Coin Hoard Found in Yard May Have Been Stolen From Mint. This article is just amusing and gets people so emotional. A couple in California claims to have "found" $10,000,000 worth of gold coins. When this came up, I told some people that in the end the couple would not be allowed to keep any of the coins and guess what, it looks like they won't get to keep any of the coins as they "might" have been stolen back in the 1800s.

Here is the real issue, if you own gold you better be able to prove how you obtained it. A few years back the law was changed and any sale of gold valued at more than %500 must be reported to the federal government. None of the purveyors of fear of an economic crash who also sell gold bother telling people that, I don't sell anything. Don't waste your time buying gold and there will still be a complete breakdown of the current economic system which will lead to a new financial model that is all electronic and based on a countries Gross Domestic Product.

Los Angeles Daily News - Los Angeles City Council votes to regulate e-cigarettes as strictly as tobacco. It should be apparent that this type of regulation is not about harming others, it is about controlling what you do outside. E-cigarettes are not tobacco and they don't burn and they don't have a secondhand effect.

Wired - The Next Big Thing You Missed: How Starbucks Could Replace Your Bank. Here is what you need to take away from the article, traditional banking will be dead once we go to all electronic currencies. The real question is what will replace it for the average person and who loses when the big banks finally fail completely and are broken up into little local banks.

Mail Online - Turn your entire room into a SCREEN: Microsoft tool lets you browse the web and beam videos onto the walls of your home. I wrote about this over a year ago. Just imagine what kids will be like when they grow up in a safe, virtual world. They will be completely out of touch with real world risks and consequences.

Huffington Post - Obamacare Just Made Americans Richer Without Anyone Noticing. My first response is who cares as it is not about increasing the GDP, it is about making sure everyone has health insurance if they are to have access to healthcare. The first line is my favorite line, "Glenn Beck once said Obamacare would mean "the end of prosperity in America forever." LOL. Most of Europe and Canada have true government healthcare, we just force you to buy insurance, yet apparently that is going to prevent us from making money. Think about that, if you get healthcare, it means it costs your employer money. You know why, because they can't steal it because you will notice when you don't have your pills.

Huffington Post - Warren Buffett: Here's What We Need More Than A Minimum Wage Hike. I am not sure if I agree with him, he believes we should raise the tax deduction for low income earners instead of increasing the minimum wage. I think I like my idea better, what if individuals didn't have to pay anymore in taxes as a percentage of their income than companies pay or investments pay in taxes? What if rather than getting tax breaks and subsidies for corporations that outsource, we only gave companies tax breaks for investments they made in America and jobs they created in America?

Daily Beast - British Prime Minister’s Child Porn Adviser Arrested Over Child Porn. The Jimmy Saville case has exposed the political support for child molesters in Britain. There are many questions to be asked, why were these things covered up for so long, how can they be committed by the most powerful people in government and finance and why is this all coming out now; but, the most important question is how will these revelations be used to change societies? The end game explains the purpose to the other questions.

Well, that all folks, have a great week.

Electronic Currencies and Banks

I was unable to sleep last night and began watching some videos about the economy and such. That alone should have put me to sleep; but, alas it did not. As I was watching the videos a thought began developing, something I wrote about a long time ago.

Firstly, the United States Postal Service is seeking to become a sort of overnight bank for those who do not have bank accounts. Personally, I think this is fine and with the elimination of physical cash could provide a real service for a minimal rate. In England payday loans have a yearly interest rate in the thousands, in the United States the payday loan services charge interest in the hundreds and these fees are charged to the poorest, those who need payday loans. Combine this with the fact that our financial system is completely rigged and dishonest and you start having a big problems as we have been miss-allocating capital from productive use (creating jobs and businesses) into non-productive inflation in asset bubbles.

Let me put this in more easy to understand terms. If you own a home and the re-sale value of the house increases you would probably be pretty happy. The truth is that when housing prices rise quicker than incomes, you are worse off. Perhaps not immediately; but, you and future generations will pay a price as we are seeing now as it causes housing as a percentage of your income to skyrocket and take back all the increases that you saw in your house value.

I am going to move on and discuss what I see coming. Most people see banks as a place where they keep their money until they need it. Traditionally, these banks would then lend out some of your deposits to your neighbors and friends so that they could buy houses and cars and as they paid the bank back it would give you interest on your deposit. Banks acted like the stock exchange for the small guy, a way to invest in small things and get a return on that investment. It was in everyone's best interest to see a relatively stable economy and community.

In the 1980's worldwide the traditional banking system completely changed. During this time banks stopped being regulated and were allowed to do whatever they wanted with your deposit. In addition, you ceased getting a return on your savings while the banks were making more money than ever before and keeping it for themselves. All the risk was on the average depositor but he received nothing in exchange for it.

I don't know that most people will understand what I am talking about; but, it is one of the most important things I have ever written if you want to understand what happened and where we are headed and most importantly out options for the future. We are headed to a cashless society and one that will allow you, the average person, to make your deposits where you want and have them treated as investments rather than free capital for someone else to profit off of.

If we go to an all electronic banking system, why would I need a building with a safe to hold my money? The value banks still provide to the average person is that they process payments across the nation for you. Could you imagine having to go to New York every month, in person, just to hand cash to your mortgage company. We created checks to avoid that situation; but, prior to that you just walked into your local bank and paid your mortgage in cash each month. Banking was local for most people.

With electronic payments, you don't even need a check and can do the transaction on your own, it requires little if any effort from the bank as the payment is automated. Bitcoin is a good example of the future, though Bitcoin itself is unsustainable. Bitcoin does not require there to be banks. An electronic currency that self regulates. Electronic currencies do not require banks and in the future all countries will be going electronic.

If we have an all electronic currency, why would we need banks? The reason is because sometimes we have to pool together our savings so that investments in our future and one another can be done. Lets say you want to start a plumbing company, you need to have enough to buy a truck or van, purchase supplies and possibly even rent some office space. If you don't have the money, you need to borrow it and then pay people or banks back and give them some return to make it worth their while. Without banks who would be lending out sufficient funds to allow entrepreneurs to invest in the nation, in productive business?

Some are attempting to go to "Crowd Sourcing" where you go begging for money on the internet and it is an interesting approach though I am not aware of people being able to get a return on their investments. The "Veronica Mars" movie was crowdsourced and raised like $5 million dollars; but, the "investors" could not be promised to profit from their investment if the movie does well, it was really just a gift.

Imagine if you could invest directly in a movie. You favorite actor comes out and says that he is going to make the next great Western if everyone gives him $10. If I thought the movie made sense, I would give them $10 just to see it made. If the movie then made a profit, you would get your $10 back plus profit. True capitalism. Can you imagine the effect that would have on the movies that got made? Imagine that the same movie made no profit and lost money because the movie was horrible and cost to much, would you invest in that actor again? The problem with all of this is that you don't see a return on your investment fast enough to pay your bills when you live paycheck to paycheck. I need liquidity, the ability to pay bills regularly and not wait to cash out investments.

So what am I saying? With an all electronic currency, I can invest my money in business rather than bank accounts that don't pay me for using my money. I can get a return on my capital; but, I still need to keep enough in readily assessable cash to pay my ongoing costs as they arise. The highest valued stock, in history, is Berkshire Hathaway. One share of that stock has gone for as much as $150,000, it has also increased in value at roughly 25% for 40 years straight. It is a great investment; but, if you have all your money in it, you have no money to pay your monthly bills and it would make no sense to sell a share each month to pay your rent.

Now lets go back to the United States Postal Service, if they facilitated the electronic payments and were not holding your savings, where would you want to risk you excess capital? What if your neighbor could come to you and all the other neighbors and say, "Look, you all know me, I take care of my house, my kids don't get in trouble and I think we need a grocery store in the neighborhood. If you lend me the money, I will build one and I will pay you back plus let you share in my profits." If you trusted and liked the person, you might invest in his idea. That was the concept of traditional banking with local banks. We pooled our money together and lent it to people who we thought were good investments and would pay us back. It promoted community and responsibility. Foreclosure was unheard of and if it did happen everyone in town knew why you couldn't pay your bills, they knew your wife died and you were fired because you had come apart over it.

In capitalism, investment, risk should be tied to getting a return and responsibility by all parties involved. We got away from that and completely annihilated it with elimination of some very simple banking laws. That happened in the 1980's and has led to the downfall of the world's economy. At it's most fundamental, what I have just written is the most important truth fundamental to our current situation.

What if when I bought a car, I was investing in that car company? What if the car company had an interest in making sure I got a good return on my investment? What if when I bought a $20,000 car, $5,000 of it was a stock purchase and the manufacturer knew that, how would it change how they build and made cars? That is capitalism.

Investment and commitment have to go hand in hand for their to be self-regulation. With an all electronic currency, how would this best be achieved? Who holds the savings, who would be best to hold them? You certainly don't need the type of banks we have now and they will be gone soon enough. If the type of banks we have today held your money and invested it in whatever and kept all the profits then with an all electronic currency, why not just invest it yourself and get a return on your investment? Why have a savings account when you can invest your capital directly and actually get a return on it?

I watched a video of George Soros and Paul Krugman, an investor and an economist, both participants in the Council on Foreign Relations, a globalist foundation. Mr. Krugman is an economist and argues for helping the poor; but, limited government control over finances. He has been called a leftist for this. Mr. Soros takes a different approach, he believes that there should be international control over finances so that all can benefit and believes that the poor should benefit too.

We are going into a future of globalism and they are arguing over whether or not there should be regulation over it. That is the essence of the discussion. The alternative is to eliminate banks, you don't have to regulate what does not exist. I think the bankers know this and they certainly know electronic currencies are coming. Electronic currencies don't need to be created by banks, nations can do it and then central banks go bye bye.

Lets go back to my car example. What if for every car you bought, 25% of your cost was in buying stock in the manufacturer. Would you buy more or fewer foreign cars and what would you expect from them? True capitalism is connecting risk with responsibility and with return. Communism is defined as "take what you need and give what you can". Sounds good but it destroys the concept of investment, of risk and responsibility. True capitalism is based on benefiting to the degree that you have contributed.