I have not played any music today, I have not watched any television, I have kept the amount of noise to a minimum around me. I felt I needed a little quiet time to think. I love the city; but, I have spent years living in the desert and living in the woods prior to that. When I used to go backpacking, it was great. There is something about the peacefulness and quiet that goes along with it.
It is amazing how much we are bombarded by information. Our senses are constantly being overloaded with noise, light, motion. I personally cannot stand to be in a dance club. I fear for the kids of today, this place is beginning to look more and more like Tokyo. Their lives are wrapped in social networking to the point where everything is public. I saw an article today that said that 94% of Brit's would give up sex rather than their cell phone. Mail Online - 94% of UK adults would rather live without sex than their mobile phone. Now to the news.
Yahoo News - AP - US Treasury takes step to avoid hitting debt limit
US Treasury to halt sales of securities to state, local gov'ts to avoid breaching debt limit. I am not quite sure what this one means; but, it is worth watching to see the effect it has on state and local governments. It may mean that they have to keep the money in the banks. If those banks were to fail and a "bail in" occurred, would they be the largest stock owners of their local banks?
Inforwars - What Are These Weird Street Signs Being Installed in Las Vegas? I don't generally link to Infowars and believe they have a very strong tendency to look for the boogeyman under every bed. My opinion. This particular story is interesting for other reasons. One commenter stated that the signs looked like highway signs for redirecting traffic on streets if the highway were down. As I pointed out previously, the new federal funding legislation for municipal roads claims that all major (arterial) roads are now part of the National Highway System. Perhaps this is a "sign" of things to come as the fed takes over local right of ways.
Wired - New Cash Registers Are Sexy, But What’s Beneath the Counter Matters More. An article showing the cash register of the future; but, it doesn't take cash from what I can see. It only takes electronic purchases. Still, it is pretty.
Mail Online - New spectre of cloned babies: Scientists create embryos in lab that 'could grow to full term'.
Yahoo News - AP - Nasdaq stocks posting largest volume decreases. If people are not trading, something is coming.
LifeNews.com - Unethical Scientists are Making Human-Animal Hybrids, Again
. The problem is that science teaches that people are not unique and not special, we are flukes of the universe and we believe we can do a better job than nature or God. This will not go well.
Mail Online - Google unveils superfast quantum computer that could cure diseases, stop global warming and even learn to drive a car
.
The Guardian - Fury at corporate tax avoidance leads to call for a global response. Get ready for it, global tax regulation by an international body. First they will come for the big companies that are truly avoiding taxes and then, then they will come for every transaction made on the internet and maybe that is not a bad thing. My issue is not with internationally regulated currencies or internationally enforced taxes. If we sell in another country, we need to abide by their rules and vice versa. My bigger concern is the globalization of what is and is not acceptable because we don't get to vote on those things.
Huffington Post - Kirsten Gillibrand Aims To Jumpstart Student Loan Refinancings With New Bill. Nothing is free in this world and there will be a price to pay. It may not be apparent yet; but, it will show itself later. The same thing holds true for people who bought risky loans, refinanced and think they have outsmarted the system. Nope, you didn't, you did exactly what they wanted you to do.
Wired - Welcome to the Programmable World
. A decent article about how everything is going to be connected to the internet. The term they use is "the internet of things". I recommend you read the whole article and ask yourself what will not be known about you in the future.
Yahoo - CNBC - New Bill to Colleges: Prove Your Worth
. Colleges are going to be asked to prove to students that they will be able to get good paying jobs. What would you do if you could only get into a college that you believed graduation from meant you would get a good job; but, you were not admitted to the ones that had a higher return? What is the real driving force behind all of these attacks on the value of a college education? They are telling the poor and middle class that if you cannot afford to go to the best colleges, you shouldn't bother going at all. They are lowering expectations because there is less for Americans to expect in the future. Don't expect to own a home, don't expect to go to college, don't expect to live alone and don't expect to have much private space (270 square feet is enough). They are telling us something really simple, EXPECT LESS.
INRIX. They watch you move, they watch you travel, they monitor transportation for your benefit. How do they get all that information if not from the cities, states and fed?
Huffington Post - Transforming Capitalism Won't Happen Without Leadership. We do not live in a capitalistic society and maybe never have. Certainly, with all the misdeeds of the banks and insurance companies and industries and the regulators, the system is rigged and far from honest. The system will change because it will fail even more. The question is what will replace it.
Huffington Post - Launching the Internet of Everything One Startup at a Time. Again we see the internet of everything, it is time when everything is connected and monitored and analyzed. The movie the Matrix was interesting, it envisioned a future where we lived in virtual realities and that is the world we are building.
A Farewell and a song. Washington Post - AP - Ray Manzarek, keyboardist and founding member of The Doors, dies at 74 from cancer. Ray Manzarek was the keyboardist for The Doors. A friend of mine's father played on one of their albums. Mr. Manzarek was as important to that band as the others. He started the band with Morrison and it had a very distinctive sound. It will be the first music I listen to today. My favorite song by The Doors - YouTube - L.A. Woman. Thanks for the music and goodbye Mr. Manzarek.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
how do you find truth inside
I regularly check the stats on this blog, everytime I post, I check the stats. I don't fixate on it, I just look to see what people are searching and which posts are being read. I am always fascinated to find that people from other countries read it, it amazes me that Russians are the second most common group. Often I check to see which searches led people to my site. Today, I found the following search "how do you find truth inside" and it stopped me.
This blog is called "The Truth is Inside You" and someone wanted to know how to find the truth inside themselves and were led here. I think I want to answer their question, at least to the best of my ability. Who knows, maybe someone else will come here with the same question someday.
I called this blog, "The Truth is Inside You" because I believe it. The one thing that we can know is that we are, that we exist. It is an absolute truth and the only one that can be known absolutely. The nature of our existence is open to discussion, the fact of our existence is not. I began this blog (first iteration, since destroyed) by talking about the philosophical meaning of existence. Yes, the first iteration of this blog was very deep into philosophy and God. The second iteration was more about how the world system works. I destroyed that one too. Yet, for all this time the issue was about the truths that we can know and can assume and the deceit regarding what is true.
So, to the question. How do you find truth inside you? How does one find oneself? Whoever you are is your truth, not who I think you are and whoever you are is as important as any other person because we all have to live our own lives. We seek pleasure because this physical world is tough and has lots of unpleasurable things in it. Who we are is the collection of choices we make. The ones where we are selfless define us, the ones where we are selfish also define us and once we pass on, we are whoever we chose to be in making our choices.
To find the truth inside, you merely have to admit who you are. The challenge of life is to choose who you want to be and it doesn't have to be the same as who you are today. Babies are born completely selfish; but, they learn. The Peter Pan syndrome is all about not wanting to grow up, it is about wanting to remain forever selfish, a child.
The truth is not the mistakes you made (though it is part of it), the truth is not who want to be (though that is also part of it), the truth is who you choose to be and which battles you choose to fight and why. I've been called a lot of things in my life and many of them were and are true; but, it is only part of the story. I am everything I have thought, everything I have done and everything I have chose not to do.
I went to the store today, there was someone collecting money for the homeless shelter. I didn't know what was in my wallet, I thought I had a 5. Turned out I had two ones and an 20. I wanted to give five; but, had to make a choice. Should I give the two ones or the 20. I gave the 20, I made a choice and also decided to make sure I had 10s and 5s on me in the future. I give money to charity every day, just about literally everyday.
I had a friend, I loved him very much. He was one of the most sincere, dedicated and loving people I have ever known. I still miss him, he was older and passed away. The Pimpernel has been and is blessed with some of the best friends a man could ever wish for. I used to tell my friend that I was always where I was supposed to be when I supposed to be there. He understood it about me, he liked that about me. He was also a spiritual person. He understood what I meant. I don't choose who I am around very much, I let them choose me or not. I do not wish to fake who I am and don't want others to fake who they are. I don't want to control who others are; but, I don't want to be too long around people that are only negative. That is who I am partly, who knows who I will become; but, the choices I make will define who I am more than they could possibly define who others are. I cannot define others for themselves, I cannot define their choices or their reasons, they do that.
You don't find the truth inside you, you admit it. You are you and you make choices based on what you have faith in. Belief is a non-sense word, it just really is used to mean something you want to think is true. Faith means that you act on your belief. If you have faith that the moon is made of gold then you will spend all the money you can to go there and mine gold. If your beliefs do not effect your actions then you are lying to yourself about what you really believe.
We want to believe that we are good people. Most people lie to themselves about who they are. They tell themselves that they think others are just as important as they are and then vote to end food stamps or whatever might help someone else in need because it will hurt their pocketbook and someone else should be helping. At some point in time, who should help becomes irrelevant and who does help is all that the person in need knows.
How do you find the truth inside you, it is simple, stop lying to yourself about who you are and focus on who you want to be rather than focusing on who you want others to be. Create the you that you want to be and know that you will be imperfect, I haven't met a perfect person yet. I read that there is none good but God. The rest of us are all works in progress at least we hope we progress.
This blog is called "The Truth is Inside You" and someone wanted to know how to find the truth inside themselves and were led here. I think I want to answer their question, at least to the best of my ability. Who knows, maybe someone else will come here with the same question someday.
I called this blog, "The Truth is Inside You" because I believe it. The one thing that we can know is that we are, that we exist. It is an absolute truth and the only one that can be known absolutely. The nature of our existence is open to discussion, the fact of our existence is not. I began this blog (first iteration, since destroyed) by talking about the philosophical meaning of existence. Yes, the first iteration of this blog was very deep into philosophy and God. The second iteration was more about how the world system works. I destroyed that one too. Yet, for all this time the issue was about the truths that we can know and can assume and the deceit regarding what is true.
So, to the question. How do you find truth inside you? How does one find oneself? Whoever you are is your truth, not who I think you are and whoever you are is as important as any other person because we all have to live our own lives. We seek pleasure because this physical world is tough and has lots of unpleasurable things in it. Who we are is the collection of choices we make. The ones where we are selfless define us, the ones where we are selfish also define us and once we pass on, we are whoever we chose to be in making our choices.
To find the truth inside, you merely have to admit who you are. The challenge of life is to choose who you want to be and it doesn't have to be the same as who you are today. Babies are born completely selfish; but, they learn. The Peter Pan syndrome is all about not wanting to grow up, it is about wanting to remain forever selfish, a child.
The truth is not the mistakes you made (though it is part of it), the truth is not who want to be (though that is also part of it), the truth is who you choose to be and which battles you choose to fight and why. I've been called a lot of things in my life and many of them were and are true; but, it is only part of the story. I am everything I have thought, everything I have done and everything I have chose not to do.
I went to the store today, there was someone collecting money for the homeless shelter. I didn't know what was in my wallet, I thought I had a 5. Turned out I had two ones and an 20. I wanted to give five; but, had to make a choice. Should I give the two ones or the 20. I gave the 20, I made a choice and also decided to make sure I had 10s and 5s on me in the future. I give money to charity every day, just about literally everyday.
I had a friend, I loved him very much. He was one of the most sincere, dedicated and loving people I have ever known. I still miss him, he was older and passed away. The Pimpernel has been and is blessed with some of the best friends a man could ever wish for. I used to tell my friend that I was always where I was supposed to be when I supposed to be there. He understood it about me, he liked that about me. He was also a spiritual person. He understood what I meant. I don't choose who I am around very much, I let them choose me or not. I do not wish to fake who I am and don't want others to fake who they are. I don't want to control who others are; but, I don't want to be too long around people that are only negative. That is who I am partly, who knows who I will become; but, the choices I make will define who I am more than they could possibly define who others are. I cannot define others for themselves, I cannot define their choices or their reasons, they do that.
You don't find the truth inside you, you admit it. You are you and you make choices based on what you have faith in. Belief is a non-sense word, it just really is used to mean something you want to think is true. Faith means that you act on your belief. If you have faith that the moon is made of gold then you will spend all the money you can to go there and mine gold. If your beliefs do not effect your actions then you are lying to yourself about what you really believe.
We want to believe that we are good people. Most people lie to themselves about who they are. They tell themselves that they think others are just as important as they are and then vote to end food stamps or whatever might help someone else in need because it will hurt their pocketbook and someone else should be helping. At some point in time, who should help becomes irrelevant and who does help is all that the person in need knows.
How do you find the truth inside you, it is simple, stop lying to yourself about who you are and focus on who you want to be rather than focusing on who you want others to be. Create the you that you want to be and know that you will be imperfect, I haven't met a perfect person yet. I read that there is none good but God. The rest of us are all works in progress at least we hope we progress.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
A Response to an anonymous comment regarding currencies.
Dear Anonymous,
What great questions. I will attempt to answer while giving additional detail and background for those who may not be following these issues.
Fiat Currencies - Physical cash is of course merely paper in today's society. At best it is metal coins; but, who likes to carry around coins anymore. We created paper currency because it is easier than carrying around $100 in pennies or carrying around physical items to barter. Could you imagine bartering cows for a car or a house? The currencies merely represent a promise to redeem with labor and goods. So far, so good. Unfortunately, governments and banks determined that they could charge interest and game the system. Financial people discovered that they could make a profit by manipulating the value of the currencies without actually contributing labor or materials to anything of value.
The creation of physical paper currencies without them being pegged to anything meant that governments and banks could just print more money. The best example of this was probably Germany's hyperinflation prior to the Nazi's coming to power. Stories were told of people bringing wheel barrels of cash into stores just to buy a loaf of bread. The hyperinflation was done in order to pay off foreign debts cheaply. Today we call these things currency wars. The effect within a country of inflation is that it works as a form of taxation, reducing the value of what you have saved and increasing the cash a country can spend.
Prior to there being lots of international trade, it was not as important. With the rise in globalism, currency manipulation becomes more of a problem. For a while there were seven "hard currencies", these were currencies that were accepted worldwide because of faith in their underlying stability and because the countries with the hard currencies were selling products that others wanted. The English pound was backed by sterling silver and the American dollar was backed by gold and silver for a time.
Gold and silver were in limited supply and it was difficult to match the amount of gold to the true value of currencies which is in the underlying promise of labor and materials. A good example is food. The United States was able to produce lots of food and the food was exported; but, a currency backed by gold could not match the amount of food that was being produced. I recently watched a video where it was claimed that to produce a bushel of wheat requires a gallon of oil (transportation of the food required the use of the oil). There is however no direct connection between gold reserves and how much food can be produced. Since the 1900s, the real value of money became based on oil and oil was and is still traded in dollars; but, that is coming to an end.
Now here is the question I was asked. "The BRICS are looking to exit the USD as a reserve currency, how do you think it will play out with regard to the fed/imf/ecb etcdebt backed paper VS BRICS asset backed alternative reserve currency?" I don't see the BRICs as having an asset backed currency. The IMF and the BRICs have moved towards using "Special Drawing Rights", which is nothing more than a collection of currencies used as a reserve.
There are others who have accurately predicted our current situation; however, most of them are selling gold or silver. They call for a return to gold backed currencies; but, the BRICs real value is in their cheap labor and abundant minerals and goods for sale. Brazil does not need a gold backed currency and neither does Russia or India or even China. We want their products, not their gold.
By inflating their currency, Japan is making it's products more expensive to foreign nations except to nations which purchase using the dollar. Japan needs foreign oil. It has been claimed that the reasons Japan attacked Pearl Harbor was because we had restricted it's ability to buy oil prior to World War II in response to their military actions in Asia. People will go to war over real assets, things that they need to survive such as food, water, oil and now technology. There is much evidence and it had been predicted that the Soviet Union would collapse because of their inability to keep up with the wests technology. The USSR had a closed society and was unwilling to share information within it's own borders. This made taking advantage of computers and high tech difficult for them. Nobody goes to war over gold because you can live quite well without it.
The current value of gold did not go up because it is harder to find, it is actually being mined more now then two decades ago. As the value of gold went up, it made sense to mine it in areas where it was more costly. The true underlying value of gold has nothing to do with it's trading value. It does not cost $1,800 to mine one ounce of gold and the trading value of gold rises and drops totally unrelated to the cost to produce, refine and transport it. People have sold themselves into slavery in the past; but, not for gold. They sold themselves into slavery for food and shelter.
Lets say that America sold all of it's gold to China and paid off all our foreign debt, would it matter? The dollar is not backed by gold now and hasn't been for a long time. Yet, the dollar was the most important currency in the world and has truly been the only world currency in the history of the world. The dollar's real value has been that it was backed up by oil. That is why other countries saw the dollar itself as a commodity.
I promise I will answer the question. In a world of global trading, the total value of a nations assets is what should and will back up the underlying currencies. The IMF has called for all currencies to be pegged to the nations GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The GDP is the value of all final goods and services produced by a country in a single year. Now, it is true that the G20 and others have called for a single world currency; but, the value of it would still be the worlds GDP. It does not matter what the coin looks like, the question is what is it's trading value based on.
There are two scenarios where the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China)might create an asset backed currency; but, neither is necessarily good for them. Lets say the BRICs backed their currency with gold. There is not enough gold in the world to back their currencies. A gram of gold would be equivalent to a years wages for some people in China. Now if the trading value of gold dropped to $30 it might work; but, then why back your currency by gold in the first place.
Germany is asking for roughly 500 tons of their gold to be put back in their nation (Germany like many other countries keeps much of it's gold in the United States of England, this was done in case the Soviet Union invaded them and for ease in international trade transactions). It is estimated that it will take 7 years to physically return the gold to Germany. The cost and hassle of nations trading in gold is unrealistic and not very effective in a world where international trade is done in seconds.
In my opinion, a gold backed currency makes no sense in the world anymore. Gold deposits can be part of what a nations currency is pegged to; but, there is really little need or any direct connection between gold and the value of what a nation produces. Trading gold therefore is just a much a fiat currency as is paper currencies. My biggest problem with gold is that it doesn't make sense on an individual level. During the depression gold could and was confiscated in the United States by the government and it still retains the right to do it again. All transactions over $500 to purchase gold must be reported to the government; but, the people selling gold don't really explain this. To get around this people began trading in gold options, stock in gold without the actual physical gold. That is a totally fiat currency.
Lets say that gold went to $100,000 an ounce, so what. It just means that the currency is valueless. What do you do after you sell the gold because you cannot trade in it directly. You cannot buy a new car with a chunk of gold. Gold dust will not pay rent or buy food or anything else. The current bubble in gold will burst; but, if it just keeps going up, it makes it less and less likely that it could be used in a barter system.
Here is what I think is behind all of this. Putin would not have promoted a single world currency if he thought that the BRICs were going to have their own asset backed currency and become the reserve currency of the world. The threat of a BRIC currency replacing the dollar is merely an attempt to convince the rest of the world to accept a single world currency and that is what the IMF is promoting.
We sold a lot of our debt to China, if the dollar is to completely collapse they get little in return. By pegging all currencies to a nations GDP, the Chinese are guaranteed to get real assets from us. It would prevent us from hyper-inflating our currency which is what Japan and the United States are doing in different ways.
While Wall Street is the leading place for stock transactions, the City of London is the financial capital for currency and debt valuations. That is why the LIBOR scandal is so important. LIBOR is a rate set by London banks for overnight trades, it is an interest rate. Turns out the system was rigged because it was not based on anything tangible, it was set by the banks themselves. Since then it has been hypothesized that most of the markets have rigged the setting of rates and this includes the rates for gold. The most successful investor in history is Warren Buffet and he has never been a big proponent of gold.
So, there is my long winded answer. I don't see the BRICs going to a true asset backed currency and if they did, it would quickly prove unsuccessful. One last thing, England sold off quite a lot of their gold not long ago and did so fairly cheaply. We have to wonder why. The City of London is the financial capital, they set many of the rates; but, the English got out of the gold standard.
In the end there is no single commodity that directly has it's value associated to a nations value. Why not back our currencies with diamonds? It makes just as much sense. What if we backed up our currency with the amount of food we produced and exported, that would make more sense. I trade food to Saudi Arabia in exchange for oil, that is a truly asset backed currency.
I want to thank the commenter for their question. I hope I provided enough background so all of the readers could understand my answer.
UPDATE: The following article is about why the EURO is going to be destroyed. The Atlantic - The Euro Is Still Doomed, in 2 Charts. What it says that is very interesting is that the EURO is fixed in value regardless of the country using it. If one country starts producing less it does not bring down the value of the underlying currency. This is why Germany had to bail out Greece, to protect it's Euro. It is a short article; but, a good one and I think it adds to the conversation.
What great questions. I will attempt to answer while giving additional detail and background for those who may not be following these issues.
Fiat Currencies - Physical cash is of course merely paper in today's society. At best it is metal coins; but, who likes to carry around coins anymore. We created paper currency because it is easier than carrying around $100 in pennies or carrying around physical items to barter. Could you imagine bartering cows for a car or a house? The currencies merely represent a promise to redeem with labor and goods. So far, so good. Unfortunately, governments and banks determined that they could charge interest and game the system. Financial people discovered that they could make a profit by manipulating the value of the currencies without actually contributing labor or materials to anything of value.
The creation of physical paper currencies without them being pegged to anything meant that governments and banks could just print more money. The best example of this was probably Germany's hyperinflation prior to the Nazi's coming to power. Stories were told of people bringing wheel barrels of cash into stores just to buy a loaf of bread. The hyperinflation was done in order to pay off foreign debts cheaply. Today we call these things currency wars. The effect within a country of inflation is that it works as a form of taxation, reducing the value of what you have saved and increasing the cash a country can spend.
Prior to there being lots of international trade, it was not as important. With the rise in globalism, currency manipulation becomes more of a problem. For a while there were seven "hard currencies", these were currencies that were accepted worldwide because of faith in their underlying stability and because the countries with the hard currencies were selling products that others wanted. The English pound was backed by sterling silver and the American dollar was backed by gold and silver for a time.
Gold and silver were in limited supply and it was difficult to match the amount of gold to the true value of currencies which is in the underlying promise of labor and materials. A good example is food. The United States was able to produce lots of food and the food was exported; but, a currency backed by gold could not match the amount of food that was being produced. I recently watched a video where it was claimed that to produce a bushel of wheat requires a gallon of oil (transportation of the food required the use of the oil). There is however no direct connection between gold reserves and how much food can be produced. Since the 1900s, the real value of money became based on oil and oil was and is still traded in dollars; but, that is coming to an end.
Now here is the question I was asked. "The BRICS are looking to exit the USD as a reserve currency, how do you think it will play out with regard to the fed/imf/ecb etcdebt backed paper VS BRICS asset backed alternative reserve currency?" I don't see the BRICs as having an asset backed currency. The IMF and the BRICs have moved towards using "Special Drawing Rights", which is nothing more than a collection of currencies used as a reserve.
There are others who have accurately predicted our current situation; however, most of them are selling gold or silver. They call for a return to gold backed currencies; but, the BRICs real value is in their cheap labor and abundant minerals and goods for sale. Brazil does not need a gold backed currency and neither does Russia or India or even China. We want their products, not their gold.
By inflating their currency, Japan is making it's products more expensive to foreign nations except to nations which purchase using the dollar. Japan needs foreign oil. It has been claimed that the reasons Japan attacked Pearl Harbor was because we had restricted it's ability to buy oil prior to World War II in response to their military actions in Asia. People will go to war over real assets, things that they need to survive such as food, water, oil and now technology. There is much evidence and it had been predicted that the Soviet Union would collapse because of their inability to keep up with the wests technology. The USSR had a closed society and was unwilling to share information within it's own borders. This made taking advantage of computers and high tech difficult for them. Nobody goes to war over gold because you can live quite well without it.
The current value of gold did not go up because it is harder to find, it is actually being mined more now then two decades ago. As the value of gold went up, it made sense to mine it in areas where it was more costly. The true underlying value of gold has nothing to do with it's trading value. It does not cost $1,800 to mine one ounce of gold and the trading value of gold rises and drops totally unrelated to the cost to produce, refine and transport it. People have sold themselves into slavery in the past; but, not for gold. They sold themselves into slavery for food and shelter.
Lets say that America sold all of it's gold to China and paid off all our foreign debt, would it matter? The dollar is not backed by gold now and hasn't been for a long time. Yet, the dollar was the most important currency in the world and has truly been the only world currency in the history of the world. The dollar's real value has been that it was backed up by oil. That is why other countries saw the dollar itself as a commodity.
I promise I will answer the question. In a world of global trading, the total value of a nations assets is what should and will back up the underlying currencies. The IMF has called for all currencies to be pegged to the nations GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The GDP is the value of all final goods and services produced by a country in a single year. Now, it is true that the G20 and others have called for a single world currency; but, the value of it would still be the worlds GDP. It does not matter what the coin looks like, the question is what is it's trading value based on.
There are two scenarios where the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China)might create an asset backed currency; but, neither is necessarily good for them. Lets say the BRICs backed their currency with gold. There is not enough gold in the world to back their currencies. A gram of gold would be equivalent to a years wages for some people in China. Now if the trading value of gold dropped to $30 it might work; but, then why back your currency by gold in the first place.
Germany is asking for roughly 500 tons of their gold to be put back in their nation (Germany like many other countries keeps much of it's gold in the United States of England, this was done in case the Soviet Union invaded them and for ease in international trade transactions). It is estimated that it will take 7 years to physically return the gold to Germany. The cost and hassle of nations trading in gold is unrealistic and not very effective in a world where international trade is done in seconds.
In my opinion, a gold backed currency makes no sense in the world anymore. Gold deposits can be part of what a nations currency is pegged to; but, there is really little need or any direct connection between gold and the value of what a nation produces. Trading gold therefore is just a much a fiat currency as is paper currencies. My biggest problem with gold is that it doesn't make sense on an individual level. During the depression gold could and was confiscated in the United States by the government and it still retains the right to do it again. All transactions over $500 to purchase gold must be reported to the government; but, the people selling gold don't really explain this. To get around this people began trading in gold options, stock in gold without the actual physical gold. That is a totally fiat currency.
Lets say that gold went to $100,000 an ounce, so what. It just means that the currency is valueless. What do you do after you sell the gold because you cannot trade in it directly. You cannot buy a new car with a chunk of gold. Gold dust will not pay rent or buy food or anything else. The current bubble in gold will burst; but, if it just keeps going up, it makes it less and less likely that it could be used in a barter system.
Here is what I think is behind all of this. Putin would not have promoted a single world currency if he thought that the BRICs were going to have their own asset backed currency and become the reserve currency of the world. The threat of a BRIC currency replacing the dollar is merely an attempt to convince the rest of the world to accept a single world currency and that is what the IMF is promoting.
We sold a lot of our debt to China, if the dollar is to completely collapse they get little in return. By pegging all currencies to a nations GDP, the Chinese are guaranteed to get real assets from us. It would prevent us from hyper-inflating our currency which is what Japan and the United States are doing in different ways.
While Wall Street is the leading place for stock transactions, the City of London is the financial capital for currency and debt valuations. That is why the LIBOR scandal is so important. LIBOR is a rate set by London banks for overnight trades, it is an interest rate. Turns out the system was rigged because it was not based on anything tangible, it was set by the banks themselves. Since then it has been hypothesized that most of the markets have rigged the setting of rates and this includes the rates for gold. The most successful investor in history is Warren Buffet and he has never been a big proponent of gold.
So, there is my long winded answer. I don't see the BRICs going to a true asset backed currency and if they did, it would quickly prove unsuccessful. One last thing, England sold off quite a lot of their gold not long ago and did so fairly cheaply. We have to wonder why. The City of London is the financial capital, they set many of the rates; but, the English got out of the gold standard.
In the end there is no single commodity that directly has it's value associated to a nations value. Why not back our currencies with diamonds? It makes just as much sense. What if we backed up our currency with the amount of food we produced and exported, that would make more sense. I trade food to Saudi Arabia in exchange for oil, that is a truly asset backed currency.
I want to thank the commenter for their question. I hope I provided enough background so all of the readers could understand my answer.
UPDATE: The following article is about why the EURO is going to be destroyed. The Atlantic - The Euro Is Still Doomed, in 2 Charts. What it says that is very interesting is that the EURO is fixed in value regardless of the country using it. If one country starts producing less it does not bring down the value of the underlying currency. This is why Germany had to bail out Greece, to protect it's Euro. It is a short article; but, a good one and I think it adds to the conversation.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Stephen Hawking is Still a Douche, the People Have Spoken
Even though this blog is primarily about current events, tech in the news, corruption and currency manipulation, the most popular posts are "Pastor Carol Daniels" and "Stephen Hawking is a Douche". Not a lot in common between the two and not much more to add in later posts by me. While I do try and see if there are updates on Pastor Daniels, I believe people who came here for that post did so because there was little information on the web. I don't believe my post was brilliant or that I necessarily added anything to the conversation; however, I did very much appreciate the kind words of her relatives and I did not destroy this version of my blog because I wanted the information to stay out there until and if her killer(s) are ever caught. My prayers and thoughts are forever with the Daniels family.
As for Stephen Hawking, it cracks me up that so many people have searched his name and douche. LOL. I searched the terms using Yahoo and came up number one. ROFL. Unlike Pastor Daniels, I never try and see if Mr. Hawking has any new articles about him, I really don't care for him and don't care about him much. For the last month there has been a spike in searches regarding Mr. Hawking and his being a douche.
I have just seen the connection. Pastor Daniels was a loving pastor who sought to help others because of her love for God and others; whereas, Mr. Hawking is a conceited, nasty man who wants us all to know that there is no God because he doesn't believe in him. About 1/30th of all my hits were because of my original post on Pastor Daniels. Mr. Hawking is responsible for about 1/60th of all my hits. I doubt very much that anyone who came here from either of those posts stuck around to read my other things. It doesn't really matter; but, I do find it interesting.
I get to watch when traffic to the site goes up or down and what people are looking at. When the post on Pastor Daniels goes up, I check to see if there is any news on the case. That is how I found out that the Oklahoma police had renewed the reward for evidence leading to the arrest of the guilty party. When the post on Mr. Hawking goes up, it is usually because he has said some new Anti-God comment. What does this prove to me? It proves that there are people who still care about Pastor Daniels and that there are people who still believe that Mr. Hawking is a douche.
As for Stephen Hawking, it cracks me up that so many people have searched his name and douche. LOL. I searched the terms using Yahoo and came up number one. ROFL. Unlike Pastor Daniels, I never try and see if Mr. Hawking has any new articles about him, I really don't care for him and don't care about him much. For the last month there has been a spike in searches regarding Mr. Hawking and his being a douche.
I have just seen the connection. Pastor Daniels was a loving pastor who sought to help others because of her love for God and others; whereas, Mr. Hawking is a conceited, nasty man who wants us all to know that there is no God because he doesn't believe in him. About 1/30th of all my hits were because of my original post on Pastor Daniels. Mr. Hawking is responsible for about 1/60th of all my hits. I doubt very much that anyone who came here from either of those posts stuck around to read my other things. It doesn't really matter; but, I do find it interesting.
I get to watch when traffic to the site goes up or down and what people are looking at. When the post on Pastor Daniels goes up, I check to see if there is any news on the case. That is how I found out that the Oklahoma police had renewed the reward for evidence leading to the arrest of the guilty party. When the post on Mr. Hawking goes up, it is usually because he has said some new Anti-God comment. What does this prove to me? It proves that there are people who still care about Pastor Daniels and that there are people who still believe that Mr. Hawking is a douche.
Health Insurance, Biometrics and Cash
If someone asked me, I would probably say that I believe we should have healthcare for all Americans. I do not hate the "Obamacare" law as a whole. I would like to see some changes; but, the basic idea of making sure everyone has healthcare is a good thing. I mention this because I am going to link to a site that appears much more conservative than my views. I am not promoting the site nor condemning it, I only cared about this one article.
Americans For Tax Reform - Obamacare: Taxpayers Must Report Personal Health ID Info to IRS.
The article points out that as of next year, all tax filers will also need to provide identifying health information to prove that they have health insurance as required by law or pay a fee. It does beg the question who will choose to pay a fee so that they don't have to get health insurance. If you are rich, you can just pay the fee and hire doctors as you need them. You might also remember that all of your health records must be stored electronically.
Yahoo - Lose weight with new FitBit Flex
. I know I have written about this before; but, I want to follow a line of reasoning. While I agree with universal healthcare, the manner in which it is being implemented is too totalitarian for my liking. Your lifestyle will be recorded and reported and if you are doing things that mamma don't like, momma will charge you more and believe me, if you are employed by a company they are going to require you to take care of yourself or you will be fired for costing too much in "avoidable" risks.
Here is a question, if I have a family healthcare plan and my kid is fat, will I have to pay more? Maybe I will save money if I get my kid to begin a weight loss plan and I will want to know that he is following it to save money so I might have him wear a FitBit Flex and have it report to me if he is not eating right or exercising. I would certainly want it to tell me if he was drinking or smoking, wouldn't you? We have all heard about childhood diabetes and weight being on the rise, we have to save the children, THE CHILDREN. Watch, it is coming and if you don't take care of your child's weight and health then you might just find yourself charged with child abuse.
Now, I am going to talk about money. First article is from Wired - Why $45M in Stolen Cash Still Won’t Get Rid of Hackable ATM Cards. Here is how this went down. A few scammers in multiple nations managed to steal $45 million by faking Debit cards. The article is all over the news about how these guys stole the money. The article talks about how there are safer cards with little chips in them; but, that Americans have not rushed to implement them.
Finally, Wired - Canada Will Beat U.S. to Cashless Economy
. I love the spin in the article, the question is not whether or not we are going to be cashless, the question is if the Canadians will get there first. LOL. Apparently, we are racing the Canadians to see who goes cashless first, I don't know about you but I am not trying to go cashless.
We need to ask ourselves some questions. Once we go cashless all transactions can be tracked. Can you just imagine how much that will tell others about you? I shop at Vons, they regularly have charitable contributions for a month straight (Breast Cancer, Muscular Dystrophy...). When they do these I contribute the same amount everytime I go to the store (which is pretty much daily). If I went into the store and didn't contribute, the checker would probably ask me if I was short on cash. If someone used my Vons card and didn't contribute, the system would see an anomaly. Computers can be programmed to see the same thing and your Debit and Credit cards are tracked in just that manner.
Sorry, I lost my train of thought; but, I posted what I wanted to get out. Have a great week.
Americans For Tax Reform - Obamacare: Taxpayers Must Report Personal Health ID Info to IRS.
The article points out that as of next year, all tax filers will also need to provide identifying health information to prove that they have health insurance as required by law or pay a fee. It does beg the question who will choose to pay a fee so that they don't have to get health insurance. If you are rich, you can just pay the fee and hire doctors as you need them. You might also remember that all of your health records must be stored electronically.
Yahoo - Lose weight with new FitBit Flex
. I know I have written about this before; but, I want to follow a line of reasoning. While I agree with universal healthcare, the manner in which it is being implemented is too totalitarian for my liking. Your lifestyle will be recorded and reported and if you are doing things that mamma don't like, momma will charge you more and believe me, if you are employed by a company they are going to require you to take care of yourself or you will be fired for costing too much in "avoidable" risks.
Here is a question, if I have a family healthcare plan and my kid is fat, will I have to pay more? Maybe I will save money if I get my kid to begin a weight loss plan and I will want to know that he is following it to save money so I might have him wear a FitBit Flex and have it report to me if he is not eating right or exercising. I would certainly want it to tell me if he was drinking or smoking, wouldn't you? We have all heard about childhood diabetes and weight being on the rise, we have to save the children, THE CHILDREN. Watch, it is coming and if you don't take care of your child's weight and health then you might just find yourself charged with child abuse.
Now, I am going to talk about money. First article is from Wired - Why $45M in Stolen Cash Still Won’t Get Rid of Hackable ATM Cards. Here is how this went down. A few scammers in multiple nations managed to steal $45 million by faking Debit cards. The article is all over the news about how these guys stole the money. The article talks about how there are safer cards with little chips in them; but, that Americans have not rushed to implement them.
Finally, Wired - Canada Will Beat U.S. to Cashless Economy
. I love the spin in the article, the question is not whether or not we are going to be cashless, the question is if the Canadians will get there first. LOL. Apparently, we are racing the Canadians to see who goes cashless first, I don't know about you but I am not trying to go cashless.
We need to ask ourselves some questions. Once we go cashless all transactions can be tracked. Can you just imagine how much that will tell others about you? I shop at Vons, they regularly have charitable contributions for a month straight (Breast Cancer, Muscular Dystrophy...). When they do these I contribute the same amount everytime I go to the store (which is pretty much daily). If I went into the store and didn't contribute, the checker would probably ask me if I was short on cash. If someone used my Vons card and didn't contribute, the system would see an anomaly. Computers can be programmed to see the same thing and your Debit and Credit cards are tracked in just that manner.
Sorry, I lost my train of thought; but, I posted what I wanted to get out. Have a great week.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Currency problems could be soon
I was anxious last week and did not know why. Everything was fine; but, something seemed wrong. I hate to do this; but, I had a gut feeling. I prefer analysis to "feelings"; but, sometimes you get them and sometimes you have to follow them. My brain is wired slightly weird and sometimes it picks up on things that I have to work to my conscious side. I think in patterns and when a pattern is broken, I know it. Anyways, I was seeing a pattern, a trend; but, unconsciously.
Anyways, I think I just figured out what it is. I think the currency collapse is going to begin soon. Last week the Japanese yen began to collapse. In and of itself, I do not consider that significant for others countries. Then I read another article about how trillions of dollars from overseas would be returning to the United States, that is a big problem; but, these things did not seal the deal. The deal maker was when Warren Buffet warned about what happens when the Federal Reserve stops their quantitative easing and then some Federal Reserve people talking about doing just that.
The next triple witching hour is not until June and that is when I would usually expect to see a major disruption in the bond market. If this were a financial website advising investors then I would not even make this post because I am not positive; but, I think something major may happen on Wall Street this week. You have to ask why the stock market is going up, this is not a good sign. The market is not going up because our companies are doing better, it is going up in anticipation of our currencies being worth less. It is the rats jumping the ship because they know what is coming and overpaying for real things is better than losing everything for nothing. The smart money is moving into stocks because they represent ownership of assets. The purpose of market volatility is to get dumb money out of the market so that the smart money can buy cheap.
Whether or not it happens this week, when it does happen, just sit back and relax. While we may not all agree with the plan, at least my readers know that the International Monetary Fund, the G20, the FDIC and the Bank of England do all in fact have a plan in place to deal with it. I have posted links to their stuff and you can go back and read what they said. They have a plan. When the markets start moving quickly and in ugly ways, don't worry, there is a plan. It won't seem like there is, the media will say that we were all surprised; but, my readers should not be surprised and those who manage the markets will not be surprised.
Anyways, I think I just figured out what it is. I think the currency collapse is going to begin soon. Last week the Japanese yen began to collapse. In and of itself, I do not consider that significant for others countries. Then I read another article about how trillions of dollars from overseas would be returning to the United States, that is a big problem; but, these things did not seal the deal. The deal maker was when Warren Buffet warned about what happens when the Federal Reserve stops their quantitative easing and then some Federal Reserve people talking about doing just that.
The next triple witching hour is not until June and that is when I would usually expect to see a major disruption in the bond market. If this were a financial website advising investors then I would not even make this post because I am not positive; but, I think something major may happen on Wall Street this week. You have to ask why the stock market is going up, this is not a good sign. The market is not going up because our companies are doing better, it is going up in anticipation of our currencies being worth less. It is the rats jumping the ship because they know what is coming and overpaying for real things is better than losing everything for nothing. The smart money is moving into stocks because they represent ownership of assets. The purpose of market volatility is to get dumb money out of the market so that the smart money can buy cheap.
Whether or not it happens this week, when it does happen, just sit back and relax. While we may not all agree with the plan, at least my readers know that the International Monetary Fund, the G20, the FDIC and the Bank of England do all in fact have a plan in place to deal with it. I have posted links to their stuff and you can go back and read what they said. They have a plan. When the markets start moving quickly and in ugly ways, don't worry, there is a plan. It won't seem like there is, the media will say that we were all surprised; but, my readers should not be surprised and those who manage the markets will not be surprised.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Bad Little Biometrics, I hate being right
There were a lot of people on alternative news sites that said that RFID chips had to be put in everyone as part of the health care reform bill (Obamacare); but, it just wasn't true. The bill did call for having a registry of any such devices that were in someone and also said that they might be used in people with Alzheimer's. There is a big difference between everyone and some people for specific reasons. Well, I read something in the alternative news; but, did not believe I was positive the source was accurate. As I went through the news later in the day, I found the same story in a reputable source. I consider WIRED to generally be pretty good on reporting on technology and it is quoted by all the major media sources.
Wired - Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform. The article says:
"David Bier, an analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agrees with the ACLU’s fears. “The most worrying aspect is that this creates a principle of permission basically to do certain activities and it can be used to restrict activities,” he said. “It’s like a national ID system without the card.”"
This has been apparent since the government passed the "Real ID" laws a few years back. The Wired article links to the actual bill. You can read the bill yourself. According to the article, your state ID will be sufficient to put you on the Federal database with your biometrics. They have mine, I wrote a post about when I got my new license and how they electronically scanned my thumb. They also took my picture, maybe that is why we don't have any blind cops, they wouldn't know if it was my ID. Okay, that was a bad joke. As Arlo Guthrie explained, justice may be blind and judges may be blind; but, cops are not. If you don't understand that reference, you have to listen to "Alice's Restaurant".
The biometrics will not be enough to achieve what they wish. We can make bio-metrically correct replicas of a face, we can duplicate your iris and we can duplicate your thumb print. Heck, we can duplicate any aspect of your body. We can even transplant faces, hands and eyes. Lets be truthful, we can clone you. There must be a technological solution. What would be acceptable? The law says that it is about identifying, positively people who get jobs, to assure that they are Americans. LOL. This is an Immigration law. In order to get a job, you will have to prove that you are you and that you are an American citizen. Do you not get the joke?
Conservatives are supposedly wanting to keep out Mexicans. Liberals are supposedly wanting to let them be citizens so that we can tax them. Both sides of the staged argument are hiding the real agenda. Why would anyone bother proving they were an illegal alien? Than makes no sense, so, we can only make people prove who they are, give up any sense of privacy of anonymity. Here is a question, if I get a face or hand transplant, would my face match the DNA of the donor or mine? I read an article not long ago, it was about taking a transplant from one person, lets say a heart, removing all the DNA instructions and replacing them with the DNA of the recipient. The reason appeared to be so that the living person could accept the transplant. To the best of my understanding.
Sorry, lost my train of thought; but, I will post the thought I did have.
Wired - Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform. The article says:
"David Bier, an analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agrees with the ACLU’s fears. “The most worrying aspect is that this creates a principle of permission basically to do certain activities and it can be used to restrict activities,” he said. “It’s like a national ID system without the card.”"
This has been apparent since the government passed the "Real ID" laws a few years back. The Wired article links to the actual bill. You can read the bill yourself. According to the article, your state ID will be sufficient to put you on the Federal database with your biometrics. They have mine, I wrote a post about when I got my new license and how they electronically scanned my thumb. They also took my picture, maybe that is why we don't have any blind cops, they wouldn't know if it was my ID. Okay, that was a bad joke. As Arlo Guthrie explained, justice may be blind and judges may be blind; but, cops are not. If you don't understand that reference, you have to listen to "Alice's Restaurant".
The biometrics will not be enough to achieve what they wish. We can make bio-metrically correct replicas of a face, we can duplicate your iris and we can duplicate your thumb print. Heck, we can duplicate any aspect of your body. We can even transplant faces, hands and eyes. Lets be truthful, we can clone you. There must be a technological solution. What would be acceptable? The law says that it is about identifying, positively people who get jobs, to assure that they are Americans. LOL. This is an Immigration law. In order to get a job, you will have to prove that you are you and that you are an American citizen. Do you not get the joke?
Conservatives are supposedly wanting to keep out Mexicans. Liberals are supposedly wanting to let them be citizens so that we can tax them. Both sides of the staged argument are hiding the real agenda. Why would anyone bother proving they were an illegal alien? Than makes no sense, so, we can only make people prove who they are, give up any sense of privacy of anonymity. Here is a question, if I get a face or hand transplant, would my face match the DNA of the donor or mine? I read an article not long ago, it was about taking a transplant from one person, lets say a heart, removing all the DNA instructions and replacing them with the DNA of the recipient. The reason appeared to be so that the living person could accept the transplant. To the best of my understanding.
Sorry, lost my train of thought; but, I will post the thought I did have.
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