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Students in Kenya What will their future bring?
Either way innocent Kenyans suffer. The US (and our European allies) have declared a World War on terrorism. How is it then that the central African continent remains a forgotten and a fertile frontier for jihadi operatives to spread their violence and political poison?
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The Forgotten Ones
It is clear now that all out war will be the result of unholy jihad in Kenya, the emerging democratic republic on Africa's central coast. Al Qaida may be the source behind the latest violence or it may be a loose coalition of Islamic warlords.
Neo-clasical Delusions
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| Steve Keen |
Steve Keen has written a book entitled "Debunking Economics" that lays out the failures of neo-classical theories. He uses mathematical modeling as a means of developing economic models that can actually predict financial downturns.
It's time for economics to adopt more rigorus standards and let go of theories that have little or no connection to economic realities. In the meantime the immediate future looks pretty gloomy.
Reviewing National Debts
Personally, I feel much the same way about the debt as Paul Krugman presents in this article:
Nobody Understands Debt
...and perhaps a little background on the subject can be gleaned from wikipedia:
Government debt
Nobody Understands Debt
...and perhaps a little background on the subject can be gleaned from wikipedia:
Government debt
Coming Soon to the DarkNet Near You
Thoughtful and creative people should be able to benefit from their talent.
PIPA (Protect IP Act) and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) are two newly proposed bills whose purported aim is to protect copyrighted material, including movies, music, and other forms of online content from abuse. On its face it seems like a good idea. And those promoting it say that it will protect jobs, and stop ruthless foreigners that benefit from ripping off talented people.
But the true impact of these bills will result in further extending the power of the powerful oligarchy that already controls Washington. It could easily become a system of censorship and thought control. As it is, the government has already been monitoring the online activity of its citizens. And unless you take special measures to browse anonymously the government is capable of finding out everything that you've posted, downloaded, or written in an e-mail.
If enacted, IP providers will be mandated to block all websites which are deemed to be in violation of this new law or be prosecuted themselves. These laws could shut down websites like the Gathering Spot, Youtube, and Facebook because they might be unable to comply with the new laws. And even Google stands in opposition to these possible new regulations.
Most people who browse the web are probably unaware of the threat SOPA and PIPA will have in relation to their Internet-browsing freedom?
Those who are aware of the threat are generally people who work in the field of technology and those who want to protect the online freedom of expression that the Internet has provided. Others are concerned with the underlying political consequences of such new laws.
There are those who have been working for years on technology to circumvent these overreaching forms of governmental spying and censorship. Under the new laws ISPs will be required to block all requests to sites that have been known to provide access to copyrighted material. However, if one types in a numerical IP into their browser they will be able to access the blocked sites.
The folks in Washington seem unaware of the existence of the DarkNet. Short for dark Internet, in file sharing terminology, a darknet is an Internet or private network, where information and content are shared by darknet participants anonymously. Darknets are popular with users who share copy protected files as the service will let users send and receive files anonymously — that is, users cannot be traced, tracked or personally identified. By using encryption technology packets of data circulate through the net without detection making attempts to shutdown file sharing impossible.
So, it is very unlikely these new laws will suppress file sharing for long. But these laws do give the government an excuse to extend the reach of its spying and interfering in the online activity of citizens.
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| For Brainwashing |
But the true impact of these bills will result in further extending the power of the powerful oligarchy that already controls Washington. It could easily become a system of censorship and thought control. As it is, the government has already been monitoring the online activity of its citizens. And unless you take special measures to browse anonymously the government is capable of finding out everything that you've posted, downloaded, or written in an e-mail.
If enacted, IP providers will be mandated to block all websites which are deemed to be in violation of this new law or be prosecuted themselves. These laws could shut down websites like the Gathering Spot, Youtube, and Facebook because they might be unable to comply with the new laws. And even Google stands in opposition to these possible new regulations.
Most people who browse the web are probably unaware of the threat SOPA and PIPA will have in relation to their Internet-browsing freedom?
Those who are aware of the threat are generally people who work in the field of technology and those who want to protect the online freedom of expression that the Internet has provided. Others are concerned with the underlying political consequences of such new laws.
There are those who have been working for years on technology to circumvent these overreaching forms of governmental spying and censorship. Under the new laws ISPs will be required to block all requests to sites that have been known to provide access to copyrighted material. However, if one types in a numerical IP into their browser they will be able to access the blocked sites.
So, it is very unlikely these new laws will suppress file sharing for long. But these laws do give the government an excuse to extend the reach of its spying and interfering in the online activity of citizens.
Is Gold Money?
What is money?
Money can be any token of value that helps facilitate trade. It could be an IOU (just a promise to pay someone in exchange for something). It could be a piece of paper in the form of a US $20 bill (legal tender). It could be cowry shells (a form of money once commonly used across Europe and Asia). It could be large stone wheels (once actually used on the Pacific island of Yap), or it could even be gold.
Whatever the form of money may be, it use is always based on trust.
It seems that whenever someone makes the observation that the US dollar may be losing its value people suggest there may be a need to return to a "sound" monetary system, perhaps like one adopted after the end of World War II called the Bretton Woods agreement.
Bretton Woods became operational in 1945. It obligated each member country to adopt a monetary policy that maintained the exchange rate by tying its currency to the U.S. dollar at a fixed agreed-upon rate. Bretton Woods made the US dollar the global reserve currency. And it was backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government along with a promise to exchange, on demand, US dollars for gold at a fixed rate. It was through this mechanism that trade imbalances were corrected by gold reserve exchanges or by loans from the International Monetary Fund.
And it seemed to work well up until president Richard Nixon closed "the gold window" in 1971, officially taking the US off the so-called gold standard.
This refusal to honor the long-standing agreement was considered a form of default that broke the trust the international banking community had in the US dollar, even though the dollar continued to enjoy its privileged status. The closing of the gold window has subsequently became known as the Nixon Shock. It hardly seems coincidental that the US dollar has consistently lost its value in terms of real purchasing power since the Nixon shock.
The growth of US deficit spending along with the expansion of the money supply has begun to further erode confidence in the US political system and the US dollar. China, a big holder of US debt, has begun reducing its US treasury reserves. China has also suggested that an aggregate of currencies replaced the US dollar as the global reserve currency.
Some have now called the United States the new Italy because of its absurd monetary policy. The US, however, is not compelled to act in a responsible way because of its privileged status as the controller of the global reserve currency. Hence its installation of a helicopter dropper as Fed chairman who plays a lead role in bombarding the world economy with dollar emissions in what has come to be known as the "international currency war."
But the US is now being downgraded and alternatives are emerging. The dollar certainly is suspect as a store of value, "strong dollar" policy pronouncement evoke sneering hilarity. A particularly interesting new development now lies in the realm of futures trading.
It turns out that the largest US futures exchanges are now allowing the use of RMB for margin. As you know, the Chinese have been experimenting with internationalizing the use of its currency for currency exchange, trade settlement and other purposes in financial centres such as Hong Kong and Singapore. Not one to be left behind, London is lobbying PRC authorities to some extent for similar privileges as the PRC experiments with making its monies more readily available.
Gold has not been in common circulation since about 1933-34 when Congress and President Roosevelt implemented a series of Acts and Executive Orders which suspended the common circulation of gold except for foreign exchange, thus, revoking gold as universal legal tender for debts, and banned private ownership of significant amounts of gold coin. People were required to redeem their gold coins for silver backed legal tender at $20.67 per ounce. Then under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 the value of the dollar was fixed at $35 per ounce. the gold was store in Fort Knox, Kentucky. The possession of gold except as jewelry and collections of rare coins was outlawed. And it wasn't until 1975 that Americans could again freely own and trade physical gold.
Many economists have pointed out that gold isn't viable alternative to a fiat currency that can expand and contract according to the demand of markets. Although it is true that the amount of available gold cannot be expanded to match market demand for all forms of money, gold was never used in the manner that this observation suggests. Gold has never been the sole token of exchange in any economic system.
Although no one I know is suggesting that gold could ever be the sole token of exchange, some people have suggested that gold, as a commodity, could never be viable alternative to a fiat currency because its price fluctuates too much. This kind of statement demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of how money markets function. Anyone can open an account with one of the 200 or so companies that provide a means to trade in the various global currencies on the FOREX. The price of money, as a commodity, also fluctuates. Money is just another commodity it seems.
In these turbulent financial times, for individual investors, holding a commodity such as gold is very reasonable way of hedging against currency fluctuations, or worse the threat of another banking collapse or a bank holiday.
Who is holding gold reserves as a form of a monetary asset?
The US government holds the world's largest amount: some 8,133.5 tons of gold. see - Gold Reserves
Should the US return to its so-called "gold standard?"
This is the wrong question. The right question is how can the United States restore the trust it once held in the eyes of the international financial community. This is not just a question of monetary policy. The US is in need of some fundamental political changes before any meaningful discussion of its monetary policy is even possible.
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| Cowry shells |
Whatever the form of money may be, it use is always based on trust.
 |
| The stone money of Yap |
Bretton Woods became operational in 1945. It obligated each member country to adopt a monetary policy that maintained the exchange rate by tying its currency to the U.S. dollar at a fixed agreed-upon rate. Bretton Woods made the US dollar the global reserve currency. And it was backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government along with a promise to exchange, on demand, US dollars for gold at a fixed rate. It was through this mechanism that trade imbalances were corrected by gold reserve exchanges or by loans from the International Monetary Fund.
And it seemed to work well up until president Richard Nixon closed "the gold window" in 1971, officially taking the US off the so-called gold standard.
 |
| Gold vending machine |
The growth of US deficit spending along with the expansion of the money supply has begun to further erode confidence in the US political system and the US dollar. China, a big holder of US debt, has begun reducing its US treasury reserves. China has also suggested that an aggregate of currencies replaced the US dollar as the global reserve currency.
Some have now called the United States the new Italy because of its absurd monetary policy. The US, however, is not compelled to act in a responsible way because of its privileged status as the controller of the global reserve currency. Hence its installation of a helicopter dropper as Fed chairman who plays a lead role in bombarding the world economy with dollar emissions in what has come to be known as the "international currency war."
But the US is now being downgraded and alternatives are emerging. The dollar certainly is suspect as a store of value, "strong dollar" policy pronouncement evoke sneering hilarity. A particularly interesting new development now lies in the realm of futures trading.
It turns out that the largest US futures exchanges are now allowing the use of RMB for margin. As you know, the Chinese have been experimenting with internationalizing the use of its currency for currency exchange, trade settlement and other purposes in financial centres such as Hong Kong and Singapore. Not one to be left behind, London is lobbying PRC authorities to some extent for similar privileges as the PRC experiments with making its monies more readily available.
Gold has not been in common circulation since about 1933-34 when Congress and President Roosevelt implemented a series of Acts and Executive Orders which suspended the common circulation of gold except for foreign exchange, thus, revoking gold as universal legal tender for debts, and banned private ownership of significant amounts of gold coin. People were required to redeem their gold coins for silver backed legal tender at $20.67 per ounce. Then under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 the value of the dollar was fixed at $35 per ounce. the gold was store in Fort Knox, Kentucky. The possession of gold except as jewelry and collections of rare coins was outlawed. And it wasn't until 1975 that Americans could again freely own and trade physical gold.
Many economists have pointed out that gold isn't viable alternative to a fiat currency that can expand and contract according to the demand of markets. Although it is true that the amount of available gold cannot be expanded to match market demand for all forms of money, gold was never used in the manner that this observation suggests. Gold has never been the sole token of exchange in any economic system.
Although no one I know is suggesting that gold could ever be the sole token of exchange, some people have suggested that gold, as a commodity, could never be viable alternative to a fiat currency because its price fluctuates too much. This kind of statement demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of how money markets function. Anyone can open an account with one of the 200 or so companies that provide a means to trade in the various global currencies on the FOREX. The price of money, as a commodity, also fluctuates. Money is just another commodity it seems.
In these turbulent financial times, for individual investors, holding a commodity such as gold is very reasonable way of hedging against currency fluctuations, or worse the threat of another banking collapse or a bank holiday.
Who is holding gold reserves as a form of a monetary asset?
The US government holds the world's largest amount: some 8,133.5 tons of gold. see - Gold Reserves
Should the US return to its so-called "gold standard?"
This is the wrong question. The right question is how can the United States restore the trust it once held in the eyes of the international financial community. This is not just a question of monetary policy. The US is in need of some fundamental political changes before any meaningful discussion of its monetary policy is even possible.
Nonsense? What are you talking about?
I need quite a bit of time to adequately rebut my little brother Dan regarding the excellent article he posted last week titled: Gold Standard? What Nonsense! I regret that I can't give it the effort it deserves right at this moment because today I have to hurry out to do some Christmas shopping. I will be exchanging some hard earned Federal Reserve Notes that the government has been so generous to leave me.
There is no restraint of consequence on the government because our highly esteemed House of Representatives (along with the Fed of course) has access to our money before we do.They play a perpetual shell game with the public as to where the money goes. A gold standard would force them into honest accounting.
Would you leave management of your estate to that bunch of bungling con-artists expecting them to deliver it intact to your precious grandchildren when they are ready to retire? I hope not Danny because the inflating of the money supply causes its value to disappear before your very eyes when they get their printing presses rolling to make ends meet..The best way to "hold the presses" is to have some medium of exchange that cannot be inflated. Gold is the solution to that problem now and has been for the 2 thousand prior years. Why is that?
A Question of Character: Newt's Tainted Past
Did Newt Gingrich cheat on his first two wives for the benefit of America? He seems to think so. Newt pressed his first wife to sign divorce papers while she was still in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery.
He divorced his second wife, Marianne, for Callista, with whom he had an affair while she was his staffer on Capitol Hill. In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network last month Newt explained his double spousal abandonment this way:
“There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.” - Newt Gingrich
This video below explores yet another aspect of his tainted past.
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