Perceptric Forum

Socialized Capitalism

Chris Gilbey — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:17:26 +1000

This is what Nouriel Roubini has to say about the current moves in the US to bail out the banks according to an article in Reuters:

"They have swapped U.S. Treasury bonds for toxic securities. It is privatizing the gains and profits, and socializing the losses as usual. This is socialism for Wall Street and the rich."

The good news is that Roubini is bullish about the global economy!

Banks And Tribes

Chris Gilbey — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:54:46 +1000

Have you noticed that a lot of the big companies from America are on the chopping block?

We all know the big banks are taking on foreign capital like its going out of style.... I think it is remarkable that in the deal to help Merryl Lynch out of its woes Temasek wrote the deal so that in the event that Merryl has to issue new shares at a price lower than the amount Temasek paid during a 12 month period, Temasek will be compensated for the difference. That is the stuff that microcap companies do - not major global enterprises... The fact that Merryl's agreed to such a deal shows how vulnerable the company is and the banking sector in general.

But the thing that I really find remarkable is that the big US banks, bastions of Jewish wealth as they are, have resorted to taking on investment from the "other tribes". Whether the new capital comes from China, Singapore, Dubai, or a host of other nations, the fundamental truth is that most of it is from gentile (i.e. non-Jewish sources). Why is it that when it comes to money all tribes can get along, but when it comes to land, they can't?

Crumbling Economy, Accelerating Memes

Chris Gilbey — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:42:44 +1000

I haven't blogged for a while.... the news about the global economy has been so widely reported and I didn't feel I had anything significant to add that hadn't been said before.

Suffice to say that I have been blogging about the problems in the US economy and the inter-connectedness of other economies for quite a while... And people are starting to wake up to the concept that if you spend a trillion dollars or so on a war and have to borrow the money from other countries at some point someone wakes up and smells the coffee and says "by the way what are your assets really worth?"

The opportunity now surely has to be for people around the world to subscribe to a new vision.

That vision has to be to move away from the cultural meme that was originated in the US by Edward Bernays. That meme goes, "We have to move the US from being a needs based society to a desires based society". I would venture to say that this concept was the most significant cultural export since the advent of Christ.

That meme which in essence is about self interest drives consumerism in China and India and everywhere. And it is out of control greed that is wrecking the planet. Every shareholder looking for a guaranteed ROI and every consumer looking for the latest greatest flat panel screen to view the latest blockbuster movie is a contributor.

And I am no different. I'm also looking for the quick investment in a stock that is going to go through a three to four x growth over the next six months and make an easy buck....

So how do we break free from this downward spiral?

The answer is that we are not going to, but it will be done for us.

I was reading a report from Ken Rutkowski earlier this morning about American consumerism. What I think is interesting is that the speed of the transmission of memes is increasing at a massive rate. And populism of an idea is going to cause the shipwreck regardless of what anyone does at the top to try to keep the ship of state afloat.

Here is what Ken's article said:

Word travels fast
The Internet has had a profound effect on financial markets and consumer confidence due to its near-instantaneous relay of information. To get another angle on U.S. consumer confidence, Nielsen Online, through its BuzzMetrics service, monitors consumer chatter on the Internet, tracking consumer-generated content on more than 70 million blogs. Results showed dramatic jumps in economic discussions on the heels of critical events. For example, when the Federal Reserve announced a 0.75% rate cut and the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 400 points in January, economic discussion increased 26% compared to the prior week. Negative sentiment inched up again between February and March to 65%, as news of the sub-prime lending fiasco and ethics violations spread. In this age of consumer control, the new building blocks of competitive advantage will require a pulse on consumer sentiment as one of the best ways to foster consumer engagement and loyalty.

This is the thing that is going to truly alter society next. People are going to run from one side of the boat to the other as contrary stories appear. Eventually the boat capsizes. Sorry to be a doomsayer, but this is what is going to happen.

It is really about the big ideas in society.

Look at Afghanistan. That seems to be the next big focus for the western world's military misadventures.

The unfortunate reality is that while there may be Taleban or Al Quaida there using it as a staging base and they may be the problem, the real issue is the asymmetric issue of how they work. Afghanistan is the global centre of the opium trade. And from opium you get heroin. And heroin is sold at huge profits. While heroin is illegal it attracts high margins. If you legalized heroin you would remove its black market mark up and remove its profitability.

The problem is that the profits from illegal drugs like the profits from illegal arms are the life blood of the global banking industry. Think about it: Even drug dealers have to move their money around somehow. And the easiest way to do that is through the legitimate banking industry. I read sometime ago that around a third of the money in the financial system is from illegal drugs. So the point is that the people who touch that money are making money from it. They don't want their profits to decline so they aren't going to put any pressure on governments to do what needs to be done - to control the distribution of drugs by regulation.

So while you have that, no change will take place. The Teleban is not really any different to organized crime. And organized crime isnt getting any smaller...

So the train wreck unfolds slowly at first and then suddenly it goes into real time....

Somewhere in the next year or so we will see the results...

The Fragility of Democracy.

Chris Gilbey — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:44:19 +1000

Interview with Naomi Wolfe....

Worth watching if you care about democracy.

Nuclear Oil?

Chris Gilbey — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:35:37 +1000

So let me get this straight.

At the moment the Americans are rattling their sabres at the Iranians who, it is alleged bought their nuclear secrets from Halliburton and Halliburton is the company that is profiting most from the rebuilding of Iraq after the war.

Meanwhile the Israeli's are threatening Iran too. And in turn the Iranians are threatening to retaliate against the US, Israel etc.

In the Gulf States the arabs are getting concerned about the potential for there to be a nuclear conflict and to have to deal with fall out. Who can blame them?

Meanwhile it is alleged that an Israeli by the name of Oded Yinon actually came up with the idea in 1982 of creating a war in Iraq that would destablize the region in order to get all the various arab and muslim cliques to go against each other.

At the same time there are stories around on the internet that the Iranians have bought Russian missile technology and that it is superior to the American technology that the Israelis and of course the Americans have.

If the latter is true I can understand why the Israelis would be so paranoid... and why they would want to light a fire under the Americans to get them to upgrade the technology and pronto!

What I really don't get is what the entire world will do in the event that all the oil in the Middle East is radioactive!

I just can't really see all of wanting to fill the tanks of our cars with glow in the dark petrol regardless of the price!

Of course it could make Venezuelan oil look very attractive....

Housing Price Trend In UK

Chris Gilbey — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:21:12 +1000

The UK seems to be having a seriously rocky road economically at the moment, and the future doesn't look too good either.

Check out the housing price trends. Looks set to drop a whopping 25% over the next 24 months according to The Times:

Economists gave warning that there was worse to come. Yesterday Howard Archer, of Global Insight, the economic consultancy, changed his forecast for house price falls this year to 15 per cent, up from 12 per cent, with a further 12 per cent fall next year. Michael Saunders, of Citigroup, the investment bank, said: “It is fair to say that we are now in the worst housing slide for more than 50 years.”

More info here if you are interested.

Chris Gilbey — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:17:24 +1000

You really have to wonder whether we are living beyond the looking glass... Like Alice, we must have all taken some sort of halucinogenic.

Check out this story about Halliburton allegedly selling nuclear secrets to the Iranians! Unbelievable:

According to journalist Jason Leopold, sources at former Cheney company Halliburton allege that, as recently as January of 2005, Halliburton sold key components for a nuclear reactor to an Iranian oil development company. Leopold says his Halliburton sources have intimate knowledge of the business dealings of both Halliburton and Oriental Oil Kish, one of Iran’s largest private oil companies.

The Pyrrhic Victory Of The Great Decider

Chris Gilbey — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:12:29 +1000

Here is a really excellent article about oil, energy and the US war on terror that puts everything into perspective!

Here is a taste:

History is replete with lessons that need to be learned and one of the most abject lessons is that of the Pyrrhic Victory. In the case of America, the term has come to mean exactly what it is: to win the battle but lose the war.

The US now excels at Pyrrhic Victories and for the glory of the photo op. No lie is too big to tell. Rather than admit to the American public that they were dead wrong and lost the adventures quit a few years ago, they choose to tell fabricated stories to justify their ends.

It has come out in the past that the US conspired, connived, lied and pulled many dirty tricks to take over the Caspian Basin oil and gas fields. This all beganl way back in the Carter Administration when Jimmy and his National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, dreamed up the creation of 'Al Qaeda' as a way of stirring up dissension in Islamic areas such as Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, etc. Their plan was for the US to rush in and 'save' these smaller, oil and natural gas rich nations from their Soviet masters; to introduce them to 'democracy' and 'freedom' - at gunpoint, if necessary.

Fascinating Legal Machinations

Chris Gilbey — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:50:34 +1000

I find the legal machinations that governments have gone through over the last seven years, since 9/11 quite fascinating.

In Australia we had a period of time under Howard where the immigration minister did some things that were quite amazing and logic defying as well as humanitarian defying.

I just came across this article by an American lawyer that is truly amazing.

Here are a couple of pars:

"Our proof is a top-secret classified document, which the government accidentally gave to Al-Haramain's lawyers in August of 2004. We call it "the Document." It appeared in a stack of unclassified materials that the lawyers had requested from OFAC. Six weeks later, after the government realized its blunder, FBI agents personally visited each of the lawyers and made them return their copies of the Document. But the agents made no effort to retrieve copies that the lawyers had given to two members of Al-Haramain's board of directors, who lived outside the United States.

I can't publicly reveal what's in the Document because, well, it's a secret. I would be committing a crime -- a violation of the Espionage Act of 1917 -- if I were to do so. But we assert the Document as proof of allegations we have made that in March and April of 2004 the National Security Agency conducted warrantless electronic surveillance of attorney-client communications between a representative of Al-Haramain and two of its attorneys, and that in May of 2004 the NSA gave logs of those surveilled communications to OFAC."

Things Are Going Seriously Wrong

Chris Gilbey — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:40:07 +1000

When you see stories like this one, you have to wonder how close we all are to a serious societal meltdown.

The UK government is meeting with supermarket chains to encourage them to stockpile basic foodstuffs in anticipation of supply chain failures caused by a national truckers' strike.

The big issue here is not the strikers but the fact that the infrastructure is totally reliant on one strand of the supply chain. And what do they say?: "We are only seven days food supply away from revolution"....