Yesterday

We are learning together then. This can be a good thing. Judging by the amount of hits this thread is getting you, I and Maple are not the only ones wanting to learn. I think the issue of China's export would be best served if viewed from the standpoint of the impact on countries within the Asian Union that are struggling to get a share of the market against the magnitude of China's monopoly. Perhaps viewed against a backdrop of the longer term understanding of producing ourselves out of house and home. International trade has to equal itself off in such a way that all countries can partake in trade in sustainable volumes. From this point of view China needs to be addressed. They are not the only ones...

I don't know about Keynesian economics yet. I realize this puts me at a serious disadvantage for serious discussion. I'm learning as fast as I can. I should understand more in a week or so after I finish absorbing the Austrian one. I know the political test puts me on the left...but I don't feel particularly lefty at any given time. I have such a hard time relating to either left or right. Some of both sides makes sense and lots of both doesn't. GAAP does not seem to make good business sense if this is what is driving this foolhardy bottom line mentality. It is business sense that drives my opinion of this train of thought. I will call it this bottom line mentality now instead of greed. I'm a quality girl....none of this nonesense for me.

Well, it is not just a claim...I am seriously under-educated. At least conventionally. However, my curiosity is endless and my IQ is quite high. Thankfully my education or lack of it does not usually stand in my way. I am glad to talk to you because I don't have anyone physically around to talk to about this stuff so I have no idea if I'm getting it right. I am the student...you are the teacher...and as Lisa Simpson says.....GRADE ME !!!!! Giggle. Now lets put this intelligence to the test and see if I can get the Austrian Theory.... Please except my apologies. It was a bit of a general statement wasn't it. Over simplifying. I am a bit of a Capitalist at heart. I love business!!! We are not all like that. However though, the bottom line mentality is a greedy one. I am very thankful to have not received that kind of education. Bottom line mentality has more to do with profit than efficiency or quality. I look at that mentality and feel sorry for it. Would you call China's junky export the biggest case of bottom line mentality? Loosely perhaps eh? I am glad at any rate to see the G20 address this issue with them. In this day and age of market manipulation exposure the G20 have an ample sword to wield against this issue with them. How did they manipulate the market? So, they had cheaper products...more of them...still, how did they ever get in a position to ship so much junk around the world? How did this evolve? Good morning or afternoon Pliny....

Thanks. Yes, I can see the curve too. I am a Sagittarius, an eternal optimist. I agree with you about evil intent in that this wasn't the motivation behind the forming of the mentioned groups and their roles. The corruption is absolutely rampant but it is/was opportunistic in nature. Not to say that there has not been malicious intent in the behaviour of a few, for the most part it has been simply greed. A situation that is in transition...it is possible that this massive exposure of fraud and resulting bankruptcies could clear the way for major changes in thought, it's going to go on for a long time.

These are very inspirational/informative quotes. I've read them before and I appreciate your selections. It was reading quotes like these that gave my first understanding of how far back in history this currency war has been going on. I think it could be fittingly called a currency war.

The only scenario that I have come across so far that is effected by the reduction of medium in circulation was reference to a time when a simple manipulation of inflation (contraction/expansion) was not enough to stabilize the foreign markets and a complete revaluation to return the value of that particular(English pound in this case) medium to that of gold (gold standard) had to happen. In this situation it is imperative to remove as much of the old circulating medium as possible to prevent massive hoarding of the new valued currency. Hence my interest in this current bank contraction coupled with the 9.6 % reduction in circulating US medium, both of these in conjunction with the alternative media story of such a reset pending for the US dollar. Fed notes versus Treasury notes... My question is, can that 9.6% reduction be attributed to something other than a reset? Is that number really meaningful? It doesn't appear that simple contraction/expansion this time was enough to stabilize foreign markets. The bail-outs have not accomplished this either. Yes, it is almost time to step into the current scenarios versus these old ones I've been rattling around in. I just needed a bit of a foundation. I can understand this in terms of reducing access to excessive volumes of currency but we have to include the fact the desire to have enough currency to accomplish means, whatever they are, was IMO the underlying drive. War is only one part of a whole that includes (at least today) Wall Street and international trade. What drove the creation of the current volumes of corruption and manipulation on Wall Street and within the ranks of international trade? This drive, this oh so human and fanatical drive, is going to show itself one way or another as long as we use a resource based dollar. Developed nations might be somewhat curtailed by restriction true, but the underdeveloped nations will have perhaps more reason to be aggressive. If we have less, wouldn't they have less? I think the aim has to equalization/decentralization of currency in conjunction with fraud removal and restriction. I think, at least right now, I am leaning toward perhaps that international trade and foreign ownership of resources has set a stage for a very rough go if we ended up with a removal of fiat currency to be replaced with a gold/silver/mineral backed medium. I cannot see a reset regardless of the fact that this scenario so closely relates to the one in England from history. I agree with you regarding the effect of the level of currency in circulation to a certain degree in regards to personal wealth but it does have the power to effect foreign exchange. On a side note....over the last year or so I've been working on a little project where I've been adding up all the fines thus far collect by the US government regarding market fraud/manipulation and so on. So far I've covered mostly material from the late 90 through till now and the amount, which does not include all of it from those years yet is in the trillions. There are literally thousands of settlements to date and thousands of more coming. You can find this all on the SEC website. Back in 2002/3 the big 10 banks in the US paid a combined 1.6 billion alone in fraud settlements to the SEC. This list does not include settlements that were paid out to victims, just the fed balance from all of this. I wonder what they are doing with all of this...I see some of it is being set aside for shareholder education and some for market research but we are talking trillions of dollars...where is it?

Did you read anything about the fellow in BC who tried to take banks(can't remember which one/ones)to court over usury? The judge was a real turd! Dragged it on for years to then laugh them out of court. I feel bad for the guy. We should stop using the word conspiracy and just call it for the spade it is, criminal intent.

Hi Pliny, I wish I could answer this for you. I wish you could answer it for me. Government assets...mmm. I would think that perhaps the premiums paid to the government on every dollar loaned/printed/recorded by the banks could be considered a viable asset. I wonder if the banks also pay this premium on dollars lent to the government itself? I have to wonder how much of the assets behind the government are hedged on future production if any. On future commercial growth for instance which would create a need for more money being printed/loaned/etc. which in turn pays out more premium. I wonder if a portion of tax collections are considered an asset? Once again a hedgeable number. I am thinking about a few hefty mineral companies that I know about that have filed production start dates in the coming few years here in Canada and I wonder if the banks/government can create loans/bonds today using incomes projected from future collected taxes and interest collected from these projects. These are very large ventures. As for fiat, my current understanding is that no it would not be asset backed due to fractionalization and low to zero reserves. At least not metal/mineral backed, it seems to be mostly future labour backed, debt backed. A situation easily encouraged due to excessive volumes of currency medium in circulation which comes from banks having a free go at introducing currency medium almost at will. Of course furthering their own and whoever fancy becoming extremely rich off interest and such. I don't think I would use the word force to describe this situation. For the most part I view the current situation to one of opportunity. A criminal situation absolutely but not so much at the fault of fiat money but one that is a result of opportunity for fraud with those who have been in charge. A situation that could be very much a part of the past considering the current direction of market fraud exposures and bank failures. I guess generally speaking, there is a lot of discontent at the reforms and global resolutions that are flowing like a river out of this situation that is traveling across the world but I am not educated enough to pose any kind of argument for or against most of what I read. To me it is all just a learning experience. Fundamentally I can see some merit to a dollar not being regulated with gold/mineral but definitely not labour based in exchange, certainly not future labour which equals current/future debt. Ideally, I could see a dollar based on need being effective as long as it was accompanied by proper currency medium in circulation reduction policies like taxes (used properly). I couldn't even begin to surmise if this scenario would work or not, give me a few years...by then though my thoughts could have completely changed, giggle. It's just that in the back of my mind, whenever I consider a gold/silver/whatever resource backed dollar, I can see wars over whatever resource is required. Much like we have it today regarding fossil fuels. Once I am finished absorbing this book I referenced I am going to read about the Austrian Theory. Perhaps then I can give you a more well rounded conversation about currency. I definitely consider the definition of currency to of the utmost importance.

You are so welcome. If you are anything like me, keep a big box Kleenex close. I would really like to understand why. What is the history behind this. Why are Arabs killing Africans in Darfur? Whatever are they hoping to accomplish? Do the Arabs just want them out? The Doc does paint a bit of a picture in that the Africans are considered no better than animals/slaves and deserving of no better. I think we can definitely bring racism into this picture. For us in our relatively peaceful existence I think perhaps the biggest pill is that we can understand more often than not, sadly so. Between history and human nature.....eh?

Any reason works for me....I wonder how Iran's little mineral cache is going effect their nasty situation.

Yes, geez Louise. I am hoping at least all of this attention will slow it down, and it should hopefully give the hero's shown in this documentary enough strength to continue to do what they are doing. If you watch it you'll see that groups of photographers will go and set up camp in villages they believe are threatened. This deters the genocidal murderers from attacking. A brave group of people. A little bit of acknowledgement can sometimes go a long way.

Hi, it was either National Geo. or Docs and I can't find a listing for it but this is a link to the full video. It is very powerful and sad. http://video.tvguide.com/The+Devil+Came+On+Horseback/The+Devil+Came+On+Horseback/777784

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/41/25/36018379.pdf Ok, lets see it happen then.

http://motherjones.com/media/2007/09/devil-came-horseback This documentary was on TV the other day. It is not something I would normally watch, horrors of this nature leave imprints in my soul, behind my eyes so that every time I close them all I can see is torture. Just a few days have past, every one of them more indignant than the last over the fact that this has been so well documented and still been allowed to go on. Or so it seemed.... This horror though, might be one of the lucky few to get noticed, documented and most importantly acted on to a good end. http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/07/12/sudan-bashir-genocide.html I haven't had a drink since I was a teenager, today though...perhaps this weekend...I will raise a glass in a toast to this man's arrest and cheer on the worst kind of punishment contrived to be levied on his head!

Oh. I did not realize retirement age people were mostly righties. Interesting opinion. I don't understand your correlation in your comments about this chance to excel or the comment about women. Experience always counts, the more the better and as for who gets the chance or not, well I don't see how being hired in retirement (55ish-65ish) has anything to do with the beginning of such persons carreer and whether they get the chance to excel early on. One could say they are a lifetime apart. Experience does not always relate to excellence but it always leads to knowledge.

Age could be important in so far as giving a long perspective of performance and ideology if politicians were required to be of retirement age to apply. At first glance you say what? But really, there are more than enough possible candidates of that age bracket and their track records at that stage are tried and true. At least for Argus's concept.

Economic left/right -5.12 Socialist/L./A. -3.69 Dead center left bottom corner, same as last time.

I have to wonder about this too. In my thoughts, this IMF reset should coincide with a US dollar rest if true and both be revalued to something that is asset backed in which case the standings could be likely to stay the same just with different values. However, with Canada's growing popularity and possible coming resource boon our position could change. I wonder if the export I heard referred to is the export of government debt? In which case Geoffry makes good points about our current situation. I hope we never get there.

I have a friend who's mother is native, Six Nations but I'm not sure which one. She loves to bitch out white people regarding our usurping of native land. Usually the attacks are leveled at me...I'm so lucky!!!!! Yesterday when she got started, I just looked at her and said 'You know, your wrong. We've been paying rent to be on this land since 1710 and it amounts to roughly 650 billion dollars right now and it is not my fault that the government refused to release this money to who it rightfully belongs. I never took anything of yours or anyone else's and you can take your opinion and stuff it!' What a world. Also, the same sort of thing is happening in the US for those natives. I'll look for some links, seems I'm always looking for links. It is a fun way to learn eh. I am personally very pleased to see the money get transferred.

Hi Maple, Pliny had mentioned before about the fact that the banks where contracting, not really lending, and I had found a ZIRP article that discusses the difference between qualitative and quantitative spending which shows one possible reason why the banks are not lending publicly. My understanding is sketchy but right now it seems as though what is happening is that government bonds are asset backed as opposed to circulating medium which is fiat and until the bank reserve is large enough to be reset to asset backed as well they will continue to grow. I don't know if I am right but this is my thought at the moment. What I am trying to get to the bottom of is whether what we are going through is a currency reset or just bad market trends due to the recession. I had read that in a case where the value of a currency has dropped due to excessive notes in circulation, the price of gold goes through the roof and foreign exchanges fall. Kind of sounds something like what is going on right now, I am still reading about this to get a better understanding... When a reset needs to happen, it is important to reduce first the currency in circulation, both kinds, the debt and the capital. I'm still reading... I know about the BIS and the Basil Accords, I read about one recent resolution between the major banks around the globe regarding blackballing. Sounds good but will they actually do it? Basil Accords are unenforceable as they are not a regulating faction. So my opinion of them is that they are akin to a great big opinion factory that amounts to not much more than a better business bureau for the banks. My opinion might change though as I learn more. This is all new to me and I am learning as I go. I've gathered up some info from some of our earlier posts and am pulling some more info to expand the concepts and should be posting tomorrow about it. I've heard a lot about this one world economy, this I can see whereas I cannot see a one world government. Perhaps a few hundred years from now but the middle east at least would have to calm down first...that is going to take an awful long time. The global cohesion just is not there. Different governments forming organizations to work together on global issues does not for me spell the end of individual sovereignty. Not yet any ways.... I am glad to hear from you...this is your thread and I had wondered if you were watching...

Hi Maple, Pliny had mentioned before about the fact that the banks where contracting, not really lending, and I had found a ZIRP article that discusses the difference between qualitative and quantitative spending which shows one possible reason why the banks are not lending publicly. My understanding is sketchy but right now it seems as though what is happening is that government bonds are asset backed as opposed to circulating medium which is fiat and until the bank reserve is large enough to be reset to asset backed as well they will continue to grow. I don't know if I am right but this is my thought at the moment. What I am trying to get to the bottom of is whether what we are going through is a currency reset or just bad market trends due to the recession. I had read that in a case where the value of a currency has dropped due to excessive notes in circulation, the price of gold goes through the roof and foreign exchanges fall. Kind of sounds something like what is going on right now, I am still reading about this to get a better understanding... When a reset needs to happen, it is important to reduce first the currency in circulation, both kinds, the debt and the capital. I'm still reading... I know about the BIS and the Basil Accords, I read about one recent resolution between the major banks around the globe regarding blackballing. Sounds good but will they actually do it? Basil Accords are unenforceable as they are not a regulating faction. So my opinion of them is that they are akin to a great big opinion factory that amounts to not much more than a better business bureau for the banks. My opinion might change though as I learn more. This is all new to me and I am learning as I go. I've gathered up some info from some of our earlier posts and am pulling some more info to expand the concepts and should be posting tomorrow about it. I've heard a lot about this one world economy, this I can see whereas I cannot see a one world government. Perhaps a few hundred years from now but the middle east at least would have to calm down first...that is going to take an awful long time. The global cohesion just is not there. Different governments forming organizations to work together on global issues does not for me spell the end of individual sovereignty. Not yet any ways.... I am glad to hear from you...this is your thread and I had wondered if you were watching...

Hi, I hear the Euro is up a little....today's news. Personally even though my knowledge is sketchy, I think agree with Geoffrey about Canada's ability to meet the requirements(either debt or export) at least for a few more years...if I've misunderstood those requirements and debt is what drives the positioning then I hope we never get there.

Hi, I think its called 'Naked short'. A term which the SEC and most of the world would not even acknowledge a few years ago but which has grown in understanding since then and now it is one of the biggest known market fraud situations. One which the European's have said they will not condone or allow anymore. I should look for some links...a fascinating situation to me. I'm glad you guys have touched on the subject. I need to do some refreshing to have better facts, perhaps a different thread would be a good thing for a Naked Short/market fraud discussion...

Hi, I'm glad I don't sound like a raving lunatic...giggle. No callous friend, just always mis-understood because my tongue just does not always co-operate with my brain. Like a fear of speaking...I refuse to accept it any longer so here I am. I am going to learn to get past it dammit! Giggle!. I like the way you write. You and Toadbrother always seem to teach me something and neither of you are too ornery(giggle) which I appreciate. You express your sense of humor well. At least you have with me a bit on this thread. I can really appreciate that because I love to laugh, a good sense of humor is tops with me. I've really learned in life to laugh at myself, everyone else around me takes me serious enough, I don't always have too...giggle. We are far enough into this heat wave for me to feel like my brain is turning to mush. I tried to spend some time last night pulling out references that I would like to understand but its just not working...gosh, too hot!!!! Its finally supposed to start raining today, with that relief perhaps I can get back to our discussion. Thank-you so much for talking to me. Beat the heat my new friend.

There is going to be a redefining of the member states of the IMF next year in March I believe. I've heard some speculation that the US might lose it's top position. What do you think? Yes/no? I had also heard that it is export that determines the validity of a currency holding a reserve spot. I had also heard some speculation that the resource base here in Western Canada is going to be a boon for our dollar when it cracks open. Does this make any sense? It's hard to know what to believe. I contemplate the export comment in regards to the push against China to reduce its exports...