Building A Better Monetary System (Part I & II)

In attempting to remedy any particular problem; human beings are generally resourceful creatures. Thus when we tackle a particular issue and fail to come up with an adequate solution it is generally indicative of one of two flaws: defective execution of a plan, or a failure to correctly/completely define the problem.

Tactical problems in attempting to implement a particular strategy are an inevitable byproduct of being imperfect creatures, living in an imperfect universe. It is the thinking behind the phrase “trial and error.” When we attempt to plot some new course of action we hope to “get things right” in our first attempt; but (rationally) we don’t necessarily expect to do so.

Conversely, the failure to correctly design a solution because we originally failed to fully/correctly diagnose the problem is unforgivable. It is proverbial cart-before-the-horse thinking: attempting to “do something” before we even understand what we should be doing.

It is the numerous, serial failures in properly diagnosing the problems facing our economies (and societies) which has brought us directly to the dismal state of affairs in which we exist today.  Let’s first explicitly spell-out this current, economic catastrophe.

Most Western economies are hopelessly insolvent, and many are plainly bankrupt. Putting aside the monstrous, absolute size of these debt-mountains (such as the $200+ trillion in debts/obligations of the U.S.), and the terminal debt-to-GDP ratios of these governments; the behavior of these governments proves they are bankrupt.

Both the U.S. and the EU are now directly printing money merely to ‘pay’ the interest on their debts – i.e. “monetizing debt”. It is universally understood that monetizing debt is the last refuge of bankrupt sovereign debtors, before bankruptcy is imposed upon them by frustrated creditors.

Monetizing debt, and the currency-devaluation which always/automatically accompanies it is an open attempt to defraud creditors by “repaying” them with debauched currency worth only a fraction of what was originally lent to them. Since the Crash of ’08, it has ceased to be a question of “if” Western nations would be forced into bankruptcy (and Debt Jubilee), and become only a question of when. Debt-monetization is the exclamation point on this conclusion.

The major Western currencies (the dollar, pound, and euro) are already effectively worthless, which can be conclusively demonstrated in logical/mathematical terms. Sadly, however, these are only symptoms of the primary dilemma confronting us.

In the nearly 2 ½ centuries since the Industrial Revolution gave birth to the rise of the modern ideology known as “capitalism”, the theorists who have promoted its virtues have always attached a caveat of warning. We could neverallow the existence of corporate, economic entities known as monopolies and oligopolies.

For centuries; it has been universally understood that monopolies and oligopolies are not only predatory and parasitic, but relentlessly corrupting influences on our governments and societies in general. It is why the “anti-trust” laws which have always existed in our societies have always been among the most rigidly and strictly enforced regulatory regimes in our entire system…at least they used to be.

Approximately a generation ago; a collection of foolish, corrupt, or simply weak governments across the Western world just stopped enforcing these laws – all in the name of the euphemism “globalization”. What was the driving force behind this globalization? The monopolies and oligopolies which had already managed to infect our economies.

The result of a single generation of globalization? The entire global economy is now almost completely overrun with monopolies and oligopolies. In an economic system where not one of these abominations should be allowed to exist; we have nearly total saturation. And what has this resulted in?

Unprecedented levels of structural unemployment exist across the Western world. Somewhere in excess of 60 million employable people in Western societies are not allowed to work. This is because our labour markets aredeliberately structured to prevent these people from working. Proving the lack of good faith of our governments are the mammoth lies they tell us in providing their official unemployment “statistics”.

Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution our governments have faced several such episodes of rising structural unemployment. They have always responded by shortening the work-week – so that available labour was evenly/equitably spread-out among all the members of society, and “full employment” was restored.

Our Traitor Governments refuse to shorten the work week today. Why? Because the monopolies and oligopolies who pull their strings like massive unemployment. It permanently and relentlessly drives down wages (and working conditions); and with “job security” non-existent, “workers” are turned into loyal, unquestioning slaves.

Using U.S. data because we lack comparable data for other economies; in a little over 40 years we have seen the economic devolution now familiar to regular readers:

[chart courtesy of nowandfutures.com]

The U.S. standard of living has collapsed by more than half, as the average worker is now literally paid “Great Depression wages” (in real dollars). What was the Middle Class is now “the “Working Poor.”

This collapse in the standard of living; massive, structural unemployment; and the political corruption responsible for creating and now perpetuating these problems are also symptoms. They are symptoms of a global economy totally infested with the corrupt, predator/parasites known as oligopolies and monopolies.

It is a tautology that to genuinely solve any problem one must address the cause, and not merely the symptoms. Obviously, then, the starting point of any meaningful reform in our economies/societies is to smash all of the monopolies and oligopolies into little pieces. As long as mega-corporations are  allowed to be so large that they can completely “buy” all our governments out of their Petty Cash drawer, we can be certain that we will get the “best governments” which their money can buy.

However, with no economists, no other commentators, and (obviously) no politicians having even identified the Primary Problem facing our economies and societies; solving this problem is not a practical goal over even the most-distant horizon. Yet with economic catastrophe already on top of us; we need to make positive changes in our economies (in general) and our monetary system (in particular) today.

We have made a tiny step in positively reforming our monetary. We know we must have monetary reform today. We also (now) know that such reform must take place within a corrupt system – with no hope of eradicating that corruption over even the medium term. We must treat a symptom while acknowledging (for the present) that there is nothing which can be done about the “disease”.

Hopes of short-term political reform reflect nothing but the epitome of naivety. Successive different political regimes in the U.S., UK, and France have clearly and unequivocally demonstrated that both of the dominant political parties in these nations are absolutely under the control of the monopoly/oligopoly Oligarchs. We must suspect equivalent, saturation-corruption in most other Western regimes as well.

And where the corruption of the Oligarchs’ “dirty money” can’t buy the political outcomes they desire, they turn to the Iron Fist of coercion. Recall, how the people of Greece were forced to immediately conduct another election after electing a government which (at first) failed to kow-tow to the Oligarch financial hierarchy. The EU banking regime simply/publicly threatened to destroy Greece’s economy – if it didn’t elect a new (and more cooperative) government. Greece caved in.

Here, the “exception which proves the rule” is Iceland. Iceland was clearly under the thumb of the Western banking cabal. It’s economy was destroyed.

But Iceland is a small nation. It has a generally well-educated and affluent population. It was this combination of factors which provided both the political will, the popular support, and the economic stamina necessary to stand up to the Western banking cabal – as it tried and failed to bring Iceland to its knees.

It is a combination of factors which we see in no other Western society. There will be “no more Icelands” in the foreseeable future. We must reform our monetary systems not only within a framework of corrupt markets within a corrupt economy, but ruled by serially-corrupt governments.

It is obviously a formidable task. In Part II; we will see precisely how difficult monetary reform will be – given the current parameters of corruption – when we survey our options for such reform.

Building A Better Monetary System: Part II

In Part I; readers received most of the brutal truth about the rapidly deteriorating and nearly hopeless situations facing the major economies of the Western world. Our nations are all either bankrupt or insolvent, and ruled by corrupt governments who long ago stopped serving the interests of their own people.

Worse still, from past experience (i.e. their own corrupt mismanagement) we have seen that most of the dominant Opposition parties in these regimes have also been bought-off. So in most major Western regimes, our “elections” are now little more than exercises in shuffling the deck-chairs on the Titanic.

There is zero possibility of our “leaders” ever initiating any positive reforms on their own. The only new policy they have attempted (since the crisis they created) was so-called Austerity. With all Western economies suffering from the worst revenue crisis in history; we have all of these myopic, Traitor governments doing nothing but hacking-and-slashing spending (on people).

As I immediately explained in my own writing; this was deliberate economic suicide. It was the equivalent of a doctor “prescribing” a diet for a patient already suffering from severe anorexia. As with putting an anorexic on a diet; all this economic suicide accomplished was to escalate the collapse of these economies. And as I predicted, all of these economies are in the process of abandoning Austerity.

This means that the only remaining “plan” from our Traitor governments is more of the same. Exactly what created all of our fiscal/economic problems: ever-increasing printing and borrowing. Meanwhile these (bankrupt) governments refuse to even attempt to increase revenues; because the only entities with substantial quantities of taxable wealth are their Masters: the monopolies, oligopolies, and ultra-wealthy Oligarchs who lurk behind them.

At the same time; our revenue-starved governments are handing out more-and-larger corporate subsidies than at any time in history – while these corporations sit with more cash than at any time in history, and brag about their profit-margins. There is no longer even an attempt to hide this corrupt double-standard. “Austerity” for the people; more-and-bigger hand-outs for the monopolies and oligopolies.

And nowhere is the corruption worse than in our financial sector; realm of the Western financial Mafia. Their largest single “business” (by dollar value) is laundering dirty money for the world’s drug cartels, terrorists, and any other criminals with large piles of cash. These Big Banks are caught in this money-laundering now on virtually a weekly basis; mostly originating from the Wall Street cabal. Not only is this crime syndicate never punished for its crimes; the U.S. Attorney General has publicly declared he will cover-up all their illegal acts.

While money-laundering may be the biggest, single money-maker for the banksters; their principal activity is manipulating markets. This is done primarily through two, entirely illegal endeavours: influencing markets with gigantic, paper bets in the (hidden/unregulated) shadow-markets of their derivatives casino; and via simply rigging markets with the Pied Piper software known as trading algorithms.

Thanks to “high-frequency trading”; manipulating markets has become significantly easier than shooting fish in a barrel. There is no longer anything either “free” or “open” about our corrupt markets, they are merely crime scenes.

We now have our parameters:

1)  Total economic predation/parasitism from the monopolies and oligopolies which now saturate virtually every niche of the global economy.

2)  Absolute political corruption, with no hope of legitimate government over the short term.

3) Completely corrupt markets, which are no longer “functional” in terms of the primary purpose of all markets: to regulate supply and demand by facilitating open commerce. “Price” is no longer the product of supply and demand; but rather it is the result of a crime.

How can positive change be made in such an utterly hopeless context? The populations of Western societies must revert from being Serfs, and remember how to act like Citizens.

We can no longer passively vote for these corrupt Liars, all promising to “do the right thing” – and then naively hope they will initiate positive reform on their own. This is just more insanity; repeating what we have been doing for a generation, but hoping this time we will get a better result.

Instead we must act like Citizens and tell our elected representatives what they must do. This means doing something to which we are totally unaccustomed as Serfs: thinking. We must figure out how to dig ourselves out of an economic catastrophe created by our own apathy. It will not be solved with more apathy.

This means not only understanding the problems facing us (which is hopefully now clearer to readers); but we must also properly understand the solution(s). It is time for Bottom-Up Government, or in other words real democracy.

The people tell their representatives what to do – and then these Servants of the People do as they are told. For generations, arrogant Western residents have lectured the world about their shining “democracies.” After all those years of talking-the-talk; it’s time for us to collectively walk-the-walk.

Clearly part of acting like democracies involves restoring a principle which has totally disappeared in the moral decline of our cesspool-governments: accountability. The first baby-step in restoring “accountability” to our societies is punishing white-collar crime (in general), and white-collar crime in the financial sector, in particular.

By dollar-value; more than 90% of all crime is now white-collar crime – yet the White-Collar criminals in Western societies have never been more lightly punished (when they are even punished at all). While Western Serfs have all forgotten their history; this is not how we have normally dealt with financial crime.

Indeed through much of history financial crimes were punished more harshly than other forms of crime. In fact, “capital punishment” was frequently handed out for financial crime – especially those relating to currency.

How many Western bankers would have to be executed to bring integrity back to our monetary and financial system? There’s only one way to find out. Then again; maybe we already have our illustrative example: China? The world’s most-prosperous economy does execute financial criminals; and even has its own “white-collar Death Row”.

The bankers tried “QE”, and it failed, and we’re in worse shape than ever. They tried Austerity. It failed, and we’re in worse shape than ever.

Meanwhile, all we keep seeing is more and more and more and more Western financial crime – on a scale a hundred times worse than any other time in history. There could never be a more compelling/legitimate context for capital punishment for white-collar crime.

Corruption, apathy, and government-by-crime-syndicate must be replaced with the Will of the People. Hopefully we are now two-thirds of the way toward building a better monetary system.

We understand the mammoth problems facing us, and the entirely corrupt system within which we must seek to make reforms. We understand that given such parameters that we must take responsibility for our own government(s) – i.e. function in a truly democratic manner.

In Part III, readers will hopefully be ready to embrace the the steps necessary to restore economic viability (and integrity) to our economies and societies.

Jeff Nielson

www.bullionbullscanada.com