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New World Money In case you haven't seen what the Council on Foreign Relations is up to (besides pushing for the integration of the US, Canada, and Mexico), their latest may be a move toward a one-world-currency, if I read the article "The End of National Currency" by Benn Steil in the CFR's magazine "Foreign Affairs" right.
It's a very serious trial balloon, looks like from down here in the outback of Texas. I mean besides the little problem of the Constitutional requirement that CONgress is in charge of providing for our money (remember, the Framers didn't say we should make or use the coin of the realm of England, or whoever) the article manages (and I'm not sure how) to avoid confronting a horrible truth about currency here in the emergent Second Depression.
In case you haven't figured this out for yourself (and don't subscribe to my Peoplenomics.com newsletter), here's how the international game has been improved over the 78 years since the first Great Depression:
In a sense, Steil's article could be viewed as a sort of 'prequel' to where the blame placing will be going on after the crash becomes evident this summer as employment collapses in the US.
As we see Britain's premier "seller-of-gold-at-the-bottom" as Gordon Brown (noted in this 2005 article) now getting his 'reward' for the sellout of Britain's gold, being blessed as Tony Blair's replacement, I can almost sense that with gold now in the hands of the powers-that-be, the NWC (New World Currency) would likely be at least partially backed by gold - and maybe oil/energy/BTU's - and the elites are cornering those markets now by either gold price suppression schemes (obviously rewarding Brown for his deed) on the one hand, or massive wars of energy/resource acquisition on the other.
Maybe there's another problem with Steil's article, besides the superficial treatment or the role of tariffs. I didn't catch him using the word "wage" or "wages", "purchasing power", "PPP (purchasing power parity)" in the article. I must have missed something.
I read it as a global currency sales piece based on an arguable notion of international capital flows which I hold are not causative, but merely a outcomes of differentials in PPP labor rates between the haves and have-nots.
There's a more fundamental problem with this trial balloon of the OneWorldMoney concept : It starts at the top of the food chain (elite perspective) and works downward instead of starting with how differential labor rates and the exploitation of humans is carried out intentionally or otherwise as a natural consequence of 'free trade' which always seeks the least cost producer, and then working up from there to reach its conclusion.
I sure hope he writes an article that explains how a "single currency" would really work. Would it lead to actually paying folks in India one "World money unit" per hour, while people born in the US would work for a minimum wage of say three units of "World Money unit" per hour. A non-trivial issue is what would we do with all those folks who presently work in forex departments? What would we do with the cull? Oh, and what about CONgress' duty to create money (that they abdicated in 1913, but that's off point).
Fine sales piece, though, if you want to demonize monetary nationalism and international money flows. Perhaps it's an indicator of what some might want to see come next.
Yes, I'd offer that it's more evidence of the soundness of buying precious metals and physical resources/commodities and exiting the paper game, as we did in 2002.
Pakistan Flare-up Our event-predicting friends over at www.halfpasthuman.com are worried about the fate of Pakistan and its president Pervez Musharraf this fall. I figure it they are worried, then I should worry - and be reporting the major developments in country so you can worry, too. 15 people were killed in fighting in political demonstrations in the country over the suspension of a top judge.
If the linguistics are right, we might be seeing an escalation of violence in Pakistan culminating badly for Musharraf and that could leave the world a much more fragile place. What do you suppose would happen if a post Musharraf government decided to give/share/rent/lease its nuclear weapons capacity with some of the most militant of jihadists? And, if you were next door in India, worried about the Kashmir region now, wouldn't that up your tension levels by a Rolaid/Tums/Alka-Seltzer or two? And Pakistan's flag is predominately what color? Green.
Tweaking Iran Dick Cheney is saying it to Iran yet again "Don't do it..."
Dems Selling Out The AP story by Charles Babington is oh, so politely putting it: "Lobbying Reform Losing Steam in House". We'd be a little more crass....maybe even a lot more crass: You see now why I have called them democorps and republicorps, right?
Immigration Bill Stuck So senators are working overtime this weekend to seek compromise - a way to make as many campaign contributors as possible happy (and keep the corporate bank-rollers of the charade happy) with current plans to sell out America's borders. Which is why I say "No incumbents in 2008!" "No career politicians!" "Apply three strikes to these guys!"
Slamming Vegas The headline "Vegas run by gays and Jews, says magician" caught our eye. The report concludes by revealing that the magician has shelved his Vegas plans for now...Vegas won't miss his act, I'm sure.
Keep Both Fingers on the Wheel New Jersey lawmakers have banned texting while driving. We're awaiting a Jersey "no talking while driving" law, too. Fact, we should regulate breathing...and while we're at it.... My point: We already have negligent driving laws - this kind of stuff smells of grandstanding pols with nothing more important to do.
Have a Smoke Got your choice of California, Minnesota, Georgia and I think Florida... Looks like Avalon has been saved. Folks in China reading the People's Daily may find their logic taxed trying to figure out how Arnold Schwarzenegger will ever be able to "restore greenery to Los Angeles. I dunno - paint maybe? Or maybe Arnold knows the weather control people?
The Slow Death of Libraries A couple of weeks back, my older sister Christine, a deep-thinking MLS asked me in an email what I thought the future of libraries might be and I never got around to answering that email - so I thought I would kill two birds with one keyboard and share a couple of points on topic - and give you as a subscriber, one of the tools which the time monks and I use (the Vortex Reader which about quadruples your reading speed with no training) as a sort of thank you and offer up some hints on what's ahead as we go through "Lifetimes Piling Up" here over the next couple of years. The short summary is: Electricity has killed libraries and, as my friend Cliff notes (not to be confused with CliffNotes), libraries are wandering aimlessly not sure what business they're in. So much for the forward - let's move on to Chapter One and see how we got here.
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Friday May 11, 2007 Sadly Right I'm not big fan of holding up signs and saying "Neener, neener, neener - we're right on this - pay attention, would yah?" But, several readers took issue with my contention earlier this week that the Federal Reserve 'Consumer Credit" growth was really a reflection of people taking out cash advances to keep their households together. I also pointed out the 'inconvenient truth' that the Fed numbers called "credit" are only credit (and therefore good) to banksters and money-waterers. They are decidedly bad for regular working class humans because it's really Consumer Debt.
So now, let's fast forward to Thursday. Out consume a report that US Retailers are in the crapper. The headline "Wal-Mart posts worst sales sever as US retail figures slump." The report goes on to note that Wal-Mart is not alone.
What I want you to do now is take a big swig of the coffee and I will run you through the simple -= and I would argue unassailable - logic of the situation:
I will pass out a few gold stars to people who "get" this. --- Meantime, while we have -- as a nation -- continued to export jobs and import illegals (I mean, you have been paying attention to Lou Dobbs, right?) -- we read that we have set yet another high water mark in Bigness of Big, Bigger, Biggest Government. --- For some time, I have been warning you about the "employment crash" that will "suddenly" appear this summer according to our predictive linguistics pals at www.halfpasthuman.com. If I was reading about how the housing bubble continues to deflate, waiting for the next mortgage company to implode, or reading that retire bubblator Alan Greenspan says there is a 2:1 chance of avoiding recession (remembering he was one of the promoters of the housing bubble in the first place), a reasonable question might be "What can I do about it?"
That's the topic for this weekend's subscriber report on our $40/year www.peoplenomics.com site, but in most general terms it's all about minimizing cash outflows, stocking up, adding skills, and localizing. --- Behind the headlines, there are some serious changes afoot that will impact your life - and those who come after, the future generations. While the headlines of the mainstream/hypnomedia focus on the War Funding Bill, and now how Paris Hilton may not really have to do the full 45-day jail sentence for driving with a suspended license, the world's on a collision course with a disaster of climate change, energy shortage and people longage as folks like Jim Kunstler pointed out in "The Long Emergency."
As we have pointed out many times, the world at some point heads into conflict over the last remaining scraps of resource, when it becomes apparent that 2006 was Peak Oil, and that now, we expect to see stable production and (and increasing numbers of humans) such that energy prices will continue to ascend. All the new drivers coming on line in India and China will soon be vying for that $3.00+ a gallon gasoline and it's likely to go higher - much higher - unless we get a recession turning Depression, in which case prices might level or even fall. But let's pay attention on oil and the coming Manufacturer's Resource Wars...
Market Normal, Crop Report Out A check with my stock broker friend Robin Landry suggests the market drop yesterday is just a correction. "I won't be worried unless we take out 1488 or so in the S&P and 13,075 or thereabouts in the Dow," he explained. Me either (but this is NOT trading advice!). The denial about the coming late summer employment crash will do things in, but that's a little further up the timeline from here.
I'm more looking forward to next week when we get fresh CPI numbers. In the meantime, I will ping my friend the Gold & Commodity Trader for his read on the USDA/NASS Crop Report just out this morning. He pinged me with this from Page 30 of the report:
Question is: What does that do to the price of pizza?
US as a Third Reich No doubt about it, the US actions in the Middle East are not popular, outside of a core constituency of believers in American dominance of the world and 'manifest petroleum destiny.'. Russian President Vlad Putin, without specifically saying USA does liken some big world super power to the Third Reich.
Meantime, SecState Condi Rice heads to Moscow next Monday and Tuesday to, as Russian media headlines, "...to Correct [USSecDef] Robert Gates' mistakes..." You may remember Gates said to the Russians something to the effect that they should join with the US in the missile defense project, which would be the equivalent of Russia inviting us to participate in an anti-missile system on Canadian or Cuban soil...
Meantime, the Heritage Foundation seems a trap developing in China-ASEAN military cooperation as potentially polarizing on the Pacific side. American admiral Timothy Keating is calling for 'candid' talks with Beijing which keeps making more and more military hardware. Likely Keating wants to know "What ch'all gonna do with that stuff?" A question we should be asking, for sure.
But, it's not like Russia's any kind of wallflower with the deployment over the next three years of a new ICBM as we reported earlier this week. I knew there was a reason I bought that radiation survey meter...
The new BBC? I think of it as the Blair-Brown Coalition. Tony Blair is off to who cares what and in comes Mr. "sell gold at the bottom" Gordon Brown, blessed by Blair and the PTB.
Leadership? Where? I have been bemoaning the lack of leadership in America for I've given up counting. And a new poll out this morning says I'm not alone in thinking of the unruly gang in the District of Corruption as CONgress which puts on a poor effort to stand up to the White House on much of anything. CONgress which hasn't done much of anything but grandstand has a whopping 35% approval rating - right in there will Bush et al. --- Probably nowhere was the lack of leadership evident than the hearings this week on Alberto Gonzales' future. I call this the "DC ramble and skate". --- Meantime, I find myself thinking "Is the John Birch Society right about the "Media elite struggle to Keep Ron Paul Under Wraps"? It does seem that the media moguls puffed up Romney and when Ron Paul comes up in the polls, the headline come out like "Ron Paul Supports = Poll Spammers?" --- Also on the leadership front, my high esteem for Warren Buffett dropped several notches this week when he spoke favorably about Hillary & Obama on the tube. I continue the lone voice in the wilderness saying if the Business of America is Business, then we ought to get a CEO of the skill level of Jeff Bezos or Michael Dell running things.
Speaking of Gulf Streams... No, not the jet around the country type - the kind that move climate around. A source sends this curious email:
We'll continue watching our flood meme develop as the latest linguistics point to more of the same in very short term values and longer term, the tornado problem seems likely to revisit under the gouing descriptors. Oh great....
Friday Learnings I like Friday afternoons because around 5, I knock off and have a cool branch water, and reflect on what I have learned over the past week. This week's big lesson is that I should not drive my tractor on muddy ground to smooth over the rough spot left by the local water utility when they had to replace a section of pipe (5 feet down) after it split this week due to either lightning or earth movement. It was only the neighbors with their tractor (also a 4X4) and 50 feet of chain that finally dragged my tractor out from being high centered in mud.
This is only the second time in my life I have gotten a tractor stuck - the first time was on a big ranch up in Eastern Washington on Crab Creek when I was 11. This week's contemplation may be in the direction of "So in 47-years, you've learned how not to get tractors stuff in dry ground, but you don't have enough sense to keep off saturated ground...slow learner, huh?"
"Learn anything else this week?" Yeah. A mouse-pushing consultant turned farmer can not chase a jackrabbit out of the chicken yard. He'll leave when he's damn well ready.
"Anything else?" I may have a Harbor Freight catalog shopping addiction?
"And?" OK, I may have a procrastination problem too, but can we talk about that later?
Thursday May 11, 2007 Good News on Crops - Sort of... We've been keeping a fairly close watch (as least for us) on crop report headlines lately. The drought in Georgia, the unexpected early spring frost, and of course, the bee collapse. So far, it's a mixed bag: Northwest cherry crop predictions are for new records, and the almond crop may rise again this year. While peaches in the South took a hit, there are good supplies of strawberries to be found.
The key crops include things like corn, where planting continues ahead of schedule and the ethanol makers are expected to face firm to rising prices in the fall, according to some reports. Not everywhere is ahead. There's some concern out of parts of the Ohio region ...
Drought in Australia, drought in Europe, and demand from ethanol producers - you add it up. I wouldn't be quick to bet on lower food budgets any time soon and reports like "Ethanol demand for corn lifts food prices at the dinner table" are around and worth reading. --- All of this would sound like life is going along just fine - and that barring an encounter with something unexpected from space later this year (hint), things will be hunky-dory. Well, not quite. NASA, has been looking into their crystal ball and figures that more extreme summer weather is coming in the future - and if they have it right, by 2080, summer temps in places like new York and Chicago will be 10-degrees hotter than they are presently.
And, if that kind of temperature increase were to become widespread, because if I read the background papers right, we won't have to worry about humans being around because we will see enough methane hydrates release from deep oceans and CO2 from peat bogs to end most traffic problems.
But as usual, the corporate response is what? Let's make a money-making game out of all this and start trading carbon credits! We read NewsCorp is planning to become carbon neutral (no snickering, now) and as new firms pop up to deal in carbon credits, we note the prestigious NYMEX is planning trading of carbon credits.
So, if you thought things were getting back to normal and that subtropical storm Andrea would end the drought in the Southeast, then think again. It won't.
Humans at the corporate/political levels are unchanged from what they have always been - trading in power and greed at the expense of regular humans. I can picture the last 100 people on earth now "Anyone want to buy my April 2017 carbon calls at 723? (gasp...sputter...) 722?"
G-8 / Defending the Paradigm We notice that 900 police in Germany have been conducting search & seizure operations at about 40 locations trying to break up an anti-globalist demonstrations planned for next month's G-8 Summit. What's interesting to me is that as I understand it, the demonstrators aren't a lynch mob, but they would like the G-8 to get serious about some of the larger issues facing the world besides issuing a new kind of trading scam. Alas - ain't gonna happen. And what regular humans are being told here (by way of coverage) is "Ya'll are welcome to your own opinions, just so long as you don't talk about it, demonstrate it, or try to rock the boat."
Defunding the War The Bush administration says it will veto the next funding bill, too, if they don't get what they want. Not that any of this slows down the fighting...
Flood Preps Seems like everywhere from Illinois south along the Mississippi there is talk about floods. Folks in Vicksburg (which I seem to remember from one of the Mark Twain novels) is reading about how the "Legacy of 1927 flood still part of our daily life in Mississippi". In Missouri ("Missourah") the "Flood waters passing without major damage." The web bot folks are telling us emotional values are still building, however, so more flood headlines to come and the tornado emotive values are still building, so more of that coming, too, apparently.
Other Quake Jitters It seems as though we're not the only ones worried about a quake in the next 7-days or so - based on the gamma ray burst this week. Go check out this interesting but conspiratorially-sounding exchange.
Madam Rumors There continue to be lots of things swirling about just under the surface with all the DC Madam clients jittery as hell. And some reports suggest that the list clients may go all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And more is likely as one of the women who allegedly worked for the ring has been fired for not telling her DC law firm that she had a [part time job. Well, we're in this "secrets revealed" meme hot and heavy, for sure...
Bye, Tony War supporter Tony Blair exits. I hear the World Bank might have an opening soon...
Battle of the Processors If you are into power computing, then by all means, you need to be up on the distinctions between Intel's Santa Rose /Centrino Pro and AMD's Turion. On the other hand, it's early, and arguing about processors is sort of in the same category as a group of mechanics arguing the merits of Snap-On, Craftsman, or SK-Tools, for example. In the end, for most mechanics, it's a 5/8th's wrench - and for most of us consumers, the processor is the processor.
Wednesday May 9, 2007 Special Mid Day Update Fed Stands Pat! The FOMC Statement is out..
The statement doesn't really say much, and initial stock market reaction was mixed. But in this kind of market that should turn into a reason to rally...
Week to Super Quake? Our friends, the folks at www.halfpasthuman.com, have been eerily right in some of their recent forecasts, including the flooding of the Mississippi/Red Rivers - which we will get to in a minute.
But first, an urgent advisory from them last night has really got our attention because the technology seems to be able to predict with some degree of accuracy major geological events like earthquakes. With their exclusive permission, here's what was sent out to their subscribers. Now, to understand this completely, you need to know that in predictive linguistic modelspace there is a new "event/news/emotionally impacting" area which comes this summer called "spacegoartfart". And, we are supposed to have something of a release event around May 19th... OK, not a very pretty term this spacegoatfart, but you'll see as you read this how "spacegoartfart" in model space and super quakes could be connected:
All of this would be interesting enough by itself, but when you add in the earthquake Tuesday (4.6) in Montana, and the odd 'quivering' of the caldera at Yellowstone lately, we'll be doing a little double-checking of personal stores here over the weekend. I've always associated earthquakes with dark-of-the-moon to new moon (dark is the 16th) so if someone wants to make you a bet about earthquakes, the odds seem like they might be a little higher from say the 13th through 19th and maybe a few days after the 19th, predictions being soft that way.
You will for sure want to visit Stan Deyo's site and bookmark this page that Stan and Holly put up. Also, you'll want to have the USGS quake list bookmarked. Make sure you have a NOAA weather radio and a month of food and water stored... --- I've told you over the past several weeks that there was still more flooding to come, especially in the Mississippi and Red River areas - because that was a quite specific geographic descriptor from the web bot run of December 8th which was not fulfilled by the Northeast flooding, although that did give us the fulfillment of the airplanes with interlocked wings imagery, sitting in the water at the Teterboro (NJ) airport. So, now our attention has been held by events in North Texas and Oklahoma. A reader in the area (aware of the linguistic predictive focus) offers us this first-hand account:
We note the female democratic governor of Kansas and the Bushcorp have backed off their argument over the National Guard and tornado help. Why can't the DC boyz deal with strong/powerful democratic women in disasters? Maybe if the administration would shoot straight with the American public and stop trying to say that "the Iraq War doesn't impede rescue and recovery operations in places like New Orleans and Kansas" we'd put them a little higher up in the polls. But do they think we are 'effing idiots? Seems so... --- I don't mean to dwell too much on the web bot forecasts and follow-up - as I occasionally get people who send emails asking "Why are you into this 'time machine' stuff so deeply? Can't you just stay with investment/business news?" And, I guess this answer is this: Behind any investment - whether it's a bond, option, stock, even a real estate investment - there's an implied assumption made about the future. The assumption is that when the when the future arrives it will be somewhat similar to today in that (and especially because) there will be a ready buyer at the same price or more than paid for the original investment. That's why inflation is so important - and it's why since before the events of 9/11 - which the web bot project called a 'tipping point, after which the world won't be the same' I've taken such an interest in the technology.
In case you haven't been keeping track, it has given us archetype descriptors now for what will be 6-years in June of everything from 9/11, to the Columbia disaster, the anthrax attack, Northeast power Outage, Banda Aceh tsunami, Kat-Rita, and the list goes on - right up through the flooding and much more coming in the way of tornadoes in the coming months, too, by the way.
So yes, there are huge investment implications of the project and although we don't trade of them, there are aspects that deserve general public consideration before events, rather than after. So, take it as a heads up this stuff about quakes. Not saying it will happen, but I wouldn't be that it won't.
Bush Did What? Well, the Decider's gone and done it now - making foreign policy and committing MY country and YOUR country without bothering to to check with CONgress! Specifically, he has signed up (April 30th) for "The "Transatlantic Economic Integration" between the U.S. and the European Union" as reported by Jerome Corsi over at WorldNetDaily.
OK, just so we're clear on this, it's all part of the One World Government/New World Order plans - and you have only to read up on the pending integration of the US into Mexico and Canada to see a design pattern here.
Linguistically, terra intrudes - and derails some of this Constitutionally questionable power grabbing, but Holy Smokes - what will they try next?
Plot Bust If you were going to strike at America's soft underbelly, would it be Fort Dix, home of highly motivated troops with state of the art weapons? Not hardly, but that's what we're asked to believe the six Jihadists busted this week were planning. --- Police in London have arrested four in connection with the 2005 bombings there.
Oil Prices Attacks in Nigeria could ripple into the market and eventually wriggle into your wallet. --- While the New World people are busily trying to get a new craps game going to bubble up markets by trading carbon credits, an editorial in the Japan Times "Time for an energy revolution" is worth of read. The US continues to take a corporate gluttony approach to climate change - figuring perhaps that paper can somehow be turned into oxygen down the road for the Ubberklassen.
Consulting Report OK, in real life I consult companies on how to become (more) profitable. So I get an email this morning from a client:
Uh...does that mean what I think? ce="Times New Roman" color="#FF0000">; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: .0001pt"> Tuesday May 8, 2007 I don't want to start off the morning with a rang & rant, but the headlines around the Federal Reserve (which is neither) on Monday has me slightly miffed. The typical headlines said things like "Consumer credit rises at fastest pace in 4-months" and "March consume credit up $13.4B". It's technically accurate in both cases, but the reports go to a whole different perspective on the consumer than seems reasonable to me.
The first point is that the Fed/banksters report "consumer credit" like it is a good thing - and true, from a bankster's perspective it is: Lend money spurs consumption (pulling future demand forward) and helping to maintain the illusion of growth. But, there's a great 'switcheroo' in that what the central banksters are really reporting is consumer debt. So while it's true that there may be some salutatory short-term impact on spending, the downside is that increasing debt/debt loading contributes to the fact that since 2006 there hasn't been a single positive month on the personal savings rate.
Here's an alternative view of things: While most (e.g. conventional/MSM) reports show Consumer Credit as economic drivers (and I will admit more debt = modest inflationary push to offset the looming deflation evidenced by the housing bubble popping), the more likely meaning of the frightening 9.2% annualized increase in revolving debt was more likely driven by hundreds of thousands of people taking cash advances on their bank cards to make a house payment. This kind of spending is good for only two things: keeping the wolf/repo man from the door for a month and sucking more and more people into debt bondage to the central banksters. --- I sent an email to my friend the "Charleston Voice" yesterday, updating him on some layoff numbers and he offered an interesting point in return...
Like dribbling a drop of food color into a glass of water, the economy feels like it's in a mixing stage right now as the forces of inflation/deflation fight to sort out where things will go longer term. On the one hand, we see massive pressures of deflation evidenced in the housing foreclosures, but at the same time the creation of money (e.g. by lending it into existence) continues unabated in the corporate over world.
The thing I look at is called "QOE" - which stands for quality of earnings. Yes, there are some big M&A deals going which will puff up top line revenues when they come together, but what about traditional new product development and investment in the company and its main line of business?
My not-even-pretending-to-be-scientific view is that boards of directors have concluded that they don't need to buy plants and equipment (or invest in people). With the IBM rumored 150,000 layoff being labeled 'hogwash' the wings, we still see real job declines. Example: Ford fessing up to 25,000 now gone, and more to come.
All of which leads to the next further extension of the hypnosis because as I've warned before, just think how grand the 'productivity number' will be if corporations can have executives only, and no employees! Of course, we'll all be putting house payments on our credit cards, but the mantra from the MSM is that Consumer Credit (not that consumer debt stuff) is good!
Here's a point I think a read of history would support: If people have high equity positions in their holdings, they can tell the banks what to do and, by extension, their government. BUT, when people have little or no equity, their banks call the tune, and by extension, so does government.
Chicken Decision The USDA has a little problem: What will they do with 20-million chickens which have ingested melamine-tainted feed? It's not like China has just been less than forthcoming on chicken feed - there's the whole matter of vegetables and now even pigs popping up.
Enough for Gas There's some speculation that with the near-record $3.054 price for gasoline nationally, things may have hit a temporary peak - for now. Me? I doubt it. Too much of the summer driving season ahead and if prices have indeed peaked now, it would mean the petro boyz are leaving a lot on the table. I just can't believe they will do that. --- Energy reading interest you? The Association for the Study of Peak Oil Canadian chapter has the first 448 pages of "The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization" available online - which will get you started thinking along the lines of "Where to next?" --- A couple of data points: Seems like travel and specifically binge flying) is getting a bad rap as the new tobacco. And whether you think the cause is humans or off-planet (sun/galactic) changes, whatever the source, Lloyds figures climate change will impact the insurance business big-time.
Manufacturer's Resource War/WW IV We have been watching with a sense of curiosity the re-emergence of the Cold War between the Russians and the West which no one (besides me and a few retired military leaders) seem to be overly concerned about. The latest data point being the Russian's announcement that they are planning to deploy fixed-site Topol-M ICBMs by 2010. I expect that as much as first-use of nuclear weapons is crazy/immoral, the pressures of the world running out of resources to feed humans will bring about their use at some point, if, as the time monks would say, terra does not intrude in a major way. --- Charles Madigan writes in the Chicago Trib this morning that "pre-emptive war is an unmistakable error" and yet we've heard that mantra coming from the Bush administration several times recently about Iran.
OK, nuclear war is messy and gene damaging. But, if terra doesn't intrude in a way that will reduce the number of humans being born, the world will get right back on track heading toward the brick wall that is quite literally the planet screwing itself to death. Even China admits there's a problem and the risk of a rebound in births could be catastrophic.
Dig This King Herod's tomb has been discovered.
Robotics Report: Part Way to Stepford A while back a reader asked:
So I forwarded it on to Elaine and here's here review:
Robotics Question In my spare time (both minutes, some days) I have been working on how to turn my yard tractor into a RPV for mowing the lawn. Now, as we all know, an RPV is a 'remotely piloted vehicle' - and strange as this may sound, I think there may be a market for such a device as an after-market retrofit for riding mowers. I figure I could put a small wireless camera on the tractor (easy enough to do) then put in a remote control.
Yes, I am aware of existing "robotic mowers" but they only work up to 10,000 square feet of lawn. Our mowing here runs about 3-acres, I'd guess.
Now, I've got all the tools on earth (lathe, milling machine, even ability to cast aluminum to make custom fittings. I was thinking about a windshield wiper motor to run the steering. So here's today's design problem:
I can tweak the transmitter to give me any range desired (being a ham radio type, putting a 27-MHZ unit on 10-meters seems easy enough...) I just need the recommendations/sources for the steering and power control. Maybe someone has a kit?
I picture being able to mow the law on a 100 degree day sitting inside comfortably in front of a TV monitor with a remote. If I had an RPV set up, my preference would be for one that would work mixed-mode - one that I could drive for trimming and one that would be remote-piloted for the big/long/boring parts.
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Monday May 7, 2007 Can France Weather the Weather? Can WE? OK, so Nicolas Sarkozy is the new president of France. If we could offer him one bit of advice, now that he's got the job? Watch the weather closely. --- Background: The BBC offers a sampling of newspaper opinions on his election here. We'll keep our reporting franc and skip the religious/conflict dimensions of his election and France's immigration issues..
Except, of course, to note that with massive global climate change afoot France, and most of Europe could see an onslaught of displaced farmers from North Africa, Turkey, and elsewhere, as climate-change-induced droughts post losses. For now, says one report, "Farmers in Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland say it is the worst drought they have seen." --- There is a hugely important long-term strategic planning document that is remarkable in several ways. Not only does the report "National Security and the Threat of Climate Change" from 'Rand-like" think tank CNA Corporation sound like out-takes from UrbanSurvival pages, but it's vision of the future is just as bleak, if not slightly longer term. Here's a taste or two:
This sort of segues to the the latest newsletter out from the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, which offers a compact reading list which should help you align your investment/lifestyle plans with the quickly emerging reality, which, as noted above, has already drawn serious focus from retired military leaders (& CNA) which understand just how serious things are.. (from 815: Peak Oil, Peak Food, Peak People):
And on the bottom of page 3 of the ASPO Newsletter we read:
Keep reading beyond Page 3, and a short paper by ( www.dieoff.org writer) Jay Hanson "POSITIVE FEEDBACKS AND THE OVERPOPULATION PROBLEM" offer that:
Not to be a wet dish cloth on your Monday morning, but you might want to spend some time contemplating this view of what's coming down the pike towards us. Recognition of the larger picture demands prudent preparation for the storms to come - economically, socially, politically, and personally. You may have enough stored fat to get you through a week or three of food shortages, but water? Four to 15 days, depending on health. And in most places, no oil/electricity means no water. Got plans? Oh yeah, make a lot of money first...sure...you betcha....
If you're like most folks, you won't be thinking about UrbanSurvival as I have since the mid 1990's -- instead you'll hang on to that old paradigm that frames your world, figuring you'll be the one smart person out of 7-billion or so, who manages to time "getting out at the top" just right. So go ahead and ignore my points raised here - and the concerns of some of America's finest military thought leaders - and get back to the job at hand: collecting more pieces of paper with the fervent hope that when push comes to shove, you can trade piles of paper for something truly useful like water or food. You have your values system - I have mine.
I expect the new president of France will end up being seriously impacted by climate changes of all sorts.
Fed Week Dawns I often wonder whether the Fed - although not technically a US government agency - is given a sneak peak at any of the "offishal" government numbers in advance of their rate decisions. The reason this might be particularly interesting is that the Balance of Trade report is scheduled for release a day after the Fed decision expected early Wednesday afternoon. Bet me a beer they won't get a sneak peek?
The majority of bets seem to be along the lines of this CNBC headline: "Fed Seen Holding Rates Steady This Week, Citing Inflation Worries". It's a situation somewhat akin to seeing that you're driving a car out of control and you're about to hit a patch of dangerous ice which could run the car off the road - so you hold the wheel ever so tightly - and how the momentum of the car (or, in this example, the economy) is such that things will slide through the rough spot to come out the other side not too far from the original trajectory.
As we reported Saturday, there have been some posts around the net that "Blue" is getting ready to lower the boom on 150,000 workers, although I expect the PR folks to hold them to less than 100,000 for appearances sake. An insider tells us (quite carefully you'll note) that:
A "SLA" in case you are stuck in the Vietnam War era/the 70's/Patty Heart days when the SLA was the Symbionese Liberation Army [arguably America's first terrorist group] - in more recent history SLA means "Service Level Agreement" in the IT world. And Big Blue is committed to cost containment as they work through the changing business model necessitated by progressively more powerful networked PC's and platforms (Wiki: Itanium) that have chewed into IBM's traditional 'heavy iron' core business. But I digress...
Other tech firms are eyeing large cuts, too, such as Nokia Siemens Networks, which plans to axe 9,000 between now and 2010.
And a shot of wry (sic) for breakfast? The Virginia Employment Commission is planning layoffs --- There seems to be a global push toward global inflation, as linked economies sort of drag one another kicking and screaming into the future. We notice (although you might need to be an AK-47 gun collector to 'get' this) the Russian inflation rate is running not far from 7.62% annualized.
Ultimately, however, it will be pressure from Europe in two ways, that may force the Fed to move when the jobs picture at home argues for steady to lower rates. First, there's the decline of the US dollar which in recent weeks has approached the 0.73 Euro level. Economic fact: As one currency declines relative to another, there's pressure to offer higher rent to holders of debt as an enticement. The other economic fact is that persistent and stubborn inflation in Europe means they may raise rates - and that might force our Fed to go along with the herd.
Woodstock of Capitalism Yes, the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting was held this weekend - and it was more of the same brilliance we've come to expect from Warren Buffett. Here is the link to his annual report messages - I expect the 2006 report to be up this week.
The one thing that caught my eye was his comment on the big Murdoch - Wall St Journal newspaper deal (pending), saying it "goes beyond economics."
Gee, you mean like some of these media tycoons might be buying power and influence/control of the public thinking? What a shocking thought!
News from Elliott Wave International
Write when you get rich,
George Ure, The People's Economist
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