Why We Need To Put An End To The Monetary System Immediately

Money = Debt and Slavery

I don't know about you, but I've always hated money. Statistics reveal that the majority of our problems are caused because of money alone. Thanks to money, we are forced to deal with greed, corruption, debt, and many other issues.

We all need money to live though, right? That's what the banks want us to believe, but you see, where there is money, there will inevitably be debt. We have debt because we have money.

Where does this money come from?

The Central Banks create our money, and then loan it out to other banks on interest. So, technically any money that is "created" needs to eventually be paid back to the banks plus interest. In actuality, there was never any money in the first place, and there also wasn't money within the system to cover the interest the banks require.

The monetary system ensures that people will always be in debt because our money is created through debt. As if that wasn't bad enough, we also must deal with inflation because more money is always being "created", raising our debt, and devaluing the money that we already use.

To stop this from happening, President Andrew Jackson, shut down the Central Bank in 1835 that preceded the Federal Reserve. This was the last time that America was debt free. 

President Jackson said, "The bold efforts the present bank has made to control the Government... are but premonitions of the fate that awaits the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this Institution, or the establishment of another like it."

Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve came into existence in 1913, and has ensured that perpetual debt continues to thrive. In this system, we will ALWAYS have debt, inflation, foreclosures, and people that can't pay off their debts. True wealth, as we have let it become, only belongs to the banks and not the people.

Money was created out of nothing, people, and we have let it become everything. 3% of our entire money supply is just some paper, while the rest is merely a bunch of numbers, to which only we give value. It ensures that we are constantly in debt, and are slaves to the system.

What is slavery?

• Slavery: Bondage; the state of being under the control of something.
• Slavery: Being entirely dominated by some influence or person.
• Slavery: A social-economic system under which people are deprived of personal freedom.

We are all in debt, and what do people do when they are in debt? They submit to work for someone to pay off the debt that is owed. For the most part, we go to work for someone that we don't want to work for, and we do something that we probably don't want to do. Why? This is how the system was set up to operate. Is this not modern slavery? The wage slave is kept in line by this system, powering the empire that was set up. The debt that was created can never be paid off, and this is exactly how the system was set up.

Debt is being used to conquer and enslave nations.

More Problems Caused by Money

Many of us believe that we are a free people, but not only does money keep us from being free, it actually is the root cause of many of our daily problems. We know all about greed and corruption. Just think; if we had no monetary system, there would be no reason for people to steal, and to try and fight their way to the top of the pyramid. Over half of the whole world lives on less than $2 a day, while the greedy, corrupt people at the top of our financial system benefit from each and every one of us, and all of the bad things that happen thanks to this system. So many problems would instantly vanish if we ditched the system that has made us into modern day slaves.

Profit controls the motives of the people in our economy. Businesses are not concerned about your well being because that would be bad for business. Businesses are concerned about making a profit first and foremost. That is also the reason why we have products that do not last, and remain scarce. If we could get products that lasted and were readily available, this would also be bad for business. With a monetary system intact, businesses will never be concerned with ethics, morals, and the benefit of the consumer. If they did so, businesses would not last and the system would not work as it was designed.

War, crime, and poverty will always persist within this system as well. We tend to think these are things that simply happen because we fail to understand how this system was set up, and why it continues to operate. There is strong evidence suggesting that war, crime, and poverty are a direct result of the monetary system that we have in place, and would be greatly reduced if we became resource based, instead of monetary based. However, many people throughout the world have nothing right now. Many people are dying right now. People have been historically concerned about themselves, overall, and have not loved each other. This is sad, sick, and uncivilized.

Does money improve your life?

What is money? Money is nothing! It is a bunch of paper or numbers used to control the masses. Money can do nothing but enslave those who want it, while empowering those who have all of it. When we rid ourselves of this burden that we assume we need for everyday life, we take away the power that we alone have given to those at the top of the pyramid, we take away the scam, and we greatly reduce the consequences of this system that persist each day, and would otherwise continue to persist.

As long as we continue in the direction we are heading, we will also continue to see; crimes related to the monetary system (roughly 80%), greed, corruption, power and wealth consolidation, labor abuse, social stratification, a dictatorship based on wealth, as well as technological paralysis. These are the things that our current system provokes. If you are okay with these things, you don't need to do anything because they will continue in a monetary system. That's one thing you can count on. However, if you loathe these things such as I do, then do something about it.

It's time to wake up! We have let ourselves become burdened with this for far too long. Instead of wondering whether or not we have enough money to get something done, we could be gathering the necessary resources and technology to accomplish things; things from which our current system has held us back.

Growth through Social Control

Yesterday I discussed what exactly growth was, and why it was only important to governments. But because it is important to governments it has been enforced through a series of social developments implemented within legislation and enforced through the slavery of debt.

In the modern age to have a 'good job' it is mandatory to have a 'good education'. A degree of some sort is required for almost every job that leads to a good standard of living.

But now in order to have a 'good education' there is a degree of inevitability that all but the most well off will leave university with some degree of indebtedness. With the recent tripling of tuition fees it is estimated that the average student leaving university in the UK will be approximately $60,000 in debt.

Somewhere along the way the government seems to have forgotten that an education is an aim in and of itself and is not tied simply to the desire to maximise future potential earnings. However this level of indebtedness is a self fulfilling prophecy as in order to have any standard of living whatsoever a human is going to have to increase their productivity in order to have sufficient wealth left after taxes, basic necessities and servicing the debt to afford any luxuries.

With the effective rate of taxation (adding together any money which is paid to the government in any form) soon to be around 40% for the average earner in Jersey and housing costs running at between 35% and 50% of income, servicing the debt is going to make a sizeable hole in the remaining 10 to 25% of income left to the recently graduated and there is the basic necessities of life and the costs of working to consider.

The errors of the government and the good life of previous generations who now retired are expecting the next generation to give them the golden retirement that they have been promised. But the social security and health funds will be exhausted, in about ten years time.

The young of course are soft targets, they are innocent and naive, they do not vote and they are carefully mind controlled (or educated if you prefer) to submit to government authority, not to question authority unless it is their parents, and NEVER under any circumstances to become involved in the political process.

Debt is the currency of slaves, where once it was mortgages that were used to enslave people, now it is education and the opportunity to live a life off benefits.

The government when they printed off the hundred of billions of pounds could have given this money to people with mortgages to repay their loans to the banks to put the banks on a sound financial footing. Instead they gave the money directly to the banks.

The reason is simple, they want to maintain the population in a mire of endentured servitude. In Greek and Roman times a person could sell themselves as a slave to clear their debts, I wonder if Aristotle would have perceived any difference between people selling themselves as slaves or leasing themselves as slaves in order to pay off their debts.

The difference between a contract of slavery and a contract of employment is but a fine legal distinction.

What is 'growth'?

Another thought provoking point raised by Tom Joad has led to the following post, I hope this fully demonstrates that I firmly believe that the welfare and happiness of workers is fundamental to a business' success.

The much touted 'growth' that all nations seem to be extolling the virtues of, as the 'alternative' to austerity is a funny thing, which has never quite been defined and remains a buzz word.

To truly understand what growth means, we need to understand what it is that is 'growing' and that is the arbitrary measure of the economic value of a nation's activities.

There are four ways, within the purview of government, that growth can be achieved:
1) Increase the number of people working
2) Increase the notional value of each person's activity
3) Increase the level of taxation and activity by government employees
4) Inflation (increase in the money supply)

None of these represent 'real' growth. There are three ways of delivering 'real growth' none of which are within the control of government.
5) Revolution in the means of production
6) Individuals devoting a greater proportion of their time to productive activities
7) Individuals making more productive use of their time

None of the first four will solve the problems of the burden of overspending by our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents and in the absence of a revolution in the means of production it requires a fundamental change in human nature which is unlikely to happen without a serious re-education of people.

As an example, when Coal Mines were first opened miners were self-employed and were paid based on the amount of coal they extracted but the mine owners found that the miners were only working sufficient hours to ensure that they earnt enough to live and they recognised that if the miners could be made to work longer hours then they could make more profit. As a result Contracts of Employment were introduced which compelled workers to work a set number of hours and paid them on the basis of the time spent 'under contract' rather than how productive they were during that time.

The amount of coal that was extracted did increase slightly but the productivity per hour significantly decreased, such is the difference in productivity between a free man and a slave.

Of course it is not just mine owners who are slave to the profit motive, now the worst culprits are government. Governments are obsessed with increasing the level of economic activity, but it does not follow that citizens share this desire.

In 1976 during the three day week economic activity remained at the same level as it did before and after the  oil crisis, as much activity was completed in three days as was in five.

The human factor shows that each person will only produce a set amount of work in a given time period, almost irrespective of how much time within that period is given over to 'productive activity'.

The long term solution to growth would thus seem to be to create the means whereby productivity is maximised by ensuring that a person is paid on the basis of their productivity and that there are no contractual obligations placed upon that person in terms of the hours that must be worked, what work must be done, how it must be done.

Two free men working three days each should be more than twice as productive as one slave working six days. That these two free men suffer no detriment to their earnings but enjoy greater leisure time in which to be a consumer, real growth will inevitably follow. Unemployment would decrease.

If we apply that same situation on a national level, the greater the liberty and the lower the taxation, enjoyed by citizens, the greater the economic activity of a nation will be, as all citizens will be more productive and greater consumers.

Unions I am afraid are a tool of repression particularly against the individual, discouraging individual innovation and productivity and enforcing slavery, or as it is more commonly referred to a contract of employment.

Unfortunately what these nations mean by 'growth' is taking ten pounds and giving it the same value in exchange for goods as one pound has today, thereby turning their trillion pound liabilities into a mere one hundred billion pounds of liability and changing a GDP of £500 million into £5 billion. The change is not real but simply arises because the definition or value of £1 changes. This is only a problem for wage slaves, pensioners, benefit recipients and people with savings denominated in pounds.

If you have land or you have gold then it really doesn't matter how many pounds one unit costs because one unit of land is always worth one unit of gold, always has been, always will.

That is why I am not, nor will I ever be, an employer again, not even a self-employer. I am a free man and I will work together with other free men, if we both agree to do so, knowingly and willingly, by mutual consent towards a common goal.

Employment is simply a limit to one's earnings potential.

China is NOT a global economic hegemon

The BRICS nations

You may have seen the news that Britain is going to lend £10 billion to the IMF to prop up the Euro along with a number of other countries to make a total fund of £400 billion (or thereabouts). The two 'abstainers' are the US and Canada.

First it is important to realise that the £10 billion is entirely hypothetical. It is simply an entry in a ledger somewhere saying DEBIT IMF loan, CREDIT Creditors, there is no actual money changing hands and no one will have to pay anything it is all just an electronic intangible.

Britain once and within my life-time found itself in a position where it was forced to borrow money from the IMF, extract taken from nationalarchives.gov.uk

Devaluation of the pound 

The left wing of the Labour Party defeated the Public Expenditure White Paper in the Commons in March 1976. Subsequently, Harold Wilson resigned and James Callaghan took over as Prime Minister. Around this time, investors became convinced that the pound was overvalued and that the government might devalue. A large-scale sale of sterling began, which rapidly lost value against the dollar. 

In spite of further efforts to reduce inflation, the pound continued to lose value, reaching a record low against the dollar in June 1976. The US Treasury Secretary now agreed with officials in the International Bank of Settlements that the pound was undervalued. He offered to partially fund a stand-by loan of $5.3 billion to support the pound. He insisted, however, on repayment of the loan by December 1976. Proposals for further cuts in expenditure and tax increases to reduce the budge deficit were debated in Cabinet in July. By September 1976, Britain had already drawn heavily on the short-term loan and it was apparent that a loan from the IMF would be necessary to fund repayment. 

The 3.9 billion dollar loan

As pressure on the pound continued, the government approached the IMF for a loan of $3.9 billion in September 1976. This was the largest amount ever requested of the Fund, which needed to seek additional funds from the US and Germany. The IMF negotiators demanded heavy cuts in public expenditure and the budget deficit as a precondition for the loan. Healey's proposals for a cut of around 20 per cent in the budget deficit were hotly debated in Cabinet, particularly by Anthony Crosland and Michael Foot. Eventually they acceded, as it seemed likely that the refusal of the loan would be followed by a disastrous run on the pound. Healey announced the forthcoming reductions in public expenditure to the House of Commons on 15 December 1976. 

Following the agreement with the IMF, the overall economic and financial picture improved. Interest rates were soon reduced and the pound quickly appreciated in value. By the end of 1977, partly as a result of new oil revenues, there were improvements in the balance of trade. Britain did not need to draw the full loan from the IMF. Nevertheless, the IMF crisis reinforced a change in policy orientation away from full employment and social welfare towards the control of inflation and expenditure.

The US stepped in to prop up the ailing UK economy whilst changes were implemented in policy. As one would expect from an ally of significantly more economic might.

So who now is the key player stepping up to underwrite the Eurozone in these difficult times, is it Europe's ally the US? No it is China. The very nation that is maintaining the US standard of living.

When the US overtook the UK as the global economic hegemon it did so on the basis of revolutions in the methods of production of farming and manufacturing, just as the agricultural and industrial revolutions of the 19th Century had catapulted Britain into a position of economic dominance in the world.

There has been no such innovation in China, their advantage is based simply on the relative labour costs of the US and China, an advantage that can quickly be removed if the economies of the US and China continue along their current paths. The success and future success of China is part of a zero-sum game, their growth depends on the decimation of the economies of other nations, rather than as has previously occurred as part of a non zero sum game where methods have allowed consumption of goods to be more widely distributed and growth to be achieved.

That is not to say that we in the West do not consume too much. We are drowning in our own waste and dying of over-eating, the answer has to be found, as suggested in a previous post YES WE CAN, in making fundamental changes to our economic system and realising that the 'value' of our goods is not in the 'intellectual property', the brand name, the patent, license or trademark but it is in the materials which are used to create the product and the time that a human being has devoted to making it.

The best example of this is in the very money we use as a means of exchange. £10 billion pounds is worthless, £400 billion pounds is likewise of little value except for what it can buy, but it can be churned out by the trillion on a printing press and is only valuable because the government insists that it is.

But the most 'valuable' things are those which are the unique creation of a single human being, the priceless works of art, the unique pieces of jewellery, the furniture which is made by craftsman rather than machine. It is not because Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa that it is valuable it is the way that he painted it. Work by craftsmen is more expensive because they put their soul and their time into the production.

China has not changed, fundamentally, the way in which agriculture and production is undertaken, there is no philosophical leap which has enabled a new phase of human development, it has simply undercut the West. It therefore differs from previous the previous hegemons: United Provinces (Netherlands), United Kingdom and the United States.

China like Feudal Spain, Napoleonic France and Hitler's Germany on those previous occasions, is I suspect the 'also ran' in the battle for dominance, the nation which upsets the apple cart. Who the sleeping giant is remains to be seen.

We are still looking for the next 'industrial and agricultural revolution', but looking back to the 3 day week of the 1970's one can see that the productivity of the United Kingdom did not actually fall. For whatever reason, maybe due to more diligent working practises the British firms managed to produce as much in three days and they did before and after the 'crisis' in five days.

Teaching a legal adviser the law?

Advocate Robin Morris has a reputation in legal circles as, well, not a particularly good lawyer. I have not yet received the transcript of my appearance in the Magistrate's Court, ahead of my appeal to the Royal Court but I have had the opportunity to prepare the case that I will represent. The main issue that Advocate Morris seemed to have had was, 'what was I when I was not a person'.

The answer to Advocate Morris' question is found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I am not entirely sure that Jersey has signed up to this since it is not a 'country' or a 'nation' in its own right, but our rights as British citizens, are ensured by the British government.

Article 1 - Innate Freedom and Equality
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 6 - The Right to Legal Personality
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Therefore, for the sake of clarity Advocate Morris, when I am not a 'person', as I am only a person when 'before the law', I am a human being and when a human being I am equal to all other human beings and thus not subject to anyone else's orders.

If we are to employ Advocates then is it too much to expect that they be familiar with common legal terminology?

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights enshrines the Right to Self-Determination and this right has undergone some development over the years

In a 1998 Reference Opinion on the secession of Quebec from Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada stated that “an oppressed people” who suffer “massive violation of its fundamental rights” may have a right to form a sovereign State.

In a Concurring Opinion in a case tangentially related to the issue of self-determination, Judge Wildhaber of the European Court of Human Rights noted, “[u]ntil recently in international practice the right to self-determination . . . unlike 50 years ago, when the universal human rights system was in its infancy, the development of the right to self-determination was . . . restricted to, a right to de-colonisation. In recent years a consensus has seemed to emerge that people may also exercise a right to self-determination if their human rights are consistently and flagrantly violated or if they are without representation at all . . . .” 

Thus, self-determination has developed over the years from being a right of peoples under colonial subjugation to a right of peoples who are subjected to massive human rights violations or who are without representation within their State.

Indeed it is this same right that Sir Pip will be relying on if his plans for 'independence' proceed or if Scotland chooses to be independent of the United Kingdom and it is on this basis that the East Timor region is seeking independence from Indonesia. The right is recognised although of course we expect that the United Kingdom will be less resistant to the democratic will of Jersey or Scotland for independence that the Indonesians are for East Timor.

It is not such a massive leap to allow individual citizens to claim 'self-sovereignty', although one assumes that only those who have the economic ability to provide for all their own needs will do so.

The argument then proceeds to look at discrimination and the prohibition thereof.

It is usual in international treaties for each sovereign nation, which for the purpose of this discussion will be referred to as 'persons' to either sign up to or refuse to be a signatory to each and every declaration, protocol, treaty etc. There is no means for compelling a 'person' to abide by the judgement of an international Court, although clearly there is some degree of criticism which arises in the case of 'human rights abuses'. Even once signed up each nation is free to derogate any agreement that it has entered into at a future date. For example an independent Jersey could freely pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Thus the nature and operation of international 'statute' proceeds along the same lines as those who follow the 'freeman' argument would seek to enforce on the relationship between the individual and the State the same terms and conditions.

A 'sovereign citizen' can only be subject to God's Laws (as the only higher authority) and those of Man's Laws which he freely consents to abide by.

If those legal persons which are sovereign nations are treated differently from those legal persons who are sovereign citizens then that is a form of discrimination.

Out with the old...

Boris will be Mayor of London

The Telegraph reports

"The Conservatives are reeling from a series of political setbacks, many of which have their origins in last month’s controversial Budget, while their coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, are expected once again to pay a high price for coalition unpopularity. 

Labour should be taking full advantage of the Government’s mid-term blues, but despite healthy opinion poll leads, Ken Livingstone looks set to lose to Boris Johnston in London’s mayoral poll - while the party is also under threat from the Scottish nationalists north of the border. 

As well as two other mayoral votes (in Liverpool and Salford), 10 cities will be staging referendums on whether to have mayors. Some 5,000 council seats in 180 councils will also be up for grabs on 3 May."

Recent elections around the world have shown that there is a deep dissatisfaction with the established parties.

In the United States Business Insider Reports that the Republican party is being 'taken over' by a younger generation who are committed to Libertarianism.

In the recent French Elections the Front Nationale finished a strong third with around 20% of the vote and extreme left winger Melenchon achieving over 10% of the vote.

The Dutch government resigned today over austerity talks and in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland there is practically rebellion. It cannot be long until Germany picks up the Euro football and walks off the field leaving France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece and Ireland to enjoy the consequences of their profligate government spending and social welfare programs.

This is the legacy that seventy years of 'cradle to grave' welfarism has left to Europe, a generation of individuals who feel entitled to live off the state and an aging population who are expecting the younger generation to support them. Meanwhile the government is slowly eroding the value of pensions, benefits and wages by ignoring the blossoming inflationary pressures on the costs of basic necessities.

The problem for the UK is that there is no alternative to the three main parties, and everyone is reminded of that continuously, my prediction is for low turnouts but I hope to see a move towards the Libertarian UKIP and the Green parties.

We in Jersey know that when there is nothing to vote for, people don't vote.

First round of elections in France UPDATED

Whilst the two 'front-runners' are talking about increasing economic growth, as if that is something that has ever been or will be within the control of Government, some candidates are addressing the key issue affecting the modern world.

Namely that by following the rules of subsidiarity and returning power to the lowest competent authority which is the individual wherever possible the greatest gains are to be made and the struggle against those who would seek to consolidate power in the hands of the few.

The exit polls:

• François Hollande 28.4% (PS)
• Nicolas Sarkozy 25.5% (UMP)
• Marine le Pen 20% (FN)
• Jean-Luc Mélenchon 11.7% (Left Front)
• François Bayrou 8.5% (MoDem)
• Eva Joly 2% (Green)
• Nicolas Dupont-Aignan 1.8% (Arise the Republic)
• Philippe Poutou 1.2% (New Anti-Capitalist)
• Nathalie Arthaud 0.8% (Workers Struggle)
• Jacques Cheminade 0.2% (Solidarity and Progress)

A second round between the two leading candidates will now proceed on the 6th May. The results will be certified on the 13th May, where it seems likely that Sarkozy will be returned for a second term.

US Federal Government overrides State Laws on Marijuana

California is one of more than a dozen US states where marijuana is legal for medical purposes, even though those states' laws are a violation of federal drug policy.

Federal authorities have renewed a crackdown on state-sanctioned medical marijuana facilities despite promises by Barack Obama, the president, to keep the issue low on his list of priorities.

Local authorities are now also trying to stop people from making money off the medicinal cannabis industry, as it is meant to be a non-profit venture, of course the States still raises tax revenue.

This of course follows in the wake of a discussion which took place between all the American nations where the US stood out as the only nation not in favour of some degree of de-criminalisation, but as it is an election year it probably was not the best time for radical and therefore risky new ideas.

Al Jazeera's Rob Reynolds reports from Oakland, California in the following video...

During the last election I was delighted to be the cause of some discussion, the 'Are hustings fit for purpose?' debate being a notable discussion raised directly by me.

I was delighted today to read the latest magazine from the JEP 'Confidential' that one of my main election issues has been taken up and now is the subject of discussion in the States (at least back rooms), the question of how much regulation is enough and how much is too much.

Now it seems to me that should I decide to run at the next election then part of my platform will be the legalisation of locally grown Marijuana for consumption on the island.

So that means that local farmers will have a new crop, the tourism industry will have a new draw, the customs officers will still have jobs stopping the import and export of the crop and there will be an additional revenue stream for the States of Jersey, who by then will likely be desperate for 'new ideas'.

A survey I conducted during the last election showed the public were split exactly evenly on the issue and one has to surmise that only those who actually bothered to vote took the time to enter the survey, that would suggest to me that the majority of the Island are in favour of some degree of de-criminalisation of Marijuana.

The economic case (merely in terms of the cost of enforcing the law against the will of the people) was excellently compiled by Deputy Dorey back in 2003 to 2005 whilst serving on a shadow scrutiny panel but the matter was never debated in the States.

Vietnam places gold under state control

The State Bank of Vietnam is instituting a de facto nationalisation of Vietnam’s gold market, in an effort to restore confidence in the country’s currency – the dong. Vietnam is suffering from a growing current account deficit and record-high inflation. The government's new measures will have unpleasant side effects, as more than 2,000 Vietnamese gold traders might have to close their businesses. However, private citizens will retain the right to buy gold.

From May 25 the State Bank of Vietnam will in effect be the sole controller of gold trading in the country. Rules passed last year pushed many small gold traders out of business, and these new gold rules means that after the May 25 deadline, only companies with minimum capital of 10 billion Vietnamese dong, yearly tax payments of 500 million Vietnamese dong and with branches in a minimum of three provinces will be allowed to trade gold and import gold bars.

Currently, the only company able to comply with these requirements is the public company SJC of Hoh Chi Minh City. SJC controls 90 % of the national gold trade. According to the new regulations, major Vietnamese banks will also be allowed to trade gold. 

The State Bank of Vietnam has called on major banks to present their own plans for joining the gold trade, and regarding possible development of a national distribution grid. Experts believe that the State Bank of Vietnam is trying to use commercial banks to create its own distribution grid and thus increase its control of the gold sector.

According to government statements, these measures are necessary to stop the flight from the dong. Vietnam's current account deficit has grown in the wake of the global financial crisis, and more and more Vietnamese citizens have been buying gold in order to preserve purchasing power. Record-high inflation has encouraged the use of gold as an unofficial currency.

Trade associations predict that approximately 2,000 small and mid-sized gold traders will be forced out of business. The Saigon Jewellery Association says that many traders who are forced to transfer their businesses to commercial banks will most probably loose their only means of existence. Unsurprisingly, those with good connections to the banks may be able to survive.

Japanese Fugu Economics

The preparation of sashimi (raw fish) from the blowfish is a historic tradition in the nation of Japan.

The trouble is that parts of the blowfish are highly poisonous causing paralysis and death by suffocation.

Still it is a popular dish and as recently as 2009 seven people fell victim to the poison in Tokyo following a poorly prepared batch and ended up eating the testicles of one fish. Recently the regulations have changed and chefs will no longer have to complete the full two years training in order to serve this dish to the public.

The Japanese have likewise made plans to cover the area irradiated by the Fukushima nuclear plant in tents and will start burning radioactive debris. Of course you cannot destroy radioactive debris in this way, but it will spread it around the globe having released the settled debris from the ground back into the air. The tents will have the effect also of funnelling the radioactivity straight into the air. But radiation is not the only toxic substance that Japan has spread round the world.

Japan of cause has previously spread a toxic waste around the world, namely the idea of Quantative Easing and 0% interest rates (the lost decade is now closer to three decades). People began borrowing Yen at low interest rates and converting it to other currencies where they earnt more interest (particularly from Iceland) effectively earning money for nothing.

So who you wonder was paying for this? Well Japan has the largest public pension fund in the world of $1.3 trillion dollars two thirds of which must be invested in government bonds (yielding less than 1% per year). Savings rates in Japan have been gradually drained and are less than 2% of the GDP, very soon there will be nothing left and Japan will soon have to look outside for buyers of its debt.

Until recently Japan has a massive trade surplus year on year and the 'profits' were lent to the United States in order to keep the value of the Yen relative to the dollar, a policy which was duplicated by the Chinese.

The reason was that in order to allow Americans to continue to buy Japanese goods the exchange rate had to be prevented from rising in order to keep the goods at the 'right price'.

Since Fukushima, Japan has become a net importer - it has switched off its nuclear plants and is importing oil, it is importing resources to re-build etc. The yen rallied strongly post the explosion as the dollar sank, as Japan was now an importer rather than an exporter this was good for the economy, but Japan has long sacrificed itself to the American economy and once again printed more money and propped up the ailing dollar.

Now though Japan is exposed to externalities - a surge in oil prices not the least of them. One of these externalities is bound to hit and soon. The Japanese economy is feasting on fugu and soon enough the Japanese government will have to eat a mouthful of poison.

Japan is inevitable going to experience inflation, the interest rates will have to rise and with it the cost of servicing its debt. Fortunately most of the people who own the debt live in Japan and so the money will stay in the economy, unlike what will follow in the United States, where most of the debt is owed to China.

Much ado about Energy

A geothermal plant in Iceland 

Energy security has become a big issue with first Germany signing Greece up to become its solar power farm and now British authorities say they are in talks that could see electricity generated in Iceland from the country's volcanoes and geysers powering British homes. U.K. Energy Minister Charles Hendry will visit Iceland in May to negotiate an agreement to lay hundreds of miles of cables underwater to satisfy Britain's energy needs, Sky News Online reported Friday.

The cables, known as interconnectors, would carry energy harvested from Iceland's geothermal sources and could provide a third of Britain's average electricity demand, Hendry said. "We are looking to a low carbon economy. I think the best way is to get a number of different inter-connectors first," he said.

To reach Iceland the copper cables would need to be around 930 miles long, the longest such cables in the world. Iceland is keen to export energy after suffering badly in the global financial crisis when all its major banks collapsed, experts said.

The idea of Icelandic interconnectors have been discussed for decades, and while they were always deemed too expensive, rising energy prices in Europe have now made it feasible, they said. Iceland's geothermal energy prices would be negotiated on long-term contracts, Hendry said.

"We want to give consumers a clearer and more predictable idea of what they will have to pay," he said. Britain currently has two international interconnectors with France and the Netherlands.

But the creation of an offshore 'super grid' and a major upgrade of energy interconnections are not the silver bullet solutions to Europe's energy needs, an independent study published by Pöyry has found.

The report has found that the introduction of improved connectivity would only partially alleviate the volatility of increased renewable energy generation. In the North European Wind and Solar Intermittency Study (NEWSIS) Pöyry conducted detailed market analysis of the future impacts wind and solar energy have on the electricity markets across Northern Europe as it heads towards the 2020 decarbonisation targets and beyond.

The study also concluded that weather is going to play a major role in determining how much electricity is generated and supplied to home and businesses throughout Europe, with electricity prices much lower when it is very windy, but unfortunately higher when it is still.

Ron Paul benefits from Santorum suspension

GOP nomination battle renewed
in the wake of Santorum's exit 

Rick Santorum has “suspended” his campaign. All the pundits tell us that the real race for the White House can begin.

But I wonder if that’s true. Maybe there is more Republican Party insider fighting coming alongside the general. I say this because, in watching Santorum and other conservative and religious Republican leaders talk about what Santorum’s suspension means, I am not hearing unconditional support for Mitt Romney. The evangelical community began reaching out to Paul almost immediately after Rick Santorum dropped out of the presidential race.

The Republican Party has had a gruelling primary season, highly fragmented. Among the tribes in the party, we have the establishment Republicans who coalesced around Mitt Romney as the most likely candidate to give President Barack Obama a good run for his money in November, though the latest polls show Paul as the winner in a head to head with Romney only tying.

We have Libertarian Republicans, we have what are called the “true conservatives,” which includes Christian evangelicals and other religious-based GOP voters, and we have the Tea Party movement, which doesn’t necessarily sit apart from these other categories but which has evolved with a life, leaders and grass-roots organizations of its own.

Romney still has to accumulate 1,144 delegates before he is safely the candidate of the Republican Party. Two candidates, Paul and Newt Gingrich, still remain in the race. In states where delegates are allocated proportionately to the vote, they may continue to accumulate delegates. Then there is the problem that Santorum has a sizable number of delegates who are not Romney’s to have, and Santorum has not indicated whether he will ask them to vote for Romney at the convention.

We still could see some fireworks at the GOP convention in August, as those who were not enthusiastic about Romney jockey for positions on the platform and other influence deals. There also will be some challenges to seating delegates and fights by States that had their delegate counts cut in half by the Republican National Committee because they “jumped in front of the line” in the primaries.

Let me also comment on the widespread assumption that all the Republican voters and leaders of Republican interest groups will rally around Romney and give him their enthusiastic support. I’m not sure that actually will happen. 

The reason is that there are rumblings and rumors spreading around from the Republican side that Santorum pulled out of this year’s race ahead of a likely embarrassing primary defeat in his home state of Pennsylvania. There is also talk that he withdrew from the race at this point in order to preserve his credibility for a potential White House run in 2016.

If there is any truth to this, it means that Santorum and his supporters and especially the “true conservative,” Christian base of the party may actually prefer Obama have a second term, leaving the field clear for a 2016 run for the White House by a rested and reconstituted Santorum.

Remember, they still don’t like or trust Romney very much. And, since they believe Obama is a disaster, by 2016 the country should be in such bad shape voters will have no choice but to vote Republican all up and down the ticket. Most of us think short term. Real thinkers and ideologues think long term and 2016 is not that far away.

There is still a lot of healing and coming together left for the GOP. So this will be the political equivalent of three dimensional chess.

And it hasn't started well for Romney. Ron Paul achieved consequential delegate wins in Colorado and Minnesota today, affirming his delegate-attainment strategy and auguring a prominent role for Paul at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

In Minnesota, Ron Paul supporters swept the three district conventions that occurred immediately after the declaration by Santorum, winning nine of nine delegates to the national convention. Minnesota is set to hold more such conventions this week.

In Colorado, supporters of the 12-term Congressman from Texas won 12 delegates and 13 alternate delegates. Paul’s state operation is confident that it can win over more of the Rick Santorum delegates to its side who were elected on a combined Paul-Santorum slate. The Paul-Santorum coalition’s combined delegate total is 20—more than establishment candidate Mitt Romney's estimated 16.

President proposes ending the Drug War

I like Russia Today, but I also like Al Jazeera. They have produced a forty seven minute debate on whether the Drug War should be called to an end in advance of the meeting of the presidents of the American continent.


The President of Guatemala has bought forward a proposition for all Presidents to get together to stop spending $100 billion on fighting the drug war and make educated decisions on how the trade can be regulated. At least 80 MPs in the UK support discussions of this nature, but the US does not agree with regulation although it has agreed to come to the table.

Of course he suggests another solution - compensation for the drug crops and has faced criticism that perhaps this is just a means of getting arms and aid from the United States. The discussions were one of the key issues at the recent summit of the Americas.

'Central Americans are paying with blood for a war they did not choose'.

But Obama in an election year as expected did not move on such a big issue and his refusal to allow Cuba to attend the next summit in three years has led to a bloc of nations refusing to attend unless the US changes its position.

The US economic policy also came under fire from Brazil and other nations and many had already walked out long before including Argentina because the US refused to recognise their sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

So Obama is looking increasingly isolated and with US personnel being sent home for trying to bring prostitutes back to the base (including Secret Service and Marines) Obama may just wish that this was one international event he had not been invited to.

The French Presidential Election and Immigration

The Ten Candidates for President of France 

On April 21 2012 the French nation will go to the polls to elect their next president and the BBC suggests that for the first time in history Sarkozy may not serve a second term.

Fortunately being able to read French I am not dependent on the BBC for my understanding of the race as we have a very much sanitised version of the debate that is taking place presented to us.

Just as the BBC have yet to cover Ron Paul, the most influential candidate of all, in their coverage of the US elections the BBC have chosen to concentrate on the main parties.

Now I understand that the euphemistically termed 'other-hopefuls' are unlikely to win, they do not have the party machinery behind them to achieve such a success and the media of course is pushing the propoganda that it will be either of the two parties in a self-fulfilling prophecy that we in Jersey are all too aware of. But equally the official candidates of the two main parties are of no use to man, nor beast.

But it is they that conversely dictate the nature and direction of the campaigns of the main parties not least because they have a better handle on exactly what the concerns of the people are.

The leading 'other-hopeful' is Marine Le Pen of the Front Nationale, they have battled hard to remove the previous media mis-labelling of the party as a xenophobic group and correct this pointing out that they are protectionist of French interests and oppose membership of the EU.

Another significant player is Jean-Luc Melechon of a coalition of 'Far Left' groups does not think immigration is a problem but also wants to see a change in the relationship and role of the EU on and in France.

It is from these two candidates that it is possible to infer the key issues which are:

• Immigration
• The role of the EU
• Taxation

Taxation is of course the fundamental issue in any election, anywhere in the world. From taxation discussions extend to 'the role of government', 'the level of entitlement', etc. And it is these debates which are the underlying issue with regard to immigration and the EU.

The driver for immigration is the level of 'entitlement' that is freely given in a state. If people were not able to qualify for 'free stuff' such as healthcare, education, high minimum wages etc. then the driver of immigration would disappear along with the vast majority of future free-loaders.

I do not mean that the majority of Jersey's immigrants would leave if income support etc. were to suddenly be repealed, they after all are the harder workers and more dependable staff, they have far less need for such stipends.

It would be the Jersey born people who would be forced to either adjust their thinking to the economic realities of life or move somewhere else and resume their 'Jersey Way' of indolence and supplication. 

I fully agree with David Warr and the Chamber of Commerce that it is Jersey people's attitude to employment which is the problem, somehow they have not connected the idea of 'work' with the idea of 'wages' and when employed seem to see wages as an 'entitlement' and work as 'optional' for maybe two hours a day out of the seven they are paid to complete.

I'm going to contradict myself here and mention that I only work with (as I never employ) Jersey people, but you have to filter through a lot of chaff to get to the wheat, not that I would not work with (as I never employ) some of the Polish people that I know, at least those that have not become infected with 'Jerseyness' yet, and I am afraid that there are many who have, but the good workers are valued by their companies and don't need to look for work.

I believe the basis of this to be our own civil servants whose work-shy, indolent ways have propagated to their children and into our own employment laws and is now actively encouraged by a States that wishes to be in absolute control of people, which is why I would never have a contract of employment with anyone.

This attitude is like most of our recent legislation adopted from EU law and therein lies the problem with the EU and comes at a very high cost in terms of the level of taxation required to fund it.

I want to vote for half of the Front Nationale's campaign and half of the Far Left coalitions plans, but the other half prevents this.

So it is to the most Libertarian candidate, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, of Arise the Republic,  that my vote would go. For only he has joined up the immigration, EU and taxation issues into a workable solution. Unfortunately the article by the BBC merely mentions his name, one could almost suspect that there is a deliberate attempt not to give any coverage whatsoever to the Libertarian philosophy.

At the Golden Eye of the Hurricane

What an incredibly complex confusing and treacherous month. It can be safely said that 80% of the activity is almost totally kept from the public. The financial system is breaking in an accelerated fashion. Compare to some grisly horror movie where a man is strapped in a chair. The more he moves, the tighter the bindings pull on his gasping throat and pressed nether stones.

The most significant two factors at work are the Iran sanctions and their powerful backfire, and the futile efforts in Europe to stem the banking center collapse. The anti-USDollar federation that spans widely across the globe is gathering strong momentum. Financial aggression is being met by financial alternative development. As Greece moved off the daily news fabrication factory, the reality of a collapse in Spain and Italy has moved to the front center of observations. 

Meanwhile, the American nitwits continue to argue over Quantitative Easing when it never stopped, and in fact, went global under their noses. The US news machine, dominated by the syndicate, churns out absurdities after more nonsensical bites on an economic recovery. The subprime loan machinery has ramped up. The retail factor does not tell of strength, but of weakness. Spending on consumption does not indicate strength, but a path to ruin still not well recognized. The gap between reality and reports is diverging.

Back at the gold desk, another cartel member kill is in progress. A string of UBS-type gold arena deaths is the biggest untold story of the new decade. The UBS rogue trader story was a total fabrication, written and staged to conceal the removal of all UBS gold from their reserves inventory. They are a dead gold player. The gold community, even LeMetropole Cafe and GATA, appears to be missing the coalition kills taken place in sequence with each paper gold ambush. If the cartel wishes to drive down the paper gold price, then they must deal with the consequences of having one more cartel member bank offered on the physical altar in a death sacrifice.

They are vulnerable from sovereign bond positions and weak currency positions. In the margin call vise, they must forfeit their gold, but in a long slow process as truly enormous physical gold orders are being filled over a pyramid of prices lower than the cartel bank wishes. Details are scanty, but the trail can be followed to some extent by false stories to cover the damaging tracks. The press did a wretched job in checking the facts on the UBS rogue story. The loss was over $6 billion. The trades were all approved at VP level. The trap was laid and UBS entered with both feet, the consequence for which was being expelled from the gold arena, probably forever, in a total loss of its gold bullion. 

No wonder the press did not report the actual story. It would have been a monster bull story for gold. If Barclays or Royal Bank of Scotland or Bank of America were having their golden blood removed on a table, with straps in place for directors of their gold desks, and hot pokers applied by coalition forces to extract their gold, the outcome dictated by incredibly insolvency and margin call vulnerability, the effect on the gold market would be magnificent. Such events are in progress in my opinion, based on some juicy information feeds. Rather than divulge the entire details of the cartel kill, the coalition prefers to move to the next victim in the Wall Street & London cesspool of finance.

What follows will not be presented in great detail. That is saved for the Hat Trick Letter reports, where research has come across magnificent events in progress. As the calm spreads like a fog over the financial sphere, the level of risk rises. As the phony recovery stories propagate like a disease from the host, the level of risk rises. As the US political race takes center stage and the stakes increase, the level of risk rises. Events are catapulting in a loose coordination that is very difficult to observe, except for the quicksand in Spain.

POWERFUL FALSE CALM EVENTS

The subprime cancer has returned. The struggle to revive the credit engines has drawn the weaker elements into the room. Banks wish to lend more. While few players qualify for loan approval and partnership grants, the banks themselves have never been more insolvent. Without the FASB accounting largesse and generosity, all large US banks would be declared insolvent and prepared for liquidation proceedings. The junk bond warning lights are flashing. The movement to even remain standing still has come with greater risk assumed and embraced.

The anti-USDollar forces gather strength. The emerging nations had been making numerous significant bilateral agreements a month ago. The Iran oil deals had dictated some degree of innovation in payment systems in response. The sanctions forced their hands. Additional sanctions like usage of SWIFT bank systems as a weapon, threatening usage in Europe, resulted in a flash point. The BRICS nations, led by China, appear to be on the verge of launching a rival SWIFT bank procedure that might be critical in trade settlement. It is likely to be outside the US$ setting.

Prepare for the possibly sudden cardiac arrest event to the Petro-Dollar. In April 2010, a major conference took place in Abu Dhabi among Arab royals. They arrived in unmarked jets, over 200 strong in number. They struck important accords, including the reliance upon Russia and China in the security role for the protectorate. In essence, the Saudis worked to replace the United States in the protection racket that has endured since the 1973 embargo, manifested in trade surplus recycling, even as the Germans worked to establish the Eastern Alliance. If a new SWIFT system comes, then the foundation will be set to walk away slowly from the Petro-Dollar. Few see the pieces coming together. The impact on the USEconomy would be something between a wrecking ball and catastrophic.

China prepares to wrest control of the USDollar, for the stacks of reserves held outside the US boundaries. This is history in the making. If a Chinese USDollar is launched, and trades independently of the domestic USDollar, then it is Third World curtain time for the United States. The practical effect would be rampant price inflation from a devalued domestic Dollar. It would be rampant shortages, since the restated Dollar would not be a favored piece of paper, not with tremendous economic weakness, absent industry, insolvent banks, ruined states, bond fraud charges in every nook & cranny, war cost impact, and the big storm cloud of the runaway USGovt deficits which could tack on another $200 billion in March. 

The path is clear, which begins with over 50% in external held debt, then lost sovereignty, then foreign voices influencing key decisions, then wearing down the muscle mass of tools like the IMF and World Bank, and finally lost control of the global reserve currency. Never in history has a nation had control of its currency wrested by another nation. The reaction process by foreign entities to the USFed and USDept Treasury abuses to the USDollar in hyper monetary inflation have wrought vengeance at worst and survival tactics at best.

Germany has made preparations to leave the Euro currency union. The more accurate statement should be that Germany is preparing to take the Euro ball out of the park, to improve it, to sign new free agency team members, and to leave the Southern European nations to fend for themselves in a sandlot. The Latin remnant will be essentially bagholders left with the gristle, fat, and toxic matter of the Euro currency itself. What they hold onto will be devalued in a fast moving storm. 

The risk to Germany will be the opposite. They must sign up enough new trade partners so that whatever new currency (Nordic Euro, New Marc, Euro Mark) is not a victim of its own success. A fast rising new currency would inflict damage on the German export trade. Numerous financial safety nets have been created and loaded, designed to aid large German banks. Some might fail.

Spain is on the verge of rejecting the austerity measures and maybe the Euro currency. Refusal to swallow the poison pill might have some benefits, like not pulling the rug from under the economy in vast spending cuts. But the reality bites hard, as the Spanish Govt Bond yield will revisit its old high levels. Funding problems will become acute. Think NO WAY OUT. The 23% jobless rate in Spain is written like an unusual figure in the West, but it equals the United States. The US simply has better liars in the economic trenches and more thorough press control. The strain in Spain will likely rain chaos on the bond plains, sufficient to cause their leaders to show disdain for remaining within the strained Euro domain.

The USFed and Euro Central Bank are guilty of $5 trillion in paper binges in the last several months alone. The US Federal Reserve and the European Central Banks are operating like desperate siamese twins in the frantic rescue attempt to prevent a Western banking system collapse. ECB head Draghi might have expressed reluctance to trade in bad PIGS debt paper, but he has been the champion in EUR 3.1 trillion in window activity over just the last six months. Notice nothing is fixed despite the massive effort that has been no more than glorified paper mache application. It is a futile battle akin to the task of Sisyphus, who was forced to push a stone uphill, but every time he rested, it rolled back down the hill. Since the central bank paper merchants can only apply paper bandages to the paper wounds, the rotten limbs and appendages cannot distinguish between the old rot and the new fester that begins immediately upon treatment. Nothing is fixed, no remedy in place, none even attempted, nor is recognition of the problem part of the debate.

The US financial markets have become an abandoned playground left to the High Frequency Trading freaks and their cadre of corrupt video game ilk. Volume is way down on the NYSE. Fund outflows are magnificent for stocks, as the public aint so dumb after all. ETF-type congames are losing their appeal. As the LTRO effect wanes from central bank paper shell games played at windows, the financial markets are experiencing a vast low pressure zone. The windows will eventually all be shattered.

The US housing market is permanently destroyed. The US housing market will never come back. Its decline will go hand in hand with the deterioration of the USEconomy and lead the nation on the path to a USGovt debt default, accompanied by over 25 individual State defaults (called another name in legal parlance). The foreclosure parade is unending. The delinquencies mount unabated. The decline in home prices puts new household ranks into negative equity territory, exactly as Greenspan warned a year ago. What irony that the chief architect also acted as the Cassandra in warning. The banks refuse to liquidate, since doing so would expose their insolvent ruin and inflict even more deadly downdrafts in home prices, as well as expose the vast corruption among bonds, from false property titles to duplicate title usage to outright bond counterfeit, even to raids by past presidents.

The hidden factor in the systemic ruin was the China card played in the last decade. The decision to send US factories to Asia, starting in the 1980 decade with Intel to the PacRim, followed by a climax to China in the 2010 decade, will serve as the basis of a chapter in history that led to the US systemic ruin. The gold card was played within the Most Favored Nation status deal granted in 1999, since the Rubin team ran out of US gold, ran out of European gold, and needed fresh gold meat. The Chinese committed their gold hoard and promised to recycle trade surplus, just like the Saudis did with oil money. 

The Gold Carry Trade began but did not end with Fort Knox raids. The carry trade is the singlemost financial factor that pushed the nation to ruin. Nothing backs the USGovt debts, not with an empty Fort Knox, never to be audited, the home of nerve gas storage if truth be told. The deep storage gold on the USGovt balance sheets does not fool many people anymore, the subject of ridicule. The US is insolvent without collateral, facing a margin call, soon to lose control over its own currency. American life savings are at risk, while pensions have been gutted, but the sirens are silenced.

GOLD CONSOLIDATES IN REVOLVING DOOR

Since October, the pressure has been squarely on the US and EU central bankers to print money, to direct it to insolvent giant banks, and to prevent a collapse. They reacted to sovereign bond pressures. But at the same time they had to exert extreme force on the gold market, so it did not reflect the extreme debasement of money itself. Thus the huge naked short ambushes of gold. But during these past six months, a new coalition has emerged to exact a heavy cost on the gold cartel. They will lose one additional cartel member to the gold war battlefield with each and every illicit paper ambush. 

A big order is being filled in the last two weeks, a very big order, at a low price, by brute force. The result will be another dead cartel member. Its completion will be followed by another nice price rise. Whether the cartel is willing to lose another member bank afterwards as the cost of yet another paper ambush, hard to know. But the unshakable fact is that the global monetary system is being ruined. The confidence in sovereign bonds is at rock bottom. In Europe it is more clearly in the open, but in the US it is more hidden, as the safe haven ruse plays on.

Somehow a $200 billion single month deficit for the USGovt credit card line does not juxtapose well with any claim of being a safe haven, no more than a metal flagpole is during a lightning storm. The biggest buyers of the USTreasury Bonds are the USFed and its handy printing press, used and abused frantically and at high volume speeds. Distrust of the monetary system will bring about the rise of a new system, backed by gold. However, the old system cannot be permitted to fall unless and until the new system is ready, in place, and fully wired. That day is coming soon. The signposts are in place, the painted messages legible.

Ok Dr Forskitt, now I get what you were saying!

Many thanks to Tom Joad for his comments, I have decided to respond by way of a full post to explain why Corporations are not necessary and perhaps are not even useful in the new world that many social entrepreneurs are trying to build from the ashes of the old which has died, but just has not accepted it yet.

Designed by many, available to all
At a competitive price of $25,00 or less if
you can find someone else to make it from
a freely available blueprint

There is absolutely no need for limited liability to exist, if you aren't prepared to take the risk, don't take it. Many of our problems now are specifically caused by people who could take risks with no consequences, that includes bankers, but also includes government employees (or did until the commercial lien came into play). In fact it includes anyone who hides behind Limited (or Vicarious) Liability, either as a director (or an employee).

Libertarianism simply removes all that rubbish and leaves you personally answerable for your actions, it therefore is I hope the way of the future as there is nothing like negative possible consequences to focus a mind.

It has taken me a while and a great deal of research, to catch on to the fundamentals of 'green' economics.

The current system of Corporatism has proven to be a failure, it has corrupted the free market through political means thanks to a largely complicit group of people we collectively term 'politicians' who accept donations and directorships in return for advancing the aims of the Corporation they accept the donation from.

The fundamental flaws in the underlying philosophy of the current economic system -

As a system which depends on infinite growth it must assume that there is an infinite abundance of natural resources, this we know is not the case, not only are there limits to the amount of certain resources available such as Oil, Gold, Food, Water but there is also a scaling cost of extraction which means that a fair proportion of the natural resources available, are too costly to extract to be 'economically' useful. This is the difference between 'peak oil' and 'total oil' reserves.

Under the free market system the price of a good is derived from the level of demand and the level of supply, if there is an infinite supply of these goods then the price can remain low.

However for certain goods there is an infinite supply - this includes legal and medical advice and all intellectual property. However the supply of these goods is artificially constrained by legislation. The stringent qualifications required in order to practise Law for example is not as much to 'ensure quality', as it is to 'ensure demand' and therefore allow supra-normal profits to accrue in legal practises. The market itself would ensure quality as the consumers would soon learn who was a capable lawyer and who was an incapable lawyer and it does not always follow the qualifications.

The vast majority of cases before the Court as resolved between the parties in out of Court settlements, admittedly the high price of Legal representation does usually help to focus the minds of the parties on resolution, but often the lawyers themselves will act in such a way as to prolong an argument unnecessarily and thereby maximise fees.

This also extends to the high cost of child and old age care, the cost is driven not so much by the actual work but by the high level of regulation and qualification required in this particular area.

On a simpler level still the reason the same pair of trainers which costs £3 to make can be sold direct from the factory for £5 or if you add a label to it saying Nike they sell for £100. They are the exact same trainers made by the exact same machines and people. The intellectual property of the brand adds a perceived value to a product only because £millions have been spent telling you that it does, and you believe it.

Now I can go to the same factories in Thailand and China as H Samuel and buy the same products (although I generally do not buy such poor quality goods) albeit at a slightly higher price, but still sell it at a lower price and still achieve a higher Return on Capital Employed. Small businesses are always more efficient than large corporations, of course I have less capital employed. Thankfully the jewellery trade is so old that there is nothing new any more, other than meaningless brand names, and unlike the fashion industry which simply recycles styles every thirty years or so, it takes up to a century for ideas to be recycled in the jewellery business.

Gold which costs around $1,000 per ounce to extract, has always been recycled and that includes burning floorboards to get the gold dust out, we are perhaps the greenest trade around. The important thing to note is that the value of the product is to a significant extent in the materials and not in the design or other intellectual property rights.

Now imagine if the same were true of car production, that you could simply pick your design then pay the materials and then someone to put it all together. The decision you would make would not be whether to buy Ferrari or Mercedes but which person you wanted the car design of your choice to be constructed by. Would your choice of car be based on brand or on look or on efficiency... the cost  would be significantly reduced as you would not be paying the premium for the brand name.

This is a change which is slowly coming into play, this is the new business model which has been chosen by Wikispeed in the development of their community based car design project. This is the business model which is supported by new methods of value exchange such as BitCoin. This is the business model which many software projects, such as Firefox, are developed through.

The model for the future may involve less personal greed and more co-operation, less protection of ideas and greater development through pooled knowledge which anyone can draw on and improve.

Iceland writes off mortgage debt for its people

This is awesome. It shows when the people DO STAND UP they have more power and win against the corrupt bankers and politicians of a country.

Iceland is forgiving and erasing some of the mortgage debt of the population. They are putting the bankers and politicians on the "Bench of the Accused." Which means I assume they are putting them on trial for corruption.

Now the rest of people of the world need to start doing the same thing. We all need to stand up and against all the corruption and fraud of the banks and politicians that are puppets of the banks and corporations.

This move differs greatly from the approach taken by other European nations which is to tax the people and cut public services to ensure that interest payments continue to be made.

The Nature of Corruption in Jersey

A US soldier defends an Opium field

Today Sir Pip finally made a statement I could agree with, Jersey needs to be more independent. I read on however and I found that we differ in both the definition of Jersey and the definition of independent.

What Sir Pip was referring to as Jersey was not the people of Jersey nor the island of Jersey but the Government of Jersey. Whilst I believe that the people of Jersey need to be more independent of the Government of Jersey, he believes that the Government of Jersey needs to be more independent of international control (or as I prefer to call it 'sanity').

In his mind he appears to truly believe that the Government of Jersey is 'good' and that it serves the people of Jersey to the best of its ability.

THIS IS A DELUSION ON THE PART OF SIR PIP

I serve myself better than anyone, I know the right decisions to make for me, I do not know what is best for you. What might be best for me at a given place in a given time might not serve you at all.

But it got me thinking as to how this delusion might arise, do all politicians and Civil Servants suffer from it?

Sir Phillip is clearly CORRUPTED. Not knowingly, not willingly, not intentionally and it is all the more fearful because he firmly believes that he is not, that he is a good man doing his best for everyone when he has become that which he seeks to protect us from, CONTROL.

Human beings are basically good, but they are frail, weak and self-deceiving it is easy through observation of the operation and methods of the Government of Jersey to see how good intentions become twisted and warped until the people who set out only to do good end up being the very people that they themselves are pursuing.

Statute is designed to pursue laudable aims, to improve the lot of the voters. Prospective candidates pronounce speeches to the electorate of how much more they will give, what improvements they will make to the lives of the voters.

Statutes are enacted and powers delegated to Civil Servants... let's take self-prescription as an example.

Someone somewhere decided that what other people needed to do was to stop taking drugs... drugs which were freely available on the super-market shelves of Victorian England. They campaigned, gained support from a number of people, their intentions were good. If many of the addicts stopped taking drugs then their lives would no doubt be different and probably better. The intent was to help, but help when not requested is the restriction of liberty.

Some politician somewhere saw more votes by supporting the imposition of a restriction on others liberties than by allowing people to exercise the free will given to them by God.

So the drugs moved off the supermarket shelves and onto the back streets, now the Customs and Police Officers were tasked from preventing the importation and distribution of these products. This was a double hit for taxpayers who now not only had to pay for extra staff, but also lost the revenue which was generated by the former trade in these products. The health and safety of those who continued to use them was put at risk as the production and sale of these products could no longer be monitored and there was no legal recourse against a manufacturer of faulty products.

The police and customs officers realised that they were losing the war and so demanded more and more resources be spent on upholding this new statute and ever greater powers to assist them with the enforcement of the law and the ability to secure convictions against the users of these products. This requires increases in taxation to pay for it all.

Eventually those same officers began bending and suspending the law, making illegal searches, but still they could not combat the use of the drugs, which actually grew more widespread.

The police realised they could not prevent it and instead began to control the flow of the drugs accepting payments and the occasional sacrifice to keep the books tidy, the occasional notable success to keep the public onside and the increases in expenditure flowing. They rationalise this by accepting that it is better to have some control over the market than simply allow a free for all, after all they require the trade to continue now to keep their budgets growing and their jobs.

In essence they have become the controllers of the very trade that they are seeking to prevent and somehow it has become their job to do this.

Of course the supply is now from the FBI and the CIA who are running drugs to pay for their own campaign against the drug producers, not quite realising that they are actually searching for themselves.

The end result is - criminalisation of a formerly law abiding section of society, increased taxation, more efficient production and distribution methods, a less competitive, less free market and greater danger to the health and well-being of a society. Was that what the Statute was intended to achieve?

The only solution is to revoke the Statute entirely and accept the better but imperfect thing that was rather than the mess that is. Ok it was a mistake, people make them, that's ok as long as it is a mistake that is only made once.