Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Too Many Masters

Worker Bees,

I have begun reading "Killing The Host" by Michael Hudson. Successful parasites either find little ways to be of benefit to the host, or reproduce a lot before killing one host, and spread to others. The exploitation of India, Africa, and increasingly internal exploitation of Western economies is at the point where it is not really feasible to borrow enough at 0-1% interest to support the debt service on personal, business and government loans. This has happened since there was interest-bearing-debt. Businesses are hollowed out by borrowing money to buy their own stock, so prices go up and "investors" in their stock get profits. Retirement accounts, investment in manufacturing, research and development all get gutted. That's where we are already. I think Russia and China and Iran are resisting being gutted from outside (but are gutting themselves, some.)
What we can do, as much as possible, is to pay off debt and work on inherently stable and rewarding projects, like vegetable gardening. This is not so complicated. We can expect the top-tier power lizards to remain in power (0,1%). Every master lower in status than that is subject to revision, and may be able to do something useful for the greater economy some day, maybe...
The end of cheap oil is about to be upon us. This means that restructuring will really need to be at a far lower level of diesel and air conditioning.
I don't expect to be saved by any benevolent entity. (George Soros just bought the Tesla dip, and Buffet is big into railroads, not humans.)

North Korea remembers "the Libya Model", where Libya gave up everything nuclear and waited to be forgiven. North Korea remembers John Bolton's role in increasing demands for economic sanctions after North Korea destroyed their nuclear program. John Bolton just made sound like that again. North Korea says we are not going to negotiate from a position of weakness, so don't bother trying.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel slammed President Trump for his decision to pull out. The unofficial leader of Europe believes it “damages trust” in the global order. She is not alone. The UK and France have also admitted that they regret Trump’s move. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire stated that European powers should not be Washington’s "vassals." (The Iran deal paid the EU in cheaper oil and some profits. Killing it hurts the EU badly.)

Paul Craig Roberts:  I have explained Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Christian practice of turning the other cheek to Western provocations as a strategy to convey to Europe that Russia is reasonable but Washington is not and that Russia is not a threat to European interests and sovereignty but Washington is.  

Newly Elected Italian Political Coalition calls for European Central Bank to write off 250 billion Euros in Italian national debt. :-)

Remember what the subprime mortgage defaults of 2007 did in 2008? Subprime car loans are doing that default thing now.

Neither Borrower nor Lender

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