1492 pandemic continues to 2020: 100 million killed by invasive species from africa asia europe.... and their zoonotic diseases
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Fix the Economy. Electronic Financials
The economy will continue to sicken because of bad diets and lifestyles
causing degenerative diseases. This is both cause and result of
economic decline and class warfare. But many younger and healthier
people will continue to be vigorous and productive, exacerbating the
rich 1% vs poor 99% divide. Inequality will continue to grow.
Politicians are too stupid and slow moving to reverse these trends, and
they are paid by nefarious schemers to not do anything. Professors are
cheerleaders for the playing politicians and elites, helping to maintain
the status quo.
A more equitable economy would be better for all including the rich 1%.
But politics and self-defeating policies block progress. I do not
address health here but can address electronic financials that are
easier to address and a needed first step.
My new book details a technological fix using 4 new kinds computers.
The key changes needed is (1) fair tax (2) control over the money supply
(3) security and biometrics. Much can be done without politicians but
more can be done if some laws were changed. A grand bargain may be
politically more feasible than small patchwork fixups -- Everybody
would benefit from a grand bargain but a small fixup would clobber some
people. The basic plan is:
(1) Cancel the IRS and the current tax law (most would like this except
tax lawyers). Apply a broad 2% tax on all transactions = 1% tax to the
Federal government + 1% to the State government. Etc. Everybody pays
the equal 2% tax. Extremely broad so will bring in the same revenue as
current because nobody will be able to evade the tax. As fair as
possible. Cannot be done now without the below.
(2) Cancel the Fed. Get rid of all paper currency (greatly reduce
crime). Electronic money. Move all money into "money banks" private
corporations run by retired military officers. Each citizen,
corporation, and government gets 1 account. The money bank approves
every transaction and subtracts the 2% tax. The money bank also
subtracts a 1% tax from money balances to prevent money hoarding (1%/365
per day). So the total tax is actually more like 3%.
(3) Cancel the Post Office. Money banks take over these facilities and
personnel. Money banks also take over existing retail bank
facilities. Firewalls between money banks and investment banks.
Revitalize the pony express.
(4) The money banker verifies each customer by biometrics: DNA,
fingerprints, retinal scans, etc. Collects birth certificates, marriage
certificates, verifies address, etc. Each citizen gets an identity card
(no photo, name, address or other identifying information other than a
magnetic stripe and serial number). That is the only card they need
(piggyback on up to 99 credit cards to that serial number). Also
citizens get a post office box and a bank safety deposit box. Large
flat boxes that can hold wills, photos, contracts, fashion magazines,
birth certificates, etc. The money bank automatically moves boxed
valuables when the citizen moves to a new location or changes banks.
(5) The money bank system clears all checks by physical mail.
Headquarters in Kansas City on the internet fiber optic trunk lines and
pony express origin. Almost everything goes electronically (already,
today). There is very little in the Money Bank Headquarters.
Everything done by protocol between the private decentralized corporate
money banks. Most info moves electronically but with some physicals
(checks, wills, valuables practice in case SHTF.) Maintain horses and
coal fired steam engine trains in case SHTF.
(6) Each citizen gets a specialized home computer for banking and an
official email address. It does not use the internet. It is designed
for security. Anybody can pay any bill with that computer. You can
vote on the computer. You can email any company or person officially
(not via internet). The home computer keeps records on every
transaction you have ever made. It alerts you to product recalls. It
has a copy of every contract with every store and product you have ever
bought. Corporations and governments get beefed up versions of this
computer. You also get copies of the laws you are subject to for every
jurisdiction you are subject to. You also get copies of all educational
materials K-12 and college degrees in medicine, law, engineering,
business including textbooks and exams. You can setup 99 social network
websites. These computers are already being sold for $99 but the
software and textual material you have to assemble yourself nowadays.
Money bank will do this for you. Need to add a Geiger counter and short
wave radio in case SHTF. Small cheap simple = powerful computer.
(7) Each citizen gets a wireless mobile device that allows them to
announce themselves to vendors and employers. Citizens can get coupons
from stores, interact with teachers, and schools can keep track of
attendance automatically. Mobile device can read official documents and
emails but not do transactions. Vendors love to know who is walking
in/by their facilities and what they are interested in. Vendors can
email you if you walk by or into their store. Citizen can turn off
wifi, bluetooth, shortwave if they want and remain anonymous. But in
case SHTF alerts very useful so they should leave these turned on. If
you hear gunfire, turn on the camera and run away.
(8) Identity theft is eliminated. Citizen data is held only by their
banker. Citizens must approve and get paid for any use of their data.
Their name, birth date, and social security number should no longer be
released. Governments, Schools, Facebook, Companies, Walmart,... can
only rent data for approved uses. The FBI and Oracle agents monitor all
companies that are renting data to make sure proper security procedures
are followed. Facebook and Walmart is happy because all their data is
correct and current (updated every second). Citizens are happy because
they get paid for their data, or they can block uses of their data.
Many citizens would like to have some extra cash from selling all their
data (fame happy celebrities?). Others may block all uses of their
data. People can use any name they want at school, work, etc. Nobody
needs to know anybody's real name or SSN.
(9) Money bank officers must assemble a militia. Money bank officers
are armed and must qualify annually: pistol, rifle, accounting,
computers, ACT, SAT, GRE, drugs, triathlon, horseback riding, trains,
etc. Militiamen must also qualify. Militiamen may not be police,
fire, national guard, or any other government personnel - they already
have responsibilities if SHTF. The militia is not a government
takeover. Money bank officers must swear an oath never to set foot in
Washington DC or run for any elected office or work for any government
after they become a money bank officer. That is why they are retired
military: Too old, pose less of a threat, and are more patriotic with a
reputation to defend.
(10) Cancel the census department. Money bank does an up-to-the-second
census plus collects lots more data. Sell that data to universities for
research.
Basically use technology to accomplish what politics seems incapable of
doing: Fair tax, secure financials, identities, transactions, mail....
Klaus wrote:
> Joe.
>
> in my opinion, your basic points here about the structure of the recent US and world economy are broadly headed in the right direction. these emails contain a good, somewhat complete, yet compressed, expression of points you've been making for the past couple of years.
>
> two issues require more work:
> c1. a diagnosis of what really has happened: for example, in effect, a large subset of the labor pool has become significantly devalued; why exactly?
> c2. what could and should be done to move the overall economy into a better direction, in particular, to get more people doing genuinely productive work? imo, the 'solutions' usually put forward are all living in the past, and have been proven not to work.
>
> [a disclaimer, for the benefit of unauthorized readers of this email: of course i [kws] do not agree with every opinion expressed by joe in his original emails. but i do think much of the fundamental economic analysis is sound.]
>
> Klaus
>
> Joe wrote:
>> If Obama loves inflation then why can't he produce inflation? Most of the news is deflation -- Detroit pensions, military pensions,... and deflating social security inflation calculations to a chained CPI or some other deflation scheme. That is Obama, going against the 99% poor deflated liberals (many Negroes) who voted for him. Inflation has been fading into history since Volcker figured out how to stop it and the rich have seized / maintained control of the Fed and the government to keep inflation down. Fluoridated water, junk food stamps, TV, internet,... all conspire for the desired goal.
>>
>> There is some trickle down to the poor 99% but they are mostly becoming further deflated. Most of the inflation goes to the rich who, as you learned in Econ 1A have a lower marginal propensity to consume. Instead of consuming so much they are further buying up assets around the world which they can use to further deflate the poor around the world. Billions already live on less than $5 per day. In the USA Unemployment benefits are expiring, etc. Poverty is already happening here and more will be imported (especially illegal immigration but also legals and contract workers). People sell gold and silver to eat so metals prices will further deflate -- not needed to run corporations and banks.
>>
>> Most inflation will happen to the rich. Especially and already the common stocks they use to control the world industrial system will see the most inflation. And luxury goods, paintings, French castles, swiss ski vacations, swiss watches, swiss cheese, french wine, etc. Hawaii is just the tip of the Iceberg. There are hundreds of wealthy enclaves around the world that do not go into CPI poor. And inflated products not consumed by the poor 99% who buy CPI goods.
>>
>> None of the deflated illegal drug prices gets into the CPI or deflation would look even worse. Much of that money disappears into illegal drug kingpins around the world who will not be spending that money in the USA where it might inflate some prices.
>>
>> Inflation is a pie-in-the sky dream for the poor 99%. Deflation is the reality. Health is deflating faster than pocket books. Obama has not stopped deflation of health or wealth. Hilary Clinton offers no solutions. Republicans are worse. There is no escape. SHTF is just starting.
>>
>> All currencies must be flexible or they will be replaced by the dictators, oligarchs, or democratically elected governments. Right now, I would argue that USA should have more money supply in the USA, not overseas, and that money should be more fairly distributed such as to veterans and the elderly and people who work for a living, not idle rich fat cats who get richer by "playing the market" and deflating the poor through schemes such as subprime mortgages and college loans.
>>
>> The only bright spot is that the rich deflators are not as smart as you might think. That is why the crashes of 1987 and 2008 happened. Both easily avoidable. Banks took big hits and Lehman, Madoff, and others went bankrupt (good riddance). Lots of dumb stuff still going on. They may screw up again and lose some power. But I doubt if that will do much to boost military pensions, social security, or even food stamps or unemployment. If people got no money they can't buy stuff and push prices higher. Deflated person not selling to the rich might have to learn basic survival skills -- subsistence farming, riding a horse, hunting, fishing, and gathering just to survive, like poor people around the world. 100 years ago that was USA, before the Fed.
>>
>> http://www.wncn.com/story/24310950/federal-budget-includes-cut-to-military-pensions
>> A new two-year budget deal, signed into law by President Barack Obama on Thursday, includes a controversial cut to some military pensions. The budget saves an estimated $6.2 billion over ten years by cutting the cost of living adjustment (COLA) for some military retirees by one percent every year.
>>
>> http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/27/us-usa-detroit-bankruptcy-appeal-idUSBRE9BQ0IS20131227
>> Detroit's plan to cut pensions could set a precedent and cause other troubled U.S. cities to also cut pension benefits as a way to reduce debt.
>>
>> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-04/detroit-bankruptcy-risks-pensions-as-cuts-ruled-possible.html
>> The ruling cast uncertainty on the incomes of thousands of former workers of Michigan's largest city, where pensions average $19,000 a year and were assumed to be protected by state law. professor of constitutional law at Wayne State University in Detroit. "It does send a message to retirees that you can't assume that because there's a state constitutional protection that your pension can't be cut."
>>
>> http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/10/obama-move-to-change-social-security-inflation-rate-riles-supporters-on-left/
>>
>> President Obama seemed to be coaxing Republicans back to the negotiating table by offering to change the inflation adjustment in Social Security and other government programs... complaints on the left about the Social Security change, which activists say will cut benefits. The liberal group Campaign for America's Future claims it has collected two million signatures from people opposed to such changes to entitlement programs, and delivered the petition to the White House on Tuesday.
>>
>>
>>
>> Bob wrote:
>>> The /biggest/ borrower of them all, Big Brother, LOVES inflation because he can keep borrowing forever. That's why /he/ created the Federal Reserve Act "to create an elastic currency" including a nice 2% inflation target. Read it for yourself, Joe, I don't make these things up.
>>>
>>> BB
>>>
>>> In a nutshell:
>>>
>>> Rich 1% want low inflation to protect the present value of their assets.
>>>
>>> Even better is deflation that forces the poor borrowers to repay more valuable dollars than what they were loaned.
>>>
>>> Poor 99% want high inflation to devalue what they owe and to boost employment (Phillips curve.) (Rich people tend to be savers. Poor people tend to be borrowers).
>>>
>>> You are being lied to if you read that the Fed wants inflation. The Fed is owned by Banks. Banks and rich people hate inflation. Inflation devastates the banking business and the economy. Consumers will choose
>>>
>>> to buy food instead of repay loans so banks will go bankrupt. Input
>>>
>>> prices will rise thus reducing profits. As business profits shrink or become losses then business loans will go bad and banks will lose money or go bankrupt. Car and house sales will collapse if prices get too
>>>
>>> high. Stuff collects on shelves instead of being sold. Interest rates
>>>
>>> will rise (=real rate + inflation rate). Nobody will be able to borrow.
>>>
>>> Stock, bond and other asset prices will collapse via the discount rate. Inflation causes many bad effects for the rich 1% and bankers.
>>>
>>> Example: Poor Hippies benefited from the 1970s inflation as they repaid their home loans with increasingly worthless dollars. Many California Teachers, Cops, Professors... were hippie 60s radicals. Conservative bankers lost (many WWII Korea veterans).
>>>
>>> Inflation actually happened in the 1970s when dastardly Muslims conspired to quadruple the price of oil. I worked in a prestigious Harvard MIT consulting firm that had all the big banks and largest corporations as a clients. They were all hurting and screaming for a solution. I did some optimal control simulations and concluded that a tight money solution would work best in a widely circulated paper. Paul Volcker read my paper. When he was appointed to lead the Fed in 1979 he immediately announced an extremely tight money supply that killed inflation but nearly killed the economy in the process, driving unemployment rates up to 11%, much as my computer model predicted.
>>>
>>> Access to the computer model and reports was very expensive. The data was also very expensive and hard to use. Nowadays The Saint Louis Fed has kindly put this data online free. http://fairmodel.econ.yale.edu is a free downloadable small model that you can simulate (Ray Fair Armenian?). Still impossible to understand without 10 years of training but at least it is there for those willing to do the work.
>>>
>>> I append some related figures. In 1974 Muslims spiked the oil price upward http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis
>>>
>>> This oil price inflation spread and crashed the economy. Stock prices fell as inflation and interest rates rose. Inflation + Unemployment rose = the misery index. Both the rich and poor became increasingly miserable until Volcker's medicine took effect. Inflation came down and stock prices began a 30 year boom (interrupted by the 1987 hiccup caused by derivatives foul-up).
>>>
>>> The rich gained the most at first, but gradually benefits trickled down
>>>
>>> to the poor as they got hired back (at often lower wages). This same
>>>
>>> recovery cycle is happening now. Stock prices have been recovering since 2008 and is now setting records. Gradually unemployment is falling but jobs often have lower wages. Trickle down benefits the rich first but less and slower benefits for the poor.
>>>
>>> Interest rates are still stuck at depression liquidity trap 0 because of deflation. Rich can put their money in the bank and collect 0% interest and come out ahead because when they eventually withdraw their money to shop when most items will be cheaper and/or higher quality -- ipods, computers will be faster... Deflation is great for the rich which is
>>>
>>> why we have deflation. A lot of rich got richer during the 1930s
>>>
>>> depression deflation. Many rich now are also getting richer since the
>>>
>>> 2008 recession deflation (Except for idiots like Corzine and Lehman Brothers).
>>>
>>> I avoid TV and newspapers. I prefer to go directly to the facts in the appropriate databases. Much information can be gleaned by staring at charts for years in the company of other students. Often people use statistics but those are confusing and easy to make mistakes. I prefer
>>>
>>> charts, at least for a few years before serious modelling. Before and
>>>
>>> during chart analysis it is useful to learn the definitions of data items and the procedures on how the data is constructed.
>>>
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker
>>>
>>> Volcker was born in New Jersey to Alma Louise (née Klippel) and Paul Adolph Volcker. All of his grandparents were German immigrants. Volcker grew up in New Jersey, where his father was a municipal manager. He
>>>
>>> attended his mother's Lutheran church. Volcker's undergraduate
>>>
>>> education was at Princeton University 1949. M.A. political economy from Harvard University and then London School of Economics. Ron Paul, well known as a harsh critic of the Federal Reserve, has offered qualified praise of Volcker: I met several Federal Reserve chairmen... I had the most interaction with Volcker. He was more personable and smarter than the others, including the more recent board chairmen Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke.
>>>
>>
>
Monday, December 30, 2013
CPI WPI GDP Deflator Handbook of Methods
consumers, particularly urban consumers. It does not include prices on
what business, banks, government, or foreigners pay. Most transactions
are between business and banks. Government is also huge as are
foreigners, unfortunately. So CPI usefulness is limited.
I quit paying attention to CPI back in the 1970s. The GDP implicit
price deflator is a better measure of economy-wide inflation, but still
deficient.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GDP_deflator
There are other measures such as the consumption deflator. Persons
interested in inflation can check their understanding of inflation
measurement by graphing those time series and explaining variances.
Consumer prices CPI is computed by the bureau of labor statistics. Some
details on their procedures are in the attached chapter. More is
available on their website.
http://www.bls.gov/cpi/publications.htm
Money supply is only weakly correlated with any of the price indexes.
News media follow CPI because it is used to adjust government checks,
etc. All of the price indexes are correlated but they diverge because
of the different concepts measured. They all have better and worse
uses. There are only a few agencies that have the ability to prepare
price indexes. Applied work must use what is available.
The rich 1% hire Million dollar economists to figure out how to make
sense of the numbers. That is one reason why the rich get richer. A
college education can teach humility instead of overconfidence and
irrational exuberance. Don't try to beat the rich at their own game.
That would be inevitable failure. The rich count on suckers to make
such mistakes to help them get richer. Investments, the stock market,
gold, bonds, bills,... are minefields for the uneducated. Data is not
easy.
Min wage
Sixty-four percent of independents and even 57 percent of Republicans said they supported increasing the minimum wage, according to a CBS News poll last month. Some 70 percent of self-described "moderates" said they supported an increase.
NYTimes: Democrats Turn to Minimum Wage as 2014 Strategy
Democrats are hoping that a push to raise the federal minimum wage and a campaign to place state-level wage proposals on the ballot will help their chances in hotly contested congressional races.
Democrat minimum wage
http://nyti.ms/19x6J70
NYTimes: Democrats Turn to Minimum Wage as 2014 Strategy
Democrats are hoping that a push to raise the federal minimum wage and a campaign to place state-level wage proposals on the ballot will help their chances in hotly contested congressional races.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Re: Force the Fed to allow more inflation to benefit the poor 99%
the news is deflation -- Detroit pensions, military pensions,... and
deflating social security inflation calculations to a chained CPI or
some other deflation scheme. That is Obama, going against the 99% poor
deflated liberals (many Negroes) who voted for him. Inflation has been
fading into history since Volcker figured out how to stop it and the
rich have seized / maintained control of the Fed and the government to
keep inflation down. Fluoridated water, junk food stamps, TV,
internet,... all conspire for the desired goal.
There is some trickle down to the poor 99% but they are mostly becoming
further deflated. Most of the inflation goes to the rich who, as you
learned in Econ 1A have a lower marginal propensity to consume. Instead
of consuming so much they are further buying up assets around the world
which they can use to further deflate the poor around the world.
Billions already live on less than $5 per day. In the USA Unemployment
benefits are expiring, etc. Poverty is already happening here and more
will be imported (especially illegal immigration but also legals and
contract workers). People sell gold and silver to eat so metals prices
will further deflate -- not needed to run corporations and banks.
Most inflation will happen to the rich. Especially and already the
common stocks they use to control the world industrial system will see
the most inflation. And luxury goods, paintings, French castles, swiss
ski vacations, swiss watches, swiss cheese, french wine, etc. Hawaii is
just the tip of the Iceberg. There are hundreds of wealthy enclaves
around the world that do not go into CPI poor. And inflated products not
consumed by the poor 99% who buy CPI goods.
None of the deflated illegal drug prices gets into the CPI or deflation
would look even worse. Much of that money disappears into illegal drug
kingpins around the world who will not be spending that money in the USA
where it might inflate some prices.
Inflation is a pie-in-the sky dream for the poor 99%. Deflation is the
reality. Health is deflating faster than pocket books. Obama has not
stopped deflation of health or wealth. Hilary Clinton offers no
solutions. Republicans are worse. There is no escape. SHTF is just
starting.
All currencies must be flexible or they will be replaced by the
dictators, oligarchs, or democratically elected governments. Right now,
I would argue that USA should have more money supply in the USA, not
overseas, and that money should be more fairly distributed such as to
veterans and the elderly and people who work for a living, not idle rich
fat cats who get richer by "playing the market" and deflating the poor
through schemes such as subprime mortgages and college loans.
The only bright spot is that the rich deflators are not as smart as you
might think. That is why the crashes of 1987 and 2008 happened. Both
easily avoidable. Banks took big hits and Lehman, Madoff, and others
went bankrupt (good riddance). Lots of dumb stuff still going on. They
may screw up again and lose some power. But I doubt if that will do much
to boost military pensions, social security, or even food stamps or
unemployment. If people got no money they can't buy stuff and push
prices higher. Deflated person not selling to the rich might have to
learn basic survival skills -- subsistence farming, riding a horse,
hunting, fishing, and gathering just to survive, like poor people around
the world. 100 years ago that was USA, before the Fed.
http://www.wncn.com/story/24310950/federal-budget-includes-cut-to-military-pensions
A new two-year budget deal, signed into law by President Barack Obama on
Thursday, includes a controversial cut to some military pensions. The
budget saves an estimated $6.2 billion over ten years by cutting the
cost of living adjustment (COLA) for some military retirees by one
percent every year.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/27/us-usa-detroit-bankruptcy-appeal-idUSBRE9BQ0IS20131227
Detroit's plan to cut pensions could set a precedent and cause other
troubled U.S. cities to also cut pension benefits as a way to reduce debt.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-04/detroit-bankruptcy-risks-pensions-as-cuts-ruled-possible.html
The ruling cast uncertainty on the incomes of thousands of former
workers of Michigan's largest city, where pensions average $19,000 a
year and were assumed to be protected by state law. professor of
constitutional law at Wayne State University in Detroit. "It does send a
message to retirees that you can't assume that because there's a state
constitutional protection that your pension can't be cut."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/10/obama-move-to-change-social-security-inflation-rate-riles-supporters-on-left/
President Obama seemed to be coaxing Republicans back to the negotiating
table by offering to change the inflation adjustment in Social Security
and other government programs... complaints on the left about the Social
Security change, which activists say will cut benefits. The liberal
group Campaign for America's Future claims it has collected two million
signatures from people opposed to such changes to entitlement programs,
and delivered the petition to the White House on Tuesday.
Bob wrote:
>
> The /biggest/ borrower of them all, Big Brother, LOVES inflation
> because he can keep borrowing forever. That's why /he/ created the
> Federal Reserve Act "to create an elastic currency" including a nice
> 2% inflation target. Read it for yourself, Joe, I don't make these
> things up.
>
> BB
>
> In a nutshell:
>
> Rich 1% want low inflation to protect the present value of their assets.
>
> Even better is deflation that forces the poor borrowers to repay more
> valuable dollars than what they were loaned.
>
> Poor 99% want high inflation to devalue what they owe and to boost
> employment (Phillips curve.) (Rich people tend to be savers. Poor
> people tend to be borrowers).
>
> You are being lied to if you read that the Fed wants inflation. The
> Fed is owned by Banks. Banks and rich people hate inflation. Inflation
> devastates the banking business and the economy. Consumers will choose
>
> to buy food instead of repay loans so banks will go bankrupt. Input
>
> prices will rise thus reducing profits. As business profits shrink or
> become losses then business loans will go bad and banks will lose
> money or go bankrupt. Car and house sales will collapse if prices get too
>
> high. Stuff collects on shelves instead of being sold. Interest rates
>
> will rise (=real rate + inflation rate). Nobody will be able to borrow.
>
> Stock, bond and other asset prices will collapse via the discount
> rate. Inflation causes many bad effects for the rich 1% and bankers.
>
> Example: Poor Hippies benefited from the 1970s inflation as they
> repaid their home loans with increasingly worthless dollars. Many
> California Teachers, Cops, Professors... were hippie 60s radicals.
> Conservative bankers lost (many WWII Korea veterans).
>
> Inflation actually happened in the 1970s when dastardly Muslims
> conspired to quadruple the price of oil. I worked in a prestigious
> Harvard MIT consulting firm that had all the big banks and largest
> corporations as a clients. They were all hurting and screaming for a
> solution. I did some optimal control simulations and concluded that a
> tight money solution would work best in a widely circulated paper.
> Paul Volcker read my paper. When he was appointed to lead the Fed in
> 1979 he immediately announced an extremely tight money supply that
> killed inflation but nearly killed the economy in the process, driving
> unemployment rates up to 11%, much as my computer model predicted.
>
> Access to the computer model and reports was very expensive. The data
> was also very expensive and hard to use. Nowadays The Saint Louis Fed
> has kindly put this data online free. http://fairmodel.econ.yale.edu
> is a free downloadable small model that you can simulate (Ray Fair
> Armenian?). Still impossible to understand without 10 years of
> training but at least it is there for those willing to do the work.
>
> I append some related figures. In 1974 Muslims spiked the oil price
> upward http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis
>
> This oil price inflation spread and crashed the economy. Stock prices
> fell as inflation and interest rates rose. Inflation + Unemployment
> rose = the misery index. Both the rich and poor became increasingly
> miserable until Volcker's medicine took effect. Inflation came down
> and stock prices began a 30 year boom (interrupted by the 1987 hiccup
> caused by derivatives foul-up).
>
> The rich gained the most at first, but gradually benefits trickled down
>
> to the poor as they got hired back (at often lower wages). This same
>
> recovery cycle is happening now. Stock prices have been recovering
> since 2008 and is now setting records. Gradually unemployment is
> falling but jobs often have lower wages. Trickle down benefits the
> rich first but less and slower benefits for the poor.
>
> Interest rates are still stuck at depression liquidity trap 0 because
> of deflation. Rich can put their money in the bank and collect 0%
> interest and come out ahead because when they eventually withdraw
> their money to shop when most items will be cheaper and/or higher
> quality -- ipods, computers will be faster... Deflation is great for
> the rich which is
>
> why we have deflation. A lot of rich got richer during the 1930s
>
> depression deflation. Many rich now are also getting richer since the
>
> 2008 recession deflation (Except for idiots like Corzine and Lehman
> Brothers).
>
> I avoid TV and newspapers. I prefer to go directly to the facts in the
> appropriate databases. Much information can be gleaned by staring at
> charts for years in the company of other students. Often people use
> statistics but those are confusing and easy to make mistakes. I prefer
>
> charts, at least for a few years before serious modelling. Before and
>
> during chart analysis it is useful to learn the definitions of data
> items and the procedures on how the data is constructed.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker
>
> Volcker was born in New Jersey to Alma Louise (née Klippel) and Paul
> Adolph Volcker. All of his grandparents were German immigrants.
> Volcker grew up in New Jersey, where his father was a municipal
> manager. He
>
> attended his mother's Lutheran church. Volcker's undergraduate
>
> education was at Princeton University 1949. M.A. political economy
> from Harvard University and then London School of Economics. Ron Paul,
> well known as a harsh critic of the Federal Reserve, has offered
> qualified praise of Volcker: I met several Federal Reserve chairmen...
> I had the most interaction with Volcker. He was more personable and
> smarter than the others, including the more recent board chairmen Alan
> Greenspan and Ben Bernanke.
>
Force the Fed to allow more inflation to benefit the poor 99%
Rich 1% want low inflation to protect the present value of their assets.
Even better is deflation that forces the poor borrowers to repay more
valuable dollars than what they were loaned.
Poor 99% want high inflation to devalue what they owe and to boost
employment (Phillips curve.) (Rich people tend to be savers. Poor
people tend to be borrowers).
You are being lied to if you read that the Fed wants inflation. The Fed
is owned by Banks. Banks and rich people hate inflation. Inflation
devastates the banking business and the economy. Consumers will choose
to buy food instead of repay loans so banks will go bankrupt. Input
prices will rise thus reducing profits. As business profits shrink or
become losses then business loans will go bad and banks will lose money
or go bankrupt. Car and house sales will collapse if prices get too
high. Stuff collects on shelves instead of being sold. Interest rates
will rise (=real rate + inflation rate). Nobody will be able to borrow.
Stock, bond and other asset prices will collapse via the discount
rate. Inflation causes many bad effects for the rich 1% and bankers.
Example: Poor Hippies benefited from the 1970s inflation as they repaid
their home loans with increasingly worthless dollars. Many California
Teachers, Cops, Professors... were hippie 60s radicals. Conservative
bankers lost (many WWII Korea veterans).
Inflation actually happened in the 1970s when dastardly Muslims
conspired to quadruple the price of oil. I worked in a prestigious
Harvard MIT consulting firm that had all the big banks and largest
corporations as a clients. They were all hurting and screaming for a
solution. I did some optimal control simulations and concluded that a
tight money solution would work best in a widely circulated paper. Paul
Volcker read my paper. When he was appointed to lead the Fed in 1979 he
immediately announced an extremely tight money supply that killed
inflation but nearly killed the economy in the process, driving
unemployment rates up to 11%, much as my computer model predicted.
Access to the computer model and reports was very expensive. The data
was also very expensive and hard to use. Nowadays The Saint Louis Fed
has kindly put this data online free. http://fairmodel.econ.yale.edu is
a free downloadable small model that you can simulate (Ray Fair
Armenian?). Still impossible to understand without 10 years of training
but at least it is there for those willing to do the work.
I append some related figures. In 1974 Muslims spiked the oil price upward
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis
This oil price inflation spread and crashed the economy. Stock prices
fell as inflation and interest rates rose. Inflation + Unemployment
rose = the misery index. Both the rich and poor became increasingly
miserable until Volcker's medicine took effect. Inflation came down and
stock prices began a 30 year boom (interrupted by the 1987 hiccup caused
by derivatives foul-up).
The rich gained the most at first, but gradually benefits trickled down
to the poor as they got hired back (at often lower wages). This same
recovery cycle is happening now. Stock prices have been recovering
since 2008 and is now setting records. Gradually unemployment is
falling but jobs often have lower wages. Trickle down benefits the rich
first but less and slower benefits for the poor.
Interest rates are still stuck at depression liquidity trap 0 because of
deflation. Rich can put their money in the bank and collect 0% interest
and come out ahead because when they eventually withdraw their money to
shop when most items will be cheaper and/or higher quality -- ipods,
computers will be faster... Deflation is great for the rich which is
why we have deflation. A lot of rich got richer during the 1930s
depression deflation. Many rich now are also getting richer since the
2008 recession deflation (Except for idiots like Corzine and Lehman
Brothers).
I avoid TV and newspapers. I prefer to go directly to the facts in the
appropriate databases. Much information can be gleaned by staring at
charts for years in the company of other students. Often people use
statistics but those are confusing and easy to make mistakes. I prefer
charts, at least for a few years before serious modelling. Before and
during chart analysis it is useful to learn the definitions of data
items and the procedures on how the data is constructed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker
Volcker was born in New Jersey to Alma Louise (née Klippel) and Paul
Adolph Volcker. All of his grandparents were German immigrants. Volcker
grew up in New Jersey, where his father was a municipal manager. He
attended his mother's Lutheran church. Volcker's undergraduate
education was at Princeton University 1949. M.A. political economy from
Harvard University and then London School of Economics. Ron Paul, well
known as a harsh critic of the Federal Reserve, has offered qualified
praise of Volcker: I met several Federal Reserve chairmen... I had the
most interaction with Volcker. He was more personable and smarter than
the others, including the more recent board chairmen Alan Greenspan and
Ben Bernanke.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Professor corruption commodities
http://nyti.ms/19p4H8X
NYTimes: Academics Who Defend Wall St. Reap Reward
Wall Street paid academic experts — and gave money to their universities — whose research supported the financial community's views on commodity trading.
Signs of the energy business are inescapable in and around Houston — the pipelines, refineries and tankers that crowd the harbor, and the gleaming office towers where oil companies and energy traders have transformed the skyline.
And in a squat glass building on the University of Houston campus, a measure of the industry's pre-eminence can also be found in the person of Craig Pirrong, a professor of finance, who sits at the nexus of commerce and academia.
As energy companies and traders have reaped fortunes by buying and selling oil and other commodities during the recent boom in the commodity markets, Mr. Pirrong has positioned himself as the hard-nosed defender of financial speculators — the combative, occasionally acerbic academic authority to call upon when difficult questions arise in Congress and elsewhere about the multitrillion-dollar global commodities trade.
Do financial speculators and commodity index funds drive up prices of oil and other essentials, ultimately costing consumers? Since 2006, Mr. Pirrong has written a flurry of influential letters to federal agencies arguing that the answer to that question is an emphatic no. He has testified before Congress to that effect, hosted seminars with traders and government regulators, and given countless interviews for financial publications absolving Wall Street speculation of any appreciable role in the price spikes.

Friday, December 27, 2013
Surgery deflates wealth and health. Like borrowing.
Don't go to doctors or borrow from bankers!
http://nyti.ms/1d94U4D
NYTimes: Common Knee Surgery Does Very Little for Some, Study Suggests
A new study suggests that thousands of people with a torn meniscus may be undergoing unnecessary arthroscopic surgery and that for many, options like physical therapy may be as good.
Re: "Stingray"......Here's How the Local Cops Are Spying on Your Cellphones
Here's How the Local Cops Are Spying on Your Cellphones
SEXPAND
Dozens of law enforcement agencies across 33 states are quietly using new technologies to dump phone records and fix thousands of individuals' locations, identities, and activities at a time, using existing cellphone towers and phony cellphone signals, according to a new investigative report.
As other outlets revealed today how the NSA uses networked video games to track targets, USA Today detailed local cops' new cellphone-tracking tactics in an exhaustive nationwide report. Its findings:
- One-quarter of police agencies use "tower dumps" to gather intelligence on suspects, downloading info on all the users of a particular cellphone tower in a given hour or two.
- One-fifth of the agencies have a fancy new $400,000 mobile device called a Stingray, which mimics a cellphone tower and "tricks all nearby phones into connecting to it and feeding data to police." Most of those police forces don't have to spend money on the suitcase-sized devices; they can use federal anti-terror grants to gear up.
- In most states, a warrant isn't needed for cops to use these technologies.
Even before today's exposé, some US municipalities expressed reservations about the scope of the new tracking technologies. The Seattle Police Department had used federal anti-terror funding to plan a "wireless mess network" capable of tracking Wi-Fi users' movements across much of the city, but halted work on the project last month after a public outcry about its potential for abuse.
Taking a page from apologists for torture and international espionage, police representatives claim the tactics are justified because they're effective.
Richland County (S.C) Sheriff Leon Lott ordered four cell-data dumps from two towers in a 2011 investigation into a rash of car break-ins near Columbia, including the theft of collection of guns and rifles from his police-issued SUV, parked at his home.
"We were looking at someone who was breaking into a lot of vehicles and was not going to stop," Lott said. "So, we had to find out as much information as we could." The sheriff's office says it has used a tower dump in at least one prior case, to help solve a murder.
Nowhere in the USA Today's story does Lott specify what murder he's talking about, or whether it—and the break-ins—ended in convictions.
[Photo credit: AP]
Peace, Lothar"When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty."---Thomas Jefferson
Re: Fed 'Inflation' Style
If you take the first line for housing it is a 5% inflation rate
= ln(240000/4000)/(2013-1938)= 0.05459126082
This does not take into account the inflation in size and quality of
houses today.
They are much bigger and loaded with lots of features not available in
the past.
Quality adjusted would be a zero or negative inflation rate.
I doubt if any of these numbers are accurate.
He does not provide footnotes.
These numbers are hard to come up with,
especially if you do not want avoid comparing apples and oranges.
These bloggers are paid for by bankers who want to further deflate the
99% poor people.
Many are so deflated have given up on buying cars and have moved in with
relatives or gone homeless.
Bankers want to convince deflated people that there is inflation.
Bankers want to tighten the money supply for sheeple so bankers can
hoard more money for themselves without political repercussions.
Other tools: destroying brains with statins and other drugs,
carbohydrates, mercury, fluoridated water....
Deflate the brain and you can deflate the pocketbook without sheeple
noticing or knowing what to do if they do notice.
On 12/27/13 12:01 AM, Bob wrote:
>
>
> 100 Years Of Success? - Fed 'Inflation' Style
>
> by Tyler Durden <http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden> on
> 12/26/2013
>
> *Money is only as useful as to what it can purchase.* The Fed has
> created a system where debt is now equal to money*/. This is why big
> purchases like cars, housing, and even going to college are only
> feasible by mortgaging your future for many decades. Since the
> payments are broken down into tiny monthly installments many people
> pay little attention to the true cost of things over their lifetime./*
> Yet, as MyBudget360 shows
> <http://www.mybudget360.com/cost-of-living-1938-to-2013-inflation-history-cost-of-goods-inflation/>,
> over time, the U.S. dollar has lost a tremendous amount of purchasing
> power due to inflation. *Inflation slowly eats away at your purchasing
> power yet having access to debt has given the middle class the false
> impression that they are still protected from the unraveling impacts
> of inflation*. They are not...
>
> /As MyBudget360.com
> <http://www.mybudget360.com/cost-of-living-1938-to-2013-inflation-history-cost-of-goods-inflation/>
> goes on to note,/
>
> Someone sent over a photo posted over on the popular Reddit website
> that shows the cost of living for people back in 1938. You would think
> that people in 2013 would have more purchasing power than those living
> through the Great Depression. *_Adjusting for inflation you would be
> surprised what has happened in the last 75 years._*
>
> *The cost of living between 1938 and 2013*
>
> The picture in question has prices for living from 1938. It includes
> important items like a new home, income, new car, rent, and extreme
> purchasing examples like tuition for Harvard:
>
> Description: cost of living
> <http://www.mybudget360.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/cost-of-living.jpg>
>
> /Source: Reddit/
>
> *You can normalize costs over time through adjusting for inflation.
> Back in 1938 a new home cost about two times the annual average
> income. A new car was only about one-third the cost of the annual
> average income. * These figures are important because back in 1938,
> using credit was only a small factor in purchasing goods. The middle
> class
> <http://www.mybudget360.com/two-income-trap-dual-income-trap-household-income-middle-class-two-income-trap/>
> didn't start blossoming until after World War II so you would expect
> that things were still tough for regular households. What we find
> though is that compared to the typical income, buying a new home or
> buying a car was relatively doable for most households.
>
> Now*_adjusting all these figures for inflation shows how much more
> expensive things have become and how dependent we now are to financing
> purchases with debt _*(created by the banking system):
>
> Description: inflation and actual prices
> <http://www.mybudget360.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/inflation-and-actual-prices.png>
>
> *This chart shows the impact of inflation and the declining purchasing
> power of the US dollar. *
>
> For example, a new home adjusting for inflation (using the BLS
> calculator) should cost around $64,597 per year. The current cost of a
> new home? $245,800. The average income has stayed about the same
> normalizing for inflation (doesn't say much since we are going back to
> the Great Depression here). A new home today costs nearly 10 times the
> annual average income of a worker. *The two income trap
> <http://www.mybudget360.com/two-income-trap-dual-income-trap-household-income-middle-class-two-income-trap/>
> has largely hidden this inflation since it now takes two households to
> accomplish what one income was able to do 75 years ago.* On top of
> that, people now need to go into massive debt just to purchase a home.**
>
> *Take a look at the cost of a new car as well. *In 1938 a worker was
> able to purchase a new car with one-third of their annual income.
> Today a new car is more expensive than the annual average income. This
> is why in 2013 one of the top growing consumer debt sectors was with
> automobile loans.
>
> If things stayed the same, the*cost of attending Harvard for one year
> in 2013 would be closer to $7,000 per year (the current tuition is
> $54,496 per year)*. It isn't only Harvard charging incredibly high
> tuition around the country. Of course the higher education bubble is
> one of the most pressing issues around creating a $1.2 trillion
> student debt market
> <http://www.mybudget360.com/student-debt-loans-college-debt-total-amount-outstanding-lack-of-accounting-data/>.
>
>
> *Rent, movie tickets, and even gasoline are much more expensive today
> /adjusting for inflation/. *This puts a heavier strain on the
> pocketbook of most Americans. It also has created a dependency on debt.
>
> *We do have stronger safety nets so we don't have the "in your face"
> poverty of the Great Depression. *Yet we still have close to 48
> million Americans on food stamps. The area that has seen prices become
> more affordable is with food. This however is largely derived from
> better access to food and products and the mass production of this
> commodity. Yet the bigger costs of living in housing, cars, rent, and
> going to college are all much more expensive today. It may feel
> cheaper to some if they only look at their monthly debt payment but
> the true costs have increased.
>
> AsJim Quinn (of The Burning Platform blog
> <http://www.theburningplatform.com/2013/12/26/100-years-of-success-fed-style/>)
> so eloquently sums up,
>
> Who benefits? Bankers!!!!
>
> *Debt peddlers win when income doesn't keep up with costs and media
> propagandists convince the masses they must have what they can't afford.*
>
> *Has the Federal Reserve created inflation benefited you in any way
> whatsoever?* Lucky for Ben, Janet and the rest of the Wall Street
> cabal the average American can't make change from a one dollar bill,
> let alone grasp the concept of inflation. The government education
> system has done its job, just as our owners desired.
>
> *Remember – inflation is well contained. Ben is still worried that it
> is too low.*
>
> Know your enemy.
>
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Back from Hawaii: $50,000 condo Honolulu: 1513 Spreckles condo
barefoot in sunshine is needed for good health and mental function. At
least 10 miles per day, every day. Florida, Texas, Hawaii and Southern
California are possibilities.
Honolulu lots of slender healthy people, rich 1%, no smoking signs. Lots
of traffic moves efficiently and politely. Nobody notices or talks to
you on the busy streets. Great urban private environment. Lots of some
kinds of business but probably a lack of many others. I almost went to a
math seminar but decided beach was more important that day.
Missouri lots of fat sick libertarians drinking cokes, smoking
cigarettes, eating fudge and collecting social security disability for
diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease,... Everybody says hello,
distracts attention, and some are crooks are selling junk you don't
want. A mountain lion is stalking my parking place by the lake. Need
to get permit to carry my .357 magnum and watch for big cats instead of
thinking. No good place to walk.
Hawaii:
Lots of cheap Avocado Mango Papaya... everywhere
Free fish, wild pig,... catch, shoot if you can
Kona Coffee $42 for 7 ounce box but cheaper organic local off-brands.
Really good. I quit coffee but started back drinking it black it was so
good.
Milk $5 per gallon at Safeway Walmart. $11 per gallon at tourist trap
ABC markets. Food often double Missouri prices. Go on a diet.
Cheapest condo in Honolulu (much worse quality and condition than what I
have now). But: Good location walk to University, Downtown, Beach
sandwiched between high rises on a quiet street with parking.
$50,000 + $1160 per month rent for:
$700 for the land under the unit (leasehold expires in 2023, inflates)
$400 for maintenance
$60 taxes
New condos going up nearby for $500,000 - $1,000,000 but they are sold
out. Have to buy used or outside Honolulu. Other islands may offer more
of something at better prices. But I like the large urban
environments. Would take time to investigate.
You can't take $ with you. Best Investment is to spend $ to optimize
mental physical performance.
Rich 1% use $ to control the poor 99% by gobbling up the healthiest
environments and rich high cholesterol foods: caviar, filet mignon,
pate, escargot, brie, gouda, natto, merlot, fois gras, ... Cholesterol
is most concentrated in the brain -- needed to build connections
(memories). Physical Exercise grows new brain cells if enough
cholesterol is present. Statin drugs and low fat diet is a scheme to
cripple brains of sheeple and addict them to Obama-care socialized
medicine so they cannot conspire to overthrow their rulers.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1513-Spreckels-St-Apt-A1_Honolulu_HI_96822_M72094-31209?row=6
1513 Spreckels St Apt A1
Honolulu, HI 96822
1513 Spreckels St Apt A1, Honolulu, HI 96822
$49,400
*
*
*
* Status Active
* Beds 2 Bed
* Baths 1 Full Bath
* House Size 690 Sq Ft
* Lot Size 5,009 Sq Ft Lot
* Year Built 1960
Location! Location! Location! Single level 2 bdrm/1 bath unit located on
the ground floor. Pet friendly building located close to Maryknoll,
Punahou and easy access to/from freeway.
Great starter home or investment property!
To be sold in "as is" condition.
Short sale.
* Beds 2
*
*
* Size
*
*
* 690
* Sq Ft
* Price $49,400
* Property
*
*
* Condo
*
*
* Baths
*
* 1 Full
*
*
* Bath
*
*
* Lot Size
*
* 5,009
*
* Sq Ft Lot
*
* Price/sqft$72
*
*
*
* Year Built1960
*
*
*
* StyleLow-Rise 6 Or Less
*
*
* Stories
Interior
* 1st Floor
* Ground Floor Unit
Exterior Construction
* Average Condition
* Concrete
Room
Description
* 1 total full bath
Unit Features
* Cooling features: AC Window Unit
New Construction
* Type: Split Level
Location
* Area: Metro
* Subdivision: Punahou
Misc
* Yes open parking space(s)
* Inclusions: Refrigerator, Range/Oven, Washer
* Community features: Maintenance
* Parking features: Assigned, Street
* Complex Name: Punahou Surf
One more thing, This property is Leasehold and the lease terms are: 1.
$707./mo. 2. Lease renegotiates 1/11/2023 3. Fee is NOT available,
however, it can be purchased in bulk for the remaining 5 LH units
Maintenance Fee is $398./mo., taxes are roughly $55-$60./mo. without a
home exemption. Your monthly expenses will be roughly $1200.-$1250. All
in. Safe travels home and let me know if I can help in the future~ Sissy
Sissy Sosner (RA) Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES) Previews Team
Member '12 and '13 Aloha `Aina Nominee Grateful for every day.
Sissys@cbpacific.com www.cbpacific.com/sissys Cell: 808.938.5588 Fax:
808.732.0914 Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties Kahala Mall Roof Top
4211 Waialae Avenue Suite 9000 Honolulu, Hawai'i 96816 Think Green.
Please think before you print.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Back from Hawaii. Ice on car. Low 15 tonight
was cold the past 2 weeks. Did not get any sleep last night. Will take
a walk as it is sunny and above freezing. My next trip will probably be
Florida. I can't move real soon because too much work to do first.
Honolulu is good, similar to Santa Monica, Pacific Beach San Diego, San
Francisco... But the beach is better. Waikiki has smooth water, little
waves, and a long slope into deeper water. Temperature very smooth in
December, low about 70, high about 80. No heater needed. Some clouds
around and mist leading to rainbows popping up all the time. Lots of
water + lots of sunshine leads to lots of plants. Mangoes everywhere,
like a weed. People can't eat all of them so they fall to the ground.
Some gather them and feed to hogs. Papayas everywhere $1 per pound in
stores. Coffee is excellent.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/04/16/ori-hofmekler-on-coffee.aspx
Honolulu is a big city with big city atmosphere. Very typical American,
Californian city. Quite a lot of traffic, more than Santa Monica.
Drivers are polite but they can make mistakes. Danger. High rises
everywhere but little cheap apartments between them (servant quarters).
Lots of shopping, very good. The biggest and best tourist trap I have
ever seen.
I found several areas I would not mind living but they also have lots of
traffic not too far away. Somewhat expensive but maybe cheaper than
Coastal California and better weather and beaches.
The ethnic situation is a big drawback. Japanese and foreigners
everywhere. I don't like dealing with so many foreign accents. Hard to
communicate. Haoles (whites) 17% are somewhat outsiders but often
running things. Pilipino's are friendly and good workers and very
westernized -- the largest group. Japanese are a third of the locals
and maybe half of the tourists. Xmas is off-season.
But it is easy to meet the whites. They are often well educated,
athletic, upper class types. They migrate to each other when they can
find each other.
The tourists are rich 1% white and Japanese
The workers are poor 99% brown and yellow mixtures.
I arrived just after the Honolulu Marathon -- big traffic jams. Obama
causes huge traffic jams every time he comes. USA needs to get more
exercise and drive less. Unfortunately that traffic is heavy in the
areas I would like to walk. Except the beach.
I like to walk barefoot on the beach. Foot health I can feel is greatly
improved. A great source of electrons.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/29/james-oschman-on-earthing.aspx