[GJM] An excellent programme

[Steve Consilvio]

I agree that it is an excellent program, but please allow me to add a  
criticism.

All four speakers, regardless of their respective interpretation,  
should have been able to knock the reporter's question out of the  
ballpark.  Instead, none of them barely took a swing at the question,  
much less hit the ball.

Her question was, "what should people do?"

The answer, of course, depends on the financial circumstances of the  
person.  Somebody who makes $2.00 a day can do nothing different, but  
everybody else can handle their money differently.  Rodney was right  
that people need to get out of debt, but the solution is for everyone  
with money to help everyone in debt to get out of debt.  Debtors  
money is all owed to someone, and probably you, directly or  
indirectly.  (You may even be in debt to yourself!)

Rodney suggested that people getting out of debt would be bad for the  
economy.  While I understand what he means, I disagree with the  
point.  We need to deflate the economy of all its fiat value, (not  
just fiat money) and the best way to do that is eliminate the  
financial inequality between men.  He is unconsciously suggesting  
that movements towards equality is bad for the privileged, but the  
slave-master is no more free than the slave (as the lenders and  
sellers are now discovering.)

What the government does (and encourages others to do) is no  
different than what people are doing privately.  The "powers that  
be," whom people like to blame exclusively, do not really control  
anybody but themselves, the same as everybody else.  The weak can be  
as unwise as the powerful.  The dividing point is wisdom, not power.   
Whoever holds any money can manage it differently, and understand it  
differently.  Too many people are waiting on somebody else to do the  
right thing, rather than going ahead and doing the right thing  
themselves.  At a minimum, that is how the reporter's question should  
have been answered.  Doing the right thing is always the right thing  
to do.  There is only a crisis for the frightened.

To put it another way, to be "the change you want to see in the  
world," then you need to know what and how to change.  That is the  
essence of the reporter's question.  As I have explained elsewhere,  
inflation is caused by both profit and interest.  If true, EVERY  
transaction causes inflation.  This would make the need for a Jubilee  
and a correction every 50 years imperative, since left unchecked we  
would have absolute chaos, like now.  The desperation feeds the  
inflation, and the inflation feeds the desperation.  As such, people  
need to think differently about their "unfortunate" surplus (which is  
the only thing that can be invested or banked,) because they are part  
of the imbalance.

The habit of hoarding and profiting is thousands of years old, and  
currently there is no way avoid either profit and interest.  I've  
been trying, but with little success.  There are no forests left that  
people can escape into like Robin Hood, but it may explain a lot  
about the existence of Islamic tribal areas and their deep suspicion  
of the "civilized" West.  In the modern world, it is practically  
impossible to live at zero. Milk cost $3.75 a gallon, but the cow and  
the grass and the sunshine are the same as they always were.  Our  
method of counting is very uncivilized.

There are signs on the horizon that some changes are being made.  The  
universities are drawing down their endowments a little, but as long  
as they keep collecting interest and profit with their other hand, it  
will have little effect.  (Many on this list are paid by that beast,  
I believe, and probably have investments which are guaranteed by the  
misery of the students they teach.)  And, if the central banks keep  
pumping money into the economy (which is creating more debt, not  
reducing it,) then things will track worse.  The government is ALWAYS  
the last organization to know what to do, which may explain why they  
fall rather than reforming themselves.

The most direct way to answer the reporter's question is that people  
should get out of the ponzi scheme, because it is always the right  
thing to do.  They do not need to get out of the bank, because the  
bank offers convenience, but they should get out of the interest- 
accepting mechanisms of stocks, bonds, annuities, 401k's, insurance,  
and even the acceptance of using coupons.  Everybody should be paying  
the same price for products.  People should neither pay interest nor  
take interest, and keep profit to a minimum.

Besides reducing debt and the number of debtors, we need to reduce  
taxes, prices and profits.  This is something that every individual  
can do.  Every number that rises causes another number to rise.  The  
best way to raise the standard of living is to lower the cost of  
living.  Everybody can afford zero.  All profit returns as an  
expense, and every transaction not at zero creates inflation.   
Therefore, we want to keep most transactions but lose the numbers.

The BIGGEST PROBLEM, however, is in the assumption behind the  
question.  The idea that money should be "protected" and should  
"grow" was implied in "what should people do?"  The question wasn't  
"what should we do to help the people who are hurting?" ; the  
question was "what should people do to keep their money safe?"  It  
was very akin to the drivel stock advisors peddle with their pump and  
dump strategy, who similarly ply on people's fear of losing money,  
which is only the inverse of loving to make money grow and/or wanting  
to keep it "safe."

A question rooted in fear feeds fear.  The economy is going to  
meltdown again, it is mathematically unavoidable unless we change our  
understanding.  Inflation eats everyone alive.  The big challenge in  
making a shift to a new economy is that the planet has billions of  
citizens with no useful skills beyond filling out forms.  They have  
their heart set on early retirement and a casual lifestyle. They  
believe in a system that does not work, and as Moeen described, they  
have made economists into high-priests.  Fancy coinage, even  
triangular monies, are made at every turn.  Like an embellished  
Bible, the decoration is valued more than the content.

In ways great and small people hoard their wealth and misuse their  
money.  Banks exist because we think printed paper is "valuable."   
People trust the power of money more than they trust their neighbor  
or God.  It is a misplaced trust.  Trusting the Euro instead of the  
dollar simply changes the object, but the misplaced trust endures.   
The love of money has never served men well.

peace,
steve consilvio
www.behappyandfree.com


On ThursdayJan 10, 2008, at 2:00 PM, discussion- 
request at globaljusticemovement.net wrote:

>
> I've reached the half-way stage of the programme recommended below  
> and use
> the 'break' to add my recommendation to this sanguine critique of a  
> complex
> situation - a remakable bit of broadcasting.
>
> Peter
>
>
> On 10/01/2008, Rodney Shakespeare <rodney.shakespeare1 at btinternet.com>
> wrote:
>>
>>  Dear All.
>> Alright, I know I should not say this (because I am one of the  
>> speakers
>> with Moeen Yaseen of Globalvision2000) but* **Global Money Crisis:  
>> Just
>> Where Does the Buck Stop?* is an excellent programme.*  *Moeen is
>> tremendous!!
>>
>> At last we have managed to put across on television  some analysis  
>> of what
>> is wrong with the global economy *and* also put across some idea  
>> of the
>> GJM solution.
>>
>>  To see the programe:-
>> go to www.Presstv.com
>> then (left-hand side) Programs
>> then *The Agenda*
>> then *Global Money Crisis: -- *the programme on Monday, 9th  
>> January, 2008
>>
>> Rodney Shakespeare.

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