Having been acquainted with the subject of Economics since I first studied it while in school in the late 1970s, from Micro to Macro Economics, from Adam Smith to Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes, from Laissez Faire to Communism, from the collapse of the Communist Utopia in the 1990s and the recurring booms and busts of Capitalist Economics: it has dawned upon me and many others I believe that in our common pursuit of the illusive goal of human material happiness, we have all been duped.
Duped by none others than ourselves.
It has been said that what differentiates humans from other living things on Planet Earth is: Financial Worries.
It is not that non humans do not have physical needs like food and shelter, but that while humans have so called "progressed" from mere hunters and gatherers like animals to farming and industrialization, the agricultural, industrial and information technology revolution has brought us, ironically closer to Doomsday.
As we build, we destroy and as we in concert seek economic growth, we stimulate the economy by stroking the flames of consumption and production that exceeds the natural constraint of natural sustainable replenishment cycles.
In our misguided passion for economic growth, we will spare no effort in coming up with various devices to balloon up the figures.
The dismal consequence is at the end of the day, we are straddled with a ballooned economy awaiting explosion that will implode upon us.
When Lord Keynes first creatively devised the idea of inflating a sluggish economy out of recession by way of government spending, it was largely and initially rejected by Laissez Faire Economy Purists as interventionist against the spirit and letter of Capitalism.
When Keynesian Economics seem to do the trick in smoothing out the kinks in Capitalism; Reformed Capitalism with an element of selective government intervention and regulation has become the global economic religion.
Along the way, came economists of the caliber of Lord Keynes and singing from the same hymn sheet albeit cloaked in different attire like Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson opposing one another, seemingly on opposing poles but with the common thread of government involvement and regulation.
The persistent suppression of a low interest rate economy to stimulate consumption and investment during the long tenure of Alan Greenspan (American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006) is one classic anathema to Laissez Faire Economics Doctrine where the Adam Smithsonian's Market Invisible Hands are the only hands that should self regulate and sustain the long term harmony of the Free and Fair Market.
Over the past 200 years or so of New World history, the USA has unravelled to us how ugly the laws of the unregulated jungle of Capitalism can be. From anti-trust legislation to prevent price fixing and monopoly to the ban on short selling and other stock market manipulations through insider trading, we are now faced with the hitherto unregulated financial market instruments like 'derivatives".
While it had been the sole exclusive right of the government as the printer of all her currency notes and banks, the creators of credit within the statutory deposit regulatory mechanisms set by the government regulatory bodies, the new financial device of "derivatives" seemed to have escaped the radar of the financial regulators that had almost caused the total collapse of the global financial and banking system in October, 2008.
The bail out by the US Government on selected financial and banking institutions, deem too big to fail may have saved the Capitalist World from a catastrophic collapse, albeit for the moment, major systemic and structural weaknesses have yet been materially addressed.
The current (2010) national financial challenges faced by the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece & Spain) are just the precursor of things to come as more countries with similar structural problem of persistent chronic fiscal deficits faced difficulties in rolling over their debts due to humongous accumulated budget overruns, inadequate revenue collection and weak political willpower.
The prognosis is dismal.
It will look like a total collapse of the global financial system is inevitable so as to usher in a New World Order.
It looks like Frederich Hegel's Thesis of "Thesis, Anti-Thesis, Synthesis" will reign true and supreme, once again, this time over Adam Smith and Karl Marx.
But all is not lost, yet.
In a post Synthesized New Global Economic Order, I envisaged for those who choose to be outside the system will return to basics: "hunting and gathering", albeit in substance rather than just mere form.
If we have yet learned the very basic survival skills of finding and making your own water, food, fuel, shelter, clothing and medicine, now is the time, even today is the right time to commence.
In Scouting, the motto is: "Be Prepared"; in Royal Rangers: "Be Ready".
Either way, if you are neither prepared nor ready, you are doomed in defaulted failure.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Durians
People are like Durians, you either love them or lothe them, Coz, they can be hell outside, but heaven inside, Or, hell outside and worst still, crap inside! Alex Kee, 29Jan2010, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Smelly Quote
"When you hate someone, even his shadow stinks; if you love, even his fart smells good."
Alex Kee, 29Jan2010
Friday, December 25, 2009
Green Money
Reflecting on the November 2008 Global Financial Crisis made me research the origins of the US monetary and financial system and the uncovered facts, were to state the least: utmost illuminating!
The US Dollar, a.k.a. "Greenback" were IOUs (I Owe yoU) empowered by the Constitution to the Government of the day by the people, to issue payments for goods and services rendered.
There is not a need to borrow money with or without usury and then pay for goods and services rendered to the people through the Government, because the Government is precisely the people and it does not make sense to pay usury to private bankers when the Government is empowered by Law (the Constitution) to print legal tender money.
When Abraham Lincoln is President, he paid for goods and services rendered to the Government by printed Greenbacks and the Greenbacks were then used by the people who received them to buy other goods and services for other people and through this, money is circulated into the economy and the economy expanded.
These were "fiat" money, that is money issued in faith, without the backing of any gold, precious metal or even borrowings.
While the primary fear of fiat money is its continuous store of value and public acceptability, its integrity is not so much its intrinsic but confidence value.
In times past, tokens ranging from stones to corrie shells and even common table salt (that is where the term 'salary' originated) were used as money.
Usury burdens the borrower and it makes no sense that the Government, who is the collective "people" should indebt the people through borrowed money to finance projects that are needed by the people, when the Government is empowered by Law to manufacture as much money as they need to govern the people.
Borrowing from private bankers to finance Government projects for the benefit of the people will only enrich the private bankers at the expense of the people, burdening them with higher taxes to pay off the usury charged by the private banking entrepreneurs.
Printing money to pay for goods and services rendered to the people under the Government auspices, per se, will not drive up inflation, provided there are idling resources waiting for capital to stimulate their sustainable exploitation.
What drives inflation is when too much money is chasing after too few goods and services.
If the economy is undergoing recession because there is not enough money around, either because people do not have the money and/or or too cautious to spend, it is time for the Government to prime the pump by printing money and spending on projects that will benefit the people.
Only Governments have the right to print money and this power can be used for good or evil.
If deployed for good, the printing of money, unbacked by gold or even borrowings is not only benign; but necessary and beneficial.
The last thing the people want is an economy with not enough money when money could merely be printed by the Government with the backing of gold or the Government indebt the people with borrowings from private bankers to spend for the benefit of the people.
I say, plagiarizing Oliver Cromwell, "Melt down all the misconceptions and circulate all the needed printed dollars into the Economy"!
The US Dollar, a.k.a. "Greenback" were IOUs (I Owe yoU) empowered by the Constitution to the Government of the day by the people, to issue payments for goods and services rendered.
There is not a need to borrow money with or without usury and then pay for goods and services rendered to the people through the Government, because the Government is precisely the people and it does not make sense to pay usury to private bankers when the Government is empowered by Law (the Constitution) to print legal tender money.
When Abraham Lincoln is President, he paid for goods and services rendered to the Government by printed Greenbacks and the Greenbacks were then used by the people who received them to buy other goods and services for other people and through this, money is circulated into the economy and the economy expanded.
These were "fiat" money, that is money issued in faith, without the backing of any gold, precious metal or even borrowings.
While the primary fear of fiat money is its continuous store of value and public acceptability, its integrity is not so much its intrinsic but confidence value.
In times past, tokens ranging from stones to corrie shells and even common table salt (that is where the term 'salary' originated) were used as money.
Usury burdens the borrower and it makes no sense that the Government, who is the collective "people" should indebt the people through borrowed money to finance projects that are needed by the people, when the Government is empowered by Law to manufacture as much money as they need to govern the people.
Borrowing from private bankers to finance Government projects for the benefit of the people will only enrich the private bankers at the expense of the people, burdening them with higher taxes to pay off the usury charged by the private banking entrepreneurs.
Printing money to pay for goods and services rendered to the people under the Government auspices, per se, will not drive up inflation, provided there are idling resources waiting for capital to stimulate their sustainable exploitation.
What drives inflation is when too much money is chasing after too few goods and services.
If the economy is undergoing recession because there is not enough money around, either because people do not have the money and/or or too cautious to spend, it is time for the Government to prime the pump by printing money and spending on projects that will benefit the people.
Only Governments have the right to print money and this power can be used for good or evil.
If deployed for good, the printing of money, unbacked by gold or even borrowings is not only benign; but necessary and beneficial.
The last thing the people want is an economy with not enough money when money could merely be printed by the Government with the backing of gold or the Government indebt the people with borrowings from private bankers to spend for the benefit of the people.
I say, plagiarizing Oliver Cromwell, "Melt down all the misconceptions and circulate all the needed printed dollars into the Economy"!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Contemplations On the Mandatory Death Sentence
"An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind", Mahatma Gandhi famously said.
Perhaps, it is because we are spiritually blind that we endorse the reciprocity of sin disguised as deterrent punishment.
Is it logical to chop off the hand of a convicted thief who stole because he needs food to survive and condemn him to seek no other avenues of making a living but to risk his other remaining hand in order to put food into his mouth?
As Mencius puts it, all human beings endeavor to do good, but distractions are a plenty and the onus is on the strong to bear the weak.
Alas, there are few keepers around today, especially brother's keepers.
Let us work towards a more compassionate cultured society.
Progress in civilization had actually digress humanity towards monstrosity.
Let there be Love, Peace and Hope among us, especially at these trying times when almost every known systems seem to be broken!
May 2010 be a better year.
Perhaps, it is because we are spiritually blind that we endorse the reciprocity of sin disguised as deterrent punishment.
Is it logical to chop off the hand of a convicted thief who stole because he needs food to survive and condemn him to seek no other avenues of making a living but to risk his other remaining hand in order to put food into his mouth?
As Mencius puts it, all human beings endeavor to do good, but distractions are a plenty and the onus is on the strong to bear the weak.
Alas, there are few keepers around today, especially brother's keepers.
Let us work towards a more compassionate cultured society.
Progress in civilization had actually digress humanity towards monstrosity.
Let there be Love, Peace and Hope among us, especially at these trying times when almost every known systems seem to be broken!
May 2010 be a better year.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
The Moral Capitalist: Oxymoron?
This is a conversation between a "classically trained capitalist marketer" and a "reformed capitalist turned environmentalist":
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Thu at 11:15am · · Like / Unlike
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Venture Platform Pte Ltd "Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality" Peter Drucker
Friday, November 13, 2009
Repent, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Mega scale solar thermal projects to generate “green electricity” is never going to be feasible because the constraints, limits and ethos are all stacked against it.
The maximum potential amount of solar energy falling on a square meter of land in the wilderness of Australia is 7 or even 8kWh per day.
Assuming a unrealistic 100% energy conversion efficiency rate and stack them against the amortized capital cost (assuming running input cost is zero, what will the cost-performance (returns) be?
Solar energy is not unlimited; it is constrained limits and this is one of the fundamental first principles that we should be aware of, always.
The ethos of converting solar energy into electricity so that we can continue to live our wanton energy guzzling lives and not making inconvenient adjustments to cut down our energy footprint will only get us back to square one.
Indeed, the Earth can supply all of our needs; never our greed.
If we, however, live within the Cycle of Sustainability and Renew-ability, even fossil fuel is a sustainable resource.
Alas, we are all caught up in the hurry to “progress” and “grow” our economies to the detriment of our larger meaning of quality living.
Fellow earthlings, Repent, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle before we reach the tipping point of no return!
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Why do you think companies which encompass responsible manufacturing and end of life disposal issues, are able to sell their services at a higher price?
Corporate and social responsibilities are capitalistic concerns as well.
So do not blame capitalists for doing whatever you deem is harmful to environment.
Are consumers going to pay for it, the market is the final arbiter of it. Capitalists can only follow what the market needs. Contrary to what you may think, they do not dictate what the market needs.