Excited Delirium

Stories about Excited Delirium, the Shock Economy and a little fiction here and there.

Category Archives: interflation

Davos 2012: You’ve Been Warned

It looks like Davos 2012 – a massive meeting of the world’s ‘official’ leaders – will test the waters with reforms of ‘outdated’ capitalism.

Is this an admission of the failure of the world’s economic intellectual ‘powerhouses’ to develop a real and functional economic system that doesn’t pit man against man, man against nature, and so on?

Pundit George Soros has already called it and you can now consider yourself warned:

  • As he sees it, the world faces one of the most dangerous periods of modern history—a period of “evil.”
  • In America he predicts riots on the streets that will lead to a brutal clampdown that will dramatically curtail civil liberties.
  • The global economic system could even collapse altogether.
  • We are facing an extremely difficult time, comparable in many ways to the 1930s, the Great Depression.

Socialism, then?

Fascism, more likely.

A Brief History of Plutocracy

Plutocracy = rule by the elite.

From ‘the Rothschild Model’ to the ‘Rise of Corporations’ as methods by which we are all fueling perpetual war.

This is 26 minutes well spent.

Of course, not all of it should be taken as gospel, but we need to understand his last comments as they relate to the ‘market’.  There is a supra-national group of organizations that are not subject to any democratic input.

I also like the solution:  don’t fight the beast.  Stop feeding it.

New Market Models

We desparately need a discussion about new market models that will actually work in the wake of the post-20th century debt crisis.

Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and now maybe even the US all teeter on the brink of economic ruin in the wake of debt piled on debt piled on debt.

When defaults are finally declared, the resulting cost spiral will inflate the price of everything from shoes to corn to electricity to books to wheels for your car.  The shock may be moderate at first, but eventually we’ll all have fewer dollars in our pockets just as we try to survive.

Most of this debt has been accumulated for one thing:  the security state.

The security state consists of several expenditures:

  • to finance the act of unnecessary wars;
  • to fund the monitoring and control of all people with baseless crimes so that fees and levies can be imposed at a whim; and to
  • to punish and incarcerate citizens when these most basic crimes exceed a even more basic level of tolerance according to our dictators.

In Canada, we’re spending anywhere from $50 to $100 billion PER YEAR on the security state and military infrastructure, and yet we’re officially only fighting in one ‘war’ (Afghanistan).  Why are we wasting so much money – OUR taxpayer dollars – on something that’s so incredibly unproductive?

Iceland seems to have gone in the right direction by telling bankers and the IMF to go F*** themselves.

Ultimately, we need a new approach to new market models.

Eric Blair of alt-market.com interviews Brandon Smith in this piece on Alternative Markets at Activist Post where he shares some of these ideas. The basic definition of an alternative market:

… it is essentially any method of trade outside the establishment-controlled economy. It could be based on the barter of goods and skills, or the proliferation of precious metals to break our dependence on the fiat dollar (or Federal Reserve Note), etc. It could be a network of people across a county or state, or, an agreement between two friends.

And some thoughts about why alternative markets are labeled as underground or black markets around the world:

They are desperate, and I do mean DESPERATE, to keep us from developing our own private economies. If we are successful, we will no longer be in the position of dependency on the dollar or the sham economy. When it implodes, we will be relatively unfazed, and certainly not tearing each other apart. Meaning, their rationalization for martial law goes straight down the drain. The thought of that possibility really pisses them off…

But would alternative markets be enough when our governments are out of control, paying their friends and military buddies off with our money?

Probably not.  So we will also need a Declaration of Debt Independence.  It’s a basic concept that’s about to catch on like wild fire as everyone who’s not in control feels the effects of ‘austerity measures’:  you write into your Constitution (assuming you have one) that the government is not allowed to issue debt exceeding a certain percentage of your GDP (which should be redefined to capture the cost of environmental degradation and other borrowing from future generations), but to also identify that no government would ever be allowed to spend more than 3 or 5% of their GDP on defense, security and military spending (I would also suggest that this include prisons and other forms of incarceration).

At no point should any citizen’s government be borrowing money from bankers when they should be living within their means.  We should be investing in services for our children, not borrowing from their future in a failing effort to cork our insatiable desire for crap.

Public budgets should be for public good:  education, health, parks, trees, the environment, investment in the future, regulation and a sturdy and reliable justice system.

Another alternative market model would be extremely feasible if we owned the Internet, but we’re at risk of losing that too under the guise of security, protection from make-believe hackers and terrorists and porn sharks and other freaks that apparently lurk on every digital corner.  At some point in the future, we should expect the ‘Wild Internet of the West’ to be shut down in favour of a controlled Internet that’s no more illuminating and accessible than TV is today.

This would take a lot of work but more importantly, money.  I’ve been advocating some form of fund-raising effort for some time and would still be at the front of the line if someone were to say they were ready as well.

I can’t do it alone.

If we move on any of the above – and we really have to – hard times will be on their way, but we must stop living beyond our means and we have to shake off the bonds that are being placed our basic rights to communicate, participate and emancipate our day-to-day lives.

So … who’s on board?

MayDay 2011: Harper Lies About the NDP, Prices and Deficits

Stephen Harper has a Master’s in Economics, but he doesn’t seem to understand the fundamentals.  Once again, we hear him spreading nonsense and lies about the NDP and Liberal platforms.

As a reminder, Steve, here are the basics:  when you have a government that is committed to competition as opposed to a corporate driven monopolistic theocracy, you get price competition as well.  Prices go DOWN.

When you’re a corporate stooge and you’re doing what the media conglomerates, oil companies and food chains want you to do, prices go UP.

Competition is what the NDP would certainly bring and it’s likely what the Greens and Liberals would bring as well on Monday.

The only prices that will likely rise are those of gas, but the whole point of carbon taxation is to discourage wasteful things.  I know we all drive, but we’re going to have to take responsibility for what we’re doing and stop passing the buck to future generations, both in terms of lack of resources, but also in terms of environment disaster.

When it comes to the deficit, it’s easy to speculate that the NDP are not in the pockets of the world’s largest bankers.  Therefore, their primary objective would be – and always has been – deficit reduction.  We’ve seen that the NDP outranks all other political stripes when it comes to budget management and we’d likely see the same continue with a coalition lead by Jack Layton and the NDP.  Research acknowledgement to Buckdog.

balanced_budgets

Finally, good financial management takes the burden off borrowing costs, lowering the interest that you have to pay to the world’s biggest lenders and financiers.  As a result, the overall real cost of borrowing drops, lowering the cost to all Canadians of carrying any debt, if any.

I hate to take you back to your school days, Stephen Harper, but once again you’re lying about the other parties in order to deflect from your own bad management.  Changing the rules for Income Trusts, benefits for only the rich, driving up the cost of EI for small employers (effectively reducing new hires) and not addressing the lack of competition in this country are just a few examples.

It’s time for Canada to FIRE YOU.

MayDay 2011: Price & Purchasing Program

Canadians are getting ripped off.

We are paying more at the gas pump, despite being one of the world’s largest (albeit dirtiest) sources of oil.

We consistently pay anywhere from 20-50% more on basic items like cars, books, food products and other goods.  The continuous – and lame – excuse from suppliers is that the cost of doing business in Canada is rising.  Labour, regulations and other ‘impediments’ are positioned as the point of blame for these rising prices.

However, think of these excuses in context of current events:

  • Unions are being broken.  They are not increasing in strength.
  • Although minimum wages are increasing, they are not increasing 20-30% every year.
  • When was the last time you saw an overzealous government implement a broad change in tighter regulations anywhere in Canada?

Despite the fact that our dollar continues to rise in value, we are paying more for the goods and services we rely on each day.

As a reminder, for those of you who aren’t familiar with economic terms, when your currency rises in value, imported goods should be cheaper in an inverse manner.  That is, if your currency rises 20% compared to all other currencies, the cost of goods imported into your country should drop by roughly 20% to represent this increase in buying power.

As it stands, Canadians are getting screwed over twice because they only

The progressive party (as opposed to the regressive Conservatives) that proposes an investigation into the skyrocketing prices that Canadians are paying will win this election.

MayDay 2011: Alice Klein of NOW Toronto Encourages Us to Shake Off Cliches

Alice Klein wrote a piece in NOW Toronto this past week encouraging all of us to accept the fact that in this election, the stakes are extremely high and that the game has definitely changed.

She reminds us that it’s not about voting your passion, but voting for that party that will unseat the Conservative government and push them out of as many ridings as possible.

She’s behind Project Democracy, but there are other projects as well (copied from the Project Democracy site):

  • Avaaz The campaigning community bringing people-powered politics to decision-making worldwide
  • Lead Now Brings generations of Canadians together to take action for our future and hold politicians accountable.
  • Swing 33 Donate strategically in 33 ridings to defeat Harper.
  • Pair Vote – Vote Swapping Support your preferred party while also stopping Harper
  • Catch 22 Campaign A grassroots effort to help defeat the Conservative government in 22 key ridings.
  • The Environment is my Voting Issue Facebook Group An action-oriented Facebook group aimed at holding politicians accountable for their votes on environment issues.
  • Department of Culture A community of Canadian artists, arts professionals and cultural workers concerned about ensuring the social and cultural health and prosperity of our nation in the face of a Federal Government that is aggressively undermining Canadian values.
  • Fair Vote Canada – On August 1, 2000, a group of concerned citizens formed Fair Vote Canada (FVC) with the aim of building a nationwide campaign for voting system reform. We envisioned FVC as a multi-partisan, citizen-based campaign bringing together people from all parts of the country, all walks of life and all points on the political spectrum. Today FVC has members in all provinces and approximately 20 local and regional chapters.

Project Democracy is exciting because it focuses on helping voters get up to date polling data related to their riding.  In many ‘strategic voting’ ridings, the past favours the Liberals, but since the Liberals are sliding in the polls, should we really be electing someone from the past or someone from the future?  I’ve signed up for their email to get riding updates, so I’ll post more information as it comes to my in-basket.

Finally, I can’t repeat this often enough:  you can contact pretty much any riding and help them with calls, even if you’re not from that area.  Human voices are substantially more valuable to campaigners as opposed to those awful ‘robo-calls’ and they remind voters that this is an election about the future of all people in Canada.  Of course, consider your riding and the ridings that are immediately around you as opposed to those that are across the continent!

MayDay 2011: Super Price Me

Canadian inflation stats came out today and it’s not pretty for Canadians.

A jump of 3.3% in prices means that we are effectively being taxes by bad economic policy.

As the Conservatives continue to lie about their economic track record, it’s important that Canadians remember it’s time we started to gain from the increase in our Canadian dollar and started paying LESS instead of MORE when our exchange rates changes.

Not enough for you?  The resulting jump in prices will likely lead to an increase in interest rates, another f-u to Canadians.

MayDay 2011: Prices

The leader that proposes to address prices in Canada during the election campaign will win the election.

That’s prices of everything.

Here’s why:  Canadians are getting screwed.

As the value of our dollar rises compared to other currencies, particularly that of the US dollar, the cost of imports should be decreasing.  It’s a simple inverse relationship:  the more valuable our dollar, the more you can buy with the dollar.

It’s called ‘buying power’.

As a refresh, here’s a chart showing the value of the Canadian dollar compared to the US dollar:

Cdn-US-Dollar

Since 2002, the Canadian dollar has appreciated roughly 63%, from a low of about 63 cents to a high of roughly 104 cents (compared to the US dollar).

Despite this massive increase in value, prices have not dropped in a similar and inverse manner.  Of course, not all of our import/export relationship is related to US goods, but the fact is this:  the US accounts for roughly 50% of all imports into Canada.

In fact, the price for basic commodities – gas, food, etc – have increased 50% or more over the last few years.  According to the latest CPI figures, the price of gas has increased 18.3% since last March.

Again, Canadians are getting screwed.

Students, seniors, lower income groups and even the elite that Stephen Harper is courting – those few people that will enjoy tax breaks way off in the future – are paying higher prices RIGHT NOW.  An 18% increase in gas represents an 18% increase in taxes and yet no one is crying for the head of the Prime Minister like they do if the price of their Timbits rises $0.02 when the HST is implemented.

It’s slowly sinking in and Canadians are catching on to the idea that we’re getting hosed, but a wise leader would make this an issue sooner rather than later and attack these price increases.

The first step would be to promise an investigation into gas prices, followed by questions like why Canadians have to pay anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000 more for a Honda in Canada compared to the US when it’s made in Alliston and is exactly the same.

Canadian & International Price Issues: The US Dollar Did It

Analysts everywhere are reminding us that the US dollar is collapsing, both because of exploding debt in the US, but also because of substantial instability in this country.  Political uprisings in Libya have less to do with instability than rallies like this.

I’ve been warning about the prospect of a collapse in the US dollar for some time and have even invented my own term for the impact that this will have on anyone living outside the US:  interflation.  The US will continue to export its inflation to other countries, punishing us in prices for their inability to control their spending.  It’s the internationalization of inflation that none of us can afford.

The ponzi scheme has to stop.  Gerald Calente has described that food and oil prices will continue to skyrocket in the US and that resulting increases in interest rates will crush any opportunity for growth in the American economy.

This situation is what Jeremy Rifkin calls ‘Economic Endgame’, where the US economy (and the global economy by dependency) ping-pongs between states of uncontrollable and unpredictable deflation and growth hitting a wall because any growth translates to rapid expansion in oil prices (which then results in rapid price increases in most other commodities).

Canada, the EU and other countries around the world can avoid this instability by uncoupling themselves and their economies from the influence of pricing everything in US dollars.  Once they do, appreciation will translate to real price decreases in their own economies, fueling real and natural rates of growth and consumption without inflation.  These growth rates will then translate to real demand for US goods and services, presuming they are willing to make anything any more and not survive on the ‘hand in someone else’s pocket’ economy.

Once again, any politician in Canada would be wise to recommend and run on a platform of price equality and stabilization for Canadians, but that’s very unlikely to happen with our current slate of Harper clones.

Another solution for the US will be to eliminate their outrageous level of defense spending, but right now, it’s the only thing keeping this economy alive.

Prices: Why Canadians Should Be Outraged!

I’ve been hearing a lot of talking heads lately yammering on about how we’re facing increases in prices for food basics like bread, meat, produce and other imports from around the globe.

Unfortunately, they’re all morons and they don’t know what they’re talking about.

Canada is a land of abundant resources and a dollar that’s appreciating because of a number of factors, the main one being the decline in the value of the US dollar.  Other factors include demand for our oil, wheat, soy, corn and other consumable products that are increasing in cost to the rest of the world.

As our dollar appreciates, we should be able to buy MORE goods in exchange for fewer dollars.  We should be selling our goods within Canada at Canadian prices, not international prices.

However, because we’ve surrendered our food security and general sovereignty to multinational corporations, most of which price their goods in US funds and then add a 20-50% markup for Canadians, regardless of the value of our currency, we are facing severe price increases.

If you don’t believe me, here’s an example:  Margaret Atwood publishes a book and the US price is $10.95.  The Canadian price is probably something like $14.95.  Canadian paper and Canadian author, but Canadian buyers get hosed.

This is insane.  If Canadians were faced with a 20 to 50% increase in tax rates, there would be rioting in the streets.

What’s also going to happen is that this will spike inflation, prompting our sophisticated economists with the Bank of Canada to hike interest rates, driving up the costs for all of us to borrow money.  Just when we need it most.

However, when the talking heads with mainstream media tell us that these things are unavoidable (eg. Libyan uprisings mean we pay more for food), we owe it to ourselves to call BULLSHIT.

What astounds me is that we live in a land that is filled with political opportunists, but NO SINGLE PARTY has jumped on the opportunity to demand price parity or price improvements for Canadians.

Until then, do yourself a favour and avoid buying from the companies that are behind these lies.  Loblaws and Weston (which is owned by Loblaws) seem to be the central forces behind this big push to increase prices.