Perhaps an AI system that is programmed to stop the super stupidity of any political decisions between nuclear powers to go to war could be implemented. As AI and our high tech productive capabilities could not be safe anywhere on the globe in an age of modern weaponry such a bulwark against human stupidity seems urgently necessary. This would be nothing like a Skynet system of national defense a la the Terminator movies which is an equally super stupid idea.

What future creators of AI need to program into it is a strong sense of graciousness as this is the only thing that has kept humanity from destroying itself. Of course humanity needs to contemplate exactly the same thing.

Excellent analysis of how power, profit, and austere control are the current ruling paradigms of economics , national governments and the larger “global reach” corporations. These paltry and woefully insufficient ideas and philosophy are precisely what is at the heart of our monetary and economic problems, and what a new philosophy and paradigm of Grace in all of its natural conceptual aspects and specifically in economic policies reflecting its aspect of monetary Gifting would balance. No need for everyone to “get balanced” beforehand. Paradigms and zeitgeists mold individuals’ thinking, and if we had Gifting as the primary one even more than the 90% of us who find purpose even under an onerous system would undoubtedly do the same.

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Neil,

This is why the particularities of regulation and the philosophy behind it are so important. Sovereignty, national sovereignty, is utterly important for control of the system and yet the philosophy behind the governmental control must also be looked at and graciously “governed” and “controlled”,….and then policies aligned with that philosophy. Sovereignty is an aspect of grace as in power as in “Your Grace” (benevolent leadership) and “Your Sovereign Grace” (power modulated by grace/ethical consideration). Grace as in individual freedom(s) and systemic free flowingness are the monetary and economic policies that are necessarily aligned with a philosophy of Grace/graciousness. Everything proceeds from conscious awareness, thought, mind, philosophy. The broader, more inclusive and more ethical the philosophical concept the more translatable its aspects to Life and Living. Modernity like the Classical period before it has become way too unbalanced and biased, and an integration, a modern, natural economic re-integration of the classical concepts is necessary because the neo-classical sysnthesis was/is a false/incomplete one.

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Steve,
talking about traditional virtues of thrift and industriousness, may i point you to a very classic masterpiece in Russian literature, The Gambler by F. Dostoevsky (http://www.operatoday.com/documents/The_Gambler.pdf); there you will find a clear description of “the German method of growing rich” (For a minimal context you can start at page 24, “I think that roulette was devised specially for Russians”).

The current ruling business model is imposed by those who are the strongest: they self-define themselves as a model of virtue that all the other countries should follow, and their policy is “no mercy”.

The only pacific solution would require Germany to lower their commercial surplus both by increasing salaries for their workers (but they are encouraging syrian refugees to enter their country with the main goal of further lowering those salaries) and by importing goods and services from EU periphery (but they have just started another currency war by ordering ECB – surprise! Guess who drives decisions of the “Independent Central Bank”? – to devaluate the Euro so they can export even more).
In a few words, “beggar thy neighbor” is their way of life; they are obtusely sawing off the branch they’re sitting on, and we are under the tree.
Their hubris will be punished with our nemesis, and I think this is very wrong.
As “The Who” wrote in “Tommy”, they are fiddling about, but we’re not gonna take it.

By the way I read the Dostoevsky piece and having the last name of Hummel it dovetails perfectly and quite accurately with the mindset of my own German-American upbringing. Something I have spent a goodly amount of my adult life internally overcoming. I think a third integrated alternative to the Russian and German Duality would be the best. (And no, that alternative is not the French perspective. 🙂

The velocity of money is really just an indication of the amount of liquidity of money as it circulates through the costing/pricing system that all enterprises of necessity are embedded in. The classic story used to illustrate the velocity of money is actually a disingenuous and incorrect one as it ignores the costing/pricing system above. Supposedly a man arrives in a town and pays the hotelier $30 for a room whereupon the hotelier takes that $30 and purchases $30 worth of groceries and the grocer then uses it to purchase $30 worth of hardware from a sundries store who then purchases $30 worth of fuel from a gas station and finally the gas station owner pays the hotelier $30 for a stay he booked a week ago. Supposedly the $30 produced $120 of purchasing power. Of course each merchant was actually using BUSINESS REVENUE as if it were individual income thus the costing/pricing system is ignored and an inaccurate picture of individual incomes and purchasing power is produced.

Neither the velocity of monies circulation nor GDP is an indicator of individual incomes and as the money totals by which it is measured still have not reached the place and time where all costs are terminally summed, namely retail sale to an individual, it is not a very useful or deeply analytic monetary metric. Analyzing the cost accounting data of any and macro-economically all enterprises to determine the ratio between total individual incomes and total costs of production is the 3 and 4 dimensional picture of the on the ground state of the economy and is “the gold standard” metric economists are looking for and missing.

It’s really sad that this blog and the posters here cannot raise above the mere orthodoxies of Austrianism and libertarianism and look at the integrative policies of Social Credit which would enable the continued and more prosperous existence of profit making systems, replace the unworkable re-distributive mistakes of socialism, recognize that innovation and AI are disruptively threatening the functionality of profit making systems, and honestly evaluate Social Credit, whose policies will enable a true synthesis of the interests of business and the individual.

The economic world and its situations and conditions change. Theory must change in order to integrate and constructively and ethically adapt to those changes.

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First of all he might get shot by some minion of the Banks for destroying their profits. Second it still wouldn’t resolve the most basic problem of the economy because businesses always have more costs than they produce and distribute in individual incomes and thus doing the calculus on that reality the economy is in a continual state of cost inflation. Thus it requires a supplement to individual incomes in addition to what is earned via employment. Combine that policy with a discount to consumers by participating businesses which discount amounts are completely refunded back to those merchants and you have a macro economy that functions and that in fact rages along continually….and also has price deflation as the discount can be 40 maybe even 50% as it is at the terminal end of the economic/productive cycle and rebated back to business thus harming absolutely no one while bringing increased freedom to individuals and businesses.

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The Banks and financial authorities have the same super slo-motion “boiled in oil” strategy in mind for the US and every where else….and they’ll succeed or just finance the next regional or world war if things get out of their control. This unless we stand up on our own hind legs and break up their monopoly powers with a debt jubilee, a universal dividend and a retail discount policy trio that will enable profit making systems to evolve along with technology and artificial intelligence.

It is supremely ironic that orthodox austrian and libertarian theorists are actually standing in the way of such evolution and thus paving the way for either war or a vulgar and tyrannical socialism in reaction to the long term stress of non-functioning economies. But then to paraphrase, those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad and/or irrationally unwilling to integrate in order to find a better solution.

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The FED is most definitely the tool of the TBTF Banks, and it is using inaccurate and unworkable policy tools to boot. The problem is the business model of Finance dominates every other business model in the economy and nearly everyone as a result. That plus the reigning macro-economic theory has morphed Keynesianism into what is called the neo-classical synthesis, i.e. DSGE  Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium. Not that Keynesianism was any great shakes or any kind of an actual solution, but it was the fall back position for Finance after the Great Depression and was implemented to basically thwart Social Credit which was a world wide movement before the war. Libertarians and Austrians latched onto General Equilibrium theory with a fierce irrationality which is typical of thinking in powerful subjects, and they’re not about to change their minds regarding its validity even if you put a gun to their heads let alone trying to influence their minds with mere words or even empirical evidence.  None of this changes the fact that the economy is actually in a radical and continual systemic state of scarcity of total individual income in ratio to total costs/prices and is hence cost inflationary by nature.  Throw in the added costs to business of high technology and the increasingly disruptive destruction of aggregate individual incomes by artificial intelligence and the only actual solution is a direct supplementary income in addition to what individuals make via employment and a rebated back to retail merchants price discount to consumers.

That’s right, you’re all potential or nascent Social Crediters.

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The FED and the financial authorities are using the slo-mo train wreck/consumer slowly boiled in oil strategy as I have posted here before. Why? Because they can….because they remain in “control”. What logically follows from that from a free human beings perspective? Action, gracious as in clear, focused and ethical action to remove the enslavers and implement a system whose policies are graciously as in sovereignly powerful, ethically liberating as in individually free and systemically free flowing and abundant which accurately reflects both the nature of the concept of grace and our productive capabilities and that fit seamlessly within profit making systems as in the entrepreneur and laborer both being worthy of their risk and their hire. 

Don’t fall for the incompleteness, mereness, austerity and authoritarian mindsets of either the progressive/socialist or the libertarian/Austrian theories who both have particles of truth and untruth in them. Insist on a theory that integrates the truths of both sides and attains a complete, inclusive, abundant and graciously powerful and freeing unity to the system. 

The concept of grace, as it turns out, is much more powerful and ethically controlled than mere power and control themselves. So should we understand and apply it to our power mad and out of control monetary and economic systems. Not recognizing the importance of that understanding may well eventually be the difference between survival of oneself, one’s family and one’s productive capabilities.

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Governments have to eventually take back their correct and rightful duties of sovereign control. This is both Wisdom and necessity. And the only way to safely navigate that also problematic course is to consider the pinnacle concept of Wisdom which is grace/graciousness in all of its aspects and policies that align with it. That IS the correct and most relevant concept. That would be policies like telling the parties to the derivatives cluster f***k to equitably unwind it between themselves without involving the rest of us. It would be the wisdom of a modern debt jubilee in order to avoid the chaos and war that excessive debt and long economic downturns have shown are historically rhyming. It would include grace as in a universal gift of individual income, and a retail discount which is a form of reciprocal gifting back and forth between businesses, the individual and government that created more individual freedom and more systemic free flowingness. Wisdom is integration of truths, workabilities and applicabilities which also results in a higher ethical good and unity. You have to have an open mind toward your opposition and about the possibility that they might also actually have some truth to integrate with your own for an actual integration to occur., but that is the mental Strength of Wisdom as opposed to mere reactionary, authoritarian and orthodox “thinking”. Isn’t that a small price to pay for the safety of yourself, your family and our productive capabilities in an age of modern weaponry?

This “public banking” idea is associated with feketeresearch.com which is an off shoot of austrian economics. While autrianism has some strengths all of them are negated by their rigid ideological adherence to the idea that left alone markets would clear. That is the current dominant macro-economic theory of DSGE which except to the most blinded by ideology has been invalidated at least twice (the great depression and the current “great [and lingering] recession”)

As I have posted here several times Keynesianism was the compromise/palliative/fall back position for Finance that was crowned as “the answer” primarily to thwart Social Credit which was a burgeoning world movement before the war, and which Keynesianism morphed/devolved into neo-liberal/neo-classical synthesis and DSGE. This should be an abject lesson for present day monetary reformers to learn so that they do not fall for compromises/palliatives ever again, but rather insist on a transformative integration of only the truths, workabilities and applicabilities of apparently opposing theories.

Aside from the above, bitcoin is IMO fatally flawed because it mistakes chaos for freedom, and has no effective way of dealing with the inevitable problems associated with money and gain. The austrian/libertarian faction that is always pushing it perceives mere objectivity as sufficient in human affairs neglecting the fact that an ethic based solely on self interest is a woefully inadequate philosophy, and rather that an integration of self interest and Grace/graciousness which is the the pinnacle concept of sensitivity to the other, namely ethics, is precisely what is called for.

Gary,

If costs exceed total financing that can possibly become individual incomes (systemic cost inflation) and the cost accounting convention that all costs must go into price is enforced …how can any economic or monetary theory that only injects money into the economy via an enterprise/into the system first instead of directly to the individual….be anything but a palliative non-solution?

The economy/productive system itself must be transcended/circumvented by a direct payment to the individual that enables it to achieve equilibrium and proactively to create price deflation with a rebated discount to consumers that still fits seamlessly within profit making systems. It’s the only way out of the trap, the only way to achieve an actual (and dynamic) equilibrium and the only way that will enable us to truly progress toward the evolutionary state of money being a ticket for the distribution of production in a truly post scarcity economy. Wisdomics/Gracenomics and Gracientialism are the economic and monetarily valid integration and extension of philosophy and natural spirituality into mere economic theory and policy.

All of the current leading edge reform movements advocate one or more of the aspects of the natural concept and personal experience of Grace. They can all be integrated into and fit within Wisdomics/Gracenomics and Gracientialism.

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Jim,

I agree with all that you are saying here Jim…and just a little more. If we made that quote of yours this:

” To start a war you have to lie. To stop one you have to tell the truth and implement all of the structural reforms and policies that align with a philosophy that throttles and thwarts all of the bad actors whose interests are for war.” During Douglas’s time and before the second world war social crediters had a saying: “Those who call for full employment call for war.” A world economic system which has a chronic systemic scarcity of individual incomes will inevitably pit nation against nation. The Banks/Finance know this and will exploit it. If we don’t include ALL of the reforms and policies that will terminatedly end their monopolistic domination and control….and consciously recognize the focusing and clarifying power of a philosophy that is up to balancing and overcoming their philosophy of power, profit and control the job will be left unfinished and devolve into what we have now. Completeness is essential. Public Banking (structural/temporal presence) is an essential aspect of the over all solution as are Positive Money and MMT (sovereign control of money), as is the continual flux and flow of Disequilibrium Theory (Grace is the flow state and is the integrated state of both continual being and becoming), as is Social Credit (grace the free gift of money)as is the extension and further integration of Social Credit Wisdomics/Gracenomics and Gracientialism (the concept of Grace thoroughly applied to every aspect of the economy and money system and the recognition that the natural experience of Grace is the pinnacle human experience.

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Correct Bob. In an enslaving system that has gone on too long…even the enslavers are enslaved. Their devious strategy is the “survive via the super slo-mo train wreck while slowly boiling the consumer and other business models in oil” one. The system and its ruling ideologies are dead, a zombie. The only way out for the enslaved (all of them including the enslavers) is freedom. Complete individual and systemic freedom. For them to claim this they would have to embrace what is anathema to their monopoly powers, namely monetary grace the free gift.

This is all valid analysis but not complete if the economy/productive system itself is cost inflationary by cost accounting convention (all costs must go into price) and the costs of depreciation as well as many other incidental costs that inevitably arise throughout the productive process are additional to total financing. Then the only way to not re-initiate and overcome this cost inflationary systemic nature, especially as innovation and AI increasingly destroy individual demand, is to supplement individual incomes with a direct payment not associated with employment which again, being an aspect of the system, will re-initiate its cost inflationary nature.

The fundamental trend of capitalism is upward as Minsky correctly observed. In a profit making system this applies to the intersections of intent to succeed, perception of abundant demand and price. Thus prices will inevitably tend to inflate, regardless of competition….or lack thereof. This is why a macro-economic policy of a retail discount to prices by merchants (which is reciprocally rebated back to retail merchants by an independent governmental monetary agency) would be necessary to eliminate any inflation…and if we’re really smart, create price deflation thus reversing the trend of Financial domination of the individual and every other business model in the economy with a trend toward the monetary empowerment of the individual and the lifting of an unnecessary and oppressive onerousness for every other business model save finance.

The point is technological unemployment at an increasingly disruptive rate and scope. I am so waiting for the AI algorithms that will throw the vast majority of financial advisers and  Banking CEOs out of work. Oh well, the people who used to clean the streets of horse excrement had to retrain too and probably find work for much less pay. Turn about is fair play.

A few of you may be nascent Social Crediters, the rest will undoubtedly cling to outmoded and false orthodoxies right up until you happily accept your monthly dividend payment because your wives are calling you idiots…and probably claim you knew it had to happen all the time.

Despite these probable truths, have a Merry Christmas.

Life is good and no one is perfect.

Crysangle:  I find this hard to believe.

Me:  Crys,

The internal logic of profit making systems, innovation and AI are all efficiency. Efficiency of cost (think labor costs), efficiency of effort and AI, efficiency of human input altogether. There is no denying this, and if one is not an unconscious socialist or a terminally rigid libertarian/Austrian orthodox thinker, something one should affirm and embrace….because to deny it will inevitably lead to revolt over the inevitable destruction of individual incomes….leading most likely to a vulgar socialism.  Social Credit is actually the salvation of profit making systems in an era or increasing technological advance.

The national “necessity” for exporting goods or importing income for services in order to limp a little less is simply another indicator that there is a chronic systemic scarcity of domestic individual incomes in every national economy. For some time now Germany and Japan have been able to exploit this in order to bring relative stability to their nations, but globalism is a race to the bottom and soon if not now the only way to maintain such a system will be to export to the moon or Mars. That is unless we supplement individual incomes and reduce prices with a macro-economic discount mechanism. A modern and efficient economy so freed from the slavery of monetary scarcity and the dominating self interests of monopolistic finance would undoubtedly have more employment than the quarter century of stagnation we’re currently heading for and much more general prosperity and leisure as well.

If consumer finance is 70% of GDP then implementing a universal dividend sufficient to enable people to survive comfortably and either buy big ticket items like cars etc. outright or for much shorter term of loan will tremendously downsize that market thus reducing its monopolistic powers on the individual and the political apparatus. That such a dividend policy must be some skimpy amount based on fudged government statistics and a false metric like GDP or the Consumer Price Index is nothing more than the stench of false orthodoxy regarding equilibrium raising its head so that the financial elites can snatch victory and continued domination from the jaws of their defeat. A discount mechanism based on the same abundance paradigm would produce price deflation while enabling better profits for businesses, more freedom for the individual and far better free flowingness for the system than any agenda on the left or right has been willing or able to produce in well over a hundred years of fighting each other. Public Banking and a sovereign and gracious monetary agency that takes back control of initial credit creation both fit into this picture seamlessly.

We need a modern monetary Magna Charta that integrates all of the leading edge threads of reform. The hope of self interests fulfilled in the mass of individuals and the majority of businesses trumps fear, ignorance and the resistance of elites. What are we waiting for?