Gonna Go 'Round In Circles

Cue Billy Preston.

In our last exciting episode, we talked about the silly little game that the Western oligarchs are playing that is dragging the whole world down the toilet.  In summary, we discovered that because they don't want to stop being king of the hill, even for just a moment, they are flapping their arms deperately trying to keep from riding the inevitable economic cycles.

In other words, we can sum up all the Bilerburgers, Masons, Club of Romes, Trilateral Commissions, ad nauseum, in one simple concept...Wile E. Coyote.

Wile E., in his relentless pursuit of the Roadrunner (wealth) has yet again run off a cliff and is momentarily suspended in mid-air flapping and panicking as he tries desperately to defy gravity.  It's really all that simple.  Doesn't make the pain any less here at the Real Life level, but it helps to put things in perspective a bit.

To visualize the situation, let's call on a guy names Evel Knievel.  Younger or foreign folks may not rememver this guy, but us old codgers certainly do.  People politely called him a daredevil or motorcycle stuntman.  I think of him as just crazy, as he devised ever more spectacular ways to splatter his guts all over the place on national TeeVee back in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Evel's whole gig was to run his motorcycle as fast as he could at a ramp and try to suspend himself as long and far as he could, hoping to land on the opposite ramp in a controlled sort of way.  In short, he became a hero of spectacular failure.  He holds the world record for most number of bones broken in a lifetime...433.  The human body only has 200 and some total bones.

Economic cycles, like pretty much all other cycles, are not circles, though they can appear to be from certain perspectives.  But if you get off to the side and look at them in 2-D, they look like waves.  There's an ascending part, a crest, a descending part, and a trough.  Pretty much the entire Universe works like this at one level or another.

What Evel Knievel did was to try to launch himself from one crest, bypass the intervening trough, and land on the next crest and survive the experience.  He failed more than he succeeded, but it was always fun to watch.  Kinda like tuning in NASCAR to watch the amazing wrecks rather than the endless loops at high speed.

Anyway, the Masters of War (thanks Bob) are little more than a bunch of Evel Knievels who have decided that they are far too rich and far too powerful to have to go through economic cycles.  So they've decided they're going to use all the magic incantations, illusions, rituals, and just sheer military force to brute their way from one economic crest to the next without having to first make a run through the trough.

Fine idea, but the reality is a bit more mundane because gravity simply sucks.  No two ways about it.

Though business cycles are infinitely complex, they can be visualized quite simply.  Think of two mating snakes entwined with each other, or another way would be the DNA double helix.  One side of the equation amasses debt, while the other side amasses wealth.  At some point, the equilibrium is disturbed (recessions, droughts, etc.) and the two sides swap places.  Then the whole things starts over.

Now, our group of oligarchs think they have amassed so much knowledge and power and other cool stuff like that, they think they can just suspend themselves in mid-air until the next crest comes and they land gracefully, still Masters of War.

The problem is that nothing, and I do mean NOTHING in Nature works like that.  There must always be a season of growth and a season of renewal.  There's simply no other way things can or do work.  All the ramps, calculations, incantations, and pure effort of will cannot stop something that is as entrenched in the fabric of the Universe as a cycle is.

Where we are now as a planet is that we have a new tooth trying to come in, but the old baby tooth refuses to fall out.  Consequently, the new one is growing right out on top of the old one, and the old will either have to fall out, or we gotta pull it.  Nothing will stop the new one.

If we go to our Wile E. Coyote metaphor, we have just run off a cliff and are suspended momentarily by momentum, until we look down and realize there ain't nothing under us.

If we were Evel Knievel, then we are at Caesar's Palace fountain, having just launched off the end of the ramp.  As we look ahead, we notice that our rear wheel just ain't gonna clear that last little tippy-top part of the fountain and nothing we can do will stop the inevitable broken bones that are about to materialize in our future.

OK, so what does knowing the current situation do for us?  I mean, after all these visualization exercises, what can we do with this knowledge?

First off, knowing the inevitable outcome allows us to prepare for what's coming.  We know economic winter is here, though we've enjoyed a bit of Indian Summer, but it's time to stock up and stack the cord wood in readiness for the cold blast about to hit us.

Second, knowing where we are and how we got here gives us important clues as to how to get out again.  Since cycles are predictable, though not exactly the same each time.  Nevertheless, we can predict with some certainly where we will land.  When you get lost, the first thing most people will do is retrace their steps to get back to the point where they got off the trail.  Unwinding this mess is both a natural part of the cycle, and the answer to solving the huge mess these greedly little worms created.

Third, it takes the mystery out of our perception of who these weasely little idiots are running the world and shows us conclusively that they are nothing more than slimy idiots who thought they were Time Lords.  Picture the bankers at Gringott's in the Harry Potter series.

Finally, we know not to let anyone do this again.  We should etch this lesson in stone monuments as immutable as the Great Pyramid - don't let the slimy bastards try to defy gravity again, at least while we are all passengers.

We need to use this lesson to keep the greasy nards in check and never let them get hold of the stunt bikes again...ever!  Now we have the playbook, identities and locations of all these maggot brains.  Now we can lock them in Arkam Asylum and pump them full of their own pharmaceuticals and never let the bastards roam freely again.  We must turn all their glorious Track and Trace toys on them and keep them under surveillance for the rest of Time.

Perhaps a well-thought out eugenics program will keep them from breeding until their bloodlines simply die off.  An appropriate punishment for what they have done to humanity and our planet.

It's time.  Time to sit back and laugh at Wile E. as he sails ever so gracelessly to the bottom.  Time to stop hoping the Evel will make it across and prepare to be entertained by the inevitable crash and burn.

Mostly, it's time to prepare for winter.  It's going to be a rough one, since it's been delayed for so long.  A lot of people are going to be hurt, and that too is a cycle.

Most of all, we need to take a page from good project management and start keeping a planetary set of Lessons Learned.  At least that way we can stop making the same mistakes and start making a whole new set of them.

It's a bitter pill to swallow, but we are partly responsible for allowing the vile, repulsive gnomes to run the world in the first place.  And which of us hasn't been distracted by all the little flashy lights in boxes?

Suck it up, boys and girls, the first big blast of winter is coming.  But always remember, there's a back side to every storm.

And while we huddle around the fire waiting for the storm to pass, be sure and start your list of Lessons Learned so our kids don't fall for the same BS.

Will They Never Learn

I just had an epiphany.  I finally see what's going on at the macro level of economics and geopolitics.  I have a bead on why the Western oligarchs are so panicked.  And the answer is really stupid and childish.  It also explains why China is pissed at the US, why Japan was rubbed out, and why things are about to change really fast, really soon.

To put it in a nutshell...

Back in 1998, the Eastern hemisphere was struck with something we in the West called the Asian Contagion.  If you remember, the Asian economies were hit with a major recession, led by Japan (China was still developing back then).

It was bad.  The folks I've met who lived through it witnessed the bottom fall out and things get really nasty in these parts.  Riots in the streets, houses being looted at will, banks closing and/or being mob-robbed.  The red-hot Yen and Nikkei tumbled down a black hole from which they still haven't recovered.

All across Asia, the socio-economic fabric was coming unraveled at an alarming rate.  Naturally, Japan and the lesser economies looked to the West for help, but the dominant Anglo-American empire sat on it's wallet and instead, used the situation to solidify it's position over the region.

Let's pause for a moment here.  If you look at the calendar, you'll notice that 1998 was 60 years or so after the end of WWII.  Now we turn to a decent economics textbook (if we can find one) and look up Kondratiev and Dewey.  These two men, one Russian and the other American, both came to the conclusion at roughly the same time and independently that there was a long-wave cycle in all economies of roughly 60 years in which the business cycle turned south and there was nothing to be done about it but ride it out.

Dewey noted that governments could take certain actions to lessen the pain, but the crash and burn was inevitable...like sunrise or waves on the beach.  Kondratiev said the same thing, though he didn't focus as much on state actors.  Regardless, he was put in front of a firing squad since he couldn't find a way for the almighty State to stop it.

Now, back to Asia.  In the 60 years since WWII, Japan had become a major economic powerhouse.  It dominated Asia and dictated the ins and outs of how things were going to be around here.  They didn't make a lot of friends (not that they ever have).

So when things started to fly apart, China tucked in, Korea started maneuvering, and the other Asian economies went through violent convulsions.  Here in Indonesia, Soeharto was dethroned after 30 years of iron-fisted rein.  Similar events took place all over the region.

Tokyo called on the Anglo-American empire to come to the rescue, but the Western oligarchs were too busy positioning themselves to come out on top of the fray.

Slowly, things started to come back, like electric service after a major outage.  When all was said and done, Asian nations had unwound most of their debt and a massive shift in wealth had occured, as is often the case after deep recessions, or to be intellectually honest, depressions.  If you think of it in terms of a vineyard, winter had come and the vinters had trimmed back the vines in anticipation of spring.

Except Japan...

Japan had listened to the Western oligarchs and taken steps to try and stop the wholesale destruction of its economy.  They didn't want to lose their privileged spot atop the Eastern hemisphere.  They reduced interest rates to less than zero and kept the yen on life-support with the gold-carry trade.  Japan survived, but at a cost.

By dong this, Japan accrued more debt, rather than trim off the dead vines.  It was the proverbial heart-attack victim who continued to eat pork, smoke cigars and sit on the couch.

Meanwhile, China and the lesser economies had cleared out their debt and were building from a freshly leveled foundation.  When the inevitable long-wave spring came along, they sprouted forth with renewed vigor, creating red-hot economies from the ashes of the foregoing two years.  By 2000, China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia were in position to launch forward.

And they did.  In the past decade or so, China has come to dominate global manufacturing and became an outsourcer to smaller regional economies.  The whole region experienced double-digit growth and exploding middle classes.

Except Japan.  It limped along, following the Anglo-American playbook with, at best, anemic results.  It watched as its once-vaunted engine sputtered along, refusing to get a tune-up because they didn't want to lose their status at the top of the pile.

Finally, Japan's electorate decided they needed to take action, since the leadership wasn't going to.  They threw out the political party which had run things since WWII.  They cleaned up the financial system and overhauled the banks.  But the biggest move was to tell the Anglo-American empire to go stuff its playbook.

Japan started taking action to uncouple itself from the Western train ride.  They stopped hanging on every word out of the Western oligarchies and even (gasp) told the US to close down its military bases, especially Okinawa.

Conveniently, Fukushima happened and put an end to that little uprising.  It got the Japanese focused on other matters and put it in the position of having to take hat in hand and go back to Uncle.

Meanwhile, China powered ahead, bringing the rest of Asia with it.

In the West, the same thing nearly happened at the same time.  In 1998, the milk started to sour a bit and Wall and Fleet Streets went into high gear.  They also found that nothing was going to stop the long-wave shift, but they weren't satisfied with following the laws of Nature.  They had enjoyed the greatest economic tidal wave in all of recorded history, and it had put the Western oligarchs at the top of the global heap.  They so coveted this position that they were determined to keep it at any cost.

Thus, the oligarchs took a page from the Pearl Harbor playbook and created a distraction.  It was big enough and shocking enough that it would be sufficient reason to create a war long enough to power through the long-wave negative cycle.  Everyone knows war is good for business.  It blows off assets and is cause to crank up the factories and dig a little deeper in taxpayer pockets.  But they hadn't figured on a couple of things.

Ramping up production when all of your factories are overseas does nothing to keep the home fires burning, and part of the natural long-wave cycle is the repudiation of debt and the transfer of wealth.  They are as inevitable as death following birth.

Because of the huge amount of wealth that had accrued to the West during the preceding 60 years, they have been able to float the boat for a short while, but they are quickly coming up against one of those glorious Natural boundaries that remind us that we don't know everything yet.

The vinter has tried to deny winter and keep the vines growing through the freeze.  As a consequence, the new growth is being choked out by the old, and instead of getting a bumper crop of grapes, there's nothing.

To use another metaphor, grandpa is on life support.  We can go visit him in the hospital, and all those bells and whistles and tubes and electrodes are keeping his heart beating and his lungs filling, but conversations are decidedly one-sided.

Shift happens.

Russia had its upheaval in 1991.  China/Asia followed in 1998.  They have had explosive growth.  The West has refused to relinquish its grip on the world's throat, and so America languishes and Europe looks a lot like Asia 15 years ago.

Only one Western economy has trimmed the vines and is now powering ahead with renewed vigor...Iceland.

In fact, we've seen this same thing happen again and again throughout history, which I suppose is the definition of a cycle, yes?  Because a handful of families refuse to let go of grandpa, we have to watch and suffer as the poor guy falls apart before our eyes.  Those who accept and live within the inevitable cycles flourish, while those whose hubris and greed lead them to defy Nature slowly wither and rot.

It's like Chauncey in Jerzy Kosinski's brilliant and profound novel, "Being There".  It doesn't take intelligence to see the repetition of the seasons and to infer that all life must follow those cycles.  Those who recognize it and live within the boundaries of the rules will rise to the top, and those who defy it and seek to supplant Nature will be destroyed.

The banksters know this and have done everything they can to kick and scream till the cycle goes away.  But everything is not enough to stop the waves from hitting the shore.

Years ago, a good ole boy in Texas running for governor named Clayton Williams made a rather profound, if inflammatory statement, "Rape is like the weather.  If it's inevitable, just sit back and enjoy it."

Ya know...he had a point.