Financial philosophy

“No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.”

― Victor Hugo

2023 finished with a shocker for the political establishment. Although it happened in a country that does not really play an important role in the world, it could be the starting shot for a thorough change in world politics.

Javier Milei, the flamboyant new president of Argentina, a libertarian that won the elections promising pain and hard times, will have his shot at trying to catapult Argentina back to old times, when Argentina used to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

Javier Milei, in different interviews showed his vigorous criticism of the corrupt political elite. Javier Milei understands the moral decay of the social democrat system. This moral decay is not due to politicians alone, as they are a mirror of society, but is due to the conformism that has penetrated modern societies.

I personally think that this moral deterioration of our civilizations started in 1971, when Nixon decided to leave the Gold Standard and adopted a Fiat monetary system and Argentina has acted like an addict out of control.

The Fiat monetary system has allowed our politicians to buy time in power by creating artificial wealth, borrowed wealth, through debt.

This artificial debt system has suffered natural shocks through the years but it has managed to survive, mainly because the elite is invested in it. Most of the world savings are pegged to the system. A big chunk of pension funds, family funds, sovereign funds are tethered to sovereign bond markets and a general breakdown would directly affect their wealth.

For the average citizen, on the other hand, financial moral decay is felt by what is perceived as price increases.

Modern history has shown that citizens cannot control the creation of debt by our governments. No matter the party in power, there is a perpetual increase of money supply or debt.

What can we do? How can we apply a financial sane philosophy that can protect us and our descendants from this financial moral decay?

We need to embrace the vision of the Socrates of our times, the financial philosopher: 

Satoshi Nakamoto

Bitcoin, much more than Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.

Probably, Satoshi Nakamoto did not consider his/her creation to have such an impact in the financial world, but Bitcoin has become much more than an alternative to money.

Bitcoin is not only an electronic alternative to money, it is a fundamental change in the financial world as we know it.

Bitcoin is a lot of things and everybody will find a reason for owning Bitcoin but Bitcoin is foremost a moral financial counterweight on the existing corrupt system.

Bitcoin has the potential to become the protocol that puts a check to the corrupt financial engineering that allows the ruling elite to control citizens.

Bitcoin allows the normal citizen to “short” the corrupt system.  

The most interesting part is that this corrupt system will contribute to its own downfall by embracing the “pureness” of the Bitcoin protocol. 

Why would they do it?

There are different reasons for this. One of course, is the natural end of a debt system that won’t be able to afford the payment of the interest, let be the principal.

However, the main reason why the corrupt system will embrace the Bitcoin protocol is “greed”. The corrupt elite will not want to miss out on the “purest” protocol that cannot be altered or corrupted and therefore will be the only financial truth. The corrupt participants understand better than anyone the fragility of the system they are artificially maintaining.

Gold has been this guarantor for hundreds of years but Bitcoin offers advantages that Gold does not and cannot. Bitcoin will therefore probalbly, even marginalize Gold when it comes down to reserve holdings. 

Again Bitcoin can be a lot of things for many people and the ones that have dived, studied the protocol understand the different roles it can play. 

However, what the bitcoin protocol has done is creating a railway for financial sanity, the same way the 10 commandments have given humanity a guideline for civilization. 

And as Victor Hugo once said: “No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.”

Therefore, I think Satoshi Nakamoto will find its place in history as a famous philosopher, a financial philosopher that triggered the renaissance of money and wealth.

James Tector
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

 World Order, a change of era

February, 24th, 2022 will remain in the history books as the official start of a new paradigm in the future “Entente” between world blocks.

On this date, Russia started the attack on its neighboring country, Ukraine. This attack on a sovereign country triggered different reactions that will cause a long standing change to geopolitics and world economy. Of course, the vision explained in this article can very well be become obsolete if politicians would come together and work it out diplomatically. However, if I would have to bet I would not bet on pragmatic, human oriented, intelligent politicians but rather on egomaniacs that live in their own bubble and do not understand that their dogmatic views will cause harm to the people they are supposed to serve.

Geopolitics

It is still early in the game, we are in October 2022, and a lot can happen. We could end up in a full blown war, world war III. 

However, if for some reason this does not happen, what seems to be drawing is a multipolar world. A world where the US and their lapdog, the EU, experience a decline int their capacity to impose their will, ideology, dictates.

We could very well see the renaissance of the cold war, Cold War 2.0. This Cold War 2.0 will be different and the old adagio that the West is the force for good and the Soviet is evil will be more difficult to sustain and sell.

This of course has all to do with the lack of moral credibility of the West, after military adventures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc. These, of course were not invasions but rather "democracy expansion campaigns". And except for Afghanistan, the only thing the west asked to bring democracy to these countries was access to fossil fuel reserves. These countries must be thankful, GOD erroneously distributed natural resources, they should have been in the West, but since the West was only blessed with democracy, these “liberated” countries wouldn’t mind the trade.

The problem is that these countries and parts of the world are slowly but surely getting tired of being used, abused and lectured. They are finding the courage to stand up for their freedom. GOD could have been wrong in putting these natural resources in their countries but they are willing to assume GOD’s mistake and endure the curse.

So what should have been an economic and military powerhouse, EuroAsia (Europe and Russia) will most definitely not be.

Lapdog EU, decided that it was better to have the Russian Federation make part of Asia, pushing Russia in the open arms of China and the rest of Asia. 

We are experiencing the birth of a multipolar world, on the one side the lost empire syndrome suffering West and on the other side Asia + Russia.

There might be a 3rd route that would also include countries in Latin-America and Africa, like the BRICS but due to geographical and cultural reasons, the division between WEST and EAST seems more logical.

There will be a 3rd group of countries that will decide to play on both boards, having diplomatic and economic exchanges with both blocks. 

Actually, if they are smart they will play that card, taking advantage of the competition to get access to the best deals for their own populations.

This should be the way most African and Latin-American countries should play.

Economy

The change in the economic paradigm will be massive. The most important however is that we are moving from a Financial Economy into a Resource based Economy, from a credit based economy to an asset based economy.

This will bring about a big shift in wealth. Economies that for decades have been living and increasing their living standard based on an ever growing debt will be confronted with reality, that you cannot print energy, food, natural resources.

The “poorer” countries all of a sudden will find out that “wealth” is not money but hard assets, natural resources. At the end of the day theses assets are what “printed money” is chasing.

They will learn to use this leverage to transfer wealth to their countries and the West, especially Europe will quickly find out that they don’t have much to offer, except being an open museum (if it is not bombed to the ground).

When the WEST decided to freeze Russian assets and nationalize assets owned by Russians they did not only punish Putin and some Russian oligarchs, they basically gave up two of their major competitive advantages: The rule of law (Legal security) and due process.

This gave a clear message to anyone that was thinking about investing or putting their money in Europe or in the Us. There is no legal assurance. Good luck to attracting foreign investment from Asia, Africa, Latin-America or the Middle-East.

Just as a reminder: The EU countries have basically shrunk their world share in GDP by 50% between 2000 and 2022, going from 30% to 15%. This, in a favorable environment, in a "finance based economy". 

A shift to a resource based economy will only exacerbate the situation for Europe. Especially with its dependence on energy.

As economy is the transformation of energy and Europe not really being a powerhouse of the latest, the de-industrialization of Europe is the logic consequence. 

No natural resources, no industry, Europe better cherishes its historic monuments and keeps developing their infrastructures to allow tourists to move between their cities.

How long will Europeans be gaslighted by their incompetent politicians, could be a logic question? The question seems to imply that Europe is victim to an inept elite. 

Europeans, however, cannot avoid to look into the mirror and understand that what they consume in their media is an auto-complaisant status quo narrative that has been outdated for a while. If Europeans continue believing in their exceptionalism, they will continue down the rabbit whole.

If diplomacy is defeated, the EU will be the biggest loser in this new world order. And the weak always have a harder time imposing their “values”.

James Tector
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

NETWORK ECONOMY, THE FUTURE OF WORLD ECONOMY

Network economy

The future of world economy

Definition of economy in 2020 AC: 

Economy: “Exploitation of nature.” (Term created by mankind to explain, justify the exploitation of natural resources and nature in general)

Economy is a thrilling field of studies. Everybody seems to have an opinion and all swear to be right. Almost like a religion, economic theories are sets of beliefs meant to be imposed on others.

Like Yanis Varoufakis, greek finance minister once said:

“Economy is a belief with lots of equations. It´s the only field where two different Nobel prize winners can have the absolute conviction that the other one is a complete moron. This does not happen in physics or chemistry.”

We have to admit that criticism on economists is founded. The track record of most economists is poor if not mediocre but we still see them on television, newspapers, etc lecturing us on what to do.

The thing is that they can be right and wrong at the same time, the difference lies mainly in the time aspect. Economic measures for the short run will probably cause economic distress in the long run.

However with today's urgency for news and results, winners and losers are measured by the amount of money that was accumulated. Money is the measurement scale.

The accumulation of capital could have been an excellent indicator for right and wrong, was it not for the fact that the system is rigged. As long as money creation remains in custody of a handful of entities, money is not the best way to measure economic success. 

Besides the fact that the actual money creation scheme is fixed, there is a much more important issue that challenges the money based economy, nature.

Interest rates, inflation, growth, all important aspects of the financial based economy act as if natural resources were abundant and limitless and nature would not be affected by the actual production model.

Reality is different and although the system we have lived in has been ruling for more than a century, it seems to have reached its peak if not already passed it.

Modern society demands a new system where the individual and his social network are free and can prosper without being dependent on a centralized, anonymous power structure.

Globalization has created these anonymous, centralized powers that little by little have imposed their will onto countries for their sole benefit. 

This has generated an accumulation of wealth for a few and annihilated any development possibility for the majority. 

However, little by little things are changing and a silent and gradual revolution is taking place. Society is organizing itself to counter the impositions set unto them by corporations and their well paid “Hitmen”, politicians.

Technology, innovation and foremost the growth of Internet use has created a new economic trend, “network economy”.

The solution seems to be local. People are coming together and setting up networks to counter the system. 

That is why the future of economy is set to be the “Network Economy”. 

Big companies will continue to produce advanced technological products for the masses but the survival and collaborative economy (food, beverages, utilities, logistics, etc) will more and more be local. 

New technology will make the exchange of information easily available and the network will contribute with products, ideas, knowledge, services, capital, etc. 

Innovations will gather capital, knowledge and even the first customers from the network.

This trend will have all kinds of consequences that will change the path globalization has taken us to. The accumulation of money will be relegated in favor of wellbeing, social contribution and social security networks. 

Local currencies, banks and even local arbitrage will see the light. Savings and capital will be guarded and invested in sustainable products and services instead of in currencies that the individual does not control. Alternative value holders will naturally flourish and be exchanged among the network participants and some will even be accepted by the majority of networks becoming national or even international currencies.

This will also have consequences for the big inter-governmental organizations like EU, NAFTA, MERCOSUR, ASEAN etc. 

Especially the EU with its legal expansionism will probably have to rethink its rules, directives and regulation policies since they will very soon be incompatible with the reality of the regions or countries they pretend to control. In the long run imposing centralized EU rules on sovereign citizens will show to be impossible if these are meant to impose the law of corporations instead of protecting the freedom and liberties of citizens.

Society is changing and the economic paradigm we were living in is rapidly mutating into a more humane economy.

The powerful will of course not go down without a fight. “Armageddon” and all kinds of “Doomsday” scenarios will be announced, proclaimed and threaten with. They know that their control will be limited by this new economic evolution but the actual system will leave no other choice.

“The old economy is death, long live the economy.”

James Tector

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

THE SYSTEM EXPOSED

It is not easy to talk about a ruling system or shadow governments without being characterized as conspiracy theorist or freak. I am aware this post can and will be used against me in future but sometimes one has to dare exposing his analysis on the developments of our society without fear of being marginalized by the "intellectual leadership" or mainstream media.

What is intellectual leadership anyway? The pundits that squawk on television or the biased articles in mainstream newspapers? Aren't we as a society losing our faith in the propaganda that comes out the mainstream media anyway? Haven't we been deceived so many times that nowadays we watch, listen and read them for entertainment purposes rather than fact checking. Actually, I think that most smart people follow the mainstream media for intelligence gathering, trying to decipher their propaganda so that they can prepare for the consequences of their lies.

What has become clearer and clearer since the beginning of this millennium is that certain things have happen that are changing our world:

1. Individual liberties are eroding on a daily basis

2. Concentration of power through centralization

3. Financial economy has taken over real economy

4. Wealth transfer from bottom to the top has accelerated

There are still a lot of people that are not aware of these changes because they are still at the receiving end of the system or they simply don't care.

However for the observers it is obvious this is happening and it is increasing its pace.

You might be wondering: You talk about the system but who is the system and how can we recognize and fight it, if needed.

This is the interesting part: Who are the the real rulers?

You won't find them on television, newspapers or radios explaining their plans or goals. They are smarter than that. I am not even saying that they meet at a table and discuss the real course of things, although if I analyze the developments they look a lot like the plans set forth by influence groups like the Bilderberg, the trilateral commission, special commissions of the UN. The real rulers work behind doors.

If I would have to make a pyramid that represents the power structure I would classify them like this:

Explanation of the pyramid

FED:

Since the US came out of the gold standard and the USD became officially the reserve currency of the world, the FED has had a firm grip on the decisions taken all over the world. Don't believe me?

Ask yourself the question: Would you have power if you had money?

If your answer is yes, imagine you had the power to print money as you please, how much power would that give you?

Now take into consideration that although this is unknown to many but that the FEDERAL RESERVE is not a government agency and is not owned by the American people but by a conglomerate of banks and wealthy families. The American people only owning a minority part of the shares. So, the bank issuing money in the US is not owned by the people. Do you still believe that in the US, people live in a democracy if printing money can give you unparelleled power?

The FED is the most important player since all the National Central Banks need dollars to be able to operate on international level.

So do the IMF and the Worldbank, that are owned by the US although they refuse to admit this. How can you otherwise explain the policies enforced by the IMF on "poor" countries, just to receive their fake fiat dollars as debt?

IMF and Worldbank are the enforcers of the kleptocrats at the top that through the fake loans of the IMF and Worldbank can buy natural and wealth producing resources for penny on the dollars in the countries they target.

BIG BANKS:

Big banks are the ones declared "systemic banks" that are too big to fail. The interesting part in this argument is that since the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008 they have become 20% bigger. If they were too big to fail then, now they have become "too big to fight".

These banks do all the inside deals with corporations, governments and offer them alternative financing when they cannot go directly to central banks or International monetary institutions for whatever reason, like cooking the books or hiding from public scrutiny.

These are the Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, HSBC, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America. Some of these banks are also shareholders of the FED and thus "too close to fail". These banks most of the time have a special bond with the FED that allows them to have access to "cheap money" which whom they design weapons of mass financial destruction that they later use on countries, states, municipalities, companies or even smaller banks that they control through inflation and deflation of money supply.

CORPORATIONS / MEDIA:

Multinationals or large corporations manipulate laws and minds through an interesting system they have set up consisting of lobbyism, campaign funding and propaganda.

Isn't it interesting that commercial laws seem to have been written by corporations. Laws that make it difficult for newcomers to join the markets or for the small and medium sized to compete.

The propaganda that corporations finance through media makes them definitely have a say in the media's message and like this not only influence the public but creating public opinion to enforce their agenda.

Governments basically only have to adopt the laws corporations draw since they will be supported by the financed propaganda on the mainstream media financed by the corporations. 

Although corporations go from oil industry to food industry there however is one very strong and toxic group that i would call the "military industrial complex" that pushes for constant confrontations an wars that are fed to us on a daily basis by the news channels.

GOVERNMENTS:

Governments would be almost at the lowest level of the pyramid. They are responsible to enforce what all of the above dictate. Politicians are recruited on their demagoguing skills.

Obama has been a very good employee. He was able to motivate millions of people to believe in a better world. Many believed the messiah had arrived but the truth is that he has been a strong enforcer of total control of the system. Some examples are: Financial and industrial bailouts, NDAA, widening of the fiscal and overall debt burden, etc. etc. etc., you name it Obama seems to be in bed with the coporations and banking cartels that he campaigned against.

PEOPLE:

Poor creatures. It is interesting to see them fight among each other, blaming the neighbour, the foreigner, their employer, the colleague at work for their misery. We the people are buying into the fake problems politicians feed us because the vast majority of us does not understand or believe that there are real shadow governments and our politicians are puppets.

As long as we don't wake up and fight the system, as long as we the people do not demand to be free, independent and work to get the system out of our lives, we will be the slaves that sustain and feed the pyramid.

We need to free ourselves from the mental straitjackets we are living in and deploy a strategy to free ourselves from the tyranny we are living in.

The United States, as well as Europe is set up for collusion, and their solution will be more control. They will impose more control to "protect" (read control) us better. 

"The arsonist needs more gasoline to control the fire"

This seems a joke but it is happening and we are watching it happening, getting poorer and loose our liberties everyday that goes by. 

Some tips to end this post on how we can start freeing ourselves and start weakening the parasites that we feed.

1. Save in gold and precious metals, accept other payment methods

2. Grow your own food

3. Safe and generate your own energy

4. Buy as much as you can local

5. Vote for small political parties (atomize the power of governments)

6. Turn off television and educate yourself about economy.

I am sure there are more things you can do, this is not an exhaustive list but a list to help you start your very own revolution.

James Tector

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité 

TREATY FOR EURO TRANSITION

Do you know how many European summits have been held to tackle the economic debacle or should we say the Euro crisis?

It is hard to say. Every new European summit is announced like the last chance. Meanwhile I guess the only leader still standing since the beginning of all these crises is Angela Merkel. All the others have been thanked for their loyal service to their countries and kicked out by an increasing frustrated population.

The question is, why this stubbornness, what makes these politicians not understand economic cycles or economic logic. It is not like we just started studying economy. Great economists have existed, written books and helped us understand economy.

Ok, it is true that others have come along and have been creative in changing or altering the natural cycle of economy with the help of centralized planning. Yes, I am talking about Keynes.

In the long run, however, these artificial policies will eventually hit the wall. 

The question is how much longer can the EU drive up the debt burden before they understand that it is unsustainable?

Actually, the european politicians seem to be the only ones that have missed their math classes, since the market has already given up on the Euro.

It is inevitable, no matter, how much these pseudo-politicians try to grab onto the Euro, or try to convince the public, or should I say themselves, that the Euro is a valid idea, that the Euro will finally collapse.

I am sure that the smart heads of the EU already started working on an exit policy, but if we see the way they have been dealing with the problems so far, there is little hope they will come up with a believable and successful plan.

So, although I think we should completely abandon the fiat money and centralized monetary system that has driven us to the actual disaster, I don't think we will be able to get there without catastrophic wars. Let me try to give a transitional/pacific and workable solution.

1st Step: Dual currencies in the actual EMU countries.

Some countries will function with their own currency and the Euro.

All local services, products, work, etc will be traded in the local currency and that currency will float against the Euro, which will still be the currency in other countries like Germany, France, The Netherlands, Finland, Austria, Luxembourg, etc. The countries that think they can benefit from a strong currency because they mainly trade highly advanced and technological goods.

Countries in the periphery like Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Ireland would go back to their former currencies, back to the values they had at the beginning of the Euro and starting floating (read devaluing) from there. So the local currency would again be used by the countries for day to day transactions, while companies could still do international trade or european intratrade in Euros. Companies would only have to check the daily rate of their currency against the Euro to quote their price. This will also allow other countries that do not make part of the EMU to peg their currencies to this system.

For example a company in Spain that would have a cost price X + margin = sales price, would convert that price into Euros and a company in Germany or in Portugal would be able to buy that product in Euros.

Example:

Cost price + Margin = Sales price (Convertion rate) = Sales price in Euros

1000 pesetas + 20% = 1.200 pesetas (1 Euro = 200 pesetas) = 6 Euros

A company in Germany could disburse 6 Euros (the German currency) for that product. The spanish company will receive 6 Euros that it will be able to keep in Euros or convert into Pesetas, depending on its needs. Spanish banks will have a dual balance, like they had in the introduction phase of the Euro, a value in pesetas and the corresponding value in Euros (at the daily rate).  People will be able to keep Euros in savings bank accounts as reserve currency, although local transactions would be done in pesetas.

This will allow the spanish central bank to keep Euros and have the money to pay imports by Spanish companies and keep the spanish central bank within and supervised by the ECB system.

All of a sudden the Euro could really become a reserve currency, since it will be backed by strong economies and even other countries in the world would be interested in buying Eurobonds. (A % of the Eurobonds could then go to EU structural funds to invest in modernization of peripheral countries productivity)

This will give the time for countries in the south to readapt to global economy.

Travelling tourists will still be able to go to these countries and change their Euros into local currencies, knowing the rate they will receive, since it will be an open and public rate. It is up to the countries to have legislation to counter profiteering from the exchange in the exchange houses or banks.

Electronic purchase would not have a problem since there would be no exchange service delivered and the daily rate would be applied by the banks.

This however leaves still a significant problem: What will happen to the debt countries would have in Euros?

Different possibilities are possible. They could just be translated into local currency at the beginning of the transition phase but this would again create an extra punishment on the people of the countries.

2nd Step: Write off the debts

These debts need to be written off. There needs to be a significant haircut to make the debt burden sustainable and payable to these countries.

These debts exist because for a big part they were created by fractional banking money. This would mean that especially banks will have to write those debts off. This would indeed be devastating for banks but this would bring them back to their real value and not their actual inflated reality.

Banks and bank shareholders would be the losers of such a process but not all the banks, since there are many institutions that have not engaged in such behavior. These entities would continue to service their customers. Countries and the ECB would have to guarantee the minimum security deposits in every country and maybe create a state bank that would in the transition phase absorb the deposits and control bank runs. 

All of a sudden sound capital (capital from savings) would be liberated and would again find a reason to invest in countries and a renewed economy.

This however would only be a transition phase until we go back to (capital based money). Money that would be based on a basket of products (gold, silver, gas, oil, agricultural and industrial production capacity, savings). 

We need a competitive monetary system. The idea that a bunch of white folks (untanned) sitting in their ivory towers in Frankfurt or in Washington can decide the price of money is just absurd. Politicians need to go back to school and understand the creation of capital and wealth and later explain it to their population.

I know there are many more details that would have to be taken into consideration but at least the EU would not lose its face and gain extra oxygen to reinstate a competitive environment.

The path we are walking now is doomed to fail.

Most europeans are proud of Europe. They are proud of what was achieved, free movement of capital, people, services and products. They love to be able to trade with each other, to go study/work abroad, move around freely, etc. but they did not sign for this Europe. 

The actual Europe however, instead of enhancing the growth of their citizens is driving them into serfdom and poverty and are using the Euro for this purpose.

James Tector,

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

THE SECOND WORLD

It is interesting to observe evolutions in modern society. A long period of initial shocks (economic and wars) at the beginning of last century gave place to a new deal, creating economic prosperity in the western world. Although much of this increase in wealth was due to exploitation of many 3rd world and developing countries, it kind of gave an equilibrium to the world and allowed the first world to prosper in many ways.

Actually, the first world never had such a long period of prosperity which can be better measured in the increase of life expectancy. 

The fall of the iron curtain, however shifted this equilibrium into the victory of capitalism. The winning doctrine of competition and liberalism was the way to go. However, time has shown us that like in sports no victory lasts forever if the winner does not keep in shape. 

The problem of capitalism are not the values of competition and innovation, the problem of capitalism that emerged after defeating communism was the lack of these values. Capitalism that emerged after the fall of the iron curtain was almighty and nobody dared to question its imposition, no matter which captain was steering it. 

However, we were fooled to believe that capital was money and not the production of wealth. The moment this illusion became mainstream, problems started. Especially the fact that the US could keep printing endless money and always found buyers perpetrated the illusion and added to the mirage. 

The problem is that Real Capital is not money or the accumulation of money but something completely different.

- Capital is not money, Capital is the creation of wealth.

- Capital is when innovation and creativity contribute to solution problems in society. 

- Capital is not the accumulation of money, especially if the latest is fake.

However, the mainstream ideology was that money was capital. Well, then let's examine this fact.

I guess most of people would agree with the statement: Money is power!

Well, imagine you would have the power to create money out of nothing, whenever you liked or needed it. I guess you would be a powerful person and could do what you would like without taking others into consideration. That is  what is happening now, creation of a fake capital that does not take into account economic reality. The root of our problems!  We have entities that have that power and are accountable to no one except their own interests. This kind of capitalism is unfortunately the capitalism that has reigned for the past 40 years and like everything artificial, eventually reality is going to catch up.

Anyway, now that we are seeing the consequences of what this well engineered illusion has brought us to, we can start to see an interesting consequence:

The emergence of the Second World

What is the Second World? The second world are the countries that used to make part of the first world but were relegated to second division. However they still have the infrastructures acquired while in the first world. Transportation, Education, Political System. Societies in quick decay.

These could be the countries in the periphery of Europe which are slowly but surely going into serfdom mode. Serfdom to the stronger countries of Europe who will use these Second World countries for their leisure and food supply.

It is actually interesting to see how the political leaders of the Second World countries are dealing with the situation; exactly the same way they were pulled into the first division, following the dictatorship of the first world countries. It is becoming more and more obvious that all the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain) countries have been for a long time run by Germany and France. Just see how the Second World politicians keep going back to Europe to ask for guidance! 

Should we punish our citizens more? Starvation could get rid of a bunch of them! Please, IMF (International Mafia Federation), EU (Enforcement Unit), ECB (European Counterfeit Board) tell us what to do. We have fared well all these years pretending being politicians, (following your orders) don't let us down now.

An interesting additional phenomenon is that the Second World is formed by 2 groups:

THE WANNABES

THE FALLEN

The Wannabes are the countries that always wanted to be part of the first world and have tried to emulate them. In this group we have Portugal and Greece that all of a sudden thought they could join the first world faking reality. Cooking the books was no problem as long as they could join the select group.

The Fallen are Spain and Italy that deep down feel they make part of the first world but somehow do not seem to get accepted. They know they have a great history but don’t understand why that alone is not enough to join the First World.

I think it is important these PIIGS countries understand their strengths and start working on gaining back their dignity. Forget the fake capital system imposed by the first world. The faster you understand what real capital (wealth) is, you guys will teach everybody a lesson. Your countries used to be at the forefront of civilization. You got there not because you had paper money. You got there because you were at the forefront of innovation, creation, discovery. Your countries are blessed by nature and your culture a landmark for all civilizations. Think about all the Greek great thinkers and their contribution to the development of a civilized society, the roman empire, the spanish and portuguese conquerors. 

Create your own league, a league based on common sense, reality, innovation, creativity and quality of life. Create capital, real capital and let the First World be the leaders of fake capitalism.

James Tector

Egalité, Liberté, Fraternité

POLITICIANS OR "FEAR PROPHETS"

Words are important for communication. We use words to communicate a message thinking that the other party (the receiver of the message) will give it the same interpretation we were trying to render. However, here lies a fundamental problem of communication, the receiver oftentimes interprets the message in a different way or gives words a different meaning than what the sender was trying to transmit.

Therefore we normally have dictionaries that try to give unified sense to words. Wikipedia has been challenging the scientific society and generated a popular enciclopedia that many times has excellent descriptions of words. So let's give it a try and let's see what wikipedia means by the term politician before I go deeper into my understanding of politicians:

A politician, political leader, or political figure (from Greek "polis"="city") is someone who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, inheritance, coup d'état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest, divine right, or other means. Politics is not limited to governance through public office. Political offices may also be held in corporations, and other entities that are governed by self-defined political processes. (Source Wikipedia)

Browsing through the definitions in different languages they all seem to agree with the english definition.

"A politician is somebody who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making or who makes part or wants to make part of the political system."

This could accurately define actual politicians although I would call the first part, politicians and the second part a better definition for bureaucrats.

Anyway, this is our reality and we can agree that the definition responds to the perception of the contemporary politicians...... and that is my problem.

We don't need politicians/administrators we need visionary leaders that influence public policy and decision making. We don't need politicians that influence public opinion and decision making enforcing what they have been trained to.

Our politicians have been "kidnapped" by corporations and financial institutions. We live in a fascist system where the politicians impose pain, austerity and fear on populations. Our politicians are "Fear Prophets" blackmailing populations with disaster and armageddon if they stop voting for them, or don't support the system at any cost.

What happened? Where have we gone wrong? Where are the leaders that used to be respected and guide folks for a better tomorrow?

It is actually a good question and I don't have enough space on this blog to deepen into the question but have to accept that mediocrity has invaded politics. Today's politicians are the ones that always wanted to be the class spokesperson and never made it. The followers that sheeply followed the cool guy in class or the hottest chick. The losers of your youth.

They found in politics their perfect playground where flip-flopping and asskissing is rewarded with a rising career.

How can we expect these people to lead us? How can we expect these people to develop a vision for the future of their people? Simple: WE CAN'T.

That is why the best thing these elected citizens can give us is falling in alarming and disaster rhetoric, injecting fear in the population for the breakdown of the system. Some of their favorite prophecies:

"The end of the Euro would have disastrous consequences"

"Either you vote for me or we are out of the Euro"

"Austerity is the only way out of the crisis"

"Either you vote for me or the IMF is not going to keep giving us money"

"We have to save the banks otherwise the economy will collapse"

"The new parties are anarchists, communists, socialists"

These are their projects, these are their arguments to influence decision making?

Well, I might be naive but I had a different opinion about the objective of a politician. 

I confess: I was mistaken in my idea that politicians were visionaries, had plans and motivated those ideas to people. I was under the wrong impression that they had ideologies. I was wrong when I thought they had an idea about economy. They don't.

Today's politicians are nothing more than "Fear Prophets".

Politicians have become puppets paid by the system to keep the system going.

Politicians, don't you feel ashamed? Don't you have any dignity at all? Don't you dare give an audacious opinion, or just your very own humble opinion? Of course you don't you never had one in the first place. We should ban teleprompters or even better, turn off television, stop reading or listening to your propaganda and like minded media.

Conclusion: 

Don't expect politicians to lead us out of the situation or guide us into the future. People your are the only one that can do that.

James Tector

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité