PART II: PROBLEMS + SYSTEMIC FRAGILITIES
EMBEDDED GROWTH OBLIGATIONS IN A
WORLD THAT IS NO LONGER GROWING
EGOs began going pathological starting with
academia in the 1970s (study Eric Weinstein).
DEFICIT SPENDING
Deficit spending and leaving the gold standard in 1971
(study Eric Weinstein, Alan Greenspan, Robert Kiyosaki).
POST-MODERNISM
We’ve embraced moral relativism, become materialistic, hedonistic, statist, collectivist, hypocritical, stifled free speech, grafted to identity politics, irreducible intersectionality, conflict theory, revisionist history, soviet subversion, and placing perceived security over liberty. We’ve killed the family unit. Boomers lead the subsequent generations deeper and deeper into an economic and ideological swamp. We’ve abandoned posterity. We’re addicted to apps, social media, and blue-light devices. We’ve pretty much abandoned Kierkegaard’s religious and ethical spheres, leaving moral relativists with only the aesthetic sphere of being. - JMHO ha
OUTSOURCING MEANS OF PRODUCTION
MBAs who graduated in the 1990s started findings ways to outsource American companies. No replacements―just shitty, low-paying service jobs and automation. Outsourcing was a great for corporate profits but killed our real economy (aka main street). Low paid service work is a deflationary tailwind for the real economy.
TECHNOLOGY, AI, AUTOMATION
Less of a workforce is needed and more money in fewer hands. Think of paychecks not into the hands of thousands of factory workers, but rather 12 instagram workers 12 billion instead. This provides a deflationary tailwind for the real economy. Think: more money in fewer hands, therefore that money doesn’t move or have velocity―it just sits. Money needs velocity in order to create inflation (Inflation = Money Supply x Velocity). What’s “0” multiplied by any number?
FINANCIAL ENGINEER ALAN GREENSPAN
Alan Greenspan becomes the chairman of the Federal Reserve in 1987 and turns the Fed into a serial bubbleblowing machine for various asset classes. The Fed then begins backstopping commercial banks, crowding out the private sector, and playing a more central role in debt, equity, and real estate markets. Financial engineering is used deliberately to create inflation in asset prices and deflation in the real economy. Much of the Fed’s inflation is also loaned to or acquired by foreign markets. Think: exporting dollars = exporting inflation. Alan Greenspan used to be an Ayn Rand-Loving-Gold-Bug before selling out. He feels bad though. You can tell by watching any of his interviews since retiring in 2011, or reading any of the pro-gold essays he wrote in the 60's.
LOW SAVINGS, LOW INTEREST, STAGNANT WAGES
Low savings rates coupled with abnormally low interest rates for the financial institutions, higher interest rates and debt burden for the general population.
DEMOGRAPHIC HEADWINDS
73 million boomers out of 325 million Americans (almost a quarter of our population) reaching the “maximum social burden category” of a demographic chart, and reached peak spending in 2010. Death is a deflationary event, and this can lead to a need for more stimulation from central banks. Think: “too many die-ers, not enough buyers.” Demographic headwinds can also lead to suppressed interest rates, as banks must keep debt servicing costs as low as possible, and asset prices elevated. “Show me your demographics and I’ll show you your future.”
WHAT DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC?
The working class is no longer represented. This started with Democrats and the Clinton administration in the 90s.
NATURAL BALANCE
Systems and cycles need to be closed in order for the environment to heal, evolve, and sustain.