Crisis or Opportunity? It's Time to Root Hog or Die

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Crisis or Opportunity? It's Time to Root Hog or Die.
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Have you wondered why America experiences one
emergency or crisis after another? Do you wonder
whey they hate us? Or what caused Enron or the
Savings and Loan Crisis? Or why all of a sudden
America is locked in permanent war in the Middle East?
Or why the US government debt is more than $7 trillion
dollars and all of a sudden President Bush says
there is a "Social Security Crisis" -- and he
wants to make permanent all of his previous tax
cuts and never increase taxes again?

What is going to happen to us next?

The End Of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI)?

Let's do some reality-based thinking...

Let's forget about the Islamic and Christian
extremists, and jihadists of all sorts for the
moment. Let's temporarily put aside concerns
about politics, border disputes and culture
wars. For the moment let's focus on Planet Earth
as a big, increasingly integrated economic system.

The so-called "bull market" in America that
lasted from 1983 until 2001 occurred during
a time of great technological advancement,
including especially the widespread adoption
of computers and telecommunications, culminating
in the global internet.

Information technology developments facilitated
international trade to the point now where
local economies are being disrupted and
national economies are becoming inextricably
intertwined and interdependent. With the aid
of computers and telecommunications incredibly
massive corporations are able to function on a
global basis.

In America (my location), the corporations
in the S&P 500 are not only massive but powerful,
extremely powerful. So powerful in fact that
it is very common for industry to write or buy
the laws and regulations. The economy as a whole is
now considered a matter of "national security",
and certain highly privileged corporations will
never be allowed to fail. Ever. In a very real
sense, America and its economy are being managed
by corporate boardrooms and *for* the corporate
boardrooms.

Now, given the preceding, should we necessarily
assume that the US budget and trade deficits are
accidents, or that they are problematic for the
Mega-Corporations? Do the Mega-Corporations regard
the rise of China, India and the EU as superpowers
to be "problems"?

No. From the Mega-Corporation point of view
planetary economic system is functioning largely
in accordance with design specs -- the design
specs written by the Mega-Corporations. Even
China and America, the two nations stressed
most by the rapid evolution of the global
economic system are functioning within nominal
operating parameters when viewed as two parts
of a greater whole. There is no "problem".

China is becoming industrialized, and America is
becoming de-industrialized. Net net zero. China
has a trade surplus with America and America has
a trade deficit with China. Net, net zero. China
ships America products, and America ships China
dollars. China then ships those dollars back to
America to buy Treasury bonds, and America ships
even more dollars back to China as interest on the
Treasury bonds. Net net zero. China and America are
mutually interdependent, a partnership...and the Mega-
Corporations profit on both sides of the Pacific.

Now, certain parts of "The System" are advanced beyond
original expectations. For example, perhaps some
Americans wish that when China's entry to the WTO
was negotiated the deadline for China to float
their currency had been set to 2005 or 2006. And
perhaps certain Chinese leaders are gloating at
the munificence of Alan Greenspan in sending a
mile-high tsunami of dollar liquidity to the farthest
reaches of the globe. (That is some real manly-man
supply side economics!!!) But in the long run these
local issues will appear insignificant in relation to
the operation of the global system, even though
right now they are confounding and confusing to
many of us.

Some of us in America are losing our jobs because
of outsourcing and offshoring of manufacturing to
India, China and elsewhere. We are puzzled and
angry, perhaps asking, "What about Tibet and
Tiananmen Square?" or "Why does Europe continue
to play diplomatic games with the Butcher of
Fallujah?"

Good people who would never consider investing
money in the Mafia or the sex industry have no
problem whatsoever investing money in corporations
doing business in "Communist China" or "Fascist
America". They see no contradiction between
their own belief sets and the actions of their
government or the Mega-Corporations in which
they have invested money. Why is that?

As a general rule money is amoral, and the more
of it there is in a person's hands the lower
that person's actual moral standards tend to
be. I speak here of actual, behavioral morals, not
the self-serving, hypothetical, and very earnest
sermons about compassion and the "philosophy" of Jesus.
You hardly ever meet an ardent socialist or anarchist
who is a millionaire, but, ironically, there are
probably millions of Christian millionaires. Go figure!

Nor does economic prosperity lead directly to
individual freedom. I do not expect to see a "free"
and "democratic" China any sooner than I expect
America to again be free and democratic.

Money has its own logic, which is the calculus
of power, not of mercy or justice. Money is fungible.
It can buy or rent nearly anything or anyone. Therefore,
I fully expect the evolution of the global economic
system to proceed in accordance with the needs
and desires of the wealthiest organizations on
the planet: the Mega-Corporations.

There is no basis in reality for supposing that
massive and increasing US government debt accompanied
by massive and increasing Mega-Corporate profits
is coincidental or that a crisis "just happened".

Nor is it coincidental that President Bush decided
to bring "freedom" to Iraq's oil fields but not to
China's rice paddies. Or that the Mega-Corporations
are moving high-paying American jobs overseas where
workers may earn only $1 a day. Etc., etc. This stuff
doesn't "just happen".

Unfortunately, advancements in computing and
telecommunications render challenges to the status
quo technically difficult and highly improbable.
Ubiquitous surveillance, tracking and control
technologies guarantee that any potentially disruptive
political movements will either be co-opted or
destroyed before achieving critical mass. Memes
that do not directly benefit the host user are unlikely
to spread globally (with the possible exception of

anti-Bush/anti-Americanism), while memes that enrich
the host user quickly become "features" of the system
(like the internet...) Basically, we're pretty much stuck
with the system we have.

On the positive side however, I do not believe that
incompetent extremists like George W. Bush are good
for business at the global level. The System will no
doubt regurgitate him and his cabal in favor of
people that are more "reality-based". Perhaps he will
end up in a prison cell alongside his lieutenants,
right next to Saddam, Augusto, Ariel and Osama.
Or not. At the global level it hardly matters. All
that matters is that The System of Mega-Corporations
prospers. Which it will. It has to, for things have
gone much too far to demolish the global system without
causing massive loss of life.

Instead, I expect that we will see developments
and evolutionary advances resulting from the flow
of US wealth to the rest of the world. The flows of
capital will generate more than full rice bowls. For
example, I expect that China or India will develop new
technologies in energy production/conservation,
waste and water treatment, housing, and the other
practical requirements to sustain human life. Necessity
is the mother of invention, and China and India will
need new efficiences. Soon. And perhaps America will
one day inspire the Earth with new spiritual
ideas and philosophies -- again, out of necessity,
for it is becoming clear that America's bloated,
wasteful, materialistic lifestyles will need to change.
Soon!

During the past four years Alan Greenspan and his
fellow central bankers around the world have magicked
up a few trillions of dollars out of thin air. That
money is *out there*, in China and Brazil and India
and many other places. It is being used to develop
new jobs, mines, wells; to build houses and factories;
and to finance research and development. One day some of
that money will flow back to average Americans. In
addition, the investments made now all over the
world will generate capital to finance other
investments, and the global economic system will
evolve and grow. It must.

But as individuals perhaps we are personally experiencing
local disruptions that are insignificant to The Powers
That Be? From 10,000 feet we look like ants to the Greenspans
of the world! But that does not mean that we are
"shit out of luck" (as the expression goes.) It is
too easy to give in and accept failure and hopelessness.
Even money cannot cure a negative mental attitude
like that.

As individuals we must try to see clearly, to learn and
understand "reality" -- and then use that information
to go win our necessary and rightful shares of the goods.
It just cannot be that hard. Come on, Greenspan just printed
$2 *freaking* trillion dollars, so don't say there is
no possible way to make any money. The money, like the
Truth, Is Out There.

How do we do this as individuals? Strategically speaking,
I recommend thinking in terms of developing one's own
capabilities and potentials. That might mean buying
and learning to use new tools, or learning a new
language, studying math and computers, or even
moving to New Zealand or Canada to find work. Whatever
it takes to create one's own version of reality: think
"Self-Instantiation of Potentials" -- or in Nike terms,
"Just Do It!".

The internet is at your fingertips, and there is no
shortage of information or people to consult with about
your own situation. Connect up or get connected over.
Go out there and win, or sit back and wait to be destroyed
by ruthless opportunists and their corporate lackeys.

The venture *is* the adventure. Everything else is gravy.



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THOUGHT-PROVOKING LINKS
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Mr. Pinank Mehta's article:
"Significant Characteristics of Bull Markets and
Gold and Silver"
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/mehta/mehta122204.html

Map of Major Oil Trade Movements
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=111&contentId=2004184

The Material Basis of Accumulation by Stan Goff
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/120604_material_accumulation.shtml