Tag Archives: Money and power.

THE BEADY EYE LOOKS AT HOW MONEY SHAPES THE WORLD.

18 Monday Jul 2022

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(Eighteen-minute read)

How does money shape the world?

A daunting question.  Where does one start?

Perhaps it is possible to understand the significance of a medium of exchange like money by considering its absence.

If we want to create and live in a more fair, just, democratic, and morally advanced society with the least amount of poverty, crime, pollution, disease, and so on, we must learn the importance and value of voting with our money.

Before Money, we had Barter the exchange of goods, exchanged directly for other goods.14 Myths About Money: Are You Being Fooled?

 

What is money?

There are many myths surrounding money like Money doesn’t matter or it’s the root of all evil. People tend to make money mean what they believe it to be, not what it actually is. Time is not money. Tasks are money.

Money has little value to its possessor unless it also has value to others.

Teeth currency used to be common in the South Pacific and among native Americans.

To qualify as “money,” something must be widely accepted as a medium of exchange that is not backed by anything physical.  It relies on trust, it serves as a unit of account, which is a consistent means of measuring the value of things. However, it does not holds value over time and it is not the only thing that stores value.

Money is not a risk-free store of value, however. In periods of rapid inflation, people may not want to rely on money as a store of value, and they may turn to commodities such as land or gold instead. Because money acts as a store of value, it can be used as a standard for future payments.

But something need not have intrinsic value to serve as money.

Gold and silver are the most widely used forms of commodity money. One disadvantage of commodity money is that its quantity can fluctuate erratically.

The currency —paper money and coins—used in the world today is fiat money; it has no value other than its use as money.

What makes something money is really found in its acceptability, not in whether or not it has intrinsic value or whether or not a government has declared it as such.

Credit cards are not money. Gold is not money because it is not used as a medium of exchange. In addition, it does not serve as a unit of account. A Van Gogh painting is not money. It serves as a store of value. It is highly illiquid but could eventually be converted to money. It is neither a medium of exchange nor a unit of account.

Money is the medium of exchange for goods and services. It doesn’t literally make the world go around, but the economies of countries rely on the exchange of money for products and services.

Money, ultimately, is defined by people and what they do.

                                        ——————————–

There are really only two types of money: money that has intrinsic value and money that does not have intrinsic value.

To days society rewards you by giving you fiat money the most highly addictive substance on the planet: What’s most frightening about it is that you can’t ever physically overdose. Make no mistake about this. Like all addiction stories, wealth addiction is tragic with no boundaries. Like any addict in the throes of their addiction, there’s no limit to how far this can go.

The addicts will hijack human spirituality, exploit hatred, brainwash the masses, derail democratic politics, and tinker with fascism in their desire to have more.

Well, as strange as this is going to sound, there might be a pill for all this.

Imagine a world where every consumer, you and I, and everyone we know only supported transparent and ethical companies, and only bought products that were made by companies that stood by the same ethical standards we believed in, a world where businesses made sure they were “doing the right thing in the eyes of the majority”

But, if enough people were to unionize and demand ethical jobs paired with enough customers organized and demanding ethical products and services it could ignite a domino effect as companies struggle to supply what’s being demanded.

Trying to make it in this dog-eat-dog world we live in now needs more than just money.

Without money how can one afford to live?

Which measure of money is most closely related to real GDP and the price level?

As that changes, so must the definition of money.

                                   —————————

It would take a huge sacrifice on everyone’s part. 

Capitalism is an economic system in which trade, industry, and the means of production are controlled by private owners with the primary goal of making profits.

Just because the ideology of capitalism is only concerned with profits this does not mean it does not shape the world we live in.

In a globalized and dynamic economic system, there is a powerful and controversial organization that has the economic firepower to bail out entire countries:

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

During the 1980s, the IMF took on an expanded role of lending money to “bailout” countries during a financial crisis. This gave the IMF leverage to begin designing economic policies for over 60 countries. Countries have to follow these policies to get the IMF’s “seal of approval” to get loans, international assistance, and even debt relief.

Thus, the IMF has enormous influence not only in structuring the global economy but also on real-life issues such as poverty, environmental sustainability, and development.

The IMF has created a system of modern-day colonialism that SAPs the poor to fatten the rich. (SAPs were developed in the early 1980s as a means of gaining stronger influence over the economies of debt-strapped governments in the South. To ensure a continued inflow of funds, countries already devastated by debt obligations have little choice but to adhere to conditions mandated by the IMF and World Bank.)

(SAPs) ensure debt repayment by requiring countries to cut spending on education and health; eliminate basic foods and transportation subsidies; devalue national currencies to make exports cheaper; privatize national assets, and freeze wages.

Why because they represent a rich country’s dominance in decision-making.

Nearly 80% of all malnourished children in the developing world live in countries where farmers have been forced to shift from food production for local consumption to the production of crops for export to industrialized countries.

The IMF also requires countries to eliminate tariffs and provide incentives for multinational corporations – such as reduced labor and environmental protections. Small businesses and farmers can’t compete with large multinational corporations, resulting in sweatshop conditions where workers are paid starvation wages, live in inhumane conditions, and are unable to provide for their families. The cycle of poverty is perpetuated, not eliminated.

The IMF is funded with taxpayer money, yet it operates behind a veil of secrecy.

The IMF works with a select group of central bankers and finance ministry staff to decide policies without input from other government agencies such as health, education, and environment departments.

Furthermore, the IMF has resisted attempts to open up to public scrutiny and independent evaluation.

The IMF has made elites from the Global South more accountable to First World elites than their own people. Assets such as forestland and government utilities (phone, water, and electricity companies) are sold off to foreign investors at rock bottom prices.

IMF loans and bailout packages are paving the way for natural resource exploitation on a staggering scale.

The IMF, along with the WTO and the World Bank, is directing the global economy on a path of greater inequality and environmental destruction.

So this justifies that IMF is bad for the world. Whoever started these institutions had a vision of a Devil. It is no coincidence that the official ideology of the sponsors of the IMF and the World bank is called “Capitalism*

These two institutions can’t do anything without Washington’s ok, as the US is by far the largest contributor to their budgets.

The problem is, that a lack of IMF could be even more harmful. When a country calls the IMF, it means it can no longer pay its economic commitments. That is, it is about to go bankrupt, and fall into social chaos.

So, as bad as the IMF recipe is, it beats the alternative, of financial default.

The intention of capitalism and the free market is to reduce any normally operating, anarchic society full of diversity and opportunity to a power pyramid where everyone is able to find their place according to how much money they have and entrepreneurship is the only goal.

Banks create money by issuing loans to borrowers.  

           ————————————–

There are other factors to consider beyond just profits, individual wealth, and cheap products?

What about protecting the land, air, and water,

The steady growth of the cryptocurrency industry over the years has drawn more attention to its carbon footprint. Bitcoin mining is currently estimated to account for about 0.5% of global electricity consumption, using up more power than Sweden does in a year,.

Have you ever considered what went into creating the product you are purchasing?

Imagine how much is thrown away because it’s cheap and easily replaceable. But why is it so cheap, how often do we ask ourselves these questions?

Imagine not just jobs that provide a paycheck but jobs that are benefiting society in positive ways it will motivate us to realize how dependent we have become on unethical and unfair practices and businesses in the name of profit. I hope we will begin to educate ourselves and make more ethical decisions as they relate to all aspects of business and not wait for our government to do it for us.

We can talk about changing the system in many ways through government change and through legislation change, but until then what can we do as individuals?

Well, I have some bad news because things are about to go pear-shaped. 

Money is disappearing being replaced by Data and digital payment platforms.

because of this current economic models will come off the rails at some point. 

Before this point, I think that we have to see that the corporations of the world have abandoned people long ago. That we will have to build our own economies and democracy as a living democracy in a world driven by technology. Corporations belong to no land no country no people. They have no loyalty to anything apart from profit and if we don’t start regulating profit algorithms and make them transparent profits will become on an unimaginable scale, becoming illegitimate, criminal at the cost of life as climate change takes a whole.

Changing the world for the better is not just a one-time grand heroic act, maybe it’s best described as the small but consistent decisions we all make every single day.

As the old saying goes…

“We blame society, but we are society”

Becoming financially fit has a cost and there aren’t any shortcuts from becoming a slave to it a master of if. 

All human moments are appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

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THE BEADY EYE LOOKS AT THE ROLE OF MONEY IN POLOTICS.

05 Friday Nov 2021

Posted by in 2021. The year for change., Algorithms., Big Data., Corruption., Democracy, Digital age., Emergency powers., Facebook, First past the post., How to do it., Human Collective Stupidity., Modern Day Democracy., Money in Politics., Political Trust, Politics., Post - truth politics., Reality., Robot citizenship., Technology v Humanity, Telling the truth., The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Truth, Unanswered Questions., We can leave a legacy worthwhile., WHAT IS MONEY?, What Needs to change in the World

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(Eighteen-minute read) 

First, money is a medium of exchange that lets us earn, buy, and sell completely different things in the same units.

On top of this, money is also a unit of account—i.e. it lets us put the prices of very different things in the same terms.

This is why private wealth impacts public life, with the world of politics full of lobbyists. 

Money has always shaped the process of political competition and influences policymaking but most of us are unaware of how money works, behind the scenes in the political theater, it is a year-round issue that dictates the daily life of the nation.

Money finds its way into politics in myriad ways — 

Any political campaign lives or dies by its funding and for a long time, there has been a popular myth about how everyday voters who outnumber the wealthy will collectively donate more money than the few donations of the wealthy.

The influence of cash within politics could be called dark money.

It turns politicians’ existence into serving their donors instead of their voters, which affects the policies they support, how they allocate government spending, and their expressed values.

Regardless of our personal feelings, money makes the world (and democracy) go round.

It seems unfathomable that these external entities have such leverage in our election process.

Whether elected officeholders betray their voters, prioritizing interest groups or single campaign donors, remains a question to be answered in the public sphere. 

The super-wealthy class is almost single-handedly funding elections, which impacts our government’s overall functionality and integrity, meaning the power lies in the hands of few.

Cash has become a determining factor for who wins the most crucial elections like the president of the USA. 

most expensive presidential campaign

 

Since 1980 if you add it all up it comes to $ 105 billion 349 million.   

There’s way way way too much money in politics and most of it is having a corrupting, undue influence and locking out the voices that count.

For too long, money has been the one thing that has reigned supreme in a democracy.  

The influx of cash from corporations and interest groups sways the ways our political leaders pass legislation that supports these entities, regardless of the public’s best interest.

It allows corporations to buy leverage that alters the fabric of our economy.

                              ———————————

Fighting undue influence and corruption from political financing requires a clear understanding of the difference between unlawful influence on public administration and behavior and breach of trust of voters.

The former requires precise regulation of those sectors of administration that usually lend themselves to compensate campaign donors.

The potential entry point in the public sector can vary along with several channels of influence.

Beyond political advertising and election contributions, cash is influential in the lobbying industry. 

A ridiculous game in which corporations are people and money is magically empowered to speak. Allowing people and corporate interest groups and others to spend an unlimited amount of unidentified money has enabled certain individuals to swing any and all elections.  Donal Trump and referendums like Brexit.

While banning all campaign donations is an option, a comprehensive approach will take into account private agents who can resort to lobbying, personal networks, or corruption.

The truth requires that we call the corrosion of money in politics what it is – it is a form of corruption and it muzzles more of us than it empowers, and it is an imbalance that the world has taught us can only sow the seeds of unrest.

                                               —————

Money cannot always buy the best election results – Trump – Robert Mugabe – Crown Prince Abdullah – Kim Jong-un – Bashar al-Assad –Saparmurat Niyazov –  Putin – Idi Amin Saddam Hussein – Mengistu Haile Mariam – Augusto Pinochet – Pol Pot – Charles Taylor – Suharto – Mobutu Seko to name just a few dead and alive.

As of today, there are 50 dictatorships in the world.

But the millionaire class and the billionaire class increasingly own the political process, and they own the politicians that go to them for money.

It’s time to get big money out of politics., and have a system of scrutiny to ensure that no special access or call time with rich donors or big-dollar fundraisers to permanently eliminate big money from our politics and return it to the people.

                                —————-

Our democracy shouldn’t be bought and paid for by the wealthy and powerful.

It belongs to all of us or does it with the arrival of Big data the next currency of politics now being used to directly influence our decisions.

Data brings change to much more than just the commercial side of our lives.

We have to acknowledge that our data has much more than just a “one-shot” value.

The fact that Facebook and other social networks collect data on us is presented as something outrageous but not in the political world.  

Putting you into an “opinion bubble” by better targeting political ads and thus motivating you to actually go and vote, and become (unknowingly) an ambassador for the power that has you in its aim, exists. 

Data as a Political Asset: valuable stores of existing data on potential voters exchanged between political candidates, acquired from national repositories, or sold or exposed to those who want to leverage them

Data as Political Intelligence: data that is accumulated and interpreted by political campaigns to learn about voters’ political preferences and to inform campaign strategies and priorities, including creating voter profiles and testing campaign messaging.

Data as Political Influence: data that is collected, analyzed, and used to target and reach potential voters with the aim of influencing or manipulating their views or votes.

In reality, the same problems with money and now data have existed for years, with huge amounts of personal data being sold to corporate clients. And yet, we only start panicking when we see how the illegal, or barely legal trade of our life patterns collected by social networks impacts our political choices.

Knowing where we spend our time, what media we watch, what books we read, what food we prefer, and what words are we most likely to use in our tweets makes the difference.

But what is it that makes the politicians “addicted to big data like it’s campaign cash”,

Unfortunately, this “addiction” to data has induced politicians and their campaign managers into the same illusion that businesses are struggling with right now:

Big data allows reliable prediction and, obviously, politics, as the very structure of societal governance, is heavily impacted.

It is, indeed, a problem.

The amount of information that companies have about who we are and what we are as social units is so huge, that it is this data reshaping the very fabric of our societies.

Most people believe — because of huge public buzz scandals like the one of Cambridge Analytica — that big data in politics serves the goals of better manipulation.

The issue of data collection in the interest of the political actors must not be reduced to just cynical Frank Underwood-style power brokers buying data on where we eat and what we watch on Netflix and who our friends are to better sell us their quotes about how they are gonna make our lives better.

The overwhelming power of the big brother that tracks our every step raises the question.  If societies value equality of information, open debate, and transparency, these trends should be of concern?

One thing we know for sure is that the clear trend of getting more and more data involved in political campaigning and decision-making is there.

Without considering these questions, there is a danger that any response may have unintended consequences and fail to advance the principles we want to uphold.

Bribery is human nature and the only way to expose it is with transparency requirements that enable the media, public interest groups, and parties to engage in this debate.

The manipulation of the future political result, by algorithms is only a click away.

We will still need (yes, NEED) tons of “money in politics.”

Without big donors, how many Independent candidates will be able to go up against the dark money and deep, oligarch pockets?

Ok, let’s figure out where that money goes. 

All human comments are appreciated. All like clicks chucked in the bin.

 

THE BEADY EYE ASKS. WHAT IS BORROWING? WHAT IS MONEY?

22 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by in 2021. The year for change., COVID-19, Human values., Inequality., POST COVID-19., WHAT IS BORROWING?, WHAT IS MONEY?, What Needs to change in the World

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(Fifteen-minute read)

 

As you know the workings of the world of finance are screaming compilated.

All money is created as debt and destroyed when repaid.

Money originated as commodity money, but nearly all contemporary money systems are based on fiat money. ( Fiat money does not have intrinsic value and does not have use-value.) 

It has value only because a government maintains its value, or because parties engaging in exchange agree on its value.

There are three major theories regarding the origin of money:-

1 Money was created for trading purposes;

2 Money was created for social purposes;

3 Money was created for religious purposes.

Money is an unconditional means of payment, a token for wealth, worthless of itself, but symbolizing wealth because it is enshrined in law. It is then administered by Governments as a public resource, for and on behalf of the People.

Money today has no connection with earthly resources, and actually many earthly resources are diminishing while money (or at least the number on the pieces of paper) gets bigger and bigger.

I think we’d soon find out how money has stopped us from appreciating the true value of the earth we live on.

In the coming years, we need to get this reality of money out to everyone.

I imagine the scenario whereby ‘money’ in its present form disappeared in a flash, there would be no physical change in anything, just a lot of renegotiation.

With Facebook’s Libra looming on the horizon and the Covid-19 pandemic further depressing the use of physical cash perhaps it’s time for Central Bank digital currency (CBDC) to be introduced.

To give policymakers more effective tools to support the economy, particularly during times of crisis, while maintaining financial stability. Allowing central banks to distribute newly created public money directly to citizens rather than going through financial markets. 

What happens if the world does not return to normalcy within, say, a few years?

If so, governments will find themselves writing enormous cheques every month to sustain comatose economies. If that happens, all bets are off.

The bottom line is, we are not at the mercy of just a virus but a world economic depression with governments issuing epic amounts of debt. For now, confronted by an overwhelming emergency, governments have little choice but to engage in deficit spending on a giant scale, embarking on one of the greatest peacetime borrowing binges in history.

This is and should be raising many questions when it comes to borrowing, severely tests the question of how much the governments can borrow.

Apart from the tragic human consequences of the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic, the economic uncertainty will likely cost the global economy trillions. 

In fact, the urgent question isn’t whether countries can afford to take on more debt. It’s whether they’re taking on enough debt to fund the stimulus programs necessary to avert an even deeper downturn.

There’s a degree of anxiety now that’s well beyond the health scares which are very serious and concerning. No matter how expensive an outpouring of government aid may seem right now, it is cheaper than dealing with a depression down the road.

After all, it consists of one arm of government creating money in order to buy debt issued by another arm of government,  which looks perilously close to a shell game in which central banks monetize government debt and distort markets. 

The amount a government can borrow depends on many factors, such as

  • Does it print its own currency?
  • Do markets trust the government to maintain low inflation and not default?
  • What is the interest rate on government bonds?
  • What is the state of the economy?
  • What is the purpose of government borrowing?
  • To what extent is the government borrowing from domestic or foreign investors?

Should we worry about the long-term effects of this new borrowing?

Without question, the new debt will leave taxpayers with a significantly larger burden to carry in years to come.

Some commentators believe debt-challenged governments may eventually be forced to go even further and turn to “helicopter money,” a maneuver in which central banks would simply create money, without issuing any corresponding debt, and the government would funnel the new cash to people and businesses.

The lender of last resort.

If there is no lender of last resort. 

The nightmare scenario where the virus continues to suffocate the global economy for a year or more would lead to the unpardonable sin of blurring the distinction between fiscal and monetary policy.

Disaster Capitalism.  

But until we win the battle against COVID-19, and revive our battered economies, we are in uncharted territory. Best to not rule anything out.

The economic impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus will be different than anything we have seen before. 

This is the calm before the storm.

How far can a currency fall before the government has to protect its citizens from the effects of a worthless currency? 

STIMULUS DOES NOT NECESSITATE EXTRA DEBT.

Money should become Man’s servant rather than his master.

In fact, central banks act as a broker between the governments and private bankers who lend the nation its own national currency at interest.

It does this by issuing gilt-edged bonds.

Markets are allowing all the major countries to borrow plenty at ultra-low rates of interest, underpinned by Central Banks buying up a lot of the debt.

This only has to change where inflation picks up, which so far it has not.

Inflation reduces the real value of the government debt, but, that means people will be less willing to hold government bonds.  

Inflation will require higher interest rates to attract people to keep bonds. In theory, the government can print money to reduce the real value of debt; but existing savers will lose out.

If the government creates inflation, it will be more difficult to attract savings in the future.

But in an economic depression, inflationary pressures vanish so it is much easier to finance a deficit by borrowing.

So do government debt and deficits don’t matter.

2021 will be the first year where the three main economies or trading blocs of the world – the US, the European Union (EU), and China – will refocus their efforts on fighting climate change.

Can the world afford this avalanche of new borrowing?

With the coming economic depression and the need to redefine our association with nature, while addressing climate change, and getting control of the pandemics there is no choice. 

It sticks out like a sore thumb if we are to win the war against this virus inequality has to be addressed by paying for the protection of our ecosystems.

In other words, to make it less profitable to destroy rather than to create. 

This can be achieved without the need to borrow with the technology we have at our disposal by placing a 0.05% World Aid Commission on all activities that generate profit for profit’s sake. ( See previous posts) 

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once society gains control of the issue of money, it cannot let the bankers issue money ever again. 

 

 

providing a safe public form of money and breaking the oligopoly that banks currently have on the digital money and payments system.

 

It does need standards and global agreements but the potential advantages clearly outwiegh the disadvantages.

endorsed digital currency is the way forward> this potentially is a great (and cheaper) way to distribute money to where its needed and this is more importnat than ever right know for obvious reasons.

Created money is already inflationary,

 


BORROWING COMES IN FORTY SHADES OF GRAY

a surge in misleading and unsubstantiated medical advice since the Covid-19 outbreak.

The first is that borrowing has been historically high in recent years following the financial crisis in the late noughties,

the deficit

GDP reflecting the need to spend and borrow to win the war.

Bank of England is buying in substantial quantities of the debt.

There is no need to count the interest paid on the debt owned by the Bank of England, as taxpayers and government get that receipt.

The debt taken on by the UK now has to be serviced by the following generations. And what are they getting in return for that debt? Just about nothing.

Quantative easing, which is bond buying by central banks

as it’s known in the jargon –

 

Covid is going to be around in the world for decadesa

possible total deficit of £7 trn by 2050.

By hoovering up domestic bonds, these central banks are creating artificial demand for bonds and thereby driving down interest rates (which move in the opposite direction to bond prices).

Central banks’ balance sheets are expanding furiously as they gobble up government bonds and other forms of debt.

 

 

” Selling out ” is a part of life.

05 Tuesday May 2015

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Imagine if the world map was redrawn not based on territories and treaties, but money and power.

This might be the best way to control the populations of the world.

It’s Not A ‘Law Of Capitalism’ That You Pay Your Employees As Little As Possible.

It is a choice.

Its a Fight Against Wage Slavery and Corporate Greed.

Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.

One company’s “wages” are other companies’ revenues.

Once you understand that “wages” become “revenues,” you can begin to understand what has happened to our economy over the past 30 years.

“Wages” aren’t just an expense line on a single company’s income statement.

Why?

Because the employees who are paid those wages use the wages to buy things–houses, food, clothing, cars, vacations, you name it. And in buying those things, they create revenue for other companies.

So, when wages go down as a percent of the economy, companies may get more profitable, but the employees paid those wages (or not paid any wages worth while if they are on No Hours Contracts at the Minimum Wage) have less money to spend. And that lack of spending power eventually hurts the revenue growth of most companies in the economy.

You don’t have to be a Professor of Economics to understand that producing stuff that the majority of the population can not afford leads to discontent all around.

The more income becomes concentrated at the very top of the economy, the less money is spent on the goods and services produced by the economy.

Because the people who spend most of the money–the average English or American–have less to spend the economy becomes greedier.

We are all being royally screwed over by bureaucrats, with their luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

Our companies have become extraordinarily profitable. But they have become extraordinarily profitable at the expense of their rank-and-file-employees, who have not shared in this prosperity and do not have much money to spend.

Only the companies’ owners have benefited with their shareholders developing a warped consensus that the only value that companies create is financial (cash) and that the only thing managers and owners should ever worry about is making more of it.

As a result, although our companies are extraordinarily profitable they are growing slowly.

Why?

Because the middle class–which contributes most of the work and most of the spending in our economy–has not shared in our companies’ prosperity.

The trend reflects growing concerns about the disproportionate spread of low-wage jobs in the U.S. and English/European economy, creating millions of financially strained workers and putting too little money in consumers’ pockets to spur faster economic growth.

Now you might think that all of this is hog wash but lets return to opening remarks of this post .

If we were to take the World according to Monsanto.

Seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be collected. We will depend on them for every seed we grow of every crop we grow. If they control seed, they control food, they know it – it’s strategic. It’s more powerful than bombs. It’s more powerful than guns.

If we take Google.

Every day that goes by Google becomes both more powerful.

Through G Mail Google stores and never deletes your email.

They catalog it and can do a LOT with that data. With time google can write robots to parse the data to find out every bit of data about you, who you know, what you talk about, etc.

G mail bundled with Orkut Google really has a solid grip on your social network with more detail and structure than email alone. Google knows who joebob62@aol.com really is, where he lives, what his pass times are, etc and can link it up with your email conversations. Now to get even further into your life they have the Google Desktop Search which has already been called on being invasive bypassing security on people’s PC’s and cataloging files that it shouldn’t.

http://onforb.es/1irxkWo

These are just two examples.

Certain industries dominate the global business landscape.

It is no surprise that banks and diversified financials still dominate thanks to their outsize revenues and massive total assets. The next three biggest industries are oil & gas (125 companies), insurance (114), and utilities (110). In terms of growth, the semiconductor industry leads all sectors in sales (up 11%); diversified financial companies in aggregate have an astounding 90% growth rate in profit; construction leads asset growth (up 18%).

Are we worried, not on you nanny.

Is the “commodity super cycle” nearing the end? All evidence seems to point to “yes.”

We have Governments elected to represent the people who are selling of your country assets for short-term profit to prop-up their shrinking economies. ( see previous posts)

We have world organisations that are total out of date, overburdened with bureaucrats, void of funds.

We have Media run by computers.

We have Sovereign Wealth Funds plundering the Earth for resources such as water, energy, land.

We have an English General Election in the next two days with the present Government that bailed out the Banks with Billions of tax payers money, now offering the share back to the tax payer at a discount. Somebody explain.

It’s no better across the pond.

In the USA they have turned war into profit. There are over 100,000 private contractors to run everything from security detail to weapons training to air surveillance of your enemies.

Normally, the military is accountable to the government.

Not so with private security companies. Private firms like Black Water and Dyn Corp have graciously offered to fill in the gaps.

Privatization is all the rage.

What we need is for the people of the earth to be represented, with sustainability, not greed.

This will never be achievable so why not make Greed contribute. ( See 0.05% WORLD AID COMMISSION)

Of course this in not the whole story.

There is the power of the Mobil Phone yet to be exploited by us not the other way around.  There is spending power probable more powerful than the vote.

“For the first time in many years, the people who put fuel in jets might just be able to buy a ticket on one.”