Saturday, October 11, 2008

Economic Crisis - Conspiracy and the New World Order?

I have had some comments that have suggested that the crisis is all a big conspiracy for a new world order. As regular readers will be aware, I am more inclined towards the principle of foolishness and stupidity. I followed a link to the Daily Kos, and had a quick look through an article to get a feel for a feel of how these theories are being presented. I remain unconvinced that this is all the result of a plot, but do have concerns at the power that might be taken by government resultant from nationalisations, and the cosying up of world leaders to 'fix' the problems. The latter brings to mind a quote from Adam Smith:
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." (1)
Whilst not entirely apt, I think that the idea carries over to this well. This leads neatly into the current state of the panic that is driving countries to act in unison. There is this from the IMF Chief Economist, reported in the Times:
'“Intensifying solvency concerns about a number of the largest US-based and European financial institutions have pushed the global financial system to the brink of systemic meltdown.” Countries would need to take further measures, including interest rate cuts and steps to bolster the banks. '
And the result of this panic can be found in another Times article:
'THE government will launch the biggest rescue of Britain’s high-street banks tomorrow when the UK’s four biggest institutions ask for a £35 billion financial lifeline. The unprecedented move will make the government the biggest shareholder in at least two banks'
As the conspiracy theorists have correctly identified, there is the G7 agreement that there will coordinated action, and it is looking ever more likely that the action of the UK government will be a template for the actions of other governments. I will not rehash all the latest news on the crisis from around the world, as I think the IMF Chief Economist has neatly summarised the situation, and the rest is a matter of detail. Meanwhile, one of the interesting outcomes is that several commentators have noted that this crisis and the international grandstanding have been helpful for Gordon Brown. In the US, the lame duck presidency of Gerorge Bush is now probably beyond any such boost.

The question is whether any of this supports the idea that all of this was a conspiracy? If we view the records of those who would have to be 'in' on the conspiracy the records do not inspire much confidence in their ability to manage something so complex (and fiendish?). However, a more valid point to make is that, if we trace the underlying causes of the current crisis, as I have done on this blog (see here for an introduction) it is apparent that nobody in their right mind would have engineered this crisis. In particular, in the case of the Western world, they would have had to not only have planned the financial crisis, but also accepted as a price the loss of power and long term economic decline for the West. This is not a scenario that would appeal to conspirators, who I am guessing would seek to enhance their power overall. After all, far better to have control over an uber-powerful state than a diminished one. If they were that 'cunning' and powerful, I am sure they would have engineered a far better outcome.

Whilst it is always very exciting to imagine smoke filled rooms (think of the X-Files), filled with old guys plotting an planning their evil schemes, there really is no need for such a scenario. Stupidity, wishful thinking, herd thinking, and all of the other foibles and weaknesses to which humans are so prone are more than sufficient to explain the origins of this crisis. For the conspiracy theorists out there, sorry to disappoint, and I am sure that I will lose readers for saying this, but there has been no conspiracy. The only exception in all of this may well be China, which I believe has deliberately sought to gain economic power through whatever means, fair or foul (see post here which discusses the subject).

On the other hand I do believe that the new concentrations of power going to the state are a matter for genuine concern, as is the idea of world leaders and central bankers trying to co-ordinate the world economy. For the former, it will certainly give the state too much power, and for the latter, it should be remembered that these are largely the people that presided over the build up to this mess. However, all of the grand plans for the nationalisation of financial systems rest on the idea that the Western economies are going to be able to continue to borrow their way out of trouble, and I have often expressed my reservations about how long this can continue. There have been stories circulating in the news of other organisations going cap in hand to governments for bailouts, and it is impossible to see how governments can, through borrowing, support this level of damage.

Overall, my largest concern is that government intervention in the markets is a large part of the cause of this crisis. In regulating the banks, they allowed everyone to become complacent about the operations of the banks. For those who are not regular readers, and have been hearing endlessly about lax regulation, you will need to read my post here. Essentially, in trying to regulate away the risk of bank failure, governments have set up a system in which failure is likely to be catastrophic. An occasional bank failure serves to remind us all that the banking system needs careful attention. On top of this the poor measures of GDP, the misuse of interest rates, and many other factors suggest that governments are a large part of the problem (I discuss some of these problems here)

As such, based on the record of governments, my worry has consistently been that governments will do more harm than good, and governments acting in concert is therefore an even more worrying development.

I think that I will leave it there for the moment. It will be interesting to see what events the start of the week will bring. How will the concerted action be enacted, and will it create a momentary calm, or will the storm continue unabated? If it is calm, it will simply be the eye of the hurricane, and the full force of the storm will resume in time.....

(1) Adam Smith., The Wealth of Nations, Book V, Chapter I, Part III, Article III

As a note, have others seen the conspiracy theory predicting the 'Amero' (I think) as a replacement for the $US. I have seen it referenced a couple of times, but would like to get a good reference on what it is all about. It is more than likely as unfounded as the other conspiracy theories, but I try to keep an open mind. As such, if you have one, I would appreciate you posting a link in the comments.

Note 2: For some reason something went wrong with the formatting on the blog - thus the changes. For a little while, about an hour or two, the home page was not showing correctly. Apologies if you found it with this problem.....

Note 3: I have had a long comment from an anonymous poster (see below). He apologises for a long comment. However, there is no need to apologise as I welcome all comments. Another poster comments that they had problem leaving a comment. I am not sure why this would be the case, but my editorial policy on comments are that they are all posted, provided that they do not use abusive language or spam the blog. To date (happily) I have not encountered either of these problems, so have published all comments. As such, I am not sure what prevented the publishing of the first post from the commentator, but would assure those who wish to comment and disagree with me that their comments will be published (within the limitations I have just mentioned). In the meantime (for the commentator who had a problem) please accept my apologies that you had a problem in getting your comment published, and I hope that you will accept my assurance that this was not due to my editing it out. As a final note, one commentator posted a link which was somehow chopped. The link is as below:

http://disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/9899/NAU__Hal_Turner_Shows_New_AMERO_Currency/

Note 4: Yet more glitches here. I have just noted that the home page is showing zero comments on the post, despite there being several comments. However, if you click on the comments link below, the comments are there. I have also checked in other parts of the blog, and the comments are fine. Please accept my apologies for all of these problems, and I will try to work out what is going on. I am hoping that the problems are just with this post (though I can see no reason why this would be the case).

Note 5: I have viewed the link provided on the Amero, and dug around a little bit, including viewing the blog of Hal Turner. The first point of note is that the only evidence provided is a coin which he claims is the Amero (having a coin made I would guess is not very difficult). No other evidence. The next point is that he is a white supremecist, and that gives me cause to doubt his motivations. I followed some of the links, and none of it was backed by evidence. However, the one thing that I believe is correct is that there is likely to be a $US collapse, but that is a different thing from saying that the 'Amero conspiracy' is real, or something that has been planned. In short, I have seen nothing to persuade me of a plot. As such, I invite any hard evidence (leaked documents verified as genuine by a reputable source etc.) to support the Amero conspiracy.

10 comments:

  1. I think there is too much credible compelling evidence not to be ignored, not only on the NAU but a deluge of similar information on the NWO.

    All I can do is keep an open mind and fine tune my radar.

    ://disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/9899/NAU__Hal_Turner_Shows_New_AMERO_Currency/

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  2. No matter how you view this current economic crisis and how it fits in with today's modern world, one must admit that since the the fall of Soviet communism the world has been turned on its head.

    Here is something I tried to post the other day, I'm not sure whether it got through so I will post it again here......

    "I cannot see how the political can be separated from the economic, both are joined at the hip.

    In both the social and public sphere, unfettered individual freedom is the neo liberal mantra of the day.

    Both left and right of the political spectrum have absorbed and practice this philosophy, hence we have consensus politics.

    IOW, there is no choice, left and right are also joined at the hip.

    Cameron, Brown, uncle Tom Cobley, it's of no consequence, we are all liberal now.

    Unfettered, unregulated capitalism (surprise, surprise) has led to excess and pure greed from the corporate right, and sub prime madness from the liberal left.

    Simply put, it is in this context that the present economic debacle must be framed and viewed.

    Once you accept this, all else falls into place."....end

    Of course you could have received it and declined to post it.

    I think since new labour came to power the world I knew has vanished, I think Blair was engineered into government to carry through the NWO agenda.

    Brown is reivigorated as he gets to help his Marxist dream nearer to reality. Make no mistake, this is an Anglo American bid by the elites to realise their dreams too.

    To sum up, (for now) I've been looking at this for four years now, and what strikes me most is, the more circumstances appear to be insane, the more credible they become.

    Huge volumes will be written by future historians chronicalling these events, all we can do is scratch the surface, the more people who become aware, the more information will become available.

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  3. My personal opinion is that the "conspiracy" is not some shadowy cabal trying to create disaster in order to gain; rather a bunch of semi-competent leaders having predicted the upcoming disaster planning moves that will quell what scares them the most - the population uprising and throwing them out because of the mess they have created.

    All government's and power block's run disaster management - its part of their job to try to foresee events in order to properly manage them - the worst case has to be measured and appropriate action taken. The problem comes when the action being considered is wholly towards preserving the status-quo by threat or deliverance of force, when the real solution should be to change the system.

    The powers that be have allowed the credit bubble to build up though lax regulation the "free market" illusion that has been proselytized for the past few decade's has led governments to think that any regulation is bad regulation and thus idiotic practices such as repackaging of debts have been allowed though to the stage where banks can't even tell how much bad debt they are liable for, and ending with the current situation where they are too scared to lend any more, and so on.

    Now I understand some of the reason's behind the distrust of regulation - Government bureaucracy can stagnate finance, is slow to react to crisis, often interferes politically etc. But the current situation shows us the opposite extreme - greed leading to excess risk and financial crisis.

    Clearly there has to be a better balance struck - the question is not just what regulation is applied, but how the regulation is managed itself - it has to be flexible enough to bend when required but be solid enough to stop bad practices before they cause disaster. I confess I do not know the best way forward, but when two extreme viewpoints keep arguing their way is better despite all the evidence to the contrary I cannot help wanting to bang their heads together and saying "ffs learn to compromise instead of parroting your opinion and slagging each other off" (this is not aimed at anyone on here btw)

    George Sorus had this to say
    http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10102008/watch.html

    GEORGE SOROS:There was a failure of regulations because they couldn't understand these new instruments. But they said, "Oh, well, the banks have very good risk management techniques. So we leave it to them to calculate their own risks."

    The point is being made that the regulations are part of the problem but only because they were drafted in a way that assumed that the free market worked in the way they thought it did, and could magically correct itself.

    While governments were criticized as being fallible to understanding the markets, the same people criticizing were pushing derivatives they barely understood while assuming it would be ok as the market would self correct.

    Will the bankers, hedge fund managers admit they were wrong and have brought this on themselves (and us) and work to a compromise that will admit that BOTH can get it wrong and so the correct regulation can be passed that will benefit all? Or will we be stuck in partisan rhetoric where nothing is achieved?

    Back to my original point. The sudden U-turn with major governments putting large amounts of national money into the banks seems to be a panic measure, and an ill thought out one as panic measures tend to be.

    The conspiracies regarding NWO FEMA etc are due to people reading some of the disaster scenarios that have been found out and posted to various blogs. No government will not plan for the worst, why would so many nuclear bunkers that have never been used have been built during the cold war if not for such planning. In hindsight a waste of money, but at the time it was sensible to prepare.

    The gloomy part of the planning is the nature of the planning. What is getting the "theorists" upset is that the plans are assuming that the public are the enemy and would need to be controlled, by force if necessary. Coupled with the fact that privacy and civil liberties have been thrown out of the window for a false sense of security. This does not fit well with our sense of a proper democracy, and the fact that if a tyrant WERE to try to take over most of the safeguards have already been eroded in the name of combating "terrorism"

    Sorry for the long post

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  4. George Bush's better world speech 2002. We want every American to own their own home.

    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vLUbb2DUYGk

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  5. Thanks for clarifying your posting criteria. I think you have got it right.

    Note 3. On that particular post I edited to and fro in conjunction with the preview facility, I can only conclude it was me who lost the plot - no reflection on your behalf.

    Thanks for your hard work - much appreciated. Let's see what is in store for us next week.

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  6. Do some more research on NWO,
    This conspiracy theory had been planned since before 911, 2001. One World Bank , One world currency standard.
    The only way this could happen was through a melt down or collapse of the market, not just our but a world market.
    There are only a few that can plan such a thing, but those are the ones pulling all the strings. (Men in Black)
    Don't be foolish. I knew this was going to happen years ago.
    Remember we only get what is spoon fed by the media.

    Here take a number SS or CC and be a part of a system, if not good luck in surviving in Babylon.

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  7. All you have to do is read the Bible to see what is going on here. Its really not that hard to figure out. Rome is on a come back to rule the world like they did in Biblical times. We Aremicans are lazy and letting our freedoms go and dont even know it. Satan has infiltrated American in the form of the Roman Catholic Church and all its wealth. They are being controlled by the Vatican and all the lies they tell their followers will eventually result in the great tribulation. It is all going as planned. Most people are too dumb to notice. They feel something wierd is happening, but don't really know what it is. The Jesuit leaders in our communities all over America are seceretly deceiving the public with all their scare tactics and free schools to the poor to making the American people hand over their wealth and freedoms to their government. They teach blasphemies and lies. They are on a mission, but don't know it. They have been deceived by Satan and the Antichrist to fulfill the phrophecies. There will be a new world order, or better know as the transatlantic common market, which seems to help, but in the end we will have no freedoms at all. In the end one government (the vatican)wll control the whole world and if you dont accept their mark you will not buy or sell anything. What is happening is supposed to happen and no one can stop it. I will die before I bow down to the Pope or worship him.So when in Rome-DO NOT DO AS THE ROMANS DO-or you accept the mark of the beast.

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  8. What do you think about this ? http://vimeo.com/3946700

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  9. anyone ?
    Can a Free Market save world economy ?

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  10. Is Anonymous the only person who posts here?

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