The Need for Infrastructure
Demands are rising, particularly in Asia, and there are big plans for infrastructure in Australia as the population doubles. It is much easier to grasp the economic power of successful infrastructure investment when you analyze economies on a place-based basis. For control purposes, place-based investment and economic disclosure have traditionally been challenging…or even absent. Hence, the contribution of infrastructure on financial returns is not obvious to many observers or retail investors.
§ 2nd Qtr Wrap Up 2015: Infrastructure
The Missing Money
I started writing about the “missing money” in the year 2000 when my attorney discovered reports of enormous “undocumented adjustments” at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. More recently, I have mentioned money that went missing from the US Department of Defense during fiscal year 2015.
§ DOD and HUD Missing Money: Supporting Documentation
§ Solari: The Missing Money
§ Crazy Man Versus Criminal: Cut and Run, Monica Lewinsky II & Real Trouble Ahead
§ Missing Money: Supporting Documentation
§ The Missing Money
§ More on the Missing Money
§ The Financial Coup d’État & Missing Money
§ Solari Missing Money Page
§ WhereistheMoney.org
Mr. Global
§ Will the Real Mr. Global please stand up?
§ Precious Metals Market Report – Mr. Global’s Squeeze Play
Pension Funds and the Deep State Drain
§ Pension Funds
Planet Debt
History shows us that using standing armies to achieve one’s objectives via force can be very costly. In contrast, ensnaring populations in legal and financial mechanisms that serve the empire (enforced by the local aristocracy) is preferable: it is more efficient and less costly. Debt and financial arrangements are far more effective tools of projecting power and centralizing control than are the use of force and standing armies.
§ Planet Debt
§ Annual Wrap Up 2014: Planet Debt
Planet Equity
The global equity markets have grown by $60 trillion over the last 25 years, from approximately $11 trillion to $70 trillion. Some of this growth has come from debasement of global currencies. As more money is printed, the value of stocks go up while the currency in which they are denominated loses value – but not because corporate profits have risen or companies are worth more. Indeed, one of the reasons why predictions of hyperinflation (as a result of expansionary monetary policy) have not materialized is because this securitization process is soaking up a great deal of excess liquidity.
§ Planet Equity
§ Annual Wrap Up 2014: Planet Equity
The Popsicle Index
I conceived the notion of the Popsicle Index while serving in the first Bush administration. I was looking for a “mechanism” to help community members collaborate in a manner that would optimize their collective well-being and generate the highest emotional intelligence while doing so.
After various iterations, I chose a popsicle as the object to be sourced by a child who was free to walk to the nearest location to access something children like to eat (inspired by Neal Pierce’s description of a child’s “room to roam” during the early 1990s). I used the expression throughout the 1990s as I was working on community venture funds. I found it to be an invaluable tool for encouraging conversations within a community. It was always remarkable to watch children and parents discover their enormously different perceptions of the local Popsicle Index (or men and women). I would see their “Ah ha!” moments as they discussed cost-effective actions and changes that would positively impact their Popsicle Index.
§ Commentary: The Popsicle Index
§ A Conversation About the Popsicle Index
§ Q2 Wrap Up 2016: Productivity, Prosperity
Precious Metals
Although markets are always changing, some of our comments on precious metals are classics.
§ Precious Metals Asset Allocation
§ Allergic to Numismatics
§ GLD & SLV: Disclosure in the Precious Metals Puzzle Palace
Promoting Women
Clearly, a decision has been made at the highest levels to promote women in the post-financial coup d’État world. The new Fed chairperson is a woman. The head of the IMF is a woman. The heads of General Motors and IBM are women. For heaven’s sake, the new mayor of Paris is a woman. The airwaves are full of the lessons learned by a high-ranking female Facebook executive who, until Edward Snowden came along, may not have understood the business she was in. The latest Vanity Fair magazine has a photo shoot of women leaders – one of hundreds of “puff” pieces in major media over the last few months.
§ Commentary:Commentary: Promoting Women
§ Promoting Women Part I
§ Promoting Women Part II
§ Promoting Women Part I11
§ Promoting Women Part IV
§ Promoting Women Part V
§ Promoting Women Part VI
§ Promoting Women Part VII
§ Dressing Fascism in Skirts
Re-Balancing the Global Economy
The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) spanned from 1986 to 1994 and led to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, with GATT remaining as an integral part of the WTO agreements. This process resulted in a significant liberalization of the flow of capital globally at the same time that the fall of the Soviet Union inspired Russia, Eastern Europe, and China to create equity markets and more market-oriented economies.
§ Video: Sir James Goldsmith’s 1994 Globalization Warning
§ Annual Wrap Up 2014: A Free and Inspired Life
The Red Button
In the summer of 2000, I asked a group of 100 people at a conference of spiritually committed people “Who among us would push a red button if it would immediately stop all narcotics trafficking in our neighborhood, city, state, and country?” Of the 100 people, 99 replied that they would not push such red button. When questioned, they explained that they did not want the value of their mutual funds to drop if the U.S. financial system suddenly stopped attracting an estimated $500 billion-$1 trillion a year in global money laundering. They did not want their government checks jeopardized or their taxes raised because of problems resulting from the financing of the federal government deficit.
§ The Red Button Problem
§ The Red Button Story
The Shift from Global 2.0 to Global 3.0
Integration of new digital communications and information technology – much of it transferred out of black budget research and operations – is moving us from an industrial economy (Global 2.0) to a networked economy (Global 3.0). As this integration occurs, we are seeing a significant gap in learning metabolism and economic growth between the old and the new economies.
§ Annual Wrap Up 2013: Breakaway 2014
§ 1st Qtr Wrap Up 2014: Reorganizing the Global Consumer
§ 3rd Qtr Wrap Up 2014: Global 3.0
The Shriek-O-Meter
The Shriek-O-Meter has primarily been designed to prevent an intelligent discussion of the US Federal Budget. In 2014, the Republicans won the Senate using the Ebola Shriek-O-Meter. As a result, the Shriek-O-Meter was one of our top stories that year. In 2017, the Shriek-O-Meter has intensified as it shrieks about terrorism and the new boogeyman: Russia.
The message is: “Be scared, be very scared!” But fear is damaging to your immune system. It would be better to ignore the Shriek-O-Meter than to fear what it is shrieking about. It would be best, in fact, to turn off any televisions, media reports, or politicians that promote the Shriek-O-Meter. The logic behind the Shriek-O-Meter is that approval ratings for governments are at (or near) all-time lows. This means that the general population might be poised to take significant action, including:
§ Insisting on real candidates and elections.
§ Escrowing their taxes.
§ Bringing court cases to require the government to obey financial laws.
§ Demanding financial transparency.
§ Organizing armed militias to stop unlawful seizure of assets by the government.
§ Engaging in citizen arrests in response to violations of the law by government officials.
Surveys show that the same people who give government very low approval ratings are also very concerned about terrorism and believe that the government is doing a good job dealing with terrorism. The surveys show that these people used to be concerned about jobs and the economy. However, ongoing attacks in Europe and the United States have them more worried about terrorism.