FB had something to say about the normalization of corruption that describes our time:

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”

I think capitalism ends in so much abundance that no one gives a shit.

0% interest rates, meme stocks, puts and calls going up simultaneously, sure looks like an end game scenario.

The big flaw of capitalism..
One day all the super rich (super useless) will realize the world seizes to go round without ground level hard workers and skilled people.

you mean robots, right? ;0

When banks create a new loan they must also create an equal and opposite liability, in the form of a new demand deposit. Meaning when banks loan they create money out of thin air. They simply make it exist.

There is a really good series on YouTube that goes in to great depth about how it all works.

https://www.youtube.com/user/whygoldandsilver

nice man, thanks for sharing will 100% be putting this on later

I binged watched the series in one night. No regrets haha. Really gets the brain matter flowing. That link is to his main channel, it seems he has a lot of new content. Even some videos on crypto.

This is the link to his main series I was talking about, that goes in to great depth on banking, the federal reserve, fiat currency and economics as a whole. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyV0OfU3-FU&list=PLE88E9ICdipidHkTehs1VbFzgwrq1jkUJ

thanks muchly, think you might like richard werner

I do indeed. Interesting solutions. Mike's series (if I remember correctly, it's been a few years) doesn't really go in to any solutions to the many economical issues we have, if at all. So this was a nice listen. Ty!

Exactly this above comment💯🙊👍 surprising as it is the banks have the ability to create you a loan out of practically thin air. That money is made real by you paying it back in full then the bank makes between 12-38% on it in interest depending on your personally credit rating from you in apr

Quantitative Easing.

The ECB have been doing it for years, with no federal reserve at all.

All countries do it to a greater or lesser extent.

The reason the (US) dollar is so popular is they have a federal reserve (gold).

The reason the Euro is failing is it's based upon the German banks and their megalomaniacal desire to control Europe.

There is no EU federal reserve. Only German banks.

When the EU (and Euro) collapses, Germany will be fine, the other 26 member states will fail.

Invest as you will.

Cheers. BB

Petrodollar is interesting on another topic. What do you think ? It’s funny what is out there that the vast majority of people do not know about in the financial and political landscape. The petrodollar is perplexing to me

Money is just an I Owe U ... it says so on your GBP £ notes ! something like ... ''I promise to pay the bearer the sum of twenty pounds'' .... hmmm? but you are handing over a physical £20 note made out of paper or plastic. BUT it still is an I OWE YOU, because the actual note is a ''promise TO pay'' .. the note is not backed up by gold anymore...back in the day... money was real... now it is just digital numbers on screens, according to my limited knowledge about it. I will keep up with this thread tho, as I would like to hear what others on LB think :)

Banks also "Trade Client" funds in a range of assets from , bonds, to stocks hence why you will receive interest each month or annually on your account; that is miniscule compared to what they generate from trading your funds (which is also why your funds are insured). but there are many aspects to this and variables as i've read below each of which is pretty much true.

Spot on smokey!

"since banks work as the accountants of record – while the rest of the economy assumes they are honest accountants – it is possible for the banks to increase the money in the accounts of some of us (those who receive a loan), by simply altering the figures. Nobody else will notice, because agents cannot distinguish between money that had actually been saved and deposited and money that has been created ‘out of nothing’ by the bank” - Richard Werner

Yes if they say its "in the bank" that's all it takes to do what they want with it - regardless of whether it exists.

Banks literally print money and we are expected to accept it has value when in actual fact there is nothing backing fiat currencies anymore. Used to be that dollar was backed by gold reserves then oil but now its backed by the promise... Basically the whole world is in a debt/credit spiral that will unravial at some point...

One word. Credit.

I thought we just discovered all money, is in fact, cake.

not individual banks! but they do make money lol dont make much sense does it

little ben

yes, individual banks, check out the werner stuff in this thread. basically it's just accounting that makes them book things twice. if it's on a bank's books it is money.

When a bank makes a loan it is creating fiat currency

Money printer go brrr

All began with financial deregulation in the 1970’s . The banks just click some buttons and magic. Then you pay them back, what a business!!!

This is a major cause of inflation. They are putting money that hasn’t been earned yet from the future in todays circulation . That’s why our money 💰 s worth fuck all now. Well one of the many reasons;)

It's all about complex energy numbers.

They don't, they make up fiat currency (£, $, € ect ect) just a bar code number to give it a vaule. Money is only something that can be equally treaded fairly ie gold.

good thread :)

exit strategy

Wishful thinking, the leading VR platform is Facebook. You think you are surrounded with web surveillance? These are the good old days.

How can the rest of the world let this happen? They've rejected Facebook's crypto coin pretty easily.

It hasn't happened yet. The VR story is yet to be told

People are just people.

Cheers BB

Not for long bigga

As long as an authority is collecting taxes you are always going to wind up in the same place. Power will be used to obtain the money and money will be used to obtain power to get more money. These are rules of nature.

UK is going to shits

Swap some of your bitcoin into chainlink and ethereum and wait for the boom, cash out and take yourself off to thailand where you can live like a king, my exit strategy lol

Oh the revolution is coming… tbh it’s looking more and more appealing 😂

I think there has always been feudalism in one form or another. There is always a class that ultimately owns everything because they can confiscate it, grant it a "title" or tax it. This premise always leads to same outcome it's just a matter of how greedy or insane the current landlord is.

Everything consolidates one way or another, thats why decentralization is both great and doomed.

probably starting from the neolithic era yes with the only exception of the 20th century, the only period of history where people got a bit of control of the power. Now is going to be lost for decades to come.

We need to look on the bright side, we are actually free serfs. We are free to seek a new master and we can seek redress in the crown courts, unfree serfs couldn't. However if we hadn't spent so much bit coin here we might actually be free with the value of it now.

sometimes a imagine a stack of the coins over time and shiver. so then i buy more weed.

Wise words, Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel says the same but takes 350 odd pages.

Thanks for sharing.

I see examples of this not just on the internet but in all industries. Walk down most high streets here in the UK and they now pretty much all look identical the same shops, coffee shops and chain restaurants with very few independent offerings. The cost of rent, business rates and all the red tape make it pretty much impossible nowadays for small independents to even start up.

Watching a show about fisherman on the BBC painted a picture of the EU quota system they must use and how the industry is dominated by money and huge boats and how these owners buy up small fishing boats and take the quotas these boats have to use on the mega trawlers.

The car industry seems totally monopolised now and we actually get very little choice - notice how the different makers share chassis and engines and the only real difference you get is the interior and badge. Everything else is pretty much controlled by rules and regulations.

It is obvious that these big players of industry are in cahoots with the those that set the rules and regulations as we saw with the emissions scandal with VW and EU collaboration.

Covid and lockdowns have exacerbated the situation as many small business owners left without any financial supports have gone to the wall while government loans to the huge corporations sit unused in their bank accounts.

Truly depressing times.

This is the model dreamed up by Gabrielle D'Nunzio, Mussolini, Franco and later tried by Stroessner, Pinochet and Thatcher. Always fails cos tho i am a committed capitalist even i realise extraction cannot work for ever as either you run out of victims (Franco, Pinochet) or the victims turn on you (Mussolini, Thatcher) At least Il Duce didn't cry when his turn came, Thatcher mewled and puked like a rat.

Fascinating. Bleak. truly people have been brainwashed by the media and now vote with their wallets. Far more regulation required at the top end, we cant stop the progress, and in many ways it serves us well. Democracy can still win the day, and we can unite for the good of all people. Education is the key, and a few good humans can change the world. It cant be allowed that rampant free market capitalism destroys us. Roll on technical singularity, according to Moores law would be around 2042 but i believe the theory is faultering (Moores law) so might take a bit longer. Technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization. We have just leisure time so we study philosophy and all becone enlightened beings living in a tech utopia. Peace

Moore's law is doing fine once you abstract it to include progress besides chip density. Computation overall is on track when you include advances in software and a.i.

it will take more than economics for everyone to spend their leisure time studying philosophy. but im with you at least

Hope so but would we be the same beings, even the same species? I think Nietszche was mostly a clown but "homo, ecce homo" hits home

I call it digital feaudalism. And yes, we have never really exited the feudal system. It just morphs and transforms, keeping the 1% at the top, making almost all the rest their slaves.

yes, were hard wired for this shit

Nice hook

Like the last feudal era they will ultimately fail IMO. Biden, bezos, bj and the two conos in NZ & Canada are only one mad bomber away from losing all the kleptocratic gains they have extracted. Putin and Xi poss a battalion or two away. Even if the above are stopped there are always despots trying their luck. The better angels of our nature (thanks Pinker, S) have always stayed in the fight so that the new boss is NOT always the same as the old boss (thanks Townshend, P)

But why is the US Federal Gov the plaintiff? They fought against slavery with everything they had, 100 years later they peacefully fought the South against segregation. I think something is owed but the feds are the good guys on this one.

HONESTLY I USED TO BE ON THE FENCE ABOUT REPARATIONS COS ALTHOUGH THERE WERE GRAVE INJUSTICES DONE HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY WHO TO GIVE THE MONEY TO? AND THERE WERE AFRICANS WHO PROFITED TO WHERE DO THEY LAY? BUT THEN I HEARD GOVERNMENTS WERE PAYING FUCKING DESCEDENTS OF SLAVEOWNERS UP UNTIL 2015! SO CLEARLY REPARATIONS WAS NEVER THE ISSUE JUST WHO WAS TO GET EM!

It was the loan that paid the compensation out that was recently paid off.

The MP for my old constituency (dorest) is Richard Drax, he's still sitting on all the wealth and land his family acquired. He sees no problem with owning land thousands of slaves were murdered on. Dispicable person.

I really like this.

All comments more or less are about the idea of reparation, and mostly I agree.

But its not about reparation despite the title, its about where to best direct a stimulus package. My Everyman understanding of the Covid downturn is that the UK exchequer has licensed uk banks to loan to pretty much anyone with a business no questions asked, money that is created in the moment of granting the loan.

Equally you could hand it out in the street or mail cheques to people whether they need it or not. Give it to the living heirs of slaves or give it to banks to hand out in executive bonuses? Who's gonna make the most stimulus with it?

The entire financial system is a ponsi scheme and always has been...the banks dont have any real money....we are taxed 97p in the pound, removing that would free the economy.
and,...slavery???
what about the 1,000,000 white people taken from the shores of europe by the north african slavers? do we get anything? and will the millions of black africans who created and profited from the slave trade and enslaved and murdered their own people have to pay?
and do we get the danegeld back?
slavery still exists, 6500 dead slaves in Qatar building stadiums for footballers to kneel down in....it is used to promote an anti white and democracy agenda by billioniares who would destroy our culture. stop mining lythium if you care about black slaves..oh no thats anti green.....
looking at 1 minute of a 24 hour clock and casting blame is how our idiot media works now for both slavery and climate propaganda...let's not encourage them ...

Cool, where do I pick up my check?

Well I guess you're allowed to talk about this

35-45 million people are still living as slaves today, can we sort them out as well please ?

yes abolitionists used to buy slaves to free them, we could do the same thing...

the more money you print the less its worth

Instead of hand outs, maybe being given equal opportunity in the work place truly would be a better start. Just an example here but how come I see a white bloke in charge of black football teams but you’ll never see a black or any shade darker than a beach tan running an English football team.

No, it would absolutely not stimulate the economy. You're sort of just blasting a random talking point without much thought to it.

The US also has no obligation to the present generation just because of the abuse of their black ancestors - such an assertion is just ridiculous.

If you think handing out free-money like that "stimulates the economy" then you are totally wrong. In fact, you are hurting the economy and society by making light of racial issues where they already have no place.

Governments hand out money its just a matter of who they give it to. In the USA they have handed money to banks and hedge funds via 0% loans.

I think reparations for stealing human beings is a better idea than this, the money will get spent stimulating the working economy rather just pumping up the stock market.

Level the playing field

It's paying back a debt that financed the country for generations. If you can't see that I think maybe glasses.

Acquiring knowledge is different to acquiring skills.

You're not going to learn how to deal with patients, or good bedside manner, if you're a nurse, from a YouTube video.

Nor dealing with livestock if you're a farmer. These things come with time on the job.

I do agree though that your average degree, certainly in humanities, can be done from your sofa.

The Internet is a wonderful thing. I think sometimes we forget how lucky we are to have this amount of knowledge at our fingertips.

Just my 2p.

Cheers BB

yeah you need zoom for that

Anyone can acquire the skills that they want, it just depends upon how dedicated they are. I mean there's a shit ton of skills that i want to master and learn, but usually i'm busy with other things. The internet is a wonderful thing. But also, it takes a lot of time to learn certain skills and most people like my self are quite lazy and can't be asked to learn new things, unless they really want to.

True but I'm not sure about "anymore". It's always been possible for motivated people to acquire skills, it's easier now but I don't think that is going to change the dynamic. People are afraid and or lazy when it comes to pursuing things that aren't right up in their face.

So then it becomes a kind of responsibility to put it up in their face.

Actually all of our problems are due to over population. One person can do more work now due to technology. Also humans keep on devaluing themselves by constantly breeding. It’s the law of supply and demand. The fewer of us there are the more valuable we are to employers. When we breed out of control then employers can pick whoever they want. That’s my opinion;)

Norman Tebbit rebooted.

Don’t question increasing stratification of haves and have nots, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

200 applicants for one job at Tesco?
Have you thought about trying a different Tesco? Hmm?

Try to think from the perspective of a business owner. Sifting through resumes. Bachelor's. honours. Doctorates. Oh no. This mad lad has googled it. Hire him now

I get what your saying but the person carrying out the skilled job more often than not needs proper training and certification if not just for the client but more importantly for insurance purposes!

Insurance would work a lot better if there were public records of outcomes on a blockchain rather than a certification authority that inevitably becomes a racket.

I've seen shops in the states with 5 different business permits.

This is true from the perspective of individuals, but what about societies. Societies like governments take most f our resources under the auspices of producing better outcomes.

If society says yeah anyone can do anything if they play the game right that's a fail. It should be a matter of course that an honest and motivated person is going to do well but that's not what we have. The only sure thing in our society is access to power.

What will the new technology of the post modern era be?

I think sometimes we’re are too invested in the technology of ware fare and things that waste our time and make us consumers of waste and less interested in bettering our lives.

But I agree with backwoods1999 below

Why spend money innovating for mass consumers when what is selling is working

In a free market someone will though….

Why innovate when you can sell a copy of last years phone with a few small upgrades??

Hmmm

i dont think steve jobs would have been at all satisfied with the lack of innovation. cook managed earnings, jobs managed product.

To answer the original question, it's a son of a whore.

Unless you want to go through a lot of ball ache you're basically chipped if you own a smart phone. This is at present an unregulated free for all and tech companies are making hay. But slowly I should imagine a thirst for privacy will emerge and that more people will begin cutting google and facebook out of their lives. I know my next phone is definitely going to be a degoogled android, and I'm already fb free

tbh i am not worried at all. for a normal human being in this world, who does no harm or break any dumbass rules, i think nobody would bother using any personal info against me. what would they achieve? fuckall thats what. dont bother get into some conspiracy shit, as at the end of the day life ends up too short to realize whats good. sry if im not making sense, having some lovely gummies from radarbreeder which hit like a hailstorm

Privacy isn't about your data its about the rights of those that keep society in check. Just like freedom of speech; its unlikely that any of us are going to say anything that a government will censor but we need others to be able to do this.

With privacy a whislteblower or someone collecting data against the powerful needs that protection or we are all really fucked.

that's perfectly alright pompom. I don't think you've taken the time to look into this and see what facebook and google are really doing, because if you do I'm confident you'll change your tune. I can assure you it is far worse and far further reaching than you imagine. Tbh the nothing to hide argument is very flimsy. For example. The guy next door has a moustache that makes him look like a paedo and he behaves in erratic ways, so presumably an anonymous tip off to inform the busies of his noncing habit will only be a problem for him if he has something to hide? Crude example I know but the point stands. Back to the price of bread, I advise you to research how fb operates as a worthy starting point

no i admit i haven`t researched anything of what you guys discussing, but at the end of the day im on the same opinion. i think as a free person (or believe i do, despite working for the rich) and my mind feels higher then the people who surround me and hurts me to see the way they see things. how miserable their lives are because of their shitty job(mine is the same tho) and stuff like that. i know facebook for example were sued last year or so for selling customers data to a 3rd party or some shit like that and watched the video where zuckerberg was trying to reply not looking like a slow thinker infront of the senate. however, stay safe all and take the tin foil hats sometimes, because thats what will really save us at the end when things go to hell. peace

I love this guy he says we are headed to Star Trek Communism or Matrix feudalism.

Greece was the experiment. An entire nation sold out by a couple of politicians one of which was this chap.

He is like a left wing Jordan Peterson making lots of money writing about the obvious that most fail to see.

The Mings did it a lot more peacefully right before that

I was shocked how the world originally laughed at European products, they really were bumpkins.

Also surprising how big slavery was in Europe even without Africa

This is a reminder of what a primitive concept mercantilism is.

yes but govs cant let go of it since its basically a customs racket in its essence

A.I. will be the boss and the lowliest worker, humans fit inbetween.

AI is well past any notion or idea we can fathom. AI dosent follow ANY rule we stand by.
We as humans will never quite grasp the entire picture, while AI has already found the end of the road. there are things in basic sciences kept from most people, like gravity drives, the TIME axis (think twister/tornado), scalar waves, over unity devices, etc... AI wont follow the bounds because its supressed by money or greed...
we as humans can TRY to think what will happen, but in all reality, were already in the losing seat without any hope for a "comeback kid story"
Stop thinking in a 3rd dimension mindset, and learn quantum physics a little. (want to be totaly mindblown?? look up QUANTUM radar- and how its actualy In use RIGHT NOW!)
--note-- the united states has 3 confirmed quantum computers in use! (i accidently came across one when i traveled for work, but most people wouldnt know to look at the cryogentics involved)
Machine-in-a box- experiment has already proven even the smartest among us, would lose.
me,myself ,personaly, am clueless what outcomes will unfold, but without any doubt , humans are not top priority when AI is really awake. current neuro-nets are mind boggling and google themselves admits they cant explain how its AI created child AI even works. (yes, AI created its own second AI) want to me mind blown again,years ago it was used, look up the AI that was tested in new yorks hospital system. the smartest doctors from the world STILL dont understand what that AI did , and how it was so correct/right 97%.)
i wont lie and say its all terminator 2JD, but that is one possible outcome. we as fellow fleshy companions should enjoy life now and every moment. we wont have many opertunities when AI is out of the box.
Note: its not IF , but WHEN, and WHEN happens?? ---will humans stand a chance or will an outaide force be required? (aliens, god, let your mind wander)

If there is work for humans it has to be something A.I. can't do. We are all teaching it to do everything, even (especially) right here.

I think its like retirement age is on the horizon and humans need to decide what they are going to do with all the free time.

cory doctrow has an interesting perspective on this, saying that all the displacement from global warming and increased healthcare needs will keep humans busy for a very long time.

I doubt a computer could do my job ;)
I work in safety/security

Can this do a dynamic risk assessment on the spot when someone's life is at risk? ;)

What if the people who's lives are at risk all get replaced by robots? Also, isn't that what a self driving car is doing constantly?

cars have relatively simple rules and a very fixed environment. interpreting a dangerous human is a much, much harder problem

with all due respect it can take a bullet, sacrifice its life, and draw on millions of previous occurrences. that's a helluva start.

Excellent joke:)

If you just think as an individual what would it be like if you had a bot to do all of your work that sounds great. You'd fuck around a lot but eventually wind up doing something that meant something to you. Now imagine everyone doing that.

AI are and will be good for work and a suitable replacement for humans, but even when that happens AI will always need us in case something goes wrong. I mean humans created AI, so in the end we’re always gonna have the more important jobs. AI is just there to do jobs in a more efficient way.

im not so sure, anything a human does to recover the system seems doable with a very separate AI

Yes but conflict between AI's might be the most dangerous thing we are looking at here. We are incidental casualties from that perspective. By we I mean humans :)