UK citizens expected to pay through the nose again.

As a PC user (Windoze and 'Nix), I was recently confronted by my son that he needs a Mac next year because of some proprietary (read monopolistic), software called Logic Studio which only runs on the Mac platform. He is a music student at University. So, as my son goes to University in U.K and I live in Japan we do a price comparison.
Macbook Pro 15-inch:
2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB Memory


UK, Apple Store: GBP: 1299.00
Japan, Apple Store: JPY: 168,000 = GBP: 1158.00
Japan, Discount Store JPY: 138,000 = GBP: 952.00
US, Apple Store US$: 1699 = GBP: 1,042.00

We can see quite clearly that the UK customer must once again "PAY THROUGH THE NOSE". A discount of 26.72 pct can be achieved if we buy it for him in Japan. This represents a bigger discount than the student discount and the Apple staff discount added together. (Staff discount 15% plus %10 educational discount = 25%)
Not even sure if the Apple store would allow the addition of discounts anyway.
Any Apple staff reading this, please confirm...

The excuse from the manufacturers you will often hear is "It costs more to do business in the UK". Now while there might be some truth in that statement, it is not the whole story. Most of it is companies taking advantage of "What the market will bear". Especially a company like Apple that have created and are still allowed to operate a monopoly. Micro$oft get hammered all the time for anti-competitive trading practices,(and so they should). Why then should Apple get away with it? Just because its cute and cuddly? (By the way Apple also make the Logic Studio Software and that costs another 400 pounds. The price at the US Apple store is US$500 which at today's exchange rate is 313 pounds). Hardware or software, the UK customer is being ripped off again.

Digging deeper into this, why is everything more expensive in the UK?
Because the U.K. is now grossly uncompetitive and wasteful and produces nothing of value. Maggie Thatcher sold all our industry for a pound. So all we have left now is a nation of middle-men all trying to take their 30pct. She may have broken the unions strangelhold for those few years she was in power, but for sure she has ruined the industrial landscape of the UK for years to come in the process.
(Silly , stupid, retarded old bat).

The U.K. needs massive funding to re-create its lost industry, never mind the banks, they will be able to live off the coat tails of a new efficient industrial sector. Fund industrial rebirth not banker bonuses!

So, the answer is, yes we will be buying the Macbook Pro in Japan. The question remains is this: Does Apple "pay backhanders" to schools, colleges and universities to use their systems exclusively? Does anyone have the answer? Oi Jobzie , whats up?

Good! Let them quit!

The board of directors at Royal Bank of Scotland are trying to hold the government and the country to ransom. If they cannot be allowed to pay their excessive bonuses (to themselves as well of course), They threaten to resign.

Great! Let them resign, without severance, ban them from any official job for 10 years, whether it private sector or public sector. Who needs these leeches anyway.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8392791.stm

Capitalism is the ultimate ponzi pyramid scheme.

Robbing the poor to pay the rich.
Capitalism doesn't work and will never work fairly.

The enemy is not a primitive Muslim from a backward culture with some TNT strapped to his waist. He is not there for fun, he is there because of the sensational desire for profit in the western world that has raped, pillaged and plundered his world for centuries.

The enemy is within. The old money that controls America and the Western world is the enemy.

When will they ever learn?

Derivatives!!!

Think logically about this...

You have a product that is leveraged.
You pay less for it than its theoretical face value.
You do not have to account for it on your balance sheet for its full risk.
Once purchased you can control your VAR (Value at risk) x the leverage factor.

and.... The PHD scientists wrongly placed in finance still believe and try and convince us that the real VAR is less than the full value of the underlying product.
Why do people not try and think for themselves , rather than believe other people's implanted reality??????????

Let me make this really simple. Not even derivatives. This is a logical statement against the legality of short selling.

You own nothing (apart from a stack of cash sitting in the corner)
You want to bet against something, but you own nothing except the pile of ill gotten gains in the corner. Cash not earned by value creation, rather by value destruction. But, you are greedy and you want more.....

OK, so for a risk value (not the whole value of the asset) You short sell it.

It means that you borrow an asset, stocks, commodities etc for a period of time from the owner (or more likely his agent) and promise to pay the asset back at some date in the future with some kind of financial reward (interest).

The capitalist because he is leveraged pays a very small percentage of the full risk as down payment for the loan of the asset. (i.e. he pays down one percent as downpayment and "owns" the state of California)

The capitalist sells the asset (like George Soros against Sterling), if the capitalist can build enough momentum, he will start a trend which will make his "bet" a fait accompli.

The original investor who owns the stocks or asset might be a long term investor who bought the stock as a long term investment for his retirement. He leaves the certificates at his stockbroker firm for safekeeping and they decide to offer the stocks to the short sellers.

So the investment profile of the original investor has been changed from the careful to the wild and rampant money greedy capitalist.

Should short selling be allowed? NO!!!
If you want to sell something, fucking buy it and put your money where your fucking mouth is.

The capitalists rely on the ignorance of the general public and the financial industry in general to ply their black magic. Do me a favour! Kill a capitalist today!

Wake up - think for yourself!
Wake up - think for yourself!
Wake up - think for yourself!
Wake up - think for yourself!
Wake up - think for yourself!
Wake up - think for yourself!
Wake up - think for yourself!
Wake up - think for yourself!
Wake up - think for yourself!

Michael Moore should run for President.

Although very tongue in cheek, and of course Michael Moore is a capitalist too, he is the only person in the U.S.A. who has the guts to stand up and tell the world what is happening.

http://www.capitalismalovestory.com/

Bubble, bubble bubble.

You've gotta be smokin' some real whacky backy in the UK.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/6591368/UK-house-prices-peak-for-affordability-now-over.html

How on earth can that pile of semi-detached or terraced shit built in the 1950s and should have been pulled down in the 1960s be called housing by today's standards?
It was built as temporary housing after the 2nd world war. It is another example of "no renewal" in the UK. Primitive grey little country.

England has put up with crap housing for ages. It is so difficult to buy land since all the local government representatives have vested interests with the mass builders. So planning permission becomes and issue. Also you have to make your house "compatible" with every other house in the street. No attics, basements etc. Rules that are made to keep the average guy from self building and forced to buy a mass builder POS.

English people WAKE UP !!!!!!!!

Idiots warning!

"Don't waste your time arguing with an idiot. They will just drag you down to their level and beat you with years of experience."

One liner.

Ain't no such thing as politics.
Its all Poly-Tricks!

Poly as in many
Tricks as in trickery(deceit)

Even the major banks are preparing for disaster.

SocGen the major French bank came out with this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6599281/Societe-Generale-tells-clients-how-to-prepare-for-global-collapse.html

Meaning the banks themselves do not believe in a recovery.

Patents and Copyrights

These days we have allowed the rules for patents and copyrights to run riot and out of control.

Imagine firms being allowed to patent the human genome. The human genome is a "Public Good" It rather like allowing an airline to patent the sky it flies in. Or another example would be a hair dye company patenting the colour black and making people born with black hair pay them rent.

The capitalist will tell you that a company has to be "rewarded" for its investment in new products and science. Well, to an extent yes. Not 50 years!!! Perhaps 5-10 years and then automatically it has to go into the public domain.

While copyrights can protect artists such as musicians and writers the actual artists themselves get a very small piece of the pie from sales and its the big fat corporate cats sitting in their ivory towers that rake in all the cash.

If in the future we can redirect the excess value away from personal and corporate pockets and instead reinvest in our people and our planet we will all enjoy a better standard of living. Therefore our mindset will change from being self centrered to being open hearted and wanting to share the things we discover and create with the world. At this point the human race will accelerate its growth , maturity and intelligence.

Motto of this article is that capitalist greed is holding back the whole human race.

Automatic generation of Value.

Compared with say 100 years ago we have systems, machines and electronics in place to automatically create value. The creation of value is the only justification to create wealth. Apart from the initial outlay to install these systems and for the maintenance and renewal costs they create free values, i.e. free money.

In the Utopian world these systems would allow the human race to eradicate hunger and poverty in developing nations and reduce the number of hours the working populace needs to work for the same quality of life.

However in the Distopian capitalist society, they do not want people to have more time. Time to think. Time to perhaps rebel. The capitalists want everyone to work as long and as hard as possible for the lowest salary the market will bare, so that the capitalist can cream off more of the residue to hoard for his or herself.

Typical example is using robot farming machines and GPS a farmer with a large area can now run all the sowing, plowing, fertilizing and reaping automatically.
reducing costs overall. Therefore, the number of hours farm hands need to work ought to be decreased, however the farmer landowner doesn't want to take the initial hit for the investment of hardware , he would rather usurp the human machine slaves.

This is a micro example, but there are no disincentives to force him to invest in the future. On a macro scale if a government year after year fails to re-invest in infrastructure and nickles and dimes on the existing crippled infrastructure the county is set for a great fall from first world status straight to third or forth world status. Case in mind is the U.K. which is still trying to use what is essentially a Victorian Infrastructure.

Eventually, left to their own devices capitalists will devour themselves and leave one person with all the wealth and resources in the world. By that time, everyone else will be dead and that person will be heir to an annihilated society.

Lets stop the rot before we all become extinct!

Public Goods.

Keynesian economics talks a lot about "public goods" and how one person consuming a public good should not prevent another person from consuming that good.

I maintain that all profits should be declared public goods since in most cases apart from a one man company, other people were employed in value creation of the product that is sold. People from raw material extraction to fabrication to sales. Many people were involved in the production of the goods, so any profits must logically be a public good. Therefore profits should be put back into the country by infrastructure improvements, like health care, education, hospitals, communications etc.
With more renewal projects the jobless level falls and there is more money in circulation that is not going into the pockets for the greedy capitalists. Spending money or adding money to a system has a multiplying effect according to Keynes. Therefore the benefits are amplified. However if it stays in the pockets of the greedy then the rest of society receive no benefit from the profit and no benefit from the amplification factor either.

Motto... Outlaw greed!

The Tories are merely puppets to big business

Next year there will be a general election in U.K.
Neither the current Labour government nor the Tories are fit to lead. Unfortunately the smaller parties aren't either. Just look at this example of slavish devotion to "big money"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/has-cameron-done-a-deal-with-murdoch-1819010.html

There needs to be new life in parliament and British politics. Where is Guy Fawkes when you need him?

Anti-Christ?

Goldman Sachs head saying he is doing God's work?
Who does he work for then the Anti-Christ?
Note the ear to ear smile I spoke of in an earlier post.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6907681.ece

Jewish tripe.

Today there is a report about infighting in the Jewish community over a Jewish school.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/world/europe/08britain.html
This is just spin!

Reading between the lines I see that this is a very "desirable" school where all students have a distinct "advantage" above other schools in the area or in Britain.
What this really means is that the family concerned are bitter that their child was refused entry and are using the "Jewish" card to scream discrimination. Poor hard done by Jews. The family are obviously rich since they are paying expensive (probably Jewish) lawyers to take the school to court. Why not spend that money on a private education for your child (As I have had to do). Why should you get something for nothing (Free education for your child) and I have to pay for mine.

While not prejudice against any race or person or belief, I do believe that Jewish people on the whole have a good if not better life with more money than most. I just wish that they would stop playing this "Holocaust trump card" or variants thereof to keep the world on their side. Jews are no better or no worse than any other race on the earth. Every race , colour and creed have good people and bad people lets get that clear.

The world is ripe for a revolution.

In the mid 20th century the youth of the world of whom I was part had a dream. End war. End corruption. Live in peace with our neigbours for the advancement of mankind. For the most part it was peaceful. Sit-ins and so on. The so called hippy or flower power generation. Why did it fail?

(1) Global communications were not as open as they are today with the internet and national propaganda and reporting controls were able to divert a lot of the news.
(2) The old money got in the way. The parents of the new generation basically told the kids to get back to school and stop fooling about.

Today, I think it would be successful. Nowadays with the internet people are able to topple governments more easily, the power is there. People just need to re-kindle that dream for something better.

Car scrapping discounts who wins?

Since the UK no longer has a domestically owned mass production car maker surely the benefits from the car scrapping scheme are going into the pockets of foreign owners. Don't give me crap about British sourced parts going into those cars either since it will be the bare minimum to get away with it by law.

British men. Put the sports papers down and start to think about what your government is doing!!!

Capitalism Doesn't Work! 89% Agree !!!

New report from BBC shows support for capitalism even lower than that for Gordon Brown.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8347409.stm

Where does all the money go?

In our boom and bust economic cycles, where does all the money go. Economists and financiers will tell you it doesn't go anywhere since it was all "paper profits" anyway. However, imagine if you have a crystal ball that will give you the timing of the boom and bust highs and lows. That would be as good as winning the lottery.

Well, the old money, the big money knows the game and profits from these cycles. That is how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. One way to tell that a boom bubble is about to bust is watch for a rapid acceleration in house prices. The reason I say that is because this is the key to the last stage. When the capitalist buisinessmen cannot wring out enough "gap" between costs and sales they go into the markets and create what stock markets call a "pump and dump scheme". Initially the investors will start to slowly buy property in key areas (Property because 1. Its the single most expensive item most people purchase in a lifetime and 2. It is very illiquid which means its hard to offload a house quickly)

When the investors have managed to build up the momentum to be self sustaining the average Joe Public rushes to get on the bandwagon and extends himself as much as possible in case he misses the chance. Often as in the recent crisis the investors and old money find ways to lend money to people at a ration to earnings that would never be allowed in a sane market. This gives a second pump to already overheating prices. The investors buy a few more properties and wait. Then as if by a magic invisible concensus (conspiracy? you bet it is!), the property owners hit the bids in the market quietly and stealthily. For a while economists snf the media may ponder and talk about whether the current frenzy is about to end or whether it is just taking a breather for the next acceleration. The wise old money knows it is already over because they were the creators of it. Their portfolios already unloaded they bank the cash and sit on their profits which can be very large indeed.

The moral of this is, if its pumping - dump it. If its dumping, wait and buy it.

The importance of microloans

There is a relatively recent phenomena of micro loans in the developing world. Mainly involving a lender which could be smaller regional banks or even a pawnshop and a borrower. It means that people who have no access to regular banking systems have access to loans. it could be for a village to irrigate their crops, it could be for small business start-ups and basically helps poorer communities stand on their own two feet. These microloans are often the only way that people can get themselves out of the poverty trap.

However, no matter how good the intentions of the lenders these loans are often covered by draconian rules and regulations. As mentioned earlier in this blog any investment's VAR is actually the full investment value. Of course we do not want to encourage defaulting, but we must always assume that there will be a percentage of businesses or ideas that fail. Often the lender will charge interest weekly or even daily making the APR very expensive indeed.

* My suggestion is firstly to create a website where potential boprrowers and lenders of microloans can discuss the project and the interest rate and terms and conditions.
* Have a simple no-nonsense plain language contract.
* Have these loans covered by a loan guarantee system (Yes, I know its against my usual opinions).

It is absolutely vital that these borrowers are treated fairly so some kind of structured mechanisms need to be put into place.

Covert Techniques

Have you often wondered why so many people seem to be taking courses on self building or personal coaches or trainers?

Well, I think it is an internal craving to get to the top, to be the winner, not to let anyone get the better of you. Again a testosterone driven primitive man instinct. I repeat again the world doesn't need winners, we all need to be winners.

There are a growing number of people running companies and corporations. However, they are not businessmen, they are people in business. They know how to rape, pillage and plunder the business, but they do not know how to RUN a business. These people are usually micro-managers who employ their underlings to spy on each other so that the boss always knows what people are thinking or doing.

These people use a number of covert techniques including black-ops hypnosis and NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). It is not so easy to spot but this is a typical scenario.
The boss will come over to you and tell you something good about you to make your mood upbeat and good, he will usually touch you on the shoulder perhaps the right shoulder, then he will tell you something bad about you, or humiliates you and touches the opposite shoulder. The next few times you meet he will do the same with different scenarios. After a few times he will be able to control your mood by merely touching you on the shoulder.

This coupled with black-ops induction , handshakes, hypnosis and instant trance can have you under his control without even knowing it. You will think he is such a nice person !!!
The only way to null their power is to expose them for what they are. People manipulators. Discover the techniques he is using by making a conscious effort to THINK! and then spread the word. Once the majority know the tricks his power will be gone. There are too many people manipulators in this world usurping others. It just takes a little thought and observation to nullify the effects. People however find it hard to think for themselves and prefer to take the easier path of allowing others to shape their life. Don't be manipulated!!!

Corporate terrorism.

Today an anti-trust case was brought against Intel.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/04/AR2009110402015.html?hpid=topnews

The punishment simple.
Forced nationalization. The whole board of Intel is fired and charged under the financial terrorism act and punishments dished out in line with my previous posting. Posted here again for convenience.

1. The person is made instantly bankrupt and all his or her global assets are seized forever.

2. That person is banned for life from holding a public office or a directorship in a company

3. That person is never to be allowed credit in the future including credit cards.

4. At least a 10 year prison term with no special low security privileges.
5. No appeals.

Bigger than the GDP of the whole planet!

Quoting an article from "Moneyweek" dated Sep 05, 2007
http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/stock-markets/derivatives-the-mother-of-all-bubbles.aspx

It states concerning the value of derivatives holdings and I quote directly "The latest estimates judge it to be worth some $236 trillion – or about eight times the GDP of the entire planet. In other words, it is a bubble larger than the world itself"


Are we mad? What is wrong with this picture?. That was 2 years ago. look what happened since and what is still happening. We all follower the derivatives pied piper over the edge.

More on the markets.

OK take a deep breath before you answer this.

What gives us (western financial companies, banks and governments), the right to access prices today for delivery in the future?

I am talking about futures, forward rate agreements, outright forwards and options.
Why does anyone need to fix prices in the future? If Keynesian theory (already corrupt, but upheld by the current bunch of ignoramuses running governments and central banks) is correct then prices will find their own level where the buyer and the seller find mutual and equal benefit in the price of the commodity.

To try and fix an asset or liability obligation at some date in the future is bound to encourage speculation, which it has. Do we really want our banks and capital markets to just be a casino for those with the biggest stakes? Already now embedded in our markets since the late 1980's it would be hard to outlaw these products. However, since the financial "Big Bang" any Tom, Dick or Harry who wants to make a "thargload" just has to invent a new financial derivative and sell the idea to an institution and hey presto loads of upfront cash with VAR in the future!

Another ridiculous assumption is that historic prices predict future prices. Again invent your own analytical marker and the "market cult" will test it, absorb it, dream about it and worship it! The latest "in thing" is the SABR volatility model that tries to tell us that the current price of a commodity carries all the information about the past prices and all the future prices. I guess a suitable name for this theory would be quantum derivatives. hahahahahaha!  Are our financiers really such a gullible lot? Perhaps we need to ask the witchdoctor!

What shall we do with the money drunk capitalist? Early in the morning!

The U.S. and to a lesser extent British and European governments are still encouraging 3rd world nations to "borrow" from them for desperately important infrastructure, health, education or welfare projects.

Considering the way western companies use labour in these poorer nations we should be giving them free aid for these projects forever. Instead we either invade their country looking for WMDs or invade them to topple some tinpot little dicatator. We wreck their country. Cause death, disease and famine. Then we offer to rebuild their country from scratch. Of course its our western companies that will get the contract and a few numbers will change in western bank accounts. Yes, there will be some rebuilding, and you can be sure that the corruption in the western companies and governments will syphon of a huge portion for their own pockets. Leaving the 3rd world nation in debt for 50 years and indentured to the lender forever.

No wonder the promise of religious salvation is so easy to sell in these countries for the religious leaders. I just wish that we could gather up all the old money capitalists, politicians and lawyers and send them to the moon in exile. Perhaps that would be too good for them?

Avoid!

Do you know anyone who's smile seems to go from ear to ear?
Fear them! This type of person is laughing because they are about to screw you.

Dear Mr. Mori Trust

I work in a building owned by Mori Trust. There are some 37 floors and the elevators are divided in groups of 4 to serve differnt floor groups. However, I susspect that Mori Trust turn off elevators to save costs at the expense of the tenant's employees.

I am a smoker.
Typically in a regular day I go up and down 10 times.
Each journey I have to wait a minimum of 30 seconds for an elevator.(Often much longer)
That's at least 10 minutes a day.
21 day business month that is 210 minutes a month
Allowing for an 11 month year to take into account public holidays and vacation thats a staggering 2310 minutes a year or 38 1/2 hours.
I have worked in this building for 7 years.
Therefore I have spent 269 1/2 hours waiting for Mori Trust elevators since I have been here. Or if you prefer 11 1/4 days of my life sacrificed to Mori Trust to satisfy their insatiable desire for cost savings at the personal expense of people using the building.
Is this really serving your tenants?

Review what we teach at Universities.

We need to review what we teach at universities, most especially in economics and political science. We are still teaching students about the Reagan/Thatcher era as if it is a role model to follow.

Thatcher for example had one goal in mind. Crush the unions!  "If you cant make products at a competitive price we will close you down and sell you for a pound"
What the silly old bat (who now also has Alzheimers, what does that tell you about this era?) didn't realize was that without any domestic manufacturing and industry the value of sterling goes down and therefore the cost of imports from overseas goes up. Therefore if the cost of goods of domestic UK produced goods is more than overseas prices but not by a ridiculous amount, it is good to keep UK industries running. It prevents jobs from going overseas. Citizens in UK have always paid through the nose for everything. The governments have never allowed low interest rates for fear of the average man in the street going on a spending spree on credit.

Typical example, a car that would cost US$25,000 will cost GBP25,000 in England or possibly more. When the true exchange rate adjusted price including shipping and duties would be less.

Silly old bat !
Silly old bat !
Silly old bat !
Silly old bat !
Silly old bat !
Silly old bat !
Silly old bat !
Silly old bat !
Silly old bat !
Silly old bat !
Silly old bat !
Silly old bat !
Silly old bat !
Silly old bat !

Big Government. Its the end. Trim the fat.

The age of big government is over! Bureaucratic, wasteful, expensive.
Why do we need 645 MP's? Less than 100 will do the job. In this day of internet age we can allow the country to vote every day on open issues. That way the government is truly representing the people. The government web page will have a list of issues that are open to voting every day and the eligible voters will have a secure ID to prove their identity. The number of people serving ministers will also be slimmed down saving costs. Government can be thin, lean and mean and still get the job done. Instead of a parliament filled with ministers we would have an expanded cabinet of say up to 50 ministers, and a further 50 ministers who would be responsible in ratifying decisions made by the populace and the cabinet like a mini house of lords.

Politicians would be elected still by constituencies but more emphasis would be on efficiency and a small central government for national issues. Local government would also be shaken up and made to do more with less.

I am hoping for additional input and ideas on this matter also.

The credit crisis (Financial products that should never have been invented)

In the past 10 years or longer we have seen growth in a special type of derivative that strips the credit rating of one asset so that it can be attached to another.

For many many years credit rating agencies such as Standard and Poors and Moodies have done a good job of fairly assessing banks and companies, their business plans and strategies and their debt burden. Culminating in a rating from AAA the best possible to non rateable junk bond status. As the result the cost of borrowing for the companies is cheapest for a triple A rated company and most expensive for a low on non rated company. Basic banking 101.

With a credit derivative product it is possible in theory to take a junk bond, mix it with some medium quality bonds and put a triple A label on it. Effectively circumventing the credit rating agencies. Selling mutton as lamb. Although just tongue in cheek scenarios the following explains the reason for their creation and the stupidity of the product.

1. A bunch of old money guys are holding some bonds they bought at the recommendation of their broker or investment bank. The company suffers a downgrade due to bad management or missed contracts or any number of business reasons. Therefore the assets the old money guys had purchased is no longer worth anywhere near what they paid for it and will never yield the amount that they expected to receive. Therefore these old money guys (From very famous and powerful families), go back to their investment bank and tell them to fix the problem and get their money back. The investment bank calls on its financial engineering team to skew the payoff from the bonds. So.. The investment bank buys back the bonds at face value, puts a few other high quality bonds in a so called basket. Estimates the payoff, sets a new coupon rate and either gives its own credit rating or issues credit default swaps based on a 3rd party to improve the default characteristics of the basket.
Then the investment bank lets call them Weidman, issues this new basket of bonds and attaches their own credit rating lets say single A to the issue. That way they can sell junk to the market at the price of gold because it has this "Credit derivative" attached. The financial engineers however miscalculated the VAR or value at risk of these products thinking that diluting the risk in this way for a fixed fee would be fine.
No, just step outside the box and think about it. A piece of shit is still a piece of shit even with a new coat of paint. The device seemed to become so popular that everyone wanted in on the game to improve the notional value of their holdings.

2. In layman terms.
Joe owns a one pump garage on a dusty lonely stretch of route 66. He has worked there and lived there alone since his mother and father passed away. He gets a few customers a week, just enough to keep his head above water and not much else.
Then one day the suits from Weidman pull up in their limo at Joe's garage. They fill their tank and start up a conversation with him. They ask Joe how long he has been there. What a fine and prosperous garage he owns. This country needs more businessmen like you Joe. They ask Joe how long it has been since he has taken a holiday. Joe says he has not had the chance as there is no one to run the business.
So they ask him if he has a destination in mind, somewhere he would really like to visit. Yes, he answers my daddy always used to say Vegas was like paradise on earth So i think I would like to go there.

The suits convince Joe that his garage is worth at least 1 mio dollars and that they can borrow $2mio against it and future profits and sell bonds protected by a credit default swap by a big company and everything would be fine. Joe would be able to take a holiday and maybe even make some improvements to the business. Of course the cost of this financial engineering would be $1mio which Joe would have to pay Weidburg from the $2mio he is going to borrow. After agreeing, the suits get back in their car and tell Joe they will be back in a month. Sure enough they come back with a contract and documents that are an inch thick. Joe signs in all the places they circle. They guys from Weidman get back in the car and tell joe the issue should be made in a few weeks time and he should have his $1mio net in about 6 weeks. Sure enough, 6 weeks later Joe gets a cheque from Weidman for $1mio. Joe packs his bag gets in his truck and sets off for Vegas.

When he gets there he finds a hotel checks into a nice room and goes downstairs to buy some chips with his Weidman draft. Joe didn't know much about casinos but he had seen them on TV. So he took his $1mio worth of chips and put it all on black on the roulette table. Well of course it came up red. Joe looses everything including his garage and truck, the bonds (not just Joe's part but another 1,000 people like him) default. The buyers of the repackaged bonds try to cash in on the default with the credit derivative event attached to the basket. However, the amount of default swap payout is not enough to cover the loss of the investment, just the difference in bond value between one credit level and another (typically a downgrade by one step).
So Joe looses everything. New investors loose almost everything. Weidman get rich.
Weidman salesmen get multi-million dollar bonuses and go on to prove to the world that black is red and whats more red is more valuable than black.

Backing England, sell the Pound.

One of the first things I would do in government is to create a new currency. There would be no exchange rate between pounds sterling for example and the new currency.

Indeed it would be illegal and outlawed with severe penalties if any money changers started up. The average persons savings would be exchanged through the central bank at parity. Anyone with other assets will have their taxes checked and if they have already paid tax on the amount then they also would be allowed exchange at parity via the central banks.

However, those with cash or other assets that have been gotten without creating value will have penalty exchange rates which in extreme cases could be 100 - 1. Therefore the country will have reclaimed much of the stolen gains for the benefit of all its citizens.

Now I know this is not a perfect idea yet, but the destruction of the old currency is quite necessary I feel. I would like to invite anyone to comment an make additional ideas and modifications that could make this a workable vehicle for change.

Complaints about Japan

The country I have lived in for some 23 odd years is not without its own niggles and problems.

Tokyo's overcrowded subway system runs on time and is safe, cheap and convenient. The Japanese race have a perceived politeness around the world and it is true, but a certain amount of it is automatic. Some people are "mewaku kakeru hito" in other words people who cause problems for others.

However, those riders on Tokyo subway cars have a very annoying habit of staying in the seat until the train is in the station where they want to get off and has fully stopped. Then they get up and go towards the door. Passengers waiting on the platform are already rushing into the car and this causes a "cluster fuck" of people pushing and shoving to get on or off the train.

I just wish they could be polite enough to get up from their seat and wait by the doors 20 seconds before the train enters the station. It seems a simple concept. I cannot understand why the Japanese just don't get it.

Investment. Good or bad?

No matter which way you look at money and interest rates, any investor who lends money to a company or firm is looking for a free ride. Because he or she has excess money, too much money the investor is expecting to get more free money without working, without creating any value. In effect investors are "Value Destroyers" rather than "Value Creators" (Most people who work can be called "Value Creators").

Indeed in the UK and other countries in the western world the media and popular press are often heard to condemn the social welfare system for paying people who do not want to work. Well, yes the system needs to be modified to encourage people to study or retrain. That is agreed. However, what is the difference between the investor and the "dole" recipient? Nothing, they both get paid without working !

Although a complete review and rebuild of the banking system is required, while there is investment and money without pay, the investor must be prepared to loose all of the invested money in event of a default and not try and modify his potential loss with derivative products. The real risk is the full value of the investment, any derivative sold by a financial engineer or banker that costs less than the investment to protect is a confidence trick and merely passing on the risk to another or other parties at parity with the original investment or even leveraged so that there is more risk than in the original investment.

Looking at the collapse of US mortgage quasi government agencies FannieMae and FreddyMac. The US government should have had the conviction to do the following.
1. Let them fail and close
2. Anyone with a mortgage or a guarantee from those agencies have their complete loan forgiven by the US government with rules.

The rules would be something like this
* The owner may not sell the house in the open market for 20 years.
* If the owner wants or needs to sell before they must have a valuation by an arbitration team who will set the sale price at a fair price compared with the value of the house to sell, value of the house to buy (if there is one) and the amount of the loan forgiven.This would have been a cheaper option than putting trillions of dollars into institutions that needed and still need to fail.

Again... An investor who wants to earn something for nothing without working to build value, must risk the full value of the investment or the investment only works for the benefit of the investor, not the borrower.

There are some rich people in the world who earn yes "Earn" high salaries sometimes because they are adjusted for short careers. I am thinking movie and television stars and personalities and sports athletes, lawyers and professionals. However they all work and they all create "value". No objections.

Society needs to recognize the difference. Most people create wealth "Value Creators". A few are "Value Destroyers" who just cream off free value from the "Value Creators".

Mary Mary quite contrary, how does globalization go?

The funny thing about globalization is the capitalists say they want it and need it
(When actually the capitalists will expire if and when true globalization is in place)
The anti globalization groups who fight against it, should actually be fighting for it.

My viewpoint. The capitalist needs poor countries to source goods and labour so that his finished products can sell at considerably higher prices than the raw materials and cost of manufacturing.

Under true globalization we have a central world government that controls the big problems such as carbon emissions, global warming and management and planning of the worlds resources for 50 years in the future.(50 year plans) One currency with freedom of movement for all citizens means the cost of raw materials and labour will neutralize globally providing new opportunities for those who embrace it. The old world capitalists will crumble with no 3rd world to rape or pillage.

Things about Ole Blitey that require change (2)

If my Nu-K party (See below) were ever elected, this is one of the things I would change.

One of the biggest hurdles to renewal in UK is the preference to nickle and dime just another few years from a crumbling Victorian infrastructure. Part of this mindset is the "National Heritage" Protected buildings argument. In my view, just because a building is old, does not mean it should be a protected asset. If there is some external architectural significance, then by all means keep the facade and rebuild the interior to modern standards (Yes that does include air-conditioning that works).

On a return trip to London a few years ago I drove by taxi through the busy Old Street roundabout. I was amazed that this congested junction was being made worse by adding traffic islands in the middle of the road to restrict traffic to single file !!!

To try to demonstrate how ludicrous this is imagine a medical scenario. If a patient has chronic heart blockage, the doctors will provide him a stent to open up the artery. They don't give him sausage , egg and chips with black pudding and fired bread and tell him to come back in a months time.

The country I live in Japan has been in recession for the past 25 years, however they still renew in all their infrastructure every single year. The result is that Japan is ready to compete in the 21st century, with any other 21str century economy including China. Unfortunately, old democracies will be headings straight for the 4th world nation status. Since UK hasn't centrally planned and renewed anything since the days of Queen Victoria, and the USA hasn't done anything since the 1950s - 1960s. Reinvestment in infrastructure and the nation as a whole for the benefit of all citizens is key. Raping and pillaging old infrastructure in search of quenching the insatiable desire for profit must be condemned and if necessary outlawed.

Things about Ole Blitey that require change (1)

If my Nu-K party (See below) were ever elected, this is one of the things I would change.

My son is a dual national holding a full Japanese and a full British passport. He is now studying full time at university in England. But... I have to pay full international school fees for him. Instead of around 3,000 pounds a year, I have to pay 16,800 currently with raises every year.

When I checked with the ministry of education I found out that it is not based on Nationality, but on whether anyone in my immediate family has paid tax for 3 years previously. Having been an expat since 1986 the answer was no. But I have paid 12 years of taxes previously to UK treasury.

To add insult to injury, when I forced a response to the following hypothetical situation, I was amazed at the response.

" If a Korean family of 5 (arbitrary number) goes to U.K. since the Father's company need him to work in UK on a 3 year secondment. If after 3 years his head office require him to return to Korea but his eldest son is University age and wants to study in UK, what fees will he pay?"
The answer was 3,000 pounds the domestic rate. And yet the son doesn't even have a claim to citizenship, let alone a full passport.

Further to that, in my son's last year in Japan at high school he visited Hungary and Austria for a school choir trip. Being a parent it was my duty to ask about passports and visas etc. I was told by the Austrian Embassy in Japan that either passport was good to travel. At that time I also asked them that if my son wanted to study at the prestigious Mozart Academy, and assuming he passed the audition, what other requirements would there be. I was told that he would require at least 1 year of high school German language. Which is fine and understood. When I asked about fees I was told that since he has a full UK passport and UK is part of the European Union, he would pay domestic European fees, which at the time converted to approximately 2,700 pounds per year.

No wonder the UK is in such a mess.

Sale of public assets.

For a number of years the governments of this world have sold public assets created at the past taxpayers expense to private industry.

Examples are National Telecoms Companies, National Post and Parcel services, National Rail Services, Healthcare and the like. The governments "claim" private industry will run them more efficiently and therefore more profitably. They will also claim that this is a good time to sell that asset. (Usually to make up some of the red ink that the bad governments have caused)

Logically, In public hands a company can provide good competitive services for that sector, and may often benefit from being a monopoly. Once bought the private company will want to minimize cost so that they can "quench their insatiable desire for profit". This means a drop in services, staff levels and quality. Put bluntly, if a company isn't providing high quality goods and services with public ownership, it will only get worse in private ownership.

We now have the ridiculous situation where health-care insurance companies are dictating what operations and care the patient can receive, not the patients doctors.
No wonder the insurance companies are up in arms at the Obama proposal to renew and modify the healthcare system. The health-care insurance companies have a true fear that the profits will end. Why should any company be allowed to make monster profits from the sickness and medical need of ordinary citizens. Therefore, I put healthcare insurance companies in the same category as tobacco companies and drug dealers. i.e. They make profits from the misery of others.

Public Companies who pay dividends.

Once the general public begin to wake up what is really happening behind the scenes they will realize the following.
1. If a company can pay dividends to shareholders one of the following is true.
(a) That company is cheating its workers and is not paying them their full worth.
(b) That company is charging too much for its products or services.
(c) A combination of (a) and (b)
2. Because public companies are allowed to issue common shares, it is the equivalent of having a printing press that makes money. Many public companies are not run by good business men and some companies operate on the fringe of the law such that they need a sea of in house lawyers to fend of litigation. Some of these companies are run by wide boy type businessmen. Should we not have stricter checks on who may become a director of a public company?

Once the common man realizes these factors, he will not want to work for a company that pays dividends. Once the supply of staff becomes scarce to these companies, they will have to start to pay a premium to hire staff. Once that happens the dividend pool will be depleted and companies who pay dividends will be forced to operate in a more open and socially friendly manner.

Is the time value of money formula true?

I challenge the establishment.

Our whole financial system is based on the time value for money formula. 1 unit of currency today is worth 1 unit + interest at some time in the future.

Why?

Because you have use of my money for x months or years, so you have to give me more back to compensate my loss.

Why?

Paper money is still an analogy for gold. In the olden days of gold nuggets did a nugget grow in size after 1 2 or even 3 years? No of course it didn't. Perhaps you might argue if a plant or an animal were used as currency, then the time value of money formula might have validity.

Here is my view:
A clever group of rich old men figured out that they cannot take worldly goods or money with them after death. However they could pass wealth on to the offspring.
However this wasn't good enough for them. They felt that since even ancient economies fluctuated there could be no guarantee of the worth of unit of currency today compared with its value tomorrow. (i.e. its value can also decrease).
So the notion of interest baring money was born.

In today's capitalist societies we assume that we can buy goods, raw materials and labour in cheap underdeveloped countries add some value making a product and sell the item on for (total cost + profit). So long as a gap exists between raw materials and the finished product price there will always be inflation (or GDP). Therefore if there is always inflation the cost of money must also go up (carry interest).

I challenge the fact that we need to make huge profits and have this constant inflationary spiral. Steady state capitalism is the way forward.

A Question of Sport (Opium of the Masses)

* Governments have long realized that their policies or actions could under analysis by the masses give them either very low ratings, or force a change of government.

* Thinking doesn't come easily for most people, in fact it is hard work.

The governments of this world realize that the average working and middle class males find it hard to communicate at work with their fellow male co-workers. General homophobia and macho mentality prevent them from talking about home life, family and children. Therefore there is a dangerous vacuum in which original male thought might evolve.

So.... The governments appeal directly to the little head and give them something that is easy. No thinking involved. Plenty of sport, sport, sport. Books, clothes, premium TV channels, a thousand and one different games. That's right folks! Appeal directly to the testosterone and you will never have a problem from the male populace. They will never have to think again. It works !

While not wanting to criticize sport and exercise to keep fit and healthy, I do want to criticize the trillions of dollars every year that is spent on professional sports. Clothes, videos, interviews, TV rights, athletes salaries, Newspapers and magazines, TV commercials, sponsorship. The list goes on.

The fact is SPORT DOES NOTHING! It doesn't solve any world problems. It doesn't stop wars. it doesn't clean up the atmosphere. It doesn't help the poor and starving. In effect it does nothing positive for the world. It triggers an adrenaline rush and
over production of testosterone which in turn makes men more aggressive which in turn makes "The survival of the fittest" the norm in our so called advanced society.
Wars are fought over religion that we know well, so when will the first war caused by sport be? We have the makings of tribal wars in soccer stadiums already.

Imagine if we had a 5 year moratorium on professional sport. No Olympics for one time, No world cup for one time. Sports teams, leagues athletes and everything concerned with sports can be run at break even just for 5 years. All the additional
money will be siphoned off by 100pct taxation thresholds. i.e. No one needs to earn more than $1mio per year so anything over that is taxed at 100pct. With this new tax windfall the government can create new projects with new jobs on a massive scale such as synthetic tree carbon scrubbers to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. Sport could actually give something back to the world.

But that is unlikely to happen since sport is big business, it generates trillions of dollars, the greedy want their share. Those in charge realize that such a break on professional sports will again create that "vacuum" where original thinking might occur.

Just take a look at the average sports enthusiast. Beady glazed eyes close- set in the face. An obvious excitement when with another group of males talking about sport. Their bodies twitch as they discuss trivia about this player or that handicap.
Someone in the group will think he has an important statistic to relay so that when the group do not listen for the 3rd time he virtually shouts out this precious piece of trivia so he can feel part of the group, part of the team. Take a look at Australia.
A nation that is totally controlled by sport. Every citizen is sports crazy, male or female alike. So long as you can get an Olympic gold nothing else matters. On the contrary everything else matters before worrying about a piece of metal. Those people that make it their life to keep fit and go to the gym several times a week. If excercise burns fat, it also does something to the braincells. It either consumes them or turns them to mush.

I believe mankind and womankind are truly meant to evolve and advance as a peaceful super culture around the universe but to do so we must give up these primitive ideas and thoughts and concentrate on what is important, have original thoughts and to positively change the way we live together. The world doesn't need a winner. We all need to be winners.

NU-(U)K Party

As a UK citizen who has lived out of the country for 23 years and a person who is disgusted that I could never live in that nasty, dingy, grey country in which I was born.

Many things have upset my over the years which I will post later. However, in the past year or so, I have been thinking about creating a political party in exile. British citizens and subjects that feel the same as me.

Britain has been run and managed by idiots for the past 40 years or so. It is time to change with a new constitution and new priorities and a new economic system to lead the world as Britain once did before.

Primarily, there are 3 concepts that would form the manifesto.
The first is a prolific line from the movie V for Vendetta, nevertheless it is very poignant.

Concept number 1.

"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."

Concept number 2.
Modify our economic system of capitalism (with greed).
Outlaw the insatiable desire for profit.
This new system will be called "Steady State Capitalism" or something similar.

Concept number 3.
Every citizen is entitled to the following three items.
a) FREE Healthcare cradle to grave.
b) FREE Global quality education from the age of 5 to first university degree level.
c) Good quality, affordable housing for all citizens. (If you treat people like animals, some of them will behave like animals)

The fact that the UK hasn't re-invested in major infrastructure since Victorian times, and that businesses are prepared to nickle and dime of that failing infrastructure needs to be adjusted.


I will add further items as I think of them or think them through.

Still the universities of this world teach about Reagan and Thatcher economics. These people truly messed up a generation. The isolated "inflation" as the bogey man and tried to hammer it out at all costs. What they failed to realize is that Inflation is called inflation when you do not want it and GDP growth when you do. It is the same animal. A fundamental design error in our current global democratic economic systems.

If anyone is interested in forming a UK government in exile or talking about designing a new and better economic system please contact me.

The Gold Lease Scam

From the 1980's one U.S. investment bank was notable for creating a new range of "derivative financial products" Firstly, the interest rate currency swap. Also the gold lease.

This is the same team and era that spawned famous traders. Rich and famous traders who brought companies to the brink (and over the brink) . One case in example LTCM.

Many of these whiz kid traders should be labeled "Financial Terrorists" since they cause just as much misery to their victims as a religious fanatic with a bomb.(Think about Enron and the life savings of its employees).

It is time to stamp out these "greed factor" Social manipulators armed with "rocket science" maths on their side that not many can understand. In particular the first generation traditional bankers who are their bosses. Actually, there is no proof that analysis of any indicator has any ability to predict future prices. However in the markets it is like a cult religion and therefore must be learned. It also serves as a bit of insurance for the trader if he screws up he can tell his boss "I was watching this indicator, or chasing that moving average". His boss being of the same "cult" will probably see his viewpoint and let him off lightly.

Most of these people have come from "old money families"

I am going to talk about the "gold lease" (One financial product that scammed the central banks of the world). Basically it goes like this.

When the global system decoupled from the gold reserve standard (where central banks were expected to carry enough gold in their vaults to support all the money in circulation) Central banks were left holding large amounts of gold in their vaults. The Financial Terrorists decided it would be a good idea to invent a financial instrument called the "gold lease" The theory is, The investment bank would take physical delivery of the gold and pay the central banks a low rate of interest originally 1 pct. (Better than nothing, already my life). The leases took the place of gold in the central bank vaults and everything looked great, until after about a year the central bankers realized that they had been duped. The price of gold had risen, They had entrusted the investment bank with all their gold. The gold had all been sold outright in the commodities markets and the investment bank continued to rollover (renew) leases at 1 pct or similar low rate. By the sales of the gold to the markets, the investment bank was able to re-invest in diverse markets making higher levels of interest and pocket the difference. When the world's central bankers finally realized what was going on it was ludicrously too late. Rather than admit they had been duped (The worlds top bankers had been scammed), and the fallout effects on the global economy they decided to keep quiet and pretend it hadn't happened and that they were still rolling over gold leases.

Where is this investment bank now? Part of a another nearly failed (some would say already failed) institution called Citibank. Where is the accountability. None!

The worlds financial markets continue to be abused by the bankers that work as traders. Now into the third generation, we have adopted globally the American style of Human Resources HR management. These people are for the most part low level management incapable of much original thought. Copying the old IT managers rule which was . "If you buy IBM, you will never be fired", the HR managers went on a similar tact themselves, When recruiting for finance and trading it was modified to "If you hire a PhD, you will never get fired".

So, we now have in our financial markets bright traders who are Indian, Chinese, Pakistani all who are brilliant, eminent and well trained "SCIENTISTS" who have been persuaded to work in finance for the financial advantage. While the scientific community cries out for talent. These highly educated guys are trained to work in the Newtonian world where they learn that

1. The speed of light is constant.

2. The force of gravity is constant over distance.

3. The laws of thermodynamics are constant.

etc etc.

These guys know how to work with constants. When however in financial markets the market turns 180 degrees in the blink of an eye, the PhD traders missed it and what's more do not know why! I have been in finance since I was 17 and have seen all of these types of people first hand. Its not so many years ago when traders were putting long dated trades on the bank's trading book because of "positive carry" (Means it looks profitable in the near term), so that they could inflate their multi-million dollar bonuses. They would also boast about it in the market bars after.

Currently white collar crime and financial terrorists are looked as naughty children. These crimes do not have sufficient punishments. I think that the following should be minimum in such cases as financial terrorism is proved.

1. The person is made instantly bankrupt and all his or her global assets are seized forever.

2. That person is banned for life from holding a public office or a directorship in a company

3. That person is never to be allowed credit in the future including credit cards.

4. At least a 10 year prison term with no special low security privileges.
5. No appeals.

The problem is, the law makers, and the lawyers, are all part of this "merry-go-round" and support the old money system. The old money money has all the aces and would never allow that to happen. Shame. It needs the average American to realize that the freedom of America and the American dream are no more than a fantasy planted by the super rich, and only achievable when you are in that little niche group.

The average man has to wake up, start thinking (which is difficult), and see what is really happening around him. The working man has the power in his hands to change the world if he would only think.