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The Tapeworm Economy

Discussions about the economic and financial ramifications of PEAK OIL

The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby Lokutus » Wed 19 Apr 2006, 17:34:47

Catherine Austin Fitts nails it perfectly with her Tapeworm metaphor for the economy. She is rapidly becoming one of my heroes.

Tapeworm Economy

Globalization is a nice name for "race to the bottom".
What will arrive first? Peak Oil or the Second Coming? My money is now on the latter.
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby Raxozanne » Thu 20 Apr 2006, 02:59:23

I agree, a good post, the sort that will help people wipe the cotton wool from their eyes.
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby Lokutus » Thu 20 Apr 2006, 17:52:07

The problem with the Solari solution is that it requires people to take responsibility for how money flows in their communities instead of just passing that responsibility off to others, like bank, so that they can invest 4 hours per evening into TV watching.
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby Lokutus » Wed 26 Apr 2006, 17:00:03

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', 'T')he problem with the Solari solution is that it requires people to take responsibility for how money flows in their communities instead of just passing that responsibility off to others, like bank, so that they can invest 4 hours per evening into TV watching.


As evidenced by the lack of replies.

:lol:

Boy are we all screwed.

Hey, what's on TV tonight?
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby UIUCstudent01 » Wed 26 Apr 2006, 21:54:44

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', 'T')he problem with the Solari solution is that it requires people to take responsibility for how money flows in their communities instead of just passing that responsibility off to others, like bank, so that they can invest 4 hours per evening into TV watching.


As evidenced by the lack of replies.

:lol:

Boy are we all screwed.

Hey, what's on TV tonight?


Some good "Reality TV" :P

(It may be unequal, but we're still being fed and housed!)
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby MrBill » Thu 27 Apr 2006, 03:46:59

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', 'C')atherine Austin Fitts nails it perfectly with her Tapeworm metaphor for the economy. She is rapidly becoming one of my heroes.

Tapeworm Economy

Globalization is a nice name for "race to the bottom".


Sorry, went to her article and have to conclude she is nutcase.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')ere's another example. I deposit my money in a bank because it's safe, right? Sounds sensible. The next thing you know my local bank (& a lot of others) get swept up by the big banks, who are borrowing my money at 2% & lending it back to the U.S. Treasury at 7%. In "The Myth of the Rule of Law," , I relate how one bank made $6 billion in one year at no risk, by just taking my money as a citizen & lending it back to me as a taxpayer.

With digital technology we don't need them. I can lend it to myself. Why do we need an intermediary to drain off $6 billion? Every neighborhood in America contains people who can't afford risks & are making only 2% on CDs. Others in the same neighborhood are making 5% in the stock market while taking higher risks. Meanwhile both of them suffer from a dropping dollar, while someone else in that neighborhood is paying 18-26% interest on credit card debt.


Especially when she starts talking about narcopolitics and an illegal drug trade between the government and organized crime. Sorry, I think that is more paranoid fantasy than reality talking there.

Too bad. Karavan itself looked quite interesting.
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby Lokutus » Thu 27 Apr 2006, 04:11:28

MrBill,

You need to know her history.

What I suggest is that you ignore the narcodollar stuff and just focus on the economic arguments which make total sense.
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby Lokutus » Thu 27 Apr 2006, 04:23:10

MrBill,

Don't forget most people think that anyone who believes in Peak Oil is certifiable.

:roll:
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby MrBill » Thu 27 Apr 2006, 04:41:19

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', 'M')rBill,

Don't forget most people think that anyone who believes in Peak Oil is certifiable.

:roll:


I am not so sure about that my good man. If they do, then they may really be the slow adopters. Here is an article that I am reading right this minute in The Economist which does not have much of a reputation for being too far out in left field on most issues of importance.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'U')ncertainty looks a bigger problem than high prices





HOW high can the oil price go? It is striking that so many people are even asking the question—let alone answering it, in some cases, with frightening triple-digit numbers. For most of the 1980s and 1990s, the oil price rarely strayed far from $20 a barrel. With the exception of a brief interlude following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the world grew used to the joys of cheap oil. But over the past four years, the price has more than tripled, to more than $70 a barrel. It is still climbing and prices in the futures market imply that oil will remain dear for several years to come. Clearly, investors believe that some comfortable old certainties have gone out of the window.
Nostalgia for calmer days

Maybe the implications of a post Peak Oil world (I dislike the term peak oil because after all it is the post peak oil world we are worried about) have not sunk it yet, but many of the issues are now becoming main stream, and people are starting to realize that high energy prices may be here to stay, not to mention higher commodity prices, sky high non-precious metals and higher inflation that is supporting precious metals, too.

It has been interesting to look at this season of earnings. Some mines are reporting losses despite high prices. It seems their input costs are catching-up to the the prices they receive and eroding margins even as such things like royalties are still going up? This is when it gets interesting. When prices are already high and producers still cannot produce at a profit!

By the way, as for our Catherine Austin Fitts and her stint at HUD, do you really expect me to believe that in politically correct America that her Superior said that rewarding contractors was more important than getting the job done? Not likely. They may think those things, but they are rarely uttered out loud and certainly not to a Subordinate! ; - ) Quite an active imagination in any case.
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby Chaparral » Sun 30 Apr 2006, 03:46:00

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MrBill', 'B')y the way, as for our Catherine Austin Fitts and her stint at HUD, do you really expect me to believe that in politically correct America that her Superior said that rewarding contractors was more important than getting the job done? Not likely. They may think those things, but they are rarely uttered out loud and certainly not to a Subordinate! ; - ) Quite an active imagination in any case.


I've been around and have a few anecdotes of my own. If you ever find yourself in LA we'll go out for a few drinks and I'll give you my experience as a gov't contractor and then as a gov't employee back in the days. I can't discount anything Fitts has to say. I may wish I could but i can't.
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby Lokutus » Mon 01 May 2006, 16:25:41

More stuff by Catherine Austin Fitts

How To Get Rich Bringing Down the Man
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby spudbuddy » Tue 02 May 2006, 02:09:13

whew!
great stuff
mindblower
(better than Hitchcock...)

but it strikes me, nonetheless -

that this is a pretty rarified atmosphere for the average citizen to be breathing...
meaning results from activating the masses is a colossal pipedream, no doubt.
Much of America may be fascinated with money (bring on the Busby Berkely choreography) but precious few understand how this all works, ever did, or ever will, I'm afraid.
Which is of course how the whole yellow brick road got paved the way it did, in the first place.

I don't doubt that many are noticing the results - how can they help it?

The one thing that really grabs me is the idea of localized economies...(which I guess has been the traditional plum that corpo-pickers were after all along.)
Alas - for so many, a localized economy is something so long-removed it's produced a collective amnesia.

makes me wonder - how an energy shortage may shift that red button to green, anyhow.
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby Lokutus » Tue 02 May 2006, 02:17:40

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('spudbuddy', '
')I don't doubt that many are noticing the results - how can they help it?



You doubt that many are noticing the results?

Dude, despite the pretense and flaunting of bling-bling, most American households are a pay-check away from disaster. Real wages haven't increased since the mid seventies. Savings rates are negative.

Only the dumbest can't sense that something is wrong--even if they don't understand the mechanism which is used to pick their pockets clean.

Catherine does a first rate job of explaining it in simple easy to understand English.
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby shakespear1 » Tue 02 May 2006, 03:28:30

Most people don't get it, won't get it, and even when they do get hit on the head they will blame the wrong people. :) :) :)

I am a petroleum engineer. I understand most of the issues of PO and have tried to explain this to my relatives. Still, when they see the prices of the nat. gas and gasoline going up they blame it on the "manipulators". In other words they forgot all I told them.

My only explanatin is that the explanations I gave just DON'T make sense to them.

It is sort of like having a neurobiologist explaining how your mind works. You don't care, you just know it works. :) :)

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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby MrBill » Tue 02 May 2006, 04:46:49

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('spudbuddy', '
')I don't doubt that many are noticing the results - how can they help it?



You doubt that many are noticing the results?

Dude, despite the pretense and flaunting of bling-bling, most American households are a pay-check away from disaster. Real wages haven't increased since the mid seventies. Savings rates are negative.

Only the dumbest can't sense that something is wrong--even if they don't understand the mechanism which is used to pick their pockets clean.

Catherine does a first rate job of explaining it in simple easy to understand English
.


Only the dumbest can't sense that something is wrong--even if they don't understand the mechanism which is used to pick their pockets clean.

Yes, it is called the lowest possible denominator and it is prevalent in the mob mentality. Find a common enemy to blame, even if it is no the right one.

Catherine does a first rate job of explaining it in simple easy to understand English

It is called sound bites, and again, who cares if they are accurate, so long as they capture the reader's imagination? Distill complex issues down to simple to understand slogans which are neither accurate or address the underlying issues.

Reading the wrong sources of information is not a good substitute for getting the right answers.
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby MacG » Tue 02 May 2006, 05:35:39

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', 'C')atherine Austin Fitts nails it perfectly with her Tapeworm metaphor for the economy. She is rapidly becoming one of my heroes.

Tapeworm Economy

Globalization is a nice name for "race to the bottom".


I have come across Catherine on the net a number of times, and my opinion on her has been swaying back and forth. She makes some extraordinary claims regarding illegal drug trading which take some chewing and swallowing to get down, but she dont make any other UFO-like claims which are so common nowdays.

Current appraisal: That woman got balls of steel!
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby MrBill » Tue 02 May 2006, 10:51:37

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MacG', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', 'C')atherine Austin Fitts nails it perfectly with her Tapeworm metaphor for the economy. She is rapidly becoming one of my heroes.

Tapeworm Economy

Globalization is a nice name for "race to the bottom".


I have come across Catherine on the net a number of times, and my opinion on her has been swaying back and forth. She makes some extraordinary claims regarding illegal drug trading which take some chewing and swallowing to get down, but she dont make any other UFO-like claims which are so common nowdays.

Current appraisal: That woman got balls of steel!


Of course, with so much corruption & malfeance about in plenty it is quite easy to believe that anything is possible, and, of course, so many claims are equally hard to disprove. Therefore, I usually stick to most logical conclusion until proven otherwise, and try to avoid confusing cause & effect with causality.
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby Lokutus » Tue 02 May 2006, 14:36:26

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MrBill', ' ')
Of course, with so much corruption & malfeance about in plenty it is quite easy to believe that anything is possible, and, of course, so many claims are equally hard to disprove. Therefore, I usually stick to most logical conclusion until proven otherwise, and try to avoid confusing cause & effect with causality.


MrBill,

Living in Cyprus you automatically know more about what's happening in the USA than the people here. So thanks for telling us what's plausible and what's not.

If you have access to the Internet, let me make a recommendation. Do a search on Ms Fitt's history. It will provide some valuable context.
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby MacG » Tue 02 May 2006, 14:46:37

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', 'M')rBill,

Living in Cyprus you automatically know more about what's happening in the USA than the people here. So thanks for telling us what's plausible and what's not.


We can always count on Mr Bill telling us the final truth on any matter at hand. [smilie=profe.gif]
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Re: The Tapeworm Economy

Unread postby threadbear » Tue 02 May 2006, 14:55:29

Fitts is an insider, or at least was an insider, as a former assistant director of HUD under George Bush Sr.

She is ideological kryptonite to the anti conspiracy/ pro-coincidence theory crowd. Someone who is both brilliant, AND an insider who has first hand knowledge of political conspiracy from the inside. She found herself an unwitting participant in one, when she went to HUD, and it nearly ruined her financially and emotionally.

The people who discredit criminal political conspiracy as a key and growing feature of the govt of the US, are still in desparate suck up mode.They have reached the outer limits of what is left of a middle class meritocratic system and understand (though it's unconscious) that they better learn to parrot the B.S of the elites if they're going to be asked to dance in their moral twilight zone.... Sad.
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