views

The most underutilized tool for understanding the financial system is psychoanalysis.

The financial institutions’ most profitable talent is avoiding traumatic confrontation with the Self. We should never doubt that the prominent individuals in these institutions actually have no mental access to their essential harmfulness.

Accepting this postulate we must focus our efforts on hastening the confrontation. That’s jargon. What I really mean is that we need to understand how the financial industry hears our criticisms, and adjust our criticisms accordingly.

To the sane, objective observer, the crisis-followed-by-bailout was the final, irrefutable moment of truth: the financial industry’s wealth-creation is largely illusory. They make money not so much by increasing the efficiency of the system, but by directly increasing its instability. Because they create the instability, they have privileged knowledge of where it is and how to shield themselves from it. The crisis was the moment when their manufacture of instability became so overwhelming that it backfired, and in doing so, became visible and irrefutable.

The financial professionals saw a different picture. They saw the bailout not as evidence of their deep culpability for the corroded system, but simply of their importance to everyone’s well-being.

This culpability-and-denial-thereof is the essence of our objection. That is why I find Johnson to be one of the better commentators–he focuses on the hard reality of the financial industry’s active, blind culpability.

But when we, the peanut gallery, focus on their salaries, (which are certainly unjust, close to the heart of the problem and have unconscionable negative externalities) the bankers hear only:

“We, the weak, resent you, the strong, on whom we depend!”

As unfortunate as it is, we must speak to them in their language. Just as one must talk to sociopathic patients in their language.
— Matt



The average American family gains a $10,000 purchase premium a year to inexpensive Chinese products ie. Walmart, Target, Costco and Home Depot. If you buy a $4000 flatscreen, that would otherwise be $6000 plus if it was made domestically without the China price.

The dollar has lost 50% of its value in the past 3 years against the Euro and numerous European and world currencies EXCEPT the Chinese yuan.

The customer is not feeling this impact because of two reasons: the yuan is artificially pegged to the dollar and the Chinese economy is effectively our largest supplier of consumer goods. We just DON’T buy that much from France, Argentina or Latvia.

When the Yuan is unlinked from the Dollar, you will see flat screen tvs, computers, cellpphones double in prices. And the consumer will react like getting a sucker gut punch and become increasingly frustrated then angry.

This is a golden age for consumers….but not for much longer. Lean, less materialistic times are coming.
For JOB PROTECTIONIST: BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR. You may just get it. And that flat screen tv is now $8,000.
— Drill-Baby-Drill Drill Team