“Trying to fucking con me you robbing cunt?” (Quantitative Easing Pt II)

He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.
Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

Money is so familiar to us it’s one of those things in life you don’t really think about, but the current financial crisis presents a rare opportunity to gain insight into the shockingly fraudulent underpinnings of our entire monetary system.

In all but the most primitive of economies, individuals will tend to have wants that exceed their own means to produce. For example, a hunter may need clothes, but his cloth manipulating skills may fall well below his hunting abilities. In this circumstance, the hunter could find someone good at making clothes, who are not good at catching food. The hunter gives the shirtmaker a leg of deer. In return the shirtmaker gives the hunter a shirt.

Barter has occurred.

So far so good. See the problem, though. You need to find someone who wants what you produce in order to swap it for something they produce. Not too convenient. You’re going to waste a lot of time playing the swapsies game. OK, so how about if we find something that everyone values already, make it portable, and work out what our produce is worth in terms of this proxy item? And of course, gold is a great choice, valued for itself as it is nice to look at, doesn’t rust and is rare. Make it into convenient to carry parcels (coins). Now decide how many coins a shirt, a piece of meat etc is work. Need a shirt? Just hand over the coins, you don’t need to have something that the shirtmaker wants. The value of the claim to a real resource is stored in the coins and the shirtmaker can hand them to someone else when they want something to cook for their dinner.

Simple. Ingenious. That’s what money has to be. Portable, widely accepted. A store of value.

Additionally, in the case of the gold coins, that money is worth something even without any claim on goods and services, i. e. it has intrinsic value.

Not so our modern money (or fiat money as it is called)

The “value” of our money is by government decree. Those pieces of paper and low quality metals in your wallet, or for that matter, electrons in a banks computer, are nearly worthless in of themselves. What gives modern fiat money value is the claim on goods and services it represents. If those goods and services do not exist, it does not have value.

Which brings is to the monetary policy of the government being pursued via their cronies in the Bank of England.

Their “quantitative easing” strategy, which let’s be clear is simply a modern equivalent of running the printing presses to create new money out of thin air, illustrates they don’t understand what money should be about at all.

The rationale of QE (that it can boost the economy when interest rates can be reduced no further because they are at or near zero) is easily demolished by a little thought experiment.

Take our simplified example above, where we only have the shirtmaker and the hunter (an entire economy consisting of just two individuals and two products). Let us further say that they are using modern, fiat money that has no intrinsic value, just like ours.

Now add a twist. The shirtmaker is also the monetary authority in this tiny economy. Yes, he holds the keys to the financial printing press! And one day he says, “Actually, I can’t really be bothered making shirts anymore. I’d like to just sit around and chill. What I’ll do is, I’ll turn on the printing press, print off a couple of crisp tenners to buy the leg of deer from the hunter, I get to eat, he gets his money and I’ve had to do fuck all in return. Sweet!”

So along comes the hunter. He has a leg of meat ready to sell and a couple of tenners ready to buy a shirt. He puts the leg of deer on the counter. “That’s twenty quid please, and here is twenty quid for a new shirt.”

The shirtmaker, sorry Central Bank Governor hands over twenty quid and reaches for the leg of meat. “Oh, by the way, sorry, I don’t make shirts anymore so I’ve got nothing to sell. You can put your money away”.

“Whoa, “, says the hunter, quickly putting the leg of deer back in his bag “so what am I supposed to spend my twenty quid on?”

“Erm.” Says the central bank governor. “Er…humph. Yes…well…Ah, I should say…er…in these difficult times I’m increasing liquidity in the financial system and -”

“Trying to fucking con me you robbing cunt?”, says the hunter. “Well, at least I won’t starve. Good fucking day to you.”

What happened? The shirtmaker, in his new role as central bank, created money with his printing press that was not backed by the creation of a real resource. Because there are only two players in this hypothetical economy, the attempted con job is immediately obvious to the innocent party in the tiny economy and the “Quantitative Easing” fails.

Just because our monetary systems is computerized and consists of millions of individuals making millions of transactions, Quantitative Easing (printing money) is a total rip-off in exactly the same way as the simplified scenario above, it’s just the fraud is much better disguised in the vast complexity of our economic system and they hope we won’t notice. With lots of economic entities involved, you don’t get outright refusal to accept the new money of course. The printed money ripples through the economy and devalues the purchasing power of the currency via higher prices. Those who got the newly created money first (can you guess who?) gain at the expense of those who get it last (can you guess who?)

So let’s all ask the Bank of England governor:

“Trying to fucking con me you robbing cunt?”

Scrappage, cont.

Well, let's hope the Chancellor reads this before he finalises his budget plans:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8003508.stm

Yep - it looks like that "successful" German scrappage scheme has had undesirable knock on effects!

Who'd have though it, eh?

Scrappage crappage

Michael Cunningham: Your mother and I have decided to help buy you a new car.

Arnie Cunningham: That's what everyone wants isn't it? Well, fuck you. I'm fixing up Christine.

The credit crunch has certainly revealed some of the most stupid economic "management" you'll ever see, but the nonsense just keeps on coming.

A huge howler approaching in the next budget is the so called "scrappage" scheme. Whether this scheme is implemented will provide the ultimate yardstick into just how clueless these morons running the economy are.

What is "scrappage"? The basic outline is, any car owner taking their car aged 9 years or more to be scrapped will be given a voucher to the tune of £2000 that they can spend on a new car.

But is that what everyone wants?

1) That £2000 is paid for by everyone, in higher taxes (deferred to the future if they fund it by borrowing now as they presumably will) or inflation (if they fund it with some of that "quantitative easing") whether they use a car or not. Fair?

2) Secondhand values are distorted upwards, as they will now have a falsely allocated state subsidised "voucher value" - so a low income person who wants a cheap motor would have to pay more. Fair?

3) People who were quite happy with their old car, now rush to buy a new one to get the subsidised price. That means they don't spend money on other purchases they would otherwise have made - so the car industry gains at the expense of other businesses. Fair?

4) All of our mass market cars are made by foreign owned firms, so most of the benefit will go to foreign business (there will be only a small spin off benefit to some British firms). Fair?

5) These car firms handing round the begging bowl for taxpayers help are the first to complain about government interference, taxation and "red tape" during the good times but now they want our money, and lots of it. Fair?

Now, don't think for a second government ministers won't be made aware of how this interference in the market will cascade through the economy. They might be stupid, but one thing they are not is ill informed. So if they do go ahead and introduce this horrendous scheme, you know that they have ruthlessly chosen to help the car industry at the collective expense of the whole country and indeed the poor. Shitters.

We'll see in the budget whose side they are on. And if you hear a lot of talk from the chancellor about "the environment", watch your wallet.

Expense…justified

So Jacqui Smith’s husband has been watching porn at the taxpayer’s expense? A disgrace, is it?

Erm…









Ooooh. That is fucking rank.

I say, at a cost of £0.00000000000001 per taxpayer you can have this one my friend.

Wank on, Dick, wank on.

Deflation, what deflation?

"The trifling economy of paper, as a cheaper medium, or its convenience for transmission, weighs nothing in opposition to the advantages of the precious metals... it is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted." --Thomas Jefferson

The government and the ever compliant “independent” media are softening us with weekly propaganda so we are supposed to feel grateful because they are trying everything they can think of to stop things getting cheaper, but there has been a slight mishap.

The rate of inflation just went up!

That’s right folks, deflation is the big concern apparently but, ooops, the CPI actually rose to 3.2%!

That’s above the 2% target, yet they’re taking measures like it’s already below.

Ah, but, they are so clever though. You see, they are fighting next year’s problem. They can predict what’s going to happen and - oh hang on. No they can’t. They failed to see the credit crunch didn’t they? In fact, thinking about it, it looks suspiciously like they don’t have a fucking clue.

So how can we trust them when they say that deflation is the real threat? The government is in a shit load of debt and, just as with individuals holding loans; inflation is a great way to crush the real terms value of that debt. Hey, I owe a 100,000 mortgage that I can't pay back but thanks to Gordon Brown, in 2010 100 grand will be the cost of a loaf of bread! You get the idea. Obviously savers will be wiped out, but hey, the Keynesians think savers are scum and it is credit that is the route to prosperity (just like a drug addict can be cured with more drugs, right?) so what the fuck, eh?

Deflation? Yeah. And. So. What.

Food getting cheaper. Good or bad?
Cars getting cheaper. Good or bad?
Fuel getting cheaper. Good or bad?
Electronics getting cheaper. Good or bad?

If you answered “good” to the above, you’re probably an ordinary, sensible individual.

If you answered “maybe…possibly bad” you’re probably one of the Keynesian fuckwits in government running economic policy or a journalist writing in the popular press.

Now technically, deflation is a contraction of the monetary base, and falling prices are a symptom of deflation, not the deflation itself, but no matter, we’ll discuss deflation using the mass media’s definition, as falling prices.

Somehow, they are trying to convince us that things getting cheaper, is a bad thing. You may have thought they are cleverer than you, that they have spotted some subtle insidious evil behind what is surely a good thing, thanks to their superior intellect and economic training.

Nope. What you instinctively feel is right, is right. But you see, they have ulterior motives for preventing falling prices.

Deflation strikes terror into the hearts of the ruling elites, even though falling prices leaves exactly those sections of society that deserve it the most, better off.

The problem is, our entire monetary system is systemically dependent on debt, which is subsidised by inflation. If we get into a deflationary situation, the whole pyramid scheme that is our fiat money system becomes dangerously exposed.

Watch out for one of those anti deflation articles in the popular press, or a feature on the BBC. There’s a pattern.

It usually starts along the lines of, “falling prices, you’d think they are a good thing, wouldn’t you?”

Er, yes, funnily enough, I’d rather pay less for things than more, I’m weird like that.

Then you’ll get:

“But if sustained, consumers will defer their purchases waiting for prices to fall further and this becomes a negative feedback cycle”

This is utter bullshit.

Do flat panel TVs sell? Do mobile phones sell? Do computers sell?

We all know there is something better round the corner that will be cheaper but we still buy these things.

“Deflation raises the real value of borrowers’ debt”

That is correct. Simple response: good. Guess what, the mess we are in right now is because credit was and is too cheap. We need less borrowing and more saving. Unfortunately, the Keynesians are in charge (that would be the shit-eating cock-knockers who got us into this mess in the first place) and they hate savers (who benefit from deflation).

"So the quantitative easing policy is essential to avoid the awful prospect of deflation"

Printing money that is not backed by an increase in real resources won't help when prices are falling, rising, staying the same or slightly moist. Only the disciples of the something for nothing prat economist J. M. Keynes believe otherwise.

In summary, the government is doing everything possible to stop your cost of living going down, and the mass media are day in, day out, running pieces to convince you this is a good thing.

I’ll let you decide whose interests they are looking after.

Quantitative Easing – The con is on

So it’s come to this. What is Quantitative Easing? Well, the Bank of England will buy government and corporate bonds from commercial banks, and pay for them by increasing the value of the reserves that they hold bla bla bla bla.

Let me tell you something.

It’s printing money, is what it is. It’s Tommy Coopernomics. Conjuring money out of thin air. And if that was an easy solution to financial crises, Zimbabwe would be the richest country in the world. Just like that.

There can only be one consequence of printing money, prices will be pushed higher than they otherwise would be if the new money had not been created.

What this does is, it transfers resources to those who receive the funny money first (oh, that would be the banks by the way, is that ok?) from the people who get to spend it last, when it’s too late, because prices by then have risen proportionately to cancel out the benefit of the extra cash. Who are those people? The humble proles of course, the PAYE slaves and former slaves living off their (now devalued) pensions.

Let me make it clearer. Imagine if, right now, the government announced a new policy to avert the depression: that they were going to increase income tax, and the extra revenue would be given to the banks, as a free gift, for them to lend out as they saw fit. There would be uproar! But the net effect of QE is the same.

So what on earth are they playing at, and how do they think they can get away with it?

Well, if they think the general public won’t see that the policy is printing money, the media has put paid to that, with just about every newspaper headline reading something like “Government begins quantitative easing, or ‘printing money’”. No, their inflationary free money giveaway policy will be hidden behind falling or stable prices.

If that sounds like a nonsensical statement, allow me to explain. Let’s say the governments preferred inflation measure, the CPI, goes negative (it’s still above target at the time of writing incidentally, a fact not pointed out often enough in a media talking as if the CPI has gone negative already). This, apparently, would be terrible. Imagine, things are getting cheaper. How awful! (Don’t get me started on this one, we’ll come back to this in another post!). OK. So, they print money. Instead the price level changes year on year by +2%. Hurray! Bank has hit its inflation target! But hey, what if prices as measured by the CPI would have fallen by 2% (i. e. a negative CPI), if QE hadn’t been undertaken?

Well, anyone with savings or unable to negotiate a pay rise, just lost out by 4%, all the while the Bank of England would be saying they got things back on track with 2% inflation.
So why do they hate savers and people who can’t get a pay rise?

Short answer.

The governing elites are a bunch of cunts.

Long answer, look out for my next post about falling prices (currently being wrongly referred to as “deflation” in the media).