Whatever happened to the fella named Devilsadvocate? Does he still come here? I always thought him to be a nice guy, shame if he's gone.

Christ mate, most of it is made up shit that is there to give us something to be scared of. SARS, AIDS, Avian Flu, the Taliban, the IRA, the Commies, asteroids, mega-tsunamis, pensions, altzheimers, aliens, Iran... you name it, it's all shite. Think about it: we're all gonna die some day, so why should we give a shit about those bizarre and unlikely things killing us: whether its commies or a virus that comes from a chicken. You're far more likely to die of a cold, or cancer, or a heart attack, or even a car crash.

Remember the "War on Terror"? Think about it. "War on Terror". It's meaningless! Bush might as well have declared war on "Bad Stuff", or "Folks that dare to tell us they think we suck".

It's all just about bogeymen. Humans are easily scared of the things that they aren't familiar with. So every few years we have a new one that gets pulled on us just so that we can "pull together" and "fight a common foe". It's the no. 1 tried and trusted trick of nation-state international politics. Without it, nation states fall apart.

Interesting thing is that right now the thing that looked as if it might supplant the nation-state (ie the global free market) has shown itself to be a complete mirage, so we're really in a cleft stick. Watch closely though, as the nation state reasserts itself with a new/revived bogeyman. My money's on it being Iran, with big war by 2020, to drag us out of the coming slump.

I blame the Germans.

Well it's been a pretty safe bet to blame them for everything in the last 100 years hasn't it?

Ooh! Bugster! I could do a real number on you now, but I'll put it down to ignorance - or frivolity.

Well those folks that know me will know I've not been idle, and I've noticed all kinds of funny stuff going on. The thing is, where do go to you speak about it?

I'm a member of several forums (I hate forae or whatever the posh term is as it's elitist bollox) and what I have found is that forum members are receptive only to the topic in hand. I try to broach such subjects, but people aren't interested.
If any of you are old enough to remember the 1960's Sci-Fi program 'The Invaders,' where some guy found something out but no one else would believe it - then that's where I am.

Maybe I should say; There is a thing called 'common purpose' and it's going to take away your 2cv's" Do you think that it would stop people from pondering on more important things such as whether the back door is locked or not?

I like the way you're thinking Smiffy, but have you ever considered....

International finance.

Most of us fella's are working men that (if we're lucky) might have a few shares here and there, a couple of ISA's maybe, but who here really knows how it all works?

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but here's how I understand it.

The government finds itself fecked, and so urgently needs to raise money. They do this in two ways - well three really. First and easiest is to tax everything. Income tax, VAT, petrol, import tax, tax on home and vehicle insurance etc etc.

Second is to export goods. But unfortunately, we don't do much of that any more as we don't make much worth exporting, so exporting stuff ain't big.

Third then, is to issue government bonds. For those that don't know how government bonds work it's like this. When a country has mineral wealth, such as Saudi Arabia's Oil or Russia's gas, South Africa's diamonds and gold, they use that potential wealth as collateral. So when they issue bonds, the buyers know the country is worth it.

So what can Britain do?

Well it can't use gold as surety because Gordon Brown sold it all, and it can't use North Sea Oil because it's running out, so it uses it's people. Think about it. Apart from rain, the UK's only asset is it's people, and their potential to work. And for each person that is registered at birth, the government can raise a bond based on the projected 'potential' productiveness of that person during his/her lifetime.

The bonds are then exchanged for money, and that money is spent by the government on 'whatever'. The most dangerous times for bonds are when the interest rates have fallen, as they are no longer worth what they once were. It would therefore be advantageous to close those bonds and issue new ones at the new, lower interest rate. So how can you do that?

Well, Bonds (people) can either be bought, sold, or cashed in. And if a great many people (who are viewed as UK or US bonds) were to die, then this would allow the financial markets to re-arrange the next set of bonds (your successors) at a more advantageous rate. So what would you need to make them all die so suddenly now their value has dropped? A war!

Look back in history and see what was happening in the 1930's. Poverty, market crashes, inflation in Germany, and what cured all that? War with Germany. Maybe 2020 is too far away for your prediction Smiffy, I reckon 2012, especially as it is 'foretold' in the talmud.

Jesus Old Nail,your a mine of information.Theres a guy who works in our place,just like you,knows something about everything.How do you manage to retain the information?I cant remember what I read last week

Old-Nail,
thought they simply printed more money, but dressed it up as 'quantitative easing', so that we took a while to realise that it was devaluation under a new name?

Still wondering what Cameron means with his 'big society', or why Blair went on and on about 'safe havens', when a haven is by definition a safe place.

ken

Old-Nail! Nice to see your virtual face. I take it you're not living the dream in France just quite yet then?

I can't go until after the revolution James, the revolution here that is - until I've caused one. Anyway, you can't 'live the dream', they call it that because you have to be asleep to think it's real.



I know it's a strange thing to say Ken but money doesn't exist. It's all an illusion.

Finance works on confidence, another word for it would be a 'confidence trick'. As you know the tenner in your pocket isn't money, it is a promisary note. It 'promises to pay the bearer' etc. That's all well and good so long as you have trust in the person that is doing the promising, but if that trust fails, if confidence is lost, then what is his promise worth then?

That is how the currency devalues - confidence is lost. To put more money into circulation the government have to either issue bonds, or devalue the currency by putting more zero's into circulation. They don't 'print' more money, as only around 3% of all money physically exists, the rest is just notional.

Explanation: Say you want a 100,000 loan from your bank, you go in agree the terms, and moments later 100,000 appears in your account. The same would be if that figure was 10,000,000 or ten billion, all that would happen is a row of zero's would be added to your account. When you spend it, the row of zero's are deducted from your account, and added to the account of the person you bought something from.

So in effect by the press of a button the bank has granted you some imaginary zero's - nothing, as they are just zero's on a screen. With that 'nothing' you go buy a house, which of course does exist. You are able to do this because the seller has faith that those zero's you pass to him are just like the promisary notes - worth a notional amount.

So what happens next? Well, the banks 'lose' lots of money, which never really existed in the first place remember, so what they have in effect lost is market confidence in all those on screen zero's. As a result the economy slows, you lose your job, can't pay the mortgage, and the house is repossessed.

Now this is the trick. They loaned you some zero's, some imaginary money, they loaned you in effect - nothing. But because you have now lost your job and can't pay back the money that never existed in the first place, they take from you a house that does exist. They have now turned their 'nothing' into 'something', they have changed some imaginary zero's into a bricks and mortar asset.

That is what Gordon Brown did but in reverse. The markets know that the zero's are fictional, so when confidence wanes they buy Gold, because gold is always gold. It's physical, it exists, and can be traded, sold, or borrowed against. That's why the price of gold shot up as the recession bit.

Now the 'Best Chancellor the country has ever seen' Brown managed to sell the nation's gold reserves at rock bottom price (ie in times of high confidence in the zero's) so he actually managed to sell what existed in exchange for what doesn't exist. I've not seen that done since beanstalk jack sold his cow for a handful of magic beans. But Brown did it! What a nob.

So that's how it works Ken, 'quantative easing' is just a matter of adding more notional zero's to the already notional zero's on the screen. And without the confidence of the markets, then zero is about their value too. Which is why we need gold to back it up.... but we have none now.... er anyone seen Gordon Brown lately?

Finance, law, and politics are all an illusion. They are practiced by tricksters, using esoteric knowledge not revealed to the likes of you or I. I just make it my business to inquire, I have an enquiring mind you might say plus I don't like being fucked over by a bunch of con men.

Being fooled is easy, they do it seamlessly. Think you can't be fooled so easily? Try this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXf-m_vBykc&feature=related

im just sick of being screwed over by the goverment and paying for people who sponge

bold statement i know, but i know plenty of people locally who claim a house, full living expenses etc of the goverment and un employment benefits etc, and work at the same time...