Yet another bailout

So AIG is the next bailout. I guess some of the preferred stock holders in AIG had a more powerful presence in government than Lehman Brothers did. This bailout is basically a loan by the government (using your tax dollars) so that AIG can go out of business in an orderly manner. Here is choice a quote by Tami Luhby, a senior writer at CNNMoney.com:

An eventual liquidation of the company is most likely, senior Fed officials said. But with the government loan, the company won't have to go through a tumultuous fire sale.

(for the CNN full article click here)

So what happens in such a liquidation? Well the bulk of the proceeds in the liquidation go, of course, to the preferred stock holders (the wealthy elites) while the regular stock holders (you, through your 401k) get the shaft. And of course, the management of AIG (more wealthy elites) can always take that loan money and run, let the corporation default on the loan. In other words, they will just mail the keys to the office to the Federal Reserve Board a corporate version of jingle mail.

In the event of Apocalypse, pull handle

I see a lot of survivalist nut jobs on the boards I frequent, often going on about how they are stocking up on food and guns. They often ask, “What is your game plan?” as if to flaunt what they see as their stable position in and unstable world. What it really amounts to though is saying, “Nani Nani Boo Boo, I’m more prepared than you!”

My game plan?

Brush up on my skills. I would rather be a valuable person than a person with valuable things. You can stock up on supplies and weapons all you like, but if the modern world abruptly collapses into “The Road Warrior”, those things will just make you a target for someone more powerful. Eventually, you can’t pull the trigger fast enough or you run out of ammo. Then their followers will overrun you.

People can easily take away your stuff, but it is much more difficult for them to take away your skills. Someone who can contribute to their community (a doctor who can heal the wounded, maybe an engineer who can fix the machines) will be supported and protected by those people who need them.

The other problem with the survivalist fantasies that spur this hording is belief that the New Dark Age will come suddenly. What they are not counting on is that the descent will take decades, not months. Their supplies will simply be depleted before the end.

I found a pretty good article from a couple of years ago that talks about how wrong the survivalist mentality is.

Market Crash?

Is today the day where the Great American Ponzi Scheme collapses? I say no. One of the key aspects of a dark age is the breakdown of the commerce web. Today a few important strands are breaking as some big banks fail, but the web is still there…at least for a few more months. Currently, I still hold that the real crash will be in February of 09 when the much more tangible sector of the economy, retail, begins to fail after a dismal holiday season.

I can tell you this though, the crash is inevitable. The Elites know it. They are scrambling to gather their wealth before it happens so that when the New Dark Age descends they will be in a position to become the New Aristocracy. But, despite the enormous power they already wield, they cannot stop the crash (nor do they necessarily want to).

You’ll notice I mentioned the “Great American Ponzi Scheme”. “What is it?” you ask. The GAPS, is one of the primary mechanisms that the Elite has been using to transfer the collective wealth of the American middle class into the coffers of those who will become the New Aristocracy. It works like this:

1) First, the Elites convince the middle class to give up the concept of pensions and replace them with 401k plans.

2) At the same time, the Elites buy preferred stock in various institutions in which they have some control over the business decisions made.

3) Using their influence, they get those institutions to artificially inflate their value. For example, banks stuff their books with mortgages - they may not expect many to get paid back, but they still show as a full valued asset on their books.

4) They wait for the 401k plans to use middle class American’s retirement money to buy the regular (not the preferred) stock in those institutions. This is the important step where the wealth is transferred from the middle class to the Elites. Actual capital is used to buy stocks with only a virtual (imaginary) value.

5) Now the Elites can, at this point, sell their preferred stock and cash out. Or, they can just wait. They carry no (or at least a significantly lesser) risk. If the scheme fails, they own PREFERRED STOCK. That is, they will benefit from a bailout while the regular stock holders are shafted. Even if the institution is not bailed out, they are still the ones who get reimbursed during the liquidation of the institution, not the regular stock holders. Either way the capital has been transferred to them.

Now, you might be able to see why conservatives have pushed so often to privatize Social Security. Such an action would allow that money to buy stock in their companies, further transferring the remaining wealth of the middle class to them.

The Wicked Elites

The Wicked Elites are the people whose goal is to become the New Aristocracy when modern society transitions to the New Dark Age. The primary goal of the Wicked Elites is to eliminate the middle class. Why? It's simple. The middle class represents a limiting force upon the elites.

Okay, first off, who are the elites? Let’s not confuse them with “the rich”. Now, the elites most certainly are rich, but not all rich qualify as elites. The elites don’t just have lots of money. It’s how they use that money that makes the difference. The Elites use that money to seek to control those they consider lesser than them.

The reason they want this control is so that they can participate in excesses. These “excesses” are generally things that are at the very least socially unacceptable and quite often downright illegal. Usually, they can be identified as some variant of one of the seven deadly sins:

Lust: The elites want to be able to boink who they want, when they want, regardless of willingness, age, gender, or marital status, and they want to do this without any fear repercussion. An example of such an excess is the policy of Droit de seigneur (that was the medieval right of a lord to sleep with any bride within his domain on her wedding night (see Braveheart for a depiction). Though I list this first, this is perhaps the most difficult of the seven for the elites to achieve as such actions are rather clearly prohibited by law, but when the New Dark Age begins and law is privatized, this may not be so far out of reach for the New Aristocracy.

Envy: If the elites want anything in the possession of a lesser person, whether it’s money, property, or any material object, they want to be able to take it without any form or resistance. A modern example is Walmart’s use of imminent domain to seize people’s homes and land to build their behemoth stores.

Rage: The elites want to be able to punish those whom they consider lesser than they for any offense, in any way they see fit. An extreme example from history is the holocaust. How about a certain President sending his country’s troops into a well contained, beaten down Middle Eastern nation to settle a personal vendetta? How about torture? A few decades ago the concept was only discussed when referring to petty third-world dictators, now it has become a possible tool of the Earth’s most powerful government.

Sloth: Of course the elites don’t want to sacrifice to get what they want. Perhaps the best example from history is slavery. Rather than or hire labor or work themselves to produce a livelihood, slave owners forced others to do it for them. A more contemporary example might be outsourcing labor to third world countries.

Vanity: There are some among the elite that would know no boundaries in the harm they could do to further the image. The most extreme example of this ever is the Countess Elizabeth Bathory. Imelda Marcos, with her hoards of shoes, is a more recent example.

Greed: Of course the elites want do anything to attain riches. See Enron: had it not been for the prosecution of these crooks, you know countless other company executives would have used the same shenanigans to line their pockets.

Pride: Elites want power, not just to be able to screw, steal, harm, exploit, preen, and hoard without accountability. No! They must FEEL powerful, too. Think of ancient times where elites had themselves declared living gods. This hits on all of the prior sins. Of course, the elite want those things for their base pleasures, but moreover, they want to be able to do those things out of spite for those whom they consider the little people. They want to be able to laugh at their objections.

Now, truth be told, the Wicked Elites already get away with some of these excesses, but imagine how they would be if they faced no repercussions for their actions. It’s not laws that keep them in place, but rather the people who enforce those laws are who they fear. In America, which class of people is primarily responsible for law enforcement? Why, the middle class of course. The class of people, that together, has enough knowledge and capital power to oppose the will of the Wicked Elite. Once the middle class is eliminated, there remains no barrier to the New Aristocracy changing laws (or even the whole legal structure, i.e. privatizing law) to suit their desires.

McCain Pulls Ahead In Georgia...the state, that is

According to the local ABC Affiliate WSB-TV, polls in my home state are showing that McCain has pulled ahead. Now, while I don't think either political party is capable of preventing the New Dark Age, I do believe that Republicans, both the Neocon and Paleocon factions, actually desire it to get here sooner. So naturally, I'm somewhat dissappointed by this news.

However, I'm not in the least bit surprised. The only reason Georgia ever sent Democrat delegates to the electoral college was because the residents here spent a century upset about the outcome of the Civil War (for those of you who may have forgotten gradeschool history, Abe Lincoln was a Republican).

The Large Hadron Collider is online

The descent into the New Dark Age will not always follow a direct line. From time to time there will be exceptions when modern society manages to do somthing enormously positive. Today just such an exception has occurred. Whilst a bit anticlimactic (particles rushed around only in one direction, so...no collisions), the Large Hardon Collider went live today.

Thankfully the protests of the ignorant who feared the formation of a blackhole that would swallow the earth were ignored.

The best educated discussion I can find on it is at the ironically Bad Astronomy Blog.

Now, if we could just pull off something this incredible in the US....

I smell bailout!

So will Lehman Brothers be deemed to big to fail? According to Reuters:

Shares of Lehman (LEH.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the fourth largest U.S. investment bank, fell 44 percent to $7.91 on the New York Stock Exchange.

I believe I see another opportunity for some fat bankers and their preferred-share-holders to snag some federal tax revenue. I suppose it depends on how many of those preferred-share-holders are neocon elites whispering into the President's ear.