Glenn Beck asks the questions we want asked. Stop focusing on only the “crazy” few things, and give him a true analysis. If not you’ll be the most surprised when the Campaign for Liberty, 9.12 Movement and Tea Parties take this country back; meaning no more keynesianism, transnationalism or Federal Reserve.
Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category
Letter to Morning Joe about their attack on Glenn Beck
Posted by rasticus on September 17, 2009
Posted in 2nd Amendment, Capitalism, Constitution, Economics, Policy, Politics, Ron Paul | Tagged: 2nd Amendment, civil rights, Constitution, Economics, glenn beck, Policy, republic, revolution | Leave a Comment »
Return to a Barter Economy | Mint.com Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice
Posted by rasticus on June 10, 2009
Return to a Barter Economy | Mint.com Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice.
The Barter Economy Returns
// on Yahoo!
With trust in the world’s currencies at its lowest point in recent memory, bartering has reemerged as a possible solution to the credit crunch. All but forgotten, bartering predates any modern form of currency, and arose naturally in the ancient world as the primary means of economic exchange. Today, there are a number of barter systems in place alongside replacement currencies that operate on a local level in cities or small rural villages. Whether these approaches come from a hot Web 2.0 startup or a tiny Thai village, they are changing the economic landscape. Here’s a look at some of the most promising.
Cyber Bartering
Cyber-bartering is not a new phenomenon, but bartering-specific sites are more popular today than ever. More specialized sites such as Barterbee, Barterquest and Rehashclothes, offer individuals various avenues for bartering, specific to what good or service they are looking for. And then there is Craigslist.org: this site is not a bartering site per se, but its worldwide reach and myriad categories offer individuals the ability to trade anything with anyone, anywhere in the world. Want to trade a washing machine for a motorcycle? How about your old hockey gear for a new snowboard? Check out this site, and chances are, you’ll find someone who’s willing to take up your offer.
Regional Bartering Exchanges
In the last several years, many regional bartering exchanges began popping up in various parts of the United States, and presumably elsewhere in the world. These are networks of businesses that trade the value of services for that of other services. For instance, a plumber may do a $400 dollar repair job for a local brewery. But instead of trading this directly for $400 worth of beer and chicken fingers, he can take this credit and put it back in circulation by trading units of $400 for other goods and services from the various other network members.
Big Businesses Bartering
While it may sound strange, many of the world’s largest companies are involved in bartering at some level. According to a recent study by Barter Business Unlimited (a large network with over 10,000 member businesses), “…more than 65 percent of the corporations listed in the New York Stock Exchange are presently using barter to reduce surplus inventory, boost sales and ensure that production facilities run at near capacity.” This can definitely help lots of businesses struggling to move inventory during this recession. CEO of Bartermania.com, Vipul Rawal claims that global business-to-business bartering is up by as much as 60% due to the current recession, and this trend is starting reach developing countries such as India and China.
Local Bartering Circles
In countries across the world, people are going back to the local marketplaces in droves. Exchanging wares and services are typically traded at such gatherings, which may set up for bartering specifically, or the bartering itself may just be a byproduct of individuals’ personal credit crunches. Anything from surfboards to electronics, to produce can typically be traded at such places. While these of course did not emerge as a reaction to the current recession, there’s no doubt that they are more popular today than ever.
Script Currencies
Another recent development is the re-emergence of local currencies, or script currencies. One of the most famous examples of these started in 2007, in Western Massachusetts. In an effort to promote buying locally, residents of several communities are able to trade in $10 US at local banks for $11 Berkshares. There is a ten percent discount worked into the exchange rate, and the currency is widely accepted by many area merchants. As a result of the increased local commerce, businesses are willing to discount their prices, and local shoppers are happy to get the discount. It is estimated that more than $2 Million worth of Berkshares have circulated through 350 businesses since the bills were first printed two years ago.
Replacement Currencies
Replacement currencies also tend to develop when a national currency loses the trust of local economies. During Asia’s financial crises a decade ago, these developed in more remote regions, where many were dependent on remittances from relatives living in capital cities. The Santi Suk community in Northeastern Thailand is a notable example. The whole program is managed by a single monk, who operates the ‘Bank’ from his one-room office. The currency goes by the Thai word for ‘merit’, and is used alongside, or in lieu of the Thai Baht. Proponents of this currency (which are decorated by drawings made by local children) were once the subject of central government scorn, but due to today’s global financial crises, the government is allowing the money to flow freely once again, as it does not place a strain on the broader economy, nor the currency at large.
Bartering’s Legal Side
While few might stop to think about the legal ramifications of bartering, it should be noted that even though it seems informal, bartering is a transaction just like any other. For those trading goods or services of a marked value, a contract ought be used to protect both parties. According to SMU Law professor, Mary Spector, every aspect of the exchange should be outlined, for example, with regards to pet care being exchanged: “Would [four hours of pet care] mean grooming the pet? Walking the pet? How many pets would be involved? Is it just dogs or would it be dogs and fish?
Tax Implications of Bartering
Similar to the legal ramifications, there are also tax implications of barter-based commerce. According to the IRS, “If you conduct any direct barter – barter for another’s products or services – you will have to report the fair market value of the products or services you received on your tax return.”
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Washington Times – EXCLUSIVE: Al Qaeda eyes bio attack from Mexico
Posted by rasticus on June 4, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
EXCLUSIVE: Al Qaeda eyes bio attack from Mexico
U.S. counterterrorism officials have authenticated a video by an al Qaeda recruiter threatening to smuggle a biological weapon into the United States via tunnels under the Mexico border, the latest sign of the terrorist group’s determination to stage another mass-casualty attack on the U.S. homeland.
The video aired earlier this year as a recruitment tool makes clear that al Qaeda is looking to exploit weaknesses in U.S. border security and also is willing to ally itself with white militia groups or other anti-government entities interested in carrying out an attack inside the United States, according to counterterrorism officials interviewed by The Washington Times.
The officials, who spoke only on the condition they not be named because of the sensitive nature of their work, stressed that there is no credible information that al Qaeda has acquired the capabilities to carry out a mass biological attack although its members have clearly sought the expertise.
The video first aired by the Arabic news network Al Jazeera in February and later posted to several Web sites shows Kuwaiti dissident Abdullah al-Nafisi telling a room full of supporters in Bahrain that al Qaeda is casing the U.S. border with Mexico to assess how to send terrorists and weapons into the U.S.
“Four pounds of anthrax — in a suitcase this big — carried by a fighter through tunnels from Mexico into the U.S. are guaranteed to kill 330,000 Americans within a single hour if it is properly spread in population centers there,” the recruiter said. “What a horrifying idea; 9/11 will be small change in comparison. Am I right? There is no need for airplanes, conspiracies, timings and so on. One person, with the courage to carry 4 pounds of anthrax, will go to the White House lawn, and will spread this ‘confetti’ all over them, and then we’ll do these cries of joy. It will turn into a real celebration.”
In the video, obtained and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, al-Nafisi also suggests that al Qaeda might want to collaborate with members of native U.S. white supremacist militias who hate the federal government.
Sean Smith, a spokesman for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, said the U.S. takes such threats seriously.
“We can never stop being vigilant while there are individuals who seek to do harm on the American people,” he said. “We continue to step up our efforts with additional personnel and better technology along the northern and southern borders and continue to strengthen our sea, land and air ports of entry.”
A U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said al-Nafisi is a “person of interest” and a veteran recruiter for al Qaeda. Misidentified on some blog sites as a professor, he is a Kuwaiti dissident and al Qaeda associate who is thought to have communicated with senior al Qaeda leaders in recent years, the counterterrorism official said. The recruiter is also said to have close ties to Mullah Mohammed Omar, the senior Afghan Taliban leader now thought to be in Pakistan.
Al-Nafisi “is a significant ideological player in terrorist circles, and that makes him dangerous because he can inspire his followers to do extremely bad things,” the official said.
Drug Enforcement Administration and Defense Department officials have been paying close attention to links between various terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah, and drug cartels in South America, Central America and Mexico.
“It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that terrorist organizations would utilize the border to enter the U.S.,” said a DEA official who also asked not to be named because of his involvement in ongoing intelligence operations. “We can’t ignore any threat or detail when it comes to al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations bent on attacking the U.S.”
The Times first reported in March that Hezbollah — an Iran-backed group based in Lebanon — is using routes that Mexican drug lords control to smuggle contraband and people into the United States to finance operations.
While Hezbollah appears to view the U.S. primarily as a cash cow to finance its operations elsewhere, “it should not be viewed lightly, as the money raised can be used against the U.S. or assets in future operations,” another counterterrorism official said.
No confirmed attacks in the U.S. have been linked to Hezbollah.
In the video, al-Nafisi emphasized that al Qaeda had chemical laboratories in Afghanistan prior to the U.S. invasion. He described his admiration for Hezbollah and said that al Qaeda continues to have scientists and resources at its disposal.
“The Americans are afraid that the [weapons of mass destruction] might fall into the hands of ‘terrorist’ organizations like al Qaeda and others,” he told followers. “There is good reason for the Americans’ fears. … [Al Qaeda] had laboratories in north Afghanistan. They have scientists, chemists and nuclear physicists. They are nothing like they are portrayed by these mercenary journalists – backward Bedouins living in caves. No, no, by no means. This kind of talk can fool only naive people. People who follow such things know that al Qaeda has laboratories, just like Hezbollah.”
Intelligence officials said the video provides important insights into al Qaeda recruitment methods and views of the West.
In the 10-minute clip, al-Nafisi suggested that al Qaeda might want to make common cause with what he claimed are “300,000″ members of white supremacist and other militias in the U.S.
“These militias even think about bombing nuclear plants within the U.S.,” he said. “May God grant them success, even though we are not white, or even close to it, right? They have plans to bomb the nuclear plant at Lake Michigan. This plant is very important. … May God grant success to one of these militia leaders, who is thinking about bombing this plant. I believe that we should devote part of our prayers to him.”
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The rise of the superclass
Posted by rasticus on June 4, 2009
Salon.com Books | The rise of the superclass.http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/03/14/superclass/print.html
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The rise of the superclass
Are Bill Clinton, Rupert Murdoch, the pope and Osama bin Laden part of a new global power elite that may make traditional governments obsolete?By Laura Miller
Editor’s note: This story has been clarified since it was originally published.
Mar. 14, 2008 | In the first chapter of David Rothkopf’s “Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making,” the author quotes Mark Malloch Brown, a British minister of state and former deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, recalling what it was like to walk with his wife through a reception in New York for the World Economic Forum. The WEF puts on the famous annual meeting of business leaders, political figures, NGO heads, scientists and other movers and shakers, nicknamed after the small Swiss alpine town where it takes place, Davos. After crossing the room and shaking countless manicured hands in the process, the couple turned to each other and marveled that “we walk though the Davos party and know more people than when we’re walking across the village green in the town we live in.”
Brown is far from the only one who could tell such a tale. “Davos man” is an epithet coined by the conservative scholar Samuel Huntington to describe the very specific type that attends the conference. These are people who, as Huntington wrote, “have little need for national loyalty, view national boundaries as obstacles that thankfully are vanishing, and see national governments as residues from the past whose only useful function is to facilitate the elite’s global operations.”
Not everyone Rothkopf writes about in “Superclass”
Rothkopf’s credible, if not especially original argument in “Superclass” is that over the past several decades a “global elite” has emerged whose connections to each other have become more significant than their ties to their home nations and governments. They schmooze regularly at conferences like Davos, go to the same schools, serve together on corporate and nonprofit boards, and above all do business with each other constantly — to the point that they have become a kind of culture in themselves, a “class without a country,” as Rothkopf puts it. Furthermore, these people are “the new leadership class for our era.”
A former undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton administration and an officer in an assortment of “advisory” firms (including Kissinger Associates, run by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and the consulting company Rothkopf himself founded, Garten Rothkopf), Rothkopf is an insider of sorts, well enough connected to sit in on meetings of power brokers without quite being one himself. He also writes Op-Eds on international affairs for major newspapers and is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, positions that require the display of some critical distance. “Superclass” isn’t as condemnatory as Naomi Klein’s anti-globalization manifesto “No Logo,” let alone the conspiracy theorizing of “The Iron Triangle,” Dan Briody’s exposé of the Carlyle Group, but it doesn’t merely fawn over its subjects, either.
Rothkopf announces that he and his researchers have identified “just over 6,000″ people who match his definition of the superclass — that is, who have met complicated (and vaguely explained) metrics designed to determine “the ability to regularly influence the lives of millions of people in multiple countries worldwide.” These include heads of state and religious and military leaders — even the occasional pop star, like Bono — but the core membership is businessmen: hedge fund managers, technology entrepreneurs and private equity investors.
Money alone doesn’t cut the mustard. A fabulously wealthy widow living out the end of a quiet life isn’t in the superclass; you must not only possess power, but also freely exercise it. Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group, is the paradigm: In addition to running a huge private equity firm, he sits on the boards of a half-dozen cultural foundations and belongs to a laundry list of forums and councils, including the WEF. (He also granted Rothkopf a lunch interview at the Four Seasons Grill Room, as the author takes pains to inform his readers.)
The pope is a member of the superclass, as is Osama bin Laden, who can undoubtedly claim influence over current international affairs, even if he sometimes lives in a cave. The Russian illegal arms dealer Viktor “Merchant of Death” Bout is a member, as are Rupert Murdoch and Bill Clinton, who, while no longer commander in chief of the world’s remaining superpower, nevertheless heads the Clinton Global Intiative, a brand new dynamo in the area of international philanthropy.
Rothkopf’s outlook on these players is roughly Clintonian. He believes in capitalism as an engine for prosperity, but he’s leery of the free-market gospel that dictates that “market reforms” ought to be imposed on faltering economies whatever the social and political costs. “It is true,” he writes, “that governments have been unable to do much of what they should do to improve the welfare of their people, and in a vast number of cases markets have done much more.” But the “free-market” moniker is misleading, since such a thing doesn’t really exist. All markets are tweaked by governments to some extent, and what the preachers of the free-market religion never acknowledge is that their own favorite case studies are surreptitiously finagled to benefit the already rich.
Taking a dinner party at the home of Chile’s finance minister, Andres Velasco, as an example, Rothkopf describes his uneasy response to the oligarchs around him. He realizes that they embrace the market-oriented philosophy of the “Chicago Boys,” Milton Friedman’s University of Chicago disciples, but only so long as the attendant suffering is limited to Chile’s lower classes. They quietly resist reforms that might nibble away at their iron control of the nation’s industries. “While many of the most powerful people in the country embrace ‘progress,’” Rothkopf observes of Chile, “they use their energy and political capital primarily on behalf of the changes that benefit them most directly. Elites in Chile have implicitly or explicitly resisted the changes that might create more competition, more entrepreneurship, more access to capital for the poor and middle classes.” As a result, though Chile is touted as Latin America’s great economic success story, profound inequities in its society have gone comparatively unchanged.
“Superclass” makes a case that today’s elites are an improvement on those of the past: Instead of inherited aristocracy or sheer military might, power is more likely to go to the smart, ambitious and hardworking. Membership is fluid to an unprecedented extent, with new people muscling their way into the inner circle and slackers dropping out of the bottom all the time. Still, as Rothkopf points out, the ranks of this elite are overwhelmingly older males of European descent who graduated from prestigious Western colleges. Critics have been complaining for years that Davos is too Eurocentric, one reason why the Boao Forum for Asia was started for Eastern financial honchos in 1998.
Above all, like anybody else — in fact, more than anybody else, given the obsessive, often narcissistic energy required of moguls, politicians and would-be messiahs — these people are self-interested. However gifted, they should not be allowed to operate in a vacuum. The difficulty is that most of them exercise their power transnationally, while laws and regulations are confined within the borders of nation-states (which Rothkopf, in classic Davos-man style, regards as doomed). “We must resist the temptation to reflexively attack elites,” he writes, since human societies need leaders and this is an able bunch, but elites ought to be more accountable to the millions of people whose lives they affect. Otherwise, as history (and the current upsurge in religious extremism) shows, they may provoke a violent and chaotic backlash.
Nevertheless, the likelihood of a world government forming to handle the situation is remote — not while nation-states have any life left in them to defend their sovereignty. International institutions — the U.N., especially, but also the IMF and the World Bank — are weak, or weakening, and are hemorrhaging credibility. The answer, according to Rothkopf, is not global government, but “governance,” fewer formal agreements and mechanisms among international entities. The registration and management of Internet domain names (via a collection of organizations) is one example of this sort of governance, orderly and helpful in a way you wouldn’t automatically associate with Rothkopf’s ominous-sounding definition of the term: “Fulfilling government roles with mechanisms” that “lack the full traditional power, authority or mandates of governments.”
Yikes! Rational as it may sound to set up such systems, they just aren’t directly answerable to the populace at large — they’re undemocratic. Of course, as several of the superclass muckety-mucks Rothkopf talks to complain, most of the officials who are democratically selected by the masses don’t really understand — and perhaps aren’t even capable of understanding — the complex global issues that need to be negotiated. American congressmen, senators and even presidents know how to get elected by capitalizing on delusional fears of gay marriage and illegal aliens, but their constituents don’t demand that they master high-level economic or scientific concepts. Chances are, the voters haven’t even heard of those concepts, let alone formulated opinions on them. How can even the superclass be accountable to a public that can’t (or won’t) comprehend what they do?
Still, Rothkopf insists that elites ought to look out for the disadvantaged. “If the global decisions that take place out there only serve the powerful,” he writes, “and many of the people making the decision are not elected or chosen by the people, the average person is going to recognize they have less influence. So it won’t just be unfair, it will produce a backlash.” One such “backlash” is the administration of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, a leader characterized by Rothkopf as part of “the global network of antiglobalists.” Chavez has made political theater out of taunting and thwarting the global elite. No wonder one of the book’s chapter sections is titled “Is a Crisis Inevitable?”
Rothkopf’s idea is that the superclass ought to be smart enough to foresee any such crisis and head it off by doing more to make the currently disenfranchised feel like “stakeholders” in the new global order. The superclass should recognize that “order and legitimacy are the allies of both business and those who seek social stability.” Furthermore, I suppose, they should put pressure on fellow members who step out of line with this program. The upside to the “closely knit” connections between the globe’s top players is that, like any community, they can use exclusion and ostracism to punish those who misbehave.
This is a tall order indeed. Of course, the power elite are not entirely indifferent to the world’s problems. The Davos conference often spotlights issues like poverty in Africa and global warming, and high-profile charities such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative suggest that at least some of the superclass feel obliged to step in where national governments have failed to do anything substantive. Deciding on how best to gentle the masses, how to settle on standards of global economic conduct and how to enforce those standards won’t be easy, though. Fortunately for the superclass and anyone seeking to work with them, there are consulting companies like Garten Rothkopf (“an international advisory firm specializing in emerging markets investing and risk management related services”) to turn to!
In the concluding pages of “Superclass” it becomes increasingly difficult to dispel the impression that you have just read what amounts to a 380-page business card. Many recent nonfiction books on “current affairs” are little more than that. Organized around a catchy concept and extensively researched by underlings, they win their authors jobs in think tanks and speaking engagements at corporate workshops and conferences — all of which pay much, much more than anyone can expect to make on a book. There are a handful of important ideas in “Superclass,” it’s true, but many of them have been gleaned from other, more original thinkers. There are also a lot of facts and statistics, presumably gathered by Rothkopf’s assistants.
The other thing that you’ll find in “Superclass” is names, lots and lots of names. At times, Rothkopf’s breathless citing of notables, accompanied by the banal details of their C.V.s and hobbies, made me waspish enough to mutter an old saying of indeterminate origins: Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about things and small minds talk about people. Yet, to be fair, people are among the things that Rothkopf has to offer his clients, specifically his knowledge of and acquaintances among the very superclass he celebrates and scolds. One thing “Superclass” assiduously demonstrates is that whatever the mistakes of the global elite, Rothkopf has been around to witness a few of them firsthand.
This explains why “Superclass” lacks the one thing that would probably guarantee it a spot on the bestseller list: the actual names of the 6,000 members of the superclass, as defined by Rothkopf’s criteria. The list exists, Rothkopf assures his readers, but publishing it would be “an exercise in futility.” CEOs lose jobs and retire, tycoons suffer financial setbacks and even get thrown in jail. Therefore, “the day after it was published,” the list “would be obsolete.”
Besides, Rothkopf sniffs, “publishing such a list immediately generates debate about who’s in and who’s out, and obscures the bigger issues involved.” This shows a surprising degree of high-mindedness in a book that is significantly occupied with mini-profiles of the rich and powerful, whom they know, how they operate and where they eat lunch. If printing the list coarsens the conversation, then why compile it to begin with? If, as Rothkopf intimates, the list was a necessary part of the book’s research yet publishing it would nevertheless be a detriment to the project, then why mention it at all? Why let drop the tantalizingly specific number of 6,000 names?
Despite his demurrals, I’m sure there are at least a few conversations that Rothkopf would not regard as fatally cheapened by the sharing of his list of the rich and powerful. To the contrary, those conversations would no doubt be very expensive indeed, taking place between Garten Rothkopf and the clients who pay for its consulting services (which surely cost more than the $26 cover price of “Superclass”). In the end, this might be the most important message contained between the covers of “Superclass”: David Rothkopf’s got the list, and you know where to find him.
— By Laura Miller
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