Mountain Time Zone Perspective: Monday 8 June Links

Lincoln's Grave Warning Realized

Our American Objectives

"Our national goals must be to rejuvenate the domestic economy; transfer the economic basis of our nation from consumptive to productive; recapitalize education and the technologies industries; achieve complete energy independence; move towards renewable energy sources;
restore public confidence in the government's ability to undertake large national infrastructure projects, and re-assert its right to set goals and policies to ensure those projects proceed smoothly; define the overarching standards for a reconstructed America including a federal review of the building and planning codes now in use, and probably the writing of new mandates that set out 21st-century standards and priorities for energy use, urban and transportation planning, and environmental design, which once put into law and accepted into general use, will be very difficult to change; commit funding for a massive 10- or 20-year program that will upgrade or replace failing components of America's infrastructure as the nation is broke (as it was in FDR's day) and this kind of spending needs to be seen as the long-term investment in our economic future that it is; restore a fair, honest, broad-based system of public contracting that will put large numbers of Americans to work on these new projects (and write the new rules in a way that ensures that the firms doing the most innovative work don't have to compete with unfair behemoth corporations like Halliburton and Lockheed for the lion's share of the funding) so that once there is a healthy, competitive construction industry that knows how to build sustainable projects—and is relying on the government to keep it in business—we will get a political constituency that will fight to ensure that the rebuilding will continue for the next several decades, regardless of what political party is in power; use the forces of globalization and information to strengthen and expand existing democratic alliances and created new ones; employ these alliances to destroy terrorist networks and establish new international security structures; lead, through our historic principles, on international cooperative efforts in spreading economic opportunity and democratic liberties, nation building, counter-prolification, and optimum environmental protection and safeguards; and cherish, honor, and protect our history and traditions of liberty and freedoms domestically particularly with respect to the Bill of Rights."

"The renewed social contract for America with its middle class and poor must:

Raise the minimum wage still higher and on a regular basis. It has fallen far behind increases in inflation since the 1970s, and that affects higher level wages as well.
Encourage living-wage programs by local governments. Governments can demand that their contractors and suppliers pay well above the minimum wage. There is substantial evidence that this does not result in an undue loss of jobs.
Enforce the labor laws vigilantly. Minimum-wage and maximum-hour laws are violated to a stunning degree. American workers shouldn't be forced by their employers to understate the number of hours worked or be locked in the warehouse so they can't leave on time. Workers often make only $2 and $3 an hour.
Unions are not seeking a free pass to organize secretly when they advocate for open check-offs on cards to approve of a union vote. They are seeking to organize without persistent and often illegal management interference. Penalties for illegally deterring such organizing are so light, it makes little sense for management not to pursue strategies to stop organizing even at the cost of prosecution.
Request that trading partners develop serious environmental standards and worker-protection laws. This is good for them, bringing a progressive revolution and a robust domestic market to their countries. It is good for America, which will be able to compete on a more level playing field.
Demand that the president, governors and mayors speak up about unconscionable executive salaries and low wages. The influence from the top cannot be underestimated. A president who looks the other way sends a strong signal to business. A president who demands responsible treatment of workers will get a response. Business does not like such attention.
These measures should be accompanied by serious investment in modernized infrastructure and energy alternatives, which can create millions of domestic jobs that pay good salaries. It should also be accompanied by a policy that supports a lower dollar -- contrary to Rubinomics -- in order to stimulate manufacturing exports again. Accomplishing this may require a new system of semi-fixed currencies across the globe. The unabashed high-dollar policy of the past twenty years has led to imbalances around the world that have contributed fundamentally to US overindebtedness.
And finally, the nation needs more balance on the part of the Federal Reserve between subduing inflation and creating jobs. Americans can live with inflation above 2 percent a year. There is no academic evidence to support a 2 percent annual target, although the Fed has made this its informal target."

A Happy Ending Isn't Guaranteed

All Baby-boomers were born to people who survived World War 11. We were brought up on movies and TV which in good invariably triumphs over bad, and everything works out in the end.

It is just now occuring to me that this isn't necessarily true. Just as the Jews didn't believe that Hitler was as crazy as he seemed, and the Iraqis didn't believe that Bush was as crazy as he seemed, I can't believe that the ruling class would continue in the path they're on.

Is it possible that they will continue to create a police state, leading to more and more repression? Is it possible that there won't be a last minute save by a Congress suddenly in tune with the American people, instead of corporations? Is it possible that they will continue burning every last drop of fossil fuels, no matter how many species are wiped out? Is it possible that they will start more wars, in an attempt to hold onto their world domination?

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his Riverside Speech "there is such a thing as being too late".

Maybe it was already too late. Just because we personally survived assassinations, imperialistic wars and corporate consolidation doesn't mean that any hope for a better world did. Like the gawkers on the beach surveying the dying fish as the tide pulls back just before the tsunami, we may be deluded in telling ourselves, "So far, so good".

- From the Wage Laborer Blog on SAT 6/5/9

The Contemporary Current

Commerce is at a standstill, the markets are glutted, products accumulate, as multitudinous as they are unsaleable, hard cash disappears, credit vanishes, factories are closed, the mass of the workers are in want of the means of subsistence, because they have produced too much of the means of subsistence...

The stagnation lasts for years; productive forces and products are wasted and destroyed wholesale, until the accumulated mass of commodities finally filter off, more or less depreciated in value, until production and exchange gradually begin to move again..

- Frederick Engels, in Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, 1978 International Publishers

I Am the People, the Mob

I AM the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the world’s food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons come from me and the Lincolns. They die. And then I send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me. I forget. The best of me is sucked out and wasted. I forget. Everything but Death comes to me and makes me work and give up what I have. And I forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red drops for history to remember. Then—I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer forget who robbed me last year, who played me for a fool—then there will be no speaker in all the world say the name: “The People,” with any fleck of a sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.
The mob—the crowd—the mass—will arrive then.

We Americans must never forget that a true democracy is of the people, for the people, and by the people, and those who do forget, must get FIRED, then brought before US law just as any other citizen of these United States would have to face accountability. When that happens, then government will behave because they will fear the people. They will fear being made accountable.

-- Carl Sandburg, 1916

PRINCIPLES OF LEADERSHIP...... from The Guidebook for Marines

1) Know yourself and seek improvement. Be honest when you evaluate yourself.

2) Seek the honest opinions of your friends or superiors tio learn how to improve.

3) Have a definite goal and a specific plan to achieve it.

4) Be technically and tactically proficient.

5) Know your employees and look out for their welfare.

6) Keep your employees informed.

7) Set the example. How you conduct yourself says more than any instructions you may give.

8) Ensure the task is understood, supervised, and accomplished.

9) Follow through to make sure the job gets done.
10) Train your employees as a team.

11) Make sound and timely decisions. If you realize you made a bad decision, correct it as quickly as possible.

12) Delegate authority to give your subordinates the opportunity for professional development.

13) Set goals that are achievable and make sure you are realistic about the tasks at hand.

14) Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions.

15) Good commanders look after their troops, and good troops look after their commanders.

Seven Rules of Good Government

1. Become reality driven. Don’t kid yourself or others. Find out what’s what and base your decisions and actions on that.

2. Always be honest and tell the truth. It’s extremely difficult to do any damage to anybody when you are willing to tell the truth–regardless of the consequences.

3. Always do what’s right and fair. Remember, the more you actually accomplish, the louder your critics become. You’ve got to learn to ignore your critics. You’ve got to continue to do what you think is right. You’ve got to maintain your integrity.

4. Determine your goal, develop a plan to reach that goal, and then act. Don’t procrastinate.

5. Make sure everybody who ought to know what you’re doing knows what you’re doing. Communicate.

6. Don’t hesitate to deliver bad news. There is always time to salvage things. There is always time to fix things. Henry Kissinger said that anything that can be revealed eventually should be revealed immediately.

7. Last, be willing to do whatever it takes to get your job done. If you’ve got a job that you don’t love enough to do what it takes to get your job done, then quit and get one that you do love, and then make a difference.

What is Up Next: (From Automatic Earth Blog)

Deflation is inevitable due to Ponzi dynamics.
The collapse of credit will crash the money supply as credit is the vast majority of the effective money supply.
Cash will be king for a long time.
Printing one's way out of deflation is impossible as printing cannot keep pace with credit destruction (the net effect is contraction).
Debt will become a millstone around people's necks and bankruptcy will no longer be possible at some point.
In the future the consequences of certain unpaid debt could include indentured servitude, debtor's prison or being drummed into the military.
Early withdrawals from pension plans will be prevented and almost all pension plans will eventually default.
We will see a systemic banking crisis that will result in bank runs and the loss of savings.
Prices will fall across the board as purchasing power collapses.
Real estate prices are likely to fall by at least 90% on average (with local variation).
The essentials will see relative price support as a much larger percentage of a much smaller money supply chases them.
We are headed eventually for a bond market dislocation where nominal interest rates will shoot up into the double digits.
Real interest rates will be even higher (the nominal rate minus negative inflation).
This will cause a tsunami of debt default which is highly deflationary.
Government spending (all levels) will be slashed, with loss of entitlements and inability to maintain infrastructure.
Finance rules will be changed at will and changes applied retroactively (e.g., short selling will be banned, loans will be called in at some point).
Centralized services (water, electricity, gas, education, garbage pick-up, snow-removal etc) will become unreliable and of much lower quality, or may be eliminated entirely.
Suburbia is a trap due to its dependence on these services and cheap energy for transport.
People with essentially no purchasing power will be living in a pay-as-you-go world.
Modern healthcare will be largely unavailable and informal care will generally be very basic.
Universities will go out of business as no one will be able to afford to attend.
Cash hoarding will continue to reduce the velocity of money, amplifying the effect of deflation.
The US dollar will continue to rise for quite a while on a flight to safety and as dollar-denominated debt deflates.
Eventually the dollar will collapse, but that time is not now (and a falling dollar does not mean an expanding money supply: i.e., inflation).
Deflation and depression are mutually reinforcing in a positive feedback spiral, so both are likely to be protracted.
There should be no lasting market bottom until at least the middle of the next decade, and even then the depression won't be over.
Much capital will be revealed as having been converted to waste during the cheap energy/cheap credit years.
Export markets will collapse with global trade and exporting countries will be hit very hard.
Herding behavior is the foundation of markets.
The flip side of the manic optimism we saw in the bubble years will be persistent pessimism, risk aversion, anger, scapegoating, recrimination, violence and the election of dangerous populist extremists.
A sense of common humanity will be lost as foreigners and those who are different are demonized.
There will be war in the labor markets as unemployment skyrockets and wages and benefits are slashed.
We are headed for resource wars, which will result in much resource and infrastructure destruction.
Energy prices are first affected by demand collapse, then supply collapse, so that prices first fall and then rise enormously.
Ordinary people are unlikely to be able to afford oil products for transportation as well as many other economic sectors and related products AT ALL within 5 years.
Hard limits to capital and energy will greatly reduce socioeconomic complexity.
Political structures exist to concentrate wealth at the center at the expense of the periphery, and this happens at all scales simultaneously.
Taxation will rise substantially as the domestic population is squeezed in order for the elite to partially make up for the loss of the ability to pick the pockets of the whole world through globalization.
Repressive political structures will arise, with much greater use of police state methods and a drastic reduction of freedom.
The rule of law will replaced by the politics of the personal and an economy of favors (i.e., endemic corruption).

10 Ways To Justly and Logically Move Forward

10 Preliminary Planks

This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. It is not intended to solve all the world's problems overnight. But it is intended to stop the movement towards a One World Corpocracy dead in it's tracks.

(1) Universal Health Care for All American Citizens through a Federal or State Single-Payer Program

(2) A 20-year moratorium on all immigration into the United States.

(3) Legal Marijuana for all Adults and Medical Patients.

(4) An immediate reversal to the Offshoring and Inshoring of American Jobs.

(5) A strict enforcement on issues of Separation of Church and State.

(6) An immediate move from so-called Free Trade Agreements to Bilateral Trade agreements.

(7) A major R&D project to bring energy independence to the United States and the World through recycling, reuse, ending hyper-consumerism and investing in the development of sustainable energy sources (e.g., solar, photovoltaic, wind, geothermal).

(8) No further ownership of US Assets (businesses, homes, ports, stock exchanges) by foreign governments, corporations, or individuals !

(9) Replacement of the "Federal Reserve" with a "People's Reserve" which has Congressional oversight.

(10) Complete Internet Neutrality.