Global Financial Meltdown As Predicted in February 2008!

[Nur]

" Owners of capital will stimulate working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks which will have to be nationalized and State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to Communism"

 

Karl Marx , 1867

 

"The corporate thieves, those who insisted they be paid tens of millions of dollars because they were the best and the brightest, have been exposed as con artists. Our elected officials, along with the press, have been exposed as corrupt and spineless corporate lackeys. Our business schools and intellectual elite have been exposed as frauds. The age of the West has ended. Look to China. Laissez-faire capitalism has destroyed itself. It is time to dust off your copies of Marx.. "

 

Chris Hedges, "Truthdig"

 

 

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A Must See Video.

 

America is an overweight nation with over U$ 12 Trillion debt to the rest of the world, and the world will no longer tolerate the insatiable appetite of America for financing unjust, oppressive and hegemonic wars with borrowed money paid by toilet papers printed by US Mint with no Gold Standard to back it. China will be the universal manufacturer of most goods for the planet, a wealthy nation in terms of human Capital (The Gifted And Talented Chinese School Children are equal to all of American School Children, willing to work for a dollar a day!) while India, another Human-Capital rich nation, will transform itself as worlds knowledge based economy by leveraging its English language advantage to become the IT programming outsource of choice for the the rest of the world. Together, China and India will form the new emerging multipolar Super Power known as the BRIC group ( Brazil, Russia, India and China). The BRIC and the Oil exporting nations ( OPEC) will demand payment in some acceptable form, not US treasury bonds, which has lost its luster and value, but with other hard currencies such as the Euro , the Yuan or the Yen. When that happens, Sh...... Happens ( Rumsfeldt)

 

Enjoy the Video

 

Nur

 

 

 

 

 

 

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How to Deflate the Superpower of Toilet Papers

 

 

By Matthias Chang

 

It Is So Stoopid To Borrow US Dollar "Toilet Papers" For Trade Finance.

 

There Can Be Only A Credit Crunch For Dollars If You Are Stoopid Enough To Want To Be Paid And To Pay In Dollars.

 

Otherwise, There Is Only An Illusion Of A Global Credit Crunch.

 

This Is The Global Con Game By Bernanke, Paulson

 

 

December 20, 2008 "ICH-- -It may have made some sense, post-World War II to dollarise international trade when the so-called “Free World” was supposedly threatened by the “Communist Bloc” and the Imperial United States was offering “protection” in exchange for financial dominance.

 

The imperial design for financial dominance was the Bretton Woods dollar reserve currency scheme.

 

Since those days, the US has been abusing its financial power by the use of its greatest invention, the “toilet paper printing press” (now, the modern “electronic printing press”) to issue irredeemable fiat money.

 

Now the world is flooded with trillions of this toilet paper, namely US dollars.

 

The US Superpower is at the very precipice of the abyss and a wrong move will plunge it into the black-hole of financial Armageddon.

 

The world will not face Armageddon, only the US. The rest of the world will suffer pain, deservedly so, for being so Stoopid in believing in the use of US toilet papers as money!

 

To avoid this catastrophe, Ben Bernanke and Paulson as directed by their Shadow Money-Lender masters have devised an insidious scheme. The ultimate con-game!

 

Basically, what they have done is to try to turn a weakness into perceived strength.

 

Let me explain.

 

Countries have been so used to trading in dollars that they cannot think otherwise. They continue to borrow dollars to finance their imports. Their corporations continue to borrow dollars to finance their business expansion. It is as if the world is addicted to dollars, as a drug addict is addicted to cocaine and or crack!

 

The world has been brainwashed into thinking that without the US toilet paper, their global economy would come to a grinding halt.

 

How Stoopid!

 

Yet this is exactly the state of mind of governments and central banks all over the world. China is a case in point: blind reliance on the US dollar. But fortunately, they have other strengths which will see them through this painful period.

 

Taking advantage of this temporary idiotic global mindset, the Fed and the US Treasury have deliberately triggered a credit crunch for US dollar denominated toilet papers. The major global banks are hoarding the toilet papers and with-holding cross-border financing of every kind.

 

There is an ocean of toilet paper (literally in the trillions) but there is now created, a deliberate shortage of these very same toilet papers.

 

But where is the money? There is no money. It is an illusion!

 

What a ridiculous contradiction. But that is the present reality. The Fed has stated that they will pump US$8.5 trillion to resolve the crisis! You have to give credit where credit is due. This is indeed a brilliant con-game and the whole world has fallen for it hook, line and sinker – almost the whole world!

 

I refuse to accept this state of affairs.

 

Yet, the Nobel Laureates in economics have missed this stark reality by a thousand miles and are coming up with all kind of theories for the present global credit crunch of US toilet paper. Alternatively, it may be that as paid-scribes, they have been directed to spew economic nonsense to confuse other economists.

 

How was this illusion set up?

 

This happened when all of a sudden, and in total connivance, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Singapore got into the act by entering into swap facilities with the FED, each requesting a hefty US$35 Billion to “overcome their liquidity problems.” These countries could not get enough toilet papers! Wow!

 

Even the great magician Houdini would not have come up with this grand illusion of shortage in currency when there is an ocean of funny money. But it is an illusion and a Stoopid one at that.

 

So now, Bernanke and Paulson is advertising to the whole world, that they are prepared to do anything and use all financial weapons, including financial nuclear weapons to defeat the crisis.

 

For those countries that are short of toilet papers, the US will be the global guarantor and will be willing to lend trillions of toilet papers to help them weather the financial crisis and the credit crunch. How generous of the FED and the US Treasury. But there is a catch.

 

The catch being – countries must continue to use the worthless toilet papers in global trade.

 

In one masterful stroke, the US has created an artificial demand for dollars thereby rescuing in the short term the plunging value of the dollar.

 

Since the global banks are not willing to lend and are insolvent, the mighty FED, the nasty and abhorrent creation of the global Shadow Money-Lenders, will be the lender of last resort to the whole world. It will be business as usual. That is what they hope. This is their final gambit. The last magic show!

 

And as I have written earlier, this is the OBAMA’s GAMBLE!

 

Countries need not trade in dollars, as after all, they are not even BUYING “MADE IN AMERICA GOODS”. AMERICA IS A NET IMPORTER, NOT EXPORTER.

 

So central banks of the world, especially the Third World, and the emerging powers of China and Russia: you have no need for US toilet papers when you sell your national products to countries other than the US.

 

And in so far as the U.S. is concerned, why are you demanding to be paid in toilet papers? Why are you not demanding payment in your own currency?

 

China and Russia are at the present moment on the wrong course. They hold trillions of US dollar denominated debts but act as if they are at the mercy of the US, fearing that if they do anything unfavourable to US or cahllenge the hegemony of the greenback, there will be a massive slump in the value of the dollar.

 

But that is a given in any event. So why play a game that has been rigged in the favour of the global Shadow Money-Lenders.

 

There is no reason why Russia and China should be in a recession or experience slower growth. They are suffering from the present so-called credit crunch because they continue to manage their economies in dollar terms and in a dollar mindset.

 

The US is playing suicide poker and calling one last card. They have nothing on the table but toilet paper.

 

The US will collapse in a minute, if not sooner if China and Russia were to categorically call the US’s bluff and say:

 

1) Close down the derivative casino now!

 

2) Buy back all the toxic wastes which you have unloaded on the unsuspecting global economies with currencies of our choice!

 

3) Since the US is in debt, the US must now borrow in the currencies of our choice to repay past debts and new loans!

 

Failure to comply will result in a credit crunch to US banks and companies. US can continue to use domestically their worthless toilet papers (to wipe the shit off the ceiling fans, if there are any left hanging from the ceilings) but there will be no more credit in toilet papers. Period. There will be loans only in other currencies.

 

This is the checkmate. .

 

So China and Russia should wake up and do what is necessary to save their economies as well as the global economy or their economies will end up in the shit hole as they are now playing the US / UK rigged game.

 

I am not surprised at the present state of mind of Chinese and Russian bankers. They have sent some of their best brains to be trained in Harvard etc., and by the fraudsters in Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup etc. They have all been infected with the Ponzi disease and as such cannot think otherwise. Otherwise, how do you explain their mental paralysis?

 

This is a simple financial puzzle.

 

There is no credit crunch. There is only a false or an illusion of credit crunch for US toilet papers.

 

Once there is no demand for dollars, there will be no credit crunch for dollars. The Shadow Money-Lenders con-game will be exposed for what it is – a giant fraud. Not unlike that of Bernard Madoff, only a thousand times more insidious and toxic.

 

I hope that I have made myself absolutely clear to the financial officials in Russia and China.

 

If China and Russia and the third world continue to stand pat, these economies deserve to be in the dog house.

 

Bernanke and Paulson are going to destroy the US and the global economy so as to fulfil the grand design of the Shadow Money-Lenders. Stop them before it is too late.

 

The Count-down has started!

 

Matthias Chang - http://futurefastfor ward.com/

 

 

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What Exactly is Money?

 

 

A separation of truth and myth about our monetary system

 

By Jon Ronnquist

 

December 13, 2008 "ICH" --- The problem with money is essentially a question of faith. Money is a promise represented in paper, metal and digits and is as valuable as it is trustworthy. And because trust is a volatile and abstract thing at best, so is money a risky business. Its usefulness is of course undeniable. In a world as complex and multifaceted as this one, barter becomes increasingly limited as a practical means of exchange. And yet we should do well to remember that for all its practicality, money posses a very real danger, the obvious one being devaluation. But that is by no means the only or the most serious threat posed by money. As in all matters of faith, manipulation is the far greater evil.

 

The gold standard against which currency was once levelled is now the distant memory of a bygone age. Whatever value is represented by your Dollars, Pounds and Euros is now set solely against the trust of the user, which is to say what buyers and sellers believe it to be worth. And so it should be and must be. No man would take money for his livestock or labour if he did not believe it would be accepted in kind by the purveyors of his own needs. This is basic economics and I see no reason to bore anybody with such things. The point is that money, as a concept, is sound and necessary. But what happens when it falls into the hands of those who see money as something more than a simple mechanism of trade? Those who see in it also an opportunity to consolidate power. Then we are in trouble.

 

There are several axioms which govern the function of money. Adhered to, they guarantee fair and good use. Abused, they are the gateway to untold troubles. First, money is not a commodity, but a public service. In itself it has no real value or use beyond the facilitation of exchange. If this is hard to digest, try eating it, planting it or getting it to mow your lawn. And like all essential public services, it fares best in the hands of representative government.

 

Second, money must exist in a quantity that is relatively equal to the volume of exchange it expedites. Where the supply is insufficient it creates an artificial strangulation of trade, where necessary and vital transactions become arbitrarily halted for want of worthless paper. Where it is allowed to exist in excessive quantities, the value of real goods and services is artificially lowered to the detriment of all. A money supply which is not regulated professionally and competently will begin to outweigh it own benefits.

 

Third, some cap must exist on savings. Money removed from the supply and set to one side must be replaced to ensure it does not violate its own primary purpose by deflating. If it is reintroduced in excessive quantities it will also have the effect of causing inflation. This does not become a problem if deposits and withdrawals from saving are relatively balanced. It also illustrates that huge stockpiles of unreasonable wealth violate the laws upon which money operate and should not be allowed.

 

Fourth and last, money must be introduced into circulation as payment, not debt. To make money available on the condition that it must be taken back out of circulation in equal or greater measure is a violation of its purpose and leads to all manner of problems. Earth in the twenty-first century being the most obvious one.

 

As populations rise, production increases and trade expands, more money must be made available to facilitate it. The question of how this is done fairly is simple but requires first and foremost a sound government. Money must be introduced through payment for goods and services of universal benefit to the population. This means direct investment into public infrastructure, services and institutions. Healthcare, roads, bridges, libraries, parks, highways, schools, research and science, welfare institutions, water and power infrastructure, the maintenance of public parks and wildlife reserves and public transport to name a few. In this fashion the benefit is egalitarian and money will trickle into first the secondary economy (automobile production, private services, finance, electronics, etc.) and eventually into the luxury economy (holiday providers, premium branded good, unessential services, etc.). The extent to which the second and third tiers of the economy are successful is dependant on the state of essential services, as it should be. Otherwise we get luxury sports cars driving down deteriorating highways and criminal opulence in the face of inhumane poverty. And for those who are thinking this is some kind of socialist/communist rhetoric, I pray you wake up soon. This is reality. What we live today is a twist on that reality and one that we better star seeing for what it is. Contrary to popular belief, the great failed Marxist experiments of the age are not failures of those philosophies so much as proof that there is no room left in the order of things to even try them.

 

It is a dominant idea in modern politics that too much government is “bad for business”. But that is an argument made by business that has no place in the civilized world and it is true only from that very narrow and twisted point of view. And where the common man agrees, it is only on the understanding that modern government are not really governments at all, but representatives of private power. A government run by and for the people is an absolute must if society is to progress at all.

 

If a government is charged with the responsibility to uphold the rights of those it represents it must be empowered to do so. The right to political freedom, democracy and a fair chance at success are all very pretty sentiments, but what about the right to work, to food, water, shelter and education? Surely these things are as important. For government to ensure all the rights of citizenship, it must have either ownership of or at least firm regulatory power over all the institutions which provide them. But unless you can find a private enterprise willing to provide these services without profit as its primary concern, they are best left to government. Essential human needs, which are all derived from the very earth we inhabit, must not and can not become sources of private profit. This doesn't mean that those who bear the greatest burden of responsibility should not be compensated accordingly, it means the institutions themselves should not be allowed to develop selfish domineering ambitions and the stockpiles of wealth to pursue them. This is not socialism, but humanity.

 

Another thing that should not be allowed to happen to money is it's pining against the value of other currencies. When it is, it immediately becomes a commodity in its own right, traded like goods with the aim of increasing wealth. This is an essential violation of the axioms which govern money and a gateway to extensive abuse. Trade done over borders would need to be handled in a global market place with its own currency, against which only commodities are assigned value, not currencies. The value of sugar would be assigned in this currency on any given day based solely on existing demand and so on. Such a trade currency would have no paper form, but would only be a numeric value assigned to all traded commodities, its purpose being to form a barrier between different national currencies to avoid them becoming commodities.

 

The alternative would be one government, one people, one currency. But this is a utopian dream that would require a separate dissertation all together. My reference to a world government should not be confused with the one being pushed for today. The New World Order as it has come to be known, is entirely devoted to what would sit at its head, not who it would pretend to represent.

 

The above is a rough outline of what money is supposed to be and how it is supposed to work. Unfortunately reality is a stark contrast to this. The reason is quite simple. Every axiom outlined above has been heavily violated by those entrusted to care for our monetary systems. In doing so, money has come to serve a second and very sinister purpose, one that almost seems to justify its eradication from use all together and the introduction of a clean start.

 

Before the post office, the water works, the phone companies and the coal mines were auctioned out of the hands of the people and into those of for-profit private enterprise, another public service was sold to the private sector, the money works. In an age none are old enough to remember, and a frighteningly small percentage of us even know about, the production, supply and regulation of national currencies was surrender by government after government. If anyone wonders when things really started going wrong for planet earth, that was the day. Almost every daily hardship we suffer now has its roots at least partially set in this dark era. But more important than the fact is the reason. It would be nice to believe that it was simply the suggestion of a group of concerned citizens who thought they could do a better job and that governments obliged out of genuine concern for its populations. We do not even need to know what was said or exactly how this was done to know that is not true. The men responsible and their successive dynasties have had a long time to prove their intentions and the proof is overwhelmingly in favour of the notion that it was done with a view to turning the world into a feeble shadow of its former self. Why would men do this? For power? Control? Sure. What are they afraid of? You and me. But I fancy that they see us not as we are, but with red eyes, split hooves and forked tails. But whatever the reason, the facts remain the same.

 

The first and primary violation of these new private national banks was to create money only as debt. This of course ensured that a country's debts would grow in direct proportion to its economy. This is a fact so illogical that it leaves the mind boggled and helpless to make sense of it. But only so long as you assume the intent was benevolent. See it for the sheer evil that it is and you need be confused no more. Think of it this way. A trader does business between two markets several miles apart. To move his products back and forth between them he needs carts. But carts cannot be made or owned, they can only be borrowed. And for every cart that is borrowed two must be returned in due course. So he borrows ten carts on the understanding that he must return twenty by year's end. Only by year's end he not only has but ten carts, he needs another ten to keep up with his expanding business. His only choice is two borrow forty new carts. Twenty to return as payment for the first ten and twenty for use. And now he owes eighty carts by year's end. And the better things get, the deeper in debt he is. And the circle can never be broken. So why doesn't he just make his own carts? It would be easy enough. Only by the time he comes to this simple conclusion, the law, the courts and the police are all in the cart borrowing enforcement business.

 

And so it is with the money supply today. All the money, the land and the commodities on earth could not pay all the debt. And as interest is ever due and mounting, borrowing must grow to keep up. Where does the cycle end? By all appearances, it's ending now. And what has come to an end exactly? Production? Resources? Human intelligence? No. Borrowing has slowed down, thereby interrupting the unstoppable cycle and calling a halt to trade through an artificial scarcity of money. Is this real? No. Your willingness to work hasn't changed and nor has your desire for the things you would buy with your earnings. Everything is in place to allow life to go on, bar one thing. The worthless paper and coinage that serve as nothing but a tool of interaction. If everyone simply agreed, we could start printing our own money at home and use it to go on as we did. Provided it didn't get out of hand, (which it would on account of the prevalence of certain mindsets) life would just go on. Because money is just paper and an idea backed by trust, nothing more.

 

But when it is controlled out of personal interest by a greedy few, we can see how it is also a very effective control mechanism. First replace supply with loans, then when the country is irreversibly in debt control those loans. Withdraw credit for a while, strangle the economy until it screams for more debt and supply it. Or flood the economy with worthless money and then recall debts fast and wait for the inevitable chaos to ensue. Delegate your divine right of money creation for interest to commercial banks and watch the population strangle itself with unmanageable debt. Allow Wall Street to create value out of thin air by turning confidence into price tags which soon have no comparable relation to the things they are attached to, as banks increase lending to make them affordable to you and me. Wait for the population to buckle under under the strain of unmanageable debt, then lend more to their governments. Watch wars begin and lend to each side. Every time the cycle comes full circle, the concentration of power is a little less diluted and a lot more frightening.

 

Ever wonder why your representatives in government seem helpless to make real changes to bad situations? It's because the situations are only bad from where you're standing and he or she couldn't change them if they wanted to. They just don't have permission. From who? From the people that own your mortgage and his. From the people who lend your county, state and country the paper it needs to go on at all costs. From the people who own your car, your TV and your fridge. If you want something to change, you need to ask them. And they won't want them to change.

 

So what does a man do? Call me an anarchist, I'm beyond caring about semantics and sentiment and being a good boy. If you can't afford to comfortably repay what you owe in a reasonable amount of time, don't pay it. Declare bankruptcy, leave your phone off the hook, move to Mexico. So you'll be persona non grada with the credit people. They never liked you in the first place and now you'll never have to do business with them again.

 

The point is that we need to see money for what it is. It's just paper and that's all. Would you revere you toilet roll in a similar fashion? That's because you know it's just toilet paper, useful, handy but not essential. And when it runs out there are other ways, you don't have to stop using the toilet.

 

One means of circumventing a crash created by a lack of national currency is the creation of a local currency. This has been done throughout history on many occasions to counter the collapse of national banks. It's a shame to think that the ingenuity such a bold plan would require is fatally lacking in most modern communities, who have become so dependant on the vicious circle of big banks, big employers and big chain stores for their survival that such a radical departure from the comfort of the status quo would almost certainly be beyond the imagination. Saying that, pressure can have a miraculous effect on the mindset.

 

I don't know if things are too far gone to allow for hope of real change, but I think we are about to find out one way or the other.

[S.O.S]

Nur,

 

An interesting video indeed! The whole globalization exercise was designed to align world's interests (economic, political and military) with that of the US. US sneezes, the joke goes, and the rest of the world catches cold. This comes handy when you need the world to fund your addictions and criminal wars: even if the world opposes these wars, the bill will be presented one way or the other. How fitting that Paul Kugman, a preacher of the gospel of globalization, should receive the Nobel prize.

 

Personally I believe that this financial crisis has been triggered by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as was the global food crises of this summer. It is rather unfortunate that with all the discussions that are taking place do more to confuse people than inform and suppresses the true nature the crises.

 

If laws of unintended consequences ever existed, watch out for many desperate acts and disastrous things to follow suit!

[Nur]

S.O.S

 

As you have heard in the lecture video, any nation who acts independently to free its economy from American domination gets spanked by those who have a stake in that dependency. Sudanese financial system, I heard did not catch the financial virus, as it was quarantined by the big boys of wall street, now, the Sudanase are laughing all the way to their banks, and laughing at the rest.

 

Gloablaization is dead!

 

Nur

[Nur]

America’s Political Cannibalism

 

 

By Chris Hedges

 

13/10/08 "TruthDig" -- -It is no longer our economy but our democracy that is in peril. It was the economic meltdown of Yugoslavia that gave us Slobodan Milosevic. It was the collapse of the Weimar Republic that vomited up Adolf Hitler. And it was the breakdown in czarist Russia that opened the door for Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Financial collapses lead to political extremism. The rage bubbling up from our impoverished and disenfranchised working class, glimpsed at John McCain rallies, presages a looming and dangerous right-wing backlash.

 

As the public begins to grasp the depth of the betrayal and abuse by our ruling class, as the Democratic and Republican parties are exposed as craven tools of our corporate state, as savings accounts, college funds and retirement plans become worthless, as unemployment skyrockets and as home values go up in smoke we must prepare for the political resurgence of a reinvigorated radical Christian right. The engine of this mass movement-as is true for all radical movements-is personal and economic despair. And despair, in an age of increasing shortages, poverty and hopelessness, will be one of our few surplus commodities.

 

Karl Polanyi in his book "The Great Transformation," written in 1944, laid out the devastating consequences-the depressions, wars and totalitarianism-that grow out of a so-called self-regulated free market. He grasped that "fascism, like socialism, was rooted in a market society that refused to function." He warned that a financial system always devolved, without heavy government control, into a Mafia capitalism-and a Mafia political system-which is a good description of the American government under George W. Bush. Polanyi wrote that a self-regulating market, the kind bequeathed to us since Ronald Reagan, turned human beings and the natural environment into commodities, a situation that ensures the destruction of both society and the natural environment. He decried the free market's belief that nature and human beings are objects whose worth is determined by the market. He reminded us that a society that no longer recognizes that nature and human life have a sacred dimension, an intrinsic worth beyond monetary value, ultimately commits collective suicide. Such societies cannibalize themselves until they die. Speculative excesses and growing inequality, he wrote, always destroy the foundation for a continued prosperity.

 

We face an environmental meltdown as well as an economic meltdown. This would not have surprised Polanyi, who fled fascist Europe in 1933 and eventually taught at Columbia University. Russia's northern coastline has begun producing huge qualities of toxic methane gas. Scientists with the International Siberian Shelf Study 2008 describe what they saw along the coastline recently as "methane chimneys" reaching from the sea floor to the ocean's surface. Methane, locked in the permafrost of Arctic landmasses, is being released at an alarming rate as average Arctic temperatures rise. Methane is a greenhouse gas 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. The release of millions of tons of it will dramatically accelerate the rate of global warming.

 

Those who run our corporate state have fought environmental regulation as tenaciously as they have fought financial regulation. They are responsible, as Polanyi predicted, for our personal impoverishment and the impoverishment of our ecosystem. We remain addicted, courtesy of the oil, gas and automobile industries and a corporate- controlled government, to fossil fuels. Species are vanishing. Fish stocks are depleted. The great human migration from coastlines and deserts has begun. And as temperatures continue to rise, huge parts of the globe will become uninhabitable. The continued release of large quantities of methane, some scientists have warned, could actually asphyxiate the human species.

 

The corporate con artists and criminals who have hijacked our state and rigged our financial system still speak to us in the obscure and incomprehensible language coined by specialists at elite business schools. They use terms like securitization, deleveraging, structured investment vehicles and credit default swaps. The reality, once you throw out their obnoxious jargon, is not hard to grasp. Banks lent too much money to people and financial institutions that could not pay it back. These banks are now going broke. The government is frantically giving taxpayer dollars to banks so they can be solvent and again lend money. It is not working. Bank lending remains frozen. There are ominous signs that the government may not be able to hand over enough of our money because the losses incurred by these speculators are too massive. If credit markets remain in a deep freeze, corporations such as AT&T, Ford and General Motors might go bankrupt. The downward spiral could spread like a tidal wave across the country, especially since our corporate elite, including Barack Obama, seem to have no real intention of bailing out families who can no longer pay their mortgages or credit card debts.

 

Lenin said that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch its currency. If our financial disaster continues there will be a widespread loss of faith in the mechanisms that regulate society. If our money becomes worthless, so does our government. All traditional standards and beliefs are shattered in a severe economic crisis. The moral order is turned upside down. The honest and industrious are wiped out while the gangsters, profiteers and speculators amass millions. Look at Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld. He walks away from his bankrupt investment house after pocketing $485 million. His investors are wiped out. An economic collapse does not only mean the degradation of trade and commerce, food shortages, bankruptcies and unemployment; it means the systematic dynamiting of the foundations of a society. I watched this happen in Yugoslavia. I fear I am watching it happen here in the United States.

 

The Patriot Act, the FISA Reform Act, the suspension of habeas corpus, the open use of torture in our offshore penal colonies, the stationing of a combat brigade on American soil, the seas of surveillance cameras, the brutal assaults against activists in Denver and St. Paul are converging to determine our future. Those dark forces arrayed against American democracy are waiting for a moment to strike, a national crisis that will allow them in the name of national security and moral renewal to shred the Constitution. They have the tools. They will use fear, chaos, the hatred for the ruling elites and the specter of left-wing dissent and terrorism to impose draconian controls to extinguish our democracy. And while they do it they will be waving the American flag, singing patriotic slogans and clutching the Christian cross. Fuld, I expect, will be one of many corporatists happy to contribute to the cause.

 

This is a defining moment in American history. The next few weeks and months will see us stabilize and weather this crisis or descend into a terrifying dystopia. I place no hope in Obama or the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is a pathetic example of liberal, bourgeois impotence, hypocrisy and complacency. It has been bought off. I will vote, if only as a form of protest against our corporate state and an homage to Polanyi's brilliance, for Ralph Nader. I would like to offer hope, but it is more important to be a realist. No ethic or act of resistance is worth anything if it is not based on the real. And the real, I am afraid, does not look good.

[S.O.S]

"Gloablaization is dead!"

 

And hopefully capitalism as we came to know together with all ambitions of imperialism dies with it as well, and beyond repair.

 

I have my contingency plan ready as I've figured the following:

 

As camel population worldwide is estimated to be around 20 million, I think we Somalis are good for some 70%. According to report by the UN world demand for camel related products (mainly camel milk) will have a market revenue of about $13 billion by 2013.

 

Change of career has now become a viable option (especially if one works in the financial sector).

 

P.S. An insightful article!

[Nur]

S.O.S.

 

Your contingency plan should include attending the upcoming American Yard Sale bring on your Camels for Barter Trade as Dollars will be worthless to buy key Assets. Read the following Article.

 

 

Maybe U.S. Needs Yard Sale

 

Russia could buy back Alaska or perhaps Canada could pick up sunny Florida

 

By Eric Margolis

 

October 22, 2008 "Toronto Sun"-- At the end of Second World War the British Empire still ruled nearly a quarter of the globe. But the war bankrupted Britain. Its once mighty empire quickly collapsed and the United States inherited much of the British Imperium.

 

Six decades later the United States is close to bankruptcy thanks to a national orgy of borrowing, the replacement of manufacturing by financial manipulation, ruinous foreign wars and a government whose stunning incompetence and arrant (Stupiditi) was exceeded only by its reckless imperial arrogance.

 

The financial panic now gripping the planet, and the ignominious collapse of Wall Street, showed the American colossus had feet of clay. Washington's furious printing of untold billions of new dollars to prop up its sinking economy, finance this year's $1 trillion deficit and pay debts may unleash a storm of dangerous inflation.

 

The world balance of power is already shifting. For example, Pakistan's new president, Asif Zardari, went cap in hand this week to China, seeking up to $6 billion US in emergency loans. Pakistan is on the verge of bankruptcy and may shortly default on its debt.

 

But Pakistan's patron, the United States, which has been renting that nation's politicians and army for $1.2 billion per annum to support the occupation of Afghanistan, can't spare any cash for Pakistan. So Pakistan is turning to China, which has $19 billion in foreign exchange reserves -- the world's largest. The U.S.-led occupation of Afghanistan is likely to be adversely affected by Washington's new pauper status.

 

Bankrupt people, companies and nations have to sell assets to meet their debt obligations. China and Japan alone hold over $1.5 trillion of U.S. government securities (IOUs).

 

Their nervous central bankers now want real assets rather than more paper.

 

So there is talk of America's Asian creditors converting their IOUs into shares in U.S. corporations and property.

 

Sovereign wealth funds from the Arab oil states and Singapore may soon demand chunks of such assets.

 

In the 19th century European imperial powers used to force loans on China and local rulers in the Mideast and Latin America. When the locals could not pay off their debts, parts of their territory were seized. Russia was forced to sell Alaska to the U.S. for next to nothing when it could not repay its debts.

 

China's coast was carved up by the British, French, Germans, Russians, Americans and Japanese. These imperial foreclosures created the trading"concessions" of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tsingtao, Tianjin, and Port Arthur.

 

Now, it's payback time for China. How ironic that the Chinese Communists have ended up with a so far sound financial system while the Wall Street bandit capitalists have gone bust.

 

To help pay its monster debts, I suggest Washington consider selling Louisiana back to France. Canada, whose banking system remains solid thanks to being what Americans called "boring and stodgy," ought to pick up Florida for a song. Canadians have a manifest destiny for sunshine.

 

Mexico will want to buy Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Russia, of course, will buy back Alaska and Washington State. China will purchase California; San Francisco will become "New Beijing."

 

Japan will buy up Washington State, Oregon, Montana, and Hawaii. Holland will repossess New York State, and Germany will buy Pennsylvania and Minnesota.

 

JUST LIKE BRITAIN

 

Pakistan's move into China's financial embrace is a harbinger of things to come. Unless the U.S. quickly repairs its economy, its world power could slip away as quickly as post-war Britain's, leaving China, Japan, Russia, the EU and India as the world's new super powers.

 

This may not be so awful. All power, as Lord Acton famously said, corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely. As the world's sole superpower, the U.S. under the Bush administration became totally corrupted by imperial hubris, financial fraud, lust for resources and greed.

 

A world with more balanced, diffused power may be preferable. But what if cash-rich China steps into America's imperial boots much sooner than anyone expected?

 

"Toronto Sun"--

[Nur]

Wall Street's 'Disaster Capitalism for Dummies'

 

14 reasons Main Street loses big while Wall Street sabotages democracy

 

By Paul B. Farrell

 

October 22, 2008 "MarketWatch' -- ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. -- Yes, we're dummies. You. Me. All 300 million of us. Clueless. We should be ashamed. We're obsessed about the slogans and rituals of "democracy," distracted by the campaign, polls, debates, rhetoric, half-truths and outright lies. McCain? Obama? Sorry to pop your bubble folks, but it no longer matters who's president.

 

Why? The real "game changer" already happened. Democracy has been replaced by Wall Street's new "disaster capitalism." That's the big game-changer historians will remember about 2008, masterminded by Wall Street's ultimate "Trojan Horse," Hank Paulson. Imagine: Greed, arrogance and incompetence create a massive bubble, cost trillions, and still Wall Street comes out smelling like roses, richer and more powerful!Yes, we're ******: While distracted by the "illusion of democracy" in the endless campaign, Congress surrendered the powers we entrusted to it with very little fight. Congress simply handed over voting power and the keys to trillions in the Treasury to Wall Street's new "Disaster Capitalists" who now control "democracy."

 

Why did this happen? We're in denial, clueless wimps, that's why. We let it happen. In one generation America has been transformed from a democracy into a strange new form of government, "Disaster Capitalism." Here's how it happened:

Three decades of influence peddling in Washington has built an army of 42,000 special-interest lobbyists representing corporations and the wealthy. Today these lobbyists manipulate America's 537 elected officials with massive campaign contributions that fund candidates who vote their agenda.

This historic buildup accelerated under Reaganomics and went into hyperspeed under Bushonomics, both totally committed to a new disaster capitalism run privately by Wall Street and Corporate America. No-bid contracts in wars and hurricanes. A housing-credit bubble -- while secretly planning for a meltdown.

Finally, the coup de grace: Along came the housing-credit crisis, as planned. Press and public saw a negative, a crisis. Disaster capitalists saw a huge opportunity. Yes, opportunity for big bucks and control of America. Millions of homeowners and marginal banks suffered huge losses. Taxpayers stuck with trillions in debt. But giant banks emerge intact, stronger, with virtual control over government and the power to use taxpayers' funds. They're laughing at us ******!

Amazing isn't it, Wall Street's Disaster Capitalists screwed up, likely planned or let happen this meltdown and recession. Yet America's clueless taxpayers just reward them by giving the screw-ups massive bailouts, control over more than $2 trillion of tax money, and the power to clean up the mess they made. Oh yes, we are dummies!

This end game was planned for years in secret war rooms on Wall Street, in Corporate America, in Washington and the Forbes 400. Democracy is too cumbersome. It had to be marginalized for Disaster Capitalism to take over.

Reagan, Bush and Paulson were Wall Street's "Trojan Horses."

 

Naomi Klein summarizes the game in "Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism." This "new economy" generates enormous profits feeding off other peoples' misery: Wars, terror attacks, natural catastrophes, poverty, trade sanctions, subprime housing meltdowns and all kinds of economic, financial and political disasters. Natural (Katrina) or manmade (Iraq), either way "disaster capitalism" creates fortunes.

 

So you, me and the other 300 million better get out of denial. America is no longer a democracy. Voting is irrelevant. Best case scenario: We're a plutocracy, a government ruled by the wealthy, the richest 1%, the Forbes 400, the influential wealthy elite, while the other 99% are their "servants." Meanwhile, the inflation-adjusted income of wage-earners has declined for three decades.

 

Worst case scenario: America's no democracy and as a result of the meltdown and the surrender of our power to Wall Street's new Disaster Capitalism we are morphing into what one WWII dictator called "corporatism," a "merger of state and corporate power," kind of like what's going on now with Goldman Sachs' ex-boss as de facto president.

 

Wolves in sheep's clothing

 

Yes, a strong charge. But like a lot of our readers, I don't like what's happening to America. I'm a patriot. I volunteered for the Marines. Served four years. Volunteered for Korea. I don't like how our freedoms, rights and value system are being subverted in the name of greed, arrogance, self-righteous intolerance and other false gods.

 

We know for the last eight years disaster capitalists ignored obvious warnings of a coming meltdown. They apparently planned it. They road the bull, got very rich. Now they have the ultimate disaster capitalist weapons, trillions in tax money, virtual control of government.

 

That's why I fear we're on the edge of a dangerous line between Wall Street's version of disaster capitalism and a toxic "merger of state and corporate power." The wolf is in sheep's clothing. Wall Street pretends we're a democracy. Yet America more closely resembles the kind of "corporatism" that Laurence W. Britt wrote about five years ago in Free Inquiry magazine.

 

We adapted his historical analysis of 14 key traits for today's discussion. Notice how they have a huge impact your investments and retirement:

 

1. Wall Street rich get first priority

 

Think "bailout." Wall Street's greedy con game spins out of control globally. Millions of homeowners misled, lose. Who gets hundreds of billions first? Wall Street's con men.

 

2. National security obsession

 

Think of the expansion of executive powers in the name of national security: Preemptive wars, wiretapping private citizens, Gitmo, torture; driven by a dark wealthy neocon elite.

 

3. Superpower with massive military

 

Think of our $3 trillion Iraq/Afghan War. Disaster capitalists love the thrill of military power. We outspend all nations, over half the federal budget to strut before the world.

 

4. Extreme nationalism

 

Signs are everywhere: Flags, lapel pins, "support the troops" slogans, all to get huge military budgets passed. Challenge them and you're un-American and unpatriotic.

 

5. Rally the masses by scapegoating enemies

 

Think "axis of evil," mushroom clouds, "Islamofascists," more terrorist attacks on the homeland. Propaganda creates "enemies" in the public's mind and distracts from real issues.

 

6. Corruption and cronyism

 

Think earmarks, no-bid defense contracts, paid mercenaries outnumbering military in Iraq, superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, biofuels, bridge to nowhere, millions donated to campaigns.

 

7. Obsession with crime

 

Think of prison-building as just another investment opportunity, rather than focusing on reforming our criminal justice system. Stoke irrational fear of criminals and extremists.

 

8. Labor and low wages

 

Think corporate earnings versus the wages paid to workers. No "trickling down," leaves more for tricklers: Rich insiders, stockholders. Wages dropping as CEO salaries skyrocket.

 

9. Contempt for human rights

 

Think of abuses of habeas corpus, loss of right to trial, bogus charges, plus "demonizing" the victims, all in the name of national defense and homeland security.

 

10. Mass media manipulation

 

Think of leaking false information, Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame, Scooter Libby, Colin Powell's United Nation's testimony, Condoleezza Rice's mushroom clouds, WMDs, all to suppress the truth.

 

11. Obsession with sexism

 

Think of paternalism, antigays, antiabortion, subordinate women -- then codify the system as the law of the land reinforcing a male-dominated society, punish violators.

 

12. Disdain for intellectuals

 

Think of conservative intellectuals Francis Fukuyama and Bill Buckley. Contrast them to Sarah Palin and Joe Sixpack conservatism, Bush's funding cuts for arts and science education.

 

13. Religion in government

 

Think of all the faith-based programs versus antiscience in drug approvals, creationism vs. evolution, Ten Commandments enshrined in public buildings, public money to churches.

 

14. Fraudulent elections

 

Think of police and prosecutorial intimidation and threats to voters, challenging minority voters, ballots disappearing, party election officials committing outright fraud.

 

Yes, officially America is still a democracy. We have enough signs and rituals to support that illusion. But the truth is America has become a plutocracy run by and for the wealthy. And since Wall Street's Disaster Capitalism coup de grace, we are rapidly morphing into a dangerous new government.

 

Copyright © 2008 MarketWatch, Inc.

[S.O.S]

Nur,

It would be a miracle (read dark arts of influence) if the creditworthiness of America remains intact by the end of next year, taking into account the realistic risk of defaulting.

Although I'm in the UK, dollar IS the single most important currency here (sterling comes second) as most assets/investments are dollar denominated. Possibility of bartering hasn't entered my mind yet, but I seriously considered buying tickets for next year to fly home (if I can find where) before airplanes disappear altogether from the world!

 

P.S. Tell us about your plan; I can use some good advise.

[Nur]

S.O.S Bro.

 

During World War II, A German father left an estate worth some 100 Million Marks for his two sons. After his death, one of his sons, a Professor, the other, a party animal, shared the estate .The Professor deposited his share of 50 Million Marks in a local bank, while his brother fulfilled his dream of partying every night by ordering two truck loads of beer for all the neighborhood nightly dance. At the end of the war, the beer company contacted the party animal to inform him that his checks have bounced, however, they offered him to invest in their beer company with his empty beer bottle asset, piled up high in his back yard after the bottling plant was bombarded by the British Airforce.

 

The Party guy became very wealthy as shareholder of beer company, while his brother, the Professor lost all his Bank deposit to hyper inflation. Moral of story, in times of economic collapse, real assets store value better than cash.

 

S.O.S bro, my advice is that you buy a real estate propert if you have the money, dont expect a quick return as we are in the tunnel of a long resession, but at least, you are insulated from currency collapse which is imminent.

 

Nur

[Ms DD]

Salaam aleykum

That really happened Nur?

[S.O.S]

Nur,

That is what I normally would be considering if the problem of mobility and liquidity of such storage of wealth weren't an issue in my situation. Even then I'm only/still talking about the African real estate market (closer to home), unless someone is very rich beyond immediate need and indifferent into buying negative equity.

 

I'm personally more concerned about the resulting social unrests and their possible impact on immigrants in general and Muslims in particular. We all know what happened after the so called "great depression" in the twenties and thirties of last century.

[Nur]

MS DD

 

W Caleykumu Salaam wa raxmatullah wa barakaatuh sis.

 

That is the story I heard, can't verify though, but its popular in economy classes, classic example of value of real assets in comparison to currencies.

 

S.O.S.

 

You are definetly right, it would be advisable to consider places close to home ( Somalia is still a place for sacrifice, not earning!). Properties in nearby Kenya are still attarctive ( unless the power sharing between Odinga and Kibaki falters, which spells huge risk for all foreigners and specially for Somalis and Indians). But to win next year's Nobel Prize In Economics though, you may consider converting your cash to bars of gold and then keep it firmly under your pillow ( the only problem with this option is a verse in Quraan: " Inna alladiina yaknizuuna al Zhahaba wal fiddata walaa yunfiquunahaa , fa bashirhum bi cadaabin aliim" How to mitigate this risk: well, start up your own orphanage in Somalia, this will gurantee a safety net from eternal poverty.

 

 

Nur

[Nur]

The Islamic Economic Alternative is on the horizon, slowly but surely, Abominable Usury ( Interest) system, is causing ruins to the entore globe, here is the proof from Sponsors of the Ribaa (interest) Economy!

 

 

Real All About it!

 

 

Britain may need 0% interest rate to avoid a depression, leading economist warns

 

By James Chapman

Last updated at 2:37 PM on 27th October 2008

 

 

Interest rates may have to be slashed to zero as Britain battles to avoid a full-blown depression, one of the country's leading economists warns today.

 

 

The extraordinary claim from Charles Goodhart, a founding member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, came as Gordon Brown signalled that he wants to see further, aggressive cuts in the cost of borrowing.

 

 

Mr Goodhart, professor emeritus of banking and finance at the London School of Economics and a member of the MPC between 1997 and 2000, tells Channel 4's Dispatches programme: 'Interest rates will go down from now, by how far and how fast

nobody knows.

 

 

Slashed: The Bank of England may need to cut interest rates to 0 per cent, economists have warned

 

'They could go to zero. They went to zero in Japan in the 1990s when the Japanese had a recession or depression which went on for a long time and was quite severe.'

 

 

Such a drastic move here would bring rates, currently 4.5 per cent, to their lowest level since the Bank of England was founded in 1694.

 

 

Despite the Bank's independence in setting rates, Mr Brown said yesterday: 'Inflation is coming down over the next few months and that will mean that it gives scope to the monetary authorities, including the Bank of England, round the world, to make a decision about interest rates.'

 

 

However, many experts warn that a rush to cut rates is 'too little, too late' because Britain is already in what is predicted to be a long recession.

 

 

Mr Brown will today insist he is right to try to borrow his way out of the downturn despite growing warnings from economists that he could bankrupt the country.

 

 

The Prime Minister will say he will allow public borrowing to spiral still further -

hinting that he may even seek to use the money for tax cuts for workers, businesses and homeowners.

[Nur]

Islamic Economics vindicated!

 

 

Rival Communism failed!

 

 

Rival Capitalism failed!

 

 

What is next?

 

 

Islamic Economic Vision of A Balance between Supplier side Economics and Consumers based on justice and ethics is turning heads. Islamic FEconomic Vision calls using Material Growth to fuel Spiritual growth for a peaceful world and a peaceful return to our maker.

 

The new theory claims to be able to save our planet from greed, and from annihilation by Capitalists who want to deplete the planet of all of its resources and pollute its environment along the crazy consumerism path. At the current rate of consumption, we would need seven more planets next 2 centuries.

 

 

Read on

 

Lead Author: Brian Czech (other articles)

 

Article Topics: Ecological economics, Environmental economics, Environmental policy, Population and Sustainable development

 

This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Tom Tietenberg (other articles)

 

Last Updated: February 19, 2007

 

 

The phrase “steady state economy” originated from ecological economics, most notably the work of Herman Daly, but its roots are in classical economics, most notably the “stationary state” as touted by John Stuart Mill. The steady state economy is often discussed in the context of economic growth and the impacts of economic growth on ecological integrity, environmental protection, and economic sustainability. Therefore, use of the phrase “steady state economy” requires a clear definition of economic growth.

 

Economic growth is an increase in the production and consumption of goods and services. For distinct economic or political units, economic growth is generally indicated by increasing gross domestic product (GDP). Economic growth entails increasing population times per capita consumption, higher throughput of materials and energy, and a growing ecological footprint. Economic growth is distinguished from “economic development,” which refers to qualitative change independent of quantitative growth. For example, economic development may refer to the attainment of a more equitable distribution of wealth, or a sectoral readjustment reflecting the evolution of consumer preference or newer technology.

 

The size of an economy may undergo one of two trends: growth or recession. Otherwise it is stable, in which case it is a “steady state economy.” As with many phrases, however, different connotations may apply in different contexts. In neoclassical economics, the hyphenated phrase “steady-state economy” is used to refer to an economy with steady ratios of capital:labor. Therefore, in neoclassical economics, a steady-state economy may be growing, receding, or stable, in which case it constitutes the steady state economy of ecological economics. Sometimes, however, the hyphenated “steady-state economy” is also used in the ecologically economic sense of a non-growing, non-receding economy. (In some cases this reflects the editorial style and tradition of a particular journal.) This linguistic inconsistency is not a major communications problem in broad circles because the neoclassical “steady-state economy” is a relatively abstruse concept used primarily within the jargon of neoclassical economics, whereas the ecological “steady state economy” is a technically simpler concept and has achieved a certain amount of vernacular status.

 

Yet regarding linguistics, the issue of hyphenation has some import. It is appropriate to use the unhyphenated phrase “steady state economy” to describe an economy of stable size because “state” (as in political state) is an adjective of “economy” (as in a state’s economy), and “steady” is an adjective of this state economy. In other words, “steady state economy” typically refers to a national economy of stable size, although it may also refer to an economy of a city, province, or other political unit. (It may also refer to a regional economy or the global economy, and in such cases political units are aggregated.) In neoclassical economics, “steady” is not an adjective of “state economy.” Rather, the conjoined “steady-state” is a heuristic tool to imply the stable ratio of capital:labor and, linguistically, is an adjective of “economy.”

 

Theoretically and temporarily, a steady state economy may have a growing population with declining per capita consumption, or vice versa, but neither of these scenarios are sustainable in the long run. Therefore, “steady state economy” connotes constant populations of people (and, therefore, “stocks” of labor) and constant stocks of capital. It also has a constant rate of throughput; i.e., energy and materials used to produce goods and services.

 

Within a given technological framework these constant stocks will yield constant flows of goods and services. Technological progress may yield a more efficient “digestion” of throughput, resulting in the production of more (or more highly valued) goods and services. However, as emphasized in biophysical economics (which may arguably be classified as a subset of ecological economics), there are limits to productive efficiency imposed by the laws of thermodynamics and therefore limits to the amount and value of goods and services that may be produced in a given ecosystem. In other words, there is a maximum size at which a steady state economy may exist. Conflicts with ecological integrity and environmental protection occur long before a steady state economy is maximized.

 

“Constancy” of population and capital stocks does not imply absolutely unchanging population and capital stocks at the finest level of measurement. Rather, “constant” implies mildly fluctuating in the short run but exhibiting a stable equilibrium in the long run. Long-run changes reflect evolutionary, geological, or astronomical processes that alter the carrying capacity of the Earth for the human economy. Dramatic examples include atmosphere-altering volcanoes and massive meteorite collisions.

 

Just as economic growth is the predominant macroeconomic policy goal identified or implied by neoclassical economics, the steady state economy is the predominant macroeconomic policy goal identified or implied by ecological economics. To the extent that ecological economics is a normative transdisciplinary endeavor rather than a purely analytical framework, its three main concerns are sustainability, equity, and efficiency, each of which may be served via public policy. Neither economic growth nor economic recession are sustainable; therefore, the steady state economy remains the only sustainable prospect and the appropriate policy goal for the sake of sustainability.

 

The steady state economy may be pursued in the policy arena with the same policy tools that have historically been used to facilitate economic growth. These include fiscal policy tools such as government spending and taxation, and monetary policy tools such as money supplies and interest rates. Certain institutional adjustments are also entailed. For example, some have posited that a fractional reserve banking system may not be reconciled with a steady state economy and that fee-service banking is the most feasible alternative. Other public policies pertaining to ecological integrity and environmental protection may also be conducive to a steady state economy. For example, some have posited that the Endangered Species Act of 1973 was an implicit prescription for a steady state economy balanced with an economy of nature characterized by numerous threatened and endangered yet stabilized species.

[S.O.S]

Certain institutional adjustments are also entailed. For example, some have posited that a fractional reserve banking system may not be reconciled with a steady state economy and that fee-service banking is the most feasible alternative.

In other words, "steady state economy" is (read equals) only possible in an interest-free economy.