the slow burn

[Eugen Leitl]

(While plausible, I'm not sure I'm buying the idea that the guns are literal).

http://solari.com/blog/?p=818

The Slow Burn

News & Commentary,

April 9, 2008 at 12:04 pm

People often ask whether I am concerned about inflation, deflation, peak oil,
or a global financial meltdown. My answer is as follows.

The future is something to be created, rather than feared. Allocating our
time, networks, and resources to deal with a variety of high-risk scenarios
frees us to become proactive and to build positive futures instead of
negative ones. I like to understand what these scenarios mean in terms of
managing risk and to know how we can succeed within all possible futures.

But my business is investment, not prophecy.

The risk scenario I weight most heavily is not listed above. I call it the
bSlow Burn.b

The bslow burnb is a political culture and economy managed through principles
of economic warfare in which insiders systematically protect themselves and
centralize control and ownership of resources by using:

    * Central banks

    * Currency and lending systems

    * Taxation

    * Regulatory and enforcement policies

    * Controlled media and entertainment

Insiders use these means to drain the time, resources, and life of people on
the outside. Although insider cartels compete and jockey for power, they are
able to settle their squabbles by increasing control and draining everyone
and everything else. This is why the bubble economy continues to deplete the
real economy. It is likely the reason why Dick Cheney said, bDeficits donbt
matter.b

In a slow burn scenario, it is possible to prop up trillions of dollars in
financial asset values by systematically arranging subsidies that ultimately
liquidate life. This is what bmanagingb markets really means: de-populating
people and places to maintain phony values created and necessitated by
derivative bets.

The reason why it is difficult for sophisticated financial people to discern
that a slow burn is taking place is because we have not yet collectively
mastered the operational detail of how it is implemented. This is an
extremely important subject.

One of the most important aspects of the Paulson Plan to re-engineer US
financial regulation is the assertion of complete control of payment systems
by the Federal Reserve and gaining access to the data of essentially any
financial institution. Combined with 1) the ability to print money and 2)
digital communication payment and surveillance technology (satellite), this
will consolidate greater power into fewer hands than at any time in recorded
history.

As Nicholas Negroponte said, bIn a digital age, data about money is worth
more than money.b