Humans, A Smart Species?
Politics / Social Issues Apr 07, 2014 - 03:21 PM GMTBy: Raul_I_Meijer
And once again the markets are happily and excitedly awaiting more free zombie capital from a major central bank, this time the ECB. Of course this is capital the markets, judging from where stock exchanges find themselves, absolutely don’t need, but, you know, gift horses have foul breath and all that.
It’s some 15 years ago since the dotcom bubble started to burst, and half that long since the US (and Spanish, and Irish) housing bubble began to show what it was truly made of. So we’re due, and what do we find ourselves with today? Bubbles as far as the eye can see that everyone denies are bubbles. S&P, London housing, tech, biotech … No, Tesla and Netflix and Twitter are solid proof that it’s different this time, and companies don’t need to make an actual product, or even money, to be valued through the rooftops. Right? Oh, sweet Jesus…
I never see anyone talk about this, but the biggest reason why all banks should be fully restructured, all assets and liabilities, is not even, though it’s certainly true, that they are too big, that they have too much debt, or that they prey upon society, but it’s that restructuring bank debt will chase zombie money away all across the financial markets. That is long overdue.
All those QEs lead to humongous and growing distortions of the economy you and I have to live in. And since we have no access to the funny money, but it does get used to buy real assets, like land, food, water, at insanely bloated prices, it is hugely destructive to the world we need to survive in, to our future ability to survive. Whoever bought into these basic human needs at highly inflated “values” will be looking for a “healthy” return long after you and I will no longer be able to afford them. This will lead to severe human suffering, and only because we, as a society, refuse to be honest.
It’s not just some vaguely defined elite, it’s you too. You too are hoping for recovery, now, with your wealth intact. And it’s the Chinese who’ve managed to get hold of part of the $7 trillion or so Beijing stimulus, and that’s before it was leveraged (a scary thought indeed!), and use it to buy US land. It’s all zombies all the way down. And there’s no way that’s not going to crash.
As long as banks don’t have to fess up to their losses, lots of other parties don’t have to either. That’s why there are so many people and institutions who label themselves “investors”, and often even borrow to buy stocks, who are just as much zombies as the banks are. Their “capital” would be wiped out faster than an HFT flash if we would start being honest about what things are worth. But our governments and central banks have decided that we’re going to lie to ourselves up to some undetermined point in the future, when our economies are supposed to reach escape velocity, when, to put it in other words, our lies will become the truth.
The past 6+ years of attempts not to come clean are tremendously damaging to society at large because they for instance keep the hopes alive for recovery and growth, notwithstanding the fact that the whole charade facade is based on the refusal to let actual and honest markets determine what assets are worth. And how much more obvious does it have to get that you can and will never ever restore faith and confidence in markets as long as you keep distorting them with these neverending interventions aimed at, well, distorting them even more?
We lie to ourselves, as a society and as individuals, on a constant basis because we (have been led to) believe that we have no choice but to forever chase an illusive entity named economic growth that we don’t even need at all. We’re rich enough. More than rich enough.
The growth illusion is more destructive than anything in the history of the planet. And we know it, we – can – see it every day in the world around us. And we know, too, that we don’t need any more growth. What do any of us lack in a material sense? We also know that nothing can grow forever, and the cancerous tumor metaphor is as obvious as it is well-known. But if you can find one single politician or analyst where ever you live who doesn’t want more growth, please let me know.
A smart species? Us? I don’t see how, if we were, we could find ourselves where we do. We destroy the only reality we have, this planet, to chase illusions we don’t even have a real use for. I think I’ve said this before: the only thing that makes us different from amoeba, when provided a surplus of energy, is that we can watch ourselves use it to destroy the very things need to live. And be aware of it. So much for awareness. And for being smart.
If we really were smart, we’d stop this madness, starting with the bank bailouts and the voting for whoever promises the rosiest gardens and the biggest profits. There must be a better reason for us to have been put on this earth than to chase profits and eternal growth and faster cars and bigger TV screens and one mile high buildings and even deadlier weapons to kill one another with. Because if there’s not, or even just if we can’t find that reason, we should say goodbye and leave this humble abode for the incredible beauty around us to survive in.
By Raul Ilargi Meijer
Website: http://theautomaticearth.com (provides unique analysis of economics, finance, politics and social dynamics in the context of Complexity Theory)
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