BOOM Finance and Economics 5th May 2024 -- a Global Review
WEEKLY -- On Sunday -- All previous Editorials are available at LinkedIn and at Wordpress https://boomfinanceandeconomics.wordpress.com/
BOOM is still on holiday. However, here is another selection of excerpts from previous, provocative BOOM editorials. Hopefully, they will help stimulate critical thought. They are definitely worth reading again.
Supertramp fans can simultaneously listen to their most famous album, Crime of the Century, issued 1974. The lyrics, written in 1974, reveal our modern world.
Now they're planning the crime of the century
Well what would it be?
Read all about their schemes and adventuring
Yes it's well worth the fee
So roll up and see
As they rape the universe
How they've gone from bad to worse
Who are these men of lust, greed and glory?
Rip off the masks and let's see
TESTIMONY FROM A READER
"Boom’s finance and economics views are based on experience and wisdom, both of which are sadly lacking in today’s narrow-analysis focused commentary."
1. FROM BOOM -- 5TH NOVEMBER 2023
EATING POLITICIANS – A LESSON FROM THE PAST
A PRIME MINISTER – HUNG, DRAWN, TORN APART AND EATEN BY THE PEOPLE
2. FROM BOOM -- 2ND JULY 2023
PHYSICAL CASH MUST BE KING
SLOVAKIA CHANGES CONSTITUTION TO PROTECT CASH
”DIGITAL EURO” ANNOUNCED BY THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK
MONETARY TYRANNY PLAIN AND SIMPLE
UTOPIA IS AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE
GLOBALISTS AT WORK
3. FROM BOOM -- 25TH JUNE 2023
BLINKEN BLINKED? WHY?
PREVIOUS BOOM EDITORIAL -- 5TH NOVEMBER 2023
EATING POLITICIANS – A LESSON FROM THE PAST
A PRIME MINISTER – HUNG, DRAWN, TORN APART AND EATEN BY THE PEOPLE
In 1672, two leaders, including the Prime Minister of an “advanced” European nation were attacked, torn apart and eaten by the people. This rage was driven by the prospect of hunger and enslavement from two invading armies. Yes – this happened – and it happened in the nation we now call The Netherlands.
The leaders were the de Witt brothers, Johan and Cornelius. Johan de Witt was well educated with great ability in mathematics. He wrote one of the first textbooks in analytic geometry. At the age of 28 years, he became Grand Pensionary — the Prime Minister — of the United Provinces of the Dutch Republic in 1653. That was 17 years after Tulip-mania hit Holland. At the peak of tulip mania, in February 1637, single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled artisan. So Johan De Witt would have witnessed the madness and insanity of the Tulip-mania price debacle at the age of 12 years.
When he came to power, he used his mathematical skills to manage Holland’s financial and budgetary problems. The Dutch Golden Age followed and he was re-elected in 1658, 1663, and 1668. However, he was in direct opposition to the monarchists and in 1672, he failed to defend the nation and secure peace when both England and France attacked and were able to effortlessly invade the Dutch Republic. He resigned his position. But the people, driven into a rage by monarchist propaganda were angry, very angry. In Dutch history, the year 1672 is referred to as the Rampjaar -- the Disaster Year.
A French historian, Alexander Dumas, described the fate of Jacob and his brother Cornelius.
There is a lesson here today for all politicians in Government, unelected bankers and unelected officials in globalist NGOs (Non Government Organisations) who seek great power. Always consider and respect The People. Or else.
“After having mangled, and torn, and completely stripped the two brothers, the mob dragged their naked and bloody bodies to an extemporised gibbet, where amateur executioners hung them up by the feet.
Then came the most dastardly scoundrels of all, who not having dared to strike the living flesh, cut the dead in pieces, and then went about the town selling small slices of the bodies of John and Cornelius at ten sous a piece.”
PREVIOUS BOOM EDITORIAL -- 2ND JULY 2023
PHYSICAL CASH MUST BE KING
Cash should always be issued by the Sovereign of a Nation upon the demand or request of the people or issued by the peoples’ elected representatives subject to Parliamentary procedure in a Republic. It should be non interest bearing and free of all fees. It should be fungible and anonymous.
As stated in the BOOM editorial of 18th June -- “BOOM is a strong supporter of the role of physical cash in any economy. Cash is the people’s money, issued (usually) by the Sovereign treasury (not by the banking system), non interest bearing, a buffer against credit money dominance, anonymous in usage, perfectly fungible and a natural hedge against CPI inflation. Only a foolish nation abandons its currency, either in a currency union or in the form of physical cash. Any central bank that cannot see this is also foolish in the extreme. And any government that cannot see this is worse than foolish. It is acting in treason against its own people.”
SLOVAKIA CHANGES CONSTITUTION TO PROTECT CASH
THE DIGITAL EURO ANNOUNCED BY THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK
Everyone has the right to pay for the purchase of goods and services in cash, says a new amendment to the Slovakian Constitution. The amendment was passed last week in the Slovak Parliament. The aim was to protect physical payments in cash from a future in which electronic cash becomes available.
The MP, Miloš Svrček, said during a parliamentary debate “It is very important that there is a provision in the Constitution based on which we can defend ourselves in the future against any orders from the outside, saying there can only be digital euro and no other payment options”.
The EU Commission’s digital Euro proposal was revealed in an official announcement by the European Central Bank last Wednesday, on 28th June. The plan is for it to be controlled by the European Central Bank (ECB). The announcement had three key points --
1. The Proposed legislation establishes a “framework” facilitating the possible introduction of a digital Euro that is widely usable and available throughout the Euro area.
2. The European Central Bank “welcomes the European Commission proposal to protect legal tender status of Euro cash”
and
3. the Governing Council (of the ECB) will decide in autumn whether to move to the next phase of the digital Euro project.
Let’s speak plainly so that any citizen in the Euro Area can easily understand what this actually means.
An unelected European Commission and some unelected officials of the European Central Bank have decided that they are planning to grant themselves the right to issue money that the people can use, under their terms. And they will do this with the assistance of unelected commercial bankers.
THIS IS MONETARY TYRANNY PLAIN AND SIMPLE
How do these three unelected groups of people claim the right to issue their electronic cash to other unelected people? The legal framework for such a self appointed initiative seems highly questionable to BOOM.
The announcement is at pains to state that the “people” will continue to have their right to the use of physical Cash.
Quote: “The ECB welcomes the Commission’s proposal aiming to ensure that cash continues to be a vital part of the payments system. It is crucial that cash remains widely accepted in physical transactions in line with its legal tender status. People and businesses need to be able to efficiently withdraw and deposit their money. The legislative proposal ensures that both acceptance of and access to euro banknotes and coins is legally guaranteed, so that everyone who wants to pay with cash can do so.” Unquote
They attempt to deal with the tricky legislative part of the matter by stating this at the very end of the announcement – where they acknowledge that some sort of supposedly democratic process should occur. But the elected Representatives of the people who they refer to as “co-legislators” are only able to “consult” the ECB for “technical input”.
Quote: “The ECB stands ready to provide technical input to support the work of the EU co-legislators. The European Commission has recommended that the European Parliament and the EU Council consult the ECB on the proposed legislative changes. Following requests for consultation, the ECB would deliver its opinion in due course.” Unquote
The key part of the announcement should, in fact, read --
People and businesses need to be able to efficiently withdraw and deposit OUR money.
The plan reveals that people will be able to access the new electronic, digital Euros from their bank upon request.
The proposal also foresees that people could use basic digital Euro services for free. At the same time, the proposal offers private financial intermediaries “appropriate economic incentives” (that means fees) to distribute the digital euro as they do other digital means of payment (such as debit and credit cards), while “preventing excessive fees for merchants”.
Moreover, the proposed legislation supports a high degree of privacy and data protection for users, while minimising money laundering and terrorist financing risks. It enables offline digital Euro payments, to provide cash-like privacy levels.
It is still in the “investigatory phase” until October.
A member of the ECB Executive Board, Fabio Panetta, who chairs the High-Level Task Force on a digital Euro, said the intention is “to ensure banknotes remain easily accessible for citizens and businesses and widely accepted throughout the euro area.”
Others – elected Representatives of the People – are not so confident.
“It may be initially sold as an alternative, but gradually it will become apparent that it can only be exclusive,” said liberal Slovakian MP Marián Viskupič of the digital Euro plans. He warned that it would bring about “monitoring of a person’s entire life” by the ECB and called it “a social engineer’s dream”. Far-right MPs also joined in threatening the “total loss of privacy” the digital Euro could bring.
The Slovakian Parliament also passed an amendment put forward by Viskupič, which gives shopkeepers the right to refuse cash payments for “appropriate or generally applicable reasons”. This is meant to protect card-only vending machines or shopkeepers worried about robberies or germs on banknotes and coins. BOOM is not in favour of that amendment. A Trojan Horse if ever there was one.
Reference: https://www.ecb.europa.eu//press/pr/date/2023/html/ecb.pr230628~e76738d851.en.html
UTOPIA IS AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Thomas More wrote a small book called "Utopia" 500 years ago. It was published in 1516 in Leuven and then reprinted in 1518 in Basel, Switzerland, the modern home of the Bank for International Settlements. It borrowed ideas from Plato's The Republic in which Plato had tried to describe the ideal State, a nirvana of societal governance. In it, there were elements of socialism, fascism and totalitarianism. More imagined a State where you would own nothing and be happy.
You may have heard that from Klaus Schwab, the leader (for the time being) of the so-called and unelected, mostly secret, “World Economic Forum”, which does not represent the World, has almost nothing to do with Economics and is certainly not an open Forum.
In Utopia, Thomas More describes a rather small island State. The book was initially described as “a truly golden little book, no less beneficial than entertaining, of a republic's best state and of the new island Utopia". Interestingly, the book describes Europe as being a place where kings tend to start wars and subsequently lose lots of money on fruitless endeavours. So, nothing much appears to have changed in the 500 years since publication.
The map of imaginary Utopia in the book looks very much like the Isle of Wight off the South coast of England. There is no private property on Utopia, with goods being stored in warehouses and people requesting what they need. There are also no locks on the doors of the houses, and the houses are rotated between the citizens every ten years.
“You will own nothing and be happy”.
On Utopia, all people wear the same types of simple clothes, and there are no dressmakers making fine apparel. Slavery is a feature of Utopian life. Every household has two slaves. The slaves are either from other countries (prisoners of war, people condemned to die, or poor people) or they are Utopian criminals.
Utopia is a welfare state with free hospitals, euthanasia permissible by the state, priests being allowed to marry, divorce permitted. Everyone eats the same food, provided in communal dining halls, except the elderly and, of course, the administrators, who are given the best of the food. Four legs good. Two legs better. Travel on the island is permitted only with a special internal passport, and any people found without a passport are, on a first occasion, returned in disgrace, but after a second offence, they are placed in slavery. Women are mostly restricted to household tasks. Privacy is not regarded as essential in Utopia. Private gatherings are not encouraged. Banks and Bankers appear to be absent. So the money supply is presumably issued by the administrators, in their wisdom without the need for cash issuance or credit arrangements. Elections also appear to be absent.
Raphael Hythloday, whose name translates as "expert of nonsense" in Greek is a major character in the book. Perhaps the World Economic Forum has a similar “guru”? Can you guess who that might be?
Utopia, the book's title, translates to "Nowhere" from Greek. But perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of Utopia is the fact that the island contains no lawyers. Oh joy, indeed.
Then, in the early 19th century, a Frenchman with a vivid imagination, Charles Fourier, expanded the vision of More’s Utopia into "Utopian Socialism", replete with feminism and communes. He called his communes, Phalansteres. Fourier invented the word “feminism”. He was also worried about the oceans and the climate (!).
All of this this has grown to become the philosophical underpinning to Western globalism. After making a journey through Marxism, Hitler’s National Socialism, Communism and various Secret Societies, the globalists are now seeking to (finally) build their Utopia (Heaven) on Earth where they can achieve immortality via the worship of trans-humanism, technology and technocracy while they impose slavery on everyone else.
Their opponents do not believe in a man made Utopia on Earth. They are pragmatists (who are sometimes believers in a Heaven not on Earth). However, they are all bitterly opposed to a return to Feudalism.
GLOBALISTS AT WORK
You can watch the globalist cult at work today and over the last 3 years especially, trying to create their special version of “Utopia” – one of racial purity achieved through trans-humanism – the combination of man and machine, coupled with a supreme adoration of technology and technocracy. Fear is their Currency of Control and mistakes are never admitted. To “Follow The Science” is their deliberate lie. But remember, you will own nothing and you will be happy.
Our globalists believe that Fear Never Fails. It always works to subdue and control. They then use isolation as a strategy of torture (social distancing and lock-downs). And, once their victims are isolated, they torture them even more until they feel disconnected from family, friends and even society.
Eventually, their victims may become attracted to the idea that their captors have good intentions. However, torture combined with fear and isolation predictably result in Stockholm Syndrome. In Stockholm Syndrome, the captured fall in love with their captors and will do anything to please them. Beware, slavery is the end State of Control.
The antidote to this poison is social connection as practised by the 8 Billion people who live on Planet Earth. This will happen as the globalists are clearly heavily outnumbered and must surely eventually fail in their quest, becoming themselves captured, isolated, alone and fearful. Their yearning for complete power over the planet and its people will be usurped by the People.
PREVIOUS BOOM EDITORIAL -- 25TH JUNE 2023
BLINKEN BLINKED? WHY?
Last week, after meeting with Xi Jinping, the President of China, the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, made a clear statement -- “We do not support Taiwan independence”. It was obvious that he did this publicly in return for a concession by China or in response to a demand or a threat by China. We will never learn whether China made a concession or if a demand or threat was made. However, the statement sums up the situation succinctly.
For many decades, the United States has had a “One China” policy. In other words, the US concedes that Taiwan is a part of China. However, this does not exclude Taiwan from having its own government, separate from Beijing. And the US has made it clear that they will come to Taiwan’s aid if China attempts to take control of Taiwan militarily.
BOOM regards this as a typical miss-understanding by the US State Department. They take a short term view of the situation while China takes a long term view. China has no intention of attacking Taiwan. However, it also intends to defend Taiwan if it is attacked. Why? Because Taiwan is a part of China.
So – the United States must never attack Taiwan. That is the situation plain and simple. And, in return, China (and Taiwan) will continue to provide the US with goods that it cannot acquire from anywhere else. That is the deal. So the only question that remains is this. What goods does the US desperately require from China that it cannot get from anywhere else? The answer is Rare Earth minerals.
Rare Earths comprise 17 elements with names such as Scandium, Yttrium, Lanthanum, Cerium, Praseodymium, Neodymium, Gadolinium, Ytterbium (to name just a few). Over the last decade, these elements have become essential for the production of many devices used in modern life such as magnets, batteries, catalyzers, computer and phone screens and much more. Thus, many industries in the Western advanced economies are now highly dependent on a reliable supply of Rare Earths. And China is that supplier.
Cerium is used in light bulbs, TVs and ovens. Dysprosium is mixed within alloys used in wind turbines, electric vehicles and nuclear reactors. Erbium is used in lasers and fibre optic cables. Europium is used in light bulbs, nuclear reactors and lasers. Gadolinium is used in magnets, nuclear reactors and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Holmium is used in magnets and nuclear reactors. Lanthanum is mixed within alloys that are used in batteries and hydrogen vehicles. Lutetium is used as a catalyst in refineries. Neodymium is used in magnets and lasers. Praseodymium is used in aircraft engines, fibre optic cables and magnets. Promethium is used in pacemakers and guided missiles. Samarium is used in microwave devices and magnets. Terbium is used in light bulbs, memory devices and x-rays. Thulium is used in lasers. Ytterbium is used in displays, x-ray machines and fiber-optic cables. Yttrium is used in radars and as an additive within alloys used in high tech devices. Scandium is used for fuel cells and alloys used in jet planes.
A recent estimation, published by a known authority on the subject, showed that China produces 70% of the world’s Rare Earths while the US produces 14.3 %, Australia produces 6% and Myanmar produces 4 %. The US must import Rare Earths to meet its needs. And the only place where such supply can be guaranteed is China.
So – now we can all see clearly why Mr Blinken blinked after meeting Xi Jinping.
In economics, things work until they don’t. Until next week, make your own conclusions, do your own research. BOOM does not offer investment advice.
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