munny redux

stephen wrote

Deborah, all,

hello.

What interests me in your offering is the inflection of archetypes not
made explicit.

capitalism assumes 2 things: unlimited resources unlimited growth

I'm unaware of the model underpinning this assertion. Harkening back to
Adam Smith, I would suggest capitalism assumes scarcity, thus presumes a
law of supply and demand; then assumes a market to reconcile the
uncertainty of both. Unlimited amounts of anything are bad for the priests
of profit.

However, the phantasy of no limitation we could understand in
psychological terms: infinitude; illimitable vastness; perfection;
saturnian realization of the power of the Sun...and, the 'highest'
capitalist termed the Master of the Universe.*

as world heats up, these fairy tales implode.
unlimited paper resources.
unlimited greed.

Paper being wealth on paper? Of course, not even. So it happened that the
derivative Credit Default Swap's notional value exceeded world GDP by a
factor of 100?

I remember when the focus on quarterly earnings was decried. Yet, that was
making money the old fashioned way, right? It became a game for suckers
because the 'brightest boys in the room' figured out how to drive all
sorts of notional instruments to altitudes, Icarus-like heights,
unimaginable to those who could live with 5-10% returns on the equities of
companies that actually made stuff.

***

Back in the mid-eighties it became clear that the transfer of wealth from
the industrial midwest to the west, south and southwest would devastate
the midwest. Accomplished.

Helpful to that mission was a combination of deregulation and corporate
welfare. Then, in a very short time, making money the old fashioned way
simply became an idiotic venture given how easy it was to privatize
profits and socialize risk. This ended up with an incredible shift in
wealth to a very very few people.

By way of comparison, AIG has received about the same amount of money that
was spent on Iraq over the last two years. There are probably no more
dedicated socialists in world history than the current crop of super rich.

Ironic, eh?

***

It strikes me that the aspiration to be richer tomorrow than today is
right on the mark of extroverted puer psychology. Is there anyway for this
not to be a hallmark of provisionality? Of abiding dissatisfaction? Of
begging the mother for every last bit of everything she has, for the sake
of salvation?

To, as-it-were, continue the 'end of history'?

Also: hallmarks of the archaic personality, as Dr. jung put it in his
chapter, Psychology and National Problems (The Symbolic Life; 1936.)
Although in this piece Jung is highlighting the collective-fueled
negations of the individual on offer by the State, because here also is a
clear treatment of money and greed, it also does duty as a psychological
view, in the terms of Analytic Psychology, of any collective 'group
formation' fused to, as Jung put it, 'primitive tribal associations.'

(This noted, I would interpret the collective complex differently, and
make room for anima, as well as animus.)

***

Observing this all, I'm not surprised to be able to taste the cognitive
dissonance given by the nature of the projection on Mr. Obama, AND, the
mountain of money changing familiar hands in the background, both while
the insignificant people get marched through the sh*t storm. From this
also come the small group feeling revolution, while a very decadent
republican party consumes itself.

Another way to get at this psychologically, is to ponder what "Personal
Responsibility" means when used as a shallow political principle, to dress
up for 'the rest of us' the goings on. When various of the pious come
tumbling out of the sky, many aided by their golden parachutes, the
psychological situ in mythic terms seems clear.

The middle is not yet ripe.

regards,

Stephen in Clepheland

* Bertrand Russell termed Marxism a 'Christian heresy' in contrast to the
decadent Christianity that helped titanic capitalism reach maturity.

--------------------

deb:

Stephen wrote:

capitalism assumes 2 things: unlimited resources unlimited growth

"I'm unaware of the model underpinning this assertion. Harkening back to Adam Smith, I would suggest capitalism assumes scarcity, thus presumes a law of supply and demand; then assumes a market to reconcile the uncertainty of both. Unlimited amounts of anything are bad for the priests of profit."

Draw it out. At some point all resources are finite. And so is need -- the thing that drives growth. And growth is assumed in capitalism. Depended upon to sustain a nation.

Simply: you have to have product, something to market. This is culled from raw materials. work. human beings. Things finite in a real world. A real planet. A planet that depends on balance and forces innate. It's the wall we've hit. (And why they want to mine outer space...)

And you have to have consumers who can afford to buy product. For the system to "work," that is, to sustain a society, things have to work the cycle.

Need becomes (necessarily) created, because growth is essential to the process. Planned obsolescence. Pet rocks. Thin.

Thus, the market is driven more like a cancer than by the symbiotic principles of nature. And only the latter endures.

There has to be tempering, balance.

Those 401k's that will feed you in old age. Security? Foreign thought to a country that has no real safety nets. And of course, the whole business is padded and subsidized... Free market is a myth. Look at oil.

And now all that speculation. Derivatives. Value based on nothing but thin air.

Capitalism is a myth. And concentration of wealth that works to protect and propel itself first -- is contradictory to democracy.

As for the rest...
well done, stephen. you give a place to stand, which helps one to not lose heart. As in: This too shall pass...

reading your bertrand russell, I'm reminded that balfour called socialism applied christianity. what a force that could be, the archetype freed from Christ's material literality and allowed to be realized as a metaphor for love, the oneness of all who draw breath, the mystery of what beats our hearts (the true rapture, even in the vaults of the vatican), to recognized itself (though our recognition) -- in the eyes and form of all sentient beings.

and its shadow compensation -- money and wealth based on thin air.

what energy there is in this polarity! Latent "mojo", eros, genius. libido as jung defined it...

steep journey, here. And Pace is all.

we have to be our own light

+++++++++

What's the true value of anything?

You know, money isn't equal really -- not in real life. What's $1,000 to someone making $30,000 a year? What's it to someone making 10 times that? It's all relative, all changing, based on things that change.
Someone, something has to get real.
Meanwhile, there's always goodwill.

-------------
the blowback

from my notes nov 08...


where links are dead, try the wayback

Forty-four cents out of every dollar our country owes in public debt is now owed to foreign investors—$2.2 trillion worth
"[...]Greed and financial mismanagement, aided and abetted by a lack of regulation and media scrutiny, have not only forced our banks to write down billions, but is "blowing back" into the worlds of wealthy lenders in other countries who, in wanting to emulate our booms, are at risk of sharing our busts."

"...Scarier than the bad mortgages are those unregulated credit default swaps that financier George Soros has been warning about." WaPoU.S. seen probing if derivatives walloped banksReutersFriday September 26 2008:
"[...] You can affect investors' perception of the company, and affect the company's credit-worthiness," said Andrea Kramer, head of the derivatives practice at law firm McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago.The SEC declined to comment directly on its theory in this matter, but Scott Friestad, the SEC's deputy director of enforcement, told Reuters "There are a variety of ways that traders can profit from illegal activities and investing in credit default swaps is one of them." The SEC is looking at a number of issues in this area, he added....google, credit default swaps:HispanicBusiness.comUS seen probing if derivatives walloped banks - 16 hours agoThe credit default swap market is big enough that any manipulation would have ... he sees as "completely lacking in transparency and completely unregulated. ...guardian.co.uk - 231 related articles »Are You Exposed to Credit Default Swaps? - BusinessWeek - 3 related articles »GFI Group supports regulation of derivatives - CNNMoney.com - 9 related articles »Dave Davies: A few minutes with McCain Philadelphia Daily News ...Jul 1, 2008 ... 2000 bill that kept regulators' hands off of "credit default swaps," ... said that the unregulated swaps "have been at the heart of the ...www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20080701_Dave_Davies__A_few_minutes_with_McCain.html - 114k - Cached - Similar pages - Note thisDefault Swaps May Be Next In Credit Crisis - September 22, 2008 ...Sep 22, 2008 ... The biggest Wall Street story most Americans haven't yet heard of is the $62 trillion unregulated credit default swaps market. ...www.nysun.com/business/default-swaps-may-be-next-in-credit-crisis/86312/ - Similar pages - Note thisMarketplace: Banks deep into unregulated 'gambling'Apr 1, 2008 ... Banks deep into unregulated 'gambling'. Credit default swaps chart. Treasury Secy. Paulson's plan to get the financial system under control ...marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/01/credit_default_swaps_q/ - 77k - Cached - Similar pages - Note thisObscure, large and arcane, credit default swaps face a big test ...Feb 17, 2008 ... Credit default swaps form a large but obscure market that will be put to ... "I think unregulated markets that overshadow, in terms of size, ...www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/17/business/17swap.php - 64k - Cached - Similar pages - Note thisNew York: Credit-Default Swaps=Insurance - Insurance - CFO.comSep 22, 2008 ... Beginning in January, New York will regulate part of the previously unregulated credit-default-swap market, the state's governor, ...www.cfo.com/article.cfm/12285201/?f=rsspage - 24k - Cached - Similar pages - Note thisUnregulated Credit Swaps More Than World Income mnblueSep 22, 2008 ... The unregulated and poorly reported credit default swaps may have actually passed $70 trillion last year, or about $5 trillion more than the ...www.mnblue.com/node/2239 - 35k - Cached - Similar pages - Note thisNew York to Regulate Credit Default Swaps - NYTimes.comOver the years credit-default swaps have become a favorite tool of ... take steps of its own to oversee credit-default swaps, which have gone unregulated. ...www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/business/23swap.html?ref=business - Similar pages - Note thisNew York to Regulate Credit-Default Swaps - Mergers, Acquisitions ...Sep 23, 2008 ... Credit-default swaps essentially function like insurance ... Until recently, credit-default swap was a term little known beyond Wall Street. ...dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/new-york-to-regulate-credit-default-swaps/ - 43k - Cached - Similar pages - Note thisCredit Default Swaps Explained: Financial News - Yahoo! FinanceCredit Default Swaps Explained. - At this point, it makes sense to explain ... Essentially it is an insurance policy, but an unregulated one (the State of ...biz.yahoo.com/zacks/080924/14884.html?.v=1 - 23k - Cached - Similar pages - Note thisCredit Default Swaps: The Next Crisis? - TIMEMar 17, 2008 ... Credit default swaps, once an obscure financial instrument for banks and .... system and argued that an era of unregulated markets was over ...www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1723152,00.html?imw=Y - 42k - Cached - Similar pages - Note thisNext

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google news search from 2009

European Union Proposes to Police Derivatives Trading
New York Times - ‎13 hours ago‎
By BLOOMBERG NEWS The European Union called on Friday for the use of clearinghouses for some over-the-counter derivative trades to “ensure they do not harm ...
Europe toughens up its financial rules
Daily Times - ‎15 hours ago‎
The European Union's executive body published its policy proposals on Friday to make the vast $600 trillion global derivatives markets safer for investors. ...
Regulators Seek to Cut Risks in European Derivatives Market
Wall Street Journal - Neil Shah - ‎21 hours ago‎
European regulators proposed measures that could place additional burdens on Europe's embattled derivatives industry, fueling concerns that ...

"Derivatives markets play an important role in the economy, but the crisis has shown that they may harm financial stability," Charlie McCreevy, the European Union financial services commissioner, said in a statement Friday.
more by Charlie McCreevy - 13 hours ago - New York Times (5 occurrences)
EU Seeks To Limit Risks Of OTC Derivatives Trading
Wall Street Journal - ‎22 hours ago‎
BRUSSELS (Dow Jones)--The European Commission Friday outlined measures it is considering to limit the risk that the $600 trillion derivatives market poses ...
Central swaps clearing to cut risk
The Australian - ‎Jul 3, 2009‎
AUSTRALIA'S illiquid credit default swap market could get a shot in the arm in coming months as traders embrace a global move to reduce counterparty risk ...
Financial News: EC Seeks Growth In OTC Derivatives Clearing
Wall Street Journal - Tom Fairless - ‎Jul 3, 2009‎
The European Commission published its long-awaited report aimed at shaking up the over-the-counter derivatives market. ...
European Commission Outlines Derivatives Revamp Plan
Wall Street Journal - Carolyn Henson, Neil Shah - ‎Jul 3, 2009‎
BRUSSELS -- The European Commission Friday outlined measures it is considering to improve the safety and transparency of ...
Clearing key to making derivatives safer: EU
Reuters - Huw Jones, Mark John - ‎Jul 3, 2009‎
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Derivatives pose risks on financial markets that central clearing of contracts would mitigate, the European Commission said on Friday, ...
EU body to publish OTC derivatives plan on Friday
Forbes - Huw Jones - ‎Jul 2, 2009‎
LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - The European Commission will publish on Friday its long-awaited policy proposals on how to make the EU's derivatives market safer ...
EU To Issue OTC Derivatives Papers Friday - Source
Wall Street Journal - ‎Jul 2, 2009‎
LONDON (Dow Jones)--The European Commission will publish a set of papers Friday proposing ways to reduce risks in the European over-the-counter derivatives ...
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