The Corporate Trap

Home schooling allows for a more personalized angle to history. Instead of learning about our rulers, we can see things from the perspective of our own family. This makes everything more relatable. We can explain things more directly, making it easier to understand our situation and even our own psyche. Madness and obsessions, good habits and bad habits, personality traits of all sorts come to the forefront of history, and we become as a consequence the progression of this. We see more clearly where everything came from and where it may be heading.

An interesting story in this respect is the story of my Norwegian great grandfather on my grandmother's side. He lived during the second industrial revolution, when chemistry, electricity and telecommunication took off in a big way. His name was Harald and his wife's name was Vally. He was gifted with a fine mind for engineering. At the age of 19, he was fully educated as a chemical engineer with top marks. He had no trouble getting a good job in the rapidly expanding chemical industry. He became a chief engineer in what was to become the corporate chemical industry we know today.

With the corporation providing the young man with health insurance, a pension plan and a house to live in, he could spend his entire salary on himself and his wife. The corporation become his life long provider, allowing him to live without savings, something that was unheard of in his branch of the family until then. Harald and Vally became the archetypical upper middle class couple of the day, living in the now with no worry about the future.

Previous generations had been obsessive savers. Not only were they determined to have some gold for their old days, they were determined to give their children enough capital to either buy a farm or start some other undertaking. Life was a struggle for survival. Capital had to be amassed over time. To live without savings would mean utter poverty and the risk of starvation or early death from cold or diseases. The spend thrift lifestyle of Harald and Vally must have come across as reckless to their parents and other people still stuck in the pre-corporate era. However, today we see them as almost prudent. Unlike people of today, they had no debt.

The corporate lifestyle is now the norm. Few people save for themselves. We trust in our pension plans and in government and corporations to take care of us. We're all like Harald and Vally these days, and it's likely to end in much the same way as it ended for them.

When Harald died unexpectedly at age 64, he had no savings. All that there was for Vally was a meagre widow's pension. Utter poverty would have been her end if it wasn't for her son in law who stepped in to buy her a place to live. Had it not been for the fact that my grand father was a wealthy man, Vally would have ended up in a small room somewhere, completely unable to keep up her old ways, and this is likely to be the end of many people today. Our pensions are unlikely to keep us afloat. Without savings, we will have to seek support from our children. Without children, we will face utter poverty.

Many people are currently making the same mistake as Harald and Vally did back in their days. We trust too much in corporations and the state. We have no savings of our own. We're completely dependent on the system. If the system fails, we're lost.

Remnants of the 2nd industrial revolution at Vemork, Rjukan

By I, Skotten, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

The Non-Binary Approach to Revolutions

Most people think of revolutions as binary events where people have to go all in, either with one team or another. However, this requires so much passion and self sacrifice that it's hard to imagine more than a handful of people doing this today. Many are therefore left with a sense that revolution is impossible in modern times, and that tyranny is a foregone conclusion. But this ignores the fact that most sustainable revolutions are non-binary events. They require no banding together. They just happen, and there's nothing the political elite can do to stop them.

As an example, consider Twitter and its decision to ban Trump from their platform. Binary reactions to this would be to protest this with a rally outside Twitter's headquarter, and to encourage people to delete their Twitter accounts. The non-binary reaction would be to use Twitter less.

The same goes for Facebook. Why not reduce our time on Facebook? Why spend so much time and energy on something as silly as a social network app? Reduce it to a simple messaging platform with short announcements as a feature. The time saved can be used to nurture a simpler, more harmonic lifestyle.

Used correctly, social media is a great way to maintain a network, even when the platform owners work actively to promote their own agenda. It's silly to give up this tool just because we disagree with its owners. I for one, have reduced my Facebook time to just a few minutes a day. That's enough to check for messages and look at a few announcements. I've lost nothing in doing this. However, if I decided to close my Facebook account, I'd severely reduce my ability to stay in touch with family and friends.

The non-binary approach to social media has the advantage of reducing revenues to those that we disagree with, while doing nothing in way of harm or sacrifice to ourselves. The same can be said about banks and banking. These are institutions with great power over us. But if we reduce our use of their services to a minimum, we reduce this power while profiting from it ourselves. My wife and I share a single bank account. We have no loan, and we keep most of our savings in gold. As a result, we're better off. Our private finances have improved greatly. However, had we fully disconnected from the banking system by closing all accounts, we would have severely damage ourselves.

Finally, there's taxation. This too can be reduced greatly through non-binary measures. We don't have to go full blown parallel economy. Even a small step in that direction will help in our fight against the state. There's no need to disconnect completely. There are all sorts of options. Many small steps can be made. Nothing very dramatic needs to happen.

Done correctly, revolutions are made through a change in lifestyle that benefits ourselves at the expense of the state. The only sacrifice is the loss of a lifestyle that might not have been all that healthy in the first place. What's gained is a sense of control and awareness, as well as affluence. We see the economy of the world for what it is. We see how we are constantly tempted into debt and wasteful use of time. We also see how we can avoid these traps, and how to navigate in order to prosper.

Hardly ever, is the answer a binary one. The answer lies almost always in finding the right balance, and to avoid temptations laid out by those who seek to control us. Once this is understood and internalized, we profit from this ourselves. The network around us picks up on this fact. Friends and relatives learn from our example, and the revolution evolves naturally without any other driver than our individual success stories. There's no sacrifice. Liberty grows not out of strife, but out of successful and peaceful living, semi-detached from the controlling structures of the state.

Liberty as affluence and simplicity

Burning Down the House

When it comes to current events in the US, they seem to follow a pattern eerily similar to those that took place in Berlin some 88 years ago. It may therefore be a good idea to read up on these events, and do some reflections related to them, before going out strongly in favour of any side.

The Reichstag fire of 1933 took place some 4 weeks into Hitler's first year in office, and was used by him to come down hard on all opposition and dissent. It proved in an instance that Hitler was no statesman, out to calm things down after a long period of unrest. Rather, he was a tyrant, hell bent on the permanent suppression of dissenting voices.

Given the relative insignificance of the fire, it would have been an easy task to make amends, call for unity and repair the damages. But this was not the path Hitler chose. He used the event as an excuse to go after every political adversary in sight. There was a purge of the media as well as the opposition. There could be no open discussion about the event, and entire political factions were silenced, banned, and ultimately rounded up an put into prison camps.

The actual events on the day of the fire are in this respect of only secondary importance. It doesn't matter whether the fire was an act of political arson. It doesn't matter who did it or why. All that matters is what the politicians of the day chose to do about it afterwards. Similarly today, we don't have to know precisely what happened and why. What's of interest is what the politicians are doing in response. Is the president elect calling for calm and forgiveness, or is he unleashing an army of thugs to suppress, humiliate and chase out the opposition? Is he repairing the damage, or setting up a permanent monument? Is he a statesman or a tyrant?

So far, there's been little in way of consolation and much in way of agitation. The purge has been swift and relentless. The opposition has come under heavy and relentless fire. Voices have been silenced. There's no room for dissent. A path seems to have been staked out. However, we may soon see some interesting deviations from the original plot, because history has a tendency to repeat itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.

The Reichstag fire

By Unknown author - This media is available in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration, cataloged under the National Archives Identifier (NAID) 535790., Public Domain, Link

Earth's Irregular Rotation

Earth days vary ever so slightly in length form one day to another. The irregularity is so tiny that it was not discovered before the advent of super-precise atomic clocks. We're talking fractions of a millisecond per 24 hours. All sorts of things might be behind this irregularity. However, there appears to be a long term trend towards shorter day. Something is causing Earth to rotate faster over time. The phenomenon can be summarized as subtle, irregular and trending. Any explanation for it must therefore account for these three aspects.

While most people seek an explanation in Earth's geology and its relationship to the Moon, there is an alternative view that seeks to explain this in terms of Earth's electric connection to our Sun and the universe. Gerald Pollack does an excellent job in this respect in his one hour lecture about weather and EZ water. Also of interest is the origin of prevailing winds, such as the jet stream, which Donald Scott proves to be external to Earth in this video.

When put together, the lectures leave us with an impression that our planet is connected to an external current that keeps it rotating at a relatively steady rate. This current is again affected by the magnetic poles of our planet, which leads us to an interesting correlation. Earth's rotation has trended faster in parallel with the migration of the magnetic north pole from Canada to true north. With the magnetic pole more in line with true north, the mechanical input to Earth's rotation can be assumed to be somewhat more optimal.

Another correlation can be found with the phenomenon of global terrestrial stilling. Near surface winds have reduced in strength in parallel with the migration of the magnetic north pole and the speeding up of our plant's rotation. This can again be explained by a better mechanical connection to external currents. A bad mechanical connection would have the atmosphere spinning without the Earth spinning with it. A perfect mechanical connection would have our planet move at the speed of prevailing winds, making it seem like there's no wind at all. What we have is an imperfect connection that has improved somewhat, speeding up the planet's rotation, while making winds a little less intense. Additionally, there's the fact that the exact location of the magnetic poles differ greatly from one day to the other. The northward migration is in no way a steady process. It jumps about in much the same way that the precise duration of our Earth days differ from day to day.

There might also be a change in the external current itself. However, there's no relatable data for this, so this would be pure speculation, on par with speculations related to Earth's geology and our planet's relation to the Moon.

Migration of the magnetic north pole

By Cavit - Own work Observed pole positions taken from Newitt et al., "Location of the North Magnetic Pole in April 2007", Earth Planets Space, 61, 703–710, 2009 Modelled pole positions taken from the National Geophysical Data Center, "Wandering of the Geomagnetic Poles" Map created with GMT, CC BY 4.0, Link

Dr Neckelmann and the Horizon Problem

With the sudden and tragic death of Dr Gregory Michael Neckelmann, it now appears that the nightmare scenario outlined in my post about Sonia Azevedo's sudden death has a real chance of coming true. Vaccinated on December 18, Dr Neckelmann died 16 days later after a short fight with a mysterious and intense illness.

Dr Neckelmann was a healthy and fit 56 year old man, so there's little doubt that the illness and subsequent death was related to the vaccine. While it remains to be seen if there will be a wave of vaccine related deaths starting two weeks from now, Dr Neckelmann's death illustrates an important point when it comes to risk-benefit assessments.

While most uncertainties are limited to a known range of possible outcomes, some are limitless. This depends on empirical data available to us. With years of experience, we know very well what sort of weather we're likely to have next summer, and we can calculate risk accordingly. That's why we can plan our summer vacations months in advance. However, in the case of a vaccine that has not been tested for long term effects, anything is possible. There simply isn't any empirical data to base any kind of assumption on. There's a horizon beyond which things are completely unknown, and Dr Neckelmann found out the hard way what that might mean when it comes to substances injected into our body. Once injected, there's no way of un-injecting them. When Dr Neckelmann realized that he was getting seriously ill from the vaccine, there was no way back.

The lesson from this is that we must never risk our health on anything truly unknown. If there's no empirical data, we are best advised to abstain for as long as it takes to assess long term effects.

Smallpox vaccine

By Photo Credit: James Gathany Content Providers(s): CDC - This media comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Image Library (PHIL), with identification number #2674. Note: Not all PHIL images are public domain; be sure to check copyright status and credit authors and content providers. Deutsch | English | македонски | slovenščina | +/−, Public Domain, Link

Cup and Handle Formation in the Gold Chart

As a long term investor, I limit myself to trades that last years, or even decades. I'm therefore more interested in long term charts than short term ones, and I don't trade on technical signals. At best, I use such signals to time entry and exit at the limits of a mega trend. However, it's nevertheless encouraging to see patterns develop, especially when they confirm my thesis.

At present, there's a cup and handle formation developing in the daily gold chart as well as one in the monthly chart. The pattern in the daily chart has developed since late November. It has a bit of a V shape, which makes it less convincing than a smooth U shape, but is so far holding up, with the handle on track to complete within a week from now. If it completes, the price of gold will be 2160 dollars for an ounce within a few months from now, in which case we'll see a confirmation of the enormous cup and handle formation in the monthly chart as well.

The monthly chart exhibits a deep U shaped cup dating back to late 2011, with a relatively shallow handle dating back to August 2020. Confirmation of this pattern kicks in at a point somewhere between 2075 and 2100, with a price target at about 3000 dollars.

It remains to be seen whether any of this will play out over the coming weeks and months, but it's certainly encouraging to see the pattern develop. With strong fundamentals supporting the gold price at present levels, there's even more reasons to be hopeful. Gold may well see a whopping 50% rise in its dollar price this year, going from less than 2000 at present to about 3000 before it takes another pause in its upward journey.

Rococo Cup with handle

By Vincennes Porcelain (France, circa 1739–1756), Francois Binet (France, active 1750-1775, born 1731) - Image: http://collections.lacma.org/sites/default/files/remote_images/piction/ma-31852871-O3.jpg Gallery: http://collections.lacma.org/node/229367 archive copy, Public Domain, Link

Supply, Demand, and a Society in Crisis

September 2019 saw some brutal moves in interest rates. There was a shortage of US dollars, and the Fed was forced to either buy assets directly from the market, or let interest rates float to their natural levels. Predictably, the Fed chose to buy assets in the open market, and this has been its policy ever since. However, the Fed is again trying the impossible. It is signalling an intent to reduce its direct purchases while keeping interest rates down.

This means that the Fed is either ignorant of basic economic laws or lying. There's no way to keep both the supply and price of money down at the same time without slamming demand for money lower as well. With the Fed powerless to lower demand, their stated intent is doomed to failure, as explained here. The only way to succeed is to create some event that lowers demand for money, and that can only be done through political means, which a supposedly independent Fed is prohibited from doing.

One way to keep a lid on demand for money would be to create a societal crisis. The pandemic that came shortly after the spike in interest rates in September 2019, was in this respect convenient for the Fed. Something similar will have to be engineered for the Fed to mop up excess liquidity without sending interest rates higher. But this too is likely to fail. People have already cut back on consumption. Demand for money cannot easily be managed any lower.

Making things worse for the Fed is the fact that much of the money currently being sent into the economy is going towards debt repayments. People are fearful of the future, and therefore eager to get out of debt. This has the effect of lowering the money supply. Money becomes scarce, and the price of money goes up, exactly as it did back in 2019. Even with free money being handed out to people, the total money supply is likely to remain steady.

Without free money being handed out, things will be even more difficult to manage. Desperation will make people extremely reluctant to lend at the current low rates. People will want to pay down debt even more than now, and those lending money to people will demand much higher rates.

While the pandemic was able to temporarily suppress demand for money, a similar crisis today is unlikely to work. Destroying people's livelihoods is a trick that can only work once. There's a limit to how low demand can be managed lower through destruction. Once that limit is reached there's no longer any way to keep supply down without seeing prices rise. The Fed must either increase the money supply or let interest rates go higher. It cannot both reduce its direct purchases and keep interest rates down. Its stated intent is doomed to failure. It may even fail spectacularly, with both interest rates and money supply going up simultaneously, because a failure of the Fed to make good on its intent to keep money supply down will signal impotence. There will be a realization that all US debt will be inflated away, and that a dollar lent to the US today will be paid back in dollars of less value in the future. Interest rates will have to go up in order to entice lenders. But that will in turn force the Fed to print more money in order to keep interest rates from exploding higher. A vicious circle is thus created, and this will end either with the Fed giving up on keeping interest rates low or the Fed destroying the dollar completely.

By U.S. Government - Extracted from PDF version of the Federal Reserve's Purposes & Functions document (direct PDF URL [1])., Public Domain, Link