They are Everywhere! They are meeting right now. They Live with their heads in the Clouds.

Glory:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvKIqyaUbHo

They Live part 1:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZaB2jpPVLU  you can follow on for full show.

11:36 min.

Austerity, we need AUSTERITY.

Or so we have been told. Otherwise the “bond vigilantes” will come down hard and send up interest rates. Or not, if Merv continues to sponge up the excess bits debt debt that Osborne can’t flog off into the “Market”.

So is the UK carefully pruning budgets and staff? Clearly not, as the latest “Initiative” launched by the man at the top, the Cameron himself. So what’s he been spending his valuable time doing when not fending off the vigilantes? Yes, it’s true! He’s building up the Nanny State. But now he has taken it to the absolute limit, and is removing that last piece of responsibility your real Nanny had left.

Nappy Changing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9273559/No-10-guide-to-changing-nappies-and-baby-talk.html

Its a very sad situation where the once-proud Brits now need government instructions on how to change nappies. And that the government feels it has to provide them. And the Prime Minister himself launches the “Initiative on Nappy Changing”.

Surely this is one area where the so-called but non-existent Austerity Measure could have been applied to the fullest. But no, the government feels that the tax payers must pay more taxes to be told how to change nappies.

The “Sensible State”, jeeze, just give me a break.

It’s now the FULL ON NANNY STATE, with the Brits subject to initiatives, directives, rules, laws from before your first crap right up to the last dump.

Pathetic.

There has been a great deal of focus on the Occupy Wallstreet movement but another big protest is ongoing in the province of Quebec, here in Canada.  The principle being defended is protecting the near free cost of a post secondary education in Quebec.  I think they have a point but you can bet that most people reading this NY Times article this week think otherwise.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/world/americas/in-quebec-14-week-university-strike-enters-crucial-stage.html?_r=3&smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto

Some might believe it better that students pay higher tuition fees and then banks can provide students access to all the cheap loans they want.   Of course that is being in the debt slave business, as opposed to the education business, and clearly there is money to be made in it.

Get your mind out of the gutter because this is not good for  any nation, company or people.  It is also just another form of the current austerity efforts world wide.

Many babyboomers received a subsidized education in Canada and maybe it is time for a “Previously Subsidized Education Tax”  for these guys !?  You can bet most babyboomers are voting to finally send in the police to break it all up.

It all began March 18 when Students in Quebec warned the provincial government that its plan to raise university tuition fees by 75 per cent would result in a showdown with their powerful student unions.  It has and it is still ongoing.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/05/17/student-protests-quebec.html

So what does your “common sense” have to say ?

NO Libertarians were harmed in making this video..

Spanish Black Hole http://uk.reuters.com/video/2012/05/01/spains-banking-black-hole-could-trigger?videoId=234242227

JP Morgan http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d0ca4bae-9dda-11e1-9456-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1v40YxMWE

The bullet points can be considered Mystic jottings …. for when I will try and put together a bigger picture ……….. anyway -

The third session of day two was – `Is mercantilism Doomed to Fail?`
Peter Jungen (moderator) noted:-

• 1960 global exports were 12% of world gdp
• They are now 33%
• Exports are a big deal.

The Jungen video runs into the first speaker Paul Davidson -

• Talks of the `ergotic axiom` … that is, where it is taken that the future will be just like the past.
• Many economists have adopted this ergotic axiom as the basis for their models.
• Keynes and Soros say the world is non ergotic.
• *Mystic note*  Here we go again with economists doing stupid things …. Why~?
• People deal in money contracts and try and know how they are doing ….
• … so do countries … via balance of payments (surplus or deficit).
• As for people, when the balance gets out of whack …
• … it is the creditor that must take the/a good hit, because he is the only one that can afford it.
• *Mystic note*  The revulsion you felt at that last line is the revulsion that will take our world deep into depression~!

2nd up Heiner Flassbeck -

• Germany is the only real mercantilist country and its policy will fail.
• The 1999 policy was to put productivity improvements into keeping employment high.
• Unit labor costs dropped.  Inflation dropped.
• Current account went from deficit to surplus …. But
• … wages and retail sales stagnated …
• … as Germany out competed most everyone (notably other EU countries).
• He notes that it must be Germany to shoulder the weight of the balancing.

3rd up Norbert Walter -

• Notes that during unification Germany ran a decade of deficits.
• Also that Germany, an aging country, will need the surplus savings…
• … and all round, protesteth too much.

last up Joe Stiglitz -

• Basic trade identity … Exporks must equal Imporks.
• Problem is with … magnitude, persistence and pattern of deficiks.
• Multi-country austerity is a recipe for disaster.
• The US has been, and still is, the deficik / spender of last resort….
• … and this cannot be sustainable.
• Some other countries, like Spain also became last of the deficik spenders….
• … and this has shown it is not sustainable.
• *Joe note*  An economy is not to increase gdp; it is to increase the well-being of the people.
• Austerity stops imports, how~? … By destroying the economy~!
• Why are some countries in surplus~? …. 1/ to build up safety currency reserves.    2/ to get out of 3rd. world by cheap labor exports (everyone has done it in the past~!)  3/ Saving for a demographic aging of the population.
• Again – It must be the creditors who should be generous here.
• *Mystic note*  The world is getting increasingly aware, on many levels, of who is a debtor and who is a creditor …. A dangerous splitting~!

The QnA finished the session -

• All countries should be allowed capital controls.
• The US has kept the world going with her deficits.
• It would take 10 years of clever effort to balance German wages to rest of EU.
• To get growth in Europe, core countries will have to spend into periphery.
• Governments can’t control everything (demographics for one thing)
• Unions will continue to shrink …. Government minimum wage may have to be used
• Savings are done by the rich in any population.  The poor aren’t saving.

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn’t always fair;
- and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I’m A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing

We are all thinkers and think of things which we never have to share with others, unless we want to.

I guess this song is rather timeless in many respects of ambition (usually linked to financial success) and others trying to understand it all or something like that !?

So where have you gone to lately ?

Version from 1969 performance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8XQZYIiNgo&feature=related

Version with images of the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mulVTYSKHuE&feature=related