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To: Chip McVickar who wrote (495)	12/8/2000 4:18:19 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 12410

Hi Chip, Thanks for the thoughtful response. I realize that a 66 page report is a bit much, but I figured you could handle it. Actually, there was a very salient segment of the Medley/Foreign Affairs report regarding the consumer market that you addresssed quite nicely. As you suggest, the boomers are moving up and on here in the biggest and best consumer sink for global productivity. I'm encouraged by the blossoming of the shopping mall in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and Seoul. Hopefully Pyongyang can be brought into this virtuous circle sooner rather than later. For it appears that here stateside, once the Christmas credit craziness is over, we're going to have one heck of a hangover when the credit card bill and the heating bill arrive on Jan. 3. The Senate just voted yesterday with a veto proof majority to modify the bankruptcy laws for the benefit of the creditors. The timing is impeccable. The nation celebrated Dec 7th yesterday, and the contrast between 1941 and 2001 mirrors the many differences in our world. One of the deepest changes is in banking and the international monetary systems with the challenges of electronic money. Today, it was announced that a Russian fighter pilot overflew the USS Kitthawk in a display of bravado. And then emailed the photos he took back to the ship. Reach out and touch someone. :) news.bbc.co.uk Methinks that the militarism of 1941 has been ameliorated, but not eliminated. Boys still love to play these games too much to give it up. And the bankers know which side the bread is buttered on. <g> To your main point about electronic money, I'd add the unknowable impact of the derivatives market as another aspect of the world's financial market that cannot be controlled by the BIS, or the G7. That market is just too amorphous, incalculable and inscrutable. These cartels are the cornerstones for a whole new system of integrating this world. I personally don't like monopolies, I would be more tempted to like a monopoly if I were to own one, but alas, I'm just part of the great unwashed middle class. :) So, I'm in agreement with you. Thus, in the future, not only will we have cartelization, but we will also see the rise of the international bureaucracy, in spite of the protestations of the Left at WTO and EC meetings (most recently yesterday in Nice, France). The APEC crowd wisely chose a closed monarchy, Brunei, to meet in last month because they know that they are a very undemocratic and very unpopular crowd. The discontent of displaced trade unionists, ecologists and indigenous peoples will only grow as the neo-liberal free trade crowd attempts to have its way with the world's economies. I have just found out, along with the rest of the world, that the Florida Supreme Court has made its decision on the re-count issue, thus: My intuitive grasp and opinion of the charts suggests: "Consolidation" NOT "Major Recession or Depression." I think the world just changed, and not for the better, as far as the markets are concerned. We are now in a politcal war that will not be settled anytime soon. Recall that the decision in 1876 occured the day before the Inauguration. The world's economy is basically leaderless and adrift for the time being. I'm seeing something more difficult than a "consolidation". Hang on to your wallet, et bon chance, Ray :)