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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (18435)	5/29/2003 6:24:08 PM
From: philv	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82318

Searle, I actually share most of your views, but you are far more pessimistic (you would say realistic) than I. "What a beautiful scam " kinda sums it up, but can you fool all the people all the time?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (18435)	5/29/2003 9:32:01 PM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82318

> the American people themselves ...... don't realize their banks have enslaved them in an identical way sianews.com >>>The study's analysis of future deficits dwarfs previous estimates of the financial challenge facing Washington. It is roughly equivalent to 10 times the publicly held national debt, four years of US economic output or more than 94 per cent of all US household assets. Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairman, last week bemoaned what he called Washington's "deafening" silence about the future crunch. The estimates reflect the extent to which the annual deficit, the national debt and other widely reported, backward-looking data are becoming archaic and misleading as measures of the government's solvency.<<<

To: sea_urchin who wrote (18435)	5/29/2003 10:23:49 PM
From: Jamey	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 82318

Searle. I have been placing my hand over my heart ever day since Sept. 1950 and I say love it or leave it! Our government may have problems, but there is NO other place I want to live. You have a lot of balls to pick apart the good old US of A on a regular basis when you live in a country that is still in the black ages. Nothing good ever comes out of S.A. except the minerals in the ground. You can have it! Some of you guys need to get a history lesson on what Americans have sacrificed to keep this land free of tyranny. There are still enough of us around to see that we remain one country, undivided, with liberty and justice for all! Liberty! Santiago

To: sea_urchin who wrote (18435)	5/30/2003 8:21:05 AM
From: mcg404	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82318

Searle: <One takes the sh1t out of the ground, the other puts it back.> LOL. An excellent observation. <<goldbugs...don't trust people to work things out>> <What makes you think that goldbugs are unique in that regard? > Only unique in an investment sense. Seems they are more reluctant than most to have confidence in the promises inherent in paper assets. <<Is that a good basis for making investment decisions? Probably not.>> <These days any decision is as good as any other> Seems to me that the zealotry frequently found in true goldbugs is just another manifestation of the personality type found in the religious true believers (which i was attempting at some level to illustrate through my pseudo-rant). And it seems, based on my reading of some of the more extreme goldbug forums, that these characteristics are often found together - religious fundamentalism combined with a belief in hard work, thrift, self reliance, etc, etc and a love of gold (since it's something 'real' in that psychic framework). My all-time favorite investment book is 'the money game' which argues (convincingly imo) that most people aren't really in the market to make money. The market is simply a surrogate by which they play out the life script which is defined by their inner personality. Is there any better example of this than goldbugism? And since, imo, no one really escapes their role in life defined by their inner self, the only approach is to recognize your 'type' and then hope to use the rationale side of your brain to direct it in a somewhat intelligent way. Because, let's face it, as screwed up as human's are in 'working things out', most of the time things do roll along and it's 'business as usual', for better or for worse. <deflation is not a red herring but is, like bin Laden, a spook which enables the US government to do something it wants to without letting the people know the real reason...print, print, print> Agreed. A much better comparison. <because the US has a unique economy...US produces only one good which is its principal export --- paper money.> Agreed. But will the game go on forever? Seems to me that within the last few years (and i wonder if this is a result of bubble psychology), the US has dropped all pretense of fiscal/monetary sanity. If for no other reason than 'it seems to be working so far'. But right now, in the flush of military 'victory', the world is ours for the taking - we seem to think. And we're grabbing with both hands. John ps: I finally fell to temptation (to read more about mankind's dark side) and got my local library to hunt down a copy of Milgram's 'obedience to authority'. (If you ever want to make someone's day have your librarian hunt some obscure book down for you - this (apparently) is what librarian's live for! The joy in her eyes as she proudly handed it to me made MY day.) Anyways, a fascinating book, as you already know. I'm not sure if it contains what you call 'ultimate truth', but i can say without fear of exaggeration that it will forever alter my understanding of what makes people act as they do. And it helps resolve a paradox that I have always been troubled by: how are these wonderfully nice, friendly, good, honest americans that i live amongst capable of such heartless, monstrous actions against innocents in other parts of the world - Milgram argues their behavior is not directed by their values but other powerful social forces. I can't help but wonder (unfortunately), how many copies of this book can be found in Rumsfield's pentagon - providing insight on how to manipulate otherwise 'good' people.