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debt

by charleshughsmith

Executive Summary

  • Why buying into the Status Quo undermines personal empowerment
  • Echew debt and consumerism. Instead, focus on cultivating resilience and social capital
  • The importance of differentiating hedonia vs eudaimonia
  • The key roles of Expectation, Narrative, and Challenge
  • The foundations of happiness

If you have not yet read Part I: The Pursuit of Happiness, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

In Part I, we challenged the assumption that the successful pursuit of happiness is based on material prosperity and what we might call the psychology of the atomized individual.

If material prosperity is necessary but insufficient, and our social and financial order is sociopathological, what does an authentic pursuit of happiness entail?

For answers, we can survey recent research into human happiness, and consider “powering down” participation in a deranging social and financial order.

Pondering Power

The primacy of power in human society is omnipresent. Humans scramble for power in all its forms to improve social status and the odds of mating, living a long life, and acquiring comforts.  What is remarkable about the current American social order is the powerlessness of the vast majority of people who have “bought into” the Status Quo. 

When the public vehemently disapproves of a policy, such as bailing out the “too big to fail” banks, they are routinely ignored, and for good reason: They keep re-electing incumbents.  Most have little control over their employment status, workflow, or income, and most devote the majority of their productive effort servicing private debt and paying taxes that service public debt.

The one “power” they are encouraged to flex is the momentary empowerment offered by purchasing something; i.e., consuming.  The corporate marketing machine glorifies acquisition as not just empowering but as the renewal of identity and the staking of a claim to higher social status – everything that is otherwise out of the control of the average person.

The dominant social control myth of our consumerist Status Quo is that wealth is power because you can buy more things with it.  But the power of consumption is one-dimensional and therefore illusory.  The only meaningful power is not what you can buy – a good, service, or experience – but what you control – your health, choice of work, income, surroundings, level of risk, and your circle of colleagues and friends.

The “wealthy” who own an abundance of things but who are trapped in debt are not powerful.  Their choices in life are limited by the need to service the debt, and their pursuit of happiness is equally constrained.

The kind of wealth that enriches the pursuit of happiness is control over the meaningful aspects of life. It is no coincidence that studies of workplace stress have found that those jobs in which the worker has almost no control over their work or surroundings generate far more stress than jobs that allow the worker some autonomy and control.

Financial and material wealth beyond the basics of creature comfort is only meaningful if it “buys” autonomy and choice.

We all want power over our own lives.  Once we free ourselves from social control myths, we find that becoming powerful and “wealthy” in terms of control does not require a financial fortune. It does, however, require sustained effort and a coherent long-term plan…

Finding Authentic Happiness
PREVIEW by charleshughsmith

Executive Summary

  • Why buying into the Status Quo undermines personal empowerment
  • Echew debt and consumerism. Instead, focus on cultivating resilience and social capital
  • The importance of differentiating hedonia vs eudaimonia
  • The key roles of Expectation, Narrative, and Challenge
  • The foundations of happiness

If you have not yet read Part I: The Pursuit of Happiness, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

In Part I, we challenged the assumption that the successful pursuit of happiness is based on material prosperity and what we might call the psychology of the atomized individual.

If material prosperity is necessary but insufficient, and our social and financial order is sociopathological, what does an authentic pursuit of happiness entail?

For answers, we can survey recent research into human happiness, and consider “powering down” participation in a deranging social and financial order.

Pondering Power

The primacy of power in human society is omnipresent. Humans scramble for power in all its forms to improve social status and the odds of mating, living a long life, and acquiring comforts.  What is remarkable about the current American social order is the powerlessness of the vast majority of people who have “bought into” the Status Quo. 

When the public vehemently disapproves of a policy, such as bailing out the “too big to fail” banks, they are routinely ignored, and for good reason: They keep re-electing incumbents.  Most have little control over their employment status, workflow, or income, and most devote the majority of their productive effort servicing private debt and paying taxes that service public debt.

The one “power” they are encouraged to flex is the momentary empowerment offered by purchasing something; i.e., consuming.  The corporate marketing machine glorifies acquisition as not just empowering but as the renewal of identity and the staking of a claim to higher social status – everything that is otherwise out of the control of the average person.

The dominant social control myth of our consumerist Status Quo is that wealth is power because you can buy more things with it.  But the power of consumption is one-dimensional and therefore illusory.  The only meaningful power is not what you can buy – a good, service, or experience – but what you control – your health, choice of work, income, surroundings, level of risk, and your circle of colleagues and friends.

The “wealthy” who own an abundance of things but who are trapped in debt are not powerful.  Their choices in life are limited by the need to service the debt, and their pursuit of happiness is equally constrained.

The kind of wealth that enriches the pursuit of happiness is control over the meaningful aspects of life. It is no coincidence that studies of workplace stress have found that those jobs in which the worker has almost no control over their work or surroundings generate far more stress than jobs that allow the worker some autonomy and control.

Financial and material wealth beyond the basics of creature comfort is only meaningful if it “buys” autonomy and choice.

We all want power over our own lives.  Once we free ourselves from social control myths, we find that becoming powerful and “wealthy” in terms of control does not require a financial fortune. It does, however, require sustained effort and a coherent long-term plan…

by charleshughsmith

A year ago, in the wake of then-announced additional monetary easing measures by the Federal Reserve (which since sent stock prices on a rocket ride for the next nine months), many of our readers feared a major decline in the dollar was imminent. To add some balance to our site content, we asked Peak Prosperity contributing editor Charles Hugh Smith to argue the case for a strengthening dollar. He graciously accepted, and in the year since writing Heresy and the US Dollar, America's currency has strengthened notably vs. its fiat counterparts. Now, after the Fed's announcement of QE3 (plus), many of us are girding once again for dollar weakness. So we've invited Charles to once again play devil's advocate.

The Siren Song of 'Beautiful Deleveraging'

In a world of rising sovereign debts and an overleveraged, over-indebted private sector, history suggests there are only three possible ways out: gradual deleveraging, defaulting on the debt, or printing enough money to inflate away the debt.

Welcome to the Era of ‘Ugly’ Inflation
by charleshughsmith

A year ago, in the wake of then-announced additional monetary easing measures by the Federal Reserve (which since sent stock prices on a rocket ride for the next nine months), many of our readers feared a major decline in the dollar was imminent. To add some balance to our site content, we asked Peak Prosperity contributing editor Charles Hugh Smith to argue the case for a strengthening dollar. He graciously accepted, and in the year since writing Heresy and the US Dollar, America's currency has strengthened notably vs. its fiat counterparts. Now, after the Fed's announcement of QE3 (plus), many of us are girding once again for dollar weakness. So we've invited Charles to once again play devil's advocate.

The Siren Song of 'Beautiful Deleveraging'

In a world of rising sovereign debts and an overleveraged, over-indebted private sector, history suggests there are only three possible ways out: gradual deleveraging, defaulting on the debt, or printing enough money to inflate away the debt.

by charleshughsmith

Executive Summary

  • Recognize the signs of serfdom
  • Calculate your income's vulnerability to the system
  • Don't count on high inflation to inflate away your debt obligations
  • 10 strategies you can start implementing right now to defend against the forces trying to sap your quality of life

If you have not yet read Part I: Middle Class? Here's What's Destroying Your Future, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

In Part I, we surveyed the key dynamics that have eroded middle-class wealth and income over the past 30 years.  Some of these were conventional (higher energy costs) and some were unconventional/politically unacceptable (financialization; neofeudalism).

Regardless of what you identify as the primary cause, that the middle class (and labor in general) has lost ground since the early 1980s is undeniable, as is the ultimate failure of debt-dependent “growth.”

What can we do about it? It seems to me there are two responses:

  1. Avoid becoming a serf in the new financialized feudalism
  2. Avoid becoming dependent on the Status Quo and avoid collaborating/supporting those elements of the Status Quo that subsidize and protect the parasitic, inefficient, and unproductive sectors of the economy.

Getting Real About Serfdom

I am going to cut to the chase here, and I expect many of you to disagree. Debt is serfdom, period.

I often illustrate this point by asking two simple questions…

The Middle-Class Survival Guide
PREVIEW by charleshughsmith

Executive Summary

  • Recognize the signs of serfdom
  • Calculate your income's vulnerability to the system
  • Don't count on high inflation to inflate away your debt obligations
  • 10 strategies you can start implementing right now to defend against the forces trying to sap your quality of life

If you have not yet read Part I: Middle Class? Here's What's Destroying Your Future, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

In Part I, we surveyed the key dynamics that have eroded middle-class wealth and income over the past 30 years.  Some of these were conventional (higher energy costs) and some were unconventional/politically unacceptable (financialization; neofeudalism).

Regardless of what you identify as the primary cause, that the middle class (and labor in general) has lost ground since the early 1980s is undeniable, as is the ultimate failure of debt-dependent “growth.”

What can we do about it? It seems to me there are two responses:

  1. Avoid becoming a serf in the new financialized feudalism
  2. Avoid becoming dependent on the Status Quo and avoid collaborating/supporting those elements of the Status Quo that subsidize and protect the parasitic, inefficient, and unproductive sectors of the economy.

Getting Real About Serfdom

I am going to cut to the chase here, and I expect many of you to disagree. Debt is serfdom, period.

I often illustrate this point by asking two simple questions…

by Chris Martenson

After Alice fell down the rabbit hole, nothing made sense anymore. A new logic reigned, and she had to adapt to it as readily as she could. Talking cats that disappeared except for their grin, caterpillars perched on magic mushrooms, and other oddities had to be encountered and dealt with.

Similarly, we find ourselves suddenly confronted with a fantastical menagerie. Such as the formerly inconsequential Greek interparty political wrestling matches becoming of critical importance to the fate of the entire world banking system, stock markets mainly discounting the likelihood and size of the next round of magic money-printing, a world that has decided Spain’s 6% deficit matters a lot while the US’s 8% deficit doesn’t matter at all, untrustworthy institutions that just abscond with client money without charge, and stock markets that are now mostly in the hands of robot machines trading in sub-millisecond cycles.

The signs of distress are obvious. The old forms of logic no longer work and the new logic cannot be traded reliably, as it owes its direction to pulses of fresh money and gyrating sentiment. All asset classes trade in lockstep, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. It’s either risk on or risk off, and knowing which might prevail at any given moment is now a 24/7 occupation, and a risky one at that.

The entire stock market is now simply living off of expectations of the future quantitative easing (QE) efforts, with another decision or announcement expected tomorrow at 2:15 EST.

This is the world we live in now, and hardly anybody even questions it anymore.

“More Stress Is Needed”
PREVIEW by Chris Martenson

After Alice fell down the rabbit hole, nothing made sense anymore. A new logic reigned, and she had to adapt to it as readily as she could. Talking cats that disappeared except for their grin, caterpillars perched on magic mushrooms, and other oddities had to be encountered and dealt with.

Similarly, we find ourselves suddenly confronted with a fantastical menagerie. Such as the formerly inconsequential Greek interparty political wrestling matches becoming of critical importance to the fate of the entire world banking system, stock markets mainly discounting the likelihood and size of the next round of magic money-printing, a world that has decided Spain’s 6% deficit matters a lot while the US’s 8% deficit doesn’t matter at all, untrustworthy institutions that just abscond with client money without charge, and stock markets that are now mostly in the hands of robot machines trading in sub-millisecond cycles.

The signs of distress are obvious. The old forms of logic no longer work and the new logic cannot be traded reliably, as it owes its direction to pulses of fresh money and gyrating sentiment. All asset classes trade in lockstep, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. It’s either risk on or risk off, and knowing which might prevail at any given moment is now a 24/7 occupation, and a risky one at that.

The entire stock market is now simply living off of expectations of the future quantitative easing (QE) efforts, with another decision or announcement expected tomorrow at 2:15 EST.

This is the world we live in now, and hardly anybody even questions it anymore.

by Alasdair Macleod

Executive Summary

  • Why Greece is unlikely to release a new drachma
  • Why globally-coordinated money printing is the most likely resolution to the Greek & Spanish crises
  • Why the magnitude of derivative risk makes a Eurozone collapse much more frightening
  • Why capital flight will get worse, and why gold will benefit from this
  • Why Germany's odds for leaving the Eurozone are lower than most assume
  • Why the time left before extreme action must be taken is than a few months – possibly only weeks

 

If you have not yet read Part I: Abandoning Ship, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

 

Here are some key points to bear in mind as the crisis progresses:

Greece: new drachma?

The Greeks would be crazy to embrace a new drachma, as recommended by neoclassical economists. A new drachma would be backed by nothing, unless it comes with full convertibility into Greece’s 111.6 tonnes of gold, assuming that actually exists. The complete lack of faith in any Greek government’s economic credentials would mean a new drachma in the absence of gold convertibility would rapidly descend towards its intrinsic value, which is zero. Interestingly, recent polls suggest that the Greek people understand this and prefer to remain with the euro.

The legality of changing deposits from euros to drachmas is highly questionable. Assuming the Greek government can force this through on domestic deposits that will leave an open question over loans, likely to be challenged through the courts. And in the past non-Greek banks lending money to Greek businesses have as a matter of course stipulated contracts to be governed by the laws of another jurisdiction.

Message: do not buy into the siren attractions of an independent drachma…

The Most Predictable Next Events
PREVIEW by Alasdair Macleod

Executive Summary

  • Why Greece is unlikely to release a new drachma
  • Why globally-coordinated money printing is the most likely resolution to the Greek & Spanish crises
  • Why the magnitude of derivative risk makes a Eurozone collapse much more frightening
  • Why capital flight will get worse, and why gold will benefit from this
  • Why Germany's odds for leaving the Eurozone are lower than most assume
  • Why the time left before extreme action must be taken is than a few months – possibly only weeks

 

If you have not yet read Part I: Abandoning Ship, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

 

Here are some key points to bear in mind as the crisis progresses:

Greece: new drachma?

The Greeks would be crazy to embrace a new drachma, as recommended by neoclassical economists. A new drachma would be backed by nothing, unless it comes with full convertibility into Greece’s 111.6 tonnes of gold, assuming that actually exists. The complete lack of faith in any Greek government’s economic credentials would mean a new drachma in the absence of gold convertibility would rapidly descend towards its intrinsic value, which is zero. Interestingly, recent polls suggest that the Greek people understand this and prefer to remain with the euro.

The legality of changing deposits from euros to drachmas is highly questionable. Assuming the Greek government can force this through on domestic deposits that will leave an open question over loans, likely to be challenged through the courts. And in the past non-Greek banks lending money to Greek businesses have as a matter of course stipulated contracts to be governed by the laws of another jurisdiction.

Message: do not buy into the siren attractions of an independent drachma…

Total 169 items