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My optimistic view is that the financial dinosaurs are about to become extinct. Not everyone in the Diary is as optimistic as me... :-) "The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson
(This is just half tongue-in-cheek: As more and more dinosaurs start to fall, and panic starts to sweep the underbrush, I am pretty sure that you will have lots of wannabe-furry mammals pounding on your door.) Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
And I want people to grab their pitch forks, yes, and be unruly. Get in the streets. Be as noisy and as nonviolently provocative as you can be.
What does Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) say to Danny Glover's character when they were waiting for the ransom phone call for Glover's daughter (couldn't find a youtube clip),
"We're going to get bloody on this one".
It's the elephant in the room that no-one wants to acknowledge. We let it go on too long and the bad guys won't let it slip away without major carnage. The Grover Norquists have just begun. Suck it up.
I've a feeling that ET might be a furry mammal incubator ;-)
I'm prepping myself in northern CA. As time progresses we should ... "coordinate". They tried to assimilate me. They failed.
Anything that's too big to fail is collected into a new Bank of the United States, which is safeguarded until it is out of the danger zone.
And even once the bank is strong enough to stand on its own, things like credit futures, and control of the electronic credit system (debit cars, etc.) should be permanent. If the government is expected to pick up the bill when things fall down, why shouldn't it just operate all the time, and covert any profits into government revenue. Not to mention that control over electronic transfers would give tax authories a wealth of information that could be used to prosecute tax cheats.
As for the local branches, why not mutualize them, and limit their scope to a single state? And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
Open Treasury Branches all over the place and have them issue credits interest-free.
This issue would be managed by service-providers-formerly-known-as-Banks within parameters set by local communities, within area and regional policy frameworks.
Then collect from sellers and buyers generally (who rely on this credit for their working capital) a "guarantee charge" which is pooled, and from which the service provider is paid. Some of this could go into area and regional pools by way of reinsurance.
Long term credit in relation to completed productive assets is another story.....that's where service providers bring together investors with unitised investments.
Interesting historical touch in Alberta.....
ATB Financial - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ATB was created by the first Social Credit ministry under William Aberhart in 1938, after earlier attempts to place Alberta's banks under the provincial government's control were thwarted by the federal government. The first Alberta Treasury Branch was opened in Rocky Mountain House on September 29 of that year. ATB is the most significant surviving remnant of social credit economic policies in Alberta.
Back to the status quo ante plus a smidgeon of regulation to gloss over the colossal implosion seems to be the preferred solution. All of the arguments are about how little new regulation they can get away with and still pretend they've innoculated the system against stupidity. There are no new ideas, casino capitalism did not fail, nothing to see here folks, move on, move on. keep to the Fen Causeway
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