December 17, 2015
Source: Shutterstock
“Financial hypocrisy” is occurring on a grand scale at this moment in history, Keiser and O”Byrne agreed. Hedge funds can still borrow at 0% for free, lining their vaults with billions in swift profits, while austerity is the only item on the menu for everybody else. And since 9/11, as Max said on his Dec. 13 show, we”ve witnessed a “mad scramble,” or at least a movement by plutocrats around the world…who are intent upon putting their money into a safer store of value, as they perceive it. Hence Picassos reaching crazy new highs at auction.
The problem with decanting capital from equities to bonds to scarcer assets”aside from the counter-bubbles it creates”is that it drains the markets of liquidity, thereby forcing more governments to adopt austerity measures. Max’s analysis doesn”t stop there. This is really a “war between the plutocrats and everyone else,” concludes Keiser, claiming the “0.01%” to be the greatest villains of all. “Financial decapitation” will be the result of “interest-rate apartheid,” he warns. Where can we possibly be heading”but the end of the world?
James Glattfelder is a physicist who conducted a “complexity theory” study of the world’s capital and its ownership; he presented the result on the TED stage a few years ago. It was entitled “Who Controls the World?” His research found that 43,000 transnational corporations (TNCs) existed at the time: a network of 600,000 nodes and 1,000,000 links. Glattfelder explained that the “737 top shareholders have the potential to collectively control 80 percent of [all of] the TNCs” value.” He identified just 1,300 TNCs at the core of his network, and found these 1,300 companies controlled 95% of the total operating revenue of all the TNCs combined, at that time. His research also revealed that this network was the result of “soft” (self-)organization”as opposed to vertical authority. It may be that a small group runs the world, but at least it’s no conspiracy.
Central banks and their failing influences seem trivial suddenly. Next thing we know, central banks themselves may be going out of business… So what are we to do if, or when, the dreaded doomsday event takes place?
Tune in next week as we comparison-shop for financial survival schemes. And try not to care too much in the interim, whatever your money’s backing. It’s only money and it’s a shortcut to be enjoyed while you have it. Losing it all in a crash might not be so lethal after all. A billionaire has a thousand worries keeping him awake at night; a Buddhist monk has none.
