Atlas Telamon, "enduring Atlas". Zeus condemned Atlas, for he and his brother's sibling rivalry, in conjunction with the war between Titans and Olympians. The war that followed angered Zeus to the point of reprimanding Atlas to stand at the western edge of Gaia(the Earth), and hold up Ouranos(the Sky), on his shoulders due to his shenanigans.
In many more modern mythical mishaps of marketing and advertising we see Atlas carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, rather than the stars. If it were the world on his shoulders, what if Atlas shrugged...?
This is where the idea of one of the great novels of modern literature comes from. In the book by Ayn Rand called, Atlas Shrugged, Atlas is used as a metaphor for the people who produced the most in society, and therefore "hold up the world" in a metaphorical sense.
I am continually awed by how life imitates art. John Galt is the protagonist in the book which explores the idea of the working class to withhold their ideas or contributions of their inventions, art, business leadership, scientific research, or new ideas of any kind to the rest of the world.
Today we call this protectionism. The idea is the same. Only when the working people begin to understand that they hold the power, and not the rich, they can begin to see the essence of what life holds for all. Today's ills find America discussing buying America to cure the economy. Despite the fact that the world is the economy and not simply an American economy, or European economy, or a Chinese or Japanese economy.
The metaphor of producing the most, from the book Atlas Shrugged, is the key phrase there. The elitists of Wall Street have exemplified to the world that they actually produce NOTHING. They created NO value. Everything they do can be done on a grass roots level with today's modern technology.
When the Twin Towers were felled by Saudi extremists orchestrated by the elite rich of the world through...sorry, this is another topic for another day...Our sitting President (literally sitting and reading a childrens book, albeit upside down,) came out from behind the curtain and told America to go shopping.
We have seen our society become consumed with the idea that consuming, buying, spending is the means to happiness. We have spent centuries trying to teach others around the world the same philosophy. But is this "the way".
Irrational Exuberance, was the phrase to which former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan stated in a speech given at the American Enterprise Institute during the stock market boom of the 1990s. The phrase was interpreted by financial pundits as a typically cryptic warning that the market might be overvalued.
Irrational Exuberance is also the title of the best selling book by Yale economics professor, Robert Shiller, on the analysis of speculative bubbles in relation and special reference to the stock market and real estate.
We are entering into what Ayn Rand called "Obectivism". Her claims is that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest. This is the key phrase in today's society, rational self-interest. Today we come to grips with irrational self-interests and exuberance.
We are witnessing modern capitalism and its plagues and problems within its structure. We are seeing new paper being printed with the guarantee that it holds value, although is on a valueless based system. We are seeing that professed value become valueless overnight. We are seeing institutions fall, destroyed by their own misguided structures of governance and process. We are seeing our savings and our guarantees being thrown out and given back to those same institutions to which have failed us. We are being told to trust that they will do better this next time around.
This is a perfect moment in our history to come to terms with the fact that the system as we know it is broken, and some say does not work. Some say it is simply a matter of time and this is a sign that that time will come. Rather than bailout a failed system, we should recognize the opportunity that is in front of us. We are blessed with a moment in time to which we can change what is broken. Our society has run out of band-aids and it is time to throw out what does not work.
Perhaps it is time for Atlas to shrug. We all carry the weight of our own world on our shoulders. What if we all simply shrugged, and said, "Well, that doesn't work, let's just start over with a blank slate, but a decent outline."
We could all simply erase our debt, like the banks are doing. We could simply begin again with a new number, since the FICO score system is now failed and no longer can apply.
We have the opportunity to take pieces of what we have created over the past centuries of capitalism, merge it with some concepts of nationalism, and sister that with some principles and practices of socialism, all the while we attempt to make things equal for all as under the auspices of communism...
With so many isms out there, why do we have to stick with one?! I don't understand that...
So, like Atlas, I shrug.
This, the 260th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!
(c)Copyright 2009 Doug Boggs
Showing posts with label FICO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FICO. Show all posts
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Monday, October 27, 2008
The United States FICO score...
We have purged out some global economic results through watching the unfolding of the crisis throughout the world.
It seems the most powerful participant in the economic arena is the USA. Whether this is liked or not it is the case and has been exemplified with the global situation. It seems to have now been exposed that as the United States stays afloat so does the rest of the world. Ever since the Nixon Administration took the U.S. off the Gold standard and made the dollar the world currency it created a global safety net for the U.S. It is at the very least the means to which the other currencies of the world now are obliged to value their base.
The economic power mongers knew what they were planning at that time, and knew the stability it would create for the United States, and knew it was a ripe time to make that switch in order to guarantee the U.S. dominance in both monetary and military positions.
What we are now beginning to see is the global political pressures mounting due to the balance, or rather known imbalance, of the monetary pressures and the military pressures meeting halfway.
It would be best for the United States to get its financial obligations more in line in order for this imbalance of power to strengthen itself globally again. The respect of position is being lost in the fact that the United States is so heavily debt laden to other nations. The military strength is respected, but the power economically has been lost. We have seen emerging markets, like China and India, begin to create their own individual stability that could be overtaking the imbalance of economic power that the U.S. has held for the past 35 years since the removal of the gold standard. As long as the U.S. continues to be a debtor nation it will reduce its economic power throughout the world and it will become a necessity for the country to rely on military might and pressure to other nations rather than policy and economic partnerships.
As America has been held as the de-facto leader in the global arena, the other countries will not continue to allow this position to be held when the emerging power of another country, based on the debt America has to that country, could cause such economic uncertainty if the country began to sell of its dollars.
China holds the power to do just that. We are witnessing that the power of economic uncertainty is much more dynamic than that of military power and the current most powerful weapon in China's possession. The position that the U.S. continues to hold is if there become a military confrontation it might dismiss its monetary debt.
This would have China lose on both fronts if this were to occur. Whether China would play the sell card is not yet clear, although given the economic uncertainty of our time we may find out shortly. It seems, yet at this time, that the rest of the world still seems dependent on the economic health of America.
It may just be, through this economic crisis, that the U.S. may become the world de-facto leader simply based on the economics of the international interrelations and monetary policies that have become so inbred into today's debtor type of capitalistic society.
Being heralded as and being able to substantiate the claim of de-facto world leader are two different things. Global leadership has reached a tipping point in international politics today. The power players of old have shown that they are incapable of creating this position due to their greed and incompetence and our policies and power players must now change in order for the global transformation of community can be accomplished.
It stems from the fact of entitlement that America has come to own. People in America, and it starts from the examples sitting in the White House, feel that the world must work around the thoughts and ideals of the United States. This may not be altogether true as we are beginning to see today. We must earn the global respect once again, and not assume the de-facto power position, as we are finding the precariousness of that position.
We are seeing through the opinions of other countries and their desire for a major political change that Obama is the desired person at this opportune moment in history to begin to create the necessary changes that we must have globally. Through the global respect of new vision and policies can the other countries begin to fall back in line to the economic leadership of the United States.
We must begin to re-establish ourselves as the leader of the world in policy and monetary stability rather than simply demanding respect through military power. This type of international policy will find its demise to this country if there becomes a global uprise to the current means of global policy that we have experienced over these past eight years.
It is quite simple really, the FICO score of the United States has fallen dramatically in the past eight years. If we are unable to maintain our debt and reduce our debt other nations will reach a point, just as we are seeing banks globally reach a point, to not lend money to those with low FICO scores...
(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
It seems the most powerful participant in the economic arena is the USA. Whether this is liked or not it is the case and has been exemplified with the global situation. It seems to have now been exposed that as the United States stays afloat so does the rest of the world. Ever since the Nixon Administration took the U.S. off the Gold standard and made the dollar the world currency it created a global safety net for the U.S. It is at the very least the means to which the other currencies of the world now are obliged to value their base.
The economic power mongers knew what they were planning at that time, and knew the stability it would create for the United States, and knew it was a ripe time to make that switch in order to guarantee the U.S. dominance in both monetary and military positions.
What we are now beginning to see is the global political pressures mounting due to the balance, or rather known imbalance, of the monetary pressures and the military pressures meeting halfway.
It would be best for the United States to get its financial obligations more in line in order for this imbalance of power to strengthen itself globally again. The respect of position is being lost in the fact that the United States is so heavily debt laden to other nations. The military strength is respected, but the power economically has been lost. We have seen emerging markets, like China and India, begin to create their own individual stability that could be overtaking the imbalance of economic power that the U.S. has held for the past 35 years since the removal of the gold standard. As long as the U.S. continues to be a debtor nation it will reduce its economic power throughout the world and it will become a necessity for the country to rely on military might and pressure to other nations rather than policy and economic partnerships.
As America has been held as the de-facto leader in the global arena, the other countries will not continue to allow this position to be held when the emerging power of another country, based on the debt America has to that country, could cause such economic uncertainty if the country began to sell of its dollars.
China holds the power to do just that. We are witnessing that the power of economic uncertainty is much more dynamic than that of military power and the current most powerful weapon in China's possession. The position that the U.S. continues to hold is if there become a military confrontation it might dismiss its monetary debt.
This would have China lose on both fronts if this were to occur. Whether China would play the sell card is not yet clear, although given the economic uncertainty of our time we may find out shortly. It seems, yet at this time, that the rest of the world still seems dependent on the economic health of America.
It may just be, through this economic crisis, that the U.S. may become the world de-facto leader simply based on the economics of the international interrelations and monetary policies that have become so inbred into today's debtor type of capitalistic society.
Being heralded as and being able to substantiate the claim of de-facto world leader are two different things. Global leadership has reached a tipping point in international politics today. The power players of old have shown that they are incapable of creating this position due to their greed and incompetence and our policies and power players must now change in order for the global transformation of community can be accomplished.
It stems from the fact of entitlement that America has come to own. People in America, and it starts from the examples sitting in the White House, feel that the world must work around the thoughts and ideals of the United States. This may not be altogether true as we are beginning to see today. We must earn the global respect once again, and not assume the de-facto power position, as we are finding the precariousness of that position.
We are seeing through the opinions of other countries and their desire for a major political change that Obama is the desired person at this opportune moment in history to begin to create the necessary changes that we must have globally. Through the global respect of new vision and policies can the other countries begin to fall back in line to the economic leadership of the United States.
We must begin to re-establish ourselves as the leader of the world in policy and monetary stability rather than simply demanding respect through military power. This type of international policy will find its demise to this country if there becomes a global uprise to the current means of global policy that we have experienced over these past eight years.
It is quite simple really, the FICO score of the United States has fallen dramatically in the past eight years. If we are unable to maintain our debt and reduce our debt other nations will reach a point, just as we are seeing banks globally reach a point, to not lend money to those with low FICO scores...
(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
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