When politicians finally become honest by saying that the world
economy is on the edge of an economic depression then we had better
believe them. Past masters at all forms of denial, deception and
false optimism on matters of currency, they are now coming clean.
Whether politically on the left or the right, whether they are
American, European or Chinese, all top politicians are now at one in
saying that unless the financial situation of Greece is not sorted
out within a fortnight (when its money runs out) then a catastrophe
far worse than the 2008/9 Credit-Crunch will strike at the Eurozone,
America a few hours later, China a few hours later still and the
remainder of the trading countries of the world within the same 24 hours.
If the IMF, the ECB and the Eurozone bosses change their minds and
allow Greece to be saved by yet more subsidies, then Portugal, Spain,
Ireland and Italy will also want to be saved by the same sort of
subsidies. Their individual debts are far greater than those of
Greece. In total, their debts are probably nearer 100 times as great.
Either way, whether Greece is saved or not, there is no hope of the
Eurozone or America or China surviving in their present form, nor
their present types of currencies.
If we are not in a Depression already, we only await a new Wall
Street Crash as the definitive marker. This time, in contrast to the
1930s, there are likely to be nearer a billion of people out of work
around the world rather than a hundred million or so in America and
Europe. Emergency food tokens will have to be instituted within days,
particularly as there are now many millions of old folk who already
totally depend on state welfare. Unlike the 1930s, when food supplies
were largely supplied by their own farmers, today's advanced
countries are likely to start scrapping between them straight away to
ensure that their existing foreign sources are maintained. But are
they likely to succeed, given that currency exchange rates will be
see-sawing about? And when some nations are more heavily endowed with
armed forces than others?
In effect, the food tokens will be an additional currency in any
advanced (or sensible emergent) country. For many of the old folk and
many of the newly unemployed, at least in the first few weeks or
months, food tokens might be the only reliable currency until further
sorts of welfare tokens can be slotted in. The latter will be
enormously complex, but food tokens will be relatively easy because,
as in wartime, everybody will be issued with them. Indeed, because
there are always possibilities of national disasters at any time
(such as nuclear attack by terrorists), they're probably already
printed and civil servants will already have distribution plans in
their filing cabinets. Food tokens could be distributed to most of
the population of an advanced country within days before the
warehouses and supply chains of the food supermarkets give out.
And, speaking of food supermarkets, most of them are either very
large national corporations or they are already transnational. In
turn, they are linked to transport corporations or agricultural
corporations, many of which are transnational, and which, in turn,
are already linked to their own transnational suppliers of necessary
chemicals, materials, technical equipment, telecommunications, etc.
In short, as between any two individuals on earth, there are probably
no more than six degrees of separation between the Rice Krispies on
your breakfast table and the carafes on the boardroom tables of the
largest and most sophisticated transnational corporations in the world.
In a Depression it will be every individual, or family, or group, or
community or institution for itself. There will be none more so
solipsist than the top politicians of the major countries and the top
executives of the most powerful transnational corporations. The
politicians will be fearing for their lives, considering the mess
they've made of their currencies, and the executives will be fearing
for their careers unless they keep their shows on the road. There
will be 0 Degrees of Separation between politicians and executives.
In fact, in most cases there are 0 Degrees of Separation already.
Most of them are constantly visiting each others' offices anyway.
Most importantly, there will be 0 Degrees of Separation (or perhaps 1
at the most) between the necessary food token currencies that
politicians will have to deliver and the necessary world currency and
credits that transnationals will have to quickly devise (digitally)
between themselves if their corporations are going to operate in the
interconnected way that they usually do. Thus it would seem, at least
to this weltschmerz writer, that the quicker the Crash occurs the
better. We may then arrive at a currency that doesn't depend on the
printing press and the whims of politicians but to numbers of people
and commodities (or, as convenient fundamentals, bushels of wheat, or
watts of electricity, or ounces of gold, or platinum or palladium).
With a non-inflationary currency we can start to make sensible plans
about the future. People can save and invest their money for their
retirement in confidence, without being dependent on politicians who,
at present, constantly whittle away at the value of their savings or
their pensions schemes. Perhaps we'll have an economic crash which
will ultimately be kind after all.
Keith
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/09/
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