The Financial Jigsaw – Issue No. 84

My unpublished (100,000 word) book “The Financial Jigsaw”, is being serialised here weekly in 100 Issues by Peter J Underwood, author

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS WEEK EDITION

Here’s some fun for you at Christmas, take the TEST to see what political leaning you are and if you like, share the results:

https://www.politicalcompass.org/

 I hope that you all had a happy and peaceful Christmas and looking forward to the New Year: https://off-guardian.org/2019/12/25/merry-christmas-from-offg/

 Quote of the Week:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.  BUT the lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.  It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” – Goebbels

NOTE – If anyone would like a free updated, 3^rd edition, electronic copy of the complete book, I should be pleased to email a free pdf on request to: [email protected].  The book has many footnotes linking to relevant and explanatory Appendices, websites and videos.

This week is a slow news period as everybody that can are partying like it is 1999 so all I can do is report the jollity: https://northmantrader.com/2019/12/19/party-like-its-1999/

            And at this festive time let’s not forget those worse off than ourselves.  This article shows how difficult it is for many of our compatriots to manage in this dysfunctional economy, not only in USA but across the world, while the elite bloat themselves on the sweat and slavery of the 99%: 

https://realinvestmentadvice.com/the-stock-market-has-become-a-private-club-for-the-elite/

And for our British readers: While we all cerebrate with jolly fare, spare a thought for those less fortunate:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/17/no-home-for-285000-on-christmas-day-in-england-figures-show

            And speaking of the stock market, the year end is going to be either a crash or a damp squib; it all depends of how the Fed reacts.  Year end for the markets or the ‘turn’ as it is called, is crucial for the global financial system as all financial institutions rebalance their books.  This is a technical assessment and well worth a read:

http://thegreatrecession.info/blog/repocalypse-the-second-coming/

 This week we continue with Chapter 14 and consider how to handle mild depression and a sense of powerlessness which completes the Introduction to Part 2.  We move on next week to the Preface which appears in the latest update to the 3^rd edition.

 Here is the link to last week: Issue 83

Now that Brexit is certain on 31^st January 2020, I will continue to provide weekly updates as events progress:

 Brexit Post Mortem and Update – 27^th December 2019

The Brexit deadline remains 31^st January 2020 and Parliament has agreed the new exit plan (WAB): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-50125338   . You may follow a daily run-down on the current situation from my friend, Dr Richard North, as Brexit progresses:  http://eureferendum.com/   I have said before, Brexit is a process, not an event.

 The UK elections should have been an opportunity for everyone to learn several lessons.

• The first lesson is that the silent majority is the target in an election, not the loud minority. As in the United States and European Parliament elections, the consensus narrative about what was happening was clearly influenced by a terrible confirmation bias among most mainstream commentators. Some media in the UK have reported more about what they wanted to happen rather than what really happened.
• The second lesson is that extremist socialism is not an alternative. While Johnson focused his campaign on adding supporters, Corbyn set out to return to the past and try to revive the policies that led to poverty, constant devaluations, inflation, supply cuts, and debt misery.
• The third was falling into the error of believing that sound economic policies do not matter. That the “majority” opinion is what some media or some commentators say. Even worse, to believe that the will of the people is represented by a few anonymous accounts on social networks. Bots are not votes.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/three-lessons-uk-elections

 Parliament is now in Christmas recess so no more Parliamentary information until the New Year.  Details of Parliament’s deliberations when sitting can be found here (but not up yet):

https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/business-papers/commons/votes-and-proceedings/#session=29&year=2019&month=8&day=25

 Now that the UK is definitely leaving EUROPE – I will continue to comment on relevant EU – UK events:

The European Central Bank (ECB) first made its key interest rate negative in June 2014. As a tool intended to help fight the threat of deflation then hanging over the euro zone, it was meant to be temporary.  Five years later, rates are even lower, and European bankers are asking what temporary means.

               After the ECB’s latest move, on 12th September 2019, cutting its key rate to minus 0.5% as part of a new monetary-easing package; bankers are realizing that negative rates are here for the long haul.  And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the loudest protests come from the country with the most troubled banking system—Germany.

Negative rates “will have serious side effects” and threaten the financial system, Deutsche Bank CEO, Christian Sewing, said recently.  I wonder how much of a coincidence it is that the US Repo market went into meltdown on 16^th September 2019, just two days after the ECB rate reduction – could it have been Deutsche Bank?

AND Nigel Farage berates the EU leadership following the stunning UK election result:

https://summit.news/2019/12/18/farage-anti-eu-revolt-is-spreading-across-europe/

            Adding salt into the wound, this article tells of the coming demise of the EU economy to be replaced by China:

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/european-union-looks-like-weak-china-humiliation-by-slawomir-sierakowski-2019-12

            With Boris now mimicking a full charging bull it looks like US-UK trade talks are going to go full bore: Here’s the inside:

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15310/boris-johnson-us-uk-relations

 PART 2

 CHAPTER 14

Personal Empowerment

 “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” T.S. Eliot – “The Rock” 1934

 “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

 What you can do to overcome that sense of powerlessness and mild depression

Be confident in your dealings with authority and government. Speak your truth to power and challenge those in positions of authority. As James Madison, who wrote the American Bill of Rights, observed: “All men having power ought to be distrusted.”

You should learn the lessons of history because people in power, more often than not, abuse that power. To maintain our freedoms, this will mean challenging government officials whenever they exceed the bounds of their office.

Our world is both complex and mind-numbing and it is all too easy to cast aside problems, allowing them to fester and grow.  I always recommend addressing problems in UK by approaching the Citizens Advice Bureau, either on-line: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/  or by visiting a local office, for here you will know your rights and be empowered to action with knowledgeable help if needed.

Try not to measure your worth by what you own or earn or become mindless consumers unaware of the trickery to be found in the world around you. Those in power who establish the rules and laws that govern society’s actions desire compliant subjects who pursue their lives thoughtlessly. As George Orwell warned, “Until they become conscious, they will never rebel, and until after they rebelled, they cannot become conscious.” It is these conscious individuals who will change the world for the better; recognise them and support them for this is how as a society we progress.

Technology is a double-edged sword; it can turn you into a zombie. The internet and social media is a powerful source of information and knowledge but it can anesthetise us to the tragedies that surround us every day across the globe.

Techno-gadgets can be merely distractions from what’s really going on in the world; a way to escape our unpleasant feelings of angst and fear. If you are going to make a difference in this world, you will need to cast aside those earphones, turn off your iPhone and spend much less time viewing screens.

Cultivate an awareness of values other than materialism by putting people’s needs first. We should change our belief system to reflect something more meaningful than technology, materialism and politics. Standing at the pulpit of the Riverside Church in New York City in April 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. urged his listeners: “[W]e as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motive and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” And as Gandhi urged: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Prepare yourselves for what is likely to be ahead. The demons of our age, some of whom disguise themselves as politicians, delight in fomenting violence, sowing distrust and prejudice and persuading the public to support tyranny disguised as patriotism. George Orwell, who called the Long Now an “endless present, where the Party is always right”, understood how the most powerful weapon of a totalitarian society is to control its language, so that War IS Peace, Freedom IS Slavery, and Ignorance IS Strength; spoiler: this is lengthy, but oh so true:

https://www.epsilontheory.com/the-long-now-pt-4-snip/

Overcoming the evils of our age will require more than intellect and activism. It will require decency, morality, goodness, truth and toughness. Rodman Edward “Rod” Serling concluded in his remarks to the graduating class of 1968; it is emblematic of the ideals and morals of the original American pioneers:

“Toughness is the singular quality most required of you. We have left you a world far more botched than the one that was left to us.  Part of your challenge is to seek out truth, to come up with a point of view not dictated to you by anyone, be he a congressman, even a minister.  Are you tough enough to take the divisiveness of this land of ours, the fact that everything is polarized, black and white, this or that, absolutely right or absolutely wrong. This is one of the challenges. Be prepared to seek out the middle ground; that wondrous and very difficult-to-find Valhalla where man can look to both sides and see the errant truths that exist on both sides.  If you must swing left or you must swing right respect the other side. Honour the motives that come from the other side; argue and debate or rebut but do not close those wondrous minds of yours to opposition. In their eyes, you are the opposition. And ultimately … ultimately ….you end divisiveness by compromise. And so long as men walk and breathe there must be compromise.”

We can all find that we have a calling in life.  You are here on this planet to help other people. In fact none of us can exist very long without help from others. If we are going to see any positive change for freedom then we must change our view of what it means to be human and regain a sense of what it means to love and help one another.

That will mean gaining the serenity to accept those things you cannot change, the courage to change those things you can and finding the wisdom to know the difference.

I hope that you are now sufficiently energised to move on to the coming Chapters which will provide a range of positive guides, knowledge and skills that you will need to prosper in the New Economy.  Part 2 will be published in full at a later date when the outcome of the coming crisis is known.

A final thought

“People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defences, or the problems of modern society.”  –  Vince Lombardi

An electronic copy of this Part 2 Introduction is available on request to: [email protected]

To be continued next Saturday

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Author: Austrian Peter

Peter J. Underwood is a retired international accountant and qualified humanistic counsellor living in Bruton, UK, with his wife, Yvonne. He pursued a career as an entrepreneur and business consultant, having founded several successful businesses in the UK and South Africa His latest Substack blog describes the African concept of Ubuntu - a system of localised community support using a gift economy model. View all posts by Austrian Peter