money – Page 2 – The Burning Platform

How Much Money Have Humans Created?

The Money Project is an ongoing collaboration between Visual Capitalist and Texas Precious Metals that seeks to use intuitive visualizations to explore the origins, nature, and use of money.

How Much Money Have Humans Created?

The dollar amounts are so staggering, that simply telling you how much money humans have created probably wouldn’t convey the magnitude.

However, by using data visualization in this video, we can relate numbers in the millions, billions, and trillions to create the context to make it more understandable.

Starting With Context

The median U.S. household income of $54,000 is a number that most people can relate to. It’s enough money to save up to buy a car, or maybe even a house depending on where you live.

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Multiply that income by eight, and that number is now big enough to count as being in the top 1% of earners. People in the “one percent” make at least $430,000 per year.

Famous celebrities and businesspeople have fortunes that dwarf those of many “one percenters”. Actor George Clooney, for example, has a net worth of $180 million. Meanwhile, author J.K. Rowling is estimated to have a net worth of roughly $1 billion according to Forbes.

Zuckerberg takes things to a whole new level. His net worth worth is $53 billion, thanks to the value of Facebook stock. Lastly, Bill Gates regularly tops the “richest people” lists with a wealth of $75 billion – though lately that number has been a little higher based on stock fluctuations.

However, even the wealth of the richest human on Earth is not enough to get up to our unit of measurement that we use in the video: each square is equal to $100 billion.

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Three Card Monte

Guest Post by George Patton

I think everyone is familiar with the famous confidence trick that is called three card monte (also known as “find the lady”, the “three card trick” and the “shell game”). It’s been around since the 15th century and is a classic confidence game around the world.

For those who aren’t familiar with the game (and it’s variations with a cup and marble, or shells, the three-card Monte game itself is very simple.

The game works because the mark is concentrating on what the mark wants them to see, while the con is in reality doing what they really want.

We’re being played like marks right now over the shootings in Florida. Stop and think about that for a second before you read on. Think about all the discussions out there right now. Guns, muslims, gays, immigration, ISIS, you name it. And it’s all a game.

Don’t feel bad though, because our opponents in the liberal camp are being played too.

Neither side in the so-called war on guns really wants to accomplish their stated goals. It’s a con game to keep us distracted from what they are really doing.

The Republicans have had the White House and the Senate and the House and they have never passed real pro-gun legislation. Bought a full auto lately? Heck, have you priced a full auto lately?

The Democrats as recently as a few years ago had Obama and the Senate and the House. They didn’t pass gun confiscation legislation either.

It’s a game to keep us distracted. The Republicans get to scare us with threats of Democrat gun control and we send them money and vote them into office. For the Democrats, it keeps their rabid base energized to send the Democrats lots of money and get them voted into office.

Heck, even the famous NRA would go broke if real gun rights legislation ever passed into law.

So, how does this lead us to the shootings in Florida?

When things like this happen, I always implore the motto, “follow the money”. Who wins with a shooting of this type?

Obviously, the two political parties do. It’s unlikely that any real legislation will be introduced between now and the election. Republicans want to be reelected. Of course Republicans and the NRA are now pushing a “real” bill to keep guns out of the hands of the terrorists. The Democrats will whine and cry that it isn’t enough but will go along. Of course once it’s passed and folks want to exercise due process over being on the terrorist watch list, we’ll all be told that national security trumps any legal protections.

And both sides will continue their fund raising. Republicans to get into office to “fix the bill” (kind of like repealing Obamacare) and Democrats to keep control in place.

There will be much posturing by both parties regarding the shootings.

The Democrats will cry for more legislation, but of course they will beg for money and tell folks that they just need more of them to be voted into office.

The Republicans will cry for more members and reelection so that they can protect gun rights.

This is the con.

The real objective and what will happen while we’re concentrating on the guns is three fold.

First they will demand (and pass and fund) a larger surveillance state to combat terrorism at its root.

Second they will demand (and pass and fund) laws to root out domestic terrorists (sold in the law as going after foreigners that live here in America, but in reality use against Americans).

Finally, increase funding to “attack” ISIS overseas. This may or may not include actual American soldiers, but it will certainly include major funding to the neo-con crowd for the actual “fight”.

Neo-cons from both parties will pass these bills with high numbers. Some of us might actually fall for the con. We’ll think we are making us safer. We’ll feel so happy that we got to “keep” our gun rights.

A common belief is that the con may let the mark win a couple of bets to suck them in, but this is virtually never true. In a true Monte scam, the mark will never win a single bet.

Like every mark in the three card monte game, we’re going to lose to our Republican and Democrat con men.

Doug Casey: Why Gold Is Money

Guest Post by Doug Casey

It’s an unfortunate historical anomaly that people think about the paper in their wallets as money. The dollar is, technically, a currency. A currency is a government substitute for money. But gold is money.

Now, why do I say that?

Historically, many things have been used as money. Cattle have been used as money in many societies, including Roman society. That’s where we get the word “pecuniary” from: the Latin word for a single head of cattle is pecus. Salt has been used as money, also in ancient Rome, and that’s where the word “salary” comes from; the Latin for salt is sal (or salis). The North American Indians used seashells. Cigarettes were used during WWII. So, money is simply a medium of exchange and a store of value.

By that definition, almost anything could be used as money, but obviously, some things work better than others; it’s hard to exchange things people don’t want, and some things don’t store value well. Over thousands of years, the precious metals have emerged as the best form of money. Gold and silver both, though primarily gold.

There’s nothing magical about gold. It’s just uniquely well-suited among the 98 naturally occurring elements for use as money…in the same way aluminum is good for airplanes or uranium is good for nuclear power.

There are very good reasons for this, and they are not new reasons. Aristotle defined five reasons why gold is money in the 4th century BCE (which may only have been the first time it was put down on paper). Those five reasons are as valid today as they were then.

When I give a speech, I often offer a prize to the audience member who can tell me the five classical reasons gold is the best money. Quickly now – what are they? Can’t recall them? Read on, and this time, burn them into your memory.

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WHAT MONEY CAN BUY

All of the World’s Money and Markets in One Visualization

Courtesy of: The Money Project

What is Money?

Courtesy of: The Money Project

TULIP BULB SOCIETY

Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer

Yesterday morning I dropped my daughter off at the home of a friend. Her mother designs and maintains landscapes and gardens for the wealthy and on their sun porch there were five cases of tulip bulbs that had been delivered for planting; Firespray, Blueberry Ripple, VanGogh, Guinevere and I’lle de France. I took the opportunity- as I am known to do- to share with them the illustrative tale of the Tulip Frenzy. Three hundred years ago those five cases of bulbs was probably worth more than the entire neighborhood in which they lived and today they are casually left on someone’s porch by a guy wearing brown shorts, working the better part of his adult life in exchange for an equally arbitrary and nonsensical object- money.

It is incomprehensible to the modern American to conceive of a world without money. It is the primary driver of human activity and it has become the leading cause of stress in adults.

The further we drift away from the primary reasons for our existence as named in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the more likely we are to become “crippled, stunted, immature and unhealthy” which yields a “crippled psychology and a crippled philosophy”. If ever there was a definition of our era, this is it.

Money was designed to simplify commerce- it is a tool, not and end. Once it transcended it’s original purpose and became and object of human accomplishment and meaning, supplanting the the reason for our existence with it’s own directives, we began down a path that could only lead to ruin and collapse. There is no alternative at this stage, no way to “go back” to a time when things were different unless there is a wholesale rejection of this societal falsehood that has stripped us of human dignity and any chance at a life actually worth living.

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A Question of Money – Interest – Bankers

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

The problem in so many areas is that we can focus on one issue, but the answer is a complexity of variables. The history of interest rates has been provided on this site. Interest rates in a developed economy reflect the “option” value on the expected decline in purchasing power of money. If I expect it to decline by 5%, then I expect a profit and say want 8%. You in turn will pay the 8% only if you think you also can make a profit above 8% perhaps 10%+.

In an UNDEVELOPED economy, we transpose the depreciation risk of money with risk in general. Lacking any developed economy, one will lend only based upon the risk of getting repaid. Therefore, without a legal system, the risk is either the person or the political climate. When we look at the history of interest rates, I demonstrated that the rate of interest even within the Roman Empire increased the further you moved away from Rome. Hence, the lowest interest rates are in the dollar and they rise in other countries based upon perceived political risk. Greece’s interest rates are significantly higher than those in Germany. This is a reflection of political risk, not simple the future inflation rate in the Euro.

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CITIGROUP IS ATTEMPTING TO CREATE ‘CITICOIN’ TO KEEP UP WITH BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

Time again to make fun of the big banks like you made fun of that kid in school whose mom bought them corduroy pants. So, in the latest Bitcoin news the “Too Big To Fail” banks are trying to adopt Bitcoin anything to attract customers because they’ve gotten some bad PR in the past. Except they’re also “Too Big To Evolve” with new technology. The only thing corporate banks are good at creating is technological redundancies considering crypto-currencies are special because they are the only form of money specifically created for the internet. Companies that are focused on internet commerce can see a bright future with Bitcoin but the dinosaurs should probably take a seat on the bench and wait for the asteroid.

Guest Post By Alexandre Beaudry

A few months ago Goldman Sachs jumped into the Bitcoin market by investing in the Bitcoin startup Circle that is creating a dual currency wallet for users to seamlessly transition their Bitcoins into fiat currencies. This was a game changing move from a traditional bank but it has left other big players to fend for themselves as the bank industry adapts to crypto-currencies and new technology.

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The Rich, The Poor, & The Trouble With Socialism

Authored by Bill Bonner (of Bonner & Partners), illustrated by Acting-Man’s Pater Tenebrarum,

Rich Man, Poor Man

Poverty is better than wealth in one crucial way: The poor are still under the illusion that money can make them happy. People with money already know better. But they are reluctant to say anything for fear that the admiration they get for being wealthy would turn to contempt.

“You mean you’ve got all that moolah and you’re no happier than me?”

“That’s right, man.”

“You poor S.O.B.”

We bring this up because it is at the heart of government’s scam – the notion that it can make poor people happier. In the simplest form, government says to the masses: Hey, we’ll take away the rich guys’ money and give it to you. This has two major benefits (from an electoral point of view). First, and most obvious, it offers money for votes. Second, it offers something more important: status.

…and ending up moping.

After you have food, shelter, clothing, and a few necessities, everything else is status, vanity, and power. Extra money helps us feel good about ourselves… and attract mates. It’s not just the money that matters. It’s your relative position in society. From this point of view, it does as much good to take away a rich person’s money as it does to give money to a poor person.

Either way, the gap closes. Never, since the beginning of time up to 2015, has government ever added to wealth. It has no way to do so. And no intention of doing so. All it can do is to increase the power, wealth, or status of some people – at others’ expense.

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You NEED $$$ To Get Pu$$y

And that’s a fact.

Forget Trump and Bernie: Here’s Why Clinton or Bush Will Be the Next President

Guest post by Kurt Nimmo

Political elite has absolutely no fear of Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are rising in the polls and seemingly pose a threat to the political establishment.

Come the 2016 primaries, however, Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton will likely be at the top of the pack.

The oligarchy that has controlled American politics for generations is still firmly in control despite the illusion of change. In no way do Trump or Sanders threaten this control despite the corporate media’s fascination with them and polls that appear to show them gaining favor among potential voters.

A CNN-ORC International poll conducted between July 22-25 demonstrates the dominance of the establishment’s candidates. While Donald Trump matches Jeb Bush, his unfavorability rating is high. Clinton’s is higher, but despite this she remains solidly at the top of the pack.

Trump’s brash commentary has pushed him up in the polls, but many believe he has reached his peak. Diehard Republican insiders hate the real estate mogul.

“The McCain smear and giving out Graham’s cellphone? What an asshole,” a New Hampshire Republican insider told Politico. “Trumpism does not represent some deeper sentiment within the party, nor has he tapped into something a more conventional candidate can now co-opt. His candidacy has as much substance and meaning as cotton candy. I didn’t like him before. Now I loathe him.”

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SHOW ME THE MONEY

I know absolutely zero people who are enthusiastic about a Jeb Bush presidency. There is no grass roots support. The people of this country don’t want a third Bush as their president. But, as you can see from the chart below, what you think does not matter. The deep pocketed billionaires who select our president have chosen Jeb. Cruz and Rubio are fall backs. They don’t want any parts of Rand Paul. He frightens them. They think he might be a trojan horse who will implement his old man’s plans if elected.

Hillary and Jeb will be the nominees. Your vote doesn’t matter. Book it dano.