Using rich foreigners to prop up housing costs

It boggles the mind how much power the "real estate industry" has over media and government. Congress is considering passing a law that would attempt to drive up housing prices by luring foreign purchasers into the market! (see: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/article_ff5515c2-17ba-11e1-96e1-001cc4c002e0.html)


The one-sidedness of the news articles on real estate topics is disturbing. The publicity given the so-called real estate crisis is the biggest example of this media bias. In reality, of course, a decrease in housing costs is anything but a "crisis", it is a blessing for the people and the economy!

The only ones who benefit from high land prices are members of the original Rentier class, the economic parasites known as land owners, as well as all of their parasitic cronies, including especially the used-house salesmen (who euphemistically refer to themselves as real estate agents).

Low land prices, and fewer restrictions on land use, are the basic planks of a sensible land policy that benefits society as a whole.

The Reformed Capitalist policy regarding land is three-fold:

-- eliminate financing of land purchases,
-- eliminate absentee ownership of land, and
-- eliminate arbitrary land-use restrictions (especially separating commercial and residential activities)


The end-goal of these policies is to create greater prosperity and freedom for all, by eliminating the economic parasitism surrounding land ownership and control.

Monetary reform and alternatives - join the Lawful Bank movement

The Lawful Bank is an application of the concept of "worker-owned businesses" to the financial world.

Worker-owned businesses are the wave of the future, because by eliminating parasites from the business process (the "passive owners"), businesses can operate at lower costs. Operating at a lower cost is the bottom line in the survival of the fittest economic world, and thus, over time, worker-owned businesses will outperform and eliminate the parasitic passive-investor businesses. In their own words:

"By signing up to The lawful Bank you will (in due course) avail yourself of the benefits of membership of this unique monetary and banking system, the essence of which is to distribute to the people the grotesque profits being skimmed by greedy bankers from the nation’s economy. "

"There are no investors to satisfy and no high flying executives on million pound/dollar salaries or city slickers on astronomical bonuses. Our system plays no part in casino banking. TAMS is both safe and cost effective and serves the interest of the sovereign aspirations of individuals."

"TAMS is a mirror image of the existing monetary system – it is tried and tested... but with a crucial difference in that there is an entirely different approach as to where the profits are delivered. In the existing system, the profits go to investors, and the people running the bank - with our system the profits are distributed to our members."


One of the fascinating innovations of the Lawful Bank is the way it leverages the power of fractional reserve banking for the INDIVIDUAL:

"A positive credit system – for every £1 of cash deposited, each member creates £10 credit in their account. This credit (created by the system) on the back of the cash deposited is the property of the member and thus not a debt to the member. This will provided streams of credit to the system – and not debt."





Check out the Lawful Bank webpage at http://lawfulbank.com/HomePage

Salon calls for Jubilee Year

The first element in Salon's proposed policy agenda (called a New Declaration of Independence, here http://www.salon.com/2011/10/31/a_new_declaration_of_independence/singleton/) is a Jubilee Year of debt forgiveness, especially focused on student loan debt. Couldn't agree more.

The biggest problem with Salon's proposal is the way it gets sidetracked with a Leftist cultural agenda, especially its calls for "Takle Climate Change", "End the Drug War" and "Full Equality for the Queer Community".

In order for massive and structural systemic change to progress, a broad-base coalition will need to be built, based on the principles of economic Populism. Populists can form a majority coalition against the elite, IF they leave "cultural" issues off the table.

Throwing in "Leftist" cultural issues that have nothing to do with economic reform are only going to ALIENATE conservative Populists, and keep the movement from growing.

Cris Sheridan calls for the Jubilee Cycle

Writing in Financial Sense, Mr. Sheridan points out the end result of the massive overhang of debt in America: "The Inevitable Jubilee" (http://www.financialsense.com/node/6783).

It is amusing to read him quote the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, claiming they are doing "God's work" by putting everyone in debt: “We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It’s a virtuous cycle.”

The truth about the "virtuous cycle"

In fact, bank lending has nothing to do with a virtuous cycle. The expansion of credit into any market drives up prices. The banks, which enable this spike in prices, then profit even more by skimming their parasitic profit off the top of the credit-inflated transaction, making it even more expensive.

The healthiest, most affordable, and least distorted markets are those which are devoid of credit, as they are immune to speculation and "investment bubbles". There are far better ways to coordinate capital creation and accumulation than investment banking.



An excellent read, quoting Sheridan:

National debt is a cancer. It starts out small and then multiplies. Eventually, it reaches a point where it can’t be ignored, spreading itself through every layer of the economy until it threatens the life of its host.

...

In light of the similarities between then and now, some prominent names are beginning to warn that the only cure for our troubling situation is some form of massive debt relief, or Jubilee—a biblical commandment given to Israel to wipe away all debt every 50 years and start with a clean slate.

...

Unfortunately, what most people seem to miss, is that the original notion of a Jubilee was never intended to be applied after society has been enslaved by debt. It was meant to prevent such a scenario from ever occurring in the first place. Regardless, whether a society chooses to voluntarily rebalance its scales or not, eventually the invisible hand of the market will step in and balance them for us. Perhaps politicians should be wary of that point and take the necessary steps while certain options still exist. Let's not forget, there is already rioting in the streets.