Quote from Gringinho: Then you will get the picture. G It appears that you join the rank(s) of those who fail to comprehend the sheer simplicity of my question posed to R. As always, the world of men is driven by it's roots. China may entertain interlocking business with Japan for example, but on Chinese soil. It may chose to describe the greater zone as Asia out of expediency but it remains firmly China at heart, and one hundred years of passing is a heartbeat in time to China. Perhaps India is similar but in a more territorially self contained manner. Britain enjoyed an enormous advantage for many years. Firstly, it was an island when islands really mattered (sharing only a land border with the inter-waring Scots) and secondly the aftermath of it's civil war was well managed. Also it had coal. All in all well positioned for the coming industrial revolution with it's tried and true navy and army corps. And so Britain embarked on a mission of bringing christainity to the world in return for cheap raw commodities. (replace the word christanity with the word democracy and what have you got today) Mankind never strays too far from it's roots. US followed a similar path without the cultural baggage of the past. Immigrants swapped their diverse cultural bad habits for the stars and stripes. The North persuaded the South that Slavery was much overrated as an economical tool and that economic servitude was by far the cheaper and more flexible option. Funnily enough, this idea was extended by an English Banker who wrote in a letter to Washington in 1850s that it was far far better to control a mans wages than accept the burden of his responsibility. Granted his name did not have an English ring to it but never the less he was English. And so with the good governance of the day the US grew rapidly under the unseen hands of the money men. The ghastly civil war proved the testing ground for the growing US military in much the same way that naval battles and land wars had been the testing ground for the British. Just as it was an Englishman's badge of honour to be English, so it became an enormous sense of pride to be American. The fact that The Americas stretched from Hudson Bay to Tierra de Fuego seemingly passed unnoticed in the sheer excitement. The problem (challenge) faced today is to determine exactly who is who and where exactly do their allegiances lie. Are all Englishmen english first and foremost as once they almost were. If California, New Mexico and Arizona, Texas and Florida continue their relentless drive towards their latino roots, will you suddenly become surprised at the outcome. And so in this continually intergrating world spare a thought for who is not intergrating. Who is playing the game in body but not in spirit as it were. Which brings us right back to WOM versus AOM. If you believe Anglos will huddle together in the future and rule the world then you have as much right to that belief as those who think coffee coloured people will be the salvation of mankind. It seems sometimes that the most basic of questions prove to be over powering at times. "will price make it's next leg long or short" such a simple question and yet 95%+ will lose money on it constantly. regards f9
fearless9, don't worry! Eat your bluepill and be happy... Xanax or whatever. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluepill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanax I live in Brazil, and can testify that corruption on all levels of society will lead to an enormous increase of security-related business. In Brazil we have the largest numbers of bulletproof cars in the world. Every property has at least a 2.5m (8-9ft) concrete wall, with broken glass/steel spikes/electric fence on top of it. Then, there are also cool stuff like not being able to withdraw more than USD 60 after 22:00 and until 07:00 in the morning from ATMs - because of "flash kidnappings" forcing people to withdraw from ATMs. Oh, and in Rio de Janeiro the ARMY is protecting central points around the city so that the election can happen. Things are looking rosy, Rosie... Just get in line for the milking stations, will you, or the electric prodder will MAKE you. And the "under class" - as opposed to the "cognitive elite" and the "managerial class" - will be very glad that they could "invest" with their social security ... Hahahaha ... nice going. See you guys in crime hell/heaven! At least you guys have Homeland Security - go invest in their sub-contractors... Also other Patriot Act profiteers. Prison corporations etc. THE GRASS IS GREEN AND IT SMELLS LIKE MONEY! The future is bright - thumbs up! Time to invest in the Gambinos, Genoveses, Gottis etc. They KNOW how to make a buck from this. I see that every day here in Brazil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Managerial_state http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_theory http://www.anglospherechallenge.com/ http://www.aei.org/ http://www.newamericancentury.org/ American Enterprise Institution and RAND Corporation have been researching for years in how to apply strategies and study you guinea pigs to understand how you respond to every little influence... Don't believe me - look at the research projects at these institutions!!!!!! That is something called systemic bias and it's designed to keep the "elite" at the top, funding and granting to researchers, giving scholarships to the "right-minded bright up-and-comers"... You guys are so blind it hurts my brain... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemic_bias http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_science http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_philosophy Wake up! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redpill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow's_impossibility_theorem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representative_direct_democracy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_system
QUOTE]Quote from Gringinho: fearless9, don't worry! [/QUOTE] I do not understand your answer to the question other than it appears you confirm the simplest of questions are the hardest to answer. I don't live in Sao Paulo but I know it slightly from several visits. I live between Buenos Aires and Rio de J and have done so for five years. The switch from Carioca to Porteño lifestyle is wonderful.... the switch in languages ( both foreign to me) remains as always a challenge. regards f9
fearless9, cool (literally) ... I'm up in the hotter north-east right now. Well, here is my answer to what I could see your question was. Investing is about risk-management - i.e a good strategy of money management to stay in there and make profits. Second, WOM are stupid ... AOM are smart. Now they have the means and tools (technology) to debunk the WOM - "old money" - "good old boys club". In my systems philosophy and theory thinking, that is why we are also seeing so much desperation from the aggressive Neoconservatives, and how their elite theory(!) thinking go through and got George W. Bush elected in the first place. It was WOM being afraid, and not understanding the new stuff coming in with Internet, technology etc. But it is really just about getting stronger integrity back in - and equalizing the playing field. Hard workers are hard workers, and will make headway - always! No matter of WOM elitist thinking will change that. Neocons were doing the WOM "dirty work". Now - the neocons are being ousted - and good riddance - hope their soles (sic) burn everywhere. It is simply a fact of the universe, evolution and being able to harness adaptation - and that is something conservatives know nothing about. They shun it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_adaptive_System http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_science http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Managerial_state http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Burnham http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Kristol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PNAC Now, if you are all wide awake - you will understand the SYSTEM that brought the aggressive Neoconservatives into power.... It WAS the old conservatives giving in to change - disguising their motives as "liberation" - while trying to destroy the new up-and-coming systems. THAT is how the world works .... www.anglospherechallenge.com www.newamericancentury.org www.aei.org en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAND_Corporation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geographical_Pivot_of_History (Heartland - world resources - flow) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow's_impossibility_theorem I mean - it looks like so many do not understand ANYTHING about what SYSTEMIC BIAS and corruption is all about. The lack of integrity in systems lets cancerous growths like corruption spread!!!! The United States is not a democracy - republic doesn't even imply a democracy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic fearless9, since you know Brazil - you also know that I am right about the corruption and rise in crime by the underprivileged.
You're absolutely right. All of the above refers to a preceise and well developed discipline of POM (public opinion manipulation). Public opinion only counts during the election time, as far as US goes, and that's when we get the Hollywood quality thrills. US used to be to Europe, what Asia is to US right now. Supplier of cheap goods and labor. Then it (US) became the self-sustaining market itself. There's a big difference between US back then and Asia today. Asia's ability to become a self-sustaining market economy depends on many things. Things I don't see that were present in US back then. Asia's economy grew rapidly during the last 20 years mainly due to it's parasitic relationship with the western economy, however their social system is totally different from western and from what US used to be when it became a self-sustaining market economy. They are going to keep their social system in place and therefore they're basically fucked. Soviets destroyed their old social system in one swooping 10 yr period. Right now they enjoy the same emptiness that US exhibited back then. If anything I would expect them to become a self-sustaining market economy much sooner than Asia. Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks. This quote from 200 yrs ago, I think still valid. US/Europe run out of labor to feed the capital (unions, liberals, middle class etc., are to blame for it). What is cheaper - bring the jobs to labor or bring labor to jobs. What possible rationale is for consumption based economy to become a production based economy, especially if you have 5 bl people competing to become the labor of which the capital is feeding. That which is produced, must be consumed. US/Europe will continue to be the consumption part of capital-labor-product-capital cycle. As long as WOM are in control of "capital" and "consumption" parts of capital-labor-product-capital cycle the present status quo will remain unchanged. The AOM can deal with labor upkeep and logistics of production without interference. However, should things change and any meaningful consumption starts to pick up anywhere else in the world. Remember what happened last time the Chinese refused to buy opium from British? âThese interestsâ (that is, economic interests), âfreely left to themselves ⦠must necessarily come into conflict; they have no other arbiter but war, and the decisions of war assign defeat and death to some, in order to give victory to the othersâ¦. It is in the conflict of opposed forces that science seeks order and equilibrium: perpetual war, according to it, is the sole means of obtaining peace; that war is called competition.â The AOM may be old, but it's not old enough - it does not have a belief system that's been genetically implanted over the course of multiple generations. The belief system that tells them the God is on their side and they're born and bred to rule the world affairs.
Whereabouts ... bahia or further north? We are heading for Salvador in a couple of months and then on to PV (mexico) via Manaus /Panama. Manaus is a first for us having flown over the amazonas often enough....looking forward to it. regards f9
fearless9, I keep to the big metropolises a bit further north - have several properties. But I like getting back down to SP (apartment) and Curitiba for some zany world and good eating again... hehe. I hope something like the Neoconservative abhorrence never occurs here in Brazil - doing the dirty work of the "old money". But we have the semi-terrorist "Movimento Sem Terra" (MST) squatting whatever down-town or large farm real estate they can get close to, and running farms out of business.
The rise in crime in Arg and Brasil is a major concern. Not enough to have us live elsewhere but it is an area that both govs must address quickly. Sadly the Arg gov cannot even bring themselves to acknowledge the problem. regards f9
Let us not lose sight of the fact that Asia enters this new world with what appears to US as thousands of years of baggage. The Asians of course call it their history and heritage and may see their future in quite a different light to the manner in which US imagines it's own future will be. It's always a silly move to impose your own thinking upon culturally different people.... remember when the French tried to warn US about chasing non-existent WMD in Iraq and the hazards that would bring ... it lead to "freedom fries" amongst other outcomes. Taken too far for too long you end up with "The Un-united States of America" when you try to impose cross-cultural values. I imagine we are watching this event unfold as we speak. And so in addition to finding new sustainable energy sources and in addition to retrieving useful manufacturing by way of low cost robotics, some one some where may give some thought to the basic values that will drive future generations of Americans. Watch the Russians. They always were Russian and they always will be Russian. Any brief moment in their history when they appeared to have changed, is only a brief moment of confusion in the eyes of the beholder. It is always the foreigners causing the trouble ... just watch the news. regards f9
Hehehe, you need to read the works of James Burnham on books.google.com and his references on www.aei.org and other places. He had a column back in the days called "The Third World War"... it was about using economic, cultural, military and any means possible to DESTROY the "enemies"...