12th December 2024

Uneducated Economist – something is wrong

THIS IS A DRAFT – but I am working on it

I am allergic to conspiracy theories, conspiracy embodies the very opposite of permaculture, of observe and interact, of learning through experience and feedback.

Conspiracy is to selectively seek evidence to prove a theory. It is essential to accept new information, to consider different perspectives, but we also need to be able to call bullshit when we see it, or request more information when we might feel we are being bamboozled.

I am posting these videos as they are voices talking directly from experience, informed by experience.

I think we can all see something is not right

Collectively we are making terrible decisions right now, and I can only deduce, based on evidence that this is because the democratic and economic system is failing us, badly. At the height of a global pandemic, potential run-away climate change, triggering an ecological collapse, our leaders are failing us horribly whilst pursuing short term, self-interested goals rather than facing any of the multiple crises currently confronting us.

Economics is the rationale of how we make decisions about the allocation of resources, and in this post I want to evaluate these issues from that perspective.

All of these voices offer perspectives which are very much of our time.

I think we are safe to assume the whole system of decision making is fatally flawed and we are seeing evidence of this from every angle.

I added this Monbiot piece as it gives an overview of the road we have traveled recently. Insight into the oligopolistic world we have entered. Where power feeds off power to hijack the whole democratic process, such as it was. Something has changed.

“The collapse is coming” and it is going to be deep and long. The change that is now underway is going to test the foundation of all of our economic assumptions. The glib, back to normal brigade, sadly are going to be massively disappointed as we are confronted again and again with the limitations of the situation we now find ourselves in. The more we try the more we realise we cannot restart an unsustainable economy once it has collapsed.

Denial is not working well right now, and at some point we will be confronted with accepting a new reality; one informed and shaped by reason and objectivity.

The virus is essentially a product of the un-sustainability of our world, potentiated by air pollution, by glyphosate, by obesity, by our high velocity lifestyles and the fact that we are aggressively eroding into the natural world and exposing ourselves to ever higher levels of risk.

Something is deeply wrong and we should be suspicious. The Epstein case is rocking the world, what could have been construed as some kind of conspiracy fantasy is not only turning out to be true, it is clearly far worse than that. If you had put this story line into a novel credibility would have been suspended.

Signs of collapse are everywhere, the corruption of those at the core of the globalised world are failing us as they are clearly motivated by the power of vested interest. This is not good and could be a clue as to why democracy is failing us, why democrats have been replaced by autocrats and we have entered a world of fantasy and lies driven by bullies. The reflation of capitalism after the economic crash of 2008 was essentially a lie. Capitalism at that point broke its own rules, there is no ‘too big to fail’, economic failure is a feedback, it is telling you something, that you need to make fundamental changes, if you fail to listen and fail to adapt, those changes will be imposed on you by reality. If you have wealth and privilege you may live in denial a bit longer but you will inevitably be confronted with the same reality.

The economy is failing us, our leaders are failing us, and we are accelerating toward collapse every day that we fail to listen and make changes.

Uneducated Economist resonated with me as the guy is clearly reflecting on his own experience, rather than high academic theory. My own take on economics is that we lost our way a long time ago, pursuing wealth and money as an end, rather than understanding that economics and ecology are of the same root and explore how we might meet our needs within the context of a living planet which clearly needs to meet its own needs in order for us to continue thriving.

In this piece he points out that when lowering interest rates to almost zero has failed and the only remaining place to go is negative yields – something that would require a cashless society which would bring us many more problems on top. We have reached the stage where economists want to warp reality to fit their economic models, is it only me but I don’t think this will work out for the best.

I am not a lawyer, I am not trying to build a legal case, but as a permaculture designer I am trying to join the dots and figure out what is going on and how can we best respond to it?

I am going wide on the sources, as this develops we are going to be seeing everyone talking about it. I am determined not to go down a rabbit hole on this, I think this case is giving us an insight into a world we know nothing about, a world of unfettered power and privilege.

Saagar Enjeti gives an update on the case against former Jeffrey Epstein associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.

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Richard Wolff is the leading voice for Marxist economics in the US. His analysis is an essential perspective at this moment.

The economic crash is now here, and it is hitting hard and fast, this is a breakdown in capitalism..

“it is a tsunami in economic terms” – Prof. Richard Wolff