so it occurred to me that even though we haven't really had a chance to talk that I it might be beneficial to take advantage of some of the wonderful technology that I've been taking for granted. I left a SIFE presentation tonight, primarily because I wasn't content with how the panel had chosen to address some of the concerns. I left also because I had quite a few questions regarding the economic impact of the financial markets and I thought that rather than disrupt the panel with my bleak and loaded questions that it might be better served to dialog with someone who was a little less biased on the issue. That being said, I am aware that there have been times that I have been prone to paranoia. A discussion that I had about the Ameros, however, has stimulated some deep thought that I may need to get a little bit of clarity on before I spend time ruminating over the issue.
Ameros
I did read a little bit about the rumored currency and I haven't quite decided how I feel about it. I'm not exactly clear on who is pushing to unify the currency and what their motivation is behind it. It seems that with three large centralized monetary systems that the potential for a considerable amount of conflict could arise particularly considering that the three governments propsed for the arrangements operate on three such different paradigms. I don't know that it would be beneficial for Mexico or Canada to devalue their own financial markets to accomodate such a finicky and fluctuating consumerist culture here that is driven mostly by erratic market trends. While I can't say the same for Mexico, Canada appears to have a lot to lose from entering into such an agreement with the united States, because this country doesn't really have all of its "ducks in a row" when it comes to the universal funding of its healthcare and educational systems. If the markets continue to deteriorate here, even with the adoption of the new currency, that's not going to leave those Americans left with any sense many options of places to run to ;) .
In all seriousness, I'm beginning to feel that before any other nation could consider making such a bold and risky move, there would have to be more evidence of financial stability and cohesiveness in the activities of each nation's markets in order to be most effective. Because each of the economies are based upon such different modes of implementation and are central to such different types of lifestyles, I don't know that having a unified currency would serve the best interest of those whom we'd like to see benefit from making such a move. As you alluded earlier, it would probably take something quite drastic to push these nations into such a hasty agreement without having an intricate system of checks and balances in place, and I haven't seen where any of these nations have demonstrated the capacity to implement something this delicate without there being a ridiculous amount of opportunities for corruption to take place. Who would be in charge of ensuring that this system wasn't exploited to the detriment of the rest of us, whom they've failed to involve? Would the national treasuries be in charge of circulation or would they have to organize a new agency to handle these matters? Who would make this determination and who would decide who to put into place in order to bring these changes about?
I just worry that trying to spread our poor economic influence over other nations with are growing debt isn't going to create more problems for us in the future. It kind of feels like the Great Britain cycle of spreading itself out too thin which inevitably met its demise. I can't tell if we're deregulating our own faulty system or creating one that's going to be even more detrimental to everyone in the long run. But then, if the American dollar has deflated as much as it has been rumored, then perhaps we won't have much of a choice. Perhaps I'm looking at this from the wrong perspective. In that case, by all means, please direct me where I can get a better understanding of the issue.
Deflating Markets
I also had questions about that crisis someone was talking about. I watched this video and Colin Powell seemed very definitive about the affirmation that there would be a crisis. Is this based upon existing intelligence or speculation? Have you heard anything further about this assertion? It sounds very dangerous whatever it is and I pray that it has nothing to do with our financial markets. It did get me thinking, however, about a few questions.
- Who stands to benefit if our markets collapse?
- Is there someone or some organization out there that is pushing for that kind of a crisis?
Do you think that people here would purposely create the conditions for a situation like that to happen? - If so, what lengths do you think that they'd be willing to go and how do we best prepare ourselves?
- If not, and it hypothetically happens ourside of our domain, how are crisises like this generally handled?
- How do you think the new administration would respond? I don't know that we can continue to pull bailouts and stimulus packages out of thin air. Would we even have enough funding and support to fix it?
- Is there way to prevent something like that from occurring, or are we doomed to the ill fates brought about by others?
- How effective would martial law even be and would they be able to even implement it with the state of credibility that the united states government and military (not to mention funding) has lost over the years?
I feel like I have spent years avoiding thinking about worse case scenarios, and yet when they occur I find that my biggest distress comes from not having been adequately prepared. I certainly don't want to see things degenerate into chaos, but if something climactic like that were to occur, I'm going to have to start making a lot of ethical decisions about what I'm going to be willing to stand for and I would just like to have an idea of what I'm up against. You certainly aren't obligated to answer any of these questions. I just think in lieu of tonight's topics that it was good for me to get some of it off of my mind. I didn't know who to ask about my concerns and you seemed to be the most knowledgable on the subject, so you kind of got to be the lucky candidate.
-"phi*G"
"By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The non-existent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired."
-- Nikos Kazantzakis
