Reality vs Cloud Cuckoo Land

[Emil Miller]

Standing in a bar today amidst the usual boozy chit chat, I turned to the business section of my newspaper and read the headline 'Britain at risk as IMF warns of global slump'. Having read the article, I turned to page three and read 'Soros predicts class war and riots'.

Here's an extract from the first item giving the Governor of the Bank of England's assessment of the current situation :

Yesterday, the International Monetary Fund cut its growth forecast for the economy this year from 1.6 per cent to 0.6 per cent and predicted that Europe would fall into recession.
On the same day, Britain’s national debt rose above £1trillion for the first time.
In his first speech of the year, Sir Mervyn acknowledged that consumers had seen a “ferocious squeeze” on take-home pay, with the longest running fall in wages since the 1920s. Debt remained too high, he said, and he urged bankers to take a responsible approach to pay and perks, as RBS prepares to give seven figure bonuses to its top executives.
Addressing business leaders in Brighton, Sir Mervyn said: “After the steepest downturn in output since the 1930s, the UK economy is in the process of re balancing . . . the path of recovery is likely to be arduous, long and uneven. The position of the world economy, especially in the euro area, is serious.”

And here's George Soros's view of the situation:

In an interview ahead of a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the 81-year-old said that for the first time in his career he was baffled by the current state of the market, and saw no way to avoid a violent crisis which at its worst could result in the total collapse of the financial system.
Known as the "man who broke the Bank of England" after betting against the pound on Black Wednesday in 1992, Mr Soros plans to use his Davos address to issue a stern warning that he now considers it "more likely than not" that Greece will default in 2012. And unless Europe's leaders do more to stop it, the euro is likely to collapse with a devastating impact on the rest of the world, he will add.
The financier compared the crisis to the collapse of the Soviet empire and the Great Depression, adding that the old belief in the power of the market to prevent turmoil could no longer be relied upon.
He told Newsweek: "The euro must survive because the alternative – a break-up – would cause a meltdown that Europe, the world, can't afford. I'm not here to cheer you up. The situation is about as serious and difficult as I've known in my career. We are facing now a general retrenchment in the developed world.
"The best-case scenario is a deflationary environment. The worst-case scenario is a collapse of the financial system. We need to move from the Age of Reason to the Age of Fallibility in order to have a proper understanding of the problems."
Warning that violence on the streets was inevitable unless the problems of unemployment and debt were addressed, he warned this could lead to the erosion of civil liberties and installation of a police state.
Asked about the likelihood of riots in the US, he said: "Yes, yes, yes. It will be an excuse for cracking down and using strong arm tactics to maintain law and order which, carried to an extreme, could bring about a repressive political system, a society where individual liberty is much more constrained."


Now it's unlikely that any of the customers in that pub have any idea what is coming, because they prefer to believe in some undefined way that they will carry on as before and need only worry who's going to win some football match or what they should drink next. So the question is should we live in cloud cuckoo land or take note of the situation and prepare for its consequences?

[tonywalt]

Hang in there Emil!

I am very careful when listening to George Soros. He will preach 'doom' or 'boom' and then simply make financial side bets accordingly. I have to give him some due to his talent for making money from money, for lack of better description, but he is a bottom feeder and can and does move markets to his advantage.

His support for the Occupy Wall Street movement was on the floor laughable. He has been a mercenary money trader his entire career - and that is no sin, but then to condemn his own vocation while continuing that vocation is the very height of hypocrisy.

I would say we will persevere like we have always persevered. I will keep my chin up and keep bowling forward:smile5:

[Emil Miller]

Hang in there Emil!

I am very careful when listening to George Soros. He will preach 'doom' or 'boom' and then simply make financial side bets accordingly. I have to give him some due to his talent for making money from money, for lack of better description, but he is a bottom feeder and can and does move markets to his advantage.

His support for the Occupy Wall Street movement was on the floor laughable. He has been a mercenary money trader his entire career - and that is no sin, but then to condemn his own vocation while continuing that vocation is the very height of hypocrisy.

I would say we will persevere like we have always persevered. I will keep my chin up and keep bowling forward:smile5:

Yes you are right about Soros and he may be stirring the pot to his own advantage but the dangers he warns of are borne out by so many others in financial circles, including Mervyn King, so if that's his game, he looks to be on a winner. I have been watching the situation closely since even before 2008 and have reached a similar conclusion to Soros whatever his motives may be.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I'll probably drift in-between both extremes a little bit here and there, overall though I think that I'll generally gravitate towards Cloud Cuckoo Land because it is a saner place to be. After all there is little that I can personally do about it so I might as well crack open another beer and enjoy things.

I'm not too fused with reality at the moment anyway. For example, I've just come back from a pub lunch after a doing some tutoring and witnessed a new low. I was reading on the bus and I heard a mother say to her child "stop swearing at me again or... [something, something, inaudible]". I looked up from my book to see a two year old in a pram, complete with a dummy, 'mouthing off' at her mother. Two year old. So if this is the new reality (the new brilliant youth) I think I will take the Cloud Cuckoo Land where children are innocent and respectful and lambs skip in fields in springtime.

I'm going off track with your actual point a little here, but if you do think about the super rich getting richer and everyone else getting poorer and the growing unease, it just makes you so angry, that it is probably healthier to be off with the fairies anyway.

Of course choosing to be in Cloud Cuckoo Land rather than reality, is also a different matter than being ignorant of the facts, whatever they may be...

[tonywalt]

I'll probably drift in-between both extremes a little bit here and there, overall though I think that I'll generally gravitate towards Cloud Cuckoo Land because it is a saner place to be. After all there is little that I can personally do about it so I might as well crack open another beer and enjoy things.

Agreed, not much else to do. I think we have seen worst times, Britain was skint after WWII and it took them 20 years to recover in terms of economy. I am still very happy to British living in a British colony.

I'm not too fused with reality at the moment anyway. For example, I've just come back from a pub lunch after a doing some tutoring and witnessed a new low. I was reading on the bus and I heard a mother say to her child "stop swearing at me again or... [something, something, inaudible]". I looked up from my book to see a two year old in a pram, complete with a dummy, 'mouthing off' at her mother. Two year old. So if this is the new reality (the new brilliant youth) I think I will take the Cloud Cuckoo Land where children are innocent and respectful and lambs skip in fields in springtime.

Yes, I am afraid we are in sort of a Planet of the Apes existance or certainly the inmates are running the place.

I'm going off track with your actual point a little here, but if you do think about the super rich getting richer and everyone else getting poorer and the growing unease, it just makes you so angry, that it is probably healthier to be off with the fairies anyway.

Of course choosing to be in Cloud Cuckoo Land rather than reality, is also a different matter than being ignorant of the facts, whatever they may be...

Life can be a bit like playing monopoly, once you have 'all or most the money' it's damn hard for someone else to remove you. If you ever played the game and been on either side of the equation you can draw the same parallel. The trick is to keep everyone thinking they can really become wealthy and working damn hard. Strangly the sheeple do just that.

[tonywalt]

Yes you are right about Soros and he may be stirring the pot to his own advantage but the dangers he warns of are borne out by so many others in financial circles, including Mervyn King, so if that's his game, he looks to be on a winner. I have been watching the situation closely since even before 2008 and have reached a similar conclusion to Soros whatever his motives may be.

Agreed, although sometimes things in the financial sector can easily evolve into a self fulfilling scenario. Money can run or evaporate based on fact or fiction in equal measure. I do not wholly disagree with him, but the man has very thought out agendas - plural.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Meh. There's always doomsayers predicting our future dystopia. It seems 90% of the time it's just empty bluster. According to many pundits a few years ago, gas should be 10$ a gallon, have the world's population should be wiped out by whatever that flu was called, and the economy should mirror something akin to the universe of The Road Warrior. I don't listen to it anymore.

[Emil Miller]

I'll probably drift in-between both extremes a little bit here and there, overall though I think that I'll generally gravitate towards Cloud Cuckoo Land because it is a saner place to be. After all there is little that I can personally do about it so I might as well crack open another beer and enjoy things.

I'm not too fused with reality at the moment anyway. For example, I've just come back from a pub lunch after a doing some tutoring and witnessed a new low. I was reading on the bus and I heard a mother say to her child "stop swearing at me again or... [something, something, inaudible]". I looked up from my book to see a two year old in a pram, complete with a dummy, 'mouthing off' at her mother. Two year old. So if this is the new reality (the new brilliant youth) I think I will take the Cloud Cuckoo Land where children are innocent and respectful and lambs skip in fields in springtime.

I'm going off track with your actual point a little here, but if you do think about the super rich getting richer and everyone else getting poorer and the growing unease, it just makes you so angry, that it is probably healthier to be off with the fairies anyway.

Of course choosing to be in Cloud Cuckoo Land rather than reality, is also a different matter than being ignorant of the facts, whatever they may be...

Well call me cynical if you will and you may well be right but it's fascinating to watch what's happening. Choosing to be off with the fairies whilst knowing the facts is understandable but there are multitudes who do so without having any idea of what is going on and their acting in ignorance is the stuff of history.

[irish319]

i know this doesnt belong on your forum, but can one of you help me real quick with my plagiarism problem? http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1109477#post1109477

[Emil Miller]

Agreed, although sometimes things in the financial sector can easily evolve into a self fulfilling scenario.

Well that's what's happening in the Eurozone with France loosing its triple A after the US and its banks being downgraded. Despite Frau Merkel's best efforts, the whole thing looks set to implode with the consequences that Soros has warned of. If I were working, I would be very worried about the outcome but as I am not, I'm watching from the sidelines as the whole thing starts to unravel. These are interesting times to be alive and much more diverting than who is going to win the cup or what will happen in the next episode of a soap opera.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Is this the start of the new round of bonuses or is this just an extra bonus; a bonus bonus?

RBS chief Stephen Hester to get £963,000 bonus

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16751691

That will show me for bothering to click on the news.

................................

FREE GOLDEN HEN ALE AVAILABLE TOMORROW!

In Cloud Cuckoo Land tomorrow there will be plenty of free Golden Hen Ale available to all. Meet by the gentle stream by the orchard at any time you please. Why not bring a book and sit on the sweet grass listening to the birdsong, or if you fancy chat with friends over lunch (free lunch is also provided, organic of course)? Bring your suncream too. All welcome. See you there.

[Darcy88]

Asked about the likelihood of riots in the US, he said: "Yes, yes, yes. It will be an excuse for cracking down and using strong arm tactics to maintain law and order which, carried to an extreme, could bring about a repressive political system, a society where individual liberty is much more constrained."

I agree Emil, things look bleak. The National Defense Authorization Act is an egregious transgression of the American constitution and a taste of the scary stuff to come. Why the NDAA now? Class warfare, that's why.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

If Newt becomes president, NDAA will possibly be the biggest mistake this country has ever made.

[educatedNreverS]

If you don't separate yourself from 'normal' every once in a while, you will surely go crazy in the simple way that the term, as it is intended, does not exist. To every single person is a concept of 'normal' pertaining on how they percieve the term, and that perception being based entirely on how they imagine everyone else views the matter. So basically the word 'normal' would have to be an association derived from too many perspectives to be consided concisely attainable and as a result, the entire concept of a normal reality can only possibly be achieved in a place as paradoxally acceptable as CLOUD CRAZY LAND.... my advice: stay there! it'll make way more sense in the end.

[tonywalt]

If you don't separate yourself from 'normal' every once in a while, you will surely go crazy in the simple way that the term, as it is intended, does not exist. To every single person is a concept of 'normal' pertaining on how they percieve the term, and that perception being based entirely on how they imagine everyone else views the matter. So basically the word 'normal' would have to be an association derived from too many perspectives to be consided concisely attainable and as a result, the entire concept of a normal reality can only possibly be achieved in a place as paradoxally acceptable as CLOUD CRAZY LAND.... my advice: stay there! it'll make way more sense in the end.

I love this place:confused:

[PoeticPassions]

Sometimes I lose sleep due to the worries I have for the state of affairs and the future of the world. I live in a place that is in a constant recession, but 2012 is looking to be even bleaker and more difficult than years past. I worry a new conflict will break out... and I truly worry that the rest of the world will also implode to some degree. Rising wealth gaps, rising rates of poverty, financial instability, diminishing resources, climate change... I think people will recover, but it will take a long time.

And watching the Republicans in the US really makes me want to cry... if they are a reflection of a trend (and of the masses) within the US, then it is indeed a sad future ahead...
Not to mention that social security is not sustainable...

And the news today... 'Spain's unemployment figure passed the five million mark in the last quarter of 2011...'

[Emil Miller]

Is this the start of the new round of bonuses or is this just an extra bonus; a bonus bonus?

RBS chief Stephen Hester to get £963,000 bonus

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16751691

That will show me for bothering to click on the news.

................................

FREE GOLDEN HEN ALE AVAILABLE TOMORROW!

In Cloud Cuckoo Land tomorrow there will be plenty of free Golden Hen Ale available to all. Meet by the gentle stream by the orchard at any time you please. Why not bring a book and sit on the sweet grass listening to the birdsong, or if you fancy chat with friends over lunch (free lunch is also provided, organic of course)? Bring your suncream too. All welcome. See you there.

You forget to mention ear muffs to deaden the sound of gun fire.



I agree Emil, things look bleak. The National Defense Authorization Act is an egregious transgression of the American constitution and a taste of the scary stuff to come. Why the NDAA now? Class warfare, that's why.

I noticed that it has already raised a few eyebrows in the US, and makes one wonder how that nice Mr Obama could have allowed such a thing.:wink5:


If Newt becomes president, NDAA will possibly be the biggest mistake this country has ever made.

Some people might say that Newt becoming president would be the biggest mistake but, if a majority think otherwise, then Newt it will be.

[YesNo]

When it comes to the global economy and deflation, I prefer the advice of Robert Prechter of Elliott Wave International who, I suspect, is even more bearish than Soros.

Well, it's 2012 and we're expecting the end of the world anyway.

[papayahed]

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