Erle Frayne D. Argonza
The debates by presidential candidates have been reverberating the media audiences in the country for couples of weeks now. The issues have ranged from those that are social policy-oriented (subsidies to poor, health, education, housing, jobs) to macro-economic policies (sustaining growth, accelerating development) and moral policies (corruption, reproductive health). Some articulations of foreign policy were also heard from the competing gentlemen.
Seemingly confusing in their broadness, somehow the various forums for the debates (not actual debates but simply presentation of each one’s opinion about policy questions) did give a semblance of information-based campaigns by enthused candidates. This is already quite a departure from previous polls when debates were sparse and superficial, and should be lauded by observers.
What this analyst, who is a public policy expert, wishes to see clearly in the debates is the economic issue of whether to highlight the physical economy policies versus the virtual economy in the management of jobs and wealth creation by the next government. I raised this same question in the last presidential poll in the USA that pitted Senators Obama and McCain in a neck-to-neck fight. I shared my own assessment then that Sen. Obama resonated nearest to a physical economy inclination and should be supported by USA’s voters.
To reminisce a bit, the national economies saw the radical ascent of Reaganomic policies of privatization, deregulation, liberalization, and reinforcing policies beginning in 1980. Such policies led to the rapid integration of nations into a global economy, liberalized the cross-border flow of financial and monetary assets, and eventually led to the predominance of the ‘virtual economy’ based on predatory finance.
In the mid-90s, the Philippines saw its investments structure alarmingly imbalanced, with 86% or 6/7 of total comprising of portfolio capital, and only 1/7 or barely 16% in real or physical economy investments inclusive of FDIs (direct foreign investments). As early as 1989, I already raised the alarm bells that excessive radical liberalization of the economy could jeopardize the financial sector in the short run and lead to an economic collapse that could be far worst than the 1984-86 Depression of the Marcos era.
When a situation comes that the virtual economy dominates over the physical economy (agriculture, industry, S & T, transport) and subordinates the latter, a bubble is created. A bubble economy is one that grows on the basis of speculations in stocks and predatory operations of financial derivatives (secondary debt papers traded in the global market), and is bound to collapse when a burst comes since it isn’t based on tangible goods.
Surely enough, when the bubble burst in Thailand in June 1996, the ‘butterfly effect’ of a mini-flapping of wings created a storm across a vast region. We then dubbed that crisis as the ‘Asian financial meltdown’. The economies and financial institutions that had the greatest exposure to portfolio finance suffered the most.
The worst was yet to come though, as the USA had to wait for 2007 before it would experience its own crash, a catastrophic crash that spread to Europe and Japan (twas barely out of a decade-long recession). The same bubble economy and its predictable burst led to the crash, a recession that hasn’t fully retreated yet. Europe is still in flames today (watch the financial flames in Greece, Spain, Finland), while Japan remains as flat as it was during its 10-year crisis (1994-2004).
The fact of the matter is that, in a virtual economy, the predatory financiers (bankers included) gain the most, while the people pay the price for the collapse. And the payment comes in the form of ‘stimulus package’ that are derived from tax revenues. So the equation is that financiers run away with the massive loot, and the people pay for the cost of the looting crime. The culprits then run away largely unpunished, while the people face the punitive flames of massive business closures, retrenchment, unemployment, and bad debts.
In my book Fair Trade & Food Security (Kaisampalad publication, 2005/07), I emphatically stressed that we have to reverse the free market and free trade policies to be able to regain economic wellness. Reversal means we have to go back to the principles of regulated economy (production, trade, distribution, consumption), and replace free trade with fair trade in our international trade.
Strong regulatory frameworks, coupled with strong institutions and good governance, will redound to bringing back the physical economy into place. With the economy based on the physical or real economy, this country and any country for that matter will weather any economic storm both local and global. There is ample funds to pay national debts, balance the budget, fund social programs, create jobs, and increase wages.
Among all presidential candidates, only that of Senator Manny Villar so far resonates the strongest in terms of echoing the physical economy. This resonance could be explained by the fact that the noblesse legislator immersed himself in housing & infrastructures for the longest time of his life as an entrepreneur, and only fractionally engaged in speculative engagements. Besides, he was witness to the maelstrom on the realty sector caused by the bubble burst of ’97, a burst that wasn’t of his own making as it was the maneuverings of George Soros & pals via currency attacks (monetary markets) that led to the meltdown.
I hope you would agree with me that the slogan for this year’s polls would be: “It’s the physical economy, stupid!”
[Philippines, 19 March 2010]
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Sunday, March 21, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
ERAP CANDIDACY: CHINESE MAFIA RETURNS WITH VENGEANCE
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
The world may be aghast at the latest eventuality where a jailed ex-president of the Philippines, Joseph Ejercito or Erap, was allowed to run again as president of the country. Overthrown in 2001 after massive plunder of the public coffers led to a near system collapse, and having served couples of years in jail for his sordid crime, Erap is back again in the campaign trails, wooing the rural and urban underclasses that serve as his voters’ base.
To recall, the public knew and highlighted the rather obvious plunder of the coffers by the Erap regime then. What was less visible, with evidence more of circumstantial (to use legalese parlance), was the ballooning role of the Chinese mafia, or Triad, in East Asia as a result of the victory in the Philippines of a coterie of organized crime operators led by no less than the President Erap.
East Asia has been largely a backyard for drug traders for nigh centuries, even as such operations were largely in the hands of the (a) British drug traders and (b) Triad operators. The said traders operated on a modus vivendi modality, and maintained a ‘balance of drug trade’ as partners in crime. Any imbalance in the trade—caused by the over-bearing domination of the same by the Triad—would be highly prejudicial to the British traders from whose hands depend the operations of British & Dutch financiers and the wellness Western economy for that matter.
Simply put, any imbalance in the trade in favor of the Triad & Asian organized crime partners would greatly impair the flexibility of maneuverings by the Western financiers who, as we all know, comprise a cartel that had yoked the global and national economies in their predatory pursuits. Financier operations are dependent to a large degree on underworld operations of gold trade that is tied up to the drug trade—the linkage being that drug traders often than not trade in gold more than in paper bills (dollars, pounds, euros).
What peoples of the world knew so little about was that the Erap regime was galvanizing the Philippines into a mafia state where government was merely a paper institution. Power was about to be brokered or exercised entirely by Triad & Partners godfathers, and should the same regime been allowed to stretch a couple of more years to govern, the domino effect could have seen Triad puppet states rising in Asia and elsewhere.
To say that the Erap overthrow was merely one of historical accident—accomplished by Filipinos via people power—is to overstress mass ignoramus by a dumb Herd of folks. Erap’s overthrow was determinatively and deliberately plotted by the Western financiers or global oligarchs (they’re the same by the way), whose Filipino puppet operator was Fidel Ramos and certain local technocratic-oligarchic circles embedded in the Makati Business Club.
Thus, the Erap overthrow returned the ‘balance of drug trade’ in the ‘ecology of organized crime’, so to speak. … That is, until the 10th of May 2010, when the next presidential poll comes.
As of this writing, the poll ratings of Erap have again been moving up. Whether this upsurge can be factored to Erap’s popularity alone is highly contentious. My intuition tells me that behind the scene, mafia operators are silently working to bring fresh cash and patronage gifts to the underclasses—funds that don’t pass at all in the hands of the Erap campaign organizers—by way of gargantuan drug sales, large parts of which are funneled to covert grassroots operators.
Is it really coincidental that tons of cocaine were dropped off in haste from sea vessels, with large amounts landing in the hands of fisherfolk? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to recognize that vessels were in the act of transacting with local mafia operators—aimed at flash and lightning-speed transactions to gain funds for the traders and surplus for the underclasses as well?
With the return to the electoral arena of Erap the mafia godfathers’ favorite subaltern, Triads & Allied mobs have to quickly put into place a contingency plan that may facilitate their installation of puppet regimes in the region. Such regimes’ presence would instantly magnify the incomes of the criminal operators, and will enable them to buy more state officials and business groups across Asia, with the end-goal of completely erasing the divide between legitimate business and criminal operations.
Such an erasure of the distinction between legitimate business and mafia operations was excellently institutionalized in Russia, where the oligarchs are likewise mafia operators themselves. This happened during the country’s rush to privatize state firms, under the aegis of the British financiers’ puppet president Yeltsin. Already deeply ensconced in Russian life, the 9,000 mafia groups were the only ones who possessed the money to buy state firms.
At one juncture in the early 90s, 80% of Russia’s enterprises was in the hands of organized crime, and was alarming to say the least. It was just a matter of time before the ballistic missiles and modern armaments of Russia would land in the hands of the oligarchic mafia lords, and the situation proved far tougher to deal with than the previous situation of brining down the Stalinist state.
It has to take some Draconian measures from the dreaded KGB (renamed as FSB) to checkmate the powers of the criminal godfathers in Russia. And the power struggle between the mafia and KGB continues up until these days, with the KGB taking the upper hand when its agent Putin ruled the country and began jailing oligarchs as cautionary reminder to criminal godfathers that the Russian patriots will not be sitting ducks to the predatory plunder of the nation’s wealth and arms by demonic malefactor gangs.
Will such a situation galvanize in the Philippines too? How many votes can be mustered by Erap in the next polls remain to be counted and seen. What this analyst sees clearly is that every vote of Erap is a vote for the mafia godfathers and the consequent erasure of the business-criminal syndication divide. Conversely, every vote against Erap means a vote of repudiation against that demonic future of mafia-state unity.
[Philippines, 19 March 2010]
The world may be aghast at the latest eventuality where a jailed ex-president of the Philippines, Joseph Ejercito or Erap, was allowed to run again as president of the country. Overthrown in 2001 after massive plunder of the public coffers led to a near system collapse, and having served couples of years in jail for his sordid crime, Erap is back again in the campaign trails, wooing the rural and urban underclasses that serve as his voters’ base.
To recall, the public knew and highlighted the rather obvious plunder of the coffers by the Erap regime then. What was less visible, with evidence more of circumstantial (to use legalese parlance), was the ballooning role of the Chinese mafia, or Triad, in East Asia as a result of the victory in the Philippines of a coterie of organized crime operators led by no less than the President Erap.
East Asia has been largely a backyard for drug traders for nigh centuries, even as such operations were largely in the hands of the (a) British drug traders and (b) Triad operators. The said traders operated on a modus vivendi modality, and maintained a ‘balance of drug trade’ as partners in crime. Any imbalance in the trade—caused by the over-bearing domination of the same by the Triad—would be highly prejudicial to the British traders from whose hands depend the operations of British & Dutch financiers and the wellness Western economy for that matter.
Simply put, any imbalance in the trade in favor of the Triad & Asian organized crime partners would greatly impair the flexibility of maneuverings by the Western financiers who, as we all know, comprise a cartel that had yoked the global and national economies in their predatory pursuits. Financier operations are dependent to a large degree on underworld operations of gold trade that is tied up to the drug trade—the linkage being that drug traders often than not trade in gold more than in paper bills (dollars, pounds, euros).
What peoples of the world knew so little about was that the Erap regime was galvanizing the Philippines into a mafia state where government was merely a paper institution. Power was about to be brokered or exercised entirely by Triad & Partners godfathers, and should the same regime been allowed to stretch a couple of more years to govern, the domino effect could have seen Triad puppet states rising in Asia and elsewhere.
To say that the Erap overthrow was merely one of historical accident—accomplished by Filipinos via people power—is to overstress mass ignoramus by a dumb Herd of folks. Erap’s overthrow was determinatively and deliberately plotted by the Western financiers or global oligarchs (they’re the same by the way), whose Filipino puppet operator was Fidel Ramos and certain local technocratic-oligarchic circles embedded in the Makati Business Club.
Thus, the Erap overthrow returned the ‘balance of drug trade’ in the ‘ecology of organized crime’, so to speak. … That is, until the 10th of May 2010, when the next presidential poll comes.
As of this writing, the poll ratings of Erap have again been moving up. Whether this upsurge can be factored to Erap’s popularity alone is highly contentious. My intuition tells me that behind the scene, mafia operators are silently working to bring fresh cash and patronage gifts to the underclasses—funds that don’t pass at all in the hands of the Erap campaign organizers—by way of gargantuan drug sales, large parts of which are funneled to covert grassroots operators.
Is it really coincidental that tons of cocaine were dropped off in haste from sea vessels, with large amounts landing in the hands of fisherfolk? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to recognize that vessels were in the act of transacting with local mafia operators—aimed at flash and lightning-speed transactions to gain funds for the traders and surplus for the underclasses as well?
With the return to the electoral arena of Erap the mafia godfathers’ favorite subaltern, Triads & Allied mobs have to quickly put into place a contingency plan that may facilitate their installation of puppet regimes in the region. Such regimes’ presence would instantly magnify the incomes of the criminal operators, and will enable them to buy more state officials and business groups across Asia, with the end-goal of completely erasing the divide between legitimate business and criminal operations.
Such an erasure of the distinction between legitimate business and mafia operations was excellently institutionalized in Russia, where the oligarchs are likewise mafia operators themselves. This happened during the country’s rush to privatize state firms, under the aegis of the British financiers’ puppet president Yeltsin. Already deeply ensconced in Russian life, the 9,000 mafia groups were the only ones who possessed the money to buy state firms.
At one juncture in the early 90s, 80% of Russia’s enterprises was in the hands of organized crime, and was alarming to say the least. It was just a matter of time before the ballistic missiles and modern armaments of Russia would land in the hands of the oligarchic mafia lords, and the situation proved far tougher to deal with than the previous situation of brining down the Stalinist state.
It has to take some Draconian measures from the dreaded KGB (renamed as FSB) to checkmate the powers of the criminal godfathers in Russia. And the power struggle between the mafia and KGB continues up until these days, with the KGB taking the upper hand when its agent Putin ruled the country and began jailing oligarchs as cautionary reminder to criminal godfathers that the Russian patriots will not be sitting ducks to the predatory plunder of the nation’s wealth and arms by demonic malefactor gangs.
Will such a situation galvanize in the Philippines too? How many votes can be mustered by Erap in the next polls remain to be counted and seen. What this analyst sees clearly is that every vote of Erap is a vote for the mafia godfathers and the consequent erasure of the business-criminal syndication divide. Conversely, every vote against Erap means a vote of repudiation against that demonic future of mafia-state unity.
[Philippines, 19 March 2010]
NOYNOY: CROCODILES' SMOKESCREEN
Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
[07 January 2010]
Noynoy Aquino, presidential candidate of the Liberal Party, has been projecting an image of an anti-graft crusader for some couples of years now. To recall, he was cajoled by his Mama, the late president Corazon Aquino, to join the anti-GMA movement precisely on the issue of good governance.
After his Mama’s death, public sentiment blew the winds of electoral fortune for Noynoy to take on the Aquino’s unblemished mantle and run as president of the republic. Seeing this groundswell of public sympathy arising from his Mama’s departure, vested interests of every shade found a window of opportunity to reap future rewards as largesse of a would-be victorious campaign of Cory Aquino’s son.
Indeed, as shown by preliminary information that reached my ears late last year, Noynoy is surrounded by diverse vested interest groups that (a) couldn’t see each other eye-to-eye and (b) are in active search for a smokescreen for their largesse pursuits. Some of the leading elements were former Ramos- and Erap-era bureaucrats, while others served GMA during her early heydays. Some others represent ideological blocs that are known for their classic opportunism, obstructionism, factionalism, and ‘termite behavior’.
Anyone who is interested to do serious empirical studies on graft and rent-seeking is advised to start with the Noynoy camp. There are couples of circles surrounding Noynoy, all of which the bachelor has no control over.
• Friends and kins comprise a ring of influence-peddlers. This ‘circle’ alone comprises a diversity of “we-bulong” factions that somehow show a semblance of goodwill though on a superficial level. A Noynoy presidency would serve as bread-winning opportunity for the crocodiles within them, in case Noynoy wins.
• Experts comprise another ring of potential state carpetbaggers. While the first ring shows semblance of mutual goodwill, the experts’ ring hardly shows such goodwill at all. During the crafting of Noynoy’s platform, the factions couldn’t even see each other eye-to-eye to iron out the agenda. No wonder that the final platform turned out as a hodge-podge of mother statements that was haphazardly finished to meet the deadline of the Comelec for registration. All of these factions are crocodile nests.
• Civil society groups comprise yet another ring. The Black & White Movement, largely a social democratic-controlled coalition, seems to have the strongest “bulong power” which renders the other social democratic or ‘soc-dem’ factions ‘outside the kulambo’. The unconsolidated state of these diverse groups make it so tough for volunteers to join the Noynoy camp, as they are pressed to identify first of all which faction could be most friendly to them. The top crocodile here is led by a former GMA cabinet member whose coalition received funds from treasuries when her sibling was finance secretary.
• The Liberal Party comprises the final inner ring. Final, because this serves as Noynoy’s homebase group being a party-mate. Fr. Intengan’s ‘soc-dem’ cadres are well entrenched in the directorate and think-tank of the party (even as another Intengan ‘soc-dem’, Norbie Gonzales, is in the GMA camp). The same ‘soc-dems’ possess a lifeline in Europe—the Eurosocialists and Jesuits—who can use them for Europe’s own Bonapartist agenda. Meanwhile, other kibitzer liberals, who are simply eager to waft in the energy of the Noynoy upsurge to gain respective electoral mileage, are just that: kibitzers whose fragmentary opinions wouldn’t weigh as much as the Intengan Euro-bonding puppets and the stalwart oldies.
I was almost lured into the Noynoy trap right after the burial of the Tita Cory. But after receiving information about the inner rings and realizing the power of the Primal-Corruptitious among the crocodile leaders, I decided against this pro-Noynoy option.
Maybe Noynoy should present clear credentials of a true-and-honest saintliness that may make his words worth the salt of the earth. He is hardly any perfected human who merits my attention, which makes it all clear that the country needs a leader—a true leader who’s most experienced, prepared, and has made enormous sacrifices as prelude to his preparation for a feat with Destiny—other than Noynoy.
[07 January 2010]
Noynoy Aquino, presidential candidate of the Liberal Party, has been projecting an image of an anti-graft crusader for some couples of years now. To recall, he was cajoled by his Mama, the late president Corazon Aquino, to join the anti-GMA movement precisely on the issue of good governance.
After his Mama’s death, public sentiment blew the winds of electoral fortune for Noynoy to take on the Aquino’s unblemished mantle and run as president of the republic. Seeing this groundswell of public sympathy arising from his Mama’s departure, vested interests of every shade found a window of opportunity to reap future rewards as largesse of a would-be victorious campaign of Cory Aquino’s son.
Indeed, as shown by preliminary information that reached my ears late last year, Noynoy is surrounded by diverse vested interest groups that (a) couldn’t see each other eye-to-eye and (b) are in active search for a smokescreen for their largesse pursuits. Some of the leading elements were former Ramos- and Erap-era bureaucrats, while others served GMA during her early heydays. Some others represent ideological blocs that are known for their classic opportunism, obstructionism, factionalism, and ‘termite behavior’.
Anyone who is interested to do serious empirical studies on graft and rent-seeking is advised to start with the Noynoy camp. There are couples of circles surrounding Noynoy, all of which the bachelor has no control over.
• Friends and kins comprise a ring of influence-peddlers. This ‘circle’ alone comprises a diversity of “we-bulong” factions that somehow show a semblance of goodwill though on a superficial level. A Noynoy presidency would serve as bread-winning opportunity for the crocodiles within them, in case Noynoy wins.
• Experts comprise another ring of potential state carpetbaggers. While the first ring shows semblance of mutual goodwill, the experts’ ring hardly shows such goodwill at all. During the crafting of Noynoy’s platform, the factions couldn’t even see each other eye-to-eye to iron out the agenda. No wonder that the final platform turned out as a hodge-podge of mother statements that was haphazardly finished to meet the deadline of the Comelec for registration. All of these factions are crocodile nests.
• Civil society groups comprise yet another ring. The Black & White Movement, largely a social democratic-controlled coalition, seems to have the strongest “bulong power” which renders the other social democratic or ‘soc-dem’ factions ‘outside the kulambo’. The unconsolidated state of these diverse groups make it so tough for volunteers to join the Noynoy camp, as they are pressed to identify first of all which faction could be most friendly to them. The top crocodile here is led by a former GMA cabinet member whose coalition received funds from treasuries when her sibling was finance secretary.
• The Liberal Party comprises the final inner ring. Final, because this serves as Noynoy’s homebase group being a party-mate. Fr. Intengan’s ‘soc-dem’ cadres are well entrenched in the directorate and think-tank of the party (even as another Intengan ‘soc-dem’, Norbie Gonzales, is in the GMA camp). The same ‘soc-dems’ possess a lifeline in Europe—the Eurosocialists and Jesuits—who can use them for Europe’s own Bonapartist agenda. Meanwhile, other kibitzer liberals, who are simply eager to waft in the energy of the Noynoy upsurge to gain respective electoral mileage, are just that: kibitzers whose fragmentary opinions wouldn’t weigh as much as the Intengan Euro-bonding puppets and the stalwart oldies.
I was almost lured into the Noynoy trap right after the burial of the Tita Cory. But after receiving information about the inner rings and realizing the power of the Primal-Corruptitious among the crocodile leaders, I decided against this pro-Noynoy option.
Maybe Noynoy should present clear credentials of a true-and-honest saintliness that may make his words worth the salt of the earth. He is hardly any perfected human who merits my attention, which makes it all clear that the country needs a leader—a true leader who’s most experienced, prepared, and has made enormous sacrifices as prelude to his preparation for a feat with Destiny—other than Noynoy.
ASEAN INTEGRATION AND THE SUCCEEDING PRESIDENCY
Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
13 December 2009
BACKGROUND
Foreign policy should not be left unaddressed by any aspiring presidential candidate. The absence of foreign policy in the platform of a candidate could prove disastrous, as it indicates the parochial mind of an aspirant who is over-focused on domestic policy and governance.
Chief issue that could very well occupy the debates would be the ASEAN integration (circa 2015). The concordance of treaties on climate change and economic policies (whether to stress on fiscal stimulus or strengthening regulations) are now ongoing, at a time when
PAST FOREIGN POLICY FOCUS
Prior to 1986 (ascendancy of the revived democracy), there was largely a dis-focus in the foreign policy field. This was an area of policy drift, so to speak, as the country had no independent foreign policy to speak of. Our foreign policy agenda then were dictated by the
Breaking out of the foreign policy chain was the greatest challenge from 1986 onwards. The Aquino regime promised to pay all of our debt obligations, thus ensuring our encumbrances with the global financial cartels. On the other hand, the Senate abrogated the US-RP Military Bases Agreement in 1991, a noble act that served as impetus for configuring a new foreign policy architecture.
The Ramos and Erap regimes continued the same subservience to the IMF-World Bank group (representing global financiers) and U.S.-centered alliances, even as the Senate signed the Visiting Forces Agreement or VFA within that two-regime period (1992-2001). The VFA was a setback to efforts by foreign policy quarters (diplomatic corps) to help us all procure a condition of independence in foreign policy, even as US troops continue to make presence in key areas of the archipelago.
The Afghan and
CHALLENGES TO THE NEXT PRESIDENCY
The efforts aimed at achieving independent foreign policy, as re-assertion of our national sovereignty, should be ensued by the succeeding presidency. The shift from external relations to overseeing the welfare of overseas Filipinos is a clear victory of the sector concerned (overseas Pinoys) and should be respected. A renewed assessment of our standing via the IMF (which imposed the disastrous austerity programs in the past) should be done, to ensure that we have indeed exited from its programs and impositions (via its ‘letters of intent’). The clamor to abrogate the VFA should be ensued while the momentum is there.
It is argued that the area where the next presidency can make a dent—foreign policy-wise—is the concurrence of a new treaty leading to the economic integration of the ASEAN at the least, and commitments to an eventual political integration at the maximum. The
Among other things, the presidency should ensure the installation of regional institutions, to note: (a) regional executive body (with rotating chairmanship), and (b) regional central bank. The tacit concurrence of Asian countries to launch an Asian currency and an Asian Monetary Fund should also be concretized, with the ASEAN serving as the hub for finalizing the setting up of such institutions. The political parties in the region should also be encouraged to form coalitions and alliances, in preparation for a future ASEAN parliament. There also is the travel & tour agreement of non-visa passports for cross-border travels by citizens and legitimate stakeholders of the region.
Towards the tail end of the presidency, the launching of an ASEAN-wide taxation system, such as the VAT and Tobin Tax (for cross-border financial transactions), should be undertaken. Needless to say, the presidency should lead in galvanizing trade agreements and implementing them region-wide, along a win/win situation for the diverse stakeholders.
The presidency should not forget the forging of a regional identity, which should be buttressed by a massive campaign to develop regional loyalty by the citizens of the region. Along the way, people-to-people interactions, exchanges and cooperation should be encouraged.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
GLOBAL ELITES FOR NOYNOY AQUINO
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
[Writ 21 January 2010]
This analyst has been a keen observer of the behavior of the global elites (‘military-industrial complex’ was coined for them in the 1950s) and their maneuverings in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. In a borderless global economic order, all the more have the global elites been flexing their muscles, with the aim of destroying nation-states in order to advance their pecuniary pursuits.
Come to think of it, this country never really was able to fully exercise sovereignty so as to effectively dis-engage itself from the global elites. As signatory to the Breton woods agreement that created the World Bank-IMF Group, this country had created enormous constrictions on its own growth and prosperity drives as greedy global oligarchs control its strategic business interests and loot its finances via liberalized currency and financial trading that the IMF-World Bank enforced.
The same oligarchic cabals (note the plural), through the Tri-Lateral Commission, were the ones who orchestrated the overthrow of the autocrat F. Marcos for stubbornly refusing to submit to their dictates. There was that juncture when Marcos released enormous amounts of gold in the global market, which effectively crashed the price of gold and angered the British-Dutch financial cartels.
The lynchpin personages in the country—political and business leaders—who serve as agents of the global oligarchs, are now aging, their influence plummeting in both public and private spheres. You can see the ‘who-is-who’ among these key crocodile players during the forum of the Makati Business Club, including that old hag of a technocrat who was World Bank’s chief operator in liberalizing the key sectors of the economy to equalize the playing field for foreign oligarchs such as those connected with George Soros (see Quantum fund investors).
My observation of unfolding political events shows that the global oligarchy is consolidating its support in just a single political team: the Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas Team. Noynoy recently spoke like a local George Bush who promised a friendly tax policy environment for Big Business, thus echoing the Jurassic Reaganomics policies of liberalization, privatization, deregulation, tax reforms, less subsidies for social services, and wage freeze.
Noynoy and the Liberal Party serve the interests of the global elites, they being the civil libertarian face to oligarchism. We wonder how the liberal agenda would cohere with their ‘bayan muna bago lahat’ cliché, since the same agenda serves oligarchic interest by creating an open door political context which will serve as the sweetener for uncontrolled greed by global looters and plunderers. Liberalism serves egotistical, self-aggrandizing pockets and not the nation & people.
It is pure and empty sophism, this liberal agenda so-called, the same sophism that served the interests in antiquity of the elites of Athens. The same Athenian oligarchy then waged ceaseless wars, with political sophists serving as public blinders for their true agenda: loot and ravage polities everywhere where their dirty hands can dip unto. Those wars—Pelopponesian Wars—led to the catastrophic decay of Greece and the destruction of its classical culture.
The agenda of the global oligarchy is to keep RP and diverse client-states into ‘weak states’ and ‘failed states’, so that eventually they can break up our nation and others into mini-states. Each mini-state will become private property of certain gigantic corporate groups, with their own corporate armies coming to their defense. The same oligarchs have already succeeded in fragmenting former Yugoslavia, and there’s no reason why they won’t proceed to bring such demonic successes to new levels such as to balkanize the Philippines.
Nationalism, not liberalism, is the ideology that can serve to galvanize us into a strong nation with strong institutions, and empower us to effectively neutralize the destructive agenda of the global oligarchy. We Filipinos need to stand together firmly against those forces that have been striving to destroy us from within and with-out, our bonds thus cemented by genuine nationalism patriotism.
This analyst has been a keen observer of the behavior of the global elites (‘military-industrial complex’ was coined for them in the 1950s) and their maneuverings in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. In a borderless global economic order, all the more have the global elites been flexing their muscles, with the aim of destroying nation-states in order to advance their pecuniary pursuits.
Come to think of it, this country never really was able to fully exercise sovereignty so as to effectively dis-engage itself from the global elites. As signatory to the Breton woods agreement that created the World Bank-IMF Group, this country had created enormous constrictions on its own growth and prosperity drives as greedy global oligarchs control its strategic business interests and loot its finances via liberalized currency and financial trading that the IMF-World Bank enforced.
The same oligarchic cabals (note the plural), through the Tri-Lateral Commission, were the ones who orchestrated the overthrow of the autocrat F. Marcos for stubbornly refusing to submit to their dictates. There was that juncture when Marcos released enormous amounts of gold in the global market, which effectively crashed the price of gold and angered the British-Dutch financial cartels.
The lynchpin personages in the country—political and business leaders—who serve as agents of the global oligarchs, are now aging, their influence plummeting in both public and private spheres. You can see the ‘who-is-who’ among these key crocodile players during the forum of the Makati Business Club, including that old hag of a technocrat who was World Bank’s chief operator in liberalizing the key sectors of the economy to equalize the playing field for foreign oligarchs such as those connected with George Soros (see Quantum fund investors).
My observation of unfolding political events shows that the global oligarchy is consolidating its support in just a single political team: the Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas Team. Noynoy recently spoke like a local George Bush who promised a friendly tax policy environment for Big Business, thus echoing the Jurassic Reaganomics policies of liberalization, privatization, deregulation, tax reforms, less subsidies for social services, and wage freeze.
Noynoy and the Liberal Party serve the interests of the global elites, they being the civil libertarian face to oligarchism. We wonder how the liberal agenda would cohere with their ‘bayan muna bago lahat’ cliché, since the same agenda serves oligarchic interest by creating an open door political context which will serve as the sweetener for uncontrolled greed by global looters and plunderers. Liberalism serves egotistical, self-aggrandizing pockets and not the nation & people.
It is pure and empty sophism, this liberal agenda so-called, the same sophism that served the interests in antiquity of the elites of Athens. The same Athenian oligarchy then waged ceaseless wars, with political sophists serving as public blinders for their true agenda: loot and ravage polities everywhere where their dirty hands can dip unto. Those wars—Pelopponesian Wars—led to the catastrophic decay of Greece and the destruction of its classical culture.
The agenda of the global oligarchy is to keep RP and diverse client-states into ‘weak states’ and ‘failed states’, so that eventually they can break up our nation and others into mini-states. Each mini-state will become private property of certain gigantic corporate groups, with their own corporate armies coming to their defense. The same oligarchs have already succeeded in fragmenting former Yugoslavia, and there’s no reason why they won’t proceed to bring such demonic successes to new levels such as to balkanize the Philippines.
Nationalism, not liberalism, is the ideology that can serve to galvanize us into a strong nation with strong institutions, and empower us to effectively neutralize the destructive agenda of the global oligarchy. We Filipinos need to stand together firmly against those forces that have been striving to destroy us from within and with-out, our bonds thus cemented by genuine nationalism patriotism.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
VILLAR: EMBODIMENT OF 'PHILIPPINE DREAM'
Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
The social forecaster J. Naisbitt, among the sharpest observers of cultural innovations worldwide, declared in his book Megatrends Asia that the ‘Asian dream’ is the global dream of the moment. Realizing this gigantic power shift, Naisbitt challenged the youth of the West to “go East!”
If we were to localize the global trend of ‘Asian Dream’, we can find this in the capsule term ‘Philippine Dream’. This is the dream of any struggling child to live a future of abundance, a dream that was once championed in America (‘American dream’) but which has been lost along the way, a dream that has found root finally in our own motherland.
My contention is that, if the Philippine state would refurbish its nauseating image as a ‘weak state’, it would find a fresh start in electing a president who is an embodiment of the ‘Philippine dream’. Luck of all luck, the Nacionalista Party’s own top leader, Manny Villar, fits squarely into this ‘Philippine Dream’ mold.
The Manny Villar narrative is practically saying to our compatriots that nobody has to leave the country for overseas job in order to live abundance in everyday life. Stake it out in the country, live to learn well, be daring to be innovative and pioneering, and one will rise like a phoenix from the ashes of poverty.
Do not wait for opportunities to drop from the sky like ripe guavas descending on the mouth of a proverbial Juan Tamad. Build the opportunities, and be daring to re-engineer yourself in the process to keep on bringing you up to the next level of success.
Such is the sterling truth exemplified by the Villar narrative, which is indeed splendidly impressive and worth a plethora of accolades. Only Villar fits this mold among the couples of presidential candidates, most of whom are the typical coño kids who treat the poor folks as utilitarian objects for vote-gathering purposes. Not only did Villar soil his hands in creating opportunities for housing and urban development, he was also among those noblesse legislators who built enabling measures to widen the latitudes of social equity and economic prosperity. And yet no coño kid is he amid his abundant life!
I remember the coño kids on campus as highly scorned spoiled brats who are in the university largely to display wealth and who condescendingly regard their schoolmates as lizards and rats. A few of them did I make friends with, those who can be remolded to a life of social relevance, even as I was among those self-supporting students (I was a full scholar) and grew as a militant activist. Well immersed among fellow intellectuals, I only had but expletives reserved for the coños.
Today I am among those who ask: what right has a coño to be president of the republic? A person who grew up in a mansion and couldn’t soil his hands in work deserves to be a leader of colonial era government, and such an era is long gone!
I would ask the same for a vice-president: what right has a coño to be vice-president of the country? Isn’t Loren Legarda, who now teams up with Manny Villar, the most fit for the job since she embodies the ‘Philippine dream’ and all the sterling qualities of a talented and competent Pinoy who has risen from the hovels and lead a prosperous life?
An emerging market such as the Philippines has most to gain from electing highly competent top officials who embody the ‘Philippine dream’ and/or ‘Asian dream’. Conversely, it would be disastrous to elect Inquisitionist coño kids who in fact are mere smokescreens for crocodiles.
I am a firm believer in the ‘Philippine dream’ or ‘Asian dream’, and I go for a Villar-Legarda team for 2010.
[08 January 2010]
VILLAR VICTORY: KEY FORECASTS
By: Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Development Center for Asia Africa Pacific
11 December 2009
BACKGROUND
This political economist and social forecaster foresees an eventual presidential victory for Manny Villar in the 2010 national polls. The forecast is based on the observations concerning the weaknesses of the other candidates. Most observable weaknesses of the Noynoy Team, as per information from within, buttress this forecast most of all. The popularity of Noynoy Aquino is merely transitory, even as voters will eventually choose Villar whose strengths are his very cutting edge for victory.
SITUATION ANALYSIS
Prior to the filing of COCs by the presidential candidates, the four (4) strongest contenders to the presidency were (in alphabetical order): Aquino, Escudero, Estrada, and Villar. To be considered a strong contender, a candidate must first exceed the minimum statistic of 8.5% (level of significance). A double-digit means the candidate’s public standing is very significant (notably 20% and above).
Public perceptions do change, and change so rapidly depending on prevailing circumstances. Before the filing of COCs yet, Sen. Escudero already pronounced his retreat from the presidential contest, thus rendering his supporters at a lost as to whom they should cast their lot on. Meanwhile, one can also see the decline of Aquino’s rating from a top of 60% to a recent 47%, evidence of short-term perceptual change.
The current situation points to the high level of indecision on the part of voters. Based on impressionistic information from the ground, voters who previously went for Aquino have already shifted to Villar. It is most likely that those who chose Escudero will go for Villar, assuming that the proper social marketing strategies and public projection are in place and operational on sustained basis.
It will take till the end of April yet for 90% of voters to firm up their choices, and another month later for the rest of the 10% of undecided to firm up theirs. By projecting the weaknesses of the Noynoy Team onwards throughout the campaign, it is possible that the tide will turn back for Villar even before the end of April, thus ensuring Villar’s victory.
DEBACLE IN THE AQUINO TEAM
A fractious team comprising of fragments of hardly unconsolidated factions is what characterizes the 1st layer of persons and groups surrounding Noynoy. Practically caught flat-footed by the upsurge of popular clamor for his presidency, Noynoy was so unprepared for the challenge, and ditto was his party. As of late November, Noynoy’s platform couldn’t be ironed out yet, precisely because the factions of experts and partisans who were tasked to produce each aspect of the agenda couldn’t see each other eye to eye.
Fractious and fragmentary indeed are these groups, that Noynoy is hardly in a position to get them to act together. A man unprepared for the presidential mission is likewise bereft of that credibility to call the shots within his backyard during a presidential derby. Unable to call the shots well, Noynoy is likened to Erap Estrada who was also regarded as a mere pawn by entrenched interest groups.
Finally, Noynoy’s platform was released in early December. But so glaring is the hodge-podge nature of the platform. The statements are mere motherhood statements comprising of lines that were already said time and again, providing no innovative thought about the huge challenges of solving poverty, attaining full employment, achieving fiscal balance, and getting the country closer to a 1st world economy by mid-2016 (or attain ‘development maturity’).
Till these days, volunteers are having a tough time getting through the Noynoy campaign lines. To be able to get inside, a volunteer has to study first the diverse groups comprising the pro-Noynoy forces, identify which group could be most friendly to the volunteer, and then finally decide to join. This tedious and circuitous process will drag down the Noynoy campaign altogether, and will prove disastrous during the middle of the campaign period. Lacking a solid machinery, the campaign will flounder, causing much chagrin on insiders. A chaotic campaign it will be, which will prove catastrophic in terms of securing voters’ fidelity and finality of choice.
Furthermore, the platform of Noynoy is so focused on domestic policy, with nary a statement about foreign policy. This expert is of the opinion that the ASEAN integration, which will happen during the next presidency’s incumbency, is a gigantic event for the nation and its neighbors, so that we can ill afford to be lackadaisical about it as a central feature of our foreign policy. The ASEAN integration is one that should be led by the Philippines no less, being the most credible country member due to its esteem as the 1st independent nation-state in Asia, and should, to repeat, be the central feature of the next presidency’s foreign policy agenda.
Aside from the above, there is the lack of experience of Noynoy in diverse facets of governance and relatively weak leadership in the public policy field. His charisma is largely an attribution of transference of his deceased parents’ charisma, which could hardly suffice to rally constituencies and his own supporters to support radical measures in the future.
STREAMING VILLAR’S VICTORY
Noticing such weaknesses quickly, and projecting them in the sharpest possible manner, will enable the Villar Team to recoup the temporarily lost grounds in public perception. Villar is clearly on top of his machinery, is most prepared in terms of a coherent platform, is most experienced both governance and policy-wise, possesses a charisma that flows from within rather than ‘inherited’ from departed parents, is the greater visionary and patriot than any of the other candidates. These strengths of Villar should be projected in crescendo fashion across the campaign period, thus ensuring victory at the end.
The mix of tactics and methods must be configured soon enough, with Villar himself at the helm of all the planning, generation of cognitive maps, and determination of the compass of the campaigns. It should be stressed that the campaign lines and substance must be high-level at all times, and only minimally ‘below the belt’. Villar, Legarda and the senatorial candidates should focus on high-level, principled campaign, leaving the ‘below-the-belt punches’ to other supporting personalities and groups within the Villar machinery.
Across the campaign period, diligence must be done in sustaining the building of the machinery (both the party and the multisectoral coalition) and the propaganda efforts. The Team should veer away from the clash between the Erap Team and the Gilberto/Lakas Team, which should go ahead and be allowed to devastate each other till they self-destruct. Along the way, the endorsement by cultural-political blocs with large command votes should be sought, notably the mainstream Left and INK. The endorsement by Sen. Escudero will count a lot for sure, which will provide light to his supporters about whom they should vote for.
Lastly, it should also be noted that the old conflicts among the Cojuancos are re-surfacing, the new morph being the Noynoy-Gibo divide. Noynoy will most likely be slam-banged by the Teodoro camp relentless, even as it has to parry the hard blows from the Erap camp. The Villar Team should maneuver to stay clear of these hardball confrontations, and focus on projecting positive, principled campaign lines and substantive debate lines along the way.
To conclude, realistically the contenders for the presidency will tail behind in the exit polls as their machineries and campaigns efforts puff up, flounder and lose steam. This will pave the way for heightened trust and confidence of voters on the Villar leadership whose presidency they will galvanize in the poll precints later.
Development Center for Asia Africa Pacific
11 December 2009
BACKGROUND
This political economist and social forecaster foresees an eventual presidential victory for Manny Villar in the 2010 national polls. The forecast is based on the observations concerning the weaknesses of the other candidates. Most observable weaknesses of the Noynoy Team, as per information from within, buttress this forecast most of all. The popularity of Noynoy Aquino is merely transitory, even as voters will eventually choose Villar whose strengths are his very cutting edge for victory.
SITUATION ANALYSIS
Prior to the filing of COCs by the presidential candidates, the four (4) strongest contenders to the presidency were (in alphabetical order): Aquino, Escudero, Estrada, and Villar. To be considered a strong contender, a candidate must first exceed the minimum statistic of 8.5% (level of significance). A double-digit means the candidate’s public standing is very significant (notably 20% and above).
Public perceptions do change, and change so rapidly depending on prevailing circumstances. Before the filing of COCs yet, Sen. Escudero already pronounced his retreat from the presidential contest, thus rendering his supporters at a lost as to whom they should cast their lot on. Meanwhile, one can also see the decline of Aquino’s rating from a top of 60% to a recent 47%, evidence of short-term perceptual change.
The current situation points to the high level of indecision on the part of voters. Based on impressionistic information from the ground, voters who previously went for Aquino have already shifted to Villar. It is most likely that those who chose Escudero will go for Villar, assuming that the proper social marketing strategies and public projection are in place and operational on sustained basis.
It will take till the end of April yet for 90% of voters to firm up their choices, and another month later for the rest of the 10% of undecided to firm up theirs. By projecting the weaknesses of the Noynoy Team onwards throughout the campaign, it is possible that the tide will turn back for Villar even before the end of April, thus ensuring Villar’s victory.
DEBACLE IN THE AQUINO TEAM
A fractious team comprising of fragments of hardly unconsolidated factions is what characterizes the 1st layer of persons and groups surrounding Noynoy. Practically caught flat-footed by the upsurge of popular clamor for his presidency, Noynoy was so unprepared for the challenge, and ditto was his party. As of late November, Noynoy’s platform couldn’t be ironed out yet, precisely because the factions of experts and partisans who were tasked to produce each aspect of the agenda couldn’t see each other eye to eye.
Fractious and fragmentary indeed are these groups, that Noynoy is hardly in a position to get them to act together. A man unprepared for the presidential mission is likewise bereft of that credibility to call the shots within his backyard during a presidential derby. Unable to call the shots well, Noynoy is likened to Erap Estrada who was also regarded as a mere pawn by entrenched interest groups.
Finally, Noynoy’s platform was released in early December. But so glaring is the hodge-podge nature of the platform. The statements are mere motherhood statements comprising of lines that were already said time and again, providing no innovative thought about the huge challenges of solving poverty, attaining full employment, achieving fiscal balance, and getting the country closer to a 1st world economy by mid-2016 (or attain ‘development maturity’).
Till these days, volunteers are having a tough time getting through the Noynoy campaign lines. To be able to get inside, a volunteer has to study first the diverse groups comprising the pro-Noynoy forces, identify which group could be most friendly to the volunteer, and then finally decide to join. This tedious and circuitous process will drag down the Noynoy campaign altogether, and will prove disastrous during the middle of the campaign period. Lacking a solid machinery, the campaign will flounder, causing much chagrin on insiders. A chaotic campaign it will be, which will prove catastrophic in terms of securing voters’ fidelity and finality of choice.
Furthermore, the platform of Noynoy is so focused on domestic policy, with nary a statement about foreign policy. This expert is of the opinion that the ASEAN integration, which will happen during the next presidency’s incumbency, is a gigantic event for the nation and its neighbors, so that we can ill afford to be lackadaisical about it as a central feature of our foreign policy. The ASEAN integration is one that should be led by the Philippines no less, being the most credible country member due to its esteem as the 1st independent nation-state in Asia, and should, to repeat, be the central feature of the next presidency’s foreign policy agenda.
Aside from the above, there is the lack of experience of Noynoy in diverse facets of governance and relatively weak leadership in the public policy field. His charisma is largely an attribution of transference of his deceased parents’ charisma, which could hardly suffice to rally constituencies and his own supporters to support radical measures in the future.
STREAMING VILLAR’S VICTORY
Noticing such weaknesses quickly, and projecting them in the sharpest possible manner, will enable the Villar Team to recoup the temporarily lost grounds in public perception. Villar is clearly on top of his machinery, is most prepared in terms of a coherent platform, is most experienced both governance and policy-wise, possesses a charisma that flows from within rather than ‘inherited’ from departed parents, is the greater visionary and patriot than any of the other candidates. These strengths of Villar should be projected in crescendo fashion across the campaign period, thus ensuring victory at the end.
The mix of tactics and methods must be configured soon enough, with Villar himself at the helm of all the planning, generation of cognitive maps, and determination of the compass of the campaigns. It should be stressed that the campaign lines and substance must be high-level at all times, and only minimally ‘below the belt’. Villar, Legarda and the senatorial candidates should focus on high-level, principled campaign, leaving the ‘below-the-belt punches’ to other supporting personalities and groups within the Villar machinery.
Across the campaign period, diligence must be done in sustaining the building of the machinery (both the party and the multisectoral coalition) and the propaganda efforts. The Team should veer away from the clash between the Erap Team and the Gilberto/Lakas Team, which should go ahead and be allowed to devastate each other till they self-destruct. Along the way, the endorsement by cultural-political blocs with large command votes should be sought, notably the mainstream Left and INK. The endorsement by Sen. Escudero will count a lot for sure, which will provide light to his supporters about whom they should vote for.
Lastly, it should also be noted that the old conflicts among the Cojuancos are re-surfacing, the new morph being the Noynoy-Gibo divide. Noynoy will most likely be slam-banged by the Teodoro camp relentless, even as it has to parry the hard blows from the Erap camp. The Villar Team should maneuver to stay clear of these hardball confrontations, and focus on projecting positive, principled campaign lines and substantive debate lines along the way.
To conclude, realistically the contenders for the presidency will tail behind in the exit polls as their machineries and campaigns efforts puff up, flounder and lose steam. This will pave the way for heightened trust and confidence of voters on the Villar leadership whose presidency they will galvanize in the poll precints later.
Monday, March 15, 2010
NATIONALIST AGENDA RE-VISITED
Hello Partners, Global friends!
I'm back from a sabbatical leave from blogging. A long story about why I was seemingly monastic for a while, so I guess I better extend my apology to you readers and my friend followers.
I'm back and as iconoclastic as ever, trying as much as possible to think outside the box. There are issues that I have to contend with though, which will make me borrow some boxed thoughts just so that I can effectively get my message through.
As a revitalization message, I am re-echoing the nationalist agenda for my country the Philippines and for other countries now that are being threatened by the destructive synarchist operations of the global oligarchy. Nations were created by the people and the Divine Mother, and in no way will we citizens of nation-states just stand still and watch our homes be destroyed by the wars and crimes committed by the 'military industrial complex' of global elites.
Nationalism is a progressive ideology in my country and many states, and my nationalism shouldn't be confused with the moribund nationalism of ethno-nationalists, fascists and nazis. I speak of progressivist nationalism which liberates peoples from shackles of imperialist, fascist, and emerging neo-Bonapartist oppressions.
So, in consonance with this progressivist nationalism, the same nationalism that inspired spiritual leaders such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, I will share thoughts on diverse themes, inclusive of those eventualities related currently to the national polls in the Philippines (May elections).
For all pro-nation and pro-people global citizens, carpe diem!
I'm back from a sabbatical leave from blogging. A long story about why I was seemingly monastic for a while, so I guess I better extend my apology to you readers and my friend followers.
I'm back and as iconoclastic as ever, trying as much as possible to think outside the box. There are issues that I have to contend with though, which will make me borrow some boxed thoughts just so that I can effectively get my message through.
As a revitalization message, I am re-echoing the nationalist agenda for my country the Philippines and for other countries now that are being threatened by the destructive synarchist operations of the global oligarchy. Nations were created by the people and the Divine Mother, and in no way will we citizens of nation-states just stand still and watch our homes be destroyed by the wars and crimes committed by the 'military industrial complex' of global elites.
Nationalism is a progressive ideology in my country and many states, and my nationalism shouldn't be confused with the moribund nationalism of ethno-nationalists, fascists and nazis. I speak of progressivist nationalism which liberates peoples from shackles of imperialist, fascist, and emerging neo-Bonapartist oppressions.
So, in consonance with this progressivist nationalism, the same nationalism that inspired spiritual leaders such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, I will share thoughts on diverse themes, inclusive of those eventualities related currently to the national polls in the Philippines (May elections).
For all pro-nation and pro-people global citizens, carpe diem!
Sunday, May 24, 2009
APOLOGIA & CURRENT TIDBITS
Erle Frayne Argonza
Good morning from Manila! Magandang umaga sa inyong lahat!
First of all, my apology for the quite long dormancy or near-absence in my own sites. A long story this is. Last January and February my family went on a mourning over the death of my father's 2nd wife. My Dad is now all alone, so I decided to join him in his Antipolo City suburban home, but in the process cutting off my DSL account in my old home (rented). I then decided to go on a contemplative couples of months to recollect my life journey and rechart my next steps. That now done, I am back in my blogs, though I had to be constrained by the fact that I'm doing this in commercial netcafes.
Many events have since passed, from the time I rested from my writing. Let me just cite two (2) events that raged the world as most noting:
Good morning from Manila! Magandang umaga sa inyong lahat!
First of all, my apology for the quite long dormancy or near-absence in my own sites. A long story this is. Last January and February my family went on a mourning over the death of my father's 2nd wife. My Dad is now all alone, so I decided to join him in his Antipolo City suburban home, but in the process cutting off my DSL account in my old home (rented). I then decided to go on a contemplative couples of months to recollect my life journey and rechart my next steps. That now done, I am back in my blogs, though I had to be constrained by the fact that I'm doing this in commercial netcafes.
Many events have since passed, from the time I rested from my writing. Let me just cite two (2) events that raged the world as most noting:
- Manny Pacquiao's great victory over his Brit competitor. My own kabayan Manny is now indubitably the best boxer in the world, and is for me indubitably among the world's greatest boxers. He is still moving up the scale of talents, and is reputedly improving yet by the day, which makes him truly a monster in the ring. The Manny fight is the best story to blast the planet so far, as far as culture & leisure is concerned. Well, it seems that it is in the culture sphere anyway where the positive news are churned out, thus reducing effectively the dreariness of a dreadful world getting more mad each day.
- HIN1 Virus on the loose. Coming straight from Dostoevskian and Malthusian hells, this pandemic suddenly burst forth into the public mind in a rather unexpected manner. Well, pandemics are as unexpected as they can be, unpredictable in their onslaughts, so here we all are waiting for the manna from heaven (i.e. antivirus serum) that could take this virus down once and for all and spare us all the stress and storm that is raging the planet economically.
That said, let me say, I am so glad to be back. Please stand by for exciting notes I'd be sharing afresh to you all.
Carpe diem!
Monday, January 26, 2009
2009 ECONOMIC FORECASTS: DEPRESSION, INTERVENTIONISM, REVERSAL
Erle Frayne Argonza
Magandang hapon! Good afternoon!
2009 will be another bleak year economically, more so for the North (USA, EU, Japan are topmost). The recession that began with the subprime mortgage bubble burst in America in 07, will ensue with even mightier turbulence, as there are no coherent policy solutions of a strategic nature that can salve the economic ailment on a global scale.
As already articulated by this economist/analyst in various articles, the policy environment must be changed and regulatory mechanisms strengthened to immediately gain business confidence and reverse the tide of catastrophe. On the domestic front, the solution begins by following a New Deal type of policy set, which will bring back the fervor of production-driven growth and full employment. On the international/global front, a new financial architecture must be agreed upon via a global summit called for the purpose, akin to a New Bretton Woods.
The only intervention mechanisms we observe today are bailouts of failing financial and business institutions, which are toxically immoral as those criminal oligarchs are even rewarded for their sordid looting and corrupt practices. Only Russia and China have openly resorted to a New Deal type solution, in consonance with the practices of the late regime of Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the USA. As far as the international-global front is concerned, the concurrence of a new treaty that will resonate a new financial architecture is nowhere in sight.
In the absence of genuine solutions that can stabilize ailing economies on both the domestic and international fronts, the downward spirals will continue, until the economies of the North will hit rock bottom depression that will be worse than the one that crashed the USA, UK and Germany almost a century ago (USA, UK, Germany were then the world’s top industrial & military powers). In the absence of capital control policies up North, capital flight will ensue at dizzying speed, draining their respective countries of trillions of dollars and/or euros at levels far higher than the 2008 drain. The smart money that will sneak out will find better shelters in the South (emerging markets notably East Asia + India).
The possibility of North-based companies transferring their headquarters to the South is not entirely ruled out. The other option is for the corporate owners to transfer domicile from the North to the South, leaving their ailing mother companies in the hands of trusted stewards. The era of distance remote control-type management by corporate owners could very well begin this year, which will modify corporate governance by no small means.
The positive light for the global economy is that finally the corporate and state leaders will see light at the end of the tunnel and call for a global conference to carve out a new financial architecture. Laissez faire, a cadaver doctrine before the 2nd world war that was revived by the monetarists and greedy financiers, will finally lay to rest as it gives way to dirigist or interventionist economics. Stronger regulatory mechanisms may be charted this year too, at least on paper.
New Deal, Keynesian, and welfare state doctrines will be blended together to produce an eclectic admixture. Since New Deal has an international facet into it thus rendering it more comprehensive, as the late FDR cogitated the need for international cooperation and development for all countries to end all wars and foment lasting peace, this doctrine will more or less be followed. We will not be surprised if, after the Davos conference, the shape of the future will already be definitively of the New Deal type.
Conclusively, even if the Northern economies will flatten down to zero and/or negative growths, the downward spiral may stop by the last quarter of the year. The full effects of the intervention solutions won’t be felt this year though, as it will take some more years to get them to galvanize. So let us brace for more turbulent winds, while hoping that the storm would finally stop so we can enjoy a delightful holiday season comes December.
[26 January 2009, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Magandang hapon! Good afternoon!
2009 will be another bleak year economically, more so for the North (USA, EU, Japan are topmost). The recession that began with the subprime mortgage bubble burst in America in 07, will ensue with even mightier turbulence, as there are no coherent policy solutions of a strategic nature that can salve the economic ailment on a global scale.
As already articulated by this economist/analyst in various articles, the policy environment must be changed and regulatory mechanisms strengthened to immediately gain business confidence and reverse the tide of catastrophe. On the domestic front, the solution begins by following a New Deal type of policy set, which will bring back the fervor of production-driven growth and full employment. On the international/global front, a new financial architecture must be agreed upon via a global summit called for the purpose, akin to a New Bretton Woods.
The only intervention mechanisms we observe today are bailouts of failing financial and business institutions, which are toxically immoral as those criminal oligarchs are even rewarded for their sordid looting and corrupt practices. Only Russia and China have openly resorted to a New Deal type solution, in consonance with the practices of the late regime of Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the USA. As far as the international-global front is concerned, the concurrence of a new treaty that will resonate a new financial architecture is nowhere in sight.
In the absence of genuine solutions that can stabilize ailing economies on both the domestic and international fronts, the downward spirals will continue, until the economies of the North will hit rock bottom depression that will be worse than the one that crashed the USA, UK and Germany almost a century ago (USA, UK, Germany were then the world’s top industrial & military powers). In the absence of capital control policies up North, capital flight will ensue at dizzying speed, draining their respective countries of trillions of dollars and/or euros at levels far higher than the 2008 drain. The smart money that will sneak out will find better shelters in the South (emerging markets notably East Asia + India).
The possibility of North-based companies transferring their headquarters to the South is not entirely ruled out. The other option is for the corporate owners to transfer domicile from the North to the South, leaving their ailing mother companies in the hands of trusted stewards. The era of distance remote control-type management by corporate owners could very well begin this year, which will modify corporate governance by no small means.
The positive light for the global economy is that finally the corporate and state leaders will see light at the end of the tunnel and call for a global conference to carve out a new financial architecture. Laissez faire, a cadaver doctrine before the 2nd world war that was revived by the monetarists and greedy financiers, will finally lay to rest as it gives way to dirigist or interventionist economics. Stronger regulatory mechanisms may be charted this year too, at least on paper.
New Deal, Keynesian, and welfare state doctrines will be blended together to produce an eclectic admixture. Since New Deal has an international facet into it thus rendering it more comprehensive, as the late FDR cogitated the need for international cooperation and development for all countries to end all wars and foment lasting peace, this doctrine will more or less be followed. We will not be surprised if, after the Davos conference, the shape of the future will already be definitively of the New Deal type.
Conclusively, even if the Northern economies will flatten down to zero and/or negative growths, the downward spiral may stop by the last quarter of the year. The full effects of the intervention solutions won’t be felt this year though, as it will take some more years to get them to galvanize. So let us brace for more turbulent winds, while hoping that the storm would finally stop so we can enjoy a delightful holiday season comes December.
[26 January 2009, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Sunday, January 25, 2009
GAZA: NEO-CONSERVATIVES’ HATCHERY FOR LARGER CONFLAGRATION
Erle Frayne Argonza
Magandang gabi! Good evening!
Modern Israel had ceased to be an underling state that it used to project itself during its early historic phase. It had grown into a regional power, its military might made possible by massive infusion of western aid and the economic prosperity resulting from that external intervention. It has 300 nuclear warheads, per intelligence reports and revelation by former US president Jimmy Carter, and is a key pawn of the Western financier oligarchs in their political pandemics worldwide.
The ascent of the neo-conservatives in the USA, led by the likes of Cheney, had surely been a great boon to the fascistic forces within the Israeli Establishment whose appetite for aggression has been driven by obsessive desires to carve out new territories—for the rambunctious nation—outside Israel’s borders. A convergence of mindsets between two fascistic forces, in the USA and Israel, would surely fit into the mad plan of hegemonistic Anglo-European-American oligarchs to ignite another world war, which coincides with the crashing recessionary economies in their backyards.
To contend that the latest conflict between Israeli forces and the Hamas is merely a brawl between neighbors is idiocy fit for the blind and simpletons. The neo-conservative agenda, hatched by Cheney & comrades, is to hook up Israel in an alliance with Sunni Arab states and pit the alliance against Shiite Islam led by Iran. Israel was simply compliant with agreements already preset as early as late 2007 yet, when neo-cons officials frequented the region and forged this Zion-Sunni.
That the conflict has already quite spread to a new domain, namely the Israeli-Lebanese rebel conflict, shows that some hidden forces are working to expand the conflict to one that is region-wide. A terrorist 3rd force in Lebanon, which the British & American intelligence could have created (just as they did in my own country by creating and funding the Abu Sayyaf), was hatched with the purpose of widening the latitudes of the conflict.
Now that the neo-conservatives were effectively booted out of power, the world community can dowse water on this mad conflict which doesn’t serve the welfare of both Israeli and Palestinian peoples. Let us hope that the new US president, Barack Obama, will be informed and advised more wisely by cooler and saner officials in Washington about the real score in Western Asia: that the conflict better end up and a ceasefire declared.
Let us also hope that the leaders of Israel, Palestine, Eqypt, and Jordan, who are all stooges of the Anglo-European financier oligarchy, would recognize to some fresher insights about how to attain stability in the region, by listening to new leaders in Washington who, in turn, should work to veer away America from the mighty clutch of the same oligarchic cabal. The prophetic timeline for World War III is not a fixed one, but rather a flexible timeline that can be changed, leading us away from abominable conflagration to world peace and cooperation.
[25 January 2009, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Magandang gabi! Good evening!
Modern Israel had ceased to be an underling state that it used to project itself during its early historic phase. It had grown into a regional power, its military might made possible by massive infusion of western aid and the economic prosperity resulting from that external intervention. It has 300 nuclear warheads, per intelligence reports and revelation by former US president Jimmy Carter, and is a key pawn of the Western financier oligarchs in their political pandemics worldwide.
The ascent of the neo-conservatives in the USA, led by the likes of Cheney, had surely been a great boon to the fascistic forces within the Israeli Establishment whose appetite for aggression has been driven by obsessive desires to carve out new territories—for the rambunctious nation—outside Israel’s borders. A convergence of mindsets between two fascistic forces, in the USA and Israel, would surely fit into the mad plan of hegemonistic Anglo-European-American oligarchs to ignite another world war, which coincides with the crashing recessionary economies in their backyards.
To contend that the latest conflict between Israeli forces and the Hamas is merely a brawl between neighbors is idiocy fit for the blind and simpletons. The neo-conservative agenda, hatched by Cheney & comrades, is to hook up Israel in an alliance with Sunni Arab states and pit the alliance against Shiite Islam led by Iran. Israel was simply compliant with agreements already preset as early as late 2007 yet, when neo-cons officials frequented the region and forged this Zion-Sunni.
That the conflict has already quite spread to a new domain, namely the Israeli-Lebanese rebel conflict, shows that some hidden forces are working to expand the conflict to one that is region-wide. A terrorist 3rd force in Lebanon, which the British & American intelligence could have created (just as they did in my own country by creating and funding the Abu Sayyaf), was hatched with the purpose of widening the latitudes of the conflict.
Now that the neo-conservatives were effectively booted out of power, the world community can dowse water on this mad conflict which doesn’t serve the welfare of both Israeli and Palestinian peoples. Let us hope that the new US president, Barack Obama, will be informed and advised more wisely by cooler and saner officials in Washington about the real score in Western Asia: that the conflict better end up and a ceasefire declared.
Let us also hope that the leaders of Israel, Palestine, Eqypt, and Jordan, who are all stooges of the Anglo-European financier oligarchy, would recognize to some fresher insights about how to attain stability in the region, by listening to new leaders in Washington who, in turn, should work to veer away America from the mighty clutch of the same oligarchic cabal. The prophetic timeline for World War III is not a fixed one, but rather a flexible timeline that can be changed, leading us away from abominable conflagration to world peace and cooperation.
[25 January 2009, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Saturday, January 24, 2009
WELCOME 2009!
Erle Frayne Argonza
Hello Fellow Earthans! Hello world! Welcome 2009, the Year of the Ox!
This economist, sociologist and self-development guru has been hibernating for awhile as part of a year-starter contemplation period. I’m now formally ending this hibernation, and will resume sharing my thoughts about world events and wisdom.
The holiday season is surely a period of excitement and fast-moving events comprising of parties, reunions, and chows. Like everyone else, I was swept away by the enchantment of this unique period, and ended the year with over 10 pounds of extra weight.
In January 1-4 I took some time out to visit the Sabang Beach of Puerto Galera, Mindoro. An excellent place for scuba diving, this spot is just contiguous to two (2) other wonderful sites, the La Laguna Beach and Coco Beach. I spent the tour with my cousin Evadne Argonza-Bautista and her other half, Rudy Bautista, chief engineer and overseas seafarer, who brought along their two starseed kids Raissa and Randoll. I also had a reunion in the beach with my cousin Ricky Argonza, a master scuba diver, who manages the Garden of Edens resort (German-owned).
I was just about to begin orienting myself to the new year, by detailing my annual battle plan (goals) and burning the excess fats gained from the holidays, when my Dad’s 2nd wife (Lorna Argonza) suddenly died last January 15 while travelling back by bus Manila. Being the only son of Dad (Steve Argonza) who’s here in Manila (all of my sibs are in the USA), I had to conduct my filial duties and be the burial event organizer-operator for my old man. The lady, Tita Lorna, was finally buried last 20th of the month. The day after, the 21st, saw me hit by allergic rhinitis, a recurring ailment, after all the stressful though preparations for the burial.
Still nursing my rhinitis, I finally am finding the time to catch up on my goal-refinements, fat burning gym sessions, and reflections about global events. The year opened up with Gaza (a spill over from late 2008), the pessimistic facet, and the installation of Barack Obama as US president, the optimistic facet. We will all be watching the aftermath of these two events for sure, as they contribute to the shape of 2009 as a whole.
We’re also preparing for the celebration of the start of the Year of the Ox, which is a legacy of the Chinese culture. I’ve already bought new crystal materials for balancing my home, and an ox figurine for my work room & study. A positive year this will be in terms of bountiness, as the underlying Tao philosophy of the celebrations so explain.
Well, Fellows, let’s hope for the better for 2009 in terms of moving out of the economic and politico-economy cul de sacs that our planet has been seemingly entrapped into. Welcome the Ox Year with a Big Bang!
[24 January 2009, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Hello Fellow Earthans! Hello world! Welcome 2009, the Year of the Ox!
This economist, sociologist and self-development guru has been hibernating for awhile as part of a year-starter contemplation period. I’m now formally ending this hibernation, and will resume sharing my thoughts about world events and wisdom.
The holiday season is surely a period of excitement and fast-moving events comprising of parties, reunions, and chows. Like everyone else, I was swept away by the enchantment of this unique period, and ended the year with over 10 pounds of extra weight.
In January 1-4 I took some time out to visit the Sabang Beach of Puerto Galera, Mindoro. An excellent place for scuba diving, this spot is just contiguous to two (2) other wonderful sites, the La Laguna Beach and Coco Beach. I spent the tour with my cousin Evadne Argonza-Bautista and her other half, Rudy Bautista, chief engineer and overseas seafarer, who brought along their two starseed kids Raissa and Randoll. I also had a reunion in the beach with my cousin Ricky Argonza, a master scuba diver, who manages the Garden of Edens resort (German-owned).
I was just about to begin orienting myself to the new year, by detailing my annual battle plan (goals) and burning the excess fats gained from the holidays, when my Dad’s 2nd wife (Lorna Argonza) suddenly died last January 15 while travelling back by bus Manila. Being the only son of Dad (Steve Argonza) who’s here in Manila (all of my sibs are in the USA), I had to conduct my filial duties and be the burial event organizer-operator for my old man. The lady, Tita Lorna, was finally buried last 20th of the month. The day after, the 21st, saw me hit by allergic rhinitis, a recurring ailment, after all the stressful though preparations for the burial.
Still nursing my rhinitis, I finally am finding the time to catch up on my goal-refinements, fat burning gym sessions, and reflections about global events. The year opened up with Gaza (a spill over from late 2008), the pessimistic facet, and the installation of Barack Obama as US president, the optimistic facet. We will all be watching the aftermath of these two events for sure, as they contribute to the shape of 2009 as a whole.
We’re also preparing for the celebration of the start of the Year of the Ox, which is a legacy of the Chinese culture. I’ve already bought new crystal materials for balancing my home, and an ox figurine for my work room & study. A positive year this will be in terms of bountiness, as the underlying Tao philosophy of the celebrations so explain.
Well, Fellows, let’s hope for the better for 2009 in terms of moving out of the economic and politico-economy cul de sacs that our planet has been seemingly entrapped into. Welcome the Ox Year with a Big Bang!
[24 January 2009, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
ECONOMY THAT HEALS: CHALLENGE OF THE NEW EPOCH
Erle Frayne Argonza / Guru Ra
Magandang Hapon! Good afternoon!
Please know first that this writer/analyst is both (b) economist and (b) mystic-healer. For some time now, the challenge of contributing to the construction of an ‘economy that heals’ has been knocking at my ‘mental coconut’, a task that explains this article and many yet that will succeed this one.
As an economist, my lines of subspecializations are: (a) development economics, (b) political economy & public policy, (c) international political economy, (d) economic sociology, and (e) enterprise economics (or biz economics). As a healer, my subspecializations are: (a) psychosocial counseling, (b) pranic healing, (c) distance healing (w/ angelic reinforcement); and, (d) soul healing (includes chakra alignment & cleansing, past life issues resolution).
Having laid out my brief economic & healing credentials, let me now proceed to my thesis. First of all, as a developmentalist (practical economist) and healer of long standing, let me declare my categorical observation that the ‘world system’ economy of today, which is an admixture of capitalist-dirigist-fascist-clerical economic systems, is characteristically: (a) non-healing, or pathological, (b) is hoarding-based rather than sharing-inspired, and (c) is already on its terminal phase, needing replacement rather than its recycling.
To simplify my terms, the present system, which is principally organized around capitalism (economy for profits, based on money system), is:
· SICK: A ‘sick economy’ is one based on flawed, sick principles that no longer work. Necessarily, a ‘sick economy’ (borrowing from Erich Fromm’s and Erik Erikson’s ‘sick society’) is a parametric condition that induces anxiety, anomie, alienation, and related pathologies that can lead to neuroses, sociopathy, psychoses, and total self-fragmentation.
· GREED-BASED: The ‘hoarding orientation’ (see Erich Fromm’s works) of the ‘world system’ (see Immanuel Wallerstein’s works) had propelled greed to the level of madness, thus reinforcing ‘system sickness’. Greed multiplies greed, more greed creates more greed, and so on, ad aeternum, thus leading to more ‘economic sickness’, to more madness and system collapse and societal catastrophe.
· SCARCITY PREMISE: Western economics had postulated (declared as a self-evident given) that scarcity is the fact of life. This postulate had since underpinned ‘hoarding’ economics, and had remained unchallenged in the West and mainstream circles. This is flawed from the very inception. Scarcity is not given, not a universal law either, but is a product of enslaving, hoarding power relations. It is an ideological rampart in support of the more real exploitative relations between the ‘hoarding classes’ and the producer underclasses that they bound and gagged in property relations.
· DYING & DEATH-INDUCING: The system is now dying, it is now on its death throes, yet many refuse to see it die. Bank bailouts and interest rate interventions are among those examples of tools that no longer work, yet they continue to be employed. Furthermore, the ‘sick economy’ also induces so many deaths due to poverty, anxiety, starvation, consumerist pathologies (obesity, cardiovasculars), genocides, etc. What is needed is to bury the system and build a new one rather than to perpetuate it.
Let me then declare the next thesis: that a new economic ‘world system’, which is in the nature of a ‘healing economy’, is a viable one. We may perhaps use different terms to refer to the same ‘world system’—sharing economy, cooperative economy, non-hoarding economy, consensus economy—but let us better recognize where we all converge: the ‘healing economy’.
Following from the foregoing statements, the contours of the new ‘healing economy’ or world system would be the obverse of the previous observations. They are:
· WELLNESS ECONOMY. A vibrant, wellness-oriented world system is one that will also see that everybody will have enterprises, jobs, and related pursuits that will see their talents grow and utilized to the utmost. It is an economy that also promotes the wellness paradigm, welcomes the advent of the alternative healers as ‘new kids on the block’ rather than to denigrate them as ‘quack doctors’, promotes equity and the highest values of the general welfare in their true sense, and is generally conducive to healthy relationships, institutions, communities, and healthy world.
· SHARING &/OR NON-HOARDING. ‘Hoarding orientation’ had degraded us humans to the most putrid hovels of the non-human or anti-human for many eons now. It is time to reverse such demonic conditionality and state. In the economic sphere, the highest principles of the ‘rule of Divine Love’ (compassion as core value) and ‘principle of giving’ (golden rule) must become dominant and sacrosanct. To talk of ‘compassionate capitalism’ is an oxymoron and subtly demonic. We have no more need for capitalism and the other isms, what we need is a non-ideological sharing economy and enough of those isms that have only exacerbated our ‘sick economy’ and ‘sick society’. Ditto for competition principle, the core of capitalism, which has no place in the emerging context. Cooperation-loving-sharing is the value trilogy of the emerging context, not competition-hatred-hoarding of the capitalist world system.
· ABUNDANCE. The true state of the universe is one of abundance, not scarcity. “From above, so below,” declares the Teaching. From the abundance of the cosmos, to the abundance of the Earth & Solar system, this is the sacrosanct law and not that peddled lie about scarcity. Healing economy is one that is attuned to the very dynamics of the cosmos and not divorced from it. An operative healing economy will ensure that all members of society, all citizens of Earth or Terra, will be attuned to this sacrosanct law, and will experience abundance in everyday life. “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed,” declared the late Mahatma Gandhi in his swadeshi writings. Gandhi referred to the same law, and stated it in axiomatic manner.
· DYNAMIC & LIFE-INDUCING. The healing economy will prove itself to be dynamic and life-inducing as well. It does not follow from absurd ‘creative destruction’ demonology worship of capitalism, but from ‘creative constructivism’ of a Godly society. In the present system, just by destroying the currency of one nation (e.g. currency attack versus ASEAN/East Asia, 1997), many workers will lose their jobs and many small enterprises forcibly close shop, leading to anxieties and deaths. Is that what you call Godly and ‘creative destruction’? Very boldly I’d say, echoing spiritual masters who said the same, that a wellness-sharing-loving-giving economy will be truly life-inducing, as it will not need wars and destruction of nations to sustain it.
Having shared to you in brief the contours of the new economic world system, let me now close with the reiteration of the challenge: building the healing economy is the greatest economic task of the moment and the eon now unfolding before us. We can no longer be clinging to dinosaur world systems that bred so much maladies in the past, we should move on and build a new one that will be the economic foundation of a new society of loving, giving, sharing, Oneness, and authentic human liberation.
Enough with those bailouts, IMF-World Bank mergers, bank mergers, interest rate manipulations, stock markets, speculations, government take-overs, hedge funds,...Enough with greed, hoarding, hatred, competition, bloody vampire economics of the Old World!
Peace & Love Advocates of the world, let us build the New Economy of Healing without reserve. Let’s not be cowed by the intimidations of the demonic Pied Pipers and fascistic war machines of the Old World elites. We shall overcome! Carpe diem!
[Writ 08 December 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Magandang Hapon! Good afternoon!
Please know first that this writer/analyst is both (b) economist and (b) mystic-healer. For some time now, the challenge of contributing to the construction of an ‘economy that heals’ has been knocking at my ‘mental coconut’, a task that explains this article and many yet that will succeed this one.
As an economist, my lines of subspecializations are: (a) development economics, (b) political economy & public policy, (c) international political economy, (d) economic sociology, and (e) enterprise economics (or biz economics). As a healer, my subspecializations are: (a) psychosocial counseling, (b) pranic healing, (c) distance healing (w/ angelic reinforcement); and, (d) soul healing (includes chakra alignment & cleansing, past life issues resolution).
Having laid out my brief economic & healing credentials, let me now proceed to my thesis. First of all, as a developmentalist (practical economist) and healer of long standing, let me declare my categorical observation that the ‘world system’ economy of today, which is an admixture of capitalist-dirigist-fascist-clerical economic systems, is characteristically: (a) non-healing, or pathological, (b) is hoarding-based rather than sharing-inspired, and (c) is already on its terminal phase, needing replacement rather than its recycling.
To simplify my terms, the present system, which is principally organized around capitalism (economy for profits, based on money system), is:
· SICK: A ‘sick economy’ is one based on flawed, sick principles that no longer work. Necessarily, a ‘sick economy’ (borrowing from Erich Fromm’s and Erik Erikson’s ‘sick society’) is a parametric condition that induces anxiety, anomie, alienation, and related pathologies that can lead to neuroses, sociopathy, psychoses, and total self-fragmentation.
· GREED-BASED: The ‘hoarding orientation’ (see Erich Fromm’s works) of the ‘world system’ (see Immanuel Wallerstein’s works) had propelled greed to the level of madness, thus reinforcing ‘system sickness’. Greed multiplies greed, more greed creates more greed, and so on, ad aeternum, thus leading to more ‘economic sickness’, to more madness and system collapse and societal catastrophe.
· SCARCITY PREMISE: Western economics had postulated (declared as a self-evident given) that scarcity is the fact of life. This postulate had since underpinned ‘hoarding’ economics, and had remained unchallenged in the West and mainstream circles. This is flawed from the very inception. Scarcity is not given, not a universal law either, but is a product of enslaving, hoarding power relations. It is an ideological rampart in support of the more real exploitative relations between the ‘hoarding classes’ and the producer underclasses that they bound and gagged in property relations.
· DYING & DEATH-INDUCING: The system is now dying, it is now on its death throes, yet many refuse to see it die. Bank bailouts and interest rate interventions are among those examples of tools that no longer work, yet they continue to be employed. Furthermore, the ‘sick economy’ also induces so many deaths due to poverty, anxiety, starvation, consumerist pathologies (obesity, cardiovasculars), genocides, etc. What is needed is to bury the system and build a new one rather than to perpetuate it.
Let me then declare the next thesis: that a new economic ‘world system’, which is in the nature of a ‘healing economy’, is a viable one. We may perhaps use different terms to refer to the same ‘world system’—sharing economy, cooperative economy, non-hoarding economy, consensus economy—but let us better recognize where we all converge: the ‘healing economy’.
Following from the foregoing statements, the contours of the new ‘healing economy’ or world system would be the obverse of the previous observations. They are:
· WELLNESS ECONOMY. A vibrant, wellness-oriented world system is one that will also see that everybody will have enterprises, jobs, and related pursuits that will see their talents grow and utilized to the utmost. It is an economy that also promotes the wellness paradigm, welcomes the advent of the alternative healers as ‘new kids on the block’ rather than to denigrate them as ‘quack doctors’, promotes equity and the highest values of the general welfare in their true sense, and is generally conducive to healthy relationships, institutions, communities, and healthy world.
· SHARING &/OR NON-HOARDING. ‘Hoarding orientation’ had degraded us humans to the most putrid hovels of the non-human or anti-human for many eons now. It is time to reverse such demonic conditionality and state. In the economic sphere, the highest principles of the ‘rule of Divine Love’ (compassion as core value) and ‘principle of giving’ (golden rule) must become dominant and sacrosanct. To talk of ‘compassionate capitalism’ is an oxymoron and subtly demonic. We have no more need for capitalism and the other isms, what we need is a non-ideological sharing economy and enough of those isms that have only exacerbated our ‘sick economy’ and ‘sick society’. Ditto for competition principle, the core of capitalism, which has no place in the emerging context. Cooperation-loving-sharing is the value trilogy of the emerging context, not competition-hatred-hoarding of the capitalist world system.
· ABUNDANCE. The true state of the universe is one of abundance, not scarcity. “From above, so below,” declares the Teaching. From the abundance of the cosmos, to the abundance of the Earth & Solar system, this is the sacrosanct law and not that peddled lie about scarcity. Healing economy is one that is attuned to the very dynamics of the cosmos and not divorced from it. An operative healing economy will ensure that all members of society, all citizens of Earth or Terra, will be attuned to this sacrosanct law, and will experience abundance in everyday life. “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed,” declared the late Mahatma Gandhi in his swadeshi writings. Gandhi referred to the same law, and stated it in axiomatic manner.
· DYNAMIC & LIFE-INDUCING. The healing economy will prove itself to be dynamic and life-inducing as well. It does not follow from absurd ‘creative destruction’ demonology worship of capitalism, but from ‘creative constructivism’ of a Godly society. In the present system, just by destroying the currency of one nation (e.g. currency attack versus ASEAN/East Asia, 1997), many workers will lose their jobs and many small enterprises forcibly close shop, leading to anxieties and deaths. Is that what you call Godly and ‘creative destruction’? Very boldly I’d say, echoing spiritual masters who said the same, that a wellness-sharing-loving-giving economy will be truly life-inducing, as it will not need wars and destruction of nations to sustain it.
Having shared to you in brief the contours of the new economic world system, let me now close with the reiteration of the challenge: building the healing economy is the greatest economic task of the moment and the eon now unfolding before us. We can no longer be clinging to dinosaur world systems that bred so much maladies in the past, we should move on and build a new one that will be the economic foundation of a new society of loving, giving, sharing, Oneness, and authentic human liberation.
Enough with those bailouts, IMF-World Bank mergers, bank mergers, interest rate manipulations, stock markets, speculations, government take-overs, hedge funds,...Enough with greed, hoarding, hatred, competition, bloody vampire economics of the Old World!
Peace & Love Advocates of the world, let us build the New Economy of Healing without reserve. Let’s not be cowed by the intimidations of the demonic Pied Pipers and fascistic war machines of the Old World elites. We shall overcome! Carpe diem!
[Writ 08 December 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Thursday, December 04, 2008
PAKISTAN’S CREATION, AFGHAN OPIUM: BRITISH TRADE LINKS
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza
In the name of the Father (British oligarchy), the Son (Pakistan) and of the Holy Spirit (Afghan opium). So mote it be.
Pakistan and India are now on the verge of another war, one that will extend the frontiers of a brewing World War III to the South Asian corridor. Many are befuddled by the events in the region, the continuing animosities among the erstwhile ‘sibling’ neighbors, the latest terror attack on Mumbai, and more to come. Many in India and Pakistan still think that the hostilities are rooted in the Hindu-Islam competition, and/or in the lack of foresight of Nehru for approving the partition plan. Never do they bother at all to reflect about external forces, notably British financier oligarchs, that were responsible for that very faulty partition.
The creation of Pakistan is directly a result of the old British East India Company’s or BEAC’s search for safe opium trade route, in case that Indian independence would galvanize. BEAC enterprises are mired in every kind of underworld financial sources, to say the least, the revenues of which are then used to finance businesses in the aboveground. Among such covert sources were (a) slave trade (Adam Smith was BEAC-hired to design a doctrine that will justify free trade of slaves by the British) and (b) opium trade.
Afghanistan and Burma were then in British hands, and were already prospering on the ground as producers of dope. The main market, to recall, was China, whose drug users were enticed to do so by British agents disguised as Christian missions that introduced the dope deep into Chinese society. When the Indian independence movement was up, the BEAC hierarchy knew that it was only a matter of time before the rest of Western territories in Asia would follow the same route. That was precisely what happened, which proved to be tough in terms of ensuring sustained drug production and the safety of the trade routes toward external markets.
When India was almost a-born, it wasn’t a coincidental event that Moslems within the rising star party (Congress), or those associated with Gandhi and Nehru, would demand for a partition. Behind the scenes, British agents moved quickly to do their appointed tasks of creating divisions within the Indian independence movement, by manipulating Moslem Indians of established esteem who could be their lackeys in a new state whose very purpose is to secure the drug trade route. That new state, supposedly “Moslem”, was to be named as PAKISTAN.
Few people across the globe are aware about why there is so much dope being peddled. Maybe if these folks would just look at themselves, reminisce those moments when one had quaffed about five (5) jiggers of brandy or two (2) glasses of red wine, one gets into a euphoria of sorts and feels like exploding in love for his/her fellows at some instance. Then one would understand why there is so much dope moving around: people simply like it! Or, there is a growing section of the population that loves dope, no matter how dangerous it is to be hooked up into the habit. For as long as people take dope, drug trade will flourish.
And the goal of the drug traders is no less than the legalization of dope across the world. When you have certain states such as the Netherlands that legalized marijuana, then you see the ‘signs of the times’. As anxiety and anomie will rise within an anarchic global context across the coming decades, the possibility of legalizing dope isn’t a far-fetched reality. This is, again, the ultimate goal.
In the meantime, observers have to content themselves with the thought that the drug trade flourishes because it is Big Money. Take the case of my country, the Philippines. Dope here is now the biggest source of underground money, and estimated annual revenues by the manufacturers-traders is as high as P600 Billion. That’s roughly U.S. $14 Billions in nominal value. In Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) value, that amounts to US. $56 Billion.
That is just the Philippines and not Afghanistan, USA, Colombia, Mexico, and China (with Triad groups operating) where dope revenues are higher. The aggregate sums of incomes from all the drug trade in the world would easily reach the Trillions of US Dollars or Euros, a whopping lot! The same monies have easily funded many legitimate businesses, name them: manufacturing, construction, hedge funds, banking, housing, agriculture, shipping, and more. They were even used to fund charities of churches! I need not remind the readers that they are used to fund electoral campaigns by politicians all over the globe, even kindergartens know this.
Now, let’s go back to Pakistan and Afghanistan, these two being interlinked by the British dope trade. The expectation of the traders is that these two should be safe havens, (a) Afghanistan for the production, and (b) Pakistan for the transit/trade. There is also some consumption in both countries, but the main markets are the USA and EU. Both countries should therefore always in the hands of ‘friendly forces’, to ensure undisrupted operations. I need not remind the reader that so much of bribery went into developing new oligarchs and politicians in both countries, in order to ensure ‘friendly forces’ ensconced in all quarters.
When the Soviets and Talibans took over Afghanistan, production was disrupted. Both regimes were unfriendly to dope, and had no second thoughts in razing down ground production. Hundreds of billions of dollars are lost in just three (3) years of ‘enemy forces’ occupation of the ground, which pains the pockets. That served Pakistan good, which, being a ‘friendly force’, was always there to kowtow to the whims of the British and their allies (Americans) who also benefitted immensely from the dope trade.
So, to conclude my piece, the Islam-Hindu conflict has nothing to do with the India-Pakistan partition. Such a conflict was contrived, there was religious tolerance in India since the days yet of the Moguls (who re-instituted tolerance policy), and fundamentalism was never a phenomenon at all. Having reviewed tons of materials on comparative religions, being both sociologist and yogi-mystic, I am very sure about the latter, a phenomenon that was in fact created by the financier oligarchs themselves as smokescreen for their rather noxious trade operations.
As to what forecasts to make, I would leave that to the readers. I’d move on to some other related topics later.
[Writ 04 December 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
In the name of the Father (British oligarchy), the Son (Pakistan) and of the Holy Spirit (Afghan opium). So mote it be.
Pakistan and India are now on the verge of another war, one that will extend the frontiers of a brewing World War III to the South Asian corridor. Many are befuddled by the events in the region, the continuing animosities among the erstwhile ‘sibling’ neighbors, the latest terror attack on Mumbai, and more to come. Many in India and Pakistan still think that the hostilities are rooted in the Hindu-Islam competition, and/or in the lack of foresight of Nehru for approving the partition plan. Never do they bother at all to reflect about external forces, notably British financier oligarchs, that were responsible for that very faulty partition.
The creation of Pakistan is directly a result of the old British East India Company’s or BEAC’s search for safe opium trade route, in case that Indian independence would galvanize. BEAC enterprises are mired in every kind of underworld financial sources, to say the least, the revenues of which are then used to finance businesses in the aboveground. Among such covert sources were (a) slave trade (Adam Smith was BEAC-hired to design a doctrine that will justify free trade of slaves by the British) and (b) opium trade.
Afghanistan and Burma were then in British hands, and were already prospering on the ground as producers of dope. The main market, to recall, was China, whose drug users were enticed to do so by British agents disguised as Christian missions that introduced the dope deep into Chinese society. When the Indian independence movement was up, the BEAC hierarchy knew that it was only a matter of time before the rest of Western territories in Asia would follow the same route. That was precisely what happened, which proved to be tough in terms of ensuring sustained drug production and the safety of the trade routes toward external markets.
When India was almost a-born, it wasn’t a coincidental event that Moslems within the rising star party (Congress), or those associated with Gandhi and Nehru, would demand for a partition. Behind the scenes, British agents moved quickly to do their appointed tasks of creating divisions within the Indian independence movement, by manipulating Moslem Indians of established esteem who could be their lackeys in a new state whose very purpose is to secure the drug trade route. That new state, supposedly “Moslem”, was to be named as PAKISTAN.
Few people across the globe are aware about why there is so much dope being peddled. Maybe if these folks would just look at themselves, reminisce those moments when one had quaffed about five (5) jiggers of brandy or two (2) glasses of red wine, one gets into a euphoria of sorts and feels like exploding in love for his/her fellows at some instance. Then one would understand why there is so much dope moving around: people simply like it! Or, there is a growing section of the population that loves dope, no matter how dangerous it is to be hooked up into the habit. For as long as people take dope, drug trade will flourish.
And the goal of the drug traders is no less than the legalization of dope across the world. When you have certain states such as the Netherlands that legalized marijuana, then you see the ‘signs of the times’. As anxiety and anomie will rise within an anarchic global context across the coming decades, the possibility of legalizing dope isn’t a far-fetched reality. This is, again, the ultimate goal.
In the meantime, observers have to content themselves with the thought that the drug trade flourishes because it is Big Money. Take the case of my country, the Philippines. Dope here is now the biggest source of underground money, and estimated annual revenues by the manufacturers-traders is as high as P600 Billion. That’s roughly U.S. $14 Billions in nominal value. In Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) value, that amounts to US. $56 Billion.
That is just the Philippines and not Afghanistan, USA, Colombia, Mexico, and China (with Triad groups operating) where dope revenues are higher. The aggregate sums of incomes from all the drug trade in the world would easily reach the Trillions of US Dollars or Euros, a whopping lot! The same monies have easily funded many legitimate businesses, name them: manufacturing, construction, hedge funds, banking, housing, agriculture, shipping, and more. They were even used to fund charities of churches! I need not remind the readers that they are used to fund electoral campaigns by politicians all over the globe, even kindergartens know this.
Now, let’s go back to Pakistan and Afghanistan, these two being interlinked by the British dope trade. The expectation of the traders is that these two should be safe havens, (a) Afghanistan for the production, and (b) Pakistan for the transit/trade. There is also some consumption in both countries, but the main markets are the USA and EU. Both countries should therefore always in the hands of ‘friendly forces’, to ensure undisrupted operations. I need not remind the reader that so much of bribery went into developing new oligarchs and politicians in both countries, in order to ensure ‘friendly forces’ ensconced in all quarters.
When the Soviets and Talibans took over Afghanistan, production was disrupted. Both regimes were unfriendly to dope, and had no second thoughts in razing down ground production. Hundreds of billions of dollars are lost in just three (3) years of ‘enemy forces’ occupation of the ground, which pains the pockets. That served Pakistan good, which, being a ‘friendly force’, was always there to kowtow to the whims of the British and their allies (Americans) who also benefitted immensely from the dope trade.
So, to conclude my piece, the Islam-Hindu conflict has nothing to do with the India-Pakistan partition. Such a conflict was contrived, there was religious tolerance in India since the days yet of the Moguls (who re-instituted tolerance policy), and fundamentalism was never a phenomenon at all. Having reviewed tons of materials on comparative religions, being both sociologist and yogi-mystic, I am very sure about the latter, a phenomenon that was in fact created by the financier oligarchs themselves as smokescreen for their rather noxious trade operations.
As to what forecasts to make, I would leave that to the readers. I’d move on to some other related topics later.
[Writ 04 December 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Saturday, November 29, 2008
HEALING GLOBAL ECONOMY VIA NEW FINANCIAL ARCHITECTURE
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Magandang hapon! Good afternoon! Buenos tardes!
At this juncture, this economist, who is also a healer (pranic healer, soul healer, psychosocial counselor), will begin to articulate economic problems from a wellness vantage point. I will be calling the paradigm ‘healing economics’ as a fusion of wellness principles and economic analysis.
If we observe the ‘treatment’ applied by public policy experts on national economies today, we would see that the solutions to the problems are largely short-term ones that only mitigate economic collapse for a while. We can call them ‘band aid’ solutions to problems that are more of ‘cancerous’ in nature, and by common sense we know that band aid cannot cure cancer.
The economies of our nations have already been integrated over the last three (3) decades or so. This integration constituted the ‘global economy’ which is distinct from national economies and which manifest its own laws. National economies have become interstices or tissues of the global economy, and trying to cure ailing national economies without taking into consideration the wellness of the whole global economy will fail.
What is now urgently most needed, as a formula for enabling healthy national economies, is to put into place a new global ‘financial architecture’ as a beginning treatment. There is no way that economies can heal without the proper macro-policies and institutional frames that support them, and those policies cum institutions must be constructed at the global level.
Just by using that ‘global’ category as a yardstick, we can see that the solution of bank bailouts being rushed in the USA and echoed in Europe are not the long-term salvation to the ailment.
That bailout route was already tried in Japan in the 1990s, it was then called ‘crisis management’, and it resulted to a 12-year recession-to-low growth catastrophe. Japan became the “sick man of Asia” for a decade, which was unbelievable for observers who knew this country’s economic might all along.
If there are certain realities that we must admit as having already turned into dead carcasses, they are:
· Virtual or Bubble Economy: Economy that is founded on speculation, with values derived from out of financial values themselves and divorced from production, cannot be sustained for long. It is finally DEAD. Only fools would still think that reviving it, without regulating and/or criminalizing the economic predators that thrived on it, is the soundest healing work preferred. Nobody needs to heal a dead thing, just bury it deep below the ground, lest you create a zombie or vampire out of it.
· Free Market of Currencies. Treating currencies like commodities that are tradable without sufficient regulation, is voodoo paradigm of ‘monetarism’. This is now DEAD. It can never work, it doesn’t, and will never work under any given context. Free market doctrine (laissez faire)), in the first place, was long dead. It was a doctrine that was enforced by the British Empire, through the “power of the gun,” and supported the slave trade business. To revive such a doctrine in the current context—guiding trade and exchanges in the monetary-currency markets—is plain voodoo practice, as it fattens the purses of economic predators at the expense of national economies and marginal social sectors.
The route to strategic healing, which combines ‘preventive’ with ‘curative’ treatments, is through a new ‘global financial architecture’. This can be and should be done most urgently, as the carcasses are now spreading havoc of ailments across the planet, through a global conference of all the nation-states. Through this conference, proper diagnostics can be done, with the help of top experts, including those representing marginal sectors, and proper treatment can also be conjured.
An outline of agenda items for deep reflections in such a treaty-making conference would be as follows:
· Shift Back to Regulated Trading of Currencies/Monies. Money is the lifeblood of the economy. As such, no private group or whatsoever should be allowed to play it like gambling toys just to fatten their already fat pockets. Private stakeholders that gamble in the currency markets are like cancerous corpuscles in the blood vessel, their operations must be well regulated and certain trading activities declared as banned.
· Securitize Currencies with Precious Metals. A reconstruction of the gold standard should be done most quickly. This system was junked in 1971 yet, and look at the catastrophic result of its folding up. Not only gold, but certain other precious metals and crystals, such as diamonds, can be declared as securitization measures to guide money production within any country at any given time.
· Fixed Exchange Rates. National currencies are still around. In no way should they be forcibly junked in favor of a global currency, which is too premature a measure. Within a period of transition, of say 25 years, national currencies should be the chief legal tender, exchangeable based on fixed exchange rate policy.
· Tobin Tax on Cross-border Financial Transactions. All cross-border financial-monetary transactions, done as matter of business engagement, should be imposed a Tobin Tax, the amount of which will be defined in the conference. The revenues generated from such tax will then be used to fund the United Nations and its attached institutions (UNESCO, WHO, ILO, etc). Through this measure, all cross-border transactions can also be monitored, making it easier for international enforcers (e.g. Interpol) to counter-check sabotage and related criminal operations by predators.
· Ban or Criminalize Excessive Speculation. Excessive speculation of currency markets and related financial transactions must be banned and declared as crime. Those engagements of ‘currency attacks’ that have wrecked many economies are on top of the agenda for criminalization. Till these days, they remain unchecked, due to free trade principles in currency and financial trading.
· Ban Banks from Derivatives Operations. Banks should operate largely in support of developmental and re-development pursuits. In no case should any country be allowed unrestrained speculative and/or derivatives operations that leave the banks vulnerable to collapse.
· End Usury One and For All. For as long as usury remains, poverty and underdevelopment will never end, while once wealthy economies can crash back into 3rd world status. Usury must be criminalized as an evil act, thus ending once and for all a long history of predatory hoarding.
· Create New Global Financial Institution. To enforce and monitor the new financial architecture put into place, a new global financial architecture or GFI should be installed as well. The international Monetary Fund is a total failure, even as it was used as a mere tool by predatory financiers to extract usurious rents and disable national economies through immoral austerity measures. In the long run, this GFI can be considered as the infrastructure for a global central bank, should cooperating states approve it in principle.
Incidentally, the clamor for installing a new financial architecture is now getting stronger by the day. I am very optimistic that this will be concurred in due time, for failure to do so would prolong the agony of global economic collapse and decline. Let us cross our fingers that it will be called for very soon.
[Writ 28 November 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Magandang hapon! Good afternoon! Buenos tardes!
At this juncture, this economist, who is also a healer (pranic healer, soul healer, psychosocial counselor), will begin to articulate economic problems from a wellness vantage point. I will be calling the paradigm ‘healing economics’ as a fusion of wellness principles and economic analysis.
If we observe the ‘treatment’ applied by public policy experts on national economies today, we would see that the solutions to the problems are largely short-term ones that only mitigate economic collapse for a while. We can call them ‘band aid’ solutions to problems that are more of ‘cancerous’ in nature, and by common sense we know that band aid cannot cure cancer.
The economies of our nations have already been integrated over the last three (3) decades or so. This integration constituted the ‘global economy’ which is distinct from national economies and which manifest its own laws. National economies have become interstices or tissues of the global economy, and trying to cure ailing national economies without taking into consideration the wellness of the whole global economy will fail.
What is now urgently most needed, as a formula for enabling healthy national economies, is to put into place a new global ‘financial architecture’ as a beginning treatment. There is no way that economies can heal without the proper macro-policies and institutional frames that support them, and those policies cum institutions must be constructed at the global level.
Just by using that ‘global’ category as a yardstick, we can see that the solution of bank bailouts being rushed in the USA and echoed in Europe are not the long-term salvation to the ailment.
That bailout route was already tried in Japan in the 1990s, it was then called ‘crisis management’, and it resulted to a 12-year recession-to-low growth catastrophe. Japan became the “sick man of Asia” for a decade, which was unbelievable for observers who knew this country’s economic might all along.
If there are certain realities that we must admit as having already turned into dead carcasses, they are:
· Virtual or Bubble Economy: Economy that is founded on speculation, with values derived from out of financial values themselves and divorced from production, cannot be sustained for long. It is finally DEAD. Only fools would still think that reviving it, without regulating and/or criminalizing the economic predators that thrived on it, is the soundest healing work preferred. Nobody needs to heal a dead thing, just bury it deep below the ground, lest you create a zombie or vampire out of it.
· Free Market of Currencies. Treating currencies like commodities that are tradable without sufficient regulation, is voodoo paradigm of ‘monetarism’. This is now DEAD. It can never work, it doesn’t, and will never work under any given context. Free market doctrine (laissez faire)), in the first place, was long dead. It was a doctrine that was enforced by the British Empire, through the “power of the gun,” and supported the slave trade business. To revive such a doctrine in the current context—guiding trade and exchanges in the monetary-currency markets—is plain voodoo practice, as it fattens the purses of economic predators at the expense of national economies and marginal social sectors.
The route to strategic healing, which combines ‘preventive’ with ‘curative’ treatments, is through a new ‘global financial architecture’. This can be and should be done most urgently, as the carcasses are now spreading havoc of ailments across the planet, through a global conference of all the nation-states. Through this conference, proper diagnostics can be done, with the help of top experts, including those representing marginal sectors, and proper treatment can also be conjured.
An outline of agenda items for deep reflections in such a treaty-making conference would be as follows:
· Shift Back to Regulated Trading of Currencies/Monies. Money is the lifeblood of the economy. As such, no private group or whatsoever should be allowed to play it like gambling toys just to fatten their already fat pockets. Private stakeholders that gamble in the currency markets are like cancerous corpuscles in the blood vessel, their operations must be well regulated and certain trading activities declared as banned.
· Securitize Currencies with Precious Metals. A reconstruction of the gold standard should be done most quickly. This system was junked in 1971 yet, and look at the catastrophic result of its folding up. Not only gold, but certain other precious metals and crystals, such as diamonds, can be declared as securitization measures to guide money production within any country at any given time.
· Fixed Exchange Rates. National currencies are still around. In no way should they be forcibly junked in favor of a global currency, which is too premature a measure. Within a period of transition, of say 25 years, national currencies should be the chief legal tender, exchangeable based on fixed exchange rate policy.
· Tobin Tax on Cross-border Financial Transactions. All cross-border financial-monetary transactions, done as matter of business engagement, should be imposed a Tobin Tax, the amount of which will be defined in the conference. The revenues generated from such tax will then be used to fund the United Nations and its attached institutions (UNESCO, WHO, ILO, etc). Through this measure, all cross-border transactions can also be monitored, making it easier for international enforcers (e.g. Interpol) to counter-check sabotage and related criminal operations by predators.
· Ban or Criminalize Excessive Speculation. Excessive speculation of currency markets and related financial transactions must be banned and declared as crime. Those engagements of ‘currency attacks’ that have wrecked many economies are on top of the agenda for criminalization. Till these days, they remain unchecked, due to free trade principles in currency and financial trading.
· Ban Banks from Derivatives Operations. Banks should operate largely in support of developmental and re-development pursuits. In no case should any country be allowed unrestrained speculative and/or derivatives operations that leave the banks vulnerable to collapse.
· End Usury One and For All. For as long as usury remains, poverty and underdevelopment will never end, while once wealthy economies can crash back into 3rd world status. Usury must be criminalized as an evil act, thus ending once and for all a long history of predatory hoarding.
· Create New Global Financial Institution. To enforce and monitor the new financial architecture put into place, a new global financial architecture or GFI should be installed as well. The international Monetary Fund is a total failure, even as it was used as a mere tool by predatory financiers to extract usurious rents and disable national economies through immoral austerity measures. In the long run, this GFI can be considered as the infrastructure for a global central bank, should cooperating states approve it in principle.
Incidentally, the clamor for installing a new financial architecture is now getting stronger by the day. I am very optimistic that this will be concurred in due time, for failure to do so would prolong the agony of global economic collapse and decline. Let us cross our fingers that it will be called for very soon.
[Writ 28 November 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
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