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A good friend of mine who has good frineds and the banco nacional told him this juicy piece of information
Costa Rica actually has some sort of law stating that the colon must not fall below 500 to one dollar.
recently–their calculations showed that the actual exchange rate of the dollar to the colon should be around 460 to one dollar! To remedy this–in the last week or 2 the Costa Rican central bank bought 80 million dollars to support the value of the dollar against the colone–it only brought the value of the colon to 506!
For all the people holding dollars waiting for things to get cheaper in Costa Rica to buy–may want to consider this–especially after the Fed just promised to print another 600 billion dollars in fresh ^money^
This reminds me of a great story during wiemar Germany where someone left a wheelbarrow full of money during the hyperinflation of the 1921-23 era.
The story goes that someone left the money and stole the wheelbarrow!
Happy investing!!!Actually, I wouldn’t believe much in what your friend told you, if it was true then is shouldn’t be at 510 today, actually I have seen many articles out there that state the colon is significantly over valued compared to the dollar. Yes the dollar has taken a hit but look at the size of costa rica and its economy. If the dollar sinks to far in CR, CR will suffer greatly with its exports and tourists markets which make up the greatest part of its economy. If CR has any sense, it would undervalue its currently against the dollar as China has done, many, many benefits for CR to do this.
[quote=”gzeniou”]Actually, I wouldn’t believe much in what your friend told you, if it was true then is shouldn’t be at 510 today, actually I have seen many articles out there that state the colon is significantly over valued compared to the dollar. Yes the dollar has taken a hit but look at the size of costa rica and its economy. If the dollar sinks to far in CR, CR will suffer greatly with its exports and tourists markets which make up the greatest part of its economy. If CR has any sense, it would undervalue its currently against the dollar as China has done, many, many benefits for CR to do this.[/quote]
That sounds like a GREAT IDEA–if we rob all the citizens of their purchasing power—then they will eat less–be thinner and more attractive and more foreigners will come here to marry the locals which will bring more money into the economy. And since destroying the currency will make things more expensive–everyone will feel like they are getting rich–Which would explain all those billionaires in Zimbabwe.
Im glad you use communist china as the model–if everyone works for $30 a month–imagine what a booming economy you could have—-
WOW–THE POSSIBILITIES!!In fact it would do the opposite effect, the overall cost of living will decrease, as products would cost less, and trade would be greatly increased bringing in more income, why do you think China owns us and a good part of the rest of the world, and while their people are poor, you have to compare to where they were 20 years ago, their standard of living and wages have increased dramatically.
[quote=”gzeniou”]In fact it would do the opposite effect, the overall cost of living will decrease, as products would cost less, and trade would be greatly increased bringing in more income, why do you think China owns us and a good part of the rest of the world, and while their people are poor, you have to compare to where they were 20 years ago, their standard of living and wages have increased dramatically.[/quote]
Wow–another product of the modern education system
When the USA was on a gold standard
from 1813-1913 there were at least 3 booms and 3 busts–but the price of tomatoes cost the same for over a hundred years. Costs go down due to new technologies and more efficient techniques. Not by manipulating the currency–that only favors those who own tangible assets–such as factories, bridges, farms etc.
How can things cost less by manipulating the value of a currency–value does not change–only how many pieces of ^money^are needed to buy it. An ounce of gold is still an ounce of gold–the value hasnt gone up, only the number of little pieces of paper needed to aquire it have
China OWNS the USA because the government lives beyond its means and needs to use debt to finance its operations. And the reason for this was because greedy or intelligent business interests decided to open a factory in China to take advantage of $30 per month labor and sell an I-pod to dumb american teenagers for $300 that cost $15.
And besides, have you ever seen what things cost in 1970? or 1950? in the USA—the reason they are more expensive now is because of inflation
WOW —-I cant believe there are actually people who think like you–economics is not hard–but apparently aquiring a understanding of it is.Normally I try to give incite to folks or a least show them a different point of view or possibilities but in this case, I don’t see any reason to go further.
Funny people are using China here… Look at the nice new stadium that Costa Rica has. Where do you think the labor and materials came from? Why would they import labor and items if it was not cheap and they were getting something out of it such as a boost to their economy. It was such a good deal for them that they tried to import labor for another project that they have but CR stopped them.
The gold standard is not a reality in modern economics. Sure you can pine for the good old days but they are long past. The world economies work on a different set of rules now. Those rules change at a much quicker pace than they did 40 years ago. So countries that have to ability to manipulate currency conversion do so to create competitive advantages and often this is a zero sum game. You can choose to help the domestic businesses be more competitive globally, which creates jobs and relative wealth for local workers but with a higher cost of imports or a central bank can choose to be inverted and prop up their currency which has the effect of making imports less expensive and static wealth greater. I would argue that LDCs benefit by having a weak local currency compared to their trading partners, exports become less expensive and this often creates economic growth.
The people that benefit most from a strong domestic currency are the folks with money in the bank, not the average working class person.
My Friends–no fiat money system as ever lasted more than 40 years. That is why the Federal reserve is already the 3rd central bank in the USA. Since no one here-gets any information that doest come from the television–its no wonder that we get such silly and moronoic responses.
Dont you get it? Bank Bailouts, massive corruption, derivitives–these are all signs that the system is breaking down.
If you dont believe me–look at the gold prices—and wait and see.
It will get much much worse before it gets better. And Gold was money for THOUSANDS of years–and every time weak and ignornat politicians try to do otherwise–you have a few people very rich and the rest of the people are screwed–sound familiar?I found this great article from the
National Inflation Association—for the Geniuses in the forum who do get it–maybe this can put things in persepctive….NIA Projects Future U.S. Food Price Increases
The National Inflation Association today announced the release of its report about NIA’s projections of future U.S. food price increases due to the massive monetary inflation being created by the Federal Reserve’s $600 billion quantitative easing. This report was written by NIA’s President Gerard Adams, who believes food inflation will take over in 2011 as America’s greatest crisis. According to Mr. Adams, making mortgage payments will soon be the last thing on the minds of all Americans. We currently have a currency crisis that could soon turn into hyperinflation and a complete societal collapse.
“For every economic problem the U.S. government tries to solve, it always creates two or three much larger catastrophes in the process,” said Adams. “Just like we predicted this past December, the U.S. dollar index bounced in early 2010 and has been in free-fall ever since. Bernanke’s QE2 will likely accelerate this free-fall into a complete U.S. dollar rout,” warned Adams.
NIA projects that at the average U.S. grocery store it will soon cost $11.43 for one ear of corn, $23.05 for a 24 oz loaf of wheat bread, $62.21 for a 32 oz package of Domino Granulated Sugar, $24.31 for a 32 fl oz container of soy milk, $77.71 for a 11.30 oz container of Folgers Classic Roast Coffee, $45.71 for a 64 fl oz container of Minute Maid Orange Juice, and $15.50 for a Hershey’s Milk Chocolate 1.55 oz candy bar. NIA also projects that by the end of this decade, a plain white men’s cotton t-shirt at Wal-Mart will cost $55.57.
NIA’s special U.S. food price projection report is now available to download for free by clicking here.
The report highlights how despite cotton rising by 54%, corn rising by 29%, soybeans rising by 22%, orange juice rising by 17%, and sugar rising by 51% during the months of September and October alone, these huge commodity price increases have yet to make their way into America’s grocery stores because corporations have been reluctant to pass these price increases along to the consumer. In today’s dismal economy, no retailer wants to be the first to dramatically raise food prices. However, NIA expects all retailers to soon substantially raise food prices at the same time, which will ensure that this Holiday shopping season will be the worst in recorded American history.
If you are an NIA member and have a question about the U.S. economy or inflation, please browse through our ‘NIAnswers’ database and if your question hasn’t already been answered there, you can either submit it on ‘NIAnswers’ or email it to us at: editor@inflation.us
If you are a member of the media and would like to schedule an interview with NIA’s President Gerard Adams about inflation, please send an email to media@inflation.us or if it is urgent you can call us directly at 1-888-99-NIA US (1-888-996-4287).
Kordan, you understand perfectly what is happening except that our most recent fiat currency system went into effect 80 years ago, not 40. Quantitative Easing is nothing new and has been the process employed by the FED since its inception. It is purposefully done as a way to devalue the currency because inflation is how the banks and the few rich are able to confiscate energy and wealth from the laboring population.
This is very simple to understand. THEY PRINT THE CURRENCY AT WILL. The more they print, the less it is worth so they decide its value at any given time. They decide how much your pay is worth by deciding what the fiat currency with which you are paid is worth.
Our lives have been controlled by these people for the last 80 years and the end game is in sight for them. Some say we just experienced the next-to-the last boom bust cycle and that there is one more to come. The Quantitative Easing move to be made soon may fuel the next mini boom or it may simply stave off the final steep fall off the edge. Either way, the end is upon us. I can’t seem to get a good idea as to the time frame, though. If anyone has some ideas on this, I would like to hear it. Sometime between 2013 and 2018 may be the soonest. Others say we have another generation before the fall.
I think we’re looking at the shorter end of that time horizon! No doubt the writing has been on the wall for a long time for those of us that don’t have our information spoon fed to us. Most of us on this board have looked at Costa Rica as a lifeboat for the flood coming. Remember Scott’s “Perfect Storm” article? The US has for years lived on borrowed money and time… and as so many homeowners are finding out, living above your means and juggling debt comes to an end eventually. Without true grown in production and income, you’re sunk…. and the US has little of either.
Most of the world is in a mess right now, be it as result of reckless US policy and copying our lifestyle or their ties to US economic policy. The Fed has done little to fix this problem since world war 2. The debt load is beyond ANYTHING you can imagine both on the books (Official US national debt)or hidden in off book entities. Much like Enron the US has so many “free standing” debt magnets that hold much of the problem. And each state in the US has done the same.
The true problem is so hidden that we’ll all be shocked when it comes to light.
The dollar will be the currency of choice of a little while longer… but as we’re seeing hard assets and other REAL assets will take over! Reading that posting on inflation (above) makes you wonder if stocking up on canned tuna (or as Scott enjoys, canned salmon) isn’t such a bad idea! Gold is wonderful to look at and hold, but it’s hard on the teeth and the digestive system!The FED cannot solve the problem because the FED, like the IMF, IS a chief aspect of the problem. Private banking is the main tool, right after government, that the Owners use to suck the life, energy and wealth out of all of the workers enslaved within this monetary system.
Right wing conservatives, liberals and libertarians are all missing the big picture with their puny solutions. ANY solution which does not include the abolition of the current monetary-economic system of scarcity will fail because the problem IS the economic-political system.
The political will to tear down this system doesn’t exist and this is by design. Those in power use the means at their disposal to keep slaves ignorant and fearful and fighting amongst themselves. The only way a change will happen is if society survives a complete social and economic meltdown and then rebuilds a society and economy based on resource and population management.
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/I am pessimistic. I am not at all certain that society will survive the coming disasters considering the apocalyptic nature of those forces now threatening us. And even if a society does remain intact, technology may not and human behavior is very likely to repeat the old ways. We would once again create soldiers and religions.
Zeitgeist is just more media that needs critical analysis just as any news source. Here is an interesting piece written by G. Edward Griffin, the author of “The Creature From Jekyll Island.”
I don’t like to criticize anything that is helping to spread the truth about the Federal Reserve and 9/11 but I must agree with the substance of what you have said about this video. I watched it two nights ago and was deeply disturbed by its message. At first, I thought it would be best to just let it play itself out in expectation that most viewers would cross it off as whacky. However, the production value is high, the effects and sound score are compelling, and there is enough truth embedded in the beginning to capture the attention and possibly the trust of many within the freedom
movement. So here are my comments on a few items of concern:1. The information about the Federal Reserve is, for the most part, right on target. However, I practically fell out of my chair when the program repeated that old, silly argument about the Fed not creating enough money to cover the cost of interest on debt; and, therefore, the world must forever be in debt. I knew right there that the writer did not read The Creature from Jekyll Island or, if he did, he forgot my analysis of this common myth. For those who are interested in that topic, it is fund on pages 191-192 of The Creature.
2. The next jolt came when the program praised Civil War Greenbacks, calling them debt-free. Actually, Greenbacks were contrary to the U.S. Constitution and, although they were not fiat money issued by the
banks, they were fiat money issued by the government. That was better than paying interest on nothing to bankers, but they still wiped out the purchasing power of American money through massive inflation. They
can not correctly be called debt-free, either, because they represented debt on the shoulders of the government, which means, of course, on the shoulders of the taxpayers. It never ceases to amaze me how people think
that the solution to money created out of nothing by those big, bad bankers is to have money created out of nothing by those nice, trustworthy politicians. Yet, that is what this program supports.3. There is a lengthy segment in which the author of I Was an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins, tells the story of how propagandists in the U.S. manipulated public opinion to support military action against several Latin American countries. Then Perkins says that these propagandists scared Americans by telling them that the leaders of these countries were Marxists who were aligned with the Soviets. This, of course, is a half truth that is just as dangerous as a total lie. It is true about the propagandists and
their strategy to scare the public into supporting military intervention in those countries, but it is false to portray those dictators as great humanitarians who cared only for the well being of their people. That is total bunk. They WERE aligned with the Soviet Union and they WERE part of a Marxist/Leninist strategy to dominate Latin America; a strategy that continues to this day.There was plenty not to like on both sides of that struggle, but objective historians would never depict the Rhodesians (the CFR crowd in the U.S.) as bad guys but depict the Soviet puppets as good guys. In his book, Perkins reveals this same slant. He exposes the foul tactics of international corporations, the IMF, and World Bank, but he never mentions a Leftist dictator, such as Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez without praising them. Perkins is a collectivist aligned with the Left, and that strongly influences his telling of this story. Yet the producers of the video make no mention of this bias and give him an inordinate amount of time to present his slanted view without challenge.
4. Perhaps the biggest insult to our intelligence is the main theme of the program. It is that profits are the root of all our problems today. That being the case, we must change mankind to reject profit and we must work together on some other basis. It is never quite clear what that basis is, but, whatever it is, it will be administered and directed by an elite group, at least in the beginning. I was stunned by the fact that this is pure Marxism. Mark theorized that people had to be re-educated (in labor camps, if necessary) to cleanse their minds of the profit motive. He and his disciples, such as Lenin and Stalin and Khruschev, said that, eventually, the character of man would be purged of greed, and then the state would wither away because it no longer would be needed. Sure! We saw that in the Soviet Union and China, right? Yet this Marxist nonsense is exactly what is offered in this video program. It is Communism without using the name.
The profit motive is neither good nor bad. It can be applied either way depending on social and political factors. The desire for profit is merely the desire to be compensated for our labor, our creativity, our knowledge, or even for our risk. Without profit, very little would be accomplished in the world – not even if everyone spent a few years in labor camps to be re-educated. It is a basic part of man’s nature and is the mainspring of human progress, as Henry Grady Weaver described it in his book by that same title. Throughout history, whenever man lived in a system that allows him to be rewarded for his work, there has been great productivity and abundance. By contrast, where social engineers gained control of the state and restricted people from receiving the fruits of their labor, productivity fell, and scarcity was the norm.
The profit motive functions differently in different political systems. In a free system where government does not intervene in the market place, the profit motive always will manifest itself as competition, each person or each company trying to deliver better quality products and services at lower prices. That was how it used to be in the early days of America, and that is what led to the greatest outpouring of productivity and abundance the world has ever seen. However, in a collectivist system where government controls every conceivable aspect of economic and commercial activity (the system that now exists in America), the profit motive always manifests itself as a quest for political influence and laws to favor one group over another. The net effect is to eliminate competition in the market place. Under collectivism, success is achieved, not by creating better products and services for less cost, but by controlling legislators and government agencies. It is a system of legalized plunder, as Frederic Bastiat called it in his famous treatise, The Law. Unfortunately, it is the system that dominates most of the world today.
Zeitgeist Addendum ignores this reality. At one point the narrator even says that the greatest evil in the world today is “the free enterprise system.” That’s an incredible statement, especially inasmuch as the free enterprise system has been dead for several decades. It lives in name only. The whole world now is in the grips of non-competitive monopolies and cartels that have forged partnerships with governments. All of the evils to which this program alludes are the result, not of the free enterprise system, but of
the abandonment of free enterprise and the adoption of collectivism. This program creates a mythological boogeyman and then advocates more of the very thing that has brought us to the mess we are in today.The enemy of mankind is not profit. It is a political system of big government. Yet, this program is supportive of some of the most notable big-government collectivist on the planet. Marxist/Leninists may be enemies of collectivists in Washington, DC, but they are collectivists in their own right. The Communist model is no better than the Nazi model.
There is much more that could be said about other program topics such as technology supposedly being our salvation, about the a future world in which no one has to work, and about common ownership of land, oceans, natural resources, etc. but, for the most part, these merely are sub issues to the ones already described, so I will spare my readers the pain of further discourse.
In summary, this program does NOT offer a cure. It offers a mega dose of the disease itself.
Ed Griffin, 2008 Oct 9
Lotus,
Thanks for letting me read your analysis of Zeitgeist. I know of few people who have enough common sense and interest to take the time to view and understand enough to critique the ideas presented in that film.
You did not back up your claim, however, that all of the targets of economic hit men were aligned with the Soviet Union. That is not established fact and even if it could be established, with whom else could those people have aligned themselves against the monstrously huge U.S. force bearing down upon them? And in any case, whether or not they were Marxists has nothing to do with the subject matter being discussed which was the covert tactics used by so called capitalist banking interests and the ultimate destructive nature of those interests. I make no distinction any longer between governments participating in the world wide monetary system. They are all corrupted.
You also seemed to have skimmed over the section wherein it is explained why the profit motive is destructive and the solution to that problem. I must admit that I was also skeptical about the basis of the principles of the Venus project. It appears too utopian. But recent studies regarding human behavior seem to back up those principles and the movie briefly laid out an alternative to the current system of an economy of scarcity. You refer to a human history of behavior where people have grown accustomed to being rewarded for their labor and you infer that any new system must continue this practice. You confuse human behavior with human nature. There is no such thing as human nature and you are missing the point entirely. If people required profit to motivate them to do anything, then how do you explain a history of self sacrificing work done to benefit others. It happens. Scott performed such an action recently and wrote about it. People are not hard wired to require profit as a motivation and under the proper environment we could eliminate the profit motive and the resulting bad human behavior.
The free enterprise system is indeed dead. It never existed. The film used that term to describe the current system because that is the propaganda terminology that the Owners use to sell it. Zeitgeist does NOT ignore that reality. In fact, that is what the movie is about. You appear to be so immersed in the far right wing propagandist vocabulary and the associated misconceptions that you are unable to think outside of that box. Of course, the communist ideal is no better than the Nazi ideal which is no better than the current Capitalist ideal. They are all the same thing with slightly different flavors. As the film quotes ” you can have a country based on capitalism. Or you can have a country based on democracy. But you cannot have a country based on both.” Money corrupts all.
Utopian ideals are all that is left to us for consideration. You can hope that people will collectively choose to abandon the current economic model of scarcity, money and profit, relying on technology to save the day or you can stick with the system we have always had and try to tinker with it and tweak it. But the current system has self destruction built into it. The most that can be done with the current system is to delay the ultimate outcome. Like any pyramid scheme, the whole thing will come down completely. So we go back to the utopian ideals. That is all that is left us.
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