Opinion (Ashok Gadgil, Director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory): “We are a global civilization, we have global operations, global economic activity, and we are dependent on the resources of the planet. Our civilization is so big and powerful that we can mindlessly destroy a thin film of life on our planet…

“As a result, the main task, in my opinion, is to find out what should be the laws of the new economy: consumption, population, industry, the management of society.

“Studies repeatedly show that the best way to control the population is to educate women. Education stops the oppression of women and solves a lot of social problems.

In nature, every kind wants to multiply and flourish, but all kinds live in harmony with other species on which they depend. And only a human being wants to take the whole area.

“This behavior cannot be a long-term pattern of behavior. We need to evolve, rather than to increase consumption, destroying the world. Today, few people think about future generations, everyone thinks about the current moment.”

My Comment: Kabbalah says that if we had liberated women from work and sent them to the “courses of integral education and upbringing,” we would have:

– been released from the burden of unemployment,

– ceased to produce unwanted goods,

– stopped depleting resources,

– stopped polluting the planet.

and women, freed from unnecessary work, and on the basis of acquired knowledge, would have dealt with education and upbringing of their men and children, and we would have found a solution to the crisis in all areas.
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In the News (from Google): “The International Monetary Fund issued a clarion call to bickering US politicians Tuesday, urging them to solve the country’s debt problems before a still-vulnerable economy is tipped over the brink.

“In a hallmark semi-annual report, the Washington-based fund warned policymakers on the other side of the US capital that, while the world’s largest economy is improving, they invite trouble by not addressing a looming debt crisis. …

“So far the United States has avoided the type of debt crisis that has ravaged Europe – with the dollar’s safe-haven status and moderate growth providing a sizable safety net even as agencies have downgraded the country’s credit rating. …

“A flare-up in the euro area from increased sovereign and bank stress could easily undermine confidence in the US corporate sector and thereby squeeze investment and demand undermining growth. …

“Spending cuts will automatically come into effect and major tax breaks will end in the next year if Congress does not act.”

My Comment: There is no doubt that today’s rates are pre-election and everyone understands that this will be over, and they will have to pay their bills.
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Opinion (Amartya Sen, the Indian Nobel Laureate professor of Economics, Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University): “Several features of policy making are worrying, particularly in Europe. The first is a democratic failure. An economic policy has to be ultimately something that people understand, appreciate and support. That’s what democracy is all about. The old idea of “no taxation without representation” is not there in Europe at the moment. …

“If you are living in a southern country, in Greece, and Portugal and Spain, the electorates’ views are much less important than the views of the bankers, the rating agencies and the financial institutions. One result of European monetary integration, without a political integration, is that the population of many of these countries has no voice. Economics is de-linked from the political base. That I think is a mistake and it goes completely against the big European movement that began in the 40s and fostered the idea of a democratic, united Europe.”

My Comment: It depends upon how you define democracy. If we consider the quality of equality, Europe has been always ahead of the rest in terms of arrogance and humiliation of others. The mutual hatred of the EU countries and peoples is known in the world as a bad example. And within countries with respect to the influence of people on politics or economy, then the masters have always played tricks on their people, and people followed them. Today, the crisis is not about democracy but the opportunity to no longer “play” at it—everything is exposed.
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In the News (from The New York Times): “Europe’s long-running euro crisis may be cooling. But the economic distress it has left in its wake is pushing a rising tide of workers into precarious straits in France and across the European Union. Today, hundreds of thousands of people are living in campgrounds, vehicles and cheap hotel rooms. Millions more are sharing space with relatives, unable to afford the basic costs of living.

“These people are the extreme edge of Europe’s working poor: a growing slice of the population that is slipping through Europe’s long-vaunted social safety net. Many, particularly the young, are trapped in low-paying or temporary jobs that are replacing permanent ones destroyed in Europe’s economic downturn.

“Now, economists, European officials and social watchdog groups are warning that the situation is set to worsen. As European governments respond to the crisis by pushing for deep spending cuts to close budget gaps and greater flexibility in their work forces, ‘the population of working poor will explode,’ said Jean-Paul Fitoussi, an economics professor at L’Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris.

“The trend is most alarming in hard-hit countries like Greece and Spain, but it is rising even in more prosperous nations like France and Germany.

“‘France is a rich country,’ Mr. Fitoussi said. ‘But the working poor are living in the same condition as in the 19th century. They can’t pay for heating, they can’t pay for their children’s clothes, they are sometimes living five people in a nine-square-meter apartment — here in France!’ he exclaimed, speaking of an apartment of about 100 square feet.”

My Comment: Unfortunately, because of the government’s near-sightedness and a lack of political will, the population sufferers, not the government. Integration and union—these are not just words but a state of society! The fathers of the European integration didn’t take this into account. They wished to reach their egoistic goals without making social changes.

Unification must be above all contradictions; otherwise, the “European Union” that never existed in reality will collapse burying the entire developed Europe. Even at the beginning of the creation of the EU, I wrote what was necessary for a union:

Upbringing: How to bring up a person, (Hinuch in Hebrew), when a person is not yet formed, bringing up a child through attitudes, frameworks, and through creating an environment, using exercises until the age of 13. Concurrently, but to the extent of the assimilation of upbringing, learning is added.

Learning: To learn (Lemidah in Hebrew), the assimilation of the past human experience. This brings a person to education.

Education: To educate, to shape the image of the future in a person, that is, his ability to think about the future and move forward.
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In the News (from The Wall Street Journal Blog): “The world needs to create about 200 million jobs to reach full employment.

“That’s one finding from a new report released Friday by the International Labor Organization and the World Bank. The two groups, based on a request from the Group of 20 advanced and developing economies, are unveiling a database that tallies policy responses to the financial crisis and global economic downturn. …

“The employment tally found that the world lost 27 million jobs between 2007 and the height of the crisis in 2009. But labor force growth adds about 40 million people to the global labor market each year, and overall economic growth—even before the crisis—hadn’t been strong enough to absorb them. That created a long-run jobs gap of 177 million, on top of the 27 million jobs lost in the downturn. …

“The impact of the crisis on employment has been deep, and with no appreciable recovery, particularly in the developed countries. Table 2 shows that between 2007 and 2009—at the height of the crisis—an estimated 27 million jobs were lost globally. Half of these jobs were lost in the advanced economies, five million in East Asia, three million in Latin America and the Caribbean, and one million in South Asia. …

“The rate of youth unemployment rose globally from 11.7 percent in 2007 to 12.8 percent in 2009, the advanced economies being hit particularly hard, where this rate jumped from 12.5 percent to 17.3 percent over this period.” Source: ILO/World Bank

“While the world experienced ‘an unprecedented widespread policy response to the crisis,’ the report says, ‘policy responses led to a recovery in GDP growth but not a significant increase in jobs.’

“Among the study’s other findings:

–Policies of high-income countries focused on access to credit, while low- and middle-income nations prioritized direct job creation and employment incentives.

–About 55% of high-income countries used unconventional monetary policy vs. 33% of low- and middle-income countries.

–About 86% of high-income countries in the sample used a fiscal stimulus, while 84% of low- and middle-income countries did so.”

My Comment: The solution is to restructure the whole system of a society based on growing consumption. If our system of consumption were really unlimited, then there would have been no end to “America.” But since we exist in a limited, finite system of society, resources, and environmental limits, the “pyramid” must fall apart. See the post “The Pyramid Economy.”
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Opinion (Gary Shilling, from Business Insider): “…Shilling writes that ‘consumer spending is the only major source of strength in the U.S. economy this year,’ but now all signs point to retrenchment:

“While consumers should be “reduc[ing] debt and rebuild[ing] net worth, they have been doing the opposite lately. …”

“Last but not least, Shilling says the clamor for a new age of ‘Nifty Fifty’ stocks demonstrates that investors are actually quite skeptical of the recovery, preferring instead to place safe bets on companies with such ‘wonderful long-term growth prospects that investors could simply buy them and never worry about selling.’

“He explains: ‘The zeal for Apple, whose share price is up more than 50 percent this year alone and is almost double its year-ago level. …’

“Not to mention that the possibility of renewed crisis in Europe and a hard landing in China—compounded by a decline in demand for Chinese products from Europe—continue to hang heavy on prospects for the global economy.

“Thus, he concludes, a new recession is inevitable: ‘The U.S. economy is overdue for a recession. I believe that it entered the down phase of the long cycle in 2000, and the five to seven years that remain in the age of deleveraging are part of this period of weak economic growth and more frequent recessions.’”

My Comment: By the way, the crisis didn’t disappear anywhere, all of its ups and downs are the temporary hiding and manipulation of records; it’s no more than a temporary reviving of the dying—the world economy of network marketing, which will collapse without constant expansion!
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In the News (from My Budget 360): “The global debt problem was never really solved but papered over with extensions and banking trickery. The US has dealt with much of the debt issues by suspending major accounting rules and stuffing bad loans into the Federal Reserve like a Christmas stocking. The European Union is facing some challenges ahead and all eyes will be watching given the impact of contagion impacts. …

“These kinds of structural issues cannot be peppered over with more debt. … In 2002 total global debt was above $80 trillion. In 2010 that figure more than doubled to over $190 trillion. …

“Today the global debt to GDP ratio is over 300 percent. You will notice that as the crisis hit in 2007 GDP actually fell but total debt kept going up.

[The USA debt] “has gone from roughly $6 trillion in 2000 to a stunning $15.2 trillion. At some point people will collectively begin waking up and realize none of this debt will be paid back. Not exactly a pleasant realization.”

My Comment: The impact will be strong and in order to deflect it, a war will be created somewhere in the world, or a catastrophe, scam, or terrorist act; otherwise, the rulers will not be able to be justified.
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Opinion (George Soros, financier): “The fundamental problems have not been resolved; indeed, the gap between creditor and debtor countries continues to widen. The crisis has entered what may be a less volatile but more lethal phase…Whether or not the euro endures, Europe is facing a long period of economic stagnation or worse… But the European Union is not a country, and it is unlikely to survive. The deflationary debt trap threatens to destroy a still-incomplete political union.

“The only way to escape the trap is to recognise that current policies are counterproductive and change course.”

My Comment: Soros is still hoping for some solution and he gives advice. The financiers are playing like the carried-away players for whom the game is important although its outcome has been already predetermined—their collective loss! The power of money is gradually being replaced with the power of global connection.
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Opinion (Marcus Walker and Charles Forelle, from The Wall Street Journal): “Around Europe, many voters, politicians and investors are fretting about economic weakness and high debts, and searching for the right balance between growth and fiscal discipline. A divide is growing between a German-led camp that argues that there is no alternative to austerity for all, and critics who say the strategy is pushing the euro zone into a downward spiral.”

My Comment: This is because the integration must either be complete or not; there is no halfway independence, virginity, or love! A lack of preparation of society in the form of integral upbringing will be manifested more strongly until it is implemented or until they run away, only this is terrible to imagine because it wouldn’t be done in a nice way!
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During the Plagues of Egypt, the Creator said to Moses, “Go unto Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them” (Exodus 10:1). Due to the blows that our egoism gets, the Creator grows between us. He grows on these “indications,” these  signs, when we discover in our egoistic desire how controlled, dependent, and helpless it is. Yes, it reigns over us, but in fact, it is stupid. Its moral and physical weakness is exposed before us.

Once egoism pushed us forward helping us build a life. But in the end, it turns out that by using it, we get negative results that are clearly seen. And even if the masses don’t want to know anything in their narrow-mindedness, we need only look at the deeds of humanity and we see that it truly destroys itself and nature.

If we observed such development of events on another planet, we would conclude that its inhabitants weren’t sensible beings. It would seem that some misfortune had taken their mind away, and that they had begun to cut the branch they’re sitting on, to block the channel that feeds them.

Twenty to thirty more years will pass by, and humanity will be left with nothing. We have created a terrible world, a pyramid of endless gain that generates profit by adding more and more new people. Once this growth runs out, everything collapses. However, while the pocket is still full, man continues to play.

The whole world economy is built by the Americans on the principle of the pyramid, of enriching its top at the expense of growing production and consumption. But here comes the crash: There is nowhere to grow, and thus nothing can happen but the collapse of the pyramid. A consumer society based on purchasing power has come to an end. There is nowhere to outsource production, there is no one else to involve; the Earth is round and not so big. It’s interesting how parallels appeared between our pyramid and ancient Egypt, the country of pyramids.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/12, Writings of Rabash

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