In the News (from Bloomberg): “‘Japan’s finances are getting worse and worse every day, every second,’ Takahira Ogawa, director of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor’s in Singapore, said in an interview. Asked if that means he’s closer to cutting Japan, he said it ‘may be right in saying that we’re closer to a downgrade. But the deterioration has been gradual so far, and it’s not like we’re going to move today.’

“S&P has had Japan on a negative outlook since April. Ogawa said the nation needs a ‘comprehensive approach’ to containing its debt burden, which the government projects will exceed 1 quadrillion yen ($13 trillion) in the year through March as the nation pays for reconstruction.

“‘The events in Europe show us that when you lose market confidence at some point, the situation deteriorates fast,’ Ogawa said. ‘Politicians need to act with the understanding that they’re running out of time’ to fix the nation’s finances. ‘If you don’t act early, it’ll become even more difficult’ to maintain market trust, he said.”

My Comment: During 2012, many countries will “catch up” to Japan and the U.S. The general crisis will force the world to reconsider their attitude towards life, that is, to balance giving and receiving, to live in order to be filled with the highest fulfillment, the revelation of the existence at the level of Adam—common bestowal and reception into the common desire. In this, humanity will reveal the next level of existence: the world of eternity and perfection.
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In the News (from Business New Europe): “It can be miserable living in an economy in transition. Hyperinflation might destroy your life savings in a matter of months. Your job may be pointless and pay badly – until you lose it that is. And then you could be condemned to poverty because there’s no social safety net to speak of.

“In October, the US Census Bureau announced that one in seven Americans, or 49m people, are now living in poverty, the highest number since records began 53 years ago. Two weeks later, the UK’s Office for National Statistics announced that the number of people out of work has hit its highest level in 17 years and youth unemployment is at an historic high… And Spain capped off the round of bad news saying unemployment is currently 23% – its highest level ever and the highest in the EU. A catastrophe is unfolding among the nations of the developed world.

“The West went through most of this sort of pain centuries ago, supposedly bringing to an end the scourges of hyperinflation, chronic unemployment and poverty. But now all three of these problems have reappeared – and most of them were visible even before the 2008 financial crisis broke.

“To conclude, evidence suggests that new and old Europe are moving in opposite directions, but isn’t this all just down to the hangover after the borrowing binge that western banks went on since the start of this century?

“…the monopoly that the West has enjoyed for the last 500 years over the most important factors that lead to prosperity has been broken, and the feisty young economies of the emerging world are undermining the comfortable western way of life.”

My Comment: The evolution of civilization is an objective process, and it is impossible to ignore it. Neglecting changes in society lead to mistakes that persist, and ignoring objective laws bring the entire developed world to the collapse.

It turns out that a one-sidedly developed world cannot realize nature’s new attitude towards civilization; the fact is that it forces us to establish integral connections, the society of mutual guarantee.
[62459]

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Opinion: (Jacques Delors, the former president of the European Commission, a key architect of the euro): “The euro project was flawed from the start and the current generation of European leaders has failed to address its fundamental problems…

“In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Jacques Delors claims that errors made when the euro was created had effectively doomed the single currency to the current debt crisis. He also accuses today’s leaders of doing ‘too little, too late,’ to support the single currency..

“Mr Delors, who led the commission from 1985 to 1995, played a central role in the process that led to the creation of the euro in 1999. In his first British newspaper interview for almost a decade, he says that the debt crisis reflects a threat to Europe’s global role and even basic Western democratic values.”

My Comment: How was it possible to create a single market without integrating everybody into a unified Europe? It is a mockery of the “progressive” part of humanity, when the authors of the European unification project think that it is sufficient to slightly adjust the standards and the markets. Where is unity? It’s not to be found even in a common pocket, not to mention cultural integration, integral upbringing, becoming closer above national and cultural differences, and overcoming contempt and hatred.

Naturally, the project failed, and it is clear that its ignominious end was laid at the beginning. Integration should start with people, and not with a common market.
[63037]

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In the News (from The American Dream): “In America today, there are millions of ‘preppers’ that are working feverishly to get prepared for what they fear is going to happen to America. …You may even have noticed that some of your relatives and friends have been storing up food and have been trying to convince you that we are on the verge of ‘the end of the world as we know it.’ …So exactly what are all these preppers so busy preparing for?

“Well, the truth is that the motivation for prepping is different for each person. Some preppers believe that a complete collapse of the economy is coming. Others saw what happened to so many during Hurricane Katrina are determined not to let that happen to them. Some preppers just want to become more independent and self-sufficient. There are yet others that are deeply concerned about ‘end of the world as we know it’ scenarios such as terrorists using weapons of mass destruction, killer pandemics, alien invasions, World War III, or EMP attacks.

“But whatever the motivation is, the prepper movement is clearly growing. Today, millions of Americans are converting spare rooms into storage pantries, learning how to grow survival gardens, and stocking up on everything from gas masks to auxiliary generators.”

My Comment: The desire to stock up is instinctive, animalistic. But what is truly useful is to find security at a higher level, that of “human.” Security at this level differs from the beastly desire for safety in that it is not limited to saving, that is, neutralizing the effects of disaster, but tries to eliminate its cause at the beginning, in the root. This requires one to realize the cause of what is happening. It lies in our egoism.

And then, one needs to correct it, to change it to the opposite quality: connection, giving, and love. This change cancels all the negative manifestation of nature inside and around us, reveals the system of design (plan), realization (management), and goal (the future), and gives the ability to control this system. As a result, a human being gains complete security.
[63047]

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In the News (from RIANovosti): “The euro’s decline may be closer than the eurozone’s authorities think. Jacques Attali, former chairman of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), said the euro might not survive beyond Christmas. The Wall Street Journal writes that companies providing software for foreign exchange trading ‘are testing systems that could handle trading of previously shelved European currencies.’

“‘The issue now is: Will the euro still exist by Christmas? There is more than a one-in-two chance that the single currency will not survive,’ the French economist said.”

My Comment: In any case, there are only two ways in front of us:

• the path of suffering, if we persist in our egoism;
• the path of enjoyment, if we agree to strive for unity.

Integration cannot be partial, in this case, only economic. It should be general and complete. Otherwise, it is like being a partial virgin, partial thief, partially faithful, and so on. It’s because the parts that are not integrated will break the integrated part.
[62804]

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Opinion: (Gerald Celente, founder of Trends Research, world trend analytic at the Summer Trends Journal): “Celente will continue to make clear that ‘Happy Days’ will not soon be here again. He will continue to explain that, budget deal notwithstanding, no future Fed quick fixes or DC schemes can reverse the ‘Greatest Depression’ – bound economy. No bipartisan miracle will eliminate the budget or trade deficit, restore the dollar to its former glory, or bring back jobs lost to China, India, Mexico, etc. Europe’s financial crisis is equally critical.

“And the EU, IMF, and ECB rescue policies will prove as ineffective as America’s. Those warnings are not ‘alarmism’ or ‘pessimism’ they are just a matter of drawing logical conclusions from hard facts and incontrovertible data.

“Nevertheless, even with a major economic collapse ahead of us, Celente is convinced there is a basis for expecting positive global outcomes in the long-term. The potential ‘Game Changer’ lies in a widespread recognition that the Industrial Revolution mindset and policies will not, and cannot, work in a 21st century world.

“‘It’s not just Model T economics that’s outmoded, so are our approaches to education, healthcare, politics and, yes, the military,’ says Celente. ‘The old adage “Generals fight the last war” is as valid as ever. While the technology may have changed, the mindset hasn’t. The conviction that brute force can prevail in an occupied country defended by guerilla combatants has proven a multi-trillion dollar, decade-long failure. Yet even as old wars drag on with no victory in sight, new wars are started such as “Operation Odyssey Dawn” launched against Libya five months ago, a “kinetic military action” that was supposed to end in ‘day’s, not weeks.’”

My Comment: Victor Hugo once said that: “There is something mightier than all the armies of the world, and that something is an idea.” Education of the masses is needed to reveal this idea. According to Kabbalah, this is most important. As Baal HaSulam writes, we all need to sit behind school desks for a few months, and we will begin to understand our world and our state in it, and realize that we need to unite to attain equality and balance: equality between us and balance with nature. We attain eternity and perfection by carrying out these two conditions.
[62877]

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Opinion: (Juergen Stark, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank): “ECB policymaker Juergen Stark has warned the sovereign debt crisis had spread from the eurozone’s periphery to its core economies and was affecting economies outside of Europe.

“‘These are very challenging times. The sovereign debt crisis has re-intensified and is now spreading over to other countries including so-called core countries. This is a new phenomenon,’ Mr Stark said in a speech to Ireland’s Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin.

“‘The sovereign debt crisis is not only concentrated in Europe. Most advanced economies are facing serious problems with their public debt.'”

My Comment: That is why the world is said to be global. But besides that, it is also integral: All countries, economies, and people are completely interrelated in it. We will not be able to break this connection even in a world war. This connection can only be corrected to good: mutual guarantee!
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Opinion (Deena Stryker, The South African Civil Society Information Service): “An Italian radio program’s story about Iceland’s on-going revolution is a stunning example of how little our media tells us about the rest of the world. Americans may remember that at the start of the 2008 financial crisis, Iceland literally went bankrupt. The reasons were mentioned only in passing, and since then, this little-known member of the European Union fell back into oblivion.

“As one European country after another fails or risks failing, imperiling the Euro, with repercussions for the entire world, the last thing the powers that be want is for Iceland to become an example. Here’s why:

“Five years of a pure neo-liberal regime had made Iceland, (population 320 thousand, no army), one of the richest countries in the world. In 2003 all the country’s banks were privatized, and in an effort to attract foreign investors, they offered on-line banking whose minimal costs allowed them to offer relatively high rates of return. The accounts, called IceSave, attracted many English and Dutch small investors. But as investments grew, so did the banks’ foreign debt. In 2003 Iceland’s debt was equal to 200 times its GNP, but in 2007, it was 900 percent. The 2008 world financial crisis was the coup de grace. The three main Icelandic banks, Landbanki, Kapthing and Glitnir, went belly up and were nationalized, while the Kroner lost 85% of its value with respect to the Euro. At the end of the year Iceland declared bankruptcy.

“But the foreign financial community pressured Iceland to impose drastic measures. The FMI and the European Union wanted to take over its debt, claiming this was the only way for the country to pay back Holland and Great Britain, who had promised to reimburse their citizens.

“The Head of State, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, refused to ratify the law that would have made Iceland’s citizens responsible for its bankers’ debts, and accepted calls for a referendum.

“In the March 2010 referendum, 93% voted against repayment of the debt. The IMF immediately froze its loan.

“But Icelanders didn’t stop there: they decided to draft a new constitution that would free the country from the exaggerated power of international finance and virtual money.

“To write the new constitution, the people of Iceland elected twenty-five citizens from among 522 adults not belonging to any political party but recommended by at least thirty citizens. This document was not the work of a handful of politicians, but was written on the Internet. The constituent’s meetings are streamed on-line, and citizens can send their comments and suggestions, witnessing the document as it takes shape.

“The people of Greece have been told that the privatization of their public sector is the only solution. And those of Italy, Spain and Portugal are facing the same threat. They should look to Iceland. Refusing to bow to foreign interests, that small country stated loud and clear that the people are sovereign.”
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Opinion (from New Scientist): “The eurozone, like the rest of the world economy, is a complex networked system. That gives it properties economists rarely consider but which could help us understand the current crisis.

“What is a complex network?

“Complex networks have many interconnected components which influence each other’s behaviour. These changes then feed back on each other. A famous example is the numbers of predators and prey in a given environment, which vary in a complex interdependent way. The eurozone – the 17 countries that share a common currency, the euro – is similarly interdependent, with similar feedback mechanisms.

“All complex networks are governed by a balance between negative feedback, such as interest rates, which is stabilising, and positive feedback, such as the self-reinforcing erosion of trust in markets, which is destabilizing.

“How does that help us understand economic crises?

“In certain circumstances, one type of feedback can end up dominating the system, causing it to change so dramatically that it flips to another state. Examples include the way animal populations can suddenly collapse or the way economies can slip into recession.

“These tipping points tend to be highly unpredictable. Even so, computer models of the system can still show how the system can change. Yet leading economics journals, he Len Fisher at the University of Bristol, author of Crashes, Crises and Calamities: How we can use science to read the early-warning signs] says, do not accept computer-modelling studies.

“Can we understand complex systems well enough to control them?

“Maybe. The diversity of a network’s components and the density and strength of its connections – called its connectivity – affect the system’s resilience, or resistance to change. More connections make a system more resilient: if one component fails others can fill in. But only up to a point. Go past a certain threshold and more connectivity makes the system less resilient because a single failure can cascade to every other component.

“The trick is to get the balance right.

[Read more →]

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In the News: “Unemployment in the UK has risen again, with numbers of jobless youth passing the 1 million mark for the first time in the country’s history.

“A further 67,000 youth (16-24) became economically inactive, bringing the total to 1.016 million, as total numbers of UK unemployed stand at 2.62 million. The unemployment rate of 8.3% is the highest in 15 years, as businesses delay expansion due to low domestic and international confidence at the same time as faster than anticipated cuts to the public sector are resulting in widespread job losses.” (Source: Fresh Business Thinking):

“[The Deputy Prime Minister Nick] Clegg said the figures ‘cannot be ignored’ and the country cannot emerge from the economic crisis without tackling the ‘fundamental problem.’ (Source: telepraph.co.uk)

My Comment: However, it is becoming increasingly clear that more and more people will be without a job in the traditional sense of the word, and we should not think of “what we could invent for them to do and get paid.” As it turns out, the only useful activity is a person’s work on himself and society. Here, there is work for everyone and the greatest, highest, and eternal reward!
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