Entries in the 'World' Category

Urgent Action Needed To Protect Recovery

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Christine Lagarde, the IMF Chief): “The new head of the IMF on Saturday urged global policymakers to pursue urgent coordinated action, including the mandatory recapitalization of European banks, or risk descent into renewed world recession.

“‘Developments this summer have indicated we are in a dangerous new phase,’ International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Saturday at an annual gathering of policymakers from around the world hosted by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank.

“‘The stakes are clear; we risk seeing the fragile recovery derailed. So we must act now,’ she said.

“Two years after the end of the worst of the financial crisis, growth in both the United States and Europe is sputtering, and debt crises and indecision on both sides of the Atlantic have shaken public confidence in a global recovery.”

My Comment: Lately, everyone begins to blame everybody else for negative impacts. Such impacts do take place, but they always have. It’s just that now we reveal that everyone is connected with everybody else in a single network of relationships, and thus, the sensitivity to actions increases. Unless we take measures towards mutual understanding (mutual guarantee), these relationships will quickly lead to war.
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Europe’s Shaky Foundations

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Joschka Fischer, Germany’s foreign minister and vice-chancellor from 1998 to 2005): “Slowly, word is getting round—even in Germany—that the financial crisis could destroy the European unification project in its entirety because it demonstrates, quite relentlessly, the weaknesses of the eurozone and its construction. Those weaknesses are less financial or economic than political.

“The Maastricht Treaty established a monetary union, but the political union that is an indispensable precondition for the common currency’s success remained a mere promise. The euro, and the countries that adopted it, are now paying the price. The eurozone now rests on the shaky basis of a confederation of states that are committed both to a monetary union and to retaining their fiscal sovereignty. At a time of crisis, that cannot work.

“Europe has three choices. Muddling through as before would only escalate and prolong the crisis. Ending the monetary union would end the European project itself and wreak unmanageable havoc. Finally, Europe could move forward to real economic and political integration—a step that today’s leaders lack the confidence to take because they don’t believe that they have the necessary public support at home.”

My Comment: Either way you look at the current situation, it’s obvious that without the preliminary education of the population, it will be impossible to make a correct conclusion and action. To enlist the support of the people in promoting unity, we must first explain to them not only a local and individual, but also a general need to unite as it is the challenge from nature, the challenge that we cannot escape and that is higher than us. This in particular obliges us not only to create a united market (bazaar), but to unite truly for the sake of survival.
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The Euro Is Breaking Down

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Alan Greenspan, a former Chairman of the U.S. Fed): “’The euro is breaking down and the process of its breaking down is creating very considerable difficulties in the European banking system,’ Greenspan said today, according to Bloomberg.

“He told attendees at the Innovation Nation Forum today that European leaders must reassess the feasibility of a monetary union between 17 countries with very different ideas of government and monetary policy.” (Source: businessinsider.com)

“Casting serious doubt over the continued survival of the Euro, Greenspan said the cultural and economic differences between northern and southern Europe are just too big. While countries in the north–such as Germany, France, and Finland–have a lot in common, they are very different to countries in the south, such as Greece.

“Southern European states tend to have current account deficits, meaning they consume more than they produce, so they end up having to borrow from countries in the north. ‘That cannot go on,’ said Greenspan…”

“The Euro-zone crisis matters, Greenspan said, because the world economy is extremely integrated and because about 20% of U.S. exports go to Europe. Though the odds of a new recession in the US have risen, the former Fed chief said he doesn’t expect that to happen–at least for now.” (Source: en.mercopress.com)

My Comment: But the world is interconnected, and the recession will be traveling around the world until people understand the true cause of their troubles: our lack of correspondence to global, integral nature, the quality of bestowal, mutual guarantee. We cannot separate humanity from the entire universe, if the world is global. We must seek solution in the violation of the world’s globality, in its unity.
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Libya: This Was A War For Oil

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (From guardian.co.uk): “The Libyan conflict has been a war about oil if not for’ oil. The country’s economy is almost totally dependent on hydrocarbons and a key objective for the transitional government will be to get the wells up and running again as soon as possible.

“The British and French, meanwhile, are worried about future energy supplies. They are already pushing and shoving over who should get what of the energy proceeds before the political dust has even settled in Tripoli (just as BP and Shell are once again sitting pretty in Iraq following western military intervention there).

“The UK government has been working hand in glove with parts of the oil industry to bring about regime change in Libya.

“Foreign minister Alain Juppé was trying to bury a story run in Liberation that suggested that Paris had tied up an agreement to be given 35% of all the country’s oil in future in return for military help.

“An executive from the rebel oil company, Agoco, has already said the interests of Britain, France, and Italy will all be treated favorably compared with those who equivocated, such as Russia and China.

“It was a war around oil in Libya – but the new interim government in Tripoli could yet win that, too.”

My Comment: Of course, politicians and the army usually carry out the objectives of economists. But it is interesting how the results will manifest in a new, globally connected world. Everything that happens in the world now is only in order to force all nations to rise above differences and create a new global network of mutual guarantee relationships.

Thus, we will be able to turn the global crisis into a correct global relationship and to create a new humanity. Our disagreement with the plan of nature (human evolution) evokes more severe forces that will “enforce peace” on us.
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U.S. Is Set To Sue Banks

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (From BBC News): “The US is planning to sue more than a dozen major banks for misrepresenting the quality of mortgages they sold during the housing bubble…

“Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs are to face action…

“The Federal Housing Finance Agency… blames the banks for failing to perform adequate checks on the quality of mortgage securities they sold on to investors before the financial crisis in 2008.

“Some executives say the losses were made because of the wider economic downturn.

“Others fear further litigation against banks could damage America’s fragile recovery…”

My Comment: Banks are stronger than the state, but the government needs to be re-elected, and the banks, of course, will admit their mistakes and pay fines—for the benefit of the voters!
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The Destabilization Of Regimes Or The Revolution Business

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (From 7kanal.com): “The government of Israel and the ruling coalition will greatly regret their refusal to support the initiative to investigate the sources and the purpose of funding the Israeli extra-parliamentary movements and organizations.

“A journalistic investigation has been published on YouTube…, and it is extremely critical for Israel.”

My Comment: We, Kabbalists, should not pay attention to these “revolutionaries.” We can point them out to the people, but through them, we see the Creator Who arranges everything so that, thanks to our “enemies,” we aim ourselves correctly at Him and unite in mutual guarantee instead of bickering with the “students.”

Of course, the “revolutionaries” will not accept the idea of unity because they have been paid for creating separation and anarchy, but this will help us unite, and the forces evoked by our unity will change the world.

We recommend watching: The Revolution Business.
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Economics Done By The Balance Formula

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We see that humanity is currently trying to fix and improve the world’s economic systems. But is there any point in changing anything just to become convinced that this doesn’t work and that first of all, we need inner changes?

Answer: We are already revealing the fact that our economic system is flawed. But we are still trying to correct it using the old instruments, and by doing that we only ruin it even more. Gradually it will become clear to people that they are powerless here and that the old way of thinking is no longer effective. The only problem is that we still don’t understand where to get a new mind.

And on their part, Kabbalists still do not know how to get through to humanity and how to transmit this new way of thinking to them in order for everyone to work together to create new systems. The economy is the foundation of our material life, of production and trade, and the provision of all goods. In the material realm there is nothing more important than the economy because this is the program of connection between us, which worked entirely egoistically until today, based on reception of the optimal benefit in every regard.

This is the simple economics formula that has to be realized in every place. Clearly, people are still trying to steal here and there if they can, but this approach no longer accords with the formula. In the ideal form, economics tells us about how to organize relationships in society so everyone would receive the optimal, maximum benefit. This is the economists’ dream.

However, now we need a completely different formula. We have to keep redefining the meaning of “the necessary living standard for a worthy life” and taking care to provide it for everyone. We have to educate people so every person will aspire to attain this level, with some people rising to it from below (meaning, those who are beneath this level) and others—descending to it from above.

This necessary level is not the minimal poverty line, but much higher, one that supposes a normal life. Some people rise to it, while others come down to it, but they do it by their own desire, which has to be achieved by upbringing. All of the remaining excesses should be distributed to the general needs of the government, which can include defense or anything else.

However, if we are talking about the world that is entirely moving toward correction and does not need to spend money on defense, then we can enormously reduce production. According to our similarity with nature, we have to reach the state where we exist like organs of a human body in which every person receives only to the degree it is necessary to live for the sake of bestowal to others. Therefore, we will approach life where production and trade will gradually become more and more restricted until reaching a level where everyone ends up on the level we decide on, and won’t grow from there anymore.

Thus, we will help nature restore itself and will not be sucking its last remaining resources. We will leave something to our children and grandchildren. We will use the natural resources in a way that lets us always be in balance, harmony, and circulation with nature.

This is our responsibility, and if we do not achieve this, nature will teach us by very harsh methods. There won’t be water or oil left around us, not any other resources. In a few decades we will be left with nil. Then, everything we have built will become useless and all production will come to a halt because it won’t have anything to work on. There won’t be lighting, heating, or refrigeration—nothing. That’s because we will have wasted all of the resources on ourselves, on unnecessary things that are beyond the necessities. And there will be no one to blame besides yourself for the fact that your children don’t have anything to exist by.

However, for now we are still trying to snatch as much as we can and suck as much as we can out of the earth. We are even starting to mine in the middle of the ocean in order to extract oil. We will exhaust everything, even reaching the North and South poles. But at some point these resources will have an end, and then we will finally understand….

However, I hope that we will nevertheless manage to develop new a formula of economics whose objective is not immediate egoistic gratification, but the attainment of balance. We have to discern what the new economy has to be within a nation that exists among other nations that have not corrected themselves yet. And then this formula will spread to the whole world.

I think it will be much easier to implement this formula than what is happening today because in essence, we have to simplify everything, achieve balance, and restore the normal circulation.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/11, “The Nation”

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Not Bolts, But Creators Of A New World

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is extraordinarily difficult for us to change the ideas we have formed over the course of our entire lives until now. In fact, it’s simply impossible. One way or another, we remain with our old perception, even though it seems as if we are already changing. In fact, nothing is moving. However, now we have to change our old perspective to a new one, and this change has to happen in the whole world. So where can we get this new perception, an integral view?

Suppose that tomorrow the whole world wanted to turn into an integrally connected network where every person devotes his full energy to work for the sake of society (even though today no one wants this and no one feels this way, but let’s be dreamers for a moment). How will we find out how to build this system, how we should be connected and interact with one another?

How can we build such a government and society, production and trade, since all of this must exist as long as we live in the material bodies? Therefore, we are obligated to organize the entire system of relationships that ensures our life on earth in order to satisfy the needs of our animate bodies.

To do this we need many systems, but how can be build them by the laws of bestowal where every person is free and freely acts to maximally bestow to others, where every person knows what he should be doing in this ideally organized machine, in which all the cogwheels are spinning in harmony? This seems like a utopia, so how is it possible to actually make this transition?

It’s possible to write a novel about this, but how can we rationally envision an economic system that is necessary in such a society, the government and judicial structure, this entire mechanism, from the large elements to the tiniest bolts, including the supply of goods, care for the elderly, families, children, construction, and culture? The organization of all of this is very complex because everything has to operate in “perpetual motion” without the fuel that we are used to!

Everything has to work upon a different source of energy—love for the neighbor. But where will it come from? If I simply receive it from above, the way I now feel love for my own children, then I will be working automatically again, like a machine. So what’s the difference? Instead of egoistic love, I will be driven by love for the neighbor, so what will change?

Therefore, we have to build one thing upon the other so it would work upon resistance, ascent, the sensation of ourselves between two worlds or two desires where every person constantly rises above his egoism, which pulls him back toward the earth.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/11, “The Nation”

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The Holy Equivalent Of Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Prof. Ruslan Grinberg, Director, Institute of Economics, Russian Academy of Sciences, from itar-tass.com): “Financial markets are in a very volatile state. Financiers are in panic, not knowing what to do. The risks are high. But in my opinion, …this points to the crisis in the financial sphere. I think it will not spread to the real sector.

“Our global economy is hostage to the dollar as the world’s currency. Of course, it is unfair that a national currency has become global. In this case, gold was a fairer choice because gold is independent from the place where it is mined… To go back to gold today, as many people erroneously suggest, is unwise in my opinion. I cannot envision the replacement of the dollar… [as world’s reserve currency].”

My Comment: There is no substitute for the dollar because it is the equivalent of modern world egoism, and that is why it will remain the only accepted currency. But at the same time, its volatility will demonstrate the egoistic state of the world.
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Which Way Will The World Scale Tip?

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday it is difficult to tell what the role of different countries will be in the new global world. Everything depends on how Israel will operate in the spiritual realm and which way it will tip the scale – what kind of balance will America, Russia, and the Arab world settle into.

Europe is losing its influence. The main forces remaining on the world map are the Arab world, America, and Russia. China will not manage to come out of its concealment, its place at the far end of the world. The crisis will not give them enough time to develop. They will soon begin to feel that the world does not need what they produce. That’s because the world will only need the bare necessities, but China does not produce objects that are vitally necessary.

However, right now it’s impossible to predict anything with precision because everything depends on our freedom of choice. If we act properly and well, then these forces will settle down into a balance. Then Americans won’t be using the Arab countries to cope with everyone else and to rule over the world, which is what they aspire to do today.

That is why Israel became an obstacle for them, which they wish to remove in order to then move in the direction of Russia and China. And to accomplish that they want to use the force of the most extreme Arab fundamentalism by allying with it, together with all of its terrorist branches.

This phenomenon is already well-known and has been described in many sources. I do not say a word of my own opinion here. Therefore, we have to understand that all of the good changes that can be made in the world can only happen above nature – only with the help of the method of correction! There are no chances here to achieve anything by force, especially in a country like Israel. By the recent disorder we see how the American program is being realized.

All of these demonstrations and demands are part of big politics, whose objective is to level this entire area and establish the power of Arab fundamentalism here. Americans expect this to become a powerful weapon in their hands, and this tendency or program has existed for a long time now and is gradually being realized.

America perceives Islam as an external force that enables it to control the world. But this is all arranged for Israel from Above in order to push us toward a spiritual solution. However, Russia and China have to feel that they are our allies in this situation because they are also in danger. We are just a “small obstacle” on America’s path, whereas they are the real goal.

This is the balance of forces that Americans want to establish in the world. And indeed, what other force is available today that can be manipulated and used for fighting, that has oil backing it as well as the pressurizing force of fundamentalism? Europe has gotten old completely, and Russia has also grown very weak and has gotten old over the years. It does not have the energy it once did, which is obvious even by the dynamics of the national gross product.

China also lacks real power because it is occupied with producing “toys.” This activity does not provide it with a powerful influence. It is a center of great financial and human resources, but this country has not built itself yet. And its psychology is to stay on the sidelines, as it did for millennia. And even though the Chinese have now dispersed all over the world, this still isn’t an “incursion” because their inner psychology has not changed, and it stops them.

All of this is finely calculated, and it is arranged from Above. Everything unravels by a strict program, which you can read about in the Prophets, which describe what will happen to the world in the end of days. And Israel is precisely at the very tip of the scale’s indicator, determining the direction and the steps that the world will take.

This tendency is very precise and it is already clear to many. I am not revealing anything new here. In the end, we will gain greater awareness of a simple fact: That we have nothing to rely on besides the upper force. But that doesn’t mean simply screaming “Save me!” into the sky, but rather, we have to make real actions and attract this force to us. Just as America attracts foreign forces to itself and operates through them, so we attract the upper force and operate with its help. I think that the success of the good forces is guaranteed to us. We only have to keep working and do what is necessary.

All other attempts and big plans are worthless. Only by acting correctly will we muffle all of this evil so it will choke by itself.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/11, “The Nation”

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