News Report (from CommodityOnline): “World is hit by hyperinflation & monetary collapse” The most probable sequence of events resulting in hyperinflation and monetary collapse is as follows:

1. A broad based shortage of goods that are thought essential develops and this is not relieved in time to satisfy demand.

2. Consumers trying to acquire essential goods that they believe are in short supply become fearful and are prepared to pay increasingly higher prices and stockpile these goods further increasing shortages and accelerating prices as a sellers market develops.

3. Prices rise for essential goods in short supply as an increasing proportion of the money supply circulates in these goods, also with increasing velocity and as most of these goods are consumables with high turnover upward re pricing quickly occurs.

4. The proportion of available money circulating in goods that are perceived as essential increases and the demand for less essential goods diminishes i.e essentials become disproportionately more expensive than the norm against non essential goods displacing money towards the goods most in demand further fueling inflation,

5. The shortage of essential goods accelerates as manufacturers increasingly focus on short term survival, longer term risk is avoided and investment in the production cycle is reduced accelerating 1.

6. The normal balance of demand for all goods increasingly prefers those goods required to satisfy primary needs and people engaged in making and supplying less immediately essential or non essential goods become unemployed who then pressures governments accelerating condition 9.

7. Eventually goods not immediately required but non the less essential are needed and rapidly increase in price as they also become in short supply.

8. Consumers with least money first find it increasingly difficult to secure essential goods, become frightened and are forced to allocate greater proportions of their money on essential goods and demand greater income.

9. The demand for money forced by need and fear becomes irresistible so governments feel insecure and provide increasing amounts of fiat new money.

10. Consumers first to spend the new money see some value but soon as this new money is distributed and its value is lost, the velocity of money also accelerates as people rapidly exchange money for goods, wealth is seen as best protected when stored as goods rather than cash further increasing price and reinforcing condition 9.

My Comment: This is a perfectly logical scenario, although it may drag out over years and hence seem unrealistic to us right now. But more importantly, the solution to the economic crisis must be a moral one, because it’s the next level of human development. The solution must be fundamentally different, bringing us to the new, following level.

The universal interdependence (the global nature of our “small village”) shows us that in order to come out of the crisis, we must change our current relationships to the opposite ones. We have always sought to separate from one another, but today, in order to survive, we will have to start caring for one another. We cannot wait for instructions to come from the authorities or the government. It is man who must change (correct himself), and hence, it’s up to him to create this change (via education).

The new social relationships of mutual care will gradually produce a new system of government – a council of people who are great with respect to their vision of Nature and Society (the Creator).

Related Material:
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News Report by economics expertReinhard Göweil (translated from the Austrian newspaper KURIER): In the USA, the holiday season sales decreased by 8%. The Japanese industry declined by 16% this year. Economists call this situation, “freefall.” In many European countries, economic leaders tried to hush up the situation at first. But now it’s time to put the cards on the table: the world is entering a financial crisis that will bring so much destruction of property and jobs that anything comparable has only been known to happen after a war.

The capitalism of Reagan and Thatcher that was set free in the 80’s has brought its own demise. We now need a complete transformation of our economic and social behavior. The economy must start providing people with the necessities and stop being an end in itself.

My Comment: Whether it will happen through this crisis or the following ones (it’s up to us how many crises will be necessary), we will be cleansed. In some countries, hundreds of types and brands of goods and products will vanish from the counters, because some people aren’t content with just making money – they have to line their pockets as well. Meanwhile, necessary products will appear in other countries. In a unified, global world, everything must be arranged differently: everything in the world, all the things existing in nature and on the earth (all the natural resources), is common property and belongs to everyone. Everything that is produced must be distributed among everyone by one global authority, according to each person’s needs, like in one family.

Until we establish this system of interactions, we will continue to oppose the closed system of Nature in which we exist. For the time being we are like cancerous cells in a body. Therefore, our freefall is not an ordinary freefall, like jumping off a plane with a parachute. However, if we open up the safety canopy of Kabbalah above us, we will be saved! (In the image above, the word “Kabbalah” is written on the parachute.)

Related Material:
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News Report (from BBC News): …many executives couldn’t resist the excruciatingly seductive call of easy money… And so, in America, with the temptation of the many renderings of mortgage-related profits before them, and with no discernible punishment in sight (indeed, with only praise from boards, analysts, and shareholders) it was a simple matter to take what was there and ignore the longer term consequences… As a nation, we seem to have forgotten that the most important goals take time to accomplish, and that lacking this perspective we succumb to what amounts to bribery and pandering…

Let’s hope the new administration can alter our frame of reference and lead us in a more distant direction… Showcasing the lost virtues of patience and persistence couldn’t hurt our national ethic.”

My Comment: This shows that people are already making the correct conclusions about the reason for the crisis. However, for now the conclusions are still made on the corporeal level, without understanding the true reason for the crisis: to force man to rise above egoism and attain the goal set by Nature – similarity to Nature/the Creator (the quality of bestowal and love). In addition, people are still far from understanding the needed changes in upbringing, the society, industry, the economy and finances. Nevertheless, this shows how quickly suffering “straightens people out.”

Related Material:
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News Report (translated from Welt Online): The financial crisis is depriving people of jobs, savings and homes. Meantime, religious institutions the world over are experiencing a surge of new believers. When a person experiences a deep shock, he opens his soul to God.

My Comment: The psychological support of “God, from Above” and the masses of people that believe in it, along with the chance to write off everything taking place as “God’s will,” have always been very appealing to people. However, people will go through this state and outgrow it, egoistically. They will then discover that they have to make their own actions, and then they’ll reveal their hatred for one another, which is killing humanity. They will stand face to face against it, and will clearly see that it is the main cause of this “life that’s worse than death.”

Appealing to God won’t help. Only when we recognize that it’s necessary to correct ourselves will we reveal that God doesn’t want our appeals about improving the world, but only our appeals for correction.

Related Material:
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News Report (from International Herald Tribune): “On both sides of Atlantic, ’08 was a year to forget, poll finds” As 2008 draws to a close, Americans are more inclined than Western Europeans to say Happy New Year, though both groups are rather pessimistic over all, according to a new poll. The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, shows overwhelming gloom in Europe about the state of the economy, with the French adhering to their reputation: 5 in 6 people surveyed in France expressed pessimism. The average was 7 in 10 for the other European nations surveyed: Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Stereotypes prevailed on the other side of the Atlantic, too, but even the famous American optimism failed to overcome the harsh reality of unrelentingly negative news, as the survey shows the United States divided almost exactly evenly between optimists and pessimists.

My Comment: Let’s see how our opinion changes throughout 2009. For the first time in history, the coming year depends on us. That’s because this is the first time in history that we’re reached the level of being able to correct our nature. All of our history until now was only an evolution or development of egoism, which unceasingly pushed us ahead. But now we have suddenly come to a halt: egoism has reached its full development, and we have revealed our absolute interconnection through its mutilated form of mutual hatred. The only thing that remains is to correct the egoism through force (the path of suffering) or through the Light (the path of Kabbalah). The choice is ours.

A question I received: What will be different about the epoch after the year 2008?

My Answer: We have revealed the breaking of the common soul into many souls, or in other words, we have revealed our egoistic connection with each other. We will feel greater and greater problems, but we will see that they are purposeful – intended to make us realize that egoism is evil, and to finally correct the connection between us.

Related Material:
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News Report: (translated from life.pravda.com): The cause of the crisis according to the average citizen: The crisis is happening because people speculate and underestimate the value of honesty. Many products and services are not sold at their actual value. Moreover, many people think they are exempted from following the law. The authorities are lying to the people, and the people are lying to the authorities.

The solution to the crisis according to the average citizen: If we grow up (psychologically) and become responsible, if we understand the consequences of our actions, then there won’t be any crises. After all, the crisis only happened where there was greed, and where people’s desires, needs and wealth were excessive.

My Comment: It’s wonderful to see how quickly suffering elicits the correct thoughts in people. We were created as egoists – inside “the will to receive” – on purpose. When we don’t receive as much as we want, we feel suffering. Hence, egoism brings us to the correct solutions.

With a little more suffering, we will begin to reason correctly: we will realize that the answer isn’t to decrease our egoism, but to completely tear away from it, to ascend above it. And then people will suddenly discover that their opinion is already described in Kabbalah – the science about man’s correction.

Related Material:
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News Report (from Gizmag): Remarkable new research from the U.K. Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) concludes that for every unexpected 10% fall in housing prices, an extra 5% of couples will split up. … The study concludes that unexpected downturns in the housing market can damage family stability…

My Comment: Indeed, the crisis is multifaceted: it is a crisis of science, culture, the family structure, upbringing, society, depression, drug abuse, ecology, and climate. Moreover, all of its components influence each other.

Hence, all the different consequences of the crisis are yet to become revealed this year. Of course, it seems to us that the financial crisis is the most important one. But it will bring along all the other ones, until we realize that there is only one crisis – the crisis of our relationships with each another.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Wishes for the New Year – 2009

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News Report (translated from Spiegel Online): The director of the UN World Food Program, Ralf Südhoff criticizes Western politics for being shortsighted: “The financial crisis hasn’t even turned into an economic crisis yet, but already everyone has forgotten about the starving people and the victims of HIV in third-world countries. But a billion hungry people are a real threat!”

My Comment: The authorities are afraid of having hungry people turn up at their own homes! Chances are that Africa will be completely forgotten during the crisis. After all, only an awareness of the common “body” (or system) and a vision of our clear interdependency with each other, can force humanity to think about the third world.

A question I received: What will happen to agriculture during the current global crisis?

My Answer: It will also experience a crisis.

News Report (from European Commission): The European Commission and the World Bank have released a new map of Travel Time to Major Cities, showing that:

• the global urban population is over 50%

• 95% of the people live on just 10% of the land

My Comment: Unlike the previous times of hunger, it’s no longer possible to survive by having your own parcel of land.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: When Will Hunger Start Affecting Us?
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A question I received: What stages will we have to go through to get to the end of the crisis?

My Answer:
1. Economists and manufacturers believe that apparently, the crisis is necessary in order to “change” our world: to rid us of excess manufacturing facilities, to shift to new technologies and means of production, to raise the consumers’ qualification when it comes to assimilating the newest forms of production and services. This is why the crisis has to go through the stages that it does: restriction of production, optimization of business, implementation of new technologies, elimination of physically and morally outdated products, cautious growth and assimilation of new products.

2. Kabbalah says that the crisis will change our society: every person will assume his objective, rational place in the integral human society. This will happen by virtue of one’s desire to receive what one needs and to give everything that one can. One will enjoy the well-being of the society and the revelation of the Upper Source of fulfillment, the Creator, which is revealed through “love for one’s neighbor.” The path can be long and difficult, one of wars and famine (this is the natural egoistic development), or it can be quick and pleasant, by means of revealing the Creator and His plan, and by coming closer to Him (the Kabbalistic development).

See the article “Freedom of Will” and others.

Related Material:
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Three questions I received on the future of the world:

Question: You mentioned that the governing of the world must change to that of love your friend as yourself, one man with one heart. Why don’t you and your group start with a working model of such a system to serve as a beacon and inspiration for the rest? It would be easier to start on a smaller scale rather than a big one.

My Answer: Due to the current time and circumstances, we cannot close ourselves off but must devote all our energy to disseminating Kabbalah in the world, as it is the means of preventing the world from falling into the Third World War.

Question: What do you mean when you say that we are now entering Biblical times?

My Answer: I meant that we have to start observing the Biblical principle, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Question: In reference to your post, Unity for the Right Purpose Can Stabilize the Banking System, I hope you are not speaking of a new world order, one government, one bank, one currency, and everyone being monitored with chips implanted in their bodies.

My Answer: All of humanity is an integral (global) organism. Hence, everyone must submit to one law of total interaction on all levels of our activity. This means, as Baal HaSulam writes in the article, “The Last Generation,” that eventually there will be one spiritual government, which will regulate all the activities of the world’s inhabitants.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Baal HaSulam Describes the Conditions of Life in a Globalized World
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Article: “Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Building the Future Society”

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