A Shift In Consciousness Has Occurred
October 30th, 2008
A global shift in consciousness has occurred during October. Trust and confidence have given way to fear and uncertainty. Plans and expectations have been completely altered or dashed altogether. Governments, entire industries, equity markets and the majority of the adult populations in the developed countries of the world are staring into a financial abyss that has no correlation to anything any of them have experienced (unless they are 80 years or older).
Governments separately, and then in consort struggle to stay ahead of a financial catastrophe they can’t quite fathom. Hundreds of millions of people feel as thought they have been punched in the gut. Standing on solid ground becomes a metaphor desperately longed for rather than a reality. For every theory about what to do with one’s money there is an opposite one put forth. Financial volatility seems omnipresent. All of this has produced a shift in consciousness that is palpable.
When belief systems come under attack or are shown to be false, when institutional reliability becomes highly questionable, when what used to work no longer does, when it feels that events point to not just change but disruption, then it is time to do two things.
First, one must change one’s behavior. As I have written here, it is clear that consumerism will take a severe hit and that the next two years will be a time of a massive economic downturn. Thrift will become a dominant value in countries around the world. Risk and debt will become four letter words to be avoided as much as possible. “Holding on” and “getting through” will become courses of action for tens of millions of people. But holding on for what? That brings me to the second point.
Second, we must look ahead and accept that we are entering a time that has few real parallels in history. Too much of punditry about the financial crisis is looking backward in its analysis. Is this like the Great Depression? Is this like this recession or that recession? Will this be the worst recession since the end of WWII? These discussions lead nowhere. Looking backward to grasp some certainty of the unknown future is a naturally human thing to do, but often does not offer wisdom to act upon. Only in the macro sense might it offer some guidance.
A quote that is on my www.davidhoule.com web site and at the front of my book “The Shift Age” is one to embrace: “We should be the parents of our future rather than the offspring of our past” It is this state of mind that ushers in new opportunities and prepares one for fundamental change.
As written here before, I see the current financial disruption as part of the beginning of a transition to a new age, the Shift Age. All new ages are presaged by both disruption and a change in consciousness to some degree. The huge losses and great pain of the American Civil War, with the newly industrial North triumphing over the rural South initiated the beginning of the Industrial Age in America. The economically dysfunctional decade of the 1970s with its unprecedented “stagflation” was the beginning of the transition from the Industrial Age to the Information Age.
We are now in another one of these painful transition periods. Historians in 2020 or 2025 will look back on the time 2005 to 2010 as the time a new age began to take root. It is clear to me that this new age, the Shift Age, is already taking root and starting to reform humanity and its economics, culture and politics. Economics usually comes first and causes painful disruption. That is what is now going on. It doesn’t make it any less painful and economically challenging to know this. However, just as birth can be painful but is known to provide a new life, so this painfulness will ultimately give way to a new age, one that has the possibility of a new golden era for humanity.
Hunker down, hold on and accept that the altered state you feel is part of a global consciousness shift that can lead to a wonderful new tomorrow in a few years. Hug the ones you love as they will be the ones with whom you will share this new age .
November 2nd, 2008 at 2:31 am
I think the future holds two paths right now. The first is to continue to bail out banks, in which I think our economy will slowly fail into a Great Depression situation. The second is to start to working towards helping families stay in homes. Extend the low interest rates of these 3-5 year ARMS or extend the loans to 40 and 50 year fixed mortgages. I have begun to hear about more and more friends, neighbors, and relatives who made poor decisions with their home purchase and are now upside down in loans. Until people can afford those homes every month again, you will not see a change in this economy.
Enjoy the blog…
November 30th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
The least that should be done to grow the economy and create jobs is the indexing for inflation of capital gains, interest from savings accounts, and dividends. If the capital gains tax is not indexed for inflation, people may pay the capital gains tax when they have actually lost money because of inflation.
If the federal government is serious about growing the economy and creating jobs, it should stop taxing capital gains, interest from savings accounts, and dividends. Businesses will have an easier time obtaining loans and investments for hiring workers, training workers, research and development, and plant and equipment. People will have an easier time saving for college tuitions and retirements.
If Congress had learned from the Savings and Loans Crisis, the mortgage mess might not have happened. Congress should have required down payments on homes and fixed rate mortgages. The sooner Congress requires down payments on homes and fixed rate mortgages the better.
The federal government should sell a lot of the land that it owns to raise capital, reduce the national debt, help fund Social Security and Medicare, help fund passenger rail, help fund buses within cities, help fund buses between cities, help fund energy transmission, help fund energy development, and do other things. Some of the money the federal government obtains from the sale of the lands should go to State governments.
Congress should seriously consider allowing casinos and hotels especially hotels for the wealthy to be built in many national parks. The federal government could obtain property taxes from these casinos and hotels, a percent of sales from these casinos and hotels, and a 5 percent rooms and meals tax from these casinos and hotels. State governments should obtain some of the money the federal governmentm obtains from these casinos and hotels.
Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution says Congress has the power
“To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures”
Congress should consider backing our currency with gold, silver, and other commodities.
Congress should eliminate the Federal Reserve or veto many of its decisions. If the Federal Reserve continues to exist, two members of the United States House of Representatives and 2 United States Senators should sit on the board of the Federal Reserve. If 3 of these members of Congress wants a Federal Reserve decision to be vetoed, it should be vetoed. A Federal Reserve decision should also be vetoed when a majority of the United States House of Representatives wants the decision to be vetoed. A Federal Reserve decision should also be vetoed when a majority of the United States Senate wants the decision to be vetoed.
I ran for United States Senate from New Hampshire in 2002. My website is http://www.myspace.com/kennethstremsky
November 22nd, 2009 at 11:48 pm
I’ve been active in taxes for longer then I care to acknowledge, both on the individual side (all my working life!!) and from a legal standpoint since passing the bar and pursuing tax law. I’ve put up a lot of advice and corrected a lot of wrongs, and I must say that what you’ve put up makes utter sense. Please persist in the good work – the more individuals know the better they’ll be equipped to deal with the tax man, and that’s what it’s all about.