ANOTHER GREAT DEPRESSION COMING AS FINANCIAL SYSTEM ENDS

Erle Frayne Argonza

Is the global economy moving downward towards a devastating collapse?

If we employ a long-term Kondratieff cycle to model the world economy, we can see that the period beginning in 1935 approximately (when the big market economies US-UK-Germany moved towards another cycle of growth approximately after the Great Depression, should have ended around 1995 approximately, after which comes another great depression.

As early as 1989, ramblings of a global collapse began to murmur in the US economy. Mexico, Japan, Argentina, and other economies followed in the 1990s, while Europe went through a general low-growth trend that was the most sustainable for the continent as a whole. Then came the Asian meltdown of 1997. Then the USA again went through a recession in 2001, a pattern that has been repeated again from 2008 to the present. It seems that the pillars of the world economy couldn’t get out of a short-term crisis without having to crash back to another episode of short-term crisis altogether.

Is it really a ‘short-term’ crisis in the first place? Or is it in fact a ‘systemic crisis’, and that the financial downspin the Northern economic pillars are going through could very well be the terminal phase of a very long cycle of growth that began after the end yet of the Treaty of Westphalia (1648)? That in fact, several long-wave Kondratieff cycles have already passed over since that time, and that finally the system is DEAD in the wood?

Well, not only the financial system but the whole of CAPITALISM is already on its death throes. Those oligarchs behind the systems now dying won’t see the systems they built die down just that without “bringing down the other houses” with them, it seems. Which means that, right after the terminal phase of the system, another huge, catastrophic war will come, which will later see another Westphalian-type treaty or so that will re-carve the contours of polities into a Post-Westphalian totalitarian technotronic global order.

Below is a briefer from the Executive Intelligence Review that summarizes the issue at hand.   

[18 August 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Thanks to Executive Intelligence Review database news.]

End of the Line for Financial System; Bankruptcy Issue Raised

Aug. 10, 2008 (EIRNS)—The death of the financial system was the implicit subject of several articles in the financial press over the weekend, reflecting the way reality is setting in and attitudes are changing.

• “Investment banking is dying,” was the blunt statement by William Cohan, in a op-ed in today’s Washington Post entitled “The End of the Masters of the Universe?” Cohan says that the revenue streams of the investment banks are drying up, and that there is genuine fear in the corridors of power on Wall Street.
• “We have a banking crisis and an agency crisis and a mortgage crisis and a coming credit card crisis. We’ve never seen anything like that before. And it all seems to be coming home to roost at the same time. That’s never happened either,” Charles Geisst, a professor of finance at Manhattan University, told yesterday’s Washington Post. He said the Great Depression was the last time the financial markets were hammered by such a variety of factors, adding: “But we did not even have credit cards in the 1930s; there was no such thing as student loans.”
• The specter of generalized bankruptcy was raised by Yale finance professor Robert J. Shiller in an op-ed in the New York Times. Citing the failure of Bear Stearns and the government measures to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Shiller asks, “What if the next case is worse? No one in government seems to feel a responsibility for warning about such possibilities and formulating a detailed policy for dealing with them.” Shiller says that “Bankruptcy law is a good place to start. After all, the dreaded financial meltdown would amount to a wave of bankruptcies…. What would happen to the economy if hedge funds had to liquidate, one after another, in a financial crisis? We need to rethink the theory and practice of bankruptcy, given the new complexities.”

Shiller points to the inherent limitations in current bankruptcy laws, which were largely drawn to protect narrow financial interests, and are poorly suited to deal with systemic problems, when a “subsidized system of triage would be needed to identify which companies should be saved, with the main criterion being the possible economic impact of their liquidation.”

These comments, taken as a whole, represent the way discussions of the “unthinkable” are beginning to percolate, and converge upon the outlook of Lyndon LaRouche. Shiller’s mention of triage by bankruptcy echoes the emergency measures proposed by LaRouche, of putting the financial system itself through bankruptcy, protecting the population with a firewall, and freezing the financial paper while we determine what debts will, and won’t, be honored. Whatever Shiller may think about LaRouche’s proposals, he is implicitly admitting that the system is finished, and that we must prepare for its demise, making decisions on the basis of the interests of society, and not merely the narrow interests of financial institutions. Reality is setting in, and reality leads inexorably to the policies outlined by LaRouche. 

ASIAN RENAISSANCE: ANTIDOTE TO NEW DARK AGE

Erle Frayne Argonza

Maganding umaga! Good morning!

A gladdening news for me is the fact that many people in the West (or North) highly appreciate Asian growth and its role as today’s life-breather of the global economy. Without Asia, given the recurrent recession of Western/Northern economies, the global economy would be in a collapsed state today.

The added news that certainly warms the heart is that many Northerners/Westerners look up highly to Asia as the hope of the world, that hope coming precisely from the Asian Renaissance. We seem to be in a rehash of that situation of the medieval age, when the ‘world system’ collapsed due to incessant wars organized and financed by the Venetian mercantile oligarchs, leading eventually to a Dark Age. The (Western) Renaissance became the light of the Dark Age and teleported mankind out of that catastrophe.

In the current circumstance, a Dark Age looms as the Anglo-Dutch oligarchs organize and finance conflicts of every kind across the globe, which will expectedly lead to a larger conflagration that will be sparked off by the Sunni-Shi’ite conflict and then move on to ignite other conflicts in all regions and continents. The conflagration will be a near repeat of the Peloponnesian Wars (Athenian oligarchs’ wars), the Crusades (Venetian oligarchs’ and Norman warriors’), and 30 Years’ War (Church wars, Dutch-Teutonic oligarchs).  After each conflagration, mankind fell into a Dark Age.

Only a Renaissance, led by Asians, will be the hope for the coming decades or couple of centuries. When the North-South dialogue will collapse and give way to the next Dark Age, induced by the incessant wars of the Anglo-Dutch-Teutonic-Zaibatsu oligarchy (to identify a longer list) up North, then peoples will by instinct look to the south for the sparks of hope, of dialogue and civility. Then the planet shall be jettisoned out of the holocaust, back to the ‘Light Age’ (light is opposite of dark).

Incidentally, many peoples across the globe have already immersed themselves in Asiatic thought streams and their practical applications, such as yoga meditation. So, the Asian Renaissance will not just be a monopoly of people of Asian genetic origin, but will be multi-player from the very inception. Many Asian spiritual masters, gurus and intellectuals transplanted themselves in the West during the past decades, so this explains the permeation in Western cultures of Asiatic thought streams. On the other hand, many peoples of the West/North took up studies in the Eastern institutions and ashrams (retreat centers of spiritual masters and gurus), thus ensuring a more expanded diffusion of Asiatic thought streams in the process. So, as one can see, it has been a two-way process of diffusion and enculturation to Asiatic thought streams.

Any Renaissance takes a long time to percolate, brew and galvanize, so it will not be prudent to demonstrate the exact contours of a gigantic movement—with so diverse players—that is continuously evolving. It affects all human endeavors: philosophy, arts, sciences, technology (biotech, physical tech, social tech). I would confess my own limitation and be honestly humble when asked about the exact contours of this movement. I make no pretensions for being God Almighty who knows best about the matter in its expansiveness and universality.

The following short list of items are what I can share about the matter:

·         Oneness & Becoming: Asiatic thought and practices are products of this single most important cosmic Law of One. Western modality is dualistic and/or binary, resulting to polarity principles and practices that have eroded the very condition of humanity and endangers the species itself. The added premise concerns the process of ‘becoming’ contrasted to Western stress on ‘being’.

 

·         Pure Thought – without prejudgemental Qualities, premises, biases: Sri Krishna taught us well about the matter. Go back to Srimad Bhagavad-Gita, in the sermon of Govinda to the warrior-saint Arjuna. The essence of Asiatic metaphysics, epistemology, ethics. Jesus and many masters followed through on the ‘pure thought’ modality, on what benefits can be derived from them, what truths derived too. See the New Testament, Dhammapada, Mahabharata, and onwards to the teachings of Baha’ullah, Vivekananda, PR Sarkar (neo-humanism, tantra), Sri Aurubindo, Mahatma Gandhi (Ahimsa).

 

·         Dialogue & Consensus: In this domain, Asians regard that theory is fact, such as in Western physics where “a theory is also a fact.” Nobody even thinks anymore why dialogue should be ensued as a matter of exercising consensus. It is theory, it is fact, period. But do go back to Lao Tsu, Confucius, Mencius, Buddha. Unfortunately, the Western powers destroyed the teachings of Malayan gurus upon occupying the Southeast, while Khmer and ancient Javanese teachings of the same were simply lost in time as the same civilizations eroded and died. Incidentally, Filipino indigenous teachings, derived from folk lore (of which there are now encyclopedic volumes of scholarly translations) are available, which I myself will have to review (budget constraints delimiting buys).

 

·         Physics and Multi-Dimensions: The true elements of matter, the different ontological dimensions, and the properties of matter congruent with each dimension. Steven Hawkin’s ‘hyperspace’, ‘lower space’, and ‘higher space’ concepts are nearer the truth than ever. The Book of Dzan, theosophical writings (e.g. Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine), and synthetic writings such as Fritjof Capra’s Tao of Physics would be good reads. Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi also contains details of masters’ teachings about the same subjects. On the practical side, how to conduct dematerialization and bilocation are explained and demonstrated by the masters. Didn’t mahayogi Jesus Christ (master Issa in India) demonstrate how to walk above the water and materialize fish for a huge crowd of devotees?

 

·         Yoga and Meditation: Yoga is the science, meditation the practice. Too many traditions to choose from, study and investigate, and practice. Choose that which is in accord with your psyche. In my case, I chose Agni yoga, which synthesizes rajah yoga (focus on crown chakra, will-development), Kriya or Christ yoga (pineal/higher faculties), karma yoga (service/solar plexus chakra), and bhakti (opening up heart chakra). If you wish to use yoga to reinforce healing, Kundalini yoga would be perfect. Bhakti and practices that develop the solar plexus chakra would be excellent for peace keepers and conciliators. Zen would be perfect for highly contemplative, introspective types. Sure, you can combine them, such as what I do.

 

·         Natural Healing Paradigms & Therapies: Too many to behold, and too popular nowadays. In Manila, with the signing of the ‘traditional and alternative law’ in the late 90s and the creation of a state institution for this, natural healing has become an institution in itself. In my case, I was trained in Pranic healing, and I practice it (pro bono) for psychosocial counseling. Deepak Chopra’s ‘mind-body-soul’ writings (e.g. The Way of the Wizard) would be a good entry point.  

 Well, Partners, Fellows on Earth, those items would suffice. Before I be accused of causing you indigestion, I would stop right there. There are more, so please go ahead and draw the compass of your journey into the ‘Eastern way’. But just to remind you, the great statesman Mao Tsetung once cautioned us: “no investigaton, no right to speak” (see: Selected Readings from the Works of Mao Tsetung, 5 volumes). Nobody should pretend to know Asiatic thought streams without first fully immersing in them, for at least two (2) decades.  

Let me now end by encouraging everyone to learn the ‘Asiatic way’, integrate these into their largely Western psyche, and help in any way to bring us to the ‘dawning of a new age of Light’.

[Writ 26 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]