Friday, June 15, 2007

US Dollar Hegemony and What it means to Canada

An interesting conversation happened between an American friend of mine and myself. We started to talk about the dominance of the American Dollar in foreign markets and the hegemony that exists. With news that the Russians may start excepting the Euro as their new "oil" dollar and the fact that Iran has stated publicly that it will do so as well has caused fear to start rippling through the American banks, Investors, Corporations, and of course the Government. With American debt and spending so high, the weak dollar, and lack of leadership it is a fear that any informed American should take seriously.

Now my question is how will this affect Canada, and our finances. As I am not an Economist or really have any financial background I was wondering what this would mean for our economy. Some say that our dollar is growing in strength and that we will be fine. If the American dollar falls below ours, we will be even better off. So, maybe Canada should consider using the Euro as our "oil" dollar as well. I'm all for ending the dominance of the American dollar and in so doing weakening the power they wield over the rest of the world.

I asked my friend one time what he was most fearful of being an American. He answered, "At this point everything scares me. I can't get away from the media and their doomsaying, I can't get away from feeling that even though I'm far removed from the cities that our small town will be attacked. It's better to ask me what I'm not afraid of, that would be a much smaller list."

I thought to myself....How sad is that really. Here are some great articles on the American dollar hegemony.

THE INTERNATIONAL FORECASTER editor Bob Chapman writes: In a move that would have massive repercussions in the global balance of power, last week Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia could switch its trade in oil from US dollars to euros.

This news has not appeared anywhere in the western media.

Mind you, the comments were made at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Yekaterinburg, where the two leaders conducted two-day talks.

We believe this is the beginning of a move by European elitists to replace the US dollar as the world's reserve currency.

A Russian move in this direction would boost the euros gradually growing share of global currency reserves and could prove to be catastrophic for the US ... it would end the US license to do as it pleases throughout the world.

http://forums.canadiancontent.net/international-politics/34891-us-dollar-hedgemony.html

The End of Dollar Hegemony

Before the U.S. House of Representatives 02/15/06

By Ron Paul

02/16/06 "ICH" -- -- A hundred years ago it was called “dollar diplomacy.” After World War II, and especially after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, that policy evolved into “dollar hegemony.” But after all these many years of great success, our dollar dominance is coming to an end.

It has been said, rightly, that he who holds the gold makes the rules. In earlier times it was readily accepted that fair and honest trade required an exchange for something of real value.

First it was simply barter of goods. Then it was discovered that gold held a universal attraction, and was a convenient substitute for more cumbersome barter transactions. Not only did gold facilitate exchange of goods and services, it served as a store of value for those who wanted to save for a rainy day.

Though money developed naturally in the marketplace, as governments grew in power they assumed monopoly control over money. Sometimes governments succeeded in guaranteeing the quality and purity of gold, but in time governments learned to outspend their revenues. New or higher taxes always incurred the disapproval of the people, so it wasn’t long before Kings and Caesars learned how to inflate their currencies by reducing the amount of gold in each coin-- always hoping their subjects wouldn’t discover the fraud. But the people always did, and they strenuously objected.

This helped pressure leaders to seek more gold by conquering other nations. The people became accustomed to living beyond their means, and enjoyed the circuses and bread. Financing extravagances by conquering foreign lands seemed a logical alternative to working harder and producing more. Besides, conquering nations not only brought home gold, they brought home slaves as well. Taxing the people in conquered territories also provided an incentive to build empires. This system of government worked well for a while, but the moral decline of the people led to an unwillingness to produce for themselves. There was a limit to the number of countries that could be sacked for their wealth, and this always brought empires to an end. When gold no longer could be obtained, their military might crumbled. In those days those who held the gold truly wrote the rules and lived well.

That general rule has held fast throughout the ages. When gold was used, and the rules protected honest commerce, productive nations thrived. Whenever wealthy nations-- those with powerful armies and gold-- strived only for empire and easy fortunes to support welfare at home, those nations failed.

Today the principles are the same, but the process is quite different. Gold no longer is the currency of the realm; paper is. The truth now is: “He who prints the money makes the rules”-- at least for the time being. Although gold is not used, the goals are the same: compel foreign countries to produce and subsidize the country with military superiority and control over the monetary printing presses.

Since printing paper money is nothing short of counterfeiting, the issuer of the international currency must always be the country with the military might to guarantee control over the system. This magnificent scheme seems the perfect system for obtaining perpetual wealth for the country that issues the de facto world currency. The one problem, however, is that such a system destroys the character of the counterfeiting nation’s people-- just as was the case when gold was the currency and it was obtained by conquering other nations. And this destroys the incentive to save and produce, while encouraging debt and runaway welfare.

The pressure at home to inflate the currency comes from the corporate welfare recipients, as well as those who demand handouts as compensation for their needs and perceived injuries by others. In both cases personal responsibility for one’s actions is rejected.

When paper money is rejected, or when gold runs out, wealth and political stability are lost. The country then must go from living beyond its means to living beneath its means, until the economic and political systems adjust to the new rules-- rules no longer written by those who ran the now defunct printing press.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11946.htm

Some further information on the subject:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12346.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8411.htm

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

My Switch to Linux (Ubuntu) and other Happenings

Heya,

First I have to get something out of the way here. Yayyy for Paris "The Tramp" Hilton to get jail time and actually have to do it. How sick are we of these spoiled rotten rich celebrities getting off with literally murder and doing no time. Now if only the courts could do the same for white collar crime, things would be much more fair in the US.

Now that it's off my chest, back to my original blog topic.

I recently made the switch from Windows XP/Vista to Ubuntu Linux and I'd like to walk all of you through how easily this was done, and how extremely happy I really am with this switch.

First the reason for the switch: If any of you have tried Vista yet, then I probably don't need to tell you it's a resource heavy, piece of shit. You need to buy a high end computer to run the damn thing and even then it's slow, clumsy, and STILL filled with security holes. Not to mention the ton of spam, viruses, hacks, trojans, malware, worms, spyware, etc. I had had enough and decided to see what all of the Linux hype was about.

I tentatively downloaded and installed the Ubuntu 6.0 Live CD and tried it out. I was messing around with the installed software and came across one particular program that just absolutely blew my mind: AmoroK.

AmoroK is a music jukebox type of application, but is far off the best I have ever had the pleasure to use. Not only will it show compatible artists and songs (as well as rate them), it will also provide you album covers, search for the lyrics, give you the artists wikipedia information, play and record your Last.fm song information, and a zillion other things. 10/10.

Then I started finding other programs and applications that were just far better than there Windows counterparts. It was then that I saw a youtube video for Beryl/Compiz. These are desktop effects that are encorporated now by default in the new 7.04 Feisty Fawn Ubuntu distribution, and it absolutely BLEW my mind.

Here is the link: Beryl

After this I installed it as a dual boot with my Windows XP and started playing with it. I began Themeing the Desktop and such, and that was so easy and cool, that there was another high score for Ubuntu. Once I had my complete Desktop the way I wanted with all the sweet 3D backgrounds, desklets, and effects going I was content.

I then found a way to run my Windows XP through VirtualBox (VMWare type app (only I found it much better)) I decided to take the leap and create just the Ubuntu install with Winxp in a virtual window. I very very rarely use Windows now.

One of the things that I initially found daunting was the command line options (although really you do not need to use this, there are gui icons for everything) I found that installing applications were a joke, here's an example of my entry that installs everything I need:

sudo apt-get install mozilla-thunderbird gftp kftpgrabber nfs-common vlc par2 unrar xmms xmms-mad xmms-skins sun-java5-plugin sun-java5-bin ubuntu-restricted-extras libk3b2-mp3 ntfs-config libxine-extracodecs xine-ui mplayer mplayer-skins kubuntu-desktop xubuntu-desktop azureus klibido

Now this may look complex, but actually all it consists of is a listing of the apps and such that I want to install in one line. The command itself is simply: sudo apt-get install (then just start listing the applications you want to install) and BOOM....it installs them. No hunting all of the damn web for applications then having to download, then install, then delete the containers. No spyware added to the installs to support the distribution...easy as pie.

If you don't like using the command line (which you will after you get used to the idea) you can use the Synaptic Package Manager, which is a one stop shop for so many applications it's hard to believe you can't find something that you are looking for.

Here are a few basic screenshots of my desktop, you can't see all of the effects, but it's an idea:
This is the basic desktop cube, I actually have 3D effects enabled and I changed my background to black to make the picture come out better.

And this is the desktop, again without any of the effects for better picture taking.

Now the greatest part of all: It's all FREE...as in doesn't cost you a penny. It is all open source software. No spyware, no viruses, no need for AV/Firewall running in the background, easy as hell to use, much prettier and more customizable than Windows, more powerful, and hella faster.

I HIGHLY recommend that if you have not tried Linux to give it a go...the Community at http://ubuntuforums.org are amazing. If you have questions or ran into a problem there are thousands of people ready and willing to help out.

www.ubuntu.com give it a go: There are two flavors, Kubuntu and Ubuntu (KDE/Gnome user interface respectively) If you don't know the difference between the Desktops, then go with Ubuntu initially.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Wow, Almost a Year.

Where has the time gone? I can't believe my last post on here was almost a year ago...holy crap.

Blogging for me was always a way for me to help clear my mind of things that were going in my life and the world around me. A way for me to express my opinion openly and to vent about issues that bothered me. After blogging for awhile I was also very lucky to meet alot of people that either agreed with me or disagreed with me, and we formed a community. I really think that's the greatest part of writing a blog.

I've switched blog sites so many times that I've actually lost track of where I have posts and where I don't, lol. However, I have decided that although some sites offer things others don't, it's time for me to pick one and keep it. This is going to be it.

I will be updating this as I go. I will also find the time to start reading others again, for the time that has past that I have not, I have missed out on alot of information, opinions, and views. I think it's terribly important to read those because it reflects on how I portray and see things. It adds clarity.

So, I'm back.

Seth