A Warning From History

I just watched one of the BBC History Cold Case programs and it got me thinking about the situation in the world at the moment. A common saying is “History repeats itself” and this time I hope history doesn’t repeat itself. I love this program mainly because after Western civilization collapses we could very well go back and live the way our ancestors lived. And the way we live now is a lot better, I mean a hell of a lot better. After the Roman Empire collapsed it took mankind over a thousand years to pass the technology of the Romans. So when our civilization comes unglued we will go backwards and now civilization could come unglued at any time.

The program I was watching was called “The Bodies in the Well” and here the team analyzed a bunch of 17 skeletons that had been buried in a well. Men, women and 11 children and a few cats had been thrown in the well. They searched historical records as well as doing a detailed analysis on some of the skeletons. And the results were not good and anyone working in finance should take note.

In the 12th and 13th Century, when these skeletons were carbon dated too, the Jews who had been brought to England by the King in the 11th century were being prosecuted and expelled. The Jews were the money-lenders because the religion at the time forbid the lending of money with interest. But the religion of the Jews allowed it that is why they were in England at that time.

But as they say all good things come to an end. There was a lot of discontent among the populous because the Jews were doing very little and making lots of money. So the masses rebelled and killed the Jews. Now did they kill them because they were Jews or because they were successful business people. This happened across Europe as well as in England where the skeletons were. Even though the Jews were protected by the crown, when they needed the protection it was not there.

It is believed the Jews died by suicide as there were no visible signs of trauma on the skeletons. And they were dropped down the well just to get rid of them. They never explained why there were a couple of cat skeletons in the well also. Maybe the discontented masses through the Jews cats down the well after the bodies were thrown in.

Now can you see the correlation between then and now? The same situation is arising where the bankers are making tons of money doing very little. And the masses are getting foreclosed out of their homes.

Is history going to repeat itself again in the near future. Bankers are totally oblivious to the effects fraud has on their customers. They must get their kicks from seeing how many customers they can lie too and deceive. But the bankers are forgetting that the world we all live in now is coming to an end. And when it does history might repeat itself.

Similar incidents have already happened in the very recent past. When Indonesia collapsed the Chinese were targeted. Now were they targeted because they were Chinese or because they were successful shop keepers and businessmen. Chinese have been targeted in other countries. When there were riots in Tonga, Chinese shops were looted. In other countries the Chinese huge Dragon Malls have caught fire. Most say they were accidental but is that really what happened.

Fast forward to now, right now we have Ebola set to march around the globe. Now if it does, how many disgruntled customers, who have been lied to and deceived by bank managers and bank staff will walk into a bank as their last act of getting even, after they realize they might have Ebola. And help spread it round to the people they think need it the most. The banks free reign over the economy might suddenly change.

At the moment banks are an evil necessity whereby we can't function without them. And there is not really an alternative. We have to use them. But in the future, hopefully very soon, true global companies should be able to start up a bank as a side line business. Why can't we go to the McBank, or the KFCB or the PizzaBank to do our banking while having lunch. We can even add WalBank to the list. These companies are true global companies and their bottom lines are a lot healthier than most banks.

This way when there is another catastrophic global financial meltdown the common everyday person who lives from day to day will still have some money left. For these companies the real estate is already in place, they just have to add the ATM outside, or as a number are 24 hour they can have the ATM inside. And in some of the bigger establishments they could have a teller window. Here multitasking would take on a new meaning, one minute you are serving burgers and the next you are a bank teller. Welcome to the workforce of the future.

 For more gloomy stories about what we could expect very soon check out.

http://www.animalsdinosaursandbugs.com/Weakest-Link2.htm
Thank you for your time
Peter Legrove
The suburban survivalist

The Turning Point Of Western Civilization

Now the Beijing Olympics are over I would say that they will go down in history as the peak of western civilization. As China opened up to the western world, western civilization started on its downward death spiral. As historians look back they will probably blame China because as China built itself and the Olympics they helped to use up the last of the cheap oil. 

In 2000 at the Sydney Olympics oil was under $30 a barrel and the price had moved over $30 a barrel for the Athens Olympics say to around $35 for the Olympics. Somewhere between Athens and Beijing we ran out of cheap oil and by the time we got to Beijing oil had nearly taken out the $150 but then it crashed back to under $120 a barrel. We could call this little spike in oil the first oil shock attributed to peak oil. Now we could be on a plateau where oil prices hover around this level before moving up for another leg on the way to peak oil.

Between Sydney and Athens the price of oil went up about 50% but between Athens and Beijing we are looking at a major move. From $35 to $70 is 100% and then from $70 to $140 is another 100% but it came off a bit so we could honestly say the move was under 200% but not much under. So where to now? I don’t know but I think with the world heading into recession oil use will drop or level off. And then when economic activity resumes we will see the price of oil take off again. 

I would say from now on life will progressively get worse as oil gets more expensive. And we will never see another Olympics as grand and spectacular as the Beijing Olympics. The London Olympics was just an ordinary Olympics. China had set the standard and they will be very hard to beat.What a way to end an era.

For more gloomy stories about what we could expect very soon check out.

http://www.animalsdinosaursandbugs.com/Weakest-Link2.htm
Thank you for your time
Peter Legrove
The suburban survivalist