The Financial Economy

The Financial Economy

The financial economy is that part of the economy that is based not on the creation of goods or services but on the movement and creation of money. Minting or printing money is part of the real economy not of the financial economy because it is the creation of a good that is used in the real economy. Finance is the stock market, banking, the housing market the areas of the economy were by investment and speculation live side by side. Investment is a means of providing future wealth through the prudent use of money to help a business grow or at least have the potential to grow. 

But speculation is something different, it is anything but prudent, it is taking a guess on what will make money. Worst of all it hates doing wrong by itself and those who speculate encourage others to join in. One example is to encourage people to invest all of their investment in one stock, a particular favourite is to invest in housing or apartments. There is no prudence shown here, by either party it must be said, although the investor may be forgiven if they are ignorant of the true cost of such an “investment”. They are rarely shown the true nature of such speculation.  

Why am I making such a fuss about speculation? Because it seems that ethics in finance can be quite fluent, more than once have I heard the battlecry “but everyone's doing it!”, in other words how can it be wrong as it is now the industry standard. No matter how low that standard has become. 

The real problem with the financial economy is that it has no other standard of success than making more money. It is not concerned with social or political stability, unless those things harm the financial economy. It is also true that many people, institutions, charities, businesses and Governments rely on the financial economies success. Government should not be reliant upon the financial economy as it should have it’s own reserves to call upon. 

Every great economic crisis of the past two centuries has been caused not by the real economy but by the financial economy, normally by it giving out more credit (loans) than could ever be paid back. A self- created pyramid scheme. There is no need for this to be true, if the financial economy took as it’s motto the word “prudence” it would be very hard for these excesses to happen, let alone keep happening. Only when Governments, financial professionals and investors take their responsibilities seriously can we be protected from the excesses of the financial economy.




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The Real Economy

The Real Economy

The real economy is the economy that you and I live in, the offices, factories, farms, shops and the other physical elements that make up the economy. It includes our own financial transactions, getting paid a wage, buying groceries or other goods and services, giving to charity or saving money. 

The real economy is the economy of real life, our actual life not our potential life. Money invested is part of our potential life, money we have today is part of our real life. 

In a subsistence economy the important question is, have we produced enough food to survive or can we get access to enough food to survive. But in an advanced economy the question is, have we produced enough wealth, normally money, to provide for ourselves and our families. To produce enough wealth there needs to be access to both excess money to allow investment and jobs that pay a living wage. 

An economy without either of these things is inefficient because it causes friction between groups and friction can start sparks, sparks can create fires and fires can get out of control. It is best if the cause of the friction is not present in the first place.



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The Stock Market

The Stock Market

The Stock Market in short is a place, were by companies that need extra money are matched up with investors, people who have excess money, excess money in this case meaning excess to everyday needs. Once these two are married up it enables them to share both the rewards and the dangers of the Market. 

Today the Stock Market in it’s various guise’s is a major part of the economy. It has also become a major part of the economics of Liberalism and the Stock Market is used as a way to gauge the health of the economy, at both a National and International level. 

But how wise is it to do so? 

The Stock Market preforms a valuable service to the economy, it allows excess money to be active instead of lying dormant under someone’s mattress. It also allows the investor to support ideas or companies that matter to the investor. But of course once money is invested in the Stock Market it is not available for other uses. For example it cannot be loaned to a local shopkeeper nor can it be used to set up a local business. My point here is to point out that one choice can cut off other equal choices. 

There is risk in investing, nothing is guaranteed, no matter how often you are told it is. This is why it is important that only excess money be used, money that in a worse case scenario can be lost in it’s totality and it will not destroy the investor financially. 

But it is a mistake to think that the economy and the Stock Market are the same thing. The Stock Market is part of the Financial or Money economy, something that is quite different and can be quite distinct from the real economy.



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The United Nations and it's Rightful Place

The United Nations and it's Rightful Place

The United Nations has a rightful place, it exists for very good and specific reasons. But if it has a rightful place that means it has a wrongful place, a place it should never interfere in, a place it should not be involved in. 

The United Nations exists as a security organisation, to provide a place so that two or more nations who have an issue can discuss it, without any nation feeling that they have made a concession by simply talking. After all their Ambassadors are there already. The United Nations is not a world Government, nor is it a world Parliament, but it has since it’s creation had many believe that that is exactly what it is or should be. Is the United Nations responsible for that? 

I think not, it seems that many have placed their hopes for a better world upon the United Nations. It is a role that has been forced on it. It is also clear to me that the United Nations has gone through phase’s were it believed it really could be a world Government and other phase’s were it behaved strictly as a client of it’s member states. In effect the United Nations is a club that only recognises other member states, Taiwan but not China, then China but not Taiwan. It does not have it’s own military force, nor can it wage war or peace in it’s own name. It is owned by the member states and they make the decisions. But the member states are not the people of those states, no it is the Government of those states that are represented. 

The United Nations is not an elected body, it is one member state one vote. Do Jewish settlements in the West Bank affect your nation? Yes, then you get to vote on the issue. No, then you still get to vote on the issue. It is a system that sometimes makes an issue clearer and other times makes the issue murkier. 

The real problem with the United Nations is that the Diplomatic Corp and the politicians of many nations believe that the United Nations is more than just a security organisation. To be fair their confusion is understandable, many issues of world importance but with no real security concern have been placed in the hands of the United Nations, such as UNICEF for example.  

The United Nations became a place where International treaties were negotiated, it was convenient for all concerned. Unfortunately for the rest of us it became too convenient. When a treaty involving a number of Nation States was being negotiated, the United Nations became the de-facto setting for such negotiations. The effect was to compel States to join the new club, the treaty club. It meant that we had States that tortured that had input into how treaties on human rights ended up. But United Nations membership means one state, one vote so everyone must be included. 

The result is a two level system, were by large number of countries who have input will either never implement or can never implement the treaty. The other level will enforce the new treaty, the new “universal” standard that is in no way really universal. Here we have one person forced to obey a law decided by a United Nations treaty and another totally immune. Furthermore it undermines National sovereignty as it takes the ability to negotiate the new law out of the hands of the people’s representatives and places it into the hands of Diplomats. While Diplomats may be fine people with the best intentions, in the end they are responsible to the Government and not to the people. Only the elected representatives are responsible to the people and it should be their job entirely to formulate law, not Diplomats and not the unelected United Nations.



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Meeting Other Conservatives

Meeting Other Conservatives

Being a Conservative can be a lonely experience as we know that surrounding us is Liberalism. It is in our newspapers, on the radio and on Television as well as in far too many movies. Our Governments are Liberal, they support Liberalism in so many ways free trade, social policy, Feminist policies, job hiring, we are surrounded by Liberal laws. The education system is Liberal at each stage from Kindergartens to University. We meet people, some of whom are very nasty in their support of Liberalism and we met others who support Liberalism because they believe it's the right thing to do, often without even thinking about it, they just accept it.

Being a Conservative can often feel like being the only sane man in the Asylum. When Liberals see this they think that being sane is deviant.

But one way to help ourselves combat this is to not be alone in our thoughts. It's not always possible to fight or argue with those who we disagree with as sometimes the risk is too great. That is because too many of us are alone in this fight, we need Allies and Friends to help us see that it is the Asylum that is insane. Conservatives need to meet up and join together, even if just to socialize, we need to form our own society, one that competes on the battlefield of ideas with Liberalism. Alone we are simply alone,but together we can give mutual support in our common cause.

On the 1st of May I shall be meeting up with a number of fellow Conservatives, including Mark Richardson of OzConservative fame. Some I have already meet and some I will met for the first time, we will eat and drink, talk about Conservatism and about the mad world that Liberalism has created and that we are forced to live in.

We started with just two of us and no idea if anyone else would join us, but in time they did and it grew but if we had not made that first step we would still be alone in our thoughts. If you are in Melbourne, Australia and would like to attend send me an email. If you live somewhere else, think about who you know who sees the world as you do and start meeting up, start with a drink and a meal, even if it's just two of you, we all need for us to not just be alone with our thoughts and instead to be meeting up with our fellow Conservatives.



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ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day

The 25^th of April is ANZAC day in Australia and New Zealand, it is the day we commemorate those of our countrymen and women who have died in war. The day is important as it is the date of the first large scale military operation conducted by Australia in the First World War, the landings at Gallipoli in Turkey in 1915. 

Of course we were not alone, British and French troops also landed, to be followed up by New Zealanders and Indian troops as well as others. While the Campaign failed in it’s objective of forcing the Ottoman Empire from the war, it is remembered because of the courage, fortitude, mateship and endurance of the soldiers committed to the fight. While these traits may not be unique to Australia and New Zealand they are an important part of both countries national heritage. 

8,800 Australians died in the 9 month Campaign out of an army of less than 50,000. This was a huge shock to Australia as our biggest loses before that had been in the Boer War in South Africa were 600 Australians had been killed over the course of 3 years. A total of 60,000 Australians were killed in the First World War, from German New Guinea to Mesoptamia (Iraq), Palestine and in Northern Russia. The majority of course were killed fighting on the Western Front, including a relative of mine who was killed in August 1918 near Amiens in France.

More than 100,000 Australians have died in war since our first foreign war in the Sudan in 1885. Compared to other countries some may say that’s not many, but they are our people and it is our duty to remember their sacrifice just as it was their duty to serve. From air operations over Norway to naval actions off the Soloman Islands, from POW camps in Japan to the South African veldt, from those who have died in Afghanistan all the way back to those who died on their way home from the Sudan, we remember them.

Lest We Forget

Liberalism versus Religion

Liberalism versus Religion

For many people religion gives their life meaning, but in a truly Liberal society religion doesn’t really have a place or even a right to exist. In fact it has a habit, a longstanding and nasty habit of telling people that some things are good and others bad. It has no right to do that, I think that should be clear, remember in a Liberal world only you, the individual has rights. 

I think Church’s and the like would most likely still exist, they may even be open to the public but religion would need to be highly individualistic. With individuals deciding how to pray or perform rituals and so forth, I also think it would be advisable to change these every few months, a year at the most otherwise it would start to look like an actual religion. Remember, something that doesn’t have the right to exist. 

You may say but I want to be a Catholic or an Anabaptist or worship Odin, of course you can, you have that right, your individual right, no one has the right to take away your right…unless. 

Unless you try to convince or insult other individuals with your beliefs, by doing something public like telling others of your belief or wearing or showing a symbol of your faith. They are an Island, totally free and autonomist, how can they continue to be when you invade their Island with your “Faith crime”. 

In a truly Liberal world you are alone, to be an autonomist is to be alone.



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