Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category

The Financial Matrix part 2: Inflation and Education

Posted: February 2, 2017 in Economics, Finances, Freedom
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If we don’t understand the full ramifications of the financial matrix, our future is in jeopardy.

In my first post on the financial matrix, I went through how it was a system of control, and talked in terms of freedom. But we should understand that even if we don’t care about freedom, it is still important to understand the consequences of this system on our lives, and what we can do about it.

I HIGHLY recommend watching the video at the end of this post, as it explains in great detail what we need to understand.

What I want to focus on now is WHY we need to understand.

Almost 2 years ago I went through the process of becoming a financial security adviser and got my certification. What I learned made me realize the scope of the problem we face.

Let me rephrase that; what I DIDN’T learn made me realize the scope of the problem!

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The Financial Matrix

Posted: June 6, 2015 in Economics, Finances, Freedom
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Financial MatrixThe book ‘The Financial Matrix’ is awesome! The Financial Matrix itself is pretty terrifying. When you understand a bit about history and human nature it should come to no surprise that it exists though.

The Matrix from the movie was system of control enslaving the human race without their knowledge. In the same way, the Financial Matrix enslaves people; it hides the enslavement from those trapped in its net like the machine in the movie, but no one is forced into this one. No one is coerced into it. People are brought up into it and enticed into it.

Orrin Woodward does a beautiful job explaining the whole concept in one chapter of his book (and in large part on this blog post he did). I encourage you to take a look at the post, along with all the other followup posts he did on the subject.

Just as Morpheus explains to Neo in the movie, so is it true for us today. (more…)

It IS Fair! In Fact it’s Good;For Everyone!

Posted: July 14, 2014 in Economics, Freedom, Fun
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LaRonde - Flash PassI got involved in a conversation the other day when someone was talking about LaRonde; Montreal’s amusement park. The discussion ended up veering to the price of admission and what the park was doing to earn to earn a greater profit. At this point one of my coworkers started to say that it wasn’t right that you can get special passes to jump a head of the line and not have to wait.

The conversations started down the path of it not being fair, but knowing who he was talking to, he quickly changed it to him not liking this ‘legal’ line jumping to be done around other kids because they wouldn’t understand. He quickly came to realize why it was fair, if not right in this circumstance, but only after seeing what is not normally seen; which is part of what I want to share here.

As is usually the case when it comes to economic issues, the problems start at the same spot; not seeing the whole picture, but only looking at what is happening directly in front of our eyes. In this case, what is seen is one group of people getting preferential treatment that another does not have access too. It is allowing those with more money to be able to cut in line. The question is then asked (negatively) “What gives them the right? Why should they be allowed? They should have to wait like everyone else!”

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McDonald’s and the power in Decentralization

Posted: March 12, 2014 in Economics, Freedom, Leadership
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McDonald's Behind the ArchesSome people believe that more government is better; that they can do things more efficiently and cheaper due to the principle of economies of scale. Some people would know better than that, but still feel the a central government is best to make decisions for society as a whole, because they know what is best for people, and because they can make sure no one person or small group, is taking advantage of everyone else.

Other people understand how this is not the case.

The same thing goes for private enterprise. There are cases where companies have tried to keep all the decisions at the top, while others kept only the major decisions at the top that couldn’t be handled at the lower levels, and left everything else to be done in the local areas.

In the Freedom series from Life Leadership, you learn how a government can’t understand the needs of the individual, but can only see global statistics. It uses a great example. Imagine someone’s arm is burning and needs to be put in ice, while his other arm is freezing and needs to be warmed up. overall the body temperature is average. If a central planner doctor were to look at the overall statistics, without looking at each arm, he would assume there is no problem and do nothing!

The best decisions will always be made by those who can clearly see the situation, and so should be left to the lowest level possible, right down to the individual when the individual can make the decisions.

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The 5 Laws of Decline – (#5) The Law of Inertia

Posted: January 21, 2014 in Economics, Freedom, Leadership
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inertiaWe have seen how the previous 4 laws of decline can bring an organization or a country down. The 5th and final law, of Orrin Woodward‘s Five Laws of Decline, plays a different role in my opinion. This law won’t bring about a decline, but it does keep the current decline from the previous laws in place, which includes the momentum of that decline. If only 10% of leaders are good leaders, as per Sturgeon’s Law, this law will make it difficult to make things better. If everyone has ways to get something for nothing as per Bastiat’s Law, this law makes it extremely difficult to stop the beneficiaries from getting their special deals. If people are being rewarded for doing things that wrong, as per Gresham’s Law, this law will make it very difficult to stop the behavior. And if you have a growing bureaucracy and getting fewer things done due to the law of Diminishing Returns, this law will stop you from reversing that trend, if not decreasing the returns at the same momentum.

The Law of Inertia

This law comes from Newton’s first law, which as Orrin Woodward explains in Resolved ‘Every body remains in a state of rest or uniform motion, unless it is acted upon by an external unbalanced force. In layman’s terms, an object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by another force.’ (more…)

Price Controls on Books in Quebec, in France, and in Principle

Posted: December 6, 2013 in Economics, Freedom
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VENEZUELA-ECONOMY

When regulated on the low side, price controls can be devastating; as seen with the lack of toilet paper in Venezuela.

A while back I read an article on Mishs Global Economic Analysis blog about France doing something pretty strange. They wanted to make books more expensive. They didn’t come out and word it that way of course; they said they were trying to protect their culture of reading.

I found this argument to be preposterous, yet at the same time I wasn’t surprised, knowing the type of information people have when it comes to this field. This is why it came as no shock to see a very similar situation here in Quebec, with the government wanting to make books more expensive. There are some benefits to certain individuals, but it’s important to consider the costs as well, and what it means to our freedoms and overall prosperity.

In France, it was about stopping online retailers like amazon from being allowed to offer free shipping in order to protect the local bookstores, while in Quebec it’s about not allowing stores to offer too big a discount on new books.

Its price controls. When price controls are in place, they are never good; whether it’s to make things cheaper for consumers or more expensive to serve suppliers. (more…)

The 5 Laws of Decline – (#4) The Law of Diminishing Returns

Posted: November 1, 2013 in Economics, Freedom, Leadership
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law of diminishing returnsThe 5 laws of decline detailed by Orrin Woodward & Oliver DeMille continues with law #4. Previously we have seen how 90% of everything is crud, leaving a good possibility of bad people being in the wrong positions of leadership. We have also seen how people will always do the least amount of work possible for the most gains, including outright theft if there were no repercussions. The last law we looked at showed that if bad behaviors get rewarded, there will be more of it, and it will drive out the good.

The first 3 laws from ‘Resolved‘ and ‘LeaderShift‘ all tie together in how one law set in motion leads to another and makes it even worse. The 4th and 5th laws are a little bit different, but still connected in their own way

The Law of Diminishing Returns

I believe most of us know what this one represents, as it’s a basic law of economics and business taught to us in high school. For those of you who weren’t taught, or who may have forgotten, let’s review.

The principle is that when you add more of one good, or one action to a process, each addition unit being added produces less of an output than the previous unit did. As the return on each additional unit decreases, there will come a point where more units will not add any more output, and in fact will start reducing the total output. (more…)

The 5 Laws of Decline – (#3) Gresham’s Law

Posted: September 2, 2013 in Economics, Freedom, Leadership
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GreshamWe have been discussing the 5 laws of decline detailed by Orrin Woodward at the end of his book ‘Resolved‘, and in his and Oliver DeMille’s book ‘Leadershift‘.

In our look at Bastiat’s Law, we saw how people do the least amount of work possible to get what they want, which includes nothing and theft. Add to that Sturgeon’s Law, and we know at most 10% of the people in charge will stand up to that law and do what is right, even if the easier way is available.

That leaves at least 90% of politicians and leaders to fully embrace Bastiat’s Law.

It would not be surprising if you were convinced that the numbers are even worse than that. With the 3rd law of decline, I would be on youre side in that argument since it brings out the worst in a company; and in a country’s leaders as well. It is also always in action when you have Bastiat’s Law showing it’s teeth; in fact it feeds Bastiat’s Law, making Surgeon’s Law even a smaller percentage.

Gresham’s Law

Orrin Woodward takes his 3rd law of decline from Thomas Gresham‘s view on what happens to money. In the book ‘LeaderShift’, he describes it like this:

Thomas Gresham, an English financier, first elaborated Gresham’s Law as it pertains to money. He taught that when a government uses force to support one kind of currency over another, the bad money drives out the good.

But Gresham’s Law applies to more than just money. In short, when a bad behavior is rewarded, more of the bad behavior will be done, and that in turn will drive out the good behaviors.

In the leadership field, this is displayed when bad behavior is rewarded. For example, if someone can sit at their desk all day watching movies and get paid, this will cause others to choose this simpler method of making money (plunder).

Rewarding bad behaviors either converts others to plunder or drives them out of the company as they seek a firm that rewards people based upon productivity, not plunder.

Gresham’s Law: When bad behavior is rewarded, more of the bad behavior will be done, and in turn will drive out the good behavior. (more…)

The 5 Laws of Decline – (#2) Bastiat’s Law

Posted: August 11, 2013 in Economics, Freedom
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TheLawPreviously we had discussed the first law of decline; Sturgeon’s Law. This law stated that 90% of everything is crud, and showed how you can’t count on 90% of leaders and politicians to do the right thing without some kind of check in place to stop them. 90 percent of them will undoubtedly fall to the second law of decline; Bastiat’s law.

These laws come from Orrin Woodward‘s book ‘Resolved‘ as well as his and Oliver DeMille‘s book ‘LeaderShift‘.

A couple of years ago I read a book by Frederic Bastiat called ‘The Law‘. In this book, Bastiat goes through the concept of having a law; what it is supposed to be used for and what it then actually get’s used for. He shows how laws are supposed to be there to protect a persons property, and thus people themselves, but end up getting used to steal or harm people’s property.

Bastiat’s Law

Bastiat wrote a profound passage that Orrin Woodward takes for his second law of decline, which he first outlined in ‘Resolved: 13 Resolutions for Life.’

Man can live and satisfy his wants only by ceaseless labor; by the ceaseless application of his faculties to natural resources. This process is the origin of property.

But it is also true that a man may live and satisfy his wants by seizing and consuming the products of the labor of others. This process is the origin of plunder.

Now since man is naturally inclined to avoid pain—and since labor is pain in itself—it follows that men will resort to plunder whenever plunder is easier than work. History shows this quite clearly. And under these conditions, neither religion nor morality can stop it.

When, then, does plunder stop? It stops when it becomes more painful and more dangerous than labor. It is evident, then, that the proper purpose of law is to use the power of its collective force to stop this fatal tendency to plunder instead of to work.

– Frederic Bastiat, The Law

Bastiat’s law: Since men are naturally inclined to avoid pain, which labor is itself, it follows that they will resort to plunder whenever it is easier than work. (more…)

The 5 Laws of Decline – (#1) Sturgeon’s law

Posted: August 9, 2013 in Economics, Freedom, Leadership
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Theodore SturgeonIn ‘Resolved: 13 Resolutions for Life‘, Orrin Woodward first introduced us to his five laws of decline; showing how if we are not aware of them, our life, our organisation, and our country, will suffer the consequences.

In ‘Leadershift: A Call for Americans to Finally Stand Up and Lead‘, Orrin and Oliver DeMille go through these laws more in relation to a country. Although these laws apply to everything, and all business leaders should be aware of them for their companies sake, it’s in relation to our nation they really hit home. You may not mind if a company goes under because of these laws, but you will certainly mind if the country does.

As not everyone will go out and get those books, we will go through some of the key concepts; let’s ensure as many people becomes aware of them as we can.

For some of these laws, left on their own, things might not be too bad, even if it’s still a problem. The real issues come when all of these laws are left unchecked; which is often the case since one usually leads to another.

Today we will take a look at the first law of decline.

Sturgeon’s Law

Theodore Sturgeon was a science fiction writer who defended his genre when it was being criticized for being full of crud; that it didn’t keep up with the times and new technology. Sturgeon’s reply was to point out that 90 percent of it was indeed crud… just as it is in everything.

That is Sturgeon’s law: 90% of everything is crud. (more…)

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