The Revolting Ode

I

As all growth falters and the darkness looms
we billions watch, our fear growing each day.
Some sit in their homes in their empty rooms

stare at their screens and have nothing to say,
or cry their tears of rage and rising fear
through powerless words that their fingers spray.

And others, their numbers growing each year,
complain bitterly and head for the street
while politicians and the rich all sneer.

And well they might those who have life so sweet.
They live in a dream blind to what will come.
Huge numbers suffer, resources deplete

and all of your plans to what will they sum?
To revolution and a boundless slum.

II

But wait! Praise the rich. They will save us all!
Their good investments trickle down to us.
Is it not the way? Don't they stand so tall?

Don't they wisely choose and they make no fuss?
If not for them, well, would we not all die?
Would we not be left with vomit and puss?

They are our leaders and do you know why?
They were born to rule and we to follow.
Where we play in dirt they rise up and fly.

We know: what pride we have we must swallow -
for only the rich can save us from hell.
Without them: in our own shit we'll wallow.

It's the truth and there's nothing else to tell.
If you feel like crying you might as well.

III

There will always be rich. They sprout like weeds.
It's at the core of what we are - predate!
Predate! The rich will satisfy our needs.

Come brothers and sisters why should we wait?
Why should we stand and watch all our dreams die?
When all we need to do is accept fate.

As one, rise, rise up - let loose your war cry!
Fear not the bullets of their dogs of war!
There is starvation if you do not try.

When at last we have evened up the score
and the blood of the rich showers like rain
fear not that the wealthy will be no more.

They will always come again and again
for who can ever feel another's pain?

Out of the Crooked Timber of Humanity, no Straight Thing was ever Formed

this my comment at John Quiggin's Blog

What often disturbs me is that ideologues always assume that the core reason for the plight of humans or some group of humans is the application of the wrong political philosophy.

My daughter asked me last night to explain the difference between “left” and “right” in terms of economic policy.

Here was my answer – understand that she grew up on a SEA rice farm so my answer was based on her world view of food being central to everything. How quaint eh!

Imagine you are out walking one day and after a long hike you discover a huge valley filled with mangoes and bananas and other fruit as well as wild geese and pigs and everything you could imagine.

Nobody has ever seen the valley before. You are the first.

You think “I could take food to the market and sell it” – which is what you do.

The next day you take a big pack and go back to the valley, making sure nobody follows you because somehow you know what you have discovered is enormous wealth.

You fill your pack with delicious mangoes and return and go to the local market and sell your mangoes and make a lot of money because everyone can see they are really great mangoes.

You do this for several weeks before your sister asks you if she can sell some food at the market too – and you agree to let her in for 50% of what she can carry and sell (she is your sister after all).

So next day the two of you head back to the valley with you packs….

After a few months you have a number of family members all going to the valley with packs and soon with a cart and then with a horse and cart to fetch food to sell.

That is free market economics.

One day, the local head man approaches you and says “you have been selling a lot of food – you have to give me 50% of everything you make so i can help the poor families of the village.”

So now you have to give the head man half of everything you make and everyone has to wear a cut in income – but you have more horses now and all of the family and some distant cousins are all involved so it’s not so bad – you can live with it.

The head man distributes much of what he takes from you among the poor families of the village and his popularity grows.

So soon he is being approached by more people to get help for this and that – and soon he is back to you for a bigger cut of what you make from selling your fruit and meat.

This my dear daughter is the “left”.

Your clever cousin has watched your problems with the local head man and he decides that if he can get the other people from the market to vote for him to be the head man then he can give less money away and you can pay less.

He competes in the next village head-man election and wins – now you are paying less to the head man because he will only keep his job if he can get the people at the market to all vote for him.

That my dear daughter is the “right”.

At this point my daughter asked “what happens when all the food in the valley is gone?”

To which i responded:

That my dear daughter is the exact plight of the world at this moment.

Both sides – the left and the right - claim that the prosperity of the village flows from their superior management of the local economy.

The fact is that both sides are leeching and the only real source of wealth for all of the village is what the local environment can produce.

She asked me "why couldn’t people understand economics if it was so simple to explain?"

To which i replied:

My dear daughter – both head men truly believe that they are important and the people they talk to every day are convinced by their fine clothes and fine words that they are speaking truth.

see my short story: the Land of Skinny People

p

Bernanke Limerick and Rhyme

redacted from comments at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/mers-case-filed-with-supreme-court.html




There once was a world in deep shit
with us in the middle of it
as we sank in the poo
there was Ben Bernank too
but he was quite happy with it





Ben Bernanke
Lost his hankie
how does he blow his nose?
with dollar bills
he prints at will
that's how our predicament grows

Ode to Paul Krugman

this story is about a bloke
who thought he'd save us all
an economic genius
with vision and with gall

he set about to craft a plan
'twas Keynesian and good
we'd all be given ray-guns
and a power-pack and hood

then all of us could roam the land
our faces hid from view
we'd zap each other's businesses
and zap the houses too

we'd zap the cars and aeroplanes,
the buildings short and tall
in fact when we had finished
we'd have found and zapped it all

and then when everything was dust
we'd start again from scratch
we'd build the world all over
a new one without match

and can you just imagine
how big the GDP?
the growth would be enormous
and such prosperity!

the folks in dear old London
well they just could not wait
they've started off already
and i think wow that's great

we really don't need ray-guns
we don't need much at all
so let's all go break windows
(the man? his name was Paul)

i surely do love silver

i surely do love silver
i surely do love gold
they'll be as they are trusted now
and since the days of old

they way they feel good in your hand
they way they gleam and shine
there's nothing quite so lovely
there's nothing that's so fine

and trust, that's something few have felt
in printed paper bills,
is what you can't help feeling when
your secret stash gold fills

when all is falling 'round our ears
and markets crash and burn
it's saftey that you cherish most
it's not a "sound return"

and so i'll love my metals
so precious and so fine
i'll hold them 'til i need them
in the coming long decline

'cause these are the true money
that always hold their worth
and if they are a "relic"
well, then so to is the earth


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