Mills of God....

Mills of Gods…

In looking at situations that arise in any period of time, situations which catch the interest of the media and are subsequently laid out for consuming saps to spurious apply some earnest apathetic consideration, (in so far as they may have any interest in the ‘events’ anyway) it might be assumed that ‘events’ (for them) happen in isolation from a history that precipitates the ‘event’. Such history that is generally unrecognised for attachment to the noted ‘event’ in a current phase and with saps now having little grasp of a continuum that develops prior to ‘events’ as a result of their reliance on instant uninformative condensed strap line news fed onto them via electronic media platforms’, which is more often than not, is, at a later stage, loosely reinterpreted to modify the understanding of a ‘current’ presented ‘event’ to mitigate the responsibility of public notables and the part they had played in the preparation of the advancement of the ‘event’, to be now be dealt with for public consumption. In simple terms one might say ‘rewriting history’ for the betterment of responsible and accused participants wishing to distance themselves from the consequences of their own actions inflicted on others. Such rewriting is in part helped by the tribal interpretation applied by the whole range of media, particularly “news”- papers when truth and facts get buried in analytical obscuration and then is open to counter accusations of “false news” that is more easily digested by strap-line minds that lack the stamina for concerted thought faced with complex issues.

 As a current example of this, for the UK, one has only to view the deviousness unfolding to the interpretations of the 23/6/16 democratic referendum. It was a simple ‘in or out’ choice yet absolutely no one was prepared for or had any idea what the complexity of the implication were in ejecting over four decades of stability and growth for uncertainly. Yet proponents are insisting in attributing to the ‘out’ decision a measure of clarity and certainty of opinions by the referendum that did not exist. That a caucus of political members blatantly lied to achieve their aims is now glossed over and the continuing extraordinary exaggerations made for the ease of extraction with no parliamentary oversight on the eventual ‘agreed deal’ is flaccidly accepted. Any factual exposure on the difficulties being revealed is cast as prejudiced counterfeit rumour, unsubstantiated or being unpatriotic to challenge the corrupted democratic mandate of the people, yet the disingenuous discourse offered by the ‘leavers’ underscores the impotency of parliamentary democracy seeped in self serving hubris and party dogma happy to facilitate spurious development with EU leave negotiations as good news when it is clearly artifice and lies, knowing now the populace, inured into apathy, are bound  to accept what is foisted upon them. Look also at another issue, one that seems to be important on a global level just now, is to consider the testing of the attitudes, sophistication, and potential resolve of the new American president that is being hyped by the media fuss over NK and the ineffectual facile threats it (NK) may inflict to diverse nations. It is instructional, on the basis of the impotence being displayed by the president and others, in the inept incoherent expressions being voiced in an attempt to curtail the continuance of the politically unaccepted behaviour of the leader of NK; may indicate that it is useful divergence of stringent attention for more serious issues that fester in the hinterlands of America. For any challenge of facts relating to presidential pronouncements are warped as “false news” and believed. Alternative specious facts are supported by powerful elements of sycophantic media not minded that the president is an aberration reflection of a great many Americans equally devoid of concerted thought to apprehend deviousness of political endeavours.  

It may not need reiterating as a narrow global view but some countries in the world do not have a good impression of the US of A. The reason is, some would say, primarily as a result of a simmering fervour that is driven by resentment, religion, social miss-understanding, suspicion and for some that have also suffered ill considered prejudiced strategic diplomacy that has resulted in American influence acting in benighted ways. This of course is also opprobrium levelled at other major players at times but as one of the three remaining contentious ‘super powers’ and the current forerunner for forceful actions, the US has acquired a veneer for unrefined behavioural ways that seemed appropriate for the past times, in a ‘strategic’ context, albeit based on narrow understanding of advisory perception. However those perhaps morally ignorant of significant forceful actions have been directed by a cadre of influential people deliberately choosing not to listen to professional expert advisers (some knowledgeable advisers are retained on the basis of an instructed “don’t tell, don’t know”) particularly when such advise may be risky if aired openly, conflict with a policy ‘understanding’ and counter to political dogma expediency.

This purposeful misdirection of political actions has caused a degree of mischief in international affairs and more particularly onto the eventful direction of individual countries falling for and affected by deliberate obfuscation of purpose, intent or conclusion.  The US like others has often taken action to secure its influence or presence were it sees its self interest is potentially at risk and often such action has usually been in strained accordance with a generally supportive or askance sanction from allies, some unwilling or impotent to act directly in the ‘event’. In doing so it is not just the USA that has come under some vitriolic diplomacy elusion, it has been aimed at the key western allies to the US who are now suffering the fall out of long term ambiguous meddling.  

Some of the negative impression and outright mistrust may also be derived from the more recent shift in strategic attitudes that seem to support a desire to pressure for regime change in countries that do not serve the interest of the American dream and whose administrative structures stand in the way of developing the useful pliable democratic deficit of the west, mimicking what is available in the developed vision of the retreated US Bush / Chaney / GB Blair world. It can be no coincident that most countries of Asia, Middle East, Africa, South America, Russia, and China view its proffered strategic directives with some suspicion and would prefer not to have an overspill of American influence to taint their own political persuasive view. However as a projectable power it still has influence and is looked too less now for assistance with global issues as it moves to “America First”. It has not always been this way and as a young country with imported multicultural influences split with segregation along; ethnic, wealth, self status delusion and deviant sectarian political fantasies which creates a much stronger mutual impediment than any form of class structure, has with the strong sense of flag unity and seeking a respectable position in world affairs, actively helped global stability in times past of most need.  

How the USA gained the position of world influence has come perhaps from its drive, powerful material resources, political consensus for stability, cohered collective illusory integration that on the face of it superseded the sectarianism of ethnic / racial divides and shaped a unity of self image in the face of and at a time of testing events. Major events of the past that was unfolded with the fracturing of any other potential influential contender. In a very important way the USA was a power for the times that required a willing beneficial expression of actual power onto a ‘developed’ world stage that had grown old, carrying historical baggage that did not allow a similar unity to develop in and between major conflicted countries like the GB, Germany, Russia, Japan, China, Asia or Middle East; resulting in periods of destruction. Apart from perhaps two periods in American history; the civil war and the great depression, the US has not suffered any major destruction of the actual foundation of its infrastructures or its American dream of unity nor did it lack the ability to self-heal unlike those countries that strained against the limitation of various internal and external boundaries to eventually suffer devastation. The fortuitous position of power at the disposal of the US played a pivotal position in its short history unwittingly positioning its-self as the benevolent authoritarian without any colonial intention to shape the politics and economics to the 20th century. It has though, I would suggest, due to recent impulsive offensives and rapid retrenchments lost the possibility of being a steadfast influential super power.    

The foundation of its power is now under progressive stress to some extent created by the very use of resources that built the power base and its projection onto a world stage. That this should happen in such a short period of its existence – less than a hundred years, is probably as result of the speed of technology that drives the application and spread of knowledge; if knowledge is power then the greater the spread of knowledge the more opportunity there is to shift power and in this there is a requirement to have resources that can be effectively applied at a competitive advantage to increase the elements of a power shift. The most important element of the power shifts is the unrestrained expression of global finance and the hype of multi-national conglomerates, all seen as the munificent provider of growth offering a hubristic paradigm shift in economic thinking that lauded growth and continuous expansion without reflecting the actual cost to the high valued consumer nation; insidiously using the slave / cheap labour and absence of social benefits, environmental constraints or democratic authority of poorer countries to feed the imposed economic fraud.

This same unrestrained economic strategy was played out by many of the west leading players, political and corporate that chose not to see the hollowing out of their own countries resources and structures to the favor of the vested interest of the corporate and financial powerful influential people. As long as the money machine kept printing for them with fabled growth it hid the fractures within economic power and weakness of their own countries.

That there is a change in where actual and influential power is moving too cannot be avoided.

The main contenders for gaining the power shift are, with a cautious interpretation; China, Russia, India and South America and Middle East with small associated subsidiary countries (Asia?) acting as intermediaries playing to bolster the contenders for subsidence gains. These five, in varying degrees, have now all the attributes and tendentious tension of discourse needed to shake the general pact that the US is the prime player in world affairs and they are increasingly prepared to disagree with this view were it butts up against their own interest. For them to reach this position of growing influence has required the participation of global finance and multi-national conglomerates that has brought the world’s economy to a recent stall (liquidity crises 2007/8) but it has equally placed them in a bountiful starting position, to a large degree based on a mixture of their natural resources, imported technical acquisition and its application together with a rising younger population with which to progress from. They are like the work houses and financial providers propping up the siltation of the old economic order while slowly eviscerating it.

The symptom of this evisceration may be attached to a view that all the currencies of major countries are to a greater or less extent running on expanding debt. A disturbance on the fluidity of commercial inter-trading patterns that affects any one of the main traded currency such as the dollar, euro, renminbi, yen or pound, has a direct impact on the ability of global trading confidence which is reflected in interests’ rates, GDP, stocks/shares, inflation and consumers actions. All potential exacerbating shocks to the ‘local’ individual market economy and the value of surplus tradable commodities particularly for indebted and those of a less optimistic outlook but what keeps the apparent solidity in fait money underpinning debt of indebted nations is the continuance of (presented exuberance) confidence, confidence that debt can be repaid to the providers of debt credit; the sovereign wealth funds, institutional finance, and those rich with nationally controlled assets and energy resources.   

Rather like the pound, in its near death throes from the ongoing fallout of the deceitful brexit damage and the travails of the unbalanced euro, it is in no one’s interest to see these currencies like the dollar laid low by market forces and speculative manipulation yet both are acting in disoriented communication to achieve just that; supported by the blind political confidence that dare not look to closely into the inability to lift GDP quickly enough to retrench the growing debt burdens accepted by them; without an adjustment of massive and extremely disagreeable taxation lift, with cut backs to PSBR and controls to the irrational exuberance of  the ‘markets’  continuing with investment churn. No one is prepared for or will enthusiastically countenance for the economic dance to stop, yet at some stage it has to, it is a natural consequence of influential power being relocated to emergent resourced nations complicit in the self-inflicted diminishing productivity and near stagnant growth of debtor nations. This lack of effective economic growth is of great relevance to the laudatory slight rise in UK exports or GDP, assessed as unduly optimistic but sensible thought is not deceived by what is really creating such an increase. It is not that the UK has found new markets, or its products are superior and irresistible, it is that the pound has been devalued by over 38% since the CC and in that is the 18% value fall caused by the Brexit decision and borrowings still abounds. The likelihood is that this will get considerable worse as the cliff edge drop out from the EU occurs.

The faceted turmoil in low growth, divergent wealth distribution, vacillating political security, fracturing social cohesion, reducing strategic influence and retracted opportunities for youth in ageing societies with the unchallenged intensification given to liberalism in multiparty market forces, for the moment can only go in one reset direction and the eventual outcome of events will be exceptionally straining on the established orders to adjust too these degrading confines caused and accepted due to unfettered market forces. Exposed countries will have little choice to live beyond their means and ramp debt and deficit up, some will gain forbearance on the basis of their overall ‘disposable’ asset value, wealth, perceived ‘sovereign’ stability and tax raising capacity. However without exportable productive capacity for a positive ‘balance of payments’ there is a terminal limit beyond which debt and deficit cannot be reduced by either a fire sale of assets, extortionate tax, QE, manipulation of interest rates or beneficial inflation; up to the horror of a sovereign default.  

Over the past 150 years many countries have had cause to default or restructure their economy; notable ones being, (not in an order) Argentina, Mexico, Germany, Iceland, Russia, Greece and the US, all having with various force an effect on the financial markets but none had the impact of the ongoing Credit Crises of 2007/8. Very few have never actually defaulted like; New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Denmark, England and Canada.

Although it seems unlikely that if anyone of theses financial trustworthy countries did, would it really matter? It might be thought that if they were not considered a global or ‘reserve’ currency, there would not be a great dislocation of trading activity; much would depend on the shock of potential instability or uncertainly caused by the failing of a respected secure sovereign controlled legal tender (fait money) and the country’s ability to trade into solvency but if their asset resources have been hollowed out, one might not have confidence in the financial markets providing even expensive lending to them.

Purely as a comment, think of a major incident that may have an impact on say, the USA, would it be allowed to continually to live beyond its means grossly supported with borrowings by the rest of the world, seen as it is as the reserve currency to gold? Its debt stands at 18.96Trn (106% GDP) and it is only confidence in its massive resources and productive ability that props it up helped it has to be said by the weakening or uncertainty of other currencies; Pound, Euro, Renminbi, or Yen. The escalation in fait money that has dubious resources to support its value may well be moving to a close as market setters are becoming critically realistic to place a genuine assessment of a currency’s worth and intrinsic resource depletion hazards. Over recent time there has been a trend for down grading by the rating agencies which has a hardening impact on government borrowings and government debt, which as a percent of GDP is used by investors to measure a country’s ability to make future payments on its debt, thus affecting the country’s borrowing costs and government bond yields. The higher the debt to GDP and it become more costly to re-borrow, repay or if the confidence gambits fail; slide to a default. So far, it would appear that the USA and like the UK do not fear the threat of deflation, hyper inflation or an impetuous default and as other are doing, to varying degree, when economically stressed they have the ability to print (QE) money to inject wherever, that devalues its currency to aid exports, potentially slow down imports and by manipulating interest rates / inflation devalue its held borrowings. New borrowing can be pushed into the future at a higher ‘coupon rate’ and as Interest rates can be used to control internal inflation (to a limited extent) and also to support the value of currencies, they can ultimately also raise taxes and control the availability and flow of currency or take on direct import controls (trade tariff conflicts) but any strong sign of an element of the above; means serious trouble. The high debtors risks scenario one sees with countries that are unhurried in reducing their debt and suffering the loss of economy regeneration is at the moment accepted by ‘the markets’ because there is too few safe location to ‘bank’ smart money and get an accepted guarantee return.   

One may be led to conclude that there is a growing impression that the dominance of countries in the west in political, economically and in structural terms is coming to an end. The most prominent representation of ‘the west’ being USA and Europe which have been the exemplars of modern market forces and beneficial economic manipulations (to themselves) and as an indicative, the USA in a unique position is being given extremely wide latitude in what it can do as its overall economic power base is still considerable but undergoing increasing internal political and social strains. This western supremacy with its resources and economic power is not an accurate assessment of the actual intrinsic yet fragile supremacy that reside within ‘the west’ that it can be too soon overlooked for there is a state of degenerative maturity occurring that is degrading a whole range of society cohesiveness; the social connections, vision and structures that formed the bases of the growth of their economies after the struggle to overcome the fragmentation and waste of the 1900/60’. Never the less the strains that effect them now are abundant from the poison of the 2007/8 CC, the extant simmering ‘global’ productive austerity, European economic social homogeneous disintegration, uneven wealth disbursement spread, nations stagnation and instructively the precipice the UK is about to pitch itself over compounded by loss of resource control and an increase in a corruptive sense of place. Seeking like others, to secure their own contented position in severe times. Countries of ‘the west’ seem to now lack the drive, vision and commitment to take the inclusive steps to regulate their civilisations and control the dependency on rampant market forces economy.    

It is abundantly clear that although it may not have been publicly proved, for a large organised tactical move by organisation to deliberately manipulate the financial structure to be become more self serving, rapacious and disregarding in the morality for good public accountability; it is apparent that over a period of time a belief in the supremacy of the market and that all the operations carried out within it, are all allowed for the greater good, was a naive expectation. Particularly when a few selected people, acting in covert conclave consider that they alone stand outside the normal discipline rules of business that allows them to generate substantial benefits for (in order) themselves, their employer, the shareholder value and government revenue and not consider the wider social structure even though there is ample evidence that both share holders and governments have been ‘short change’ in their dealings. How else was it possible the Banks, not supposed to be in the business of taking risk, were allowed to undertake the corruption rigging of the interest rate market via libor? Banks are a very privilege business, too big to fail too big to be lawful, too important to control for their piratical value, backed by the government that wants the tax revenue. They are in a most favoured position, a position greater than any other business that has been castigated in the past as corrupted public subsidised businesses, yet their role is unscathed wholly backed by the public purse. How was it also possible for the financial markets to also rig the financial cascade leading up to the CC? How was it possible for credit to be incautiously dumped into irresponsible insolvency? Perhaps because it suited the continuance of irrepressible confidence of the west that is fearful of what is developing in the analysis of the hegemony it has enjoyed at the expense of the developing providers?

Those providers of averse munificence do not want to see a collapse in the global financial circus but as indebted nations restructure their financial positions to conceal their debt dependency and limitations, they will shortly be wanting, rightly, take a larger stake in global affairs. So step by ill-considered step, nations of power will of course be imperiously reluctant to give way into a diminished dominate stance as the foundation of their chaff existence slowly drifts away and there is little they can do to even hold onto the husk.

The simile here is probably this:-

The retribution aphorism by Friedrich Freiherr von Logau 1605/55 translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “Though the mills of God grind slowly; Yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience he stands waiting, With exactness grinds he all”.

It seems appropriate that this was credited to an American poet to bring life too, often just shortened to the “Mills of god grind slowly and they grind exceedingly small” however take your pick on which god as there are thousands of them but probable they are all contained in a single incomprehensible anonymous impartial absolutism doing what is eventually done and I don’t know what powers the mills of god but it might be a power not dissimilar to the four horses and they could instead be named hubris, avaricious, deceitfulness and apprehension but they will all grind equally well!

One might as a substitute use: - Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power. Anon.

© Renot

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