Thursday, October 11, 2012

U of T Lecture Series

A friend of my sent me information on a lecture series at U of T. I have put the information below. All these lectures sound so negative. All those powerful people are out to get us little guys. Lectures are Conspiracy theories galore.

What I think is that the world can be greatly influenced by some flawed people, but I do not think that anyone is out to get me. In any event, we are all flawed in some way. People try to manage the situation that they find themselves in. We are, collectively, the author of our current situation. That is, we Canadians are the author of our debt problems. We are comparatively not badly off compared with the debt problems of other countries.

However, I live in Ontario and we have a huge debt. But, it is our fault. We in Ontario allowed our government to spend and spend and then spend some more without covering what was being spent by our taxes. We Ontarian are the author of our financial problems.

If you think countries do not default on their loans, you have never read history. In fact, there are very few countries which have never defaulted. That is right there very few countries have never defaulted.

I also think that people are too emotional for us to have logical markets. Markets seem to go in cycles. Sometime they cycle up and sometimes down. But have no doubt it is our collective emotions that run markets, like the stock market. The value of the stock portfolio I have invested goes up and down and all over the place. You cannot tell me that the value of my portfolio really changes, but it is caused by all sorts of people making all sorts of bids on stocks depending on how they are currently feeling about the future.

We have debt because politicians asked if we wanted free money and we said yes and send us more, please. So debt was run up for social programs that we did not pay for and cannot pay for. We, by the way, pay for governmental programs with our taxes. If our governments spend more than we are willing to pay in taxes, we get governmental debt. It is rather simple. Same as a family, if they spend more than their income, they also get debt. Governments spent more money than they got in taxes, ergo they ran up debt.

So debt was run up for pensions, medical care, welfare, governmental workers and who knows what else. We are living in an age where one quarter to one third of all workers, work for some government agency. Yes, government can help commerce by building roads and bridges and other infrastructure, but most governmental work is not producing money but just using money or is just moving money around. It is the private sector that produces money.

It turns out that the politicians cannot really give us free money and now we have debt we have to manage somehow. But there are still a lot of people that feel that governmental debt does not count, so we do not need to worry about it and we should run up some more debt.

I, like others, invest based on my view of the world. Personally I have done just fine. I do not think that this lecture series follow the quote given by Sydney White. I think that it does not help you navigate this world if you have an overly negative view of it. (I do not think that you should have an overly positive view either.)

Maybe, just maybe, we should be looking at a quote I remember but cannot find about how we tend to think others would behave as we do in similar circumstances. For example, I would not cheat anyone and by and large I do not expect to be cheated by others. We do not have to be a Pollyanna about it. Let's face it, there are people who would cheat me, but most will not.

I have not been disappointed. The thing is to not get cheated by someone you do no need to distrust everyone, but only people who offer you the impossible. Madoff was classic. He offered 10% return each and every year and no down years? No financial investment is risk free and if anyone says so, it is way, way too good to be true. (All cheats offer something too good to be true, I am just talking finance here, but all cheating has similar characteristics.)

If these lectures are typical of what our children are learning in university, heaven help us all.

List of Lectures:

Analysis of all forms of propaganda; media, religion, healthcare, war and most importantly - those who print the money, print the news.

Monday, October 1st: The Bible myths: What really happened? What really didn't happen? Bible scholars versus Bible thumpers.

Monday, October 8th: Thanksgiving - No lecture.

Monday, October 15th: The "Federal" Reserve theft of our money supply. Illegal interest steals all of our public assets.

Monday, October 22nd: Mind control and the corporate police state; "security", surveillance and the Law of Forfeiture.

Monday, October 29th: Monsanto et al put chemical weapons in the food supply. FDA, Codex and their corporate killer drone armies.

Monday, November 5th: Will there be a new Guy Fawkes? Politicians are selling our water and subsidizing health hazards.

Monday, November 12th: War = Banks & Corporations taking over nations. Our children are the collateral damage. War is peace. Slavery is freedom.

Monday, November 19th: The assassinations of all US Presidents who wanted honest money issued by Congress. "Back and to the left".

"The best thing about owning a mind is that you can change it" - Sydney White

Lecture Series
THE FREE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO - Fall 2012
Sydney White, Investigative Journalist
Mondays from 6pm to 8pm at the
University of Toronto, St. George Campus
Room 1180, The Bahen Centre, 40 St. George Street

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