Organic Vs Engineered Economies, Benford’s Law, and Lower GDP Growth Rates in the West Explained

2/4/2011 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

For anyone who read yesterday's Mint, you will be happy to know that we do not recall any of our dreams from last night.  We did, however, send inquiries to members of the Arkansas legislature to see if they could help us interpret our dream about them.  We do not anticipate any response but you never know.  If anyone can help to explain it we figure it would be them.  Please do not ask why we dreamt about the Arkansas Legislature, for we have no answer.

What we can do, however, is to continue to develop our current hypothesis.  As you may recall from yesterday's Mint, it is:

"As a predominantly Engineered (Socialist) economy becomes less Engineered and more Organic (Capitalist), it experiences exponentially increasing rates of economic growth.  Conversely as a predominantly Organic economy becomes more Engineered, it experiences exponentially decreasing rates of economic growth."

We will define economic growth as an increase in capital goods within an economy.  For lack of a better measure, we have looked at year over year GDP growth in the East and the West.  We say for lack of a better measure because in the current insane monetary system where debt is money and money is debt, it is arguable that what is measured as GDP growth is actually the rate at which the economy is cannibalizing itself.  But that is a subject for a different day.

For the sake of simplicity, we further postulate that the Eastern economies (China, Japan, etc.) more closely resemble "Engineered" or state controlled economies and that Western Economies (US, France, etc.) more closely resemble "Organic" or Capitalist economies.  These may not be perfect definitions on a country by country basis but the general distinction between East and West will give us a good starting point in trying to confirm or deny our hypothesis on a country by country basis.  Naturally, the US and China, the world's largest trade relationship, should be our first case study.

East Vs West - Organic Vs Engineered Economies, What is Going on?

2/3/2011 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

We had a strange dream last night, fellow taxpayer.  Like many of our dreams, we do not recall much of the narrative.  We awoke with only short, vivid scene in our minds.  The scene we that recall from last night's slumber was confusing and hilarious, if not terrifying.  What we saw was that the legislature of Arkansas had been dismissed and had been replaced by baby pigs.  They were all lying on their chairs in the chamber and from time to time, none other than Bill Clinton, wearing a smile and overalls, would walk by and pick one up, stroke it on the head, and set it back down on its chair.

What does it mean?  That is the terrifying part.  We have absolutely no idea.  But there it is, in our subconscious, laid bare for all to ponder.  If someone from Arkansas can explain the meaning of this dream, please contact us.

Scanning the news it appears that Hosni Mubarak, after making a mild concession to what up until yesterday was a peaceful protest, will not go without a fight.  We pray that this situation will be resolved peacefully as violence in Egypt could have many repercussions that we cannot even imagine at this point.

Today at The Mint we are working on a hypothesis that may explain certain things, such as why China and Asia have been growing so rapidly recently and the United States and the rest of the Western economies have appeared to stagnate or "under perform" the economies in the East.

A Cry for Freedom in Egypt!

2/2/2011 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

We are watching, along with the rest of the world, the recent events in Egypt with much excitement and anticipation.  What does it mean?  Why, after 30 years of rule and relative calm, has Egypt suddenly exploded, demanding the removal of Hosni Mubarak, their leader of 30 years?

Was it the incessant corruption?  Corruption happens everywhere, with the possible exception of Singapore and Hong Kong.  We are ruling that out.

The flagrant nepotism?  Castro, Bush, Kennedy, Clinton, Cuomo, again, it happens everywhere.

The fact that 40% of the people live below the World Bank's definition of poverty earning less than $2 per day?  We're getting warmer…

The fact that Egypt now consumes all of the oil that it produces?  Warmer…

The fact that the 40% of the Egyptian population mentioned above rely on government subsidies (largely funded by revenue from oil exports) to eat?  Warmer…

The fact that Egypt has to import 60% of its wheat?  Hot!  Really Hot!

Finally! The Polish Give the World a Communist Version of Monopoly!

1/27/2011 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Today we dedicate The Mint to a Pole named Karol Madaj who, with the help of the Polish National Remembrance Institute, has created a board game to teach people how to obtain goods in a Socialist (Communist) society.  According to AP, the game, called "Kolejka" which essentially means line or queue, is to help young Poles understand the hardships of life under communism.

Madaj has given the world an amazing gift, a chance to learn the despair of Socialism (commonly called Communism) without actually having to live through it.  We ask that they send copies to the White House and the US Congress members, along with a copy to every grade school in America, maybe the world.  It is that important. 

The man should win a Nobel Prize!

Kolejka is being loosely compared to Monopoly, a board game based on Capitalism.  The main difference being that, instead of moving around the board, acquiring property and charging or paying rent while dealing with other random events, the players in Kolejka choose a line to stand in to wait to receive what would hopefully be something they needed while trying to avoid standing in lines where inventories would run out before your turn came up, among other things.  From the AP article:

Pondering the State of the Union as the British GDP reading takes a Nosedive

1/26/2011 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Today all the buzz is about the State of the Union address that President Obama delivered last night.  Make no mistake, the President is perhaps the best orator that has ever been elected.  He gave what we considered to be a great speech.  It is ironic that only minutes after it was over there was already an uproar from nearly every corner of the Democratic base.  Environmentalists angered at the energy plan laid out and every parasite in the union complaining about the proposed domestic spending freeze.  Unfortunately, there is little He or anyone else in his administration can do, short of cutting taxes and relieving the people of Governmental regulations, that will help revive the American Economy to levels enjoyed just five short years ago.  The Democratic base will have to accustom itself to compromise or risk sounding like spoiled children.

The problem here in America is debt.  Specifically, there is way too much of it.  There is way too much of it because in the insane monetary experiment in which we live, the only way that "money" (and we use the term loosely) can be created is to create more debt.  There is only one way out of this mess, and that is to change the entire monetary system and make money that is backed by something real, that exists today.  Not an ambiguous claim on somebody else's future production.

If they had asked us to pen a few lines we would have taken full advantage of them.  Why beat around the bush on the issue of the currency?  Obama chose to simply ignore it, as have most Presidents.  But wouldn't it have been something if he had, in his classic Obama style, given it to the American public straight for a change?  Our contribution would have been something along the lines of: