Friar Hilarius

The Cost of Capitalism, by Robert J. Barbera

So what precisely are the "benefits" from unbridled criminality?

Meet the Top Ten Creditors to the USA

So the USA is in hock up to its eyeballs and may not get out of its debt for decades or generations?

As an admirer of all things American apart from red-necked religious zealotry (extending to illusory freedom worship) ... I wonder when America is going to get back to innovation, welcoming the poor, scorn of wasteful leisure and savings to re-build wealth

The courage of the young military should be an example to the greedy old capitalists and militarists

This courage should be applied to a new War on Poverty in which American ingenuity is again made available to the World, and trade is re-built in both directions

The old enemy of isolationism is the one enemy which America can no longer afford, however tempting it might appear

Health care and education available freely to all and not just the rich are key ingredients of a healthy, growing and wealthier America

It is time the haves recognised the importance of the have-nots having meaningful work ... which is generated not by mindless consumption of trash .. but production of goods and services which the world actually needs

The sooner dinosaur industries and unions close their door and well educated innovative businesses receive invested cash to flourish the better. In a complex technological world the State can not sit idly buy hoping that mindless consumerism will save the people

Education, research and technology are the way forward

So too is a return to the truly Christian concept of serving others

Red Necks take note ... your selfishness gets you and America nowhere

Friar Hilarius

Relating S&P 500 Price Levels to GDP Growth Rates

My analysis continues to suggest that low per capita GDP countries are starting to catch up with the wealthy nations

Is this something to fear or encourage ?

I would like to see some per capita GDP predictions covering each of the 166 nations for which recent PCGDP is provided in Wikipedia

Personally I have no doubt that the disparity in wealth and productivity between the richest and poorest nations is the biggest single brake on world prosperity

The quality of life of a domestic pet in America is probably far superior to that of the average child in the poorest parts of the world

Until we get such issues in perspective, we have no right to expect prosperity to last or resume

While much of the world drinks polluted water what right have we to any luxuries such as useless computer games?

The world has gone mad and the insane are in charge

Christ is the answer

Blessings and Peace

Friar Hilarius

The Seduction of America

Truth Seeker

You neatly quantify the predators and the victims and others in between

What you are really depicting is the struggle between good and evil, with apathy supporting the latter

How would you set about strengthening the moral fibre of the United States of America

The young men and women who have courageously died in war, and their families, would love to know the answer ... they made the supreme sacrifice and still the criminals rule

With Best Wishes

Friar Hilarius

The Seduction of America

Curious Monkey

If your point of view was wholly correct ... and I am sure you don't really think so ... then why are we in the mess we are in ?

Put simply many professional managers take the credit for those beneath them in the good times and run for cover in the bad times

You speak of creative entrepreneurs as though they never had to cheat or lie or deceive to get a result

Some did ... some maybe didn't

The issue I am pointing to is that creativity has been undermined by criminality as well as false claims to manage well

At no point do I say that every executive is a criminal

Yet with Saint Paul and Saint Augustine I assert that we are all sinners

The struggle between good and evil never ends

With Best Wishes

Friar Hilarius

PS What products do you think the world really needs that are not already in over-supply?

Banks And Consumers Say No to More Debt

Typo correction

Savers will never be rewarded ?

We need to be able to edit our posts

Banks And Consumers Say No to More Debt

There should, of course, have been a question mark after the first sentence

Savers will bever be rewarded ?

Banks And Consumers Say No to More Debt

Savers will never be rewarded

Some house bargains are available in this deflation

Savers will benefit

Friar Hilarius

Banks And Consumers Say No to More Debt

Great Charts
Great Comments
Great Hatred of the Cancer of Credit
Great Recognition that only Savings will Save the USA
Great Productivity will follow future Salvation from Greater Savings
Great Bond Interest Rates coming for Savers
Great Distrust of Equities is needed now
Great Recovery ... when Morality informs Policy
Great Corporate Profits only when Moral Leadership Returns

Friar Hilarius

Five Myths About Business Failure in a Downturn

Well observed

So what is the solution at the Corporate level

How do you reward innovation and punish stagnation?

Some companies have surely found the key to this, but I guess there is an inevitability about high start up growth fuelled by new ideas, followed by consolidation, then maturity and ultimate decline

The idea that companies can last forever implies that their energy will always exceed that of their competitors, and that their products will never be superseded

It may sound like a counsel of despair when I say these things, but actually I agree entirely with the observations made above

In looking for answers there need to be a philosophy of moral intelligence at the highest levels of leadership

The same issues seen in corporations in the article also plague nations at the highest level

Moral leadership at the highest level is all too rare and denial is all too common

Would people like to give some examples of inspired leadership in Corporations and Nations?

Perhaps the business schools should include religion in their courses ... since so far appear to have given morality little attention

For non-believers who assert that those without any faith in God can be moral ... the challenge is there to show that secular morality can match the best that the world religions have to offer

Certainly the article makes a good case about fear of change ... and for those who see change as vital a secure moral foundation (whether secular or non-secular) would appear to add strength to those who are not lost to denial and stagnation in their leadership styles

With Best Wishes

Friar Hilarius

Interpreting Recessionary Crosscurrents

Cetin

Which sectors will recover more than others?

Friar Hilarius
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How Will the U.S. Stress Tests Impact Asia?

If banks fail a stress test they deserve to fail or be merged?

Why in the name of all that is holy does America need so many banks?

When are Americans going to pay their debts by making things that people actually need

Entertainment trash is not a need ... it is an escape

Best Wishes

Friar Hilarius
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The Seduction of America

Thomas J Gordon

I offer you this explanation

Loss of community

We need to return to living in small communities

Large communities are an amoral disaster breeding envy

Friar Hilarius

PS Thomas have you ever considered a monastery? There is more joy in small communities than in large ones ... but you need to pick the right group of friars and nuns

Married monks are OK too if they need a wife ... but that generally means they are only part time monks :)

The Seduction of America

WAKEUP

You are absolutely right ... Americans need to rid themselves of their entitlement psychology

There is no entitlement to an above average standard of living in a Global economy ... and for the knuckleheads ... protectionism is no answer to this issue

I recommend the book "GLOBAILITY ... Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything" by Harold L. Sirkin, James W. Hemerling and Arindam K. Bhattacharya

Did you see the internet site where you can bid online for work ... where Asians were offering to work for $ 4 an hour and unemployed New Yorkers wanted $ 100 an hour?

We are all going to end up working for a global average wage for a given type of work, so you are right about job specific education ... but remember people everywhere will be doing the study so Americans had better keep pace or they will be left behind

By the way ... the world is producing heaps of things that are not really needed ... such as trashy entertainment

I would be interested in seeing what people think the world really NEEDS to produce ... a society seduced by computer games and TV trash is a sick society ... not unlike the decline of the Roman Empire where disaster followed excess luxury and aimlessness

Please send your thoughts on what America and the world really NEEDS to produce to create a healthy economy to :-

[e-mail]

Blessings and Peace

Friar Hilarius

The Seduction of America

Mono

You ask for positive thoughts about the future

Eliminate the credit cancer by paying off ALL debts

Never ever borrow for anything ever again

Live in communes until you can afford a house

Save to buy a car ... and until then buy a bike

Replace cars with public transport

Build safe bike-tracks ... with weather shelters / bus stops

Include bike storage on buses for when the weather turns foul

Live simpler lives

Blessings and Peace

Friar Hilarius