What to Do Now for Greensboro City Council Candidates

8/4/2019 What to Do Now for Greensboro City Council Candidates

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What To DoNow

?Excerpts from an Eight Hour, CPA CPE Workshop

for Greensboro City Council Candidates

George Hartzman

triadwatch.blogspot.com


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The following is a culmination of more than 13 years of ongoing researchthat has provided a way to discover how to navigate what is, and offers a vehiclefor others to find answers to questions they may or may not have thought of.

Insights have been accumulated while working as a financial advisorand portfolio manager through The Asian Currency Crisis, Y2K, The Dot.com Bubble,9/11, The Financial Crisis of 2008-9, and continue as subsequent geopolitical, military,

economic, fiscal and monetary events occur.

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered.

The point is to discover them.

Galileo Galilei, Censored Astronomer

If most were to comprehend the realities of what may actually be,as opposed to what most currently thinkis,an entirely different set of counterintuitive circumstances could emerge.

Effectiveness through understanding could be exponential,

as long as most continue to not know what they could.

The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicismby those who don't have it.

George Bernard Shaw

Current thoughts: triadwatch.blogspot.com

CPE Fields of Study: Accounting Governmental, Business Ethics,Finance and Economics, Behavioral Ethics, Personal Development,

Social Environment of Business,Regulatory Ethics, Business Management andOrganization, Management Advisory Services, and Economics.Format originally conceivedto conform to financial institution marketing compliance guidelinesto teach CPAs, attorneys and investorseconomics, financial planning, philosophy and business ethics.

Class style: Enigma cocooned in inquirysurrounded by the random chaos of Socratic debate

which is not supposed to be easy.

The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started

and know the place for the first time.

T. S. EliotThe quotes provide context to increase comprehension,with the fewest words in the shortest time.

Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge.

Winston Churchill

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Question what did, is, could, should and shouldnt.

DirectionsBegin. Write down answers, thoughts and additional questions as you go.Book mark and return to what takes too long or confuses.Document interrelations, anecdotes, analogies, metaphors and thoughts.Highlight questions to explore or share with others. End.

The illiterates of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write,

but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

Alvin Toffler

Investigate unknowns. Weigh author and self bias.What you may think I'm thinking,

isn't necessarily what I'm thinking.

George Hartzman

Confirm assumptions. Learn from misconceptions. Contemplate. Debate.Consider what may happen after what could probably happen next.Execute. Examine new information. Begin again.

Why is this thus?

What is the reason for this thusness?

Artemus Ward

To leave readers better off by challenging what and how we think.

Writing style is kind of like poetry, only different.

People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselvesthan by those found by others.

Blaise Pascal, French Mathematician, Philosopher and Physicist, 1623-1662

If the present embodies the past and future,rational analysis maximizes present accomplishment, and chances of success are betterfor those who more accurately prognosticate the farthest into the future,the who and why to find first is you,

before the when and how to achieve what for the longest time with the least risk.

The questions are puzzle pieces designed to initiate debate,encourage independent verification and promote self examination.

If what others think is true may not be what you do, interpretations should differ.

The opinions expressed are those of the author as of the date of the report,and are subject to change without notice. Information has been obtained from sources

believed to be reliable, but accuracy is not guaranteed. The material has been preparedsolely for information purposes. Graphics utilized with permissionor government produced.

~ = about

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When a meeting, or part thereof, is held undertheChatham House Rule,

participants are free to use the information received,

butneither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s),nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.

The rule allows people to speak as individuals and to express views

that may not be those of their organizations, and therefore, encourages free discussion.

Speakers are free to voice their own opinions,

without concern for their personal reputation or their official duties and affiliations.

The Chatham House Rule

Contents

Money 5Political Ethics 16Economics, Debt & Statistics 18

Peak 23Saul Etc 29Think, Need, Want & Happiness 33Think = Chess 35Think Chess & Cognitive Dissonance 37Communication Ethics 39Plan 49Dont 54What to Do Now 55George Hartzman 56

the earth belongs to each of these generations during its course,

fully and in its own right.

The second generation receives it clear

of the debts and incumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on.

For if the first could charge it with a debt,

then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation.

Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid

during the course of its own existence.Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789

Have we betrayed our childrens future,

by indenturing offspring to finance a more pleasant present?

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Governments cannot create but merely redirect.

When the government spends, the money has to come from somewhere.

If the government doesn't have a surplus, then it must come from taxes.

If taxes don't go up, then it must come from increased borrowing.

If lenders won't lend, then it must come from the printing press...

each additional dollar printed

diminishes the value of those already in circulation.

Something cannot be effortlessly created from nothing.

Peter Schiff

MoneyIf a nation prints more money,

like cutting a large pizza into 16 slices instead of 8,is each slice worth less?

What if the pizza shrinks while the number of slices rise?

When national debts have once been accumulated to a certain degree,

[there has never been] a single instance of their having been fairly and completely paid.

The liberation of the public revenue...has always been brought about by bankruptcy,

though frequently by a pretended payment [through inflation].

Adam SmithMoral philosopher and Father of Modern Economics

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If one family has meat and another is growing vegetables,could the meat family accept anI Owe yoUfor some present meat,in exchange for some future vegetables, plus extra to compensate for waiting?

Like borrowing from a bank?

If the Veggie family exchanges future need (not yet ripe vegetables),for present sustenance (meat), is the IOU money and the extra interest?

Like buying groceries with a credit card?If the Meat family exchanges a Veggie IOU for an axe,is the transaction dependent on the IOUs perceived value?

Like the trade-in value of a used car,relative to what the trade-in can be sold for in the future?

Could widespread consensus of an over-abundantly large cropmake the Veggie IOU worth less axe?

Like buying local corn after a extraordinary harvest?

What could happen if the Veggie family issues, or is thought to have issued,more IOUs than planted seeds?We were taught in Economics 101

that countries could not for long sustain large ever-growing trade deficits.

our country has been behaving like an extraordinarily rich family

that possesses an immense farm.

In order to consume more than they produce, that's the trade deficit,we have, day by day been both selling pieces of the farm

and increasing the mortgage on what we still own.

Warren BuffettShould an IOU backed by faith and creditremain relatively stable as long as faith and credit exist?

What does Quantitative Easingmean?

There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one:

the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect;

the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seenand those effects that must be foreseen

the bad economist pursues a small present good

that will be followed by a great evil to come,

while the good economist pursues a great good to come,at the risk of a small present evil.

Frederic Bastiat

Believed the purpose of government is to defend the right of an individual

to life, liberty, and property.

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Why did the Athenians create more money by decreasing gold and silver coin contentduring the Peloponnesian war?

Athenian moneydefined a pattern

which was to repeat in other empires which were to follow,dominance of trade, influx of gold to balance exports, public wealth, liberty,

overconfidence, the discovery of loosely managed moneyas a stimulating solution to stagnation in an economy near its zenith,

before finally the emptiness of the monetary promise was exposed,leading to rapid national collapse.

Paul Tustain

Why did the Roman Empire reduce currency size and silver contentto increase the quantity of money during war against Hannibal?

Beginning in the third century BCE,

Roman expansion transformed the capital of other societiesinto resources for Rome as country after country was conquered

and stripped of movable wealth.

John Michael GreerWhere under the [Roman] Principate the strategy had been

to tax the future to pay for the present,the Dominate paid for the present by undermining the futures ability to pay taxes.

The Empire emerged from the third century crisis,

but at a cost that weakened its ability to meet future crises.

Joseph Tainter

The Collapse of Complex Societies

If some lose their whole fortunes, they will drag many more down with them.

the whole system of credit and financehere at Rome

is inextricably bound up with the revenues of the Asiatic province.

If those revenues are destroyed, our whole system of credit will come down with a

crash.

The national budget must be balanced.

The public debt must be reduced.

The arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled.

Payments to foreign governments must be reducedif the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt.

People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

Marcus Tullius CiceroDoes earn today, spend tomorrow,

conflict with borrow to spend today and hope to earn enough tomorrow,

or that someone else does?

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By the time the great bullion inflow had ended in the mid-seventeenth century,the Spanish crown was deep in debt, with bankruptcies in 1557, 1575 and 1597.

The country entered upon a long decline.

one might draw a moral: Easy money is bad for you.

It representsshort-run gainthat will be paid for in immediate distortions and later regrets.

The Wealth and Poverty of NationsDid Spanish money become worth lessafter the Emperor borrowed against 100 years of future tax revenueto pay for war against England?

Did France execute relatively the same strategywith similar consequences not long after?

The great merit of gold is precisely that it is scarce;that its quantity is limited by nature; that it is costly to discover, to mine,

and to process; and that it cannot be created by political fiat or caprice.Henry Hazlitt

Why did the Continental Congress issue paper moneybacked by anticipated tax revenues to pay for war against theocratic England?

Regardless of the dollar price involved,

one ounce of gold would purchase a good-quality man's suit

at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, the Civil War,the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, and today.

Peter A. Burshre

If Nathaniel Rothschild accumulated gold,essential for supporting an army upon Napoleons return,in anticipation of an extensive military conflictand rapidly increasing government borrowing,and profitably exchanged relatively high priced gold for lower cost debtin anticipation of sovereign debt stability upon Napoleons defeat at Waterloo in 1815,could current circumstances reflect something like the same thing,only opposite?

Now in modern markets, it is striking that exactly the reverseapplies.

Governments all over the world are about to flood the bond marketswith paper to finance their bank bailouts and economic stimulus plans.

governments are about to need to raise the funds to fight another Napoleon.

This massive new supply of bonds [could] depress the price of existing bonds.

Peter Cooper

Seeking Alpha

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...the world produces a cube of gold that is about 4.3 meters (about 14 feet)everyyear.

The total amount of gold, ever produced by mankind,

is estimated to fill only one-third of the Washington Monument.

Tyler Cowen

Why did the Legal Tender Act of 1862 authorize paper money,not exchangeable for gold or silver, to finance the Civil War without raising taxes?

No State shall make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment ofDebts.

Article I, Section 10, Clause 1

In the late 1860s,central European government supported lendersissued debt for municipal, residential and commercial construction.

Amplified tales of profit increased leverage and real estate values,until Britain shifted wheat imports from Central Europe and Russia

to lower priced grain from the American Midwest after 1870,followed by other foods, kerosene and livestock.

US Economic growth stalledafter The Coinage Act of February, 1873 initiated a gold standard

by eliminating silver coin production, consequently deflating American money supplies.

Viennas stock market crashed in May 1873,causing bank to bank lending declines, loss of confidence,financial distress, and higher interest rates.

In September 1873, Jay Cooke & Company,a major component of the United States banking establishment,

found itself unable to market several million dollars in Northern Pacific Railwaybonds.

As Cooke was about to swing a $300 million government loan,reports circulated that his firm's credit had become nearly worthless.

On September 18, the firm declared bankruptcy.

WikipediaAfter speculators built beyond utilization capacity,

indebted American railroad related companies began defaultingand US stock markets crashed in late September 1873 as hundreds of banks closed.

As unemployment rose, business leaders advocated protectionismas elected officials identified and targeted scapegoats,

while the working poor protested, embraced religion, established unions and rioted.

Those with enough capital reserves in the aftermath,

like Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller,

acquired natural resources and bankrupt businesses for substantial discounts.

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With the exhaustless reservoirof the Government of the United States furnishing easy money,

the sales increase, the businesses enlarge, more new enterprises are started,

the spirit of optimism pervades the community.

Everyone is making money, everyone is growing rich.

It goes up and upuntil finally someone whose judgment was bad,someone whose capacity for business was small, breaks,

and as he falls he hits the next brick in the row, and then anotherand down comes the whole structure.

That is what happened to greater or less degree

before the panic of 1837, of 1857, of 1873, of 1893 and of 1907.

Elihu Root

US Senator, Nobel Laureate

If Germanys central bank suspended the rightto redeem gold backed Reichsmarks during World War I,and 170 Reichsmarks bought an ounce of gold in January 1919,why did an ounce of gold cost 87,000,000,000,000 Reichsmarks in November 1923?

Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the 'hidden' confiscation of wealth.

Gold stands in the way of this insidious process.

It stands as a protector of property rights.

Alan Greenspan

What caused the Great Depression?

The excess credit which the Fed pumped into the economy

spilled over into the stock market, triggering a fantastic speculative boom.Belatedly, Federal Reserve officials attempted to sop up the excess reserves

and finally succeeded in braking the boom.

But it was too late, by 1929 the speculative imbalances had become so overwhelming

that the attempt precipitated a sharp retrenchingand a constant demoralizing of business confidence.

Alan Greenspan

Conceded free-market deregulatory ideology was flawed inOctober, 2008

Did global financial system disintegration accelerate in September 1931as news of a breakdown in military discipline triggered capital flight,forcing Britain off the gold standard within five daysafter a mutiny over pay cuts on four battleships

by Royal Navy sailors refusing to leave port?That which has been is that which will be.

And that which has been done is that which will be done.

Solomon

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There is an element in the readjustment of our financial system,more important than currency, more important than gold,

and that is the confidence of the people.

Franklin Delano RooseveltReplaced Herbert Hoover as US President in 1932

after government intervention failed to mitigate The Great Depression

Why did the US government impose a ban on US citizensbuying, selling or owning gold in 1933after redemptions led to a 30% decline in paper money supplies,and why did Viet Nam suspend gold imports in 2008?

When you recall that one of the first moves by Lenin, Mussolini, and Hitlerwas to outlaw individual ownership in gold,

you begin to sense that there may be some connection

between money redeemable in gold and the rare prize known as human liberty.

Congressman Howard Buffett

Warrens Father

Why did the United States use its political, economic and military weightto stabilize international trade after World War II

by negotiating agreements obligating participating countriesnot to print more money than directly backed by gold reserves,and to maintain exchange rates within 1% of gold backed US dollars at $35 an ounce?

Government spending is the ultimate tax on the economy.

Milton Friedman

Economic Nobel Laureate

Why did John F. Kennedy attempt to bypass the Federal Reserve in 1963by authorizing silver backed Treasury Certificates?

If the Coinage Act of 1965 eliminated silver in quarters and dimesas 190,000 US soldiers deployed to Viet Nam, could war be inflationary?

Inflation is one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.

Milton Friedman

Why did the US stop exchanging paper dollars for gold and silver in 1971,after printing more without raising taxesto pay for Vietnam and socialized benefit programs?

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

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The gold standard makes the money's purchasing powerindependentof political parties and pressure groups.

This is not a defect of the gold standard, it is its main excellence.

Ludwig von Mises

Have American legislators and the Federal Reserve

been abusing the dollars status as a reserve currency

to avoid overtly raising domestic taxation

by covertly taxing US dollar denominated assets like oil and food,

by over-printing money?

The decline of great powersis caused by simple economic over extension.

Paul Michael Kennedy

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

If the US utilizes deficit spending and monetary inflation to stimulate economic growth,should inflation rise even faster in countries with currency pegs

who have to print even more money to keep up with the falling value of the US dollar?

Nations are not ruined by one act of violence,but quite often, gradually, and almost imperceptibly

by the depreciation of their currency through excessive quantity.

Nicolas CopernicusDiscovered Earth was not the center of the Universe

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Ponzi finance units must increase outstanding debt

in order to meet financial obligations.

A transition occurs over the course of an expansionas increasingly risky positions are validated by the booming economy

that renders the built in margins of error superfluous,

encouraging adoption of riskier positions.

Eventually, either financing costs rise, or income comes in below expectations,

leading to defaults on payment commitments.

Hyman Minsky

Believed excessive debt causes financial crises

If some consider insanity to be doing the same thing repetitively,expecting different outcomes,and the Federal Reserve contributed to the financial crisis

by creating short term growth at the expense of long term stabilityafter increasing money supplies after 9/11while reducing short term interest rates from 6.5% in 2001 to 1% in 2003,

why would who want to repeat the same strategies after 2008?

By a continuing process of inflation,governments can confiscate secretly and unobservedthe wealth of their citizens.

John Maynard Keynes

Advocate of fiscal and monetary measures to manage economic highs and lows



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If foreign manufacturing and commodity exportersexchange US dollars received for goods with their central banksfor increasing supplies of local currency,and an effect of emerging economies printing too much moneycauses local prices to rise,is there a correlation between the US dollar and inflation in emerging economies,and should the US dollar relatively strengthen

as the quantity of less developed currencies expands faster?Do fiat currencies float or fall in value at different rates?

If foreign central banks hold large amounts of US dollar denominated assetsas the US attempts to inflate, borrow and spend its way out of financial turmoil

while not raising taxes or cutting expenses,how could the citizens of other countries respond to their leaders

who invested reserves falling in value as dollar denominated staples increase in cost?

If theres $50 trillion worth of paper money in all the worlds currencies,

and the US money supply falls as debt is destroyed fasterthan the US government can create money to stabilize the financial system,while emerging market economies create money to buy US dollars from exportersto convert into US currency to purchase dollar denominated importsto pay down debt or buy oil and food,what should the price of gold do in what denominations?

Did the leaders of most emerging economies essentially steal their citizens savings,by lending to developed economies to keep currency exchange and interest rates low,

to encourage more sales of inexpensive manufactured goods?

If the developed world is engaged in widespread fiat money creation

did many emerging economies get stuck with IOUs that are now worth less?

If foreign manufacturing and commodity exportersexchange US dollars received for goods with their central banksfor increasing supplies of local currency,and an effect of emerging economiesprintingtoo much moneycauses local prices to rise,is there a correlation between the US dollar and inflation in emerging economies?

Has hyperinflation ever coincided with falling home prices?

Could the US dollar strengthen if the quantity of other currencies expand faster?

Are taxes rising or falling if workers, savers and investors

are exposed to inflationary capital confiscation?



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...Secrecy, except in very select military matters,is repugnant to the health of a democratic government,

and is almost always a means to conceal a fraud.

Economics will not provide any answers in and of itself.

Economics without an a priori policy and morality,

without a guiding principle like the Constitution,is a heartless monster easily manipulated to say whatever one wishes it to say,

if they are willing to pay enough economists to say it.

Its reputation as a science is greatly exaggerated.

Efficient markets hypothesis is almost as great a hoax

as the benefits of globalization and 'free trade' have beento the American people as a whole.

These things are promoted by the few, at the expense of the gullible many,

for their own personal benefit.

...what greater task can we set ourselves to,

other than justice and freedom for ourselves and children?Jesse's American Caf

What could some unintended consequences beif the European, US, and other central banks intentionally inflate money suppliesto subsidize short term spending, debt and deficits?

Why would some oil exporters become reluctant to accept relatively lower prices

if the US federal government continues to amass unsustainable budget deficits?

We should consider ourselves unauthorized

to saddle posterity with our debts and morally bound to pay them ourselvesEach generation has the right by will of its majority to bind themselves

but none to bind the succeeding generation

Thomas Jefferson

Under a shared common currency, can a Eurozone member like Greece,or an American state like California, inflate out of excessive spending and debt?

If the EU continues to bail out Greece, Ireland and Portugal etccan the Euro retain credibility as commodity prices spike?

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit.

If moderation is a fault then indifference is a crime.

Jack Kerouac

If cut off from credit markets and in danger of default,could some emerging countries inflate currencies to maintain debt and spendingto keep up with US and European printing?

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Political EthicsThe greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance,

it is the illusion of knowledge.

Stephen Hawking

How many voters can afford to give more than $1,000 to political candidates,

and what proportion of the population and contributions do they represent?If it could be better to pay a little bit more than you thoughtthan a lot less than you should, should most be very carefulwhen another who could profit if you buy something says:

Sometimes its better to pay a little bit more than you thoughtthan a lot less than you should?

Did corruption of the political, capitalist and information systemsnegatively influence economic performance and consumer behavior

through legislation, budget appropriation, regulation and taxation,to benefit a few at the expense of many?

Why do most who argue the relatively wealthy pay more taxes than mostas a percentage of income,

exclude Social Security, Medicare and other federal, state and local income, sales,property, toll road, license, permit, communications,

entertainment, fuel, transportation and utility ecttaxes?

What % of income does who really pay?

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always depend on the support of Paul.George Bernard Shaw

Does the advertising industry spend hundreds of billions per year,convincing consumers to borrow and spend money they dont have,to buy a lot of what they dont need?

Competition always tends to bring aboutthe most economical and efficient method of production.

Those who are most successful in this competitionwill acquire more capital to increase their production still further.

Those who are least successful will be forced out of the field.

So capitalist production tends to constantly be drawn in the hands of the most efficient.

Henry Hazlitt

Libertarian philosopher, economist and journalist

At what point do those who promote and/or vote for ever increasing sums

of government backed debt to finance what may not be necessities

bequeath an unsustainable burden

on the future incomes of the communitys young?

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Is random chaos replaced with imposed stability

pushing on a string?

Can special interest groups manipulate consumer behaviorby influencing government with campaign contributions?

If borrowing to pay for tax cuts help an economy in the short run,do unpaid for tax cuts retard growth in the long run?

An imbalance between rich and pooris the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

Plutarch

Should higher interest rates and inflationcorrelated to tax cuts and increased borrowing,eventually reduce tax revenue following short term economic growth?

What would happen to real estate prices if the mortgage deduction were eliminated?

Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top.

Timothy LearyIf sovereign and municipal credit markets tighten,

how could unemployment and business profitability be affected

if Greece, some other relatively weak European countries and some US states

implement severe budget cutbacks and tax increases

to balance budget deficits?

Could deleveraging in developed countriescause some over-indebted customers to import less

from lower wage paying emerging markets?

Is liberty dependent on limits on some to provide minimal rights for others?

Should US companies sheltering taxes off-shorebe eligible for US government contracts?

What of those who outsourced a majority of their labor to foreign workers?

There are two types of problems, mine, and not mine.

Yours is of the latter variety.

UnknownCould many who believe the government

should pledge everyones childrens future income

to prevent the failure of insolvent businesses

be indirectly advocating a political system other than capitalistic democracy?

Would you invest in a company whose business you disapprove,if there was a good chance of doubling your money?

Should Americans use food crops for bio-fuel, if scarcity increases?

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At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.

...every creditor shall release that which he hath lent unto his neighbor...

Deuteronomy 15

Could some who follow accounting dissimilaritiestake advantage of relative unawareness, prior to collective realization?

Could some CPAs do what they dont want to get what they think they need?

Markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.

John Maynard Keynes

Economics, Debt & Statistics

Can some promoting erroneous conceptsbelieve self-created illusions?

Sometimes I wonder

whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on,

or by imbeciles who really mean it.Mark Twain

If more money was withdrawn than invested in US equity products during 2009,coincident with record new and secondary stock offerings, amid the least amount ofcorporate stock buybacks and the most insider selling in recent history, where did theassets needed to recover trillions of US financial market capitalization and borrowings

by the US Treasury come from?We cannot identify the source of the new money

that pushed stock prices up so far so fast,"

[TrimTabs Investment Research CEO] Charles Biderman said

The source of approximately $600 billion net new cashnecessary to lift the market's overall capitalization by $6 trillion last year,

could not be identified by TrimTabs

The money, he said, didn't come from traditional players

Nick Godt

MarketWatch, January 5, 2010

If 5.5% unemployment in 2004 would have been reported as ~12.5% in 1980,

why did some want to change reported unemployment,and why would some not want to disclose comparative disparities?

If $1,000 invested in stocks made ~$7,910 between 1984 and 2002,but the average investor only made about $660,

can some things not matter until they do, even it they do while most think they dont?

Should investment propaganda touting 10.01% returns by staying invested,and average annual 1.6% returns when missing the 40 best days,

include the 20.69% gains when missing the worst 40 days?

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(a) A CPA shall not engage in conduct discreditable to the accounting profession.

(b) Prohibited Discreditable Conduct.

Discreditable conduct includes but is not limited to:

(1) acts that reflect adversely on the CPA's honesty, integrity, trustworthiness,

good moral character, or fitness as a CPA in other respects;

Was March 2008 inflation, which may have been reported as 7.3% before 1998,

and 11.6% before 1983, reported to be 4%?(2) stating or implyingan ability to improperly influence a governmental agency or official;

Why do many believe corporate control of political institutionsand mainstream information dissemination channels

negatively influence free market capitalism and economic performancethrough legislation, budget appropriation, regulation and taxation loopholes

to benefit a few at the expense of many?

(3) failing to comply with any order issued by the Board;or (4) failing to fulfill the terms of a peer review engagement contract.

21 ncac 08n .0203 DISCREDITABLE CONDUCT PROHIBITED

Is accounting an art, a science, or a language?

The reliance of the public and the business community on sound financial reporting

and advice on business affairs imposes on the accounting profession

an obligation to maintain high standards of technical competence,morality, and integrity.

If very few US corporations pay a 35% tax rateand 25% of companies with annual sales of at least $50,000,000

paid no federal income taxes in 2005why do many who argue for corporate tax cuts cite 35% corporate tax rates?

To this end, a CPA shall at all times maintain independence of thought and action,

hold the affairs of clients in strict confidence,

strive continuously to improve professional skills,observe generally accepted accounting principles and standards,

promote sound and informative financial reporting,uphold the dignity and honor of the accounting profession,

and maintain high standards of personal conduct.

21 NCAC 08N .0201 INTEGRITY

Have you ever done something legal that you thought was wrong?

Would a Messiah consider state controlled and promoted lotteries a tax on the poor?

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If there a correlation between homebuilding, profitability, employment and recessions,why have financial markets recovered while the real estate market didnt?

Is long term unemployment falling because there are more jobs,or are many losing long term unemployment benefits?

If the US population was ~230 million in 1982 and ~311 million in 2011,and New Housing Permits fell and Unemployment rose more,

could current economic circumstances be relatively worse than they look?

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Credit levels will need to double over the next 10 years, growing by $103 trillion

to support consensus-projected economic growth.

2011 World Economic Forum

Who is expected to supply how much money from wherefor state, municipal, equity, real estate and corporate investments,if the world needs to borrow more than $10 trillion per year over the next decade?

government borrowing so lightly, encourages the government to spend freely

and to promote more and more governmental activities.

the result will be more and more restricted,

and that ultimately the totalitarian state may emerge.

Fred Rogers Fairchild

If economic growth is dependent on liquidity supplied by new and existing investorsand rising financial markets, what should happen if incoming investment slowsand lack of liquidity creates a confidence crisis?

There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom

brought on by credit expansion.

The question is only whether the crisis should come sooner

as a result of abandonment of credit expansion,

or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.

Ludwig von Mises

Should there be more or less crime and/or social unrest

in the next 12 to 24 months?

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How many American citizensare aware of their countrys actual financial condition?

Blessed are the young,

for they shall inherit the national debt.

Herbert Hoover

IfThe2007 Citizen's Guide to the Financial Report of the US Government,

said the Government is on an unsustainable fiscal path,before the 2008 financial crisis, what about now?

Debt is the fatal disease of republics,

the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people.

Wendell Phillips

Debts are fun when you are acquiring them,but none are fun when you set about retiring them.

Ogden Nash

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Did increasing supplies of money, fossil fuel and foodcontribute to Earths human population risingfrom 1.6 billion at the beginning of the 20th century,to more than 6.8 billion in a little more than 100 years?

Peak

The economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment,not the other way around.

Gaylord Nelson

If Gazelles need water and grass, and Cheetahs need water and Gazelles,and an abundance of sustenance leads to more Gazelles,should more Gazelles and water lead to more Cheetahs?

If too many Gazelles relative to water and grass lead to fewer Gazelles,do fewer Gazelles = fewer Cheetahs?

Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio.Subsistence only increases in an arithmetical ratio.

Thomas Robert Malthus

Suggested populations could increase faster than food supplies

Why have so many people shown up in the last 250 years?

10,000 BC 1,000,0008000 BC 5,000,000 x5 in 2,000 years6000 BC 10,000,000 x2

4000 BC 20,000,000 x2 +10,000,000 in 2000 years2000 BC 35,000,000 x1.51 200,000,000x5.71750 791,000,000x3.95 in 1750 years1900 1,650,000,0002000 6,070,581,000 x30.35 in 2000 years2005 6,453,628,000 +383,047,000 in 5 years2008 6,700,000,000 x33.5 in 2008 years6/16/2011 6,925,250,913 +854,669,913 in 11 years

Why did hunting, agriculture, herding and migration developonly after too many began competing for declining food supplies?

If water was money and grass was creditand Cheetahs and Gazelles were people, who would be who?

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent,

but the one most responsive to change.

Charles Darwin

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A long view of human history reveals not regular changebut spasmodic, catastrophic disruptions

followed by long periods of reinvention and development.

there are long periods of ruinous reversal,followed by slow recovery and the restoration of lost potential.

Buzz Holling

Are we consuming more than Earths ecosystem can replenish?

Why is food production slowing down?

...recent data from FAO shows a pretty rapid slowdown in productivity growth.

The price spike in 2008 occurred in a particularly bad yearin which yields declined on a worldwide basis

In 2009, all four of the majors saw yield declines,something that hasn't happened since 1974.

2010 couldn't have been much better and was probably worse,given how bad things were in the U.S, the world's largest producer and exporter(worldwide data for 2010 isn't available yet).

The yield slowdown comes at a particularly unfortunate time,

with accelerating demand from emerging economies like China

...we need productivity growth to accelerate considerably

to keep up with projected demand growth.

FAO says we need 70 percent higher yields by 2050.

...Maybe it's just bad luck with the weather.

But I thinkit just may be a longer run phenomenon.

Michael RobertsDepartment of Agricultural & Resource Economics

North Carolina State University

Is there a correlation between global temperature, populationand fossil fuel consumptionrising three times as fast in the last 30 years than the preceding 70?

If every new beginning is another beginnings end, wheres the middle?

Think of the Earth as a living organismbeing attacked by billions of bacteria,

whose numbers double every forty years.

Gore Vidal

If arable land, fresh water, irrigation, genetically modified seedmodern equipment, pesticides and fertilizersconvert fossil fuel into enough food to keep pace with population growth,is the populace dependent on ever increasing supplies of finite resources?

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If resource consumption, food production, population, money supply and temperature,all rose faster in the last 50 years than the preceding 5,000,are we consuming more than replenishing?

Would Earths natural resources last twice as longif there were half as many people?

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

Ralph Waldo EmersonIf mold continues to multiply after eating half a piece of cheese,what happens when demand exceeds supply?

If were the mold and Earth is the cheese, how many need and/or want how much,where is half way, whos got whats left, who gets cut off when,

who will compete with who for whats left, and how is who most likely to win?

The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency,

the second is war.

Ernest HemingwayCan mold collectively prevent the procreation of a larger generationthat cant be fed by the remaining cheese?

Are there correlations between currency, debt, natural resources, peace and war?

All who surrender will be spared,

whoever does not surrender but opposes with struggle and dissensionshall be annihilated.

Genghis Khan

If ~20% of the worlds population uses about 80% of global energy production,do most with less want more?

If theres only so much oil and unlimited currency production capacity,could energy demand exceeding supply ignite inflation?

Without petroleum, we will not be able to feed the global population.

Robert L HickersonIf 2008 was the first year

the billions of people in China, India, Russia and the Middle Eastconsumed more oil than the millions in the US,

what should happen when cheese demand exceeds supply?

Why did Japan bomb Pearl Harbor?

War is cruelty. The crueler it is the sooner it's over.

General William Tecumseh ShermanEmployed "scorched earth" tactics against the Confederacy

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Why did Hitler invade Russia?

Why was Mohammad Mosaddeq overthrown in Iran?

By some estimates there will be an average of 2% annual growth in global oil demandover the years ahead,

along with conservatively a 3% natural decline in production from existing reserves.

Richard Bruce Cheney

Why did America liberate Iraq?

Why do survivors survive?

I don't have a clue of what weapons will be used in World War III,

but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

Albert Einstein

What could happen if international financial transactionsbecome denominated in assets other than US dollars,and Federal Reserve Note supplies exceed demand?

Are there times when compromise isnt appropriate?

If one day the world's largest oil producers demanded Euros for their barrels,

it would be the financial equivalent of a nuclear strike.

Bill O'Grady

If technological civilizationadvanced more in the last 10,000 years than the previous 1,000,000,the last 1,000 than the preceding 10,000,and the last 100 than the prior 1,000 and the last 10 compared to the last 100,

what could happen if many come to believe Earths population is unsustainable?

I don't care if I follow your rules, if you can cheat, so can I.

I won't let you beat me unfairly, I'll beat you unfairly first.

Ender Wiggin

Fictional Military StrategistWhat do you doif you possess a brief case that may contain either $0 or $1,000,000,and are offered $200,000 for the case?

What if the majority of a civilization collectively chose the case and lost,but dont know?

We can ignore reality,but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.

Ayn Rand

Should you do what you need to whether you like it or not,sooner than later?

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It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human raceproved to be nothing more than the story of an ape

playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump.

David Ormsby GoreIf US mainland oil discovery peaked in the 1930s,leading to a production peak in the early 1970s,and world discovery peaked in the 1960s, when should global oil production peak?

If a country needs more oil and food,will they print more money and/or act with force to get more?

Men and nations behave wisely

once they have exhausted all the other alternatives.

Abba EbanIf a slowing economyforces Americans to increase the use of mass transit and car poolingshould auto sales suffer?

How about home sales in distant suburbs?

Why would oil producers want to inflame geopolitical tensionswhen oil prices fall?

history shows that most human civilizations

over-extend the growth phase of their adaptive cycle,so they eventually suffer deep collapse.

Thomas F. Homer-Dixon

If youre going to grow stuff in your yardshould some of it be edible?

If the supply of arable land fellfrom more than 1 acre of cropland per person in the 1960s

to about 1/2 an acre now?

Our lifetime may be the last that will be lived outin a technological society.

Isaac Asimov

Could food production fall

if tightened and more expensive credit limits the ability of food producersto finance machinery, energy, seed, water and fertilizer?

If high energy prices and unavailable credit destroy demand,could costs fall and production plateau or decline for longer than some think?

The world consumes two barrels of oil for every barrel discovered.

is this something you should be worried about?

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If the second law of thermodynamicsmeans concentrated pockets of energy in isolated systems, like Eartheven out over time,where and what on Earth is more or less concentrated, and how fast is what evening out?

the supply-demand fundamentals seem consistent with the view

that the days of persistently cheap oil and natural gasare likely behind us.

Ben BernankeWhy were the worst recessions since WWIIcorrelated to higher energy prices?

If energy prices spiked in October 1973after OPEC declared an oil embargo against countries supporting Israel

and in 1979 after the Iranian Revolutionwhy did oil prices rise and fall in 2008 without major supply disruptions?

Ill tell you what war is all about.

Youve got to kill people,and when youve killed enough, they stop fighting.

General Curtis LeMay

What happens when linear food productioncant keep pace with exponential population growth?

If more money and energy equals more food, and more food equals more people,will less fossil fuel lead to less food and?

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Can the consumption of what you need eliminate anothers?

Is violence the last refuge of the incompetent?

Change means movement. Movement means friction.

Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world

can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.

Saul EtcDid social disturbances, protests and civil unrest follow food price increases

before Chinas Tiananmen Square protests?

Do what you can with what you haveand clothe it with moral garments.

If money and energy equals sustenance,what could happen to Chinas ability to feed its people if it cant increase employment?

What could the average American in 2111think of the consumption habits of the average American in 2011?

Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns

to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed.

He who fears corruption fears life.

What could happen if many without food, water or energywant the few who have to share?

What could happen if theres enough food but many cant afford it,

or some relatively unstable governments cant provide it?

Only seven meals separate civilization from potential anarchy.

Josette Sheeran, UN World Food Program

A racially integrated community is a chronological termtimed from the entrance of the first black family to the exit of the last white family.

How do many battle a fewwho cant be assaulted with force?

The means-and-ends moralists, constantly obsessed with the ethics of the meansused by the Have-Nots against the Haves,

should search themselves as to their real political position.

In fact, they are passive but real allies of the Haves.

The most unethical of all means is the non-use of any means...

judgment must be rooted in the whys and wherefores of life as it is lived,

the world as it is,not our wished-for fantasy of the world as it should be....

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Could some have to do what they dont wantto get what they need?

Success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics.

Power is not only what you have,

but what the enemy thinks you have.

Is population proportional to need supplies?

Tactics mean doing what you can with what you have.

Once you accept your own death, all of a sudden you're free to live.

You no longer care about your reputation.

You no longer careexcept so far as your life can be used tactically to promote a cause you believe in.

If food riots and societal unrest precipitated economic turmoil in 2007-8,why hasnt the fall of autocracy in Tunisia, mass protests in Egypt, Yemen, Algeria,

Jordan, Mauritania over high unemployment and rising sustenance costsadversely effected financial markets in 2011? (written before August, 2011)

Can the definition of civilized change?

What we are witnessing is the collapse of the Arab state.

Wherever we look across the Arab world we see wars.

We see civil wars; wars among ethnicities; wars among sects;and wars among authorities, sects, ethnicities and the poor.

it looks as if we are going to witness for years and maybe decades to come

a great deal of devastation, destruction and killing.

Alfadel ChalakSafir, Lebanese News Paper

If ~10% of Americas, about 30% of Chinas,and more than 60% of sub-Saharan Africas income is spent on food,where would social disharmonies begin when sustenance prices increase?

Did shortages of arable land and foodcoincide with many Rwandan Hutus eliminating many Tutsis?

You're captives of a civilizational systemthat more or less compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live.

Daniel QuinnPostulated correlations between population growth

and natural resource consumption

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If some emerging market autocratic economies fall like dominoes,with former dictators and cronies transferring gold etc away from instability,while large, relatively younger populations descend into more chaotic times,why hasnt the credibility of emerging market currencies and debt declined more?

Does food price inflation cause social instability?

We must remember that the Russian Revolution of 1917

that ended with the Bolsheviks taking control of St. Petersburgbegan with an uprising in 1905

when hungry peasants came peacefully to see their Czar to ask for food

only to be met by Cossack bullets and the death of several hundred

Dennis GartmanIf need is sustenance and a temperate climate,should you not do what you dont want done to you unless you need to?

Do some who want many to believe the causes of high gas pricesare other than the actual reasons gas prices are so high?

The first step in community organization is community disorganization.

The disruption of the present organization

is the first step toward community organization.

Present arrangements must be disorganized if they are to be displaced by new patterns.

All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new.

If Gandhi didnt oppose the use of force in Kashmir after Indias independencewould he have advocated violent resistance against British occupation

if he had had an arsenal and a trained army?What could some consequences be for some emerging marketswho became over-dependent on profligate US consumption?

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you,

then they fight you, then you win.

Mohandas K. Gandhi

Would you rather have an enemy you knowor dont?

If the US doesnt like Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuelawhy do we like Saudi Arabia, China, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain?

The major premise for tactics is the development of operations

that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.

It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition

that are essential for the success of the campaign.

Change comes from power, and power comes from organization.

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Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.

It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule.

Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.

Should American political and economic leadershipbe held accountable for what their conduct has wroughtthat our warriors fight and die to protect?

Did America build up military power as it strengthened economic powerwhile its industrial base moved overseas to use near slave-labor

paid for with printed money?

...stir up dissatisfaction and discontent

...create a mechanism that can drain off the underlying guilt

for having accepted the previous situation for so long a time.

If hiring illegal aliens increases business profitability at the expense of legal workershave low skilled immigrant workers lowered poorly educated Americans income?

The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.

Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions,

and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.

Do most climate scientists think global warmingis caused by human actions?

The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

We must believe that it is the darkest before the dawn of a beautiful new world.We will see it when we believe it.

A conventional army loses if it does not win.

The guerrilla wins if it does not lose.

Henry KissingerMake the enemy live up to its own book of rules.

Stop quoting laws to us.

We carry swords.

Gnaeus Pompeius MagnusMoral rationalization is indispensable at all times of action,whether to justify the selection or the use of ends or means.

All effective actions require the passport of morality.

Virtue is persecuted more by the wicked than it is loved by the good.

Buddha

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Think, Need, Want & HappinessI doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am.

Ren Descartes

You were who you think you were.

You are what you think you are.

If some of what will, can, cant or wont change,you may or may not be who you think youll be.

You may not know some of what you think you know.

Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.

Frank Leahy

Some of what you know, you dont know you know.

What you dont know you dont know is more than you think.

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorantI could hardly stand to have the old man around.

But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.

Mark Twain

If what you think effects what you do,which effects what you and others think afterwards,and what others do effects what you think, which effects etc,think before do should get farther faster with less risk, than do before think.

What others think was, is and may, might not be what you do.A great many people think they are thinking

when they are really rearranging their prejudices.

Edward R. Murrow

If thought is both logical and emotional, what you do is too.

You didnt, dont or will think everything you could, should or shouldnt.

Of what you think did, didnt or is, some are more likely than others.

If some falsely told they were to receive more pain than they actually diddescribed more than administered,and others given more pain than led to expect thought it was less,can some of what you believe to be true, be true to you, until you think otherwise?

Youll benefit from contributed causes, or be deterred by imposed effects.

If not thinking isnt,and its not about what couldve been or what may someday,

is it about what you think and do now?

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If life needs sustenance and a temperate climate, is want everything else?

Is attachment suffering?

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill, keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt,

chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench,

care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner.

Tao Te Ching

Are you as happy as you think?

Does what you think determine how you feel?

We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine.

La Rochefoucauld

If positive thought outperforms negative,can faith in open doors be better than fearing them closed?

Is feeling 44 years young better than 44 years old?

If you want to be happy,

be.

Leo Tolstoy

Are those who fail as unhappy as feared?

Are those who achieve as happy as expected?

Lives based on havingare less free than lives based either on doing or on being.

William JamesCould living for the moment

be the only way to live happily ever after?

Do you already have everything you want if you choose to think so?

A man never feels the want

of what it never occurs to him to ask for.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Can want be eliminating unneeded?

If non-material want can provide a high quality of life,while material want doesnt necessarily create happiness,

is it better to be miserable with a high standard of living than unhappy and poor?

People who have what they want

are fond of telling people who haven't what they want,that they really don't want it.

Ogden Nash

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Think = ChessA metaphor.

If there are 9,183,421,888 ways to play the first nine moves,9,417,681 the first six, 72,078 the first four, 5,362 the first three,

and 20 to play the first, are early moves more important than later?

Life is a kind of chess in which we have often points to gain,

competitors or adversaries to contend with,and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events

By playing at chesswe may learn foresight, circumspection and caution.

Benjamin Franklin

The more captured opposing pieces the less risk, and vice versa.

Does the player who doesnt make the last mistake usually win?

After the game, the king and pawn go into the same box.

Italian proverbIs chess non-violent war?

Do some football running backs fake left and go rightto intentionally mislead the defense

into committing energy and mass in the wrong direction?

All warfare is based on deception.

when able to attack we must seem unable,

when using our forces we must seem inactive,

when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far,when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

Sun Tzu

If nothing doesnt change, you cant start over.

If an opponents position can be used against themand the pinnacle of vulnerability is the moment of assault,

should attack commence from defended positions?

If your attack is going too well, you have walked into an ambush.

Infantry JournalIf life is a room of open doors leading to other open doors,do what you and/or others do or dontdetermine what doors stay open or lock you in or out?

There may be less risk and greater returnin learning from other peoples experience, before having to learn from your own.

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Whoever has his foe at his mercy and does not kill him is his own enemy.

Shaikh Sadi Shirazi

What do you do in a battle in which you die if you dont fight or lose?

Are chances betterfor players who more accurately calculate probabilities the farthest into the future?

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.Napoleon Bonaparte

If every move is followed by a counter move,and every cause, action or winner has an effect, reaction or loser,can one bad move erase a hundred good, and one good one win?

If the worst players identity is unknown,could it be you?

People do not like to think.

If one thinks, one must reach conclusions.

Conclusions are not always pleasant.

Helen Keller

Should strategy be mercilessif a pawn can become a queen, weakness can become and overcome strength,and defense is offense?

What do you do with your bayonetafter you and your opponent shoot the last bullets and miss at 3 yards?

Rejoice not at your enemy's fall, but don't pick him up either.

Yiddish proverb

Should you do to others what you would want them to do to you,unless you need not to?

If it can be good to find what not to think, unless youre wrong,and an offensive move doesnt look advantageous,

should defenses be reinforced instead?

My opinions will never change, no matter what the facts are.

Steven Colbert

Does increasing risk when odds are goodlower subsequent risk?

Most of the time, is thinking youre better than you arebetter than thinking youre worse?

Who is the rich person?

The one who is happy with what he has.

Jewish proverb

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All animals are equal,but some animals are more equal than others.

George Orwell

Known and unknown,you were, are and will be pieces of varying value in an infinite number of games.

You may or may not be playing the games you think.

The chess board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe,the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature,

the player on the other side is hidden from us.

Thomas Huxley

Are the only two certainties that there are at least two players,you and everything thats not?

Think Chess & Cognitive Dissonance

The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearanceas though they were realities,

and are often more influenced by the things that seem than those that are.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Is whats happening, happening or what you tell yourself is happening?

When you recall, are you remembering,or are you remembering the last memory of a recollection?

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.Socrates

Is yesterday a certainty, if the past is dependent on the present?

Is what you used to look like what you see in a mirror?

Things are not what they appear to be, nor are they otherwise.

Buddha

Is the present a place youve never been?

Is present experience relative to the pastor memories of the past?

We are never deceived; we but deceive ourselves.

Johann Wolfgang von GoetheIs what you rememberusually better or worse than what actually happened?

Is thinking rehearsing?

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Can what you think may be turn out more like what you thought,even if it doesnt?

Do some things look better from farther away than up close?

What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists?

In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.

Woody Allen

Can observation alter the observed?

What if what you think isnt?That which is one is one.

That which is not one is also one.

Chaing Tzu

If nothing doesnt change,is remaining stationary optional?

If you cant necessarily control your pieces,can you be obliged to move and/or sacrifice when you dont want to?

Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed,

whatever follies I have witnessed,have been the consequence of action without thought.

Bernard BaruchAmerican financier, and presidential advisor

If players dont necessarily follow the same rules

which can change without everyone knowing,should you break rules if your opponent does?

If big print can give what fine print takes,

can winning the wrong game lose the right one?

Everybody sooner or later sits down to a banquet of consequences.

Robert Louis Stevenson

If opponents dont begin with pieces of the same number and value,and players can think theyre winning when losing,

can influencing others thoughts enhance results, and vice versa?

If an opponent thinks you have more influence and power,do you?

An imaginary ailment is worse than a disease.

Yiddish proverb

The more competitors there arethe harder it is to win.

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Has everything happened the way you think?

You are so intent that you believe only what you believe that you believe,

that you remain utterly blind to what you really believewithout believing that you believe it.

Orson Scott Card

Would you rather be happy or know?

Communication Ethics

You take the blue pill, the story ends,

you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.

You take the red pill,

you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

Morpheus, The Matrix

If there were thousands of relatively independent media companies in the mid 1900s,~50 by the 1980s, and less than 10 after 2000,mostly owned by conglomerates with conflicting interestsdependent on legislative initiatives for regulatory concernsand advertisers and political campaigns for profit,is most mainstream information relatively more objective or less?

Power in Americais control of the means of communication.

Theodore White

Political Journalist

Did the founding fathers want the communications industryto keep an eye on the government for the peopleor an eye on the people for the government?

Were white northern college students enlisted for voter registration drives,only after murders of black civil rights volunteers

went relatively unreported by law enforcement and news organizations?

Without an informed and free press, there cannot be an enlightened people.

Justice Potter Stewart

Is an independent press essential to capitalistic democracy?

Why is journalism the only professionexplicitly protected by the US Constitution?

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapersor newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the

latter.

Information is the currency of democracy.

Thomas Jefferson

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The world is ruledonly by consideration of advantages.

Friedrich von Schiller

Is what you think others think what theyre thinking,or what they and/or some others want you to think theyre thinking?

Are the less informed easier to persuade than the more?

Freedom of the pressis guaranteed only to those who own one.

A J Liebling

Can some believe what isn't,or refuse to believe what is?

Are you certain

youve not been conditioned to think certain thoughts?

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy,

it dsenot mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are,the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef,but the wrod as a wlohe.

Should news outlets intentionally misrepresent truthin the interests of national security?

Do the few who control dissemination of most financial and political information,enjoy relatively disproportionate levels of influence than the many who dont?

The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war,the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture,

and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation.

These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy.

They are deliberate exercises in doublethink.

George Orwell

Can business and/or political interests negatively affect investigative journalism,

by sheltering some from inhospitable exposurewhile simultaneously disparaging opponents?

Why would the news industrywant elections to appear to be closer than they are?

The partisan, when engaged in a dispute,cares nothing about the rights of the question,

but is anxious only to convince his hearers of his own assertions.

Plato

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You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Exodus 20:13(a) A CPA shall not engage in deceptive conduct.

Deception includes fraud or misrepresentation and representations or omissions

which a CPA either knows or should know have a capacity or tendency to deceive.

Dont say youre going to do something and not do it.

Deceptive conduct is prohibited whether or not anyone has been actually deceived.

(b) Prohibited Deception. Prohibited conduct under this Sectionincludes but is not limited to deception in:

(1) obtaining or maintaining employment;

(2) obtaining or keeping clients;

(3) obtaining or maintaining certification, retired status,or exemption from peer review;

(4) reporting CPE credits;

Dont lie, say more than do, boast, obfuscate, or say you can if you cant.

(5) certifying the character or experience of exam or certificate applicants;

(6 ) implying abilities not supported by education, professional attainments,

or licensing recognition;

(7) asserting that services or products sold in connection with use of the CPA title

are of a particular quality or standard when they are not;

(8) creating false or unjustified expectations of favorable results;

If some financial estimates and hypothetical illustrationsassume perpetual levels of varying data,

can proprietary valuation measures for financial statements be manipulated?

(9) using or permitting another to use the CPA title in a form of business

not permitted by the accountancy laws or rules;

(10) permitting anyone not certified in this state

(including one licensed in another state) to unlawfully use the CPA title in this stateor to unlawfully operate as a CPA firm in this state; or

You shall not raise a false report

Exodus 23:1

(11 ) falsifying a review, report, or any required program or checklistof any peer review program.

21 ncac 08n .0202 DECEPTIVE CONDUCT PROHIBITED

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.

Thomas Pynchon

Do some think many know more than they ought to?

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

Aldous Huxley

Is the delivery of consumers to merchants

the objective of for-profit television?

Should news stories conceal correlationsto advertiser or parent company profit?

Does freedom of the pressinclude what advertisers and/or powerful political interests object to?

Why would some mainstream media personalities criticize policy positions of some,while receiving undisclosed and/or indirect compensation from othersinterested in non-attributed dissention?

Is it more profitable for news outletsto report inexpensive solutions to common problems,

or relatively expensive answers espoused by advertisers?

It is difficult to get a man to understand something

when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

Upton Sinclair

If a few multinational corporationsown an overwhelming majority of newspapers, magazines, news channels,

radio stations, book publishers and business information sources,what are the chances of an investigative journalist

publishing a negative story on a sister subsidiary,or on a subsidiary of another company that could retaliate in kind?

Should some financial pundits who dont,disclose relevant conflicts of interest?

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,

but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public...

I have never known much good done by those who affected to tradefor the public good.

Adam Smith

any economist will tell you that when the free market fails

a black market emerges.

The blogs are the black market of information.

David B. CollumCornell

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Statements by high officials are practically always misleading,when they are designed to bolster a falling market.

Gerald M. Loeb

Why are rising financial markets in the best interests of whomand/or of the business information industry?

If mass media companies know how much capital political candidates raise,

could profits be enhanced by targeting news coverageto influence campaign advertising money flows?

The beauty of the democratic systems of thought control

as contrasted with their clumsy totalitarian counterparts,is that they operate by subtly establishing on a voluntary basis,

aided by the force of nationalism and media control by substantial interests,

presuppositions that set the limits of debaterather than by imposing beliefs with a bludgeon.

Then let the debate rage,

the more lively and vigorous it is, the better the propaganda system is servedThose who do not accept the fundamental principles of state propaganda,

are simply excluded from the debate.(or if noticed, dismissed as "emotional," "irresponsible," etc)

Noam Chomsky

Should mass media companies and/or regulatory authoritiespublicly report political advertising revenue,relative to proportionality of campaign coverage?

Lying by omission

One lies by omission by omitting an important fact,

deliberately leaving another person with a misconception.

Lying by omission includes failures to correct pre-existing misconceptions.

Propaganda is an example of lying by omission.

Wikipedia

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice;

nothing is safe that does not show it can bear discussion and publicity.

Lord Acton

If you choose not to know something,especially if that something is something you should know,

you are morally blameworthy.

Robert P. LawryDirector of the Center for Professional Ethics

Are the most convincing lies mostly true?

It's not a lie if you believe it.

George Costanza

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Whats the most courageous thing youve ever done?

(a) Nondisclosure.A CPA shall not disclose any confidential informationobtained in the course of employment or a professional engagement

except with the consent of the employer or client.

(b) Exceptions. This Rule shall not be construed:

(2) to affect in any way the CPA's compliance with a validly issued subpoena

or summons enforceable by this Board or by order of a court; or(3) to preclude the CPA from responding to any inquirymade by the AICPA Ethics Division or Trial Board,

by a duly constituted investigative or disciplinary body of a state CPA society,

or under state statutes; or

(4) to preclude the disclosure of confidential client information

necessary for the peer review process or for any quality review program; or

(5) to preclude the CPA from assisting the Board

in enforcing the accountancy statutes and rules; or

(6) to affect a CPA's disclosure of confidential information

to state or federal authorities when the CPA concludes in good faithbased upon professional judgment that a crime is being or is likely to be committed;

or

(7) to affect a CPA's disclosure of confidential information when such disclosure is

required by state or federal laws or regulations.

21 ncac 08n .0205 CONFIDENTIALITY

Have you ever traded in a car

and didnt tell the dealership what was wrong with it?

If short term taxpayer subsidies and lax accounting rules boost economic growth,what could some long term unintended consequences be?

Should accounting rule adjustments designed to fix large, complex predicaments,rely on many who created and profited from the initial problems,who may not have wanted to identify and confront themwhen they were small, relatively unknown and lucrative?

Can law and morality unreasonably rationalize the status quo?

Can some promoting erroneous concepts believe self-created illusions?

Could some unpunished and unfixed unethical accounting practicesrewarded with government bailouts

provide incentives for excessive risk taking after financial markets stabilize?

Should some accounting ethics rules have an expiration date?

What scares you the most about the future of your profession?

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If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed.

If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.

Mark Twain

Can repetition create truth?All that was needed

was an unending series of victories over your own memory.

George OrwellCan thought be controlled by repeating positive messages,while underreporting negative,and vice versa?

Men think in herds,

it will be seen that they go mad in herds,while they only recover their senses slowly,

one by one.

Charles Mackay

With a little help,can most convince themselves of just about anything?

Insanity in individuals is rare,

but in groups, parties, nations and epochs it is the rule.

Friedrich Nietzsche

If 33% of consumers shown a print advertisementof Bugs Bunny at Disneyland,later claimed they knew of or remembered Bugs Bunny at Disneyland,

and multiple exposures boosted the memory rate,

can intentionally disseminated misinformationpersuade many to believe what they shouldnt?

Bugs Bunny is not a Disney character.

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,

people will eventually come to believe it.

The lie can be maintained only for such time

as the State can shield the people

from the political, economic and/or military consequences.

Joseph GoebbelsCould a larger percentage of what you think you think,

be what some frequently suggest you think you think?

Pontius Pilate was the first great censor,and Jesus Christ the first great victim of censorship.

Ben Lindsey

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Can most people be fooled most of the time?

Could simultaneously reading, watching and listening to targeted messages,reinforce what may be biased, intentionally misleading information?

The nationalist

not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side,

but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.

George Orwell

Is it worse that Americas political leadership didnt see the financial crisis coming,or that most economists and business leaders didnt know,or did and failed to inform the public,or that some monetary authorities, regulators and legislatorssharing relatively high portions of blame,

pledged to find and punish those responsible and then didnt,as most of the mainstream media chose not to object?

Should centralized information outlets lose influenceas more independent internet based sources proliferate?

Not to transmit an experience is to betray it.

Elie Wiesel

If most information is controlledby those who benefit from some messages more than others,would a multitude of diversified sources be better than a consolidated few?

If many believe an untruth to be true,

is it still not true?

What is it men cannot be made to believe!

Thomas Jefferson, April 22, 1786

Is it hard to get entrenched economic and political leadership to understand,if relative legitimacy depends on not understanding?

Can many believe what they want,even if what they want to believe isnt true?

Misconceptions play a large role in shaping history.George Soros

Have financial markets gained after beating over-reduced expectations,under-reported bad news or positively spun late afternoon press leaks?

Why are citizen reporters who bypass compensated journaliststo report on some of what most mainstream media wont,

often criticized by some well-established pundits?

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If truth isnt realizable without doubt, is skepticism the best way to confirm reality?

Can some come to irrational conclusions to justify erroneous assumptions?

Objectivity without transparency increasingly will look like arrogance.

And then foolishness.

Why should we trust what one personinsists is truewhen we instead could have a web of evidence, ideas, and argument?

..transparency is the new objectivity

David Weinberger

If different peoplecan feel apathy, shock, denial, anger, guilt, depression or acceptance simultaneously,can contradictory facts be rationalized by different people differentlyat the same time?

Can expectation effect perception?

A myth is a fixed way of looking at the world which cannot be destroyed,

because, looked at through the myth,all evidence supports that myth.

Edward De Bono

If you were who you think you were, and you are what you think you are,and some of what will, can, cant or wont change,what are the chances of becoming who you think youll be,if you may not really be cognizant of whats causing you to think what youre thinking?

Could a moment when most understand what few knew

be more important than the first discovery?

His primary rules were:

never allow the public to cool off, never admit a fault or wrong,

never concede that there may be some good in your enemy,

never leave room for alternatives, never accept blame,

concentrate on one enemy at a time,

and blame him for everything that goes wrong,

people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one,

and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.United States Office of Strategic Services on Adolf Hitler

The mind of the enemy and the will of his leaders

is a target of far more importance than the bodies of his troops.

Brigadier General Samuel B. Griffith

None are so hopelessly enslaved

as those who falsely believe they are free.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Coffee tastes betterif the latrines are dug downstream from an encampment.

US Army Field Regulations, 1861

Is the present you the only whowhos going to care for the future you?

PlanChance favors the prepared mind.

Louis Pasteur

If 7 out of 10 fail means 30 in 100, 300 in 1,000 and 3,000 in 10,000 succeed,could counting attempts increase the likelihood of successas opposed to dwelling on failures?

If a child believes falling 100 times equals knowing how to do X,is praising persistence better than highlighting failure?

What to Do Now for Greensboro City Council Candidates

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