In the News (from Bloomberg Businessweek): “German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European Union leaders will discuss plans to bolster economic growth in the 27-nation bloc at their June summit.

“The EU may consider strengthening the European Investment Bank as part of their plans, Merkel was cited as saying in an interview with the Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper published today. Countries can already use EU structural funds more flexibly to help small and mid-sized businesses, she said.

“Merkel rejected providing new government stimulus to foster growth, saying that policies must focus on creating jobs and improving competitiveness, according to the newspaper.”

“The amount of the guarantee will increase but significantly in the coming years. EFSF aid aims to stabilize countries and allow them to gradually return to the markets. In return, the States must meet strict conditions to the budgetary stability and competitiveness.” Source: Best Finance Blog

My Comment: No-one will be able to suggest any new financial policy and moreover the program for exiting the crisis because the cause of the crisis is not in the plane of economy or finance, but rather in human relations. The crisis of human relations (the revelation of the breaking of the souls) can be cured only by the upper Light (Ohr Makif). The program for exiting the crisis is called Kabbalah (according by the sources of Baal HaSulam, not the one selling holy water and red strings). In general, the time of the total revision has come.
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In the News (from Oxfam’s Report): “According to a new report from Oxfam, a broken food system and environmental crisis are now reversing decades of progress in the fight against global hunger. Oxfam projects that spiraling food prices will create millions of hungry people unless we radically transform the way we grow and share food. …

“Oxfam identifies the various symptoms of our broken food system: growing hunger, flat lining crop yields, lack of fertile soil and water, and rising food crisis. The organization says that we have entered a new age of crisis where depletion of the earth’s natural resources and increasingly severe climate change impacts will create millions more hungry people. Naturally, poor countries will be affected dramatically more than industrialized nations. Oxfam projects that the price of staple food such as maize, already at an all time high, will more than double in the next 20 years. Half of this price increase will be directly linked to climate change. The world’s poorest people, who spend 80 percent of their income on food, will be hit in the harshest way.

“By 2050, Oxfam predicts that demand for food will rise by 70 percent. Yet our capacity to increase food production is in decline. The average growth rate in agricultural yield has declined by almost 50 percent since 1990, and it is set to decline even further in the coming decade. …Four global companies control the movement of the world’s food. Three corporations- Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge and Cargill- control around 90 percent of the global grain trade. Their speculative activities drive volatile food prices and they profit from it. For example, in the first quarter of 2008, at the top of a global food crisis, Cargill’s profits were up by 86 percent. In 2011, Cargill is heading for its most profitable year on record. Needless to say, this speculation on food prices will further disrupt global food supplies.

“’For too long governments have put the interests of big businesses and powerful elites above the interest of the seven billion of us who produce and consume the food.’”

My Comment: Governments are powerless against corporations or they serve them. We have created a trap for ourselves—our egoism; although it’s destroying itself, it doesn’t want, like the Pharaoh, to release us from bondage, even if this leads to the destruction of Egypt—our egoistic world.
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Opinion (Avinash Dixit, Professor of Economics at Princeton University): “The hurricane analogy seems especially apt as I write this; the winds buffeting the world economy, assisted and in some respects even caused by policy follies, have already produced a Great Recession, with fears of more to come…

“At least one prediction can be made with high confidence; think of it as the central path in the cone. On it, in the course of the next century there will be several financial and economic crises…

“What about the extremes of the cone of uncertainty? United States and Europe are on the right edge. Dysfunctional politics and continued adverse demographic trends will trap these former economic giants into relative mediocrity in the world… From time to time they may enjoy a little growth, but much of the time their economies will stagnate while new dynamic economies of Asia, and parts of South America and Africa, grow faster. Europe and America will remain burdened by debt, both private and public, and suffer periodic bouts of inflation and currency crises…

“On the left edge of the cone of uncertainty we find China and India, whose inevitable and irresistible rise to world domination is being forecast so confidently today, in the early years of the 21st century. Regional and ethnic inequalities in each of these countries will explode into repeated civil conflicts. The police and armed forces needed to cope with this situation will take up large fractions of their governments’ resources, leaving little for productive social expenditures or public investments.”

My Comment: These are some tips and no solutions…
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In the News (from BBC News): “Although a protest vote against the stringent austerity measures enforced on Greeks had been widely expected, in the event the two main parties that had agreed the bailout terms, New Democracy (ND) and socialist Pasok, attracted less than a third of the vote.”

My Comment: If the leaders are doing everything just for themselves, now and in everything, what social maturity can be expected from the citizens who are losing everything!? If the government had showed an example of patriotic instead of egoistic attitude towards the fate of the country, it would have been able to lead the masses. And if it’s not able, then it’s also to blame for not educating the population.
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Opinion (Joseph Stiglitz, an American economist and a professor at Columbia University): “The basic idea is: A few powerhouses like China, Germany, and Japan, plus some commodity-based economies, have thrived in a system where they do all the exporting, and a few countries like the US run massive trade deficits.

“But that system is coming to an end, as countries realize that their trade deficits are unsustainable, and seek to become trade surplus countries at the same time. Of course, not everyone can run surpluses, so this becomes a game of hot potato, with everyone pushing the deficit to someone else, via currency devaluation and other aggressive trade moves.

“An alternative framework for the global financial system: a global reserve system, reform in WTO allowing developing countries to engage in industrial policies, global financial market regulations and capital account management, with a focus on limiting destabilizing short-term capital flows, globally coordinated monetary policy, with globalization, effects of monetary policy.”

My Comment: How reality changes the opinions of economists. They can see before them, at a distance, the only solution: total unity, partial or complete. However, they don’t know how to make the first step toward this future until they meet us.
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We have always been egoistically pushed forward by nature; we have always followed it blindly; in other words, we were instinctively pushed forward by our desire to keep fulfilling ourselves, and as it kept manifesting in us, we strove towards wealth, fame, power, knowledge—anything at all.

As a result, we have reached certain satiety, and our egoism has come to a dead end; we cannot even say that it keeps growing. On one hand, there is a certain line of reevaluation of our values: “Is it right to continue to strive towards the attainment of fame, knowledge, wealth, and power? Is this the meaning of our development?”

On the other hand, we see that our dependence on each other forces us to introduce some other international economic formulas, which must take our interdependence into consideration, in other words, if I will suffer, you will also suffer, no matter how egoistic it now appears to be. Even today, I still try to build my happiness on the suppression of others, base my power on being stronger than others, and by collecting more.

However, the same Europe is a bright example of how mutual dependence determines everyone’s destinies today, and it is impossible to just disconnect a country from the EU no matter how much one might want for it to happen. Maybe economists do not fully realize this yet. We cannot disconnect from the entire world.

This dependence exists inside actual nature, inside the inner connections between us. And economics, which only represent our external egoistic relations, can no longer keep describing them the same way it did before: what I give to you, what you give to me, a percentage for a percentage, etc. Industry, international trade, and international relations can no longer continue developing the same way.

We must take the integration of the world into consideration. And if we do not correspond to this integration, we will not be able to understand the way we are supposed to advance in accordance with the world and nature. Today we feel nature’s challenge, its pressure on us with the only purpose of making us gradually begin to change ourselves to become like it. This has never happened before.

If we were to look at it from an ontological perspective, we would see that nature has always pushed us towards egoistic development. And now, on the contrary, it is showing us that egoistic development has come to an end; in other words, we have completed our development of the still, vegetative, and animate levels, when we were instinctively pushed forward by nature; this is why this level of human development is called animate.

But now we must begin developing on the “human” level, when we understand and perceive the surrounding world to the point of changing ourselves to suit it. Neither the world nor nature are forcing us to change instinctively, evoking these desires in us, which forced us to build a society, economy, technology, etc.: This no longer exists today.

Obviously, the next stage of our development is when nature shows itself to us in a new, integral way, the way it really is: Everything is interconnected in it and it is just nature alone. But we, being its components, do not correspond to it, and must come to the same integral form in the structure of our society: in politics, economy, finances—in everything.
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From KabTV’s “Global Crisis – Deficit of Resources” 3/1/12

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In the News (from People Alliance Blog): “The United Nations plans to use its upcoming UN Conference on ‘Sustainable Development’ (UN CSD or Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro to amass a vast array of unprecedented new powers and literally re-shape civilization, the global economy, and even peoples’ thoughts, according to official documents. All of it will be done in the name of transitioning toward a so-called ‘green economy.’

“Among the new authorities being sought by the world body are global carbon taxes, wealth redistribution amounting to trillions of dollars per year, and a barrage of programs dealing with everything from poverty and education to health and resource allocation. Virtually no realm of human activity will be unaffected by the scheme, which analysts have described as a ‘mammoth exercise in global social engineering.’”

“‘A global transformation towards a green economy will require substantial financial resources,’ the document admits… ‘In addition, there is a need to identify and develop new sources of international funds at scale that support the global transition towards a green economy,’ the document explains.

“‘Transitioning to a green economy requires a fundamental shift in the way we think and act,’ the document explains, calling for greater ‘education,’ information, and ‘awareness’ efforts to help ‘change individual and collective behavior’ in lifestyles as well as consumption and production patterns. The agenda will necessitate ‘a serious rethinking of lifestyles in developed countries…’

“Education: Ensuring Future Support: The future of humanity — the youth — must be taught about the supposed dangers of theoretical man-made global warming. And children must also learn that the UN is needed to solve the alleged problem.

“Poverty and Green Welfare: Of course, the global transformation is going to leave a lot of people unemployed — and the UN acknowledges this… ‘Measures to support the most vulnerable groups such as access to a social protection floor and social safety nets are essential to achieve social inclusion, to deal with the restructuring towards a greener economy, and to adapt to climate change,’ the report claims. ‘Coherence between social, environmental, and economic policies is needed to maximize opportunities and buffer the social cost of the transition. A transition to a green economy needs to project a vision of a greener as well as a fairer economy and society.’”

My Comment: The plans are grand! There are plenty of questions about such an enormous project, but first of all:
- Where do the means come from?
- How can we solve the problems of people’s attitude towards themselves and nature without integral education and upbringing?
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Opinion (Ashok Gadgil, Director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory): “We are a global civilization, we have global operations, global economic activity, and we are dependent on the resources of the planet. Our civilization is so big and powerful that we can mindlessly destroy a thin film of life on our planet…

“As a result, the main task, in my opinion, is to find out what should be the laws of the new economy: consumption, population, industry, the management of society.

“Studies repeatedly show that the best way to control the population is to educate women. Education stops the oppression of women and solves a lot of social problems.

In nature, every kind wants to multiply and flourish, but all kinds live in harmony with other species on which they depend. And only a human being wants to take the whole area.

“This behavior cannot be a long-term pattern of behavior. We need to evolve, rather than to increase consumption, destroying the world. Today, few people think about future generations, everyone thinks about the current moment.”

My Comment: Kabbalah says that if we had liberated women from work and sent them to the “courses of integral education and upbringing,” we would have:

- been released from the burden of unemployment,

- ceased to produce unwanted goods,

- stopped depleting resources,

- stopped polluting the planet.

and women, freed from unnecessary work, and on the basis of acquired knowledge, would have dealt with education and upbringing of their men and children, and we would have found a solution to the crisis in all areas.
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In the News (from Google): “The International Monetary Fund issued a clarion call to bickering US politicians Tuesday, urging them to solve the country’s debt problems before a still-vulnerable economy is tipped over the brink.

“In a hallmark semi-annual report, the Washington-based fund warned policymakers on the other side of the US capital that, while the world’s largest economy is improving, they invite trouble by not addressing a looming debt crisis. …

“So far the United States has avoided the type of debt crisis that has ravaged Europe – with the dollar’s safe-haven status and moderate growth providing a sizable safety net even as agencies have downgraded the country’s credit rating. …

“A flare-up in the euro area from increased sovereign and bank stress could easily undermine confidence in the US corporate sector and thereby squeeze investment and demand undermining growth. …

“Spending cuts will automatically come into effect and major tax breaks will end in the next year if Congress does not act.”

My Comment: There is no doubt that today’s rates are pre-election and everyone understands that this will be over, and they will have to pay their bills.
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Opinion (Amartya Sen, the Indian Nobel Laureate professor of Economics, Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University): “Several features of policy making are worrying, particularly in Europe. The first is a democratic failure. An economic policy has to be ultimately something that people understand, appreciate and support. That’s what democracy is all about. The old idea of “no taxation without representation” is not there in Europe at the moment. …

“If you are living in a southern country, in Greece, and Portugal and Spain, the electorates’ views are much less important than the views of the bankers, the rating agencies and the financial institutions. One result of European monetary integration, without a political integration, is that the population of many of these countries has no voice. Economics is de-linked from the political base. That I think is a mistake and it goes completely against the big European movement that began in the 40s and fostered the idea of a democratic, united Europe.”

My Comment: It depends upon how you define democracy. If we consider the quality of equality, Europe has been always ahead of the rest in terms of arrogance and humiliation of others. The mutual hatred of the EU countries and peoples is known in the world as a bad example. And within countries with respect to the influence of people on politics or economy, then the masters have always played tricks on their people, and people followed them. Today, the crisis is not about democracy but the opportunity to no longer “play” at it—everything is exposed.
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