Baby Boomer Pensions The NEXT crisis! (and what to do about it)

By: Brian_Bloom

Baby Boomers who will be relying on pensions as a backup support because of losses in the stock and property markets, will find that those organizations which are supposed to pay the pensions don’t have the funds. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/..

And Central Banks are exerting downward pressure on interest rates, in an attempt to discourage savings? (They are terrified of a slowing velocity of money)

Some economists argue that low interest rates allow consumers leeway to service their debts. Others argue that low interest rates encourage investment. What in fact happens is that pensioners who have saved their whole lives are prejudiced (punished) so as to support (reward) those who have been profligate credit consumers; and also those who have made unwise investments using borrowed funds. Sound investment policy revolves around riding your winners and cutting your losses. This is exactly the opposite of what governments and financial authorities are doing.

Can governments print their way out of this? The very idea is absurd.

There is only one way out of this mess: A wave of grass roots, entrepreneurial endeavour that is “focused” on achieving a clearly defined target outcome – an outcome that is more than just a sound-bite, like: “we gotta create 3 million new jobs”. The “How” needs to make sense; and printing money does not make sense. For example, Zimbabwe has just printed a $50 billion note. That note will buy two loaves of bread – this week.

The places to look to facilitate entrepreneurial endeavour are:

1. Fossil fuel replacement industries (solar, hydrogen, wind, electromagnetic). Oil alone is roughly a $3 trillion industry per year including refineries, pipelines and gasoline revenues at service stations; and replacement energy paradigms are strategically important because they will facilitate the creation of new downstream industries. This is necessary in any event, because we have passed peak oil – which is why no new refineries have been built in the West for several years.
2. Soil beneficiation industries (minerals for agriculture; as opposed to chemicals for agriculture). This is roughly a $100 billion industry per year; but is strategically important because it will facilitate downstream agricultural industries in both existing farmlands and so-called barren farmlands. If climate change morphs to become global cooling then third world countries in the Southern Hemisphere will need to become the world’s breadbaskets.
3. One example of a downstream energy related industry: There are roughly 600 million internal combustion engine motor cars in the world. Retrofitting these to embrace a new energy paradigm (there are alternatives) at, say, $2,500 a vehicle, will represent a $1.5 trillion industry

This is what is meant by “focused” activity. In the meantime, if we know which direction we are heading, governments can build infrastructure to support the new direction – by way of a stopgap measure – to create new jobs immediately.

Private Enterprise cannot set the direction for a coordinated approach.

By Brian Bloom

www.beyondneanderthal.com

Beyond Neanderthal is a novel with a light hearted and entertaining fictional storyline; and with carefully researched, fact based themes. In Chapter 1 (written over a year ago) the current financial turmoil is anticipated. The rest of the 430 page novel focuses on the probable causes of this turmoil and what we might do to dig ourselves out of the quagmire we now find ourselves in. The core issue is “energy”, and the story leads the reader step-by-step on one possible path which might point a way forward.  Gold plays a pivotal role in our future – not as a currency, but as a commodity with unique physical characteristics that can be harnessed to humanity's benefit. Until the current market collapse, there would have been many who questioned the validity of the arguments in Beyond Neanderthal. Now the evidence is too stark to ignore.  This is a book that needs to be read by large numbers of people to make a difference. It can be ordered over the internet via www.beyondneanderthal.com

Copyright © 2009 Brian Bloom - All Rights Reserved

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