The Lost 20 Years (Ushinawareta Nijūnen)

I remember seeing this book when it first came out and was very interested

The Lost Decade or the Lost 10 Years (失われた10年 Ushinawareta Jūnen) is the time after the Japanese asset price bubble's collapse within the Japanese economy. The term originally referred to the years from 1991 to 2000, but recently the decade from 2001 to 2010 is often included, so that the whole period is referred to as the Lost Two Decades or the Lost 20 Years (失われた20年, Ushinawareta Nijūnen). Over the period of 1995 to 2007, GDP fell from $5.33 to $4.36 trillion in nominal terms, real wages fell around 5%^, while the country experienced a stagnant price level. While there is some debate on the extent and measurement of Japan's setbacks, the economic effect of the Lost Decade is well established and Japanese policy makers continue to grapple with its consequences.

Once again Wikipedia is quite useful (donations welcome). I found Japan very fascinating growing up: It was a dynamic economy, a very distinct culture and it seemed to be a paragon of the spread of progress and prosperity around the world, with Japan leading the way. All very "80's" thinking back now! But it still is a fascinating culture and the one trip I managed to make so far there was to a very civilized and well-run nation, and stoic, given they were then suffering from the Tsunami that had only just hit them. An example of the difference of Japan:-

Guide on "how to read manga": Japanese books are read from Right-Left

There's a useful summary review of Brian Reading's book here by Kirkus. There's an interesting passage here:-

Applying cyclical theory to Japanese history, Reading reckons the country is approaching a period of convulsive change after nearly five decades of recovery/expansion.

Some years later, at school, I read from front to back "A History of Japan". It's a fascinating account and seemed parallel to the multiple invasions of the British Isles and then again the interesting factional warfares therein. What seemed to stand out with Japan were a couple of notable events:-

• Convention of Kanagawa: Signed under threat of force, it effectively meant the end of Japan’s 220-year-old policy of national seclusion (sakoku), by opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American vessels.
• 1923 Great Kantō earthquake: This earthquake devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, and the surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region.
• Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.

 Broadly two different appreciations of time

And of course to add to the above, the "Lost Decade", now "Lost Two Decades". People are familiar with the cycles of "Boom and Bust" and within certain parts of the world there seems to be a cyclic force around various events. Spain has gone through fracturing and unifying phases, and Europe has too via various "Empires" or powers. Seeking Alpha looks at Japan, The U.S., And the Lost Decades:-

 Cyclical and Linear Time

After the meeting EU Referendum: Leave Alliance launch I managed to pick up a number of Pamphlets from FUTURUS and Anthony Scolefield. It was very interesting to look at decision-making through an historic frame of reference for the UK. This has been covered with respect to the EU in The Great Deception, but events even further back on how we have been governed, by whom and how they have made their decisions and how successful those decisions were in showing understanding and hence right course of action to take or otherwise, if as often as not, people were merely "caught up in the larger events of their time". I think the EUROZONE CRISIS is predicted to be a similar "Lost Decades" for various nations:-

I notice Pete North is of similar mood concerning the UK and reflecting on it's own time-line trajectory concerning Peter Hitchens own musings to add to the party(!): The buyers regret of Peter Hitchens. There's an interesting game of "Top Trumps" being played by Chris Bryant Labour MP, who appears to me to be teh equivalent of a "Chinese replica" of Tony Blair; sharing a similar gleaming smile and "rabid eyes" combination: 18 people Brexit campaigners think they're smarter than over the EU. What's interesting is the entirely self-referential bubble of Top Trumps being conducted in the mirror article. I'm impressed with the breadth of topics selected for such a source in the Legacy News-Media; but that's about all.

Top Trumps: Only Politicians allowed to play...

There's two considerations I thought of here:-

• Our decision-makers work within their own cycles of General Elections
• Their own bubble itself seems to put people off politics: EU Referendum: I don't give a damn

UK Unleashed has a very interesting blog on Polling Predictions, which is well worth a read: The Shy Goodbye. Whatever the case may be, I think there's a tendency for the Remain vote as per the telephone polls to be ahead: Reluctant Remainders: Submission to Power and also given the fact we have had a "Blitzkrieg" Referendum by David Cameron to win:

"blitzkrieg attempts to unbalance the enemy by making it difficult for it to respond to the continuously changing front and defeating it in a decisive Vernichtungsschlacht ("battle of annihilation")"

The longer the time available, 2 things:-

• The more people's confidence in the question will grow to question it, to challenge it, to not be afraid of it.
• The more people will be exposed to higher quality arguments: The Market Solution: Bite-Sized Chunks in forms that are more accessible to them.

I've recently been contacting various family and friends and sharing this link with them:-

The Liberal Case for 'Leave' ~ Roland Smith

This article needs high circulation or "oxygen"

As UK Unleashed observes, it's tricky to answer the question in the right way "for leave". It requires a story, I think and the above I also think manages that via the framework of cycles in the history of the UK joining the EU, for example only yet another pattern to consider:-

 Remain = More EU Political Integration

I think the problem could be alikened to:-

Fuel = EU problems; Heat = Higher Quality Arguments; Oxygen = Starved!

A very good example of the Oxygen starvation is this argument here:-

This comes from a source that is fairly well written: Brexit campaign failing to address how EU relations will be recast ~ Denis Staunton.

1. First the Leave Campaigners are either Tory or UKIP Political self-referential blood-suckers as per Chris Bryant's pattern above in the mirror. Who are these people, do they represent all arguments and all Brexit supporters? No. So immediately there is conflation of mischaracterization according to Prestige.
2. In the second case, the conflation is between Single Market and EU Rules which we have already looked at concerning Norway's 1:5 Rules as a fair comparison between Single Market acquis and EU Political acquis.
3. Next concerning "Integrated" it's not clear that Norway is a member of the EEA Single Market but not the Political Union.
4. We know this is incorrect that Norway does not pay directly into the EU Budget.
5. Next we see that Norway adopts Single Market rules which have 90% of their source in Global Bodies.
6. We also know that Norway can influence those rules both upstream of the EU and via various 
7. Finally Freedom of Movement is acceptable part of EEA transitional arrangement.
8. Discussion on Switzerland's Bi-Lateral Agreements and Canada's FTA are excessive distractions as per Article 50.

Looking at Roland Smith's article:-

"The crux of the matter is that we in Britain want trade and cooperation; our EU partners want merger and a leashed hinterland. Are we prepared to spend another generation or more dancing around this basic fact while the rest of the world moves on?

No, it is time to leave and embrace the world."

You can see, that the arguments have been suffocated oxygen and public exposure to light a political campaign that "take alight" in the imagination of the British people by our own politicians: These people who are responsible in the EU and Europe for a lost couple of decades and generation of young people and for the UK/British, a lost couple of decades concerning our EU Membership since Maastricht Treaty (Single European Currency Treaty).

Roland Smith's advice to voters: Vote Leave now and save ourselves the next 10 years / decade, with the same starvation of oxygen to arguments via our politicians and their mistakes replicated and multiplied in the Legacy News-Media, until we are back here again in the next Referendum on Remain or Leave of whatever the EU becomes by then post-2020 pre-2025!

 Norway also has a cyclic argument... concerning the "Pro-EU Deception"

"In the debate about alternatives to the EEA Agreement, claims are being put forward that Norway needs the agreement in order to sell its products to the EU. These claims are suspiciously similar to the warnings issued by the pro-EU side before the referendums on EU membership in 1972 and 1994. This scaremongering was proven wrong on both occasions.

Leading business figures, pro-EU politicians and the media, all with ready access to public platforms, continue to hammer away at the same message as in 1992: we must keep the EEA Agreement in order to have access to the EU market. The arguments put forward by the pro-EU side proved to be totally misleading in 1992 – and they are just as misleading today."

An intelligence-driven choice that learns from history and utilizes the high quality information that is available in this "internet age"; is I believe the solution at everybody's fingertips, to breaking these cyclical disasters driven predominantly by people in power making poor decision-making affecting generations henceforth.

Lakshmi: Goddess of Prosperity (1)

Lakshmi: Goddess of Wealth, Fortune and Prosperity

I remember during my undergraduate studies at university one of my best friends had a statue of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi in their room and explained to me what her name was, who she was and what she represented. Lakshmi to give her, her full title is: "The goddess of wealth, fortune, and prosperity (both material and spiritual). She is the wife and active energy of Vishnu." 

My reaction at the time was, "That's a nice bit of Kitsch. My room could do with something a bit leftfield like that." Admittedly I had my eyes more on Ganesha for those reasons.  I suspect for some people and in the general way of these things, the above merely becomes all part of a nice backstory to embellish what amounts to the popularity of Lakshmi specifically holding the office of "wealth dispenser good luck" charm and soon she takes on more and more the role of "psychological piggybank".

The above website, debtbombshell.com provides a very quick summary of the relationship between our UK Government Spending, the Deficit and the UK Debt: Arising from the difference in Spending and Income (Budget):-

Every year the UK runs a large budget deficit. The Government spends more money than it can tax, so we plug the gap by selling bonds to investors at home and abroad. These bonds - known as gilts - have to be repaid in full, with interest. Added together, our unpaid loans make up the UK's national debt.

Right now, that debt is growing violently. The Government forecasts it will soar to an eye-watering £1.1 trillion by 2011. To put that in perspective, the UK went bust in 1976 running a budget deficit of 6% of GDP. In 2010 that deficit is going to top 11%.

Historically, our debt burden was heavier after World War II. But like any loan, if the money isn't invested wisely we end up borrowing even more. When the Government runs up huge debts and produces nothing to show for it, we're the ones that shoulder the burden. This year that burden will grow by £167.9 billion.

This website (a little out of date) paints the picture quite bleakly and it's no wonder that Economics is often referred to as "The Dismal Science" in affiliation with Finance and Accounting (also in derogatory language: "Bean-counting"). Also provided is a fascinating graph of National Debt; and further calculations and representations of calculations can be found at ukpublicspending.co.uk .

Here's a couple of different graphs representing historic debt. They're 'a little off each other', but the take-home is that in general managing debt is more challenging when:-

• Economic conditions are adverse and/or deteriorating (eg wars)
• Government spending/deficit increases (eg wars)
• Government income decreases (eg lowering taxes)
• Public personal debt levels increase and bank lending exposure to high risk

Some crude summary points but the take-home is that the management of money and wealth-creation is very important to the good governance and prudent public and private sectors of our economies. Perhaps the above all need an image make-over such as wonderfully illustrated in Lakshmi iconographic representation above? Perhaps more people and our government could do with their own stash of statuettes of Lakshmi in their homes and offices?

Lakshmi Statues: Art and Iconography

There's a very strong component of the management of a Nation's wealth, it's economy and it's "fortunes". Looking the history of The Central Bank of England aka The Bank Of England :-

In the Kingdom of England in the 1690s, public funds were in short supply and were needed to finance the ongoing Nine Years' War with France. The credit of William III's government was so low in London that it was impossible for it to borrow the £1,200,000 (at 8 percent) that the government wanted. In order to induce subscription to the loan, the subscribers were to be incorporated by the name of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. The bank was given exclusive possession of the government's balances, and was the only limited-liability corporation allowed to issue banknotes.The lenders would give the government cash (bullion) and also issue notes against the government bonds, which can be lent again. The £1.2M was raised in 12 days; half of this was used to rebuild the Navy.

 There's a quick summary here connecting debt and currency and their relevance for example Quantitative Easing": The Consequences Of National Debt. A really applicable quote worth applying and remembering is from

Chapter 24 — Liberal Leader Mackenzie King Said in 1935:-

“Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes that nation's laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.

“The Liberal Party believes that credit is a public matter, not of interest to bankers only, but of direct concern to every citizen. The Liberal Party declares itself in favour of the immediate establishment of a duly constituted national bank for the control of the issue of money in terms of public needs. The flow of money must be in relation with the domestic, social, and industrial needs of the Canadian people.”

It's worth reading the full context in the link above. Now considering the above, then looking once again into the History of the European Union in The Great Deception, Chapter Twelve - In A Minority of One: 1986-1988 p.273

"The  British  economy  has  been  transformed  in  the  past  twelve  years. In the 1960s and 1970s we were the sick man of Europe, at the bottom of the league tables  for  growth,  investment  and productivity. In  the  1980s  we  were  at  the top." ~ Conservative Campaign Guide, 1991.

One cannot understand  the  second half of Thatcher’s eleven-year reign as Britain’s longest serving prime minister of the twentieth century without appreciating just how significant was the part played in it by ‘Europe’. In the years after Milan she found herself increasingly at odds,  not just with her Community ‘partners’ but with her most senior  Cabinet  colleagues, until  they worked to bring about her downfall.The first signs of this division came from an unexpected direction, when, early in  1985,  her  Chancellor  Nigel  Lawson,  known  as  a  robust  ‘Thatcherite’, became  persuaded that the key to imposing monetary discipline on Britain’s economy  was to join the Exchange Rate Mechanism. He was soon supported by Howe, but  their  motives were quite different. Lawson regarded himself as something of a ‘sceptic’ on European issues.

He saw linking the pound  to the Deutschmark-dominated  ERM  simply  as  an  economic  tool,  on  the  grounds that Germany had become a byword for maintaining price stability and that the move  would  signal  to  the  markets  that  the  UK  had  no  intention  of  devaluing her currency. Lawson genuinely believed the ERM was a means by which members  of  the  Community  could  co-operate  to serve  a  common  economic purpose. Howe on the other hand was well aware that the ERM’s real purpose  was  not  economic but  political:  a  mechanism  designed  to  promote greater integration. 

This echoes with the concept of "engrenage" as per Jean Monnet's "Engrenage": Destination Unknown? and we also come back (or forwards) to Our Government: "Ifs, Buts, Maybes" and Sir James Goldsmith's The Referendum Party's subsequent influence on triggering a Referendum Pledge from John Major's Conservative government and therefore raising and hence matching Tony Blair's "New Labour" government of 1997 and all the way through the Referendum Promises as per Pattern Recognition.

We're beginning to join the dots on a very important part of "the once and future Sovereignty" of the United Kingdom. From Of Democracy and Time Dilation know that our Government has been an abject failure in it's lack of honest, accountability and representative attempts to re-associate democracy with governance and hence input into solving these problems and the damage they "wreak to a nation", could have done further and will continue to do both to the UK and beyond in the Eurozone Debt Crisis:-

"Beneficial Crisis" via "engrenage" of the eurozone members

Coming back to the key points:-

1. Governments should know the importance of the Money Supply
2. This was in action during the ERM exit of the UK.
3. Despite this Referendums and debates have continued over the validity of joining the EURO up to the early 2000's.
4. This continues to the present in 2015 concerning EU membership.
5. The underlying problems are not addressed by our government and nor are the arguments clarified on EU membership.

There are signs that some people are looking for real changes such as Positive Money:

 As well as being reflected in The Harrogate Agenda: 5. No taxation or spending without consent:-

No tax, charge or levy shall be imposed, nor any public spending authorised, nor any sum borrowed by any national or local government except with the express approval the majority of the people, renewed annually on presentation of a budget which shall first have been approved by their respective legislatures;

Coming back to Lakshmi and the iconography:-

Her four hands represent the four goals of human life considered important to the Hindu way of life – dharma (alignment with the "order of things" or "cosmos" as the Greeks would call it, or for example the pursuit of an ethical, moral life), kāma (the aesthetic satisfaction "in the realm of the senses" such as love, desire and emotional fulfillment), artha (leading a purposeful and meaningful, goal-directed life and attaining the means to do so, pursuit of wealth or such similar goals for example), and moksha (liberation or emancipation through self-knowledge or self-actualization; in the Hindu tradition termed release from saṃsāra). The Lotus, Elephant(s) and other details all hold their own symbolisms without going into further details.

It seems to me that a lot of the discussion on our economy and on our government's privileged position in running our economy on our behalf or managing it, forgets the reasons for money and wealth to serve the people, not the people in charge and their interests first; to merely make them wealthy. Much like how the tendency for people to see Lakshmi merely as the "goddess of prosperity" instead of appreciating some of the underlying components that all contribute to "Prosperity"; it itself is a product of underlying and related elements. Looking at money as per Mackenzie King (see above):-

“Money consists only in figures engraved on metal, printed on paper, or inscribed in bank ledgers.” 

or as per Positive Money:-

"Most of the money in the economy is actually just numbers in a computer system... the question is where does that money come from?"

It seems the greed for wealth runs our economies and hence our governments' popularities, but it also seems that it equally ruins our economies as much and then we have "musical chairs" between the same people pretending to run the economy "for a better Britain". If we know that the EURO is a political tool, why not the Pound in the hands of our own government and as per the history of The Great Deception it's misuse for political means, too? And indeed right back to the founding of the Bank Of England?