Saturday 21 September 2013

Funny money (part 2)

 If you think the statements below sound crazy, it’s because they are! Although these analogies are within a personal context, it’s quite scary to realise that many of these processes are going on in the financial centres of the western world.

Invest in some debt today before it’s too late!

Do the right thing and ask for a bail out. Your country will be proud of you!

A friend of mine owns a local bakery. To grow his income stream he is offering cheap debt coupons with every loaf of wholemeal bread.

I am investing in debt for the economic health of my country.

Yesterday I placed a bet that I will go bankrupt next month. I think this is going to be a nice little earner for me!

You owe it to yourself to max out your credit card. Don’t worry, you will be keeping many people in a job in the process.

Let’s go down to the debt superstore and pick up some junk bonds, they are great value at the moment.

I need to go out and get myself a loan to help me pay the interest on my debts.

I am buying up all the debts of my neighbours. They will spend the new cash on things they don’t need, but hey, it makes them feel better and keeps the system ticking along.

I evaluate myself to be worth £25,000. Based on this calculation I will re-mortgage myself and the newly created mortgage debt will be split into four pieces. These chunks of debt will then be used as Christmas presents to my friends and family.

Monday 2 September 2013

The human mind is lost in time.

 I frequently travel on trains and I have been observing a peculiar action made by some of my fellow passengers. This action relates to pressing the train door release button when either boarding or disembarking a train at a station.

The train button illuminates and a loud bleeping sound is heard when the door release buttons become activated. It is only at this moment that the train doors will open.

I have noticed that many passengers press the door release button repeatedly before it becomes illuminated and before the loud bleeping starts. Some of these passengers may rarely travel by train and therefore not be aware of how the doors open. However, many are frequent commuters that I see often at the station.

Why would one keep repeatedly pressing the button if they had the knowledge that doing this would not result in the train doors opening any quicker? Maybe they are thinking about something else and are not aware of what they are doing. My reasoning would be that their mind is projecting into the future; they are standing on the station waiting for the door to open but this is not fulfilling so the mind wants to be in future (on the train or at their destination).

The human mind is often obsessed with the future, imagining it as better than or worse than the present moment. This reduces the present moment to an unsatisfactory experience and creates anxiety; you want to be at some future point in time but you are not. My observation with train doors is just one example of this process playing out. This mind dysfunction is causing problems and suffering all over the world in ways that are not so easy to observe.

The truth is that the present moment is all we ever have.