Financial Balance

[sharon sanders]

We have lost balance.
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Not very long ago we had the belief that if you had lost your health you had lost something of consequence. If you lost your character, you lost everything. But if you lost your money, you lost nothing. Now, these concepts are lost to us. Accumulation of wealth reigns supreme.
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There must always be a balance between the intellectual, the physical, and the spiritual. Progress is only made when these 3 are balanced in equal proportion. Today?s economic problems are caused by the emphasis on the material or physical component which diminishes the importance of the intellectual and spiritual aspects of life.
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Progress made at the expense of the intellectual and spiritual aspects is not progress. Many technological innovations increase productivity and lead to greater physical wealth but also cause a myriad of problems such as: industrial accidents, pollution, congestion, etc. For the balance to be preserved that respect the intellect and spirit new technologies must be created to counter the effects of the old ones. This expense, of course, lowers the profit margin and is not pursued. For instance, mass industrial construct that does not consider the environment causes us to step back in progress as we try to step forward with the new technology. The health costs to society of industrial pollution, both long term and short term, are widely known. Yet, most countries do not acknowledge this cost and proceed with emphasis on the physical aspects of economic development.
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Economic development where all incomes rise in tandem is an economy is in balance between intellectual, physical, and spiritual needs of the populace. In the <st1:country-region><st1lace>United States</st1lace></st1:country-region> productivity is up but real wages are down ("wage gap"):

• ?Inflation-adjusted hourly and weekly wages are below where they were at the start of the recovery in November 2001. Yet, productivity?the growth of the economic pie?is up by 14.7 %.) <o></o>
• Wage growth has been shortchanged because 46% of the growth of total income in the corporate sector has been distributed as corporate profits, far more than the 20% in previous periods.<o></o>
• Consequently, median household income (inflation-adjusted) has fallen five years in a row and was 4% lower in 2004 than in 1999, falling from $46,129 to $44,389.^?http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/pm110<o></o>

This kind of disparity causes a weakness in the ability of the common man to be able to accumulate savings. This accumulation insulates the economy against cyclical downturns. So by maximizing profits and therefore ?holding the line? on wages the ability of the citizens to spend the <st1:country-region><st1lace>United States</st1lace></st1:country-region> out of a cyclical down turn becomes unlikely. This will, ironically, affect the very profits that were targeted for optimization.

We have a situation, now, in the <st1:country-region><st1lace>United States</st1lace></st1:country-region>, where the living standard is not increasing for all due to the ?wage gap?. The economy is not balanced. If worker wages rise in tandem with productivity increases then the financial strength of those workers is increased. The spirit is enhanced. National demand is able to keep up with national supply and the economy is not dependant upon ?artificial spending? which is the accumulation of debt. The mass accumulation of debt is very destructive to the spirit.

Consumer debt is at record levels in the <st1:country-region><st1lace>United States</st1lace></st1:country-region>. The accumulation of debt due to the ?wage gap? and the material society that is prevalent are the culprits. http://www.monthlyreview.org/0506jbf.htm <o></o>

As we move forward to a potential pandemic, the value systems of each individual will be tested. Ask yourself, what percent of the money that I have made in the stock market will I donate to a worthy charity? How can I help my neighbor with preparations? How can I financially support my community in these times?

How important is my wealth compared to the value of human life? How can I help to restore the financial balance?
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Sources:<o></o>
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?The Deaths of Manufacturing Plants?<o></o>
Andrew B. Bernard<o></o>
Tuck <st1lace><st1lacetype>School</st1lacetype> of <st1lacename>Business</st1lacename></st1lace> at <st1:city><st1lace>Dartmouth</st1lace></st1:city><o></o>
National Bureau of Economic Research<o></o>
<o></o>
J. Bradford Jensen<o></o>
Center for Economic Studies, Bureau of Census<o></o>
<st1lace><st1lacetype>University</st1lacetype> of <st1lacename>Maryland</st1lacename></st1lace> <o></o>
http://webserver01.ces.census.gov/index.php/ces/1.00/cespapers?down_key=101655 <o></o>
<o></o>
<o></o>
?Productivity and the post-1990 <st1:country-region><st1lace>U.S.</st1lace></st1:country-region> economy?<o></o>
Ellen R. McGrattan
Edward C. Prescott<o></o>
http://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedmsr/350.html <o></o>
<o></o>
<o></o>
<o></o>
<o></o>
<o></o>
http://www.monthlyreview.org/0506jbf.htm
<o></o>
<o></o>
http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/pm110 <o></o>

 

[kernel klink]

Re: Financial Balance

That is a great post!

One of my concerns has been that we can miss the point of preparing for a pandemic. It seems to me that if we just head for the hills with our tamiflu, ammo and hoard of gold, ready to shoot on sight, we have probably lost more than we can ever hope to preserve - in terms of our humanity and spirituality.

I'm not even sure about isolating anymore, although I accept it may be necessary. I just don't feel comfortable thinking of isolating from my dying neighbours. I would really want to reach out to them. I feel like I want to be in a position to help as many of the folk around me as possible to get through this. However that does probably mean that I need to stay alive, although it may be that my work is done, in putting by the stores, and the stores of value etc.

I am going to try to make sure that my wife's survival is the most assured in my family, as she has more energy and compassion to share than me, and far more of the skills that will be needed to help others survive. So, for example, if I decide to stock up on Tamiflu, and my resources are limited, I will first put by enough for my wife to take it prophylactically, throughout a whole wave. I will then ensure that each of my children have sufficient for treatment should they become infected. Then I will work out from there.

I have discussed this with her and have explained that this is not just because she is the most loved member of the family, but because she is the most useful and needed. I am good at making money. She is good at caring and serving others. During a pandemic she will be far more valuable than me to my children and neighbours. Therefore her health is paramount.

My own aim at present is to make money in a "make hay while the sun shines" kind of way. I do not want this to eclipse my spiritual goals. I would just like whoever of us comes through this to be in a position to help as many as possible to rebuild their lives.

 

[hawkeye]

Re: Financial Balance

Excellent Post Florida1. Thank you.

Kernal Klink, I've been thinking roughly the same. If we don't help our community it will erode away. One can only isolate for so long.

 

[Goju]

Re: Financial Balance

Helping is all well and good... but remember being in a lifeboat with 1000 drowning panicing people surrounding you will surely capsize the boat and kill everyone in it.

 

[kernel klink]

Re: Financial Balance

The lifeboat is a good analogy - better to try to save the few that can be accommodated than leave all to drown. Remember, many will "drown" before we are able to reach them. Surely though it is better to have some lifeboats than none at all. This is the dilemma that will face every conscientious health professional who stays at his post. So why not me too? Why should I have the luxury of running off into hiding and isolation?

It is always a problem when considering acts of mercy: what difference will my weak efforts make when the need is so overwhelming? We can too easily make this an excuse for passivity. We must take courage from the thought that although we surely cannot help everyone, we can perhaps help just one person / perhaps one family / perhaps the neighbour on the right, although not the one on the left. It is awful to have to think of turning anyone away, of having to choose who to help. But it must be better to plan to save one extra person than to make no such plan at all. And when we have made provision for one, to then see if we can double up, and so on. We must trust that when the time comes it will be clear who we can help and who we cannot. Someone will receive our help gladly. Someone else will refuse it and push us away. But at least let's do what we can. That is the way I am thinking at the moment.

My only fear is that when it comes to the point of crisis I may not prove to be the kind of person I want to be. I am not confident of how I will react under pressure and when full of fear. One thing I am sure of is that if all that are left are selfish gun toting self preservationists, it will be a horrible world which I would not want to be part of. And if I fail morally, and become a gun toting self preservationist myself, then I hope the plague will not spare me.

 

[Goju]

Re: Financial Balance

I do not fear the virus. I do not fear starving. I fear being pulled under by those who have refused to learn to swim.

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: Financial Balance

Each one of us, individually, is the guardian of society. We have the power to create in our own families and communities an environment of kindness, dignity, respect, understanding, and acceptance. If we promote this behavior we can not only lessen morbidity and mortality in a potential pandemic, but we can, family by family, community by community, build a structure for social change that will encourage goodwill among all the world?s citizens.

 

[Goju]

Re: Financial Balance

See.. no pandemic yet the lifeboat is rocking.....

Lets get back to topic ...

Financial Balance.

I went to look for a hand drill today... just in case... couln't find one.
I'll have to look harder.

Good post pandemic business - home repair. Better have a good set of hand tools.

 

[Goju]

Re: Financial Balance

i am blessed by not having any "heavy vices"... except for constantly checking FT!

 

[Goju]

Re: Financial Balance

F1 - I have been meditating on this one........

You old hippie you!
This is a great mission statement.

Each one of us, individually, is the guardian of society. We have the power to create in our own families and communities an environment of kindness, dignity, respect, understanding, and acceptance. If we promote this behavior we can not only lessen morbidity and mortality in a potential pandemic, but we can, family by family, community by community, build a structure for social change that will encourage goodwill among all the world?s citizens.

 

[Snowy Owl]

Re: Financial Balance

Friends,

Closing the gap between science and society and science and religion would help.

Dr. Peter Doherty, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Immunologist, Nobel Laureate in Immunology

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: Financial Balance

Foreclosures May Jump As ARMs Reset
By J.W. ELPHINSTONE (AP Business Writer)
From Associated Press
June 19, 2006 6:35 PM EDT
NEW YORK - In 2003, Anita Britten refinanced her two-story brick cottage in Lithonia, Ga. using a hybrid adjustable rate mortgage, or ARM. Her lender reassured her that she could refinance out of the riskier loan into a traditional one when her interest rate started to reset.
Three years later, Britten can't get a new mortgage and her monthly payment has jumped by a third in six months. She can't afford her payments and may face foreclosure if her financial situation doesn't change.
As more ARMs adjust upward and housing prices begin to dip, many Americans like Britten can't refinance and are finding themselves trapped in too-high monthly payments. For those who can't make their payments, foreclosure - the legal process by which the lender reposseses the house because the owner has defaulted on payments - is the only way out.

snip


This year, more than $300 billion worth of hybrid ARMs will readjust for the first time. That number will jump to approximately $1 trillion in 2007, according to the MBA. Monthly payments will leap too, many beyond what homeowners can afford.
For example, Britten's monthly payment jumped from $1,079 to $1,340 at the beginning of this year. It rose again on June 1 by another $104 and is scheduled to increase again in December. Britten, who is also paying off student loans, went to a credit counseling service to help her avoid foreclosure.
"I've gotten rid of all my credit cards and I'm not supposed to refinance for another year," she said. "All I can do is tread water right now."
"ARMs are a ticking time bomb," said Brad Geisen, president and chief executive of property tracker Foreclosure.com. "Through 2006 and 2007, I'm pretty sure we'll see a high volume of foreclosures."

snip

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20060619/44962140_3421_1334520060619-1045900028

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: Financial Balance

NEW YORK -- Warren Buffett's contribution of about $1.5 billion a year to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be used to seek cures for the world's worst diseases and improve American education, Bill Gates said Monday. "There is no reason we can't cure the top 20 diseases," Gates said while appearing with Buffett during a donation ceremony at the New York Public Library. The Buffett and Gates families, as well as onlookers, were beaming as the so-called Oracle of Omaha officially made his benevolence a reality. "There is more than one way to get to heaven, but this is a great way," said Buffett. He presented the biggest gift to Gates, and $1 billion donations to his own foundation and the foundations run by each of his three children. "It's easy to sign. I just signed, "Dad,'" Buffett joked while handing one of the donation documents, a stock transfer letter, to his daughter, Susie Buffett. Buffett said he had made some suggestions about how to use the money. But "I think their judgment above the ground is going to be a lot better than mine 6 feet below the ground," he said at a later appearance.

Buffett said his children have known all along that much of their family's wealth would be given back to society. "They consider themselves lucky. They don't consider themselves quite as lucky as if they had a father with a different view."

In a letter dated Monday, Buffett had informed Bill and Melinda Gates that the first donation of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. stock would go to the foundation next month.

The foundation, which has assets of $30.6 billion, spends money on world health, poverty and increasing access to technology in developing countries. In the United States, it focuses on education and technology in public libraries.

The money from Buffett, who is 75 but considered strong and healthy, comes with a significant catch. The letter says Buffett wants all his money to be distributed in the year it is donated, not added to the foundation's assets for future giving. The foundation gave away $1.36 billion in 2005, so the Buffett commitment would effectively double its spending.

Buffett had said he would give away 12,050,000 Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the five foundations. The shares fell $22.01, or 0.7 percent, to $3,049 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The gifts would be worth nearly $37 billion, which represents the bulk of the $44 billion that Buffet's stock holdings are worth today. Five-sixths of the shares will be earmarked for the Gates Foundation.

In his letter to the Gates Foundation, Buffett said he admired the foundation and wanted to extend its "future capabilities." Until now, all the money given away by the Gates Foundation has come from the couple.

In a statement over the weekend, Bill and Melinda Gates spoke of their relationship with Buffett over the past 15 years and his influence on their philanthropy.

"Warren has not only an amazing intellect but also a strong sense of justice. Warren's wisdom will help us do a better job and make it more fun at the same time," they said. The couple said they were "awed" by Buffett's decision.

The Buffett pledge also requires that Bill and Melinda Gates remain alive and active in the policy-setting and administration of the foundation. Buffett plans to give each foundation 5 percent of his total pledge each year in July.

Bill Gates, the world's richest man, announced earlier this month that he would be stepping back from his day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft Corp. in July 2008 so he can spend more time on the Seattle-based foundation. The foundation followed his announcement by saying Melinda Gates would also be taking a more active role in their philanthropic work.

Buffett, the world's second-richest man, said in an interview with Fortune magazine that the timing of the two announcements -- one week apart -- was just "happenstance."

Buffett's gift is "really significant," not just for its size but for its potential to encourage other giving, said Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector, a nonprofit coalition of about 550 charities, foundations and corporate giving programs that includes The Gates Foundation.

"I'm sure there are lots of young, wealthy individuals who have made their fortunes and who are watching this very carefully," she said. "These business leaders are icons."

* __

Associated Press Writer Donna Gordon Blankinship in Seattle contributed to this report.

* __

On the Net:

Bill & Melinda Gates: http://www.gatesfoundation.org



Some people are seeing the light.

 

[LeaSoul]

Re: Financial Balance

Bump this.
And please forgive the newbie, this one is interesting and should be read a couple of times.
So ..... another dumb newbie question? Can someone direct me to a link, preferably in FT, that gives suggestions on what to do now with our money that we have in the bank? We aren't rich, we aren't poor, we have just "saved", as suggested by the experts, for our retirement.

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: Financial Balance

Here is one:


http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=361

 

[4-ABBA]

Re: Financial Balance

The lifeboat is a good analogy - better to try to save the few that can be accommodated than leave all to drown. Remember, many will "drown" before we are able to reach them. Surely though it is better to have some lifeboats than none at all. This is the dilemma that will face every conscientious health professional who stays at his post. So why not me too? Why should I have the luxury of running off into hiding and isolation?

It is always a problem when considering acts of mercy: what difference will my weak efforts make when the need is so overwhelming? We can too easily make this an excuse for passivity. We must take courage from the thought that although we surely cannot help everyone, we can perhaps help just one person / perhaps one family / perhaps the neighbour on the right, although not the one on the left. It is awful to have to think of turning anyone away, of having to choose who to help. But it must be better to plan to save one extra person than to make no such plan at all. And when we have made provision for one, to then see if we can double up, and so on. We must trust that when the time comes it will be clear who we can help and who we cannot. Someone will receive our help gladly. Someone else will refuse it and push us away. But at least let's do what we can. That is the way I am thinking at the moment.

My only fear is that when it comes to the point of crisis I may not prove to be the kind of person I want to be. I am not confident of how I will react under pressure and when full of fear. One thing I am sure of is that if all that are left are selfish gun toting self preservationists, it will be a horrible world which I would not want to be part of. And if I fail morally, and become a gun toting self preservationist myself, then I hope the plague will not spare me.

Kernel Klink...this post is most beautiful in what you have shared. It is people--and hearts--like yours that make me thankful I am part of the human species.

We NEED to hear more of your wisdom!!

4-ABBA

 

[Binkerbear]

Re: Financial Balance

And if I fail morally, and become a gun toting self preservationist myself, then I hope the plague will not spare me.

I'm hoping that I will just have to become one of "those" for a short time and, if I survive, then I'll never have to worry about it again.

 

[Gnosis]

Re: Financial Balance

The following link says it all.

http://www.economyincrisis.org/index.asp

 

[Laidback Al]

Re: Financial Balance

The following link says it all.

http://www.economyincrisis.org/index.asp

Interesting link, Gnosis. International economy issues are beyond my home grown knowledge, but, if foreign companies are buying up US companies, so what?

They are taking the dollars they earned from selling overpriced geegaw to US citizens and reinvesting them in the US economy. They must believe that there still money to be made in the U.S. or else they would take those dollars and invest them in Treasuries and demand high interest rates. Or worse, they would take those dollars and swap them for a different fiat currency (Euros, perhaps?).

Or, and scariest of all, they would take those dollars and cash them in for gold. Then the US dollar and by default, the US economy, would have a real problem. Some posters in this forum believe this is happening even as we post.

 

[Gnosis]

Re: Financial Balance

Interesting link, Gnosis. International economy issues are beyond my home grown knowledge, but, if foreign companies are buying up US companies, so what?

They are taking the dollars they earned from selling overpriced geegaw to US citizens and reinvesting them in the US economy. They must believe that there still money to be made in the U.S. or else they would take those dollars and invest them in Treasuries and demand high interest rates. Or worse, they would take those dollars and swap them for a different fiat currency (Euros, perhaps?).

Or, and scariest of all, they would take those dollars and cash them in for gold. Then the US dollar and by default, the US economy, would have a real problem. Some posters in this forum believe this is happening even as we post.

The party is about over.....

Fund released its semiannual Global Financial Stability Review, ahead of meetings this weekend in Singapore. The report was full of warnings that the risk of a global financial crash is increasing. This comes hot on the heels of a message from HSBC, one of the world's largest investment banks, that it has put the United States on recession alert.
So what is behind all of the doom and gloom? Chalk it up to the rising global imbalances in trade and foreign reserves that are boosting the possibility that a cyclical global slowdown could melt down into something worse. Not surprisingly, the U.S. economy is the key variable here.

Just look at the U.S. trade deficit, which surged to a record level of $68 billion in July according the Department of Commerce. As the U.S. deficit increases, it depresses the dollar, since more foreign currency is needed to buy all those imports while demand for dollars weakens. The flip side of this is China's record trade surplus, which is flooding that country in foreign currency -- boosting reserves and creating upward pressure on Chinese currency. A rapid depreciation of the dollar could add to inflationary pressures here at home, while inflicting substantial losses on foreign investors' dollar-based investments.

The IMF says that with the world fixated on the U.S. slowdown, not enough attention is being paid to these imbalances. The IMF scheduled multilateral consultation between the U.S., China and Saudi Arabia, to help find an orderly solution to the problem.

The managing director of the IMF, Spaniard Rodrigo de Rato, remains optimistic, however. He sees continued smooth sailing for the world economy, albeit with more ominous clouds on the horizon today than a few years ago. So you can see there continues to be a lot of debate among the smart money about the direction of the world economy. We need to monitor the data and commentary to guide our investment approach through the rest of the year.