Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear!

[Gluestick]

Exciting news concerning the Italian referendum, this morning.

See Here:

"Italians to Vote on Referendum with Massive Potential Consequences"

We already know that the Italian banks are faced with a massive liquidity crisis and there is no hope the Italian government can or would bail them out. Indeed, the Italian State, has failed to collect taxes and duties, far larger than its annual budget!

And the ECB or EU cannot help, financially, since this is both outside its legal ambit and constitution and thus law and in any case, to do so, no matter how sneakily, would trip escalating demands for emergency assistance from Greece et al.

Lovely, isn't it, when ideologues run themselves so far into a blind creek and collectively forget to bring even one paddle!

[URL=http://www.sherv.net/][IMG]http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/laughing/roflmao.gif[/IMG][/URL]

[EuroTrash]

Or for a clearer and more informative explanation without all the hype:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2016/12/02/01003-20161202ARTFIG00256-italie-les-enjeux-du-referendum-constitutionnel.php

[Gluestick]

And, for an easier way to reach the URL...

Here:

[Gluestick]

Hype: Journalese for Hyperbole.

Definition:

"Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.".

Well, as with most other commentators and analysts, I fully intended for the econometrics to be taken absolutely, and most literally.

It is factual the Italian banking system is poised on the edge of a cliff: it is factual that Italy's Treasury is owed more than the annual expected gross revenue from tax and duty et al.  You may well describe facts as "Hype"................

[Www]

[EuroTrash]

"It is factual the Italian banking system is poised on the edge of a cliff"

Good god!

All those computers and bags of coins and wads of notes and whatever else a banking system comprises, balanced on a cliff somewhere, ready to pitch into the sea - incredible!

Have you got a link to a photo of this? Do you know the exact geographical location of this cliff, where the nearest town is? On the Amalfi coast perhaps, I believe that's quite cliffy?

Or when you say "factual" and "literal", perhaps you don't actually mean "factual and "literal"... So, yes I would describe statements such as "poised on the edge of a cliff", when literally and factually they're obviously not, as "hype" - seems to fit the definition to a T.

[Gluestick]

Nice attempt.

However the contemporaneous banking system is mainly digital: money, per se, other than the rapidly diminishing quantity of "wads of notes and bags of coins", which are miniscule when compared to imaginary "money" which is represented by binary digits and gallops around the globe in its mega-trillions each and every day.

Perhaps when it all crashes, soon, it will fall over a virtualised digital cliff.

And I am assured, Cliff doesn't reside anywhere near the Amalfi Coast, lovely though it is, but in a virtuality Cloud server located in a Data Farm near Phoenix, Ariz.

[EuroTrash]

Well yes I can see why Italy prefers imaginary money to real money :-)

but the banking "system", surely, is the hardware and the software through which those digits gallop, and it won't be nice for the fish when all that goes over the edge, unless they're virtual fish too.

I remember in my very early career I worked in a university Fees Office, and being a naive and conscientious sort of person, I used to get very worried when the figures in the various funds and accounts didn't balance (which for reasons best known to themselves, they rarely did). Until the day one of my more experienced colleagues said "Oh do stop worrying, it's not real money, it's just figures on a sheet of paper." That was quite an eye-opening moment for me, and it's been my mantra ever since when figures don't come out right.

[idun]

The Italian Job.......... wonderful.............[Www]

[richard51]

Sometimes the figures on sheets of paper can mean a great deal to actual human beings. SHAME ON YOU.

[EuroTrash]

That is exactly my point Richard51.

I just found it bizarre how money that is very real to human beings (like the grants that we gave out to students every term - don't worry, we never cheated students out of their grants), where a few pounds this way or that can make a difference, somehow turns virtual behind the scenes, it is nothing more than figures on a piece of a paper to organisations through whose hands it passes, and even the odd 000 this way or that didn't seem to concern anyone overduly. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's only "money" when you feel a personal connection with it. When you're dealing with large quantities of the stuff and none of it is yours, it is just figures. I'm a bit like that when I do my own accounts now, sometimes I miss an entire job off because I forgot to write it down, and the client points it out, and instead of being glad because I'm going to get more money than I thought, I think what a nuisance it is to have to redo the invoice. And then when it arrives in my bank I gloat over it down to the last cent. Weird.

[Gluestick]

[quote user="EuroTrash"]Well yes I can see why Italy prefers imaginary money to real money :-)

but the banking "system", surely, is the hardware and the software through which those digits gallop, [/quote]

Not quite.

Politicians have allowed bankers to create their own little World within a World.

Unfortunately, it is the banker's synthetic and imposed World which now controls all of us and the politicians and nation states too. Indeed, both governments and people have become serfs: we are now enslaved to the bankers and mega-wealthy financial institutions.

Reading your and Richard's early comments on figures and money, it is correct that to us mere mortal grunts, we sweat to earn a  few quid or Euros, only to see the value of such (which, naturally, we equate to living, paying our bills, putting food on the table etc), constantly depreciate. Which begs the simple question "Is our actual work, our sweat,  our application worth less overnight? And if so, then why?"

Modern so-called "Banking" is now an horrendously complex, intertwined and interactive incestuous network of masquerade. Thanks to what are called Fractional Reserve Banking and Credit Money Creation and Debt Creation from nothing, our belief that governments create money which acts a medium of exchange (e.g. value given for value received), is simply now myth.

What banks do is create Debt; and illusory, mythical "Money"!

Well worth re-reading the great cynical humorous writer, Stephen Leacock's short story on money....

Scroll down to "How to Borrow Money".

Here:

[richard51]

Gluestick - you miss the point entirely about the the current western monetary system and the role of politicians in manipulating voters in prolonging it.

You say: "What banks do is create Debt; and illusory, mythical "Money"!"

Rubbish. The politicians use the banks (with or without bankers agreement) as a tool to do that. Your description of banking is as a result of politicians.

In your post I would be interested to hear who you think these all powerful bankers are and how do they influence political thought.