IDFA – The Movie FORECASTER
The debut of the movie the Forecaster was an amazing success. Everyone is clamoring to show the film around the world. It may debut in Russia before year-end. There were three major screenings which I attended that were followed by Q&A sessions. The first was the general attendees, the second was for a group of lawyers, and the third was a group of bankers.
The questions were very telling. The lawyers recognized the lack of any law. The bankers saw immediately how can $1 billion be missing. Obviously, you cannot get that kind of money out of a bank without wire transfer. Hence, how can the government pretend they have no idea where the money went? Wires can easily be verified who took what and where did it go. Consequently, that is why Republic National Bank had to plead guilty.
The film was also selected for the IDFA dinner. So out of all the films, some 3,000 entries, this was the film selected by the board of directors for the dinner. Two people were from Russia and while they first said it would be difficult for any film to be shown in Russia since it must be cleared by the government, after watching the film they wanted to show it privately in Moscow immediately.
It looks like the film is on its way to raise the awareness of the crisis we face. That was my entire reason to agree to be followed around since 2011 to make this film.
Retail Sales Declining – Hello European Deflation
Governments are pretty much brain-dead in their vain attempts to manipulate the economy. They think that lowering interest rates will “stimulate” the economy and cause people to borrow. That has never worked because people respond to the trend and function in anticipation. The root driving force is rather straight forward. Why is there an inflationary bubble? People anticipate that prices will continue to rise so they buy now for it will only be more expensive tomorrow. Japan saw a surge in retail sales the month before the consumption tax rate increase. People are not as stupid as government suspects.
In reverse, constantly lowering interest rates is feeding the deflation. It not merely reduces income for the elderly making savings pointless, but it has been reflected in the decline in retail sales. Why buy today when tomorrow will be cheaper?
Reuters has reported: “Special Report: Why Italy’s stay-home shoppers terrify the euro zone” What is fascinating is that we can read reports like this, yet both the academic community and the political community will not change their theories. Reuters quoted:
“People aren’t stocking up because they know prices will be lower in a month’s time,” says Santambrogio, chief executive of Vege, a Milan-based association covering 1,500 supermarkets and specialist stores. “Shoppers are demanding steeper and steeper discounts.”
It is really hard to comprehend that in this pretend science called economics, we never investigate HOW something functions, but how to manipulate the economy to compel it by force to do as we desire. Any people think our analysis investigating how things function is somehow off the beaten-path.