Mount Kelud Erupts on the Island of Java
On May 19, 1919, an eruption at Mount Kelud killed an estimated 5,000 people. More recent eruptions in 1951, 1966, and 1990 as well a 2007 demonstrate the activity in the Ring of Fire. This is coming on time as well for the major cycle is 34 years and the short-term cycle is 17.2 years. Reuters has reported that more than 76,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and flights were grounded across most of Indonesia’s densely populated island of Java since volcanic ash destroys jet engines. Today, another volcanic eruption sent a huge plume of ash and sand 17 km (10 miles) into the air.
Understanding the Unit of Account – Even Bitcoin is Expressed in Dollars As Is Gold
QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I read somewhere that neither gold nor silver were the actual unit of account in Rome. Is that true? And what did that mean?
Thank you
J
ANSWER: The “unit of account” in Rome began as bronze. The earliest money was just lumps of bronze that has practical value for it could be shaped into weapons or tools. Previously, money was cattle as it remains in many parts of Africa to this very day. The cattle in Africa are not eaten – they are the long-horn type. They are prized. The owner walks around with a band on his arm for each animal he owns displaying his wealth for status.
Despite the introduction of gold and silver that were first used in international trade – it was bronze which continued to be the main currency. Even during the beginning of the Imperial Era, bronze was still the unit of account even though silver was now the common currency for transactions. The Sestertius was used as the standard unit of account, and it is represented on inscriptions with the monogram HS. Large values were recorded in terms ofsestertium milia, thousands of Sestertii, with the milia often omitted and implied. The super rich military general and politician of the late Roman Republic, Crassus who fought in the war to defeat Spartacus and funded Julius Caesar, was said by Pliny the Elder to have had ‘estates worth 200 million sesterces’.
A loaf of bread cost roughly half a Sestertius, and a sextarius (~0.5 liter) of wine varied based upon quality from less than half to more than one Sestertius. One modius (6.67 kg) of wheat in 79 AD Pompeii cost 7 Sestertii, whereas a modius of rye 3 Sestertii, a bucket cost 2 Sestertii, a tunic cost 15 Sestertii, and a donkey was 500 Sestertii all according to records that have survived. Records unearthed from Pompeii show a slave being sold at auction for 6,252 Sestertii – that was quite a sum. A writing tablet from Londinium (Roman London), dated to c. 75–125 AD, records the sale of a Gallic slave girl called Fortunata for 600 Denarii that was equal to 2,400 Sestertii.
During the 1st century AD, the standard legionary soldier was paid 900 Sestertii per annum, rising to 1,200 under Domitian (81-96 AD), the equivalent of 3.3 Sestertii per day. From this amount, about half of this was deducted for living costs, with net to the soldier of about .1.5 Sestertii per day.
By the 3rd century, the silver had been debased with bronze and the sesterius was no longer even minted. During the reform of Diocletian he attempted to reintroduce both silver and bronze with the new bronze coin being the Folles.
The US dollar was once a lot of money. However, the dollar remains the unit of account. It is a concept of value used around the world just as Roman coins were in ancient times. Saint Patrick upon traveling to Ireland, discovered that the unit of account was a slave girl. That did not mean you dragged a bunch of girls behind you to go shopping. What it meant was that this was the UNIT OF ACCOUNT that was being judged and everything else was valued in proportion to the value of a slave girl. Indeed, after the fall of Rome, the UNIT OF ACCOUNT became a slave girl in Britain and Ireland and this is why Saint Patrick wrote that his expenses were the cost of 15 humans. Without Rome, something had to emerge as the new standard of value by which everything else is measured.
Many cheer Bitcoin, yet it is being valued in terms of dollars that demonstrates that dollars will remain as the UNIT OF ACCOUNT. Even gold is measured in dollars. So for all the words of hate hurled at the dollar, they still measure everything in dollars – the world’s UNIT OF ACCOUNT as was the Roman Sesterius.
Airlines Now Warning About Travel Disruptions Due to Protests in Ukraine
Here at eBookers, we are always watching for events that may affect your travel.
Anti-government protests in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and many other cities, have been taking place since earlier this year and are likely to persist for the foreseeable future. Thousands of protesters remain ensconced in central Kyiv, mainly on Independence Square (Maydan Nezalezhnosti) and European Square (Yevropeisky Maydan), but other protest sites include Taras Shevchenka Park and Mikhaylovskaya Square, as well as areas in front of government buildings.
Police presence will be high and we’ll likely see traffic disruptions near the protest sites.
We recommend that you avoid all protests and monitor local news for the latest information on the location and severity of the protests.
Global Market Watch Feb 13th, 2014
Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail
Matt Taibbi is back exposing the deal they snuck under the table for HSBC who got caught money laundering for drug dealers and terrorists. The bankers have been getting away with unbelievable fraud because they have been blackmailing government arguing who will sell their debt if they go down. The days of these bankers are really coming to an end. Once the Economic Confidence Model turns 2015.75, this will begin to look rather grim as they blow-themselves-up once again. Bankers simply follow the money and that is why they always collapse for they have no ethics or long-term strategy. They go with the trend until it takes them downEVERY time.
They can control the New York courts, keep federal prosecutors on a short leash, and they can keep politicians in play with bribes (campaign donations), and they can blackmail the mainstream press. However, they cannot control the press outside of mainstream and includes these days the internet where the majority of the younger generation read – not newspapers.
Nuclear Fusion Energy Coming Closer
Scientists have at last created fusion in California, albeit not yet hot fusion to power energy plants. Nevertheless, progress is being made and this will be the next energy source after 2032. Based upon our models, there should be a major innovation that changes the economic structure after 2032 and it is most likely going to be fusion energy. This is the energy source that actually powers the sun.
Global Warming Why it is Nonsense
A few people have written to say I have a closed mind with respect to the impact humans can have on the environment. I dare say flip the coin – you are assuming we have the capacity to alter the planet as if we were God. I have investigated this very carefully. Like markets, yes you can manipulate them within the trend, but you cannot change a bear market into a bull market at will. The same is true for the global environment.
We can poison a local area, dump garbage in the river, and we can even meltdown nuclear power plants. However, this is like cutting your finger – it is not cutting your head off and you will survive. We cannot look at local pollution which is nasty and can make the air hard to breath in an industrial city. However, that does not rise to the level of altering the environment of the entire planet. Granted, we should be clean and respectful. As the old saying goes – you do not shit where you eat.
But there is ABSOLUTELY no evidence whatsoever that the planet is going through some warming stages created by mankind. That is total nonsense. This is like the Precession of the Equinox that takes 25,800 years to complete and to move just one degree takes 72 years. This is why one person could never have made such an observation.
I have reviewed the cyclical discoveries of Sallie Baliunas. Ice core samples were taken going back thousands of years and what was discovered is that the sun is indeed a thermal dynamic system that beats like your heart and there is a 300 year cycle between maximum and minimum. Do not confuse short-term trends or local observations for a few decades and assume we have altered the entire planet.
I attended the dinner in Washington that was a political bash. I went with my friend Dick Fox who was Chairman of Temple University at that time. The person in charge of seating put the two of us at the table with the environmental group heads. They assumed we were with a university and spoke freely. The conversation was frank and it was all about how to use the environmental movement to reduce population. They fought for wetlands to stop construction. We listened to this revelation and Dick egged them on pretending to be on their side. They even want harsh prison terms for minorities to stop them from have children. Dick finally asked them – Whose grandchild are you trying to prevent from being born? Your’s or mine? The farce was then up.
There is a difference from wanting a clean environment and using this as a tool for a hidden agenda. It is no different from taxing the rich that ends up as always the middle class while they borrow from the poor and do not even pay them interest with their annual tax refund.
To top it off, people ASSUME that we even have the power with nuclear bombs to destroy then planet. That is probably not even likely. They also assume that if we set one-off all life will be dead forever. They make a lot of assumptions based upon a guess that is NOT even EDUCATED.
Wildlife has defied Chernobyl radiation. It appears that living creatures do adapt in an amazing manner (not changing species) such as we have grown taller and live longer. The radiation area that has been abandoned by humans has turned into a natural animal preserve. The Black Plague killed more than 50% of the European population at the time, yet the survivors were immune. The same has been shown with radiation. Some animals have adapted to the radiation levels and not just vanished (see BBC report).
We can impact a local area, but we CANNOT alter the course of the entire planet. On that score, we are but a pimple on a fly’s ass. So until I see HARD evidence beyond assumptions for a few decades, I will keep it real. We can not alter the trend of a market anymore than we can change the environment of the entire world.
Tis the Season for War
Tis the season for war and tensions continue to rise on every possible front. I have received so many questions as to how can our Cycle of War be so accurate. This is not a single dimension analysis. It is not my personal opinion. I am not a talking head to fill air time with opinion. This is a model based upon historical fact – not fiction. It is a model that is constructed upon the entire history of the rise and fall of Empires, Nations, and City States. History repeats because the common denominator NEVER changes – human emotion. Turn the economy down and you get war. Keep raising taxes and you get civil unrest. This is not SUBJECTIVEanalysis – it is simply the evidence put forth by the ONLYunbiased researcher to have every existed – our computer. It is not religious, political, and it is race and color blind. It is simply what it is – just the facts.
A standoff between Western powers and Russia is ragingBehind the Curtain. The focal points are the Ukraine and the Middle East. This standoff is emerging with respect with Syria as the West supported the Saudi Arabian pipeline to get gas to Europe to eliminate Russia’s monopoly. The US has even begun to ship oil to Europe.
The US and Russia are deadlocked in talks at Geneva. Reutershas reported that Russia threw down the gauntlet in the UN Security Council with its own proposal.