Zimbabwe’s Central Bank Rules Out Return To US Dollar

Zimbabwe’s Central Bank Rules Out Return To US Dollar

Accreditation   Ray Ndlovu

Zimbabwe's central bank has ruled out a return to using the US dollar as official currency because there's not enough greenbacks in the country.

The financial system is still dominated by the local unit, Governor John Mangudya said in a monetary policy statement released Monday. The Zimbabwean dollar, reintroduced three years ago, accounts for 56% of bank deposits with the balance made up of foreign currency, "which shows that there is no sufficient foreign currency liquidity to support dollarisation in Zimbabwe," he said.

The current system in which both the Zimbabwean dollar and foreign currencies are used for payments is ideal for promoting growth and competitiveness of the economy, Mangudya said.

The governor's comments come as the government has sought to encourage the use of the local unit that's plunged by 22% against the US currency since October. That's helped fuel inflation to more than 60% in January.

The US dollar is being used to pay for everything from fuel, food, medicines and school fees. State workers and bank employees have requested to be paid in greenbacks.

The local currency must be embraced to minimise the "sentimental value" of holding onto the past dollarisation era which had its own challenges, including making the economy uncompetitive and difficult to service foreign obligations, Mangudya said.

The southern African country shifted to the US dollar from 2009 to 2019, after the local currency collapsed and a bout of hyperinflation decimated savings and resulted in fuel and food shortages.

Dollarisation is "not a panacea to sustainably and competitively develop the country," he said

https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/zimbabwes-central-bank-rules-out-return-to-us-dollar-20220207

Be Curious

Be Curious

Jan 3, 2022 Guest post by Ted Lamade, Managing Director at The Carnegie Institution for Science

There is a great scene in the first season of Ted Lasso in which the show’s antagonist, Rupert Mannion, challenges Lasso to a game of darts. After seeing him make a few poor throws, Mannion is confident that it is easy money. The two play and Mannion appears to be on the verge of winning with Lasso needing two “triple 20s” and a bullseye on his final three shots. Then, just before he throws his darts, Lasso turns to Mannion and says in his Southern drawl,

“You know Rupert, guys have underestimated me my entire life. It used to really bother me, but then one day I was driving my little boy to school and saw a quote by Walt Whitman painted on a wall that said, ‘Be curious, not judgmental’. I liked that. See all those fellas who belittled me, none of them were curious. They thought they had everything figured out. So, they judged everything* and everyone*.

And then I realized that their underestimating me had nothing to do with it…..because if they were curious, they would have asked questions. Questions like, ‘Have you played a lot of darts Ted?’ Which I would have answered, ‘Yes sir. Every Sunday afternoon at a sports bar with my father from age 10 until I was 16 until he passed away’.”

Lasso proceeds to drill all three shots and wins the game (watch the scene on YouTube if you have a minute). In short, a hustler got hustled because he wasn’t curious enough. He made judgements based on incorrect assumptions and didn’t ask the right questions

Being curious is one of life’s most underappreciated qualities. It’s an admission that you don’t have it all figured out. It means you’re willing to listen and learn. Most importantly, it often differentiates the good from the great.

The Innovators

Ted Lasso is a work of fiction, but this concept of curiosity is not. Look no further than what Walter Isaacson said was the most common trait he observed in the people he wrote about in his book “The Innovators”.

“Curiosity. Pure, passionate, and playful curiosity about everything. Steve Jobs was curious about calligraphy and coding, while Da Vinci was curious about art and anatomy. They wanted to know everything about everything that was knowable. Ben Franklin wanted to know about science, the humanities and poetry. Even Einstein wanted to understand Mozart at the same time that he studied general relativity.

Curiosity leads to an interest in all sorts of disciplines, which means you can stand at the intersection of the arts and sciences, which is where creativity occurs. A wide range in curiosity allows you to see patterns exist across nature and how those patterns ripple.”

Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital echoed a similar sentiment in a recent podcast when asked about the most important characteristic of a venture capital investor.

“The most important thing is curiosity. Are you interested in learning about new things? Are you interested in meeting new people? Are you interested in listening to their ideas about a company and how they are going to change the world? If not, or if you lose this curiosity, then you become jaded and you should probably stop being an investor.”

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/be-curious/

Big Skills

Big Skills

Jan 25, 2022 by Morgan Housel

Scott Adams, the Dilbert creator, says he doesn’t have any extraordinary skills. He’s a pretty good artist. He’s kind of funny, an OK writer, and decent at business. But multiply those mediocre skills together and you get one of the most successful cartoonists of all time. A lot of things work like that. A couple ordinary things you don’t notice on their own create something spectacular when they mix together at the right time.

One of the big leaps forward for humanity is when we mixed copper, which is soft, with tin, which is like paper, and created bronze, which is hard and made great tools and weapons. It was like two plus one equals ten.

Same with the weather. A little cool air from the north is no big deal. A little warm breeze from the south is pleasant. But when they mix together over Missouri you get a tornado.

Same with people. It’s tempting to want to find the one big skill that will set you apart. But most incredible things come from compounding, and compounding isn’t intuitive because the incremental inputs are never exciting on their own.

A few little things that are easy to ignore yet work wonders when combined together:

Curiosity across disciplines, most of which are outside your profession.

A well-calibrated sense of your future regret.

The ability to endure risk vs. assuming you can avoid it.

Respecting luck as much as you respect risk.

The willingness to adapt views you wish were permanent.

Low susceptibility to FOMO.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/skills/

More Iraqi News Sunday PM 1-30-22 SPECIAL: What happened to Neanderthals?

More Iraqi News Sunday PM 1-30-22 SPECIAL:  What happened to Neanderthals?

TLM724 Administrator BondLady’s Corner

SPECIAL:  What happened to Neanderthals?

In time immemorial, humans shared planet Earth with Neanderthals, our closest ancient relatives, but in the end Homo sapiens flourished across the globe while our relatives were doomed to extinction. How did it come to this?

Shawn Smith    Friday 28 January 2022 16:08

Perhaps because of their physical strength, our cousins have been misrepresented as rude, but it is possible that they were also a kind people (Getty Images)

The Neanderthals were already threatened with extinction when our early modern human ancestors migrated to Europe about 45,000 years ago. After more than five thousand years, there are no Neanderthals left on the face of the planet. It is true that we will never know whether we are directly responsible for the extinction of our closest ancient relatives, but it is perhaps safe to assume that we are innocent of the fate to which they have fallen.

Since their remains were discovered in the "Neander Valley" near Düsseldorf, Germany in 1856, a rather bad stereotype has stuck with Neanderthals. Our closest relatives, who used to be described as apes but are somewhat more evolved, are now believed to have much more in common with us than previously thought.

Several discoveries have shown that our relatives were very sophisticated and experienced hunters who could make tools and jewels. In fact, the genomes of modern humans and that of Neanderthals look 99.7 percent identical, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise given that we share a common ancestor that lived in Africa only half a million years ago. Evolutionarily speaking, this time period is more like the blink of an eye.

After breaking away from our common ancestor, the line that gave rise to Homo sapiens survived in Africa until relatively recently, while the ancestors of Neanderthals formed part of an early wave of migration into Eurasia. And when the two species were finally reunited in Europe, 45,000 years ago, one can only wonder whether Neanderthals underestimated their new neighbours, those weak monkeys who were taller and thinner and babbled among themselves in incomprehensible language.

Neanderthals were far more powerful than us. Their musculature was so highly developed that the remains of their skeletons sometimes seemed to curve under the weight of the weight. Their face seemed to be drawn more forward due to their protruding nose, believed to be an evolutionary adaptation designed to warm the air they breathe in order to better enable them to live in colder climates.

Their stocky bodies and short arms and legs resemble the structure of modern humans inhabiting the highlands of the Arctic, as both were likely able to adapt to living in these places through the limited surface area of the body and to maintain their temperature in cold environments.

Having inhabited northern latitudes for a period of time five times longer than modern northern Europeans, Neanderthals likely evolved other adaptive traits as well: blue or green eyes, light skin, and blond hair. It is also not excluded that they spent much more time hunting than gathering food;

A chemical analysis of their bones reveals very high levels of carbon and nitrogen isotopes, which are a distinct feature of animals in the highest carnivorous class, and skeletons of animals are usually found huddled near Neanderthal sites.

It is believed that Neanderthals were experienced predators who adopted surprise as a way to hunt their prey, as they were able to cooperate and think strategically to kill a woolly mammoth, for example, while the process of reconstructing their vocal tract shows that they had at least 25 percent of the vocal ability of modern humans, that is, it was more than enough to formulate an effective primitive language.

Neanderthals had thick eyebrows and large nostrils, but the distinctive depression of the backbone is the most obvious defining characteristic. For hundreds of thousands of years, the Neanderthals stretched from North Wales through Eurasia to Siberia, and even as far as modern China.

So where did things go wrong for the Neanderthals?

Given that the cave sites they favored as living quarters are well suited to preserving the bones, each new archaeological discovery provides additional evidence that experts add to the fossil record that so far contains the remains of more than a thousand Neanderthals, giving us a tantalizing glimpse of what might have been. It caused the decline of the Neanderthals.

It is unlikely that the extinction of Neanderthals was a single event, but rather a complex process involving multiple factors that occurs gradually over thousands of years. Various parts of Europe witnessed the extinction of this species at different times and for local reasons that varied in different places.

But even so, climate change is probably the most important factor in the decline of Neanderthals. A sudden drop in temperature on the planet about 50,000 years ago may have disrupted the ecosystem and stressed the groups of medium to large mammals that Neanderthals hunted.

Since then, massive cold waves lasting about a thousand years have coincided with the gradual extinction of our ancient relatives.

It seems that Neanderthal populations dwindled in numbers and retreated to remote and hard-to-reach areas in order to survive. As a living species, Neanderthals are believed to have been over-reliant on a limited carnivorous diet, and their supposed inability to adapt their hunting methods led to their annihilation.

But why were Neanderthals unable to adapt to new environmental challenges, unlike our early modern human ancestors who discovered ways to survive? Although our ancient relatives were able to use and benefit from stones, stone tools discovered at sites hundreds of thousands of years old bear few signs of technical progress, strengthening the theory that they may not have been innovators.

Our ancestors of Homo sapiens in Africa went through the same period of stagnation about 100,000 years ago when they experienced a "cognitive revolution" or a "great intellectual leap forward". This is probably rooted in a sudden advance in their linguistic and conceptual abilities.

Stephen Sheenan, an archaeologist at University College London, has proposed that the pace of cultural innovations greatly accelerated as our early modern ancestors began to live in larger groups that required advanced social and cognitive skills, and this view is supported by research by Robin Dunbar. An anthropologist at the University of Oxford.

Dunbar's research demonstrated that different types of primates had the optimal number of members before hierarchy and relationships began to fall apart, and groups split into competing teams. Dunbar is best known for showing that modern humans can maintain stable relationships with 150 people, which is why it's the perfect size for efficient companies, rural villages, active military units, and personal social networks.

For our early modern ancestors, societies of 150 would have given us tremendous power, but according to Dunbar, our true strength derives from the way our language evolved to track and share useful information about our friends and foes. Gossip theory holds that the development of human language is an evolutionary adaptation of storytelling.

Mystery has helped hold larger groups of people together, but it has also spawned imagination, artistic creativity, and most importantly the ability to discuss things that don't happen right in front of our eyes.

Yuval Noah Harari, in his best-selling Sapiens book, uses Robin Dunbar's "Theory of Nonsense" to suggest that the distinctly human quality of storytelling and abstract thinking has truly allowed us to inherit the Earth.

Our ancestors of Homo sapiens in Africa went through the same period of stasis about 100,000 years ago (Getty Images)

For Harari, fiction and superstition form the essential basis for ideas that can break through Dunbar's 150-person threshold, transforming separated human societies into a complex culture that engages in innovation among tribes, critical trade networks, religions, and ultimately nation-states populated by millions or even billions. the people:

Harari writes, "Nevertheless, none of these things exist outside the stories that people invent and pass on to one another. There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws, no justice outside the common imagination of human beings."

Also, solid evidence indicates that early modern humans did develop long-distance trading networks that protected them from starvation when sudden and unpredictable food shortages threatened their survival.

By contrast, before the arrival of the first modern humans, Europe appears to have been inhabited by very small, scattered and isolated communities of Neanderthals, which explains the delays in their technical progress.

Also, recent advances in the analysis of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) of Neanderthal remains have yielded very significant results.

Bones found in a Croatian cave in the 1980s belong to a Neanderthal who lived 52,000 years ago, but she was surprisingly genetically similar to another Neanderthal that inhabited Siberia 122,000 years ago.

The fact that two Neanderthal women separated by some 4,000 miles and 70,000 years were closely related also supports the theory that a decline in Neanderthal genetic diversity contributed to their extinction.

In contrast, a recent study led by the University of Denmark found that the genomes of early modern humans were more genetically diverse, supporting the theory that ancient humans lived in very large networked societies that helped them regularly exchange sexual partners, genes, and ideas.

Because of their greater diversity, early modern humans had a greater ability to resist infectious diseases, and were generally more successful as a living species. Apparently, incest was taboo in their culture, while Neanderthal genomes reveal very high rates of interbreeding necessitated by their tendency to live in isolated communities.

Most anthropologists believe that Neanderthals were able to use a fairly sophisticated language, but their cultural isolation suggests that whenever they met other Neanderthals, language barriers prevented the spread of their community networks.

But it's not just our tendency to communicate that privileged our ancestors. During the "cognitive revolution" in Africa, quantitative changes occurred in the brains of our ancestors, making them better equipped to survive in hostile environments.

Neanderthal brains, which evolved independently in Europe, carried less developed parietal lobes and cerebellum, regions involved in tool use, creativity, problem solving, and high-level conceptualization, so it is possible that our ancestors survived the challenges of climate change because they were resourceful innovators..

Knitting may not seem like a revolutionary technique, but associated skills such as spinning enabled us to make nets, traps, and traps that allowed the young and old in early modern human societies to hunt small mammals and fetch a very wide variety of protein-rich foods.

Read More:

 Neanderthal fossil bears first possible evidence of disease transmitted from animals to humans

A third human lineage in East Asia is closer to us than Neanderthals.

Fossil remains of 9 Neanderthals found in an Italian cave

Neanderthals heard and spoke like humans

Modern man is innocent of the extinction of Neanderthals

The discovery of the direct ancestor of Neanderthals in Ethiopia

Neanderthals stored bone marrow as soup cans 400,000 years ago

While our ancestors continued to develop more intelligent ways of killing animals from a distance using lancet weapons, and later bows and arrows, it is believed that Neanderthals remained so attached to close range ambushes that it proved to be a dire occupational hazard.

However, later on, evidence began to emerge on Neanderthal sites that they used more advanced technologies just before their extinction. According to a theory put forward by Paul Millars, emeritus professor of prehistory at the University of Cambridge, they began to imitate their new neighbors.

But in terms of innovation, it may have come too late for the Neanderthals. In an analytical study carried out by Millers comparing the population density in Homo sapiens and Neanderthal sites in southern France, the evidence is compelling. After arriving in Europe, which was inhabited by only a few thousand, the professor concluded, modern humans soon outnumbered Neanderthals by ten to one.

According to anthropologist Pat Shipman, because early humans were anatomically taller and thinner with a lower metabolic rate, as hunter-gatherers they were more energy efficient and needed fewer calories to survive in a challenging environment.

Their superiority in the ability to travel long distances was enhanced by the domestication of wolves, which enabled them to track prey more efficiently and protect valuable prey skeletons from other predators, thus outperforming their Neanderthal competitors.

Recent improvements in radiocarbon dating technology with 95 percent confidence indicate that about 45,000 years ago, modern humans and Neanderthals entered into intertwined relationships in Europe for a period of 2,600 to 5,400 years.

The disappearance of Neanderthals soon after our ancestors arrived in Europe may suggest that we accelerated their extinction. Their demise is one of history's most pressing mysteries, and some believe we are directly involved.

It is certain that two very similar predatory species cannot coexist in the same place indefinitely, as they are likely to compete for living space, cave sites and fishing resources. However, since the population is very small, and one primitive human being lived in every 100 square kilometers according to estimates, chances of coexistence, constant competition, or even chance encounters must have been rare.

But it is known that a few short meetings, to say the least, have brought them together. Until recently, Neanderthals and early modern humans were thought to have lived as completely separate species from one another, but in 2014 evolutionary geneticists shocked the scientific community by declaring that Neanderthals were not completely extinct in the end.

An analysis of the modern human genome has revealed that almost all living things today that originate outside of sub-Saharan Africa carry some Neanderthal DNA in their genes, because interbreeding undoubtedly occurred whenever early humans and Neanderthals encountered throughout their intertwined history. So we find quite a bit of Neanderthal in many of us around the world.

New archaeological discoveries continue to provide tantalizing glimpses into the evolving Neanderthal culture.

When it comes to language and intellectual development, symbolic representation is of great importance, so it may be clear that recent research by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has used uranium and thorium dating to show that Neanderthals were practicing cave art at three separate sites in Spain before 20,000 A year after modern humans first arrived in Europe.

If Neanderthals did indeed engage in symbolic thinking, it is possible that they might have been almost epistemologically indistinguishable from their recent modern human neighbours.

They probably only preceded us by 30,000 years, and died before they had a chance to complete the great cognitive leap that our African ancestors took 100,000 years ago.

Perhaps because of their physical strength, our muscular and burly cousins were misrepresented as primitive savages, but it is possible that they were also a kind people.

Neanderthal remains reveal horrific hunting injuries they suffered and then recovered long before their deaths, suggesting that they tended to their wounded long after they were unable to contribute to the group's survival.

Just like early modern humans, these people likely buried their dead in order to preserve their bodies for the afterlife. Certainly, burial sites established by later Neanderthals contained funerary goods.

One site in Iraq also revealed high levels of pollen, indicating that flowers were placed in their graves.

https://www.independentarabia.com/node/298846

To read more current and reliable Iraqi news please visit BondLady’s Corner:

 https://www.bondladyscorner.com/

Does Not Compute

Does Not Compute  Jan 5, 2022 by Morgan Housel

Alot of things don’t make any sense. The numbers don’t add up, the explanations are full of holes. And yet they keep happening – people making crazy decisions, reacting in bizarre ways. Over and over.

Historian Will Durant once said, “logic is an invention of man and may be ignored by the universe.” And it often is, which can drive you mad if you expect the world to work in rational ways. A common cause of everything from divisive arguments to bad forecasting is that it can be hard to distinguish what’s happening from what you think should be happening.  Two short war stories to show you what I mean.

The Battle of the Bulge was one of the deadliest American military battles in history. Nineteen thousand American soldiers were killed, another 70,000 missing or wounded, in just over a month as Nazi Germany made an ill-fated last push against the Allies.

Part of the reason it was so bloody is that Americans were surprised. And part of the reason they were surprised is that in the rational minds of American generals, it made no sense for Germany to attack.

The Germans didn’t have enough troops to win a counterattack, and the few that were left were often children under age 18 with no combat experience. They didn’t have enough fuel. They were running out of food. The terrain of the Ardenne Forest in Belgium stacked the odds against them. The weather was atrocious.

The Allies knew all of this. They reasoned that any rational German commander would not launch a counterattack. So the American lines were left fairly thin and ill-supplied.

And then, boom. The Germans attacked anyway.

What the American generals overlooked was how unhinged Hitler had become. He wasn’t rational. He was living in his own world, detached from reality and reason. When his generals asked where they should get fuel to complete the attack, Hitler said they could just steal it from the Americans. Reality didn’t matter.

Historian Stephen Ambrose notes that Eisenhower and General Omar Bradley got all the war-planning reasoning and logic right in late 1944, except for one detail – how irrational Hitler had become. But that mattered more than anything.

A generation later, something similar happened during the Vietnam war.

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara viewed the world as a big math problem. He wanted everything quantified, and based his career on the idea that any problem could be solved if you obeyed the cold truth of statistics and logic.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/does-not-compute/

Governments Have Been Screwing Up Their Supply Chains For 2,000 Years

Governments Have Been Screwing Up Their Supply Chains For 2,000 Years

Notes From The Field  By Simon Black   January 18, 2022

On the evening of March 16th in the year 37 AD, one of the most controversial emperors in Roman history appeared to be dying in his bed.  Friends and family gathered to pay their final respects to Emperor Tiberius, who had ruled for more than two decades.  For some Romans, Tiberius was literally a god, and they worshipped him as a divinity. And many of Rome’s powerful politicians respected Tiberius for his numerous achievements.

Tiberius had managed to greatly strengthen the empire without waging costly wars. He improved civil services, cut taxes, reduced spending, and built up an astonishing surplus in the Treasury of nearly 700 million silver denarii, worth roughly $2 billion today.

Many Romans, however, including a number of prominent Senators, utterly despised Tiberius. They viewed him as a horrible tyrant who was a major threat to Rome’s republican democracy.

For most of his reign, in fact, several Roman Senators constantly plotted against him. Some even spread false rumors about Tiberius as a sexual deviant in an effort to discredit him.

So when the Emperor was finally on his deathbed, his enemies were relieved. Hours later, though, they panicked when Tiberius appeared to be recovering from his illness.

It was at that point that a Praetorian Guard commander named Quintus Macro, who had a sacred duty to protect the emperor, allegedly smothered Tiberius with a pillow, finally ending the political chaos.

Even in death Tiberius was controversial. Some Romans cried out for his body to be thrown in the Tiber River (a common ritual for criminals), while others demanded that his body receive divine rights of a god.

The Senate refused to provide divine honors, and wasted no time moving on from Tiberius. Two days later on March 18th, they appointed a young nobleman named Gaius Germanicus as the new Emperor.

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Germanicus was better known by his nickname— Caligula.

Caligula was supposed to be the anti-Tiberius. And that was essentially the reason they appointed him—to simply NOT be Tiberius.

And at first many Romans, especially those who hated Tiberius, were overjoyed with their new emperor.

Even foreign leaders were happy; the writer Philo, who lived in Egypt at the time, said that “everyone in all the world, from the rising sun to the setting sun” respected Caligula.

And initially Caligula delivered on his reputation; he revoked the tax cuts that Tiberius had passed, increased welfare payments to the poor, and made efforts to reform the election process.

But it wouldn’t be long before Caligula proved to be an epic disaster.

Within a few years Caligula was spending money at an alarming rate. He had nearly blown through the massive, record surplus left to him by Tiberius, and soon began to confiscate the properties of wealthy Roman citizens in order to make end meet.

Anyone who crossed him or questioned his methods was harassed, arrested, or even executed by the Praetorian Guard.

We also know now that Caligula suffered from a serious mental disorder, which historians today believe could have been encephalitis, temporal lobe epilepsy, or dementia.

That certainly accounts for his bizarre decision-making, like one of his more infamous exploits in AD 39.

Caligula came up with the genius idea of building a bridge between the coastal cities of Puteoli and Baiae.

Inspired by the Persian Emperor Xerxes’ approach of crossing the Hellespont in 480 BC while at war with the Greeks, Caligula commandeered nearly every merchant ship in the Roman Empire for his ambitious project.

He then had all the ships line up side-by-side, forming a continuous path across the bay between the two cities.

The ships were then mounted with planks and covered with dirt, essentially creating a floating, artificial land bridge.

Caligula’s bridge was certainly a marvel of Roman engineering. The problem, of course, is that there were virtually no remaining merchant ships left in the empire to transport goods.

Rome at the time was by far the world’s largest economy, and the largest consumer market. The city of Rome boasted a population of more than 1 million people—a record that would not be surpassed for more than 18 centuries.

And coupled with Rome’s significant engineering advances in roads and shipping, ancient Romans enjoyed a global supply chain that was unprecedented in its efficiency.

Roman markets boasted beef and wine from Sicily; oils from North Africa; ivory and spices from Ethiopia; fish and ham from Spain; clothing and cheese from Gaul (France); leather and oysters from Britain; goose liver from Belgium; amber and fur from Germany; silk and honey from Greece; wool and parchment from Turkey; figs and dates from Arabia…

The list goes on and on. As the ancient Greek author Aelius Aristides wrote, “Whoever wishes to see all the goods of the world must either journey throughout the world, or stay in Rome.”

Then Caligula decided to commandeer all the merchant vessels… and wouldn’t you know it? Poof. Supply chain disruption.

Suddenly there were no ships available to transport goods, including food, to the Empire. And as a result there was widespread famine in Rome.

Caligula, of course, refused to accept any responsibility for the famine. Instead he blamed several political opponents and had them killed. But the famine continued to rage.

History screams so many of these lessons at us, yet we continue to see the similar episodes repeat over and over again.

Today we have our own supply chain disruption.

The people in charge have forcibly shut down businesses and prevented workers from working. They have passed anti-competitive, anti-business regulations. They have created huge incentives for people to stay home and not work.

And yet they can’t seem to understand why companies are having such a hard time producing and shipping their products.

Like Caligula, they created the problem. And like Caligula they refuse to accept responsibility.

The leadership today is blaming “greed”, and they’re even sending their Praetorian Guard to harass productive businesses.

They are in no way looking at their own stupidity as the cause of the problems. And, similar to ancient Rome, it is for this reason that we should expect the supply chain dysfunction to continue.

PS: If you can see what is happening, and where this is all going, you understand why it is so important to have a Plan B. That’s why we published our 31-page, fully updated Perfect Plan B Guide, which you can download here.

Governments have been screwing up their supply chains for 2,000 years | Sovereign Man

America’s Attila the Hun Moment

America’s Attila the Hun Moment

Notes From The Field By Simon Black   January 11, 2022

In the year 435 AD, after several years of endless menacing from the nomadic Hun tribe, the Roman Empire was ready to make a deal.

The Huns were fairly new on the continent; they had originally come from central Eurasia as recently as 370 AD. Yet in the span of a few short decades, they quickly established themselves as the dominant tribe in Eastern Europe, conquering vast territories and threatening the Roman Empire.

The Empire was a pitiful shell of its former self at that point. So Emperor Theodosius II sent one of his generals to meet with the Huns in the city of Margus, now called Pozarevac in modern day Serbia.

The leader of the Huns was a short, flat-nosed warrior in his mid 30s named Attila who famously remained on his horse during the entire meeting with the Roman envoys.

Attila was cunning, and he knew the Romans were weak. So he intentionally made ridiculous demands.

Among them, he told the Romans he would leave them alone if they paid a tribute of 700 pounds of gold per year (worth about $13.3 million in today’s money).

This was a significant sum back then, especially given that the Roman Empire had lost its most productive gold mines in Hispania to the Visigoths and Vandals in the early 400s.

(The region of Andalusia in modern Spain is actually named for the Vandal tribe, derived from the Arabic word al-Andalus.)

In addition to the money, though, Attila also demanded that the Romans could not enter into any alliance with any other tribes if the Huns deemed them to be a threat.

In making this demand, Attila was essentially giving himself control of Rome’s foreign policy and military affairs.

But the Romans were not in a position to negotiate. They were weak… and terrified of what Attila might do. So they agreed. And Roman Consul Flavius Plinta signed the Treaty of Margus with Attila the Hun in 435 AD.

The peace didn’t last long. In 440, just five years later, Attila massed his forces on the Roman border once again and declared that the Empire had violated the Treaty of Margus.

Emperor Theodosius initially refused Attila’s demands, believing he could defeat the Huns. But at the same time he was busy fighting off other barbarian tribes, including the Vandals that had just conquered Roman provinces in North Africa, which happened to be the Empire’s main source of food.

Theodosius put up a fight, and he tried to negotiate. But after a few years he capitulated to Attila once again, and signed a new treaty in 443 AD.

This new treaty was nothing short of absurd. Attila required that his annual tribute-- already a debilitating cost for Rome-- be TRIPLED to 2,100 pounds of gold per year.

Plus he demanded an astonishing 6,000 pounds of gold, up front. That was an unimaginable sum of money, and a humiliating embarrassment for the empire.

Theodosius and his bureaucrats tried to save face by hiding the payments, or having the imperial accountants write off the money as “services rendered” by the Huns.

But everyone knew the truth-- Rome was a shattered shell of its former greatness, and only signed the deal because they were too weak to stand up to Attila.

This is a simple point that doesn’t require a PhD in International Relations: dominant superpowers don’t need to grovel to their enemies. Dominant superpowers don’t get humiliated in front of the world.

And most importantly, when you’re forced to negotiate and make huge concessions-- especially military concessions-- you cease being a dominant superpower.

We’ve seen this now several times with the United States. Some have been major events, like the disgraceful, shameful debacle in Afghanistan several months ago.

(And similar to Theodosius, Hunter Biden’s dad acted like the humiliation in Afghanistan didn’t actually happen; his people even tried to dress it up as a logistical success!)

Other incidents have been more subtle, like the US submitting to China’s demands and reaffirming America’s commitment to the “one China” policy, i.e. pretending that Taiwan doesn’t exist.

(It’s also noteworthy that Hunter Biden’s dad was the one who was inconvenienced and stayed up until midnight talking to his Chinese counterpart during a recent call, due to the time zone differences between Washington and Beijing…)

Earlier this year, Hunter Biden’s dad also referred to the Chinese government’s genocide against its Uighur ethnic minority as “different cultural norms”.

These are all clear signs of waning dominance.

The world’s premier superpower doesn’t leave behind $83 billion worth of military equipment to its sworn enemy in Afghanistan.

The world’s premier superpower doesn’t refer to genocide as “different cultural norms”.

The world’s premier superpower doesn’t sit up at midnight, smiling politely to the people who have routinely cyberattacked some of your most critical national security infrastructure.

But if this point weren’t already completely obvious, just look at what’s happening with Russia right now.

Officials from the US State Department are meeting with Russian representatives this week to request that Russia withdraw its troops from the Ukrainian border.

Personally I think the whole thing is a joke; from a military tactics perspective, if Putin were going to invade Ukraine, he most likely would have done it already.

The fact that he still has troops massed on the border is nothing more than an attempt to make the West look weak. And job well done.

While they’re not quite as ridiculous as the Huns… yet… Russia is making all sorts of wild demands, many of which the US has already indicated it is willing to accept.

One of those demands is that the US limit joint military exercises with its European allies. And this one actually is quite similar to what Attila required of the Roman Empire in 435 AD.

And just like Rome, once you start groveling to your adversary and allowing them to dictate your foreign policy and military affairs, it seems clear that you’re no longer the dominant superpower.

To your freedom,  Simon Black,  Founder, SovereignMan.com

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/americas-attila-the-hun-moment-34262/

Comes the Hour. Comes the Man. WhiteHats Briefing #172

Comes the Hour. Comes the Man.

January 8, 2022 Information Briefing #172 by whitehatauxiliaries.

88 BC. General Sulla Arriving in Rome Under Arms to Bring Order. Never the Emperor – Always the Emperor Maker

Another year is upon us.  What we can disclose at this time is that we cannot disclose anything in great detail. But, rest assured, what you cannot see is looking back at you.  A dynastic alliance, formed to reshape the future without the need for profiting off of human misery, is in possession of the means, the advantage and the guidance to assert itself on the world’s stage.

These alliances are also building in other directions. A recent message for our leading key German supporters is as follows:

Kommt die Stunde.

Kommt der Mann.

Das nächste Mal werden sich Mutterland und Vaterland vereinen und nicht gegeneinander kämpfen.

(Comes the hour. Comes the man. Next time, Motherland and Fatherland will unite and not fight against each other.)

Progress.

While almost the entirety of Earth is laboring under a Kakistocracy which itself is under the influence of a parasitically oriented, international clique of rootless opportunistic parasites, the aforementioned alliance is tasked with offering an alternative. Only significant power can overcome a significant problem. Anything less capable of doing so is doomed from the start.

Presently, more details are not possible. Hopefully soon they will be.

But, overseeing all of this is a special collective group also advancing Trans-Humanism planning to have life expectancies reaching to c200 years, so as not to lose such valuable knowledge and wisdom, in order to take humanity forwards to a new level of ethereal and cosmic consciousness. With the applied sciences of those 200 years, what will then be possible? Formal Religions will fail and fall. But, will be replaced by a higher consciousness of being more, and soul values.

So much is unfolding.   

The current scene society is faced with is disastrous – bordering on catastrophic. You all see it. With applied research, you will find the malignant hand of the Goyim enslavers all over it, and their Talpiot tentacles burrowing deep into or most critical structures and information hierarchies.  Spying on all they presume to own as masters of the Goyim web; the nations they covet and the damage they do. The tracking oversight knows all.  Scheme as they may, there will come their day.

Increasing energy and healthcare costs pushing people out of their homes. Pension funds are facing a looming crisis. Most plans were structured for actuarial function up to around 70-75 years. People are reaching into their 90’s and even 100’s in greater numbers. Who will make up the differences?

Military spending is absorbing resources which could provide for the education and healthcare of many who otherwise go without. What good is funding large standing armies when drones and precision nukes have rendered their open maneuvering virtually obsolete? Waste.

Ending the Military Industrial Cabal to instead focus on excellence and trade, would lift the world out of poverty.  Trillions are mass wasted in pursuit of warfare hegemony. Why is money not instead focused to aid the living and so needing?

Why is the unelected Deep State outside of the rule of law and ethics? Once the Petro Dollar fails, who will fund them?

Banking is being forced to change, as ever more decentralized financial technologies pressure them to become competitive. SWIFT will be gone soon, along with their rip-off fees.

Even the most benevolent political leadership is becoming ineffective by default. Even without all of the conspiracies, the plots, the power struggles, the infighting and debate of which politics is comprised of, its effectiveness when set against superior technological means of societal management is outclassed by miles. Politics is visibly failing, and new powers WILL emerge.

It’s time for the political horse to be led to the glue factory, and more effective and reliable means utilized to meet the needs of society.

While such will most likely not happen by a sudden burst of sanity on the part of the political classes, the passage of time and the realities of technology and its inexorable effect on the way people live and work, will see to the glue horse’s fate. But this is for future generations to consider. Presently, we are facing a far different reality within which we must survive, notwithstanding the progress in present time.

To close, thank you all for your continuing contributions to our discussion sections. The incredible work all of you are doing to bring together such a wide array of facts and opinions for reader consideration is exceeding our expectations.

Be ready for anything. Always.

Something enormous is in play and moving forwards which will only uncloak when ready; stealthily shielded and being readied to swoop down on the known enemies and poisoners of mankind.

More when possible.

S*P*Q*R   WHA

17 Formerly Poor People Who Suddenly Became Rich Sharing What Shocked Them Most About Transition

17 Formerly Poor People Who Suddenly Became Rich Are Sharing What Shocked Them Most About The Transition

Thu, December 30, 2021,

Coming into large sums of money all of a sudden can be a jarring experience for anyone, especially when struggling financially is all you've ever known. So we asked the BuzzFeed Community to share what surprised them most about the sudden shift from being poor to rich and how their lifestyles changed because of it.

Here's what they shared:

1."The biggest 'luxury' I've found myself indulging in after finding financial stability is medical care. I used to hesitate to go to the doctor for anything, but now I make appointments without hesitation. It sounds so silly, but I love being able to afford to get my foot pain taken care of, along with my acne and emotional trauma."

"Not only were the appointments at one point unaffordable, but so were many of the prescribed treatments. It makes me so sad that I didn't take care of myself for so long because of financial strain, but I love my regular appointments with my podiatrist, dermatologist, and therapist."   —Anonymous

2."Suddenly coming into money changed everything. The first thing I did was FINALLY go to the dentist and get my teeth taken care of. I had tried to ignore them for a long time because we never had enough money. In the past, if it was a choice of paying the electric or getting my cavities filled, I always chose to pay bills."  —Anonymous

3."When I was poor, doctors looked down on me and treated me like I was drug-seeking. Since I've become successful, I've been properly diagnosed with several conditions that had lingered for years. It's also wonderful being able to not worry about the cost of glasses or if the dentist recommends work."

"I still remember how one woman at the optometrist sneered at me when I asked if there were any other glasses options besides the huge Coke bottle glasses offered to kids on welfare. Now I can get whatever glasses I want, and everyone is always quick to help me."   —Anonymous

4."Most recently, I got a new job that pays almost double what I was making. When I told a friend how much they offered, I broke down crying. She asked me why, and I told her, 'I can finally afford food!' To me, I feel rich because even though I have health insurance, I can pay my rent, car payment, car insurance, and phone; the one thing that always took a hit was food."

"During the pandemic lockdown, friends of mine that had food stamps would buy me food because even though one of my jobs laid me off, I didn't qualify for unemployment since I still had a second job. I used to make excuses to not have a meal with friends because I knew I couldn't afford it, or I would say that I had eaten at home so I wasn't hungry. Now, I am able to take my friends out to a nice dinner and pay for us. It might not seem like the biggest deal in the world, but to me, it means everything."   —Anonymous

5."Middle-class background but my parents fell into debt in my early teenage years, and we struggled to meet ends meet ever since. I left Central/Eastern Europe for the UK to study at 18, became financially independent, and entered a highish-paying tech job at 21. It surprised me how much earning more than my parents at a young age caused me to have issues with our parent-child relationship."

"I couldn't stomach them paying for me at all, not even hosting dinner. I felt guilty and responsible. And they are the best parents ever, only proud of me and never expecting anything! I had to seek therapy, and it took me over a year to come to terms [with the fact that] I am not responsible for their choices and can live life at a different level than them. Never expected this psychological burden."   —Anonymous

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/people-struggled-financially-fell-money-044602876.html

The Little White Envelope

TNT:

Mot:  THE LITTLE WHITE ENVELOPE:

"It's just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past ten years.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas. Oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it – overspending and the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma – the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was on the wrestling team at the school he attended. Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes.

As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford.

Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one of them could have won," he said. "They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them." Mike loved kids – all kids. He so enjoyed coaching little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That's when the idea for his present came.

That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes, and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed a small, white envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done, and that this was his gift from me.

Mike's smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year. And that same bright smile lit up succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition – one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.

The white envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning, and our children – ignoring their new toys – would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents. As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the small, white envelope never lost its allure.

The story doesn't end there. You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree. And the next morning, I found it was magically joined by three more. Unbeknownst to the others, each of our three children had for the first time placed a white envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing to take down that special envelope.

Mike's spirit, like the Christmas spirit will always be with us."

For the Man Who Hated Christmas

(A true Christmas Story by Nancy W. Gavin, December 2015)

At a Gas Station on a Cold Christmas Eve............

A NEW CHRISTMAS STORY . . .This story is better than any greeting card.

The old man sat in his gas station on a cold Christmas Eve. He hadn't been
anywhere in years since his wife had passed away. It was just another day to
him. He didn't hate Christmas, just couldn't find a reason to celebrate.

He was sitting there looking at the snow that had been falling for the last
hour and wondering what it was all about when the door opened and a homeless
man stepped through.

Instead of throwing the man out, Old George as he was known by his
customers, told the man to come and sit by the heater and warm up. "Thank
you, but I don't mean to intrude," said the stranger. "I see you're busy,
I'll just go."

"Not without something hot in your belly." George said.

He turned and opened a wide mouth Thermos and handed it to the stranger.
"It ain't much, but it's hot and tasty. Stew ... Made it myself. When you're
done, there's coffee and it's fresh."

Just at that moment he heard the "ding" of the driveway bell. "Excuse me,
be right back," George said. There in the driveway was an old '53 Chevy.
Steam was rolling out of the front. The driver was panicked. "Mister can you
help me!" said the driver, with a deep Spanish accent. "My wife is with
child and my car is broken." George opened the hood. It was bad. The block
looked cracked from the cold, the car was dead.

"You ain't going in this thing," George said as he turned away.

"But Mister, please help ..." The door of the office closed behind George
as he went inside. He went to the office wall and got the keys to his old
truck, and went back outside. He walked around the building, opened the
garage, started the truck and drove it around to where the couple was
waiting. "Here, take my truck," he said. "She ain't the best thing you ever
looked at, but she runs real good."

George helped put the woman in the truck and watched as it sped off into
the night. He turned and walked back inside the office. "Glad I gave 'em the
truck, their tires were shot too. That 'ol truck has brand new ." George
thought he was talking to the stranger, but the man had gone. The Thermos
was on the desk, empty, with a used coffee cup beside it. "Well, at least he
got something in his belly," George thought.

George went back outside to see if the old Chevy would start. It
cranked slowly, but it started. He pulled it into the garage where the
truck had been. He thought he would tinker with it for something to do.
Christmas Eve meant no customers. He discovered the the block hadn't
cracked, it was just the bottom hose on the radiator. "Well, shoot, I can
fix this," he said to himself. So he put a new one on.

"Those tires ain't gonna get 'em through the winter either." He took the
snow treads off of his wife's old Lincoln. They were like new and he wasn't
going to drive the car anyway.

As he was working, he heard shots being fired. He ran outside and beside a
police car an officer lay on the cold ground. Bleeding from the left
shoulder, the officer moaned, "Please help me."

George helped the officer inside as he remembered the training he had
received in the Army as a medic. He knew the wound needed attention.
"Pressure to stop the bleeding," he thought. The uniform company had been
there that morning and had left clean shop towels. He used those and duct
tape to bind the wound. "Hey, they say duct tape can fix anythin'," he said,
trying to make the policeman feel at ease.

"Something for pain," George thought. All he had was the pills he used for
his back. "These ought to work." He put some water in a cup and gave the
policeman the pills. "You hang in there, I'm going to get you an ambulance."

The phone was dead. "Maybe I can get one of your buddies on that there
talk box out in your car." He went out only to find that a bullet had gone
into the dashboard destroying the two way radio.

He went back in to find the policeman sitting up. "Thanks," said the
officer. "You could have left me there. The guy that shot me is still in the
area."

George sat down beside him, "I would never leave an injured man in the
Army and I ain't gonna leave you." George pulled back the bandage to check
for bleeding. "Looks worse than what it is. Bullet passed right through 'ya.
Good thing it missed the important stuff though. I think with time your
gonna be right as rain."

George got up and poured a cup of coffee. "How do you take it?" he asked.

"None for me," said the officer.

"Oh, yer gonna drink this. Best in the city. Too bad I ain't got no
donuts." The officer laughed and winced at the same time.

The front door of the office flew open. In burst a young man with a gun.
"Give me all your cash! Do it now!" the young man yelled. His hand was
shaking and George could tell that he had never done anything like this
before.

"That's the guy that shot me!" exclaimed the officer.

"Son, why are you doing this?" asked George, "You need to put the cannon
away. Somebody else might get hurt."

The young man was confused. "Shut up old man, or I'll shoot you, too. Now
give me the cash!"

The cop was reaching for his gun. "Put that thing away," George said to
the cop, "we got one too many in here now."

He turned his attention to the young man. "Son, it's Christmas Eve. If you
need money, well then, here. It ain't much but it's all I got. Now put that
pea shooter away."

George pulled $150 out of his pocket and handed it to the young man,
reaching for the barrel of the gun at the same time. The young man released
his grip on the gun, fell to his knees and began to cry. "I'm not very good
at this am I? All I wanted was to buy something for my wife and son," he
went on. "I've lost my job, my rent is due, my car got repossessed last
week."

George handed the gun to the cop. "Son, we all get in a bit of squeeze now
and then. The road gets hard sometimes, but we make it through the best we
can."

He got the young man to his feet, and sat him down on a chair across from
the cop. "Sometimes we do stupid things." George handed the young man a cup
of coffee. "Bein' stupid is one of the things that makes us human. Comin' in
here with a gun ain't the answer. Now sit there and get warm and we'll sort
this thing out."

The young man had stopped crying. He looked over to the cop. "Sorry I shot
you. It just went off. I'm sorry officer."

"Shut up and drink your coffee " the cop said.

George could hear the sounds of sirens outside. A police car and an
ambulance skidded to a halt. Two cops came through the door, guns drawn.
"Chuck! You ok?" one of the cops asked the wounded officer.

"Not bad for a guy who took a bullet. How did you find me?"

"GPS locator in the car. Best thing since sliced bread. Who did this?" the
other cop asked as he approached the young man.

Chuck answered him, "I don't know. The guy ran off into the dark. Just
dropped his gun and ran."

George and the young man both looked puzzled at each other.
"That guy work here?" the wounded cop continued.

"Yep," George said, "just hired him this morning. Boy lost his job."

The paramedics came in and loaded Chuck onto the stretcher. The young man
leaned over the wounded cop and whispered, "Why?"

Chuck just said, "Merry Christmas boy ... and you too, George, and thanks
for everything."

"Well, looks like you got one doozy of a break there. That ought to solve
some of your problems."

George went into the back room and came out with a box. He pulled out a
ring box. "Here you go, something for the little woman. I don't think Martha
would mind. She said it would come in handy some day."

The young man looked inside to see the biggest diamond ring he ever saw.
"I can't take this," said the young man. "It means something to you."

"And now it means something to you," replied George. "I got my memories.
That's all I need."

George reached into the box again. An airplane, a car and a truck appeared
next. They were toys that the oil company had left for him to sell. "Here's
something for that little man of yours."

The young man began to cry again as he handed back the $150 that the old
man had handed him earlier.

"And what are you supposed to buy Christmas dinner with? You keep that
too," George said. "Now git home to your family."

The young man turned with tears streaming down his face. "I'll be here in
the morning for work, if that job offer is still good."

"Nope. I'm closed Christmas day," George said. "See ya the day after."

George turned around to find that the stranger had returned. "Where'd you
come from? I thought you left?"

"I have been here. I have always been here," said the stranger. "You say
you don't celebrate Christmas. Why?"

"Well, after my wife passed away, I just couldn't see what all the bother
was. Puttin' up a tree and all seemed a waste of a good pine tree. Bakin'
cookies like I used to with Martha just wasn't the same by myself and
besides I was gettin' a little chubby."

The stranger put his hand on George's shoulder. "But you do celebrate the
holiday, George. You gave me food and drink and warmed me when I was cold
and hungry. The woman with child will bear a son and he will become a great
doctor.

The policeman you helped will go on to save 19 people from being killed by
terrorists. The young man who tried to rob you will make you a rich man and
not take any for himself. "That is the spirit of the season and you keep it
as good as any man."

George was taken aback by all this stranger had said. "And how do you know
all this?" asked the old man.

"Trust me, George. I have the inside track on this sort of thing. And when
your days are done you will be with Martha again."

The stranger moved toward the door. "If you will excuse me, George, I have
to go now. I have to go home where there is a big celebration planned."

George watched as the old leather jacket and the torn pants that the
stranger was wearing turned into a white robe. A golden light began to fill
the room.

"You see, George ... it's My birthday. Merry Christmas."

George fell to his knees and replied, "Happy Birthday, Lord Jesus"

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GOD BLESS!