Wednesday, July 1, 2020

News Note: Fox Business Article on the Upcoming 'Great Reset' Conference in 2021

Fox Business runs an article by Justin Haskins on the proposed Great Reset Summit to be held in Davos in 2021 by the World Economic Forum. We noted this upcoming event in an earlier blog article. Below are a couple of excerpts from the Fox Business article and then some added comments. (I added the underline for emphasis)

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"The economic, social and political chaos caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and Black Lives Matter protests have for months captured the attention of virtually every American — and for good reason. These are incredibly important issues worthy of significant and thoughtful debate.

But while most Americans have been preoccupied with protests and pandemics, a potentially bigger story has managed to slip beneath the radar: a growing movement among the world’s most powerful leaders to call for a “reset” of the entire global economy."

. . . . 

"In an article published on the World Economic Forum’s website, Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of WEF, wrote of the Great Reset, “Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.”


Original article appeared on Fox Business on 6-25-2020

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Other links for further research on the The Great Reset 2021 








My added comments: Please note that the Fox Business article mentioned above describes this upcoming event next year as "a potentially bigger story" that "has managed to slip beneath the radar". This is why we covered this in our earlier blog article. Right now the major media and the world are mostly focused on other issues. But this is the very type of issue we watch for here on this blog. Here, we have by all accounts, (from both proponents and opponents) a proposal for a "Great Reset" of just about everything including the current monetary system


This has the potential to become a major event depending on the outcome of the upcoming elections in the US. As we said in our earlier article, a Trump election victory will likely mean very little US support for this proposal since it will focus on a more "globalist" approach while a Biden victory likely means the US would be much more supportive. Many of the generic proposals for this "Great Reset" are in line with the desires of the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party which we can expect will have substantial influence in a Biden Administration. For those wondering how a Biden Administration might look, this set of 'Great Rest' proposals may well provide a peek into what to expect.

It will be interesting to see if this surfaces as a major campaign issue in the upcoming US Presidential election. So far, it is mostly being completely ignored. This Fox Business article is the first I have seen on any major news outlet other than some articles basically announcing the summit will he held in Davos in 2021. 

If it does become an issue that is debated, it will be an interesting debate to follow. A number of questions come to my mind about this topic including:

- Do we really have a fully free market capitalist system now? (Ray Dalio says we don't) Currently, central banks including the Federal Reserve are massively intervening in all kinds of markets and this intervention results in winners and losers not determined solely by competition in the marketplace. What should we call a system like this? Did free market capitalism actually create wealth inequality or was it a perversion of true free market capitalism (governments and central banks implementing policies that created winners and losers)?

- Any such debate will likely be framed as a war between "Capitalism" and "Marxist Socialism" if it is debated at all. But right now, the US central bank is engaged in massive money creation policies in an effort to keep the present system from collapsing into a full blown major depression.  This is somewhat like the MMT that progressives have been calling for all along. They just want even more of it. So, again, exactly what is the present system as it exists at this time (and has for some time now)? 

-Almost everyone realizes that the present system is on an unsustainable path due to exploding debt burdens. The already massive debt obligations around the world are now rocketing even higher due to the global pandemic impact and the policy responses to it. So, when are we going to acknowledge this obvious fact and start to honestly discuss how all this will eventually get resolved? Can we really solve the eventual systemic stability problem by just creating any amount of unbacked currency we want and then insuring it is distributed equally? What kind of government intervention into markets (and bureaucracy) would be required to actually do this? How would that intervention impact citizens individual liberties and civil rights under the law? 

What if we do try that and it also fails because most people don't trust that the currency has any real value or they don't trust the authorities running the system to be politically unbiased and fair? No one anywhere has even asked that question as far as I know.

-Everyone in this debate is an an awkward position since no one will admit that the present system is unsustainable and that the creation of even more massive debt and/or money does not ultimately solve the problem. One side of this debate is currently engaged in a massive increase in debt and money creation. The other side just wants even bigger debt and money creation. So, will a debate on this topic (if we even get one) really be an honest debate based on reality, or just more political talking points designed to win an election and be in power? 

- Does anyone really believe either side has a realistic long term plan (beyond winning the upcoming election) to deal with the real underlying problems of excessive debt and the related potential debasement of currencies? How long will markets just continue to ignore the entire question of financial systemic stability? Months, years, decades?

These are immensely important questions that no one is likely to even ask or answer before the upcoming US elections. They are probably considered too complicated and too likely to upset or confuse potential voters. So most likely, no one will raise them during the campaign.

I don't have the answers, just the questions. But what this blog tries to do is monitor where all this is eventually going and also provide educational information to anyone interested in these issues from a variety of credible viewpoints. We have archived that kind of information in our Marketplace of Ideas for Monetary System Reform. The articles in this section are educational in nature and include Q&A style interviews with a number of experts on this topic from around the world. 

Some day, if the present system does fail, it might be useful to be aware of this kind of information. Current events suggest that systemic failure is more possible than ever no matter who wins the upcoming US election, even though neither political party is likely to acknowledge that fact or discuss it ahead of the election.
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Added note 7-3-2020: In this article, Ray Dalio raises some of the same issues raised above in our article here. He says we don't currently really have true free markets due to massive central bank intervention. This may be all the central banks can realistically do given all the current problems. But it is important when philosophical discussions and debates take place that "free markets" are not blamed for problems they did not cause and that an accurate full perspective is discussed. These are enormously important issues and a full and accurate discussion of all the pertinent facts is important when people try to decide what policies are best to pursue.

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