Mortgage Interest Rates

The continuing justifiction for raising mortgage interest rates to curtail borrowing is becoming more transparent by the day. The banks and building society lenders seem unable to say NO and resort to raising rates for those who already have a mortagage. This is supposed to deter new borrowing. Those that already 'enjoy' a mortgage have no need for another (usually), but are being compelled to subsidise the new business.

This reasoning gets very thin when compulsion is invoked. It's fascinating that inter-bank lending goes up and mortgage rates increase. Reasons spill out, but are not particularly difficult to understand when at the end of the chain the customer must always pay. Any bad business decision that results in financial loss to that business will be paid for by those customers of the business who have no choice. The difficulty in acquiring a mortgage is that this inter-bank lending has become a really obvious commercial problem that can no longer be hidden.

Northern Rock (October 2007)
Northern Rock - Update 1 (November 2007)
Northern Rock - Update 2 (March 2009)
Northern Rock - Update 3 (Feb 2010)
Northern Rock - Lending Policy (January 2009)
Northern Rock - The Depression (March 2009)
Northern Rock - £724 Million Losses (Aug 2009)


Northern Rock was credited with failing by borrowing money in the money markets to lend at a higher rate to home-buyers fixed in the concept of the property ladder. Fixed-mortgages that come to an end and cannot be refinanced result in the possibility of repossession. Money could not be purchased to lend to borrowers and savings from customers/clients was never enough to cover this virtual money. It all went 'belly-up'.

Adam Applegarth
Winners And Losers

It's a major contributing reason for inflation. The illusory 'creation' of money. Resources are absolutely finite and if the 'value' of money relies on gold reserves, which are traded, then the nett global wealth is also finite. Global debt will increase, but the concept of 'growth' remains just a concept. The carrot that is dangled on a stick and shown to the people. It continually moves away and so the illusion of growth is perpetrated. Just chasing the end of the rainbow and the treasure that can never be reached. But attention fixed on the leading edge of the curtain as it is drawn, ensures the trailing edge is rarely seen.


Banks: win-win
Customers: lose-lose

Embryo Research

Dr. Eustace J. de Souza The argument is science v common sense. Ignore the red herring of the Church and consider alone the basics. On the science side there are those who suffer from debilitating disease. This is absolutely critical. Nobody should be exposed to motor neurone or Alzheimer's disease if preventable. Sadly, the price may be just too high. The global population is potentially at stake. Stem Cells Chimera Potential Indications are that an early human embryo (blastocyst) can be created by fusing the DNA from a single skin cell and a human egg from which its DNA had been removed. In theory, human embryonic stem cells (hESC) can be extracted from this creation matched to the original skin cell. However, the resultant skin cell DNA was contaminated by traces of mitochondrial DNA from the woman who donated the egg. This illustrates that residual (female donor) DNA exists even when it has been 'emptied' of its DNA. Clearly, it has not been emptied. If the hESC can be derived from a single skin cell then to remove all trace of the original female DNA is not possible and one remaining female cell will contaminate the resultant hESC. Indeed, cells extracted from the embryos are currently being grown in the lab, but too soon to claim if any were hESCs. The illustration should scream caution since contamination of the hESC by residual egg cells DNA makes the possibility of the chimera more credible. Dustbin vs Research Interference by politics Q & A: 1 Q & A: 2

Lasting Effects

Memories can survive a lifetime. The delusion is that some things just... go away. They don't. Sometimes an event is so traumatic that it just... remains. Naseem Hamed was allegedly responsible for an almost fatal 'incident'. The effects cannot disappear. One party, the aggressor, continues as though nothing had happened. The other, the victim, must live with the traumatic effects.

The victim

After the jury returned its verdict, the judge, Judge Michael Murphy, said:

• "I do hope now that both the Hameds and the Burgins can draw a line under this and really get on with their lives."

The 'incident' occurred in 2005 and during the original court case, amazingly:

• The boxer's lawyer Martin Sharpe tried to blame the horror crash on the supercar, which bore the personal number plate NAS1. Mr Sharp pointed out it was new and said Naseem did not fully understand its performance levels.

But he added:

• "He accepts his driving was both reckless and dangerous. He was taking a fellow motoring enthusiast out for a drive and took a stupid risk overtaking at completely the wrong place. What he then did could never be any excuse for what happened. He overtook when he should not have done, when conditions were not proper."

Mr Burgin's solicitor Jane Wright said her client's compensation claim against Hamed's insurance company was continuing.

Continuing (2005 -> 2008 -> ?)

Staggering. Amazing

Nebulous Boundaries

The delusional idea of CO2 trading. A single word describes it all:

Stupid

The illusion of non-existent boundaries should be obvious. The same as (used to be) the non-smoking areas in restaurants. Smoke drifts. Trading CO2 as though it is controllable is ludicrous. But it's a theoretical, and specious, method of gaining a perceived advantage. At the moment the chickens are coming home to roost - in America. Flooding and dreadful weather conditions return to the America that deludes itself into thinking that it can escape the consequences of its own stupidity. If climate change is such a consequence of the selfish American lifestyle that consumes huge volumes of oil - every day - then the products of that gluttony are coming home.

Any perceived financial advantage is lost completely as the penalties earned by fixing the consequential problems outstrip the gains. The misery to be endured has been earned by the attitudes that will not change. When a nation wakes up from its delusional state there may be opportunities for real progress, but the problem is not simply America. It's any country that is in denial caused by its single tracked obsession with the attainment of wealth. The filthy lucre. The human race is just the parasite that walks over planet Earth. Consuming everything. The only substance returned to the Earth is excrement. This nourishes the Earth and ensures its survival. It's a wonderful irony. The Earth will continue for millions (maybe billions) of years long after the very short-lived existence of the human race. Self-destruction seems to be a trait of humans.

Long live Gaia

Air Fare Rise

Air fares are to rise. Yet again. The government plans to increase aviation duties by 10%, but airlines will pass on the oil prices and higher landing charges to passengers. Official inflation is supposedly around 2.5% (variable and rising), but is in reality 'officially' more than 6 times that amount. Another example of 'confused' government 'thinking'. A tax on every flight will mark a change away from the air passenger tax. As dwindling passenger numbers become the reality, the tax raised from each passenger will decrease, but the same number of aircraft are still expected to fly. An extra £500m will be raised to make a total yield of £2.5bn from next year. The justifiction is that airlines should fly with a fuller load. More fuel efficient. However, aircraft will still fly (either full or empty) as passengers cannot be simply conjured-up out of fumes. The travelling air-passenger will pay more to subsidise the loss of numbers caused by rising prices. Rather like the rail system in UQ (aka UK) Ltd .

It's a circus going around and around. The very dated and dreadfully worn mechanism to make money is pushed out again to make some more. One day (very soon) the bubble won't just burst, but explode. In fact, it started to erupt a while ago and went unnoticed, but has since suffered a terminal rupture.

Aviation fuel tax (duty) is allegedly zero according to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, but it would appear that the UQ (aka UK) Ltd is excluded.

Global Debt

Resources are static. The global (total) gold reserves don't change, but are just moved around. Redistributed. The illusion is finally breaking up and the truth becoming clearer. Global debt has bankrupted every nation on Earth and the virtual money that never existed, but is imagined to produce wealth, has been discovered to be a (underhand) magician's trick. There is no rabbit in the hat, yet the trick continues to be played. The illusion is still working.

China And The Olympics

• The Good

• The Bad  

• The Ugly

Reducing Alcohol And Nicotine Addiction

As usual, the budget targets those who are sitting ducks. The smokers and drinkers. The argument promoted is that by making items more expensive this will cut down the usage of the products. Like the rail system that prices up the fares way in excess of the 'official' inflation figure. This mask of official inflation disappeared a long time ago. The Emperor's New Clothes:

• An emperor who cares too much about clothes hires two swindlers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from the most beautiful cloth. This cloth, they tell him, is invisible to anyone who was either stupid or not fit for his position. The Emperor is nervous about being able to see the cloth himself so he sends his ministers to view it. They see nothing yet praise the cloth. When the swindlers report a suit of clothes has been fashioned, the Emperor allows himself to be dressed in their creation for a procession through town. During the course of the procession, a small child cries out, "But he has nothing on!" The crowd realises the child is telling the truth and begins laughing. The Emperor, however, holds his head high and continues the procession.

• The real problems are 24-hour legalised drinking and availability of alcohol nearly everywhere. Child alcohol abuse brings the scale of the issue into sharp focus. Cigarettes are the same and the alleged 'pricing something out of reach' can be interpreted as just a euphemism for maximi$ing £evenue.

The impression is imagined to be one of caring about the state of health of UQ (aka UK) Ltd citizens. The system encourages under-age drinkers and smokers. The younger a drinker or smoker then the longer will be the 'contribution' of this individual. They won't live long, but who cares? It's all short term logic (die before you get ill - DA). The government cannot since it appears to be too busy raising revenue by selling death. Death is already taxed. It will simply increase. It is quite logical that crime must increase in proportion to 'pay' for it.

Once the drinker or smoker becomes addicted (very quickly - DA), the addiction has to be fed. At it's most generous, any view can only imagine that government is absolutely stupid by imagining that these addictions can be just wished away by increasing the price. This produces a system that is simply cobbled together on the demands of the day. It is just bad luck (and a massive bonus) that increased tax revenue has to happen as a concomitant effect.

This is a crude and very simple delusion of government by government that is supremely patronising. It's also crude and very straightforward stupidity to raise revenue to help pay for the benefit system. This is a self-perpetuating system: pricing a product highly and forcing the addicted to find the money to finance the addiction creates more poverty and thus more state dependency. Ideally a drinker AND smoker. The hand that feeds is rarely bitten off and the increasing number of voters entering the trap will help re-elect the hand that feeds. Very crude and very simple, but also highly cynical yet effective.

It would be very interesting to determine what proportion of Labour voters are both drinkers AND smokers AND on benefits. AND those who don't bother with road tax or insurance AND the numbers amongst that group who drink AND smoke.

It would make a fascinating study,

but will NEVER, EVER happen.

That could NEVER, EVER be allowed.

Identity Cards And The MoD

The Ministry of Defence has disclosed it has either lost or had stolen more than 11,000 military ID cards in the last two years. The MoD declares that it takes the issue very seriously and must be the reason that steps are only now

after two years

being taken to improve general security awareness. This is entirely ambiguous as the statement does not direct where awareness is required. This could either be the MoD or the military personnel who have either lost or had their cards stolen. Or both. It's amazing anyway.

The introduction of ID cards into the general UQ (aka UK) public is a security issue that has its own national security implications:

A security issue and lost ID cards of security (military) personnel under the control of a department that is responsible for national security, and in a scenario concerning national security, is by definition a truly farcical situation

Cynically it's laughable, but in reality it's a dreadful indictment of this government and the attitude it has towards the population. The 'couldn't care less' attitude of a government that is interested only in milking the citizens who 'elected' it of everything financial. The citizens of UQ (aka UK) 'create' the wealth and the parasitic government takes it all. A disgrace and arguably in the realms of the criminal. That, of course, would never be allowed to be proven in much the same way that the UK went to war with Iraq on an allegedly illegal footing.

An MoD response is that with a photographic ID on the cards they would be difficult to be used successfully by an individual who is not on the photograph. That's an admission that it can be done. Well, just change the photo. Simple to do these days with the (computer) technology easily available to create an image and laminating devices to ensure a 'sealed' card. Instead of raising any sense of security, it does precisely the opposite.

According to an official Commons written answer, 4433 cards 'disappeared' in 2006 and 6812 in 2007.

And all in an atmosphere of paranoid security. The entire ID issue seems to be designed to instill fear and worry amongst UQ (aka UK) citizens.

'Create the situation and provide the solution'

Ethanol Combustion

Ethanol combustion is:

C₂H₅OH + 3O₂ → 2CO₂ + 3H₂O + heat

The CO2 generated by biologically produced ethanol came from the atmosphere in the first place so this creates no extra gas. The nett effect is lauded as zero production of this greenhouse gas, whereas fossil fuel generates new CO2. Although the biofuel (ethanol produced biologically) contains methanol and purification by distillation will not work, this is likely to form a method of producing illicit ethanol for inclusion in cheap and illegal alcoholic drinks. Cheap and illegal because there is no duty involved. This will produce a highly dangerous (to health) situation.

Speculation?

To illustrate the likelihood of the criminal mind exploiting a weakness, agricultural or marine diesel fuel is a "tax rebated" (cheaper) fuel. The duty is much less and the fuel was dyed red (red diesel) for easy visual identification purposes. Fuller's Earth removes the colour and so this agricultural (and marine) use fuel formed an illegal source of diesel. Back in 1964, the mafia were involved in a 'salad oil' swindle. Currently, adding 'flavouring' to a lubricating oil (Colza oil) enables passing into the human food chain as (re-labelled) olive oil.

Cosa Nostra

If a 'biofuel' mixture contains around 15% ethanol, then a gallon (4.5 litres) will contain around 750ml ethanol and at current prices, if this was to cost £5 per gallon, then three quarters of a litre of pure (100%) ethanol could be produced from 1 gallon. The 0.85 gallon residue ('pure' petrol) could be used separately or treated to become a useful fuel. This is effectively denaturing petrol by adding ethanol so removing the ethanol would restore purity.

In principle this would probably work.

Spirits like vodka are 40% v/v ethanol to water and so almost 2 litres of vodka substitute is possible for about £5 and this ignores the value of the petrol. Highly profitable to the criminal classes and purity won't be a concern at all. Consumers are not likely to appreciate (or care - DA) the origins of cheap, but lethal, 'alcohol'. This would not bother the criminal.

The 'elephant in the room' and obvious flaw in the proposal is that if the content of any biofuel is only around 15% ethanol, then some 85% will still be petrol. Engines do not function outside certain fuel limits. It's a large elephant and a very small room. The potential reduction in CO2 is at best about 1/6th, yet seriously threatening starvation around the world. And all to make a lot of money at the expense of a few million lives. Cheap to the unconscionable. It gets worse... ...enter GM and Monsanto.

If it can be conceived then it can be expedited. The arguments supporting biofuels are very weak in the extreme:

Justifaction

EcoWorld
Ethanol
Food vs fuel Petrol combustion

IVF In Africa

IVF

The potential for harvesting eggs for any kind of research can theoretically be enhanced by offering IVF treatment to women in Africa. Multiple births is a common feature of IVF. Understandably, the human desire to have babies for African women is probably no different to any other 'rich' nation. However, the offer of this discounted treatment for women in a country that would have difficulty feeding the children is more difficult to comprehend.

The spectre of exploitation raises itself. That women desperate to have children could be the targets for (surplus) eggs is a reasonable supposition. How well educated are these women and how well informed regarding the ramifications of IVF? The UK will erupt in unrest over the whole issue of 'hybrid' embryos ('embryo research') and stem cell justification ignoring any issues by playing the psychological blackmail card. Rushing headlong into unknown territory is always a dangerous activity: driving at high speed into fog is stupid. Caution until more is known is a common sense attitude. Describing only the potential benefits while ignoring any downside is very worrying.

What is being concealed
away from public scrutiny?

Risks When Donating Eggs
Human Rabbit/Cow Chimera Potential

Terminal Greed

The grotesque exploitation of climate change accelerates at even a faster rate. The acceleration itself accelerates. The rate of change of change. The continuing farcical argument that by taxing the use of any fuel that generates carbon dioxide (humans produce CO2 through respiration) will somehow solve the problem that remains unproven. Taxing CO2 will make it go away. How absurd can it get. Any revenue from taxing aircraft fuel (kerosine) is zero unlike the fuel consumed by cars. The payback from aircraft is non-existent so the polluting craft are not affected. Fuel in cars (petrol) does attract considerable duty. For this reason the illusion of air travel being a non-contributor to pollution is clear:

There's no money in it

   An aircraft climbing to reach its operating altitude has burnt most of its fuel and runs on virtual vapour to remain at this height. Any argument that suggests the aircraft flies above the atmosphere and so does not contribute to its pollution is totally fallacious. The damage has already been done.

• The way of making money has always been to charge the airline, and so its passengers, for using airport landing facilities, but now these fees can be increased.

   This way the airlines seem to escape the controls of climate change taxation, but, of course, the passengers do not and governments will ultimately make

$£trillions

and all by chasing the rainbow.

Biofuels, Tax Revenue And GM

The 'shortage' of grain crops is being blamed on drought and other factors. Costs spiral. The grain source is simply being used to generate ethanol for biofuel 'technology' so creating the shortage. The wonderful advantage for the owners of such technology and governments is that the fuel itself will attract revenue as alcohol (ethanol) is already taxed. Grain is not taxed, but it can be converted into a taxable product simply by adding it to petrol. An additional 'benefit' is that as the crop is grown and produces the fuel denaturant, it is regarded as a renewable source. Paradoxically, the food source is used to render itself completely unsuitable as a food source.

Cynically

• Petrol will still constitute at the least an +85% component by volume fossil fuel to a 15% crop-based component. Anything with less petrol content in the 'biofuel' will just not work. The product can be taxed again and again and... After all, it's renewable. The perfect profit engine and fuelled by... food. People will starve, but the parasite will live on. Use of GM crops could be made, but the potential to 'alter' (evolve) the human would be lost.

• The double whammy? The maximum reduction in the global CO2 output could be around 15% (doesn't represent much) as a maximum, but the reduction in the (huge) numbers by starvation and poverty (possibly 100s of millions) of a respiring species will further reduce that output of CO2 (less atmospheric pollution! - DA). Those that survive will pay for those that have been decimated so making for a sustainable, but much reduced, global population. As long as the fuel consumers survive, the financial return will not be harmed.
  

• The global population will certainly never reach the 9.4bn (that must be a joke! - DA) forecast for 2050, currently in 2008 at around 6.6bn. Global poverty has allegedly decreased from 430 millions in 1970 to 52 millions in 1998, but biofuels should 'restore' that situation though with prices hugely distorted.

• In one direction there is a reduction in poverty and that paves the way for the introduction of biofuels. The global population growth describes that world population hit the 6bn mark in June 1999 roughly double the size of 1960 and over 3.5 times the size of Earth’s population 60 years before that.
  

• Food prices have escalated out of control as a result and so by adding 'fuel' to the fire and removing food from that population, prices should increase even more. It's 'clever', but highly predictable as it's always been about making money. Greed and need for more and more. Until paradoxically there is nothing left: King Midas. Money will ultimately have no value, but as a device it is the way to power and control.

The Great CO2 Scam. Consider the implications of deforestation.

With IVF being promoted, it is evidence that a 'renewable' human population is envisaged to dilute and eventually replace the existing one. The potential to alter the human genome becomes a reality certainly in principle with the drive to 'create' possible new species. The Human-Rabbit/Cow chimera. Fantasy? Maybe. Plausible? Definitely. Why is there such a 'persuasive' drive to promote IVF onto a world that can hardly sustain a population in 2008? Any forecast in an exponential capacity is absolutely ridiculous. This is projecting ahead by over 40 years. Examine what changes have occurred over the last 40 years to around 1970 and how society has changed in those four decades.

The alcoholic drinks market is huge and growing at an alarming rate. In the UK the ethic of 24-hour drinking is a disaster, but actively encouraged by government and the justifiction being peddled is that this is what the public wants. That lie was shot down in flames a long time ago. A (minority) element of the public certainly wants it. The rampant alcoholic generation. The hooks into the addict become more numerous and get buried even deeper into the flesh.

Ethanol for cars = alcohol for humans

These two terms are both pandered, but they describe precisely the same product. One product split two ways and both large revenue 'earners'. For governments it's a win-win scenario and for everybody else it's lose-lose.

BIG time

That the starving will starve more efficiently is not a material factor, but the acquisition of money is. Greed at the expense of suffering and death. The dead do not generate revenue so are totally expendable, but the living (dead) can be milked even more efficiently. And are completely unaware and don't care. All addictions have this very deadly side-effect. It's only a question of time before drug use (other than nicotine) becomes encouraged and is so overtly taxed like cigarettes and alcohol (ethanol). The justifiction that biofuels will head off oil shortages and so be advantageous to the 'fight against climate change' and the eventual exhaustion of the world's oil reserves is another lie. The ever increasing global population is encouraged by actively not discouraging it, so the potential for diverting money from those that have it escalates. Offering discounted rates of IVF to poverty stricken nations is a most sickening cynicism and exploitation of a human resource. The need to farm human embryos can be furthered by creating a surplus of these eggs in a country that cannot support it. They will be harvested by the black knight as part of a rescue package. The illusion is that this is a good thing, when in fact it could not be more dastardly. Stem cells and the Catholic Church creates the explanation.

Create the situation and provide the solution

Not the individual wealthy, but governments that disburse tax revenue. Revenue wrested from those who work to 'earn' it. It's slavery. Crude and simple. Like worker bees, generating the honey that is then stolen. The nourishment for the young and growing taken to feed something else. That something else in human terms is greed. Steal to acquire more.

The real reason is to produce greater quantities of ethanol not for use in cars alone (a revenue earner), but to make alcohol even cheaper to produce. The selling price of alcoholic products will not decrease, but the illusion is that it becomes cheaper as other costs continue to escalate. The revenue 'earned' through taxation is potentially enormous. The living (and working) dead are those who have money and the redistribution principle can only work on this part of the population.

The 'evergreening' of the product ethanol diverts an essential resource for the living to a source of wealth for the needy: the need for more wealth. A disease: terminal greed. Those that will condemn the global population to destruction simply in the attempt to 'make' more money.

An even greater advantage comes about by virtue of forcing open the back door to GM. Making it globally acceptable. A very cynical move, but quite predictable. Forcing GM onto a global public has not worked by persuasion so alternative methods must be used. The threat of food shortages will make the whole solution via GM look like a terrific piece of good fortune.

Create the situation and provide the solution

Exploitation of Man's own folly generates greater folly. The myopic become totally blind.

Betrayal In The Sands

The suggestion that Prince Harry became a bullet magnet the moment it was divulged he was in Afghanistan is a rather specious argument. Any member of the British armed forces is a bullet magnet by virtue of being there. It assumes an arrogance that Prince Harry is a more deserving target for a bullet than a 'non-royal'.

The whole story has the makings of a crudely constructed stunt to make the royal appear something special. A soldier who has spent any time in a war zone cannot 'come home' unaffected. Real soldiers display a truly remarkable courage and commitment. To go partying when comrades remain in that war zone is absolutely unbelievable. Contemptuous. The behaviour pattern on his return reveals the PR sham of the whole affair, knowingly complicit or not (a political pawn would not necessarily be privy to the engineering).

Ridiculously riding around on a motorcycle as though playing in the sands. It's a wonder a bucket and spade were not on hand to mess around in the dunes. And now gone to Botswana on holiday. Even more incredible. At least crocodiles can present a genuine hazard. The pantomime gets tackier. If Prince Harry ever expected to win true praise then everything has been wrecked. Courage shines with a brilliance of its own and this affair is so dull it is pathetic. The alleged way the press said nothing is remarkable in itself. The press that valiantly campaigns for truth. Clearly they had been warned off with a D-notice.

• A censorship notice in the UK issued by the Department of Defence to the media to prohibit the publication of information on matters alleged to be of national security. The system dates from 1922.

For 10 weeks he had not been clubbing or partying. The press hounds must have been baying to join the hunt to locate him. Almost certainly, the whereabouts were either known or strongly suspected, but the press can be easily silenced. The denouncement of this individual is likely to have been instigated by the British government.

A similar story is alleged to have happened to George Bush and he avoided action in Vietnam by never getting there. President Richard Nixon at the time had ramped up the US air strikes so making the whole of Vietnam a much more dangerous place than it ever was. Bush never saw action. Action in Afghanistan will inevitably be ramped up.

Bush Dodging War

This exemplifies the hypocrisy of sending thousands into a war and not have any experience of warfare. A frequently visited question concerning senators and their children. Few, if any, have seen any service. The record of any politicians seeing any active service is thin. Bush Goal Was Dodging War John McCain provides an admirable record and appears to be an exception:

• Both McCain's grandfather and father were admirals in the United States Navy. McCain attended the United States Naval Academy and graduated in 1958. He was married in 1965. He became a naval aviator, flying attack aircraft from carriers. During the Vietnam War in 1967, he narrowly escaped death in the Forrestal fire. On his twenty-third bombing mission over North Vietnam later in 1967, he was shot down and badly injured. He then endured five and a half years as a prisoner of war, including periods of torture, before he was released following the Paris Peace Accords in 1973.

Speed, Power And Destructive Force

The inter-relationship between speed, power and destructive force with fuel cost in terms of finance and waste can be assessed by considering several connected concepts. Essentially, big and heavy cars (4x4 SUVs). Generally, large lorries do not move at the speeds of smaller vehicles, but if they did and were involved in a high-speed incident, the destructive force would be almost unimaginable. Something like a tank shell in flight, but

the size of a house

Growth

The concept of 'growth' is a dastardly illusion and behaves like a sliding door's leading and trailing edges. They move together as one, but if you only see the leading edge it appears like a curtain being drawn. Take your eye off the trailing edge of the door and the appearance is one of the curtain extending. Growing in size. The fixed width defines no change, but this also defines the principle of the carrot on a stick: the carrot leads at an exact and unchanging distance ahead of the (out of sight) end of the stick. The carrot encourages continued pursuit of a perceived reward that can never be attained. Moving towards the apparent end of the rainbow will always result in the rainbow appearing to move away from the viewer. It's relative to the viewer's position. If the one moves, then so will the other. It's how the illusion works.

Without growth there would be no inflation. Without inflation there would be no growth. An illusory and very cyclical argument. It leads nowhere and nobody wins.

Except the money lenders

There is no gain, but the illusion of gain suggests some kind of growth. Even a living organism cannot grow without nourishment. All costs go up in proportion to 'growth' and so the gain is... zero. Share values increase, but true value remains stagnant. Any interest in savings appears to suggest profit, but increasing costs (in general) ensure that at best the original value input remains unchanged. At it's most depressing, the 'value' moves to the few. The so-called middle-rich are in delusion, truly believing that personal wealth is on the increase. Take your eye off the ball and you will lose sight of it. It can disappear without (ever) being seen.

If the number of shares in a business increases then the worth appears to increase though shares must be bought. To acquire more, more must be spent. Moving wealth. Buying involves spending. But where does it go? Share values go down. They are bound to eventually. Taking the average 'across the board' view of the pool of shares, the illusion is easy to perpetuate. Some shares climb (and occasionally fall a little and then climb again), so on average there is a continual rise in value. Somewhere else and seemingly unconnected, losses will even out any change by falling. Balancing and evenness as a global average, will be impossible to monitor. Values are more likely to diminish as the illusory 'growth' is at the expense of death elsewhere. Winners and losers: winners cannot exist without losers and how many are in the 'race' (to where?) when there can only be one 'winner'. Everyone who is not that ONE 'winner' is a 'loser' by definition.

No real nett improvement. It just seems so. The illusion. To acquire wealth has a cost effect. The money has to come from somewhere as it cannot be created. It is not obvious who will pay: someone or some group will pay. Shareholders will accept the burden in the belief that an investment can grow. Something lives so something somewhere must die.

Ideas can be created and then converted to material wealth, but as soon as the idea is manipulated, the true value is lost. Only the idea itself, the intellectual property, has a non-material value, which is then exploited to become the product for sale.