2026

Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (May 1, 2026) My most recent monthly blogs have tackled the all-important issues of global wealth and income inequality and how to address this problem by taking on the top level of estate planning (offshore trusts and holding companies which allow multinational corporations to legally avoid taxation) and by monetizing the asset base of planet earth which will address the issues of not only unequal wealth and income distribution but of environmental degradation (also called “climate change” and/or “global warming”). These issues affect everyone and even all forms of life (not merely human life) on this planet.  In order for these issues to be addressed effectively, this must be done on a global scale.  As we saw during the long Depression era in the 1920s to 1940s, authoritarianism and extremism left unchecked (or checked too late) affects the entire world in the worst way.  A similar specter of extremism has raised its head in our time but we appear to be addressing this issue earlier than our forefathers did:  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3b8zpcHfnv8. The primary focus of this month’s blog is the history of representative government on earth.  As we shall see, even so-called “democratic” forms of government have historically limited enfranchisement (the “voter franchise”) to this day.  Extremist political groups on the far-right wing seek to limit voter franchise because they realize that in any test of the entire population they are demographically doomed to be nothing more than a tiny minority.  The demographic situation on the entire planet earth today is not unlike how things were when (white) minority political rule came to an end in southern Africa in particular in Zimbabwe-Rhodesia in 1980, in Namibia in 1990 and in the Republic of South Africa in 1994. The most developed form of a supra-national state…

Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (April 2, 2026) The subject of this month’s blog is housing, which has become too expensive for most people to afford and where high quality in new construction has all but disappeared.  Housing and other real property comprise the biggest piece of the entire financially quantifiable asset base on planet earth and is continuing to change for reasons beyond what most people comprehend and certainly beyond our control. Much of the change is due (as always) to evolving human demographic change.  Put simply, the population of the earth is continuing to age which translates into an increasing median age, lower fertility (fewer and fewer children being born), smaller family size, smaller household size, less of a need for primary education staff (school district employees), fewer working people and more retired people.  The older the population, the less vibrant, the less active and the less mobile it becomes.  This is the reason why the average age of owner occupied housing is now no less than 16 years or more than double what it was during the seven decades immediately after the end of the Second World War in 1945. Decades of asset inflation due to credit inflation caused by governments continuing to create credit (people often inaccurately refer to this as “printing money”) have made asset prices artificially high.  At the same time purchasing power has continued to fall with declining real wages in particular in much of the so-called industrialized world.  Much of the so-called developing world is no longer under so-called “imperial” or “colonial” authority which means that they are no longer as subservient to the so-called developed world.  This means that more of the world has become more “competitive” in the modern industrial sense and that developed countries and their peoples no…

Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (March 1, 2026) The subject of this month’s blog builds upon my blogs from the most recent months.  In other words, how are we to address long-standing issues related to the grossly unequal distribution of wealth, how are we to protect the natural environment and how are we to do this fairly while at the same time shoring up our cherished freedoms and democracy? The concept I shared last month with respect to the very real life and real time proposal to the governments of Papua New Guinea, Bougainville (an autonomous province still within Papua New Guinea), the Philippines, Australia as well as the United Nations has been forming since 2016 or for the last ten years.  It is being presented by individuals with solid credentials in the fields of business and government who are long standing voters with center-right leanings (entirely different from the “far right wing” now unfortunately visible in the USA, in parts of Europe and in certain other parts of the globe). 78 percent of the currently quantifiable financial and economic wealth on earth is now in the form of commodities including (in this order) real estate, crude oil, gold, copper, natural gas (methane), silver, platinum and palladium.  The surface area of the earth is currently 25 percent land and 75 percent water.  Of the surface land 12 percent is currently used for agriculture (crops), 25 percent for agriculture (meadow and pasture land for ranching and grazing), 31 percent consists of forest cover and the remaining 32 percent of the surface land on earth is a combination of deserts, glaciers, barren land and the smallest amount built-up for human habitation. Much of the meadow and pasture land is now used for domestic herds of farm animals used for human consumption…

Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (February 1, 2026) The subject of this month’s blog is about how to address the (global) problem of the gross inequality of the distribution of both wealth and income, and how to tackle this issue while at the same time conserving the earth’s resources and halting the destruction of the natural environment.  In my December 2025 monthly financial and economic blog I discussed the issue of “estate planning” – necessary for everyone but at its highest level a vehicle which allows multinational corporations to legally avoid taxation – not a good thing and the way in which wealth becomes ever more concentrated at the very top of society. Note: this is based upon a real-life proposal which addresses both the grossly unequal distribution of wealth & income and which addresses climate related issues as well (environmental degradation / climate change / global warming).  This requires a globally-concerted effort.  If not, it will never succeed.  This has nothing to do with “socialism” or “communism” as those on the extreme political and social right wing claim.  This is in fact supported by a very broad political and economic spectrum including everyone else outside of the extreme right wing including interests such as mainstream conservatives, the center-right and interests in business, finance and politics.  As we shall see, the global distribution of wealth is so grossly lopsided that those at the very top deserve tax brackets all their own – including the British Royal family (who own 21 percent of the earth’s surface land) and the likes of billionaires such as Elon Musk who as the earth’s wealthiest individual has a net worth almost 3 times as much as the second richest individual on earth. We must first quantify in monetary terms the value of all global…

Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (January 2, 2026) The subject of this month’s blog is about the political history of the United States going back to the time before the USA declared its independence from the British Empire in 1776.  The USA is among a few modern day nation states which has a parliamentary system largely inherited from England.  This system is called a “first past the post system” in the modern day UK where seats in parliament are contested by individual districts across the entire country and not awarded according to “proportional representation” as they are in much of the rest of the world.  This latter system traces historical roots to the French Revolution of 1789.  Many authoritarian governments around the world have representative parliaments with governments of “national unity” which do allow for multiple political parties – but these parties are not allowed to go against the will of the national government – examples here include the People’s Republic of China, North Korea and the former German Democratic Republic (1949 to 1990). Modern democracies with a “first past the post” parliamentary electoral or voting system include the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.  Most democratic electoral and voting systems in the rest of Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia use proportional representation or even a hybrid system using some of each of the two described systems.  The political system of the modern day UK traces much of its parliamentary origins to the “Magna Carta” of 1215 in which the nobility obtained concessions from the ruling monarch (king). It is much more difficult to have third or multiple political parties in a “first past the post” system whereas in a parliamentary system we often see many smaller political parties who are represented in parliament.  The two…