miércoles, 30 de abril de 2014

Light Bulb Conspiracy

Light Bulb Conspiracy is a document that talks about planned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence is a policy used by the industries to design their products with a limited useful lifetime. The document show examples of industries that used this policy and how this policy is been adopted by almost all the industries around the world. The movie talks about Marcos and his printer, after a certain amount of prints, the printer stock. Marcos decided to investigate to find a way to repair his printer. After he had make many research, he find out that there was nothing wrong with the printer. This is one concrete example of how is planned obsolescence manipulating the products. Another concrete example are the industries of light bulb. Years ago the light bulb used to have a large lifetime and more than 100 hours of resistance, but today industries reduce the resistance of the light bulb so the costumers need to buy more. Apple is another industry that used planned obsolescence in his products because when the battery damage the costumer is bound to buy a new one.

I like this document because it show the reality of the industries and how they gain more money. Planned obsolescence begin in 1924 to helped industries increased their production and gained more money because the costumers will not stop buying. Many products have been manipulated like the washer machine and the refrigerator.  Many people are against this policy but it is impossible to destroy the cartel. Hopefully in the future this policy will be reformed and the products will have a longer useful lifetime. 

domingo, 27 de abril de 2014

Four Horsemen

Four Horsemen is a film that predicts the collapse of the American Empire and it also questioned all the systems that the poeple had created and accepted the changes. Some of the reason that the document state to support this prediction are:
1). We havent solve the problem of poverty
2). The decline of a empire is a life cycle, when an empire decline another empire will govern and it will also decline and this will happened successively.
3). The American Empire is at the end of the cycle because of the división of poor and rich people, economic crisis, wealth, sports, sex and more issues are catching the attention of the people.
4). Systematic Problem
5). Many people throw away the food while others dont eat before they go to bed.
6). 97% of the money in the world is debt.
7). Neoclassical economic dominates the policy today.
8). There are many plunders on the society.
9). The Glass Steigell Act - introduced to separted the banking.
10). Goldman Sachs.
If this come to pass the world will change and this is going to affect my life. But over the time the people are going to find a way to get out of it or they will find a solution, otherwise the rest of the countries will colapse and this will led to a world crisis. The value of contemplating it is to be prepared for what can happen and have a different point of view of all the things that can happen in the future.

viernes, 4 de abril de 2014

Colombia Monetary System

The Monetary System is the legal measure that a country used to control the fabrication and circulation of the money. In Colombia the monetary system is control by the central bank, Banco de la Republica, since 1923. The central bank is in charge of supervise the banks system, the credit of the country and control the amount of money in the economy. It is necessary to have control over the money in a country to avoid inflation. The monetary system is responsible for allowing the financial system have more or less deposits. 

The Federal Reserve system is the central bank of United States. The FED and the Banco de la Republica are similar because both of them control the amount of money in the country and it provides the inflation. According to Thomas Jefferson, the central banks should not control all our property, money, because they will take advantage of us, the citizens. “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their  currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks…will deprive the people of  all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered…. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs,” (Thomas Jefferson).

Citation:
”Presidents." The Money Masters. April 4, 2014. http://www.themoneymasters.com/the-money-masters/famous-quotations-on-banking.

"Banco de la Republica." Banco de la Republica. (2013). April 4, 2014. http://www.banrep.gov.co.

"The structure of Federal Reserve System." Federal Reserve Education. April 4, 2014. http://www.federalreserveeducation.org/about-the-fed/structure-and-functions.

jueves, 3 de abril de 2014

Banking System

       Every bank depends on lending the money that their users deposits in them to earn money but they cant always lend out all of their reserves. In order to control their capital, a central governing entity regulates the portion of their reserves that can be destined to lending matters. This system is called fractional reserve banking and it appeared as a result of the great depression in the US.  During the depression many banks were forced to shut down as a result of people wanting to retrieve when the recession happened. To contradict this event the Federal Bank, created the FRS and this started a new era of economic stability.

       Independently of how the FED manages resources, expanding and contracting economy through structural adjustment policy. Banks are open to failure in the FRS and this just shows how much people depend on the system, to keep their assets safe but the system is not as strong as their marketing campaigns. The FRS can also lead bank to go wild earning insane amount of profit because usually the minimum reserves levels are never reached, in this cases growth is extremely fast but the risks are also huge. This reserve system was a temporary solution created to prevent recession but a new solution must be developed in order to have a truly stable economy. Just as how protective the system is, can also be misinterpreted for huge risks and comeback with a new economic disaster in the future.

martes, 1 de abril de 2014

Food Inc


Photo from http://videotecaalternativa.net/food-inc-doblado-y-subtitulado-en-espanol

       The film Food Inc relate to the book Economic Hit Men because they talk about POWER. In both sources power is the main cause of many conflicts and these lead to many controversies. In the book Economic Hit Men, the author, John Perkins, talks about the people that want to bankrupt the countries so that United States can take out his sources. In other words, the resources of a country is the money. The people want to bankrupt the countries so that they can gain more power (money). The next source is the film, Food Inc, is a documental that reveal how the companies manage their products so that the consumers buy more. If the consumers buy more, the company will gained more power. 

       Economic Hit Men and Food Inc are related because both of them show the greed people and the real process of food. Something interest about the film was the way the companies incorporate antibiotics to the food. Is very curious to know the process of the food and sometimes we don't know what we eat. After watching this film is very sad to know that the companies take advantage of the farmers to produce their product. In conclusion we can see that in this world the POWER is very important and people live because of power. We should started to do things in the right way and be very careful with the things we eat.