Cempaka Business and Economy: WITNESS: Living in U.S. is reminder of Asian crisis

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.
They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Sunday, December 14, 2008

WITNESS: Living in U.S. is reminder of Asian crisis

Reuters, Sat Dec 13, 2008 7:42pm EST

K.T. Arasu is the Chicago Commodities Editor for Reuters. He moved to Chicago from Indonesia in 1998, at the height of the Asian financial crisis. While in Indonesia, he traveled on assignment several times to East Timor, whose citizens were fighting Indonesian occupation of the territory. He joined Reuters in Malaysia, his home country, 16 years ago. In the following story, he compares the U.S. financial crisis with the Asian crisis of a decade ago.

By K.T. Arasu

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A decade ago, at the height of the Asian financial crisis, I walked into a currency exchange office in Jakarta carrying a large brown bag stuffed with money. I walked out with but a few hundred U.S. dollars.

I was converting millions of rupiah, the Indonesian currency, before leaving Jakarta for the United States.

At 10,000 to the dollar, I got less than a third of what I would have received just a few weeks earlier, when the rate was 3,000 to the dollar.

In the intervening years, the only time when the value of a currency has been of concern is when my family travels on vacation.

But the long-dormant feelings of that time of despair in Indonesia during the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis are being rekindled by the economic troubles in the United States.

Even though I seem to be on the right side of the currency fence at the moment -- the value of the U.S. dollar has been rising against other major currencies -- the daily turmoil in the stock market, news of people losing their jobs and rising food prices remind me of that bleak period.

It is a sinking feeling when your money loses 30 percent of its value in a flash -- regardless of whether stock losses or exchange fluctuations are to blame. And, in both cases, the circumstances are well beyond my control, and maybe even beyond the control of the government.

Ten years ago, I was a Reuters correspondent in Jakarta, the bustling capital of Indonesia, which was hit so hard by the crisis it had to turn to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.

That act of acquiescence was immortalized in a widely published photograph of the once mighty President Suharto bending over a low desk to sign the bailout documents, watched over by the then IMF Director-General Michel Camdessus.

In hindsight, that was the first nail in the political coffin of the iron-fisted Suharto, who resigned in 1998 after the economy collapsed and the people revolted.

The Asian crisis was a challenging time for people in that region. Sparked by the sharp depreciation of the Thai baht following speculative attacks, the ensuing turbulence spread through Southeast Asia and beyond.

It was a period of slumping stock markets, rising interest rates, and job losses as many businesses collapsed.

In many ways, it was similar to what is happening now in the United States.

The stock market, as measured by the Dow Jones industrial average, has tumbled about 40 percent from its peak above 14,000 points hit in October 2007.

The jobless rate in the United States rose to 6.7 percent in November, the highest since 1993, which adds up to 10.3 million Americans out of work.

For me, the drastic fall in the rupiah was complicated by the fact that the rent on my house was paid in U.S. dollars.

It may sound strange, but Indonesians renting out homes to expatriates like myself usually wanted to be paid in U.S. dollars. They probably saw the economic crisis coming and did not seem to put their faith in the rupiah.

And each time my wife and daughter made the short hop home to Malaysia, the fare was paid in dollars.

"The problem began with financial intermediaries -- institutions whose liabilities were perceived as having an implicit government guarantee, but were essentially unregulated," economist Paul Krugman wrote in January 1998.

The excessive risky lending of these institutions created inflation -- not of goods but of asset prices, Krugman wrote.

"The overpricing of assets was sustained in part by a sort of circular process, in which the proliferation of risky lending drove up the prices of risky assets."

Again it is risky lending, this time by lenders to American home buyers, that lies at the heart of the financial crisis in the United States.

Nations hit by the Asian crisis took several years to get back on their feet, and it looks like there's a long road ahead before things get better in the United States.

(Reporting by K.T. Arasu; Editing by Eddie Evans)

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