Economic Crisis.

We develop our intelligence to +2 and our emotional intelligence to +1. We make money with our minds and spend it with our hearts.

' The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself '
FDR was right then. And FDR is right now." - Front page of the NY Post. In any crisis and every crisis and for that matter in any given situation good or bad we must always act from a +2 super mature mind level. We must never react(reaction means acting under pressure of outside events that generate fear etc a -1 immature brain power value).

The very speeches that our leaders gave from President Bush downwards clearly show that we did not act we reacted in the usual fashion which in this case was the fear of a financial melt down. So our Govt.'s current action was clearly based on fear, which is a reaction; a -1 immature brain power value. Second for all our money problems we think that deficit financing will fix the problem and we will fix the deficit mess later on. A deficit is a virus in the financial foundation of the country. Just like viruses multiply deficits eat their way to weakening every thing of value. From the dollar value to all the way to the whole value of the country. Deficits devalue the very fabric of life for citizen themselves.


When ever we have a financial crisis we think we can solve it by injecting money. The current crisis indeed needs financial solutions. But we have to look at the bigger picture. Were these predatory financial institutions solely responsible for our current mess? Was this the fault of just the lenders?

We must examine this crisis in its full context. I think this crisis has as much to do with most American mind power level being at +1 mature. Where we can be at +2 super mature if only we can wake up to our full potential. I have written many knols on this problem let me quote from some of them. In my knol, 'Mr +1 mind/brain in his own words' I have described the life style of our average American:

"My parents had been brought up on feelings of being the best and as they grew up they realized that they were no where near the best. This made them very uncomfortable and unhappy. My father was always busy trying to create more and more wealth. We had all the trappings of success but for my parents it was never enough. So they made me believe that I was the best so that in my becoming the best there own dreams could become true. They loved me, they cared for me and I trusted them totally. So instead of enjoying my humbleness and living in the present my childhood became a time, a life for preparing for the future. The importance of the current life/time was not important any more all that was important was my coming success in the future. So not only was studying a compulsion it was not a pleasure anymore. Life became full of tension for fear of failure. What if I could not fulfill my parents expectations. Once at school my mom and my class mates mom almost came to blows because I lost a game due to my friend accidentally pushing me. My mom could not even see me loose a friendly game even though I have lost many times before.

Today I am a PhD in psychology and have other businesses. I don't know how to spend and enjoy all my money. Yet I am worried that I have nothing and I have let my parents down. I don't pay attention to my family. My wife has left me. My kids think I am a failure. I am sure when the time comes they will ship me to a nursing home. I have all the money I will ever need yet I feel poor. I can't sleep without sleeping pills. Sometimes I feel there are two personalities inside me. I love my parents and there are times when I hate my parents. I feel guilty and miserable. I don't know why I cannot enjoy my self created wealth. I wish I had the courage to go to a shrink. I am too proud to admit that there is something seriously wrong with me. For I should be happy and satisfied with my life. I think one of these days I will confront my parents for why they raised me like this. I blame them for my life and yet I don't stop from trying to prove them right. For in spite of everything I still believe that I am the best. As I feel hollow inside
I collect trophies. As for my businesses I borrow and borrow to expand and show off more trophies."

Another knol, ' Half a glass of water...' I must quote fully:

Half a glass of water in never just half full nor is it ever just half empty. It is always half full and always half empty. So when we teach our children to look on the bright side it is indeed bright to look at half a glass as half full and not as half empty. But we are teaching our children a half truth. It is always brighter to teach our children the full truth. When you show them half a glass of water tell them it is half full and half empty. The brightest move would be to show them the empty part and tell them this empty part is their opportunity to fill up the glass.

"THEY DON'T JUST SHOW THEIR KIDS THE GLASS AS HALF FULL THEY SHOW THEIR CHILDREN THE HUGE EMPTY GLASS THAT THEY HAVE TO FILL AND THAT THEY ARE DESTINED TO FILL!!!!!

To really understand life/time we must wake up to the fact that life is life. Whether good or bad, beautiful or ugly(which it never is 100%), happy or sad it is all 100% life. The empty part of our glass of life is even more important as it represents an opportunity because only through failure and pain can we experience and learn to improve our brain/mind and come closer to our ultimate destiny of becoming wise.

In fact until recently it was a given that most Americans were handed over a decent inheritance. Now it is becoming less and less usual. More and more young Americans are being handed a less than half full glass of life where even the glass size is shrinking. We must pause and focus on how to reverse this problem.

Prof. White Head would start a new class by drawing a horse carriage on the black board. Then he would ask the class what was the most important part of the carriage. Some would say the horse or the wheel etc. He said it was the idea of the carriage. The concept is the most important. So in this case too we must start with the concept.

Therefore instead of showing the children/student that half of the glass of life is half full let them rejoice on the half full part but show them two facts:

a) The half empty part is the opportunity waiting to be filled.
b) The glass size itself has to be made larger. (Don't just focus on the half full also focus on the glass size and over prepare your self to increase the glass size itself many fold).

So you have to train to take the empty part, the dark part as an opportunity to be filled up and an opportunity to hone ones skills so that not only is the glass filled it is exchanged for a bigger and bigger glass.

When we focus on the half full we become less concerned over the half empty so we tend to use the half full less responsibly. For many of us the half full becomes quarter full. This is what is happening to many Americans today.
Many Americans have told me, 'You foreigners come to our country and become rich. You do better then us and you are leaving many of us behind.' Well we Indians look at our life's glass and say to our self not only is my glass half empty it is also too small. So instead of focusing on the blessings of the half full glass(we already feel happy by merely being here as we know we have the opportunity of making the glass fuller and bigger, so we size this opportunity) we focus on not only filling up the glass we focus on making the glass bigger and bigger and for some of us we collect many more glasses. When one focuses on fullness rather than emptiness then the tendency is to spend more money than is required. It's like I am rich rather than poor when I see the full part only.

Given the current economic mess; America to get out of the current economic mess must start training the young minds to not focus just on the bright side but also to focus on the brightest side by taking the following steps:

ALWAYS TELL THE WHOLE REALITY/TRUTH AND TRAIN THE YOUNG MINDS ON THE FULL FACTS FOCUSING ON OPPORTUNITIES RATHER THAN MAKING THEM FEEL CONFIDENT ON A HALF TRUTH AND ALSO:
a) Instead of focusing on the half full lets focus on the half full and half empty.
b) Lets also realize that the half full is not going to remain the same it will become less if we just sit on it.
c) Lets wake up to the fact many of us have used the half full to the last drop.( If only the Federal Govt. would wake up to the ballooning federal deficit and took wise measures we are not too far down the empty yet.)
d) Not only must we prepare to fill the half empty part we must over prepare to increase the glass size many fold.

It is my hobby to research how individuals and groups become super rich and in my experience I have found that the most successful group comes from a small town called Mewar in Rajasthan, India. This super rich group is called Marwaries. They control the bigger factories, the diamond trade etc. Wherever there is more money to be made they are right there on the top. Unlike the rest of India where we tell our kids that you have to become a doctor, an engineer or a Govt. officer etc. they tell their kids that the future of whole countries depends on their shoulders. They don't tell them that when they grow up they are going to have the best job they tell them that they are going to provide others with the best jobs. They are going to start factories and big businesses. THEY DON'T JUST SHOW THEIR KIDS THE GLASS AS FULL(for they say to the child look here our glass is full. We have enough to last several generations but I got a smaller glass from my parents and I made it bigger but you are going to make it much bigger because the world needs you to provide them with higher paying jobs) THEY SHOW THEIR CHILDREN THE HUGE EMPTY GLASS THAT THEY HAVE TO FILL!!!!!

As of today not much is lost if we can only wake up and not bring up our children on half truths.

Just watch if we continue on the current path and don't take care of our root problems then even trillions of dollars will never be enough; also the income that Govt. gets from social security taxes will become negative much sooner. Also as the tax base will decline the Govt. finances will be in a bigger hole.There will come a point when from inflation to foreclosures and everything in between will reach out of control of the Govt.

I am from India and I have watched my fellow Americans objectively and I can say that the current crisis is as much to do with wall street greed as it has to do with the parents trying to achieve their own dreams through pushing their children to achieve their dreams for them; I call this 'Omnipotence Transference' as in 'I could not be the best but my child will be.' This creates three problems 1) It makes the child believe that he is the best and so he tries to prove it by accumulating trophies and at least till recently trophies were being collected(money wasted in most cases) by taking out credit and squeezing the value from the houses. Instead of feeling pride in his self he feels pride in his wealth. 2) Instead of becoming his true self he for all practical purposes becomes his trophy self image. Which has its own agenda. 3) Many times the child takes on a profession of his parents liking and so he hates his work and his life.

Bhagwan Rajneesh was once asked 'how come you are a god and I am not?' He replied 'you are a god too the only difference is you don't know it.' And this kind of stuff is in every scripture. I am translating this to mean that I have wisdom and I know it. You have wisdom too but you don't know it (I mean others don't know, not you specifically). So I have taken up this task to awaken you to your true self which in its fully developed state is wise. Especially this great country of America where her soul was created by her founders on the right footing. You need two feet to stand tall and for your true self - your mind to stand tall you need the solid foot of regular intelligence and the solid foot of emotional intelligence. The founders of America made sure that by creating the right constitution and the right environment we can all rise to our full potential standing tall on both equally important feet of our mind; intelligence and emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence affects all aspects of life.
Emotional intelligence affects everything. It controls our life from the individual, to companies, to groups, to whole countries. There is such a thing as group emotional intelligence where every one takes for granted certain beliefs and attitudes and where upbringing norms are universally accepted and practiced. There are some common American notions that have an almost first class affect on the emotional intelligence of the child. The child's self image is brought up on the notion that he is the best. Thus feelings of being the best create a trophy self image. So the child grows into adulthood feeling like a trophy and seeking trophies all his life. So he focuses more on fulfilling his dream of proving to himself that he is a trophy then even on spending his money wisely. In fact the silver lining in this 'trophy self' makes us Americans the best when it comes to making money. But for us making the money is secondary and making a trophy life is the bottom line. Thus we make money with our minds but we spend money with our so called hearts. We are the best in the world when it comes to making money and we are one of the not so good when it comes to spending money. This is not just us; it is a national trait that gets reflected even in companies and in government policies.

In the current times when individuals to institutions and even the federal govt. are all struggling with not enough money to balance the books we must change our trophy self image - the main culprit why we spend our money dictated by our heart and not our mind.

We must especially insure that the future generation is brought up on developing their true self and not create a trophy self for themselves. Please read my knols on wisdom and especially 'Wisdom of Champions' and 'Wisdom Bonding'.

America is still the greatest country when it comes to making money but when it comes to spending money we go after spending it on the desires of our phony self image. We make money with our minds with real sweating/hard work but we spend this hard earned money on the agenda of our trophy self image. So the happiness even is somewhat hollow. We can do both; we can remain the greatest country in making money as well as we can become the greatest country in spending money too if only we can wake up and start creating our true self rather than a trophy self.

As Bhagwan Rajnees said if we only knew our true and full potential and how to develop it we will remain the greatest people and the greatest nation in the world. And if we don't change then we may go bankrupt sooner than later.
Americans create money with their +2 well developed minds and spend it by their +1 hearts (+1 brains).
Money comes in through real hard work and it partly goes out for the phony pleasures of our self image. Look at all the attics and the closets and the extra rented storage rooms full of goods that are bought on the whims of the self image. As a result of our trophy self image we over strive to fulfill the dreams of being the best. As the self image is partly phony our life pleasure are partly phony. So in effect we are buying phony pleasures with our hard earned real money. And to many of us this addiction to being a trophy compels us to spend our money on the bottom line - to prove to our self and the world and especially our parents - that 'I am the best'. Many of us have done this to the point where our economic base has eroded to the point that we are virtually homeless. For many of us things will not change till we wake up to, and develop our bottom line - our true authentic self.

Just as our cutting edge education has enabled us to develop our earning skills to the +2 super mature mind level; we must develop our 'heart skills' to the super mature 'heart' level. A couple of my friends tell me how come I have a mortgage free mansion and they have a 3 bedroom house loaded with a heavy mortgage. And I say to them, well they have made as much money or even more money with +2 physical and mental labor but they have spent their money by a +1, -1 and even sometimes on a whim by a -2 mind. While I make my money by a +2 mind and I spend it too with a +2 mind.

Fortunately all America is not like this; but a huge chunk of Americans spend their money on phony self image directed pleasures. +1 spending can only give one +1 pleasure and +1 life. My mission of life is to wake up the world and show them that real, pure +2 life and her bounties are virtually free. It is a matter of developing a selfless and image less self. I once watched an 86 year old man who was painting a sign for an inn. I asked him what his greatest pleasures were. He said the fact that he could still paint like a young man and that he could see without glasses. And here we are taking life for granted as if it is not fleeting and as if life will be healthy for ever.

When the experts look for the current economic mess they look for economic reasons and they just add greed to the causes. The total causes are much deeper. Any kind of ignorance is compounded if the human element is ignored. There is always an emotional intelligence factor to any and all behavior even well thought out economic behavior. You cannot solve a problem unless you address and correct all the causes, all the mistaken actions. Even greed has to do with lack of emotional intelligence.

Another big factor is that America is becoming a more and more of a service industry. More and more of our industrial needs are being fulfilled by factories over seas. As a result our manufacturing (real solid work) is shrinking and the manufacturing labor force (real solid workers) is shrinking. And the best possible work that one can do is when one produces quality goods. You cannot compare 'making a room by cleaning and replacing clean bed sheets' with actually manufacturing bed sheets. This is what we are doing, others are producing the bed sheets and we are using them in servicing our selfs and others.

We can even apply common sense to the current economic crisis and use common sense to solve wars and differences between groups.How do we use common sense to solve major complex problems? By reducing the understanding of complex issues into simple understandable terms. Lets take the current economic crisis. How do we explain it: by using the science of common sense. Instead of explaining the problems of the economic mess in scientific/economic terms lets explain it in everyday life terms. The current economic mess is like a large road. It is crumbling and has a lot of holes. A couple of very large ones and many medium and many, many small ones. Say you do not have enough material to fill up the biggest hole so will you take all your material and keep pouring it down the big hole? What if the hole still cannot be filled even after you have put in all the even borrowed material that you could get? Common sense would dictate that you fix what is fixable and let the big hole be fixed through creative means like building a bridge over the hole. Translating this in economic terms it means that the financial institutions have liabilities of 50+ trillions. What will the 800 million do in this mess? It will still need the banks to find another 49++ trillions. The Govt.'s bailout has so far reduced the giant problem from 50 to 49! It will only buy some time. However financial institutions are a necessity of life and so the sound ones will survive and prosper. And if some big ones go bankcrupt the medium sound ones will become big and will fill the vacuum/need.

I thought of another common sense solution to the economic mess. President Obama can issue an executive order that all mortgages will have to be on a fixed minimum rate for the time being no matter what the mortgage agreement says. And those that are cheating though complex mortgages, especially preying on the elderly, will have to return the illegal gains retrospectively.

It is amazing that even the best writers of economics don't get the whole picture. Take this beautiful article by David Brooks in the NY Times today. They all miss the main point of the financial melt down. Derivatives and trades became so complex that in many instances they became virtually just paper trades. Thus the books showed more profits than in the actual and real world. And as a result parts of the assets became assets in the domain of thin air. However when deciding their own compensations and bonuses and salaries and even expenses (notice how executives take private planes) they based it on the phony puffed up paper value.Thus they took out real money from the company thereby making the real value of the company more and more hollow by shifting the balance more and more to phony paper assets. Naturally with the foundation of the company becoming more and more virtual based on thin air, the foundation collapsed. New rules will have to be written with this fundamental factor in mind.

I think I figured out why the banks are not lending money in spite of the huge financial help and pressure from the government.

All the banks are renegotiating old debts. My wife owed a bank 14,000.00. Her lawyer negotiated the loan down to 10,000.00. No bank in their right mind is going to lend money in this kind of environment where a company or individual may borrow money and then turn around and try to renegotiate a lower payment. I think the govt. has to funnel money through some semi-government agencies. If there are no such agencies then the govt. must create them. Or some creative way must be found where the banks must be forced to give out more loans to the very same people/businesses who have successfully renegotiated their loans down to paying back much less than they borrowed.

Suppose you lent a hundred dollars to someone and the situation is such that you are happy if he pays you back fifty. Then he comes back for another loan of a hundred dollars. You have already lost loaning him recently. Will give him another loan again? This is the situation the banks are in and you cannot blame them for hesitating to give loans to the very people who have caused them losses in the recent past. But unless businesses have more capital the economy will keep struggling and the economic crisis will continue.