Willem Middelkoop interview The Big Reset

A fascinating interview with Willem Middelkoop on his new book called The Big Reset. The interview is in Dutch but there is English captions running.

Willem basically discusses why a big reset is all but inevitable even though there is the talk of economic improvement. The cause is namely high debt loads worldwide and continuing deficits. He discusses the historical war on gold to keep the US dollar from collapsing but says a day of reckoning is coming anyway. They discuss a possible worldwide agreement on a new world coin to replace the current currency system.

I find the conclusion of the interview a little bit of a letdown as he just talks about rising gold prices in the next few years which personally, I don't think that is going to play out gradually like that. I think a collapse / reset of the current financial system is going to be far more disorderly and dramatic, but then he hints at not giving away all the details which can be found in his book. Oh well, fair enough I guess.

Synopsis of The Big Reset: Now five years after the near fatal collapse of world's financial system we have to conclude central bankers and politicians have merely been buying time by trying to solve a credit crisis by creating even more debt. As a result worldwide central bank's balance sheets expanded by $10 trillion. With this newly created money central banks have been buying up national bonds so long term interest rates and bond yields have collapsed. But 'parking' debt at national banks is no structural solution. The idea we can grow our way back out of this mountain of debt is a little naïve. In a recent working paper by the IMF titled 'Financial and Sovereign Debt Crises: Some Lessons Learned and Those Forgotten' the economist Reinhart and Rogoff point to this 'denial problem'. According to them future economic growth will 'not be sufficient to cope with the sheer magnitude of public and private debt overhangs. Rogoff and Reinhart conclude the size of the debt problems suggests that debt restructuring will be needed 'far beyond anything discussed in public to this point.' The endgame to the global financial crisis is likely to require restructuring of debt on a broad scale.

Respectfully, what exactly does a "reset" mean to you? A revolution, an actual time anomaly, what? I hear and read this word, reset, a lot, but have the feeling it means different things to different people, dependent upon their perspective and beliefs, as always. Just wondering what it means to you, and in this context, what is meant by the use of it in this interview?
T50

I think in the context of this interview it means a debt restructuring of some sort, which I'm not sure of the details as they are not discussed. If a reset is a debt restructuring, then basically it would be a default. How this all plays out when a restructure / reset happens is to be seen but I doubt it would be smooth and orderly.

well the finance system is at its end...
the pyramid is crumbling douwn
an reset would mean scrab all depts worldwide in every layer... than start the system back up..

At some point in time, debt can not be collected.

Those owning massive amounts of debt, will loose that money.

Then there comes a sorting process. Who owns what? Which will mainly be about land, and property.

That is when things get messy.

I agree with the member above who said it means "wiping out all debt and starting over."

This has been done in the past - routinely...
every 7 years or something like that, though I can't recall where it was...ancient Greece?

I've wondered if the "statute of limitations" being 7 years is linked to that practice. Like in how when your credit gets trashed by whatever circumstance, the 'black mark' on your credit falls off after 7 years and you begin to build your credit anew.

Isn't that like a 'built-in' reset?

As for the messy part of who owns what afterwards; I'd say what you have remains yours to the extent you have a decent baseline of shelter, clothing, transportation, food, and maybe a small yard in which to grow things - but beyond a certain "affluence level" you don't get to keep it (luxury taxes were based on this).

I may be totally mistaken, though. But I see a collapse of some kind - a huge "start over" coming. It's past due.

Ah, I found a source that explains it:
www.cognitivepolicyworks.com...

How would nations and corporations invest our newfound wealth differently if we all started from a clean slate? Problems like global warming and extreme poverty would instantly become financial drops in the bucket—easily tackled with fair contracts and forward-looking investments. The structural debts of entrenched subsidies, invested capital, tax havens, and trade agreements that keep them from being addressed would simply no longer exist.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well just such a fantasy used to be standard practice in the Hebrew Tradition throughout the early days of their civilization. They held a great Jubilee every seven years to erase all debt and end economic slavery. Accounts kept on stone tablets were broken. Those stored on papyrus were burned to ash. Slaves were returned to their families. Everyone was given a fresh start.

(This tradition is being revived today through the Occupy-inspired project, Rolling Jubilee, that has already abolished more than $9,000,000 in US debt for everyday citizens.)

Hey! Where do I sign up for the OWS Rolling Jubilee??? I want to be next!!

reply to post by poet1b


The U.S. should just give China North Dakota and call it even (people in Fargo would need to learn Mandarin, but that would be a nice learning curve). And England could trade the Falklands for some good debt reduction.

Money is now just photons and numbers in computers. Real humanity just needs housing, food, medical care, clothes, and those sugarless gummy bears (for cleansing purposes). As long as tptb can keep the thing running while their best and brightest jump out windows because they've lost a few billion here and there, maybe the economic crunch can be ridden out (although the dreaded world currency will likely emerge as a result). As you can tell I'm not an economist nor do I even have a layman's knowledge of the art of the financial deal, just another optimist thinking that things will shake down alright in the end.

Then there's always the Icelandic model (smiley face here).