The New Economic Reality Dictionary

The following terms are new descriptors for complex problems of economics and management science that I have found extremely useful in describing certain phenomena.  They are easy to understand once you think about them.  Feel free to use them - but if you use them in a publication, credit to the author would be appreciated.

ACH  (AY'see'aych)  ACH is the automated clearing house, such as the one run by www.nacha.org with the blessings of the Fed.  Here's how it works:  If you walk into the store, and buy something using your "check card" which is maligned by calling it a debit card, your transaction is transmitted to an ACH originating financial depository institution (OFDI) where the money appears in your merchant's account as a nearly instant "credit" (definition 2, below).  The ACH transaction travels electronically to a receiving depository financial institution (RDFI) where it is "debited" (removed from) your account.  This is the trick that forms the basis for all manner of financial confusionism, because most people don't know that in a check card (debit card) transaction, you get a credit into the OFDI from the RFDI (debited).  Because this is pure 'effing magic to non-accountants, this is precisely where the banksters wish to lead the sheeple in order to have more shear fun with them.  Taking money out of a real account is a debit and going in debt is a credit.  Whew!  Unless of course, you are doing a web-based, non-recurring WEB type transaction which turns a one-way RDFI debit from your account into a named ODFI credit at the merchant's account... Need more?  Ure's ACH Rules:  1: Do without rather than use recurring payments.  2:  Use cash!  There's a reason that everyone from the little Trinity Valley Electric Company up at our ranch place up to the biggest banks in the world want you to sign up for automatic ACH transfers:  Less work, and less consumer control over their personal finances.

Afterness:  (Af-tur-ness) There are two ways to approach a future where the range of possible outcomes is broad.  Afterness is achieved by taking the worst possible outcomes and planning specifically for that outcome, confident that in doing so, you will be able to work through any crisis because you're well prepared in advance for what's on the other side of the upheaval.  By their nature, afterness oriented planners have a clear vision of what they expect at a future date, but exogenous events are a risk to them.  Their mantra: Shelter in (the right) place in advance.  Example: Dick Cheney's undisclosed location.  The alternative is to practice "getthroughitness" (definition)

AYSM?:  Are You Sh*tting Me?  We call this street-level economics.

Billstone:    (BILL'-stone) One of the words the Project Management Institute should have invented.  A billstone is a project milestone which is strictly a billing trigger.  E.G., when a project is 50% completed, the client will pay for the second 50% of the services.  This point in a Microsoft Project .mpp file would be called a Billstone, or milestone with only money events attached to it.

BoT:  Short for: Balance of Trade.  A mythical condition, last reported in the 1960's, when America was a land which exported as much as she imported.  The 'balance of trade' is also referred to as the 'trade deficit' and is claimed to be improving as long as the rate of descent is slowing, as it will along a noisy data path now and then.  It's akin to an engine being out on an airplane and every once in a while, as the pilot pulls back on the yoke to slow the descent, the passengers getting a sense of relief, not realizing their flight will end in a mountainside somewhere.  Works in economics, just the same.

BTW:  By the way...

CDO's:  Collateralized Debt Obligations.  This is a collection of promissory notes.  The theory is that if you put enough prom notes into a paper sack, it will behave somewhat like a bond, although with often lousy returns.  Similar to MBO (mortgage backed obligations) where if you put enough mortgage notes into a paper sack...well, it all blows us.

Cobbled Optimism: (CAH-belled AUP-ti-mism) There is incredible pressure on media not to "be negative."  Regrettably, this often takes the form of unrealistically optimistic statements about the economy which is, without such prejudice, engaged in a slow-motion swan song.  Thus, we suggest that Cobbled Optimism be defined as a positive outlook in the face of imminent death of an idea, ideology, or long held belief that is just too damn appealing to rethink in the light of new facts.

Compstapo:  (Kahmp-STAH'-pō) Any government agency which gathers information about private U.S. citizens for the purpose of profiling them against real or imagined threats.

Corperment:  (COR'-per-munt) [also:  Goverprise] This word reflects the reality of today's allegiance between major corporations and government.  In this view of the relations between previously autonomous government and corporate functions, government serves as an extension of corporate policies, while at the same time, corporations serve as extensions of government policy.  When referencing an apparently government initiated action, the correct term is Goverprise.  (As in the invasion of Iraq).  When references is made to a corporation's actions in behalf of government, the correct term is Corperment.

Credebt::    (CREH'-debt) The Federal Reserve promotes the myth that Americans don't have a huge mountain of debt, they just own and use a mountain of Consumer Credit.  The term Credebt is a term that meets the central banksters half way.  I'd call owing a bank card $10,000 a big-ass debt.  They'd call it "consumer credit.  If we agree to call it credebt, both sides should be happy.

Credit:  (KREH'-dit)  (1) The dishonest say of saying that a person is in debt or the dishonest way of telling a person that they may become indebted.  E.G. Bank America sends out a piece of plastic and calls it a "Credit Card" when in reality it is a debt card.  This dishonest use of the term "credit" is also promoted widely by the Federal Reserve.  Example: Consumer Credit reports.  (2)  In double-entry accounting systems, the receiving account.  The debited account is (for obvious reasons) debited to free up the credit.

Debt:  (Deht)  The money you owe someone, for goods, services, or because your bookie demands it or he will break your legs.

Debit (DEH'-bit)  (1) In the art of accountancy, a charge against an account, which shows up in another account. See Credit, above.  (1) The dishonest way large money center banksters, with the full support of the Federal Reserve, try to blue the use of the term debt - which is really close to "debit" in sound.  Knowing people have through of credit cards, which are in truth, debt cards, the charade was taken to a new level with the application of the term debit card to the spending of one's own money from one's own personal account.  That's right - money out of your account is deliberately made to sound like "debt" (debit is close, right) so you will feel bad about now being in debt by using more "credit" which is debt.  Cappish?

Debtberg:    (DEBT'-berg)  The total amount of all debt sloshing around inside an economic system.

Economic System: (ee-coh-NAW'mick SIS'-tem)  Any collection of humans that agrees to exchange a single class of markers or trinkets.  E.G.  Humans exchanging U.S. paper money ("dollars") constitute an economic system.  Similarly, humans exchanging Islamic Dinars are another economic system.  Economic systems are constantly at war with one another for highest value.

Economystic:    (ee-con-o-MISS'-tic) A practitioner of the pseudo-science of economics.  And economist, by contrast is any observer of money and its interactions with the whole world system.  Economystics are prone to using arcane mathematical symbols behind which common sense sometimes hides.  △≠Ω but, then again, it might

EO (EO's)  (EEE'-ohs) Shorthand for "environmental oddities".  When then sun's output is up 6-8 percent compared with a year or two back - that's an "environmental oddity."  Fire danger in Texas in the winter?  EO.  50-foot waves in Hawaii?  EO.  X-class solar flare that hits 50?  EO.  Strange "slow motion earthquakes?"  EO...also: Whale beachings, strange earth sounds, ELF radiation, radar rings...

EMP: Electro Magnetic Pulse.  The phenomena accompanying high altitude atomic tests (See: Starfish Prime which sounds like something out of a B scifi movie, but it was a huge high atmosphere nuke test...) where gamma rays (I'm going from memory here so look this up) hit the higher layers of the atmosphere and turn into a guan electric shock.  The high voltage induced in anything with wires that's unprotected (hardened)

Gentle Ben:  If you're a Disney fan, it's a story about a bear and a young boy.  On the UrbanSurvival site, the meaning is most likely a reference to the head of the Feral Reserve in a kindly way, since the bears who hang out on the short side are being well-fed by the latter-day Gentle Ben.  E.G., This is about a bear and a bunch of old boyz.

Getthroughitness:  (get-THREW-it-ness)  In planning for a wildly uncertain future, a practitioner of getthroughitness does not try to constrain the wide range of possible outcomes on the other wise of upheaval.  Rather, they focus on mobility, and advance warning systems to stay out of harms way.  They tend to rely on skills and mindset to move forward once crisis is past.  By nature not location-specific, their mantra is "Chance favors the prepared mind..."  Example: Bill Clinton post Monica. See: Afterness

Govercrat:   (GUHV'-ur-crat) In the old days, these were the holders of federal jobs who did little more than shuffle paper and enforce regulations which sometimes actually made sense.  However, unlike a bureaucrat, who focuses on rules which might possibly make sense, the govercrat blindly enforces whatever Draconian regulations have been passed despite their obviously being in conflict with the Constitution of this great country.  Again: Bureaucrats enforce Constitutionally sound laws.  Govercrats enforce any damn thing because they are just following orders.

Goverprise:  (GUHV'-ur-prize) [also: Corperment] This word reflects the reality of today's allegiance between major corporations and government.  In this view of the relations between previously autonomous government and corporate functions, government serves as an extension of corporate policies, while at the same time, corporations serve as extensions of government policy.  When referencing an apparently government initiated action, the correct term is Goverprise.  (As in the invasion of Iraq).  When references is made to a corporation's actions in behalf of government, the correct term is Corperment.

Jobjack:   (JAHB'-jack)  [also: jobjac, jobjacked, jobjacker, jobjacking) In their rush to find least-cost labor, American companies have stolen jobs from American workers on American soil and have sent them overseas where the labor will be provided much more cheaply.  As corporations have no consciousness or social concerns, there's only one thing that will stem the tide against jobjacking.  Consumer resistance to purchase of goods made overseas.

MBO's:  Mortgage backed obligations.  Put a collection of mortgages into a sack.  Pretend that it will behave like a bond.  Sell as quickly as possible, then get bailed out by taxpayers.  Flee country, living on offshore options converting to equities and thumb your nose at investigators.

MDR, The:  The Mexico Druglords' Revolution.  Underway for years as a low intensity conflict (LIC) but now going front page until the editor gets shot.

Moneyopia: (Money-oh-pee-ah) A condition akin to myopia and myopic vision, except it is also a personality disorder related to national monetary policies.  This condition almost never afflicts persons with combined family incomes of under $100,000 per year pre-tax.  Rather, it seems to seek out and infect persons of higher incomes and station in government or banking circles.  The affliction results in impaired financial decision-making abilities, a Tourette-like condition punctuated by inappropriate use of words such as "Judgment!" and "Transitory!" in the face of obvious evidence to the contrary.  Alternate form: Monetaropia.

QOS:  (CUE'-oh-ehss for civilians or Kwoss for longtime readers)  Quality Of Sales.  Although consumer spending may increase for a number of reasons, the source of spending is important.  If spending comes from the creation of debt, it doesn't improve the economic conditions of a country.  It simply creates more debt and drives monetary inflation (falling value of money).  On the other hand, if spending comes from saving and retained earnings, the when the money is spent is more likely a positive influence on a country's future.

Timescape:    (TIME'-scape) In discussions with another human being about any element of the future, the preamble to the main point of the conversation should include appropriate timescaping: The alignment of time horizons of the party to the discussion at had.  If one party looks at two month horizon, while the other is looking at the problem from a different perspective, say 10-years, the ensuing conversation will be skewed to the degree that the parties are looking at different aspects involving time.  Taken to an extreme, the discussion will becoming timewarped.

TTFN:  Tah Tah For Now.  in other words, bye-bye, adios amigos, see you later, etc...

TTYL:  Talk To You Later

Wal-Bucks:  (WAHL'-bux) There are U.S. dollars, printed in order to facilitate the purchase by U.S. consumers of cheap goods from China.  China, in turn uses the Wal-Bucks to buy useful things, like copper mines, oil and gas for future delivery locking in today's cheap prices, etc.  The main danger of Wal-Bucks is that while it's painless to print them, they have a nasty way of eventually causing domestic inflation in the USA, therefore, the government has incentives to keep them as the 'world's reserve currency" because once that scam fails, the Wal-Bucks being returned to the U.S. will kill the dollar. And yes, Alan Greenspan is Daddy Wal-Bucks.

Web Bot:    (Web Baht)  A collection of proprietary spiders, agents and wanderers that are periodically set loose on the Internet with the purpose of finding lexical shifts surround keywords of the directed search.  A real web bot carries an onboard lexical dictionary of 120-thousand words, and takes snips of 2048 bytes and returns them to our associates for processing.  The processing, which includes 8-layers of prolog post processing is followed by an Intellicad rendering in model space from which various linguistic entity shifts are observed.  The change of entities over time defines a direction and identifies a probability of future events occurring.

WTF:  "What the F*ck?"

YoY:  For the semi-literate in how business works, this means Year-on-Year.  Usually a comparison an economic data point this year with the same period a year ago.   So, if someone says BoT improved 2.1% YoY, you know they are trying to pull the wool over your eyes and tell you things have improved compared to a year ago.  So you ask what about... (see next entry)

Yo2Y:  This is the comparison of an economic data point with a two-year ago period.  The reason is that since the Second Depression started (doing the late 2008 swan song dive) anything is an improvement from the dreadful 2009 levels.  So, while someone may say BoT up 2.1% YoY, inspection may show BoT is really worse by 5% Yo2Y.  News reporters hate Yo2Y because it involves actually looking something up that is left off most mindless shill-created press releases.  Which is how you likely landed here, trying to sort out the bullshit from reality, in the first place.