"Those among the rich who are not, in the rigorous sense, damned, can understand poverty, because they are poor themselves, after a fashion; they cannot understand destitution.
Capable of giving alms, perhaps, but incapable of stripping themselves bare, they will be moved, to the sound of beautiful music, at Jesus’s sufferings, but His Cross, the reality of His Cross, will horrify them. They want it all out of gold, bathed in light, costly and of little weight; pleasant to see, hanging from a woman’s beautiful throat."
Léon Bloy
"I am telling you, if there is a God, when I get to heaven I'm not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It's not even close."
Matt Vasilogambros, I Have Earned My Place in Heaven, The Atlantic, April 14, 2014
"These are suitable feelings towards this attractive but deceitful world. To those who live by faith, every thing they see speaks of that future world; the very glories of nature, the sun, moon, and stars, and the richness and the beauty of the earth, are as types and figures witnessing and teaching the invisible things of God. All that we see is destined one day to burst forth into a heavenly bloom, and to be transfigured into immortal glory. Heaven at present is out of sight, but in due time, as snow melts and discovers what it lay upon, so will this visible creation fade away before those greater splendours which are behind it, and on which at present it depends.
In that day shadows will retire, and the substance show itself."
John Henry Newman, The Greatness and Littleness of Human Life, Plain and Parochial Sermons, IV, XIV
Ashes. Ashes!
We all fall down.
Nursery Rhyme
The US Dollar DX index took a swan dive today.
Stocks chopped around, managing to muddle through to a modest gain.
VIX fell slightly.
Most things like silver and bitcoin that run contrary to the US Dollar enjoyed rallies.
But not gold. It's a special case.
There is just not enough of it to go around. And they are robbing Peter to pay Paul.
How this ends up I don't know.
Power attracts the corruptible, and brings out the very worst in most people.
The administration is trying to manage the stock market reactions to their wackiness.
You may wish to consider defensive measures for your portfolio in case they don't succeed.
But let's see what happens.
Have a pleasant evening.
