"Money is like fire, an element as little troubled by moralizing as earth, air and water. Men can employ it as a tool or they can dance around it as if it were the incarnation of a god. If we could let go of our faith in money, who knows what we might put in its place?
The definition of money as the sublime good results in the depreciation of all values that do not pay. What is moral is what returns a profit and satisfies the judgment of the bottom line. Freedom comes to be defined, in practice if not in commencement speeches, as the freedom to exploit.
At this late stage in the history of American capitalism I'm not sure I know how much testimony still needs to be presented to establish the relation between profit and theft.
This commercial reading of the text of human nature gives rise to a system that puts a premium on crime, encourages the placid acquiescence in the dishonest thought or deal, sustains the routine hypocrisy of politics and proclaims as inviolate the economic savagery otherwise known as the free market or freedom under capitalism. Never in the history of the world have so many people been so rich; never in the history off the world have so many of those same people felt themselves so poor.
The state of perpetual emptiness is, of course, very good for business. The feasts of consumption sustain the economy, keep up the volume in the stock markets, employ the unemployable, excite the fevers of speculation, and stimulate the passion for political and sexual novelty.
A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn't enough merely to make money. He feels obliged to hold views, to espouse causes and elect Presidents, to explain to a trembling world how and why the world went wrong.
The world goes on as before, and it turns out that nobody else seems to to notice the unbearable lightness of being."
Lewis Lapham, Money and Class in America, 1989
"Every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness."
Simone Weil, La pesanteur et la grâce, 1947
"Capitalism is at risk of failing today not because we are running out of innovations, or because markets are failing to inspire private actions, but because we’ve lost sight of the operational failings of unfettered gluttony. We are neglecting a torrent of market failures in infrastructure, finance, and the environment. We are turning our backs on a grotesque worsening of income inequality and willfully continuing to slash social benefits. We are destroying the Earth as if we are indeed the last generation."
Jeffrey Sachs, Self-interest, Without Morals, Financial Times, January 18, 2012
"They are talking about things of which they don't understand. Their certainty is only possible because of their stupidity.”
Franz Kafka, Der Process, 1925
And so we see the paint being slapped on the tape, as the market slides into the end of the year.
Gold and silver were hit hard. I think the reasons are obvious.
Stocks were wobbly but found some support.
VIX is wallowing.
The Dollar is choppy.
And so we beat forward towards the end of the year, surrounded by darkness, ego, and lies.
Have a pleasant evening.
