"We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!"Abraham Lincoln, April 1863"The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, as charity, as historical necessity, or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone raised on traditional ethical concepts. But for the Christian who builds his life on the word of God, it merely confirms the fundamental perversity of evil."Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Stocks managed to eke out some addition gains on increasing geopolitical risks, a government report that shows quite clearly that the financial system remains fragile and vulnerable to collapse from interconnected counterparty risks and reckless speculation, and a worse than expected set of numbers from the real economy.
