"Over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population. Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful (though sometimes badly mismanaged) industries such as telecommunications, health care, automobiles, and energy.
The God of the Market
These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry.
If allowed to continue, this process will turn the United States into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite. Such a society would be not only immoral but also eventually unstable, dangerously ripe for religious and political extremism."
Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation
"Hot money seeks out the conscious mispricing of risk. Capital, in the form of both money and personal talent, increasingly flows into malinvestment and the gaming of markets.
The productive economy languishes, left wanting for the lack of creative resources and attention. The bubble rises to unsustainable valuations— and fails, and a nation's capital is consumed.
Are you not entertained? As Egon von Greyerz noted, the next five years are not about winning, but surviving. So, then let us then proceed."
Jesse, 5 August 2019
“During the Summer of 1929 the stock market was marked by wild swings, violent up and down price movements, that left market participants feeling dizzy and almost exhausted. Whatever may or may not come, now might be an excellent time to take inventory of your finances, and provisions for the future. And you may wish to order your affairs to be more resilient in the face of risks, both hidden and mispriced.”
Jesse, 10 August 2019
“But man, proud man,
Dress'd in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd—
His glassy essence—like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep..”
William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
"O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.
But if not, even if he does not preserve us, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the images of gold you have set up and commanded us to worship."
Daniel 3:16-18
As a reminder, there will be a stock market option expiration on Friday.
I pray daily that God will give us the light, and the strength, to know His will, and to resist the temptation to join in the hatred, the madness, and the worship of the darkness of this world, that seems to possess so many of our countrymen, day by day.
'But if not, I will not bow, and God grant that we will never bow, before the gods of evil.'
Have a pleasant evening.
