"Since the earliest stages of human history, of course, there have been bazaars, rialtos, and trading posts—all markets. But The Market was never God, because there were other centers of value and meaning, other 'gods.' The Market operated within a plethora of other institutions that restrained it. As Karl Polanyi has demonstrated in his classic work The Great Transformation, only in the past two centuries has The Market risen above these demigods and chthonic spirits to become today's First Cause."
Harvey Cox, The Market As God: Living In the New Dispensation
"Call me dark, but what I see here is a toxic relationship between deregulation, underpriced risk, and exorbitant, inefficient pay scales that contribute to the growth of inequality, not to mention the shampoo economy (bubble, bust, repeat)."
Jared Bernstein, A Striking Picture of Pay and Deregulation in Finance
"Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes."
Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater
"Do you not know that to whom you offer yourselves as obedient servants, his servants you will be, whether of sin which leads to death, or of a faithfulness that leads to life?"
Romans 6:16
"Wonderful providence indeed which is so silent, yet so efficacious, so constant, so unerring. This is what baffles the power of Satan. He cannot discern the Hand of God in what goes on; and though he would fain meet it and encounter it, in his mad and blasphemous rebellion against heaven, he cannot find it. Crafty and penetrating as he is, yet his thousand eyes and his many instruments avail him nothing against the majestic serene silence, the holy imperturbable calm which reigns through the providences of God. He makes a guess here, or does a bold act there, but all in the dark. If even devils, sagacious as they are, spirits by nature and experienced in evil, cannot detect His hand while He works, how can we hope to see it except by that way which the devils cannot take, by loving faith."
John Henry Newman
The Channeled Economic Scablands are a relatively barren and non-productive region of the real economy scarred by interconnected and dry flooded liquidity channels and cataracts eroded into an economic base that had been laid down over decades by the toil of the working public and the sacrifice of many. The Channeled economic Scablands were scoured by cataclysmic malinvestment and floods of hot money driven by rapacious financialization during the last thirty years by an outsized financial sector created by capricious deregulation, the steady corruption of law makers, academics, and serial policy errors by the regulators. These floods were periodically unleashed whenever large amounts of dark money eroded sound regulations and decades long reforms which had been put in place and served the nation well since the 1930s.
It will be interesting to see how long the slow but steady hand of God must proceed, as it was in the days of Pharaoh, until the servants of the darkness relent.
Do they know what it is that they serve? Do they care? Eventually they will, in horror and revulsion.
History suggests that their correction will be reluctant, grudging, and even spiteful— but interesting to observe.
Stocks managed to drift higher on light volumes and relatively little thought.
The Dollar chopped sideways.
The precious metals tried to rally but in the end wallowed.
They appear to be coiling against strong paper market forces.
The VIX fell again, as the equity markets continue sleepwalking to the pied pipers of the financial sector.
There will be a fairly significant quad witch stock option expiration next Friday.
The post-op visit with the surgeon today was very good. There are none of the severe complications. There was quite a bit of annoying discomfort last night, but that is passing with the removal of the bandages and the application of a flotilla of medicated eye-drops. My poor cornea is beaten up and cloudy from the surgeries, but a powerful steroid may help that along.
I do have a noticeable air bubble as a darkening curve over the lower 2/3 of the newly implanted lens, as the eye naturally refills itself with liquid, aqueous humour. I am assured that this is normal and will resolve itself, perhaps by next week.
I imagine I could obtain temporary employment as a carpenter's level.
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
Thanking God for his many good and kind servants, his loving kindness, and his tender mercies.
Have a pleasant weekend.
