"You shall not oppress or afflict strangers or foreigners in your land, for you were once foreigners residing in the land of Egypt. You shall not oppress or deprive any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely listen to their cry. My wrath will rise up, and I will visit you with destruction. Then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans."
Exodus 22:21-23
"As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. 'Follow me,' he told him, and Matthew rose up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?'
On hearing this, Jesus said, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, and not sacrifices. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'”
Matthew 9:9-13
"Never before has so much debt been imposed on so many people by so few financial operatives--operatives who work from Wall Street, the largest casino in history, and a handful of its junior counterparts around the world, especially Europe.
Spending on national infrastructure, both physical (such as roads and schools) and social infrastructure (such as health and education) is key to the long-term socioeconomic developments. Cutting public spending to pay for the sins of Wall Street gamblers is bound to undermine the long-term health of a society in terms of productivity enhancement and sustained growth.
A most outrageous aspect of the debt burden that is placed on the taxpayers' shoulders since 2008 is that most of the underlying debt claims are fictitious and illegitimate: they are largely due to manipulated asset price bubbles, dubious or illegal financial speculations, and scandalous conversion of financial gamblers' losses into public liability."
Dr. Ismael Hossein-zadeh, Class War: The Vicious Circle of Debt and Depression, June 7, 2010
"Your love for me disappears quickly as a morning mist; it is like the dew, that melts away early in the day. That is why I have sent my prophets with messages of judgment and destruction, to strike them with the words of My mouth. My judgment illuminates them like lightning. For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and knowledge of my ways, more than burnt offerings."
Hosea 6:4-6
The Consumer Price Index came in on the high side this morning.
With dreams of plentiful rate cuts challenged, stocks slumped.
But by the end of the day traders' dementia reasserted its calming influence and stocks regained much of their losses.
Gold ans silver had an intraday yo-yo wash and rinse.
VIX continues to wallow.
We're heading into a three day weekend.
Have a pleasant evening.
