C. S. Lewis BBC Broadcast 21 March 1944

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell. Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither...

C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

We all want progress.  But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer.  If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

During the height of World War II, the BBC carried a series of radio broadcasts by C. S. 'Jack' Lewis, the Oxford don and good friend of fellow author J. R. R. Tolkien.

The broadcasts, which were immensely popular, were later gathered into a book, titled Mere Christianity.

Mere Christianity is a book by C. S. Lewis, adapted from a series of BBC radio talks made between 1942 and 1944. The transcripts originally appeared as three separate pamphlets: The Case for Christianity (1942), Christian Behaviour (1943), and Beyond Personality (1944). 

Below is the broadcast titled Beyond Personality, and it is the only surviving recording which we have.  All the tapes of the other broadcasts were reused during the war effort.

Year To Date Performance of a Few US Asset Classes

“Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.”

Edward Bernays
 

Gold Daily And Silver Weekly Charts - New All Time Highs - We're Flying!

 

Nothing else matters now, because We're flying!!

 

This is the combined precious metal and stock market commentary for Friday the 13th.

 

A fresh new bubble in stocks has achieved liftoff.  What could go wrong?

 

Shaking off the very weak economic news from the real economy in the latter part of this week, stocks took the opportunity to break out higher on relatively low volumes ahead of a three day weekend because of President's Day on the 16th.

What sparked this rally is the 'new ceasefire' between the Ukraine and Russia, and perhaps even more importantly, the continuation of talks between the troika and Greece with regard to the debt crisis there.

 

And mostly, because they could.  Motive and opportunity.

This is a hot money bubble. The Wall Street wiseguys had the opportunity for a new high and they have taken it, consequences be damned.  The political animals will look the other way, as long as the campaign handouts keep coming, and justice is especially blind given the right career incentives.

The strong dollar may be painful for the real economy, but the benefit is that it attracts foreign investment in paper, and gives the Banks and the hedge funds the ability to buy up assets on the cheap.  It increased the consolidation in commercial business, especially in the healthcare field which is ripe for the plucking. 

 

It helps to inflate dollar denominated financial assets.  It is a boon to Wall Street.

 

The Fed does not have to tighten interest rates to put some reins on this.  They have always had the discretion to raise margin requirements and a variety of other tools as the primary bank regulator for which they volunteered after the last crisis in which they were instrumental.

The Fed and the regulators and Wall Street are wholly responsible for this.   We are caught in a boom and bust cycle thanks to the distortions from an oversized financial sector and a corrupt political system and the acquiescence of the media and the professional classes.

It will end badly. Make no mistake.  When it does, everyone will be amazed because 'no one saw it coming.'

Serial policy errors. But it is swelling the net worth of the one percent, and so nothing will be said.

 

But in the meantime, we're flying!

 

Have a pleasant weekend. See you on Tuesday.