“Depart from me, you accursed. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not comfort me.' They answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not care for you?' He answered, 'Truly I tell you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.’” Matthew 25:40-46
Stocks took a further beating today, and a heaping helping of that was in the direction of commodity trader Glencore thanks to a bit of sell side analysis.
Can you imagine if the Fed had raised rates last week and the market was selling off like this?
And I think it would have because this market is moving in synchronization with world markets, and most of them are rolling over from the recent asset bubble fueled by easy money for the rich and austerity for nearly everyone else.
And the lack of integrity in the statistics and the investment vehicles, and the trample of the rules and financial responsibility is almost disheartening.
There is a lot of money being made. But not by the 99%.
The price of lack of reform and the moral hazard of allowing criminal behaviour to not only escape punishment and correction, but be richly rewarded with outrageous rewards, is beginning to come back and collect the wages of our apathy in the face of injustice and corruption.
What is good? All that enhances the feeling of power, the Will to Power, and the power itself in man. What is bad? All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is increasing— that resistance has been overcome. Not contentment, but more power; not peace at any price, but war; not virtue, but competence.
The first principle of our humanism is that the weak and the failures shall perish. And they ought to be helped to perish. What is more harmful than any vice? Active pity for all failure and weakness — Christianity.
Friedrich Nietzsche
“They often make use of the fact that for many people the content of the message is less important than the way it is delivered.
A confident, aggressive delivery style - often larded with jargon, clichés, and flowery phrases - makes up for the lack of substance and sincerity in their interactions with others ... they are masters of impression management; their insight into the psyche of others combined with a superficial - but convincing - verbal fluency allows them to change their personas skillfully as it suits the situation and their game plan.
They are known for their ability to don many masks, change 'who they are' depending upon the person with whom they are interacting, and make themselves appear likable to their intended victim...
Psychopathic workers very often were identified as the source of departmental conflicts, in many cases, purposely setting people up in conflict with each other. “She tells some people one story, and then a totally different story to others...The most debilitating characteristic of even the most well-behaved psychopath is the inability to form a workable team.
Paul Babiak and Robert Hare, Snakes in Suits
Politicians do not get the attention that so many of them deserve in this documentary.
I think organizations, and even nations, can give themselves over to a kind of collective madness, and harden their hearts over time through fear and fashion.
One of the most concerning trends is the sanctification of violent, deceptive, selfish, and self-deluding behaviour in our society. We fear nothing but power, respect nothing but power, despise and abuse the weak in our bitterness, and believe that anything goes in the service of greed and power.
And the worst is that with all this endless war culture of selfish thieving, we fancy ourselves to be a paragon of history, the culmination of progress, and exceptional for our virtue. There is a downfall, and a tragedy, in the making.
The avalanche of gold that fled the Second World War is going home.
This is a return to a more 'normal' currency regime, and a move towards monetary autonomy in the aftermath of the of Bretton Woods era.
In the post-Bretton Woods II era it appears that independent regional currencies may predominate.
Unless of course the nations can forge a more equitable agreement for an SDR-like clearing currency for international trade that is not dominated by any one nation or group of nations.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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