Heroes and Saints

“If I could give you information of my life it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do in His service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing. I have worked hard, very hard, that is all; and I have never refused God anything.”

Florence Nightingale

"A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition for power or wealth, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires."

Marcus Aurelius

 

No one is born a hero. Or a saint.  I think this is obvious in its very definition.

If a person has no faults or fears, they have no need of courage or character.  They are just doing what they do naturally as if by instinct. 

Courage is doing what one must do, in the face of even terrible doubts and fears that might paralyze the heart if our minds allowed it.  And it is critical that this imperative be deliberate and properly informed, not just some impulse of a flawed heart or a false voice.

And no hero is perfect. I don't know why, but that seems to continually surprise each generation. Some delight in 'digging up the dirt' on great leaders, to show their imperfections. And they have them! And some take comfort in this, when they rationalize their own bad choices.

John F Kennedy was a philanderer. Winston Churchill was an alcoholic. Abraham Lincoln was a chronic depressive. Mother Teresa was tempted by a terrible dryness of faith. Sophie Scholl was not a very effective protester.  And the two apostles in the story below showed a remarkable ambition of place, and a shockingly misplaced pride.

Human nature can be deeply flawed, and always an imperfect thing. This is how it is, for everyone. But the response of human beings to their natural weaknesses is what determines their character, even though no one is ever perfect in all things all the time.

Some give in to their every impulse and weakness without caring. Most like to think of themselves as upright, but rationalize their missteps and think them no transgressions in their case. Their conscience informs, but the mind rationalizes. And some of this inspires the tearing down of everyone else, of leveling all that is good, and calling the resultant lowest common denominator 'human.'

If you speak to anyone who has ever gone badly wrong, you see it usually not as one major life changing decision, but a hundred upon a hundred decisions and rationalizations that grow into something, one on the other. And through it all, evil whispers to their hearts.

And yet others are exemplary, heroes. We sometimes know the ones whose actions stand out. In a secular context we call them heroes, and in a religious context, we call them saints.

But there are many, many more who, despite their fears and doubts, continue to do the right thing, every day, in quietness and a devotion so something greater than their own weakness and themselves, whatever that may be.  They see that with freedom comes not only power, but responsibility and obligation.

And these are the hidden heroes, and those who live their lives 'hidden in God.' They may be drum majors of a sort, but as wives, husbands, parents and march to a very small parade that is not seen so much in their own time in this world, but in history, and always the world to come.

And sometimes their greatness shines across the ages, like a beacon of what a human being in its full manifestation and glory of goodness and greatness can be. We rise, by rising above 'ourselves' and so find ourselves.

And Martin Luther King corrects this tendency to be self-serving, rather than serving, in a most memorable way in this famous sermon about serving something greater than ourselves, an excerpt of which was played at his funeral observance.

That is a dirty word in this age of empire, to serve. Not even public servants want to serve anyone but themselves and their corrupt benefactors.  Ironically we all end up serving something or someone, even if it is only ourselves.  And we become defined by what we serve, and have an affinity for it.

Anyone can be a hero or a saint, not flawless, but faltering, not perfect, but persevering, not proud but pushing forward often in fear and trembling, not losing their own way but following the light of righteousness and goodness, even while stumbling and going forward again, because everyone can serve, if they choose something lasting and worthy.

 

It is a commonplace that those who are truly courageous and saintly do not think of themselves as such.  They are not looking at themselves, they are focused on the object of their true affections, that which they serve above their own fears and failings.

And what then is worthy? What does it mean to be truly human? This is the realm of religion and philosophy, and not science. It is the supra-rational, whether we would acknowledge it or not.

 

Your House Is Now Yours

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who murder your prophets,  and persecute those whom God has sent as messengers to you.

How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings. But you would not let me.

As you have willed, your house is now yours— but is made desolate.’”

 

We persecute our heroes and murder our prophets, to still the voice of conscience.  So that in our arrogance, we can have our way. 

And in our overwhelming hypocrisy, we may give them a parade, and a day. 

Martin Luther King gave his last public words on 3 April 1968 at the Church of God in Christ, in Memphis, Tennessee.

On 4 April 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered by 'a lone gunman.'

This was one year, to the day, after he gave his famous sermon A Time to Break Silence, delivered 4 April 1967, at Riverside Church, New York City.  A short excerpt from that is included below.

His death was intended not only as the silencing of a fateful voice. This was no coincidence, but a message. 

 

And there is little doubt that he knew, he knew he was going to be murdered by the darkness of this world for obeying his conscience, and speaking the truth to power, as he received it from the deepest recesses of his heart.

 

And so after decades of war, a military proliferation unparalleled in history, and the quest for power and riches, our house is now ours-- and is being made desolate.

 

Even if it is a powerful few who have blood on their hands, we are complicit by our apathy and in our silence, in the face of terrible injustice.

 

God have mercy, not on him, but on us.  He has done his duty and has found peace, and a rest at last.

 

This is my 6400th posting since February, 2007.   I have been writing about markets, money, and financial reform since 2001.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - All Manipulations Fail, and Sometimes With a Bang

"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."

Philip K. Dick

"All through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always."

Mohandas K. Gandhi

 

I am not so optimistic about the short term winning odds for truth and love, things being what they are these days.  If goodness paid off like a cash machine, everyone would be virtuous, as some theories like to assume. 

 

But in thinking about the more mundane, day to day world, common economic reality has a way of asserting itself against abusive and foolish human power, and sometimes with a vengeance.

 

Gold broke out of its downtrend today with a higher high.  There was intraday commentary, with a strong cautionary note on this, here.

 

There were more explanations for what happened this week with regard to the foreign exchange markets.   Zerohedge featured a menu of reasons for this.

 

I sorted them out to the 'what' and the 'when.'  And most of them were about 'when.'  What caused the Swiss franc to Euro peg to fail at this particular time.  And most of them were good guesses.

 

But that is not what is really the most important thing, the real reason.

 

The Swiss National Bank had to stop their protracted rigging of the currency markets because it was no longer practically sustainable.   That is what happened.

 

Well, it *could* have gone on longer if the ECB were cooperating more aggressively, and willing to sacrifice its own people to the needs of the Swiss.  After all, this is what the US has been doing cooperatively with its client states like Japan for quite some time.

 

But with its own QE looming, and a desire to create monetary inflation by buying bad debts at non-market prices, the ECB seems bent on sustaining the unsustainable, the existing European Union as it is currently constituted, by printing money.  In this sense they are following the US, which is pursuing a similar strategy with regards to the preeminence of the US dollar as a global reserve currency par excellence.

 

I forget now who said it, but all that is unsustainable will not be sustained.   (note: several readers have informed me that this is a paraphrase of Herb Stein's dictum, 'if something cannot go on forever it will stop.')

 

Yes it is a tautology, but a good reminder nonetheless that the overestimation of the power of central banks is yet another illusion of the modern era. 

 

A central bank that is willing to expand its Balance Sheet and buy sovereign debt at non-market prices, even if it passes through an illusion of  marketplace discipline with the cooperation of crony banks, is operating a money machine.  And history informs us that this is unsustainable. 

 

This is not stimulus.  QE is not good for the overall real economy.  It is a subsidy for the financial sector.  It is, at best, a very inefficient form of 'trickle down' stimulus.  For the most part it fosters corruption, malinvestments, and inequality.

 

This is wealth transferal through the use of money and the financial system.  It is a policy error of the first order, the self-serving abuse of power by the well positioned and the well to do.  Yes, well-meaning people may go along with this sort of folly, in the vain hope that the people who create the money will distribute the majority of it to the poor and the unfortunate.  But it rarely works out that way. 

 

The Swiss franc was under pressure because economic reality was inducing the currency to become stronger relative to the euro.  And the Swiss National Bank resolved in September 2011 to fight this with a currency peg, for the benefit of their export industry.

 

As late as the time of the gold referendum last year, the Swiss National Bank pledged to print practically unlimited amount of currency to fight the appreciation of the franc.  No one with any knowledge of history believes that a central bank can do this.  And so it was just a dodge, to get past a threat to their personal power, even if it was somewhat awkwardly and over broadly conceived.

 

The US has been leading a cartel of banks, not unlike the old London Gold Pool, to manipulate gold as a currency, seeking to artificially peg it lower to the Dollar.  That is what has been happening for some time now.

 

China and a few other countries are taking up that wager, and draining the global inventory of gold at artificially low prices.  This is not all that unlike the play that Soros and the Swiss Bankers made against the Bank of England when it sought to hold the British Pound at an artificial valuation.  And so they sold the quid, over and over, until the artificial peg was no longer sustainable and the Bank of England folded.

 

We see the collateral damage that the failure of the Swiss peg has caused to some traders and their firms, and I suspect that it is a bit more widespread than has been disclosed.

 

When the gold to the dollar rig fails, and it will, the resulting dislocation in the financial markets could be even more disruptive to some institutions and trading firms.  One can easily imagine the government becoming involved to shelter them from their folly.

 

But it will fail.  That is beyond doubt, as long as anything like a market economy and individual freedom remains.

 

Have a pleasant three day weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - With a Side of Self-Delusion

"This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men. I was very much a part of that."

John Perkins

Today was a stock market option expiration.  I was looking out for it, and ought to have reminded you, but like so many others I was caught up in the surprise that the Swiss National Bank gave us.

 

The carnage is being seen now in the forex traders who are seeking loans and assistance, having taken a brutal beating on a 'sure thing.'

 

But today that was all behind us, as the Street ignored the bad news once the European markets closed, and bid stocks up in honor of a stock market option expiration ahead of a three day weekend.

 

President Obama had an interesting press conference with David Cameron of the UK today.  The message was clear. 

 

We are the champions of the world.

 

Martin Luther King day is on Monday, and the US markets will be closed in observance.  

 

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

Gold Breaks Out - Whoomp, There It Is

In addition to the breakout, I have circled a potential pattern of which we might be mindful.

This breakout seems to have more power behind it, and is tied to the fail of a major market currency rig of the Swiss Franc to the Euro. And that may be a sign of further euro declines and troubles to come.

 

As you may recall the SNB put the Swiss-Euro peg on about the time that gold started the sideways chop and recent bear market.

But the markets have not suddenly become honest and transparent, and the currency war goes on.

So let's see how gold handles this breakout, and the kind of follow through that we get.

But for now, whoomp, there it is.

Can you dig it?   I knew you could.

 

China Takes 61 Tonnes of Gold Bullion From the Shanghai Gold Exchange In First Week of New Year

China opened the new year by taking 61 tonnes of gold bullion off the Shanghai Gold Exchange in its first week of operations.

Slowly but surely, gold is moving from West to East, encouraged and subsidized by the gold - dollar currency rig of the Western banks.