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Please go to the Wall Street Journal and read this entire article. The author has clearly laid out the real problem in the economy today; there is no truth. Markets are manipulated by government, banks and businesses in collusion with each other. The free market has ceased to exist.
How can we know that the car we would like to buy or the house we want are fairly and truthfully priced? How can we know that there is a reasonable expectation of gain or loss when the prices are artificially established and the rules that govern the banks and economy as a whole are fluid and dependent on political whim, not economic truth? Why would you sign a contract if that contract can be changed by a bureaucrat working at the behest of his masters after the fact?
Every "fact" we read in see in the media is suspect, especially those economic numbers generated in Washington. Nothing is as it seems anymore. We must begin to detach ourselves from this system as much as possible. We must live and act in the truth or we will perish.
We've stepped away from truth and in so doing we have stepped away from God. We're living in the Devil's world now.
"An Economy of Liars
By GERALD P. O'DRISCOLL JR.
Free markets depend on truth telling. Prices must reflect the valuations of consumers; interest rates must be reliable guides to entrepreneurs allocating capital across time; and a firm's accounts must reflect the true value of the business. Rather than truth telling, we are becoming an economy of liars. The cause is straightforward: crony capitalism.
Thomas Carlyle, the 19th century Victorian essayist, unflatteringly described classical liberalism as "anarchy plus a constable." As a romanticist, Carlyle hated the system—but described it accurately.
Classical liberals, whose modern counterparts are libertarians and small-government conservatives, believed that the state's duties should be limited (1) to provide for the national defense; (2) to protect persons and property against force and fraud; and (3) to provide public goods that markets cannot. That conception of government and its duties was articulated by the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the U.S. Constitution.
...The idea that multiplying rules and statutes can protect consumers and investors is surely one of the great intellectual failures of the 20th century. Any static rule will be circumvented or manipulated to evade its application. Better than multiplying rules, financial accounting should be governed by the traditional principle that one has an affirmative duty to present the true condition fairly and accurately—not withstanding what any rule might otherwise allow. And financial institutions should have a duty of care to their customers. Lawyers tell me that would get us closer to the common law approach to fraud and bad dealing.
...In the U.S today, we are moving away from reliance on honest pricing. The federal government controls 90% of housing finance. Policies to encourage home ownership remain on the books, and more have been added. Fed policies of low interest rates result in capital being misallocated across time. Low interest rates particularly impact housing because a home is a pre-eminent long-lived asset whose value is enhanced by low interest rates.
Distorted prices and interest rates no longer serve as accurate indicators of the relative importance of goods. Crony capitalism ensures the special access of protected firms and industries to capital. Businesses that stumble in the process of doing what is politically favored are bailed out. That leads to moral hazard and more bailouts in the future. And those losing money may be enabled to hide it by accounting chicanery.
...Piling on more rules and statutes will not produce something different than it has in the past. Reliance on affirmative principles of truth-telling in accounting statements and a duty of care would be preferable. Deregulation is not some kind of libertarian mantra but an absolute necessity if we are to exit crony capitalism."
Wall Street journal
You absolutely must read Market Ticker today. It is vital that we understand what Denninger is saying. As distressing as the health care bill is, in reality it won't have the time to do much damage. Our country and the world are on the verge of collapse. We've broken through nearly every barrier that could have protected us by refusing to look reality squarely in the eye and act upon it. We continue to live in this Wonderland where we debate health care and cap and trade as though we can afford them and as if our economies will still be standing to carry them out. Our leaders keep rearranging deck chairs while the band plays on and the ship slowly settles into the sea.
Why? So those in positions of power can use the time left, while we are distracted, to load up the few remaining lifeboats and shove off, leaving us to flounder and die in the icy waters of economic collapse. And as they silently float into the night, we will realize, all too late, that the ship is doomed and we have no way out. Then the destruction will begin, as panic and the instinct for survival ignite a pointless thrashing and tearing, an epic death struggle that will change nothing, only covering our final moments with a veneer of useless, horrific terror.
Please, please, pray and prepare. Our time is growing short. Look reality in the face, accept it and act. Create a lifeboat for yourself, your family and your neighbors. The more boats available the more that can be saved.
Finally, a news story that doesn't try to spin the words of the Pope into some sort of backhanded endorsement of socialism. I find it interesting that the Pope uses the phrase "social responsibility" instead of the more fashionable and politically loaded phrase "social justice". Think of the difference. "Social justice" is used to avoid responsibility for ones own actions, generally calling for one group to have access to the wealth of another, usually through coercive measures. "Social responsibility" on the other hand calls for the individual to choose charity towards his fellow man through an act of free will. "Justice" requires draconian force on the part of the government while "responsibility" requires deliberate action on the part of individuals. One focuses on the "rights" of the worker while the other focuses on the needs of all.
Which system would you rather live under?
"On Saturday at the Apostolic Palace, Pope Benedict met in audience with a group from a local Italian municipal agency. Speaking with them, but also to the international community, Holy Father stressed the importance of "social responsibility" in the business environment “to promote the good of all.”
Meeting with directors and personnel of the Roman branch of ACEA, a company that specializes in providing energy and water services to Italy, the Holy Father expressed his hope that the development model that has brought the world to its present economic crisis would be rethought so that man with his “capacity to produce, innovate, think and build the future” is placed at the center.
It’s important, he continued, to increase consciousness for “the necessity of a broader ‘social responsibility’ in business, that strives to hold in just consideration the expectations and needs of workers, clients, producers and the entire community, and to pay special attention to the environment.”
“In this way,” added Pope Benedict, “the production of goods and services will not be tied exclusively to the search for economic profits, but also to the promotion of the good for all.”
The Holy Father praised ACEA for measures it has taken to protect and reduce the negative impact of their business activities on the environment. “But it is equally important to promote a human ecology that is intended to bring about work environments and interpersonal relations deserving of man.”
Pope Benedict XVI summed up his message by saying that “the protection of creation… implies also the protection of those sentiments of kindness, generosity, correctness and honesty that God has put in the heart of every human being, created in his ‘image and likeness.’”
He concluded by saying that it is through the example of Christ that we should act “to be able to grow in humanity and so realize a City with an always human face, in which each is considered a person, a spiritual being in relation with others.”
Catholic News Agency
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