What's It All About, alllFFFFIIEEEEEE?

A lot of people think we can spend our way out of this economic mousaka. They call themselves Keynesians, and if you're going to be totally honest with yourself they are probably right. Bailouts and monetary expansion and so on and so forth is the medicine they prescribe, and again they're probably right. The world would be a better place if we listened to them.

But that's not the point.

The point is no matter how "right" somebody is, no matter how "reasonable" their position is, the temptation to disagree for the sake of disagreeing is too much. At the end of the day the Direwolf knows nothing about economics, but he still has opinions. And so can you! Everybody can have an opinion and the best opinions, arguably the only ones worth having, are deeply flawed and contrary to popular opinion.

It goes right back to the alleged beginning. God said unto Adam and Eve you will live in blissful harmony and perfection. Your lives will be free from pain and suffering, you will have plenty, and love. Just. Don't. Eat. The. FORBIDDEN. Fruit.

It wasn't reasonable to eat the fruit. It wasn't the right thing to do. One would assume the prevailing opinion at the time would have been, "Let's do as we please and steer clear of the fruit." However the contrary, totally irrational, eat-the-fruit lobby carried the day.

We can draw a pretty direct line from the fruit eating debacle to what's going on today, and then use it to predict the future. People will always eat the fruit, and I don't care how right everybody else is; I'm going to eat my five pieces of fruit a day.

Name Calling

The US government has been called a Ponzi Scheme by some pretty respectable people. I can't tell you their names but trust me on this one. Usually it's just the aluminum foil hat brigade that would levy such a charge, but doubt has gotten to the point where everyone is copping on. To service their debt (an expression I find provocative) they just issue a new wave of debt and so on.

Well, this is just a warning, a vague nostradamus like prediction that the Direwolf can point at later and say, "See! I predicted this!" whatever this is:
The piper will be paid eventually, first banks, then equities, then bonds. And unlike the Cat Steven's song, this time, the first cut won't be the deepest. In this case the third cut will most likely inflict the greatest damage, or to extend the metaphor, "the deepest cut."

Water to Wine and Money Out of Nothing

The workings of finance and religion are similar. At their core they are built on trust and credit: ultimately faith. In fact, it seems a little unreasonable that we, at least in western spheres, have elevated finance ahead of religion. The church (synagogue, mosque etc.) asks you to place unequivocal faith in an omniscient, omnipotent being, who is forgiving and wise and benevolent. That's it, that's all you have to do. Accept that comprehending the world is far beyond the powers of a single human being and let a righteous God into your life. Finance asks you to believe in your fellow humans and money. Between God and people I'll take God. Not that people are all bad but even a cursory look around and at history suggests people have a pretty dubious record. Only people could form a state like Belgium or spend hours listening to Radiohead.

In their functions church and finance aren't all that different. They allocate resources to communities and secure the capital (spiritual or monetary) required to build things. They ask people to suspend their disbelief and trust the authorities. Except only one of them promises redemption and eternal happiness.

Finance has evil as does religion. Bernard Madoff struck a deal with something like a financial Lucifer. Only the prince of darkness could trick 50 billion dollars out of pensions, charity funds, and nest eggs. The new year will test every soul followers faith, from financiers, to tottenham footballers, to the religiously minded, because this crisis is a crisis of the mind and the only credit is the piggy bank of your heart.