Limbaugh and Sirico take issue with Benedict XVI

"It is alarming to see hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor, by the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism....

".... Peacemakers must also bear in mind that, in growing sectors of public opinion, the ideologies of radical liberalism and technocracy are spreading the conviction that economic growth should be pursued even to the detriment of the state’s social responsibilities and civil society’s networks of solidarity, together with social rights and duties. It should be remembered that these rights and duties are fundamental for the full realization of other rights and duties, starting with those which are civil and political.

"One of the social rights and duties most under threat today is the right to work. The reason for this is that labour and the rightful recognition of workers’ juridical status are increasingly undervalued, since economic development is thought to depend principally on completely free markets. Labour is thus regarded as a variable dependent on economic and financial mechanisms. In this regard, I would reaffirm that human dignity and economic, social and political factors, demand that we continue “to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment for everyone.” If this ambitious goal is to be realized, one prior condition is a fresh outlook on work, based on ethical principles and spiritual values that reinforce the notion of work as a fundamental good for the individual, for the family and for society. Corresponding to this good are a duty and a right that demand courageous new policies of universal employment."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the celebration of the World Day of Peace, January 1, 2013 


Just reading Francis through Benedict - that's all.

3B, HB and another one

HB and the nub of another one

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Bill on Bitcoin again - Feds Love Bitcoins

"Guess who the newest supporters of Bitocin are? The Obama gang! The FBI, Justice Department, and today, even the Fed!"


"It's eminently traceable."


LOL!

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Tarkovsky Tuesday

A painting and a drawing that Andrei Tarkovsky did in his younger days:

Sister, by Andrei Tarkovsky (age 15)

War, by Andrei Tarkovsky (age 11)

Found here

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Quote

"Because of this, it is important to go to Communion, it is important that children be baptized soon, that they be confirmed, because the sacraments are the presence of Jesus Christ in us, a presence that helps us. It is important, when we feel ourselves sinners, to approach the sacrament of reconciliation. Someone might say: “But I’m afraid, because the priest will thrash me.” No, the priest won’t thrash you. Do you know who you will encounter in the sacrament of reconciliation? You will encounter Jesus who forgives you! It is Jesus who awaits you there; and this is a sacrament that makes the whole Church grow." --Pope Francis' address, On Sacraments, Charisms and Charity

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Financialization

So, financialization is nothing other than the translation of production, labour, GDP, capital, into terms of debt, into the terms used by the octopi monster that is the debt-money system, with parties being owed and parties owing - the parties owed being owed more and more, and the parties owing, owing more and more. And the insistent force of this translation goes to show how debt is the number one problem, and not financialization, which is basically just the symptom of the underlying cause.

I'm pretty sure that is a correct summation.

I mean, Michael Hudson explains it right here (from Wikipedia):

• Michael Hudson described financialization as "a lapse back into the pre-industrial usury and rent economy of European feudalism" in a 2003 interview:

"only debts grew exponentially, year after year, and they do so inexorably, even when–indeed, especially when–the economy slows down and its companies and people fall below break-even levels. As their debts grow, they siphon off the economic surplus for debt service (...) The problem is that the financial sector’s receipts are not turned into fixed capital formation to increase output. They build up increasingly on the opposite side of the balance sheet, as new loans, that is, debts and new claims on society’s output and income.

[Companies] are not able to invest in new physical capital equipment or buildings because they are obliged to use their operating revenue to pay their bankers and bondholders, as well as junk-bond holders. This is what I mean when I say that the economy is becoming financialized. Its aim is not to provide tangible capital formation or rising living standards, but to generate interest, financial fees for underwriting mergers and acquisitions, and capital gains that accrue mainly to insiders, headed by upper management and large financial institutions. The upshot is that the traditional business cycle has been overshadowed by a secular increase in debt. Instead of labor earning more, hourly earnings have declined in real terms. There has been a drop in net disposable income after paying taxes and withholding "forced saving" for social Security and medical insurance, pension-fund contributions and–most serious of all–debt service on credit cards, bank loans, mortgage loans, student loans, auto loans, home insurance premiums, life insurance, private medical insurance and other FIRE-sector charges. ... This diverts spending away from goods and services."

"A lapse back into the pre-industrial usury and rent economy of European feudalism."

Financialization is  just a membranous "middle-man" between the inception and final chapter of the epic story of money-as-debt. It is merely debt enabling itself into the myriad and natural complexities of our economic activities to be our final overlord.

The problem is not "finance", but money-as-debt.

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“Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. And, I suppose I should add, it is traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name.” --Jaroslav Jan Pelikan

Quick sketches from times waiting in car

 

Ballpoint pen

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