RG,
I didn't understand a word of this. Maybe you could paraphrase it?
-RR
-----Original Message-----
From: R George <xgeorge@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Oct 26, 2016 5:17 PM
To: sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [sparkscoffee] The Market as God
My favorite financial blog writer, Jesse. He keeps his identity secret.
RG
--------------------------------------
10/26/2016
"Since the earliest stages of human history, of course, there have been
bazaars, rialtos, and trading posts—all markets.
But The Market was never God, because there were other centers of value
and meaning, other "gods." The Market operated
within a plethora of other institutions that restrained it. As Karl
Polanyi has demonstrated in his classic work The Great
Transformation, only in the past two centuries has The Market risen
above these demigods and chthonic spirits to become
today's First Cause...
Does anyone doubt that if the True Cross were ever really discovered, it
would eventually find its way to Sotheby's?
The Market is not omnipotent—yet. But the process is under way and it is
gaining momentum."
Harvey Cox, The Market As God: Living In the New Dispensation
People have been asking me how I think one candidate or another might be
for gold and silver.
I am not sure I can frame a good answer for that, because there are so
many variables besides a particular candidate.
I can make a decent case either way.
Personally I have been thinking a bit harder about how each candidate
might react to opposition since the electorate
is so clearly polarized, and both candidates have historically high
disapproval ratings.
It is, after all, 'the choice between two evils' whether one is lesser
or not, as the media likes to say.
And I hate to say it, but despite the trappings of religion or supremely
benevolent ideology in which some of our new evils
like to cloak themselves, it does seem in practice to be more of a form
of self worship, a kind of neo-Paganism, than any
acknowledgement of a higher morality and sense of obligation to a
greater power than our own selves.
But as you know, my 'model' of the Imperial Presidency is expecting a
type of a Nero to appear on the seen, marked by growing
excess and over-reactions to even perceived resistance in pursuit of
their own goals.
In our parlance, that would be someone Nixonian to a fault, or at least
I would hope it would not be much more than that.
Perhaps bolder and more shameless.
Again, either one of the front runners may step up, or rather down, to
meet and exceed that mark. I would hope not, but I do
believe the possibility is there.
This is not to say that I am trafficking in eschatology. I think that
is mostly prideful and distracting, and we have certainly been
through times like this here before. We just forget about them. We
think that we are somehow different, exceptional, and more
put upon than our parents and grandparents.
Like gold and silver, goodness is precious because of its relative
scarcity. And these days it does seem to be particularly hard to find.
The economist Pierre Rinfret told me that a few months before he passed
away, as he reflected on his life and experience in politics.
But goodness is not constrained by nature, but rather by the toxic
desert of our hardened hearts.
Have a pleasant evening.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
