Happy Friday the 13th, monkeys!
1) STUDY: Young People Want Money For All The Wrong Reasons (Business Insider) - You greedy bastards are doing it wrong, according to a recent study conducted by Kansas State University (alright, calm down, it wasn't that funny). Not sure what the right reasons are, but evidently money worship is wrong in the Midwest.
2) As Wall St. Firms Grow, Their Reputations Are Dying (NY Times) - Read and heed.
3) J.P. Morgan's hunt for Afghan gold (CNN Money) - Proving that John Pierpont Morgan's spirit of war profiteering is alive and well today, the land rapers bankers carrying his venerable banner are assisting the local savages in Afghanistan with the exploitation of their mineral wealth. I'm pretty sure the locals will get a fair shake, right?
4) Google Chrome OS Notebooks Available June 15 (Mashable) - Attention early adopters: here's your chance to give the Apple fanboys a run for their money. The long-awaited Chrome OS is finally here, and will be available on Samsung and Acer notebooks starting at $349. For $499 you can get the 12" Samsung model with 3G connectivity and a burly eight-hour battery life. Probably my next computer.
5) Superman Renounces U.S. Citizenship in 'Action Comics' #900 (Comics Alliance) - He'll still fight for truth and justice, but the American Way is out. Looks like he'll be working at the U.N. from now on, too. Screw him. I'm pretty sure he was an illegal alien anyway.
6) Good for Him: Man Dies Trying to Become Oldest to Summit Everest (Good Men Project) - 82-year old Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya went out in style earlier this week when his pump exploded at base camp during his attempt to become the oldest person to summit Mount Everest. That's man shit there, boys.
7) Taking Back the Night (Dating A Banker Anonymous) - Can't believe I'm posting something from DABA, especially something more than a year old, but it's just too good to pass up. The article explains how bottle service ruined everything for women in New York, because guys (bankers) who would have never made it past the velvet rope can now buy their way into the hottest clubs. Reverse Darwinism at its finest.
8) God's bankers: How evangelical Christianity is taking a hold of the City of London’s financial institutions (The Independent) - If it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, why do so many self-professed Christians go into investment banking? Evidently, there's a bit of tent revival happening in London as we speak. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Is it possible to serve God and money at the same time?
9) How Goldman Sachs Created the Food Crisis (Foreign Policy) - Interesting policy piece covering the history of the GSCI and the secret deregulation that allowed Goldman to participate in the futures market as a bona fide hedger instead of the speculators they are and always have been (that's not an opinion - Lloyd isn't running a bakery over there, ffs). For those of us in the business, you can extrapolate the ideas in this piece to include all 100% long ETFs in general, and the effect they have on their individual markets.
10) Forbes Predicts U.S. Gold Standard Within 5 Years (Human Events) - Steve Forbes is predicting a return to the gold standard for the United States in the next five years (side note: if he's right, I predict a return of Eddie Braverman to the United States in the next five years). It's wishful thinking on the part of us Austrians, but a girl can dream, right?
This week's video is just...well...fuckin' A:
Have a great weekend, guys!
Another gold standard guy? While I share similar sentiments on the forcing government to stop borrowing, inflation, etc., going back to gold is a horrible option atm. If he wants the good he'll have to take the bad as well. Stressed reserves, loss of monetary powers, and increased exposure to speculation most glaring.
“The principle is, the dollar is defined as a weight unit of gold and all currencies - whether they be credit balances in the bank, or Federal Reserve notes, or hand-to-hand money, or deposit money - (are) convertible at this fixed value to gold. What this does, is it requires the Federal Reserve then instead of having QE 1, QE 2 and buying 600 billion dollars of treasury bonds in the market within eight months, it requires the Federal Reserve to stabilize the value of the currency because when there is too much money in circulation at home and abroad, people and businesses can trade it in for its gold equivalent. Since the Federal Reserve (would be) pledged by statute to maintain stability of the dollar in terms of gold, it must then slow down the rate of growth of credit--what that does, is mitigate the inflationary booms and deflationary booms.”
Sure except going back to gold would make everything horrible at this point. Do you really want to experience 5%+ deflation at this point? You lose any monetary control, arbitragers will speculate the USD into ruin at the first perceived weakness, and the gains and declines in currency value are no longer relatively smooth and predictable but large and sudden. Gold is just far too volatile in terms of price stability.
I agree that the FED doesn't need to be financing treasury debt and QE 1 and 2 is grossly overstepping their mandate, but there are far better options to rectify this than gold. Start by revoking their ability to lend directly to Mr. Blankfein and company, stymie their ability to lend U.S. treasuries as direct liquidity, and end QE.
lol at the video.
Whos askin?....the U S of A motherfucker!
Thanks, all those articles are pretty informative.
Regarding #1, K State is a fine research institution and has some NSA analysts on staff. They're also the graduates who are working on commercial farms and in the agri business in general who are feeding this nation. So restrain your guffaws.
From the article: This study is a reminder that consumers can be just as stupid as banks, Klontz told the New York Times: “The predatory lending and the greedy people on Wall Street, they’ve certainly played a role in this, but what led you to buy a house you couldn’t afford, even if someone let you do it? If you’re willing to look at the answer to that, the likelihood of you making the same mistakes diminishes greatly.”
The GS/food crisis piece is ridiculous.
It is nicely debunked here: http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?su…
These are some really cool finds man,
3) J.P. Morgan's hunt for Afghan gold: AWESOME. Personally, I'm laughing at how the US 'discovered' the resources there considering that the Soviets were gunning for this in the 70's and everyone knew it: marketing this 'find'[steaming pile of BS] to the American public was pure genious. Also, the junior bankers on that deal team did their SF tour in that area: how's THAT for karma. I wonder if they were networked that way intentionally.
*** MENA resources team, job description *** 1. ability fo create and update financial models 2. investment banking experience preferred but not required 3. transaction experience within the 'war torn hell hole' space STRONGLY recommended* * firm will provide necessary firepower during client meetings.
With regard to #8, evangelical Christianity is basically based on a pretty literal interpretation of the New Testament. Most Wall Street types who are probably of agnostic or Catholic heritage probably don't understand that evangelical Christianity is a very freedom-focused faith--there are basically no rules. The teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles are actually pretty freedom-based principles. Paul says that it's for freedoms sake that you were set free indeed. Entire books of the Bible are dedicated to "freedom in Christ" which basically means there are no rules per se, that your conscience should guide you in most of your day to day life (a stark contrast to Islam, for example, which dictates every aspects of one's life). It's the better known Catholic Church that has labeled all Christianity as basically tyranical--Catholic teachings are pretty much non-Biblical in every respect and are rules-based; Catholic teachings are almost all based off of tradition.
The "eye of a needle" is a small hole in a fortified city's walls. They were holes for camels to pass under as they entered the city. It was difficult for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, but it wasn't impossible and happened all the time. Working in finance and being an evangelical Christian is not mutually exclusive at all--you obey the law, obey the golden rule, and you keep your eyes on your first love (God) then there is no problem. If you start loving money, breaking the law and treating people poorly in pursuit of your avarice then there are spiritual problems.
If I had any, there'd be a pile of monkey sh*t coming your way.
The Catholic Church was essential to early economic thought.
I'll pause while you find a Protestant theologian as relevant to modern economics as St. Thomas Aquinas.
Catholic canon law was the seed of our Western legal structure.
I'm not sure what Catholicism's role in moder economic thought is in this discussion. The point is that Catholicism's sordid past would be the only reason people would think that somehow finance and religion are mutually exclusive. The point is, evangelical Christianity is and has always been a faith of the HEART. For example, if you give $5 to the work of God (or charity) and you're a poor widow that is a bigger act of charity than giving $1 million to charity if you, say, earn $100 million per year--one is sacrificial, the other is not. In the same way, one can work in finance and become rich and still be an evangelical Christian. It's about the heart--do you love money? No? Then there's no issue. Do you obey the law? Do you act ethically? If so, then there's no issue. Evangelical Christians don't live under some legal charter from God that details every little thing they can or can't do. Of course there's the 10 Commandments (don't lie, kill, steal, covet, etc.), but there's nothing in the Bible that would suggest finance and Christianity are mutually exclusive. If someone were to believe that's the case then they are practicing extra-Biblical Christianity, which is well known "heresy" of Catholicism and Anglicanism.
I don't trust any study that doesn't compare feelings about money with ACTUAL personal wealth. Do that and I'll pay some attention. Matter of fact, I think they did, but the summary didn't talk about it. Be interested in reading a better summary.
Who are his readers? Mainly American? Than this is temporary and the choice of a moron. The whole idea of nationalism is nice and feel goody, they should capitalize on that.
I agree with the Op. Good for him. Man shit right there. "It was a good death."
Don't stick to your booths. Go out and mingle or there's no point. Don't be a "booth ho."
They were in the sense that they claimed to follow Christ. The Bible states they were first referred to as such by people outside of the movement.
Fascinating article btw. I can't help but feel that the Christianity depicted in the article smacks more of some advanced form of self-help than a deeply thought-out theology. The guy lying about going to Church is classic although understandable.
So a Catholic, Anglican or Orthodox who claims to follow Christ is a Christian then, right?
Sure. I'm not totally sure I know what you're trying to get at.
+1 UFOInsider.
Veritas,
No one had the "bible" (in anything resembling its current form) until after AD 300, and the New Testament wasn't fully "ratified" until the Council of Trent in 1546. The only thing people had in 100 AD were letters from Paul and the Didache. (yes, perhaps the other major gospels were written by then, but were certainly not widely distributed at that point.)
If you're seeking the truest form of Christianity (i.e. the most like the early Apostles practiced) you'd have to look to the Coptic churches in Egypt. And lets not forget about the dozens of gnostic gospels which didn't make "the cut" centered around Qumran, a community advocating baptism long before the birth of Jesus.
Scripture is a funny thing, as it's largely dependent upon the political inclinations of the men who declare it "the Word of God".
Just my two cents.
It's all so clear to me now.....
If you're seeking the truest form of Christianity, you would look to the Church founded by the Apostle St. Peter....
Ut voluptas commodi qui sunt provident aut libero ut. Voluptas dolore atque facilis sapiente quod molestias. Inventore molestiae dignissimos et quis. Blanditiis sit et quo ea facilis. Enim ut quo veritatis ipsum.
Nostrum a nihil sunt voluptatem mollitia. Qui consectetur rerum molestiae nostrum qui. Et qui sed sunt consequatur rerum vitae aut ea. At quos sit omnis veniam. Ad quibusdam accusantium occaecati quo beatae. Aliquam est numquam ut sed accusamus.
A quasi voluptatem delectus voluptate nisi ut quae. Ut nemo autem ex non est. Et dignissimos maiores laboriosam harum quisquam. Qui vero mollitia et earum distinctio provident quas dolorum.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...