Monty Pelerin's World

Economic, Financial and Political Analysis

Archives for morality

A Scathing Indictment of Society, Our Financial Culture and Our Government

My only comment is to read this piece and then re-read it. It conveys properly what much of our society has become.

BCM HAS CEASED OPERATIONS 

POSTED BY ANN BARNHARDT – NOVEMBER 17, AD 2011 10:27 AM MST

Dear Clients, Industry Colleagues and Friends of Barnhardt Capital Management,It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator.The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy.

The futures markets are very highly-leveraged and thus require an exceptionally firm base upon which to function. That base was the sacrosanct segregation of customer funds from

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“Pond Scum” Energy

Karl Denninger deals with the corruption in funding Green Energy. Apparently the “green” is pond scum of the worst kind.

The Market Ticker – Oh By The Way: It’s Obama’s White Hose Too

by genesis
Just to make sure everyone understands, diverting funds isn’t just a city and state sport.  Why no, we do it for those who make political donations too – especially those who bundle together really big political donations….

A new book by Hoover Institution fellow Peter Schweizer details the startling extent of the cronyism that has pervaded President Obama’s “green jobs” push. According to Schweizer, 4 out of every 5 renewable energy companies backed by the Energy Department was “run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers.”Those companies’ “political largesse is probably the best investment they ever made in alternative energy,” Schweizer explains. “It brought them returns many times over.”

80% eh?  That’s a pretty impressive number.  And while I can argue that renewable energy companies are

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Penn State as a Microcosm of Society

James Quinn on our social, political and ethical state:

We seem to have entered a death spiral with little likelihood of pulling out. Our society has become so degraded and our populace so apathetic and willfully ignorant, that I think we are too far gone to recover. Honesty, truth and compassion have been soundly defeated by injustice, lying and greed. Our technologically advanced society has become a stinking cesspool, devoid of humanity, common sense and morality. Those with the power and wealth who control our country do not concern themselves with quaint concepts like good and evil, right and wrong, or moral and immoral. Sociopaths see no obligation to society, humanity, or posterity. They only care about themselves, their wealth, their status, their reputation, and their control of others. They are incapable of feeling shame or remorse. They blindly march forward towards their own and society’s self-destruction.

I urge you to read the full Quinn article, although must warn you that his piece uses Penn State as an archetype. For fans and admirers of Joe Paterno and the school, it will not be an easy read. So be it!  His point is much larger than Penn State.

After The Collapse – Who Will Your Neighbors Be?

A frightening outcome like this one could occur if things truly become desperate: After The Collapse – Who Will Your Neighbors Be?

H/T John Roll

Politicians as Whores or Pimps?

Thought of the day comes from Washington’s Blog:

Politicians are wholly bought and paid for. As famed trend forecaster Gerald Celente writes in the currentTrends Journal:

Politics today is little more than legalized prostitution. While a streetwalker gets busted for selling her body to a john, politicians get rewarded with campaign contributions for selling their souls to a corporation or lobbyist. With all of the whoring going on – the money exchanged and the pleasures lavished – the only one actually getting screwed was John Q. Public.

But the chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University (Donald J. Boudreaux) says that calling politicians prostitutes is inaccurate – because it is being too nice. Specifically, Boudreaux says that it is more correct to call politicians “pimps”, since they are pimping out the American people to the financial giants.

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