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Very noteworthy. For shear clarity, these three articles are hard to beat......
The following article is from marketwatch. The mere fact that the most mainstream sources are now talking of things that 6 months ago was only spoken by those wacky nut jobs on the internet, is eyebrow raising. People are starting to look at the central bank with a much more critical eye.
The Fed goes to Defcon 1
Commentary: A promise to do everything it must to avert a depression
With the economy teetering on the edge of a prolonged slump, the central bank's policy-making Federal Open Market Committee slashed interest rates on Tuesday to near zero, and vowed to use "all available tools" to keep the economy from collapsing into a depression……
…Now that traditional monetary policy as we know it has been exhausted, the Fed will take ever-more creative steps to boost growth. In simple terms, the Fed will flood the financial system and economy with as much money as it has to….
….Critics will say Helicopter Ben has taken off and is now prepared to drop billions of dollars across the landscape, destroying the economy with a hyperinflationary spiral. But cooler heads will counter: What choice does he have?
This is from Lew Rockwell....He makes a serious attempt to explain what we could be doing. Rather than the Fed sticking his finger sall over everything....Seriously, when someone says well what can we do? this is a place you could start....but there is too much money and power at stake to allow any of this to take place.
The Answers Are Out There
by Bill Sardi
….The idea that banks can just make money out of thin air by multiplying its cash reserves by 10-fold, to create more money to loan, is sheer folly. When a bank loans out $100,000 based on $10,000 of reserves, it created $90,000 of new money. But it didn’t put new money into circulation to cover for the cost of the interest payments. Eventually, a society using this type of banking system is playing musical chairs. Somebody won’t be able to sit down in a chair when the music stops because there isn’t enough money in circulation to cover for the interest payments. That is what is happening now…..
…The US is locked in a war between those who demand clean energy vs affordable energy….
….Once people enter the clutches of the health care system, the search for disease begins with mammograms, colonoscopies, stool tests, blood tests, CT scans, and the like, but no routine testing is performed for vitamin C, vitamin D, folic acid, vitamin B12, red-cell magnesium, or essential oils. Instead, drugs are prescribed that actually induce nutritional deficiencies, ensuring more chronic disease….
This is from Gary, about leaving a legacy. But what I highlighted here is for this last paragraph on what the government always does as part of its distorting of the economy....
Do Not Go Quietly
Gary North
….Economists like to speak of the vast array of tax-funded institutions and projects such as highways as "social overhead capital." They love to focus on the supposed productivity of social overhead capital. Yet they are well aware of boondoggles. Boondoggles are sold to voters as social overhead capital.
What is really significant as social overhead capital is the religious and legal framework of society, which is established by custom. But economists and historians ignore this, because its effects are so widespread and filled with noise. No one invented custom. Rarely can a custom even be dated, other than a few holidays. The integration of customs was not designed by anyone who gets into the history books.
In a free society, each of us has an opportunity to make a breakthrough that leaves a legacy. This can be for good or evil. But the great thing about custom is that good developments tend to get imitated, while bad ones get quarantined -- mostly by custom.
The worst customs that evade the quarantine process are likely to have the backing of the civil government. The government thwarts the system of positive and negative feedback that custom supplies and the free market institutionalizes through accounting: profit and loss. Government taxes the successful to subsidize the unsuccessful. …
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Perspective
I am trying to be diligent, faithful with a little. What Doug Wilson says here needs to be kept in mind. But I dont think this means we should just head off to the movies everynight.......
The World is not God's Hat on a Windy Day
....This means that we may trust Him for His provision. Biblically understood, few doctrines are sweeter than this one. "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows" (Matt. 10:29-31). Jesus does not teach us to simply refrain from fear. That sort of "stiff upper lip" Stoicism is not Christian. He says do not fear therefore. When we as Christians refrain from anxiety, we are to do so from a doctrinal base. That foundation is a full confidence in the providence of God. Christ reasons from the Father's providence over things which are trivial to us. And if this is the case, then how much more should be we confident that He watches over us in every respect? And if this is the case, then how can we fall into the worries of "little-faith"?....
The World is not God's Hat on a Windy Day
....This means that we may trust Him for His provision. Biblically understood, few doctrines are sweeter than this one. "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows" (Matt. 10:29-31). Jesus does not teach us to simply refrain from fear. That sort of "stiff upper lip" Stoicism is not Christian. He says do not fear therefore. When we as Christians refrain from anxiety, we are to do so from a doctrinal base. That foundation is a full confidence in the providence of God. Christ reasons from the Father's providence over things which are trivial to us. And if this is the case, then how much more should be we confident that He watches over us in every respect? And if this is the case, then how can we fall into the worries of "little-faith"?....
Good perspective from Swanson for the days ahead
This was a timely show from Kevin Swanson....stream it or download the mp3
How to Survive Tough Economic Times
The economists have recently declared that we have been in a recession for some time and in such an environment employers have been and will continue to hand out pink slips. Kevin Swanson asks what do you do when your old job is no more? What roll does the church play and what are the Biblical principles that guide actions during such times.
How to Survive Tough Economic Times
The economists have recently declared that we have been in a recession for some time and in such an environment employers have been and will continue to hand out pink slips. Kevin Swanson asks what do you do when your old job is no more? What roll does the church play and what are the Biblical principles that guide actions during such times.
Its gonna rain money, but Bernanke says...I will have it under control
A small round up of noteworthy articles. The fact that people are turning to psychic's for investment info really isnt that big of a change from the talking heads that they were listening to on TV. The ones that didnt see this coming and warn them to get out of the markets. Anything rather than crying out to God?
New investment guru: The local psychic
By Ruth La Ferla
Published: November 23, 2008
On a good day last summer, Thomas Taccetta, a stock trader, might have checked his financial charts before plotting his investments. Today, he is likely to check in with his psychic as well. "I'll play the broadest index, the S.&P. 500," Taccetta said, "and if she tells me she is getting a negative view, I will sell."
Since September, when the Dow collapsed, Taccetta, who trades for his own portfolio in Boca Raton, Florida, has talked with his psychic about once a month, roughly twice as often as a year ago. "There is no rhyme or reason to the way the market is trading," he said. "When conditions are this volatile, consulting a psychic can be as good a strategy as any other."
In an era when even Henry Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary, changes his mind weekly about how to rescue the U.S. economy, Taccetta's decision to seek the advice of a psychic may not seem all that irrational. With
Washington flinging pieces of the $700 billion bailout package around, dithering about whom to rescue — homeowners? automakers? cousin Fred? — a good set of tarot cards might come in handy….
Psychics say their business is robust, as do astrologers and people who channel spirits, read palms and otherwise predict the future (albeit not the winning lottery numbers). Their clients, who include a growing number of men, are often professional advice-givers themselves, in fields like real estate and investments, and they typically hand over anywhere from $75 to $1,000 an hour for this form of insight…..
"My Web traffic is up and up and up," said Aurora Tower, a New Yorker who constructs spidery star charts for her growing clientele. "People will entertain the irrational when what they consider rational collapses."
Quackery? Whatever. But after all, the supposed experts on the economy, from pundits on the networks to billionaire investment bankers, have not been exactly reliable……
The steep prices charged by practitioners of divination do not seem to have deterred many of the financially fretful. Hartman, the Los Angeles psychic, said her Internet traffic has picked up substantially, from about 30 visitors a day to more than 200. She charges from $150 for a 30-minute telephone reading to $500 for 90 minutes of "intuitive counseling." In what is perhaps a sign of the times, the $70 moss-scented prosperity candle offered on her Web site has become her best seller, she said….
Federal Reserve Bond Sales?
by Michael S. Rozeff
Rumor has it that the Federal Reserve is considering selling bonds. The legality is in question. Leaving that aside, why would the Fed do such a thing? If it did, how would such a thing work? What would be its effects?
The Fed can issue non-interest bearing debt now. This is the Federal Reserve notes that we use as a medium of exchange. When the Fed buys things like Treasury bills, commercial paper, junk bonds, stocks, or many other securities, it pays by creating reserves for banks that can be cashed out, if desired, as Federal Reserve notes. The Fed has created a ton of potentially inflationary reserves lately. It is paying interest on these reserves in order to "sterilize" them, that is, prevent them from being cashed out and from being used to make an excessive amount of new loans. It’s trying to save the banking system without causing inflation. It appears that the proposal to issue interest-bearing debt is a variation on this scheme…..
The Fed is gonna drop a refrigerator from the top of a 10 story building. He says he will run down and catch it safely before it hits the ground.
Yah,I dont think so either.
New investment guru: The local psychic
By Ruth La Ferla
Published: November 23, 2008
On a good day last summer, Thomas Taccetta, a stock trader, might have checked his financial charts before plotting his investments. Today, he is likely to check in with his psychic as well. "I'll play the broadest index, the S.&P. 500," Taccetta said, "and if she tells me she is getting a negative view, I will sell."
Since September, when the Dow collapsed, Taccetta, who trades for his own portfolio in Boca Raton, Florida, has talked with his psychic about once a month, roughly twice as often as a year ago. "There is no rhyme or reason to the way the market is trading," he said. "When conditions are this volatile, consulting a psychic can be as good a strategy as any other."
In an era when even Henry Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary, changes his mind weekly about how to rescue the U.S. economy, Taccetta's decision to seek the advice of a psychic may not seem all that irrational. With
Washington flinging pieces of the $700 billion bailout package around, dithering about whom to rescue — homeowners? automakers? cousin Fred? — a good set of tarot cards might come in handy….
Psychics say their business is robust, as do astrologers and people who channel spirits, read palms and otherwise predict the future (albeit not the winning lottery numbers). Their clients, who include a growing number of men, are often professional advice-givers themselves, in fields like real estate and investments, and they typically hand over anywhere from $75 to $1,000 an hour for this form of insight…..
"My Web traffic is up and up and up," said Aurora Tower, a New Yorker who constructs spidery star charts for her growing clientele. "People will entertain the irrational when what they consider rational collapses."
Quackery? Whatever. But after all, the supposed experts on the economy, from pundits on the networks to billionaire investment bankers, have not been exactly reliable……
The steep prices charged by practitioners of divination do not seem to have deterred many of the financially fretful. Hartman, the Los Angeles psychic, said her Internet traffic has picked up substantially, from about 30 visitors a day to more than 200. She charges from $150 for a 30-minute telephone reading to $500 for 90 minutes of "intuitive counseling." In what is perhaps a sign of the times, the $70 moss-scented prosperity candle offered on her Web site has become her best seller, she said….
Federal Reserve Bond Sales?
by Michael S. Rozeff
Rumor has it that the Federal Reserve is considering selling bonds. The legality is in question. Leaving that aside, why would the Fed do such a thing? If it did, how would such a thing work? What would be its effects?
The Fed can issue non-interest bearing debt now. This is the Federal Reserve notes that we use as a medium of exchange. When the Fed buys things like Treasury bills, commercial paper, junk bonds, stocks, or many other securities, it pays by creating reserves for banks that can be cashed out, if desired, as Federal Reserve notes. The Fed has created a ton of potentially inflationary reserves lately. It is paying interest on these reserves in order to "sterilize" them, that is, prevent them from being cashed out and from being used to make an excessive amount of new loans. It’s trying to save the banking system without causing inflation. It appears that the proposal to issue interest-bearing debt is a variation on this scheme…..
The Fed is gonna drop a refrigerator from the top of a 10 story building. He says he will run down and catch it safely before it hits the ground.
Yah,I dont think so either.
Hat tip to Gary North fior this one...
The Best and the Brightest Led America Off a Cliff
By Chris Hedges
The multiple failures that beset the country, from our mismanaged economy to our shredded constitutional rights to our lack of universal health care to our imperial debacles in the Middle East, can be laid at the feet of our elite universities. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, along with most other elite schools, do a poor job educating students to think. They focus instead, through the filter of standardized tests, enrichment activities, advanced placement classes, high-priced tutors, swanky private schools and blind deference to all authority, on creating hordes of competent systems managers. The collapse of the country runs in a direct line from the manicured quadrangles and halls in places like Cambridge, Princeton and New Haven to the financial and political centers of power….
…These elites, and the corporate system they serve, have ruined the country. These elite cannot solve our problems. They have been trained to find “solutions,” such as the trillion-dollar bailout of banks and financial firms, that sustain the system. They will feed the beast until it dies. Don’t expect them to save us. They don’t know how. And when it all collapses, when our rotten financial system with its trillions in worthless assets implodes and our imperial wars end in humiliation and defeat, they will be exposed as being as helpless, and as stupid, as the rest of us….
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
This is what Christianity has been reduced to…..enhanced moralism
I have been thinking about some stuff the last few weeks, I shared this today at Legacy….with this email I can link to some examples of what Im talking about.
We had an intramural scrimmage email wise amongst Legacy. Fleshing out some biblical understanding on Self defense in the home. Rob made the observation that if you only use the New Testament you are just left hanging as to what you should do. With out the Old Testament you would actually be steered away from the biblical stance on this topic.
Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
I have been thinking about how I/we have assimilated Gods word into our lives when we were saved. Proposition, as Rob would say, on how we should have been introduced to Christianity after being saved or what is it, we should impart to a new believer/s and especially our kids
Now humanities problem is a rebellion against God, the problem is we focus on ourselves and what we want. As part of this, we redefine what God has declared. But what God has said, is the truth.
Modern Christianity has been focused on behavior. We think in terms of a God who… “looks at the heart.” We don’t see how we are still captive to a mindset that see’s us as the key ingredient. Where we take the Word to us and our situations and then apply it to us.
But this leaves the focus still on man, now a regenerate man, but the focus is still upon man. And there are no answers in man.
So when we read…….Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Its easy to reduce what Jesus says here, to a very limited understanding. To make it representative of the modern salvation experience. Rather than what Jesus was meaning, that it be descriptive of what the salvation experience leads too.
We have had Mans definition of what salvation is about, evangelicalism agreed with the world that defined Christianity as a “enhanced morality” and This is what Christianity has become reduced to…..We would be quick to add, we also have a relationship with Jesus now. Our modern Christianity has not been a bottom up inspection of what we believe, rather we have thrown some Jesus carrots into the existing stew which has changed the flavor of basic humanistic paradigms. It keeps Jesus and his axe away from our roots.
Now that we are saved when the neighbor’s dog poops in our yard ( again!) instead of taking our shovel and flinging it back into his yard we quietly throw it away. We are suffering for Christ.
This is what Christianity has become reduced to…..enhanced moralism.
How should we see it? Now that we are saved we should approach His creation, which we are just a part of , and see the world as he says it is, as he defines it, adopt his world view and subordinate ourselves to it. This is not how most of us have been taught to think.
So his word becomes the focus and we take a rightful place as a derivative of Gods creation. We come from and are part of it. Not the center of it.
We all know this verse. Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. But the proceeding verses which give the context,(26-32) have Jesus giving the set up to knowing this truth that can set you free. His life is the example and Jesus himself points back to what God has ordained and revealed already in his word. We moderns see the verse and just assume that it is imputed to us because we are now saved.
Here are two examples of biblical thinking that used to be just foreign to me. (still is) One is Doug Wilson working with Mercy and the other is Marton Selbrede with multiple examples of using the word to examine governments and economics . Here were my contributions to the defending your family discussion. partI, partII, partIII
You never arrive, but we keep moving towards….repenting and reforming, bringing all back into its proper position in Gods created order….
We had an intramural scrimmage email wise amongst Legacy. Fleshing out some biblical understanding on Self defense in the home. Rob made the observation that if you only use the New Testament you are just left hanging as to what you should do. With out the Old Testament you would actually be steered away from the biblical stance on this topic.
Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
I have been thinking about how I/we have assimilated Gods word into our lives when we were saved. Proposition, as Rob would say, on how we should have been introduced to Christianity after being saved or what is it, we should impart to a new believer/s and especially our kids
Now humanities problem is a rebellion against God, the problem is we focus on ourselves and what we want. As part of this, we redefine what God has declared. But what God has said, is the truth.
Modern Christianity has been focused on behavior. We think in terms of a God who… “looks at the heart.” We don’t see how we are still captive to a mindset that see’s us as the key ingredient. Where we take the Word to us and our situations and then apply it to us.
But this leaves the focus still on man, now a regenerate man, but the focus is still upon man. And there are no answers in man.
So when we read…….Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Its easy to reduce what Jesus says here, to a very limited understanding. To make it representative of the modern salvation experience. Rather than what Jesus was meaning, that it be descriptive of what the salvation experience leads too.
We have had Mans definition of what salvation is about, evangelicalism agreed with the world that defined Christianity as a “enhanced morality” and This is what Christianity has become reduced to…..We would be quick to add, we also have a relationship with Jesus now. Our modern Christianity has not been a bottom up inspection of what we believe, rather we have thrown some Jesus carrots into the existing stew which has changed the flavor of basic humanistic paradigms. It keeps Jesus and his axe away from our roots.
Now that we are saved when the neighbor’s dog poops in our yard ( again!) instead of taking our shovel and flinging it back into his yard we quietly throw it away. We are suffering for Christ.
This is what Christianity has become reduced to…..enhanced moralism.
How should we see it? Now that we are saved we should approach His creation, which we are just a part of , and see the world as he says it is, as he defines it, adopt his world view and subordinate ourselves to it. This is not how most of us have been taught to think.
So his word becomes the focus and we take a rightful place as a derivative of Gods creation. We come from and are part of it. Not the center of it.
We all know this verse. Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. But the proceeding verses which give the context,(26-32) have Jesus giving the set up to knowing this truth that can set you free. His life is the example and Jesus himself points back to what God has ordained and revealed already in his word. We moderns see the verse and just assume that it is imputed to us because we are now saved.
Here are two examples of biblical thinking that used to be just foreign to me. (still is) One is Doug Wilson working with Mercy and the other is Marton Selbrede with multiple examples of using the word to examine governments and economics . Here were my contributions to the defending your family discussion. partI, partII, partIII
You never arrive, but we keep moving towards….repenting and reforming, bringing all back into its proper position in Gods created order….
Not even the onset of World War II ended the Depression. True enough, unemployment ended; but this was only because of the draft
From Mises, a book review that takes a hard look at Roosevelt and the 1930's. The myth that government action or even that world war II brought us out of the depression are addressed. Since the current fed chairman embraces what was done then and thinks that Roosevelt didnt do enough it is pertinent. So Bernanke will keep pouring on the onions,loose monetary policy, and Obama has already announced his new public work projects all in the name of helping the economy.
The Disaster Called the New Deal
by David Gordon
...His anti–New Deal verdict is hard to dispute: levels of unemployment at the end of the 1930s remained at depression levels. In May 1939, Treasury Secretary Henry J. Morgenthau Jr., one of Franklin Roosevelt's best friends, testified before the House Ways and Means Committee: "I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started…
And an enormous debt to boot" (p. 2). When he spoke, unemployment exceeded 20 percent. Further, and here Folsom has absorbed the pioneering research of Robert Higgs, not even the onset of World War II ended the Depression. True enough, unemployment ended; but this was only because of the draft….
Spending by the government does not add to employment, since taxes displace private spending and investing. Folsom aptly quotes Hazlitt in this connection:"Every dollar of government spending must be raised through a dollar of taxation," Hazlitt emphasized. If the WPA builds a $10 million dollar bridge, for example, "the bridge has to be paid out of taxes…
Therefore," Hazlitt observed, "for every public job created by the bridge project a private job has been destroyed somewhere else… All that has happened, at best, is that there has been a diversion of jobs because of the project. (p. 84)…
Government spending, if it takes place through the expansion of bank credit, will, if "successful," result in another artificially created boom. The recovery thus generated will result in the long run in even worse economic distress, once that new boom in turn collapses. Nor can a policy of further monetary expansion indefinitely postpone disaster. Eventually people's confidence in the monetary system will crumble, and a hyperinflation will result….
The Disaster Called the New Deal
by David Gordon
...His anti–New Deal verdict is hard to dispute: levels of unemployment at the end of the 1930s remained at depression levels. In May 1939, Treasury Secretary Henry J. Morgenthau Jr., one of Franklin Roosevelt's best friends, testified before the House Ways and Means Committee: "I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started…
And an enormous debt to boot" (p. 2). When he spoke, unemployment exceeded 20 percent. Further, and here Folsom has absorbed the pioneering research of Robert Higgs, not even the onset of World War II ended the Depression. True enough, unemployment ended; but this was only because of the draft….
Spending by the government does not add to employment, since taxes displace private spending and investing. Folsom aptly quotes Hazlitt in this connection:"Every dollar of government spending must be raised through a dollar of taxation," Hazlitt emphasized. If the WPA builds a $10 million dollar bridge, for example, "the bridge has to be paid out of taxes…
Therefore," Hazlitt observed, "for every public job created by the bridge project a private job has been destroyed somewhere else… All that has happened, at best, is that there has been a diversion of jobs because of the project. (p. 84)…
Government spending, if it takes place through the expansion of bank credit, will, if "successful," result in another artificially created boom. The recovery thus generated will result in the long run in even worse economic distress, once that new boom in turn collapses. Nor can a policy of further monetary expansion indefinitely postpone disaster. Eventually people's confidence in the monetary system will crumble, and a hyperinflation will result….
Saturday, December 6, 2008
The $$ head ache continues
This is from the member side Of Gary's specific answers and illuminates clearly what has been happening with the economy.
"House" and "Bernanke" Gary North
.....IATROGENESIS
In medicine, there is a phenomenon called iatrogenesis: side effects caused by treatment. (A side effect is an effect we don't like.) In economic policy, this phenomenon is called the law of unintended consequences.
To keep the lawyers away, physicians blame iatrogenesis on the complexity of nature. To keep Congress away, Federal Reserve economists blame unintended consequences on the complexity of the derivatives market. To keep voters away, Congress blames unintended consequences on speculators, price gaugers, and CEOs who refuse to fly on commercial airliners......
...CONTAGION
Public health officials worry about contagion. The operative words are "plague," "epidemic," and "pandemic."
Central bankers worry about contagion. The operative words are "systemic failure," "gridlock," and "cascading cross defaults." In today's economy, the interconnections that we call the social division of labor are all tied to fiat currencies, fractional reserve banking, just-in-time production, and digital money. These connections are astoundingly complex.....
....All over the West, commercial banks have bet their solvency on lending money to hedge funds, which invested the money in the stock market. These funds also wrote highly complex futures contracts that are now unraveling. As hedge funds are hit with margin calls, they must sell marketable assets. This has driven down the price of stocks. Hedge funds are defaulting. They are defaulting on money owed to large banks,
Central banks have two primary functions: (1) to keep large banks solvent; (2) to keep new banks from entering the field, which would otherwise increase competition for large banks. Central banks are therefore the linchpins in a government- created, officially regulated, but in fact self-regulating cartel of commercial banks.
The leverage of the banking system in the United States is the inverse of the Federal Reserve System's reserve requirements. This has been no higher than 10%, which means the banking system is leveraged at least ten-to-one.
To this is added leverage of hedge funds. One of them was Carlisle Capital, which was leveraged 30-to-one. It went bankrupt in March. This took only a few days.
Around the world, with trillions of dollars on the line, we are seeing a working out of one of the rules in Paul Dickson's book, "The Official Rules" (1978): "Things are easier to get into than out of."
The deal-doers believed that central banks can save everything, that commercial bank leverage is forever, that moral hazard is a guarantee for people with connections to avoid bankruptcy, that if your company gets too big to fail, it will not be allowed to fail. They believed in high profits and low risk.
They were wrong....
Bottom line is that the Fed will inflate the Dollar to pay for all this debt.
"House" and "Bernanke" Gary North
.....IATROGENESIS
In medicine, there is a phenomenon called iatrogenesis: side effects caused by treatment. (A side effect is an effect we don't like.) In economic policy, this phenomenon is called the law of unintended consequences.
To keep the lawyers away, physicians blame iatrogenesis on the complexity of nature. To keep Congress away, Federal Reserve economists blame unintended consequences on the complexity of the derivatives market. To keep voters away, Congress blames unintended consequences on speculators, price gaugers, and CEOs who refuse to fly on commercial airliners......
...CONTAGION
Public health officials worry about contagion. The operative words are "plague," "epidemic," and "pandemic."
Central bankers worry about contagion. The operative words are "systemic failure," "gridlock," and "cascading cross defaults." In today's economy, the interconnections that we call the social division of labor are all tied to fiat currencies, fractional reserve banking, just-in-time production, and digital money. These connections are astoundingly complex.....
....All over the West, commercial banks have bet their solvency on lending money to hedge funds, which invested the money in the stock market. These funds also wrote highly complex futures contracts that are now unraveling. As hedge funds are hit with margin calls, they must sell marketable assets. This has driven down the price of stocks. Hedge funds are defaulting. They are defaulting on money owed to large banks,
Central banks have two primary functions: (1) to keep large banks solvent; (2) to keep new banks from entering the field, which would otherwise increase competition for large banks. Central banks are therefore the linchpins in a government- created, officially regulated, but in fact self-regulating cartel of commercial banks.
The leverage of the banking system in the United States is the inverse of the Federal Reserve System's reserve requirements. This has been no higher than 10%, which means the banking system is leveraged at least ten-to-one.
To this is added leverage of hedge funds. One of them was Carlisle Capital, which was leveraged 30-to-one. It went bankrupt in March. This took only a few days.
Around the world, with trillions of dollars on the line, we are seeing a working out of one of the rules in Paul Dickson's book, "The Official Rules" (1978): "Things are easier to get into than out of."
The deal-doers believed that central banks can save everything, that commercial bank leverage is forever, that moral hazard is a guarantee for people with connections to avoid bankruptcy, that if your company gets too big to fail, it will not be allowed to fail. They believed in high profits and low risk.
They were wrong....
Bottom line is that the Fed will inflate the Dollar to pay for all this debt.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Jesus...was more concerned that they be armed than that they be warmIII
Regarding defending oneself. Some additional light from Chalcedon position papers. by Martin Selbrede.The first paragraph is from the defense position paper.
...Self defense: Although some Christians decry all war, even defensive war within our nation’s boundaries after those boundaries have been violated, the failure of the civil magistrate (or in modern terms, the civil government) to defend its citizens from invading attackers is a transgression of God’s eternal law. We are commanded, “Thou shalt not stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor” (Lev. 19:16). Psalm 50 furtherexpands on the idea of “standing idly by,” indicating that it constitutes actual consent to the evil being perpetrated. And to consent to murder is regarded by God as being a party to that murder, based on (1) Psalm 50:18’s elaboration of Lev.19:16; (2) Saul of Tarsus’s consent to Stephen’s stoning at Acts 8:1 and his later application of this law to himself at Acts 22:20 when he confessed that “when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death” (to stand by Stephen’s blood was to consent to his death); (3) Christ’s charge to the scribes that, “you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed the prophets and you build their tombs” (Luke 11:48 ESV),which is the ground upon which He added, “the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world will be charged against you” (Luke 11:50 ESV), proving that consent to murder is to be party to murder, for which reason Christ imposed the penalty for murder on the consenters in this passage. It further follows that to fail to defend oneself is to consent to and be a party to one’s own suicide, for (1) we are not to stand idly by the blood of our neighbor, and (2) we are to love our neighbors as ourselves; therefore, (3) we are not to stand idly by our own blood. The only exception is when we lay our lives down to save another (evidencing the greatest love possible in so doing)....
...“He has shown thee, o man, what is good…” God has shown us: we don’t have to create new policies. What is good and just has been spelled out. Micah speaks to all men (“O man”) – not just to Jews, but to Gentiles and to us today.“…and what doth the Lord require of thee…” What is good is what the Lord requires of us. What God requires is for our good and achieves good personally and culturally. What is required has been shown to us: it is not up in the air; it is not in the New Testament (or the verse would have used the future tense, “He will show thee, o man, what is good…”).God has shown, past tense, in the Old Testament....
Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
...Self defense: Although some Christians decry all war, even defensive war within our nation’s boundaries after those boundaries have been violated, the failure of the civil magistrate (or in modern terms, the civil government) to defend its citizens from invading attackers is a transgression of God’s eternal law. We are commanded, “Thou shalt not stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor” (Lev. 19:16). Psalm 50 furtherexpands on the idea of “standing idly by,” indicating that it constitutes actual consent to the evil being perpetrated. And to consent to murder is regarded by God as being a party to that murder, based on (1) Psalm 50:18’s elaboration of Lev.19:16; (2) Saul of Tarsus’s consent to Stephen’s stoning at Acts 8:1 and his later application of this law to himself at Acts 22:20 when he confessed that “when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death” (to stand by Stephen’s blood was to consent to his death); (3) Christ’s charge to the scribes that, “you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed the prophets and you build their tombs” (Luke 11:48 ESV),which is the ground upon which He added, “the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world will be charged against you” (Luke 11:50 ESV), proving that consent to murder is to be party to murder, for which reason Christ imposed the penalty for murder on the consenters in this passage. It further follows that to fail to defend oneself is to consent to and be a party to one’s own suicide, for (1) we are not to stand idly by the blood of our neighbor, and (2) we are to love our neighbors as ourselves; therefore, (3) we are not to stand idly by our own blood. The only exception is when we lay our lives down to save another (evidencing the greatest love possible in so doing)....
...“He has shown thee, o man, what is good…” God has shown us: we don’t have to create new policies. What is good and just has been spelled out. Micah speaks to all men (“O man”) – not just to Jews, but to Gentiles and to us today.“…and what doth the Lord require of thee…” What is good is what the Lord requires of us. What God requires is for our good and achieves good personally and culturally. What is required has been shown to us: it is not up in the air; it is not in the New Testament (or the verse would have used the future tense, “He will show thee, o man, what is good…”).God has shown, past tense, in the Old Testament....
Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
Bernanke's Playbook
This is via Lew Rockwell.
Here is a freebie from Gary North. He gives a commentary to what Bernanke has been saying and doing and extrapolates it forward to predict what he will continue to do. Overall Mr North has been more on than off with the economy.
Bernanke's Playbook
Here is a freebie from Gary North. He gives a commentary to what Bernanke has been saying and doing and extrapolates it forward to predict what he will continue to do. Overall Mr North has been more on than off with the economy.
Bernanke's Playbook
Biblical mercy has been held hostage for too long
Doug Wilson is working with the word mercy at Blog and Mablog. He is trying to untangle it from the culture so that we will think of it in the biblical fashion that God intended. Mercy has been hijacked by the Oprah's of the world and most Christians are pretty comfortable with her understanding of it. These have been from the last couple of weeks.
Mercy and No Mercy
...Biblical wisdom always remembers the antithesis, and places it where God has placed it. Forgetting the antithesis frequently consists of selecting a biblical virtue, absolutizing it, and using it to contradict or "balance" other biblical virtues. This is the basic (and very serious) error of the pacifist. The problem is not what he affirms so much, but rather what he denies...
The unbelieving response is to privilege one set of verses over the other, and, as time goes by, to forget about the neglected set of verses entirely....
God judges according to His own nature and character, and so this means that when He is merciless and throws merciless sinners into Hell, He is not violating any internal standard....
Bankrupt Mercy an Oxymoron
We have established that without justice and righteousness, mercy cannot be mercy. Those who universalize mercy are therefore adversaries to true biblical mercy, and are simply apostles of sentimentalism....
Justice, mercy, and faithfulness are the weightier matters of the law (Matt. 23:23). This means that we cannot say that every attribute that God has can be given equal weight or importance. He is the Holy One of Israel, and not an isocoles triangle....
Mercy and the Divine Warrior
...God's justice is not leaning one way with His mercy leaning another, with Him trying to keep His balance on the high wire of the highest heaven.
"Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face" (Ps. 89:14). This is a package; it is not an "on the one hand" and then "on the other" kind of thing. God is not merciful to His people in spite of being a warrior. He is merciful to His people because He is a warrior....
We don't understand biblical mercy because we don't understand the antithesis, which is another way of saying that we do not know that the kingdom of God is in a state of perpetual war with the ungodly. We read a passage like this, and our sympathies are immediately extended to Pharaoh and his host, famous kings, not to mention Sihon and Og. What about mercy for them? But this is not a question that Scripture teaches us to ask. The fact that we have learned to ask it means that we are letting somebody else teach us when we shouldn't....
Topsy Turvy Judgments
In his book on the psalms, C.S. Lewis commented on the difference between the Jewish view of judgment and the Christian view. The Christian, he said, thinks of judgment as a criminal trial with himself in the dock. The Jewish mentality thought of it as a civil proceeding, with himself as the plaintiff. This explains why the Christian instinct is to avert judgment, to seek a solution for it, which of course is ultimately found in the cross. The Jewish instinct is to pray for judgment to come, for God to intervene, and the sooner the better.
Because we are not Marcionite, we don't have to choose between these -- they are both in the Bible, and they are both in the Bible for us to emulate, each in their place. It is all there for a reason. Because Christians, for the last century or two, have greatly neglected the singing of the psalms, the "Christian" perspective has gotten dangerously out of whack, and we need to learn how to pray for God's judgment to come and vindicate us....
Mercy and No Mercy
...Biblical wisdom always remembers the antithesis, and places it where God has placed it. Forgetting the antithesis frequently consists of selecting a biblical virtue, absolutizing it, and using it to contradict or "balance" other biblical virtues. This is the basic (and very serious) error of the pacifist. The problem is not what he affirms so much, but rather what he denies...
The unbelieving response is to privilege one set of verses over the other, and, as time goes by, to forget about the neglected set of verses entirely....
God judges according to His own nature and character, and so this means that when He is merciless and throws merciless sinners into Hell, He is not violating any internal standard....
Bankrupt Mercy an Oxymoron
We have established that without justice and righteousness, mercy cannot be mercy. Those who universalize mercy are therefore adversaries to true biblical mercy, and are simply apostles of sentimentalism....
Justice, mercy, and faithfulness are the weightier matters of the law (Matt. 23:23). This means that we cannot say that every attribute that God has can be given equal weight or importance. He is the Holy One of Israel, and not an isocoles triangle....
Mercy and the Divine Warrior
...God's justice is not leaning one way with His mercy leaning another, with Him trying to keep His balance on the high wire of the highest heaven.
"Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face" (Ps. 89:14). This is a package; it is not an "on the one hand" and then "on the other" kind of thing. God is not merciful to His people in spite of being a warrior. He is merciful to His people because He is a warrior....
We don't understand biblical mercy because we don't understand the antithesis, which is another way of saying that we do not know that the kingdom of God is in a state of perpetual war with the ungodly. We read a passage like this, and our sympathies are immediately extended to Pharaoh and his host, famous kings, not to mention Sihon and Og. What about mercy for them? But this is not a question that Scripture teaches us to ask. The fact that we have learned to ask it means that we are letting somebody else teach us when we shouldn't....
Topsy Turvy Judgments
In his book on the psalms, C.S. Lewis commented on the difference between the Jewish view of judgment and the Christian view. The Christian, he said, thinks of judgment as a criminal trial with himself in the dock. The Jewish mentality thought of it as a civil proceeding, with himself as the plaintiff. This explains why the Christian instinct is to avert judgment, to seek a solution for it, which of course is ultimately found in the cross. The Jewish instinct is to pray for judgment to come, for God to intervene, and the sooner the better.
Because we are not Marcionite, we don't have to choose between these -- they are both in the Bible, and they are both in the Bible for us to emulate, each in their place. It is all there for a reason. Because Christians, for the last century or two, have greatly neglected the singing of the psalms, the "Christian" perspective has gotten dangerously out of whack, and we need to learn how to pray for God's judgment to come and vindicate us....
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Martin Luther said...
"If I profess, with the loudest voice and clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battle fields besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."
Modern Christianity has earned itself an "F" in relation to this idea. We have ...."with the loudest voice and clearest exposition".... talked of Us and Jesus and wanting to be around and close to him, to be nearer to Jesus. It becomes panacea to excuse us from Jesus clear instructions to us when he said..."doing whatsoever I have commanded you..." We have not believed what he wrote. So we dont even see that a battle is raging, let alone ..."that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking"...
Modern Christianity has earned itself an "F" in relation to this idea. We have ...."with the loudest voice and clearest exposition".... talked of Us and Jesus and wanting to be around and close to him, to be nearer to Jesus. It becomes panacea to excuse us from Jesus clear instructions to us when he said..."doing whatsoever I have commanded you..." We have not believed what he wrote. So we dont even see that a battle is raging, let alone ..."that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking"...
Eating...but God is in control
More Douglas Wilson We should exersice wisdom over what we eat, but...
A Stick of Butter on the Forehead
...Beneath all of this is a desire to be in personal control. Our sickness and our health is in the hands of God, and we really don't really like it there. We would rather have the illusion of control than to trust, really trust, the one who does have control, and to follow His laws in learning how to function as faithful stewards of His with some real effect on the world.
We are like little kids in those little rides at the shopping malls, where the plastic car goes up and down, left and right, and the child turns the steering wheel to no effect, feeling that he is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul. We are faced with an array of electronic euipment that we barely understand, and we would rather twiddle the knobs aimlessly and assign values randomly, than to admit our helplessness and trust God for our health...
A Stick of Butter on the Forehead
...Beneath all of this is a desire to be in personal control. Our sickness and our health is in the hands of God, and we really don't really like it there. We would rather have the illusion of control than to trust, really trust, the one who does have control, and to follow His laws in learning how to function as faithful stewards of His with some real effect on the world.
We are like little kids in those little rides at the shopping malls, where the plastic car goes up and down, left and right, and the child turns the steering wheel to no effect, feeling that he is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul. We are faced with an array of electronic euipment that we barely understand, and we would rather twiddle the knobs aimlessly and assign values randomly, than to admit our helplessness and trust God for our health...
Gun Control:Jesus.... was more concerned that they be armed than that they be warm. partII
I need to start a gun/self defense section.
Rob has made a great point with his questions concerning whether do we use a shorter Bible just to make it fair? Will we follow Jesus and historical Christianity? When Jesus said to make disciples, what else did they use to teach, other than the Old Testament, for a very long time. Every time Jesus or the apostle Paul, or even John is speaking/writing and they make some important point, it is based on, or reinforced with quotes of the Old Testament.
Jesus never negated his first testimony to us in the old testament. It was the perfect standard for society and he said so. If Jesus could’ve been given gray hair it would’ve been from his constant rebuking of the Pharisees for making the Law of God null and void by their human traditions.
Rom 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (not for our righteousness but for behavior that is righteous in His sight.)
You cannot use the bible to come to this position without some serious cut and paste work:...." letting evil people kill you and your family because…"
Here's Kevin Swanson talking with a missionary who carry’s a loaded firearm and has pulled it twice will help? Mp3 or stream it.
Brief Sermon Overview:
It was July 25, 1993. A cadre of terrorists entered a church building in South Africa , in what turned out to be the most dramatic church attack in modern history. Armed with AK-47s and grenades, they were prepared to kill hundreds of parishioners. There was however, something they were not counting on - Charl Van Wyk and his 38 special revolver. Kevin Swanson interviews Charl on this experience and a more recent attack that occurred in July, 2008. Sometimes loving your neighbor as yourself does require obeying the Nehemiah 4:14 mandate….
Kevin does address Jim Elliots situation here and specifically addresses the current topic of someone in your home. mp3
A well-known reformed preacher in America is unwilling to protect his family from violent attack, because 'they're not ready for heaven, and we are.'Kevin Swanson establishes the biblical case for family defense, and encourages fathers and magistrates to shoot to kill for the glory of God and in love for Christ and your people. If you love Christ, you will keep his commandments, including those contained in Genesis 9:6, Acts 25:11, Neh. 4:14, and Exod. 22:2-4.He carefully analyzes the Jim Elliot martyrdom case, where missionaries refused to act in self defense when attacked by the natives.
Rob has made a great point with his questions concerning whether do we use a shorter Bible just to make it fair? Will we follow Jesus and historical Christianity? When Jesus said to make disciples, what else did they use to teach, other than the Old Testament, for a very long time. Every time Jesus or the apostle Paul, or even John is speaking/writing and they make some important point, it is based on, or reinforced with quotes of the Old Testament.
Jesus never negated his first testimony to us in the old testament. It was the perfect standard for society and he said so. If Jesus could’ve been given gray hair it would’ve been from his constant rebuking of the Pharisees for making the Law of God null and void by their human traditions.
Rom 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (not for our righteousness but for behavior that is righteous in His sight.)
You cannot use the bible to come to this position without some serious cut and paste work:...." letting evil people kill you and your family because…"
Here's Kevin Swanson talking with a missionary who carry’s a loaded firearm and has pulled it twice will help? Mp3 or stream it.
Brief Sermon Overview:
It was July 25, 1993. A cadre of terrorists entered a church building in South Africa , in what turned out to be the most dramatic church attack in modern history. Armed with AK-47s and grenades, they were prepared to kill hundreds of parishioners. There was however, something they were not counting on - Charl Van Wyk and his 38 special revolver. Kevin Swanson interviews Charl on this experience and a more recent attack that occurred in July, 2008. Sometimes loving your neighbor as yourself does require obeying the Nehemiah 4:14 mandate….
Kevin does address Jim Elliots situation here and specifically addresses the current topic of someone in your home. mp3
A well-known reformed preacher in America is unwilling to protect his family from violent attack, because 'they're not ready for heaven, and we are.'Kevin Swanson establishes the biblical case for family defense, and encourages fathers and magistrates to shoot to kill for the glory of God and in love for Christ and your people. If you love Christ, you will keep his commandments, including those contained in Genesis 9:6, Acts 25:11, Neh. 4:14, and Exod. 22:2-4.He carefully analyzes the Jim Elliot martyrdom case, where missionaries refused to act in self defense when attacked by the natives.
We are victims of the great Christian coma partII
I first referenced a talk From Martin Selbrede on economics here.
I have since read all 5 position papers. They are written with a solid bilical foundation and from the perspective that the Lordship of Jesus exstends over all. This scares people. This scares Christians the most I think. I love to read writing like this. We are used to being amused. Which means to not think. The folks at Chalcedon make me think. Stretch your mind,learn to think like a Christian. Here are links to the other four papers.
, Education, Liberty, and the Bible ,
...The alleged intention of private school regulation is to insure
quality of education. But this is simply not true. The state has
never been interested in quality. Accreditation is a ruse used
by statists to maintain control. H.L. Mencken stated that “The
aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all;
it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the
same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down
dissent and originality.”....
...The control of education by the state has a long, ominous
history. Emperor Julian of Rome acted against the Christians
by decreeing “the classics could only be taught by the pagans,
which meant the introduction of pagan teachers into Christian
schools. The curriculum had to include anti-Christian works.
One such required text was an anti-Christian and forged Acts
of Pilate, required reading for all schools”...
Judgment, Politics, and the Bible
...Neglecting God’s Word and entrusting the state to
handle poverty, education, or anything not expressly assigned
to it by God’s Word brings God’s curse. Jer. 17:5 treats the
person who trusts in man, who makes flesh their arm, as one
“whose heart departeth from the Lord.” To entrust the state
with prerogatives that God is holding us individually
accountable for means our hearts have departed from Him....
, National Defense and the Bible
...the failure of the civil magistrate (or in
modern terms, the civil government) to defend its citizens
from invading attackers is a transgression of God’s eternal
law. We are commanded, “Thou shalt not stand idly by the
blood of thy neighbor” (Lev. 19:16). Psalm 50 further
expands on the idea of “standing idly by,” indicating that it
constitutes actual consent to the evil being perpetrated. And
to consent to murder is regarded by God as being a party to
that murder, based on (1) Psalm 50:18’s elaboration of Lev.
19:16; (2) Saul of Tarsus’s consent to Stephen’s stoning at
Acts 8:1 and his later application of this law to himself at
Acts 22:20 when he confessed that “when the blood of thy
martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and
consenting unto his death” (to stand by Stephen’s blood was
to consent to his death)...
On the principle that “the
things that happened to them [Israel] are examples written
down as warnings for us” (I Cor. 10:11), we must remember
that all of Israel’s military campaigns that she initiated
independent of God failed and that all of Israel’s legitimate
wars were either defensive or involved the unique one-time
disinheritance of Canaan...
, Taxation, Liberty, and the Bible
...Property tax:
God owns the earth and everything in it (Ps. 24:1, Ex. 9:29, I
Cor. 10:26), so He alone can tax the land. He does so through
tithes, which are not the province of the state but of individuals,
the people. To tax property is to tax God, an idea understood
by America’s founding fathers, who denied Parliament
the power to tax real property in the first session of the
Continental Congress in 1774. Such taxation is an assertion of
the state’s authority over God, heralding a clash over
sovereignty between man and God. God, not man, is lord over
His creation; He is sovereign by right of ownership....
I have since read all 5 position papers. They are written with a solid bilical foundation and from the perspective that the Lordship of Jesus exstends over all. This scares people. This scares Christians the most I think. I love to read writing like this. We are used to being amused. Which means to not think. The folks at Chalcedon make me think. Stretch your mind,learn to think like a Christian. Here are links to the other four papers.
, Education, Liberty, and the Bible ,
...The alleged intention of private school regulation is to insure
quality of education. But this is simply not true. The state has
never been interested in quality. Accreditation is a ruse used
by statists to maintain control. H.L. Mencken stated that “The
aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all;
it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the
same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down
dissent and originality.”....
...The control of education by the state has a long, ominous
history. Emperor Julian of Rome acted against the Christians
by decreeing “the classics could only be taught by the pagans,
which meant the introduction of pagan teachers into Christian
schools. The curriculum had to include anti-Christian works.
One such required text was an anti-Christian and forged Acts
of Pilate, required reading for all schools”...
Judgment, Politics, and the Bible
...Neglecting God’s Word and entrusting the state to
handle poverty, education, or anything not expressly assigned
to it by God’s Word brings God’s curse. Jer. 17:5 treats the
person who trusts in man, who makes flesh their arm, as one
“whose heart departeth from the Lord.” To entrust the state
with prerogatives that God is holding us individually
accountable for means our hearts have departed from Him....
, National Defense and the Bible
...the failure of the civil magistrate (or in
modern terms, the civil government) to defend its citizens
from invading attackers is a transgression of God’s eternal
law. We are commanded, “Thou shalt not stand idly by the
blood of thy neighbor” (Lev. 19:16). Psalm 50 further
expands on the idea of “standing idly by,” indicating that it
constitutes actual consent to the evil being perpetrated. And
to consent to murder is regarded by God as being a party to
that murder, based on (1) Psalm 50:18’s elaboration of Lev.
19:16; (2) Saul of Tarsus’s consent to Stephen’s stoning at
Acts 8:1 and his later application of this law to himself at
Acts 22:20 when he confessed that “when the blood of thy
martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and
consenting unto his death” (to stand by Stephen’s blood was
to consent to his death)...
On the principle that “the
things that happened to them [Israel] are examples written
down as warnings for us” (I Cor. 10:11), we must remember
that all of Israel’s military campaigns that she initiated
independent of God failed and that all of Israel’s legitimate
wars were either defensive or involved the unique one-time
disinheritance of Canaan...
, Taxation, Liberty, and the Bible
...Property tax:
God owns the earth and everything in it (Ps. 24:1, Ex. 9:29, I
Cor. 10:26), so He alone can tax the land. He does so through
tithes, which are not the province of the state but of individuals,
the people. To tax property is to tax God, an idea understood
by America’s founding fathers, who denied Parliament
the power to tax real property in the first session of the
Continental Congress in 1774. Such taxation is an assertion of
the state’s authority over God, heralding a clash over
sovereignty between man and God. God, not man, is lord over
His creation; He is sovereign by right of ownership....
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