July 1, 2008
Elaine Meinel Supkis
As the famous sculpture of St. Michael falls to the floor of the Metropolitan Museum in NYC, this brings to mind a stream of strange thoughts about Israel, the gods, chariots of gold, Hades and other mythological characters and strange doings. Also, Dr. Fekete is quitting his Quixotic Quest for the Holy Golden Mean. His sponsor who is a gold speculator, is cutting off his finances. And Mish snarls at the poor professor of the Housing Crash, Shiller. Shiller wants more EZ credit to pout more Funny Money™ into our hands so we can continue to spend like fiends. Off the cliff we go!
5th-Century Sculpture Shatters at Met
A glazed terra cotta relief by the Renaissance sculptor Andrea della Robbia came loose overnight from its perch above a doorway at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and crashed to the stone floor below, seriously damaging it, museum officials said Tuesday.The shattered 15th-century sculpture, a 62-by-32-inch blue-and-white lunette depicting St. Michael the Archangel in a traditional pose, holding a sword and the scales of justice, was found early Tuesday morning by a guard on regular rounds.
This news is interesting in that it connects into the whole business of magic and money. St. Michael is an 'Archangel.' He has many properties of Anibus, the jackal-headed god of judgement of the early Egyptians.
Here is the Wikipedia version: Michael (archangel)
Michael (Hebrew: מיכאל, Micha'el or Mîkhā’ēl; Greek: Μιχαήλ, Mikhaíl; Latin: Michael or Míchaël; Arabic: ميكائيل, Mikha'il) is an archangel, one of the principal angels in Jewish and Christian tradition. He is viewed as the good Angel of Death (as opposed to Samael, the evil Angel of Death), and as the field commander of the Army of God.He is mentioned by name in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation 12:7. In the book of Daniel, Michael appears as "one of the chief princes" (Daniel 10:13) who in Daniel's vision comes to the angel Gabriel's aid in his contest with the angel of Persia Dobiel, and is also described there as the advocate of Israel and "great prince who stands up for the children of your (Daniel's) people" (Daniel 10:21, 12:1).
The Talmudic tradition rendered his name as meaning "who is like El (God)". The name was said to have been the war-cry of the angels in the battle fought in heaven against Satan and his followers.
It is rather amusing to me to see this 'good angel of death' holding all the attributes of Libra/Anubis. The sword of justice and the scales that weigh the soul are obviously taken from earlier models. He is supposed to fight Iran and thus, promote Israel. If religious people look for signs, the shattering of this artwork certainly calls up some odd ideas, doesn't it? For the US and the entire world is now writhing in fear and shock over the sudden surge in oil prices due to the US and Israel pushing extremely hard for a major war with Iran.
The authors of this destructive push off the economic cliff alternately threaten Iran and then deny they have any intention of starting a major war. Indeed, the admiral in charge of the US navy which is generally used as a sitting duck for war provocations, he claimed he could prevent Iran from stopping all oil passing through the Eye of the Needle. These oily camels will pass! Or so says the US admiral.
The world knows this is pure insanity. The navy couldn't protect New Orleans or rescue anyone when the hurricane destroyed much of the city. The US air force sat totally immobile and helpless on 9/11. Even a classic 'Chinese fire drill' is a well-planned lockstep maneuver compared to the Pentagon's ineptitude on 9/11. Our invasion of Iraq was more like the Keystone Kops than the Panzer Korps. Seeing the reality of vast seas of ineptitude, the world is now in a total panic and oil speculators expect the price to soar when the hyper-expensive and totally over-extended US military falls of yet another cliff.
Aside from the Kabbalistic strange permutations of St. Michael, we have the strange business about Libra itself:
Eventually the stars of Libra came to represent the Golden Chariot of Pluto. The story of Pluto's abduction of Persephone is a widely known Greek myth, perhaps because it has such a strong astronomical association. Hades was a brother of Zeus and of Poseidon; he was usually ignorant of the happenings of the Upperworld, only emerging rarely from his dark kingdom.It was considered imprudent and dangerous to mention the names of certain gods and goddesses. Thus the Furies, or Cronies, were called Eumenides (Kindly Ones), and Hades was called Pluto (Rich One).
His golden chariot was pulled by four jet-black horses. While he used the chariot to periodically visit the Upperworld, in order to seduce a beautiful nymph, he rarely wished the relationship to last. Until he saw Persephone, the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. When he took Persephone back to Tartarus, the deepest part of Hades, the Upperworld would change forever.
Deep beneath the Earth, he owned all its mineral riches, but his favorite possession was a gift from the Cyclopes: a helmet that rendered him invisible.
*snip*
As a symbol for equality, the constellation came to represent Justice in several middle Eastern cultures.The Egyptians also saw Libra as a set of scales, one in which the human heart was to be weighted after death, "the Scales of Justice."
In India, the constellation was called Tula, meaning "a balance," showed a man bent on one knee, holding the scales.
The ancient Chinese called the constellation Show Sing, "the Star of Longevity," but later generation changed the name to Tien Ching, meaning "the Celestial Balance."
Across the planet, the stars of Libra have some queer attributes. One is the idea that the scales of justice are also a golden chariot for the God of Death and Wealth. He is the patron saint of all gnomes and bankers. Naturally, people who wander into the Cave of Death want to live forever. So the Chinese gave these stars the blessings of granting longevity. The Tarnhelm is a story told from the furthest north reaches of the planet to the islands of the Pacific. The need for this tool is obvious: in all the legends, the user climbs into bed with some reluctant Brünhilda or other demi-goddesses and has sex! Secrecy and deception are very much a part of the Cave of Wealth. As is rapine.
How the scales of Libra got to be the getaway chariot for all this is an interesting matter I have to think about. Perhaps discuss it with various denizens of the Dark. Maybe they can explain all this.
Libra is somehow connected with Hades/Pluto. In the very beginning of organized city-states and their religious practices, the concept of weighing the souls was hatched. And scales are used to weigh gold and silver as well as the other metals. Which are part of Hades. From the very start, the connection between moral goodness and balancing the scales has been at he heart of most religions. Those people who balance their lives and lusts on a scale of justice will be taken to 'Heaven' and those who unbalance things and yield to deeds of greed and rapine end up in Hades with the Death god.
Several readers sent me today's story by Dr. Fekete. He is quitting the fight over establishing a philosophical school of thought concerning how we should use the gold standard to stop the shifting sands of wild credit creation leading to hyperinflation and the collapse of value of all assets. Namely, his sponsor is withdrawing financial support for this. And you can bet, no one else is going to finance anyone discussing any of this! It is very verboten! We are supposed to be in the grip of the new Floating Currency regime that is supposedly stable. And not an out of control chariot careening about the slopes of Mt. Olympus in hot pursuit of buxom beauties!
Farewell Address, Antal E. Fekete
The Inaugural Session of GSUL took place in February, 2007, at the Martineum Academy in Hungary. Subsequent sessions, including one in Dallas, Texas, showed a healthy increase in attendance, on average by fifty percent. Still, I am now forced to announce that Session Four in Hungary in July, and Session Five in Canberra, Australia in November will be the last. GSUL will fold tent as its sponsor, Sprott Asset Management, Inc., has withdrawn its financial support. Mr. Eric Sprott said in his letter that “we weren’t attracting enough interest to justify that ongoing expenditure”.
*snip*
Let me mention just two broad areas of inquiry which have been overlooked by others, but which we have planned to tackle:
(1) Gold and the theory of interest. The latter cannot be understood without the former. We have to incorporate the theory of hoarding into the theory of interest. We have to study the problem of capital destruction in the wake of gyrating interest rates, the main consequence of ousting gold from the monetary system.
(2) Gold and the theory of speculation. To understand the causes of the Great Depression we must understand speculation. The theory of speculation covers such topics as arbitrage, futures trading, basis (especially gold and silver basis), contango, backwardation, short squeeze, corner. Speculation is virtually ignored by conventional economic theory. The hurly-burly on the floor of the exchanges apparently does not reach the ears of inhabitants of the ivory tower.
Feel free to let Fekete know that we shall all miss him! Click here for his email.
Speculators are an important part of the financial world. They are more like tiny creatures in the Natural World. They roam about the countryside, barely noticed. Then suddenly, we get plagues of locusts, frogs and the Nile turns red due to all the red ink pouring out of all the banks and into the money stream! Everything is eaten, slimed or drowned. Last year we had a plague of caterpillars. They covered everything solid: cars, the sides of the house, all the trees, the roads. My poor dogs and cats could barely go outside. The sound of these tiny buggers munching on everything was very noisy. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Driving was dangerous. The dead insects coated the roads with slime. The sound of running them over was loud and rather disgusting. Children tired of killing these things and stayed inside.
My chickens who eat bugs got sick and tired of these things that climbed into the nest and messed up the eggs. Infestations of any sort are bad. This is why, in the Bible, the Pharaoh kicks out the Jews who claimed they were creating these via their magic formula and a rather queer sort of god with vicious tendencies. The speculators who are making life hell for us all are not operating in a vacuum. They are doing what anyone does when there is an opportunity to infest something. Gold speculators back in the 19th century did this! This is why all governments smash gold speculators when credit growth gets out of hand and the currency falls and gold goes up! The tools are obvious: governments pass laws, raise taxes and forbid the use of credit to buy or trade gold futures.
Gold reserves and gold standards and gold pegs can't prevent wild credit creation, bubbles and other plagues. Gold works as a warning system. Not as a stop system. NOTHING can stop Hades and his Libra chariot of gold when he is out hunting for cute cuddles to rape and ravish! The only thing that stops this is a thunderbolt. Boom. When the government and the bankers decide to stop the wild riding about the landscape doing drive-by attacks, it all ends. Usually, after there is a huge mess to clean up. This is why we have 'History': by writing down how things got out of hand, we are supposed to learn how to avoid this and behave ourselves and stop the gnomes from climbing into their fiery chariots of gold. We can prevent chaos if we hinder these guys with rules and regulations!
IT IS THE REGULATIONS AND RULES THAT MATTER! Not some outside material or limitations of nature. These can be overcome. But if the gnomes in the golden chariots are ARRESTED they can't speed! They think twice before doing this. Of course, the gnomes have bribed the police to let them go about, breaking all the laws. This is a corruption problem and again, requires ARRESTS. Arrest means to 'stop'. We can't stop credit hysteria or speculators going crazy by giving them more money. Or more credit. Or more open markets that run day and night. We limit things. Limits have their uses.
Dr. Fekete thinks these limits can be singular. I say, they are SOCIAL and POLITICAL. At all times, the people must understand and accept the need for limitations and for controlling things so they don't go off the cliff all the time. Just as we cannot think that we can import 66% of our oil and export nearly nothing in exchange or that we can run both budget and trade deficits which together equal more than 12% or our GDP, just for example.
Our leaders should be talking about all this. And about how we can't have a military that costs more than all the other military spending in the world, together! This is impossible, stupid and insane! We can't have troops in 120 countries. We can't afford this. Nor can we afford to buy cars from Japan and sell Japan virtually nothing in exchange except certain limited raw materials.
Robert J. Shiller's article One Rebate Isn’t Enough is the most ridiculous proposal from an economist I have seen for a long time. And that's saying a lot.Shiller proposal is based on totally discredited logic developed by John Maynard Keynes, that to fix the economy "we should be putting in place another stimulus package like the current one, and stand ready for another after that, and another."
It would be impossible to be more wrong. We are in this mess because consumers and the government were both spending more money than they have, year in and year out, racking up debts well beyond their ability to finance them. Financing our consumption boom fell on the backs of foreigners. In turn the dollar has been collapsing, sending the price of oil skyrocketing, further adding to consumer woes.
Mish is right. Professor Shiller who is part of the famous housing data collections we see all the time, he wants MORE credit! EZ credit! 4 out of 5 applicants accepted credit levels! Which is what caused the present meltdown. The professor doesn't understand the fundamental basis of money and money value destruction. He doesn't want to know about Hades, his golden chariot of Libra and how this gnome uses his invisible helmet to rape girls on Mt. Olympus. The concept that excess credit will ALWAYS be rewarded by the loss of all wealth and value bought with this excessive credit: no one teaches this in school.
I ran through a random selection of Federal Reserve speeches to illustrate how just 50 years ago, the people running the Fed knew perfectly well that excessive credit causes tenacious inflation. They knew we had to have strict limits! This collapsed due to the financial needs of the Vietnam War and the bribes LBJ used to promote this war. Handing out the exact same goodies we see today. We are being bribed to look the other way while maniacs launch a war against Iran. And this is going to push us off an even steeper cliff!
We have scarce money and little credit these days.
We are in a Recession -- and headed for a Depression -- all at the whim of Central Bankers who own our Federal Reserve System.
Like all previous depressions, this one is also caused by our Federal Reserve System.
Lock'n Load
Posted by: PLovering | July 02, 2008 at 01:09 AM
What do you know about Gore Vidal?
Who funds him, etc?
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=61813§ionid=3510302
'The US is not a republic anymore'
Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:42:15
An interview with Gore Vidal by Afshin Rattansi, Press TV, Tehran
" Gore Vidal: Well it's because we no longer have a country. We don't have a republic any more. During the last 7 or 8 years of the Bush regime, they've got rid of the Bill of Rights, they've got rid of habeas corpus. They have got rid of one of the nicest gifts that England ever left us when they went away and we ceased to be colonies - the Magna Carta - from the 12th century. "
===============
Also, this seems to be an excellent point that we need to distinguish between WHO shuts down the FED after the US collapse.
Big difference between if Congress/Treasury vs. IMF/NWO.
http://www.rense.com/general82/audit.htm
"The IMF -- where Paul Wolfowitz went after carrying out his assignment at the Pentagon -- is the Rothschild instrument to enforce its interests. They are auditing the Fed to make sure that no policy and no action of the Fed or the US government will result in any repudiation of debt owed to the Rothshild's or in any way reduce the expected harvest of assets that the international bankers are expecting from the US collapse.
The IMF and the Federal Reserve should both be shown the door by the next president. The Federal Reserve needs to be shut down immediately -- but by the United States, not by international financiers. "
Posted by: GK | July 02, 2008 at 04:19 AM
Fair is foul and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air.
The overnight champ is the good old buck and Starbucks vaulted five percent in Frankfurt, as they announce 600 shops are closing. Well that's good for the company right. Maybe the Frankfurt traders think STarbucks will offshore coffee production to India and cut costs. Must be a good sign for our economy, when the retail Cinderella of the 90's and the 00's says 'subprime' is killing business. Of course since the Tankan survey of Japanese manufacturing is off a little, due to them killing off the earning power and economic base of their consumers in the USA and Europe, the currency manipulation had to restart. The dollar got hit hard, or should I say inflated hard. Haha, stupid American buy Japanese car now and we make big money. The euro also got the pump. Of course the cretinous Jean Trichet will raise the rates today in Europe, and play right into Onishi Takajiro's hands, dismantling his own industry. First Club Med, then the North. Even the clockmakers got their clocks handed to them and the Swiss Franc got the pump job. Might as well destroy their pharmaceutical industry and buy Nestle on the cheap after. The tokkotai detachments continue their successes.
Posted by: calvino | July 02, 2008 at 05:36 AM
Yes, the IMF will force the same medicine we tried to pour down Argentina's throats, for example. To fix Chile, we sponsored a violent coup. Chile voted for social services and we gave them dictatorship and the gun to the forehead.
We always impose fascism on nations seeking to dump their debts. And what do we have here?
Fascism!
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | July 02, 2008 at 07:23 AM
Rather odd article there, Elaine!
"He is supposed to fight Iran and thus, promote Israel."
He is? My, my... you certainly dragged that in from deep left field!
"The navy couldn't protect New Orleans or rescue anyone when the hurricane destroyed much of the city."
How does one defend against a hurrricane? Carrier-based air strikes? (I have a mental image of the carrier Kitty Hawk sailing around Lake Ponchartrain.) Domestic search-and-rescue should have been done by the National Guard and Coast Guard.
"He doesn't want to know about Hades, his golden chariot of Libra and how this gnome uses his invisible helmet to rape girls on Mt. Olympus."
HUH?? (I may be pondering that sentence all day!)
"What do you know about Gore Vidal?"
Gore Vidal's always been a vacuous old poofter.
"Starbucks vaulted five percent in Frankfurt, as they announce 600 shops are closing. Well that's good for the company right."
I expect so - the chain overexpanded by building too many stores too quickly, in some cases so close to existing stores that the new ones took sales from the old ones. Pulling back a bit is a good move for them.
Posted by: JSmith | July 02, 2008 at 09:49 AM
"its not dark yet, but its gettin' there"
Bob Dylan
Posted by: G. | July 02, 2008 at 09:57 AM
"How does one defend against a hurrricane?"
By having a decent,well run,and honest government with savings for a rainy hurricane day.By having lots of resources,including the navy,to rush in
after the hurricane is gone. Resources that aren't bogged down in some hell hole desert
fighting a resource war because you didnt want to fight a research war for alt-energy like that Ga. peanut farmer you always belittle by calling a peanut farmer.
You,sir, typify a lot of Americans that mistake their loud arrogance for intelligence.Your SUV is now full of cement
and is parked on a dead end street.
And that "old poofter" knows more about your
empire than you surely do.You are in the middle of your empire kissing arses while he is on the outside. Outside perspectives are usually better than inside ones.
Posted by: G. | July 02, 2008 at 10:09 AM
Actually, I was shocked by the news that St. Michael has such dark intentions! Um...well? This is certainly relevant to today since the forces fueling these many wars are RELIGIOUS in nature and have roots buried deep in the past.
Smith, when I joke about thinks, you miss the joke. Wonder why?
Actually, the idea that wealth is connected to sex and defecation is hard for people to accept. Yet we pay for sex and worry about using the toilet from earliest childhood. Heh. Dr. Freud was tossed into the garbage dump a tad too quickly, I would suggest.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | July 02, 2008 at 10:18 AM
Financial potty talk -
As the personal economies of humans mature they acquire excess capital. Along with this hoarding of capital comes the fear of losing this buffer against the indignities of old age, which stimulates more energy devoted to capitalization.
On the biological level maturing humans begin to acquire a fat deposit due to enhanced ability to provide excess calories to themselves, while at the same time they are experiencing a slowing of metabolism. In time, a false sense of hunger manifests that leads to a further slowing of metabolism due to energy directed towards digestion, which manifests as increased fat deposits.
This leads to the hypothesis that as the baby boomer Fat Cats get fatter due to a growing insatiable appetite, so does the sphincter tightening fear of losing it all, which is the leading cause of constipation to post-modern humans nearing retirement.
Posted by: Jojo | July 02, 2008 at 01:28 PM
jojo - that was good for a hearty laugh! Thanks.
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | July 02, 2008 at 01:52 PM
BUT THAT INTELLIGENCE IS CREDITED TO THE DISTANCE ONE HAS TRAVELLED RATHER THAN SMELLY FEET MAY BE A FOOLS QWEST..............
Posted by: MILO | July 02, 2008 at 02:28 PM
Love your analysis, Jojo! YES!
Actually, having raised and cared for children, I notice small children go through this constipation phase when they also get very anxious and angry if mom tries to clean the house and throws stuff away.
I remember this in myself, too. From about 4 years of age to around 13.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | July 02, 2008 at 06:23 PM
"that Ga. peanut farmer you always belittle by calling a peanut farmer."
I've never belittled Carter by calling him a peanut farmer - farming's an honorable activity.
I've belittled him by calling him a twit, sure. But not a "peanut farmer."
Posted by: JSmith | July 03, 2008 at 08:40 AM