The Fall of Man: Debt

[Abishai100]

GENESIS 3 (KJV):

"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

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The fall of man is the most symbolic aspect of Christian mythology, and iconic poet-writers such as John Milton and savvy Hollywood (USA) film-makers such as Roman Polanski have re-presented the event with creative images/stories.

Darwinian theory tells us that competitive behaviours make humans very perceptive of the variability of risk. When people are shrewd about risk, they can be outspoken about courage.

This is how the Devil tricked Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Devil enticed them about the uncertainty of risk and the allure of rebellious courage. If risk is uncertain, why should man obey God and refrain from eating from the Tree of Knowledge? Maybe the fruit of the forbidden tree can tell them something 'useful' about medicine or art which they can use to extend their lifespan.

The Devil seems to have wanted to lure Adam and Eve into an endless obsession about risk and derring-do. After all, if we can calculate risk, couldn't we escape the clutches of death? God offered no immediate answers about risk and courage, and the Devil was there to tempt humanity towards 'mad science.'

Perhaps Christian mythology teaches us that the allure of Sin and Temptation lies in the 'speculation' of risk. Surely, this would explain the allure of the mysterious Harlot of Babylon (described in the Book of Revelation), a woman who dares men to 'cheat' death and 'speculate' on free will.

Could the fall of man therefore be a direct result of 'over-speculation' on paradise?

If so, humanity seems to be in debt and redemption is possible through some kind of investment in faith.

This all makes me want to rent the film The Wolf of Wall Street on Netflix...

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right...

... dem politicians gonna get us in so much debt...

... the devil gonna own us all."

 

[DGS49]

The scenario in the Garden of Eden was that God gave Adam & Eve everything they needed or wanted, so there was no legitimate reason to eat the fruit of the one forbidden tree. The Fall speaks to mankind's gullibility and greed - ALWAYS wanting something that we don't have.

 

[BreezeWood]

.
my dog lives in Paradise

"Don't Leave The Yard"

never works -


thought for the day ....

.

 

[waltky]

Scary - and then there's the derivative debt...

UN fears third leg of the global financial crisis - with prospect of epic debt defaults
22 September 2016 - The third leg of the world's intractable depression is yet to come. If trade economists at the United Nations are right, the next traumatic episode may entail the greatest debt jubilee in history.

It may also prove to be the definitive crisis of globalized capitalism, the demise of the liberal free-market orthodoxies promoted for almost forty years by the Bretton Woods institutions, the OECD, and the Davos fraternity. "Alarm bells have been ringing over the explosion of corporate debt levels in emerging economies, which now exceed $25 trillion. Damaging deflationary spirals cannot be ruled out," said the annual report of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). We know already that the poisonous side-effect of zero rates and quantitative easing in the US, Europe, and Japan was to flood developing nations with cheap credit, upsetting their internal chemistry and drawing them into a snare. What is less understood is just how destructive this has been. Much of the money was wasted, skewed towards "highly cyclical and rent-based sectors of limited strategic importance for catching up," it said.

Worse yet, these countries have imported the deformities of western finance before they are ready to cope with the consequences. This has undermined what UNCTAD calls the "profit-investment nexus" that ultimately drives growth and prosperity. The extraordinary result is that some countries are slipping backwards, victims of "premature deindustrialisation". Many of them have fallen further behind the rich world than they were in 1980 despite opening up their economies and following the global policy script diligently. The middle income trap closed in on Latin America and the non-oil states of the Middle East a long time ago, but now it is beginning to close in such countries as Malaysia and Thailand, and in some respects China. "The benefits of a rushed integration into international financial markets post-2008 are fast evaporating," it said.

Yet the suffocating liabilities built up over the QE years remain. UNCTAD says corporate debt in emerging markets has risen from 57pc to 104pc of GDP since the end of 2008, and much of this may have to written off unless there is a world policy revolution. "If the global economy were to slow down more sharply, a significant share of developing-country debt incurred since 2008 could become unpayable and exert considerable pressure on the financial system," it said. "There remains a risk of deflationary spirals in which capital flight, currency devaluations and collapsing asset prices would stymie growth and shrink government revenues. As capital begins to flow out, there is now a real danger of entering a third phase of the financial crisis which began in the US housing market in late 2007 before spreading to the European bond market," it said.

These are deeply-disturbing assertions. The combined US subprime and 'Alt-A' property exposure before the Lehman crisis was just $2 trillion, and Greece's debts were trivial. What UNCTAD is talking about is an order of magnitude larger. Views differ on whether the emerging market bloc is really out of the woods. UNCTAD says capital outflows reached $656bn last year after the US Federal Reserve turned off the liquidity spigot, and a further $185bn left in the first quarter of this year. While there has been a respite over recent months thanks to the Fed's retreat, UNCTAD fears that the underlying rot is pervasive. We are left with a world in a state of leaderless policy inertia, unable to escape slow suffocation. Trade is stagnant. Deflation is still knocking at the door a full seven-and-a-half years into the economic cycle, even with the monetary pedal pushed to the floor. The next downturn will test this regime to destruction.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - while dem politicians keep on spendin' our money, most of the country can't afford a quarter fer a pay toilet...

Federal Debt in FY 2016 Jumped $1,422,827,047,452.46--That's $12,036 Per Household
October 3, 2016 | In fiscal 2016, which ended on Friday, the federal debt increased $1,422,827,047,452.46, according to data released today by the U.S. Treasury.

At the close of business on Sept. 30, 2015, the last day of fiscal 2015, the federal debt was $18,150,617,666,484.33, according to the Treasury. By the close of business on Sept. 30, 2016, the last day of fiscal 2016, it had climbed to $19,573,444,713,936.79. According to the Census Bureau’s latest estimate, there were 118,215,000 households in the United States as of June. That means that the one-year increase in the federal debt of $1,422,827,047,452.46 in fiscal 2016 equaled about $12,036 per household.

The total federal debt of $19,573,444,713,936.79 now equals about $165,575 per household. The increase in the federal debt in fiscal 2016 was larger than it might have been had Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew not declared what the government calls a “debt issuance suspension period” on March 16, 2015 and kept it going until Nov. 2, 2015--when President Barack Obama signed the “Bipartisan Budget Act,” a spending deal he had cut with the Republican leaders in Congress.

During the “debt issuance suspension period,” the Treasury used what it calls “extraordinary measures” to freeze that portion of the federal debt then subject to a legal limit set by Congress at a level just below that legal limit. These “extraordinary measures” largely amounted to changing the way the government accounted for government employee retirement funds, including the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund, and the Government Securities Investment Fund of the Federal Employees’ Thrift Savings Plan.

While using its “extraordinary measures,” the Treasury said that the portion of the “debt subject to the limit” was frozen at $18,112,975,000,000 for 233 straight days. The day Obama signed the budget deal, the total federal debt jumped from $18,152,981,685,747.52 to $18,492,091,120,833.99—a one-day climb of $339,109,435,086.47. The budget deal suspended the debt limit until March 15, 2017.

Federal Debt in FY 2016 Jumped $1,422,827,047,452.46--That's $12,036 Per Household