Boom or Bust

In the many years I owned a co-op apartment in New York City, which I used while I was there. When doing business on Wall Street, I always enjoyed having someone describe the charging bull which is found in Bowling Green Park, just off Wall Street. The bronze bull weighs approximately 7000 pounds and stands 11 feet tall by 16 feet long. It is the epitome of the attitude of the Wall Street investor who expects the bull to always be charging, that trees will always grow up to the clouds, that there will never be “boom or bust”, that there will never be a necessity for bail outs, that the FTC and SEC and the multitude of other government regulators will keep all those who make obscene commissions and extravagant salaries handling our money profiles in the dictum that “honesty is the best policy.”

Now, since we are slaves to China, a duplicate bull has now been placed in the financial center of Beijing. We may as well admit it, China has become the financial capital of the world. To the American investor, we can take solace in the memory that fortunes have been made on Wall Street by the “boom and bust” mentality. In my lifetime, there have been many recessions. It is those who buy when stocks are cheap and then sell when the recession ends and the stock market goes back up, who control most of the world's wealth. And, you can be sure most of this type of “boom and bust” manipulation is “controlled” just as much as the profiteering of warfare. The only people who suffer at these times of Bilderbergers and other financial exploiter's games and gains are those who take “bill paying” seriously, those who have mortgage payments & car payments.

In 1988, President Reagan placed billions of dollars in the Treasury Department as a “plunge protector” against losses in a plunging stock market. You can be sure, as sure as you are that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, that much wealth is being created at this time of global recession.

This week, British newspapers were again filled with the BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) scandal of the late 80s and early 90s. When BCCI came under the radar of regulatory bodies and intelligence agencies in the 1980s due to its perceived avoidance of falling under one regulatory banking authority, a fact that was later, after extensive investigations, proven to be true, BCCI became the focus of a massive regulatory battle in 1991 and was described as a "$20-billion-plus heist". Many prominent Americans were involved in this swindle, including Clark Clifford, Robert Altman, President Carter's friend Burt Lance, President Clinton's friend Mark Rich, and the Governor Averell Harriman's involvement and as you have already surmised, all prominent Democrats.

I will not attempt to circumscribe all the evils involved in the BCCI scandal. It will probably be thrashed out again in the British courts since lawsuits involving lost billions are still challenged. The obscene love for money as shown in the BCCI scandal, the Madoff horror story and even the incredible buying of the presidency in the last election make even our blessed Lord wince with incredulity at the obsessiveness and covetousness of mortals. As an old man, I can tell you without fear of contradiction that life at best is very short. You can only sleep in one bed. As you age, you need very little food. Why covet designer clothing? Your children had rather bury an honest father than a crook. I am blind, but people tell me that most dead people they view in a casket have empty hands. “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.” (Proverbs 22:1)

Once, in Paris, when I could still see a few shadows with one eye, I got in the elevator and went to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Constructed in 1889, 200 million people have taken the same elevator ride. About half way up you look down at the Seine River in Paris and you think what it would be like to own all of Paris. Then you go onto the top, up 1,063 feet, and you feel you might own all France. But, when you get back on the ground and you venture into Notre Dame Cathedral and you look at the magnificence of the great rose window on the north side, you consider the peasants who visited Notre Dame long before the Eiffel Tower, long before planes, and you know that their only ownership was that of their precious faith. You are brought back to life and your real reason for living.

Yesterday, the first time in my life, I was sitting in McDonalds with my driver, wearing my Veteran's cap with my medical and military rank insignias, my blind VA and other medals and it is obvious to anyone, who sees me, that I am blind. The first time, it so shocked my driver, a man walked up to the table and said, “THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE TO MY COUNTRY.”

We send politicians to Raleigh and to Washington to serve our country. There are three lobbyist in Washington DC, for each member of Congress. It is money, the desire for power, the dirge of favoritism and corruption that brings death and destruction to our world as represented by the disabled veteran and the many white crosses that mark the profiteering of landscape in this world. When our blessed Lord, on that last night with His disciples, showed the attitude of servitude by washing His friend's feet (even the feet of His betrayer) He showed once and for all the profiteering attitude of man towards his Creator and His creation.