In 1948 the philosopher Albert Camus was asked by a group of Catholic scholars to address the question, why did not the Church speak more clearly and forcefully against the crimes of the Nazis? “Why shall I not say this here?” Camus asked. “For a long time I waited during those terrible years, for a strong voice to be lifted up in Rome. I, an unbeliever? Exactly. For I knew that spirit would be lost if it did not raise the cry of condemnation in the presence of force. It appears that this voice was raised. But I swear to you that millions of people, myself included, never heard it; and that there was in the hearts of believers and unbelievers a solitude which did not cease to grow as the days went by and the executioners multiplied. It was later explained to me that the condemnation had indeed been uttered, but in the language of encyclicals, which is not clear. The condemnation had been pronounced but it had not been understood. Who cannot see that this is where the real condemnation lies? Who does not see that this example contains within it one of the elements of the answer, perhaps the whole answer to the question you have asked me? What the world expects of Christians is that Christians speak out and utter their condemnation in such a way that never a doubt, never a single doubt can arise in the heart of even the simplest person. That Christians get out of their abstractions and stand face to face with the bloody mess that is our history today. The gathering we need today is the gathering together of people who are resolved to speak out clearly and to pay with their own person.”
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
When moderation is no virtue
Is the triumphant church any church at all?
Saturday, November 6, 2010
This is What Standing Up to the Powers Looks Like
This week, he had a brief piece on the new Jesus Radicals site talking about his practice of protesting war outside of churches in the American south. I will let Elbon tell the story
I protest in front of small rural churches and large city churches. The church responses to the protests – no matter the size or denomination – are usually the same:
“You couldn’t stand there if Christians didn’t fight to protect your/our freedom of speech.”
“God commanded the killing of enemies in the Old Testament and calls us to obey the civil authorities which includes going to war against this country’s enemies.”
“We are required to defend ourselves. Do you think we should allow the Muslims to invade and conquer us? Would allow someone to break into your home and kill your wife and children?
“Jesus taught us to love personal enemies – not national enemies.”
Physical responses: shouting profanities, church members surrounding me so others cannot see the sign, and extending a closed fist with an extended middle finger.
Call the police. This happens at most of the protests. No arrest is made because the protests are a protected citizen right. However, a municipality may require the obtaining of a permit prior to the protest so police may maintain order by planning for supervision of the protest. If this is the case, the police will provide the information on how the permit may be obtained when they respond to the call.
My response to these arguments or actions is the following:
Jesus commanded the love of enemies. He gave a new commandment to love one another as he loved us (John 15:12). By giving us this new commandment he made himself the model of love – an unconditional love for not only friends but also enemies. When Jesus told his followers to take up their crosses and follow him he showed them/us how to bear their/our crosses by bearing his cross. Jesus prayed mercy and forgiveness for his enemies while they murdered him. Therefore, Jesus does not teach an ethics of survival by defending ourselves and others against personal or national enemies.
I was deeply moved by Elbon when I met him and I continue to be now. And I am humbled. We all talk about the Gospel, but this is what it looks like to live it.
Some Disturbing Thoughts about Humanitarian Aid
Whether or not this has some basis in fact needs to be investigated. Particularly as these groups hold themselves, and are generally held, above reproach. Or as Gourevitch describes it
Aid organizations and their workers are entirely self-policing, which means that when it comes to the political consequences of their actions they are simply not policed. When a mission ends in catastrophe, they write their own evaluations. And if there are investigations of the crimes that follow on their aid, the humanitarians get airbrushed out of the story. Polman’s suggestion that it should not be so is particularly timely just now, as a new U.N. report on atrocities in the Congo between 1993 and 2003 has revived the question of responsibility for the bloody aftermath of the camps. There can be no proper accounting of such a history as long as humanitarians continue to enjoy total impunity.And surely the Church has a role here as well. Not only do we put our imprimatur on these more often than not faith based groups but we funnel vast resources to them as well. Yet in my experience, we do little to hold them to account. Given what is done in our name, surely it is time to start.
Andrew Bacevich and the Futility of the Afghan War
In the interview, he said two remarkable things. First, he asserted that General Stanley McChrystal is not fully in charge of the war effort, especially the activities of special forces under his command. The second is that this war is being waged with the full knowledge that its objectives will not be accomplished.
And of course, here in Canada, where the entire debate focuses on our support of the troops fighting the war rather than whether we want to have them killed, wounded and psychologically scarred in a completely pointless military effort.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Words to Live By
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
An Attack on One . . . .
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
The Euro Crisis Explained
Monday, May 24, 2010
Inflation is Not a Threat
The 18-month slump in Treasury zero- coupon bonds is giving way to rising demand as the rate of inflation falls to a 40-year low, turning so-called Strips into the best performers in the U.S. government debt market.
Investment banks increased the securities -- created by separating the interest and principal payments of a bond and selling them at a discount -- by 4.4 percent to $179.4 billion from December through April, according to Treasury Department data. It’s the first time that the market expanded for five straight months since 2006.
The call for Strips, which started in 1985 after former Federal Reserve ChairmanPaul Volcker broke the back of inflation, suggests growing bullishness toward the bond market after the Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S. Treasury Master Index fell 3.7 percent in 2009. Yields on Treasury Inflation- Protected Securities show money managers expect the consumer price index to increase an average 1.96 percent annually over the next decade, down from 2.43 percent as recently as April 29.
It is worth remembering that 2% inflation is a target for most central banks -- it is not a threat.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
There is No Substitute for Fear
Supposedly on account of civil unrest, many buildings in Bangkok burned to the ground on May 19. It was a scary situation for everyone in Thailand. But for Americans, it was very nearly just another day.
Fortunately, MSNBC made the most of the images. Raw Story, a blog, reports:
People watching MSNBC Wednesday morning could be forgiven for believing that the Taliban had invaded Bangkok. As NBC's Ian Williams reported on violent protests in the capital city of Thailand, a graphic on the lower third of MSNBC's screen read: "New Taliban Attacks, Bangkok Burns."DoF has nothing but praise for the way MSNBC handled this story.
MSNBC drew upon the depth of the news organization's ignorance about Thailand and conceived a terrifying hypothesis: Bangkok is falling to our enemies. The Taliban are on the move. At home, terrified MSNBC viewers would have been asking themselves: Will Honolulu be next? Or will the Taliban head straight for LA?
There is a lesson here. Whenever there is serious violence overseas, the US media should not hesitate to project whatever scenario evokes Americans' worst fears. Discussion about what actually happened can be left to the following day's newspapers.
This is analysis the Harper crowd can truly believe in.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Do The Math
The average American home sells for $170,000. The average family income is $65,300. So the average USA home costs 2.6 times what the average household makes. US homeowners can get a mortgage rate of 4.2%, guaranteed for 30 years. And the interest is tax-deductible.This means that the average homeowner as a single, highly leveraged, completely undiversified asset. No savings, no hedges, no nothing. And a 10% swing in price could put tens of thousands of these "investors" under water.
The average Canadian home costs $341,000. The average family income is $71,000. So the average home costs 4.8 times what a household makes in a year. Fixed-rate mortgages here are available for an average of 4.2%, which must be renewed at market rates every five years. Sorry, no writing interest off your taxable income.
Clearly the burden of home ownership is staggering in Canada compared to our neighbour. We pay almost exactly double for a roof, even though our incomes are similar. We’re thrown into interest rate roulette every few years, while they get a lifetime mortgage rates. We pay inflated loans in after-tax dollars while they write them off.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
From Tom Swift to Cory Doctorow
So I am taking a sick day (I had minor dental surgery yesterday), have downloaded a mobipocket edition to install to an old Tungsten (my current ereader) and will take the day to immerse myself in some good science fiction, as a no-longer adolescent 58 year old.
The Big Linux Breakthrough: Brought to You by Google
This, combined with the anticipated arrival of ultra-cheap Android netbooks could mean that the two sectors where there is real potential for growth, smartphones and netbooks, may be dominated by the open source, linux based OS. Can tablets be far behind?
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Of Banks and Tooth Fairies
After 65 years in which politics in the West was, mostly, about giving things away to voters, it’s now going to be, mostly, about taking things away. Goodbye Tooth Fairy politics, hello Root Canal politics.What he fails to mention is that it was left of center governments, particularly in Britain and the U.S., that had left public sectors in pretty good shape. It was giveaways to the rich, particularly in the U.S., followed by historic generosity to a criminally negligent financial sector over the past couple of years, that put, and will continue to put, governments in impossible positions. In short, we gave away trillions to the already wealthy while children starved, and now we would like the poor, who derived no benefit from this, to pay for it.
The Least of These
The head of the Yukon RCMP says five members of his force will be investigated for their role in an in-custody death. Raymond Silverfox died at the Whitehorse RCMP detachment in December 2008, where officers laughed at him as he vomited 26 times during his 13 hours in custody. When staff finally called an ambulance for Mr. Silverfox, he no longer had a pulse.
A coroner's inquest last month revealed gruesome details of Mr. Silverfox's final hours.
The inquest heard that Mr. Silverfox couldn't find a hotel room after arriving in Whitehorse from his hometown of Carmacks, Yukon, and opted to stay at a Salvation Army shelter. It's there that he first began throwing up.
Mr. Silverfox refused to go to the hospital when Salvation Army staff called an ambulance, and decided to instead spend the night inside the drunk tank. That's where he would die, lying in his own feces.
The inquest heard that Mr. Silverfox was left in a cell while an infection, likely caused by the repeated vomiting, raged through his body.
Mr. Silverfox was described as a hard-working and respected member of his community, but the inquest heard that for some reason the 43-year-old began binge drinking in the months before his death.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Gabor Mate on Compassion
I will comment on some of the other material later, but for now would like to focus on Dr. Mate's remarks. He first took Kingwell to task for an all too sunny view of the possibilities and benefits of Canadian citizenship, noting the tragedy of the lives of native Canadians. And he spoke passionately and compellingly on his early childhood experience as a holocaust survivor and the sad reality of oppressed become oppressor in Palestine.
But for me his most telling remarks concerned love. When one of the usual suspects stood up to make a case for tough love, especially in the case of addiction, the response was visceral. There is no such thing, Dr. Mate insisted, as tough love. One can be tough and one can love. But tough love is a misnomer. What he did not say, but what was clearly implied, was that tough love is all too often an excuse for emotional and spiritual thuggery, particularly when applied to our most vulnerable fellows.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
This Is What War Is
and this . . .
Wikileaks claims to have obtained and decrypted video that shows US occupying forces in an Apache helicopter intentionally firing on a dozen civilians in Baghdad, including journalists working for the Reuters news organization: 22-year-old Reuters photographer, Namir Noor-Eldeen, and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40.
The video is accompanied by audio of the pilots' radio dialogue. No Pentagon response yet. Reuters has been attempting to obtain the video under Freedom of Information Act requests since the incident occurred in July, 2007, but the Pentagon blocked all requests. Reuters news editor-in-chief David Schlesinger says the video is "graphic evidence of the dangers involved in war journalism and the tragedies that can result". Wikileaks director Julian Assange said Wikileaks had to break military encryption on the file to view it, and will not reveal how or from whom the file was obtained.
From the pilot's radio dialogue, it sounds as if they mistook the cameraman's SLR lenses for rocket launchers.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
King, Harper and Prisons
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.Given that our own government has just chosen to increase prison budgets by a whopping 27% when other far more pressing social needs are left with crumbs, could the same be said for Canada?
An Easter Theme -- Hope and Renewal in Defeat
Nothing that has happened in the past 10 days, or in the past 10 years, has made me regret my decision. But the current controversy over Benedict has made certain things about the sex scandals in the church perfectly clear to me.
One is that the time of face-saving, image management and avoidance in the Catholic Church – I mean everyone, including the Pope, the bishops and the rest of us – is well and truly over.
Another is that a new time is dawning for all Catholics, one full of danger for the tired, self-protective, bureaucratic culture of the church, and thus full of hope. It is a time of listening, with renewed rigour, to all victims of clerical abuse, and a time of affording love and justice to each of them.
It is a time of the Kingdom of God, opening into history, as it always does, in the voices of the oppressed, the excluded and sick and weak, those crucified by violence, exploitation and lies. Woe to any church or any Christian that ignores, because of fear for the weary structures of this dying world, the always radical appearing of God's Kingdom.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Greg Boyd on |Evangelicals and Judgement
Well, it turns out that not everyone on campus is excited to have me come. In fact, some faculty may boycott the inauguration because of me. The controversy has led to several interesting interviews from local newspapers as well as an interview with theChronicle of Higher Education. Expressing the concerns of some on campus, several reporters have asked me how I felt about the objection that having an “evangelical” pastor give an inauguration address on a secular campus blurred the lines between church and state. As I shared with these reporters, the charge is a bit ironic in that the controversy I’m usually associated with revolves around my emphatic insistence onthe separation of church and state! At the same time, it seems to me that it enhances the message of diversity and open-mindedness for a secular university like RIU to invite contributions from people of faith, so long as they can trust that these people won’t abuse their platform by promoting their particular faith. I assured them that the message I will deliver will be predicated on our shared humanity, not my particular theology.
I was also asked to respond to the concern of some that I might use this platform to speak against homosexuality. “Why on earth would I ever do that?” I emphatically responded to one reporter. The fact that this concern could even arise is a sad commentary on the damage done to the evangelical movement by the self-serving public judgmentalism of certain evangelical spokespeople. It’s one of the reasons I no longer identify myself as an “evangelical” until I know what the word means to a particular audience. Much of what is often associated with this label — including the self-righteous judgmentalism of gays — is stuff I’m adamantly against. As I told this reporter, my conviction is that Jesus calls his followers to consider their own shortcomings to be massive tree trunks sticking out of their eyes compared to the tiny dust particle imperfections they think they see in others (Mt 7:1-3).
“So how would you respond to gays and advocates for gays at Rhode Island University who are concerned about you coming?” one reporter asked. “I’d tell them that, however grieved they are by evangelicals who campaign against homosexuals, I am probably more so. And I’d confess, along with the apostle Paul, that I am the worst of sinners” (1 Tim. 1:16-16).
A wonderful message for Good Friday.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Pandering . . . again
Never afraid to stoop lower, the Harper Conservatives have made much use of this. And today comes news that they are going to strike out at that favorite target of demagogues: immigrants.
Because we won't let refugee claimants work, they are dependent on social assistance. Now this government wants provincial governments to tighten the screws on people who are already backed into a corner. And this from a government that claims a foundation in |Christian faith.
Way to be, guys!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Never Let the Facts Stand in the Way of a Good Argument
Make no mistake: this sells. There is always a quick advantage on beating up on society's most despised. Yet everything that we know about criminal justice says this will only make things worse. If prisons and harsh, punitive justice made a society safe, the United States, Russia and China would be the safest places on earth.
But it sure does mobilize the base and draw in votes.
Looking back through recent Canadian history, I cannot think of a Prime Minister more cynical and calculating than this one.
Et Tu Ross?
If I had any doubts about the depth of the troubles facing the Catholic Church, they were erased this morning by Ross Douthat's NYT column.
Not that it was particularly excoriating. Like most of his work, whether you agree with it or not (and I often don't) it was thoughtful and balanced.
But it was unflinching in its placing the responsibility for this issue at the feet of the Pope. His conclusion?
I am beginning to wonder if the Church can survive in its present form as anything but an empty shell. I believe that what must come out of this is the type of revolutionary rebirth for which Vatican II was but a precursor. God turns evil to good, but the result may be something we can scarcely envision.
. . the crisis of authority endures. There has been some accountability for the abusers, but not nearly enough for the bishops who enabled them. And now the shadow of past sins threatens to engulf this papacy.
Popes do not resign. But a pope can clean house. And a pope can show contrition, on his own behalf and on behalf of an entire generation of bishops, for what was done and left undone in one of Catholicism’s darkest eras.
This is Holy Week, when the first pope, Peter, broke faith with Christ and wept for shame. There is no better time for repentance.
Friday, March 26, 2010
This Never Works
When they do, they almost invariably survive. And even prosper. Openness and reconciliation are wonderful restoratives.
Yet here we are watching the Catholic Church following this same well-worn path to almost certain catastrophe. Few if any believe the denials any longer. Today, National Catholic Reporter concluded a statement on this issue as follows
The focus now is on Benedict. What did he know? When did he know it? How did he act once he knew?
The questions arise not only about his conduct in Munich, but also, based also as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. A March 25 Times story, citing information from bishops in the United States, reported that the Vatican had failed to take action against a priest accused of molesting as many as 200 deaf children while working at a school from 1950 to 1974. Correspondence reportedly obtained by the paper showed requests for the defrocking of the priest, Fr. Lawrence Murphy, going directly from U.S. bishops to Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, now the Vatican secretary of state. No action was taken against Murphy.
Like it or not, this new focus on the pope and his actions as an archbishop and Vatican official fits the distressing logic of this scandal. For those who have followed this tragedy over the years, the whole episode seems familiar: accusation, revelation, denial and obfuscation, with no bishop held accountable for actions taken on their watch. Yes, there is a depressing madness to this story. Time after time, this is a story of institutional failure of the deepest kind, a failure to defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a failure to put compassion ahead of institutional decisions aimed at short-term benefits and avoiding public scandal.
The strategies employed so far -- taking the legal path, obscuring the truth, and doing everything possible to protect perpetrators as well as the church's reputation and treasury -- have failed miserably.
We now face the largest institutional crisis in centuries, possibly in church history. How this crisis is handled by Benedict, what he says and does, how he responds and what remedies he seeks, will likely determine the future health of our church for decades, if not centuries, to come.
It is time, past time really, for direct answers to difficult questions. It is time to tell the truth.
To engage on this issue -- to insist on the truth -- is to love the Church, not to despise it. Yes there are those who hate the Church, but for those of us who love it, now is the time to step up.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Another Easy Essay
Why Not Be A Beggar?
Peter Maurin1. People who are in need and are not afraid to beg give to people not in need the occasion to do good for goodness' sake. 2. Modern society calls the beggar bum and panhandler and gives him the bum's rush. 3. The Greeks used to say that people in need are the ambassadors of the gods. 4. We read in the Gospel: "As long as you did it to one of the least of My brothers you did it to Me." 5. While modern society calls the beggars bums and panhandlers, they are in fact the Ambassadors of God. 6. To be God's Ambassador is something to be proud of.
What Kind of Church are We?
Amen
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Yes, But Will He Sign the Test Ban Treaty?
The search for WMDs is on. Can the Marines be far behind?
Friday, March 19, 2010
Easy Essays
of Christianity
the hungry were fed
at a personal sacrifice,
the naked were clothed
at a personal sacrifice,
the homeless were sheltered
at a personal sacrifice.
And because the poor
were fed, clothed and sheltered
at a personal sacrifice,
the pagans used to say
about the Christians
“See how they love each other.”
In our own day
the poor are no longer
fed, clothed, and sheltered
at a personal sacrifice,but at the expense
of the taxpayers.
And because the poor
are no longer
fed, clothed and sheltered
at a personal sacrifice,
the pagans say about the
Christians
“See how they pass the buck.”
The Harper Government and Petty Harassment of Palestinians
Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian leader and activist, and one of the real, credible hopes for peace in the region was to speak in Toronto tomorrow night. I received this notice a few minutes ago:
CJPME regrets to announce that its Canadian tour this weekend with Palestinian leader Dr. Mustafa Barghouti is cancelled. The Canadian government delayed the issuance of Barghouti's visa to the point where Barghouti missed two key flights, resulting in a cancellation of his tour in Canada. All individuals who purchased on-line tickets for the Barghouti events will be automatically reimbursed. You will receive a separate email from TicketWeb to confirm the reimbursement to your credit care. Please address any other questions and concerns to CJPME's main email at info@cjpme.org The delays with Dr. Barghouti's visa were brought to the attention of Foreign Affairs and Citizenship and Immigration as early as Wednesday March 17th, with Minister Cannon being directly advised of the situation. On Thursday, March 18th, the Deputy Minister of Citizenship and Immigration advised the Bloc Quebecois critic that officials were aware of the urgency of the matter, but were still doing checks. When the visa was finally issued after business hours on Friday, Dr. Barghouti had already, by default, missed half his tour, with no guarantee that space on flights would allow him to make the final two days of his visit. In the past, Dr. Barghouti has received a visa to Canada within 24 hours after applying. CJPME and Dr. Barghouti are committed to doing the tour later this Spring, once the obstacles put in place by the Harper government are cleared. Please watch CJPME's email announcements to know when the tour is rescheduled. Sorry for this unfortunate news. Nevertheless, this simply forces us to redouble our efforts to bring Dr. Barghouti's important message to Canada.
This met no security needs and was done with the full knowledge of the Minister and undoubtedly the Prime Minister. This is one more example of the petty and vindictive treatment that is a day to day reality for Palestinians. Shame on this government.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Do We Really Want Leadership?
The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) is running another of its speakers series called “What is the next Big Question?”. The series first caught my eye when I received an email asking “Can we build a brain?” Much to my disappointment, not yet! This year, however, the series is being launched by asking “What makes a great leader?” As CIFAR says in its preamble,
“The truth is ... that the most effective leaders draw on a “we-based” collective identity – followers see their leader as “one of us.” It is group identity, not a single person, that makes or breaks the leader. In fact, to really understand what makes an effective leader, we also have to understand what makes a dedicated follower…
…better understanding of leadership is key to dealing with every major political, environmental and economic crisis in the world today.”
When I first read these words, I immediately took them to mean a leader who builds consensus. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized they could also mean a leader who conjures up enemies ... thereby creating an "us against them" culture ... to maintain cohesion in his or her group. So now I'm truly intrigued. Which is the better model, I wonder? Dr. Alex Haslam will no doubt provide further insights.
Does this mean that white supremacist groups and various nationalist/fascist political parties are exemplars of leadership? There is strong group identity and fanatically motivated followers, after all. Perhaps we need to learn to think and take responsibility rather than play follow the leader.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Gary Wills on Torture and Faith
I say the rosary every day according to the church season, choosing one of the four sets of gospel “mysteries” (joyful, luminous, sorrowful, glorious) to reflect on the life of Jesus. Since it is now Lent, I am saying the sorrowful mysteries, those that deal with the Passion and Death of Jesus. This year, two of the five mysteries have special meaning for me—the second and the third.
The second mystery is the scourging of Jesus. This was a prescribed part of Roman execution by crucifixion. The convict was stripped naked and beaten with rods. This was done to break his spirit, so there would be no undignified scuffle when the man was led to the execution site and affixed to the cross. It was to demean him ahead of time, to degrade his manhood, so he would be cowed and submissive when taken to his death.
The third mystery is the crowning of Jesus. This was not a prescribed part of the process. The Roman soldiers improvised a special humiliation for their prisoner, wrapping him with a mock-regal purple robe, giving him a fake scepter, and putting an “imperial” wreath of acanthus leaves on this head, to scoff at the idea of a “King of the Jews.” It was like the medieval installation of a buffoon as “Lord of Misrule.” Again, the aim was to take away any last scrap of dignity that might be left to Jesus.
Sound familiar? Our recent torture techniques seem directly linked to the treatment Jesus received. Our prisoners were stripped, subjected to head bangings and face slappings. This was not torture, according to torturologist John Yoo. It may have been painful but it did not inflict permanent damage—except to human dignity. And making prisoners wear women’s underwear on their faces, or smearing them with what they were told was menstrual blood, was breaking down their deepest ideas of worth in their own culture and their own pride. It was a derisive “crowning.”
I do not know what went through the minds of secular or non-Christian torturers. But Christian torturers might have reason to have tortured consciences themselves when or if they remember what Jesus said in the gospel of Matthew (25.31ff). Asked who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, he says those who comforted him in prison. Asked who will be excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven, he says those who would not comfort him in prison. His listeners ask, “When were you in prison, that we came to you or did not?” He answers: “Whatever you did to any of my brothers, even the lowliest (elackistoi), you did to me.” Christians should face this sobering fact: in their treatment of the lowliest of men, they were torturing Jesus, renewing what the Roman soldiers did to him.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Welfare Queens Indeed
The report’s juiciest finding relates to Lehman’s use of an accounting device called Repo 105, which allowed the bank to bring down its quarter-end leverage temporarily. Repurchase (“repo”) agreements, whereby borrowers swap collateral for cash and agree to buy the collateral back later at a small premium, are a very common form of short-term financing. They normally have no effect on a firm’s overall leverage: the borrowed cash and the obligation to repurchase the collateral balance each other out.
But Repo 105 took advantage of an accounting rule called SFAS 140, which enabled Lehman to reclassify such borrowing as a sale. Lehman would give collateral to its counterparty and receive cash in return. Because the deal was being recorded as a sale, the collateral disappeared from Lehman’s balance-sheet and the bank used the cash it generated to pay down debt. To outsiders, it looked as though Lehman had reduced its leverage. In fact, the obligation to buy back the collateral remained. Once the quarter-end had come and gone, Lehman borrowed money to repay the cash and buy back the collateral, and its leverage spiked back up again.
Mr Valukas marshals plenty of evidence to back up his claim that “Lehman painted a misleading picture of its financial condition”. The effect of Repo 105 was material: the firm temporarily removed around $50 billion-worth of assets at the end of the first and second quarters of 2008, a time when market jitters about its leverage were pervasive (see table below). Mr Valukas can see no legitimate business reason to undertake the transaction, which was more expensive than a normal repo financing and had to be done through its London-based arm because Lehman was unable to get an American lawyer to agree that Repo 105 involved a true sale of assets.
As well as his findings on Repo 105, Mr Valukas describes how Lehman’s liquidity pool, which was designed to allow the bank to survive in stressed financial conditions for 12 months, contained cash and securities that had been assigned as collateral to its clearing banks, which grew increasingly nervous about doing business with Lehman. On September 10th 2008, just five days before it filed for bankruptcy, Ian Lowitt, the bank’s chief financial officer at the time, told investors that its liquidity pool remained strong at $42 billion. Yet an internal document from September 9th showed that it had a “low ability to monetise” almost 40% of the assets involved. The liquidity pool was not that liquid, after all.
Being Biblical?
So it is especially interesting that as I was listening to this, the daily biblical reading from Sojourners arrived in my mailbox. Here it is in full:
When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
- Leviticus 19:33-34To break one part of the law is to break it all.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
There Will Not Be a Two State Solution
From Andrew Sullivan -- this map that shows why a two state solution will never be possible, and was never meant to be possible. The best that can now be hoped for is that what happened in South Africa might happen here -- that an apartheid system characterized by tribal bantustans might someday become a binational state such as that envisioned by many early zionists.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
A Whole Lot More Than They Can Handle
Some people, lots of people, millions of people have more than they can handle.
They are overwhelmed, undone by sudden catastrophe; buried under crushing burdens related to debt, disease, death; drowning in a sea of unstoppable pain or white-hot grief. Some, miraculously, find a way out of the staggering misery (more on that in a minute). Others don’t.
Some people, it is clear, have more than they can handle.
Yet it’s important to note that Christian theology does not hold that it is God who sends the more-than-we-can-handle difficulties our way. God is not the invisible personal trainer, sadistically adding more weight to the bench to see how much we can press before we collapse–our own “no pain, no gain” life coach.
And neither does God visit suffering upon us as punishment. Jesus addresses this in Sunday’s appointed gospel lesson (Luke 13:1-9). Two ripped-from-the-headlines events are used to make his point. The first is the massacre of a group of Galileans in Jerusalem. On Pilate’s orders, these Jews had been murdered for offering sacrifices in the temple, and their own blood had been mingled with the priestly oblation.
Jesus insists that such a tragedy is not punishment from God: “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you . . . “
His second example–again from the front page of the newspaper–was a construction accident in which eighteen people had been killed when a tower fell. Jesus repeats the question: “Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you . . . “
God does not visit evil on us, for any reason. We visit it on ourselves. And real people suffer terribly and often cannot cope. To tell them this is God's will -- a sort of divine tutorial -- demeans both them and God.
Here is the Problem
This is the U.S., but it is almost surely indicative of most advanced economies. People ran up debt because they saw no other way of advancing their living standards. They don't need sermons from the rich and their acolytes. They need justice.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Some More Sanity on Deficits
Most economists also agree that it is a mistake to look at only one side of a balance sheet (whether for the public or private sector). One has to look not only at what a country or firm owes, but also at its assets. This should help answer those financial sector hawks who are raising alarms about government spending. After all, even deficit hawks acknowledge that we should be focusing not on today’s deficit, but on the long-term national debt. Spending, especially on investments in education, technology, and infrastructure, can actually lead to lower long-term deficits. Banks’ short-sightedness helped create the crisis; we cannot let government short-sightedness – prodded by the financial sector – prolong it.
Faster growth and returns on public investment yield higher tax revenues, and a 5 to 6% return is more than enough to offset temporary increases in the national debt. A social cost-benefit analysis (taking into account impacts other than on the budget) makes such expenditures, even when debt-financed, even more attractive.
Finally, most economists agree that, apart from these considerations, the appropriate size of a deficit depends in part on the state of the economy. A weaker economy calls for a larger deficit, and the appropriate size of the deficit in the face of a recession depends on the precise circumstances.
There is much of politics and little of economics in current hysteria about deficits. This is not 1995. We are not at the end of two decades of structural deficits. Our economic house is in order. We need to take a valium and calm down.
Roll Up the Rim, Eh!
The ad depicts a new arrival in Canada welcomed with that quintessential Canadian experience, a Tim Horton's coffee. Yet if you visit any Timmie's it will be immediately apparent that while there are usually quite a few immigrants present, they are almost always serving and not enjoying the coffee. The customers are overwhelmingly middle-aged, white, lower middle-class Canadians.
These are the low-wage, insecure jobs that we ask immigrants to do, regardless of their qualifications. Perhaps the woman arriving in Canada depicted in the commercial should have been handed an apron. This would more closely reflect reality.
You're Gonna Owe Somebody
Writing in The Nation, Jamie Galbraith puts it succinctly:
To put things crudely, there are two ways to get the increase in total spending that we call "economic growth." One way is for government to spend. The other is for banks to lend. Leaving aside short-term adjustments like increased net exports or financial innovation, that's basically all there is. Governments and banks are the two entities with the power to create something from nothing. If total spending power is to grow, one or the other of these two great financial motors--public deficits or private loans--has to be in action.
For ordinary people, public budget deficits, despite their bad reputation, are much better than private loans. Deficits put money in private pockets. Private households get more cash. They own that cash free and clear, and they can spend it as they like. If they wish, they can also convert it into interest-earning government bonds or they can repay their debts. This is called an increase in "net financial wealth." Ordinary people benefit, but there is nothing in it for banks.
And this, in the simplest terms, explains the deficit phobia of Wall Street, the corporate media and the right-wing economists. Bankers don't like budget deficits because they compete with bank loans as a source of growth. When a bank makes a loan, cash balances in private hands also go up. But now the cash is not owned free and clear. There is a contractual obligation to pay interest and to repay principal. If the enterprise defaults, there may be an asset left over--a house or factory or company--that will then become the property of the bank. It's easy to see why bankers love private credit but hate public deficits.
Like Dorothy and her friends, we are supposed to respond with awe to the smoke and mirrors and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Toto knew better and so should we.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Karl Schroeder on Writing
Writing is not one activity. It is many. Knowing this can be key to your growth as a literary artist. There are a lot of myths about the writing process. One of the worst is the myth of talent--which is a catch-all word that seems designed to stop any further questioning. Talent, you see, is self-contained, impenetrable: opaque. "Well, he's talented." With that statement, we dismiss the possibility of looking inside the box, of finding out what it is that a writer does that makes him or her look talented.
Talent, like the words skill and experience, is useless when you want to learn how someone does something. Each of these terms takes something complex, multi-faceted and ultimately visible--if you know where to look--and makes it mysterious and opaque. So if I used any of these words in conversation or on this blog while I'm writer in residence here, please feel free to call me on it.
Underlying the apparent seamlessness of talent and skill are many different activities, all coordinated. Writing is not one activity but many, and each of us is not just 'a writer' but many different kinds of writer.
We are all a mixture of many different kinds of writer; but some of us start out being more one or two of these:
has a whole universe in his head, but can’t get that first scene written.
The draft horse has nine different versions of chapter 1, but no chapter 2.
The academic has lots of file folders crammed with notes, but hasn’t started the story yet.
The editor never finishes because the story “just isn’t quite right yet.”
The biographer has two hundred pages of dialog and character development, but nothing has actually happened yet.
The plotter has a lot of action going on, but there are no people in this story.
The essayist uses the story to make a point, and woe to any character or drama that gets in the way.
Recognize any of these traits? Chances are you have some of them. In my next post, I'll talk about how it is enthusiasm, and not some mythical trait like 'talent' that blends these personae in us; and I'll discuss how to dampen down the traits that you are over-emphasizing, and turn up the volume on the ones you tend to neglect. A good writer knows when to switch between these roles, and is willing to do it. We'll explore how that works, and how it can improve your writing.
Schroeder is the writer-in-residence at the Toronto Public Library.
Why Local and Informal is Often Better
Volunteers in Afghanistan -- both locals and foreigners from the MIT Bits and Atoms lab -- have been building out a wireless network made largely from locally scrounged junk. They call it "FabFi" and it's kicking ass, especially when compared with the World Bank-funded alternative, which has spent seven years and hundreds of millions of dollars and only managed its first international link last summer.Locals and volunteers are doing what big foreign aid cannot. This is what Ivan Illich talked about for more than four decades.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Tired Tropes from Tired People
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
A Timmies Tax?
Yoder on Non-Violence and the Problem of Just War
Jesus Radicals has a review of a posthumous work by John Howard Yoder on non-violence. Their review is worth quoting at length:
John Howard Yoder’s newest posthumously published book, Nonviolence: A Brief History, is comprised of lectures that he gave in Warsaw Poland in 1983. At that time the Solidarity Movement had became a powerful nonviolent force trying to affect change in Communist Poland. Pope John Paul the II was to visit Poland just a month after Yoder delivered his lectures. So the time for Yoder to urge nonviolent resistance was ripe, though Yoder did not reference contemporary events in Poland during the lectures. First Yoder urged his hearers to consider the lessons that heave been learned by nonviolent movements in the twentieth century. He then refutes objections that just war theorists might raise to the effectiveness and legitimacy of a nonviolent movement, moving from there to ground nonviolence resistance in the Judeo-Christian heritage. Finally he addresses the Roman Catholic Church in the final three lectures, agreeing with liberation theologian Adolfo PĂ©rez Esquivel that “It is love, not violence or hatred, that will have the last word in history.”
. . . Yoder narrates the “cosmological conversions” that Tolstoy, Gandhi and King underwent that pushed them to see reality anew. Speaking of Tolstoy’s insight that influenced Gandhi and King Yoder states:The key to the good news is that we are freed from prolonging the chain of evil cause engendering evil effects by action and reaction in kind. By refusing to extend the chain of vengeance, we break into the world with good news. This one key opened the door to a restructuring of the entire universe of Christian life and thought. There developed from it a critique of economic exploitation, of military and imperial domination, and of westernization.
Yoder invites the reader to have their own “cosmological conversion” has he explains the New Testament’s cosmology (thus overcoming some weaknesses in Tolstoy’s viewpoint). The “powers and principalities,” which help create order but also dominate and oppress people in forms such as the state, have been disarmed and defeated in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. They were put on public display and shown for what they truly are: emperors with no clothes. Jesus now wages a cosmological war against these defeated powers, and invites us to be part of the march toward history’s christological. Christians are a sign of Jesus victory and the eschatological kingdom. As such we take part in an alternate politics that sees that the “grain of the universe” is not with the powerful, but the oppressed and downtrodden, not with violence but with suffering as Christ suffered. As such, Jesus’ church will inevitably run headlong into the empire’s of this world as they resist Jesus, and the church will have to witness publicly, and sometimes at great cost.
This cosmological conversion to which we are invited is to a new way of living in and viewing the world, not merely to feelings and beliefs. It is to see that Jesus is more determinative of history than anybody in the White House, the Kremlin or some country’s Parliament. He goes on to show how in the past few decades the Holy Spirit has moved within the Catholic Church to help many people to this conversion, most importantly people in the Catholic Worker movement, but there have also been stirrings in the bishops themselves. Jesus is lord and has altered the course of humanity’s sinful, violent rebellion. The question for us is whether we care to take the medicine that will make us well enough to see again, to see not merely shadows, but the reality that casts them.
The Church has become far too comfortable with violence and with war. We glorify past wars and rationalize present ones. We trot out the logical pretzel of just war theory when we know very well it bears no relation to the gospel. The Church is not just another political actor. It is the presence of Christ in the world.
Budget Blues: Its the Deflation, Stupid!
My attention this morning was drawn to the inflation numbers in the January Personal Income and Spending release, specifically the recent downward trend in core PCE inflation:
Coupled with a sizable output gap that yields very high human cost in the form of high rates of labor underutilization - and forecasts that such underutilization will persist for years - would lead one to believe that policymakers still have work left ahead of them. Policymakers, however, do not appear to agree, and instead focus on the fact that output is growing again, even if the 5.9% pace in the final quarter of last year was inflated by inventory correction. Indeed, with the recovery taking hold, there is no imperative for more action. Fiscal policy looks hamstrung by deficit concerns, while monetary policy is poised to turn contractionary as asset purchase programs are wound down.
For the time being, it would appear that fiscal tightening will not be followed by similar monetary policy. At least the BofC understands that there is no inflationary risk. Output is well below capacity and will remain so for years to come. Rates on government debt continue at historically low levels, falling sharply over the past week.
This is not about economics. It is about old time religion.