Economic Rave: Jesus on Being Rich

I haven't read it yet but in his new book Ralph Nader makes real life people  like Yoko Ono and Warren Buffett spend their capital on righteous action such as rebuilding after Katrina (something our government has apparently been totally incapable of doing), and thus save the world. Whether or not the superrich have anything like this in mind, it is becoming increasingly clear that in our current circumstances the rich have a very special role to play.

To encourage you superrich humans among us, to not just think about capital creation but about saving the world, I would like to help set some things straight that were said some time in the past by you know who.

Recently someone told me: "water is the currency of nature".  Maybe we can extend that thought somehow: "Currency (money) is the water of human society.....it needs to flow". When money accumulates in the hands of a few masters, way beyond their ability to consume it or use it productively (like a good calvinist capitalist would), it gets stale and stagnant and finally toxic. It is at that point of unreality, that investments in paper derivatives upon paper derivatives start sounding like a rational investment...a good idea.... Because so many really rich talk themselves and each other into this delusional condition of market hypnosis, similar to a ponzi scheme, for awhile it seems to work flawlessly. Until the house of cards came tumbling down.

Lucky for the superrich, Obama and his team of Goldman Sachs alumni, were able to stave off the crisis (by a hair we are told) by bailouts to the bankers paid in taxes of commoners. People that are in the 'know' such as Max Keiser have assured me that this scheme amounts to the largest transfer of wealth in history.

Certainly even in the last half a year most of us must admit that life has become a lot tougher.....Meanwhile the money is still stuck... It doesn't flow..... too big to fail  ??--wait for the next round then...
There is no credit to do anything with.... No investments..... No currency..... No flow.... 
What if finally China calls it bluff..... Since the US has overplayed its hand so grotesquely, the only thing Obama can do is fold:  End of Empire......  Putin thumbs his nose....squinces his eyes and lets out a cramped smile....he knows: there is no coin without an army, no army without a coin.....Russia is in the right spot whoever gets the prize....  Medvedev is meanwhile cousying up with the Dutch queen Beatrix while behind her back Merkel winks her eye at him..... It is about oil, guys: ....pipelines.... flow....Putin invites Shell back in Sakhalin Russia....China making largest oil deals in Iran..... an Arabian dinar.... Once these deals are made in gold backed currencies the value of the dollar collapses.... inflation starts.... gold and oil sky rocket even after desperate bank interventions and draconian tax policies fail to put a back stop to the dollar...... Stores are empty, food is unavailable..... Obama's cabinet threatens to be reduced to a debating club in Washington.....The bill comes due: China takes what it can get in natural resources and president Hu Jintao demands direct taxes to Beijing while american workers are organized in Maoist style collectives...... This is a financial war.... not a shot is being fired but some nemesis is brought to its knees.... leaving heaps of scrap metal behind in faraway desert sands.....and endless papers blowing through an empty wall street...


Wait wait...Sorry, I am sorry... just waking up from a nightmare....some weird rave coming through --discard all that. 


It just points to one thing: It is time the rich leverage their money towards a more equitable green society and make it roll.  I know that a lot of  the rich feel reluctant to undertake such an endeavor. And some of you may have been discouraged by the supposed words of the savior himself. Here I feel privileged: I may be able to help set the record straight. 

As an aside here I will confess to you that I am not at all bible steady myself nor would I call myself even a christian (though I love Jesus), or particularly knowledgeable in the area of religion. For me to say anything at all I have to defer fully to my trust in the knowledge of my mother Bon Malten (1991+), who was by far the most well read person I have met, and though deeply humanist, had a particular interest in the teachings of the bible. Anyhow, she assured me that there is a widespread misunderstanding over what Jesus said about the rich.


The comment of Jesus on the rich that is repeated in every bible is this:


...."It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God..."


It was Bon's believe that Jesus never said that. After study ("Look at a camel, now think of a needle... --Jesus never said absurd things!") she came to the conclusion that this comment was translated in the wrong manner. According to her what Jesus actually said was  this:

...."It is easier for a camel-hair to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God..." 

In other words: It is hard but it can be done