Monthly Message - An Obsession Turned Annoyance
Once upon a time, I was utterly obsessed with the world of finance. I wanted to make the money, know where the money was going, and have enough knowledge to speak on world economic affairs with clarity and precision. Now, I am
mostly annoyed by the mundaneness of it all. I fully recognize that the last sentence is a bit odd given the economic world we live in. How could I view things as boring when we have Trump unleashing tariffs on the rest of the world (for better or worse), a new head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics being appointed in E.J. Antoni, a 90-day pause on tariffs with China being announced, the complete dumpster fire going on in Gaza, the U.S. getting impatient with Zelensky over land swaps with
Russia, Trump threatening Fed Chair Jerome Powell with a lawsuit demanding rate cuts, China and Nvidia fighting it out for chip supremacy, and a plethora of other major stories?
Well, here’s how: evil in real life is dull.
“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren,
boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” This quote is attributed to the French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil. Simone never fully converted to Christianity, but she is thought of as someone very in touch with Christian thinking—and it shows in the above quote.
We all love to watch movies about wars, corruption, and scandal because they are
entertaining, but in real life, the stuff that attracts is usually good. I suspect that anyone growing in virtue will soon find the happenings of the world—especially the economic happenings—very dull. This is not to say that the current wars or fiscal policies are unimportant, but it is to say that they are boring. For when one grows in virtue, they begin to realize what King Solomon realized so long ago: all is vanity. Yes, we should strive to bring an end to war and implement sound fiscal
policies, but what was once fascinating has now lost its luster because the realization that both King Solomon and Simone Weil made is, hopefully, the realization we are all destined to make.
Now, I could give my hot takes on all the things previously listed in that first paragraph—and I probably will to some extent eventually—but I believe it is more important at this time to point out the vanity
and dullness of it all. Our Lord said that we will always have the poor with us. Well, I think we will also always have war and scandal with us also. If we solve the war in Gaza tomorrow, then a war in Taiwan will be next. If we resolve the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, another one will break out within days. Our time is well spent becoming knowledgeable about the world we live in, but eventually, our hunt for knowledge just creates an obsession with trash TV. Tiptoe this line carefully!
So instead of hot takes, I want to use these last couple of paragraphs this month to encourage people to take action and actually do the good, instead of constantly listening to the bad. In all my conversations and talks I have given about the moral evil of the stock market, I continually get asked: What do I do now? This usually comes from people who are convinced that the secondary markets are evil but have no
clue how to break free from them. My advice: do one of two things.
Rip the band-aid off and divest. “Just do it” (patent pending).
If you can’t “just do it” because of age or legal entanglement, then help me in educating future generations. Give them the book. Have a talk with them. For the love of God,
don’t leave them an inheritance tied up in the stock market!
Okay, that last bit was just me pushing the book. But seriously—go out and do the good.
Another great quote that came to mind this week comes from C.S. Lewis in his book The Screwtape Letters, where a high-ranking demon informs a lower-ranking
demon on how to corrupt a soul:
“The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbors whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary.”
Who among us
has not fallen prey to this demonic influence? We are aggravated with family and friends for petty reasons while telling ourselves how awful it is for those people suffering over there. There is nothing wrong with having concern for the far away, but perhaps if we focused on doing the good in front of us, it would have a snowball effect on the far away.
Okay…Hot takes anyway…
- Zelensky should probably concede some land to Russia if it puts an end to the war. But even the best geopolitical analysts could be missing a key component here.
- Gaza/Israel/Iran – I am sticking with my original take that it is all a complete dumpster fire. That part of the world will remain a dumpster fire for all time since the two warring parties are still waiting for some messiah
figure. News flash, it happened 2,000 years ago.
- Tariff pause with China is actually a great thing. It means that both parties are willing to play ball.
- New appointment of EJ Antoni to BLS seems like a good move, given the outdated and ineffective methods the Bureau was using to collect data.
- A lawsuit against Jerome Powell demanding interest rate cuts is probably not setting the best precedent but I do think we need a rate cut. Take the bad with the hopefully good…I guess…
- Nvidia and China fighting over who will bring about the AI apocalypse is just inevitable at this point. Let’s just hope the fight last a long time. Would rather
have China fighting Nvidia than China fighting us, or the AI that comes from the winner fighting everyone.
God Bless you all!! Take solace, our Savior lives.
