I just felt like putting up some pictures...
Friday, December 19, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Money for nothing
And I thought corruption was bad in Malaysia...
One of the things about the now-global economic crisis that befuddles me is that the experts don't seem to know how the crisis happened or "didn't see it coming", and they don't know and can't say who is responsible for the mess. Thus far, I have not heard of anyone being prosecuted for causing this financial disaster.
How could it have "just happened"? Who authorized all those sub-prime loans? Who came up with those "creative" investment instruments? Who fudged the accounts and the numbers? What were the regulators doing for the past years? Why were banks allowed to lend money they didn't have, to people who couldn't repay, for property and investments that were not worth the money?
Is Wall Street operating as the world's biggest casino? If you think about it, the US dollar is nothing but paper and promises of IOU. Scary huh? Is there any free market that is free from human greed? I am stumped by the fact that money can just disappear like that... vanish into thin air. Poof! Which means that all the wealth is merely on paper. Wealth destruction can happen just as wealth creation can.
Proverbs 23:4-5 says, "Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle."
And 1 Timothy 6:9-11 says, "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness."
A very high calling indeed.
Well, today I saw this piece of news that the former Nasdaq chairman Bernard Madoff has been arrested for an investment scam that could amount to losses of as much as $50 billion (that's $50,000,000,000!!!). That's a stupendous amount of money. At least he confessed.
There is hope. :)
One of the things about the now-global economic crisis that befuddles me is that the experts don't seem to know how the crisis happened or "didn't see it coming", and they don't know and can't say who is responsible for the mess. Thus far, I have not heard of anyone being prosecuted for causing this financial disaster.
How could it have "just happened"? Who authorized all those sub-prime loans? Who came up with those "creative" investment instruments? Who fudged the accounts and the numbers? What were the regulators doing for the past years? Why were banks allowed to lend money they didn't have, to people who couldn't repay, for property and investments that were not worth the money?
Is Wall Street operating as the world's biggest casino? If you think about it, the US dollar is nothing but paper and promises of IOU. Scary huh? Is there any free market that is free from human greed? I am stumped by the fact that money can just disappear like that... vanish into thin air. Poof! Which means that all the wealth is merely on paper. Wealth destruction can happen just as wealth creation can.
Proverbs 23:4-5 says, "Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle."
And 1 Timothy 6:9-11 says, "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness."
A very high calling indeed.
Well, today I saw this piece of news that the former Nasdaq chairman Bernard Madoff has been arrested for an investment scam that could amount to losses of as much as $50 billion (that's $50,000,000,000!!!). That's a stupendous amount of money. At least he confessed.
There is hope. :)
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