Wall Street Sees Red

Bad economic data from China has lead to a sell off in global stock markets with all of the major indices down sharply today. Commodities took the biggest hit with oil dropping almost 3% currently at $88.64 a barrel. But by far the hardest hit is in the precious metals market where gold and silver have been hammered. Gold has plunged more than 7% today and near 13% since Thursday. Silver is down almost 9% on the day. The announcement that the EU and IMF are going to force Cyprus to sell off most of the nation's gold reserves as a condition for their bailout has investors worried that Spain, Italy and Portugal may be ordered to do the same thing. Additionally inflation estimates from several EU countries have come in lower than expected.

US Treasury securities have been rallying with the yield on the ten year bond falling to 1.7%.

The Media and the Gosnell Trial

Across the mainstream media and press over the last few days there has been something of an admission that they dropped the ball on what is one of the most important criminal trials in years. The explanations have been varied. The NY Times today basically admitted that the story warranted more coverage but denied liberal bias as the reason for their failure. The Washington Post did not address motives but in a short statement their editor acknowledged they had blown it and announced they would have a reporter assigned to the story starting today. Other columnists on the left have openly conceded, with some embarrassment, that the story's implications for the abortion debate had made them uncomfortable. And in fairness it must be noted that even among news sources with a more conservative editorial position coverage has been spotty. Some have been on top of it consistently. Others however have given it only marginally better coverage than the left leaning press.

But the bottom line is that it looks like the trial of a man who may be one of the greatest mass murderers in American History is finally going to be getting some real attention in the press and media.

Bishop Matthias is Sacked by the OCA

Read the announcement here.

Pope Francis takes first steps towards broad reform of the Vatican and church governance

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis named eight cardinals from around the globe Saturday to advise him on running the Catholic Church and reforming the Vatican bureaucracy, marking his first month as pope with a major initiative to reflect the universal nature of the church in key governing decisions.

The advisory panel includes only one current Vatican official. The rest are cardinals from North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia. Many have been outspoken in calling for a shake-up of the Vatican bureaucracy, which was last reformed 25 years ago, while others have tried to clean up the church from sexually abusive priests.

Read the rest here.

Why the Gosnell trial is important

Caution: These stories deal with allegations and sometimes graphic descriptions of exceptionally horrific crimes.

In what can only be described as a “house of horrors,” abortion provider Kermit Gosnell stands trial in Philadelphia, charged with the grotesque murder of at least seven infants, allegedly born alive after botched abortions only to be brutally killed moments later.

As this nearly month-long trial continues, it paints the stark and unmistakably abhorrent reality of abortion. While the national mainstream media has been all but silent about this trial, the headlines coming from local media coverage have been morbidly graphic. Babies born alive and then allegedly killed in truly barbaric ways.

Read the rest here.

See also this related story about the media's deafening silence.
P.S.: See also this excellent story from The Atlantic.
HT: T-19

Bitcoin is ludicrous, but it says something important about money

There was a great piece in the satirical news source The Onion a few years ago in which it “reported” that Fed chairman Ben Bernanke experienced a moment of existential panic during a congressional hearing as he paused, shook his head, and said, “It’s just an illusion . . . Just look at it: meaningless pieces of paper with numbers printed on them. Worthless.”

Sayeth the Onion headline: “U.S. Economy Grinds to Halt As Nation Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion.”

Which brings us to bitcoin. It is a digital currency, which a certain variety of techno-utopian futurist crowd views as a form of money unencumbered by the shackles of privacy-reducing international anti-money laundering laws and inflation-tolerant central banks. Its value has been extraordinarily volatile over the last several weeks, rising from $20 a couple of months back, to over $250, to around $60 on Friday, with a couple of trading halts in between.

Bitcoin really is a tiny market in the scheme of things, and its recent gyrations mean that the dollar, euro and yen have nothing to fear from the competition. If a currency can lose 75 percent of its buying power in two days, it may not be the best store of value. But it also an important window into the strange and uncomfortable mystery of “What is money,” which is a harder question to answer than one might think.

Read the rest here.

Virginia board approves strict abortion clinic rules

RICHMOND — The Virginia Board of Health voted Friday to require clinics that perform abortions to meet strict, hospital-style building codes that operators say could put many of them out of business.

The 11 to 2 vote represented the board’s final say on the matter, which has taken unexpected twists and turns since the General Assembly voted in 2011 to regulate abortion clinics like outpatient surgical centers. The regulations went straight to Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R), who quickly certified them. They now go to two state agencies and Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R), who is expected to sign off on them.

Always a politically charged issue in the commonwealth, abortion is likely to take on an even greater presence in this year’s governor’s race because of the new clinic rules. The race features two candidates who seem to be polar opposites on the issue: Cuccinelli, an opponent of abortion, and Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a supporter of abortion rights.

Read the rest here.

14 year old makes the cut at the Masters (wow)

Teenager Guan Tianlang was penalised for slow play at Augusta, but his overall score of four over was still enough to see him become the youngest golfer to make the cut at a major.

Guan, 14, was given the one-stroke penalty after making par on the 17th, having earlier been warned for slow play during the Masters second round.

The Chinese player said he respected the decision.

Read the rest here.

I bet I know what the topic will be when he is told to write a one page paper on "what I did over my Spring break."

NY Yankees Alex Rodriguez Implicated In Possible Doping Cover-Up

Investigators for Major League Baseball have uncovered what they believe is evidence that a representative of Alex Rodriguez purchased medical records from a person connected to a South Florida anti-aging clinic that is suspected of providing performance-enhancing drugs to a number of major leaguers, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The New York Times reported online Thursday that Major League Baseball had purchased documents from a former employee at the clinic, which operated under the name Biogenesis of America and is now closed, in an effort to uncover evidence that would link the clinic to the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs. The article also stated that one major league player had also purchased clinic documents from a former clinic employee so that they could be destroyed. That player was not identified until Friday, when the two people said it was Rodriguez, the 37-year-old Yankees third baseman currently rehabilitating from off-season hip surgery.

A spokesman for Rodriguez flatly denied the accusation Friday.

Read the rest here.

After attack on cathedral, Copts doubt future in Egypt

(Reuters) - When Egyptian Christian Kerollos Maher watched on television as petrol bombs and rocks rained on Cairo's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral he had only one thought - emigration.

"Egypt is no longer my country," said the 24-year-old construction worker, standing in the courtyard of the country's largest cathedral where one Copt and one Muslim died in sectarian clashes this week.

"The situation of Christians is worsening from day to day. I've given up hope that things will improve," he said.

Read the rest here.

Roma locuta est, causa finita est...

In [its amicus brief] the Holy See has spoken, laying to rest any previous doubts: Fuller has not been a member of any Catholic religious order for more than 30 years. Period. The district judge has no authority to question that ruling. A jury has no authority to question it. We have no authority to question it.

-Justice Posner writing for a unanimous panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in McCarthy v Fuller (10 April 2013)

China may be growing weary of their 'enfant terrible'

BEIJING -- There was confusion at the China-North Korea border Thursday after Chinese tour operators halted trips into the North.

It wasn't clear whether the instruction to do so came from the Chinese authorities, the North Koreans, or was made by the nervous operators themselves.

But it mirrored a wider confusion over Chinese policy toward Pyongyang, which depends on Beijing for food and fuel, as well as diplomatic support.

As North Korea readies what is thought to be a missile test, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei has spent most of the week deflecting questions with the official line that "all sides" should show restraint and begin dialogue, and that peace and stability are a "shared responsibility."

But in an interview with NBC News he was more forthright about China's growing concern. "We do not want to see chaos and conflict on China's doorstep," he said.

Read the rest here.

NY Times: Gold Loses Its Luster

Below the streets of Lower Manhattan, in the vault of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the world’s largest trove of gold — half a million bars — has lost about $75 billion of its value. In Fort Knox, Ky., at the United States Bullion Depository, the damage totals $50 billion.

And in Pocatello, Idaho, the tiny golden treasure of Jon Norstog has dwindled, too. A $29,000 investment that Mr. Norstog made in 2011 is now worth about $17,000, a loss of 42 percent.

“I thought if worst came to worst and the government brought down the world economy, I would still have something that was worth something,” Mr. Norstog, 67, says of his foray into gold.

Read the rest here.

As longtime readers will already know I am a proponent of the Permanent Portfolio and as such, despite my occasional prognostications on future events, my only actual investment advice has been to maintain an agnostic approach towards the future and be prepared for any eventuality. To which end the PP's radical diversification is the best vehicle that I have so far found. If gold is indeed entering a secular bear market (of which I am far from convinced) that would be good news for the broader economy. And in a Permanent Portfolio one accepts that at any given time at least one of the asset classes you are holding will be a stinker. That's the price you pay for not trying to outsmart the markets with all of the attendant risks. 

Europe in the Belle Époque

A glimpse of a vanished world. Paris and Berlin in the 1900's.

Fred Reed: Screwing the troops

For a country always at war, the United States is remarkably not interested in taking care of soldiers it has broken in its wars. Having bankrupted the country, Washington sinks every available penny into the two purposes of the military: funneling money into the arms industry, and fueling imperial ambitions, in large part of pasty fern-bar Napoleons at National Review and Commentary. The Veterans Administration is way back in the chow line. It doesn’t work very well. As best I can tell, nobody cares.

Read the rest here.
Caution: Language

Remembering the Iron Lady

An amusing story, possibly apocryphal but it's making the rounds...

Prime Minister Thatcher back in the 80's was invited by the leaders of the opposition (the Labor Party) to dine with with them. She showed up at the restaurant and took her seat with the members of the so called shadow cabinet. Drinks were served and as she sipped, she also listened quietly as the lefties berated her for her cruel and backward economic policies.

In due course the waiter appeared and asked Thatcher what she wanted for dinner...

"I shall have the roast beef" she replied.
 "Very good maam. And for the vegetables?"
"They shall have the roast beef as well."

There will be a hot time in the old town tonight

Jazz Age Great Bessie Smith

Good News For Lent

Well if your like me that early enthusiasm for the Great Fast has begone to wane and it's starting to get old. This however should cheer you up and add new vigor to your fast.

Red meat is a killer. Seriously. That cheeseburger you are craving will shorten your life. So says a new study which concluded that red meat IN ANY QUANTITY is dangerous to your health. It's getting so bad I'm starting to think that no matter what I do I might die one day.

Read about it here and please pass the rice and beans.

Optina Monastery: Scenes from the first week of Lent