All $1.5 Quadrillion of them. An enormous bomb ticking away:

In a sweeping critique of global finance released by the Vatican on Thursday, the Holy See singled out derivatives including credit-default swaps for particular scorn. “A ticking time bomb,” the Vatican called them. The unusual rebuke — derivatives rarely reach the level of religious doctrine — is in keeping with Francis’s skeptical view of unbridled global capitalism.

The unbridled part is certainly correct. But, this is not capitalism – there’s no capital involved. By shady definition, these bombs are literally gambling bets based on the 100% fake “currency” gifted us by the governments and the banksters. Will Dr. Steve Keen please report to Rome?

The Letter:

‘Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones’ (Economic and financial issues), Holy See Press Office, May 17, 2018.

The concern is legitimate and warranted. The overall gist of the message is that, to honor God, and to be free, there must be a level of morality in the financial systems and the economy in general. All good and well.

An enduring call to acknowledge the human quality of generosity comes from the rule formulated by Jesus in the Gospel, called the golden rule, which invites us to do to others what we would like them to do for us (cf. Mt 7, 12; Lk 6, 31).

12. Economic activity cannot be sustained in the long run where freedom of initiative cannot thrive.[23] It is also obvious today that the freedom enjoyed by the economic stakeholders, if it is understood as absolute in itself, and removed from its intrinsic reference to the true and the good, creates centers of power that incline towards forms of oligarchy and in the end undermine the very efficiency of the economic system.[24]

From this point of view, it is easy to see how, with the growing and all-pervasive control of powerful parties and vast economic-financial networks, those deputed to exercise political power are often disoriented and rendered powerless by supranational agents and by the volatility of the capital they manage. Those entrusted with political authority find it difficult to fulfil to their original vocation as servants of the common good, and are even transformed into ancillary instruments of interests extraneous to the good.[25]

These factors make all the more imperative a renewed alliance between economic and political agents in order to promote everything that serves the complete development of every human person as well as the society at large and unites demands for solidarity with those of subsidiarity.[26]

This seems a little late as the powerful stakeholders and their co-conspirators in the governments have long since abandoned anything approaching decency, morality, or concern for the common good. It’s almost funny: the US had a law banning sports gambling yet has always allowed derivatives betting, which is nothing more than a private-party extension of the crimes of central banking fiat.

So much the Pope gets right:

What was sadly predicted a century ago has now come true today. Capital annuity can trap and supplant the income from work, which is often confined to the margins of the principal interests of the economic system. Consequently, work itself, together with its dignity, is increasingly at risk of losing its value as a “good” for the human person[30] and becoming merely a means of exchange within asymmetrical social relations.

That means, as the wheels of global fake-finance turn, the funny money drowns out the real value of actual capital and labor; real working people are reduced to serfs. Gresham’s Law at insidious work – bad money driving out good. It was directly, correctly predicted 100 years ago, echoed constantly ever since, but it has been an observable trend and phenomenon for millennia.

I was afraid the Letter would degenerate into a call for more central planning and regulation – the same things that created the issue, to begin with. The sell is in there but it is soft. Rather, I was pleased with the conclusion, the call to action of free individuals:

IV. Conclusion

34. In front of the massiveness and pervasiveness of today’s economic-financial systems, we could be tempted to abandon ourselves to cynicism, and to think that with our poor forces we can do very little. In reality, every one of us can do so much, especially if one does not remain alone.

Numerous associations emerging from civil society represent in this sense a reservoir of consciousness, and social responsibility, of which we cannot do without. Today as never before we are all called, as sentinels, to watch over genuine life and to make ourselves catalysts of a new social behavior, shaping our actions to the search for the common good, and establishing it on the sound principles of solidarity and subsidiarity.

Every gesture of our liberty, even if it appears fragile and insignificant, if it is really directed towards the authentic good, rests on Him who is the good Lord of history and becomes part of a buoyancy that exceeds our poor forces, uniting indissolubly all the actions of good will in a web that unites heaven and earth, which is a true instrument of the humanization of each person, and the world as a whole. This is all that we need for living well and for nourishing a hope that may be at the height of our dignity as human persons.

The Church, Mother and Teacher, aware of having received in gift an undeserved deposit, offers to the men and women of all times the resources for a dependable hope. Mary, Mother of God made man for us, may take our hearts in hand and guide them in the wise building of that good that her Son Jesus, through his humanity made new by the Holy Spirit, has come to inaugurate for the salvation of the world.

Know and understand these money troubles. Don’t be alone. Join us in the reservoir of consciousness trending towards freedom.

And, we are not alone. Interestingly, even today, another call was raised about the same subject.

Jubilee, anyone?

Alieno liberaret servitus!