Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Value System
Our Value Systems
Two week ago, an article flashed across my phone, “Wayne Rooney leads footballers' backlash against pay cut criticism”.
Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock had said that Premier League players should take pay cuts, given that matches are postponed or cancelled due to covid-19. A lot of these players are grossly overpaid in my opinion. And it’s fair to say a lot of these clubs are financially in the red, and regularly seeking new owners to inject cash into these clubs.
Inadvertently, you see a lot of fans who are middle-aged men, who are often chubby and not exactly fit, pay good money (viz-a-viz average take home wages) filling up the grandiose stadiums. On YouTube we see clips of European football stadiums with screaming fans, in a stark contrast to the many lukewarm churches (Revelation 3:14-16) in the continent.
I rather pay for myself to do sports than to pay to watch others play sport. Most of the matches are on weekends, whereby one can go for various kind of activities (which I do). It would be more better use of money to buy a bike, golf set or new running shoes. It’s just my own value system. After all, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), so we are to take good care of our body, rather than to idol worship these sports celebrities.
There is no doubt that professional sports franchises and stadiums generate a significant amount of economic activity, but studies show they do not have a significant positive impact on their local economies in the long term.
Economists say the biggest reason sports teams don’t have much impact is that they don’t tend to spur new spending. Most people have a limited entertainment budget, so the dollars they are spending when they go to a game is money they would have spent elsewhere.
MEDICAL MAYHEM
Meanwhile, across TV screens we see doctors, nurses, paramedics scrambling to save lives on 12 hour shifts often without proper PPE and other equipment. To add salt to the wound, doctors and nurses risk being fired if they complain about the lack of gear. Policemen and other personnel are ensuring that the communities are still functioning, often risking exposure to covid-19. In time of crises, we realize that medical doctors, paramedics, train drivers, law enforcement officers are more important that celebrity sportsmen. And though a lot of developed economies have the grandest of sports arenas, it was shocking to learn that some have less hospital beds per capita than less developed nations. The UK and USA are no exception to this worrying fact. In the UK, communities are more obsessed with building bigger and better football stadiums. The value system of these mighty, or once mighty empires have changed. They pay more for 22 men to chase a ball around a field than those who save lives and those who keep the country ticking. Scientists are being paid peanuts and they expect a vaccine to be found immediately.
OIL PLUNGED
Last night, the May WTI crude oil plunged over 300% to negative territory before settling below US$10. The oil market is emblematic of how fragile economies can be.
God made men simple, but his complexities are often his own doing. Instead of trading simple equities, out of greed he has made layers upon layers of derivatives which will bankrupt the banks and cause liquidity problems. They even layered gold into untold trillions of derivatives and would be unable to deliver the physical gold, because they are trading gold that don’t exist.
The US Federal Reserve will try to create more zeros on the screen to prevent a collapse, but it’s like God is giving the Fed enough rope to hang itself. How long can they keep kicking the can down the road as Peter Schiff, a Billionaire investor and a Fed Reserve critic laments.
The 2008 financial crisis had tarnished the Fed and central bankers alike, as instead of letting the market correct itself, it bailed out many zombie companies which would later come to fail requiring more bailouts. There is no free market. Central bankers have been accused of only helping the rich get richer. Profits are privatized, but losses are socialized. Will they do the right thing this time?
Zephaniah 3:7 reads,” Of Jerusalem I thought, ‘Surely you will fear me and accept correction!’ Then her place of refuge would not be destroyed, nor all my punishments come upon her. But they were still eager to act corruptly in all they did.”
In this latest covid-19 crisis, which is likely to be a generation-defining one, Mohd El-Erian the Chief Economist at Allianz US wrote, “central banks have now gone “all in,” deploying emergency interventions in record time that have already exceeded the steps they took during the financial crisis and its aftermath. What they’ve done is truly stunning. It has included flooring interest rates, embarking on massive securities-buying programs, reopening emergency financing windows and creating new ones”.
He further writes ‘As the old saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. And as welcome as these aggressive new interventions have been in containing already severe economic damage, there’s no denying the costs and risks that come with them. These are not just economic and financial risks, but institutional and political as well.
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it." - Frederic Bastiat. This is also what we see with NEP in Malaysia whereby it has only benefitted the ruling elite. It's never been about the masses, the collective, Malay rights, but the benefit of the elite few.
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it." - Frederic Bastiat. This is also what we see with NEP in Malaysia whereby it has only benefitted the ruling elite. It's never been about the masses, the collective, Malay rights, but the benefit of the elite few.
The situation is bleak and rather uncertain even as we prepare to open up economies. More than 80 poor and middle-income countries have sought financial help from the International Monetary Fund in recent weeks as they struggle to cope with the economic fallout from the Covid-19 epidemic.
I have decided to assemble the nations,
to gather the kingdoms
and to pour out my wrath on them—
all my fierce anger.
The whole world will be consumed
by the fire of my jealous anger (Zephaniah 3:8).
to gather the kingdoms
and to pour out my wrath on them—
all my fierce anger.
The whole world will be consumed
by the fire of my jealous anger (Zephaniah 3:8).
The coronavirus isn’t a Chinese virus. It is a global virus. It spares no religion, colour, creed or nation.
But those separated for the Lord will be saved. On that day you, Jerusalem, will not be put to shame
for all the wrongs you have done to me,
because I will remove from you
your arrogant boasters (Zephaniah 3:11). Such is His grace, His mercy. The remnants whose trust is in the Lord will prevail and come out of it better. We will be elevated to the top and shuffled to the front of the pack. Amen!
for all the wrongs you have done to me,
because I will remove from you
your arrogant boasters (Zephaniah 3:11). Such is His grace, His mercy. The remnants whose trust is in the Lord will prevail and come out of it better. We will be elevated to the top and shuffled to the front of the pack. Amen!
