..."And the Gold of the Land was Good."
...[of the 8th Edomite King] ( representing Geulah) "Bat Mei Zahav" - (end letters=Bayit/House) : What is Gold? (Rashi) :The wealthy who have so much no longer recognize Gold. (interestingly enough it is hinting towards "Houses" i.e. housing crisis.
The Torah is adamant about Gold in many places..why is it so "good?"
GwinnettDailyOnline:
According to a select group of global analysts, the price of gold will more than likely double by the end of Q3 and could quite possibly approach the $5k per ounce level near year's end.
This bold forecast has very little to do with dismal economic performance in US markets, although re-election of current US leadership in November is expected to help it along significantly.
The actual cause of this predicted trend lies primarily with European leadership's unwillingness to take the bold steps necessary to repair the colossal problems with their debt. Most analysts agree that the floundering has gone on far too long and decision makers are far too comfortable with allowing correction opportunities to expire time and time again.
Those who are in a position to make the tough decisions to salvage what little opportunity remains continue to do what they've been doing - which is nothing. They have their riches stashed away to live out their lives in the comforts of wealth. They refuse to be saddled with the legacy of the financial mess that's been festering for so long.
The responsibility of the future will fall upon new shoulders after the current heads of state step down and retire. By then, the new individuals will be begging Germany to come to their aid at just about any cost. Only then, things will have gotten so bad that Germany will be demanding all of each country’s gold reserves and that’s just the beginning. It will seem like Germany is getting the old band back together – only without the violence and destruction.
It will be at this point that the multitudes are expected to abandon near worthless paper currency for a gold-based economy and demand is expected to drive the price in excess of $5,000 per ounce within the year. This is the forecast that the aforementioned analysts are predicting and by the looks of the lack of any meaningful progress with Euro Debt - it's difficult to argue differently.
Spain became the fourth and largest country to ask Europe to rescue its failing banks, a bailout of up to €100 billion ($125 billion) that leaders hoped would stabilize a financial crisis that threatens to break apart the 17-country eurozone.
The rescue offer follows growing pressure from international investors and the Obama administration and comes a week before elections in Greece, whose voters could decide whether the country leaves the euro.
Europe's widening recession and financial crisis has hurt companies and investors around the world. Providing a financial lifeline to Spanish banks is likely to relieve anxiety on the Spanish economy — which is five times larger than Greece's — and on markets concerned about the country's ability to pay its way.
"What the markets are looking for is essentially the Spanish government's acceptance that its banks are broke," said Jacob Kirkegaard, a research fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, Saturday.
Economy Minister Luis de Guindos announced the deal after an emergency conference call with eurozone financial leaders. He said the aid will go to the banking sector only and would not come with new austerity conditions attached for the economy in general — conditions that have been an integral part of previous bailouts to Portugal, Ireland and Greece.
The exact figure of the bailout has not yet been decided. De Guindos said the country is waiting until independent audits of the country's banking sector have been carried out before asking for a specific amount. The audits are expected June 21 at the latest.
De Guindos did say, however, that Spain would request enough money for recapitalization, plus a safety margin that will be "significant."
With markets in turmoil, de Guindos said the government's efforts to shore up the financial sector "must be completed with the necessary resources to finance the needs of recapitalization."
Finance ministers of the 17 countries that use the euro said the money would be fed directly into a fund Spain set up to recapitalize its banks, but underscored that the Spanish government is ultimately responsible for the loan.
Still, that plan allows Spain to avoid making the onerous commitments that Greece, Ireland and Portugal were forced to when they sought their rescues. Instead, the eurogroup statement said that it expected Spain's banking sector to implement reforms and that Spain would be held to its previous commitments to reform its labor market and manage its deficit.
The eurogroup statement said that meant the cost could reach €100 billion.
The Spanish acceptance of aid for its banks is a big embarrassment for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who insisted just 10 days ago that the banking sector would not need a bailout. He was elected in November and walked right into a hurricane.
International pressure on Spain to solve its financial problems has grown more urgent in recent weeks. On Thursday ratings agency Fitch hit Spain with a three-notch downgrade of its credit rating. That left it two levels above junk status. Then on Friday, Moody's Investor Services warned it could downgrade Spain and other countries in the eurozone.
The International Monetary Fund early Saturday released a report estimating that Spanish banks need a recapitalization injection of at least €40 billion ($50 billion) following a stress test it performed on the country's financial sector. That report came out three days ahead of schedule, underscoring the urgency of the situation.
And U.S. President Barack Obama, facing re-election, enduring a weak economy and in need of strong trading partners, expressed strong concern late Friday over the European economic crisis.
U.S Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner welcomed Spain's decision and the offer of European support, describing them as "important for the health of Spain's economy and as concrete steps on the path to financial union, which is vital to the resilience of the euro area."
French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said the deal would "contribute to restoring confidence in the eurozone."
"The accord announced tonight speaks to a reinforced solidary among the countries of the eurozone and to their resolute desire to ensure its stability," he said in a statement.
Spain's financial problems are not due to Greek-style government over-spending. The country's banks got caught up in the collapse of a real estate bubble. However, as Spain's leaders have struggled for a solution to their banking crisis, the country's borrowing costs have soared close to the level that forced the governments of Greece, Portugal and Ireland to seek rescues.
Some of Spain's banks are struggling with by toxic real estate loans and assets. The Bank of Spain says they total around €180 billion. Nationalized lender Bankia, SA, which has requested €19 billion in aid, has €32 billion in toxic assets. Around four other banks are considered prime candidates for bailouts. De Guindos said Saturday the sector is largely solid and the euro zone package will be funnel toward only about 30 percent of it.
Analyst Rafael Pampillon if IE Business School in Madrid said the bailout addressed the uncertainty the markets had felt about how Spain's debt-laden banking sector would recapitalize.
"This uncertainty, and hence the panic, will slowly dissipate from the markets," he said. Pampillon added that with polls forecasting a pro-Euro victory in Greek elections, markets would be further relieved because the austerity conditions imposed on Greece would most likely be fulfilled.
Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University trade policy professor and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the decision "buys some temporary breathing room for the eurozone."
Moody's said Spain's banking problem is largely confined to that country and not likely to spill over to other eurozone nations, with the exception of Italy — where the European Central Bank has already stepped in to buy government bonds as a way to help lower the country's borrowing costs.
Spain has been criticized for being too slow to set out a roadmap to resolve its problem. European business leaders and analysts have stressed that Spain must find a solution quickly so that it is not caught up in any market turmoil sparked by the June 17 Greek elections. There are concerns that anti-bailout left-wing party Syriza could become the largest party in the Greek parliament, putting the country's membership in the eurozone at risk.
Working in Spain's favor is the fact that its public debt is actually quite low, at 68.5 percent of its gross domestic product at the end of 2011.
Its debt is predicted to hit 78 percent by the end of the year, but even that figure would be below the debt-to-GDP ratios of Europe's strongest economy, Germany, which is at 82 percent.
But Spain's in its second recession in three years, with unemployment at nearly 25 percent and little hope for improvement this year. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government has imposed a wave of austerity measures since he took office in December that have raised taxes, made it cheaper to hire and fire workers and cut government funding for education and health care.
There is an Economic Black Hole gorging on Earth. The fears that people had with the LHC was that it could spawn a Black Hole. With Comet Elenin, it was thought that its effect on Earth was through "Mazal." {Am Yisrael is ABOVE Mazal} -
Is Mankind acting out "The End of Days" and "Doom" through Mazal - based- actions? If the World is susceptible to such behavior, and if the Age of Aquarius is upon Mankind, i.e. the Messianic Age, then Man, who is the vessel of Creation, could be the instrument to identify doom, trends, and most importantly -NOVELTY.
We are seeing Yishmael fall, Edom collapse, Zion rising, all NOVEL...while the doom seems to be getting less and less?! There will be Doom, but perhaps Men of Mazal will depict the Divine Broadway that ultimately will begin telling the story of Redemption.
To be amongst Bnei-Torah in these times, with Wisdom of Torah {and being Above Mazal} provides an objective lens of which to observe what the World is doing. When we open our eyes, and gaze at the ruins of Olam HaZeh, the things we were told and that we fear of (or expect) are/is happening right before us!
...as the Chofetz Chaim said: "if you ponder the Bias Moshiach you will feel it. If you do not ponder it, you will feel nothing at all."
There is plenty of Novelty to Ponder. Our job is to find it, connect to it, and remove the veil of Geulah, so the Shechinah can shine forth, and lay witness for all of Mankind!
Yes, I hear you. I am amazed, even on a small level of the $125 billion bailout for Spain. It's like (it is) paper money with nothing to back it up and, like our country of America, too it's just massed produced too easily. What will happen in the next 15 minutes when $125 billion is realized to be not enough?
ReplyDeleteAnother $125 billion? Please!
The truth that shine is that in a technical level, they have NO CLUE what to do and it shows. If only the others would wake up and realize that it is in Hashem's hands and that they need to wake up!
What is your explanation of the Gemara "Three things come b'hesech hada'as: the Moshiach...." and the widely held
ReplyDeleteopinion that the best way to bring the Moshiach is to deliberately expunge him from the mind, compared to that of the Chofetz Chaim that: "if you ponder the Bias Moshiach you will feel it. If you do not ponder it, you will feel nothing at all"?
Ancient alchemy is not to be scoffed at. It is named after Ancient Egypt, which the Arabs called the Land of Chem (after its forefather, Chom ben Noach) - hence the words Al-Chemiya and "chemistry".
ReplyDeleteThe Greeks had a tradition that Avrohom Ovinu learnt Alchemy while in Egypt - "and Avrohom was very rich...in silver and gold" (Breishis 13). The kadmonim had access to skills which have been lost, and to which we have not yet reattained. As those who visited the Tutankhamen exhibition in London some years ago saw, the Egyptians certainly were awash with pure gold. Korach, who had been Paro's treasurer, needed 300 mules just to carry the keys to his treasure chests (Pesochim 119)! Where did Yosef and the Egyptians get all that gold from? "10 degrees of kishuf descended on the world, and Mitzrayim took 9 of them!" (Kiddushin 49). Did they practice the art of diplosis - the doubling of gold by alchemical means?
Dovid Hamelech stated: "I have prepared for the House of Hashem 100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talents of silver" (I Divrei Hayomin 22:14). At 150 lbs to the talent (kikar), this represents 7,000 tons of gold and 70,000 tons of silver!
The mekubolim speak of the Seven Metals viz. Silver (kesef), Gold (zahav), Copper (nechoshes), Tin (b'dil), Lead (oferes), Mercury (kesef chayim - literally "quicksilver"), and Iron (barzel), as deriving from the Seven Supernal Sefiros of Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferes, Netzach, Hod, Yesod and Malchus. Interestingly in the Kabbalah, silver is rated higher than gold - li hakesef v'li hazahav (Chagai 2)!
The origin of metals is still a mystery: "From the beating of the sun's rays on the mountains, dust becomes Gold" (Zohar I:249). Other references speak of the transformation of Silver, Copper and Mercury into Gold, and of the seven types of Gold: zahav, zahav tov, zahav ofir, zahav mufaz, zahav shechut, zahav parvaim, and zahav sagur.
By endless purifying, re-purifying, distilling and re-distilling, an attempt was made to achieve transmutations not only in metals, but in the alchemist himself: to purify, spiritualise, raise the consciousness, and to unite with the Ko'ach Mah - "the power of what is" - the Divine Force that upholds creation. "We are the ultimate alchemists; charged with the duty of transforming the lowliest dross – this mundane world – into priceless spiritual gold" (Lubavitcher Rebbe). One day okir enosh mipaz- "men will be rarer than fine Gold" (Yeshaya 13): may we be zocheh to be amongst them!