It's very peaceful now. It's Christmas Eve, and all is quiet here in my part of the woods, oatmeal cookies on the table near my keyboard. The screen door is open and smells of winter are floating in, but with the warmth of the heat hitting me from the opposite direction. It's dark in here, but a small strand of Christmas lights glows from behind. There are no cookies for Santa because I am sitting eating them and because he does not exist.
We end the year rolling in the debacle created by ponzi master Madoff, who seems to have duped a rather large number of people into believing he could provide them with a steady 12% a year investment returns, regardless of the direction of the wider market. Had the economy not been so bad, forcing some of his investors to want to tap their cash holdings with him, he might have been able to maintain the illusion for a lot longer.
But there is no Santa, and things are bad, and now many things hidden are coming to light. Despite the difficulties of tight credit, job and 401K losses, and the decline in housing values, the light shed upon our economy is a good thing. True value is now evident. Or not quite. But at least we are being forced to march inevitably toward true value, and truth.
There are many times when faith is of great value. It leads us to reach for more, to try harder, to trust, to dream, to continue when all things obvious shout out "No, never, not". Many placed their trust in Madoff because he seemed a man of simple honesty and humility. But somewhere along the line Madoff lost his way, and departed from truth.
But he is not unique, nor are the rather high end investors who believed in him. Our entire economy in recent years was built on faith that home values would continue to rise. President Bush pushed the concept of the "ownership society" with genuine intent and everyone was willing to place their faith in the ability of assets to rise indefinately.
Sometimes faith, without the levening of truth, can lead to all sorts of unexpected outcomes. It's not merely believing, but what you believe, and how you believe. This year we have learned that truth matters and without truth, faith collapses and trust dissipates.
As I sit here in the dark, I know two things now and repeat them. There is no Santa, and, there are no cookies left to be eaten.
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