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We owe a debt of thanks today
to our learned money-manager friend from Lake Tahoe,
Rich Cash, for his labyrinthine treatise on the origins of Friday the 13th.
Here’s Rich, and we would encourage you to follow the links he has
provided wherever they lead (including this one, to subscribe to his excellent service):
I had a financial friend who was a triskaidekaphobe. He did not like the Friday the 13th
film franchise genre, with 12 films now. (Will the 13th release be unlucky?)
On Fridays the 13th, my friend ran and hid, fearing the end of his luck, if
not his portfolio. If a month begins on Sunday, then there is a Friday the
13th. There may be from one to three Friday the 13ths a year. However, this
is the last one until 2015. Will this one be unlucky for the markets? Maybe.
The origin of the Friday the 13th superstition, also
called paraskevidekatriaphobia, goes back to
ancient and modern times. There were 13 people at The Last Supper. One of
them was crucified. Actually, they all died. There are 13 lunar cycles a
solar year. The number 13 used to be considered lucky, like the 13 colonies.
Things pagan and primitive became superattenuated
by Christians for a while. But they lurk in the shadows. These are the times
of shadows at the Box Office and in the markets.
On Friday 13 October 1066 King Harold (the last) of England
decided to fight Duke William of the Normans
at the Battle of Hastings, commemorated by the Bayeux Tapestry and Battle
Abbey. Harold was shot through the eye with an arrow and fell along with his
kingdom. Today we have an English Prince named William, not Harold.
DaVinci Code
More to our point, mentioned in DaVinci
Code by our schoolmate Dan Brown, Friday 13 October 1307, King Philip of France,
deeply in debt to the two-century old Knights Templars, mass arrested the Bankers of the Crusade to seize
their wealth and stop their power. Grand Master Jacques de Molay was tortured and burned alive at the stake facing
Notre Dame Cathedral with his hands together in prayer. He called out from
the flames that the Pope and King would soon meet him again before God. Pope
Clement died a month later and King Philip died in a hunting accident before
the end of the year.
The once poor Knights Templar (their crest was two knights on a horse describing them as Soldiers of Christ)
became rich powerful bankers, builders and architects of the New World Order
who invented letters of credit and cheques. Knights
Templar captured the Mosque of Al Aqsa, where
Muhammad fled from Mecca
on the Night Journey and prayed for triumphant return. Al Aqsa
neighbors the Dome of the Rock, the oldest Muslim building in the world (from
691), where Muhammad ascended from The Rock on the Mount.
The Chivalrous Muslim
These buildings were intended for pilgrims and
became political hot potatoes. Jerusalem
fell to the Romans in 70 AD/CE and to the Muslims in 637. They changed hands
to the Augustinians and Knights Templar during the Crusades, and back to
Saladin, the chivalrous Kurd Sunni Muslim, in 1187. The Knights Templar and
others believed these Muslim Buildings covered Solomon’s Temple
and the Ark hidden in a cave on Mount
Moriah
and the Church
of Holy Wisdom, visited
and admired by Mark Twain and yours truly. The Knights Templar were said to
have excavated and recovered artifacts from the Ark of the Covenant and the holiest spot in Judaism. Indeed, there is a
rabbinical sign outside the Temple
Mount saying it is
forbidden to enter.
The original gold roof of the Dome of the Rock on the Mount was made from 100,000 gold dinar
coins. In 1998 King Hussein sold a London Home for 2821 ounces of gold to
restore the luster. Today, despite Israel
recovering these Muslim buildings from Jordanian rule in the Six Day War of
1967, they remain in the care of the waqf Muslim
Trust in Jordan,
which has been accused by Jews of destroying sacred antiquities. Many
Christians and Jews believe their prophecy the Dome of the Mount must be
moved or destroyed and replaced with a rebuilding of Solomon’s Temple.
Iran
has the Dome on their 1000-Rial note.
Swiss Fall from Grace
Knights Templar joined Knights Hospitalier
or fled to Portugal, Scotland
and Switzerland
and changed their names to the Order of Christ, which financed Magellan. The
Red Cross on White mantle of the Knights Templar is found today in Switzerland,
once noted for strong confidential banking, and now under attack with their
423% debt to GDP making them second in the world.
It was recently discovered in the Chinon Parchment from the Vatican Secret Archives that
Pope Clement absolved the Knights Templar of heresies in 1308, six years
before their leaders were burned at the stake by King Philip. Could more
bankers be burned at the stake today? Maybe, as those who do not learn from
history repeat it. Bankers and borrowers including the US
government, auto, business and homeowners, built a Babel
Tower of debt that is
crumbling down. Their response was to replaced
failing debt with more borrowing from taxpayers, thus further weakening the
economy despite artificial stimulus.
Emperor Has No Money
Now, on the strength of four weeks decline in new
unemployment claims, the President plans to hold a Jobs Summit along with
Carbon Caps and Healthcare. Whew. Has anyone else noticed the emperor
has no real money left? Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of
water. Jack fell down, they came tumbling down, and
broke their crown. Humpty Dumpty fell off the Wall, and all the kings’
men could not put Humpty Dumpty together again.
In other words, bankers and buyers built bubbles in
bonds, commodities, equities, gold, oil and real estate. This required
ever-larger foundations of debt with declining money multipliers and
velocity. We may find the past foundation of debt turning into so much
crumbling sand. Matthew 7:25-27 (New International Version): The rain came
down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet
it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who
hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a
foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams
rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a
great crash.
Do We Emulate Joseph?
It is our choice. Either we save for the rainy day
like Joseph and the Pharaoh, and build our financial house on rock, or we
take the default deflationary plunge into depression. Although we continue previous Asset
Allocation and Seasonal Outlook positions in closely-held bonds, equities, gold,
oil, real estate like CDE, DDRX, KIRK and MED with Good Til
Canceled Trailing Stop Sells, we began this week after the All Up Day and
continuing bad market breadth to rebalance our windfall parabolic portfolio
growth with cash, perhaps the newborn king. We have Trailing Buy Stops on
Dollars, the best of a bad lot of currencies including the Yuan, in view of the world’s largest currency and economy
being much less leveraged than the Euros and Hong Kong.
We think the Chinese Shanghai 180 has been giving a distress signal since it
peaked again on 4 August 2009 a year after the Chinese Olympics.
We think the Friday the 13th surprise could be the collapse of bonds,
commodities, gold, silver and stocks as well as the global economy. People
may want to have lots of cash on hand. Time will tell. Our subscribers
have a front row seat for the spectacle. Regards, Rich.
Rick Ackerman
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Also
by Rick Ackerman
Rick Ackerman is the editor of Rick’s
Picks, a daily trading newsletter and intraday advisory packed with detailed
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