In the News (from PBS.org): In an interview with PBS News anchor Jim Lehrer, President Barack Obama said: “The problem that I’ve seen, at least, is you don’t get a sense that folks on Wall Street feel any remorse for having taken all these risks; you don’t get a sense that there’s been a change of culture and behavior as a consequence of what has happened. And that’s why the financial regulatory reform proposals that we put forward are so important … to institute the financial regulatory programs that prevent them from taking some of the wild risks they took previously. And I also think that when it comes to issues like compensation, that at the very least, shareholders should be able to weigh in before these companies are giving these massive bonuses to high-level executives.”

My Comment: Too bad for Mr. Obama that these measures won’t help. What is needed is education of the people in order to change them in such a way that they won’t be able to inflict such irreversible harm to humankind and in addition, be able to recognize that they’ve made a mistake. This change of people’s consciousness in the global world, from individual to collective, is what is being required of us by the general interconnection between us that is now being revealed.

Humankind however, does not have the means to change itself and correct its egoism. Kabbalah offers us the means, according to the principle, “I created egoism and I created the Torah for its correction, because the Light in the Torah brings one back to the Source.” It is therefore possible to attract the Light onto yourself!

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A question I received: You have said that the crisis can cause people to ask questions about the meaning of life. But can’t a regular person, who has absolutely everything but still feels restless, ask the same questions?

My Answer: “The Creator’s ways” are unknown to us. Today’s crisis is only a minor scare. The real crisis is still ahead. It is yet to manifest in all sorts of ways that have no connection to money. The problem with money is no more than a minor inconvenience. After all, it doesn’t pose an actual, deadly threat, but merely an absence of security and food, which may possibly be overcome. This is not the kind of thing that looms over you like a terrible monster, ready to devour you whole.

So far, the state that is being revealed to us is not apparently the Upper Force, against which we cannot do anything. We still think that we can rectify our life. After all, the financial system is artificial, and so we think that we are capable of handling its collapse. So, you can’t really call this a blow.

The blow that will come will be “the finger of God,” as the Pharaoh’s sages once said. That is when people will feel that what’s happening is not accidental, that all the blows are purposeful. And this will be the beginning of the Creator’s revelation to the people of all the nations. People will then begin to perceive everything as part of the natural process, which cannot be solved through artificial means.

Therefore, today’s crisis isn’t real. However, we at Bnei Baruch still try to use it as an example to help explain that humanity has entered a new period of evolution.

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In the News (from The Washington Post): “U.S. Weighs Single Agency to Regulate Banking Industry” Senior administration officials are considering the creation of a single agency to regulate the banking industry… Under the current system, banks can choose their regulator.

Because the OCC, OTS and FDIC are funded by fees from the banks, the regulators have an incentive to compete for business by offering more lenient oversight. The system also divides supervision of the largest financial conglomerates among multiple agencies, each with responsibility for certain subsidiaries, creating gaps in coverage that companies have exploited.

My Comment: There is no other solution but to create an international coalition of financial bodies. However, the petty human ego will not allow people to realistically accept this alternative as the way out of the crisis.

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In the News (from The Telegraph): “More than 20,000 take to streets to protest Johnnie Walker plant closure” Thousands of people took to the streets yesterday to protest a decision by Diageo, the drinks giant, to shut its Johnnie Walker bottling plant. The firm has announced that it will close the plant in the [Scottish] town, which has been linked with Johnnie Walker since 1820, with the loss of 700 jobs.

My Comment: The number of people wishing to drink whiskey hasn’t decreased, but people’s money has! Now the plant workers will have less money too. Thus, the crisis goes on…

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In the News (from The Raw Story): “Worst of social, political crisis ahead: WTO chief” The worst social and political effects of the economic crisis are “still to come,” WTO [World Trade Organization] chief Pascal Lamy said Tuesday, warning these could push countries deeper into trade protectionism.

My Comment: Because the foundation of human nature is egoism, people naturally think that the antidote to the crisis is to separate from others and care for oneself, no matter how harmful the consequences might be later on. People are unable to see beyond their egoistic vision, and thus they drag themselves into greater collapse.

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In the News (from Eurasianet.org): “Tajikistan: President Rahmon warns of food shortages” Tajik President Imomali Rahmon is calling on families to stockpile food, due to the Central Asian nation’s deepening economic woes. Food shortages are “becoming a serious problem” and stocks lasting two years should be built by those who can afford it, Rahmon said in an address carried by the Khovar state news agency. “As a result of the [global financial] crisis, and due to various natural disasters, drought, shortages and other factors, the provision of food in many countries around the world is becoming a serious problem, and according to expert analysis, this process will continue in the future,” he said.

My Comment: Overall, this would seem like a sensible decree. Even if the next few years won’t be very tough, people will have to tighten their belts in later years.

Kabbalah agrees that a person should not put the burden of his sustenance on society’s shoulders. However, the above-cited measures are unlikely to help. The reason Nature (or the Creator) is treating us this way is to force us to come to the realization that we must change our relationships with each other from hate to love.

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In the News (from People’s Daily): Leaders from the Group of Eight (G8) rich countries said on Wednesday that the world economy still faces significant risks despite signs of stabilization. “While there are signs of stabilization … the situation remains uncertain and significant risks remain to economic and financial stability,” the leaders said in a declaration concluding their first-day meeting at a summit in the central Italian town of L’Aquila.

My Comment: But despite their words, as long as the solution is nowhere in sight, and as long as they still haven’t run out of money and the printing facilities are operational, they’ll go on inflating the financial bubbles. Therefore, Kabbalah and the solution it offers is still not an option for them, because their “information receiver” still operates at a different frequency. In the meantime, all they can do is keep inflating those bubbles, which will invariably lead to a collapse!

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In the News (from The Economist): The rich world’s population is aging fast, and the poor world is only a few decades behind. …labour forces are now beginning to shrink and numbers of pensioners are starting to rise. For the public finances, an aging population is a huge headache. In countries where public pensions make up the bulk of retirement income, these will either swallow up a much larger share of the budget or they will have to become a lot less generous. What can be done? As the IMF puts it, “the fiscal impact of the [financial] crisis reinforces the urgency of entitlement reform.” People in rich countries will have to be weaned off the expectation that pensions will become ever more generous and health care ever more all-encompassing.

My Comment: And the same thing will happen all over the world. Old age is no longer protected, and the hungry will have no one but themselves to count on.

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In the News (from The Wall Street Journal): “Pope Weighs In on Financial Crisis” You know the international financial crisis has implications in every aspect of global life when the Pope decides to weigh in. Today Benedict XVI issued his third encyclical focusing on the economy. It is widely seen as directed at G-8 leaders gathering in Italy this week. Here are some excerpts:

Economy and finance … can be used badly when those at the helm are motivated by purely selfish ends. …we must adopt a realistic attitude as we take up … new responsibilities to which we are called by the prospect of a world in need of profound cultural renewal, a world that needs to rediscover fundamental values … it is not the instrument [the economy] that must be called to account, but individuals, their moral conscience and their personal and social responsibility.

My Comment: All of the above is correct, but how can we possibly make people’s all-enveloping egoism budge? Only through Kabbalah! Maybe someone could tell the Pope about it…

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In the News (translated from News1): The internationally renowned Professor Prabhu Guptara, Executive Director of Organisational Development at Wolfsberg (a subsidiary of UBS AG – one of the largest banks in the world) said that all indicators show that we are far from coming out of the crisis. While businesses welcome globalization, there is national protectionism. Each country is trying to help its own companies and save its own economy.

However, in the era of globalization, this is no longer the right course of action. A rapid shift from a global economy to national isolationism always ends up with a world war. And it so happens that we are witnessing a rapid growth in military spending in all countries. This may provoke a world war.

The way to control the crisis is to create a global organization for coordinating economic policies globally. Any other approach to the global world will bring about divisions and wars.

My Comment: As they say, the author’s opinion happens to coincide with the editorial office’s opinion. Notwithstanding, the way to overcome the crisis is to correct the global world, namely, the relationships between people.

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