Well it’s that time of year, we begin the conference circuit. As usual the first conference of the year is the conference sponsored by the CCCU. The 2008 CCCU Joint Conference on Technology and Finance is hosted by Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, Canada just outside Vancouver.

It’s should be a great conference. I am really looking forward to it even though my manager roped me into a presentation.

So, I like to track the news about the trends and the consequences of the financial markets. Tuesday morning on Marketplace they ran during the first segment a story on the potential impact to the problem with subprime lending that have presented themselves of late.

Scott Jagow lead the story with: “ The U.S. subprime meltdown is rippling throughout all corners of the world. Standard & Poor’s says among emerging markets, Latvia and Iceland are the most vulnerable to serious problems from this.”

Of course, about this time, the little conspiracy guy inside me, you know, the one in the red smoking jacket with a black velvet collar with a copy of the Financial Times tucked under his arm and snifter of something iin his hand, started quoting from the movie Sneakers:

Cosmo: Posit: People think a bank might be financially shaky.
Martin Bishop: Consequence: People start to withdraw their money.
Cosmo: Result: Pretty soon it is financially shaky.
Martin Bishop: Conclusion: You can make banks fail.
Cosmo: Bzzt. I’ve already done that. Maybe you’ve heard about a few? Think bigger.
Martin Bishop: Stock market?
Cosmo: Yes.
Martin Bishop: Currency market?
Cosmo: Yes.
Martin Bishop: Commodities market?
Cosmo: Yes.
Martin Bishop: Small countries?

Now I am not trying to make a case for conspiracy here, but I am just saying the this information makes you wonder with how the markets have been acting lately.

an indiction

encumbering our time by prescription
announcing an annual cycle of cycles
proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord
and the day of vengeance of our God
in the ever present “Today!”
the day after the Sabbath
the day which the creation and new creation began

anointed
to preach the gospel to the poor
to heal the brokenhearted
to proclaim liberty to the captive
to open the prison of those who are bound
in time
to the world in its completeness
to the world in its limitation and mortality

life’s joy pregnant with the sadness of death
Joy
an answer to humanity’s perpetual question
and grief about life’s duality
joy and mortality
mortality no longer under the dominion of death
no longer under death that hopeless divorce from life

an indicition

eucatastrophe of The Resurrection overcoming the limits of time
bringing Eternal Joy, Eternal Life
Proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord for our salvation

Just in case this once in a millienium moment passed without other effect, I thought I would start blogging, which by some accounts was if not impossible, highly imporbable.

So enjoy it while you have a chance. There are no garantees that this time will take any better than any of the othe iterations.