The Illustrious History of Friday the 13th

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 13^th.  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. 

(If you’d like to have Rick’s Picks commentary delivered free each day to your e-mail box, click here.)

Ads are by Google and do not represent the views of Rick's Picks or its affiliates.