The Guardian had an article about a man that made millions from hedge funds. I don't know how he did it, but basically he bet against the sub-prime mortgages and made a fortune. Then he said “goodbye suckers” and sailed off into the sunset. He had some interesting things to say:
"The low-hanging fruit, ie idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking," he wrote. "These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government," he said.
"All of this behaviour supporting the aristocracy only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America." To read the whole article go here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/18/banking-useconomy
So that's it then. Or it is according to this guy that says we are in this financial mess due to stupidity.
But if you think about it; nearly every mess that the world has got itself into involves a lot of stupidity. And most of the stupidity comes from the belief that other people know what is best for them. It comes from stupid things like faith, trust, and obedience. And, as a rule, the reason why we are so faithful and obedient to our so called leaders is because we are stupid. And when it all comes down to dust it is only ourselves that we have to blame. If we retrace every cause and effect – aside from blind luck, or damn bad luck – almost everything eventually comes down to personal responsibility. And there's a very interesting thing that happens when one truly accepts personal responsibility: the angry, emotional, side of the pain goes way. As such there's no one to crucify but ourself, and most of us begin to see reason before we decide to do such a radical thing as that! The only thing to do is to admit to stupidity, and to make a mental vow to try not to do such a thing again.
But our leaders are still at it, and rather than admit that they were wrong they prop up a corpse and then tell us that it's still alive. Yer right. And I've got some swamp land in Florida that is about to be drained; the crocodiles have agreed to a treaty, and I'm assured that they will move to a new place very soon.
Stupidity is part and parcel of life. And if it's true that all opposites are part of the same thing, then one cannot act intelligently until one admits to ones inner tendency to act stupidly. And so let's admit it. Our leaders are stupid, and we are stupid, and the only way out of this mess is to admit it.
Yer right.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Contrivence
So the Dow went down today by 733 points after climbing by over 900 points on Monday. But don't worry, the Plunge Protection Team will soon be back in action; and it's fair to say that if not for the intervention of the government the stock market would have crashed by now. It's also fair to say that Anglo/American capitalism would also have crashed by now. And why would the financial system have collapsed? At the risk of sounding like the Church Lady: I say it would have collapsed because of lies. The whole thing was based on faith and trust, and they blew it by lying. The “Free Market” is now being openly manipulated by the government, and as such it is being saved by a contrived scheme that goes against it's basic concept of let it be. The concept of a free market was always an illusion anyway.
The truth is that might is always right, and the truth is that the vast majority of us have the free market stuck right up our arses; and while it sets a very small minority free to enjoy the good things in life, it enslaves the majority of us to a life of silent desperation. While prices go up our wages remain the same or even go down. Good paying jobs are exported to communist China where the peasants are better controlled and work for a pittance. As a result the only way we can afford to buy the goods is to get good credit, and big brother is watching our every move. The credit score is an invasion of privacy that totally contradicts the boast that we live in a free society.
And how can a financial system hope to survive if the cost of goods far surpasses the real income of the people? The only way we can buy things, and still provide a home and put food in the mouths of our children, is to employ credit. Credit has it's costs, and our real wages decline even more. The whole system depends entirely on credit. And I'm very sure that Adam Smith did not have this kind of capitalism in mind. His version of capitalism was that a need would find a provider, and we should let it be. A fair price would be set, and the deal would be done. The provider would make a fair profit, the needer would have his goods, and everyone would be happy. He lived in a time when people only bought what they could afford. As such the price was set accordingly. Can you imagine how much a house or a car would cost these days if there was no such a thing as credit?
As the old song goes: “Sixteen tons and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt, Saint Peter don't you call me because I can't go – I owe my soul to the company store.”
Lies, lies, and more lies. It's an illusion backed up by more illusion. The canny investor that bets that the market will drop is confounded by the Plunge Protection Team; and like W.B Yeates predicted in The Second Coming: "Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world", and now that the falconer is losing control of the falcon, I say good bloody riddance!
Here's some background on the Plunge Protection Team. Watch the American Stock Market; take into account the fear, and judge for yourself why a big drop suddenly turns into a small gain. And as for a 900 point rise in these uncertain times...no way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_12631
The truth is that might is always right, and the truth is that the vast majority of us have the free market stuck right up our arses; and while it sets a very small minority free to enjoy the good things in life, it enslaves the majority of us to a life of silent desperation. While prices go up our wages remain the same or even go down. Good paying jobs are exported to communist China where the peasants are better controlled and work for a pittance. As a result the only way we can afford to buy the goods is to get good credit, and big brother is watching our every move. The credit score is an invasion of privacy that totally contradicts the boast that we live in a free society.
And how can a financial system hope to survive if the cost of goods far surpasses the real income of the people? The only way we can buy things, and still provide a home and put food in the mouths of our children, is to employ credit. Credit has it's costs, and our real wages decline even more. The whole system depends entirely on credit. And I'm very sure that Adam Smith did not have this kind of capitalism in mind. His version of capitalism was that a need would find a provider, and we should let it be. A fair price would be set, and the deal would be done. The provider would make a fair profit, the needer would have his goods, and everyone would be happy. He lived in a time when people only bought what they could afford. As such the price was set accordingly. Can you imagine how much a house or a car would cost these days if there was no such a thing as credit?
As the old song goes: “Sixteen tons and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt, Saint Peter don't you call me because I can't go – I owe my soul to the company store.”
Lies, lies, and more lies. It's an illusion backed up by more illusion. The canny investor that bets that the market will drop is confounded by the Plunge Protection Team; and like W.B Yeates predicted in The Second Coming: "Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world", and now that the falconer is losing control of the falcon, I say good bloody riddance!
Here's some background on the Plunge Protection Team. Watch the American Stock Market; take into account the fear, and judge for yourself why a big drop suddenly turns into a small gain. And as for a 900 point rise in these uncertain times...no way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_12631
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Life is all about procreation, competition, survival, and lying. We lie to win. We lie to survive. And when we are young we often lie to convince a woman that we are a good prospect for sex and procreation.
Mostly; life is about lies. We cling to three illusions that we live our lives by - as if they were realities. There's the secret reality in our own minds where we more often than not lie to our selves so as to reinforce our fragile sense of self worth. Then there's the social reality where the lies we tell ourselves don't seem to jibe with societies lies; so we put on a mask and pretend. And then there's the physical reality where everything looks to be rock solid: but nowadays we know that it's mostly empty space.
Maybe life is really all about filling in empty spaces. Life abhors an empty space. Pick up a rock, crawl into the darkest hole, or pick up a handfull of sand in the most arid of deserts, and if you look hard enough you will find life. The Earth is teeming with all sorts of life, and each and every one of them lives in its own version of reality. But who in his right mind gives a hoot about a barnacle's sense of reality as it attaches itself to the bottom side of a ship? But the barnacles reality is just as valid as ours. We see the world our way, and the barnacle see's it his way. We are both trying to survive in a very hostile world, and we will do whatever it takes. And in our case, seeing as we have the gift of language, we will lie our heads off so as to survive, and if we find ourselves on top of the heap we will lie like hell to stay there. And anyone that thinks different has the mind set of a barnacle.
Mostly; life is about lies. We cling to three illusions that we live our lives by - as if they were realities. There's the secret reality in our own minds where we more often than not lie to our selves so as to reinforce our fragile sense of self worth. Then there's the social reality where the lies we tell ourselves don't seem to jibe with societies lies; so we put on a mask and pretend. And then there's the physical reality where everything looks to be rock solid: but nowadays we know that it's mostly empty space.
Maybe life is really all about filling in empty spaces. Life abhors an empty space. Pick up a rock, crawl into the darkest hole, or pick up a handfull of sand in the most arid of deserts, and if you look hard enough you will find life. The Earth is teeming with all sorts of life, and each and every one of them lives in its own version of reality. But who in his right mind gives a hoot about a barnacle's sense of reality as it attaches itself to the bottom side of a ship? But the barnacles reality is just as valid as ours. We see the world our way, and the barnacle see's it his way. We are both trying to survive in a very hostile world, and we will do whatever it takes. And in our case, seeing as we have the gift of language, we will lie our heads off so as to survive, and if we find ourselves on top of the heap we will lie like hell to stay there. And anyone that thinks different has the mind set of a barnacle.
Strange Times
The Dow lost another five hundred points today, and it dipped below 9,500, which was, or so an expert on CNBC said, the point of resistance. In the last two days the Dow has lost nearly 900 points. Over two trillion dollars have been wiped out of retirement accounts. And John McCain says it's time to turn the page on the economy and start talking about something else.
McCain wants to talk about Obama's connections to a sixties radical that liked to explode bombs. But Obama is having none of it and refers to the Keating Five where McCain got caught up in corruption. Joe Biden is off the scene for awhile so to mourn his mother in laws death, and Sarah Palin has assumed the role of a pit bull with lipstick. She is busy making a fool of herself by winking at the camera and trying to talk folksie so as to attract the vote of the white trash and Joe sixpack. The thought of McCain winning the election is very scary. It's not that he's all that bad, it's just that he might die, and then we would have Sarah Palin as President.
I watched live coverage of her today as she spoke to the choir. She said the right buzz words and the crowd responded as expected. Right on cue they would jeer, and right on cue they would cheer as if it was the first time they'd heard such wisdom. Do they pay those idiots to respond on cue? Do they take the television audience to be fools! Probably so. But the reality is that it is an attempt to fool the televison audience into believing that this is what America really thinks. Both sides are as bad. And both sides are trying to create the truth.
The age old notion about the concept of truth being the reality of all realities is dead and gone. W.B. Yeates saw it coming at the beginning of the 20th century. Then later on C.S. Lewis and George Orwell gave their own dire warnings. Orwell was an insider, and even though he knew he was dying he secluded himself in a remote house in Scotland so as to write 1984. He died soon after finishing it. That an intellgent and sane man chose to spend his final days writing a book knowing that he might not even live to see it published says a lot. And, if my memory of facts is correct, he didn't live to see it published. His book, 1984, might well have been the last gasp, the last warning, about the loss of freedom.
In a way, it was the old concept of truth that held our leaders in check and inspired the greater good, but it was a religion that held it all together. The slow death of Christianity that began in the 19th century slowly let loose what W.B. Yeates called "The Second Coming", and in the 20th century all of hell seemed to break out. But it wasn't Satan behind it, it was the elite of mankind embracing their new found freedom to do as they wish. The old concept of truth died with Christianity. It was replaced with the knowledge that there is no such thing as truth, and there is really no such thing as anything - that we do not make up with our imagination. We are nothing but an accident, there is no God watching over us, and we are simply making things up as we go along. The truth is nothing more that a product of the strange ability of language. And it is language that enables us to lie. And if we are only making thngs up as we go along, then...we get Sarah Palin as the leader of the free world. Surely, I have slipped into an alternative universe.
McCain wants to talk about Obama's connections to a sixties radical that liked to explode bombs. But Obama is having none of it and refers to the Keating Five where McCain got caught up in corruption. Joe Biden is off the scene for awhile so to mourn his mother in laws death, and Sarah Palin has assumed the role of a pit bull with lipstick. She is busy making a fool of herself by winking at the camera and trying to talk folksie so as to attract the vote of the white trash and Joe sixpack. The thought of McCain winning the election is very scary. It's not that he's all that bad, it's just that he might die, and then we would have Sarah Palin as President.
I watched live coverage of her today as she spoke to the choir. She said the right buzz words and the crowd responded as expected. Right on cue they would jeer, and right on cue they would cheer as if it was the first time they'd heard such wisdom. Do they pay those idiots to respond on cue? Do they take the television audience to be fools! Probably so. But the reality is that it is an attempt to fool the televison audience into believing that this is what America really thinks. Both sides are as bad. And both sides are trying to create the truth.
The age old notion about the concept of truth being the reality of all realities is dead and gone. W.B. Yeates saw it coming at the beginning of the 20th century. Then later on C.S. Lewis and George Orwell gave their own dire warnings. Orwell was an insider, and even though he knew he was dying he secluded himself in a remote house in Scotland so as to write 1984. He died soon after finishing it. That an intellgent and sane man chose to spend his final days writing a book knowing that he might not even live to see it published says a lot. And, if my memory of facts is correct, he didn't live to see it published. His book, 1984, might well have been the last gasp, the last warning, about the loss of freedom.
In a way, it was the old concept of truth that held our leaders in check and inspired the greater good, but it was a religion that held it all together. The slow death of Christianity that began in the 19th century slowly let loose what W.B. Yeates called "The Second Coming", and in the 20th century all of hell seemed to break out. But it wasn't Satan behind it, it was the elite of mankind embracing their new found freedom to do as they wish. The old concept of truth died with Christianity. It was replaced with the knowledge that there is no such thing as truth, and there is really no such thing as anything - that we do not make up with our imagination. We are nothing but an accident, there is no God watching over us, and we are simply making things up as we go along. The truth is nothing more that a product of the strange ability of language. And it is language that enables us to lie. And if we are only making thngs up as we go along, then...we get Sarah Palin as the leader of the free world. Surely, I have slipped into an alternative universe.
Bailed out?
The Dow Jones was sinking fast. It was down by 800 points, and then, in a matter of minutes it pulled back 450 points to finish the day only a few points shy of the significant 10,000 mark at minus 350. Did the bargain hunters save the day? Not likely. Nobody believes that this thing has bottomed out. A move of that volume could only have come from some one very big, and in my opinion the big person was non other than Uncle Sam. The treasury has permission to use the 700 billion, with some oversight, any way it sees fit, and a thousand point drop in the stock market would have had brought on serious consequences to say the least! Did the U.S. Treasury step in to save the pension and 401k plans, and to save Main Street? Is the U.S. Government on the side of the people after all? Yer right.
There's a few other things going on. The main thing is that the euro is in deep trouble, and the weaker it gets the stronger the dollar seems to get. Countries are bailing out on the euro and buying the dollar. And as the crisis deepens, the dollar, amazing as it seems, is seen as a safe haven. People are taking their money out of banks all over the world, changing it to dollars, and keeping it close at hand. The makers of Safes, that is the thing that one locks ones valuables in, are reporting record sales. But why aren't they changing their money into euros? The euro has been kicking the dollars ass for years!
Maybe it's because the European Union is not as well equiped to deal with a financial crisis of this magnitude anywhere near as well as the USA. I have no doubt that when all is said and done that the USA will still be around; but will the E.U. still be around? The crisis is testing the EU to the hilt. First Ireland went its own way by insuring all bank deposits to the full, then Greece, and then Germany. Germany is taking its own measures and plotting its own course out of the mess. Surely France will do likewise. But the point is that in a crisis - the European Union is acting like it's every man for himself. The union is disintegrating And the crisis might just bring about the death of the EU, and if that happens, what does that bode for the euro?
When the crisis first began to emerge the Europeans gleefully said it was the end of Anglo/American style capitalism. We should be so lucky! But as things progress it seems that Anglo/American capitalism will survive the crisis and the European style of socialist/capitalis m will collapse. And when one thinks about it, where does America's immediate main threat to world dominance come from? It's not Russia, they are already in financial shambles. And its not China. Not yet. The main threat to world dominance is the EU.
The financial crisis originated in the USA. It has now spread world wide. Is the situation seen by some as being similar to a cancer that has to be cured by radiation? Is the cancer the EU? Is the treatment so strong that it will hurt the USA for awhile, but then the radiation will allow for a cure when it kills the EU? Is what's really going on a financial war for dominance between the USA and the European Union?
It's not as far fetched as it seems. The battle between socialism and capitalism has been raging for long time. It's very obvious in the Presidential elections in the USA. Bush and his neocon mates have wreaked havoc on the world, and as a final shot before socialist Obama gets elected, they might well have decided to play their final act. And the EU is socialist according to them.
Nothing in this financial crisis makes sense. Just minutes before the House first decided to refuse the bail out the Dow Jones was already down by over 500 points. When the bailout bill failed it dropped down to 777 points. The news media was inflamed and told us how the world would surely end if the bailout wasn't brought back to life. But the next day the stock market went up by around 400 points. Then a few days later they voted again and the bail out bill passed, and then the markets went into free fall. What the news media says is not what is actually happening. It says black is white!
I'm sure there's much more going on than meets the eye. Nike, for one, is on a hiring spree, and the restaurant where my daughter works is doing great guns. And then the stock market falls by 800 points before coming back to only lose by 350 points when people are hiding their money under their bed in mattresses, and when panic mode, or the fetal position, is the only way to go.
For a view of the way some people see the EU click on the link below.
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/865
There's a few other things going on. The main thing is that the euro is in deep trouble, and the weaker it gets the stronger the dollar seems to get. Countries are bailing out on the euro and buying the dollar. And as the crisis deepens, the dollar, amazing as it seems, is seen as a safe haven. People are taking their money out of banks all over the world, changing it to dollars, and keeping it close at hand. The makers of Safes, that is the thing that one locks ones valuables in, are reporting record sales. But why aren't they changing their money into euros? The euro has been kicking the dollars ass for years!
Maybe it's because the European Union is not as well equiped to deal with a financial crisis of this magnitude anywhere near as well as the USA. I have no doubt that when all is said and done that the USA will still be around; but will the E.U. still be around? The crisis is testing the EU to the hilt. First Ireland went its own way by insuring all bank deposits to the full, then Greece, and then Germany. Germany is taking its own measures and plotting its own course out of the mess. Surely France will do likewise. But the point is that in a crisis - the European Union is acting like it's every man for himself. The union is disintegrating And the crisis might just bring about the death of the EU, and if that happens, what does that bode for the euro?
When the crisis first began to emerge the Europeans gleefully said it was the end of Anglo/American style capitalism. We should be so lucky! But as things progress it seems that Anglo/American capitalism will survive the crisis and the European style of socialist/capitalis m will collapse. And when one thinks about it, where does America's immediate main threat to world dominance come from? It's not Russia, they are already in financial shambles. And its not China. Not yet. The main threat to world dominance is the EU.
The financial crisis originated in the USA. It has now spread world wide. Is the situation seen by some as being similar to a cancer that has to be cured by radiation? Is the cancer the EU? Is the treatment so strong that it will hurt the USA for awhile, but then the radiation will allow for a cure when it kills the EU? Is what's really going on a financial war for dominance between the USA and the European Union?
It's not as far fetched as it seems. The battle between socialism and capitalism has been raging for long time. It's very obvious in the Presidential elections in the USA. Bush and his neocon mates have wreaked havoc on the world, and as a final shot before socialist Obama gets elected, they might well have decided to play their final act. And the EU is socialist according to them.
Nothing in this financial crisis makes sense. Just minutes before the House first decided to refuse the bail out the Dow Jones was already down by over 500 points. When the bailout bill failed it dropped down to 777 points. The news media was inflamed and told us how the world would surely end if the bailout wasn't brought back to life. But the next day the stock market went up by around 400 points. Then a few days later they voted again and the bail out bill passed, and then the markets went into free fall. What the news media says is not what is actually happening. It says black is white!
I'm sure there's much more going on than meets the eye. Nike, for one, is on a hiring spree, and the restaurant where my daughter works is doing great guns. And then the stock market falls by 800 points before coming back to only lose by 350 points when people are hiding their money under their bed in mattresses, and when panic mode, or the fetal position, is the only way to go.
For a view of the way some people see the EU click on the link below.
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/865
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