Neither bulls nor bears had a very satisfying day, stocks having spent the entire session screwing the pooch. Despite this, I remain mildly optimistic that the stock market is near the point of collapse. So why should this be cause for optimism? Well, if the Dow were to be cut in half, it would crush the banksters, the money managers and all of the other money-grubbing evildoers of the financial world, setting the stage for the revival of honest business. Imagine that! You’d have to have grown up in the Fifties to remember such a time, when millionaires worked, rather than schemed, for their bread. Since then, the paper-shufflers have made a fine art of pursuing easy, undeserved success, raking in seven- and eight-figure bonuses just for pumping up stocks with digital cash that has come nearly free and without strings from the Federal Reserve. This Ponzi game has come to look more and more like a perpetual motion machine, with rising stock prices boosting CEO salaries, turning paper stock-options into gold and incentivizing share buybacks that have added economically meaningless trillions to the stock market’s valuation. What could cause this seemingly virtuous, self-perpetuating cycle to end? No one knows. However, end it will, and badly.
When Millionaires Worked for Their Money
- March 22, 2017, 11:57 pm
-
March 22, 2017, 11:17 pm
Yes, the 50’s. Helping Dad wax the car.
Hubert (Humphrey) on the radio. “There’s Hubert again telling us what great things he’s done”, said Father. I knew right then I was a republican. -
March 22, 2017, 8:53 pm
Love the write-up Rick! Hope things are well.
What is happening is a great deal more serious than a stock market crash.
Consider the following:
Western Europe, having spent itself bankrupt, financially and genetically,in two World Wars, is now repeating the fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD. Islam has essentially conquered it. One hundred years ago, a similar invasion would have resulted in an immediate and brutal response by the British, French and Germans. It would have been stopped in its tracks. Not today. Any civilization that allows their women and children to be raped with impunity is doomed.
Next, realize the world is still sorting out the end of Gold backed currency, and gold shipments to balance trade deficits. My guess is that the huge spike in US interest rates in the early 80s was an attempt to replace the gold standard with something tangible. But it was too painful, so Reagan fired Volcker, and easy Al took the easy way out.
With disastrous consequences now waiting in the wings for us.
Next consider the fact that POTUS Trump is facing a situation where laws have gone unenforced for so long, that he is viewed as a madman and tyrant for attempting to do so now! It remains to be seen if he can make any progress at all, or if the Deep State will topple him.
Anyway, the older you are, the more obvious all those dangerous conditions become.
I think the two greatest missed opportunities for Western Civilization in the 20th Century were these:
First, that the Christmas Truce of 1914 did not turn into an open revolt by all the WWI grunts on both sides. It would have been much better if a couple of hundred politicians and Generals had been shot, and everyone had gone home.
Instead, the troops obeyed their superiors and were slaughtered. The rest is sad history.
Finally, Jimmy Carter missed a golden opportunity to get the USA converted to alcohol instead of watching as our wealth flowed to MENA for decades to follow. There was such outrage over those “Oil Shocks” that the citizens would have gladly backed a comprehensive plan to do that and keep all that wealth right here.
Wouda, coulda, shoulda!
LOL!