Replies to post #39997 on Short Term Trading Member Forum

[PriceTeam]

OT, HOGS: If something being true at one level of the universe makes it true on every other level, and if it is also true that everything has a life cycle whether animal, tree, or rock, then it must be likewise true that civilizations flourish and die. We are seeing the signs of an aging civilization and only some extreme civilization-wide conflagration could produce the ashes required to give birth to a new and revitalized culture.

The other day I mentioned the Weimar Republic, which gave rise to one of the most extreme regimes in history. While there are important differences, the parallels are distinct enough that only the ignorant would ignore the signs and not consider the consequences. The root cause of ignorance is ignoring the obvious.

Unfortunately I can't think of any New World left offering refuge with these kind words: "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." There is no wilderness deep enough in which to hide or give birth to something better.

I will close with a poem by W.B. Yeats, written in 1919. A few key lines:

======================================
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
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Ted

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Complete poem by W.B Yeats:

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,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert.

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[PriceTeam]

OT: Hogs: re Dougherty article. I believe the universe is holographic, and a corollary is that there are no isolated incidents. Another corollary is that what is true in the smallest part is true of the whole. What we are seeing is a civilization riddled with deception, corruption, and divorce from solid principles and values. (In some weird, lurid way, Michael Jackson is a symbol of this, and he like Enron disappeared overnight before his time.) When Enron disappeared in a flash of dark matter, I sensed this was just the beginning of a new phase of history which would culminate with a similar fate for the United States. Other countries no doubt face worse consequences but I can't speak to that issue.

In the last several months, we've seen more and more corruption coming to light, and we can know only the surface evidence is being exposed. The tide of economic well-being has only begun to recede, and the further out it goes, the more the rocks will be exposed. Some are declaring the recession over. To the extent this is true, it is only another chapter in a much longer saga. Some think the tsunami already happened and lies buried in the past. No, it's still building and with greater intensity than ever. Last fall was just a warning. The tsunami involves much more than dramatic volatility in our markets. Market volatility is but a symptom.

Some dream or imagine we can fix our country and our economy through incremental change--through the power of dialog and the vote. I seriously doubt this is true. How do you "fix" a tsunami. It is deep and wide and powerful beyond imagining. We've traveled too far from what is sound or real. "The centre cannot hold."

How it plays from here and how long it takes, I cannot begin to imagine. I fear the tsunami must in some dramatic way reset all accounts globally to fix this mess.

Ted

[tjwny]

Too... many words to describe the modern day loan sharks with Greeny & Bennie as their head honchos.
And why.... yes why confuse naked capitalism with socialism?