Shorter CHS: BOHICA

Bend Over.  Here It Comes Again.

I have a huge problem with the "Fourth Turning" argument.  I think it is nonsense, primarily because it is rife with cognitive biases and unrecognized anachronisms that neutralize any real insight into the patterns of history, which patterns I cannot, and therefore do not, deny.  The problem is that Fourth Turners appear to have no real understanding of history so the patterns they see don't mean what they think they mean, if they are even there (or meaningful, if they are there).

On the bright side, Fourth Turning fatalists/nihilists have found a reason to live, i.e, to preserve themselves and their loved ones.  That's better than just sitting there and whining.  It is also better than standing on a street corner preaching to strangers that the end of the world is near.  Not much better, but better.  To his credit, Eric A. admits that such preaching is useless and, thus, he and other Fourth Turning nihilists save us all from that kind of embarrassment.

What Should Be Obvious Is There Is No Market

Free thinker Charles Hugh Smith asks "What Is Obvious About This Market?"

He then goes on to say everything an Austrian-inspired person can be expected to say.  Indeed, several other members of the Austrian "cargo cult" said much the same thing on the same day, on the same sites.  Central banks are blowing bubbles that have caused a "disconnect between the real economy and the stock market [that] is widening [and] obvious."

The problem with laying everything at the feet of central banks is that doing so ignores how private actions have completely destroyed any semblance of a "market" in the so-called stock market.  Between dark pools and HFT, there is no possibility of price discovery and, hence, no market.  The relatively small positions of retail investors that are traded out in the open of "light pools" such as the NYSE are used as a proxy to set the prices of secret trades in dark pools, and if the retail investor gets weak-kneed, HFT can be counted on to supply the illusion of demand to prop up the proxy pricing.

Private parties are using dark pools and HFT to create and enforce the decoupling between the "market" and the "real economy," and there is little chance of a true collapse of the stock market unless and until there is a true solvency crisis of a major player.

Nihilism's Promise

When you discover you have no say, you can learn how to speak, if you care.

Nihilism does not have to be the end.  It need only be a break between the world you know and the world as it is.  Ever changing.  Unknowable.

Nihilism is the result of a crushed ego.  You believe nothing is important because you believe YOU are not important.

Well, you're not important. None of us is.

And knowing that is a good thing.  It allows you to make a difference.

But only if you leave nihilism behind.  Nihilism is like puberty: make it through nihilism successfully, and you have a chance of being a grown-up.

Good luck.

Knowing Trumps Thinking

Once you know, there is no need to think.   But once you stop thinking, you are trapped in another's truth.  The only way to escape is to start thinking, but where will that lead you?  Safer to know.

Corporate Life (or lack thereof)

I have previously claimed that corporate life is a distraction from reality.  And I don't view the distraction as a positive.

I'm currently involved in a transaction that eclipses everything else I'm supposed to do.  And all of it: the transaction and the eclipsed activity alike, are meaningless in reality.  Yes, all these things are important to the shareholders, employees, vendors and customers, but not to our human reality as a whole.  I'd even argue that the distraction, when properly considered in the aggregate with all other corporate activity, is a menace to human reality.

The Correct Response

The correct response to the bombing of the Boston Marathon is for more Americans, including me, to get off their fat asses and start running marathons.

I have grown tired of both the calls for less "bomb control" (among other things) and more "security measures" (that don't make us safer but make us less free).

Run towards the danger and demonstrate you are not afraid.  Inspire the cognitive dissonance of terrorists who will be left with nothing to do as a result of inspiring the opposite of their intended result.

Seriously.  After a decade of this kind of "debate," shouldn't we "get it" by now?

Sometimes I wonder

Sometimes I wonder.  Other times I wander.

Wonder.  Wander.  What distinguishes the two activities?