George Orwell, Review of Bertrand Russell's Power, 1939
"Perpetual war is always so planned as to eat up any surplus that might exist after meeting the bare needs of the population. It is a deliberate policy to keep even the favoured groups somewhere near the brink of hardship, because a general state of scarcity increases the importance of small privileges and thus magnifies the distinction between one group and another.
The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life. A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors. Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same.”
George Orwell, 1984, June 8, 1949
"All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome."
George Orwell, Politics and the English Language, 1946
I'm still on vacation but I am closely watching a number of markets to see if we are reaching some sort of turning, or a crescendo of this mad mispricing of risk.
As you may recall some time ago I had suggested a higher than usual probability of a severe market correction by the end of October, and then shortly afterwards changed it to the end of November.
The reason for this is the fairly obvious and very determined actions of Bessent and his cronies to prop the markets up, for their own profits and at the behest of Trump, who views it as an emblem of his success.
A number of 'very important people' have jumped on the bandwagon since that time. And with good reason. The elements of a debacle in the financial markets are apparent to all the major players.
But, let's see how long Donnie and his crime family can string this one out.
At this point it is only one event away, and there are a number of candidates to choose from.
Lawlessness is very much in fashion, nourished by the lack of even reasonable consequences.
"Robbery, rape, and murder they call empire — and where they make a desert, they call it peace."
Tacitus, Agricola, circa 98 AD
Have a pleasant evening.
