"People who know nothing of God and whose lives are centered on themselves, imagine that they can only find themselves by asserting their own desires and ambitions and appetites in a struggle with the rest of the world. They try to become real by imposing themselves on other people, by appropriating for themselves some share of the limited supply of created goods and thus emphasizing the difference between themselves and the other men who have less than they, or nothing at all.
There are crimes which no one would commit as an individual which he willingly and bravely commits when acting in the name of his society, because he has been, too easily, convinced that evil is entirely different when it is done ‘for the common good.’
It is true, political problems are not solved by love and mercy. But the world of politics is not the only world, and unless political decisions rest on a foundation of something better and higher than politics, they can never do any real good for men.
When a country has to be rebuilt after war, the passions and energies of war are no longer enough. There must be a new force, the power of love, the power of understanding and human compassion, the strength of selflessness and cooperation, and the creative dynamism of the will to live and to build.
Thomas Merton
As I had suggested a couple of weeks ago, the Street would keep stock index prices near these elevated levels while they concocted a few sizzling hot IPOs to squeeze out while the squeezing is good.
And yesterday Snap, the parent of Snapchat, has filed for the biggest new era IPO since Facebook. This one looks like a hot steaming pile of whatever passes for sound business valuations in this era of accounting relativism and asset bubbles, partie trois. But who can judge, when the world of investing has gone to the clicks?
While the jobs came in 'higher than expected,' the wage growth portion of that report was disappointing to say the least, with the highly optimistic wage growth from the prior report being cut in half on revision.
There is no real sustainable recovery. There is financialisation, fraud, and fiduciary FUBAR.
Let's keep an eye on the IPO, because once it gets out the door and is done, and the secondary platters licked clean, I think the US equity market has a good chance of posting a 5% retracement of these hopey valuations at which they are currently trading. Note the emphasis on 'chance.'
If the retracement is a reaction to some of the wild West policymaking coming out of our new leadership, that might be closer to ten percent.
If Trump is a financial reformer, then Haiti's Papa Doc Duvalier was a social worker. And it looks like Wall Street and Goldman are staffing up the leadership of the Donald's economic policies tonton macoutes. They might even make the hapless boobs at the Fed look good, and that is something I never thought that I could say.
Maybe things will just continue to muddle along, while the oligarchs continue to tighten their stranglehold on this beacon of freedom for the world.
And maybe this latest unicorn can fly.
Have a pleasant weekend.
