“Who can doubt that there is an American empire?—an 'informal' empire, not colonial in polity, but still richly equipped with imperial paraphernalia: troops, ships, planes, bases, proconsuls, local collaborators, all spread around the luckless planet."
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., The Cycles of American History
“We live in a collective adrenaline rush, a world of endless promotional/commercial bullshit, that masks a deep systemic emptiness. The result is that children now live in an ethos of fantasy consumerism.”
Morris Berman, Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire
“What you need to remember, with these guys, is that they don't know they're con men. They're wildly overconfident. Omnipotence, omniscience--that's part of the mythology... Your guy can walk in the door and promise something he personally doesn't know how to do, and not even realize he's bullshitting about his own capabilities. It's a special kind of gullibility."
William Gibson
"As everything in what used to be called creation becomes a commodity, human beings begin to look at one another, and at themselves, in a funny way, and they see price tags. There was a time when people spoke, at least occasionally, of 'inherent worth'— if not of things, then at least of persons."
Harvey Cox, The Market as God
"Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people."
Garrison Kellor
What do you get when you cross a mafioso and a central banker?
They make you an offer that you can't understand.
And they probably don't either. But the bosses want it.
Stocks stumbled again today, although there was a determined effort to 'hold the line' on any declines.
More significantly perhaps, after hours the stay-at-home tech darling Netflix missed its numbers and provided less than sparkling outlook for Q3.
And so it promptly puked up 10+% of its market cap.
Gold and silver were hit today. The Dollar edged a bit higher.
I think this is stock option expiration shenanigans.
All those holders of leveraged positions and mining options probably took a good gut check on the strength of their convictions.
Chart-wise neither gold or silver broke anything important to the downside for now. Let's see how that works out.
I did my part for the economy today, and had a new hot water heater installed. The old one had reached the end of its effective product life. And I don't like to wait until it springs a leak or fails in the night to take some action on it.
Interestingly they tossed in a higher featured model, because that is what they had in stock in the right brand and size.
So now I can communicate with it on my smartphone, although it does not seem to have anything particularly interesting to say. But it will let me know if it is faltering, and shut off itself and the water automatically, so as not to make a mess.
I wish we could equip some people in politics and business with a similar capability.
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
Have a pleasant evening.
