"We wonder, and some hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when through the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the wolf in chase,
He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race,
Once dwelt in that annihilated place."
Horace Smith, Ozymandias, 1818
“The essence of the this-time-is-different syndrome is simple. It is rooted in the firmly held belief that financial crises are things that happen to other people in other countries at other times; crises do not happen to us, here and now.
The lesson of history, then, is that even as institutions and policy makers improve, there will always be a temptation to stretch the limits. Just as an individual can go bankrupt no matter how rich she starts out, a financial system can collapse under the pressure of greed, politics, and profits no matter how well regulated it seems to be.
In sum, historical experience already shows that rich countries are not as 'special' as some cheerleaders had been arguing, both when it comes to managing capital inflows and especially when it comes to banking crises.”
Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, 2009
"Babylon will not live again.
It will be desolate, for generations.
Nomads will not pitch tents there,
or shepherds bed their flocks.
Desert animals will roam the city,
its homes filled with howling creatures.
Owls will live among the ruins,
and wild goats will dance.
Hyenas will watch from its towers,
and jackals rule hopeless palaces.
Babylon’s days are numbered;
its time of destruction is coming."
Isaiah 13:20-22
“When you see the desolation of abomination standing where it should not, let those who seek knowledge understand, then flee from Judea to the mountains."
Mark 13:14
Stocks turned in a very mixed performance today, with the broader market showing the greatest weakness, and the heart of the bubble, the tech stocks, showing more resilience.
The Dollar took back the 50 cents it gave up yesterday.
Gold was unchanged. Silver gave up some ground back to the 32 handle.
VIX wallows.
War fever continues to build.
The incumbent party and its candidates have a strong vested interest in the strength of equities and the illusion of victory in foreign adventures, at least until the November elections.
The mighty rise and are fallen. The word and the spirit endure.
Have a pleasant evening.
