"Lack of understanding and laziness may cause more problems in the world than cunning and malice."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Die Leiden des jungen Werther, 4 May 1771
"The whole spectacle of the health of the global economy pirouetting on the decision of an American Banker, or perhaps more properly, the Viceroy of Wall Street, on whether to symbolically raise a benchmark interest rate, tied to an avalanche of internationally distributed paper claim checks for conceptual ephemera and political promises, must be one of the oddest things that we have come to take for granted in our modern society today.
Such is the power of the modern religion of the markets, and with those who would displace any power greater than themselves to make way for the overheated imaginings of their restless wills and fancies."
Jesse, The Improbable in Service to the Insatiable, 26 August 2015
"At sea and on land, everyone seemed to be making money. It was a stampede of buying. And major speculators like John Jacob Rascob whipped up the frenzy. He told readers of The Ladies’ Home Journal that 'now everyone could be rich.' September 2nd, Labor Day. It was the hottest day of the year. The markets were closed and people were at the beach. A reporter checked in with astrologer Evangeline Adams to ask about the future of stock prices. Her answer: the Dow Jones could climb to heaven. The very next day, September 3rd, the stock market hit its all-time high.
On September 5th, economist Roger Babson gave a speech to a group of businessmen. 'Sooner or later, a crash is coming and it may be terrific.' The market took a severe dip. They called it the Babson Break. The next day, prices stabilized, but several days later, they began to drift lower. Though investors had no way of knowing it, the collapse had already begun
As the market floundered, financial leaders were as optimistic as ever, more so. Just five days before the crash, Thomas Lamont, acting head of the highly conservative Morgan Bank, wrote a letter to President Hoover. 'The future appears brilliant. Our securities are the most desirable in the world.' Charles Mitchell of National City Bank assured nervous investors that things had never been better."
PBS American Experience, The Great Crash of 1929, June 1999
"It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought."
John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society, 1958
There is a trip to the vet with the little one in my immediate future, so I am posting the charts now, and will update any changes to them tomorrow.
Today was an FOMC day, and the Fed did nothing with rates.
The price the West is going to pay for the egos of a few self-absorbed, psychologically unbalanced leaders and their greedy, sociopathic followers is truly astonishing. There is only one word for it.
Madness.
Have a pleasant evening.
