Third World America: 'The Greatest Health Care System In the World'

“Propaganda serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others; and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda.”

Eric Hoffer


“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
 

Robert Johnson: New Perspectives For Economics

Some of Johnson's remarks are extraordinarily insightful.

I enjoyed his comments on the modern preoccupation with modeling. But I do think his looking back to the Thirty Years War for the trend towards abstract theory over the empirical method in general is a bit of a stretch. But it was kind of cool to think about it.

Quite the opposite, much of the rest of science is very much more empirically oriented, and based on experimentation, replication, and testing. Perhaps he intended that economics be considered more as a social philosophy, and that this trend is particular to that area of knowledge, and I did not understand this.

I think that economics had draped itself with the math and rigor of science, but bent over backwards to say those things that were politically expedient, depending on one's particular biases and opinions. The intricacy and jargon were there to provide the accoutrements, the flames and smoke and loud pronouncements, that make ordinarily people tremble before those modern Wizards of Oz.

He is otherwise rather kind towards those in his profession who, when the predators appeared on the horizon, swam out to meet the boats and came ashore with them in their plundering. Not all of course, but far too many, and for far too long. Where was the peer review and the discipline of the profession? While the coins were flowing, it seemed as though it was 'go along to get along' with the proper professional courtesy. Perhaps the tone was set for the trade by the Fed under Alan Greenspan.

I believe that his comments are primarily directed towards the economics profession in the US and England, who have taken point on the modeling bandwagon and have given themselves over to viewing reality through the prism of abstractions, shaped top down by ideology.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - This Must Have Been a Non-Farm Payrolls Friday

"Behind the concrete, the visible events, behind all the objective, logical considerations, we find that which goes beyond the merely rational: the struggle against evil, against the servants of the antichrist.

Everywhere and always demonic powers lurk in the dark, waiting for the moment when man is weak; when of his own volition he leaves his place in Creation, as founded for him by God in freedom; and when he yields to the forces of evil, he separates himself from the powers of a higher order; after voluntarily taking the first step, he is driven on and on to the next and to the next, at a furiously accelerating rate."

Die Weiße Rose, Fourth Leaflet, Munich, 1942

Gold and silver were both hit rather hard this morning on the release of the better than expected Non-Farm Payrolls report. What a surprise!

What was perhaps most interesting is that the rally in stocks did not stick, with equities falling off after a quick 'three step' move in the futures, and with the SP 500 and Dow coming back to unchanged in the afternoon. The NDX never did recover and put a second day in the red.

And while gold fell down to the support of its tightening symmetrical triangle, it would not stay down, even in the non-active month of March which is seasonally poor for the precious metal.

I kind of enjoyed how the markets behaved so well, or at least as I had expected they would do. It gives me a little hope that this is not all randomness perhaps.

Note:  I had linked to a story earlier this evening about a large gold purchase by Northwestern Life that turns out to be dated, even though the link shows today's date. Someone sent it to me after the close and it took a little while for me to see the error.  It has been removed.

Let's see how events go over the weekend,  to find if the tensions increase or subside. I have been looking for articles that seem to illuminate the situation a bit, and will continue to post what I find useful for my own inquiries.   The fog of conflict descended very quickly.

I remember you, as I hope that you will sometimes remember me.

Have a pleasant weekend.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Men at Work, and Hail The Recovery™

"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals."

William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Sc 2

The Non-Farm Payrolls Report came in to the high side this morning with a headline number of 175,000 jobs added.

Stocks did a three step zig zag and then tended to sell off, with a recovery to unchanged in the afternoon, except for the real world heavy NASDAQ 100, which put a second day into the red.

How come? I think it was because once you dug into the details of the report things were a bit disjointed, with unemployment rising, and the average work week declining, in spite of the 'better than expected' jobs increase. The seasonality and birth-death model seemed a bit dodgy from my spreadsheet, but who am I to judge?

Have a pleasant weekend.