It is said that your life will be most impacted by the people you meet, and the books you read. On that note, given all that is happening in the markets and in the world, I think it’s appropriate to revisit Ayn Rand’s classic - Atlas Shrugged. Published over 50 years ago in 1957, Atlas Shrugged was voted the most influential book in readers lives, other than the bible.
Borrowing from and paraphrasing Francisco d’Anconia …
“The man who damns (sound) money has obtained his dishonorably.”
“Run for your life from any man who tells you that (sound) money is no longer necessary, because that is the Lepers Bell of an approaching looter.”
“When men abandon (sound) money, the only way to deal with one another will soon become the muzzle of a gun. And do you wish to know when that day is coming? Just watch money. Money is the barometer of a societies virtue.”
“When you see that money is flowing to men that make nothing, but merely deal in favors, inside information, graft, and pull… when you see corruption being rewarded, and honesty becoming self-sacrifice, you may know that your society is doomed.”
Until we re-discover that sound money is the foundation for a sound economy, we will continue to head towards our own destruction.
Everyone seems to want to look to the future for answers, when they are all waiting to be found in the past, because while markets change… people never do.
So it was written in 1957.
Thank You Ayn Rand.
SliderOnTheBlack
3 responses so far ↓
1 Stormin Norman // May 20, 2008 at 11:12 pm
“Everyone seems to want to look to the future for answers, when they are all waiting to be found in the past, because while markets change… people never do.”
I have been trying to look to the past for answers but can’t find anything concrete. In Germany, money was burned for heat and one guy borrowed for some acres and cattle, he paid his loan off with one cow.
I have a little book called the Hyperinflation Survival guide and it doesn’t really give any good answers as to how one might prepare for such an occurence. Unless you want to prepare to take an expensive cab to the grocery store since it will get there faster than a slower cheaper bus; but then you save by getting to the store faster as prices rise by the minute.
Just rambling……
2 admin // May 22, 2008 at 8:39 am
Norman,
This Fed does only two things well - inflate, and create bubbles.
Money always flows to where it’s treated well.
And right now with negative real rates - there is no incentive to save, and money is pouring into commodities. We’ve seen explosive moves in gold, in grains, and now in oil.
The street isn’t buying the story they’re trying to sell to main street — that the credit crisis is over.
It isn’t. While the worst for sub prime mortgage paper has passed, alt-a, heloc, and prime mortgage loans are starting to deteriorate; as well as auto loans, credit cards and commercial real estate loans.
See this chart:
http://bp1.blogger.com/_pMscxxELHEg/SDSiqlVpANI/AAAAAAAACAY/q3qRU7N5QLw/s1600-h/FedDelinquencyQ108.jpg
Earnings estimates are still way too high. Spiking oil is going to hit both the consumer and the broad market hard.
There are lots of strategies to profit from the credit crisis, from inflation, from deteriorating consumer spending and sentiment, as well as a still over-valued broad market and a bubble in the bond market.
Many of those strategies involve trading short, and I know that’s uncomfortable for many people. But, to profit from this market - you’re going to have to use some of the reverse ETF’s and stay nimble in the volatile commodity inflation plays.
Sadly, savers are subsidizing speculators. With negative real rates - what’s a saver to do?
Answer - foreign currency ETFs, short bond ETFs, commodity stocks and ETFs, and market short positions.
There is no way savers can keep their head above water with 2.5% to 4.5% returns with real world inflation running in the double digits.
S.O.T.B.
3 NixPix // Feb 11, 2009 at 6:25 pm
This quote says how I have felt all along. What does Wall Street contribute to our society? They do nothing and take all the money.
Wake up America and do something!
“When you see that money is flowing to men that make nothing, but merely deal in favors, inside information, graft, and pull… when you see corruption being rewarded, and honesty becoming self-sacrifice, you may know that your society is doomed.”
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