I would have said "sell securities, raise rates," three weeks ago, but now it looks like that will risk sending the banking system into a crisis. — Count Timothy von Icarus

:up: The foreign exchange market is showing that global sentiment doesn't expect the fed to raise rates any further. The dollar is getting weaker, not stronger as it would if a rate hike was expected.

There's a lot of uncertainty right now

To this extent I'd agree with your characterization of the fallacy. Hitler was responsible for what Hitler did; history was responsible for creating the conditions that made Hitler possible. — Pantagruel

:up:

That, sir, is a very third rate religion you're espousing, I'm afraid. Not because it has proven false, for religion does not deal in fact, but because it entirely lacks ambition. — unenlightened

I don't think the world needs to be saved, if that's what you mean.

Again, the Dasein was Hitler-compatible ... — 180 Proof

This is a fallacy called reductio ad Hitlerum.

It simply wasn't in the news. Only later we found out that the whole financial system had been close to collapsing. And just how much was given to banks and corporations. — ssu

It was pretty obvious when the chairman of the fed and the secretary of the Treasury appeared before Congress asking for money. Everyone knew that 55 trillion dollars had just disappeared and that the banking system was in credit freeze. Most of the bail out was legislation called TARP.

Perhaps the money that people have in banks should be secured — ssu

It's insured by the FDIC up to a certain amount.

But it should be absolutely clear that the Fed works for Wall Street. — ssu

Of course.

Apparently a grand jury thinks there's enough evidence to indict. Have a little faith in the system, man.

I think the Fed is now busy saving the banking system... again. — ssu

I don't think that was the Fed, if you're talking about 2008-2009. It was Congress and the Treasury.

Is that a “no”? — NOS4A2

He's going to be charged with violating federal campaign finance laws. You been out hunting moose or something?

Can you tell me briefly what he did this time that has the foam increasing in and around the mouths of those who believe this shit? — NOS4A2

I don’t know nor care about the details. — NOS4A2

:chin:

What isn’t true? — NOS4A2

They aren't relying on Cohen's word. He's supposedly got a recording that proves Trump directed him to violate campaign finance laws.

You didn't know that?

The establishment’s base is resting their hopes on the word of a porn star, a lawyer who plead guilty for lying, and a political district attorney — NOS4A2

I'm pretty sure you know this isn't true. Why are you saying it?

That's like saying that policemen do not commit crimes. — unenlightened

I guess we're thinking of different meanings of "establishment.". Today's establishment is those college kids who wrestled with the police at Kent State. Clinton was very progressive in her youth and then became part of the new establishment. It's not about authority or policing anything. If anything, our establishment is "let the markets do what they want and defund aid to the inner cities.". That's what both Clinton and her husband ultimately stood for.

I know it's hard to think of Trump as the leader of the young rabble rousers, but he actually is. He was elected in part by refugees from the Democratic party. It didn't turn out well. He didn't strike a particularly heroic pose, but he did reveal a well of frustration with, and anger toward...

the establishment.

Likewise any revolutionary government comes to power in a coup and immediately becomes established or is overthrown by a counter coup by the disestablished establishment. — unenlightened

I'm sure Trump would have liked to establish his own ment. He wanted to be a dictator.

think so. Rather in the same way that a corrupt policeman is still a member of the police. — unenlightened

Broadly speaking, he's an anti-establishment figure. He was a perfect rendition of the demagogue who leads the fight against the establishment. In this case, the establishment is neoliberal, so MAGA was about taking the country back to somewhere around 1965 when embedded liberalism assured the average white guy a good job with benefits.

It wasn't a good look when Obama and Clinton tried to explain that we can't go back. That assured that they'd be taken as exactly what they are: representatives of the establishment.

Another hint is that establishment figures don't try to arrange coups.

. Governments bearing the risk of bank failures turn people apathetic to their banks' behavior. — Tzeentch

In this case the threat is coming from central bank policy, so it's a little late to cry "laissez faire!". But yes, bank failures are a good thing (unless they aren't).

Trump, his Republican supporters... are all entrenched part of "the establishment". — Fooloso4

No, I don't think so.

Yes, because The Prez stands at the Gates of America very much like Gandalf stood before the Gates of Minas Tirith, and by his power turned away the servant of Sauron. EVEN Donald Trump was able to thwart invasions from the Bahamas and bird-like aliens from a distant star system, just by standing resolutely in front of the the urinal in the oval room powder room.

Iceland is waiting for a lapse in our powerful presidency, as is Lichtenstein, Morocco, and Sri Lanka.

Can the POTUS by force of his high office turn back ICBMs? Apparently -- otherwise the Soviet Union would have long since buried us, as Nikita Khrushchev foretold. Unfortunately, coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was able to slip past the Great Guardian and Guarantor of Freedom. — BC

This sounds slightly sarcastic.

No they don't. The whole reason arbitrage works is because information assymetry, which we even see in highly liquid, transparent stock markets, let alone complex relationships resulting from the interaction of various supply chains. — Benkei

Which part of that is outside the economy?

It isn't just that the existing political process will fail to solve our significant -- even existential -- problems. It IS the case that the existing political process CAN NOT solve our problems. — BC

We still have to have a president, though. If we have no head of government, somebody will invade.

the structure or design of our markets/economy hindering us from developing a better way forward? — Benj96

Market prices reflect the totality of the information in the economy. If we want more guacamole silverware and less plastic, we'll have to contribute to that well of info through legislation that increases the price of plastic or subsidizes guacamole.

:clap:

There's a good Dylan song about a kid who goes looking for his native american father, only to be disillusioned by what he finds. The refraim is a quasi native chant sort of combined with a European sound.

"My mother took me aside
and tried to change my mind
she said there's nothing
nothing
left to find."

Crucially though, I can carry on wearing my kilt without feeling like I'm perpetuating a fake culture. — Jamal

With or without underwear?

Love you too. — Banno

Just keeping it real, man.

Sure. But this isn't about you.

These are not an academic exercises. — Banno

Funny you said that. My unspoken opinion was that both you and the author you mentioned were making the issue all about yourselves.

It all goes back to food.

Much if it was a response to the Union with England. An identity crisis. — Jamal

Wow. I didn't realize that. Cool.

I get the impression that you aren't aware of the mistakes that were made with regard to "dreamtime." Surely not.

Or maybe you didn't notice that I was specifically referencing that to explain my desire to go straight to scholars and bypass amateurs.

I have an unending hunger to know about human cultures. Wrong information just gets in my way.

Funny you should mention that, because that’s pretty much what did happen with Scottish culture. — Jamal

How so?

I’m saying that every culture is determined partly by what it is thought to be, both by insiders and outsiders. — Jamal

Sure. The same happens with individuals. If I expect the worst of you, I'll communicate that in various ways. Then it comes down to how open you are to suggestion.

In the case of the aboriginals, it would be as if someone misinterpreted some Scottish document and went on to create a fanciful story about your ancestors' beliefs. This narrative becomes popular, and since the oral traditions have broken down, you accept the mistake as your heritage. It's kind of sad.

Maybe at that point it’s not bullshit any more. Maybe culture works like that all the time. — Jamal

Maybe. Native Americans are aware that their own cultures are mostly lost and replaced by an all-purpose image that's Siouxan: the teepees, feathered headresses and so forth.

Are you saying that every generation is served up a dose of bullshit with the facts about their heritage?

There is a fair amount of inaccurate information circulating about the native Australians. Poignantly, that information (baloney about dreamtime and so forth) made it's way back to aboriginals who had no knowledge of the culture of their ancestors. They adopted the bullshit as their own.

I'll stick to scholars, thanks.

One puzzler is whether a person can transform herself through redirecting self-talk.

We recently had a thread about a famous American comic strip author. One of the things he's famous for is that he apparently guided his career by writing down his goals as if they were bound to happen. In each case, his goal was realized. One of his written messages was something like: "My comic will become the number one syndicated comic in America." And it happened.

I've used this myself, recently. Learning to trade on the foreign exchange market is known for its choppy psychological waves, especially at the beginning. Even before I learned first hand what they were talking about, I figured I better write down my goals. At the time, I thought they were very modest. Turns out, they were actually pretty challenging. My goals are like the glimmer of a lighthouse, confirming that the shore is over there. As I travel, the light gets brighter. My goals remind me to stay disciplined. At this point, I have chosen a strategy and I write it out every morning when I analyze the charts. It's my magic.

Notably, I'm drawn to using the ocean as a symbol of the wildness of emotion that follows trying and failing. The market itself is like an ocean with unknown depths and travelling "whales." Whales are institutional traders or guys like George Soros (known for having made the historically largest profit off the foreign exchange market.).

According the American literature, the ocean is the watery depths of the psyche and in response to a battle waged against it by a captain of rationality, it sends forth a white whale called Moby Dick. It doesn't end well for the captain or his ship. This book is specifically intended as a warning in an age of hyper-rationality: that waging a war against the psyche is dangerous to the whole community. The psyche has to play out its stories and it will react violently to being molested.

So this kind of magic doesn't allow you to create whatever world you might think of on a whim. It just acts as a rudder to guide you through the maze of possibilities toward the one you want. Every step of the way, you have to acknowledge the majesty and power of the psyche. Pit yourself against it, and you're doomed.

Godzilla vs King Kong

How did that movie end?

It's not personal, that's the point. It was Oppenheimer who quoted the Bhagavad-Gita in 1945. "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." — unenlightened

I meant you were part of a generation baptised in it.

Speak for yourself Frank — unenlightened

Ok, sorry.

But we are already haunted by our selves. Billions of people all haunted by the way they interpret events, all seeing the magic from the outside, or not seeing it because it is inside. I was brought up with "The Bomb". It was the new thing in the world, to be accommodated by psyche; by pretty much everyone in the world. "When you hear the alarm, crouch under your desk, put your head between your knees, and kiss your arse goodbye." It was transformative, this new destructive power, and more shocking even than the revelation of the depths of human depravity exposed in the deliberate mass starvation in Russia, and the Final Solution in Europe. This is my interpretation of events: we haunt ourselves. The secular magicians are playing with forces they cannot comprehend because they cannot comprehend themselves. — unenlightened

You were taught to worship Shiva.

I like civilization, but ask yourself, how much longer did the pre-civilization cultures like the Australian and North American indigenous population last? — BC

Australians, around 60,000 years. Native Americans, about 10,000. True, it's a long time. Not a lot of Beethoven or Shakespeare, but robust in other ways.

As Augustine pointed out, where there are cities, there is continuous unrest and violence. It's more dramatic.

That doesn't mean that these other cultures are inferior to my preferred civilization-topics. Or does it? — BC

I don't think civilization is inherently better aesthetically. Obviously it ended up being more successful than other modes.

For anthropologists, monument building is a mark of civilization.

It's partly the way you're interpreting events. We naturally look for repetition, so we highlight the similarities between now and the 1930s, using words like "mirroring.". This view is melancholic per Kierkegaard.

Alternately, we may see ourselves as unique in all of human history, and in some ways we are. There's hard edged drama to this outlook, because we see how we have problems no society has ever faced before.

It's a matter of predisposition.

I'm a frontline healthcare worker, so I still see the posters left from the pandemic that say "heroes wear scrubs." I don't know what that's supposed to mean, though. I was just doing my job.

What does it mean to you?