Wooo Woooo! Heather: good writing.

Have you been assigned the thankless,

(except for LR's) task of providing at least

minimum recognition for the historic, ----no,

biblical, ---no, epochal changes which are,

and are to come, to a bank (and near bank), near you?

What with all the heavies in the financial

press groping, (consentually), for bigger adjectives (fast

forward to epochal folks, no one can remember

prievious to that), Salon seems to have taken a

pass on all this, knowing that "deja ..." arrives faster

than the next big thing. But really, salon, there are is

such a wealth(?) of ambiguous chaos out there in

the markets that the 'pickin's' for writers is really a

near embarassment of richess. The last time, the

sky was filled with 'chickens coming home to roost'.

Now, we get a single black swan and a bunch of

turkeys, not necessarily associated with any thoughts

of 'thanksgiving' (unless you switched to short positions

a while ago)

I was expecting a very literate Wall street burnout to

elaborate at length on 'its only money' (caveat to the

'currency' folks...), and 'its different this time' (sure,

its beyond worse)

You have a point: tough times create 'character'

but can we still even understand the implications of that?

Politicans who wont waffle can be unreasonably

demanding. Excellent products are more expensive.

Reality may be a default too far....

Salon in its wisdom, (or random intuities), seems

to have chosen a great I Ching leap to the meaning

of 'less is more....', ..understandable, in that we

have had 7 years of 'more is less.' Much less. A

veritable bankrupsy of anything meaningful...

Thanks Heather.

ARGONNE

May you live in interesting times.........

My family often visited a farm in what is a hidden

valley. A small pocket of a few hundred people nearly

cut off from main roads and electricity. We were warmed by

wood stoves, and read by oil lamps. I realize now, that I

lived, briefly, in the late 1800's (or 17, or even 1600's).

That experience will never fade. Among stacks of books

on economics, philosophy, and all the theories and histories

we accumulate, memories of those months of vacation visits

are like a huge monument: a formidable logic and emotional

refutation (or affirmation), of all the books. Anyone who lived

or lives in that world, cannot fear hunger or cold as they are feared

in war, in revolutions, or in financial collapse. But life is far more

complicated than fresh cream on wild strawberries after baked

fresh salmon, or snuggling in buffalo robes by the fireplace at Christmas.

That is why they had to write the books, and why we study them,

and rewrite them.

Economic, financial, business 'models' (theories) are a phoenix

which ascends from the ashes of the previous collapse. The

'New Deal' emerged this way, and has slowly been abandoned,

margainalized, administratively starved, refuted, legislated into

oblivion. It becomes an interesting PR problem to read of whole

sectors of the economy dying like polluted lakes, the news of

which is crafted to avoid any semblance to a 'Depression'. The world

has wobbled, stabilized, wobbled again........ then along came

George... It is interesting to watch the ('we create our own reality'),

Bush admin realize that they dont have a clue as to what is happening

or what to do about it. As Jimmy said: " this is the moral equivalent of

war..." ---But Jimmy, we have already flunked the Real one. George

is up there spinning his legs in midair like the dollar speculator, who

suddenly realizes that nothing but air is holding it up, as in Paul Krugman's

description of Wyle Coyote. This is good teaching, in that the moral

equivalent and logic required is about the level of grade 6: Mary loaned

Billy 8 lollipops, (just add 12 or more zeros), Billy is broke, so just enter

8 zillion zillion zillion lollipops in the Red column,then hide the leger in the

woodshed. Goldman Sachs, Citi, do the same.....

ARGONNE

HEATHER: How do you do it ? You get tons 'o love and compliments from your readers (metoo). --We open the fortune cookie every week, to read snippets on

economic multi fractures, in somewhat derivitve, (uh, derisive) terms --then on,

to the slippery rocks of the Vast Wasteland itsself. (--subprime, to the ridiculous?)

You sometimes sound like a an Oxbridge Philo grad held in a Noequity-swapped

cookie factory in HK; -offshored and retooled to stampout critiques of the downsides 0f 'greed is good', -part II (the sequel: Armaggedon at the jiaozzi shop). You should have an intern from SCC (Shanghai Commercial College), taking notes for the-day 'it-happened-in-China'. (this may be another example of

economic recursive entropy contagen, in that Shanghai financial people

are Still milking the Chinese economy with bribed loan approvals, to build

'illegal' bribe-approvaled, belching coal generators. (note: 'illegal' is in quotes

because the 'Meaning' of illegal is unclear; (to Whom, is the question to ask).

However, here in the Middle Kingdom the 'meaning' of Meaning is unclear,

as, legally, in the US is the "meaning" of "IS" is...is. In its current situation, Goldman and Citigroup have been researching this 'anomoly' with vigour, The quotesare used...... (uh, ..oh well..) .... The financials have never had to contemplatethe Zen of screwing the public: they roll their own. -sometimes with tobacco.

So with readers thinking that you are a vastly educated prisoner of wasteland

commentary (no one ever lost $ underestimating the intelligence of the American reader. (Barnum)). And your own abilities, with wry observations, .....ahh, you

speak to the prisoner in all of us, who occasionally manage a wry reply...:-)

ANONYMOUS