Monday 5 April 2010

Bernard Of Trèves And Ben Bernanke

Oh you latter day Rosicrucians, you freemasons of Friedmanian alchemy, all of the credulous and all of the lovers of the marvelous, step back from your econometric tomfoolery and from your hysterical commotions.

Faith in finance.
Yet another fiscal resurrection.
I believe in one gold, two cash, three shares, four exotic assets...

And these Ponzi coins of trust must be continually circulated and gambled - the pound has lost 98% of its value in the last forty years, the dollar 96%.

When Mandelbrot claimed that Economics is at the same stage of development as Chemistry in the 16th century, he should have expanded further on his theme.

Alchemy, that is what the entire global financial system is founded upon.
Astrology is the mystique used to befuddle the bewildered.
And Analysts are there to guide the uninitiated in illogical non-utility.

Murky, monopolistic-by-maturity and alchemic...

Econometricians with their hyperreal causes and effects, turning their lead into gold and their iron nails into silver - the Philosopher's Stoned.
The causes and effects are puppeted by proprietary strategies at the heart of things - Hagase el milagro y hagalo Mahoma [let the miracle be done, though Muhammad do it].

Astragalomantic divining by dice morphs into derivative divining by credit default swaps.

"And men still grope t'anticipate
The cabinet designs of Fate;
Apply to wizards to foresee
What shall and what shall never be" - Hudibras, Part III, canto 3.

As Ponzis implode in upon themselves, what was originally, if selectively, innovative and creative becomes instead a race to the bottom of the barrel.

Tipp-Ex is typical.
Mistake - Tipp-Ex - Solution, which, with customer-orientated late capitalism becomes - Mistake - New Improved Tipp-Ex Rapid Extra Coverage - Not A Solution.
Even after repeatedly rapid extra coverage.

Obtuse Disordered Optimism.
There is no W shaped Depression.
Everything is hunky dory.
There are no more bubbles.

Jeremy Grantham of GMO projects that the British housing market must fall by 40%.
The Schiller Price/Earnings Ratio remains in its upper quintile.

Private James Frazer in Dad's Army: "I don't trust banks. I don't trust bankers. And I don't trust you."

Charles Mackay: "Credulity is always greatest in times of calamity... Many fallacies and delusions have been crushed under the foot of Time."

And, remember, just as a limp handshake is always a sign of masonic disappointment, so all men are potential Papists which may only be defined as "una puta barbaridad".

"Chairs are architecture. Sofas are bourgeois" - Le Corbusier.

"...and the world wagged as merrily as of yore" - Mackay.

© A Ludic Abstraction Of Competition/Dietrological. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from A Ludic Abstraction Of Competition and redistribute by email or post to the web.