Idiot though he is, Jim Cramer claims to know. He says that there are these instruments that constitute a bet against volatility, which I think means they pay off when market (prices) movement is more steady. He says that there was quite a lot of investment in these instruments, that the investment was heavily leveraged, and it is causing a ripple effect as investors (hedge fund managers in large part) are divesting other holdings to cover the calls on these instruments. He claims that this is a small-scale '08-like bubble pop.
That article bothers me a tad in the extent to which “bet” and other gambling words are used. I prefer to spend as little time as possible thinking about how the foundation of our economy has such a major leg resting in what amounts to a huge casino.
Lots of ideas, no answers other than my father’s observation “the market flucuates”. I have invested, usually inattentively, for 30+'years. I plan on doing what I have done in the past - stay the course.
I like the advice offered by this ninety-something poster on Bogleheads.
Kelly hasn’t been “protecting us.” He’s been protecting Trump. He’s been doing that since the beginning. He’s a good soldier. He gets shit done. And he’s probably the most dangerous person in the administration.
Along that line, Mattis’ willingness to throw Trump a parade strongly decreases my confidence in him keeping things on the straight and narrow, legally and ethically.
My only hope would be that someone else has given him orders to try and keep Trump happy and on American soil while the FBI moves in for the kill.
I fear that’s being unreasonably optimistic though.
This is what I’ve increasingly feared for a while. As the long arm of the law and the Constitution begin to catch up with Trump’s administration, they nevertheless possess the ultimate lever of power: the military. They’ve already demonstrated a willingness to corrupt the criminal justice system, and the Republicans have essentially abdicated their role in checking presidential power. We could see the military becoming increasingly politicized in various ways. And the FBI, DoJ, and state attorneys general are no match for the military.
Such decay would probably start out with seemingly legitimate purposes. The national guards in certain states called in to control civil unrest as the result of some political outrage (e.g. hacked voter rolls and contested election results in November), but increasingly, the situation devolves into a perpetual need for a security state. It seems far fetched, but as with all things Trump: every day that he’s in office, is another day that our system and all of our values as a country and society continue their decay. Every day he and his network of proxies for the billionaire class are in office is another day closer to the end of our country as we know it
Seems far… where have you been living since 9/11? Just look at the amount of security docudrama available at any airport close to you or at the kind of power different members of the alphabet soup have been granted. What you describe has already been happening for almost 20 years.
They have pictures of little tanks on them and if you press a button they play “The Stars and Stripes Forever” and General Kelly does that in EVERY FUCKING MEETING god that’s so annoying…
I don’t agree with that article. Trump doesn’t remember any kind of history. He’s not trying to return America to the 50’s. He wants the parade because he’s jealous of France having one, pure and simple. Just like the Great Wall of Trump, it’s another vanity project.
I had never heard of these instruments that are based on volatility. But seeing as how they are about 6 levels removed from any real-world indication of the strength of individual companies or even the economy as a whole, I’d say the casino metaphor is perfect. Investing in volatility says as much about the economy as betting on the color of the next car to come around the corner.
I’m thinking in terms of having an ostensible military and national police presence everywhere you go, and prosecution for “dangerous” activities using what seem like legitimate examples of law enforcement but are in reality a way to shut people up.
Remember, one of the very first high-profile prosecutions in the Jefferson Sessions era was going after inauguration day “rioters” in Washington, DC. Many of these “rioters” were arrested and charged with barely a shred of evidence that they even intended to participate in the protests, much less engaged in activities that could be described as rioting. It didn’t matter. They were charged and had to spend a year of their life wondering whether or not they were going to be spending half a decade in federal prison. At around that some time, a young female was charged with a felony for simply laughing out loud during a congressional hearing at Sessions’ confirmation hearings. Again, she was acquitted on the baseless charge but not before contemplating what the rest of her life would look like post-conviction.
As you alluded to, the tools that they have originate from the 9/11 decision to build a security state apparatus. We believed that we needed to be protected from an external representation of tyranny, without much regard for the possibility that this machinery might fall into the wrong hands and be commandeered by tyrants from within. There is in place a security state machine that is capable of exercising dangerous levels of pressure and influence over the great masses of people. It just requires a lot of corruption and a little bit of consent. I’m afraid that both conditions exist at present.