History Back and Forwards
Reply
A balanced protest from Occupy Wall Street
You are right to be indignant. The fact is the system is not working right. It is not right that we have so many people without jobs when we have so many needs that we have to fulfill. It’s not right that we are throwing people out of their houses when we have so many homeless people. Our financial markets have an important role to play. They’re supposed to allocate capital risks. But they misallocated capital, and they created risk. We are bearing the cost of their misdeeds. There’s a system where we’ve socialized losses and privatized gains. That’s not capitalism; that’s not a market economy. That’s a distorted economy, and if we continue with that, we won’t succeed in growing, and we won’t succeed in creating a just society.
-Joseph Stiglitz (Economist and Nobel Laureate, speaking to protesters in Zuccotti Park)
Physics/Though Quote
Why should any phenomenon be assumed impossible? The universe begins to look more and more like a great thought, than a great machine”
Physicist Sir James Jean as quoted in Time Magazine
Pardon the dust
Messing around with the guts and shell of this thing right now. Pardon the discombobulatorics while this steadily hatches.
Mark Twain Quote
A man who tries to carry a cat home by its tail will learn a lesson that can be learned in no other way.
Schroeder, Alice (2008-09-29). The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life (Kindle Locations 16135-16136). Bantam. Kindle Edition.
Charles Munger Quote
Munger’s favorite construct was to invoke Carl Jacobi: “Invert, always invert.” Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward. What’s in it for the other guy? What happens if all our plans go wrong? Where don’t we want to go, and how do you get there? Instead of looking for success, make a list of how to fail instead—through sloth, envy, resentment, self-pity, entitlement, all the mental habits of self-defeat. Avoid these qualities and you will succeed. Tell me where I’m going to die, that is, so I don’t go there.
Schroeder, Alice (2008-09-29). The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life (Kindle Locations 15352-15356). Bantam. Kindle Edition.
“What if you put a time machine going forward in time inside a time machine going backward in time?”
via Jason Sweeney
A look at the shifting world after Mr. Job’s passing
An article that reframes the announcement of his death, and considers the end(ing) of an era during Steve’s life; the ever encroaching tentacles of globalization, the fatigued and confused American direction.
Buying a house?
An elucidating article on what it really means to chase the American House dream. Food for thought for anyone considering a house purchase:
also: a complementing graphic of the Case-Shiller index to illustrate the real return on real estate as a financial investment:
Drama in politics
An article about the aftermath of Trotsky’s death within Russian politics and its players, that I should review. Link