Night Hawke
road rage center
insurrection
electile dysfunction (november 00)
free love and nickel beer (aug 00)
outside links
these outside links are not necessarily endorsed by me re: their position on the issues -- some agree with me on some issues and disagree on others -- they are placed here for your reference
center for democracy and technology
Cancer /Hospice Links
Hospice of North Central Florida
American Society of Gene Therapy
Center Watch Clinical Trials Listing
April 2000
The Big Bang
©
2001
Night Hawke
"Captain she's gonna blow." Says Scotty in his thick brogue. "The anti-mahtter is leakin from the warp core I canna hold her much longer!" And so goes the story -- when anti-matter collides with matter you get a hell of a bang -- sort of like when fantasy meets reality like the proliferation of over-inflated stocks biting the big one on Wall Street as of late.
The Klingons and the Romulans both attacked Enterprise with a double whammy Disruptor blast here in the last few weeks -- all to protect us poor colonists from our own evil greed. The Klingons in this case are led by their great warrior Greenspan Kahn and masquerade as an unconstitutional entity called the Federal Reserve.
The Romulans are led by High Commander (his fake title is US District Judge) Thomas Penfield Jackson who ruled that Darth Gates was the ruler of an Evil Empire and order him to give up Boardwalk and Park Place.
And so once again the government sticks its' dirty little nose in our business and devalues our wealth just like that with no compensation. Of course there are always a few insiders -- like HRC -- who can capitalize on little twists and turns of the news like this before they happen. (Now I'm not suggesting that she did it in this case but certainly it looks suspicious what she did with the whole health care scam a few years back.) Now had the government come out to take our house away from us--to say--build a road--it would have to compensate us for that. But in these cases it gets to just turn the economy up or down like a thermostat in your house with no care as to whether or not we get cold.
This is a lot different though from when my grandfather went broke back in the big one. This time the market is rife with "institutional investors". That's the term fancy financial types like to use for "the little guy". All of us average Joes out here now have most of our retirement tied up in 401k type accounts that are invested heavily in the street and managed by a few big-wig fat cat type gamblers who try to make our funds perform. Most of the time we're too busy working to really look except when our quarterly reports come out.
So here is the government (oh I forgot Greenspan Kahn isn't officially a branch of the government is he??? Just how the fuck did we get stuck with a powerful asshole like this that we have no control over yet when he eats his breakfast in the morning and farts the whole world smells it??) making huge decisions like this (and the great High Commander is another appointed not elected official) that now effect us not only through 'trickle down' events but directly in our pocket books with no real accountability for their actions.
Now, I'm not a real big fan of Darth Gates or his Empire. Nor do I hold Captain Kirk unaccountable for his part in steering the Enterprise down this path. I've been part of huge corporations that pulled some pretty fast ones although I can't mention the name of them here (Sunbeam, General Motors).
See these major corporations have been taking the lead from swashbuckling marketing types and CEO's who, sensitive to the quarterly reports that drive Wall Street, make decisions based on what will make their P and L statements look good right now instead of what's best for the shareholders and stakeholders long term. So they divest themselves of real value like real estate and manufacturing equipment -- not to mention talented/skilled employees and opt to buy shit goods from China, slap the brand name of choice on it and then peddle the stuff to us like they made it themselves.
What all this does is make the companies that actually provide goods worthless excepting for the perceived value that can be garnered on the street by waving some smoke around in front of a few mirrors every quarter. This puts the hard companies in about the same boat as the soft companies -- you know all those hi-techs like internet service companies who's stocks continue to soar on speculation that one day they might turn a profit.
So all the fantasy hits reality when the big slot machine on the street comes up short of quarters even though all three lemons are lined up in the payoff window.
But don't panic. You see this is the real clicker. It's not really going to crash. That's because us poor schlobs don't have anywhere else to put our money besides those rickety little 401ks. So, ultimately the Street will remain propped up for about another 10 to 15 years until the baby boomers start retiring in droves. So this dipping as of late is destined to rise again... cause -- you know... shit floats.
I like thieves. Some of my best friends are thieves. Why, just last week we had the president of the bank over for dinner. -- WC Fields
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If you steal anything from here I will hunt you down and eat you!
Just be thankful you're not getting all the government you're paying for. --Will Rogers