Talk Amongst Yourselves
Fundimentalists Touch The Leader To Invoke His Power (Original: Bloomberg)
The idea of the military as an enforcer of order in a world filled with corrupt and even crazy political leaders has long been a theme in emerging markets from Turkey to Argentina. But as those countries also show, it usually doesn’t end well. This should give pause at a time when a June Gallup poll shows that while only 12 per cent of Americans have confidence in Congress, and only 32 per cent in the president, a whopping 72 per cent have “a great deal” of faith in the military. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when a long-time source of mine, behavioural economist Peter Atwater, released an investor note in mid-August pointing out these numbers, and suggesting that markets and experts were naive to dismiss entirely the possibility of an American coup d’état.
Extreme, to be sure, but coups need not be of the bloody emerging-market variety to be effective. One could imagine a 25th amendment process organised by the generals in the president’s cabinet, or a forced resignation with details revealed only after the fact. In any case, Atwater isn’t alone in feeling that the political situation in the US is nearing a dangerous breaking point. In a public post on LinkedIn, Ray Dalio, Bridgewater founder and America's most famous hedge-funder, recently announced that he was rejigging his portfolio in reaction to political risk in the US. “It seems to me that we are now economically and socially divided and burdened in ways that are broadly analogous to 1937,” he wrote. “During such times conflicts (both internal and external) increase, populism emerges, democracies are threatened and wars can occur. I can’t say how bad this time around will get. I’m watching how conflict is being handled as a guide, and I’m not encouraged.”
-- Rana Foroohar, "Dystopian America -- how far are we from Gilead?"
Financial Times Magazine, September 8, 2017 (Article here, but beware the paywall)
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MEHR, MIT DIE MEINUNG AUS DIE GEMEINSCHAFTEN:
It goes without saying that Foroohar, and Dialo, are part of the business sector. The Business Sector cares whether things go south, because it can affect their portfolios. Beyond that, not so much.
If you want proof, look at the three Equifax senior managers who sold their stock in the company about thirty seconds after they learned about the size of the data breach, which Equifax finally reported last week. These weasels didn't give a damn about anything but their personal exposure. Nothing like a little insider trading.
Dialo was, according to Foroohar, "rejigging" his fund's holdings (that is, his clients') to bet Short -- profiting from disaster, again, something which made him famous and rich before 2008.
If you want proof, look at the three Equifax senior managers who sold their stock in the company about thirty seconds after they learned about the size of the data breach, which Equifax finally reported last week. These weasels didn't give a damn about anything but their personal exposure. Nothing like a little insider trading.
Dialo was, according to Foroohar, "rejigging" his fund's holdings (that is, his clients') to bet Short -- profiting from disaster, again, something which made him famous and rich before 2008.
It's interesting that one of the planet's top hedge fund managers would say something that, on its face, appears critical of Things As They Are, which some might take to mean Trump (See, even among the Coporatocenti he is unpopular). But Dialo is only broadcasting a message that's been circulating among his client base for some time.
Read this (and don't miss the comments, either). Social collapse has been an unspoken assumption by major financial institutions for a long time, and have influenced their reports on strategic planning for investors. More recently those same reports more openly admit climate breakdown will produce the kind of scenarios that trigger social disintegration. It's why (in particular since 2008) so many of of the Rich have been bunker-building here at home, and home-buying in New Zealand.
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