Bears Chat at The Wall Street Examiner

Charles Eisenstein: It's Time for A Better Narrative

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:19:39 +0000

Quote

Our actions are determined by our beliefs. And our beliefs are shaped by the stories we tell ourselves.

So what happens when the stories we tell ourselves are inaccurate?

The short answer is: we find ourselves engaging in actions that aren't aligned with our best interests.

Charles Eisenstein has made a profession out of studying the intersection of economics and philosophy. And he thinks that over the past several generations, enabled by an unprecedented subsidy of abundant cheap energy, our society has become so far decoupled from natural laws that it has adopted a paradigm of thinking (or "stories") dangerously irrelevant to the future we face.

As resource scarcity increasingly expresses the natural forces that applied to our grandparents' generation and those prior, we are still living under a mindset that assumes predictable, endless growth.

http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/charles-eisenstein-time-better- narrative/71231?utm_source=newsletter_2012-02-10&utm_medium=email_newsletter& utm_content=node_title_71231&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_57

Kyle Bass and Taleb....

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:36:11 +0000

In Kyle Bass' November 2011 session at AmeriCatalyst, he specifically recommended everyone in the audience read a paper written for the Foreign Affairs Journal.

Here is the video (which I think was posted here before): AmeriCatalyst 2011 Session 1.2 Come Undone: Kyle Bass Redux He talks about the paper at 29:25.

A link to the paper (By none other than Nassim Taleb of course...): The Black Swan of Cairo

If you want insight...this is a guy who sits down, personally, with Barney Frank to discuss housing finance policy. His commentary at 21:30 is in line with something Lee has commented on numerous times..and that is the current low US interest rates lulling us into a sense of false confidence. Basically...senior policy makes do not have a clue about risk...and do not have a clue how markets work, and how they can yank the rug out from under you in an instant if you hang yourselves out too far...

This mindset of course grows directly out of the suppression of volatility noted in Taleb's essay.....

Enjoy...

Kim Jong Un is reported dead - link

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:39:26 +0000

http://gawker.com/5884033/

The Chinese micro-blogging service Weibo has exploded with rumors that new North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was assassinated today at the North Korean embassy in Beijing. Twitter death rumors are totally cross-cultural.

S&P Downgrades 34 Italian Banks

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:34:54 +0000

S&P Downgrades 34 Italian Banks
By Patrick Clark - Feb 10, 2012 3:59 PM ET .

UniCredit SpA (UCG), Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA (BMPS) were among 34 Italian financial firms downgraded by Standard & Poor’s, after the credit-ratings firm reduced the nation’s grade last month.

UniCredit, Italy’s biggest bank, and No. 2 Intesa had their long-term ratings lowered to BBB+ from A, S&P said today in a statement. Monte dei Paschi, the No. 3 bank, was reduced to BBB from BBB+. All three have a negative outlook, S&P said.

Italy’s credit rating was cut two levels to BBB+ from A on Jan. 13 as S&P said European leaders’ struggle to contain the region’s debt crisis would complicate the country’s efforts to finance borrowings. S&P today revised its banking industry country risk assessment, known as Bicra, for Italy to group 4 from group 3, citing mounting risks.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-10/s-p-downgrades-34-italian-banks-after- cutting-nation-s-grade-1-.html

The titaniic is now fully loaded with passengers

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:00:31 +0000

Iceberg dead ahead?

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Heroes

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:30:00 +0000

A know a man. Call him Eddie. He’s African American, going on about 63. When he was a boy he had no real home or much education, so when he was eighteen he took the only option available to him. He joined the military. That was 1967. He must have be...

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On Banknotes

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:57:00 +0000

There is a curious story in the Swiss press today. On the surface it appears innocuous. Paper money has been in transition for the last ten years. Most of the big issuers of paper have updated their bills to minimize forgery. The US has spent a ...

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Greece and the Rape by the Rentiers

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

By Marshall AuerbackHere's the draft of the supposed agreement to "sort out" the Greek debt problem once and for all. According to Bloomberg, here are the essentials: Greece's 2012 GDP will shrink by as much as 5%.Greece is expected to return to growt...

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Any one thinking about Greek stocks? Aren't/weren't they shipping experts?

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:44:26 +0000

eom

CMS (Medicare, etc) reports 2009 & 2010 health cost increases lowest in 51 years of record-keeping

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:19:19 +0000

Pelosi & Obama have to be chomping at the bit to release some of the early positive results from govt-managed healthcare. However, positive early numbers are largely the result of sucky economy (people have no money), and that muddies the waters too much. It's coming, though. In Mass & VT (which have had universal plans longer), the data are coming in, and the track record looks good.