Archive for the Rackets Category

The Trenchant And Traumatic Hemingway (July 31, 2023)

Posted in Economics, Rackets, War, Writing on July 31, 2023 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Perhaps his best work.  Done when he was young.”

J          “He worked the trenches and wrote trenchantly.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at Smedley And Ernest On Our Friend “War”; The “Racket” Continues (September 7, 2015) and Interest Rates ‘risin’? (March 30, 2015).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter.”  Esquire, September 1935.

“Hills Like White Elephants”

“Up In Michigan”

“No one man nor group of men incapable of fighting or exempt from fighting should in any way be given the power, no matter how gradually it is given them, to put this country or any country into war.  The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war.  Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin.  But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.” 

. . .

“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.  But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying.  You will die like a dog for no good reason.  . . .  The only way to combat the murder that is war is to show the dirty combinations that make it and the criminals and swine that hope for it and the idiotic way they run it when they get it so that an honest man will distrust it as he would a racket and refuse to be enslaved into it.” 

Ernest Hemingway, “Notes on the Next War:  A Serious Topical Letter,” Esquire, September 1935

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Going Forward With The “Reverse Stock Split” (February 5, 2018)

Posted in Crime/Punishment, Dow Jones, Federal Reserve, Kleptocracy, Rackets, Rule of Law, Stock Market on February 5, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The Federal Reserve has purposely pursued a policy to punish citizens, including millions of hard working and God fearing Americans in their retirement, who merely seek a predictable and reasonable rate of return on their money.  If citizens want any real return on their money, the Fed forced them into the stock market racket.”

J          “Which is a crime and really should be punished as a crime.”

K          “Except we subsist in a country without the rule of law.”

. . .

K          “The Dow was at about 26,000 last week before today’s collapse, yet the real value of the underlying stocks measured by realistic price/earnings ratios is only about 13,000 to perhaps 15,000.”

J          “But that type of thinking undermines the consensus that all Americans are financial geniuses.”

K          “The ‘Wealth Effect’ is surreptitiously impoverishing many of those financial geniuses.  Too many investors/speculators are spending more money or, even worse, incurring more debt without realizing that their faux wealth will soon vaporize.”

J          “The ‘Poverty Effect’ will be a bodacious and stupendous bummer.”

. . .

K          “Check this out.  In a typical stock split, one share at $100 per share is split into two shares at $50 per share.  That thinking is so outmoded and outdated.  Everything in the stock market is hocus pocus.  I propose a reverse stock split where one share at $100 per share is split into two shares at $100 per share.  We need to create wealth.”

J          “Count me in.  The Dow at 52,000.  Just like that.  Twice as rich.  But with the absurdity, the insanity, the depravity and the irrationality that defines our reality, why not a three for one split and thus a Dow of 76,000.  Thrice as rich.  Just like that.  We need to concoct wealth.”

K          “Pocus hocus.  Count me in.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “The Dow Is The Canary (April 26, 2010)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

The Dow at 104,000!!!!!!!!!!!

Or not.

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Divas And Divos At Davos (January 29, 2018)

Posted in Antitrust, Banks and Banking System, Globalization, Kleptocracy, Rackets on January 29, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “I like their knife.”

J          “The common folk need a people’s Davos.”

. . .

K          “The world is not flat.  From afar, it is a mysterious big blue marble with swirling white clouds.  Up close, it is one long unlevel playing field with all the big players playing a game with the little players.”

J          “When you think about it, ‘globalization’ is an anagram derived from neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism and neo-capitalism and neo-consumerism.”

. . .

K          “When the one one-thousandths of one percent (.001 %) get together, you know they are up to no good.”

J          “They fix prices, but they do not fix problems.”

. . .

K          “They say that a conspiracy is two or more people working together for one end.”

J          “My theory is that they are conspiring to put the fix on us.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Humanity’s Motto:  To Enslave And To Colonize (January 27, 2014)”, “The ‘Superfluous Consumer’ (July 27, 2015)” and “Is The American Consumer Irrelevant? (December 12, 2011)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”

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The Court Of Truth And Justice (CTJ) (August 29, 2016)

Posted in Courts, Judges, Judicial Arrogance, Judiciary, Justice, Monopoly, Rackets, Rule of Law on August 29, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Courts have failed.  Courts exist to make life easy and lucrative for judges and to make money for obliging and cooperative lawyers.”

J          “Just another racket.”

K          “The lawyer’s unwitting role is to lead the public to believe that we live under a system of laws with neutral judges who listen to all arguments and discern the law and facts objectively.”

J          “A lawyer goes on the bench so that he or she can go home early with full and guaranteed pay.”

. . .

K          “We need to create courts that find some truth and do some justice.  Hundreds of years ago in England, the courts of ‘law’ dispensed very little truth or justice and applied a ruthless version of the law.  The market responded and a new court system and court house was established across the street – the court of ‘equity’.  If you fell behind on your house payment, the ‘law’ court would toss you out in the street.  However, go across the street and the ‘equity’ court would give you credit for what you invested in the house and even prevent the law court from tossing you out in the street.”

J          “Isn’t that why they call what you invest in the home – dollars and sweat – the ‘equity’ in your house.  The thing called ‘equity’ in your home was created to address that personal investment in and commitment to the home.”

K          “Exactly.  There are still equitable causes of action and equitable remedies.  Dozens of years ago, all the big legal players decided to merge the ‘law’ court and the ‘equity’ court into one court.  That created a monopoly.  And the courts quickly began to act like monopolists.  They could and do whatever they want to do which is typically to dismiss a case and go home.”

J          “With full and guaranteed pay.  Sounds like the merger of the National Football League and the American Football League into the National Football League in 1970.  Monopoly is bad.”

K          “Monopoly is very bad.  We need to return to our roots and create a new court of ‘equity’ that could be called . . . the ‘Court of Truth and Justice’ to address the genuine legal needs of the populace.”

J          “What you are talking about is what I call restoring the rule of law in America.”

. . .

K          “We need a test case.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Assigning Blame: The Lawyers: 50 Percent; The Non-Lawyer Public: 50 Percent; The Judges: 100 Percent (December 3, 2012).”]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Why not try the rule of law for a week or two?

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