Sunday Space

There is a classic teaching story of the young boy who travelled far from his home to study under a great teacher. When he met the wise old man, his first question was, "How long will it take me before I am as wise as you?"

The response came quickly. "Five years."

"This is a very long time," replied the boy. "How about if I work twice as hard?"

"Then it will take ten years," said the master.

"Ten! That's far too long. How about if I study all day and well into the night, every single night?"

"Then it will take fifteen years," said the sage.

"I don't understand," replied the boy. "Every time I promise to devote more energy and time to my goal, you tell me that it will take even longer. Why?"

"The answer is simple. With one eye fixed on the destination, there is only one eye left to guide you along the journey."

Sunday Space

"Dripping water hollows a stone."

-Lucretius

Sunday Space

"Money doesn't talk, it swears."

-Bob Dylan, "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding."

Sunday Space

No tree becomes rooted and sturdy unless many a wind assails it. For by its very tossing it tightens its grip and plants its roots more securely; the fragile trees are those that have grown in a sunny valley.

-Seneca The Younger

Sunday Space

Freedom to cut down world's oldest trees
Freedom to make Indians get down on their knees
And pray to your God and obey your FBI
And freedom to protest if you're not too scared to die.

Allen Ginsberg "Industrial Wave," White Shroud: Poems, 1980-1985

"Trader Tax" Would Kill Stock Traders

"Out of opposition, a new birth."

-Carl G. Jung (1875-1961). Psychology of the Transference

Meanwhile, check out this article to understand why a new birth may be our only option. The old patient is cold. (h/t Jawbreaker)

IMPORTANT: The so called "Trader Tax" would be the end of proprietary trading as we now know it. It would place at 0.25% transaction tax on "the sale and purchase of financial instruments" including stocks. It is in a bill, H.R 1068 which is currently being debated for passage. If you are a proprietary trader, you need to write your congressperson to voice your opposition today.

Here is the full text of the bill.

Sunday Space

The whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought. In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it... Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller.

-George Orwell (1903-1950), Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1.5, 1949

Sunday Space

For de little stealin' dey gits you in jail soon or late. For de big stealin' dey makes you emperor and puts you in de Hall o' Fame when you croaks. If dey's one thing I learns in ten years on de Pullman cars listenin' to de white quality talk, it's dat same fact.

-Eugene O'Neill, The Emperor Jones

Sunday Space

"One cannot seek other shores without consenting to lose sight of land for a very long time."

-Andre Gide

Big War - John Allingham & Ann Tiley

NOTE: I'm updating my blog a bit, creating an archive of some of my favorite posts and others I deem "important." This will take weeks to complete probably...