Party Like There's No Tomorrow

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

-Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

One of the most famous opening paragraphs ever penned. A tale of the years leading up to the French Revolution that ended in the Jacobin Reign of Terror. The world, today, is neither in the best of times nor the worst of times but perhaps the oddest of times would be appropriate. Italy is in total disarray---don’t care. The United States faces sequester tomorrow---don’t care. Earnings at many companies are coming in far short of expectations---don’t care. “The world’s central banks are handing out free money at the giant ATM and don’t bother me until they finish,” said Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men in the Marketplaces.

“Anything that happens, happens. Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen. Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again. It doesn’t necessarily do it in chronological order, though.”

-Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

There is little sense to all of this except the flood continues, no letup in sight, and money like water must go somewhere and all of the boats, without exception, have been floated. Political governance has become irrelevant, a sideshow, both technicals and fundamentals are of paltry value, and I am reminded of the boys at the table in Oliver, “More gruel, if you please.” The central banks slop it out into the various bowls, it is consumed, more is demanded, more is ladled out and the dining continues unabated. You would think, a rational man would assume, that there was an end to this somewhere but with nowhere else to put the gruel; the feeding frenzy continues. A momentary glance at Spain, at Greece, at Italy; a fleeting look at the U.S. budget, a brief examination of the sushi table, but who cares, nothing else matters, “More gruel if you please.”

“The wind is rushing after us, and the clouds are flying after us, and the moon is plunging after us, and the whole wild night is in pursuit of us; but, so far we are pursued by nothing else.”

-Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

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