In the above film, I observed parallels with our current times and wonder if I'm going crazy because few or none see what I am seeing. I find myself abandoned in the middle of it all with jokers on the left and clowns to the right both refusing to embrace the truth.
There's a part of me which cannot help but think that a lot of people will make a lot of money off this Trump Administration. Capitalizing on the implementation of President Trump's policies, some of this earned money will be due to Nepotism and some of it will be due to Merit. Yet, the obscene or blood money will be made betting against the masses who refuse to embrace the truth and the ensuing financial and political crisis to unfold as we embark on a nationalistic road of perdition to a place that will make the Great Recession in 2007-2009 seem like child's play. The business cycle is pretty long in the tooth and prolonging it with inflationary polices can only end badly.
Speaking of the Great Recession, I did not profit from the financial crisis of 2007-2009, but I too saw it coming and wrote about it well in advance of its occurrence. I could have shorted the market, but instead sold everything and stood on the sidelines scratching myself. Pardon me while I drift off down memory lane...
At the time, I was managing money in a small fund as a registered investment advisor and sat on a 50% cash allocation by the end of 2007. When Paulson announced his $700bn Big Bazooka Bailout on September 19, 2008, I instantaneously liquidated any remaining positions and went to 100% cash. The fact that the banks required such an unprecedented bailout while politicians and Wall Street were reassuring everyone that all was fine greatly disturbed me. Needless to say, I missed most of the rally that day as the S&P 500 increased almost 50 points and the Dow closed up more than 360 points.
Instead, I went to my favorite Venice Beach cafe and grabbed a chicken salad sandwich with sprouts, a bag of kettle chips and a mango smoothie with protein and bee pollen to boot. I sat outside on a bench feeling relieved to be done with all the bullshit. My cellphone was blowing up and after taking a couple calls from clients screaming at me for missing the "Big Bazooka rally", I simply turned it off and spent a portion of the day doing deep breathing meditative exercises. In yoga, when confronted with difficult-to-manage situations, one is taught to focus on one breath at a time. If for some reason this fails, then there is always "child's pose", where kneeling and tucking one's head between their ass and chilling out until ready to deal with an issue is the other option.
Metaphorically, I chose both of these options instead of shorting the markets, which had confirmed my suspicions of their dysfunctional corruption. (Yes, I am well aware that the game is rigged and that you can't win unless you play.) I was an equity options trader and wrote puts and calls on many of the banking stocks. As my fund was small, I didn't have the capital to trade the Credit Default Swaps markets, but could follow them for sentiment and structure synthetic trades to mimic their price trends in the equity markets. Needless to say, I saved people from a lot of pain and although I didn't make them obscene profits, I feel pretty good that I was able to preserve most of their principal. You're welcome very much to those who chastised me in the beginning.
So, getting back to present reality. I am sitting here in a Starbucks cafe drinking a hot cup of tea on a cold rainy day in Los Angeles and pondering the following:
I know that Trump will do some good things for the economy and towards making our country greater (as I believe it is already great, despite all its flaws), but what I want to know how he is going to f*ck me or us in the process of doing so?
That's about all I have to say. Have a lovely day and keep it positive, but still be real...
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