Stung All Over
Today is Monday.
It is tempting to characterize this passage: The Poison Fly Soliloquy. Thousands of business owners in Europe, Asia, and in America are weary, and wary as one becomes when forced to swat away swarms of stinging gnats. The “on again”, “paused again” (for 90 days) tariffs become positively maddening for anyone who imports materials, or exports products.
Here are some of the facts as reported by NIU Professor Scott Galloway
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On Wednesday April 9, President Trump paused tariffs for most countries, setting off a euphoric rally. The S&P 500 surged nearly 10%, the Dow climbed almost 8%, and the Nasdaq was up 12%. The pause came just hours after the tariffs were first imposed. Trump framed the reversal as a show of strategic flexibility, saying people had gotten “a little bit yippy.” However, Trump singled out China and hiked its tariff to 145%, citing retaliation and a lack of cooperation. On Friday, China raised U.S. tariffs to 125%. |
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By Thursday afternoon, stocks fell again as investors sorted through a global economic outlook of uncertainty. The Nasdaq dropped 4.3%, the Dow fell 2.5%, and the S&P closed 3.5% lower. But by Friday, markets rallied once more on White House signals that Trump remained “optimistic” about a potential deal with China — sending the S&P up 1.8%, the Dow up 1.6%, and the Nasdaq up just over 2%. |
One word describes the condition of markets worldwide: Whiplash.
Finally the most insistent alarm bell of all – this:
- For the first time in decades, both Treasury bonds and the U.S. dollar fell sharply during a crisis. That’s not normal. Typically, both rally as global investors seek safety.
- Since last Tuesday, the dollar index is down 3.4%. Since mid-January, it’s fallen 9.2% — extraordinary by currency standards.
- The 10-year Treasury yield jumped from under 4% last week to over 4.57%.
| Global investors are no longer treating U.S. assets as a safe haven. Bonds and dollars are selling in sync with equities. In a note to clients, Deutsche Bank strategist George Saravelos said the market is “reassessing the U.S. dollar’s structural appeal as the world’s reserve currency.” |
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The root cause? Erratic leadership, ballooning deficits, and rapidly eroding diplomatic ties. In short: America looks unstable. |
Nietzsche’s mouthpiece the wandering sage Zarathustra advises that one not look for anything sane in these events. Rather nature and solitude are the worthwhile refuge. Solitude and nature is offered as the antithesis of markets. Markets are exchange mechanisms conceived to efficiently extract value. When markets are ruthless, without pity, the ruin of losers, “winners take all’ — then run!
Nature certainly “knows” how to be silent. There’s no excess of sound with nature. Only a pleasing rush of wind moving branches. Simply a calming babble of water flowing over stones. Are not bird calls reminders of spring mating season? The chatter of a scolding squirrel…
Markets are filled with showmen, not unlike a clown convention. The most outrageous presentation is usually the one that wins. (I once was a showman myself.)
Zarathustra notes that a majority of our fellowmen and women cannot do without a showman/clown to assure them how wonderful, indispensable, how trendy a product or service is. “‘Trust me’ you have to have this.” They press for a snap decision, a “buy it now” commitment. Markets press for a decision now. There’s not time enough to wait for the truth to reveal itself.
Flee, my friend, into your solitude!
I see you deafened
with the noise of the great men,
and stung all over with the stings of the little ones.
Admirably do forest and rock know how to be silent with you.
Resemble again the tree which you love,
the broad-branched one – silently
and attentively it overhangs the sea.
Where solitude ends, there begins the market-place;
and where the market-place begins,
there begins also the noise of the great actors, and
the buzzing of the poison-flies.
In the world even the best things are worthless
without those who represent them:
those showmen, the people call great men.
Little, do the people understand what is great
— that is to say, the creating agency.
But they have a taste for all showmen
and actors of great things.
…Full of ceremonial clowns is the market-place,
— and the people glory in their great men!
These are for them the masters of the hour.
But the hour presses them;
so they press you.
And also from you
they want
Yes or No.
Alas, you would
set your chair
between
For and Against?
…Slow is the experience
of all deep fountains:
long have they to wait
until they know what has fallen
into their depths.
Away from the market-place
and from fame takes place
all that is great:
away from the market-place
and from fame have ever dwelt the
devisers of new values.
Flee, my friend, into your solitude:
I see you stung all over by the poisonous flies.
Flee there, where a rough, strong breeze blows!
Flee into your solitude!
you have lived too closely to the small and the pitiable.
Flee from their invisible vengeance!
Towards you they have nothing but vengeance.
…Yes, my friend,
the bad conscience are you of your neighbor;
for they are unworthy of you.
Therefore they hate you,
and would rather suck your blood.
Flee, my friend, into your solitude
— and there,
where a rough strong breeze blows.
It is not your lot to shoo flies.
–Thus spoke Zarathustra.
Thus Spake Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by Thomas Common, The Flies In The Marketplace, No. 12
What do I think? I think this is good advice. Turn off television, CNBC, CNN, and resolve not to check the news feed on your cellphone. Your time here is worth more than a shoo fly. Do not unadvisedly spend emotional energy on what is not your responsibility.
Wait, wait before you go – here is a fine tune to carry you through. Why do I like this one? Maybe it is the wild, full-on, abandon of male and female attraction that still fills with delight! You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet by Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
