THINKING BUT NOT CONCLUDING

Economic news has not been particularly interesting lately. We have a good January, added to a good December of 2005, for the general equity markets. The Author’s Quantum Multiplier portfolio is pulling down a 10% return while the general indices are in the 2-4% range.

But the Author is supposed to beat the indices. That is why he invests and that is why he shares his observations and ideas about general economics, finance and investment in this blog.

All of the market indicators, with the exception of one very short-term indicator, are positive. So we let the ponies run. And keep shoveling more cash into the fire. So if you are still on the sidelines, get some cash into the equity market.

The Author’s more general point is that he is doing a lot of thinking and reading without much concluding. Some weeks generate an explosive amount of ideas for posts. He can write two or three posts in a day. But occasionally, periods like this come along. They are not devoid of ideas. In fact, the Author has been doing a good deal of science, technical and economic reading. But there just seems little to say.

THE FERMENT

The Author, then, has learned to look at these times as periods of ferment, when ideas assemble, dissemble, and reassemble just below the surface of the conscious mind. When the Author’s last post weaves together radial aircraft engine failure analysis, Creative Destruction and evolution, something lurks across the courtyard. But there is value in staying quiet until you have something to say.

CONLUDING WITHOUT THINKING WOULD BE FAR WORSE.
BUT FAR MORE COMMON IN “THE IMAGE CULTURE”.

We will become a society of a million pictures without much memory, a society that looks forward every second to an immediate replication of what it has just done . . .

So writes Christine Rosen in “The Image Culture”, an article in the Fall Edition of “The New Atlantis”.[i] In “The Image Culture” Ms. Rosen writes about the predominance and saturation of the visual image in our culture. The article proceeds from the invention of the photograph through the motion picture, video, consumer video cameras, video games, digital cameras and Power Point. The tools of immediacy and abbreviation. The roadways of the analytical shortcut. Thoughts without thinking, ideology without the necessity of ideas.

Nearly every media critic since H.L Mencken has noted the erosion of intellect in the post-literate television, (or multi-media) world. The Author no longer watches television neither news nor television talk shows. Occasionally the Author will watch an extended interview, however. Nothing that cannot be said in sound bite is offered. A commentator who will not try to yell over his/her opponent will not be booked for another show. And a convincing lie or a focus-group tested myth will always trump the more complex truth. That is the truth in the post-literate world.

IF A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS, WHAT HAPPENS TO THE WORDS WHEN THEY TAKE THE PICTURE?

The Author wishes there was more to say right now on this subject (or others), but maybe his “say” is still fermenting.

EVERY WORD HAS AN ECHO IN THE DESERT OF THE REAL. SO DOES EVERY SILENCE.[ii]

[i] www.TheNewAtlantis.com

[ii] Sartre, Jean-Paul. A rough paraphrase. From the Desert of the Real, the roughest of places.