It was black when I got up and things didn’t get much better as the sky transitioned to a sort of depressing gun-metal gray. I went through the traffic and took the bad news like a man, whatever that is these days.
I saw the Market dropped yesterday, big time. The Dow plummeted nearly 320 points Friday, or almost 2% of its total value. It was the end of the worst week for stocks since November 2011. The S&P 500 slid more than 2.6%, logging its biggest weekly decline since May 2012.
Oh, hell, I thought. I know the market has been cruising for a correction. I mean, where the hell else are all those Bernanke Bucks going to go if interest at the bank is almost negative? So, naturally there is a bubble. I am getting quite peevish about it, though, since the smart guys have always taken their profit, sold short and left the rest of us chumps to take the losses.
I know I am not supposed to do it, but what the hell, and clicked over to look at the pathetic tally of assets on the broker’s website. I looked around some of the financial sites to find out why, and the Smart People were telling me that it was a perfectly rational correction, investors pulling back from damaged currencies in the emerging markets.
There was another school of thought represented in about equal measure. That is the one from the killjoys who say what is not sustainable is – well, you know. They think the emerging run on the banks in China is a symptom that the Potemkin Village of global finance is starting to crack.
I made a second pot of coffee, thinking that might be a luxury I would have to cut back on. I might rationally be looking at a single-wide trailer someplace where it is warm. My pals back in Michigan are starting to get a little hysterical about the arctic air, and the length of time until this winter is done. Someone reminded me that Global Cooling could mean a lot more intense storms, which is when the winds can pick up a trailer and take it straight to Oz, don’t pass go.
So, then I looked for properties that have old Cold War Bunkers on them. I have not done that since I was (briefly) in the bunker business after 9/11. There are a remarkable number of them from the days when perfectly rational people thought they were reasonable things to have. A tip, though: the old missile sites with the silos don’t have as much usable space in the tubes as you would like. My preference has always been for the hardened telecommunications sites, which were designed for rows and rows of comms racks.
An important note, though. If you need a bunker to get through what might, or might not be coming, would you want to be on the distant end of it?
http://www.missilebases.com/properties
Some do, apparently.
(This missile silo is actually for sale in upstate New York, with adjacent runway.)
I don’t know. I was still thinking about that when I wandered back to make the bed and get the place squared away so I can retreat to the farm and relax for a few days. I try to take whatever laundry needs to be done down with me, and after collecting the towels, gave a critical eye to the pillow-top mattress and the bright crimson sheets under the Ralph Lauren Oriental Rug pattern comforter.
I could wait to Spring, I know, but what the hell. I stripped the bed, balling up the sheets and pillowcases, and then performed the master stroke: I rotated the mattress.
Back in the old days, the manufacturers recommended the complete rotation periodically to keep the spine happy and prolong the life of the mattress. Obviously you can’t flip the pillow-top over- that would defeat the purpose. But I was comfortable that rotating the queen size bed 180-degrees was doing my bit for sustainability and progress.
It is better than having to rotate the filters on the underground air handling systems, you know?
Oh, An important note: more to yesterday’s ruminations about Pearl Harbor. Concerned associates reminded me of an excellent article from the archives of the Naval War College that suggests the extreme radio silence of the Kido Butai was part of an excellent denial and deception plan, and not a cover-up to protect the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt:
It is a great article, and one less conspiracy I have to worry about. Honestly, it is enough to drive you to a bunker some times!
(The Kido Butai- the IJN Pearl Strike Group, as imagined by artist Joe Wight. Image courtesy of the artist).
Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303