Wednesday (October 10, 2018) all stock markets around the globe starting with the DOW went down roughly 3%. Today, they all followed with a 2% drop. That 5% over 48 hours was half the distance to an “official” correction of 10%. For the life of me I will never understand how the world simultaneously lost 5% of its worth in 2 days. How do they coordinate this crap? You have the feeling that insiders operating in the bowels of the industry could tell you in a heartbeat. I’m also fairly confident we’ll never find out. Much like who shot JFK.

Tech, financials, consumers, housing, retail, telecom, you name it! They ALL cratered on the same day? Around the world? How?? The only thing I know that went up was gold and silver.  

You get the feeling the word went out, “Okay, we screw the public today!” I’m starting to read between the lines on the financial shows. They are always harping about interest rates. I figured out why. No one operates on a solid financial footing. They are all leveraged out the whazoo. Why not? Bankruptcy laws are so screwed up they can’t lose! They’ll just “reorganize” if the bottom falls out. So if interest rates rise they start to squeal because they’re financed out to the bank on everything they do. Modern business is founded on debt. They operate by the seat of their pants. Pop the bubble and the whole thing collapses.

They are all allowed to fudge the facts so bad on their Quarterly’s and Annual Statements you’d never know how tenuous their house of cards is. Robber Barron’s like John D. Rockefeller would tip their hat to these guys. But interest rates are only one of the items they’re whining about right now, the other is tariffs. The tariffs haven’t even begun to kick in with all the exemptions and the big numbers not set to kick in until the first of the year.

So there it is. Interest rates and tariffs are the excuse, but the real reasons are only known to the man behind the curtain, and he’s not talking. 

I’m starting to read quite a number of books on the subject, 20 Must Read Investing Books , but after yesterday I’m beginning to think they are all irrelevant. The big market movements, or something like the Global Financial Crisis of ’08 shows that you are like a piece of driftwood when the tide comes in, you have no control where you are going. You are just along for the ride. All the knowledge in the world might let you tinker around the edges in the good times, but when that man behind the curtain decides to screw you, look out.