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The Daily Reckoning
Weekend Edition
February 23-24, 2002
Paris, France
By Addison Wiggin
MARKET REVIEW: Wall Street and The Mainstream Press
"Lured by `lower prices'," reports USAToday of Friday's
action, "buyers returned to Wall Street...shrugging off
concerns about a profit warning from Circuit City and a
federal probe into Computer Associates' books."
The Dow regained more than 130 points and flirted once
again with the mythical 10,000 level. The Nasdaq rose a
meager 8 to 1724, after posting its lowest close since Oct.
31 on Thursday. And The S&P 500 closed the week slightly
higher at 1089.
Makes you wonder what analysts are thinking, doesn't it?
"Lower prices"? Hmmmnnn...
"Even after wiping out trillions of dollars in retirement
savings," Bill Bonner wrote in a special report I alerted
you to on Friday, "the Dow is still 70% above its historic
average."
And the Nasdaq? "Even after sliding from a peak near 5,050
to below 1,450... even after the massive `Tech Wreck'
wiped out more than 77% of Nasdaq's gains... The Nasdaq 100
composite is trading for an incredible 73 times last year's
earnings!"
Tell me... is this a time to be long equities? Excited by a
turn around in the economy? Probably not. Of course, you
will make up your own mind. Either way, I recommend you
take another look at Friday's free special report:
Don't Be Fooled By Short Rallies!
http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/DRI/FastMoving
And, as always, there's more Daily Reckoning, below...
including Bill Bonner off-the-grid in Nicaragua, Jim
Davidson on the future of the corporation and John Pugsley
on the future of government and the individual...
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THIS WEEK in THE DAILY RECKONING
by Bill Bonner
02/22/02 THE IDEA OF AMERICA - PART TWO
"...Most Americans look at the country as if it were an
Enron financial statement. Sure, many of the assets are
fictitious and the liabilities are understated. But, like
Merrill Lynch, we are all bullish on America..."
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=2567
02/21/02 THE IDEA OF AMERICA
What are the ties that bind America together? "...Neither
blood, history, religion, or language...but only an idea:
that you could come to America and be whatever you wanted
to be. You might have been a bog-trotter in Ireland or a
baron in Silesia; in America you were free to become
whatever you could make of yourself..."
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=2558
02/20/02 HUMPTY DUMPTY-SAN
Guest Essay by Dan Denning
"...the land of cheap electronics and Godzilla movies is
leading the world to the brink of disaster...and the whole
gruesome affair may be a chilling preview of what debt and
deflation could wreak in the United States..."
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=2548
02/19/02 DEAD PRESIDENTS...PART TWO
"...That's what America is all about, says a character in
Arthur Miller's 'American Clock.' People work hard in order
to get rich. That's all there is to it..."
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=2284
02/18/02 DEAD PRESIDENT'S DAY
An essay in honor of President's Day: "...When it came to
slavery, Lincoln was an opportunist. But that doesn't mean
the man had no long-held opinions. He did. Unfortunately,
they were almost all lame-brained..."
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=2280
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HEADLINE, NEWS & INSIGHT: Exponential growth and the
Sovereign Individual...
Exponential Growth, Enron and the Entropy of the Blue Chip
Corporation
by James Dale Davidson
Before the Industrial Revolution, the number of persons who
survived into their 70s and 80s was so negligible that they
were statistical freaks, not a significant demographic
segment. But if vigorous old age became commonplace, it
would necessarily transform the way people live their
lives, in much the way that widening life expectancy
resulted in the invention of "retirement" as a stage of
life in the early 20th century.
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_headline.cfm?id=1888
FLOTSAM & JETSAM: An Army Of Principles
- From John Pugsley,
Chairman, Sovereign Society
"An army of principles will penetrate where an army of
soldiers cannot. Neither the channel nor the Rhine will
arrest its progress. It will march on the horizon of the
world and it will conquer."
-Thomas Paine (engraved on the headstone of Rose Wilder
Lane)
"...Paine was correct in his belief that an army of
principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.
History shows us the power of adhering to principles; the
stunning advances in science and technology are based on
exactly this concept. Yet, the principles of freedom have
failed to attract many followers.
This is a tragic puzzle considering the consistent failure
of governments. In our lifetimes we have witnessed the
failure of communism and fascism and the stagnation of
socialism. Leaving decisions and responsibilities in the
hands of individuals produces progress and peace, while
transferring them to the state leads to stagnation and
conflict.
Why then don't all thinking people join Paine's army of
principles? The failure lies in the erroneous premises on
which liberty's intellectual pioneers built the case for
freedom. The philosophy of liberty was built on
transcendental arguments, not on science. Harvard professor
Edward O. Wilson, the great synthesizer of sociology and
biology, identified the problem. "If we explore the
biological roots of moral behavior and explain their
material origins and biases, we should be able to fashion
an enduring ethical consensus. We can't start out from a
transcendental, a-priori starting point."...
As biology, anthropology, and genetics advance, we are
discovering the truth about human nature. From this is
emerging the realization that nature endows no species with
rights, but, through evolution, endows them only with a
specific "nature." By understanding our own nature we have
the opportunity to discover principles on which a new, more
rational and scientific social contract can emerge.
...the most fundamental principle is that any workable
system must leave individuals sovereign over their lives
and property. For whenever an individual passes his or her
sovereignty on to another person or group, those given
power are bound by their natures to first weigh their own
self-interest, before considering the interest of the
person who has entrusted them with power. Power will tend
to corrupt, as it always has..."
Bon weekend,
Addison Wiggin,
The Daily Reckoning
PS. "It's tragic that this river of logic has not swept
away mankind's dependence on the state," Pugsley continues.
"In spite of prose from the likes of Thomas Paine, Adam
Smith, John Locke, Frederic Bastiat, and 20th century
giants like von Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, Lefevre and Rand,
we seem further away from a world where individuals are
sovereign. Wars rage, tyrants rule, and in the large
democracies, the masses vote themselves into bondage."
To begin receiving the Sovereign Society's FREE e-mail
newsletter, please visit their website at
http://www.sovereignsociety.com and enter your address in
the space provided.
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