Inflationary Banana Arbitrage

Once in a rare while a topic comes up on WSO that I feel is truly blog worthy. In this particular case for no better reason than the collision of reality and perception...mine, that is. Obviously, the news of the week is the Fed's $600 billion Treasury spending spree. Reading over this topic, which was anything but serious, got me to pondering some major life issues. How trapped can we get in our own vacuum and how much does it to snap us out?

You see, about a week back I spoke to an old friend who lives abroad. He has a decent life, nothing special by our hyper ambitious standards, but is very relaxed. Always content. So much so, that I can safely say that he is the happiest person I have ever met. You guessed it, once upon a time he worked on Wall Street. During last week's conversation, this is the exchange which stood out from his barrage of wisdom:

So what do you think of Bernanke? This is crazy right?

Who's Bernanke?

Can you guess who said what? I'll spare you the next ten minutes where I go crazy convinced he's pulling my leg. Within the quarter hour I realize he's not and within the hour I understand why.

It was not until I visited the above topic, however, that I realized HOW...

How could he not know who Bernanke is?

How could he not care, more importantly?

How could he mistake QE2 for a new video game?

The how comes from his heart and the freedom of his mind. The freedom of letting go. The freedom of not needing to rationalize or quantify. The freedom to enjoy.

I have been having an unbelievably difficult week on the personal front, but listening to the boys of WSO joking around about Silver Banana inflation relaxed me like a horse cocktail of sedatives. It was that simple, because I was willing to accept it.

It combined the "why" and the "how" of our current economic reality and my personal aspirations. It reminded me that life is what you make it and that IT can only happen today and one day at a time.

The past is in stone, the future yet to be molded out of the clay that is today.

It's Friday, there may never be another one like it. I am off to enjoy mine.

What will you do with yours?

9 Comments
 

Consider yourself very fortunate to have a friend like that who is so grounded in their own reality. The superficiality of modern society can really make you question the direction of humanity and that is when it is consoling to know that you have a friend who appreciates you for more than just vanity.

In 1976, James Hunt broke the sound barrier through Eau Rouge only to retire before the event finished... following the race he had sex with three Belgian nurses at the clubhouse near La Source.
 
James HuntConsider yourself very fortunate to have a friend like that who is so grounded in their own reality. The superficiality of modern society can really make you question the direction of humanity and that is when it is consoling to know that you have a friend who appreciates you for more than just vanity.

Very well said. But you can also say that those who actively question the inner-workings of a society are truly free thinkers. The one great thing about our minds is the ability to question. I guess ignorance is bliss, until you try formulating a debate about things you know nothing about.

 

Small redneck town for the weekend. It's always amusing to attempt to incite a drunken debate over politics and economics with hardcore conservatives that just want to talk about guns and natty light

 

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