Deflation: No More Price To Earnings Ratio

In the future there will be no equity markets as we know them today. Corporations will trade at book value or less.That's because money will be scarce. Consequently barter will be more efficient . Price to earnings ratio will vaporize. But it will be a much better enviornment to live ONCE we get there.

Bernie Madoff's Bait Attracted Peers

By all accounts there was an unwritten but implied rule when one invested money with Bernie Madoff, " Don't ask too many questions or you will not get these remarkable returns any longer because I'll kick you out of my fund". And so the bait of outsized profits attracted people who were willing in effect to turn away from scrutiny or due dilligence of their investments and in effect agree to receive stolen or illegal money with the rationale that if they didn't know then they couldn't be co-conspirators with Madoff.

So in that context yesterdays Madoff "sorry" statement put together with the glaring fact that he refuses to help investigators recover what's left of investors money points to at least an assumption by Madoff that he is at least as moral as his investors.

They largely all deserve each other.

Citizen Buffett

Orson Welles' character Citizen Kane gives it up with his last word ," Rosebud". It was a reference to his boyhood sled and happier times. The "Rosebud" decal on the sled pointed to the promise of spring in the midst of winters gloom.

Warren Buffett's recent autobiography is titled "Snowball". It refers to the compounding of wealth through the dynamic of buying sound companies and never selling. This is Buffett's version of reflection on happier times now that he's nearer the end of his career. Eh!

Buffett has pledged his fortune to charities. Buffett will use his wealth to help many people who sadly shouldn't have been born. These people now suffer deprivation. They will be helped by a man who spent his whole life accumulating more than he needed.