STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 23 December 2013

[Demeter]

17. The Most Memorable Words of 2013

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304367204579268591272440548

A billionaire's worry: 'Every time I hear the stock market went up I know the guillotines are coming closer.'

The most arresting words heard this year? A billionaire of New York, in conversation: "I hate it when the market goes up. Every time I hear the stock market went up I know the guillotines are coming closer." This was interesting in part because the speaker has a lot of money in the market. But he meant it. He is self-made, broadly accomplished, a thinker on politics, and for a moment he was sharing the innards of his mind. His biggest concern is the great and growing distance between the economically successful and those who have not or cannot begin to climb. The division has become too extreme, too dramatic, and static. He fears it will eventually tear the country apart and give rise to policies that are bitter and punishing, not helpful and broadening.

This year I came to understand, at meetings and symposia, that this has become an ongoing preoccupation of the wealthy. They are not oblivious, they are concerned. And though they give away hundreds of millions of dollars to charities, schools and scholarships, they don't know what can be done to turn the overall economic picture around. Globalization isn't leaving, industrial manufacturing isn't coming back as it was, technology will continue to give jobs to the educated, and the ever-evolving mischief of men and markets won't change.

They are worried. They are right to be. They are trying to think it through, trying to find any realistic solutions, and words.



LEAVE IT TO PEGGY NOONAN TO SHOOT HERSELF IN THE FOOT WITH SUCH SYMPATHY FOR THE POOR, BENIGHTED ELITE...


SHE DOES A MASTERFUL JOB ON OBAMACARE, THOUGH. SEE LINK