Stanza Sunday: from A not admitting of the wound by Emily Dickinson

A not admitting of the wound
Until it grew so wide
That all my Life had entered it
And there were troughs beside - 

Dickinson, Emily. "A not admitting of the wound." Accessed on May 31, 2015, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/246448

Seneca's Stance on Soft Living

No Mister Softee for him

Soft living imposes on us the penalty of debility; we cease to be able to do the things we've long been grudging about doing.  

Seneca. Letters from a Stoic. London: Penguin Books, 2004, 106.

The Robots are Coming (Financial Industry Edition)

He thinks you should diversify your portfolio.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is cutting more than 5,000 jobs in an effort to trim costs and become more efficient. 

The cuts already have begun, according to people familiar with the decision, and are part of a broader industry move toward Internet and mobile banking. The bank will cut at least 2% of its current workforce in the next year. 

The moves come as the nation’s largest bank overhauls its 5,570 branches to rely more on technology and less on human tellers.

Glazer, Emily. "J.P. Morgan Aims to Cut 5,000 Jobs." The Wall Street Journal., Friday, May 29, 2015, C1, Accessed on May 29, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/j-p-morgan-expected-to-lay-off-more-than-5-000-by-next-year-1432834029

Feline FIFA

For decades, the sumptuous taste and suspected abuses inside soccer’s governing body, FIFA, have been an exasperating global punch line, a kind of perverse mixture of pampered oligarchy and Bond villainy. Stories of soccer spending gone amok included an FIFA official who, according to a memorable 2014 piece in the New York Daily News, maintained an opulent lifestyle that included a luxury New York City apartment—for his cats. 

Gay, Jason. "Soccer's Overdue Day of Reckoning." The Wall Street Journal., May 28, 2015, D6, Accessed on May 28, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/fifas-overdue-day-of-reckoning-1432769840

It had to happen sooner rather than later. For years FIFA, the global governing body of soccer, has been enmeshed in the rank miasma of corruption and bribery. On Wednesday FIFA finally got the prosecution it deserves as the United States Justice Department issued an indictment highlighting the largest corruption scandal in sports history. 

More from The Wall Street Journal here, here and here (on the U.S. Justice Department's long arm jurisdiction over the case). The Economist comments here. 

Hopefully, this is the start of reform at FIFA. The world's greatest sport deserves better government.

John Oliver on FIFA and the last World Cup

Fair Greece, Sad Relic

If we can explain the rise of classical Greece, we may gain a better understanding of what it took to bootstrap the wealth and democracy package in the first place. If we can explain the fall of the Greek political order - that is, why major city-states did not maintain full independence for longer than they did - we may better understand democratic frailty. 

Ober, Josiah. The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece. Princeton University Press, 2015, xvi.

This is from the introduction to a new book by Stanford University Professor of Political Science and Classics, Josiah Ober. The problem of why certain societies rise to greatness and influence is of great interest to me. It's why I decided to purchase Ober's book after reading a review of it in last week's Wall Street Journal. It's also why I recently purchased In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire, a book I'll be reading soon after this one.

Εἰ μὲν τοῖς πρὸ ἡμῶν ἀναγράφουσι τὰς πράξεις παραλελεῖφθαι συνέβαινε τὸν ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς τῆς ἱστορίας ἔπαινον, ἴσως ἀναγκαῖον ἦν τὸ προτρέπεσθαι πάντας πρὸς τὴν αἵρεσιν καὶ παραδοχὴν τῶν τοιούτων ὑπομνημάτων διὰ τὸ μηδεμίαν ἑτοιμοτέραν εἶναι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις διόρθωσιν τῆς τῶν προγεγενημένων πράξεων ἐπιστήμης.

A Role of Death in Life

[O]ur awareness of death creates tremendous potential for anxiety or terror. [W]e learn to manage that terror by embedding ourselves in a cultural worldview that imbues reality with order, meaning, and stability. [W]e gain and maintain psychological security by sustaining faith in that worldview and living up to the values it conveys. 

Parry, Marc. "Death Denial." The Chronicle of Higher Education., May 22, 2015, Accessed on May 26, 2015,  http://m.chronicle.com/article/Mortal-Motivation/230303/#sthash.wDIuH1fy.dpuf

The Soul of Wit

Those who can speak well are those who speak briefly. 

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Devils. Oxford: Oxford World's Classics, 1999, 232.

While Peter Stepanovich's sentiments echo Polonius, the computer algorithms recently involved in the spoofing of a Chinese clean energy company take brevity to the next level completely:

At 10:17 a.m. and 23 seconds, a large 426,000 share sell order piled up at the current market price of HK$6.80. Two small trades were done at slightly lower prices, but then the price at which traders were willing to buy the shares fell to HK$3.45, according to data from Thomson Reuters.  

This low bid showed that there weren’t many buyers in the market, potentially setting the stage for a big share decline. Computer algorithms, which trade automatically based on current market data, likely detected the sudden shift and reacted by selling more or pulling out of the market altogether, according to traders.

Nearly 16 hundredths of a second later, a series of smaller buy orders ranging from 8,000 to 30,000 shares trades were made at rapidly declining prices. The first buy order was priced at HK$6.69, and four tenths of a second later, a trade occurred at HK$6.10. Once that trade occurred, the next highest bid became HK$3.45 and over the next several hundredths of a second, the price that people were willing to sell shares fell to HK$4.50. 

A trade occurred at HK$4.50, meaning the official market price had fallen by 26% in fractions of a second. Hanergy shares briefly recovered but then sold off again. They were trading at HK$3.91 when the shares were suspended at 10:40 after falling 47% and wiping out $20 billion worth of market value. 

“The rate that the algorithm was selling at was too great for the market,” said Eric Hunsader of Winnetka, Ill., market-data firm Nanex, who examined the trades. He said the collapse could have been caused by high-speed traders pulling out of the market due to heavy selling by an investor looking to unload a large chunk of stock. Such investor trades are typically handled by computer algorithms. 

Wong, Jacky, and Patterson, Scott. "Rapid Trades Sank Fortune in a Second." The Wall Street Journal., Saturday/Sunday, May 23 - 24, 2015, A1, Accessed on May 25 at http://www.wsj.com/articles/hanergy-bulk-of-stock-collapse-occurred-in-less-than-a-second-1432316315

Stanza Sunday: from "Lenox Avenue: Midnight" by Langston Hughes

The rhythm of life

Is a jazz rhythm,

Honey.

The gods are laughing at us.

Hughes, Langston. "Lenox Avenue: Midnight." The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York: First Vintage Classics Edition, 1995, 92.

Living with Marcus

Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good. 

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. New York: Dover Thrift Editions, 1997, 22.

On Etsy and Eumenides

Etsy Inc. may have paid a price this week for trying a custom-made initial public offering. 

Shares of the online craft-and-vintage goods marketplace fell 18% Wednesday following its first public earnings release. While the company’s results missed some growth forecasts, observers said the fall may have been exacerbated by the unusual ways Etsy structured its April IPO. 

IPOs typically follow a standard playbook in terms of how companies work with banks and potential investors. But Etsy diverted from those practices, using fewer research banks than other similar deals and targeting a smaller number of big shareholders. That meant there were fewer analysts than usual closely following the stock and potentially fewer shareholders already invested in it eager to buy more. 

These tactics, along with a stunning rise on its first day of trading, together left the stock vulnerable to a downdraft, traders and analysts said. 

Demos, Telis. "Etsy's Unique IPO Crafts Stock Swoon." The Wall Street Journal., Friday, May 22, 2015, C1, Accessed on May 22, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/etsys-unique-ipo-crafts-a-stock-swoon-1432249972

In Aeschylus's The Eumenides Athena, the goddess of wisdom, argues at trial that citizens should, "never pollute [law] with innovations. No . . . foul a clear well and you will suffer thirst. " Perhaps if Etsy hadn't gone fixing something that wasn't broken they wouldn't have suffered a 42% drop of stock price in just under 25 days, a near record in that time frame. Granted, The Eumenides deals in the foul subject of matricide and - if we're being honest here - only a fraction of Etsy's wares for sale rise to that level of monstrosity. Still, without good reason to act otherwise I think we'd all do better to rely on the embedded wisdom of inherited tradition.  

A Conspiracy Against the Public

Five global banks agreed to pay more than $5 billion in combined penalties and plead guilty to criminal charges to resolve a long-running U.S. investigation into whether traders colluded to move foreign-currency rates for their own financial benefit. 

The settlements largely close the book on the latest industrywide investigation, one of a steady stream of probes into mortgage misdeeds, manipulative trading behavior and tax evasion. The biggest global banks have paid more than $60 billion in penalties over the past two years to resolve allegations of wrongdoing. 

Four of the banks, Barclays PLC, Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiring to manipulate prices in the $500 billion-a-day market for U.S. dollars and euros, authorities said. 

Viswanatha, Aruna. "Banks Pay $5.6 Billion to Settle U.S. Probe." The Wall Street Journal., Thursday, May 21, 2015, A1, Accessed on May 21, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/global-banks-to-pay-5-6-billion-in-penalties-in-fx-libor-probe-1432130400

Apparently, some traders at these banks conspired to manipulate rates at certain times of the day so as to enrich themselves not only at the expense of others but also at the expense of a free, fair and open foreign exchange market. The business ethics ethos of the group is articulated succinctly, if not douchebaggedly, in one of their captured chat exchanges wherein a party writes, "if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying." 

Adam Smith says, "deal with it."

Although the following passage is often misinterpreted, I can't help but think of Adam Smith when I read of such shenanigans. As the man from Kirkcaldy reminds us, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."

Illud natura non patitur, ut aliorum spoliis nostras facultates, copias, opes augeamus. 

A Chinese Proverb on Education

By nature all men are alike, but by education widely different. 

Chinese Proverb, The Economist Espresso App, May 20, 2015.

There's Pain in the Fear of the Stone

"Everyone has to judge from himself," he said, flushing. "Absolute freedom will occur only when it doesn't matter whether one lives or dies. That's the goal for everyone." 

"The goal? But then no one might want to live?" 

"No, no one," he said decisively. 

"Man fears death because he loves life-that's how I understand it," I observed, "and that's what nature decreed." 

Manuscript of Dostoevsky's Devils

"That's disgusting-it's where the whole deception lies!" he cried, his eyes flashing. "Life is pain, life is fear, and man is unhappy. Everything is now pain and fear. Man loves life now because he loves pain and fear. That's how it's been. Life is given in return for pain and fear now, and that's the whole deception. But man is still not really man. There will come a new man, happy and proud. he who doesn't care whether he lives or dies-he'll be the new man. He who conquers pain and fear-will become God. And then the old God will no longer exist." 

"Doesn't that mean then, that you think God exists?" 

"He doesn't exist, yet He does. There's no pain in the stone, but there's pain in the fear of the stone. God is the pain of fear of death. He who conquers pain and fear-will become God. Then a new life will dawn; there'll be a new man; everything will be new . . . History will be divided into two parts: from the gorilla to the destruction of God, and from the destruction of God to . . ." 

"To the gorilla?" 

Dostoevsky, Fyodor, and Katz, Michael R., trans. Devils. Oxford University Press, 1999, 121

To the gorilla, indeed. 

A Complete Waste Land

Over the past two months, I have been undergoing one of the more significant reading experiences of my life, the perusal of T. S. Eliot’s complete prose from the first twenty-one years of his writing career. Eliot died in 1965, so these pages constitute a major recognition, after fifty years, of his contribution. The general editor is Ronald Schuchard, and anyone familiar with his edition of Eliot’s Clark lectures of 1926 (The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry, 1993) will be unsurprised at the extraordinary fullness with which these two large volumes are annotated. The general editorial introduction to the volumes tells us that the notes are intended to “enhance and clarify” Eliot’s “highly referential prose.” The magnitude of this editorial task was enormous, since at the beginning of the present century more than 700 pieces of the prose were uncollected, nor were there any critical editions of works published in his lifetime, the Clark lectures being the exception. In response to anyone who might question the need for such a comprehensive project, the editors quote Eliot himself on the importance of reading everything a major author has written: “To understand Baudelaire you must read the whole of Baudelaire.” On the safe assumption that 100 years after “Prufrock” appeared, Eliot qualifies as a major author, we may profitably address ourselves to these early volumes of prose. 

Prithard, William H. "The Prose Eliot." The Hudson Review. Accessed on May 18, 2105, http://hudsonreview.com/2015/05/the-prose-eliot/#.VVpNW1VVikq

I've never read the entire works of an author though I've often thought about it. I think if I do it'd have to be Dickens. But I'm not convinced it would help truly understand him any more than serious reading of his major works would.

Stanza Sunday: from Song of Myself by Walt Whitman

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you. 

Whitman, Walt. "Song of Myself." Accessed on May 17, 2015, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174745

[A]n equity recourse note ("ERN") functions as debt in normal times. But the trigger for the conversion is the bank’s share price, rather than a regulatory measure of capital. When the share price falls by enough—say, to 25% of its initial value—the bank can make repayments on the bond with new shares rather than with cash.

For example, suppose a bank issues a $50m ERN when its shares are worth $100 each. The ERN would pay interest like a normal bond unless the share price stood below $25 on the day a payment was due or the bond was to be redeemed. In that case, investors would be paid in shares valued at $25 each—even if the market price was lower still. So to redeem the $50m ERN, the bank would issue 2m new shares. Since the share price is below $25, those new shares would be worth less than $50m, meaning the conversion would be a good deal for the distressed bank. 

"Miraculous conversion." The Economist. May 16th-22nd, 2015, Accessed on May 16, 2015, http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21651313-new-proposal-seeks-make-banks-safer-keep-regulators

More on ERNs here. 

Govorov on Teju Cole, Noam Chomsky and Jonathan Franzen

It's also true that the gentlemen of mediocre talent have usually written themselves out in the most pitiful fashion by the time they reach venerable old age, though often they themselves don't realize it. It frequently turns out that a writer who's said to have very profound ideas, and who's expected to exert a very serious influence on the development of society, in the end reveals such triviality and insipidity in his fundamental themes that no one regrets the fact that he managed to write himself out so soon. 

Dostoevsky, Fyodor, and Katz, Michael R., trans. Devils. Oxford University Press, 1999, 89

Debt for Debt

Central to the directive is a bigger-than-expected plan by the People’s Bank of China that will let commercial banks use local-government bailout bonds they purchase as collateral for all kinds of low-cost loans from the central bank. The goal is to provide Chinese banks with more funds to make new loans. The directive was issued earlier this week to governments across the country and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. 

The action marks the latest in a string of measures taken by Beijing to boost economic activity, including three interest-rate cuts since November. But those steps so far have failed to spur new demand, in part because heavily indebted Chinese companies and local governments are struggling with repaying mountains of debt. At the same time, borrowing costs remain high, and low inflation makes it difficult for businesses and consumers alike to service debt. Banks are reluctant to cut lending rates amid higher funding costs and rising defaults. 

Wei, Lingling. "Slowdown Spurs 'Extra Urgent' Stimulus Move." The Wall Street Journal., Thursday, May 14, 2015, A5, Accessed on May 14, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-stimulus-aims-at-restructuring-trillions-in-local-government-debt-1431511027

There has been some bad news out of China recently. Whether it be slower GDP growth or ghost cities, it seems like the headlines out of the People's Republic are a bit more gloomy than they used to be. 

I can't help but recall that financial crises are typically triggered by widespread drops in asset prices, a run on the banks and significant currency drain. So far this doesn't look like that. Let's hope it never does.   

Dostoevsky at the DMV

"But you can hardly know in practice what's meant by administrative ecstasy -precisely what sort of thing it is." 

"Administrative ecstasy? No, I don't know." 

"It's . . . Vous savez, chez nous. . . En un mot, appoint some insignificant nonentity to a position, say, selling stupid railway tickets, and this nonentity will immediately conclude that he has the right to look down upon you as if he were Jupiter when you come to him to buy a ticket, pour vous montrer son pouvoir. 'Now then,' he says, 'I'll demonstrate my power over you. . .' And it reaches the point of administrative ecstasy in these people."

Dostoevsky, Fyodor, and Katz, Michael R., trans. Devils. Oxford University Press, 1999, 58-9

One of These is Not Like the Other

As for the police, “The function of our law-enforcement agencies became

corruption, not investigation,” says Mr Dibrov, noting that one witness asked to identify a suspect in a photo line-up was shown a picture of him alongside images of Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis.

"Black Sea Woes." The Economist. May 9th-15th 2015, Accessed on May 12, 2015 http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21650569-aftershocks-year-old-tragedy-make-odessa-test-new-ukraine-black-sea-woes

Curse of the Thinking Man

I shall mention that he was a man with a conscience (sometimes, that is), and therefore was often depressed. 

Dostoevsky, Fyodor, and Katz, Michael R., trans. Devils. Oxford University Press, 1999, 10

Stanza Sunday: from Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798 by William Wordsworth

                                          Nor perchance,

If I were not thus taught, should I the more
Suffer my genial spirits to decay:
For thou art with me here upon the banks
Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend,
My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch
The language of my former heart, and read
My former pleasures in the shooting lights
Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while
May I behold in thee what I was once,
My dear, dear Sister! and this prayer I make,
Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy: for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon
Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
And let the misty mountain-winds be free
To blow against thee: and, in after years,
When these wild ecstasies shall be matured
Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,
Thy memory be as a dwelling-place
For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then,
If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,
Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts
Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,
And these my exhortations! Nor, perchance—
If I should be where I no more can hear
Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams
Of past existence—wilt thou then forget
That on the banks of this delightful stream
We stood together; and that I, so long
A worshipper of Nature, hither came
Unwearied in that service: rather say
With warmer love—oh! with far deeper zeal
Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget,
That after many wanderings, many years
Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,
And this green pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!

Wordsworth, William, and Appelbaum, Stanley, ed. English Romantic Poetry: An Anthology, "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798." Mineola, New York: Dover Thrift Editions, 1996, 28-9.   

Retirement Plans

[Y]ou should neither be like the bad because they are many, nor be an enemy of the many because they are unlike you. Retire into yourself as much as you can. Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those whom you are capable of improving. 

Seneca. Letters from a Stoic. London: Penguin Books, 2004, 43

Holacracy in America

When Zappos recently gave [a severance package offer] to its entire staff, offering at least three months' severance to anyone who chose to leave by April 30, it was an offer many couldn't refuse. 

About 14%, or 210, of the company's employees decided to leave the firm, according to Zappos. The exodus comes amid the company's transition to an unusual management structure called Holacracy, in which employees essentially manage themselves, without traditional bosses or job titles. 

Silverman, Rachel Emma. "At Zappos, 14% of Workers to Leave." The Wall Street Journal, Friday, May 8, 2015, B3, Accessed on May 8, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/at-zappos-some-employees-find-offer-to-leave-too-good-to-refuse-1431047917

You can read more about holacracy on its Wikipedia page. It also has its own webpage with more information.

Holacracy is a curious management system. It really appeals to my taste for decentralization so I'm interested to see how many more companies adopt its methods and how those companies fare in the market. If Zappos is any indication at least holacratic workers are having fun with it. Apparently, they've been known to attend all-staff meetings in full animal costume. 

(C.R.E.A.M.) Cash Rules Everything Around Menlo Park

[M]any of America's biggest technology firms are rolling in money: Microsoft, for one, has $95 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet. Among the top ten American firms with the largest cash hoards (excluding financial firms), six are technology firms, led by Apple, and they have saved up a combined $485 billion. This, plus their high share prices, gives the tech industry's potential predators unprecedented firepower as they go hunting. 

"Eat or be eaten." The Economist, May 9th-15th 2015, Accessed May 7, 2015, http://www.economist.com/news/business/21650559-wave-consolidation-prospect-americas-big-internet-firms-look-set-divide

Some popular tech firms, among them Twitter and LinkedIn, have recently posted weak earnings reports. They may be susceptible to a buyout from a cash rich peer like Facebook or Google. As such they're probably hoping that their more fortunate competitors, if a buyout is indeed imminent, are, measure for measure, less Angelo than Isabella who reminds us that "it is excellent to have a giant's strength, but tyrannous to use it like a giant."

Big Data is Watching You

The scope of the project is unprecedented. The system would create an estimated 58 billion records a day and maintain details on more than 100 million customer accounts, according to planning documents. 

Hope, Bradley, and Ackerman, Andrew. "Red Tape Snarls Fix For 'Flash Crash'." The Wall Street Journal., Wednesday, May 6, 2015, A1, Accessed on May 6, 2015. http://www.wsj.com/articles/flash-crash-overhaul-is-snarled-in-red-tape-1430868811

Such will be the reach of The Consolidated Audit Trail ("CAT"), a financial regulatory data project currently in development to guard against "flash crashes" as happened in May of 2010. Regulators intend CAT to monitor stock and options trading in real time. Given the complexity, rapidity and gargantuan volume of such trading today it's no surprise it has taken so long to develop the project. Still, despite the difficulty of development, regulators shouldn't be dissuaded, la via é lunga e ‘l cammino é malvagio. The last flash crash shaved over 1,000 points from the Dow in just a few minutes. Can't have my money messed with like that.

What Violence Solves

Treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends - they wound those who resort to them, worse than their enemies. 

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, 155

These are the words of Isabella Heathcliff née Linton. They are offered in response to a suggestion by Hindley Earnshaw that the two of them murder her husband, Heathcliff. I think there is some truth to these words. Just ask Michael Corleone. There is, on the other hand, also some truth to Hindley's retort that "treachery and violence are a just return for treachery and violence." 

And as long as we're talking truth here just let me say that if ever there was a character in literature more deserving of a healthy dose of treachery and violence it's Heathcliff. He's a real bastard. 

But also a lot of fun to read.  

My New Hero

As he closes in on his 109th birthday later this month, Richard Overton said he is enjoying his growing renown as one of the nation’s oldest living World War II veterans—and one who continues to drive, tend his lawn here, and partake of whiskey and small cigars. 

“I smoke at least 12 Tampa Sweet cigars a day,” said Mr. Overton, a U.S. Army veteran.

Koppel, Nathan. "Yard Work, Cigars as Veteran Nears 109." The Wall Street Journal, May 4, 2015, A4. Accessed on May 4, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/veteran-richard-overton-nears-109th-birthday-with-yard-work-and-whiskey-1430696172

In Memory of Catherine Earnshaw

Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living. 

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, 119

Role Call

If, furthermore, you are on the council of any city, you should remember that you are a councillor; if a youth, a youth; if an old man, an old man. For each of these names, if rightly considered, always points to the acts appropriate to it. 

Gill, Christopher, ed., and Hard, Robin, trans. The Discourses of Epictetus. London: Everyman: 1995, 96

I find Epictetus's guidance here extremely helpful for good living. His idea is that throughout life we assume different roles and, just like an actor, there are proper ways to play such roles. So, for example, if you're a father you should think hard about how a father should behave and act accordingly. The trick is to remain mindful of all your roles in life and play them well.

I Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Balance Sheets

Today Messrs. Stubbington and Berthelsen of The Wall Street Journal seamlessly weave an allusion to Eliot's The Waste Land into the opening paragraph of their story about the April markets. It takes a rare journalistic talent to fit high modernism into a financial news analysis piece. They should be applauded. Too bad they couldn't find a way to work in dried tuber futures. 

April proved a cruel month for investors in financial markets, many of whom had bet the U.S. dollar would continue its march higher, oil prices would fall further and the rally in bond markets around the world would gain steam. 

Stubbington, Tommy and Berthelsen, Christian, "Global Markets Rattled as Turnaround Whips Investors," The Wall Street Journal., May 1, 2015, accessed May 1, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/stock-markets-fall-as-turnaround-whips-investors-1430436783