Financial Totalitarianism
Trying to make sense of this financial world through traditional stock fundamental measures is futile these days. Playing the money game has become a binary flip of a coin on the last dollar: either you invest in assets (all in) or in cash (all out). This duality simplifies the plethora of alternatives that normally overwhelm the investor. "Correlation-One" Markets that rise and fall at unison. The value of your investments is determined by the latest decision of a policy figure. Take the value of your money, for example. The value of your money measured in assets (or how many barrels of oil, bars of gold, pairs of Nike shoes or heads of lettuce can you buy with a fixed amount of green stamps called "money") is established by its relative abundance (or at least its perceived abundance), which in normal times is determined by the decision of a counsel of elders in which we have trusted our savings (the central bank). We never think of it this way, but our wealth is...