Baraka_Guru

Here's something else we should be focusing on: decoupling is a myth, and many people are being wiped out because of it.

The wonderful theory of decoupling states that when stocks rise, bonds fall, and when stocks fall, bonds rise. But this isn't necessarily the case. When you have huge (unregulated) banks dealing with both types of products and they start to fail and come up short, suddenly decoupling becomes a pipe dream—your "defensive portfolio" gets hit and it gets hit hard. No balancing, no deals to be found with dollar-cost averaging in mind. You just take it on the chin.

And now you have the rumours about mergers and acquisitions. Great, let's concentrate the problems and put the reins into fewer hands.

And this is a double-whammy. The other side of decoupling that is revealing itself as a myth is found when you see Asian and European markets taking severe hits based on what is largely an American problem. Other markets haven't decoupled from Western markets, it appears. Decoupling is a myth and it's because of the current two-tier problem of globalization and deregulation. And what's frightening is that I can only assume that many of these economies have already started to emulate the American mode. Maybe it's time to put a stop to that?

This isn't just a financial issue; it's a moral issue. Think of all the financial lives being ruined by what originated as a problem overseas—a problem allowed, nay, empowered by American economic policy.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot