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Great Depression 2.0???
Mar. 11th, 2023 07:24 amAnother long, complicated dream that mostly I can’t remember, except it involved my unfortunate half-siblings somehow and a bunch of us who were traveling to the house where they lived from various far-away places.
We’d been summoned. Some momentous event?
Among the people who had been summoned were Eleanor (my old college friend Eleanor) and Mark (who, a few years after we broke up, had fallen in love with—and ended up living with—Eleanor for 15 years or so.)
The problem was that the particular group that Eleanor and Mark were in had been summoned twice—and thus, two versions of them had shown up.
One of the Marks was a relatively hale and hearty version of Mark, but the other version of Mark was Mark on his deathbed—gaunt and weak, in a hospital gown, his brain so stripped of its myelin sheaths, he could hardly articulate.
And this was greatly concerning, particularly to robust Mark, who was very logical and rational (as he was in non-dream life): How can I coexist with myself in the same time and space?
I think I know what’s happening, I said. This is some sort of… node. On what side of the node your personal histories are convergent. You are the same person. But from this point on, you are two separate people. The other “you” is… an other.
Strange but also moving to watch the robust Mark interact with the dying Mark, try to care for him.
Of particular concern, though, was the bed situation: Like where were these extra versions of the same person supposed to sleep? There weren’t enough beds!
###
A good chunk of my yesterday was spent trying to understand what’s going on behind the scenes with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
Canary in the coal mine?
Pebble that starts the avalanche?
Or just slightly out-of-control brushfire in the tech sector?
First run on deposits that actually resulted in real live lines of irate, anxious, angry customers in front of a bank’s physical locations since the Great Depression, I do believe.
###
The financial papers are filled with comforting blah-blah: This bank's entanglements with other parts of the banking system are relatively narrow, and the bank is relatively small. SVB is not fundamental to the world banking system. Blah, blah, blah.
The recent demise of Silvergate Bank? Well, they were into crypto.
The rumored imminent demise of Republic Bank? Well, it hasn’t happened yet!
But Silicon Valley Bank was actually the 14th biggest bank in the U.S. Is that small? I mean, maybe it is small; I’m no financier.
Also, the comforting blah-blah doesn’t speak to what to me is the most salient fact: namely, that the securities SVB was forced to sell in an attempt to pay off its debt were not volatile stocks or ETFs but comparatively risk-free U.S. Treasuries and government bonds whose value as investments has suffered mightily this past year due to the twin whammy of inflation and rising interest rates.
That’s the real story—to me.
What am I missing here?
###
Anyway, the yesterday itself was uneventful. I showed up for what I thought was my Hep A vaccination only to be informed that it was actually the first of two Hep A vaccinations, the second of which has to be given next September.
This means I should avoid street vendor food in Guatemala, I suppose.
I spent the day pouring over RSUs and ESPPs and trying to figure out the right way to enter them into a 1040 so that they don’t get double-taxed as ordinary income since they’re also reported on W2 forms.
It’s a bit like studying the Talmud!
In the late afternoon, I texted Ichabod, Are you being evacuated? because pictures of Soquel (where he lives now and where Annie’s little house was for years and years and years) were all over the news:
This morning, I awakened to this:
I suppose some people might find it beautiful.
Not me!
I know the eeee-vil that lurks behind the Hideous White Stuff From the Sky!
We’d been summoned. Some momentous event?
Among the people who had been summoned were Eleanor (my old college friend Eleanor) and Mark (who, a few years after we broke up, had fallen in love with—and ended up living with—Eleanor for 15 years or so.)
The problem was that the particular group that Eleanor and Mark were in had been summoned twice—and thus, two versions of them had shown up.
One of the Marks was a relatively hale and hearty version of Mark, but the other version of Mark was Mark on his deathbed—gaunt and weak, in a hospital gown, his brain so stripped of its myelin sheaths, he could hardly articulate.
And this was greatly concerning, particularly to robust Mark, who was very logical and rational (as he was in non-dream life): How can I coexist with myself in the same time and space?
I think I know what’s happening, I said. This is some sort of… node. On what side of the node your personal histories are convergent. You are the same person. But from this point on, you are two separate people. The other “you” is… an other.
Strange but also moving to watch the robust Mark interact with the dying Mark, try to care for him.
Of particular concern, though, was the bed situation: Like where were these extra versions of the same person supposed to sleep? There weren’t enough beds!
###
A good chunk of my yesterday was spent trying to understand what’s going on behind the scenes with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
Canary in the coal mine?
Pebble that starts the avalanche?
Or just slightly out-of-control brushfire in the tech sector?
First run on deposits that actually resulted in real live lines of irate, anxious, angry customers in front of a bank’s physical locations since the Great Depression, I do believe.
###
The financial papers are filled with comforting blah-blah: This bank's entanglements with other parts of the banking system are relatively narrow, and the bank is relatively small. SVB is not fundamental to the world banking system. Blah, blah, blah.
The recent demise of Silvergate Bank? Well, they were into crypto.
The rumored imminent demise of Republic Bank? Well, it hasn’t happened yet!
But Silicon Valley Bank was actually the 14th biggest bank in the U.S. Is that small? I mean, maybe it is small; I’m no financier.
Also, the comforting blah-blah doesn’t speak to what to me is the most salient fact: namely, that the securities SVB was forced to sell in an attempt to pay off its debt were not volatile stocks or ETFs but comparatively risk-free U.S. Treasuries and government bonds whose value as investments has suffered mightily this past year due to the twin whammy of inflation and rising interest rates.
That’s the real story—to me.
What am I missing here?
###
Anyway, the yesterday itself was uneventful. I showed up for what I thought was my Hep A vaccination only to be informed that it was actually the first of two Hep A vaccinations, the second of which has to be given next September.
This means I should avoid street vendor food in Guatemala, I suppose.
I spent the day pouring over RSUs and ESPPs and trying to figure out the right way to enter them into a 1040 so that they don’t get double-taxed as ordinary income since they’re also reported on W2 forms.
It’s a bit like studying the Talmud!
In the late afternoon, I texted Ichabod, Are you being evacuated? because pictures of Soquel (where he lives now and where Annie’s little house was for years and years and years) were all over the news:
This morning, I awakened to this:
I suppose some people might find it beautiful.
Not me!
I know the eeee-vil that lurks behind the Hideous White Stuff From the Sky!
