Charles Hugh Smith – Napoleon is reputed to have said, “Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything.” This is the lament of someone holding the reins of power: that this earthly power has limits.

Two things amaze me:

1. The public’s complacent confidence in the permanence of the global financial system. Put another way, what amazes me is the scarcity of awareness of the financial system’s fragility and vulnerability to collapse, a fragility that has increased as a result of policy extremes enacted to maintain a façade of security and confidence. Continue reading →