Thursday

Woke up a little off-balance.  It's either my inner ear, or from carrying a bag on the one side, with too much weight in it.  Concerned about getting vertigo again, so I'm home.  I should go have someone work on my back.

Went to go see "The Invisible Hand," by Ayad Akhtar at ACT last night.  I've also been reading "Fast Food Nation," by Eric Schlosser.  On the surface, they might not seem like they have much to do with each other, but as I think of one it triggers thoughts about the other.  Both dealing with how both money and power corrupt.  The "Invisible Hand" is about an American banker who is kidnapped in Pakistan and held for a $10 million ransom.  Early on, he says they got the wrong man, that who they really wanted was his boss, but is also so proud of his ability to make money trading and manipulating the markets that he brags about how it was really himself that did all the work, that his boss was an idiot.  As the story goes on, he says that if they can set up for him the ability to trade (futures) he will make the ransom money.  They allow this, and in the process he teaches his captor everything he knows.  He also talks a lot about manipulating currency, and how it's not a good bet because you can't determine when the next crisis will occur.  His captor plays dumb, but hears everything.

By the end, the captor has moved the accounts on an excuse of not being tracked, and we find out that he caused a crisis (setting off a bomb in the meeting of the central bank) in order to devalue the rupee and in the process made himself $25 million.  He has also caused riots/killings in the streets, and hopes that this will cause the overthrow of the government.  The streets outside are "running in blood."  The American seems stunned by all this, so proud of his ability to manipulate financial markets, he never considered the outcome of those actions on societies, on governments, on actual people.  He is a man without morals.  I kinda' expected the captor to kill him at that point, since he no longer needs him, but he sets him free and drops money (in dollars) in front of him.  Comments that he was hooked on money when they made the first $700,000 in ten minutes.  And in the end, I was left wondering, if they knew exactly who it was they had kidnapped, or if they just got lucky.

Schlosser's book deals with the growth of the fast-food industry, mostly in America.  Yes, there are the health effects, but even more so, manipulation, deregulation, how those who have the most to gain, essentially rig the system in their favor, working for defunding the agencies that would regulate their safety (OSHA, and Worker's Comp, in the case of the slaughterhouses), and using government programs that were designed to help small businesses, to make themselves richer.  Everything, in service to making more money, for those with the power, not much for anyone else.  Money is no longer a symbol of trade; profit is the only thing that matters.  Money is king.

The idea of the "Invisible Hand" is that markets will regulate themselves, because everyone working for their own self-interest will somehow keep it stable, and create an unforeseen common good.  It's based on an Adam Smith quote, and Nick (the American) explains that to his captor (Bashir).  When they did their initial futures manipulation, all trading stopped after 10 minutes, because the irregularity was noticed, but Bashir is later able to manipulate the system to overthrow a government and make himself rich.  Maybe in theory that idea works, but how true does it remain when at best you have an uneven playing field, and at worst you have very few players making all the decisions, and tipping the table evermore in their own favor?  At some point, everyone else is losing.

Gonna test this dizziness out by walking to the store, really want sugar, and currently out of fruit.  Don't know how long I'll stay with this, losing too much weight.  Need to eat a lot more when you cut out all those calorie-dense foods (sugar, wheat, dairy.)  And the main differences I'm noticing are energy levels and sleep, not sure if there are any intolerances there.