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Does Anyone Else Think The Stock Market Is Living On Reds, Vitamin C And Cocaine?

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

The stock market's wild swings of sentiment have got me thinking it's living on reds, vitamin C and cocaine. This is a famous line from the Grateful Dead song Truckin'.
 

I've marked up a one-month chart of the S&P 500 (SPX) to illustrate what I mean:
 
 
Reds are slang for barbiturates, a class of depressants/sedatives (downers). Cocaine induces euphoric highs in which the cokehead feels he possesses god-like powers--for example, he might imagine he is a Federal Reserve member, or even its chairperson.
There are multiple interpretations of the role of vitamin C in the lyric, but for the purposes of the chart it serves as a modest dose of something healthy to keep the drug-ravaged market from crashing.
 
After multiple swings between cocaine highs brought to earth by downers, the market seems to be tripping on acid again. Though no one can know precisely what hallucinations are spinning through the manic-depressive sentiment of the market, it seems the market has responded to the withdrawal of its free-money cocaine--supplied of course by the Federal Reserve--by entering a drug-induced fantasy that everything's been fixed in the global economy: Europe is growing again, China's housing crisis has passed, U.S. corporate profits will feed corporate buybacks forever, and so stocks can loft higher again--a Bull Market without end.
 

This state of delusion would be amusing if it wasn't so tragic. The acid will wear off soon enough, and a mega-dose of vitamin C will not be enough to restore the shattered health of a manic, drugged-out market careening between euphoria and fear.

 
 

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Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:01 | 5372850 stinkhammer
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truckin!   Jerry'd be proud

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:03 | 5372857 dow jones 20000
dow jones 20000's picture

the stock market is just grateful it's not dead...

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:16 | 5372937 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

Like Keith Richards, they're already dead, they just haven't realized it yet.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:23 | 5372972 ACP
ACP's picture

More like "...two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls."

 

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:36 | 5373049 Straw Dog
Straw Dog's picture

You are really Hunter Thompson - admit it

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:42 | 5373087 IANAE
IANAE's picture

...what a loooooong strange trip it's been...

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:46 | 5373105 economics9698
economics9698's picture

Getting high always made public schooling more bearable.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 15:18 | 5373411 Manthong
Manthong's picture

Whichever Tyler wrote the headline must have had an average SAT score.
But maybe weed, whites and wine are in the mix, too...

“If you you give me weed, whites, and wine
Show me a sign, and I'll be willin' to keep on movin' (yeah)”- Seatrain

Gee.. either sombody didn't read the music/SAT piece and/or they have no sense of humor.

Tough crowd at Fight Club.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 15:49 | 5373816 SRVDisciple
SRVDisciple's picture

Little Feat did the best version! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNqv85coyTw

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 17:04 | 5374136 Manthong
Manthong's picture

Never heard that one.. nice.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:42 | 5373081 SgtSchultz
SgtSchultz's picture

And that was just for Hunter's afternoon fishing trip!

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:26 | 5373346 TahoeBilly2012
TahoeBilly2012's picture

Hunter offed himself, I beleive, partly due to 9-11. He knew things were about to get crazy and Democrats about to become complete idiots. What would he be saying today? 

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:51 | 5373508 Boxed Merlot
Boxed Merlot's picture

What would he be saying today?...

 

 

I dunno.  Maybe "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony..."

Maybe not.

 

Ether way, don't think his fishing supplies will be of much use now.

 

 

Fuller context:
Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.  And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and none may cross over from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’  But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”   -  Jesus

 

jmbelief

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:41 | 5373082 SgtSchultz
SgtSchultz's picture

And that was just for Hunter's afternoon fishing trip!

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:18 | 5372938 manofthenorth
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" ALL HER FRIENDS CAN SAY IS 'AIN'T IT A SHAME' "

 

" LATELY IT OCCURS TO ME  WHAT A LONG, STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN"

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:09 | 5373234 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

If the Stock Market is likened to that train ride...

 

Ridin' that train

High on Cocaine

Casey Jones you'd better

Watch your speed.

Trouble ahead

Trouble behind

And you know that notion

Just crossed my mind...

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:21 | 5372960 LapseOfReason
LapseOfReason's picture

"Netscape opened at what!?!"

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:58 | 5373165 ZH Snob
ZH Snob's picture

all a friend could say is ain't it a shame

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:02 | 5372858 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

They start their days off with the Breakfast of Champions...Pixie Sticks and Red Bull.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:02 | 5372863 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

We're tapering off.  

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:04 | 5372868 himaroid
himaroid's picture

Black Beauties and toot.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:04 | 5372872 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

Yeah, I think so too. I agree. That's why I'm short. I love todays chart, which puts me a little bit out of the money but has an inflection point at 1963 on the S&P; which is perfect according to how I am interpreting the evetns of the last two weeks. So; carry on.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:09 | 5372892 himaroid
himaroid's picture

You get your ass busted when you brag, pride goeth before a fall, and all that.

But I am the Maestro of TLT. 

Gonna be a good weekend.

I think I will skip the reds and coke though.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:17 | 5372941 Dr. Richard Head
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Jordan's drug habbits - The Wolf of Wall Street https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lP_J_EKY0E

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:06 | 5372877 Bastiat
Bastiat's picture

A friend commented on the passing of JErry Garcia:  what he mainly accomplished was to help delude druggies into thinking they were something other than losers.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:09 | 5372895 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

It's the post-modern era, baby.  Truth is whatever you think it is.  Nobody can tell you you're wrong.  Anything goes, everything is equivalent, nobody gets criticized.  Being a loser druggie is a perfectly acceptable lifestyle.  As good as any other.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:30 | 5373010 Bastiat
Bastiat's picture

Cause and effect is a barbaric relic.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:33 | 5373026 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

Yes.  Consequences have been outlawed.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:39 | 5373070 Bastiat
Bastiat's picture

That reminds me of a piece I heard on survivors of the Golden Gate Bridge jump.  One that really stuck with me:  "A few seconds after I jumped I realized:  'everything that's wrong with my life could be fixed . . . . except this.'"

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:53 | 5373145 DaddyO
DaddyO's picture

except this...<--fill in the blank-->

I came to this realization at the end of a loaded 12GA in 1982...

Haven't been the same since...

I bought the whole 1970's meme of if it feels good, do it. If it feels very good, do it a lot...

The cocaine cowboy era here in sunny FLA left me horseless, penniless and morally bankrupt.

In comparison, from my vantage point today, the Wall Street criminality looks just like what left me a broken, horseless, penniless cowboy.

The coming sh*t storm will have the same effect on our current society, just on a more ominous and scary scale.

DaddyO


Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:25 | 5373324 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

So let me see if I've got this right...

 

The drugged out state leaves you horseless, penniless, and Morally Bankrupt.

 

Being a trader on Wall Street will leave you being horseless, penniless, and Morally Bankrupt.

 

And Bastiat and No Debt thinks that a Drug User is, somehow, inferior as the end results are...uh...the same?!?

 

Thinking about things I don't understand.

 

http://youtu.be/PfBaB25TD6M

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:52 | 5373506 DaddyO
DaddyO's picture

Whoa Nellie!!!

Let's examine a few words I used and take a step back and see if this will clear the smoke from the bong hit here. The act of using drugs to excess lead me to the state of horseless, penniless and morally bankrupt.

My position is that the actions of the Wall Street owners and their CRIMINAL behavior will lead the trader to become the things mentioned above. It will also have that same deleterious effect on the society at large. The traders are no different than the cocaine cowboys whose bodies littered the streets of Miami in their struggle to own territory, while the real players lived it up in South Beach.

Is the current situation any different with the owners of the CBOE, NYSE, FEDRES and such. The traders are just the tools of those who reside in the Hamptons...

Hope this clears things up a bit...

DaddyO

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 15:37 | 5373759 Bastiat
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"And Bastiat and No Debt thinks that a Drug User is, somehow, inferior as the end results are...uh...the same?!?"

Did I anywhere compare drug users to traders?

Or is Tall Tom telling Tall Tales here?

The point that No Debt was making is that similar behaviours lead to similar personal outcomes and perhaps in the case of Wall St, systemic outcomes.  Nowhere did he say druggies were worse than traders. 

Just put down the pipe.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 16:43 | 5374066 armageddon addahere
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I thought the big operators on Wall Street were druggies.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:19 | 5372952 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

LOL

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:07 | 5372880 The Phallic Crusader
The Phallic Crusader's picture

you're reaching here, Chuck.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:23 | 5372977 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

I think we're far enough through the looking-glass now that this comparison is perfectly acceptable. After all, it fits the picture far better than plastic people on CNBS talking about fundamentals, recovery, valuations and whatever other idiocy they use to fill the air time.

Hell, if they had CHS discussing this on a segment, I'd tune in for the first time since Mark Haines passed.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:07 | 5372884 DavidC
DavidC's picture

YES!

DavidC

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:10 | 5372893 tenpanhandle
tenpanhandle's picture

No crash allowed till after 4th of Nov.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:13 | 5372909 NoDebt
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Recall a couple years ago there was much talk (here and elsewhere) about the hellstorm that was going to come after the German elections.  It didn't happen.  Things continued on utterly unchanged.

This would be an example of why so many say that elections don't matter.  And I'll bet you little to nothing changes after our own elections on Nov 4th.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:42 | 5373055 SheepDog-One
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How about 2010 when the market was ridiculously pumped all year and every article said it was just due to the election scam, gotta get Obummer locked in for 4 more and then all bets were off....all total horseshit they just kept on pumping from there anyway.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:05 | 5373204 robertocarlos
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Didn't those old guys dressed in red make a ruling that prevented a shit-storm from being allowed to happen?

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:11 | 5373225 SheepDog-One
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I guess anyone could pass laws against Cat5 shiticanes....but good luck enforcing them...they'll need a whole lot of shitstorm troopers.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:19 | 5372950 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

Yep, election day will be the break point......

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:10 | 5372901 Amish Hacker
Amish Hacker's picture

Not Truckin' so much as US Blues.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:13 | 5372916 Professorlocknload
Professorlocknload's picture

Careening between euphoria and fear?

Yeah?

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:20 | 5372962 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

That's Hunter S. Thompson.....a real pro...

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:15 | 5372917 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

It's also running on... Centrum Silver.  Make that "Centrum Platinum", from the Fed.  What's no longer in the Real Economy to feed the Financial Body, is being supplemented by TPTB in NY and DC.

Add all up all these pills, and you get "The Audacity of (JY) Hope", or just sheer AUDACITY.

p.s.  Sorry about the fat-finger "JY" typo.  I meant "The Audacity of (NY) Hope";-)

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:00 | 5373179 F.A. Hayek
F.A. Hayek's picture

+1 for the geriatric references. 60's-style social justice was good for those old bastards who built the crumbling foundation we're standing on.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:15 | 5372918 F.A. Hayek
F.A. Hayek's picture

How many tabs will it take to believe we'll spend ourselves out of depression? Don't eat the brown acid, man!

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:21 | 5372939 fiftybagger
fiftybagger's picture

All a friend can say is "Ain't it a shame?"

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:22 | 5372973 Silverhog
Silverhog's picture

OT but here is a real helpful article. What a Shill. Somebody at the top must have called this guy saying write us something good about Ebola. 

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/whats-more-likely-to-kill-you-ebola-or-...

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:28 | 5372997 Cortez
Cortez's picture

What in the world ever became of sweet Jane?

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:52 | 5373141 S5936
S5936's picture

She lost her sparckle , you know she isn't the same.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:37 | 5373051 anachronism
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Thsee finacial markets have their enablers: The Federal Reserve, or more specifically the entities that pull the strings over the Federal Reserve: Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, or even more specifically, the people who pull the strings over GS and JPM. Operating within or tangential to them, are thousands of manipulators and tens of thousands of speculators, for whom this must never end. Indeed it won't ever end, at least not before the government of the United States ends.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:38 | 5373053 One of We
One of We's picture

I got my chips cashed in 'cuz Janet Yellen is Casey Jones!

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:42 | 5373084 swass
swass's picture

Don't forget the hookers with the blow.  We need to boost GDP you know!

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:42 | 5373091 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

Cocaine has long been the drug of choice on Wall-Street, once it became fully developed, cocaine use exploded in the 1980's until coke and the street were just one in the same. I suggest there is no reason to believe anything has changed.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:50 | 5373132 Billy Shears
Billy Shears's picture

Hell in a bucket; Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH7I6ibA-SM

 

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:59 | 5373175 PKF
PKF's picture

After all the coke, one has to come down and to my knowledge there aren't anymore seconals, nebutals, etc. manufactured.  All I see is Ambien which allows one to sleep walk while driving a car.  

Generic valiums, diazapam, have no quality control....some of the tabs work and others don't. Big Pharma is simply torturing us now, as is Big Ag, Big Fed, Big Coal, Big Street, etc.  

At first, life was simply unfair, then it advanced to a state of suffering, but now it has become sheer torture.  

I remember seconals....what a great sleep.  They were just called 'Sleeping Pills' and Dexadrine/Dexamyl were simply 'Diet Pills.'  Then came the War on Drugs.  Alas.   

Everyone has insomnia now and no way to get to sleep....well, OK, the quart of tequila might do it.  

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:01 | 5373182 robertocarlos
robertocarlos's picture

I was checking out Fawn Hall yesterday and it turned out she got into cocaine. Skinny bitch.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:10 | 5373241 Hotmustard
Hotmustard's picture

"I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too." _ Mitch Hedburg

 

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:09 | 5373242 Hotmustard
Hotmustard's picture

"I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too." _ Mitch Hedburg

 

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:13 | 5373265 I Write Code
I Write Code's picture

QE's just another name
for 16000 points left to lose.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:25 | 5373347 Seize Mars
Seize Mars's picture

I've got some reds.
You don't mean communists, do you Sam?
Everything a joke to you, fletch?
Everything, Sam.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:34 | 5373397 agent default
agent default's picture

Skynet is on drugs? OK fair enough but why does it need the vitamins for?

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:49 | 5373490 RougeUnderwriter
RougeUnderwriter's picture

We can share the women we can share the wine....

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 14:59 | 5373544 indaknow
indaknow's picture

Well good thing its not retail because "HE'S GONE" and aint never coming back.

 

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 15:24 | 5373679 limacon
limacon's picture

Some unreason is called for .

Being reasonable does not seem to work .

 

https://www.academia.edu/8942403/The_Hysterical_Focus_is_your_friend_

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 15:28 | 5373700 gallistic
gallistic's picture

I don't like the drugs, but the drugs like me.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 17:59 | 5374333 Hotmustard
Hotmustard's picture

Steel Panther right?

Sat, 10/25/2014 - 20:59 | 5377649 gallistic
gallistic's picture

Marilyn Manson

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 21:32 | 5375012 illadeljim
illadeljim's picture

The Big one is coming...and gold n silver won't be nearly as valuable as bullets, food and water will be.

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