Today, I’m going to share a secret with you.
It’s a hidden recipe for a life-changing concoction.
The Aztecs called it the “Divine Messenger”.
The very first anthropologist said of those that consumed it, “it sustains them and gives them courage to fight and not feel fear nor hunger nor thirst. And they say that it protects them from all danger.”
The Spanish conquistadors said it was “satanic trickery”. Governments have shunned and regulated it ever since.
But today, I’m going to show you how you can make it yourself, legally, with household items.
Yes my friends, today you can steal the fire of the gods.
And I’m happy to tell you how, for free no less.
The ingredients are as follows.
- Avocado
- Tequila
- Bleach
Alright. The formula may need work. In fact, you should never even consider consuming this.
I was told this recipe by a man who had been given it in a dream. In this dream, he dutifully mixed the ingredients together and ingested the vile concoction, before being sick and waking up.
To be clear, the Aztec’s “divine messenger” does actually exist. It’s peyote, a naturally occurring psychedelic.
But it’s a cactus. There’s no way to brew it. Let alone with tequila and bleach.
The gentleman in question already knew this. And yet by night, in the dusty recesses of his mind, it made sense to drink bleach in pursuit of peyote. Total madness.
In dreams, we are insane. We don’t know where we are, have no memory of how we got there, and question neither of these things. We then proceed to make decisions we believe are rational… but are anything but.
The point of this letter today is it seems some investors have been making decisions as though they are dreaming… and are in for a very, very rude awakening.
Consider for example, a country in the developed world. It is hugely indebted. In fact, its debt is 30% larger than its entire economy. The young blood needed to grow the economy aren’t finding jobs. Youth unemployment is above 30%, with general unemployment above 10%.
Public funds have been notoriously mismanaged. Twenty-two buses spontaneously caught fire in the capital city last year. This has occurred nine times already this year.
Bad loans have left its banking system chronically sick. But this country can’t print its own currency.
And yet, despite all this… investors find this country’s debt very appealing indeed. In fact, pension funds and insurance companies sharply increased the holdings of this country’s bonds last year!
The return they’ll receive for taking on this risk?
Less than 2%. Maybe not as irrational as trying to create a cactus by following a recipe… but it’s up there.
The dreamers of the day
Delirium tremens occurs when somebody who has deprived their body of dreaming for long periods begins dreaming while they’re awake. It’s an affliction affecting alcoholics who stop drinking. Alcohol inhibits deep sleep, so when they stop the brain tries to make up for lost dreams.
Interestingly, market participants often don’t sleep much at all. Stories abound of investment bankers working 100 hour+ weeks, and traders burning the midnight oil to speculate on markets in different time zones. As a result, their brains are deeply deprived of dream sleep.
Perhaps this is why markets have become so strange – those that participate have brought the insanity of dreams into reality!
Have a great weekend,
Boaz Shoshan
Editor, Southbank Investment Research
PS For those of you who’d like to keep the insanity in their dreams, and out of their investing decisions, you may want to take a look at this.
Category: Economics