I don’t pretend to understand the stock market, the Federal Reserve, or anything like that.

From exposure to political theory, discussions, and self-education, I’d think I’d be at about a third-grade level of understanding.

But when there is almost zero finance literacy being taught, I’m a titan among normies.

However, I like to pretend – and I use pretend generously – a little bit about literature. Not the current day slop, of course. The beastility is intriguing, but would probably be a form of brain rot if I liked it.

The backlog of literature – which is so dense and overwhelming – is where I tend to hang my wordy hat. Maybe not now, because I’m a despite, but twenty years ago I did.

And, one of those greats I pseudo-studied was Ayn Rand. While I didn’t fully agree with her political and social views, I still found Anthem (and probably still do) to be one of my all-time favorites. Atlas Shrugged was good, and I think I was a bit in love with Roark in The Fountainhead.

Rand had a group of friends, self-called The Collective. They met and discussed politics, the economy, and such. Intelligent people meet to theorize about global change. It’s like a DND group without the dragons. They hashed out how society is, what it could be, and where it could go. They considered weaknesses and strengths.

I think it would be a group I would love to recreate here – although intelligence and openness hide in 2026 – and with good reason. Providing, of course, there’s enough left of those type of people in America to fill a small elevator.

Back on track — Rand and Alan Greenspan knew each other.

Yes – that Alan Greenspan.
The man who brought sexy to the Federal Reserve.

In the Collective, which was headed by Rand, he brought the banking meetings to the public. He had press conferences, provided minute meetings, and invited questions. If changes were made or if they weren’t made, he’d say so.

Greenspan, again with Rand, believed that what governed the monetary system of America and, by extension, the entire world, should be easily accessible to the collective – to the normal person on the street. There should be little to no friction for laypeople buying and selling.

People bought stocks, bonds, and other stuff. While they may not understand them, the words became familiar. If someone owned a share of Apple or an American bond, they could feel a little pride. Maybe feel a little rich – privileged – part of the in crowd.

The market would regulate itself.

If something didn’t work, people would just go elsewhere. Of course, this didn’t happen. A normie buying a stock is more of a novelty for most. But, in theory, it sounded good.

This is where I’m not too sure what I’m talking about —

I think Greenspan was where derivatives started, which led to the 2008 housing crisis. Banks and financial institutions changed their policies based on what they “thought ” or projected the Federal Reserve would do, rather than what it actually did. The Feds also became more of a political tool. Presidents and Congress predicted or demanded favorable outlooks.

Rather, they were favorable, rational, or even sane; projections didn’t matter. What it did was help elections and make that red line go up, even if it was held with hopeium.

The Federal Reserve became weaponized.
While Greenspan and Rand may have had good intentions, nothing that starts good or with good intentions — never ends that way. Never. Never ever.

Coming from Fed Chair Volkner – who everyone hated but curbed inflation and beat the economy with an ugly stick until it was pretty, Greenspan was the Mary Poppins of Regan, Clinton, and Bush eras.

The new Fed chairperson – Warsh – undid that.
I think it’s ‘chairman’ now. We’re being linguistically correct instead of socieitial – is trying to remove the Greenspan Sexy.

Or, at least, derail it a bit.

Warsh is removing the public releases, the indicators, and whatever. He may stop providing the minutes and notes of the meetings. In time, he may even stop giving press conferences.

This could make the stock market cry.
The Federal Reserve will become more like a black box as it was pre-Greenspan.

But – why?
I don’t think the politicians (especially Trump) would allow the Fed to become a neutral entity – uninfluenced by what the economy needs and what it wants.

I don’t think derivities or any of that other BS is going to go away.

The real debt and downfall are the notes in the margins, not what’s in papers or on spreadsheets.

Any author worth her salt would say relationships and interactions built the story. The story doesn’t exist on the page but in the mind.

The economy doesn’t exist in a line, but the interactions embedded – what doesn’t get line items – in the margins.

So… Did Rand’s Collective just move behind the Fed door? All for me, none for thee?

Even if general society didn’t understand what was going on, there was some sort of transparency and clues for the detectives among us.

Now, is the collective meant to rely on “Trust me, bro?”
“I am Finance,” like Fauci was science?

I don’t know.
_- Just speculating.
No clue what I’m typing.

Downtime between classes and all that.
Trying to remember a time when I was more conscious — intelligent — not intelligent — but actually gave a dam about literature — an abandoned life projection…

I don’t know.
I’m going to end now.

All the best.