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Strategies & Market Trends : ajtj's Post-Lobotomy Market Charts and Thoughts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lee Lichterman III who wrote (75181)	12/25/2022 11:59:05 AM
From: Sun Tzu	2 Recommendations Recommended By ajtj99 Lou Weed Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97958

The roots of conservatism vs liberalism are biological. They have little to do with party affiliation or religion. Lots multidisciplinary research bears this out. There are tons of true conservatives and liberals in both parties. Briefly, “The core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change and justification of inequality and is motivated by needs that vary situationally and dispositionally to manage uncertainty and threat,” Jost and co - findings drawn from 88 study samples in 12 countries. Research in other disciplines using MRI or psychological profiles confirms these findings. You are an example of a moderate liberal in conservative clothing. But my point was different. I take an engineering approach to everything. And when I look at conservative towns and countries vs the liberal ones, there is a clear and strong bias towards higher standards of living and technological advances in the liberal ones. (how many conservative cosmopolitan cities can you name? How many rural impoverished ones?) It should not be surprising that the more freedom and leniency a society affords its members, the progress it makes, though the path will be messier and more uncertain than a structured approach. =+=+= Christmas is the birthday of Mithra, the sun god. The Arch priest of Mithra superficially converted to Christianity in order to win over the slaves and the underclass during his civil war. But this was only a change in name, not content. Here's a thread on this subject Subject 53915 =+=+= Overpopulation is always a big problem. As is this obsession with GDP growth. The only thing that has unbounded perpetual growth in nature is cancer, and it is fatal. Societies should move towards sustainable growth in all areas. =+=+= Personally, I view bear markets as great wealth building machines. From a trading perspective, the only difference between bear markets and bull markets is that the former happens much faster. In a bull market it takes a long time for a stock or portfolio to have 30+% gains. In a bear market it happens every 2 - 4 months. But if someone wants to hold things for longer and can't trade much, then I suggest a balanced and diverse portfolio of the most profitable companies with an emphasis on natural resources and emerging markets. =+=+= Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone. I wish you all a much better 2023 than 2022.

To: Lee Lichterman III who wrote (75181)	12/25/2022 1:03:42 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97958

Completely OT - Religion and Corruption [I went to have a brief look at that thread and saw this from 2009] Transparency International has just released its corruption ranking of the countries around the world (see transparency.org ). An interesting observation is that there is a very high correlation between how conservative and religious a country is and how corrupt it is. The correlation seems to hold across cultural and developmental boundaries. So for example, the most liberal and secular Western countries (Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland) rank well ahead of the most religious Western countries (Italy, USA, and Greece). Italy in fact, being somewhat as Christian as Saudi Arabia is Muslim shares the same corruption index as Saudi. Likewise, the most liberal mid-eastern countries (Qatar and UAE) rank less corrupt than the most religious countries of the Middle East (Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iran). Looking at Asia, Singapore and Hong Kong rank well ahead of Buddhist Thailand. The most Catholic country in Africa, Rwanda, is far more corrupt than Botswana or Namibia. I have often pondered why it seems that religiousness and corruption so often go hand in hand. I suppose part of it can be attributed to group-think that organized religion forces upon people. But I think a bigger chunk of it has to do with the combination these two facts: religion and “values” provide the perfect cover for the scoundrels and conmen who’d otherwise would have a hard time looking respectable. At the same time, conservatives, and especially religious conservatives, are far more willing relinquish their free will and independent thought at the altar a greater being or the greater good than liberal, making them the preferred victims of the conmen and scoundrels. Somewhat ironic that religion seems to have the exact opposite effect of what it intends to foster.