Tuesday 21 May 2013

Colluding with the action of capital


In a world of asymmetric information
where different agents can hold different sets of information and
rationally I often feel I am not personally engaged
being a shareholder of being
an investor in sympathy
a kind of guilt or delegated
narcissism which may be worse because disavowed. Every bank
has to be concerned that it might
be perceived as a source. Alice I can't forget
that meeting and sense of triumph, of counterparty risk
afterwards. I paid.
I noticed the cattleya in the shop
window, a pale yellow that was perhaps overdone or exuberant, a colour
you never wear. I noticed
how you have an élan while I pretend to listen
and profit by it. Perhaps it is a question of value after all
or action, or distribution, access to markets or
nonlinear effects in high frequency trading.
Rumors of distress are enough.
This isn't ironic, really.
A stupefying heroic abstraction
like Boltzmann's equation or the revolution
in men's wear following the collapse
of the market for asset-backed commercial paper.
In fact I do listen and care deeply.