Back in the Saddle

Or should I say that I survived a few days in the belly of the Beast?

The Belly of the Beast is Manhattan, New York City.

Business seems to be booming for that community.  The luncheon and dining spots are full, the bar was crowded on the Tuesday evening.  Tables were scarce at the "club" for lunch.  Many obviously busy people in grey suits and nondescript ties were earnestly discussing something.  One could even observe the younger financial piranhas chatting over drinks in rather good moods.

The French seem to be movivng to NYC.  I was very surprised about how many people speaking French that I passed by in the area of Fifth Avenue - Central Park - upper Midtown.  Most seemed to be residents, sonme were tourists.  Interesting, no?

Meanwhile, a story appeared with data that the new poor in suburbia are both surprising and overwhelming these support agencies in major metropolitan areas across America.  The new poor are not single mothers of minority ethnicity in central urban cores.  They are 50-ish people out of work, losing their life savings and homes in suburbia with few prospects of avoiding destitution in old age.

Few in the Ruling Class of Pharesees, hogs and the dukes of DC notice them or care a whit about the devastation this endless recession is causing.  Sigh ...

Meanwhile, Europe seems to have reached some kind of consensus on the weaker nations.  Lenders get a 50% haircut and its banks have to raise capital.  No surprise there.

By the way, the screechers about the end of the Euro don't realize that the leaders in Europe know that they need the EU and Euro to keep the long term prospects of peace and no more European wars.  They is why they are working hard to keep it.  They have memories of real wars and don't want to suffer those on their soil any more.  Hence less selfish behavior and a willingness to work out a solution.

Word of the Day

"Anagnorisis" - noun [$100] (pl. -ses)
Anagnorisis means (in Greek tragedy) the critical moment of recognition or discovery, esp. preceding peripeteia; a moment of terribl eself-recognition.  Several examples of anagnorisis are the moment that Oedipus recognizes what he had done, or when Lady Macbeth at the end of said play cannot seem to clean the vision of blood from her hands.
Sentence:  Will the Pharisees and hogs and dukes of DC never reform, or will they fight on for their own ruling class until a time of anagnorisis as the deluge rolls over them all?