VIX is what our fates are tied to now, with the markets going up 4% one day and down 4% the next. VIX means volatility index. Trapped with the extremes. Don't forget, a VIXen is the wife of a FOX, which sheds a little light on how we find ourselves in the close embrace of radicals wingnuts who delight in bringing markets to their knees.
Result: The president probably won't* take his vacation at Martha's Vineyard this year. Bad image.
All this volatility is something we're having to get used to on Planet Earth. The climate veers between extremes these days, just as we were warned it would. Political and cultural violence is on the increase. The Taliban knocked out a US helicopter with many on board in retaliation for our taking out Bin Laden. NATO this morning said it had slaughtered the Taliban fighters who did it. London and much of the rest of England is on fire thanks (says the Tory prime minister) to (he didn't exactly say "wogs") who think (he did say) that the world owes them something.
And so on.
Business reporter Gretchen Morgensen insists that a second recession is around the corner because consumers are just not consuming -- all those unemployed ex-consumers who are so mean they won't make it easy on us by going shopping. Recession has turned most of us back into "citizens" as distinct from "consumers." That much I like.
If you're looking for a way out of the gloom and doom, a quick trip to Massachusetts could change your life.
... For a few days about every three months, Cash WinFall may be the most reliably lucrative lottery game in the country. Because of a quirk in the rules, when the jackpot reaches roughly $2 million and no one wins, payoffs for smaller prizes swell dramatically, which statisticians say practically assures a profit to anyone who buys at least $100,000 worth of tickets.
During these brief periods - “rolldown weeks’’ in gambling parlance - a tiny group of savvy bettors, among them highly trained computer scientists from MIT and Northeastern University, virtually take over the game. Just three groups, including the Selbees, claimed 1,105 of the 1,605 winning Cash WinFall tickets statewide after the rolldown week in May, according to lottery records. They also appear to have purchased about half the tickets, based on reports from the stores that the top gamblers frequent most.
“Cash WinFall isn’t being played as a game of chance. Some smart people have figured out how to get rich while everyone else funds their winnings,’’ said Mohan Srivastava, an MIT-educated statistician who gained fame in gambling circles when he found a flaw in a Canadian scratch ticket game that allowed him to pick the winners more than 90 percent of the time. ...Boston Globe
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*The political commentator who said this must be as surprised as anyone at what appears to be a bad choice on the part of the White House,just announced. It's not that anyone should begrudge time off to man who works harder and with greater responsibilities than any of us. It's the Vineyard's image...
