--- [ ARCHIVE ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=16) # Playing the Market -- The Only Game in Town ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Sept-2015/075l.png)ROLLING THE STOCK MARKET DICE --The stock market is down. It must be some crazy thing China has done. Those Communist countries just don’t understand how capitalism works. No, wait! The market just went up. Did China fix its capital markets already? Not really. More likely it’s that our Federal Reserve has hinted that it’s not going to raise interest rates any time soon because a bunch of economists are afraid of deflation. Oh, lookee there. The market is down again. It seems that a Greek finance minister has threatened to resign and people are jumping out of windows all over Europe. Why? We’ll explain later. It’s all a hustle. The stock market is as crooked as the dice game in *Guys and Dolls*. One of the best scenes in that classic movie and play is when “Big Julie from Chicago” decides he’s been losing enough. To turn things around, the wise guy demands a change of dice. Then he pulls his own set out of his pocket. “But these dice don’t have no numbers on them,” Nathan Detroit says. “That’s OK,” says Big Julie. “I got ‘em memorized.” The stock market is like that. Every day the pros roll a giant pair of blank dice and at the end of the day they tell us whether we’ve won or lost and why. And the commentators always know exactly why. Sure they do. But did you ever wonder why people who are so sure of why things happened before can never tell you what’s going to happen next? Can a hiccup in Greece or China really matter that much over here? And what’s the significance of the price of oil falling? Or rising? Don’t ask me. Ask Big Julie from Wall Street. He owns the dice. Yet I stay in the stock market, even though I know the game is fixed. I’m like the gambler who keeps playing roulette at the local casino even though he knows the wheel is crooked. Asked why he says: “It’s the only game in town.” I retired (more or less) 15 years ago. Had I converted my nest egg back then to cash and buried it in the backyard, I would have fared better than someone who invested it in certificates of deposit. The other day I looked at the interest rates my bank was paying on savings. A whopping 0.2 percent. That’s not keeping up with inflation — and we [don’t have any inflation](http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Rate/CurrentInflation.asp). So I put most of my money in the stock market and pray a lot. It’s a tricky thing for a skeptical agnostic to pull off. Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose. And I don’t know why. I certainly don’t believe anything the so-called analysts on television tell me. If they really knew what was going on, they’d keep it to themselves and make a fortune. In any case, most of those analysts sell stocks for a living. When they’re on the tube, they never say: “We’re in a stock bubble here. Things are going to collapse soon. You might want to think about getting out.” Instead, when the bubble — stock, real estate, dot-com, whatever — pops, the market nosedives, and the TV geniuses say: “Wow! Where did that come from? Who knew?” Then the banks get taken care of. And the hedge fund managers get taken care of. And the rest of us, the pilot fish of the economy, regret that we didn’t pick a better whale to seek shelter beneath. As I’ve [written before](http://www.amazon.com/Theyre-All-It-Together-Things/dp/0836262204), my father — a Ukrainian immigrant — was a shrewd observer of the human scene. When some politician would argue that raising the minimum wage was bad for the economy but cutting taxes for the rich was good, when the stock market went up and down for no apparent reason, he’d nod his head and say: “They’re all in it together, kid. Remember that.” And I always have. *(Donald Kaul is a columnist for* ***[OtherWords](http://otherwords.org/the-only-game-in-town/)*** *where this perspective originated.)* Edited for *CityWatch* by Linda Abrams. -cw CityWatch Vol 13 Issue 75 Pub: Sep 15, 2015 Written by Donald Kaul. September 14 2015 [](https://www.addtoany.com/share) ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Sept-2015/075l.png)ROLLING THE STOCK MARKET DICE --The stock market is down. It must be some crazy thing China has done. Those Communist countries just don’t understand how capitalism works. No, wait! The market just went up. Did China fix its capital markets already? Not really. More likely it’s that our Federal Reserve has hinted that it’s not going to raise interest rates any time soon because a bunch of economists are afraid of deflation. Oh, lookee there. The market is down again. It seems that a Greek finance minister has threatened to resign and people are jumping out of windows all over Europe. Why? We’ll explain later. It’s all a hustle. The stock market is as crooked as the dice game in *Guys and Dolls*. One of the best scenes in that classic movie and play is when “Big Julie from Chicago” decides he’s been losing enough. To turn things around, the wise guy demands a change of dice. Then he pulls his own set out of his pocket. “But these dice don’t have no numbers on them,” Nathan Detroit says. “That’s OK,” says Big Julie. “I got ‘em memorized.” The stock market is like that. Every day the pros roll a giant pair of blank dice and at the end of the day they tell us whether we’ve won or lost and why. And the commentators always know exactly why. Sure they do. But did you ever wonder why people who are so sure of why things happened before can never tell you what’s going to happen next? Can a hiccup in Greece or China really matter that much over here? And what’s the significance of the price of oil falling? Or rising? Don’t ask me. Ask Big Julie from Wall Street. He owns the dice. Yet I stay in the stock market, even though I know the game is fixed. I’m like the gambler who keeps playing roulette at the local casino even though he knows the wheel is crooked. Asked why he says: “It’s the only game in town.” I retired (more or less) 15 years ago. Had I converted my nest egg back then to cash and buried it in the backyard, I would have fared better than someone who invested it in certificates of deposit. The other day I looked at the interest rates my bank was paying on savings. A whopping 0.2 percent. That’s not keeping up with inflation — and we [don’t have any inflation](http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Rate/CurrentInflation.asp). So I put most of my money in the stock market and pray a lot. It’s a tricky thing for a skeptical agnostic to pull off. Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose. And I don’t know why. I certainly don’t believe anything the so-called analysts on television tell me. If they really knew what was going on, they’d keep it to themselves and make a fortune. In any case, most of those analysts sell stocks for a living. When they’re on the tube, they never say: “We’re in a stock bubble here. Things are going to collapse soon. You might want to think about getting out.” Instead, when the bubble — stock, real estate, dot-com, whatever — pops, the market nosedives, and the TV geniuses say: “Wow! Where did that come from? Who knew?” Then the banks get taken care of. And the hedge fund managers get taken care of. And the rest of us, the pilot fish of the economy, regret that we didn’t pick a better whale to seek shelter beneath. As I’ve [written before](http://www.amazon.com/Theyre-All-It-Together-Things/dp/0836262204), my father — a Ukrainian immigrant — was a shrewd observer of the human scene. When some politician would argue that raising the minimum wage was bad for the economy but cutting taxes for the rich was good, when the stock market went up and down for no apparent reason, he’d nod his head and say: “They’re all in it together, kid. Remember that.” And I always have. *(Donald Kaul is a columnist for* ***[OtherWords](http://otherwords.org/the-only-game-in-town/)*** *where this perspective originated.)* Edited for *CityWatch* by Linda Abrams. -cw CityWatch Vol 13 Issue 75 Pub: Sep 15, 2015 [![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/ME%20DENTAL%20SPA/me%20dental%202026%20final.jpg)](http://medentalspa.com/) ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/banners/signup-for-cw.png) ## Get The News In Your Email Inbox Mondays & Thursdays Name [ ![LA DWP #2 (Pay Your Bill Help)](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/LADWP/dwp%20level%20pay%205-7-25.jpg) ](https://www.citywatchla.com/component/banners/click/82 "LA DWP #2 (Pay Your Bill Help)") [ ![Home - HHR Rent is too High - SB-2](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/HHR/AHF-rent-too-high.jpg) ](https://www.citywatchla.com/component/banners/click/104 "Home - HHR Rent is too High - SB-2") --- ## Featured CityWatch Stories [ ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/fd/064h-fdb0b507.jpg) ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29355:remembering-ken-draper-citywatch-and-transparency-are-his-legacy&catid=12) ### [Remembering Ken Draper: CityWatch and Transparency Are his Legacy](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29355:remembering-ken-draper-citywatch-and-transparency-are-his-legacy&catid=12) LA WATCHDOG - Ken Draper, the editor and publisher of CityWatch for more than 20 years, passed away on August 8, 2022… [ ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/0f/061a-0f1ada2f.jpg) ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33148:brace-yourself-for-a-worse-housing-crisis&catid=398) ### [Brace Yourself For A Worse Housing Crisis](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33148:brace-yourself-for-a-worse-housing-crisis&catid=398) PLANNING WATCH - The California State Legislature will soon vote on the following draft legislation. Please carefully… [ ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/54/064j-54f0ecbd.jpg) ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33204:be-prepared-to-protect-our-democracy-in-november-from-a-trumpian-plot&catid=9) ### [Be Prepared to Protect Our Democracy in November From a Trumpian Plot](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33204:be-prepared-to-protect-our-democracy-in-november-from-a-trumpian-plot&catid=9) BE AWARE - Back in the days when conservatives were so hungry for media platforms that they’d come on progressive shows… [ ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/ab/063e-ab3b1ba1.jpg) ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33174:nithya-raman-loses-the-homelessness-gavel-her-record-explains-why&catid=396) ### [Nithya Raman Loses the Homelessness Gavel — Her Record Explains Why](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33174:nithya-raman-loses-the-homelessness-gavel-her-record-explains-why&catid=396) THE BOTTOM LINE - Raman wants Los Angeles voters to promote her to mayor. Before handing her the keys to City Hall, v… [ ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/75/064a-75d5dbb3.jpg) ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33199:your-boss-owns-your-workday-not-your-brain&catid=425) ### [Your Boss Owns Your Workday—Not Your Brain](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33199:your-boss-owns-your-workday-not-your-brain&catid=425) THE NEURAL WORKPLACE - California must protect workers before workplace surveillance crosses the final frontier: the hu… --- ## [ ARCHIVE ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=16) [ ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Apr-2018/034e.png) ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15339:early-intervention-and-jobs-are-key-to-stemming-chronic-homelessness-in-los-angeles&catid=16)### [Early Intervention and Jobs are Key to Stemming Chronic Homelessness in Los Angeles](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15339:early-intervention-and-jobs-are-key-to-stemming-chronic-homelessness-in-los-angeles&catid=16) ### [Tucker Carlson and Gay Rightwinger Blame California Wildfires On Hiring LGBTQ People](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18755:tucker-carlson-and-gay-rightwinger-blame-california-wildfires-on-hiring-lgbtq-people&catid=16) ### [Anti-LGBTQ Veep Just Can’t Stop Talking about Mayor Pete](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17690:anti-lgbtq-veep-just-can-t-stop-talking-about-mayor-pete&catid=16) [ ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Apr-2018/033j.png) ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15316:news-pulse-corrupt-system-reason-for-not-voting-in-2018-majority-wants-more-than-two-parties&catid=16)### [NEWS PULSE: ‘Corrupt System’ Reason for Not Voting in 2018 … Majority Wants More Than Two Parties](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15316:news-pulse-corrupt-system-reason-for-not-voting-in-2018-majority-wants-more-than-two-parties&catid=16) [ ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Jan-2016/1404d.png) ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10245:dead-dog-set-on-fire-sparks-fears-for-strays-in-los-angeles&catid=16)### [Dead Dog Set on Fire … Sparks Fears for Strays in Los Angeles](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10245:dead-dog-set-on-fire-sparks-fears-for-strays-in-los-angeles&catid=16)