ABSTRACT
Risk; solid, substantial, «ashing red on a trader’s screen, red as ash on Mars, or lava expelled from Mount Vesuvius. In the heat of the battle, you cannot look through it, nor yet gaze up and down it, nor over it. It seems impenetrable. When it erupts, it does so in a terrifying form; crushing the senses, untrustworthy, they lie addled, impotent, useless1:
As this crisis climaxes, formerly reasonable people will start to predict the end of the world, armed with plenty of terrifying and accurate data that will serve to reinforce the wisdom of your caution. Every decline will enhance the beauty of cash until “terminal paralysis” sets in. Those who were over invested will be catatonic and just sit and pray. Those few who look brilliant, oozing cash, will not want to easily give up their brilliance. So almost everyone is watching and waiting with their inertia beginning to set like concrete.
