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Medals For All

January 6th, 2025 No comments

As many may know, January is the beginning of award show season for those participants in the entertainment business.  Among the long list of award shows are:  the Golden Globes, then the Oscars, then the Grammys, then the Tonys, the Emmys, the critic’s choice awards etc., etc.  The actual complete list is actually about 3 times the ones just listed including of course the Dorian awards, given by the LGBTQ community.

Some may argue that these awards are frivolous and serve only to augment the fragile egos of those in the entertainment industry.  It certainly can’t compare to the prestigious awards given by the state for being not only famous but for also being an all-around great citizen.  In the UK, such an honor is designated by the honorific ‘Sir’ or ‘Dame’ bestowed upon the winners.  Thus we have Sir Paul McCartney and Dame Agatha Christie.

In the United States, the parallel honorific is the Presidential Medal Of Freedom, which is bestowed upon people deemed to have contributed in some significant way to the cultural enrichment of the nation.  As it happens, a very large number of the recipients have been involved with the entertainment business, so we can consider it to be a more prestigious version of the Academy Awards.  In the case of the Presidential Medal Of Freedom, the requirements are rather vague, as there is no peer committee to pass judgement on the merits of the inductee.  As far as we know, it’s totally discretionary on the part of the sitting President.  What we can note is that you cannot be a winner if you’re not famous.

Among the most recent recipients are the names Hilary Clinton and George Soros.  Their names were included with such as Denzel Washington and Michael J. Fox and others in this year’s inductee group. The names of Soros and Clinton may have irked some of the other winners in the same way that a desk jockey General displaying a chest full of notional medals is paraded among genuine soldiers receiving medals of valor. Hilary Clinton has as much to do with freedom as a turtle has to roller skates.

It’s human nature to want and grant recognition; this much is obvious by the many instances of contests and awards regimes we’re all exposed to during our lifetimes. Ribbons for this, medals for that, a gold star here, a statue there. .

As Sally Field exclaimed during her Oscar acceptance speech in 1985, “…You like me, right now, you like me!..”

It’s intensely ironic that the “Medal Of Freedom” was awarded to both Clinton and Soros, both of whom have been the strongest advocates of oppression for Americans, certainly not freedom.  Soros is widely reputed to have stated that his life’s mission is, “to destroy the United States”. Maybe he was misquoted and just misunderstood; the media can exaggerate so much these days. Remember what Abe Lincoln said about stuff you find on the internet.  But this is certainly the same Soros who was evicted from Hungary for his subversive activities there. Also the same Soros who funds the Open Society Foundations supporting all manner of anti-American causes. Of course you could argue that via his activities, Soros contributed to cultural enrichment of the US by funding such as Black Lives Matter.  Contrast this with the work of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden who have sacrificed their lives in the pursuit of freedom and transparency but who remain outcasts in society.

Among the crop of this year’s recipients is Lionel Messi, a soccer player.  He concluded that the whole spectacle was not his thing and decided not to attend. We don’t know his motives, perhaps he had a scheduling conflict.  Or perhaps he didn’t want to be accorded the same accolade as some of the other honorees.  It could be that he understands that it’s all theater and he isn’t in such need of attention.  His awards case is already full of real trophies.

The Hawk Tuah Mob

December 9th, 2024 1 comment

link:  https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/hawk-tuah-girls-meme-coin-crashes-from-500m-to-60m-in-minutes-fans-in-meltdown-101733405915215.html

The name Hailey Welch may not be a household name to average people, but she achieved meteoric notoriety in the past year over a simple unrehearsed response to a question posed of her in a street interview; likely when she was over-refreshed.  From that response that went viral, Hailey became known as the ‘Hawk Tuah Girl’.  As an example of Andy Warhol’s dictum that everyone has their 15 minutes of fame, Hailey became ubiquitous as she was interviewed by everyone who had a podcast.  She threw out baseballs at games, had to hire a manager, created a merchandise line and acquired millions of on-line followers.

What else was there to do?  Well, in following the most recent tide of cultural fashion, she created a digital currency…of course!  On a platform called Solana, the Hawk Tuah memecoin was launched.  As befitting the hysteria which is the digital currency space, the valuation instantly rose to a valuation of $500 million dollars!  But wait! The Cinderella story quickly became a pumpkin when within 20 minutes of launch, the valuation had crashed to only $60 million.

Naturally a wave of outrage erupted as people who had bought into the meme token, then lost a pile of money, were indignant that this could happen.  It seemed outrageous that you could actually lose money on buying nothing!  Hailey went from being a heroine to a scoundrel overnight.

Those of us who’ve been around long enough to have lived through numerous market cycles are frankly amused at the outrage surrounding this fiasco.  As is standard for human nature throughout time, blame is always directed everywhere except where it rightfully belongs….with oneself.

The modern crop of internet speculators are such ripe victims for naïve market activity.  They don’t know a treasury bond from a James Bond, yet they are lured with visions of instant wealth by others who have purportedly done the same thing successfully.  There is a distinct difference between price and value. As reference for those who don’t know the difference, price is the level at which parties agree upon when they have different perceptions of value.  Somebody thinks something is cheap, while the other party thinks it’s expensive.

In fact the ‘Hawk Tua’ memecoin is an excellent example of any free market, including stocks, real estate, jewelry, baseball cards and especially art. There is in fact no absolute inviolable value of anything, only the price at which an item can fetch from another buyer.  The only reason that anything has any value at all is because someone else thinks there is a benefit to owning it.

Despite this basic truth, there are entire industries and countless people employed with the premise of advising people what to buy and to assess valuations of all manner of assets.  The fundamental reality of all free markets is that a price exists for an item only at that point in time and is entirely dependent on the confidence of the market players.

History is rife with examples of crazes and fads that have existed throughout time and through many different cultures. A classic work which documents some of the more famous ones is “Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds” compiled by Charles Mackay.  He documents the environment that gave rise the infamous “South Sea Bubble” and “Tulip-mania”.  With humor and hindsight, he documents some of the greatest human foibles and neuroses throughout history.

Suffice to say, it must be in the human condition to be swept up by a frenzy of the mob and that once ensnared, the mob will have a life of its own, overwhelming individual’s ability to act intelligently.  So for those who got swept up in the Hawk Tuah frenzy, or Bitcoin fever, or real estate panic, or collector watches; congratulations, you are the mob.