We investors gaze at various crystal balls searching for cues about the future. I often fall back on certain artists to sharpen my sensitivities. Here are a couple of my favorites.
(I picked a less heard version)
(Beckmann is wearing German prison garb and holding a post horn — used to announce the coming of “the post”, the news, but he does not blow it, but appears to consider using it as a hearing aide. Behind him is a frame of a mirror or a painting showing — nothing.
He made a first sketch of this in 1933, shortly after the crux election of German history, and completed it in 1940, after he and wife escaped to Amsterdam.
And this incredible triptych, quite complex, but blessed with an excellent accurate restrained wikipedia description.
Let me end with more music, this the short 3rd movement from the staggering terrifying ultimately reassuring Symphony 13, “Babi Yar”, which sings that humor alone can stand against tyranny, humor alone is immortal.
We investors need good rain protection, we need to find still functioning true “post”, and we need raucous laughter.
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