Juggling Dynamite

The madness continues to roll out in the latest brilliant initiative from the Ontario Lottery Gaming Corporation. You can read all about it on their site here. Here’s an excerpt on their new expansion plans (my comments in brackets):

“Since lottery games were introduced over 35 years ago, customer interests have evolved and technology has advanced considerably. Although about half the adult population of Ontario now plays the lottery on a regular basis, [only half? let’s get everyone hooked!] OLG’s current technology and its sales model could be improved to better meet the needs of its changing customer base.

At present, there are about 10,000 terminals across the province, but OLG’s current distribution and availability does not fully reflect the shopping patterns of most adults in Ontario. The current terminal technology limits where and how lottery tickets can be sold. [yes, limited for good reason!!]

OLG’s overall objective is to grow its business by continuing to innovate and focus on current lottery retailers, as well as expanding new lottery sales options. Expansion could include multi-lane solutions for supermarket, drug stores.”[“innovate” focus and “solutions”, it all sounds so intelligent and great.  Why don’t we add crack dispensers too?!]

When I was a kid, public gambling was something done mostly in Vegas and Atlantic City. Today it is available everywhere from local convenience stores, to state run casinos and unlimited on line gaming sites. Gambling can be highly addictive of course, and like most addictions, is often socially and financially devastating for participants and their families. (Next time you approach the cash in a convenience store or gas station, take note of the people around you who are scratching and playing different lottery tickets. It is not a pretty sight.) But in present times, the officially sanctioned message is that gambling is ‘fun’ and a way to ‘give back’ to the community. What a mess.

State lotteries claim to be good for education and the general wellbeing of citizens. But are they? Here is a direct video link.

There is a connection between today’s gambling obsession as social pastime and the gambling mentality that also dominates financial market participants. Computers have enabled self-destructive financial bets on a scale never before possible in human history. I believe these trends will eventually be recognized as highly counter-productive and destabilizing for civil society and necessarily curtailed again.

Nothing a 50% decline won’t fix in a hurray…

John Hussman is highly respected for his prodigious use of data and adherence to what it tells him about the state of the financial markets. His regular weekly market commentary is widely regarded as one of the best-researched, best-articulated publications available to money managers.

John’s public appearances are rare, so we’re especially grateful he made time to speak with us yesterday about the precarious state in which he sees global markets. Based on historical norms and averages, he calculates that the ZIRP and QE policies of the Fed and other world central banks have led to an overvaluation in the stock market where prices are 2 times higher than they should be.  Here is a direct video link.