Intellectuals Hate Progress

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Was 2017 really the "worst year ever," as some would have us believe? In his analysis of recent data on homicide, war, poverty, pollution and more, psychologist Steven Pinker finds that we're doing better now in every one of them when compared with 30 years ago. But progress isn't inevitable, and it doesn't mean everything gets better for everyone all the time, Pinker says. Instead, progress is problem-solving, and we should look at things like climate change and nuclear war as problems to be solved, not apocalypses in waiting. "We will never have a perfect world, and it would be dangerous to seek one," he says. "But there's no limit to the betterments we can attain if we continue to apply knowledge to enhance human flourishing."


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In 1992, at the first U.N. Earth Climate Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Program Executive Director Maurice Strong stated, very candidly: 

"We may get to the point where the only way of saving the world will be for industrialized civilization to collapse. Isn’t it our responsibility to bring this about?" (2)

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As expected, the Democrats took control of the House, the Republicans kept the Senate. This is what the market expected, so there is no longer any uncertainty. Markets hate uncertainty. 

While I can't predict the future, I think we can expect markets to return some gains over the next several months. Today may be the confirmation that the correction has changed to another uptrend. I added to my equity holdings Monday in anticipation of this event. 

But having said that, make sure you have a plan to exit (sell) if the market should decide otherwise. 

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