The flow of money

Here's Ben Bernanke today: "capital flows are once again posing some notable challenges for international macroeconomic and financial stability." Of course he means that "hot money" flies across international time zones according to the perceptions of the trading class and actually constitute a kind of global government beyond the control of any government. Too bad wisdom and concern for the good of the whole  is not a part of the perspective. The more the volatility, the higher the profits, so these guys are not interested in the kind of stability it takes to plan businesses for the long term. The markets react on an ever shorter time frame (yes, computers talking to each other in New Jersey parking lots again)

 I read in the Financial Times that a growing body of economists no longer think supply and demand is "the whole story"...that they are thinking of supply, demand, and quantity of money as all part of the equation. This is good news, although entirely insufficient. It's unlikely that  there will be  broad understanding among main stream economists any time soon that the core economy, the criminal economy, and the ecological economy are part of the equation as well.  Meanwhile, I'm doing my best to profit from the uncontrolled  casino of the mad financial world, with its vanishing correlation to any underlying "real" economy (defined in the traditional narrow sense of actual business enterprise). I'd like to say I'm a great success, but more accurately I'd have to say only that it's more profitable than keeping the money in the bank. I've never liked banks, but since the 2008 fiasco I'm very interested in them and their shenanigans. It's only because I do know an honest banker that I don't think every one of them is a gold plated crook!

I take long term positions in areas where I see inexorable future growth (for example LED lighting, uranium, wind & solar energy, environmental remediation) and stick to companies that appear to have good management. There are plenty of other good stock trades, but I'm not interested in them. I have too many companies to follow as it is...(good thing my son and husband are into "due diligence") I'm happy that my accounts are all up this week, my boat lifted by the rising tide. Will I know enough (or be alert and active enough) to get out when the tide turns next?