The Ant and the Grasshopper

I’m sure you’ve heard the fable of the ant and the grasshopper. The ant busted his ass all year growing some grain to store for the winter, while the grasshopper was laying about, playing the fiddle. When winter came around, the grasshopper had no food, so he went to the ant’s house to beg for some. The ant told him to beat it, and the grasshopper starved to death. The end.
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This tweet was getting retweeted all over the place last weekend. Apologies for the bad language.
For starters, the guy’s Twitter handle is ‘bitstein.’ But anyway. This is the fable of the grasshopper and the ant.
The ant is busting his ass, schlepping into work every day, trading and analyzing securities, making liquid markets, providing clear social benefits.
The grasshopper is a ‘ponzi monkey hitting refresh 50 times a day,’ according to Twitter user @prestonjbyrne. We’ll see who’s got something to eat when winter comes.
At the top of the cycle, there are always people who look down on the working stiffs, the ants. Actually, it seems like the loudest voices in finance these days are people who tell you to be long SPY, Amazon, or even bitcoin – unhedged. I don’t think we should be denigrating people who think it’s prudent to wear a seat belt.

This post was published at Mauldin Economics on NOVEMBER 30, 2017.