Blogtrek

Front Street Syndrome

Last year on this date, the worst terrorist attack ever occurred on American soil. America responded to this by invading Afghanistan and helping the opposition overthrow the tyrannical Taliban and replace it with a more moderate regime, and American troops also helped the Northern Alliance kill, capture or chase out as many Al Qaeda forces as possible. So does this cure the problem of terrorism from Al Qaeda? Maybe not. We may have created Front Street Syndrome.

When I was growing up a notorious street in the city I grew up near (Rochester, New York) named Front Street was well known to be the hangout for all the bums in the city; those that did not have a home and were possibly addicted to alcohol as well. The city tried to chase them out by rebuilding the area and making it look nice, but this merely scattered the homeless people, with some showing up rather surprisingly in better areas of the city. So just like the bums in this city that were scattered all over the place, so too are the Taliban and Al Qaeda now, possibly making the job of going after them more difficult.

Media Hype again

This time the headline read "September 11 weighs on the market", explaining why the stock market averages are down again. How can a date weigh? This does not obviously mean a person of the opposite sex for which you have an amorous appointment, who happens to be overweight. There are better names for the tragedy of last year, such as Planeattack. But still, how can an event weigh? It's just another way of creating drama in a situation which does not call for it. My belief is that most stock market movements are random, and those that aren't are caused more of the time than not by the media.