worth sharing

[Wanda Mallett]

Date:    Thu, 13 Sep 2001 12:36:13 -0700

I received this from a friend this morning.  He
received it from a 
stockbroker associate in Paris.  I think it is worth
sharing: 

PARIS, FRANCE 

WEDNESDAY, 12 SEPTEMBER 2001 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

THE DARK YEARS 
By Bill Bonner 

"...behind the doors of this ambitious day 
stand shadows with enormous grudges, outside 
its chartered ocean of perception 
misshapen coastguards drunk with foreboding, 

and whispering websters, creeping through this world, 
discredit so much literature and praise. 
Summer was worse than we expected; 
Now an Autumn cold comes on the water..." 

                 The Dark Years 
                   W.H. Auden 

Along the rue des Lombards last night, men with 
earrings held hands...and prostitutes stood in 
doorways - as they always do.  You can get any kind of

love you want on the rue des Lombards.  Even perverse 
love seemed reassuring last night. 

We will reckon again today...as we always do. But 
today we reckon with a heavy heart. For greed has been

replaced by fear, and the comedy of the financial 
market has been replaced by the tragedy of politics. 

Most of the people in our office raced home after work

yesterday. The whole world watched television. But I 
felt like walking. 

So, I made my way down to the Pont des Arts and 
crossed over to the left Bank. On the bridge, couples 
stood together and stared at the river...the gray 
spires and apartment buildings silhouetted against the

last evening light. They held hands too...laughed and 
embraced, as the world grew dark. 

I had come to see them, of course...to catch a glimpse

of the world as it was yesterday...the bright lights 
and gaiety of the cafes, the somber elegance of the 
Louvre, the ordinary comings and goings of ordinary 
people in the world's most beautiful city. I wanted to

remember it that way - just in case it would never be 
that way again. 

Surely another bridge has been crossed, I thought, as 
I strolled along the rue Jacob, looking in the antique

shop windows. Things have changed. America - almost 
untouched by war for 136 years - is suddenly under 
attack. 

We have been waiting for a defining event to conclude 
the 20th century, as the assassination of the Archduke

Ferdinand marked the end of the 19th. What "tipping 
point" event would close the book on the long period 
of peace and prosperity that America has so recently 
enjoyed, we wondered. 

Nature was preparing some surprises. Something big was

coming, we guessed. But not even in our gloomiest 
moments did we imagine such a bizarre and bloody 
trigger event. But now we have it. 

"THE NEW WAR!" screams the headline in today's Figaro.

"TERROR STRIKES AMERICA," proclaims a banner on the 
International Herald Tribune. All over the world, on 
live TV coverage, anyone can see - America is 
vulnerable. 

The dollar plummeted yesterday. Markets all over the 
World collapsed, with the London exchange down 
5.7%...Frankfurt off 8.6%...and Paris down 7.4%. The 
price of gold soared 5%...and then fell back in this 
morning's Asian trading. Crude oil also rose - $6. 

In a radio broadcast earlier in the day a French 
commentator tried to put the catastrophe in 
perspective: 

"It is simply unimaginable," he said, "it is as if the

National Assembly had come under attack and the Eiffel

Tower and the Tour Montparnasse had been completely 
obliterated." 

The National Assembly building was closed. But armed 
guards were on alert. Clutching machine guns, they 
paced up and down the streets and studied me carefully

as I walked along. 

Then, at the base of the Eiffel Tower, everything 
seemed normal. It still stood. Tourists, though fewer 
in number than usual, milled around. Arab hucksters 
sold their trinkets. Life goes on. 

In the next few days, weeks, and months...you will be 
told that everything is okay. Indeed, many will think 
it is better than okay. The Fed has already promised 
that it will provide more money. OPEC has pledged to 
provide more oil. The government will launch new anti-

terrorist initiatives. Some will say that war is good 
for the economy. Defense stocks will rise. 

Who knows, maybe markets will rally. But two years 
after the Archduke Ferdinand was shot, stocks in 
America reached their lowest level in history - 
trading for just 4 times earnings. 

Nature still has her surprises. But it is likely that 
consumers and investors will hold their breath...and 
feel a cold new wind blowing. They will be less 
confident, less sure of themselves and of the future. 
They will tend to hold onto their money a little 
longer and worry about their debts a little more. This

alone, as Dr. Richebacher reminds us, means "The End" 
of America's greatest boom. 

The bells of St. Mary's are tolling this morning. 
They ring for the living and the dead, including the 
many thousands of brokers, analysts, clerks, firemen, 
policemen, and others - people who were in the very 
wrong place at a very wrong moment. 

They also toll for another reason - heralds of 
something else we will all have to reckon with: 

A strange darkness has settled over the World...a new 
era, finally, has come. 

Your correspondent in Paris, 

Bill Bonner 

P.S. "We are all Americans this morning," said Magda, 
a French colleague. 





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