The awesome performance of these market leaders over the past year.

When I look at a chart like this, as well as the one from yesterday which showed how much of their fortunes the tech billionaires have lost, I simply ask myself: “Was it all worth it?“

Take a person who smokes, for example. He smokes for twenty years. What he got – – a temporary feeling of euphoria or peace-of-mind, I suppose – – was transitory. But everything else – – the tens of thousands of discarded butts, the horrific damage to his lungs, the tens of thousands of dollars he gave to the tobacco giants – – those are permanent. The losses are permanent, the damage is permanent, and the garbage is permanent, although the “good” thing (the drug-induced peace of mind) has long since past. So it wasn’t worth it.

Same for alcohol. Same for a sexual affair. You name it.

So in this instance, we had a government that went TENS OF TRILLIONS of dollars into debt (which, of course, was partly usurped by the criminal class) that isn’t going away, all so that numbskulls like Dave Portnoy could think he’s an investing genius and so that a handful of companies got the prestige of being worth trillions of dollars (until they weren’t). The elation, the high-fives, and the wealth effect were all transitory. The psychic damage to the nation, and the tens of trillions in debt, are here to stay.

Samuel Beckett was right. People are bloody ignorant apes.

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