The next Bull Market will start when everyone has given up on the stock market as the means to “get rich quick” or even “get rich slowly.” Here’s the chart of the month: a weekly chart of the S&P 500 (SPX) showing the giant wedge going back to January 2022 has broken decisively down.

If AI isn’t self-aware of the fact it is nothing but an exploitive tool of the powerful, then it’s worthless. The latest wave of AI tools is generating predictably giddy exaltations.

The unencumbered realist concludes that there are no solutions within a status quo structure that is itself the problem. Realists who question received wisdom and conclude the status quo is untenable are quickly labeled pessimists because the zeitgeist expects a solution is always at hand–preferably a technocratic one that requires zero sacrifice and doesn’t upset the status quo apple cart.