The Dow that can be named is not the eternal Tao. This is the message of Susan Briante’s great and fun new work The Market Wonders. The economic market is a man made concoction, yet it behaves in an almost random manner that seems to follow rules of nature. In the beginning of the book she quotes, “Blake reminds us, ‘For everything that lives is Holy!’” and sure enough the market seems to be alive. This book associates a volatile reverence to money. The subject is about as transgressive as can be. Most people do not read poetry, half of us that read barely understand it, and certainly, nobody is making a living from it. That is to say, unless you’re Tao Lin or Ben Lerner who undoubtedly have other means of income. The rare Ted Kooser who can make a rock star’s living at poetry is once in a lifetime. But Briante builds a relationship between the flow of the market and the flow of words and poetry. The ticker at the bottom of the book is definitely the philosophical icing on the cake.
A Leading Art Collector Is Selling, And the Market Wonders Why. By Grace Glueck. Top market prices,' the dealer said. 'His program was to have only 5 or 10 examples of each artist's work. Briante will read from “The Market Wonders,” a lyric investigation into the stock market, and talk about its writing as a response to the 2008 financial crisis. She will also discuss the ways in which poetry offers models for understanding lived experience under neoliberalism as well as for tracking possibilities of individual complicity and resistance.
And thus begins
a prophecy a litany of calculations 40 and 2 months 2 witnesses 200 and 3score days
2 olive trees 2 candlesticks in a singe of data like a physicist scavenges for God 3.5 days,
4 and 20 elders, 12 stars, for the prophets to measure is to signify and separate . . .
The opening poem refers to the psychology behind dreaming of glass and eating it: undeniably imaginative. Yet it almost pales in comparison to the ticker running along the bottom. This isn’t to say she thought of it; you can see the artist’s inspiration laid bare with the insight she has received transmitted here. A spiritual analogy seems to be the only way to convey the “deep truths” and rules about the universe that lay within our economic system.
The punctuated section title ‘Meditation’ is a flight of imagination that I can really appreciate. It serves as a close to the day.
In the PartyStore/PierOne/Target/Kohl’s parking lot,
find a desert willow among the shopping carts,
walk around it sunwise repeating:
I am the avantgarde, I am the avantgarde, I am the avantgarde
This section finishes with:
Lo! The light from the desert tree
does not speak in numbers, costs us nothing.
Here, as in a butterfly garden, everyone crawls before flight
This reaction to observing the market seems to be right on par with a traditional thinker. The belief that the economy has been created by man and is therefore wrong or flawed is the more traditional path. This meditation doesn’t divert too much from that thought. If we compare ourselves with “the desert tree,” we do not need to speak in numbers or costs.
In the second section called “The Market is a Parasite That Looks Like a Nest,” The Market gets personified. This is the second delight that the book has to offer as many passages are hilarious. The personification of capitalism is so transgressive I am at a loss for words.
Capitalism is a big, evil and treacherous to all of us liberal poetry fans and yet, this fantastic passage:
Then the Market had kids and it was all profit
margin and technostructure
rollerblades for a few years,
There is nothing better than plain language and high, social commentary delivered in a meta and postmodern fashion. I give a great kudos to Briante’s taste and her ability to show the world we live, in a recognizable, yet new and engaging manner.
The meditation, which offers the same relief as real meditation, works in the same way.
The second mediation has so many points of reflection and mind blowing moments:
Something lands in the corner of your eye.
Instead of words, you white out
thoughts.
Let them burn like dirigibles in the sky.
Send the ash to the last person who lent you money.
to a sparrow in flight through the black walnut tree.
The sparrow clicks like a Geiger counter in the leaves,
your daughter’s hunger swells.
The market goes up and down endlessly. It will never tire. Susan Briante wonders about the market with the same reverence as a monk to their god, and how better fitting, for our capitalist society?
Meinian is headquartered in Shanghai. Photo: Health 100
A unit of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has sold part of its shares in a medical checkup services provider, a deal that roused the market’s attention after the abrupt suspension of its affiliate Ant Group Co. Ltd.’s mega dual listing.
Shenzhen-listed health services operator Meinian Onehealth Healthcare Holdings Co. Ltd. announced Wednesday night that Alibaba (China) Network Technology Co. Ltd. had sold nearly 54 million Meinian shares — worth nearly 850 million yuan ($128 million) based on the average closing price on Monday and Tuesday, when the sales took place. The shares sold accounted for almost 1.4% of Meinian’s total, according to the company’s filing (link in Chinese) to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
The Alibaba unit’s move to cash out some of its shares roused market attention as China’s financial regulators are stepping up regulations for fintech firms such as Ant Group, including introducing new rules for financial holding companies earlier this month. On Monday, China published draft rules that would impose strict limits on Ant Group’s online lending operations that were likely hamper its expansion.
To comply with the rules for financial holding companies and draft regulations for online lending, Ant Group must be able to come up with enough capital reserves.
Ant Group’s previously planned record $34.5 billion IPO in Shanghai and Hong Kong was suspended Tuesday, reflecting the changes in the regulatory environment.
After Alibaba (China) Network sold some of the Meinian shares, the stake it held together with a subsidiary shrank to a combined 13% from the previous 14.4%, according to the filing.
The Market Wonders Of Wonders
Meinian has been widely considered a part of Alibaba’s ambitious plan to expand into the health care sector. In October 2019, Alibaba and private equity firm Yunfeng Capital Co. Ltd. purchased (link in Chinese) a 16.2% stake in Meinian.
Alibaba’s move to sell part of its holdings in Meinian has sparked discussions over how Alibaba and Ant Group would adhere to the new regulations.
The draft rules for online microlenders stipulate they should fund at least 30% of any joint loan with financial institutions. However, as of the end of June, Ant Group’s licensed nonbank financial subsidiaries — chiefly two online microlenders — contributed only 2% of more than 2.1 trillion yuan in credit balance enabled through its platform, according to its prospectus.
Sun Haibo, a financial regulation researcher, wrote (link in Chinese) that if Ant Group could currently provide about 1.8 trillion yuan of joint loans with only about 36 billion yuan of loans on its book, then it would need to have at least 540 billion on its balance sheet to meet the 30% requirement.
Also, with the draft rules limiting the amount of leverage an online microlender could take on, Ant Group would have to expand its capital for online microloans to 150 billion yuan from the current 35 billion yuan, Sun said.
Read more
Analysis: Stricter Regulations Challenge Ant Group and Fintech’s Rapid Rise
Analysis: Stricter Regulations Challenge Ant Group and Fintech’s Rapid Rise
Igt slot machine settings. Contact reporter Timmy Shen ([email protected])
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