Gyroscopic Investing

There were no acorns this year in the Northeastern United States.

No nuts.

Nobody really knows why. Most people didn't even notice, but it's true.

And just like the idea that stocks have to go up over the long term, everyone — squirrels included — has been programmed to believe that nature will always provide us with acorns each year. Most squirrels — and animals that eat squirrels to survive — will starve to death this Winter. It's too bad they don't have a nut-based PP to hedge against the unthinkable! I mean, who ever would have thought that there would ever be a year with no acorns? It goes against nature.

Well, it turns out that this happened in 2008, though it's not surprising that most people didn't notice. If it happens one year, you might shrug it off as a freak occurrence. If it happens twice in three years, you might start to worry about the future of our own ecosystem. And if you're a squirrel, it's already too late.

Here is an excellent observation about the unpredictability of the world we live in...

http://brucekrasting.blogspot.com/2011/11/no-nuts.html

It all relates to our fiscal and personal world in so many ways.

This kind of crap is eerie as hell to me.  Much like our economy, I wonder if you find the right domino in nature to push over you can royally screw up an entire ecosystem.

Poor squirrels.

It's worth pointing out that 2009 and 2010 were big years for acorns:

(Sep 2009) Boston Globe: With conditions right, acorns go nuts

There were too many nuts! Somehow, I think the Fed was involved.

Gumby wrote: It's worth pointing out that 2009 and 2010 were big years for acorns:

(Sep 2009) Boston Globe: With conditions right, acorns go nuts

There were too many nuts! Somehow, I think the Fed was involved.

Perhaps it was AOMO (Acorn Open Market Operations).

Could it be that oaks are going bipolar. Perhaps they get stressed out by producing too many acorns, then don't have the reserves to produce any the following year and then end up with too much acorn power and produce a glut and so on? Was there an especially acorn friendly or unfriendly event that set the oscilation off?

stone wrote: Could it be that oaks are going bipolar. Perhaps they get stressed out by producing too many acorns, then don't have the reserves to produce any the following year and then end up with too much acorn power and produce a glut and so on? Was there an especially acorn friendly or unfriendly event that set the oscilation off?

Perhaps oak tree pension funds were invested with someone like Madoff, and now the oaks are afraid to reproduce because they fear that they won't be able to support their saplings and themselves in old age.

OTOH, this could be some kind of fulfillment of a squirrel armageddon prophecy.  I'm not really up on squirrel mythology, though, so I can't speak to whether that may be what is going on.

I had plenty of acorns in my yard from my oak trees this year, but you know how these things are--they always start on the coasts and work their way to the heartland.

MediumTex wrote:

Gumby wrote: It's worth pointing out that 2009 and 2010 were big years for acorns:

(Sep 2009) Boston Globe: With conditions right, acorns go nuts

There were too many nuts! Somehow, I think the Fed was involved.

Perhaps it was AOMO (Acorn Open Market Operations).

Maybe Quercus Easing?

Gumby wrote:

MediumTex wrote:

Gumby wrote: It's worth pointing out that 2009 and 2010 were big years for acorns:

(Sep 2009) Boston Globe: With conditions right, acorns go nuts

There were too many nuts! Somehow, I think the Fed was involved.

Perhaps it was AOMO (Acorn Open Market Operations).

Maybe Quercus Easing?

An idea from the mind of "Alan Treespan", coiner of the phrase "irrational deciduation."

Acorn?  I thought that political organization was banned for giving cheap home mortgages to crack addicted welfare moms who vote twice years ago? 

I think we need to establish Acorn futures for the convenience of the squirrels!