Is this where the Fed has us headed with interest rate hikes?
December 13 (King World News) – A portion of today’s note from legend Art Cashin: On this day in 1917, French generals determined to lift sagging morale by shipping about 1000 men toward home for the Christmas holidays. These men had served on the Italian front and so the trip home would be by rail across the high passes of the French Alps.
As often happens in war, particularly this war (that would be WWI if you happen to have an MBA), there was a bit of an equipment shortage. They had enough primitive passenger cars to make up two standard 9-car trains. But they only had one engine and one engineer. So the generals insisted on coupling all of the cars together. They even found another one in the yard.
But as they loaded all the troops onto the oversize 19-car train, the engineer balked. The air-brakes on most of the cars were antiquated and leaky. The trip would not be safe he said and refused to go.
The generals explained that once the military mind is made up logic cannot dislodge it. They offered to shoot the engineer if he wished to disagree.
As the train descended at a sharp angle from a high pass toward Modane, France the engineer tried, gingerly to apply the shaky brakes. Given their condition and the steepness of the descent, the brakes locked at first. The locked brakes caused the wheels to send out sparks, which ignited the wooden floor boards of some of these old cars.
Meanwhile, the pressure of the oversize load caused the locked brakes to snap. Now the train began to plunge forward, out of control, racing over 90 miles per hour. The wind whipping by spread the floor board fires into a series of infernos.
Careening at full speed down the track, the train approached a sharp turn. The engine made the turn. The other 19 cars left the track and hurtled one car after another into a wall near town. The wreckage turned into a near bonfire. Only about 600 soldiers were killed. The other 500 escaped badly burned, crippled or otherwise impaired.
King World News note: The point is that the Fed’s reckless policies will have us headed off the tracks at some point, despite warnings from some very smart people that have not been heeded.
***KWN has now released the fascinating audio interview with Egon von Greyerz, who gives his 2018 predictions and a few surprises as well and you can listen to it by CLICKING HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW.
***ALSO JUST RELEASED: One Of The Greats In The Business Says Gold & Silver Sector Setting Up For A Big Trade To The Upside CLICK HERE.
© 2017 by King World News®. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. However, linking directly to the articles is permitted and encouraged.
