The Hard Rain and “The Amazing Business.”
This entry will offer some well known financial advisors’ insights in excerpted and abridged from. I will also offer a brief anecdote about my observations of war veterans, and the post WWII generations, and human resiliency. My favorite financial advisor reading is always from Richard L. Russell who is now 86, and is just recovering from a ruptured appendix.
In times past I performed some many hundreds of surgeries for anything ruptured in a human abdomen, and then accompany the patient through the usual 8-12 week full recovery, which is typical of most uncomplicated abdominal surgeries. Russell was in the ICU for a couple of days during his hospital stay, and he was able to post his Letters with assistance from his wife Faye. He’s about 2 weeks post op now, and his Letters are back to their usual form and verve. That is evidence for an impressive recovery, considering his age, his surgical condition, the ICU stay, and his prior medical conditions, including prior stroke events, from which he has fully recovered.
People who are used to the practice of their own human resiliency, self reliance, and internal resourcing, and who are endowed with a passion to live and express their great gifts, will always go forward to throw the seeds and fruit of their lives into the soil and onto the tables of humankind and Gaia. Others may melt and wither, but many are strong, and are well intentioned. These are the true community leaders, the wise ones who bestow their gifts. Courage.
My hope for our future evolution as a peaceful race of humans lies with the gifted and strong Gen X group. They have not discovered their strength, yet. I attempted to express my fondness for Gen X in the May 7, 2009 Crestone and Beyond entry entitled “Gen X to the Rescue!” I hope that you will review this entry. There is nothing that I would change about this older entry except to break up the paragraphs and make them shorter.
If you are lucky enough to know any WWII vets who went through the heavy stuff, like Russell did, you are not surprised at his perseverance and dedication to continuing the daily Dow Theory Letters offerings, while recovering from abdominal surgery in an ICU.
In the past 65 years, I feel that we have “decultured” much of what this generation brought through the Great Depression and WWII and delivered up to us Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, et al. They bestowed us with the subsequent boom times of the 1950’s. This is when petro derived “wonders products”, fast foods, fast living, and consumerism began to hold sway and dominate American consciousness. Television was spawned in every home, and all forms of consumerist propaganda were unleashed.
Do we have the indomitable spirit of this aging and dying generation, called The Greatest Generation? We will soon see how strong we are. There is much strength out there, I feel. There will have to be.
Those born in post WWII America have not been through anything that resembles the overall composite of the Great Depression and WWII.
Our current American culture has not been tested as a whole. Those who fought in Korea, Viet Nam, the Gulf Wars, and Afghanistan have known severe hardship and trauma. I have worked with Veterans from all of the aforementioned conflicts, and assisted with their trauma resolution.
These brave Souls, and those of us who did not serve in military conflict, must arise in a new fellowship now, and bring forth our best for the sake of our future as a peaceful race of Beings, ready to enter into fellowship with all of Gaia as well as all spiritually evolved intergalactic civilizations.
Gaia’s human race is currently very technologically dangerous, and is also very spirtually adolescent. These 2 features are incongruent for a peaceful outcome.
These American war Veterans were thrust into wars contrived by conflicted and corrupted old men. These are the wars of old men. These old men are not respectable. They could become respectable if they were to renounce their prior meanderings and misuse of socioeconomic, and geopolitical, and military influence, and then come forth with a new sincerity and compassionate creativity to mold and forge a new world.
What would it take to transform them and their industries from destructing Gaia to assisting Gaia?
It will take an amazing change. It will require some sort of revoultion of our consciousness from savage to peace loving people. The revolution word is loaded, and the revolution that is non violent is best, as has been shown by martyrs Gandhi and M.L. King.
An extreme form of revolution is the type alluded to by Thomas Jefferson in his statement, “The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of Patriots and tyrants.” Historically, this has been the prevalent form of revolution. The peaceful form of non violent revolution has been rare, but it is effective.
As to which form of change we will be entangled with will depend on peoples’ level of consciousness, patience, tolerance, and perceived level of threat.
When they should have been nurturing peace and global harmony and personal prostate health, the old men went astray into fabricated delusions of their sense of power and desire to imperialistically manipulate the global map and hierarchy. This is the origin of the Frankenstein experiment fostered by Bush I, called The New World Order, aka NWO.
A mandate of the NWO is to reduce Gaia’s population density to 500,000,000 people, the number they say that Gaia can reasonably sustain. (Or is it the number that they feel that they can reasonably control?) You can refer to the writings on The Georgia Guidestones as one reference point. The Georgia Guidestones are somewhat intriguing, and paint an interesting picture of human behavior in such a depopulated Gaia. It is poetic Mason “secret wisdom.”
This motif has been evolved, and devolved, by the neocon regime into The Project for the New American Century, aka PNAC.You can look up both subjects to discover amazing rabbit holes. You will have to become like a rabbit. You are not a rabbit yet.
If you keep reading my Journal entries, before the Obama administration abolishes the Internet (Internet Cybersecurity Act introduced by the Jay Rockefeller rep from West Virginia), you will become more rabbit like. A good rabbit is forewarned and forearmed. Be a brave rabbit down in these dark circuitous channels of knowing.
My most recent endeavor to assist the American War Veteran was with my nephew Robert, from Mobile, a infantryman with the Eight Marines. He was deployed in his squad as the guy strong enough to carry the 26 pound machine gun which delivered 900 rounds per minute. His unit was the lead unit that drove through the central corridor of Fallujah in the intense conflict known as the Battle of Fallujah. Robert’s exposure and experiences were difficult ones for him to witness, participate in, and to metabolize and assimilate into his personal human spiritual journey.
The Bush II and Cheney regime of old men sent Robert, and many others, to war. He has been honorably discharged for over 4 years now, and so I have gotten over my own tears about this. They can’t tap him again. He belongs to a new group of comrades now.
He has faced his prior involvement, combat experiences, memories, PTSD, and post combat/military evolution with great resilience and creativity. He is now completing his college degree in Denver and will achieve a BA in business. He also works for his financial wherewithall to go forward with his dreams. Good man. This single individual story is typical of the Gen X group, but is unknown to most of them. I feel that it will be expanded into their psyche very soon.
Marines go about with the motto “Semper Fi,” which is a shortened form from the Latin, “Semper Fidelis.” The meaning is Always Faithful.
What is Faith? From what deep wellspring of our Soul’s journey does it arise? What does one do with Faith? How do people culture Faith? How does one develop it into an invincible auric field energetic of manifestation? When one tells me that they “have Faith,” how shall I respond to my felt sense of their intentional unknowing? Shall I have Faith that they know what they are expressing when they say that they have Faith? Is Faith a lack of the routine judgment that most thoughts are, and is therfore a pure Knowing?
Do we need to think about joining the Marine Corps to find out the answer to such questions?
OK, back to Russell. Here is a piece about Richard Lion Russell that I procured from a web source. It an accurate quick thumbnail sketch of the man and his career.
“Russell began publishing Dow Theory Letters in 1958, and he has been writing the Letters ever since (never once having skipped a Letter). Dow Theory Letters is the oldest service continuously written by one person in the business.
Russell gained wide recognition via a series of over 30 Dow Theory and technical articles that he wrote for Barron’s during the late-’50s through the ’90s. Through Barron’s and via word of mouth, he gained a wide following. Russell was the first (in 1960) to recommend gold stocks. He called the top of the 1949-’66 bull market. And almost to the day he called the bottom of the great 1972-’74 bear market, and the beginning of the great bull market which started in December 1974.
The Letters, published every business day, cover the US stock market, foreign markets, bonds, precious metals, commodities, economics –plus Russell’s widely-followed comments and observations and stock market philosophy.
In 1989 Russell took over Julian Snyder’s well-known advisory service, International Moneyline, a service which Mr.Synder ran from Switzerland. Then, in 1998 Russell took over the Zweig Forecast from famed market analyst, Martin Zweig. Russell has written articles and been quoted in such publications as Bloomberg Magazine, Barron’s, Time, Newsweek, Money Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Reuters, and others. Subscribers to Dow Theory Letters number over 12,000, hailing from all 50 states and dozens of overseas counties.
A native New Yorker (born in 1924) Russell has lived through depressions and booms, through good times and bad, through war and peace. He was educated at Rutgers and received his BA at NYU. Russell flew as a combat bombardier on B-25 Mitchell Bombers with the 12th Air Force during World War II.
One of the favorite features of the Letter is Russell’s daily Primary Trend Index (PTI), which is a proprietary index which has been included in the Letters since 1971. The PTI has been an amazingly accurate and useful guide to the trend of the market, and it often actually differs with Russell’s opinions. But Russell always defers to his PTI. Says Russell, ‘The PTI is a lot smarter than I am. It’s a great ego-deflator, as far as I’m concerned, and I’ve learned never to fight it.’”
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Here follows some excerpts from the last 2 business day’s reports from Russell. These are some pretty good Russells, and are typical of vintage Russell.
The Dow Theory Letters by Richard L. Russell, excerpted, June 30, 2010
“What’s next? I think Washington will continue trying to spend us out of recession. This did not work in the past, and it’s not going to work now. The primary bear market will not allow it to work. But what if the Administration gives up and allows the forces of deflation and correction to express themselves?
Here’s where my crystal ball gets very cloudy. I don’t see Washington accepting another long, drawn-out recession or another Great Depression. The temptation will be too strong to try to print us out of the recession or to create enough government-sponsored jobs to drag us out of the recession. That’s what I see happening.
What would I have done? I would have done exactly the opposite of what has been done by Obama. Instead of promising prosperity and “back to normal,” I would have told the nation the truth. You’ve lived the great and unearned life for 65 years, all created by credit and borrowing, fun’s over. You must now pay for it with SACRIFICE. Americans must cut back to the bone. Children may have to move back with their parents, Americans may have to build “victory gardens” as we did during World War II. We’ll have to learn to save and crimp. If you want to buy a house or a car or a washing machine, you’ll have to wait until you earn enough to pay for those items.
Gold — Most people don’t understand the meaning of gold. People who buy gold today are thinking of climbing on the band-wagon and ending up with fabulous profits. Forget it, that isn’t why you buy and own gold. Besides, the government won’t let you show a profit in gold. The IRS will tax your ass off if you try to sell your gold mining stocks or your gold-related ETFs or gold funds.
The reason rich men accumulate gold is as follows. Gold is eternal wealth. Own three thousand ounces of gold, and you’ll always be wealthy. Holding gold entails no risk. Gold owes its value to its indisputable intrinsic value. You want to ensure eternal wealth? Pretend you have to make that decision, and it’s the year 1990. You load up on three blue chips, GE, GM and C. If you loaded up on these three, by now you’d be broke.
You want to feel wealthy in any kind of market or in any kind of political system? One way is to own physical gold. A great inflation materializes and your gold will probably rise with inflation. A great deflationary depression arrives. The price of everything crashes. And worst of all, that bubble that we call the dollar crashes as well. The dollar won’t buy a damn thing. Nobody will part with food or land or merchandise for dollars. All things denominated in dollars (stocks, bonds, real estate) collapse with the dollar.
Holding gold itself is a standard of wealth. You never sell your bullion gold. But when you buy gold mining shares, you are speculating on making a profit. If I own enough gold, I don’t care what the dollar the price of gold is. I’m a wealthy man as long as I hold my gold. If I own five Picassos I’m a wealthy man. If I own 20 acres on the Southern California coast I’m a wealthy man. But Picassos can go out of style. And land on the California coast can be confiscated. Not so with gold. Gold can be hidden, it can be accumulated, and it exists outside the system. By the way, I’m wondering whether great diamonds will soon be in that same category. I note that the price of great, high-quality diamonds is surging.
What man makes, man can destroy. The value or purchasing power of the dollar (fiat currency) can collapse. But gold cannot be devalued, because it’s not beholden to any man or any sovereign government. Gold’s value is based on 6,000 years of history, and its value lies outside the system. The US Treasury now values its gold as $42.20 an ounce. The world doesn’t give a damn what the US Treasury values its gold at. The world is saying that an ounce of gold is worth $1250 dollars, and the hell with the gold-haters.”
The Dow Theory Letters, by Richard L. Russell, July 2, 2010
“ As we go on from here, it is critical that my subscribers fully understand the meaning of the primary trend and how this mightiest of all trends works. It took me years to understand and fully appreciate the true meaning of a primary trend (I learned it from my great Dow Theory mentor during the 1940s, E. George Schaefer).
(1) Primary trends can be likened to the power of the ocean tides. Build a sand castle against the ocean tide, and the first wave will wash your castle away. Build a cement wall against the tide, and in a matter of years the cement wall will be reduced to sand and rubble.
What I mean is that the power of the tide is relentless and irresistible.
(2) A second consideration is this. Primary bull markets don’t end with a whimper, they end in periods of excess and finally exhaustion. I compare the end of a primary bull market with two boxers in the final tenth round of their fight. They suddenly come to life, and give it all they have. The fight ends with both fighters totally exhausted. They have to be helped out of the ring.
(3) Primary bear markets, like bull markets, end in exhaustion. The traders, the pros, the retail buyers, the day-treaders have been totally defeated. The stock market is smashed to smithereens. Nobody wants to play anymore. Deadness reigns. Great stocks lie at their lows, waiting to be picked off or accumulated. An atmosphere of depression reigns. The stock market is a monster, never to be fooled with again. Falling price/earnings have defeated the best stocks and the best stock-pickers.
A few great corporations are still doing well. Those who hold these stocks are puzzled or aghast. How could their carefully-picked great stocks collapse? At their high these stocks sold for 15 or 20 times earnings. At the bear market bottom (although the stocks are still doing well and making profits), they are selling for 6 to 8 times earnings. Collapsing P/E ratios have killed them.
(4) A fourth consideration is that primary trends, one way or another, go to completion. Or to put it another way, a primary trend will go to completion, no matter what. This is the concept that both market neophytes, Ben Bernanke and President Obama, have failed to understand.
I said from the beginning, “let the bear market fully express itself.” One way or another it will express itself regardless of the wishes of Washington or the Fed or the Treasury. Interfering with the primary trend will just drag out the situation and make it worse — it will be turning a menace into a Frankenstein. In the current case the Administration’s insistence on halting the primary trend has put the nation and coming generations in actual jeopardy,
President Obama thought he could “pull an FDR” and spend this nation out of recession. In this process, the Fed has financed his spending and stimuli plans to the tune of trillions of Fed-created “dollars.”
Finally, the US public has realized that the Obama strategy is not working, and that it was literally bankrupting the nation. The public screamed “Stop … enough … it’s not working, and you’re wrecking the country, throw out the Congressional bums.” And that’s where we are now.
Question — Russell, how do your studies of the primary trend affect gold?
Answer — The gold bull market will be no exception to my studies of the primary trend. Gold is indisputably in a great primary bull market. Gold moved into its second phase, the longest phase, and the one that starts to interest the crowd. But we haven’t seen the crazy third phase of the gold bull market yet. The third phase is the manic phase where everyone wants in and speculation grows to insane proportions. I believe the third phase of the gold bull market lies ahead, maybe six months to a few years ahead. There’s no way to time it.
Understand this — every item you buy, every trade you make, has a counter-party. I talked to a friend last night who was thrilled because he was heavily short the market. I asked him “Who’s your counter-party for all these shorts?” He answered, “What are you talking about?” I replied, “If you make a killing on the short side, who’s the counter-party, who’s going to pay you your profits?” My friend turned white, “Gad, I see what you mean. I don’t know who my counter-party is or whether they’ll even be solvent if the market collapses.”
And that’s where gold comes in. Gold is pure wealth. It hasn’t been produced by any bank or corporation, Thus gold doesn’t have a counter-party, nor does it need one. Gold can’t be devalued or thrust into bankruptcy. This is the fact that gold-haters seem incapable of understanding.
In a crushing deflation, most counter-parties are smashed. But gold stands alone it’s the “last man standing.” This, in a nutshell, is why sophisticated wealthy investors own gold. It’s the item that can’t be crushed in a deflationary depression.
Question — Russell, I give up. I concede that we’re in a bear market. But c’mon, how bad can it get?
Answer — According to Dow Theory, neither the depth nor the duration of a bear market can be predicted in advance. In this bear market, the Dow could fall to 4,000 or 400. I honestly don’t know the answer. In my experience, primary trend tend to carry further than anyone expects.
I do know this — yesterday the following broke below their June lows — the Dow, the Transports, the NYSE Composite (which includes ALL NYSE stocks), the S&P Composite, the NASDAQ and the Russell 2000. Any way you look at it, that’s bad action.
Maybe just as bad, new lows on the NYSE surged to 164. Hundreds of stocks are breaking down, and even more are hovering just above their 52-week lows. The lower depths of this market are opening up like a giant graveyard. It is said that in a big bear market, stocks return to their original homes — Wall Street.
Headline in the July 1 San Diego Union (article from the Washington Post) …. Most Americans Seeing Austerity as way of Life. The recession has directly hit more than half of the nation’s working adults, pushing them into unemployment, pay cuts, reduced work hours or part-time jobs, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.”
Russell Comment — As I said it would, the bear market is beginning to bite. And it will get worse as the stock market continues to probe the lower depths.
What to do. Stay as liquid as you can, get out of the stock market, get rid of all the debt you can, and own some gold. Don’t put your faith in the US dollar. The US dollar is the world’s biggest bubble. The dollar is only a convenience with which to buy what you need or to pay off dollar-denominated debts. (Emphasis is mine, JRMD.)
Sooner or later the US government will attempt to pay off some of its insane debts with dollars of its own (Fed’s) creation. That’s when the dollar bubble will burst. The world will no longer accept dollars, it will want gold.
One solution — the US Treasury holds a vast amount of gold which it values at $42.22 an ounce. Raise the price of gold to $5,000 and pay off our debts with gold. Can we get away with it, is it feasible? Do you have a better idea, like reneging on our debt? Or declaring sovereign bankruptcy? We’ll go the easiest and least painful route.”
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Other recommendations by other noted advisors which I follow:
Bob Prechter’s interview with Crux (www.thedailycrux.com):
1. Investors should primarily be in cash and short term Treasuries.
2. Have core positions in Gold bullion and bags of US silver coin, called “junk” silver * (Pick up this asterix down below.).
3. Do NOT hold corporate debt, municipal bonds, credit card debt or auto debt.
4. Avoid all but safest banks on planet. (Good luck readers. Pick wisely now, and develop very good breathing and trigger control. Know when to pull the trigger. JRMD)
5. Own NO stocks or investment.
From Harry Dent:
The investment options from more aggressive to more conservative in the crash ahead include:
1. Short the stock market (SH)
2. Long oil (DBO)
3. Long the U.S. dollar (UUP)
4. Long gold (GLD)
5. Cash, T-bills or very short term high quality bonds
OK, you can easily understand the trends of these thinkers and analysts.
If you are working with a financial advisor to whom you are paying a generous commission and his ego is feeling that he needs to justify this commission with more convincing arguments and further churning of your money (denial); and if you have expressed your concerns to said financial advisor to get your money more liquid, and into more simple cash and precious metals exposure; and if financial advisor is urging caution, and a balanced portfolio, etc., etc.; then you need to firm up, and tell them what you want them to do with your money, or pull your money out of their hands and get it into the hands of some people who will listen to your educated opinion about what to do with your money— NOW— while your money still has purchasing power.
While your money still has purchasing power are the key words in the last paragraph.
In recent Crestone and Beyond Jounal entries I have expressed certain of my views about what you need to do with your money before it goes away.
The words “before it goes away” refer to a time coming in the very near future when your dollar denominations have meaningless value. And so, what does have meaningful value?
Consider the following:
1) Do your utmost to pay off all debt. Don’t have debt. Own everything outright, and be willing to defend it from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Your other option is ongoing enslavement.
You, and only you, are the person most qualified to defend your family and loved ones and your home. No one is more qualified than you. You have the heart, the mind, the spirit, and the body to do it. Do you have some basic training that will enable you to defend yourself, family, and home? Convert some of your money and time and desire and energy into learning self defense, and what you may be called upon to do if worst case scenarios supervene.
Have Faith? You will need more than Faith. You will need a deep core Belief system that is your Identity. Do not depend on your old entrainment of an “outside God that is going to save you.” That “outside” God is actually your own inner Divinity. It is you. Get to know it. Your Identity Crisis is over if you can let go of disabling belief patterns that have you locked into fear and an immobility to move on. Have faith in your own Identity, and act decisively from Its Guidance. Have Faith in that, and make sure that you understand who you are. This is a spiritual issue.
As the poet said, “Go to thy bosom, knock there, ask what thy Heart doth know.”
Convert your money into hard goods that will enable you and your family and associated trusted loved ones to weather the coming Hard Rain. Make good friends with those who have skill sets. It will be a Hard Rain beyond what the Greatest Generation experienced. You will watch it unfold in disbelief, unless your beliefs are already prepared. Don’t be caught separated from your family and resouces. Get yourself and your family oriented onto the same page now.
2) You will need to find a community and a retreat haven far away from The Big City. Get busy researching. I just drove through Idaho and Montana and a few other choice locales. See the body of work by James Wesley Rawles at www.survivalblog.com for very reliable suggestions, literature, and hard goods resource providers. Act NOW before the strorm. Do something right now. If you stop reading what I am writing here, and go straight to www.survivalblog.com, and don’t finish this posting, and never visit this Journal again, and then read and absorb, and put into action what I want you to do, then I have succeeded. Look at what Lehmans and Cabellas are offering in their extensive catalogs.
3) Get west of the Mississippi River, if you can. There are a few places in areas east of the Mississippi that will serve, but they are rare because of population density. The southeast is not one of these because of the Gulf of Mexicao crisis and the COREXIT 9500 dispersant they are saturating into the Gulf. The very toxic COREXIT dispersant, and its negative chemical synergism with crude oil VOC will soon envelop the countryside in creeping misery. This is a controlled black operation secret gub’mint operation that will dwarf the false flag operation of 9/11. Do not wait around to see if my statements are right or wrong. A Journal entry on this dark subject is forthcoming, nonetheless.
4) If you live on the island of Great Britain, get off of the island. If you have to leave your conflicted relationship, and escape with your children, do it. The British gub’mint is in deep collusion with the secret gub’mint of the USA, and Great Britain will be under martial law soon. This is a very difficult subject, and I will not go into it now because I am just one little rabbit, but you can pick up the scent of it in prior Journal postings.
5) Regarding the *, the asterix above. What is money and what is your atttachment to what you think money is, in the post WWII period of high consumerism?
Now we are getting into the Heart of the matter. Money will lose its purchasing power sometime in the next year; 1.5 years max. You have time to understand this, and do something now. Get the cash liquid, get it in your hands, train your financial advisor, and start to establish your List of Lists for what you want to turn your money into. Then start refining the Lists. Don’t forget toilet paper, and my favorite petro cosmeceutical, the incendiary Vaseline. Very handy stuff.
About the asterixed junk coin silver mentioned above; it is a good idea. Procure bags of pre 1965 coin silver. The quarters and dimes are 90% pure silver. I recommend quarters that have Washington’s silhouette stamped on them.
The pre ’65 dimes with the socialist philandering Roosevelt creep who knew the hour of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and allowed it to happen anyway just so that he could get his war, and the American war machine moving, is an irony that has not been forgotten by many, but has been overlooked by most. History is now repeating itself in a different guise. Be aware through your own research.
Well! OK! Get some dimes if you want! Quarters will trade better, however. Five pre’65 quarters contain one ounce of pure silver. Just memorize this fact. You can go to any coin store and purchase bags of “coin silver” while supplies last.
OK now, do this very soon, not next month, because the coin stores will start running low, and their over spot price per ounce of metal (profit margin) will start rising. Make repeated trips to these stores. They will require payment for these coins with cash, not a check or credit card. Currently, they will give you real money in exchange for fake paper money. That is because cash paper money still has perceived value. It’s amazing!
You are now in The Amazing Business!
I do not recommend hoarding up on gold bullion. It will be difficult to trade with. You will have to cut it with metal snips into smaller sizes, just like the Spaniards did with their old Pieces of Eight, silver coinage scored into 8 convenient pie cuts to be cut out and traded. Furthermore, if you go flashing that gold around, you will become a type of target.
Russell is right when he says you should never let go of your gold.
What’s the sense in holding bullion then? In my way of thinking, it is like what the Rabbi said in Matthew 6: 19-21, “where thieves break through and steal,” not mention other violent acts. You will have to make up your own mind about owning gold bullion.
It is time to go to Zumba. More later.
Practice something daily to allow your body, mind, emotions, and spirit parts to be in order, and integrated.
Signing off from Crestone and Beyond,
Love.