Morning all! This is just my - admittedly amateur - take on the market. By the market, I don’t mean the stock market, but rather the classic “market” - the billions of individual transactions made by millions of people every day.

It seems to me to be very like a river. It is what it is, and will continue to be what it will be. Regulations, legislation, taxation, income redistribution…the political decisions made by politicians for their own reasons…these are like levees. The levee will attempt to hold back - or reroute the river - but even the best ones have unintended consequences.

While the levee looks good around one city, it may be - over time - devastating to other cities downstream - and if not properly constructed, to the very city it was designed to protect.

Political attempts to direct or impact the market may look good in the short term, but be devastating in the longer term. But, politicians aren’t psychologically constructed to think beyond the next election.

The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 — given teeth during the Clinton administration, and used as a weapon to force banks to lend during the Clinton and Bush administrations - looked like a fine piece of legislation.

Until the levee broke.