The running-out of the bulls and bears

The Kipton Art Bull Market Rocket/artdaily.org
The Kipton Art Bull Market Rocket/artdaily.org

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That rip-snorting bull? Old hat. Wall Street has a new symbol of wild optimism: a rocket blasting off merrily into space, presumably taking the Dow on a gravity-free ride into the heavens.

Artdaily.org reports that sculptors Mark and Diane Weisbeck have created a new, “21st century symbol for the Bull Market,” 13 feet tall and made of stainless steel.

Icarus, engraving, Hendrick Goltzius/Wikimedia CommonsNobody seems to remember anymore what the fabled bull and bear stand for, the story comments, and they got that right: If investors and manipulators hadn’t conveniently forgot that the bull periodically and inevitably transforms into a bear, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now. Optimism is a lovely thing, but not when it doesn’t have its feet on the ground.

I’m going to miss the bull and bear. They had a sense of balance, of yin and yang. And they were rooted: They had a living, breathing physicality that offered the comforting illusion that the marketplace was based on some sort of reality. This rocket ship? I don’t feel the weight of gravity in the image. And I want a sense that what goes up will also come down.

So here’s an idea. If we’re going to have a new bull, OK. But the Weisbecks need to give us a new bear, too. Under the circumstances, I suggest a 13-foot-tall stainless steel Icarus.