BTW, I recommend "The Money Game" every bit as much as "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" by Edwin Lefèvre (1994).

Googling "gnomes of Zurich" you will see references such as: "gnomes in fairy tales live underground, in secret, counting their riches. The Gnomes of Zürich are also one of the secret societies playable in Illuminati and Illuminati: New World Order, both by Steve Jackson Games."

Googling "Gnomes" produces the following description.

"A gnome is a legendary creature, (also known as a "Cassie" in a fictitious book written by E.G. Khrenson in 1925), that is characterized by its small stature and subterranean lifestyle. According to the alchemist Paracelsus, gnomes are the most important of the elemental spirits of the classical element of earth; they move as easily through the earth as humans walk upon it, and the sun's rays turn them into stone. In other traditions, they are simply small, mischievous sprites or goblins. Some sources claim they spend the daytime as toads instead of in stone.

The word gnome is said to derive from the New Latin gnomus and ultimately from the Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge. According to myth, gnomes hoarded secret knowledge just as they hoarded treasure."

When I write this blog, I write as fast as I can two-finger type. My practice of freethinking or freethought is apparent to many of you. I learned this as a teenager as part of my upbringing.

Actually I was in college when I had a professor Basil Healey (who was Dean of the School of Business at Wilfred Laurier who later became Dean of the University of Waterloo), a person I greatly respected. In my second year, he called me into his office, although I didn't know who he was at the time, and he reviewed my situation. He said, as I vividly recall: "You must move from your present residence (an apartment with three others). They are all going to fail, but you have some promise. I have arranged for you to meet a family across the street from campus who have a basement room that would best suit you." A couple days later, I moved.

In my 4th year, my business school class had dropped to, I think, 26 in number from 180 three years earlier. My former roommates did not make the cut.

This Dean was known for his incredibly high standards, and I found myself attracted to that notion of searching for excellence, and removing the obstacles along the way. I took as many credit courses from this professor as the school would permit " far more than I needed to graduate. He was the most senior professor of Finance.

After one particularly tough mid-term exam, I recall saying to myself during the day that surely this had to be the hardest intellectual exercise in my life, and that I was without doubt going to fail. Afterwards, the professor handed out the results, and called me aside and said, "Nice work, keep it up", which surprised me.

So I ran over to the school library to read his comments in red throughout my work. But it wasn't his writing that stunned me; it was my own. I was shocked. Did I actually write this? Page after page, I recognized my handwriting, but I was overwhelmed at the clarity of thought, the argument, and so forth.

I recall looking out the window and starting to shake. You see, that was the moment in time that I realized that the human mind is a brilliant thing, far more powerful than we know, kept in check only by people who don't want us to use it. I knew that very minute that I had received an education.

And since then, I have practised freethinking openly.

The Dean had little to say to me on graduation day other than: "Take the gum out of your mouth. Your parents would not be proud of that." He was removing an obstacle. What he didn't tell me, or my fellow students who were patting me on the back as we convened to enter the ceremonial hall, and what I didn't realize until having taken a seat and opening the convocation program was that my name was listed at the top, second to the Gold Medal winner. I had won the academic prize for the School of Business.

I didn't know where my parents were in the audience; but I knew they would be proud.

None of us know our capability, but I believe it is unlimited. We just have to remove the obstacles, and do things without over-thinking. Of course we have to build some knowledge and acquire basic skills, but beyond that we rely on our values to get us through the challenges.

Do you know " I may have said this before " that I have written stuff in this blog that upon rereading months later, I will say to myself, "Did I really write that?"

I just get into a zone, and think, and write, and move on. I write some things that may be inappropriate, but on balance I'm quite happy doing this. It's a process I enjoy, and the markets are a subject I enjoy. This isn't work; it's a joy.

The Gnomes are a creation in my mind taken from things I have been exposed to throughout my life that conceptually means nothing more than the old-style corporate financier or dealmaker like the Rockefeller's and the Mellon's. Joe Kennedy, too.

These people operate privately, using government and money center banks to maximum advantage. Often they do great work for society, providing leadership where it is needed. But over the years, as others learned of their methods, and as acquisition opportunities dried up due to expanding competition, many of them have shown themselves to be ruthless and uncaring for the people they exploit. They have resorted to methods that I believe must be challenged by government. Unfortunately, greedy bankers seem to have fallen in league with these Gnomes.

In the absence of effective government (Eliot Spitzer notwithstanding), I believe it is incumbent on society to stand up to those actions of Gnomes that are harmful to society. People are upset today because they know they don't have to look very far before they see examples of incredibly bad behavior.

So I have tried to draw a composite, and have tried to show examples in the markets that should be studied " the Stelco fiasco, for example, was only a fiasco because there was a public reaction.

If We, The People, are going to effectively organize and fight back, we have to study the opposition. We have to remove the obstacles in our path in order to advance to our goals.

We have to take care of our own.