This is a special edition of Macrovoises with hedge fund manager Eric Townsend.

The premier financial podcast targeting professional finance, high net worth individuals, family

offices, and other sophisticated investors.

Now for this special edition of Macrovoises, here's hedge fund manager Eric Townsend.

Macrovoises All Stars Episode 65 was recorded on September 30th, 2019.

I'm Eric Townsend. All Star Luke Gromund, founder of Forest for the Trees, is back with us today.

This episode of Macrovoises is brought to you by top traders on plug.com, which happens to be my

favorite podcast when it comes to quant and rules based investing. Check them out, you'll be glad you did.

Luke, what's got your attention this week?

Hey, Eric, what's got my attention recently? What we think is the marked acceleration of the

failure of a narrative is critically important to a wide array of markets and assets.

Okay, I'll bite a failure of what narrative specifically.

You know, when narratives fail to the casual observers, the failure seems sudden and out of the

blue, but there's usually unmistakable signs of narrative breakdown that often become obvious

to most observers, really only in hindsight. One of the most dramatic stories of a failed narrative

that we've ever read comes from Barton Biggs, the former Morgan Stanley strategist, in his book

Wealth, War and Wisdom. And if I may, I'm just going to read a quick excerpt here.

The Japanese official battle reports and the Japanese press reported the battle of the Coral Sea

as a great triumph, and Midway was portrayed as a victory now defeat, although some loss of aircraft

and ships were admitted. Although casualties must have been noted and grieved, Japanese society at

the time was so united behind the war policy and believed so totally in the invincibility of the

Japanese military that the feat and economic failure were virtually inconceivable. It would have

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