The Illusion of Perpetual Ascent

It is a curious thing, this human tendency to extrapolate present fortune into infinite future gain. We are, by nature, creatures of habit, prone to mistaking the temporary ebb of hardship for a permanent triumph over fate. The year 2022, a season of justifiable lament—a decline exceeding twenty percent—served only to sharpen the subsequent ascent, to fuel the delusion that a correction had been vanquished, not merely postponed. The slowing of inflation, the tentative pause in the Federal Reserve’s relentless tightening—these were seized upon not as prudent signals, but as confirmations of an inevitable, upward trajectory.








