Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face. As soon as one is aware of being somebody, to be watched and listened to with extra interest, input ceases, and the performer goes blind and deaf in his overanimation.
-John Updike
Remember the concept of the cleanest dirty shirt. We live in a relative world so if we misbehave and others misbehave more, we don’t get punished because we have the reserve currency and are the place where people outsource savings to. As long as we remain the cleanest dirty shirt, we will not be punished. If others become cleaner than us, we will be punished, but for right now we are the cleanest dirty shirt.
-Mohamed El-Erian, Allianz chief economic advisor and president of Queens’ College, Cambridge
