"Mergers and Acquisitions", by Edward Hirsch

Beyond junk bonds and oil spills, beyond the collapse of Savings and Loans, beyond liquidations and options on futures, beyond basket trading and expanding foreign markets, the Dow Jones industrial average, the Standard & Poor's stock index, mutual funds, commodities, beyond the rising tide of debits and credits, opinion polls, falling currencies, the signs for L. A. Gear and Coca Cola Classic, the signs for U.S. Steel and General Motors, hi-grade copper, municipal bonds, domestic sugar, beyond fax it and collateral buildups, beyond mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, hostile takeovers, beyond the official policy on inflation and the consensus on happiness, beyond the national trends in buying and selling, getting and spending, the market stalled and the cost passed on to consumers, beyond the statistical charts on prices, there is something else that drives us, some rage or hunger, some absence smoldering like a childhood fever vaguely remembered or half-perceived, some unprotected desire, greed that is both wound and knife, a failed grief, a lost radiance.