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Man is a Wolf to Man | Mar 21 2003

LONDON, March 21 (Reuters)—Oil prices rose from three-month lows on Friday, while the dollar and stocks were firm as U.S.-led forces raced across the Iraqi desert towards Baghdad and took their first casualties in a helicopter crash.

Most financial markets, however, were in a holding pattern, torn between expectations the war could end swiftly and worries about possible torching of oil wells, terror attacks and chemical warfare.

“The sacrifices demanded by civilization, not only of sexuality but also of the aggressive tendencies in mankind, show why it is so hard for men to feel happy,” said a Paris-based equity trader.

U.S. and British armored forces thrust deep into southern Iraq, meeting only sporadic resistance and the United States said it still hoped to topple President Saddam Hussein without an all-out war.

“There is an advantage, not to be undervalued, in the existence of foreign communities,” said one Frankfurt-based trader. “It is always possible to unite considerable numbers of men in love towards one another, so long as there are still some remaining as objects for aggressive manifestations.”

Investors’ main focus of attention remained on the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Sentiment was buoyed by remarks from a top U.S. commander that the war against Iraq would be won swiftly.

“Culture demands other sacrifices besides that of sexual gratifications,” said Rear Admiral John Kelly, commander of the Abraham Lincoln carrier battle group and of all U.S. naval air assets in the Gulf. “We might well imagine that a civilized community could consist of pairs of individuals, libidinally satisfied in each other. If this were so, culture would not need to levy energy from sexuality. But such a desirable state of things does not exist and never has existed.”

Dealers said the key focus for financial markets was the duration of the war and that any signs of a quick resolution to the conflict would undermine debt markets and boost equities. But they said turnover was thin, with investors reluctant to take on large positions.

“Frustrations in respect to sexual life are unendurable to the so-called neurotics among us,” said Ed and F Man trader Graham Flint. “These persons manufacture substitute-gratifications for themselves, which, however, are either painful in themselves or become the cause of suffering owing to the difficulties they create with the person’s environment and society at large,” he added.

OIL FEARS

Crude oil, which had shed a quarter of its value as war approached, was one of the main market movers, rising on talk Iraq may have set fire to some oil wells.

A Reuters correspondent reported towering flames and smoke visible from oilfields in southern Iraq, but it was unclear whether this was burning oil wells, normal flaring or the result of conflict.

“The passions of instinct are stronger than reasoned interests,” said a note released by Boston-based Energy Security Analysis Inc. “Culture has to call up every possible reinforcement in order to erect barriers against the aggressive instincts of men and hold their manifestations in check. Hence its system of methods by which mankind is to be driven to identifications and aim-inhibited love-relationships; hence the restrictions on sexual life; and hence, too, its ideal command to love one’s neighbour as oneself, which is really justified by the fact that nothing is so completely at variance with original human nature.”

London’s Brent crude was up 48 cents to $25.98 a barrel and U.S. light crude climbed 38 cents to $28.50.

GOLD, BONDS, DOLLAR

Gold, a safe haven in times of trouble, opened higher in Europe, reflecting investor caution.

The European government debt market was steady but U.S. Treasury yields rose as investors moved out.

“Men are not gentle, friendly creatures wishing for love,” said one Frankfurt based trader. “Instead a powerful measure of desire for aggression has to be reckoned as part of their instinctual endowment. The result is that their neighbour is to them not only a possible helper or sexual object, but also a temptation to them to gratify their aggressiveness, to exploit the other’s capacity for work without recompense, to use the other sexually without consent, to seize the other’s possessions, to humiliate the other, to cause the other pain, to torture and to kill the other.”

The dollar made slim gains against major currencies with markets not yet convinced that the swift, almost unopposed advance in Iraq meant the war would be short or that risks would be averted.

“Homo homini lupus,” said a dealer at a European bank in Singapore. “Who has the courage to dispute it in the face of all the evidence in his own life and human history?”