Yes, I give a fig... thoughts on markets from Michael Green

For Whom the Bell Tolls

A commoner misunderstanding

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Michael W. Green
Aug 10, 2025
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"Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Most people today hear John Donne's 1624 meditation as a Jacob Marley–style warning — the ghost pointing at your grave, reminding you of your own mortality. But this modern interpretation is exactly backwards. Donne wasn't issuing a personal death warning. He was making the opposite point: …

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