VLVL 142 inland floater

[Terrance]

As Takeshi made his way cautiously down, he found a network of plastic
duckboards and temporary traffic lights already in place. Traffic was
heavy. He paused at a turnout, poured himself another cup from his
coffee thermos, and took another amphetamine capsule.  "It's going to
take a while," he chuckled aloud, drawing a stare or two, "to get to the
bottom of this!" Another strange element, as his former mentor Professor
Wawazume, eccentric CEO of Wawazume Life & Non-Life, had reminded him
over the phone last night, was that recently Chipco had wanted a floater
written in on an inland marine policy, against "damage from any and all
forms of animal life." The demolished complex was located on a lightly
traveled piece of coastline, and Chipco could certainly argue that
something had come up out of the surf, put one foot in the sand fro
leverage, and stomped on the lab with the other. 

Floater insurance is a special insurance intended to compliment blanket
property insurance. The purpose of the Floater is to provide replacement
cost coverage for properties which have a high incidence rate of theft
and mysterious disappearance. 

Inland Marine Insurance — An inland marine policy
designed to cover movable property wherever it may
be located. 

Examples: 

bicycle and bicycle thief dvd floater, floater, 
Frenzy camera floater, Hobbes contractors'
equipment floater, Pointsman laboratory equipment floater, 
Botticelli fine arts floater, Venus fur floater, Bodine hashish floater, 
Imipolex-G installation floater, Benny False teeth  floater, 
personal articles floater, personal property floater,
physicians' and surgeons' equipment floater, research complex floater, 
salesperson's samples floater, unscheduled property
floater, wedding presents floater, zeppelin and pies floater. 

A good example of Pynchon mixing it up here. 

And it's difficult to figure out what he is in fact mixing up here
unless we follow the WORKERS and their WORK. 

 If Pynchon were in Japan or reading Japanese Newspapers in the 1980s we
can assume that he read all about Japan's floating land. Prices. The
Land itself. And of course the Bubble. The bubble was floated on US
Treasuries and US dollars (the US "floated" billions everuyday). Japan,
it's big insurance companies, financed Reaganomics by purchasing most of
the USTs issued or "floated" in the 1980s. Of course they got paid in US
dollars. The US, after defeating AMF, pushed the dollar down. How do you
say hedge in Japanese? How about, bend over? So went Japan. The bubble
burst. Japan sunk and she hasn't recovered. 


http://www.rockydude.com/monsters/monster2.htm