Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Last week I saw "The Big Short". It documented the 2008 "housing crisis". It was a very good historically accurate depiction
As with all historical fiction, The Big Short is entertainment. Many liberties with truth were taken in order to make the movie more entertaining for the unwashed masses who would join a lynch mob.
Quote:
Today I recommend going to your nearby theater and watching "Money Monster"". It premieres today. It is a very realistic depiction of what could happen THIS SUMMER. It has mediocre reviews because most entertainment reviewers are clueless about economics.
Entertainment reviewers share the cluelessness about economics with far too many people who post jibberish in the economics forum.
I find it interesting, Northern Maine Land Man, that you recommend movies as educational tools rather than recommend scholarly articles published in peer reviewed academic journals.
As I suspect you would enjoy it, I suggest you spend some time reading up on quantitative finance, computational finance, mathematical economics, quantitative international economics, and the like.
Seems as though "the collapse" has already come for quite a few American's. Financial systems have never been all that friendly to the masses, but--they have been very beneficial to the few at the top. No matter the nation, this is the reality that we live under, for those who are somewhere in between the top and bottom life isn't so bad, they have what they need, and a lot more, most of the time. Financial systems are largely a function of the state, and the marriage between the largest corporate entities and the state comprise a kind of super state, and that entity seeks to serve certain classes first, and the rest--- well, they are able to receive some benefit, but the spread of that benefit has been shrinking, a historical precedent to social collapse.
The American economy has collapsed many times, but--life went on and the damage that was done was simply a black mark on what otherwise would be considered to be quite a decent system. The economic meltdowns of the late eighteen hundreds, the nineteen thirties, and 08, were all damaging to the markets, the citizenry, and the nation, but the fact that recovery was always expected only demonstrates the fluidity of our monetary systems and the elasticity of credit markets. Witness the current "recovery" complete with "new" lending schemes accompanied by cheap oil and the ever present American penchant for "more".
If there is anything to fear economically in our immediate future it is almost certain that energy markets, with respect to petroleum especially, will be among the few triggers that should be considered. Our daily lives revolve around that oil, and especially that cheap (and easy to get) oil. Easy and cheap credit is another commodified form of monetary policy that often is blamed for our economic debacles that were fueled by shaky expansionist policies. Petroleum has been politicized, credit too, people now look to government for policies that will bring prosperity, and the pols are only to happy to make promises in that regard, Trump and Hilary's presence on the American presidential stage should be causing some alarm, but------
Now cheap oil and credit expansion are considered as remedial functions to be utilized in an already super sized economy. In the American economic saga of the drowned and saved, only the saved are optimistic, and that seems to speak to a large amount of social indifference that historians attribute to the collapse of past empires. The point is, collapse may well be the necessary game changer, the driver of a better economic reasoning and not something heralding the end of mankind. I'm on my third cup of coffee, and not too worried about the collapse.
That's an interesting answer: intervention. It's interesting to me because it begs the question, how long can intervention keep things at bay?
^^^
Quote:
Originally Posted by svendrell
The big one. Whoa momma.
Well, it was 79 years between 1929 and 2008. During that time span there was
the biggest, most destructive world-wide war ever;
60 years of an arms race to mutual annihilation levels;
two major regional wars and numerous smaller ones;
the replacement of colonialism with nationalism around the global;
the rise of terrorism as a political/social force;
the transition of most First World economies from dependence on manufacturing to a mix of manufacturing and services;
the immigration of millions of people into the US from Latin America, Asia, and Africa;
a giant leap in scientific knowledge and in technology, creating entirely new industry sectors that didn't even exist not only in 1929 but in 1959;
massive social/political change that eventually transformed the legal, economic, political and cultural landscape of the US -- and which continues.
If the US and its economy can weather all the disasters, traumas, and problems of the last 80 years without collapsing, I think there really isn't a "big one" lurking in the shadows short of some natural catastrophe like the explosion of the Yellowstone caldera or an asteroid impact. We faced collapse in 2008, and we -- including the much maligned by doomsters federal government --proved equal to saving our own bacon.
Entertainment reviewers share the cluelessness about economics with far too many people who post jibberish in the economics forum.
I find it interesting, Northern Maine Land Man, that you recommend movies as educational tools rather than recommend scholarly articles published in peer reviewed academic journals.
As I suspect you would enjoy it, I suggest you spend some time reading up on quantitative finance, computational finance, mathematical economics, quantitative international economics, and the like.
Agree on all your points, and especially the bolded sentence. Of course, the reason that so many people who hold nonsensical ideas about science or economics or history prefer to believe movie producers and/or YouTube experts is because all the reputable experts refute their nonsense.
That's an interesting answer: intervention. It's interesting to me because it begs the question, how long can intervention keep things at bay?
Forever, if managed well. It's nothing more than a feedback loop to compensate for unchecked systemic instability. And make no mistake, unfettered capitalism is inherently unstable. Without checks it eventually auto-destructs in the form of depression, social instability, etc. Intervention is conceptually no different than a thermostat on a furnace. A thermostat turns on the heat when temp drops below a set point and shuts it off when it it goes over.
The rich are finding and using other ways to invest their capital to create more capital.
You can call it an "investment" if you like, but it isn't an investment in the real economy, which is producing goods and services. Rather it's an "investment" in extracting wealth from the real economy.
You can call it an "investment" if you like, but it isn't an investment in the real economy, which is producing goods and services. Rather it's an "investment" in extracting wealth from the real economy.
I'm not disagreeing with you.
Their investments might not be an investment that is in the best interest of our middle class jobs problem, and might even be an overseas investment that works against the middle class job situation.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
