re: #281 Obdicut

Well, yes and no. The problem with the economy is so much of it has been made up of financial instruments. Much of the ‘wealth’ in the world isn’t backed up by anything— I’m not talking about GOLD but I mean no actual wealth got created.

Some jerk figures out an equation that lets people create tons of weird securities and get loans off of them— money gets created, by the process of that loan, but there’s no real wealth. In fact, there’s anti-wealth— the security is actually going to contribute to a meltdown.

A real ‘correction’ would shrink the world economy by a true amount. If all the things that actually have negative value but are treated like wealth— like tobacco companies, for example— sheesh. I don’t even know what it would do. Just implode.

It’s a lovely collective delusion isn’t it. Much like how much the markets and economy run on consumer confidence (perception) rather than any sort of true reality. If we think things are rosy then we spend and potentially make it so - an interesting sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Carry that over into other areas or smaller scales and it looks a lot like a confidence scheme in a lot of ways. (There’s trouble in River City!)