At some point he said, ' anyway, over time, the market goes up, that's what we see historically. What matters really is household consumption'.
I just said that well, Japan's stock exchange still isn't half of what he used to be in the 1990's, twenty years later. We dropped that subject, and someone mentioned the average level of debt in the US... he said 'that certainly can't go on'.
'So how could stocks always go up if it can't go on?'
Silence.
I ask, how's the variation of the value of the dollar going to affect your job, and he replies with basic theory, 'well it's going to help export companies, etc'. At that point I wondered if he knew how much change there has been on that front: the canadian dollar is now at par, the euro double value in 5 years. He seemed genuinely surprised.
About the canadian dollar, he said, 'that's funny, I thought that since their economy was so intertwined with ours, that the exchange rate wouldn't change too much'. I point out that a lot of the dollar's values comes from the trust in the US economy and government. 'They certainly lost that, he said'. Again silence.
The dots just don't connect. Information doesn't spread. They must have their noses on the handlebar, as we say in french. Can't see anything else... Rien n'est gratuit en ce bas monde. Tout s'expie, le bien comme le mal, se paie tot ou tard. Le bien c'est beaucoup plus cher, forcement. Celine
At that point I wondered if he knew how much change there has been on that front: the canadian dollar is now at par, the euro double value in 5 years. He seemed genuinely surprised.
Excellent post. It makes the point that these 'Masters of the Universe' are really just clueless sheep.
One unusually bright sheep devises a scheme to fleece the sheep in the other field, and they all trot along obediently, thinking, saying and doing the same things.
If no one points out there's a cliff in the way, they'll walk right off it with a surprised who-could-have-expected-that look.
I think we really do give these people far more respect than they're really due. There will always be exceptions, but en masse you can pretty much rely on them to be this clueless.
Wrong word, sorry. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
