Posts Tagged ‘bubble’

N'en déplaise à ces fous nommés sages de Grèce,
En ce monde il n'est point de parfaite sagesse;
Tous les hommes sont fous, et malgré tous leurs soîns
Ne diffèrent entre eux que du plus ou du moins.
- BOILEAU

Whatever these crazy appointed sages of Greece,
In this world there is no perfect wisdom;
All men are mad, and despite all their care
Differ among themselves as more or less.

So reads the somewhat cynical inscription to Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, written in 1841 by Charles Mackay. It was a book about bubbles. The first two chapters are about financial bubbles.

The question is everywhere: “How did all of this happen?” The economy. The endless war. The National Debt. All of it. Some people ask the question differently: “What were we thinking?” “Who’s responsible?”

I think that we have two problems. First, we don’t like bad news. Especially the really big, awful bad news that depresses us when we are confronted with big problems. War, poverty, disease, famine, economics etc. The general population has no idea how to manage global or national problems. Most of us are not skilled in these issues. So, when confronted by these issues, we “stick our heads in the sand” and try to forget.