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It may be impossible to preserve much savings through the current and coming crisis. A couple of years ago I went on a binge and read every book about the Sout
by RobGR 18y ago
It may be impossible to preserve much savings through the current and coming crisis.
A couple of years ago I went on a binge and read every book about the South Sea Bubble and other aspects of financial disasters that I could find. A story that stuck in my head was of a British magistrate who fought mightly against the South Sea Bubble, publishing pamphlets, launching investigations, militating in the streets and before Parlament, etc. He tried to move all his money into land, but the general inflation of the bubble caused land prices to explode, and the cost of maintance and taxes also rose; as the bubble churned on year after year and kept failing his predictions of it being about to collapse, he eventually declared that "if the world has gone mad one must at some point go with it", gave up, and put all his money into stock. Then it crashed.
I've been thinking residential real estate was abotu to crash since 1999. If I had tried to speculate on that in anyway, I would have lost year after year before the present contraction. Bubbles being figments of crowd psychology, they can go on as long as the participants want.
But, it is a bad idea to give up in disgust and walk away. While your money may not survive the next five years, business connections and experience and even whole businesses probably will. Like a woman trying to re-enter the workforce after spending some years raising children, it can be hard to re-start, so I suspect there is little advantage to being a hermit somewhere for a while. Unless you are retiring anyway.
That said, there is no reason not to hold long memories against the individuals who are doing the most damage in this nonsense, both in business and in politics.