With the incessant talk about the downing economy is it any wonder it doesn't become a self fulling prophecy. Anyway in the intro to the magazine it discusses an economist Hyman Minsky who held that Wall Street encouraged businesses and individuals to take too much risk which generated ruinous boom-and-bust cycles. His "financial-instability hypothesis" states that there are 5 stages of the credit cycle: displacement, boom, euphoria, profit taking,and panic. Displacement is simply a new invention that causes excitement (internet, low interest rates), which leads to a boom (money flows), then euphoria which causes conservative businesses to lend credit to anything hoping to make a killing, then these same businesses start to sell-off knowing the good times won't last, and finally panic hits when (tipping point anyone?) it hits the little people (and usually too late).
Wired
What's Inside: Featuring PowerBar Protein Plus - High Fructose Corn Syrup (American's consumed 58 pounds of this sweetener) eeks!
Boring article on stuff that seems to suck...but I prefer the little sidebar on 34 things that don't suck (things I agree to): farmer's markets, tap water, pocketknives, DVRs, thumb drives, kites, netflix, guitar hero, bicycles, velcro, and flip-flops. And I include M&Ms, iPods, lava lamps, books, comic books, and running shoes.
Interesting aside in the iPhone article. Buried in the middle of the article was a reference of Apple's interest in putting forth a tablet computer. Lots of references that this would be the new thing...I wonder.
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