Live Suite Dilemma

[Tony Scharf]

I see it this way...

the 90s saw the collapse of the communist system on one extreme, and
now we are seeing the collapse of the other competing extreme.  The
true, best system, as usual, is somewhere in the middle.

The problem with a completely free market, is that once you have
players of sufficient size to manipulate that market then it ceases to
be free.  We see this in the software market with Microsoft (though
their power is diminishing) and, in the states anyway, we really see
it with mega super store Walmart.   They are a large enough player to
completely alter the landscape of the market and force pricing on
their vendors, which drives many of them out of business.

I think, really, our current mess is really a case of the 'Emperors
New Cloths' gone terribly amok.  *everyone* knew that what was going
on was crazy and unsustainable, but so long as they money kept coming
in, no one wanted to admit that the Emperor (in this case mortgage
backed securities) was stark buck naked.

So who is to blame?  Everyone, pretty much, in my country and around
the world who bought into it.   Everyone who lived far beyond their
means, people who bought houses, people who sold houses, Realtors,
mortgage brokers, banks, investors, programmers of computer models
that predicted no risk, credit rating agencies that marked the
securities as safe...everyone.

There is something my grandfather taught me: Any time you borrow
money, sooner or later your going to get a bill.  Collectively, we got
it and realized there isnt quite enough money in the coffers to pay
it.  Now people are panicking.  He also taught me to never ever trust
a financial transaction I couldnt fully understand.  There has been
far to much of that going around.

But one thing I wish people would recognize so they would stop
panicking:  These things are cyclical.  You have booms and you have
busts.   the bigger the boom...the deeper the bust.   Its a necessary
part of economics.  companies make lots of money...they get
wastefull...then you have a bust, and they are forced to lean up. the
weaker companies fall.  A lot of people end up unemployed for a time,
but I actually think *that too* is ultimately for the good - it
reshuffles the pool of skills and forces some people to strike out on
their own creating new ventures and new innovations that will lead to
the next boom....and the next bust...and the next boom...

So, ultimately, I am just going to ride it out.  Better times will come.

Tony


On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 12:34 PM, Andy Tarpinian <evildead at nyc.rr.com> wrote:
> Gert van Santen wrote:
>
> Peter Korsten schreef:
>
>
> Gert van Santen schreef:
>
>
>
> I also want a system where there is no (or almost no) labour done
> by humans and there are no jobs. Having a job is a "modern" form
> of slavery. I don't like that.
>
>
> and you think the robots will be ok with them being the slaves forever?
>
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