Economic depression

[Winston001]

Yup. They also found a couple of decades ago that actually producing anything is just too much hard work. Much easier to sub all that out to south America and Asia.

There's an economic maxim that all wealth comes from the production of marketable goods. So if you stop making shit not only does your economy shrink but it leaks offshore, to those economies that actually do produce the shit you still can’t do without.

In the meantime they’ve spent the last couple of decades throwing their economic weight around and manipulating exchange rates, queering trade deals etc, all to keep the US$ value worth enough to pay for all those Toyotas and Samsungs.

They bought their own bullshit, believing they could all live the good life without actually producing enough to support the spending. Even those who made nothing whatsoever.

Sound familiar? The time to pay the piper’s well and truly here, if you’re not actively involved in producing something tangible you might want to consider a career change.

I like what you say and for me, a farmers son, (call me Jethro) it rings true. Yet the great wealth accumulated around the globe is accumulated and lies in the hands of those who produce "services", not "goods". Much of global manufacturing occurs in Third World countries but it is the people in First World countries who own huge multi-bathroomed homes.

To me it is weird but people with MBAs command mega salaries just to organise businesses, shuffle contracts, and move money around. Is this really likely to change? They are intelligent, there are lots of them, and they have a vested interest in keeping modern business as complex as possible. Derivatives, swops, forward cover, futures, Contracts For Difference (CFDs are the latest game in town), margin trades etc etc.....

[Ocean1]

I like what you say and for me, a farmers son, (call me Jethro) it rings true. Yet the great wealth accumulated around the globe is accumulated and lies in the hands of those who produce "services", not "goods". Much of global manufacturing occurs in Third World countries but it is the people in First World countries who own huge multi-bathroomed homes.

To me it is weird but people with MBAs command mega salaries just to organise businesses, shuffle contracts, and move money around. Is this really likely to change? They are intelligent, there are lots of them, and they have a vested interest in keeping modern business as complex as possible. Derivatives, swops, forward cover, futures, Contracts For Difference (CFDs are the latest game in town), margin trades etc etc.....

That’ll remain true as long as governments manipulate markets. Implementing complex regulatory controls and disincentives to genuinely productive behavior heavily distorts markets. Clever bastards find loopholes much faster than governments can close them. Leveraging those loopholes is often very profitable, but it’s rarely productive. Remember that needs pyramid? Without artificial constraints the most valuable commodities are what?

There’s a limit to the ability of an economy to absorb non productive behavior, what might the symptoms of an economy reaching those limits be? What abilities would represent a good income if the regulatory control framework fails? Share broker or tailor? Asset management consultant or farmer? Lawyer or engineer? MBAs are a dime a dozen dude, and as useful as a diploma in marine tourism services. Anyone can learn to cheat the system, it takes more than that to create genuine value.

[Winston001]

That’ll remain true as long as governments manipulate markets. Implementing complex regulatory controls and disincentives to genuinely productive behavior heavily distorts markets. Clever bastards find loopholes much faster than governments can close them. Leveraging those loopholes is often very profitable, but it’s rarely productive. Remember that needs pyramid? Without artificial constraints the most valuable commodities are what?

LOVE man, LOVE I can feel it now.....

But didn't know Maslow was an economist, we learnz and learnz stuff alla time my Precioussss........

There’s a limit to the ability of an economy to absorb non productive behavior, what might the symptoms of an economy reaching those limits be? What abilities would represent a good income if the regulatory control framework fails? Share broker or tailor? Asset management consultant or farmer? Lawyer or engineer? MBAs are a dime a dozen dude, and as useful as a diploma in marine tourism services. Anyone can learn to cheat the system, it takes more than that to create genuine value.

?? Whats a tailor?