Delicious LiveJournal Links for 12-11-2008

[andrewducker]

• 8 really, really scary predictions about the economy
  (tags: economics 2008 depression predictions)
• The digested read: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling
  Very, very funny
  (tags: funny books harrypotter)
• Chinese girl gets 'kiss of deaf'
  The chorus of warnings was echoed by the Shanghai Daily, which wrote: "A strong kiss may cause an imbalance in the air pressure between two inner ears and lead to a broken ear drum."
  (tags: weird biology kissing)
• Man's genes 'key to baby's sex'
  Raar! My sperm have The Power!
  (tags: genetics gender)

Comments

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's the matter of the majority not being able to see it, I think it's a matter of the way confidence in the market works, combined with the market's momentum.

In other words, at the start of the bubble, it looks awesome and is. Bubbles collapse though, and that gets factored for. And then the evidence shows up that it's a bubble, and everyone knows that it's a bad idea because of the crap companies that are making millions overnight. But by then, the ball is rolling and it takes a while to catch up, because most of the people who know it's a bad idea are still making money off of it.

I keep wanting to paint it as a plane full of money that's going down, where everyone is packing money into suitcases until the very last minute.

[andrewducker]

I disagree - an awful lot of people just don't get it. I had an argument with someone at work about a year ago because they said they didn't need to put money into a pension because their house was worth a small fortune and house prices always go up faster than inflation.

This person was reasonably smart (decent coder, capable of walking and breathing at the same time), and we work at a financial company. He just didn't understand markets.

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

If he had got a pension he'd be no better off now...

[andrewducker]

Depends on the guarantees on it. I have a career average pension, which doesn't rely on the stock market doing well...