The next time your acquaintences meet AG they should listen more carefully. Mr. G. said at his Boston College speech last week that the surprising strength of this economy was due to increasing the efficiency created by the internet in all kinds of ways. Successful old economy guys don't get it.
The web seeps so far into every corner of the economy that you can easily imagine 20% shift in the very near future. On a $10 Trillion economy, that's $2 Trillion. Compare that to the market cap of all internet companies leading the charge. Do the math, and it's not unreasonable, even without the rate of change multiplier. If, of course, this value flows to the internet pioneers, and the old economy co's don't wake up, but big companies usually don't.
BTW, "investing" as an activity is, in fact value-added. My wife thinks like HJ that it's "playing around", but really it's the important business of how to apply capital to creative enterprises. It's not digging ditches,
but it is building an understanding of complex enterprise and voting with dollars. The economy is basically an education system. Yes, the bullies in the playground (Merril, et al) will take unfair advantage in the short run and steal milk money from the unwary, but that's also what education is for. |
