hi Dave,
In previous manias, the biggest problem investors faced was TOO MUCH imagination.
In every investment mania, including the 20's and the 90's, but also during the Railway Bubble, Canal Bubble, the and South Seas Bubble, many people invested in pie-in-the-sky concepts with precious little basis in reality
the thing is, what you're talking about and what i'm talking about are two different things. you're talking about the huckster's pitch, which is always very imaginative in a credit-driven bubble such as our own. but that is just snakeoil talking.
in contrast, the "imagination" i spoke of is not that of the huckster, but that of the investor (or lack of same in the rube, as the case may be). he who accepts the huckster's pitch at face value is like a guard dog who devours poisoned meat from the hand of a burglar planning to rob you. but the skeptical dog, the salty dog, can imagine other eventualities than a free lunch from a snakeoil salesman and thus stands his guard. it is about imagining a world other than the one CNBC feeds to you. |
