Jay, I agree with you that life is a process, not an event. Mountaineers climb the mountain, hang around at the top for a relatively brief time, take a few photos then climb back down.
Getting there is half the fun as they say. More than half really.
Collapses are processes too, though usually marked by an event, such as the precipitous collapse of October 1987, which I watched in real-time, with a sell order in, with some awe.
For years now, I have watched this script unfold and so far, other than the time it has taken for each section of the script, and the amplitude, it has gone just about as I expected [though I hadn't realized just how many Biotelecosmictechdot.com companies had nothing going for them as I hadn't studied many of them at all].
We have gone well into the megapixelation process of new $$ by Uncle Al KBE and the slashing to zilch of interest rates, we have gone down the big dipper in the stock market and have come out the other side, with many people financially and even literally destroyed at the bottom [I know of one person who died at his own hand with the market's demise a major contributing factor to his decision]. We are now at the currency grinding against currency stage, which I had also envisaged and are proceeding through the savers paying for the profligate process, which is traditional.
We seem to be largely in agreement. I even have, for years, worried about the possibility of a colossal and stupendous collapse, complete with financial reset and mayhem as globalized integrated systems fail and mob-ruled governments exacerbate the problems with foolish and self-destructive decisions. But I decided in the late 1990s, with fingers crossed, that we would actually weather the storm and the then Uncle Al without the KBE would be able to perform as expected, avoiding a deflationary, cascading, self-perpetuating implosion.
My main fear was that when the crunch came, which it did in Y2K and 2001, the margin-propelled and financially leveraged and market clearing delays would result not be able to cope with the onslaught. If the 11 September attack was made a year earlier, I think they might have achieved the most spectacular event in war in human history with a global financial collapse to go along with the Twin Towers.
Fortunately, over the previous year, there had been enough market clearing that people had made substantial adjustments already.
A few years on, as you say, there is still plenty of adjustment to be made and we are not out of the woods, which is why interest rates are STILL near zero. Until we have interest rates back up where they belong to justify people holding fiat currencies [most importantly the US$], I will keep my fingers crossed.
Because we have got past so much already, I'm hopeful that we will navigate through the last of the process and enter the realm of Globalized nirvana.
If everyone abandons Iraq to civil war, mayhem and carnage, it won't be a very big deal. For a decade we've done without Iraqi oil. Another decade won't matter. Oil prices can go to $50 a barrel and people can cut their consumption. Alternatives can get a turbo charge. Photovoltaics can proliferate faster than WMDs. Crops can be converted to ethanol. Cyberspace can replace personal movement.
NZ is a keen supporter of UN processes, and for three centuries now has supported international civilization, so I don't think there'll be an abandonment of Iraq if the UN maintains it's attention. <...After meeting with visiting Australian Opposition leader Mark Latham, she told reporters that New Zealand may then look at further ways of helping Iraq's return to full sovereignty.
"In the case of New Zealand, with the commitments we have made to the international effort against terrorism and the reconstruction of Iraq, we have tended to take ... decisions which have a time period on them," Ms Clark said.
"But we may then come back and do the same thing again at another point when we have force regeneration."
New Zealand has already used this strategy with its Special Air Services forces in Afghanistan, which were withdrawn and later redeployed....>
NZ isn't a very big deal militarily, but every bit helps.
So, overall, no worries mate! Don't worry, be happy.
Mqurice |
