C2, I get the impression there hasn't really been a lot of damage yet. Certainly those affected so far would think that a crazy idea, but in terms of the scale of debt to be cleared and markets to be adjusted, and politics to be waged, it doesn't look like more than a glitch, overall, so far.
I remain hopeful that it won't be the world's great crash. But it has that potential. Politicians and electorates with gung ho militarists can get up to seriously horrendous ideas at times. Check out the period from 1915 to the 1950s for example [not counting the Vietnam war, Mao's Maelstrom and a lot more besides]. Now I reflect on it, there was global carnage.
In per capita good life, this must be the most idyllic period in human history. Certainly in total good life world-wide it's vastly better than ever before. But they do say the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Virtuous Victorian Values, learned the hard way, as in death, over 1000s of years, seem to be laughed off as anachronistic with Gangsta Rap and TV Game Shows more popular. Jerry Springer and co. That's not universal around the world. But it's certainly an amazing real-time, real-life, no dress rehearsal, test of the boundaries of biological existence.
With a cast of 6 billion, it's a big experiment.
My bet [and has been for 8 years] is a bumbling through on a near-enough for government work basis, with the number dead not in the billions, but possibly in the millions and maybe even only in the thousands.
Big Ben, true to word, has loaded the helicopters and Uncle Al KBE has even cut right to the chase and said to issue bank notes to home owners. Central bankers around the world are manning the pumps.
Mqurice |
