The Grand Old Duke of York, he had 10,000 men. He marched them up to the top of the hill and he marched them down again. When they were up they were up. When they were down they were down. When they were only half way up, they were neither up nor down. finance.yahoo.com
What a graph!
It's just a couple of years ago the index was near 1000 and 2000 was a long floor. I doubt a digital Olympics made things better in reality when it was all fake.
China is learning about irrational exuberance. They have yet to learn the cost of hubris, xenophobia and jingoism. As far as they are concerned, they are the greatest people on the planet, so they don't have to learn that. But out of sympathy with we the puny ignoble people, it would be nice if they could be kindly in their glory.
Japan had a great and glorious peak in 1989. They were going to take over the world [so people thought in the late 1980s when the Emperor's tennis court was worth more than Auckland and the Emperor's palace was worth more than California. Now, Japan seems unilikely to take over anything, other than the market share of GM and Ford.
In 1987, when New Zealand wasn't going to do wasn't worth talking about. Post crash, 20 years on, all we have succeeded in doing is recovering from the long, grinding ruination on the back of agricultural exports and curious tourists, but unfortunately borrowing $100bn from Mrs Watanabe to revalue houses upwards, go on overseas trips, make coffees for each other and chant the catechism "Houses only go up in price".
In 1999, millennial glory beckoned and the Biotelecosmictechdot.com boom was roaring to the sky. By 2001, the post party hangover was shocking, exacerbated by Osama and co destroying the twin monuments to Biotelecosmictechdot.com glory.
Strangely, although the debt powered feast on shares had only just finished, with Uncle Al KBE slashing interest rates to try to hold things stable and avoid a deflationary implosion, people when nuts borrowing a fortune to buy houses across the USA [and elsewhere]. Do they not learn? The newspapers had barely cooled from the Y2K bust but people ploughed into the latest financial hysteria.
Now, the addled addicts blame their suppliers Big Ben and Alan Green$pan for their greed, avarice and stupidity. Look, back in 2002, a big warning: Subject 53236 Nevertheless, hordes swarmed in and borrowed, even lying about their incomes to trick lenders, who didn't care because their bonuses depended on big lending - the credit worthiness could wait until the next person's shift.
Now, the taxpayers are expected to prop up the sorry scene. There's no need for that. I am happy to buy the assets from Fannie, Freddie, Lehman, Bear Stearns etc as they go on the block. I doubt I'd even be the top bidder, though I have got several $0000s for the purpose.
For some time, China was touted as taking over the world. There is a LOT more involved in taking over the world than having a billion people working for low pay in an authoritarian prison. China won't be taking over the world. The Olympic Games was supposed to be the cap on the glory, but their TD-SCDMA was as fake as their singer, their fireworks, their ethnic people with costumes and the architects were foreigners.
Mqurice |
