Gee, William et al:
I also enjoyed Barnes' summary of the mess the market is in and the likely downfall. Even Business week, for God's sake (www.businessweek.com/1997/46/b3553117.htm), has a big story on "the bubble". But Barnes, Grant, DeVoe, and all these "thinking men" have sat on the sidelines or lost their shirts shorting (like me) while expecting bubble valuations to head back toward their norms. Meanwhile Joe Sixpack has made a fortune (on paper, I stress) without knowing a damn thing except "DUH, stocks always go up".
You are also right about our inability to let Asia go down the pipes -for our own sake. So here again come poor folks' tax dollars to correct rich folks' folly -- Mexico, Chrysler, Indonesia, the S&L's --next Japan, HK. All so our precious businesses can keep making money with (genuflect)TRADE. My question: How can we keep printing money to bail out the world? Doesn't this have some limit? What, if anything, will stop this seemingly limitless funding of folly?
We are obviously the "lender of last resort" as described by Prof. Kindelberger in his classic "Manias, Panics and Crashes".
Can it go on forever? I'd appreciate some insight from some of the many macroeconomic mavens on this thread.
Jack |
