Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : The Naked Truth - Big Kahuna a Myth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Moominoid who wrote (7550)	10/4/1998 2:15:00 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 86076

Thanks, David. I think my understanding is based, less on economics and more on history, probably more impressions based on images than real hard history. What really puzzles me about the Great Depression is more of a mental image I have, of factories idle, of workers out of work, of formerly prosperous people now destitute. Sort of what we are hearing about in places like Indonesia. What bothers me about the picture is, if there is demand, and there is capacity, why is there no supply? Why doesn't someone open up the factory, put the workers back to work, and start making the goods that people need? The only answer I can come up with is that there is no capital. So, where did the money go? Maybe I am asking the wrong question. I mentioned that I went to a Greek festival at St. George's in Bethesda. One of the vendors, a young man from, I think, Georgia (Russia, not USA) sets up a table at the various Greek festivals in the region, and sells Russian objets d'art and such, icons, amber jewelry, Russian enamel boxes and jewelry, matrioshkas, etc. I asked him if he could get me one of the matrioshkas of Clinton and his women, actually I would take all he could get. He said he would try, that a lot of people were asking, and mentioned it was getting harder to get things from Russia, that the government was putting more restrictions and paperwork. He said the Russian people were too trusting, but they were getting tired of working and not getting paid. We discussed the Russian economy and the IMF. He confirmed that in Russia, people say that the IMF money went straight into private Swiss bank accounts. I told him that, in my opinion, Russia did not have an economy to speak of, that until Russia made automobiles, tractors, televisions and computers that people wanted to buy, it never would have an economy. He said that years of Communism had made people fearful of starting businesses, they were afraid that the government would just take them away again. In Russia, the level of education is high, there are factories and people to work in them, and there is demand, but there is no production. Why not?