Proving the disconnect between reality and the mindset of people who make the decisions that affect our lives, is the big problem. It is not enough to belly-ache about government. Nor are conspiracy theories sufficient, if we want change. The evidence on what went wrong leading up to the financial crisis is now emerging in […]
Archive | Global Downturn
Washington Deepens the Crisis
Governments refuse to admit that the Western model of economics is dead, and should be buried. With no room for manoeuvre, they should be preparing the blueprint for a viable future Instead, with the US leading the way, the West is boxing itself into a disaster that will terminate in horrors that no-one dare imagine. […]
The 1930s Lesson they Forgot
At last, the similarities between the present and the 1930s are being drawn. But the analysts fail to register the one big lesson from the Great Depression that could save the global economy. Result: expect the austerity measures of Western governments to drive nations into a collision from which there can be no recovery. One […]
When’s the Next Property Crash?
Finally, relevant analysis of what caused the Depression of 2010. And since the cause was exclusively related to the economics of the land market, which brought the last business cycle to an end, this inevitably leads to the question: Will the next cycle also be driven by a land-led boom/bust? The onset of the new […]
The Pathology of Hot Spots
The best insights into the global malaise are to be found in commentaries on the Great Depression written in the 1930s. One of them, by a psychologist, identified “insanities” in the economic mechanism, evidence of a psychopathic process that required forensic scrutiny by pathologists. That the lessons have not been learnt is illustrated by hindsight […]
Towards Another World War?
TWICE in the last 150 years, global depressions contributed to the outbreak of world wars. Can it happen again? The first depression, in the 1870s, began when Europe was flooded with cheaper agricultural products from the rest of the world. Governments had no Plan A to defend their economies, so national pride was allowed to […]