I know a lot of stuff has been rehashed here before, and many past events, like the Kennedy assassination really do need to be left in the inactive box. There is no harm in rehashing other subjects though if they have a bearing on the future. I find it a good mental exercise to rehash some, explore possibilities and try and predict future actions. Not wholly for the sake of discussion either. Predicting future actions by governments can mean the difference between poverty and comfort in old age.
Case in point: Global financial crisis of 2008.
Down hear everyone's life savings are in superannuation funds, over 50% of which is invested in the stock market, and 50% of that 50 is invested in US markets. The rest typically is in building units, like inner-city hi-rise, nursing homes and with whoever wants to build but can't afford it. This all began in the 1980's and is under the control of faceless men who sprang out of nowhere. Just think of it, 2Trillion dollars, the entire wealth of 2 or 3 generations all locked away in digital accounts controlled by greedy pigs and overseen by corrupt governments. What could possibly go wrong?
In 2008 it went wrong. The markets collapsed by 50% across the globe. To many this collapse was a given and I read many of those pundits in the years leading up to 2008. I had removed all moneys from these digital markets and when the crash came actually made money! But the typical worker and retiree saw their nest egg plummet overnight. There was widespread panic and as always people couldn't see the forest for the trees, many called their super funds as the share market fell and demanded out of the High risk share portfolios. "Certainly" they were told, "but there will be a a processing delay" The delay was two weeks and by the end of it these people were out, but at half the price in many cases. They had lost that money, it was gone forever.
I look around today and see the exact same market dynamics, Overvaluation basically. Will there be another collapse? Nothing surer, but collapses are happening all the time. The US tight oil collapse, the SPAC (Wework, doordash, Zoom, et al) collapse, now the collapse of the EV market. Car sales are not the issue, the collapsed share-market is the issue. So over the past decade Trillions have been lost from Pension funds worldwide. They are basically cash cows for anyone with their hands on the udders. If you have a billion dollar startup you entertain the men controlling these funds and persuade them to invest in your company. It's as simple as that.
Private pensions were created in all Western nations in response to the future failure of public pensions. Social security payments will dry up one day and as each year passes they become increasingly worthless because of inflation so the new Superannuation, IRA and other funds sort of made sense. And if they had have existed outside of the corrupt financial system they may have worked, but I doubt it even then. They are all based on growth, economic growth of 8 or 10% per annum and the modern world simply can't keep up with that. Those rates were a product of the cheap energy years, those years are over.
I see a principle at work, the richer the nation, the more leisure time it's people have, the less attention they pay to these matters. They are too busy enjoying life and tend to have a mindset that doesn't allow them to see fundamental changes as bad. In this they are greatly aided by the endless stream of TV propaganda that tells them the "latest innovation" will change the world and bring riches to all. They assume tomorrow will be much like today, hopefully better! And so they blithely go their way. Other people though on the other side of the fence are thinking quite differently. They are merciless in their pursuit of wealth and readily exploit this "happy days" mindset.
$47 Billion dollars, that was the valuation of Adam Newmann's WeWork at IPO. It collapsed and thousands were put out of work and their options (retirement savings) were next to worthless. Hundreds of thousands of other people who had invested in the company lost too, But Adam walked away with 2 Billion, he's set for life. I watched some of the videos with him onstage telling the audience how WeWork was the future. It was the future. His future, not theirs. Did he screw up? No! He made 2 Billion dollars and took it out of the company before it collapsed. He's no screwup, he's just an example of a modern day Robber Barron. Why couldn't people see this? Because they weren't looking that's why. They were watching the magician's tricks and never stopped to question the viability of the business. Was it the covid lockdowns? Sure that was a big part of it but the company would have collapsed eventually anyway. Covid just hastened the inevitable, the collapse of "Bullshit Jobs" that were created over the past numerous decades would have killed it anyway. Google it "Bullshit jobs" Jobs that add nothing to the economy, that came about as the inevitable consequence of making money by shuffling money around. WeWork IPOd @ $500 a share. It's 20 cents today. $47 Billion in capital gone, *poof*
So we rehash this stuff and look for future dangers to our own way of life. Immigration trends, do I need to move away to a locality that won't be crime ridden in 10 years? Future pandemic lockdowns, do I need to change jobs into a field that won't be effected by these? My business was insulated from the pandemic, I was lucky there, who could have seen that madness coming? But lesson learned for many others if they choose to learn it. So yes I'm happy to rehash serious events, there is much still to be learned from them.