Steve Kurtz
Mon, 1 Nov 1999 12:01:08 -0800
Thanks for this fwd, Sally. I've been thinking along these lines for some time. My brief comments follow. I don't think this guy is an irrational scare monger. A double whammy could result if energy, food, and water scarcities inflate prices for necessities at the same time that high tech toys & luxury items go begging. A question to ponder is exactly who loses when the house of cards collapses? Debters declare bankruptcy, often keeping their primary residences (laws vary by state/nation). It should be creditors & investors who lose, with funded pensions, annuities, and insurance companies collapsing too. Population crash could be initiated due to sharp mortality increases, and desire to avoid pregnancies with uncertain future. They say on Wall St.: "timing is everything". That may be so for trading profits, but not for organic systems which include human habitat. There is no exiting and cashing in our chips for our species. Y2K need not be the driver for the collapse, but it (& fears about it ) could have an impact. Ed Yardeni, chief economist of Deutsche Bank, is calling for a 30% stock mkt correction at a minimum. Steve