The Great Economic Crisis
" Dire warnings of impending economic doom started being heard above the euphoric shouts of the million who had recently vaulted into the middle and upper classes. Suggestions to balance budgets and limit credit at all levels of the economy were ignored. Instead, creative effort was expended to come up with one way after another of putting more spending power in the hands of a populace that had forgotten how to say 'wait', much less 'no' to itself.
The global stock market began to sputter in January ... and there were predictions of a coming crash. But to most humans spread around the Earth ... the concept of such a crash was beyond comprehension. After all, the world economy had been expanding for over nine years, the last two at a rate unparalleled in the previous two centuries. World leaders insisted that they had finally found the mechanism that could truly inhibit the downturns of the capitalistic cycles. And the people believed them - until early May ... three of the largest international banks announced that they were insolvent because of bad loans."
Question to the audience: Where was this published?
Answer: Athur C. Clarke, RAMA II, 1989
The global stock market began to sputter in January ... and there were predictions of a coming crash. But to most humans spread around the Earth ... the concept of such a crash was beyond comprehension. After all, the world economy had been expanding for over nine years, the last two at a rate unparalleled in the previous two centuries. World leaders insisted that they had finally found the mechanism that could truly inhibit the downturns of the capitalistic cycles. And the people believed them - until early May ... three of the largest international banks announced that they were insolvent because of bad loans."
Question to the audience: Where was this published?
Answer: Athur C. Clarke, RAMA II, 1989
Posted by Stephan H Wissel on 07 February 2009 | Comments (1) | categories: After hours