{"id":56737,"date":"2021-02-11T10:35:49","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T15:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=56737"},"modified":"2021-02-11T10:39:08","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T15:39:08","slug":"the-dystopian-bubble-george-orwell-meets-charles-mackay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=56737","title":{"rendered":"The Dystopian Bubble: George Orwell Meets Charles Mackay"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"page-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mises.org\/wire\/dystopian-bubble-george-orwell-meets-charles-mackay\">The Dystopian Bubble: George Orwell Meets Charles Mackay<\/a><\/h3>\n<div id=\"slideshow\" class=\"group-image-wrapper field-group-html-element pull-left\">\n<div class=\"image border-secondary\">\n<div id=\"flexslider-1\" class=\"flexslider optionset-node-slideshow flexslider-processed\">\n<div class=\"flex-viewport\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mises.org\/styles\/slideshow\/s3\/static-page\/img\/herd-mentality-wire.jpg?itok=OcpPUfAg\" alt=\"herd mentality\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"body-content clearfix\">\n<p align=\"left\">\u201cThreats to freedom of speech, writing, and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">~ George Orwell<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">In early December I asked Jim Grant how to reconcile exuberant financial markets with economic reality that reads like dystopian fiction. He responded,<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\">I\u2019m not sure there\u2019s much distinction. To me, the current form of dystopia is the bubble form. So I think this is the year of the dystopian bubble.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The opening pages of the new decade feel like we\u2019re living through a combination of George Orwell\u2019s\u00a0<em>1984<\/em>\u00a0and Charles Mackay\u2019s\u00a0<em>Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds<\/em>. On the day the 2020 election results were to be certified in the Senate, a mob from the losing side surrounded and actually breached the Capitol. The outgoing president was accused of inciting a riot, threatened with impeachment, and banned for life on Twitter. Despite the chaos, stocks shrugged it all off and rallied to new highs.<\/p>\n<p>The following weekend cover of\u00a0<em>Barron\u2019s<\/em>, \u201cThe Case for Optimism,\u201d captured the manic side of the dystopian bubble perfectly. Its editorial staff sees a silver lining in practically every cloud:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[T]his is a market determined to march higher, and it\u2019s not about to be derailed\u2014even by historic mayhem in the nation\u2019s capital. Stocks are rallying on the trillions of dollars in stimulus that may only be accelerated under the new administration. A chaotic political season is winding down, while the economy is gearing up for a postpandemic reopening.<\/p>\n<p>Investors need to keep their eyes forward and look ahead to a Joe Biden presidency: to more-predictable domestic policies, smoother trade relations, and additional efforts to revive the economy. Now might not be a good time to own anything defensive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dystopian Bubble: George Orwell Meets Charles Mackay \u201cThreats to freedom of speech, writing, and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.\u201d ~ George Orwell In early December I asked Jim Grant how to reconcile exuberant financial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10995,3880,3920,1849,1211,7863,27800,25781],"class_list":["post-56737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-charles-mackay","tag-dystopia","tag-financial-bubble","tag-financial-markets","tag-george-orwell","tag-jim-grant","tag-kevin-duffy","tag-the-mises-institute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56738,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56737\/revisions\/56738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}