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Bubbles

Bubbles are temporary financial windfalls. They inflate and at some point burst as financial reality sets in. Bubbles are undesirable because they are the harbinger of unsustainable financial situations. So far our financial managers have been unable to manage a gentle deflation of a bubble. It takes a great deal of political will because they are national in scope. There will always be losers in the process of a collapsing bubble and it always results in some form of “backlash” with recriminations. Too often we see a bubble clearly. But also too often, the solution is unpatible. It is politically better to just let it catastrophically burst.

The American Dream is the biggest bubble of all with buoyancy created by an ever expending economy and easy credit. The utter collapse is occurring all around us. The American Dream postulates that there is the wherewithal that any person with diligence and hard work will improve their station in life. The corollary is that each succeeding generation will fair better than the last. The wherewithal in America is evaporating. The engine of social mobility, education, is no longer world class. Healthcare is becoming unavailable to expanding numbers of people because of affordability. The infra-structure, that provides the basis for creativity and entrepreneur activities, is inadequate or crumbling. America has broadband speeds so slow that much of the world does not consider it “broadband”. The same is true for “bullet trains”. We adopt the label, but lack the reality. Our roads and bridges were largely constructed in the 1930s and 40s. Even the interstate highway system is over half a century old. We have acquired a disparity in the distribution of wealth and opportunity like any other second world nation.

The younger people that entered the workforce are starting to realize they are the serfs in this America. The cards are stacked against them. An immutable aristocracy is now part of the landscape. They realize the best they can hope for is to survival in the social and economic froth.