Posted by curmudgeon on March 28, 2011 at 08:05:49:
Dear Dr Janson,it seems that out of the dark stormclouds over the Great City of Babylon, some flashes of insight are starting to appear!
This from Dylan Grice of SocGen:
"In the hard sciences knowledge builds cumulatively. It propels the relentless growth in man's ability to do more with less, which makes commodities such a lousy investment in the long-term. Yet in the realm of social decision-making mankind is a fool, unable to learn the wisdom of his ancestors and doomed to repeat their mistakes.
The first credit crunch occurred in Rome in 33 AD, and the Greeks lived with high inflation. Gold remains the cleanest insurance against such overconfidence.
Shorting (betting against)mankind's ingenuity is not a smart thing to do. But ingenuity is not wisdom. And shorting mankind's ability to absorb wisdom.....well, aren't you silly if you don't?