We’re officially in a recession, and it’s going to be long and deep. Christian Renaud’s post, Grab the fiddles boys, I see smoke……., captures the predicament nicely. I also love Paul Krugman’s quote from an interview with Newseek.
We basically had a $10 trillion shadow banking system shrivel up and die. Having the Fed add $700 billion to its balance sheet, or whatever it is by now, is not enough to make up for that.
Krugman should know, he’s an expert on Japan’s financial crisis in the 1990′s. A crisis that America is going to now emulate – steep drop and years of malaise. I’ve been predicting this for years. I’m not genius, I’ve just been reading Krugman and Dean Baker, who I believe first mentioned the housing bubble in 2005. You can read more of his straight forward economic analysis at The American Prospect. People have been living in a dream world the last few years, ignoring reality. If you do it collectively it just seems to work. A great example is this video of Peter Schiff.
That dream world has ended. It also isn’t likely to come back for years. Looking at Japan as an example, they’ve had 10-15 years of little growth. So what will people do now? Entertainment is always good during a recession. But that’s escapism, what they’re lacking is a dream world. That’s potentially where virtual worlds can come in. A combination of entertainment and dream world. Might sound far fetched now, but when I see virtual worlds in a few years they’re full of features and content that we can only dream about today. It seems like a bright future for virtual worlds and immersive story is going to be a big part of that.
The only thing crazier than you announcing that we're in a recession is the notion of it being official. Either you can pay your mortgage or you can't, and I think that standard has been "official" for a lot of people for a long time.
The only thing crazier than you announcing that we're in a recession is the notion of it being official. Either you can pay your mortgage or you can't, and I think that standard has been "official" for a lot of people for a long time.
I get what you’re saying but I’m not quite following your logic. I’m going to assume that you just need to relabel a few of your terms then your point can be made more clear.
What I’m hearing is this…
This “dream world” of good economic times (good times that seemed to just slip right by me btw) are over. And it’s going to be a long hard climb out of the pit. And since Entertainment (Movies and TV in particular) is usually our culture’s fallback in these times we will fall back on it again. Except that said Entertainment is only escapism. Therefore we should retreat into a virtual world that combines this entertainment (escapism) with dream worlds.
The main problem is the tone at the beginning of your article seems to carry with it a denigratory tone in relation to people and their ability to escape the cold hard facts that only you, Krugman, and Baker seem wise enough to realized. But then you turn around, with party hats on, and celebrate the inevitable oncoming rise of dreamworlds because the other dreamworld is dying.
Correct me if I’m wrong but that not only sounds self-serving (which I actually have no problem with. That’s what business is all about) but also a bit manic. To sell your idea better you should identify your thesis then like a crafty skilled salesman manipulate your audience into throwing in. The way it is now, you’re saying “Awesome, things are dying because everyone bough beachfront property in the desert! Now, would you like to buy some beach front property in the desert, because if you do it can make me rich!”
I get what you’re saying but I’m not quite following your logic. I’m going to assume that you just need to relabel a few of your terms then your point can be made more clear.
What I’m hearing is this…
This “dream world” of good economic times (good times that seemed to just slip right by me btw) are over. And it’s going to be a long hard climb out of the pit. And since Entertainment (Movies and TV in particular) is usually our culture’s fallback in these times we will fall back on it again. Except that said Entertainment is only escapism. Therefore we should retreat into a virtual world that combines this entertainment (escapism) with dream worlds.
The main problem is the tone at the beginning of your article seems to carry with it a denigratory tone in relation to people and their ability to escape the cold hard facts that only you, Krugman, and Baker seem wise enough to realized. But then you turn around, with party hats on, and celebrate the inevitable oncoming rise of dreamworlds because the other dreamworld is dying.
Correct me if I’m wrong but that not only sounds self-serving (which I actually have no problem with. That’s what business is all about) but also a bit manic. To sell your idea better you should identify your thesis then like a crafty skilled salesman manipulate your audience into throwing in. The way it is now, you’re saying “Awesome, things are dying because everyone bough beachfront property in the desert! Now, would you like to buy some beach front property in the desert, because if you do it can make me rich!”
I get what you’re saying but I’m not quite following your logic. I’m going to assume that you just need to relabel a few of your terms then your point can be made more clear.
What I’m hearing is this…
This “dream world” of good economic times (good times that seemed to just slip right by me btw) are over. And it’s going to be a long hard climb out of the pit. And since Entertainment (Movies and TV in particular) is usually our culture’s fallback in these times we will fall back on it again. Except that said Entertainment is only escapism. Therefore we should retreat into a virtual world that combines this entertainment (escapism) with dream worlds.
The main problem is the tone at the beginning of your article seems to carry with it a denigratory tone in relation to people and their ability to escape the cold hard facts that only you, Krugman, and Baker seem wise enough to realized. But then you turn around, with party hats on, and celebrate the inevitable oncoming rise of dreamworlds because the other dreamworld is dying.
Correct me if I’m wrong but that not only sounds self-serving (which I actually have no problem with. That’s what business is all about) but also a bit manic. To sell your idea better you should identify your thesis then like a crafty skilled salesman manipulate your audience into throwing in. The way it is now, you’re saying “Awesome, things are dying because everyone bough beachfront property in the desert! Now, would you like to buy some beach front property in the desert, because if you do it can make me rich!”
I get what you’re saying but I’m not quite following your logic. I’m going to assume that you just need to relabel a few of your terms then your point can be made more clear.
What I’m hearing is this…
This “dream world” of good economic times (good times that seemed to just slip right by me btw) are over. And it’s going to be a long hard climb out of the pit. And since Entertainment (Movies and TV in particular) is usually our culture’s fallback in these times we will fall back on it again. Except that said Entertainment is only escapism. Therefore we should retreat into a virtual world that combines this entertainment (escapism) with dream worlds.
The main problem is the tone at the beginning of your article seems to carry with it a denigratory tone in relation to people and their ability to escape the cold hard facts that only you, Krugman, and Baker seem wise enough to realized. But then you turn around, with party hats on, and celebrate the inevitable oncoming rise of dreamworlds because the other dreamworld is dying.
Correct me if I’m wrong but that not only sounds self-serving (which I actually have no problem with. That’s what business is all about) but also a bit manic. To sell your idea better you should identify your thesis then like a crafty skilled salesman manipulate your audience into throwing in. The way it is now, you’re saying “Awesome, things are dying because everyone bough beachfront property in the desert! Now, would you like to buy some beach front property in the desert, because if you do it can make me rich!”
I was just alludeing to the recent headlines – Dow plunges 680 points as U.S. recession is decla….
So was I. It's a nutty concept.
I was just alludeing to the recent headlines – Dow plunges 680 points as U.S. recession is decla….
So was I. It's a nutty concept.