Friday, Jan 25, 2008
LVM is Ludwig Von Mises
Investment Rarities: The Wisdom of Ludwig Von Mises
The boom produces impoverishment. But still more disastrous are its moral ravages. It makes people despondent and dispirited. The more optimistic they were under the illusory prosperity of the boom, the greater is their despair and their feeling of frustration. The individual is always ready to ascribe his good luck to his own efficiency and to take it as a well-deserved reward for his talent, application, and probity. But reverses of fortune he always charges to other people, and most of all to the absurdity of social and political institutions. He does not blame the authorities for having fostered the boom. He reviles them for the inevitable collapse. In the opinion of the public, more inflation and more credit expansion are the only remedy against the evils which inflation and credit
9 Comments
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1. techieman said...
Exactly - the BTL's will blame people "like us" - i.e. bloggers here and the market in general for their demise but when things were going well it was all to do with how clever they were. As ive said the government will take credit when things go well but will blame "external factors" when they go tits up. Sadly I suppose thats just the way it is.
2. Tahoma said...
Spooky - I selected this very quote for my sig just the other day. Maybe the author reads HPC...
3. drewster said...
It's human nature - when things go well, people credit themselves; when things go badly, they blame others. This is a long-held principle of psychology. It's not restricted to BTLs though. We're just as bad, we blame the government, estate agents, BTLs, central bankers, and Kirsty & Phil for making the housing market overheat instead of blaming ourselves for missing the boat.
4. techieman said...
@ drewster - blame yourself and speak for yourself! :-) You can take advantage of the situation although you know that its overheating (that doesnt mean you condone it - im not sure if you think that the only way you can show that a credit induce property boom isnt a good thing in general is by not being part of it ) and then take the decision to get out when the boat looks like its about to crash on the rocks. I can honestly say i sink or swim by my own decisions, well most of the time!
5. paul said...
drewster, speaking for myself I am glad I missed the boat because its now rolling around in deteriorating heavy seas, its impoverished inhabitants overcrowded and miserable like Liberian boatpeople making a desperate bid for the Canary Islands ...
6. harold said...
LVM = VWG
(very wise guy)
I wonder how many of our politicians have read him? 1? 0?
7. su said...
This is excellent stuff, lvmreader! I've never heard of him before, but as Harold says: he's a "very wise guy". This stuff should be printed in the major newspapers - it is so relevant!
8. inbreda said...
People have previously posted to this site some extreme doom/gloom articles along the lines of "stock up on tinned food" and been lambasted. I hope this article maybe sheds light on the fact that this time round there will be an awful lot of people with an awfully high loss who are looking for someone to blame. I don't see it as that fantastical that there might be riots and looting, myself. It's one of those things that seems so incredibly unlikely, but like a frog boiling in the water before you know it it is upon you. Similar to the attitude of the press turning. It wasn't that long ago that everything was rosey, UK in tip-top shape, no recession possible etc etc, and now the media is apparently talking us into a depression. I think the next few years are going to be the darkest ever. but then I am a pessimist.
9. quiet guy said...
@inbreda
"I think the next few years are going to be the darkest ever. but then I am a pessimist."
It is good to be cautious w.r.t. societal effects of the current turbulent times but I suggest that you don't go too far into the doomist's camp either. Do not let fear become your master. The fact is that the lot of the average person in this country is pretty good compared with (say) the 1940s and 1950s. I have no doubt that we will get through this mess - my main worry is whether or not we will learn any useful lessons from the credit binge.
Not long ago, one of my friends asked me if I was tempted to get on the property ladder! I swear is the truth. Most people don't have the slightest idea what is ahead. Those who think they have a right to a foreign holiday every year and a nice shiny new car every year will suffer most. I suggest that those who know how to live within their means have little to fear really.