I chuckled when I heard the familiar, unintelligible mumbling emanating from the TV news.
Had to laugh when I looked up — there he was, unintelligible as ever, dour expression, leaning forward at the trademark angle to make the shadows droop over his eye sockets and jowls, just so.
The more dire his warnings and predictions, the more I laughed.
Why is it so much more acceptable to express skepticism and find humor in the predictions of someone who is overly optimistic, but superstitiously wrong to question or find humor in the melodrama of someone who is hardwired to be a pessimist?
Take the person above. Outside the financial world, few people know who he is, more or less pay to hear him mumble through declarations of the end of the financial world as we know it, without hope or solution.
As one who was once completely immersed in a predominantly financial media & information company, I enjoy the dark, comedic theater offered by this schtick.
Meanwhile a bull can equally paint a world where London real estate is cheap, China will never stop growing and a barrel of brewed coffee is worth 4x that of a barrel of oil, making $6 a cup cheap.
No, I won’t bore you with why this is the way it is. Inside the financial world, correctly making a major bear call, at the exact right time once can become the basis of a career. Making a few becomes the basis of legend. I remember the occasional (at least yearly) shakedowns for $50,000 – 75,000 per appearance to have this Hound of the Apocalypse appear for 30 minutes or so on stage.
Never paid it, but weirdly, it would have been worth it, because there are people who pay to hear a pessimist with a calculator and working knowledge of economics, as if it were a verbal ride on Space Mountain, after which they exit, speaking in hushed tones about how scary the experience had been, but worth repeating.
The thing about declaring collapse is that eventually it will happen. Might require waiting years, decades or centuries, but it will.
The phenomenon isn’t confined to finance. There’s excellent money to be made in scaring people via plausible, articulate, intelligent-sounding warnings that rarely require the doomsayer to reckon for his words.
Come to think of it, send me a check for $50,000 and I’ll show up wearing a suit and a frown at the location of your choosing to tell you something bloodcurdling. Please provide first class, round trip transportation.
And I give you permission to laugh if you find what I tell you ridiculous.