海角大神

A few times a week, I鈥檒l hear from a reader who鈥檚 really worried about imminent economic collapse. They鈥檒l usually send me a video or a link of some sort in which some economist is talking about how the stock market is about to lose almost all of its value or something similar.

One example of this I鈥檝e seen three times in the last few days is聽, in which economist Robert Wiedemer is proclaiming that the stock market is on the verge of a 90% loss in value. His evidence for this is that some large-scale investors appear to have sold some blue chip stocks in recent days.

Here鈥檚 the truth about any article you read or video you see from someone who is announcing such economic doom:聽they鈥檙e either trying to sell you something or they鈥檙e trying to make a profit for themselves.

For example, in that article, the only links a person can find are links either to videos of Wiedemer promoting his book聽Aftershock聽or direct links to an order page so you can buy that book for yourself. Furthermore, if you look at his聽, you can see that he鈥檚 been selling books that talk about financial apocalypse for the last decade.聽

If you dig into the background of the vast majority of articles that talk about extreme financial doom, you鈥檒l almost always find someone trying to sell either some of their own content or trying to sell you some kind of investment.

Why do they do this?

It鈥檚 simple:聽fear is a great salesman.聽If they can convince you that something bad is coming and that they have the antidote for it, you鈥檙e very likely to buy that antidote. If the bad thing never happens, it鈥檚 not a big deal 鈥� they鈥檝e still made the sale.

Are they lying?

That鈥檚 an interesting question, and it鈥檚 really hard to say from an outside perspective. I know people who adamantly believe that something terrible is about to happen any day now, but yet they get up each day to face a relatively normal day. The fact that every day goes by without apocalypse doesn鈥檛 squelch their fear.

There are many people who have believed deeply in social or religious movements that have predicted a coming apocalypse. One doesn鈥檛 have to read too much into history to find out about doomsday cults and financial panics of various kinds.

What鈥檚 happened in each of those cases? The doomsday didn鈥檛 come. People woke up the next day and continued their lives.

As I鈥檝e said before, I think FDR said it best when he said 鈥�鈥�

A financial meltdown may eventually happen. (I actually think it鈥檚 more unlikely now than ever because all of the global economies are so interlinked, but that鈥檚 beside the point 鈥� it might actually happen.) Even if it were to happen, buying someone鈥檚 book or internet video or investing in whatever investment the guy on the radio tells you to invest in won鈥檛 help you. What聽will聽help you, both today and in the event of a crisis, is having useful skills and having diversification in what investments you do have.

The post聽聽appeared first on聽.