Dear @majes.tytyty
However, that does not mean that the bursting of the bubble will be less traumatic.
Most likely you're right. At least to some certain degree. One need to rememeber about power of mass media and power of mass human panic.
If regular joe didn't invest in stocks then media will also hardly talk about this subject. Simply to avoid showing "boring" content. On top of that so called FUD will hardly have any impact if regular joes will not care and will not be involved.
That's obviously just a good wish :)
Over the past decade or so, stocks have been bouyed by central banks' QE money-printing strategies, which allowed many corporations to buy back their own stock. That monetary morphine has resulted in an even exaggerated bubble.
Very true.
So, even though the common people may not be actively involved in this bubble, that does not mean that the bubble is not big, nor that it will not burst, nor that they will not be affected.
Indeed. But it also means that mass media will literally not care that much about this bubble. And that's a real game changer. One must assume that mass media in current world are the biggest power. Playing with people by using fear or hope. Building dreams or crushing them.
Ok, let's put it this way. If this bubble will burst, then surely it would be MUCH MORE painful if regular joes would be involved and market would be "hot" and everyone out there would be trying to "jump into that train".
How does it sound? :)
Yours
Piotr
I see your point. And in a way, you have a good argument. Unlike the dot.com bubble and the sub-prime / real estate bubble, the current bubble does not actively involve Regular Joe.
So, when the massive financial bubble pops, Reg Joe will not lose on stocks, bonds, real estate, or other of his assets or investments.
However, I believe Reg Joe will still feel the effects, and will in fact be hurt by the effect. In a sense, it's gonna be like the 1929 crash. That resulted in primarily in the loss of the fortunes of the big, powerful investors and businessmen. But it had knock-on effects, which hurt Reg Joe for the subsequent decade.
This time, it will be the same. Or worse.
Yes, the knock-on effects on Regular Joe were terrible, because RJ was employed by the big, powerful investors. When they lost money, RJ got laid off.
This is probably a good point to mention that I do not believe austerity works to repair the economy; it works to enable the rich to buy up distressed assets for pennies on the dollar.
This is what's happening here in Argentina right now. The government is selling off the foreign reserves at great speed, nominally to satisfy the demand for dollars, thus keeping the exchange rate between the Argentine Peso and the US dollar stable. But the only people with the available capital to buy those dollars are the rich. Thus the net effect is a massive transfer of wealth from the national treasury to wealthy private individuals. The main theme of the Macri government is looting and sacking of the public treasury.
Of course this accompanied by the usual "privatization" of public assets, and we all know what that means. For more detail, you can see the article I wrote last week-
https://steemit.com/argentina/@redpossum/redpossum-mansplains-about-argentina