Not Quite Hoisted from Comments: Laugh or Cry?

Tom Bozzo

…in the absence of blogging inspiration, had the exchange below the fold today on a well-known social networking website.

Tom is Dear Markets, just because I don’t have any money in stocks that I can’t afford to lose doesn’t mean I want to lose the money [*]. Kthxbai.

Friend 1: Laughing. With just the very slightest tinge of hysteria…

Tom: I comfort myself with the thought that the lost value of the kids’ college fund would… pay for approximately one [Fancy Pants University] textbook in the early 2020s.

Friend 2: We will be back to a barter system by 2020. I believe a standard 3 credit course will cost 3 cans of Spam and two nine volt batteries.

Friend 3: (fingers in ears) lalalalalalala…

Tom: [Friend 2], that may not be the worst thing unless Jim Kunstler is right and the 2020 economy [**] consists of 3 cans of Spam and two 9V batteries.

Friend 1: God, has anyone seen this week’s issue of New Scientist? Algal mats, solar power, and the apocalypse. I think I’ll join [Friend 3] with my fingers in my ears… [link added]

Friend 4: I only will say that I think it’s a very good thing your wife and I knit. That will be a valuable skill in the new economy.

Tom: [Friend 1], Should our high-ish latitude inland location prove valuable (i.e. should the Mississippi hold back the Great Plains Desert), the party will be at our house. Install the photovoltaics and pass the ammo! [Friend 4], knitwear for the apocalypse! I like it! [***]

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[*] I am both down and not-down with Brad DeLong and Konstantin Magin on forward-looking market returns.

[**] I.e., real GDP.

[***] Unfortunately, it is not likely to pay the pre-apocalypse mortgage.