ww3?

last time things got this bad it directly lead to ww2 and that was really the only thing that pulled the world out of it

will it take a massive war to pull the world out of this? where will it come from? what will be its form?

think outside of the box as well. maybe it won't have to be a military war. maybe not even a violent war. maybe a philosophical or sycological war. Maybe a transofmation/EVOLUTION in human society as we know it?

10/10/2008 3:29:24 AM

:carl face:

will somebody suspend this doofus already?

10/10/2008 3:32:38 AM

WE

THE

DUMBASS

10/10/2008 4:53:19 AM

I guess it could lead to WWIII. It could also lead to a temporary economic slowdown coupled with new financial regulations and practices in order to prevent it happening again.

Of course, "last time things got this bad" is a pretty difficult thing to pin down, isn't it? We've had bad economic times since the depression, and unless the invasion of Granada was a lot more brutal than it's made out to be I think we came through it relatively conflict-free.

10/10/2008 4:57:47 AM

lmfao@transofmation

10/10/2008 5:01:19 AM

this guy gets to make threads in Soapbox??

10/10/2008 9:12:04 AM

10/10/2008 9:20:48 AM

[Edited on October 10, 2008 at 10:16 AM. Reason : dpost]

10/10/2008 10:16:33 AM

Quote :

"last time things got this bad"

Obama is NOT Roosevelt, as such this time things will not get anywhere near as bad as they did in the 1930s. We have history books, people have read them, and we have a consensus why we should not do the things FDR did.

10/10/2008 10:16:33 AM

The similarity to be wary of is the panic and frustration of the populace. During the 1930s, many people lost faith in capitalism. Many countries turned to socialism. Americans even skirted with socialism with the election of FDR.

When times get tough, people are easily led into more gov't power and control...when often just the opposite is more helpful.

10/10/2008 10:37:30 AM

Quote :

"We have history books, people have read them"

I'm not so sure about that... For example, our current stock market crash. *See stock market for more information.

I'd like to give mankind the benefit of the doubt, but history always repeats itself. Rarely do we ever learn from our mistakes. It's human.

10/10/2008 10:40:38 AM

No amount of knowledge of history would prevent a stock market crash. What reading history should affect is how people respond when they do crash.

10/10/2008 10:45:14 AM

^ Yeah, even when you have someone like Warren Buffet warning people. The few people who understand history and are paying attention are often unable to keep the rest of us from stampeding off a cliff.

10/10/2008 10:45:46 AM

^Exactly. It's not very difficult to see the signs... Usually you can just look for overly optimistic mindsets thinking they can make millions by doing nothing (e.g. Dotcoms, house flipppers)

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/10/pf/minds_over_money.moneymag/index.htm?

10/10/2008 2:58:06 PM

Quote :

"Obama is NOT Roosevelt, as such this time things will not get anywhere near as bad as they did in the 1930s"

Listening to his rhetoric (McCain's is just as bad), about stopping the loss of jobs, protecting American jobs, etc etc... Obama sounds like a pretty staunch protectionist. Now I don't know a great deal economic principles, but isn't this exactly what we don't want right now? Arn't the protectionist policies put into place at the beginning of the Great Depression partly responsibly for the length of it?

10/10/2008 4:42:02 PM

long live walmart

10/10/2008 4:45:56 PM

Quote :

"Obama is NOT Roosevelt, as such this time things will not get anywhere near as bad as they did in the 1930s. We have history books, people have read them, and we have a consensus why we should not do the things FDR did."

the last 8 years is evidence that people in power don't read history books. They just get their names printed in it.

10/10/2008 4:55:47 PM

Well, the events of today are probably a fatal blow to American preeminence on the global stage. However, I doubt that this is the end of the United States or a harbinger of global war. The modern global structure is very different from that of 1929. While there are certainly a few potential flash points here and there, I don't think we're setting the stage for any sort of inevitable conflict.

What we probably will see is the slow decline of what I consider the Western consensus. The idea that free markets and liberal democracies are the best ideology. Globalization will probably slow, and this will have tremendous impact for many nations, not just the industrialized states that have benefited but also from many of the developing states that have aggressive, export oriented economies as well who up to this point have benefited from the open markets of the West. I worry more about the decline of liberalism however; I think one of the selling points to liberalization of values has been the economics that go with it, and as the economics break down, it could have a negative impact on the move towards human rights and equality as well.

10/10/2008 5:32:58 PM

Quote :

"What we probably will see is the slow decline of what I consider the Western consensus."

That would not be a change. The consensus has already rejected democratic liberalism. Although, there is still no alternative to free markets. As such, as this is a crisis of the west, it will be blamed on the incompatibility of free markets and liberal democracy; breaking in favor of the authoritarian market systems as practiced in Russia and China.

Which would be a disaster, as authoritarian systems are prone to confront economic competition (such as between Britain and Germany) with political competition (two world wars).

10/10/2008 6:15:14 PM

the treaty that ended WW1 directly led to WW2

10/12/2008 7:55:15 PM

10/12/2008 9:25:44 PM

So it'll lead to a quagmire?

10/12/2008 9:30:18 PM

the current economic downturn will lead to temporary uncertainty, fear mongering, exploitation of the situation for political/personal gain, and an eventual upswing with conditions as good as or better than the previous situation. just like every other downturn. let's just hope that it does not lead to more programs resembling socialism.

10/12/2008 9:36:39 PM

well

December 12, 2012 is just over 4 years away...



[Edited on October 12, 2008 at 9:40 PM. Reason : asdfghjk]

10/12/2008 9:38:57 PM

^^^ it's already a quagmire

^ and 9 days later on the 21st is the prophesied end of the world!

[Edited on October 12, 2008 at 9:44 PM. Reason : arrows]

10/12/2008 9:43:31 PM

beginning of the global 9 day long end of the world party

was what i was referring to

10/12/2008 9:56:55 PM

hah, awesome...i'll bring the booze!

10/12/2008 10:04:03 PM

THE END OF DAYS!!1111


OMG RELIGION

10/12/2008 10:18:56 PM

ibtl

10/13/2008 2:44:15 AM

bttt

11/29/2014 11:57:41 AM

a world war is the only way to press Ctrl Alt Delete on the world economy.

11/29/2014 10:43:46 PM

The Treaty of Versailles led to World War II. The Great Depression was just a contributing factor, and the main financial cog that led to a decline to which the war could start was not the Wall Street stock market crash in 1929 (it's incredibly parochial to think that the European economy in the 1920s revolved around New York) but instead the bankruptcy of Austrian bank CreditAnstalt in May 1931.

The wars you see going on now are not tied to the global financial crisis, they're Middle Eastern in nature where the people in charge of those areas are rolling in money. The one potential conflict that could possibly be tied to the Global Financial Crisis is if Spain and Catalonia ever take up arms following Catalonia wanting to be independent and Spain not wanting them to be, in part due to Catalans seeing they're the rich part of the country subsidizing the poor parts after the Spanish economy collapsed because they're tied into a common currency with most of the rest of the European continent that created a massive boom and bust cycle in Spain.

[Edited on November 30, 2014 at 11:39 PM. Reason : /]

11/30/2014 11:37:01 PM

2008 leads to ?what?

12/1/2014 11:13:13 AM

^ Leaders the world over attempting mass reinflation and not acknowledging the role of aging demographics in a lot of the first world on why they're heading toward deflation.

12/1/2014 11:30:32 AM