Will We Recover?
Have had a lot of conversations recently regarding the fate of this country. Can we recover? Will things be the same again? Is this the end, or the beginning of the end, of American economic pre-eminence?
I'm not an economist and this isn't really the forum for macroeconomic theorizing. Let's talk instead about who we are, as Americans.
We are proud immigrants or we are the descendants of proud immigrants. We or our ancestors looked around the desperate refugee camps and benighted villages of our homelands and thought "there must be something better." We or our ancestors awoke one morning and, leaving everything known and comfortable behind, set off to America to make better lives for ourselves and our families.
What kind of person leaves everything he has known for his entire life, the geography, the society, the family, in search of gain? Who dares leave stability behind in favor of opportunity? A risk-taker.
We Americans are risk-takers. And we have created a society that encourages and rewards risk-taking. Has this gotten us into trouble? Of course it has. We have gambled on home prices and obscure financial instruments and we have lost.
But we are fundamentally undaunted. For every house-flipper ruined in this latest economic disaster there is, or soon will be, a vulture investor looking to buy foreclosed assets and re-position them for profit. For every insolvent bank there is an investor syndicate measuring the distressed assets for bargains. And for every failed company, there is a laid-off employee eying cheap office space, used computers, and under-utilized ex-colleagues and thinking, "Screw it. Maybe now is the time to see if I can start something."
So while I'm not really in any position to comment on the direction of key macro-economic indicators, I can tell you this: There is an energy there, an almost primal force relentlessly focused on profit and opportunity and willing to take risks to make it happen.
There are deals to be made. There are companies to be founded. Even now, in the midst of our common disaster, the seeds of recovery are being planted. I can feel it.
I'm not an economist and this isn't really the forum for macroeconomic theorizing. Let's talk instead about who we are, as Americans.
We are proud immigrants or we are the descendants of proud immigrants. We or our ancestors looked around the desperate refugee camps and benighted villages of our homelands and thought "there must be something better." We or our ancestors awoke one morning and, leaving everything known and comfortable behind, set off to America to make better lives for ourselves and our families.
What kind of person leaves everything he has known for his entire life, the geography, the society, the family, in search of gain? Who dares leave stability behind in favor of opportunity? A risk-taker.
We Americans are risk-takers. And we have created a society that encourages and rewards risk-taking. Has this gotten us into trouble? Of course it has. We have gambled on home prices and obscure financial instruments and we have lost.
But we are fundamentally undaunted. For every house-flipper ruined in this latest economic disaster there is, or soon will be, a vulture investor looking to buy foreclosed assets and re-position them for profit. For every insolvent bank there is an investor syndicate measuring the distressed assets for bargains. And for every failed company, there is a laid-off employee eying cheap office space, used computers, and under-utilized ex-colleagues and thinking, "Screw it. Maybe now is the time to see if I can start something."
So while I'm not really in any position to comment on the direction of key macro-economic indicators, I can tell you this: There is an energy there, an almost primal force relentlessly focused on profit and opportunity and willing to take risks to make it happen.
There are deals to be made. There are companies to be founded. Even now, in the midst of our common disaster, the seeds of recovery are being planted. I can feel it.
Labels: economy, foreclosures, risk-takers
posted by Moses Kagan at
5:55 PM
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