Tag Archives: economics

Learning from the past

There’s so much to learn and question (is there a difference?) from this graph & statement:

  1. Is it over yet?
  2. Will it carry on going up? (aka glass half full)
  3. Is it now going to crash down again? (aka glass half empty)
  4. Bubble?
  5. What are the influences?
  6. Is this localised to the US?
  7. Is the line skewed by just a few companies?
  8. Is it wise to sell off during a crash, or hold your nerve? (aka what would you do differently?)

 

Book review: Radical Uncertainty

How did NASA send space probe Messenger on a successful space mission that took 6.5 years just to arrive, yet we can’t predict traffic in an hour’s time?

The fact this book was finished before Coronavirus was astonishing timing because the virus gave everyone in the world this very topic: radical uncertainty.

Radical Uncertainty was written by John Kay, a professor and director of several public companies, and Mervin King, the governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013 – including the 2008/9 financial crisis.

I absolutely loved this book. Whilst writing this review I flicked through the book and ended up reading several pages again.

The book’s premise is simple: how can NASA send probes into space, due to arrive at their destinations several years in the future, and everything goes according to perfect plan, arriving at a specific point in space right on the predicted time; whilst we fail to predict tomorrow’s stock price or today’s traffic? The answer is that when humans are involved, we experience radical uncertainty. Continue reading Book review: Radical Uncertainty