The Stock Market: Real or Addicted? – A Follow Up

This is a follow up on last Friday’s post, “Is the Stock Market for Real or Just Addicted to Low Interest Rates and Easy Money?”  In writing it, I realized I have been saying the same thing for years.  In looking back at my past posts on the economy, I found I even used the “Christiane F.” analogy, about the problems the stock market would have trying to kick its addiction to low interest rates, before. 

Which gets to the first point of this post: Maybe I’m wrong about the economy.  Maybe things have changed.  Maybe low interest rates are appropriate, and maybe the stock market is for real.  You would have lost a lot of money betting against the stock market over the last ten years.

But the main point of the post is this: the idea that I, or we, might be wrong.¹  Most people, especially, I suppose, people who write blogs, are sure of their opinions: “We are right and the other side is wrong”, etc.  But, even if we don’t admit it, the fact is that we’re not always right.  More importantly, perhaps, if we approach issues with the realization that we might be wrong, we might have a better appreciation not only that the other side’s position might be right but also that the other side might not be evil incarnate. 

I understand it is hard, in today’s political climate, to accept the idea that we might be wrong and the other side might be right.  But it is something to keep in mind.   It won’t solve everything, but it might help a little. 

With that, I am off on a break.  I’ll be back in early August – hopefully remembering, when I get back to my posting, that I might be wrong.
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¹ This discussion of the possibility of being wrong owes a lot to Russ Roberts and the EconTalk podcast.