Click HERE for a great piece from Matt Ridley on the psychology behind global pessimism.
Matt’s the author of “The Rational Optimist” amongst other books, I thoroughly recommend it and his regular blogs.
In this article he identifies four areas to support his argument, as follows:
- Bad news is more sudden than good news, which is usually gradual.
- Bad news usually matters; good news may not.
- People think in relative not absolute terms.
- As the world improves, people expand their definition of bad news.
And he finishes with:
“Finally, there is what I call “turning-point-itis.” This is the tendency to think that things may have improved in the past but will no longer do so in the future, because we stand at a turning point in history. It’s true, as brokers like to say, that past performance is no guide to future performance. But as the historian Lord Macaulay wrote almost two centuries ago, “On what principle is it that with nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?”
So cheer up. The world’s doing better than you think.”
Emphasis added.
future proofing your finances
advice@townclosefp.co.uk
Town Close are expert financial planners. Our goal is the same as yours – to help you do the things that are important to you in the time you have remaining.