The Two Greatest Disasters

The two greatest disasters of the 21st century remain tied tightly together by common threads including corrosive and explosive greed aided abetted and enabled by a deadly combination of incredibly bad reporting and incredibly willful ignorance.

They also share a half life much longer than anyone now expects. If you really expect the money in that 401k to come back take a look at Japan, once home of the most expensive real estate in the world with prime Tokyo real estate going for close to $100, 000 a square foot and 100 year mortgages on the menu. The Tokyo stock market peaked just before New Years day in 1990 just short of 40,000. Now, 20 years later, the Nikkei in Tokyo has never come close to recovering and trades at under 10,000 and some prime property plummeted to 1 percent of its 1980’s peak value.

Oops. Ouch.