SD Realtor, I just heard on the PBS Newshour that there are now about 4.5 million overdue mortgages NOT owned by Fannie and Freddie. Add Fan/Fred to the mix and what do we have? Double?

The questions that perhaps ought to be asked are:

1) Did the scale of the financial crisis surprise you?

2) Why?

3) Where are the people who poo-pooed dire predictions at now? Why were you so blind to what was staring you in the face?

Even here on Piggington, when the DOW was 14,000, anyone who dared to predict that it would drop to 8,500 would been called a nutcase. That person would have been berated with calls to bring “proof” or, at the very least, a solid analysis. However, at DOW 14,000, predictions of 16,000 would have sounded sensible.

I think that there is a certain Pollyannish way of thinking. People who predict the worse are always vilified and chased away.

Psychologically, humans ignore terrible news and keep on plugging along.

I guess that’s why, in early humanity, people kept on walking out of Africa despite all the hardship and unknowns, in search of a better horizon.