Wednesday, February 01, 2017

Pack Up Your Worries

The EU accepts a gift from Athens

Since a multitude of spontaneous worries will drive you nuts, it helps to have a few already scheduled so you can give them your full attention.

For example, I've penciled in "Worry about the Greeks" as today's contender. 

Remember Greece? 

It was going to collapse and then the EU would crack. Grass would grow in the streets, wolves would chase away the remaining tourists, and no banker from Germany would ever be able to visit Athens again. The story consumed a lot of news space until it didn't.

So if you want a manageable worry, Greece is a good choice.

But if you want a serious one, try the U.S. National Debt.


2 comments:

Dan in Philly said...

I always wished I could have become a professional historian so I could write history essays and books instead of just reading them. One topic your post reminds me of is how the French debt crisis uncorked the bottle leading to the revolution and Napoleon. I have to wonder if a good historian could access whatever papers or official documents had to say about the debt as it built into an overwhelming problem, and if there was the same dismissive attitude about it as we see today.

I can imagine reading something like "France has always had a debt and it hasn't caused us problem yet."

Michael Wade said...

Daniel,

I've read that on the day the French Revolution began, Louis XVI write in his diary: "Nothing."

By then it was too late.

Michael