economy

Take A Look at ‘The Flaw’

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I know a lot of you would really like to understand how the economic meltdown happened. Well, OK some of you, as we’re not all econogeeks like yours truly. It’s kind of hard to wrap your mind around everything that happened.

May I then recommend The Flaw which is available at Netflix? Weirdly it’s tag “what happens when the rich get richer” doesn’t really sum up the film’s scope, but I suppose it sells well.

It’s an interview-based documentary on the economic meltdown of 2008, told via interviewing people in the middle of it, analyzing it, and involved in it. Stringing together these interviews it creates a smart narrative – and does so without a lot of doomsaying and drama. It’s an oddly human take on a horrible occurrence, which is one of its strengths.

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Why We Need Imagination In Our Economies, Media, and Careers

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I’ve decried the lack of space opera – because it requires thinking big thoughts and often thinking of the future, it seems those traits aren’t in vogue.

I’ve recently read a brutal look at the plethora of startups that aren’t original. I had to agree.

I had a discussion with a friend who works in gaming that led to a series of bitter exchanges as we lamented rampant unoriginality.

We can look at economic and political discussions where the same thing is said over and over again. Most lately the dismal attempts at austerity that don’t seem to be solving things.

I would like to postulate that one of the problems in media, in economy, in economics and politics, is a lack of applied imagination.

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Economic Headdesk Time: Home Sales Worse Than Thought

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OK I've gone on about the housing market.  And on, and on.  Yeah, it may not seem very Geeky, but that's a major part of our economic woes the last few years, and a prime study in Industrial Grade Stupid and Wrong.

Well the Stupid was not Industrial Grade, it was even higher Quality: The National Association of Realtors was overcounting home sales.  For five years.

End result?  The housing market, already bad, is worse than we thought.  Oh, and it probably puts other statistics into question.

Your takeaways:

  • A lot of people can't do statistics, apparently including some people whose job it is.
  • The housing market is worse than thought – I'll reiterate my previous claims, I think a recovery may be a decade away.  By then so much will have changed we may not even know it's one.
  • I think this may actually be an honest mistake (that no one was anxious to check for mistakes).
  • This will probably not get a lot of notice.  Unfortunately.
  • On pure progeekery, I think there's a market for good, real data out there since we've seen so many cases of it being done wrong.  Think about that.

– Steven Savage