Economic Bubbles

A 2-post collection

Challenge #01946-E122: Strangers With Candy

TANSTAAFL, or "Invest in Acme income Management, returns of 50 to 70%" Yeah! Right! -- Anon Guest

[AN: For those who don't have familiarity with ancient acronyms, this one stands for, "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"]

Lee Arr and Fred DeShanko were at it again. She recognised the pattern, even though their names weren't easily found in the pamphlet.

Step One: Latch on to some fringe science or stuff so far out on the cutting edge that it's still using the whetstone (optional - use both). Step Two: Boil it down to a point of inaccuracy that sounds perfectly logical to the average, under-educated lout on the street with dreams of their ship coming in. Step Three: Offer said under-educated louts a chance to get in on the ground floor with an investment plan similar to those one-topic magazines that up their prices every year for increasingly less of what the user wanted in the first place. Step Four: Declare bankruptcy and skive off to somewhere without an extradition treaty for a year or so before coming up with the next scheme.

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One important lesson on economics from someone who's picked up on a few things...

Put basically: If they’re offering it to plebes like you, the bubble is about to burst.

There are numerous economic bubbles in past and present. The stock bubble. The internet bubble. The housing bubble. The quantum chocolate bubble. Okay, I just wish there was a quantum chocolate bubble…

The point is, bubbles are just like pyramid schemes. Sooner or later, they’re going to run out of people to sell it to and the whole shebang is going

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