History 1807 Study Guide - Comprehensive Midterm Guide: Henry Paulson, Wall Street Reform, Alan Greenspan
5 Oct 2016
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Prosperity we believe we enjoy is fragile/precarious (wealth we possess as capitalists can disappear at any moment) Because we live in a highly financialized economy built on paper wealth, not tied to assets (or asset value was determined by the market. Wealth came largely in the form of credit. When things tank, realize you don"t have as much wealth as you thought. More and more people, whether or not they could afford it, based their wealth on speculation. Includes everyday people now when it didn"t used to. We have been taught that it"s good/necessary to play the stock market, we are all dependent on it (whether you"re engaged in it or not) People being taught to engage in speculation in order to secure retirement. Stock market used to be reserved for wealthy people, or people with active stakes in company. Eventually there was the democratization of the stock market and more people began to risk their wealth in the market.
