The Speculist

We have Nothing to Fear but Joy Himself

In the process of zinging the daylights out of Bill (All this Future Stuff is Too Dangerous for Us) Joy, Scott Forbes holds forth with a truly profound observation:

People would much rather take risk to avert loss then to capture gain. And inspiring fear of uncertainty--of what nightmares may come and how to protect yourself from them--is a great purchase motivator to avoid such loss. After all--in the most reductionist sense--it is the yin-yang duality of greed and fear that govern markets and human behavior. Today, fear has the scales tipped in its favor.

While I agree that greed and fear govern markets, I'm not sure that's the duality that drives human behavior in general. I think fear and hope would be a more accurate pairing. And while fear definitely has its place, I think that being a speculist is all about doing what one can to tip the scales in the direction of hope.