Looking For A Needle In A Haystack

 On today show, we are looking at how human behaviour can vary predictably damage to global banking system. There are many examples and many repeated opportunities in history to see this phenomenon at work.

But on today show, we are going to look at a very recent example that most of us can easily relate to. In the early days of the pandemic, we started to experience shortages of every day staples. Households emptied the grocery store, shelves of non-perishable food items Like canned soup, pasta and rice, prepared foods like frozen pizza, and everyone’s favourite toilet paper.

The human response to the risk of a shortage was to start hoarding. Paradoxically, it was the hoarding behaviour that created the shortage. I’ll make sure there is enough toilet paper for me and enough chicken soup for me even if it means that somebody else will not have access to toilet paper or chicken soup. 

That was 2020. That was the pandemic. This is now. We are not experiencing shortages any longer. Why are we even talking about shortages?

Well that is actually incorrect. We are experiencing shortages and we are seeing the exact same behaviour that we saw with toilet paper. 

We are seeing people starting to hoard their cash, out of of a sense of anxiety about the banking system. 

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Host: Victor Menasce

email: podcast@victorjm.com