I think you'll find that a question like this often brings out either excessively "passionate" responses, shall we say, or a lot of fringe and conspiratorial answers, like rants about the New World Order, etc. Reading the comment sections of various other websites is pretty sad reading and makes me glad to scurry back to the warmth and sanity of ETS.

That said, the world of economics and finance is *very* important to all of us, yet most of us are woefully unprepared to really understand much of what is going on in the world now. I have spent a lot of time in self-study but as with many things, you eventually realize that the more you learn, the more realize what you don't know.

I'll just say one more thing--no one--NO ONE--really knows what is going on now. We are essentially in uncharted waters and no Nobel laureate in economics or Chairman of the Federal Reserve or hedge fund manager or financial journalist can really predict with any certainty what is going to happen. Many are very experienced and have great insight, but things now really are incredibly volatile and perplexing to everyone. So take everything with a grain of salt and try and gain your own knowledge base so you can evaluate what you're hearing. That's good advice under normal circumstances, but even more so in these turbulent times.