Almost a sociology post, but here I go. Plenty of people have speculated that the economy progresses in 40-50 year cycles (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kondratiev_wave), and I think culture can work the same way.
In the 1980s, you had the junk bond titans (like Milken) and the people who used that cheap financing to pull off absurd stunts in the financial markets (Kravis, Perelman, Pickens, Icahn, Trump, etc.). The so-called masters of the universe used easy financing to YOLO their way into hostile takeovers and leveraged buyouts. At the time, you had yuppies who lived high during the Reagan era, but by and large, your everyday Joe didn't relate to what these titans were doing in the financial markets.
But technology changed that. With Robin Hood (which gives the illusion of no trading fees), social media, and gamified platforms like eToro, everyday people can finally relate to what these elites were doing 40 years ago. Retail investors take naked shorts and use the liquid options markets to make leveraged speculative bets. They shower praise on the winners and pity those who lose it all. Financial exuberance has reached the masses.
The r/WallStreetBets crowd tends to listen to anti-elites, social media iconoclasts who defy existing elites. Elon Musk takes on the car industry. Dave Portnoy defies Warren Buffett and says, "I'm the captain now." Crypto-influencers predict the imminent collapse of government-issued currencies.
I was just wondering what you think about this. Is there a connection here? Are the YOLO speculators we see today a new breed, or are they just a variation of the day-traders from the dot-com days?
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