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A Creepy World

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  • Didier Sornette
  • Peter Cauwels

Abstract

Using the mechanics of creep in material sciences as a metaphor, we present a general framework to understand the evolution of financial, economic and social systems and to construct scenarios for the future. In a nutshell, highly non-linear out-of-equilibrium systems subjected to exogenous perturbations tend to exhibit a long phase of slow apparent stable evolution, which are nothing but slow maturations towards instabilities, failures and changes of regimes. With examples from history where a small event had a cataclysmic consequence, we propose a novel view of the current state of the world via the logical scenarios that derive, avoiding the traps of an illusionary stability and simple linear extrapolation. The endogenous scenarios are "muddling along", "managing through" and "blood red abyss". The exogenous scenarios are "painful adjustment" and "golden east".

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  • Didier Sornette & Peter Cauwels, 2014. "A Creepy World," Papers 1401.3281, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1401.3281
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2014. "This Time is Different: A Panoramic View of Eight Centuries of Financial Crises," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 15(2), pages 215-268, November.
    2. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2009. "Varieties of Crises and Their Dates," Introductory Chapters, in: This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, Princeton University Press.
    3. Vladimir Filimonov & Didier Sornette, 2012. "Quantifying reflexivity in financial markets: towards a prediction of flash crashes," Papers 1201.3572, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2012.
    4. Jiang, Zhi-Qiang & Zhou, Wei-Xing & Sornette, Didier & Woodard, Ryan & Bastiaensen, Ken & Cauwels, Peter, 2010. "Bubble diagnosis and prediction of the 2005-2007 and 2008-2009 Chinese stock market bubbles," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 149-162, June.
    5. D. Sornette & P. Cauwels, 2012. "The Illusion of the Perpetual Money Machine," Papers 1212.2833, arXiv.org.
    6. Peter Cauwels & Didier Sornette, 2012. "The Illusion of the Perpetual Money Machine," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 12-40, Swiss Finance Institute.
    7. Janeway,William H., 2012. "Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107031258.
    8. Vladimir Filimonov & Didier Sornette, 2012. "Quantifying Reflexivity in Financial Markets: Towards a Prediction of Flash Crashes," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 12-02, Swiss Finance Institute.
    9. Andrew G. Haldane & Robert M. May, 2011. "Systemic risk in banking ecosystems," Nature, Nature, vol. 469(7330), pages 351-355, January.
    10. Filimonov, Vladimir & Bicchetti, David & Maystre, Nicolas & Sornette, Didier, 2014. "Quantification of the high level of endogeneity and of structural regime shifts in commodity markets," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 174-192.
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