Word: ve
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When times are good in financial markets, we're willing to convince ourselves that they're good for a reason. The fundamentals are great, the experts tell us. Innovation is creating new opportunities and new wealth. We've gotten better at managing risk. After a few years of market trouble, though, the tone changes. "When the trend is sideways to down, they think the machine is broken," says Robert Prechter. "Jeez...
...figure that out, we have a useful analogy close at hand: FarmVille. There are two ways to move ahead in the game. One is to grind, as it's known--plow, plant and harvest. Once you've grown, say, eggplant, you accumulate enough points to move up to a wider choice of crops. You invite friends to be your neighbors. You exchange gifts and help out, all of which let you accrue the capital you need to expand your farm, thus making it ever more remunerative...
...want to skip all that backbreaking plowing, er, clicking, or if you've run out of friends who faux-farm, you can buy farm cash and get what you want. These virtual goods are the products that social games are actually trying to hawk. People hand over real money for make-believe merchandise. It's like using greenbacks to buy Monopoly dollars--but if you want...
...seems like a great choice, but I've seen my mom around other kids, and I have no doubt that Laszlo would eat nothing but ice cream. She and her husband are warm and adventurous, but they were both therapists, so Laszlo would have to pretend to care about all kinds of pointless conversations that end in tears and, I'm sure, more ice cream. Also, they plan to spend half the year at their place in Florida, which would be fine if they balanced that with the rest of the year at the World Economic Forum...
Cassandra's parents are loving and good at baking, gardening, repairing stuff and other skills that Cassandra and I pay people for. But they're a little too country; they think window screens are for stuck-up people, and not once since I've known them have they been able to use their cell phones. Besides, they live in Hoosick Falls, N.Y. - a town so small, there weren't enough people to stop someone from naming it Hoosick Falls. Cassandra's brother Brian is very into video games and anime and is definitely going to be our choice for guardian...