Collapse

Because sometimes a fastball comes down the middle and the only thing to do is hit it out.

This Slate article is wondering why so many books are being written that predict gloom and doom about the economy.  Here, of course, the expected answer is "Because it's a Crisis, and feels like a Crisis, and everyone knows it's a Crisis, so everyone is writing about what's going to happen during the Crisis."

Although the truth is that Cassandras are around no matter what is going on. Just beat the Nazis? They probably are hiding out on the moon. Great economy? It's a bubble, and furthermore a Crisis is around the corner.  In the Crisis? Just more proof that everything is going downhill.

While they are more likely to be right over the next 20 years then they were over the last 20, it mostly seems like aggressive over-extrapolation: X is legal, X is bad, once everyone does X, Y will happen and that takes care of civilization, the economy, the stock market, your bank account....