At some point during the long haul towards a degree in economics, it should become clear that it’s all a bit of a hoax and that predicting human behavior -- after all that is what economics boils down to -- is tricky, especially when one is determined to ignore the elephant in the room.
Which elephant, you are wondering? The one that’s currently sitting on all of us!
This time around it’s called the ‘financial crisis’ brought on us by greedy lenders and borrowers and thereby putting an end to the effectiveness of the much lauded control tool of the eighties and nineties, the interest rate.
Before this, the Keynesian demand-driven theory held true for a number of years but led to over-spending and finally came to a crashing halt in the 1970s ‘oil crisis.’ Ensuing efforts to unleash the market beast for all that it’s worth with a supply-based theory and much neo-liberal blurb has gotten us into the mess we are in now.
Why oh why?
Because no matter which theory is applied, it will not work long term, because it’s only a matter of time for that elephant to reappear to place its sizable behind on whatever crafty mechanism we have invented in order to steer us clear of any possible crisis scenario.
The name of that elephant is Personal Greed, and it is a formidable Mama of a pachyderm, because it is not only huge, it’s also clever. Given time, it will outsmart any system, bend any theory, and call every reform a lie by having it serve it’s own interests. Believe me, this creature will virtually survive anything - it is a true biological winner.
Thomas Jefferson apparently had a closer look at the beast, since at some point he proclaimed that societies and the systems they adopt need to go through periodic reforms.
That, however, in itself may be a theory which, if upheld unchallenged may fall victim to the afore said monster as well.
Fat floats, and that is that.
No comments:
Post a Comment