I'd be able to formulate a much more sophisticated opinion on this Oil Drum article—which I think I agree with, mostly—if the Thomas Sowell book I'm currently reading (or was in the spring) hadn't gotten lost in the move.

The current financial meltdown is the result of under-regulated markets built on an ideology of free market capitalism and unlimited economic growth. The fundamental problem is that the underlying assumptions of this ideology are not consistent with what we now know about the real state of the world. The financial world is, in essence, a set of markers for goods, services, and risks in the real world and when those markers are allowed to deviate too far from reality, “adjustments” must ultimately follow and crisis and panic can ensue. To solve this and future financial crisis requires that we reconnect the markers with reality. What are our real assets and how valuable are they? To do this requires both a new vision of what the economy is and what it is for, proper and comprehensive accounting of real assets, and new institutions that use the market in its proper role of servant rather than master.

(Baldilocks and I are thinking of forming an anarcho-syndicalist used-Sowell-book collective. [By that I mean, we figured out that we could read his books twice as quickly if we started trading 'em after we're done with them. Unfortunately, that means 1) finding the box that most of his volumes ended up in when we moved, and 2) figuring out which ones are mine, vs. my husband's. I could simply confiscate what I feel are my share of the Sowell books, but somewhere I read that if I do that, I'll create disincentives for my husband to buy any more of 'em. It's all a bit fuzzy, to tell you the truth.] Oh, and Baldi doesn't know any of this yet, so don't tell her.)

Posted by: Attila Girl at 08:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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