We're doing the Keynesian thing again because during the last couple of economic disasters, the "throw more shit at the fan 'til it starts spinning again" approach gave many people the vague impression that it might be working. Interestingly, the idea violates the basic economic assertion that nothing can be truly free. The problem is that this approach is essentially a laxative. If you have an otherwise sound economy in which value flows have for some reason stopped, you administer the laxative, wait a while, and hopefully the economy comes back.
In an unfortunate turn of events, the world's economists (and worse, the politicians who listen to them) have mistaken a laxative for a panacea: the cure to all ills! This laxative is regularly administered as a cure for influenza, mumps, and boils on the nose, among others. Often, the mumbo-jumbo and rattle-shaking and hoodoo accompanying this administration is quite convincing; and when the ill departs of its own accord, as most do, patients and doctors both are ecstatic that their trusty laxative has cured another case of tendonitis.
Why a laxative, you ask? It's simple - we have discovered (rather ingeniously) that the best indicator of the patient's health is the amount of crap they are able to produce! More laxative, more crap - healthy patient.
At the moment, we are suffering from rather severe dehydration, prompted by a hangover and now worsened by the effects of our charlatan doctors. We don't need laxatives, we need water. In particular, we need intelligent decisions about allocating available capital. Flooding the market with "artificial capital" is not the way to obtain those intelligent decisions. The patient is parched, and we're administering laxatives and diuretics. It's bad medicine.
In an unfortunate turn of events, the world's economists (and worse, the politicians who listen to them) have mistaken a laxative for a panacea: the cure to all ills! This laxative is regularly administered as a cure for influenza, mumps, and boils on the nose, among others. Often, the mumbo-jumbo and rattle-shaking and hoodoo accompanying this administration is quite convincing; and when the ill departs of its own accord, as most do, patients and doctors both are ecstatic that their trusty laxative has cured another case of tendonitis.
Why a laxative, you ask? It's simple - we have discovered (rather ingeniously) that the best indicator of the patient's health is the amount of crap they are able to produce! More laxative, more crap - healthy patient.
At the moment, we are suffering from rather severe dehydration, prompted by a hangover and now worsened by the effects of our charlatan doctors. We don't need laxatives, we need water. In particular, we need intelligent decisions about allocating available capital. Flooding the market with "artificial capital" is not the way to obtain those intelligent decisions. The patient is parched, and we're administering laxatives and diuretics. It's bad medicine.