As you can see, it’s been a sporadic week of posting for me — as the Cunning Realist dryly put it on his blog, “What’s happening right now should be of intellectual interest to anyone who appreciates the significance of witnessing seminal, historic events first-hand.” I’ve preferred to spend my time thinking more about it than talking about it, partially because on the realm of deep economics I know this much — to quote an old canard, “Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
If there is one thing I will note, though, both on the political and economic fronts, it’s that there’s something fundamentally saddening about the all too sudden switch to apocalyptic imagery. I say this not to discount concerns and fears, just that the widespread assumption that the worst is about to happen to everyone, everywhere at the same time strikes me as a classic case of overreaction — just as assuming in an up time that everything will always be sunshine and roses forever more. As so much of the talk around the markets in particular comes back to questions of psychology, I will note it and say no more.
And life does continue on! I don’t whistle past graveyards, really — I just whistle while already noting they’re always there to start with.
Ned Raggett Ponders It All 