Fortunes Won and Lost

I made the decision that my Readers needed to read this Post, even though I have several reservations about it and Say’s Law. I would first google Say’s Law to get a good grasp of the principle, then accept my contention that Public Spending negates Say’s Law immediately. Government Choice remains somewhat independent of production facilities, can suppress demand for Goods, and has the ability to manipulate the Money Supply. All three activities have tendency to engender greater Production than there exists Demand for those Goods at higher Price than Private Sector Consumers can sustain. The entire discussion of Say’s Law usually leads me to the point of vomit, as graduate Students are led to believe there is a mystical significance to its enumeration. It is one of the great ‘Say Nothing’ elements of economics.

I first thought not to mention this Post from Arnold Kling, but I then perceived that Everyone must confront their own impasse. People are either Rational or Irrational, though either can be invoked or ignored. Rationality is not a default, but equally it might not even be a consideration. It reminds me of the Irrationality expressed in the first movie ‘Fun with Dick and Jane’. I expressed my own Irrationality of not viewing the second movie of the same name, expecting it to be inferior to the original, without any collaboration evidence to support that view. The real thing which should be considered consists of whether Anyone consults theory within their own self-operation, or relies simply on a exploitation of opportunities available at the moment; I specifically refer to a Bernie Madoff, who violated some of the law and regulations he himself helped design. There is little doubt that people understand they are entering ‘Grey Areas’ of great Risk for relatively little Reward, yet they still charge ahead. Is it over-evaluation of Self, or a simple masochistic rejection of success?

There is little confusion about the causation of this effect. The desire to understand why the economy operates finds a foil in the expectation that Government and Private Sector will pay less in the future for confusion in economic expression. Those engaged in altruistic investigation flock to the upper reaches of economics, while Those wanting an individual Pay Raise seek the higher reaches of economics much less fervently. Economics, like most scholastic subjects, must assume the mantle of Prophet to elicit higher Pay. The inconsistencies in the field cost the profession real Dollars, and college students have traditionally wielded advance radar and interpretive skill at avoiding losing professions. We will see whether the fortunes of economics fare better than the fortunes of the Market. lgl