The reason I havent been posting so much about market timing is that the GFC has provided a great time to think about things far more important than money, people not having as much as they used to. Some self organising principle is afoot and I beleive this guy.....
This brief essay is a summary of the idea "Meta-Economics" as introduced my E.F Schumacher in his classic book; "Small is Beautiful."
Economic: "Sufficient to give a good return for the money or resources expended."
Meta: "To transcend or go beyond."
The neglect, indeed the rejection, of wisdom has gone so far that most of our intellectuals have not even the faintest idea what the term could mean. But where can wisdom be found? It can only be found inside oneself. To find it one must become liberated. Through such liberation one can become relevant. Wisdom enables us to see the hollowness and fundamental unsatisfactoriness of a life devoted primarily to the pursuit of material ends, to the total neglect of the spiritual and the sustainable.
The influence of economics upon the management of government has grown exponentially since the seventies. However, it is now being realised that the judgment of economics is a most fragmentary one. Classic economic theory deals with demand and supply but all contemporary demand and supply is exchanged through the medium of money; fiat money. Due to the importance of stable money supply to the correct stewardship of any economy no government should unduly tamper with its smooth operation. To do so invites mayhem. As a result of catastrophic error, sub-prime crises, derivative explosion, credit balloons, defunct regularity oversight, debt monetization, and private credit exploitation the money supply has become so corrupted it is almost impossible for anybody to make correct economic decisions. The historic" medium of exchange" model has been broken. Fidelity with the integrity and the sacrifices of our forefathers has been compromised by a shallow elite.
To get out of this "economic crisis" governments must now start thinking in Meta-Economic modalities. Thus we must acknowledge that to sort out the mess we must go beyond "classic"
quantative economic thought. In the new paradigm, wisdom must prevail. The fatal flaw of lack of adequate purchasing power, under the current "credit" model, must be acknowledged. Without this conceptual breakthrough the crisis will never be adequately solved.
Current economic thinking only touches the surface of things and takes for granted so much that should be accounted for; i.e. clean air, fresh water, moral integrity of the majority, faith in authority etc. etc. In a sense this quantative model promotes total institutional selfishness and irresponsibility. This is all very well as long as there is no systemic failure but, unfortunately, systemic crisis is exactly what we are now faced with. Gross irresponsibility has taken the sacredness out of life. The macro crisis is not simply an objective one. It becomes personal in the form of depression, loneliness, isolation, meaninglessness, exhaustion, marriage break-up, atomization, pharma-medicinal dependence, addiction and suicide. To bring about change in this zeitgeist quality must be brought back into the quantative social model. We must strive to bring LIFE back to the process of living. The formula for this is to reintegrate simplicity, integrity and constraint into the functioning of our institutions, enterprises, thought processes and behaviour. Patterns of action must be championed that honour human satisfaction on all levels not just financially.
To comprehend this "meta" concept, some examples of Meta-Economic mind-set principles V's those of Quantative Economics one are set out below:
Meta-Economic: Quantative Economic:
---------------------- ------------------------
Timely Fast
Need Want
Sustainable Profitable
Community Individual
Co-operation Competition
Human Mechanic
Capital Resource Current Factor of Production
Practical Whole Conceptual Sub-Set
Shared Purchasing Power Private Credit
Medium of Exchange Fiat Money
Local Trans-National
Art Design
Education Training
Process Structure
Authority Power
Means Ends
Order Control
Tradition Law
Common Sense Central Ordinance
For economics to become valuable and relevant again to sustainable society its practitioners must realise the truth that economics is a social science and as such it deals with human beings, not atomised ciphers. Rationality must reconstitute itself with morality, ethics and philosophy. If national and international economists continue to lose these classical thought centres, social disintegration will spiral out, uncontrollably. Governments and economists must begin to see the whole picture again. We have foolishly and recklessly abandoned our great Western-Christian heritage. The task now is one of metaphysical regeneration. Economics must stop being taught where awareness of human nature is lacking. We are suffering from a metaphysical disease and therefore the cure is meta-physical: meta-economical. It is time for economics and accounting to grow up and transcend there historical roots.
Copyright © 2009 Christopher M. Quigley
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/quigley/2009/0721.html
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