Center of the Known Universe. NYSE, Wall Street, NYC, 2015
No, it’s the stupid economy!
It always amazes me that we have managed to construct a system that can be so easily and heavily influenced by fear, expectations, rumors, and so on. Something big on the other side of the world (like China) stutters, trips, falls, or fails and it affects us directly and immediately. A big bank fails in the U.S. and millions lose their jobs. Constant cycles of boom and bust that hit the lower, middle and working classes hard, but leave the upper classes largely unaffected (and some of whom in this class are the causes). An economy is growing–but not as fast as projections, so paranoia sets in and the markets go jittery…etc., etc., etc.
It seems normal to us that things would work this way and there are many economists who could explain exactly why these things happen. It’s just they way things are.
But, if we could think outside the box a bit, isn’t there a better way?
Why do we have so many entities that are “too big to fail”–like countries with huge GDPs, and companies with huge piles of assets (and/or debts)? And, why isn’t the economy more compartmentalized, for example?
It is as if we are all on a big submarine with no watertight compartment doors anywhere on board. It’s sort of Titanic-like in a way, no?
Some Brooklyn graffiti on the subject…
Cost, #1. Brooklyn, NYC, 2015
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