Poke Your Finger Here

Part 1
On my vacation (yes, it was nice, and long), I wrote an essay about the financial crisis. Upon re-reading it, it struck me as a little odd: It appeared to start one place and end a completely different place -- apparently even a different topic. Further, every attempt to rewrite it, refocus it, etc. all resulted in me going back to the weird one and me thinking "no, this is how I want to write it." Yet, I couldn't quite put my finger on why or what exactly the essay was even about: the first part or the second part?

So I shelved it. I have other ideas, there are other things to write.

I drafted some other essays for this blog, worked through some ideas in my head, and then suddenly the resonance broke in and I realized that all my essays shared the same oddness as the financial crisis one. I pulled it out, and realized I'd written the same essay over and over in my head, just on different topics.

What you'll see in Part 2 is the essay on the financial crisis - matured. What I want you to see is that this is the essay that I would write on the financial crisis. Then, replace all the financial context in the begining portion with the obvious appropriate context words for personal decision making, and you'll read the essay that I wrote about personal decision making. Then replace all the words again and see that it is actually the essay that I would write if I were to write about each of:

• our personal moral fabric,
• the moral fabric in our communities,
• the moral fabric in our nations,
• the 60s,
• the "sexual revolution,"
• monetary policy at all scales,
• conflict across countries,
• conflict in our societies on principles etc.
• conflict in our communities,
• conflict within our individual person,
• personal responsibility,
• cultural responsibility,
• community responsibility,
• the relationship between church and state,
• self-worth issues in individuals and communities,
• etc.
• The list is quite long, I gave up on listing them all.

For each of those, re-look at the essay in Part 2 and see how it resonates with you. Next comes the question: why? Why is the same essay actually the essay that I would write for such a broad set of fundamental issues? I don't know, you tell me.

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Part 2
The observers say we're in a financial downturn of sorts, and this is no news to you. There are reasons for this downturn:

1) Typical Errors in the Fundamentals. History shows that people have a tendency to make optimistic decisions in times of apparent "good times" -- and also in these times they have a tendency to ignore warning signs. This is typical of humanity, and demonstrates itself this specific round in housing investments (by parties on all sides of the fences), debt ratios, debt risks, spending as much as we hoped to make instead of how much we really made, etc. Also there have been the expected instances of people attempting to fraud others, and people being defrauded.

This is life -- it's always been this way. The typical results, demonstrated historically, of such behavior usually include a "downturn" aka a "correction" aka "the natural consequences." And yet, this instance may appear a bit different from past ones for these reasons:

2) Reduction of Insulation. Stocks in the US go severely one way, and those across the world go the same way. Someone in a far off country defrauds some folks and it influences the markets globally. Steel is cheaper to buy than to make, and I hope we never need to make tanks again -- or at least, I hope all our friends always find it convenient to stay our friends, because a country that can't support itself is a helpless whelp relying on the mercy of others. But we're not the only ones: going global is the "in thing" and we're all so inter-connected now that we have only one situation: the butterfly in the Sahara takes us all down. There are no firewalls anymore. Makes for a free flow, for better or worse. Gone are the days of: when the general store fails, we all hike to the next town since that store is not owned and operated by the same folks as this one. Now, things are made cheaper, distributed farther, and we have numerous types of tomatoes, and they're all cheaper than growing them ourselves. Hope the tomatoes don't get a disease.

3) The Press. As Cosmo explained, he who controls the information, controls everything. The housing situation is a classic example. Sure, it is/was an issue and I'm not denying that at all, but there certainly were lots more options for resolution that would have hurt a whole lot less. That is, until the someone yelled "Fire." When the press calls it a crisis, it becomes one -- doesn't matter if it was or not, or if broadcasting it is the best thing to do. But who can blame the press? They're just printing "what sells the papers." It's our fault for buying them. "Nooo," you say, "they just call it as they see it." Well then, I know where responsibility lies in that case. Today's media is a mix of those: we're buying garbage, and people are crying Fire. Nobody is deciding what voice they should listen to. Stampedes, exacerbating everything, and indirectly closing doors on all better solutions -- that's the way we like it: hot.

Combined we have foundationless fundamentals, no insulation, and a symphonic cacophony shouting Fire. No wonder the house burns down. No wonder children die in the flames.

Still, this has happened before. History shows this is typical. Why don't we learn? Answer: That "downturn" piece.

The downturn isn't impacting correctly: The responsible and prudent are taking lots of hits, and the irresponsible appear to be escaping, for the most part. There are lots and lots of people, including many I know personally, who are unwarrantedly getting hit hard this round. This, is frustrating at times. It hits home, to the gut.

King Guezo (who ruled in Benin from 1818-1858) had a symbol of a jar with holes in it. He said "Our freedom can be compared to a jar with many holes, which cannot hold water. If each one of you, the sons of this nation, can put his finger in one hole, the jar will hold water." But today I'm not talking about freedom.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day: "I'm a Republican, because we can't all be on welfare." Now, I don't classify myself as either a Republican or a Democrat, and further, this essay is not about monetary policy. But the quote is relevant: Somebody needs to stick their fingers in the holes. What I'm talking about today is a deficit, a qua-billion quid international deficit: And it's face is people not putting their fingers in the holes. Remember the burning house rendering above? I'm saying it's nobody's fault. And yet....

Let's each put our fingers in the jar, because we can't all let someone else do it.