Friday, August 10, 2012

Paul Krugman — Can things fall apart again? Yes, they can.

So, can things fall apart again? Yes, they can.
The New York Times | Opinion
The Great Illusion
Paul Krugman

3 comments:

Clonal said...

Tom,

He said that four years ago. What makes that relevant today? Perhaps these two articles One by Kurt Cobb and one by David Korowicz

How cascading failures in the global finance system could mean TEOTWAWKI

Quote"
The system's interlocking intricacies make it vulnerable not only to severe disturbance, but also to cascading failures that might end in a system unable to recover its former complexity and global reach, in other words, TEOTWAWKI. (For those who didn't get the memo, TEOTWAWKI stands for "the end of the world as we know it.")

Trade Off: Financial system supply-chain cross contagion – a study in global systemic collapse

Quote:
explores the implications of a major financial crisis for the supply-chains that feed us, keep production running and maintain our critical infrastructure. I use a scenario involving the collapse of the Eurozone to show that increasing socio-economic complexity could rapidly spread irretrievable supply-chain failure across the world.

Clonal said...

Tom,
He said that four years ago. What makes it relevant today? Perhaps these two articles. One by Kurt Cobb, and one by David Korowicz

How cascading failures in the global finance system could mean TEOTWAWKI

Quote:
The system's interlocking intricacies make it vulnerable not only to severe disturbance, but also to cascading failures that might end in a system unable to recover its former complexity and global reach, in other words, TEOTWAWKI. (For those who didn't get the memo, TEOTWAWKI stands for "the end of the world as we know it.")

Trade Off: Financial system supply-chain cross contagion – a study in global systemic collapse

Quote:
explores the implications of a major financial crisis for the supply-chains that feed us, keep production running and maintain our critical infrastructure. I use a scenario involving the collapse of the Eurozone to show that increasing socio-economic complexity could rapidly spread irretrievable supply-chain failure across the world.

Tom Hickey said...

He said that four years ago.

Right. And a lot of people would say that he was imagining monsters under the bed since nothing has happened.

I would say that what he siad then is more applicable today. Things have gotten progressively worse since then. The global financial system is now more precarious and global warming is now dawning on the collective consciousness after being effectively suppressed by vested interests for some time, kind of like the effect of smoking tabacco by the tobacco companies.

And while the war in Georgia didn't amount to anything, it certainly could have, as he notes. Now we are in a more more dangerous position militarily in MENA, including Iran in that region.

Finally, "expansionary fiscal austerity" to impose a neoliberal political-economic regime is resulting in social unrest and political instability.

The wheel could easily come off for a variety of reasons. All that is needed is a shock to catalyze a chain reaction, and that surprise could come from many directions.

There is way too much overcontrol to the point of forcing outcomes and too little redundancy in the system.