Why haven’t I been writing about the economy with the ferocity I used to? Because as we were waiting for something to happen, it all got weird. The fun we’ve been having is just the hurricane party before the real storm hits – people with a happy sense of doom only deepen a good disaster plot. But their antics are always just the prelude to the real show.
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Economics and commerce, all built from scratch.
Specialists
There is no single, widely accepted definition for an Economic Depression. The most common call is a deep recession, a GDP loss of about 10% or unemployment above 15%. Some will tell you that it’s a long recession, 6 quarters or more of loss. I’ve argued that it’s nothing more than the unusual event of a sudden and dramatic drop in money supply, an event that has now happened about 5 times in the history of the USofA (1812, 1857, 1893, 1929, and 2008). A few people insist that there is only one Depression, The Depression, starting around 1929.
What if we’re all wrong? What if the best definition of all has little to do with money or other numbers in a table, but with people – what they do and how it all connects together?
Restructuring
I explained the economic downturn to my son, who is 9, in terms he could understand. “It’s like we’ve done something bad, so the whole economy has to go to its room and think about what it did and what it can do differently. We’re in our room, alone and sad right now.” He bought it, and unlike some of the things I explain to him I eventually bought it, too. The problem, of course, is what we tell the great economic parent when we come out.
Money
People are willing to give up 40 or more hours a week to have it. The lust for it drives some people to betray their friends’ trust, and the lack of it has driven some to suicide. In our culture, there is nothing quite like money as a motivator. So what is it?
The Rules
For most people, the definition of the Good Life™ is easy – you play by the Rules and get ahead. Some people prefer to break the Rules and get ahead on their own terms. Some of us, however, stand off to the side a little bit and wonder just what these “Rules” are and who was involved in creating them. Barataria, true to its name as the home to Gentleman Pirate, Jean Lafitte, has been attracting a lot of the third group lately.
