I have not a clue as to what the Next Big Idea will be.
Cheap Energy?
Nano Technology?
Revelation from G-d?
Don’t Know.
But, it will happen.
History is Always an indicator of the future. Always.
The American economy may well be toast. It’s possible.
But, historically speaking, “The Economy” has been An Imaginary Belief System for a very long time.
It keeps on getting broke and then, it fixes itself when the Next Big Idea enables the Players to Believe again.
That is the History of our Economy or even the economies of this planet.

To my woeful ignorance of economics and money, it appears to me, on the face of it, that there is absolutely no reason that we should recover from this current economic downturn. There is Nothing there. We be broke and we don’t be having no monies to fix Us.

However, Ideas have always increased on an exponential level for all of History. How could they not?
More people equals more knowledge equals more access to knowledge equals more people with knowledge equals more knowledge ad infinitum.
The clock is not running backwards. It’s moving forwards at a dizzying rate of speed.
And, somewhere, some bright fellow has already created a working paradigm of a new Something Idea that will eventually lead us out of this current blip of a Crisis. All of History proclaims this. This is what humans do – we change things and advance, at least in the realm of hard facts and figures.
(We tend to wipe out large numbers of people along the way, but that is largely due to personal preferences, not economic permutations.)

You know, when people talk about the Rome Empire – the Rise and Fall – they generally tend to focus on the city of Rome.
In reality, even back then, the Roman Empire, from its inception as a Republic to its final destruction as an Empire in 1453 by the Muslim Turks, lasted 2,000 years….
And that was with a Zero Knowledge base in comparison to what we have today.

If we can avoid having people Eat each other; or stop the Islamists from murdering each other and us; or not have China decide to annex Siberia; or all of the other wonderful social things that are going on in the world today, then we’ll be okay.
People will Play with their Imaginary Money once more and we’ll all be happy as Professional Traders buy and sell empty Widgets that no one needs.
Because, someone will have come up with an IDEA that Changes the whole paradigm once more…
It will happen.
I would suggest that those that are nervous about waiting for it should, themselves, come up with this next Big Idea.
Why not?
Could it hurt?
Might it help?

Since were on the subject, I know someone who works at a local food bank, and because Buffalo is so generous there is an abundance of food available. My friend tells the story better, but in a nutshell people get upset if they don’t have “Branded” items like Kraft Mac and Cheese. Yes these beggars are choosers!

Allen Taylor

as for politicians i couldn’t agree more either. the fact that corporations can donate as much as they want now too only makes matters worse. if politicians weren’t owned by private corporations before they sure are now.

good column!