Friday, November 11, 2011

Follow The Bouncing Ball

When I was a kid we had a whole bunch of cats who lived, mostly, in the house. We were always going to give away the latest litter, but often did not because they were too cute, and we were sometimes not entirely sure how many cats we had, because they didn’t usually stay still and allow us to count them. My father was very fond of cats.

One day Dad brought home this ball made out of “super rubber” that bounced with extraordinary enthusiasm. He thought it was great fun to set the ball rocketing around the living room and watch a handful of cats go utterly insane chasing it, bouncing off of walls (both cats and the ball) and running into each other, which occasionally started a cat fight. Playful, of course, the cats were all on friendly terms.

Then, of course, Dad discovered the laser pointer…

Anyway, this European economic crisis reminds me of that ball, and the stock market and economists remind me of our room full of cats. One moment the European economy is predicted to collapse into total ruin within hours and our stocks are sinking like a rock in a millpond. Then a plan is announced which is going to fix everything and ecstasy rules the day. That evening someone announces that the plan won’t work, or that they aren’t going to participate in the plan…

The one thing that can make American politics look reasonable is European economics and American reaction to it. The whole subject appears to me to have just gone utterly, batshit insane. Europe needs a dose of economic lithium.

No comments:

Post a Comment