Proof of Concept

Mr. Blanchard, I imagine that around the time the anthropocene mass extinction really starts to bite, humans will have figured out that living natural systems and organisms are the most valuable raw material this planet offers in terms of long-term rewards for the application of human ingenuity. More valuable than fossil fuels, even, and that’s saying a lot.

Probably the researchers studying macaques are also adept at applying ingenuity to obtaining funds. Contrast this with well-paid economics wonks who are clever enough at math to impress their peers but, as the ongoing Mess illustrates all to well, are generally at best irrelevant in their incompetence when it comes to dealing with the real world, when they’re not actively promoting moral turpitude.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-regulator-franchise-o_b_667967.html

The problem is not limited to academics. Today I listened to a podcast by “hard money” fan Jim Rickards, a lawyer who presents himself as macro-economics expert on forums such as CNBC. Rickards is waving the bloody flag of Weimar hyperinflation, which he claims is rooted in the German government increasing the money supply from 1920.

However, Liaquat Ahamed, who studied this era extensively to research his book “Lords of Finance,” records that Germany was unable to obtain external funding for WWI expenditures and as a consequence increased its money supply by a factor of four during the war years (in dollar terms, the mark went from 4.2 to 65 by 1920). German monetary policy was never able to get to grips with unrealistic demands for war reparations, and the catastrophic loss of confidence on the part of international capital markets which ignited hyperinflation was triggered by reparations intransigence and a series of assassinations carried out by right-wing extremists in mid-1921 (pp 119-120).

So I say, more power to the macaque researchers even if their findings of male dominance displays may tell us more about the their own culture than that of macaques, and let’s have more critical appraisal of those in leadership positions who are ethically vacant or lie for profit.

> Rickards is waving the bloody flag of Weimar hyperinflation

Is he also shilling for Goldline?