John Kay has a pretty decent column in the FT today. The actual message will eb pretty familiar to anyone who’s been folowing the Cassandra-like wailings of people like Wynne Godley and (on some occasions) me about the unusustainability of the US current account deficit, but he has some quality jokes in it. In particular, he recruits JK Galbraith’s concept of “the bezzle” to illustrate his thesis about overconsumption and asset price inflation:
John Kenneth Galbraith’s greatest contribution to economics is the concept of the bezzle – the increment to wealth that occurs during the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not understand that he has lost it. The gross national bezzle has never been larger than in the past decade.
{ 7 comments }
Keith 05.26.04 at 2:16 pm
Try explaining this to people who think playing the lottery is a sound financial investment for their retirement years.
dsquared 05.26.04 at 2:35 pm
Obligatory Crooked Timber caveat: since we do not offer financial advice, we have no official opinion on the subject of whether playing the lottery is a good investment for your retirement years [1]
[1]actually, UK premium bonds are a lottery and a good investment for retirees, but they have many characteristics which make them entirely atypical of lotteries.
Cranky Observer 05.26.04 at 3:31 pm
> The gross national bezzle has never been larger
> than in the past decade.
While the analysis offered is in line with my own thoughts, I have to combine this post with the previous ones on reactions to paradoxes. Because the idea that a “confidence game” can go on against 300 million actors for more than 10 years, though 3 Presidental administrations and almost 2 full business cycles, shoudl be enough to raise a warning flag.
Cranky
dsquared 05.26.04 at 3:37 pm
Because the idea that a “confidence game†can go on against 300 million actors for more than 10 years, though 3 Presidental administrations and almost 2 full business cycles, shoudl be enough to raise a warning flag.
You wouldn’t have thought that the most educated and civilized nation on earth could be talked into mobilising en masse for the purpose of genocide, but it happened.
Extradite the Neocons 05.26.04 at 8:18 pm
Cranky: 51% of the people, all of the time.
Mars!
Breast!
The “marketplace of ideas” places little value on ugly truths, putative changes of ideology in the executive notwithstanding…
Zizka 05.26.04 at 9:46 pm
The Bush administration has a habit of backloading a lot of its policies, notably the tax cuts. When the effect of the tax cuts hits, we will be facing a fait accompli. Recently people have been talking about how the Right has not really won the battle for people’s minds, e.g. regarding Social Security. But they HAVE rewritten the law.
JamesW 05.27.04 at 1:58 pm
Another good John Kay column on the culture of equivocation:
http://www.johnkay.com/political/320
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