Leaving the “Hotel Euro”?
Sep04
on September 4, 2012
at 12:42 pm
Americans aren’t known for irony or surrealism, but one of the enduringly surreal and ironic pop songs is The Eagles’“Hotel California”. Written as a satire of American excess, its lyrics bear an uncanny resemblance to the trap the nations of Europe now find themselves in – especially its final stanza:
Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
“Relax,” said the night man,
“We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave!”
To read this post, click here.
At least it is unlikely to end as badly as Germany’s last two attempts to unify Europe.
Superb article.
Excellent, and sadly accurate. I have put that song in my headphones.
Greetings from Spain. Nobody is allowed even to ask to the “night man”
The problems with the Euro and every other currency are threefold:
1) The actual intention (consciously or unconsciously) of the economy is the will to power of the business and financial entities therein instead of the will to freedom for the INDIVIDUALS in same, and
2) Current free market THEORY isn’t actually free because it ignores the deeply embedded and ever present REALITY of cost accounting’s conventions (enforced individual income scarcity)and REALITY ALWAYS TRUMPS THEORY, and
3) There is no countervailing power to Finance to bring about the policy changes that are so desperately needed.
Make the actual intention of the economy the economic freedom of the individual, get theorists to immerse themselves in the everyday REALITIES of commerce and then start a mass social movement to herd the entire political apparatus toward policy based on the freedom of the individual instead of the power of the business and financial entities.
Title: Perhaps It Is Human Nature to Prefer Beauty
“Science is organized common sense where many a beautiful theory was killed by an ugly fact.”
by Thomas Henry Huxley
“Post-Keynesian is organized common sense where many a beautiful neo-classical theory was killed by an ugly Minskian fact.”
by koonyeow
I see that the idea of a debt jubilee is becoming much more “thinkable”. I will affirm that and also toot my own horn as I have continually raised the idea on Mish Shedlock’s blog for like 5 years and also here for the last year or so. It has innoculated me to the derision of the terminally orthodox and their novitiates. We must go beyond mere jubilee though and on to confronting cost accounting’s realities which put the lie to theories of money’s quantity and velocity. Reality always trumps theory. And wisdom not only puts religion to shame, it underlies it, and is both more personally powerful and psychologically insightful and valid than any other body of human thinking. Thus it is a more reliable guide to both personal and systemic policy. You can’t trust organized religion, but you definitely CAN trust wisdom. And that is why a policy of monetary Grace is both wise and necessary. Otherwise cost accounting which enforces individual monetary scarcity in comparison to prices will once again quickly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory even after a jubilee resets the economy. Wish I could take credit for that insight, but I can’t. It was made by someone unburdened by the orthodoxies of a formal economic education over 90 years ago. C. H. Douglas.
I am not completely sure that closer political union – becoming one nation – can be ruled out as a possible resolution of the intra euro zone stresses. It maybe unlikely but then so are all the other options – and things are moving in that direction. I.e. Countries accepting centrally dictated controls. Central Bank acting like a central bank.
Interesting twitter discussion about a priori versus mathematical economic analysis. Of course if we just realized that the both/and synthesis perspective is the answer we could effectively incorporate Both mathematics as a means of sensing instabilities in particular ares of the economy AND wisdom/philosophy/spirituality as the appropriate basis for general economic and monetary policy. That way you’re able to utilize and align both of these most powerful “tools” of the both/and reality of Life (inner) and Living (outer)……and simultaneously honor and recognize the necessity of both their proper place and power.
On a totally different tangent , but also quoting a songline :
From my favorite contemporary prophet Bob Dylan , a couple of lines from All along the watchtower.
Let us not talk falsely now (About climate change)
The hour is getting late (Better do something about it ,quick smart!)
AGW is my personal elephant in the room even in economix . Reality always bats last.
Americans have no sense of Surrealism? Or Irony? Wrong. Proof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtXGKqWz8nU