What they are wrong about now is their devotion to “market forces”. The truth is that markets aren’t infallible: far from it. Markets aren’t really free, since the market is nothing but a shell. Think of it as a church. The laws that rule the church dictate how it is set up, what types of windows to put in, where the altar and pulpit go, what type of materials to use at Eucharist, etc. The people in the congregation actually make up what is church. The building is only the set of conditions that aid in the worship of God. So it goes with our capitalistically motivated market. The market is useless if the individuals that buy and sell products within the market aren’t behaving according to normal behaviors.
Having said this, we should stop thinking of the market and the ‘health’ of the American dollar and any other condition of the market as something that simply ‘happens’ or that the impact isn’t human, but a product of the marketplace. The truth is that the market is wholly dependent on actors. The Dow goes up when people are buying high, and it goes down when people sell low. This really has nothing to do with the economy, but that people act in response to their fears or joys about the economy and allow those influences to direct their actions.
This morning, I heard that the American dollar is tanking, in no small part due to the fact that oil-rich nations (OPEC) have reduced their holdings in U.S. dollars by 2%--from 67% down to 65%. In this case, the dollar is replaced by the Euro. Think about this for a second: our economic health is wholly dependent on Saudis’ owning enough of our currency: if they trade it in for Euros, our economy tanks. Does this have anything to do with the mythical Market? No! Does this have anything to do with politics? You bet your ass!
So never listen to Market Place and never read The Wall Street Journal without realizing that the Market doesn’t have a life of its own. The people, as always, are the real actors.
No comments:
Post a Comment