Saturday, March 14, 2009
Unspeakable idiocy
Listening to the "G20 summit" on C-Span. Most of these leaders are repeating the same mantra over and over:
"We have an unprecedented situation in which all developed countries have gone into recession together. Therefore we need to avoid all tendencies toward protectionism."
Think about this for just a second. Put it in a different context.
"We have an unprecedented situation in which all the town-houses on this block burned down because they were connected. The fire passed through open doors between the units. Therefore we need to rebuild them exactly the same way with open doors between the units. We need to avoid all tendencies toward brick firewalls. This will prevent them from burning down again."
Sounds stupid, eh?
When a system is closely coupled, a problem in one part quickly spreads to other parts. You don't fix this by linking the parts more intimately together. You solve it by "modularity", by decoupling the parts as far as possible. This is normal practice in construction, engineering and programming, but it's UNTHINKABLE UNTHINKABLE UNTHINKABLE UNTHINKABLE among economists.
Conclusion: Economists are genocidally stupid. ¶ 9:32 AM
"We have an unprecedented situation in which all developed countries have gone into recession together. Therefore we need to avoid all tendencies toward protectionism."
Think about this for just a second. Put it in a different context.
"We have an unprecedented situation in which all the town-houses on this block burned down because they were connected. The fire passed through open doors between the units. Therefore we need to rebuild them exactly the same way with open doors between the units. We need to avoid all tendencies toward brick firewalls. This will prevent them from burning down again."
Sounds stupid, eh?
When a system is closely coupled, a problem in one part quickly spreads to other parts. You don't fix this by linking the parts more intimately together. You solve it by "modularity", by decoupling the parts as far as possible. This is normal practice in construction, engineering and programming, but it's UNTHINKABLE UNTHINKABLE UNTHINKABLE UNTHINKABLE among economists.
Conclusion: Economists are genocidally stupid. ¶ 9:32 AM
