Reading the NYT Reckoning Series over the last couple of weeks really set the stage for our first term here at BGI. It seems our task is to begin to understand the current economic system and its influences over human interactions. The NYT articles characterized the key players leading to the financial crisis as greedy and corrupt. While I don’t explicitly disagree with this characterization I know the system encouraged and handsomely rewarded those willing to dive in and play the game. It seems we could spend a long time playing the ‘blame game’ about what started and who contributed the most to the spiraling downward crash of the financial industry but really it just feels like another story about the Tragedy Of The Commons.
The problems of the financial industry are complex. Maybe even purposefully so. When I focus and try to understand even small parts of the financial system, with all its complex relationships and inner workings, I wonder how we will ever fix or change it. It’s overwhelming and I feel defeated before I even begin because I know so many people who are much smarter (or maybe just more motivated) are working to keep the system exactly how it is so they can get the most out of it before the rules change. How am I supposed to make a change for good when it’s such a big mess.
And then I pause. I take a deep breath. I find my voice. I don’t need to change the whole system rather I just need to follow my curiosity, explore the parts of the system that interest me, and maybe along the way find new inspiring ways of creating value to myself and my world. I’m inspired by Marjorie Kelly who says this in the forward of her book, Owning Our Future, “It’s hard to talk about hope in these troubled times, but hope is what we are called to. My sense is that a new kind of economy-one that serves the many rather than the few, one that’s ecologically beneficial rather than harmful – is sprouting in little experiments here and there, in ways that weren’t possible before….A lot of us don’t see this, because we don’t believe good things might come from the messes we’re in.”
If I can be so indulge I’m going to go on a bit of a tangent, I guess it is my blog so here we go.. My tangent starts with those words of Marjorie Kelly about the future economic possibilities and how it rings true in my personal life. Like all of us I’ve created plenty of messes in my life that I had to figure out how to clean up (and I’m sure I will have plenty more). But what is amazing about those messes is their capacity to teach me sometime useful. I may have learned something that helps me avoid a similar mess the next time around, or I learned some techniques to quickly clean up the mess, and sometimes I learned that the mess wasn't even a mess rather something amazing. No matter what the outcome of the mess was I learned and I grew. Without those messes I would be the same person I was 15 years ago. That would be weird. So I wrap up this mini rant to just say this: messes are part of life. We grow, we learn, and we innovate because we make messes. Our collective economic mess is an opportunity to do something different.
For those willing and eager to learn from our mistakes we have an opportunity to create new economic and social models. Studying our recent and even more distant economic history we will learn from our messy mistakes and create innovated new ideas. Marjorie Kelly focuses on reconnecting each of us with economic ownership. As she says “Ownership is the underlying architecture of our economy.” What a simple yet empowering statement that provides so much room for a new generative economy!
Related to my musing over or recent economic history is Dr. Norm Becker’s Perspective on learning and adapting to our new economy in a recent blog called “What Have Economist Ever done for Us.” He talked about how economists need to take some steps to learn from the messes they helped contribute in the recent financial crisis. He suggested two ideas: (1) making sure we learn the history and teach the history of economics and (2) move beyond old models of economic analysis. Today's economics are complex and require we look at them from multiple perspectives. As Andre Haldrew wrote in his recent blog “The construction and simulation of highly non-linear dynamics in systems of multiple equilibria represents unfamiliar territory for most economists. But this is not a journey into the unknown. Sociologists, physicists, ecologists, epidemiologists and anthropologists have for many years sought to understand just such systems. Following their footsteps will require a sense of academic adventure sadly absent in the pre-crisis period.”
Creating innovate new economic models that take into account individuals as complex whole human beings as well as taking into account our whole environment makes it a truly exciting time to be involved in business; we are the new economy.
Related Links:
Andre Haldrew’s Blog Article: http://www.voxeu.org/article/what-have-economists-ever-done-us
Dr. Beckers Article: http://abnormalecon.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-role-of-economics-in-financial.html
Yay Dom, I agree with your mess tangent, I too am finding myself in a pile of messes and understand that the inevitable process of cleaning them up is going to take me to place far ahead of where I began. I also look forward to seeing improvements in our economic system come out of this crisis. I'm a little worried that "we" have missed some opportunities for change already in our recovery from the crisis. I would be interested to hear more of your take on the Tragedy of the Commons and also why you think greed has played such a big role in the crisis, or if not greed, what did make people do this stuff? I talk about the perception of scarcity in my blog leading to a greed reaction and how scarcity is built into our economic system and is indeed required by our economic system. I am less clear on how to shift away from that. I wonder if it will naturally happen as we grow a broader base of generative businesses in the market. I think I need to read Marjorie Kelly's book. You should totally check out Sacred Economics. It sounds to me like they might be the practical and woo-woo sides of the same coin.
ReplyDeleteDom! Thank you for this post. It is Monday night and you have rejuvenated me. Let's do this. Let's enter, pursue, create, be the new generative economy. I appreciate the way you have brought Marjorie Kelly's words into your blog and empowered all your readers. It's an important reminder that in the midst of everything that goes on in life, we are in fact the owners of all we do, all we participate in and need to realize, that we are the owners of the economy: this one and the next. Your anecdote of messes resonated strongly with me. The greatest tragedy of this mess we are in, would be if we find ourselves in the same mess in the near future. Mistakes happen, not learning from mistakes is where we waste time and the suffering was never worth it in the first place. Thank you for your words of wisdom and your reflection. This will sit with me for a while.
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