Comments on: Economics 101: If water flows downhill, then why fight it? https://berkonomics.com/?p=4250&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=your-economy-if-water-flows-downhill-then-why-fight-it Dave Berkus' business insights Wed, 17 Jun 2020 04:11:58 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Mimi Grant https://berkonomics.com/?p=4250&cpage=1#comment-138416 Wed, 17 Jun 2020 04:11:58 +0000 https://berkonomics.com/?p=4250#comment-138416 It will be interesting to see how “politics” respond to the unrest in the streets continuing into its third week. And what governmental policies – including budgets – are moved by the “pitchforks” (and the media promoting them), m

]]> By: Dave Berkus https://berkonomics.com/?p=4250&cpage=1#comment-138403 Tue, 16 Jun 2020 21:20:31 +0000 https://berkonomics.com/?p=4250#comment-138403 In reply to Clarence Treat.

OK. So government actions ruin the theory. John is right. Satisfied? Hmmm? Thanks Clarence for pointing out the need to respond and to John for an intelligent comment…
-Dave

]]> By: Clarence Treat https://berkonomics.com/?p=4250&cpage=1#comment-138400 Tue, 16 Jun 2020 20:42:05 +0000 https://berkonomics.com/?p=4250#comment-138400 I would love to see Dave’s response to John’s logical sounding comments. C

]]> By: John T Armstrong https://berkonomics.com/?p=4250&cpage=1#comment-138397 Tue, 16 Jun 2020 18:32:14 +0000 https://berkonomics.com/?p=4250#comment-138397 The markets do tend to ‘get it right’ – although I am more and more of the belief that ‘money’ does not. Markets cause production to go where it is most efficient globally. It takes governmental interference to have it be otherwise – sometimes good and most often (in my opinion) bad. Sometimes, markets are completely local, and the ‘global influence is minimally important – until a market for ‘local treasures’ emerges on the global scale. Money does strange things to the Market. In the Cold War Soviet system, money was manipulated by the government to force rapid development of arms instead of public economic growth. That ultimately failed. In our ‘democratic’ economic model, that is not supposed to happen, but it does. When we create ‘proxies’ to real forces and manipulate proxies to move money, we defeat the market forces – ultimately leading to failure of the marketplace. That happened in the 2008 crash. Reliance on debt based consumption is such a proxy. Using debt instruments to uplift consumption (as opposed to development of new products and services) leads ultimately to the famous ‘market adjustments’ which almost always wipes out the wealth of low and middle class segments disproportionately to the wealthy. I am a supporter of Nick Hanauer’s view – if we don’t change our failed economic models – “The pitchforks are coming” (nickhanauer.com).

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