From Robert Samuelson's column today:
It's the end of an era. We know that 2008, much like 1932 or 1980, marks a dividing line for the American economy and society. But what lies on the other side is hazy at best. The great lesson of the past year is how little we understand and can control the economy. This ignorance has bred today's insecurity, which in turn is now a governing reality of the crisis.Go back to the onset of the crisis in mid-2007. Who then thought that the federal government would rescue Citigroup or the insurance giant AIG; or that the Federal Reserve, striving to prevent a financial collapse, would pump out more than $1 trillion in new credit; or that Congress would allocate $700 billion to the Treasury for the same purpose; or that General Motors would flirt with bankruptcy?
In 2008, much conventional wisdom crashed.
His column is about the economy, but it got me to wondering: broadly speaking, what articles of conventional wisdom died in 2008? Let's start a list. My first four entries below the jump (two serious ones, and a silly but true one):
1. The market is not self-regulating. This article of conventional wisdom, at least on the Right and among New Democrats, was dramatically eviscerated this year. It turns out that people are inclined to allow sin to cause them to act against their best interests, and the best interests of the community. Who knew? (he says, archly).
2. Russia will not be pushed around by the US. The Georgia war showed that Russia is not going to allow the United States to extend its influence to her borders without pushing back.
3. The death of American newspapers is coming, but probably not for another decade. It's actually coming a lot faster than we think. By this time next year, I think several major American dailies will have ceased publication, or will have moved to web-only publication.
4. Rod Dreher is not blindly anti-dog. Roscoe, a stray schnoodlish hound, turns up, is adopted by Dreher family. Against all his instincts, Rod falls in love with the mutt. Who knew? (he says, genuinely).
More to come ... add yours!
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New Year's Resolution, as of 2:40 pm EST: master the Art of Closing Properly HTML Italics Tags, lest your careless crystalline refraction of white light unto polychrome lead readers to a prism sentence...
I disagree with your first contention. The free market will regulate itself, it's just that nobody wants to live with that regulation as it will be harsh, especially after years of government interference and easy money.
Re: Russia, in the long run, is demographically dead.
In the long run, anything can happen. There's absolutely no reason to believe that today's demographic trends will endure as a permanent reality over the generations and centuries. As the Chinese sage said, This too shall pass.
Re: It has an overabundance of males who lack mates.....look for war in Asia under these circumstances.
Actually no. Those only sons are too precious to their parents to risk in warfare. Look rather for social unrest and perhaps revolution in China.
Re: ...an ultra-liberal like Obama
Obama is not showing himself to be any kind of ultra-liberal (he isn't a Barbara Ehrenreich clone for crying out loud!) In fact, it looks like we're going to see a fair amount of continuity with the better-conceived policies (yes, there were some) of the Bush years.
Re: In Germany, he'd be classified as pretty far to the right."
Also an exagerration. By European standards Obama is a centrist. Europe is not as far Left as many people think. What fools people in these matters is that Euriope has a stronger and more vocal Left than the US has (and a much smaller and fairly quiet far Right). However European policies in the main are not all that far from American policies, with allowances for cultural and local differences.
Richard,
Point well taken. Thanks.
I also enjoy the irony, considering how much Germany has changed. Bismarck's empire it ain't. But that kind of conservatism and American conservatism are certainly different.
RE: the free market does not self-regulate.
True, but we will soon re-learn the lesson that govt planners also have the capacity to sin.
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