When Ponzi is Normal

The subtitle of this endeavor tells us that the distribution of income is the prime, if not sole, determinant of economic and social stability. The Great Recession was caused by the massive shift of income from the many to the few, guised in investment in one's housing. A fool's enterprise.

To make the point, I sent along the Viagra curve some months ago. Note my surprise when, in today's Times, Floyd Norris quotes a banker thus: "'Prices peaked in Seattle after the rest of the United States, so Seattle is a little bit behind in the correction that will bring prices back in line with income levels,' said David L. Stiff, chief economist of Fiserv, which collects the data and calculates the Case-Shiller indexes."

"... will bring prices back in line with income levels"

So, why didn't these high priced analysts not see the divergence before it got out of hand? Another quote, from Upton Sinclair, "It's hard to make a man understand something when his livelihood depends on him not understanding it." And thus we have A Great Recession.