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After Many a Summer(s) (Hopefully) Dies the (Black) Swan

Tithonus got eternal life, but forgot to ask for eternal youth. (See Alfred Lord Tennyson and Aldous Huxley.)

The whole point of eternal life is eternal youth, or at least eternal middle age.

The whole point of a monetary stimulus is to restore the confidence of psychological youth. Confidence in the future is the key to the velocity of money, and government employment is perhaps a necessary but surely not a sufficient means of creating it.

But so many people have tin ears these days.

* The government thrashing around, warning of disaster in order to justify the massive bailout, thereby at least partially nullifying the confidence they aim to restore.

* Bailed-out people who would get no money if the company collapsed complaining about their pay.

* The New York Times blithely informing us that “As part of Shaw?s rigorous screening process ? the firm accepts perhaps one out of every 500 applicants ? Mr. Summers was asked to solve math puzzles. He passed, and the job was his.”

A pleasing contrast: Lloyd Blankfein talking about changing things so that long-term pay should reflect long-term performance.

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